 My name is Kim Ward and I'm Keith Ghostland and this is All Things LGBTQ. We are taping on Tuesday, December 29th. We wish to acknowledge that All Things is produced at Orca Media in Montpelier, Vermont, which is unceded Indigenous land. And with that, we're going back to Linda. Well, before I get started, I would like to thank Kim for standing in for Ann. She will be back next time and we really, really appreciate it and you've done a great job and we hope you come back at some point in time when we're on vacation or who knows what. But thank you so much, Kim. And so I will start with a mural dedicated to beloved activists in Philadelphia is painted over without warning. Gay Indian American gets a key post in the Biden administration. Gautam Raghavan, man, will be Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel and, you know, I will butcher everybody's name in here. Killer party monster Michael at a league found dead in his New York City apartment from a heroin overdose after spending 17 years in prison for a second degree murder. He was 54. He was a ringleader of what was known in New York City as club kids, a group of flamboyant New Yorkers who threw and attended drug-fueled parties. Anti-gay counselor Marcus Bachman gets presidential appointment. Yes, Bachman is the husband of famous homophobe Michelle Bachman, the infamous congresswoman. Marcus is known for practicing conversion therapy at his so-called Christian counseling clinics. Katie Hill, Sue's her husband and media outlets that publish nude pictures of her. We'll have more about that. Stonewall dancer Bobby Soleto dies of COVID. He was witnessed to the Stonewall Rebellion and respected in the Savannah LGBT community. He was 74. A gay California couple's Christmas decorations were torn down and smeared with feces. Sounds very exciting. Republican congressman censured for officiating a gay marriage. Representative Denver Riggleman from Virginia presided over the nuptials of two gay men who were his campaign aides. This was this, the Republicans said was against their principles. So they are not happy about that. Marvel's first lesbian Latino superhero is making her big screen debut. America Chavez, also known as Miss America, will be played by, and here's another oxhilt Gomez, a tribute over the course of 100 years, 101 years of the nation's longest lived lesbian, and we'll have more about her. And Hitler video, it's San Diego, shows images of a Nazi leader, of the Nazi leader out off Hitler, and a bigoted slur aimed at Mayor Todd Gloria, who is gay. This may have been done, as it turns out, by some people in the San Diego police department. So, and that's it for my story. Oh, about, I was going to tell a little story about queer organizers in Georgia helped the fight to change Georgia. So we'll have a little bit about that. Okay, Kim. Okay. So I have a few stories including that COVID has complicated the lives of queer folks more than some this year, and we'll talk a little bit about what that has been like around the world. I have a short story about Larry Kramer and how his message lives on. Some female athletes have signed a brief in support of trans girls and women playing sports. The LGBTQ community leads a call for equality in Thailand. There's also a bit of a report from the UK's by community news about by health and how that is researched and how we are included within it. Hungry has passed a bill prohibiting adoption for non married couples. Legendary comic Eddie Izard now uses she her pronouns exclusively in one of my entertainment news pieces. And then the second one that I have for entertainment, the first non by nary and trans characters have entered the Star Trek universe in season three of discovery. So I'll talk about those. Be me up Scotty. Be me up indeed. Did you see that the little blurb this week out one of the visitors to the space, the International Space Station about 10 years ago took up a laminated card that had Scotty's ashes in it and he hid it on the space station. I love it. I'm a huge Trekkie so I'm off for that. So it lives on. So the trivia question out in the mountains, January 1990. That was 30 years ago. Vermonters, we were getting on buses and heading to Atlanta, Georgia. Why? So Boston City Council by unanimous vote has passed an ordinance that now creates a non binary option on all documents, certificates and forms that are generated by the city of Boston. Positive move. Darryl Goodwin. He's appointed the first openly gay and person of color as a conference minister for the southern New England district of the United Church of Christ. And the district includes Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut. Why we're might be interested in this is Darryl got his masters at UVM. And while he was there, he started an inclusive campus ministry that continues to function today. Fenway Community Health in Boston has released their LGBTQ plus senior studies. And for people who don't know the Fenway, it is the largest and oldest LGBTQ plus health care facility in clinic in New England. They did a study of seniors 50 to 75. Now, since the Fenway is in Boston, these seniors and the