Innehållsförteckning för October - November 2018 från The Advocate

Nicknamed El Transformer, this 25-year-old Latino entertainer on our cover is not only living his truth as a transgender man, but is breaking down major musical barriers for Latinx trans and queer people. BeingLatino.me commended Gio Bravo for courageously and “directly combating a musical genre that is rife with machismo.” Having grown up in a “very musically oriented” home, Bravo says the art form is in his blood. And it was the sounds of his father’s beloved, traditional, regional Mexican music, banda, that Bravo gravitated to. Banda is a style of Mexican ensemble music that uses mostly percussion and brass wind instruments. A male-dominated genre since its inception in 19th century central Mexico, banda songs include rancheras, corridos, boleros, and baladas. A handful of female artists have successfully broken through,…

With photographer Luke Fontana behind the lens, every shoot we do is fun. But this month, the energy was off the charts thanks to YouTube star Tyler Oakley (who brought his own filmmaker, Nathan Flanagan-Frankl) and a bevy of brilliant, funny, quirky young adults. Here are just a few behind the scenes snapshots, including the cover stars and our amazing crew. And yes, basically everyone was hugging Oakley at some point.…

A Human Rights Campaign Foundation study reveals that over half of LGBTQ employees are closeted in their respective workplaces, showing little to no increase over the past decade. LGBTQ workers still experience discrimination substantial enough to prevent people from feeling comfortable enough to come out to their colleagues. “LGBTQ workers too often face a climate of bias in their workplace,” said Deena Fidas, director of HRC’s Workplace Equality Program. “LGBTQ employees are still avoiding making personal and professional connections at work because they fear coming out—and that hurts not only that employee, but the company as a whole.” According to the survey, 46 percent of LGBTQ workers claim to be closeted at work. One in five LGBTQ workers say their colleagues have told them to dress in a more feminine…

Visibility is more important than ever nowadays, especially for communities often ignored in the media, which is why comic artist Xanthippe Hutcheon (best known as “Xan”) took a stab at drawing some of the more than 30 flags representing groups on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Hutcheon has drawn about her life and transition for years on ComicsByXan.com. A bisexual trans artist from the U.K., Xan now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. Flag you most identify with: Lots of them, but the ones I have hanging in my living room are the trans and non-binary flags. Your passions: Sailor Moon, Lumberjanes, and Indian food. Favorite animals: Spotted hyenas. And I can spend a full hour telling you why if you give me the slightest opportunity. How long you’ve been drawing: For…

WHEN I USED to look in the mirror, I didn’t see my reflection staring back at me. Instead, I saw a catalog filled with men who were the archetype of physical male perfection. Then I would subtract my image from the s u m o f t h e s e p e r f e c t specimens and find the remainder of what stood between myself and the way I felt I was supposed to look. The remainder is what I saw. That was my self-image. The remainder kept me looking pretty good for a while. It motivated me to wake up early in the morning for cardio and lift weights six days a week. It prompted me to choke down supplements and cut carbs before swimsuit season.…

November is Native American Heritage Month, which is a great time to remember that we are, in fact, everywhere—from reservations to major urban centers. We’re celebrating just a few of the many two-spirit or LGBTQ Native Americans, including actor Cheyenne Jackson (American Horror Story), Evan Adams (playwright, actor, and First Nations doctor), authors Paula Gunn Allen and Max Wolf Valerio, activist Randy Burns (cofounder of Gay American Indians and the Indian AIDS Project), and Heather Purser (the 20-something who helped the Suquamish become the second tribe in the U.S. to recognize same-sex marriage). Online at bit.ly/10LGBTQNatives.…

“The first time I heard that song... [it] just kind of stopped me in my tracks and it really got me thinking about being an example and inspiring others with my story and my music,” Brody Ray says, reflecting on his cover of Jordan Smith’s “Stand In The Light” on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. “I don’t know how it happened but every single word in that song matched perfectly with my life and that situation and the moment on that stage.” The musician has a lot of support but acknowledges that being trans may be an added hurdle breaking into the music biz. Maybe people are just closed off to me as a trans artist. I have had difficulty finding guitar players. ...There’s been a handful that have jammed with…

