 I'm Linda Quinlan. I'm Keith Gosland. Today is Tuesday, December 17th. Welcome to All Things LGBTQ and our Holiday Edition. Now we take our hats off. Yes. Headlines, yeah? I'll begin with some international headlines, if I may. Despite massive protests, a trans bill in India gets the president's assent and becomes law. Gabon bans gay sex as a global pace of reform falters. Members of the Kenyan gay community hoist rainbow flag at the peak of Mount Kenya. Out son of new Argentinian president represents with pride flag at father's inauguration. Same sex couple makes history, wins Denmark's Dancing with the Stars. Miss Myanmar, the first out Miss Universe competitor, speaks up for LGBTQ acceptance. But can't she go home? Yeah. Yeah. She didn't win either. Well, all right, let's not reign on her parade. It was a very courageous move. Absolutely. Yes. And I apologize for that cliche I just used. Bolivia's Oscar entry is a poetic look at a father's complicated grief after losing his gay son. And we'll talk more about that on the clip. A nude portrait of Emiliano Zapata in High Heels sparks fury in Mexico. Now we have stories I'm not gonna get to. Perth pride, LGBTI community challenges, corporatization, a familiar story. Transgender victory in Japan. Maybe I'll have a chance to get to some of these. I'm always hopeful. Hungary's first ever trans pride sees hundreds demand the right to change their names and legal gender. BBC Radio One to put the first non-binary presenter on air and have a picture of them in case we don't get to it. This is Jacob Edward from Manchester. And then I have another picture of a gay broadcaster on the same show, Gabriel Green. So let's take a look at him in his journalistic garb. Finally and unpleasantly, British University tells staff at Dubai campus to hide LGBTQ identity. So those are my headlines, it's a mixed bag, yes. Very good. Now we have national and of course, on the top of our list is the hallmark channel which canceled Zolo. Zolo is a wedding planner or a wedding, something or other. Zola. Yeah, Zola. And it reinstates the ads and vows to re-air the commercial with the lesbian wedding after threats of a boycott. We have a lot of power, huh? Pressure from LGBT groups has the hallmark channel apologizing for its mistake and is vowed to show the ad again. Hallmark was pressured by one million moms which we know about and other conservative groups. Hallmark kept two ads but it didn't include the ones with the same size couples. Yeah. So Zola was a wedding registry company and they canceled also and cut all ties with Hallmark. So. Are these headlines? Oh, okay. So anyway, I just wanted to, because you guys said you wanted to talk about it. Oh, I do want to talk about it, is it now or the time? No. Okay. So two Dallas men plead guilty in grinder-related hate crimes. Construction begins a Navy ship to be named after Harvey Milk who would think of that, huh? And wasn't he refused entrance into the Navy? He was dishonorably discharged from the Navy. Yes, that's right. Yeah. Study finds that 25% of Southern LGBTQ people live in poverty. The King's County, Washington, a legally blind trans woman was beaten and stomped. Bernie Sanders takes back his endorsement. He gave to Schenke Buge for Congress. United Nations honors Cindy Loper for her LGBTQ activism. Lawyers for the family of transgender Roxanne Hernandez who died in custody in immigration, custody died. Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie talk about the queer story that is in Bombshell. 219's super sports person of the year, Megan Ripenow. Rapinole. Rapinole. Soccer. A man asked you a question about an earlier headline. Yeah. So what happened with the lawyers for the Hernandez case? I'm gonna go back to that. But there was a sentence fragment. What about that? Okay. You're just introducing them. Yes. And they had like, I see, okay. Hillary Clinton on sex with women. Oh, don't. Last week. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And reporter Trish Bendix who won the 2015 Sarah Petite Memorial Award for Excellence in the LGBTQ media. So that's my stories. And Anne's just chomping to ask you questions. I know it. I know. I'm fully questioned and commentary. So this week's trivia question, and there's been a preview. December 1986 front page of Out in the Mountain. It's part of, it was the first major press release on behalf of a statewide lesbian and gay coalition, 14 of us signed it. Choosing not to be anonymous. And this was part of the statement. During the just concluded political campaign, Vermont has witnessed a terrifying display of public bigotry and hatred. The lesbian and gay citizens of Vermont have been the focus of public statements, campaign pamphlets and advertisements