people participating in the study are also going to be from the greater Boston area. Because as we have reported before, remember, we're absent from all of the data collection on a federal level by deliberate action of the 45 regime. What the Fenway found is that LGBTQ plus seniors are twice as likely to be suffering the effects of depression and isolation than cisgender straight people. We are twice as likely to suffer injuries from a fall. We are more likely to have college degrees, but we are also more likely to have difficulty paying our rent and experiencing food insecurity. And some of the contributing factors that the Fenway identified is the social isolation that is the result of systemic anti-LGBTQ plus discrimination. And their study said this is dramatically heightened if you're an LGBTQ plus senior and you're also part of the BIPOC demographic, Black, Indigenous, people of color. Related to that, and I had reported before that I wasn't seeing a lot of data about COVID in the queer communities. This is the survey that was released by Movement Advancement Project, impressive name. They got their data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, TH Chan Harvard School of Public Health, and NPR, all very credible sources. They found that 66% of LGBTQ plus households are experiencing financial stress, unemployment, struggles to balance work and child care, specifically because of COVID, as compared with 44% of our cisgender straight cohorts. They also found that 38% of LGBTQ plus people lack access to health care. They defined health care as health insurance, practitioners, or facilities, as opposed to 19% of cisgender straight. And this is where the statistics just seemed outrageous. If you are also LGBTQ plus and Black, 95% have difficulty accessing health care, including insurance and practitioners, 70% if you're also Latinx. And from the Human Rights Campaign, they said that 40% of LGBTQ plus we work in the most impacted industries by COVID, hospitals, K through 12 education, college, university, restaurants, food service, and retail. So that might account for some of the disproportionate impact of COVID upon the queer communities. LGBTQ Nation has reported that there has been a dramatic increase in the closure of LGBTQ plus venues because of COVID. In our area, in Portland, Blackstones, which has been there for 33 years, some of us may remember it, and is the only remaining queer bar in the city of Portland. They're currently doing a GoFundMe to try and keep their business together through April. As they report on their GoFundMe page, they have been self-financing since March. And then just a brief note, Amazon smiles that charitable donation when you use Amazon Prime, they're letting those anti-LGBTQ plus charities back on, such as Focus on the Family, American Family Foundation, Billy Graham Evangelical Associations. So if you use their site, be very careful which are the charities that you are identifying to benefit from your purchase because you may be giving your money to someone who actually opposes us. And when we come back around, I'm going to specifically talk about some of the mischief we've been creating here at home. So Linda, that means it's back to you. Okay, thank you, Keith. A mural was dedicated to a beloved activist in Philadelphia who was painted over without warning. Gloria Cazares, a Philadelphia's first director of LGBTQ affairs died in October of, excuse me, 2014 at 42. Artist Michelle Angela Ortiz, in honor of Cazares' legacy, painted a tribute to Gloria on a wall in the gate. The building has been sold and workers just painted over the mural without even letting them know. In response, this is really kind of cute because in response, Ortiz has projected the mural onto the blank wall that was painted over. So that was good. And let me see. Katie Hill, we all remember her. She resigned when she had pictures of her taken while she was a representative from California. And she was, they had put up nude pictures of her and a campaign staffer. I don't think she should ever quit. I think she should have just stayed and fought it out. But she resigned and she was defeated by the homophobe, Steve Knight, if anybody remembers him. I personally think she should have never resigned, but she is suing her ex-husband and the sites that put her up. So I think that's a good move on her part. And queer organizations in Georgia helped the fight to change Georgia. For the first five years, Mary Hooks has held the role of co-director or southerners on Newground Song and Atlanta-based organization fighting for LGBTQ liberation throughout the South. Hooks has made a name for herself. For her deep and impactful organizing work, among other work, she found the Atlantic Chaper of Black Lives Matter and also created Black Mamas bailout initiative to bail Black mothers and caregivers out of jail. The eyes of the entire nation are on these Georgia races. One between Democrat John Ossoff and Republican David Perdue. The other between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Loeffler. Both of the Republicans are the, well, one of the most despicable groups to