1987: HIV activist Sean Strub got Keith Haring to donate his now-famous image of a person dancing out of a closet to the cause. 1991: Before he was a conservative pundit on Fox, Geraldo Rivera hosted a Coming Out Day TV special with Dick Sargent (the beloved gay actor who played Darren number two on Bewitched) along with lesbian California Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl and NCOD cofounder Robert Eichberg. 1990s: NCOD spokespeople included lesbian activist Candace Gingrich (half-sister of then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich), actor Dan Butler (who played Bulldog on Frasier), lesbian rock star Melissa Etheridge, and Betty DeGeneres (the straight mother of lesbian comedian Ellen). 2000s: By mid-decade, dozens of celebs, politicos, and activists had supported NCOD, including Olympic diver Greg Louganis, actor Mitchell Anderson, Chaz Bono and his mom…

She Wants It: Desire, Power, and Toppling the Patriarchy is showrunner Jill Soloway’s memoir about the hit series Transparent, their own shifting gender identity, the numerous trans and gender expansive people behind the scenes, and the cognitive dissonance that descends with the #MeToo accusations against actor Jeffrey Tambor. Soloway is brutally honest about their conflicted feelings as the accusations threaten the show and all they’d worked for. (Crown Archetype)— Jacob Anderson-Minshall The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist is the memoir of renowned neurobiologist Ben Barres (born 1954). A young math whiz who became one of a handful of female students at MIT in the 1970s, and faced sex-based bigotry before transitioning in his 40s. He was a vocal advocate for gender equality and female and trans scientists. As a Stanford…

“WHEN I MET THESE YOUNG PEOPLE, I FELT LIKE I WAS MEETING THE PEOPLE THAT ARE GOING TO LEAD MOVEMENTS I DON’T EVEN KNOW ARE GOING TO EXIST YET, AND I FELT LIKE THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT.” The United States has evolved immensely in the 20 years since Matthew Shepard’s death galvanized the nation and brought worldwide attention to hate crime legislation at all levels. The tragedy birthed a fervent outcry that still resonates in films and on stage, particularly in The Laramie Project, which continues to play in regional theaters across the nation. Shepard’s murder galvanized the push for LGBTQ civil rights and shined a spotlight on the deadly ramifications of unfettered homophobia and hate. In a 1999 op-ed for The New York Times, essayist Frank Rich wrote that…

“YOUR IDENTITY HAS VALUE. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO LOVE YOU, BECAUSE YOU ARE QUEER AND BECAUSE YOU ARE TRANS.” Avisceral response happens when viewers see characters that reflect their lives on screen for the first time. Clarity blossoms from a place of former uncertainty, and at long last we feel we have a place in the world. For out bisexual filmmaker and video journalist Shayna Maci Warner, it’s a feeling she’ll never forget. And one she hopes to arouse in future generations. A former managing editor of OutWrite, UCLA’s source for queer news and content, Warner is a recipient one of GLAAD’s 2018 Rising Stars Grants, given to LGBTQ youth working to accelerate queer acceptance online, for her series The First Time I Saw Myself. The series chronicles…

I’D LIKE TO say I remember exactly where I was the day I found out Matthew Shepard was killed. Sadly, a lot of LGBTQ people have been killed since then. I do have crystal clear memories of the gruesome murders of Shepard—as well as Brandon Teena, Sakia Gunn, Angie Zapata, and even James Byrd (who wasn’t gay), in part cemented by the words I wrote about them at the time. When cute blond 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was found beaten and dying on a fence in Wyoming, it hit close to home. I was on my one and only sabbatical from journalism, a trial run living back home in rural Idaho. My copilot and I were unmoored from our LGBTQ life in San Francisco, so when Matthew was murdered 564 miles…

PFLAG, the nation’s first and largest organization for family and allies of LGBTQ people, celebrated its 45th anniversary this spring. According to the organization’s national newsletter, PFLAGpole, “While we’ve seen different dates floating around for the actual anniversary of our first meeting, the Manford archives at the New York Public Library say March 11th is the official date!” However, the founding act occurred earlier, when New York school teacher Jeanne Manford proudly walked next to her gay son, activist Morty Manford, at the 1972 Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade (above), carrying a sign that read, “Parents of Gays: Unite in Support for Our Children.” The following March, the Manford family met with a handful of other supportive parents at the Metropolitan Community Church on Seventh Avenue in New York City.…