suggesting we have no right to exist and certainly should not have rights to non-discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, insurance, privacy, or family law. We were ambitious. Yet we are at least 10% of Vermont's population. We vote, work, own businesses, land and homes and participate actively in our Vermont communities. Think of a job and some of us do it just as straight Vermonters do. We are family members and we form families ourselves. In other words, we are as varied and as much a part of Vermont as our other Vermonters. What precipitated this statewide coalition to issue that press release? I know, but I'm not gonna say. Yeah, that's because I told you. And then I'm gonna talk probably a little more than usual about events. This is traditionally that time of year where it's very easy for people within the LGBTQ plus communities to feel excluded. As you're alluding to with the Hallmark story, we're not part of those traditions. So sometimes we need to create our own. So we're gonna talk about some new traditions. And then I'm gonna talk about the 2020 census and why we truly should care about it and participate and I'll even mention a brief employment opportunity. I know someone who's doing that. Well, I did agree to an appointment to the complete count commission, which is each state's effort to ensure everyone gets counted. One of the conversations is there are some very specific underrepresented communities to which the census commission wants to reach out and ensure they get counted. LGBTQ plus is one of them. So they're actually looking for people to work and it would be May through July. Could be up to 40 hours a week, depending on where and how much you want to devote. They want people from within those underrepresented communities because we're gonna have greater access to them. So this is one, as opposed to the other federal agencies, we would be a priority. So now you want to tell me good things first? No, I'm gonna start out with a couple of downers. Take her sheets away from her. Take her hat if you have. This trans bill of rights in India has caused a lot of discouragement in the trans community, in fact. What a mess over there. Well, in every, there's a lot of problems there. But this act that was just signed by the president is described by trans people as gender justice murder day, the day that it was signed. They say that the act treats trans people as inferior citizens. Some of the problems are that it requires a transgender person to go to a district magistrate and a district screening committee to have their gender identity certified. A revised certificate can only be obtained if the person has undergone gender affirmation surgery. So one can only guess what the proof will be. Well, right, and there's no opportunity for appeal if the district magistrate says no. The punishment for sexual assault on a trans person is a maximum of two years where minimum punishment for, yeah, minimum punishment for raping a cisgender woman is 10 years. So. And that woman who just died in India, the one that they was raped and she brought a charge against them. Oh yeah, that was it, yeah. This activist's discrepancy deems transgender person as lesser, as inferior. Edutators have also said that a major problem with the law was that its prison form was reached without taking any into account any feedback from transgender people. So it's a disappointment and the president signed it. Now let's go to Africa. Because they were kind of moving forward, weren't they? Well, yes, they abolished section 377 that, you know, and therefore decriminalized same sex behavior. But they're taking a step backwards in this regard. Let's go to Africa now, where Gabon has banned same sex, gay sex as the global pace of reform falters. This central African country is the 70th country to ban consensual same sex relations. It's a new penal code that was brought forward earlier this year, but nobody said anything about it. So the government official confirmed the charge, which happened in July. I'm sorry, confirmed the change in the penal law. But it was not widely reported. An activist who monitors LGBT rights in West Africa said he's spoken to two Gabonese men who've already been arrested under the new law and had to bribe the police to be released. It introduced a penalty, this change, introduced a penalty of up to six months in prison and applying a five million francs. And this change is coming at the end of a mixed year for LGBT rights. Hopes for reforms were raised last year, which we just talked about when India overturned 377. Botswana decriminalized gay sex in June. We reported on that. That brought the number of countries outlawing same sex relations to 69. The lowest figure