ever walk into the Senate. The winners will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the U.S. Senate. Song Pawa, whose work is considered key to flipping Georgia blue in the 2020 presidential election, is working to, again, make history by helping to flip the Senate blue as well. There are 11,000 members with chapters in 13 Southern states. Song has been a staple of Southern organizing for decades. As such, Hooks and her team are relying on the deep connections the organization has built in Georgia. So we certainly wish her luck. We need those two senators. We can't just win one. We need them both. Once a fury by Jacqueline Rhodes, lesbians coming of age in 1971, and I have a picture of some of the people in that group, in a studio, in the studio is Charlotte Bunch, Lee Schwing, Ginny Berson, and Susan Hathaway, and the photo was taken by Jeb, who is pretty famous in the lesbian community for her photography. And her name is Joan E. Byron. You can watch the Vimeo at the Rainbow Umbrella Film Festival site on January 10th. I'll post the link on our LGBTQ website so anybody who wants to go look and find the link will find it there. Let's see. I think that might be... Oh, I know. I had a... Where'd it go? Hang on one sec. Sorry. I had a story about... Oh, I know. I also have a picture. You will see it up on the screen now is a tribute for over the course of 101 years, the nation's longest-lived lesbian, was always out and proud. Ruth Ellis was a black out lesbian for most of her life. Though she grew up in an integrated neighborhood, she and her family were bought from restaurants and other public spaces. Her father was born a slave. As an adult, her home was shared in the 40s through the 60s as a gathering place for the African-American LGBT community. In 1999, on her 100th birthday, Ellis led the San Francisco Dyke march. So three chance for her. And now we will go to Kim. Thanks, Linda. So COVID has complicated the lives of queer folks more than some this year. And LGBTQ plus communities around the world were hit hard this year by lockdowns introduced to the curb to curb the spread of the coronavirus, with many trapped at home alone or with homophobic or transphobic families. In Uganda, 19 people were arrested in March at an LGBTQ plus shelter and imprisoned for almost 50 days, charged with risking the spreading of COVID-19. Religious figures from Israel to the United States and the Ukraine blamed the spread of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ plus community with trans people targeted by police in Latin America, American countries, accusing them of violating gendered lockdowns. Also, Larry Kramer's message lives on. There is an article by Joanne Kennan that I found that discusses Larry Kramer, who we know passed away this year, of pneumonia. He's the author, playwright, activist who's best known for helping to define the AIDS era. In 2020 and beyond, he also will be remembered because the AIDS epidemic helped to define the coronavirus era. Kramer, who died of pneumonia at age 84, put his mark on both the culture and the activism around AIDS. And that virus would become a crucible, a defining experience for many of the then young scientists, doctors, policy thinkers, and epidemiologists who are confronting coronavirus today. Anthony Fauci, David Kessler, Robert Redfield, also Deborah Birx, to a slightly lesser extent simply because she's a younger incoming CDC director, Rachelle Walensky, facing Kramer's wrath. And in patients, these experts still early in their careers were forced to rethink how to do science and came to understand the importance of humility in the face of a relentless, powerful virus claiming an excruciating number of lives. And you can read more of Joanne Kennan's full story at politico.com. Another story, female athletes have signed a brief in support of trans girls and women. So Megan Rapineau, Billie Jean King, and 174 other female athletes signed an amicus brief in support of transgender girls and women playing sports recently. As women and LGBTQ plus athletes says their brief, they submit that all youth deserve an equal opportunity to participate in sports alongside their peers. Such equal opportunity benefits the entire sports community. The brief was filed in Hecox versus Little, a lawsuit brought against the state of Idaho, which passed a law this year banning transgender girls and women from competing in school sports as girls and women. The law also allows for a female student athlete to gender to be challenged and requires the athlete to undergo terrible medical exams to prove it. A doctor of the law says we'll have to examine the athlete's genitalia hormones and DNA and make a determination of their gender. Something that Democrats have pointed out is not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. So it's a pretty scary story to think about. That was reported by LGBTQNation.com by Alex Bollinger. Additionally, the LGBTQ plus community is leading the call for equality in Thailand. Throughout 2020, rainbow flags have been prominent at almost every protest in Thailand. LGBTQ plus people are one of the most vocal groups