For nearly 30 years, Juanita More has been fighting on the frontlines for awareness and LGBTQ rights. Her story as a queer pioneer (and collaborator with fashion icon David Glamamore) has inspired many to live life larger. On being an icon: Honestly, it makes me giggle. My day-to-day life revolves around my Frenchie, Jackson, so “dog walker” is probably a better description of how I really see myself. Why elections matter: We are in the middle of this backward administration’s efforts to continue to dismantle LGBT rights. There are 74 countries where it is illegal to be LGBT. In 13 countries, being gay or bisexual is a crime punishable by death. Sometimes it’s easier to forget that we’ve not always been allowed to be who we are in public. We…

1 Kandace Springs We can’t stop grooving on Kandace Springs video for “Don’t Need The Real Thing,” one of the songs from her Karriem Rigginsproduced album Indigo. Springs, who came out after her last album, Soul Eyes, offers cool jazz with a hip-hop vibe. Meanwhile her Instagram snaps (like the one above with Mary Nickole) always leave us thirsty. 2 Design Meet Bowling Brooklyn native and Fashion Institute of Technology student Samuel Riley’s “Illusion Shoe” was chosen winner by Christian Siriano for the #BeBowled Shoe Design Contest, sponsored by Bowlero Corp. The lucky young designer won a $2,500 prize and will get his chic bowling shoe professionally manufactured and distributed to Bowlero and Bowlmor Lanes locations nationwide in 2019. 3 Hot Wheels Sisters Izzy (above) and Ailbhe Keane joined forces…

LANA GAILANI’S STORY does not immediately allude to a life spent mixing spirits. A scholar at heart, Gailani once pursued a Ph.D. in political science and is well-versed in post-conflict state-building in the Middle East. However, the complexity of mixology allows her to nurture the scholar within. A self-identifying introvert, she shies away from the constant spotlight under which many bartenders operate. “It is very easy to lose yourself in hospitality,” Gailani warns. After all, bartending is not merely about the creation of drinks. It’s about pleasing customers through constant interaction. Gailani has developed novel coping methods, leaving her graciously elevated off the ground. She faces internal battles that threaten to interfere with her craft. A struggle with depression led her to discover the art that now keeps her stable—while…

After winning a crowded six-way Democratic primary race for Kansas’s 3rd Congressional District, Sharice Davids broke barriers as the nation’s first out Native American congressional nominee, according to the Kansas City Star. Come November, Davids, 38, who is also a professional mixed martial arts fighter, will face off against Kevin Yoder in the general election. If she wins, she’ll make history as Kansas’s first LGBTQ member of Congress, the first Native American lesbian to serve in Congress, and the first Native American woman with documented tribal ancestry to serve in Congress. (Senator Elizabeth Warren reportedly has mixed-race Native heritage, but like many mixed-race Natives, no tribal documentation to “prove” it.) “Now, we turn to the general election and set our sights on defeating Kevin Yoder, an extremist who has tried…

FOR 15 YEARS, before coming out publicly as gay in an 2004 interview with The Advocate, renowned jazz saxophonist Dave Koz thought doing so was the ultimate gamble: risking his career, fans, and record sales in order to live as his true self. Much to his surprise, the acclaimed musician received an incredible response after coming out. Not only was he chosen by People magazine as one of their 50 Most Eligible Bachelors that same year, but shortly after, he scored a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Clearly, as Koz wrote in a 2005 op-ed for The Advocate, his fears about what the world would think of him were totally overblown. “The only thing that really changed was me,” he wrote at the time. “Now I can finally…

Charmaine Bingwa is one of those rare humans whose energy seems to vibrate on a higher level than most of us, leaving us mere mortals feeling like we are moving in slow motion through molasses in comparison. At 33, the Australian-Zimbabwean has already earned mad respect as a stage performer, launched her own production company, and created an award-winning new web series, Little Sista (LittleSistaSeries.com). Though the multitalented, out and proud lesbian with an infectious charm also sings and plays guitar professionally (she’s played with artists like Demi Lovato and Fifth Harmony on their tours Down Under), it was her critically-acclaimed performance last year as Mrs. Muller in an Australian stage adaption of Doubt that put Bingwa on everyone’s radar. The role is one Bingwa seemed destined to play, after…