since the watchdog group started monitoring it in 2006. In May, however, the Kenyan court upheld a law criminalizing gay sex dating back to British rule. Advocates are challenging that rule. There are legal cases challenging being to the same sex relations under way or planned in countries including Singapore, Mauritainis and six nations in the Caribbean according to an activist organization. Globally, we're seeing polarizing tensions as a researcher where things are getting better. There is momentum for even more improvement and where things are bad, now we're seeing that they're getting worse. In Africa, 33 out of 54 countries criminalized consensual same sex relations. However, six African countries have scrapped their bands since 2012, marking a positive trend overall. In general, across the continent, things are moving more in the right direction than the wrong direction an activist says. I'm guessing you'll see a lot of change in the next 10 years or so. An apropos of change and resistance and grassroots activism, members of the Kenyan gay community have hoisted a rainbow flag at the peak of Mount Kenya. So I have a picture of you. There they are at the peak of Mount Kenya. They're members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community from Kenya. Their initiative was dubbed Climb for Justice. Despite homosexuality being illegal in Kenya, as we just said, there have been increased cases of members of the LGBT community coming out to publicly express themselves. Climb for Justice is an initiative by human rights activists whose aim is to raise funds for the construction of a safe house for human rights defenders in Kenya. So there we have the end of my first segment on a positive note. Yeah. What will happen to them now? Do you have any idea? Well, they'll continue to be activists. Putting that up there? You see, yeah. All right, so what does everybody want to say about Hallmark? The CEO, Mark Perry, said in a statement that the company has always been committed to diversity and inclusion. So do you buy that or not? I've never witnessed it. Have you ever seen an LGBTQ plus production? I do watch Hallmark in my entire life, probably, but you know. I think head should roll over this. Why were they so eager to do it with very little consideration? I mean, they said people who made the original calls said, oh, we agonized about it. I don't think so. I read that statement. It was really offensive about how we represent family values and LGBTQ people are part of this. So then market forces encouraged them to change their mind, and that raises another question, I think, about whether corporate power, and I think it's almost a no brainer answer, corporate power is more influential than governmental power. Of course, the Trump administration is very homophobic, but money talks. So get your own private editing and publishing software, and I say we make our own cards. Yeah. Well, does anybody buy Hallmark cards anymore? They're kind of expensive. I say we make our own cards. Well, here's one. Hell yeah. Yes, holiday card. With the happy penguins on the back, you know. Thank you, Pete. I don't know. Everyone's hailing this is a great victory, but I'm not impressed. They shouldn't have done it to begin with. I know it to take pressure from 1 million moms. I want to see the roster prove to me that it's a million moms. And I'll applaud Hallmark's decision a year from now when I've seen the programming that they put in place that they didn't have before. They almost put those like holiday creepy shows on. Yeah. Anyway, so two Dallas men plead guilty in grinder related hate crimes. The US Department of Justice charged the men with hate crimes and violent acts. Daryl Henry, 24 pleaded guilty to one hate crime count and one count of conspiracy to commit a hate crime. Kidnapping and carjacking. The other alleged suspect Pablo Senecaros de Miano, 19 also pleaded guilty. And I guess they did a lot too, like they stole their cars and they beat them up and did some really ugly things there. And not surprisingly, the study finds that 25% of southern LGBTQ people live in poverty. In every state except for Florida, the study found that more LGBT people are poor compared to their cisgender counterparts. The Williams Institute of California focuses on public policy sexual orientation and said that much more needs to be done in these areas. And in Kings County, Washington, a legally blind trans woman is beaten and stomped until she was unconscious. And authorities believe the attack was transphobic. So what happened was a group of teenagers and this woman was waiting at the bus stop and they all got on. And the teenagers started to slur her, call her names, and she got out some pepper spray and