OutPerform | A weekly newsletter on LGBTQ+ Equality - Issue #56
This week: Norway's apologies, navigating corporate political stances, the sentencing of Ed Buck, notes from my social diary, Libs of TikTok, Et Tu Pennsylvania? and more…
Welcome to this edition of my weekly equality news digest, where I share important (and less important) news, updates, and commentary about the global LGBTQ+ equality movement.
Questions, feedback, and comments are always welcome. Would you mind sharing with your network to continue helping us move the LGBTQ+ equality conversation forward?
Global News
Norway: no reconciliation without some admission of guilt.
Fifty years after decriminalization, Norway presented its excuses to the LGBTQ+ community today. "I want on behalf of the Norwegian government to ask for forgiveness because gay people have been treated like criminals and prosecuted by the Norwegian authorities," said Labor Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. It reminded me of the famous 'I Am Sorry. We Are Sorry.' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Formal Apology to Canada's LGBTQ+ Community in 2017, which brought tears to my eyes.
Saudi Arabia: Ziad al-Mesfer, a gender-fluid model.
This article showcases the complexities of local situations. Even in places where societal attitudes and legal frameworks seem immutable, the global culture and its queerness have their reach.
LGBTQ+ NGOs should apply for UN status.
Yoni Ish-Hurwitz of the Human Rights Likeminded Office (HRLO) points out that there are increased chances for LGBTQ+ non-profits to obtain status at the United Nations in the NGO Committee in 2023. The cut-off date for application is June 1. Read about it here.
US News
Et tu, Pennsylvania?
HB972, an Act providing for sports activities [in schools] to be expressly designated male and female, passed the House last week. On Monday, a Senate companion bill, SB1109, was introduced and rammed through the Senate Education Committee. The Governor has promised to veto the legislation, and the legislature is not expected to have the two-thirds majority necessary to override a veto. However, as for other bills, the damage is done. The familiar story of conservative leaders whipping up fear on a pretend issue even though this specific bill stands zero chance of becoming law.
New York: Suozzi does not make friends.
While the community lauded Governor Hochul's remarks at the LGBT Center dinner last Thursday (see my social diary below), her opponent in the upcoming primary, Congress Member Tom Suozzi, Democrat of Long Island, antagonized the community by praising Florida's "Don't say gay" as "reasonable." Subsequently, Suozzi's former staffer, called him out in the Daily News. It's hard to win in New York State without the gays.
Anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has strange real-life consequences on Amtrak.
This bizarre story of a gay family and their kids harassed on an Amtrak train highlights why we cannot tolerate the newly resurrected "grooming" and "deviant" narrative being peddled for political gains in the US.
Ed Buck's sentencing: uncomfortable truths.
The sentencing of gay millionaire Ed Buck this week to 30 years (See NPR's piece) drew attention once again to the interconnection of race, privilege, and drugs in the gay community. Buck, a prominent gay man who once ran for the city council of West Hollywood in 2007, was once at the pinnacle of the gay community. Meanwhile, he lured young, black gay men, sometimes homeless, to his apartment and injected them with crystal methamphetamine leading to at least two deaths. It is suspected that he escaped criminal charges for years because of wealth, political ties, and race. NPR reports these words by a victim's mother: "All I can think about is how my son died naked on a mattress with no love around him […] No one to hold his hand or tell him good things."
Corporate engagement on "political issues." Reflecting on Disney's fall from grace.
The New York Times had an article last week exploring why Disney finds itself at the heart of the "cultural divide" storm. My interpretation is that values should not be commodified. Without an authentic and thoughtful commitment to sustainability (whether it is the environment, labor, human rights, or good governance), what is perceived to be opportunistic posturing by companies will be called out and backfire. Companies should start by asking themselves: who are we? what do we stand for?
Should companies take a stand on political issues?
On a similar topic, read this fascinating article by CQ Researcher. My takeaway was the connection between the current pressures companies face on social issues and the bailouts they received during the financial crisis in 2008. The article should be mandatory reading for corporations - particularly the conclusion on the connections between businesses' operations and the issues they take a stand on. Disclaimer: I contributed to the article.
Coming and Going
A new ED for the Congressional Equality Caucus.
Jordan Dashow was announced yesterday as the Executive Director of the Congressional Equality Caucus. Jordan had a distinguished career previously as a legislative aid on the Hill and is completing a JD at Georgetown University. You can read the press release here.
A new ED for the Victory Institute.
Elliot Imse is the new Executive Director of the Victory Institute. Imse, who joined the Victory Fund in 2016, previously served as Vice President of Communications for LGBTQ Victory Fund and Victory Institute. See the announcement here.
Joel Bedos of IDAHOBIT Secretariat in NYC.
Joel has been the leading facilitator for more than ten years of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, which takes place every year on May 17. He also co-created SOGI Campaigns. He will stop in NYC next week on his way to ILGA World. I would love to arrange meetings with corporations interested to hear more about the day (I am the treasurer of the Secretariat).
From the semi-cultural desk.
A strange plea by the log cabin republicans.
Charles Moran, who now heads the group, wrote an op-ed on Fox a few days ago with a mysterious lead: "We can't be bullied into silence." It was a bit baffling because, frankly, the log cabin republicans have never needed anybody's help to make their voice irrelevant.
A Gondolier's story.
