Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 - January 2017 i The Advocate

Beenish Ahmed (“Vodou and the Rainbow,” p. 56) is a writer, reporter, and the founder of TheAlignist.com, a platform that connects current events to literary works. A NPR Kroc Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, her work has appeared in The Atlantic, VICE, The Daily Beast, Medium, and The Huffington Post. She is currently working on a novel. @beenishfahmed Alex Williamson (Cover and “No Congress? No Problem,” p. 12) is a graphic artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in many international publications. He exhibits regularly as an artist while also working commercially on a wide range of commissions. He is based in Bath, England. @illo_hub Jacob Anderson-Minshall (“Condomless Sex,” p. 27 and “Mysterious Skin”) is the co-founder and chief creative officer Retrograde Communications, and editorial agency. He is also the senior…

How did the president sneak an LGBT rights revolution past a hostile legislative branch? By mastering the art of executive orders and agency rule-making. On January 20, 2017, when President Barack Obama leaves the Oval Office for good, he will leave behind an LGBT rights legacy whose astonishing scope most Americans are only beginning to grasp. During his eight years as president, Obama created a revolution in LGBT equality—protecting gay and trans-gender people from workplace, housing, and credit discrimination; shielding their access to unprejudiced health care; and defending their right to nondiscriminatory education. He will have done all of this without signing a single bill. Obama did, of course, sign three LGBT rights bills: one expanding federal hate crime laws to include gender identity and sexual orientation; another ending the…

4 Grammy awards won by bisexual producer Clive Davis, for Jennifer Hudson by Jennifer Hudson (2009), Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson (2006), and two for Supernatural by Santana (2000) FEBRUARY 18, 2015 Date that Kate Brown became the first openly bisexual governor when she was sworn in as Oregon’s governor $212,500 Amount bisexual recording artist Frank Ocean was sued for by Chipotle when he backed out of performing the song “Pure Imagination” for its animated ad. 5.5% of American women ages 18–44 identify as bisexual 2% of American men ages 18–44 identified as bisexual JANUARY 3, 2013 Date that Kyrsten Sinema became the first openly bisexual member of Congress when she was sworn in as the representative from Arizona’s Ninth Congressional District JULY 13, 100 B.C. Birth date of…

Three hours, 13 minutes. That’s how long the Pulse nightclub shooting lasted—from 2:02 a.m., when Orlando police received the first reports of shots fired, to 5:15 a.m., when a SWAT team killed shooter Omar Mateen. During that time—the time it takes to watch a movie or sit down to dinner—49 people were killed and an additional 53 were injured. Most of the clubgoers were killed or wounded in the first 20 minutes—including Angel Colon, who was shot multiple times in his leg and side. “The first shots,” he says, “they were super loud—and super hot. We dropped our drinks, and all we could hear was pop pop pop pop.” Colon evacuated the club early in the standoff between Mateen and Orlando police—but only after Mateen came out to the dance…

After reading your new memoir, I feel like we’re best friends. Is that weird? It is weird. At first I was just telling stories in a vacuum, and now I’m realizing that I may walk into a room where strangers know really intimate details about my life. Shit! But it’s my fault, so I’ve got to get over it. Why isn’t there a chapter about you becoming a gay icon? Oh, man. I’m such a straight, cis, Boringface McGee over here, so I love that that could be even a little true. The idea that I’m resonating with other people who have ever felt like outsiders is the coolest. When did you first become aware of the LGBT audience? Well, I did Broadway when I was 12, so… [Laughs] Years…

The year is coming to a close, but more important, the general election cycle is nearing its end. We’ve all had enough. The debates are done and we’re in the final days, and now it seems that there’s little left to do but contribute (if that’s a thing you do), vote, and encourage your friends and family to do the same. This year, voting is anything but straightforward—but it should nevertheless have a specific purpose. Your vote should effect an outcome, and that outcome must be the greater good. And though voting third-party is often thought of as a viable form of political protest, this year it will not serve the greater good. I understand (and deeply feel) the queer impulse to buck the mainstream and vote for the most…

LOVING TELLS THE STORY of Mildred and Richard Loving, a couple forced to marry in Washington, D.C., because it was illegal for whites and blacks to marry in their native Virginia in 1958. Once they were back home, police raided their house and arrested them for violating the state’s miscegenation laws. The Lovings eventually took their struggle for equal rights to the Supreme Court, where anti-miscegenation laws were ruled unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia. in 1967. Loving v. Virginia was a landmark case not only for interracial couples but also for same-sex couples. The case was cited as a precedent in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage across the nation. Australian actor Joel Edgerton, who plays Richard Loving in the new film couldn’t help…

DC Entertainment moved the needle forward for LGBT visibility once again with the launch of Midnighter and Apollo number 1 in October. The series, currently on its third issue, is the first mainstream comic headlined by a gay male couple, and writer Steve Orlando says he’s proud to be one of the creators currently working to shape a diverse new superhero landscape for the DC Universe. “People of all types flock to comics because they tell us no matter how mundane or arduous our life is, there’s always that glimmer of hope that our life can be mythic,” he says. “But those mythic moments are not reserved for the mainstream. More queer characters are needed in the spotlight because we all deserve a chance to know we can be heroes…