sprayed them. And then they chased her out of the bus and then beat her unconscious. They do have the two, there's two 16-year-olds and one 14-year-old involved in this. They have got them. So we'll see what happens with that. Well, may I interrupt? Yeah. I have failed to report a story. So I'm going to talk about it now in Russia where five young women were walking along and these five young men followed them, started taunting them, saying, you look like a lesbian. And one young woman defended the person who was being verbally attacked and they beat her up. And while the other young woman was trying to find her pepper spray, they beat her up too. So there's Russia for you. Yeah. Well, it happens here too. Oh, yeah. 14 and 16-year-old you said? Yes. That's minors, which means we'll never know. The sentence will be shortened. Whoever's who they are. And in most states, if you're charged as a juvenile versus being charged as an adult when you turn 18, you are released. Right. So you'll never know unless if they do something like this again. Bernie Sanders takes back and endures when he gave to Schenke Ugar for Congress. He was running for the same seat as the woman, what was her name? Hill was her last name. Who had to leave because she was being cyberbullied by her ex-husband. Revenge porn. Revenge porn, exactly. She was bisexual. And so he endures this Schenke Ugar for Congress, but it turns out that he has what's supposed to be a progressive show online called The Young Turks. Have you ever heard of them? I've seen them on regular TV. And he got a boost when endorsed by Bernie for the House seat in California. But now he has unendorsed him because apparently he has said homophobic, transphobic, misogynist, racist comments on his show. So he has unendorsed him for him. And I guess there's another Democrat running in that race. So we'll move to you. No? After misogyny and yeah. No. It's that time of year. You're going to need something that's fun. So from our friend Aaron Marcus, we did it. The Montpelier Contra Dance is officially switching full time to using non-gender terms to teach contradancing on Saturday, January 4. Dance starts at 8 o'clock, runs until 11. Montpelier Grange, Route 12. Sliding scale, $5 to $15 to help pay for the band, all of the sort of accessories. We get to be birds. Larks are on the left and ravens are on the right. So if you're inspired, pull on those yellow leggings and come dressed as your favorite bird. Creativity and fabulosity are encouraged. How can you say that? So just a reminder, every Wednesday, 4.30, Pride Center in Burlington, LGBTQ plus people with disabilities meet. There is the QTPOC, Queer Trams, People of Color Film Series, that's the third Thursday, 6.30 PM, also at the Pride Center. And hopefully, there's someone there who knows how to run the projector. And don't forget the game nights. They are trying to do an ongoing community game night and then the women's game night. Also keep in mind Merchants Hall in Rutland, who are someone that we really haven't had a whole lot of contact with. They do monthly drag shows as a community event. And one of the things they've said is if we as all things LGBTQ want to table at an event, we're more than willing to come share what we have for resources because they'd like to extend the network between LGBTQ plus programming. Keep in mind, there is also Brown and Out, which is Reggie's podcast. Ours? Well, I just promoted us. And then there's Out in the Open, Brataburro, which does their hour program once a month. I'm not sure. But you can go onto their website, find it. There is also Queer Connect in Bennington. They're trying to put together a Queer Archives. So as you were saying, Linda, before we started taping, we need to find old articles. And archives them, yeah. They're actively trying to get what they can for things that have happened not only in Bennington, but statewide. Also Rutland, LGBTQ Rutland, if you Google it, you'll find a meetup where they do a monthly coffee group at a local restaurant that's very much LGBTQ plus friendly. And then if you Google LGBTQ Advocacy and Northeast Kingdom Vermont, they're doing monthly meetings to try and come up with social opportunities, events, and educational outreach. And this is what I'm finding seniors. We're becoming the big issue. I think it's because there's more of us now. Everyone wants to show Jen silent. So Ann has an opinion that it had its time. Well, we've all seen it. I don't mean to be cynical. Now it's time to move on and put some action behind it. So make another more timely film. Well, look at that. You can do that then, Ann. I wish I were a filmmaker. We could become our own Jen silent updated. Oh, but we're not silent. And I heard