This weekend, a New York Times article on a trans gondolier in Venice was a nice change from competitive sports and youth medical care stories. The story touches upon the heart of transphobia and, to some extent, homophobia: our fear of a transient world. Accepting that everything we know (male-only gondoliers in Venice until 2010, gendered Gondoliers until 2022) is to be replaced by something new is accepting that men are finite creatures. The biggest taboo of them all. As the boatman says in the article: "What brings me euphoria is feeling people see me as I see me." Joy is a nobler goal than immortality—the perfect sermon for Easter and my birthday – which this year coincided.
Libs of TikTok: the vigilante who vilifies us.
Everyone must read this Washington Post's article on a TikTok account with a massive following which has been spreading the narrative around LGBTQ+ "groomers": "meet the woman behind Libs of TikTok, secretly fueling the right's outrage machine."
Gay billionaires: is financial modesty back in?
While the LGBT Center celebrated HBO's "The Gilded Age" (see below), Vanity Fair complained that the rich's lack of modesty in their spending threatens democracies. Gay billionaire Peter Thiel, as an example, got shamed for being too public in discussing his New Zealand apocalypse bunker, which seems so apropos now that we are officially on nuclear winter alert. I hate to brag, but you had first heard it here as in July last year, I wrote a piece titled "stop celebrating extreme wealth." I like to think I invented making the vilification of the excessively rich a movement!
Hawai: Mahu tradition.
Kapaemahu refers to four stones on Waikiki Beach placed there as a tribute to four legendary mahu (third-gender individuals). Hawaii is celebrating its long history of gender diversity and inclusion this Pride season through a museum exhibition, documentary film, and children's picture book about Kapaemahu. You can find information here.
Alaska Airlines degender its uniforms.
This past month Alaska Airlines announced that it updated its uniform and presentation policies to align further with its employees' gender identities and more modern standards. Employees can now decide what uniform will make them feel the most confident. Alaska Airlines is even adjusting the number of options and names of their uniform kits to be focused on fit vs. gender identifications. "We all want to look professional, and we all want to be ourselves at the same time—your gender shouldn't define what you wear or how you look." This also means changes in other appearance-based policies; fingernail polish, makeup, two earrings per ear, and a single stud nose piercing are expression options available to all employees. They have also updated their grooming policies to allow tattoos in more locations and more hairstyle options. Alaska is offering pronoun pins to every employee. This change showcases how small steps can make a difference in the workplace.
Finally… what everybody should tweet when they kiss Timothe Chalamet.
Just so you are prepared…
From the social pages.
Notes from the LGBT Center Dinner.
Last Thursday was The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender NYC Community Center's dinner at Cipriani. I was there, and here are my notes. Cecilia Gentili and Murray Hill were unmistakably the stars of the evening, recollecting earlier struggles in their lives which included addiction and treatment at the Center. Gentili claimed she had just spent an hour at a conservative event at the wrong Cipriani, thinking, "these gays don't look gay." Bridget Everett was in great form too. The gays did look vintage gay downtown that night. Attendees frowned at the Paisley tie of Bank of America's Geoff Greener but not at the company's donations. The paisley pattern, not unlike wearing dress shoes without socks and mustaches for gay men, seem to be going nowhere and are something Albany urgently needs to legislate on. The crowd included Kevin Jennings of Lambda Legal accompanied by a young man from Philly deemed the "most eligible bachelor," a myriad of Governor Hochul's gay staffers (but nobody from Eric Adams' office). Hochul spoke - Alex Roque of Ali Forney, Claire Shanley Producer of the Gilded Age, philanthropist Mitchell Draizin accompanied by a Lebanese man called Maurice, a very stylish Brad Clark (who heads the Gill Foundation), historian Timothy Stewart-Winter with whom I discussed Dr. Eric Cervini's book "The Deviant's War," Corey Johnson (who was asking advice from Tom Duane, the first openly gay member of New York State Senate, seated next to me) and a handful of billionaires clearly there to witness Tim Gill/Scott Miller being honored with the Edie Windsor Trailblazer Award. In his acceptance speech, Gill said that "the fight never ends”.
Tonight is Housing Works' Design and a Dime.
I did not even have the time to launder my suit, which had an encounter with Cipriani's teak, and I will be at the Pavilion tonight as we honor Kering's Laurent Claquin with a groundbreaker award. See the article about it in WWD.
The upcoming Lambda Legal NYC gala.
Lambda is hosting its annual dinner on the Piers on April 28. Individual tickets are $750 and can be purchased here.
Support Ali Forney by working out.
Personally, it is a mystery why Americans enjoy workout classes (I am also at the age where sudden cardiac death is a risk, or at least my mother thinks so). Still, you can join AFC on Saturday, May 21 at 5:30 pm at Barry's Bootcamp in Chelsea. Tickets are $60 per person and include access to the 5/21 class, a VIP Barry's Bootcamp card for one future class, Fuel Bar sample shakes, and 100% of your admission will benefit the Ali Forney Center! You get two classes with Zac Cohen, and all of the proceeds help homeless LGBTQ+ young people. What's not to love? You can register HERE.
Erratum: Serbia.
Our friend Amarildo of ERA wrote to me last week to correct a mistake in my previous newsletter:
"Just a quick correction on Serbia. There is no civil union law in the country, yet. Last year the Government worked on a draft, which attracted a lot of media and public attention, but it has not yet been discussed in Parliament or put up for voting. There is a bit of hope that it will happen now that elections are over, but with a now-much-larger far-right presence in Parliament, we have yet to see how this goes."
I guess the PM has been even less useful than I claimed.