in these youth led calls for democracy. They believe that gender equality can finally be achieved once Thailand itself is more equitable. It's not equal at all. So it's 15 year old LGBTQ high school student who has to be referred to by her nickname Jesse Black. She says her difficult experiences as a sexual minority in Thai society spurred her to join the protest. Jesse Ply says she was forced to wear male clothes growing up. Teachers often told her you should dress according to your gender on your ID card. She was forced to cut her hair short which she says hurt herself with steam and confidence. She says practically unimaginable to disobey teachers in Thailand where respect for authority figures is deeply ingrained into society. She says she would most certainly have been punished if she had worn feminine clothes and grown her hair long. I don't understand why it's so wrong to want to express myself, she says. The story came from the NHK World General Bureau for Asia if you want to read more on that. I also have a bit of a report from UK's bi-community news. 20 years ago most research into bi people's lives was lumped in with gay and lesbian people's data to produce figures on LGB experience often terming it gay or lesbian and gay and erasing our bi identities entirely. That's changed in recent years though. Organizations like Biblio helped bring academics working on bisexuality together and enabled resources to have a dialogue with activists and ordinary bisexual people about impacts bad or bi-erasing research had on people's lives. The report is pretty significant. It's got a list of statistics including Ugov, UK report from 2018 said that 30% of bi men and 8% of bi women say they cannot be out to any of their friends about their sexual orientation versus 2% for gay men and 1% for lesbians. These are all UK figures. Stonewall UK said 1 in 3 bi pupils are bullied over sexuality and 3 in 4 have not learned about bisexuality in school. In the USA the Williamson Institute found that bi people make up 52% of the LGB population. And last a US report by GLAAD completed in 2017 reported there's a major age difference in how likely people are to know a bisexual people person across all age bands they are much less likely to know a bi person than a gay or lesbian person. Hungary has passed a bill prohibiting adoption for non-married couples. The Parliament of Hungary which we talked about Hungary last time and their figure from the Fidesz party you got caught at that sex party they are attacking bisexual and gay people's lives again. It's indirect discrimination while the law doesn't single out same sex couples as the country still refuses to allow them to marry it's unclear who the target of this recent bill really is despite the pretense of concern for child welfare. For bi's this law again legitimizes some of our relationships over others so that's problematic. At the start of this month a long-standing figure we talked about him he got caught David Via David Vig of Amnesty Hungary commented on this law reform this is a dark day for Hungary's LGBTQ community and a dark day for human rights. These discriminatory homophobic and transphobic new laws rushed through under the cover of a coronavirus pandemic are just the latest attack on LGBTQ people and Hungarian authorities. And last year two entertainment news pieces legendary comic Eddie Izard is now using she her pronouns exclusively and I have a picture of Eddie who is one of my favorite people. The British 58 year old was referred to with she pronouns when she entered on the Sky Arts reality series Portrait Artist of the Year by the other guests and host Stephen Mangan. When asked why she wanted to appear on the series she said I try to do things that I think are interesting this is the first program I've asked if I can be she and her this is a little transition period. It feels great because people assume that they just know me from before but I'm gender fluid I just want to be based in girl mode from now on she said. Izard has identified as both transgender and gender fluid since at least 2016 when she said she is somewhat boyish and somewhat girlish I identify with both but I fancy women. Izard was going to be stopping comedy but she has actually been completing 31 marathons in 31 days in 31 countries with 31 stand-up shows to raise money for a new organization she started called Make Humanity Great Again we know what that pun is on and so you can find out more about that at edizard.com and it's a really noble cause. So the first non-binary trans characters have entered the Star Trek universe. I have a picture of the two actors Blue Delbario on the left and Ian Alexander on the right. The representation of bisexual ace and non-binary folks is still lower on the prime time waves definitely right now but Star Trek is moving ahead with making that more accessible to the rest of us. They started as early as the first show with Captain Kirk and Ohura having an interracial kiss for the first time and they've moved on through their newest iteration Star Trek Discovery has two new characters Adira who is a non-binary character and there is a