that. No. There's this joke now, speaking of that, that now when anybody gets mad, when a younger generation gets mad, have you heard this? No. They start yelling boomer. It's not a joke. It's serious, but I mean it is a slam. They go boomer. Anyway. Is it my turn? Time to move on. All right. Let's talk about some good news from Margie. You know, I had some reservations about this very festive outfit I'm wearing since it's the dead of winter. I got in the elevator with Linda, who said to me, aloha. All right. All right. We take this. Let's talk about the out son of the new Argentinian president, his name is Estani Slau Fernandez. And I have a picture of him. He went to his father's inauguration with a pride flag. He's known in Argentina as a popular drag performer and cosplayer by the name of Dijish. He made headlines last month when he went to the Buenos Aires 28th annual pride celebration, which had an attendance of 300,000 people. He's 24 years old. Showed up as his father's inauguration wearing a rainbow colored pocket square. You see, you saw that in the picture. Which he wore in official photos for the event to make sure there was no doubt about it. In a statement, he later posted a video on his Instagram stories revealing that the pocket square was a folded pride flag. The video was reposted by multiple followers on social media. He has identified as bisexual. Argentina is known for its progressive LGBTQ rights. Same-sex sexual activity was made legal in 1887. It's recognized same-sex marriages since 2010. And it has one of the best track records in the world on trans rights. So now let's take a look, if we may, at same-sex couple Jacob Fauerby and Silas Holst, who won Denmark's Dancing with the Stars. That's right. They're the first same-sex dancing couple. Jacob Fauerby, who is probably on the left in the picture you saw is 42. And his dancing partner, Silas Holst, 36, are now winners of the Dancing Competition. When Fauerby, who was openly gay, was approached to be on the show, he asked to be paired with a male dancer. Something that hasn't happened in the 16 seasons of this Danish version of Dancing with the Stars. His partner, after they won, his partner said, we would not have stood here if Denmark did not have an open mind and also had courage and dared to put us on. It's a sense of pride, the pride of diversity and the Danes. And of course, the US version hasn't featured the same-sex couple. That was going to be my question, too. Wasn't Sherry's daughter signed on there? Chastity was on as a trans man with a woman partner. And they danced with the woman. And also, Olympic gay skier skater, Adam Rippon, was paired with a dancer. They won, and her name is Hannah Brown. No, I'm sorry. Jenna Johnson danced with Ed and Rippon, becoming, he was the first openly gay person to be on this show. But there was no dancing together, right? This year's winner was. There was no same-sex couples. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what about Chas Bono? Chas was on as a trans man and had a woman partner. Well, let's go to Ms. Myanmar, if we may. There's her picture. I'm impressed. The first Miss Universe competitor who is out. She speaks up for LGBT acceptance. Her name is Zwei Zinhitet. She competed as Miss Myanmar in the Miss Universe pageant. She wants to use the platform to help advance LGBT. She's asking for silence. Acceptance in her home country. She's 21 years old. She came out in late November, in which she said, I came to a full realization about my sexual orientation over a long period of time. I have, she's a lesbian. I have that platform now that she's a contestant, that if I say I'm a lesbian, it will have a big impact on the LGBT community back in Burma. The difficult thing is that in Burma, LGBTQ people are not accepted. They're looked down by other people and are being discriminated against. She's the first openly gay Miss Universe contestant in the pageant's history, an openly trans contestant, Angela Ponce, competed last year as Miss Spain. In Myanmar, there's currently no legal recognition of LGBT rights. Same-gender sexual activity is illegal and punishable by 10 years to life in prison, though that law is not used in practice. And even though you use both names, you're talking about one country, Burma, Myanmar. Right, exactly. Did I say Burma? Yeah. In her quote, it says Burma. Oh, yes. It's also known as Burma. So you don't have to correct the next spell. No, no, we haven't asked you. Because you would. I know. I have two more stories. When can I deliver them? Well, I think you probably have time for one more, and then we'll see how it goes with time. OK, because I really want to talk about the new portrait of Emiliano Zapata. But it's more pressing that