“I’M VERY QUEER AND I’M VERY BLACK ALL AT THE SAME TIME...” Edwin Bodney was only 8 years old when Matthew Shepard was murdered—and the host of Los Angeles’s Da Poetry Lounge recalls not being able to grasp the weight of the tragedy until years later. “I probably was like a teenager when I realized what Matthew even looked like. Especially as I was growing up and not being [myself ] because of what society’s expectations are. You don’t really explore your community as much as you’d like to.” Bodney began attending Da Poetry Lounge (which boasts one of the longest running poetry open mics in the country) when he was about 15. He says he “fell in love with it immediately.” The Los Angeles-based poet and educator has authored…

“SEEING MYSELF PHYSICALLY BECOME THE PERSON I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE... MADE ME FEEL INVINCIBLE.” Though many long-held traditions in Mexican-American culture can be comforting and beautiful, there are unfortunately others that have become outdated and harmful. The perseverance of Latino machismo—and the misogynistic and homophobic attitudes it generates—can, combined with a heavily Catholic influence, have negative effects on the LGBTQ youth who grow up in the culture. For Latino singer-songwriter and activist Gio Bravo, it was exactly these invisible but very real cultural attitudes that kept him in the closet about being transgender. Bravo says he knew very early on that he was not like the “other girls.” But being transgender was such a taboo. It would be more than a decade before he began to learn what being…

SHEA DIAMOND’S SONG, “I Am Her” has been called a transgender anthem. Recently, the star sat down with Jeffrey Masters, host of The Advocate podcast LGBTQ&A, to talk about writing the song while in prison, and the sense of disbelief she feels about working in the music industry. She also dives into sexual assault, her 10 years of incarceration, and why we need to decriminalize being trans. Your song “American Pie” is so special. I love the framing of living truthfully as part of the American dream. I just think about my life and my experience. We’ve lost the ability to dream because people have taken that away from us. They’ve told us because we’re queer, because we’re black, because we’re trans, because we’re fat, that we can’t obtain this…

*Hibiscus (not pictured; born George Edgerly Harris III) founded the psychedelic gay liberation theater group known as the the Cockettes. One of the earliest to die of AIDS complications (in 1982), Harris also starred in one of America’s most iconic photographs of the 1960s. Bernie Boston’s “Flower Power,” an image of a blonde hippie placing a flower in the barrel of a military police gun during the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam's March on The Pentagon. It ran in the Washington Star.…

MY LEATHER BOOTS clacked against the concrete as I strutted down Calle 23. Heads turned as men stared at me longingly. Their suggestive looks didn’t exist in isolation. In the span of a mere 100 yards, six men approached me to ask, “Where are you from?” and “How are you, handsome?” in broken English. I don’t remember a time before gay hookup apps like Grindr. In fact, I don’t remember a time when cruising was the norm. Sure I’ve been to a number of gay clubs and have experienced anonymous encounters in various locker room saunas, but I always know that if I don’t meet someone anywhere else, I can always meet them online. I’m not motivated to meet men for sex (or a more meaningful connection), as sex in…

If you can, time your visit to check out Electricity, an immersive gay dramedy performed in a motel room at INNdulge in Palm Springs (INNdulge.com), where a handful of ticketholders sit mere inches from the action. Written by costar Terry Ray (who plays Gary), the show explores the journey of two men who hook up in a motel room after their small-town, 10-year high school reunion. Nicknamed “Gary the Fairy” in high school, Gary is so closeted that he has invented a wife. Brad the cad (that’s not his nickname, just an apt moniker) is played to perfection by gay indie film star Mel England. Brad is out and sexy—but filled with so much self-loathing and internalized homophobia that he numbs his pain with copious amounts of sex, coke, and…

VERMONT’S CHRISTINE HALLQUIST made history in August by becoming the first out transgender person to win a major party’s gubernatorial nomination anywhere in the United States. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Hallquist received 48 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, making her the party’s nominee, The New York Times reports. (Her two nearest Democratic competitors each earned just over 20 percent of the vote.) Hallquist, the former CEO of the Vermont Electric Cooperative, will face incumbent Republican Phil Scott in November. In an interview with The Advocate this summer, Hallquist said her priorities include fighting poverty and encouraging economic development in the state’s rural areas, promoting renewable energy, fighting climate change, raising the minimum wage, enacting paid family leave, working toward single-payer health care, and revamping the…