great discussion between two actors and Adira's character about they them which if you ever need to explain how to use it in a conversation it's done brilliantly so Adira played by Blue Delbario and Gray who is played by Ian Alexander. What I find lovely is that they also have stated that the gay couple that's on the show played by Wilson Cruz and Anthony Rapp who have always been out gay men acting they said they've very much been like male they've been like family moral models and father figures to them so that's all of the stories that I have. I just wanted to ask him do you remember excuse me Star Trek the second generation? Oh yes. The doctor is in love with this guy and he goes back to his pod. I absolutely do. Is that a female? That was the first character that was a trill that was oriented that was introduced and Dr. Crusher fell in love with the man who then got injured the trill was replaced into a female character and she said I can't do it I can't get beyond the fact that you're a female. Later on Jadzia Dax who is another trill has a whole episode she was one of the first primetime lesbian kisses. Her former husband comes back they're both a new host they're both women and they are not the the actual taboo for them in Star Trek is that they shouldn't be in love with former host people and so but it was a lesbian relationship so they've always been on the head of the curve I love that. I mean that was an amazing story for the time. It really was always ahead of the curve. They had a whole non-binary group of race called the Jani that will uh the first number one falls in love with this non-binary person who then says I can't do this except that they were also non-sexual so they weren't really non-binary human beings. And I heard in the other series the one that I didn't see but the Kirk the one that was on CBS specials I missed I couldn't see it but that on nine it was a lesbian in that. Yes I like that. So anyway all the all the Trekkies here Keith go ahead. Well no I was going to say what I remembered the next generation episode was Dr. Crusher's final comment which was to the new host I can't move that quickly. Right sometimes human beings will get there but not me not today. So there was this indication of we may be coming back to this. Yeah and before we move on Kim thank you so much for giving a stronger and clearer voice on this show for people who identify as bisexual and non-binary. It is something for which we are going to need to be attentive both as a show reporting on our community and as a community in general to ensure that you know everyone is being brought in so. And if you find stories and you I will send them to you that's what I was just going to say. I'll send you more because ace you know asexual gray sexual non-binary you know there's a lot of folks who are just at the fringes and we're not getting in there so I'll send you all right but we are long past the time when we should have started this conversation so so looking at Vermont you know things for us to be mindful of the Pride Center and out in the open you know our largest established organizations are continuing to do virtual events so people should be going on to their websites and looking at what it is they're offering and particularly looking at that data that was coming out of the Fenway where we experience a great degree of social isolation because systemic homophobia we need to be looking at venues to counteract that. One of the things with the Pride Center and it's done in conjunction with Rainbow Umbrella is the Momentum Coffee and Chat on Sundays the next one is on Sunday the 10th starting at noon you can find the link on either the Pride Center or Rainbow Umbrella's Facebook pages. Out to the open offers a connection to seniors groups but the groups themselves are based in Massachusetts which for right now since their virtual events are probably not as big a problem. Also we're going to do a big shout out for those Town Hall forums that will be coming up soon and again because they are virtual events they rather than being geographically based they will be issue focused and we will be having an interview to air on January 9th with one of the organizers of the forums and one of the presenters to talk about the expectations for the forums and what someone could anticipate by joining one of these virtual meetings. Another acknowledgement the Pride Center is still looking or has an opening for director of their safe safe safe space program which is their violence trauma program cover letter and resume by Friday January 15th if you are interested program description their expectations of qualifications is on their website. I want to acknowledge that on December 20th at the Park and Berry it was the Pebbles of Compassion ceremony and this was done to create sacred space in the park to acknowledge the murder of unarmed people of color by police throughout the U.S. This was a huge step forward and it corresponded with the city of Berry displaying the black lives matter flag over the park for the month of December. Reagan Cina who is one of our out legislators has already indicated that with the