I should talk about the Bolivia's Oscar entry, written and directed by Rodrigo Vellat, and adapted from his own story and his hit play. Two main manchas takes the nuanced mantra and places it at the heart of a film, a nuanced mantra written by Paul Monat, a wonderful activist and lost to AIDS. In two main manchas, the heart of the film, which Bolivia chose as its official entry for the Best International Feature at the 92nd Annual Academy Awards, is set in Santa Cruz de la Sierra Bolivia. The powerful first scene introduces viewers to Jorge, a well-dressed father, standing in his adult son Gabriel's room looking inside his luggage. And what happens is the father mistakenly skips his son's lover, same-sex lover, in New York. And Jorge knows that his son is gay, but he's a homophobe nonetheless. He talks to Sebastian, his son's lover, in a face-to-face video. It wasn't my intention to call. Nor do I care to get to know you, he coldly tells him. The only thing I want from you, after what has happened, is to stay away. What has happened is that his son, Gabriel, is dead. And let me just show you a clip of that film now. Hola, soy el padre de Gabriel. ¿Dónde está Gabriel a todo esto? Gabriel, está muerto. ¿A qué viniste? Vine a llevarme a mi hijo. If I picked one actor, he would replace the memory of the real Gabriel forever. ¿Pero de dónde querés que saque 10 actores hombres y encima que hagan de gay? Tenemos un elenco, eso en un ejército. ¿Qué quiere decir tu me manques? Te lo dijo varias veces. ¡Bergüenza les debería dar! ¡Bergüenza! Perder un hijo que jamás conocieron. No cambio por ti. And it's got to be out in translation soon. I mean, we found the clip with subtitles because if it's up for the Academy Award, we should be able to see it. Yeah, I wonder if we can get it for the festival. Any festivals that may come up in the future. Okay, Emiliano Zapata, portrait of him, revolutionary hero pictured. And I have a picture now of the portrait. It's too small. It's a small painting by Fabian Chiarres, depicts a naked Zapata, a striped white horse. His willy frame is bound by a ribbon, striped with the Mexican tricolor red, white, and green, while his lips pout under his distinctive curved mustache. He's naked. Some of his family is really outraged by this. Some family says it's okay. The Mexican government says free speech. So when will we see it on display in the hallway? I don't know. It's so small. They should have a big one. Well, can you, and I guess you can't. Moving on. Lawyers. Lawyers for the family of transgender Roxanne Hernandez, who died in custody at U.S. immigration, filed a complaint that holds the federal immigration and their contract is responsible for her death. She was 33 years old and was from Honduras. She died on May 25th after being transferred from the Kibola County Correctional Facility, which is a privately owned facility in New Mexico. She died from complications of pneumonia and HIV. She was abused while in custody. And the lawyers intend to prove that her death was preventable. I reported that at the time. And now the new development is that they blocked out the cameras. Yeah. During her death. And Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie talk about the surprising queer story in the movie Bombshell. I really want to see it. This is the first major film after the Me Too movement to delve into sexual harassment experienced by women and tackles the culture at Fox News that allowed Roger Ailes to harass, exploit, and intimidate women. So that should be pretty interesting. 2019 sportsperson of the year, Megan. Rapino. Rapino. Playing the world's game on the world stage under attack by a world leader she dominated. And in doing so without fear, Megan became the voice for so many across the world. Megan is sports illustrated sportsperson of the year. She's just the fourth woman in the award 66 year history to win it unaccompanied. A feat that is both remarkable, athletic achievement and a reflection of entrenched gender bias. She challenged perceptions of her, of female athletes, of all women. She led her teammates three months before their tentpole tournament to suit the US soccer federation for equal pay. Do you have a picture of her on the cover? Yes. And are you going to show it? Yes, I am. May I comment on it? Yes. We were watching Gay USA and Ann North of Coho said maybe they're trying to famer up. Well yeah, they have her in a big gown. Yeah. With some kind of heads on it. We're not sure what kind of heads they are. They're figures. It's a designer gown though. And she refused to go to the White House, which is always a good thing. And a high school girl's soccer team in Berlin's Vermont stage, it's own campaign in support of equal pay. An 11-year-old