Over our 51 years, dozens of people have come out in our pages, from celebs to everyday Janes.The Advocate has always celebrated trailblazers who’ve used their art, politics, and life to share their coming out journeys. They’ve inspired us all to continue digging and to open closets we may not even know we were in. Just a few of the famous folks that came out in our pages include k.d. lang, George Michael,Amanda Bearse, Steve Kmetko, Billy Bean, Portia DeRossi, Gianni Versace, Nathan Lane, Liz Smith Chaz Bono Gore Vidal Kurt Cobain, Jim Verraros, and Diora Baird. Where once film and TV stars dominated, today young social media stars pique our interest too. One social media influencer, Jessie Paege (who has 2.9 million followers), recently came out as bisexual. The…

SHORTLY AFTER WRAPPING a summer tour promoting her critically acclaimed new album Magic Gone, the uber-talented indie singer-songwriter Petal (aka Kiley Lotz), who TheNew York Times called one of the “women making the best rock music today,” sat down with The Advocate. She spoke candidly about the three-year emotional journey—from the darkness of mental illness and a closeted life, to a place of peace and personal —behind the album. Before Lotz was in kindergarten, she was already performing songs for her parents. “I used to make up songs when I was very small, like a toddler, and I would just sing for as long as I could,” she recalls. “My dad would... [say], ‘Wow, great job,’ [and I’d ask] ‘Do you want me to sing it again?’” Lotz went on…

Gay comedian Guy Branum’s new memoir, My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)Popular Culture, is a wickedly smart and hilarious collection of auto-biographical essays that also ponder issues raised by modern American pop culture. In this excerpt from Branum’s conversation with Jeffrey Masters on The Advocate’s podcast LGBTQ&A (bit.ly/LGBTQnA), the comedian discusses his battles with depression and the way fatness—as viewed by Americans—disrupts people from enjoying their bodies, as well as why being a gay standup performing for both LGBTQ and straight audiences can be difficult. In your book you dismantle stereotypes: about fat people, gay people, Jewish people. I don’t think about it in terms of stereotypes so much as just the stories that we tell. This book is very much about me trying to figure out…

“IT DOES TAKE A CERTAIN KIND OF TOUGHNESS AND GREATNESS TO DEAL WITH THESE ISSUES.” Haley Videckis and Layana White first met on a basketball court while playing for opposing PAC-12 teams, but the pair would go on to make history as a couple in a California courtroom. The story of this interracialpansexual duo was covered in the documentary Alone in the Game—a saga of love, perseverance, and ultimate victory against bigotry and discrimination. The two began as star basketball players on opposing teams, but became teammates, friends, and eventually a couple after transferring to Pepperdine University. The only problem was that Pepperdine is a private university affiliated with the Churches of Christ. “It was interesting because we were at a school where it wasn’t accepted, and we had to…

Following the brutal assault on Matthew Shepard near Laramie, Wyo., in October 1998, time seemed to freeze—especially for his family. As surgeons frantically tried to save the young student’s life, his family recalls receiving teddy bears from advocates across the country. Hundreds of attached cards urged his parents not to discount the opportunity to speak out on the importance of LGBTQ acceptance. Dennis and Judy Shepard listened to those pleas and took them to heart. They founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation in December 1998, not only to continue having conversations about the importance of dignity, respect, love, and understanding, but also to continue the fight for LGBTQ equality across all arenas. Their efforts led to the passage and signing of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention…

There have been thousands of studies devoted to prostate cancer, but very few have focused on trying to understand the experiences of gay and bi men with prostate cancer. A new book, Gay & Bisexual Men Living with Prostate Cancer: From Diagnoses to Recovery aims to target these communities, whose unique stories often get lost in medical studies. Edited by Jane Ussher, Janette Perz, and B. R. Simon Rosser, the book is the most current and comprehensive to date on the subject. Providing an overview of research and treatments as well as powerful portraits of gay and bi men living with prostate cancer, the editors intend to assist those going through treatment and their medical professionals, whose private practices often deal more frequently with straight white men’s experiences. Dr. Rosser,…

Losing any colleague can be tough, but losing an editor in chief who was your partner in crime really sucks. Lucas Grindley and I both started as editors at The Advocate at the same time: July 2011. For the last two years, Grindley and I worked hand-in-hand. He gave me wide berth to run the magazine, while he shaped the digital vision for it and four other brands at Pride Media. Under his direction, every digital outlet he ran (Pride, The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and HIV Plus)—gained followers (and Advocate.com reaches millions of visitors each month). Grindley wrote a stirring memo to the staff back in 2016, a year after marriage equality, and not long before Trump was elected president. “The Advocate has always been a civil rights magazine,”…