legislature convenes again he's in the in the process of drafting and will be introducing a bill to create a foundation and from the preliminary descriptions it sounds like a public-private partnership to have funding available to people of color to become home and landowners and accompanying the article were statistics that made me step back. Vermont has only eight arms that are totally owned by people of color. In Burlington only 4% of the homes are owned by people of color even though people of color comprise 18% of the population. Another piece of the legislation that Brian is looking at crafting is not only establishing this fund which will have a BIPOC board of directors managing it they also want to look at each town in the state of Vermont setting aside one parcel of land specifically for purchase by someone who is part of the BIPOC communities. A huge step forward. I saw no indications of the funding they were looking at attaching to this or how that would be structured so this is definitely something we will be following. The other piece of data that was released this week relative to the city of Burlington is their use of force data and this is looking at the first 10 months of 2020. In one respect they reported that the incident of use of force and use of force is defined as an officer either points or weapon or uses physical force greater than merely applying handcuffs. It had decreased to only 149 incidents however the incidents involving those people who are identified as being black went from 25 to 29%. That's statistically significant and when you look at the population of Burlington they are only 6% of the population. In factoring out those incidents where it was identified specifically that a gun was pointed at an individual, 37% were towards a black individual and also out of the total number of arrests 19% were black and their initial traffic start data is also indicating that people who are black count for 12% the total stops that happen. So we have just a couple of minutes extra here. I didn't want to leave on a total downer note so even though we didn't try to put together a year in review there were some significant things that happened in 2020 for the LGBTQ plus community that should really make us feel good. There were two U.S. Supreme Court actions that were a great benefit to our communities. The first was their ruling that Title VII Civil Rights Act, sex, that sexual orientation and gender identity is included under the definition of sex so that those protections are now clearly extended to our communities. And the other is the story that Linda reported on on the last show with the lesbian couple from Indiana who wanted both of their names on their child's birth certificate. The lower court had ruled in favor of the lesbians. It had been challenged to the U.S. Supreme Court. They refused to take it up because it was a marriage equality that is a state decision which meant that the lower court ruling was the ruling in effect. Also acknowledging that both Utah and Virginia asked bans on conversion therapy for youth. Virginia being the first southern site to do it. New Jersey, Washington, Colorado and the District of Columbia all banned gay and trans panic defenses. And I want to acknowledge that during this most recent election cycle there were more LGBTQ plus candidates elected to public office than on any previous election. There were over 334 newly elected officials. And keep in mind in Vermont, our LGBTQ plus representation in our legislature just increased to 13, including Taylor Spall as our first out transgender representative. And the incoming president pro tem of the senate is openly lesbian, beckaballant. So our trivia question before Linda reminds me that I didn't give you the answer. Out in the mountains, January, 1990, 30 years ago, why were we all heading towards Atlanta? And it wasn't for the nice weather. It was because there were two days of demonstration that were being planned. Keep in mind that Georgia is the origin of the hard work versus ours decision relative to sodomy. So part of this was a demonstration to demand the repeal of sodomy laws in 25 states. The other, the centers for disease control is based in Atlanta. And part of the demonstration at that point in time was to expand the definition of AIDS. Because at that point, only 16 very specific infections qualified as AIDS. And if you did not have a clinical AIDS diagnosis, you didn't qualify for disability that will support any of those entitlement programs. And you might not be included in some of the clinical trials. Very similar to COVID, how we responded to HIV and AIDS was very much based upon what the federal government was willing to make available and when it was willing to make that available. So with that, Linda, I think it's back to you. I want to wish everybody a happy New Year since we won't be here for the New Year until after the New Year. I'm hoping that we have some results on the Georgia election. But I just want to say, when 2002, 2020 is on its way out, open your doors, your windows, anything possible to get rid of this year. And on that note, remember to resist.