Award-winning playwright Doug Wright has long put his personal stamp on edgy, LGBT-friendly material. His 2003 play I Am My Own Wife—about real-life German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorfwon the Tony and Pulitzer, and Wright also nabbed kudos for scripting the 2006 musical adaptation of the cult documentary Grey Gardens. His latest project, War Paint—a musical about warring cosmetics titans Helena Rubinstein (played by Patti LuPone) and Elizabeth Arden (Christine Ebersole)—premiered in Chicago this summer, premiered in Chicago this summer, and is coming to Broadway in March. We spoke about his unique gifts. Hello, Doug. Do you look for offbeat material, or does it find you? I think I’m interested in people who fall outside the mainstream because they have some sense of the potential to tell us the larger truths…

A New Yorker of American-Colombian descent, Michael Mejia is a gay artist best known for his hyper-realistic body paintings. Mejia—whose clients have ranged from New York City school children to celebrities like Claudia Schiffer, Jason Derulo, and Timbaland—appeared on the third season of Skin Wars, the body painting reality competition hosted by Rebecca Romijn on Game Show Network. On the show, he shared his amazing photo-realism, debuted his flamboyant drag persona (“Unleashya”), and—much to the consternation of the judges—demonstrated his burgeoning penchant for out-of-the-box artistic exploration (for example, by creating elaborate, unexpected props). In this interview, the 26-year-old artist comes out about his HIV status and talks about the rampant stigma, his artistic collaborations, amazingly supportive mother, and the rite of passage that had him literally dangling from hooks piercing…

HILLARY CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT The Advocate endorsed Hillary Cinton for President “with enthusiasm” on the October/ November 2016 cover. And our readers had a lot to say about it. Erica Owens Yeager noted, “Folks, either Trump or Hillary will be president. Period. Gary Johnson will not be President. Jill Stein will not be President. And you know it. ‘Voting your conscience’ in this election is akin to a temper tantrum. You don’t like your only viable option so you are going to take your ball and go home. You are putting your emotions… ahead of common sense and a long-range view of what is best for the nation. Hillary isn’t perfect, and she may be the lesser of two evils. Fine. Do you really want the bigger helping of evil…

For at least the past three decades, the belief that members of the LGBT communities are “born that way” has been a central tenet of those communities’ struggles for rights and recognition. Queer activists, thinkers, and politicians have won over many skeptics of LGBT equality by asserting that sexual orientation and gender identity are immutable and fixed at birth. And since they’re a matter of nature—like height, sex, and eye color—they should not be legislated against. That claim has come under fire recently in an article written by Dr. Lawrence Mayer, a statistician from Arizona State University, and the notoriously anti-gay Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at John Hopkins and the religious right’s go-to guy whenever a patina of scientific respectability is required for its biblically based challenges…

Those whose viral load has become undetectable due to antiretroviral treatment are 99% less likely to transmit HIV, regardless of whether a condom is used. Researchers set out to evaluate whether changes in the use of condoms reflected increased adoption of serosorting (having sex only with those of similar HIV status) or biomedical preventions like antiretroviral treatment. Their report, published in May in the journal AIDS, concluded that condomless sex continues to increase among men who have sex with men, but “the trends are not explained by serosorting or ART.” The scientists reviewed data gathered by the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Survey, which was conducted in up to 21 cities in 2005, 2008, 2011, and 2014. The survey asked more than a thousand men whether they used a condom with…

Pillars of Salt “When you have the top leaders of a country devolving…into ancient pagan sexuality of the Sodom and Gomorrah type and touting it as good, it makes you worry for your country.” —MATT BARBER, LIBERTY UNIVERSITY LAW PROFESSOR Hurricane Matthew How interesting it is that Matthew is set to smash Orlando and Savannah during their sodomite parades!” —ANDREW BIESZAD, A CONTRIBUTOR TO SHOEBAT.COM No Christians on the Supreme Court “Because of the godless ruling of the Supreme Court...when they implemented by judicial fiat the travesty of same-sex marriage upon the country, suddenly they literally made it unlawful and illegal for Christians to hold positions on the federal courts.” —RICK SCARBOROUGH, PASTOR…

IF YOU DO HAVE HIV: You can protect your health. There is no cure for HIV, but your healthcare provider can tell you how HIV treatment can help you live a healthier life. IF YOU DON’T HAVE HIV: You can protect your health too . Use condoms and practice safer sex. Never share needles. Get retested regularly. And ask a healthcare provider about all the ways to prevent HIV. WHAT IS TREATMENT AS PREVENTION? When a person who is living with HIV treats the virus, they also help prevent it. HIV treatment can help lower the amount of virus in the body. It can get so low that it’s undetectable by a test. And that can help lower the chance of passing HIV on by more than…

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Has Pedro Almodóvar, the onetime enfant terrible of Spanish cinema, abandoned the outrageousness of his youth? When I visited with the 67-year-old filmmaker in his New York hotel suite in early October, he admitted as much. “I write with the same attitude I had in the ’80s and ’90s, but my life is very different now. As time passes, it’s natural that your storytelling evolves.” Julieta, Almodóvar’s 20th feature film, which opens in the United States on December 21, is a moving exploration of family relationships. Loosely based on three stories by Alice Munro, it follows a woman’s life from her lonely youth through a happy marriage in her 20s, bereavement in her 30s, a perplexing abandonment in her 40s, and an effort to make sense of her life in…