boy in Genoa, Illinois went viral for his pink-haired Halloween costume, each inspired by her. So there we go. And then we have Hillary Clinton on sex. I thought you weren't going to have enough time. My last story, I can't miss it. Reporter Trish Bendix, who won the 2015 Sarah Petite Memorial Award for Excellence in LGBTQ Media, has made a few comments about Hillary. She said that she, what was it she said? Oh, when she was asked by Howard Stern if she had ever had sex with women, she said, I've never even thought of it. I've never been tempted. I've never been tempted. And it's so frustrating when public figures like Hillary feel the need to dispel lesbian rumors in a way that equates lesbianism or queerness with salaciousness. And that's ultimately what I just like about the way she phrased it. And you know what else she said? I like men, like lesbians don't. It perpetuates the stereotype of the man-hating lesbian that several of us, many of us have to combat every day. I think there's a way to refute untrue ideas about one's own identity without saying something damaging to others. So that's the Hillary story. I'm not surprised by that though, really. Well, I have something to add to Keith's upcoming story. About the census. No, when you talk about the holidays. I already am done. Okay, well let me just, we're having a therapist and an artist on our next show. And for all of the holidays, their name is P.J. DeRosha and we're looking forward to hearing, they're gonna give us tips for the holidays. The holiday sort of effect was for the events. When we deliberately get excluded, we need to create our own events. We need to create our own traditions. And I'm sure. Oh, we're going to. P.J. DeRosha will echo that sentiment. So really quickly, the 2020 census and why LGBTQ plus Vermonters should care about it. First and foremost, the citizenship question, the court has ruled it cannot be included. So that is off the table, regardless of whatever scam may be circulating where they're trying to say, oh, you're going to be asked this, you're not. Census information is totally confidential from sitting on this commission. It is not shared with Homeland Security. It is not shared with ICE. It is not shared with the FBI. It is completely confidential for 72 years. And the reason I stress that is that anybody who does genealogy work relies upon census for who was in the household, who lived nearby. None of that information is released until 72 years after the census has been completed. So this is totally confidential and there's no sort of you give us information and then we go someplace and check it. However you self-identify is what goes on to the documentation. Starting in March, people will be given the opportunity to do this online. April, you're going to get a written one if you haven't done the online. If your household has not responded and they've got the list from each municipality. That's what they send people, right? Enumerators and that is them. They. The they that they are trying to hire and they're trying to get over 17,000 applications in Vermont so that they'll end up with a real pool that can go out and look. Why we should care about this is because these are. Funding dependents? Funding dependents but also this has to do with districting. So how many representatives a state has? Where those representatives are from? What is the concentration? There is not going to be the opportunity to identify sexual orientation or gender identity. However, there is a provision by relationship status within the household. Married same-sex couple, unmarried same-sex couple and how you choose to use that relationship to the head of the household is entirely up to you. But the conservative right is already saying, oh, it's going to be less than 1% of the population or 1% of those who and we need to be seen. And it has a direct impact on grants for schools in low income districts, school lunch programs, vouchers to pay for housing, supplemental nutrition assistance program, Medicaid seniors. In your story about the South, how many of us, people within the LGBTQ community are twice as likely to be living as poverty as a straight couple is. Also, as I had reported on a previous show for AIDS Awareness Day, 40% of HIV positive individuals rely upon Medicaid to pay for their treatments. This is what's going to drive that funding, looking at what are the resources that come into the state. The estimate that was presented to this commission is that it's approximately $4,000 per identified individual in Vermont for federal monies coming in. That's a significant chunk of money. The other is, you know, just where are people living? You know, what is the population density? What is the age factor? I mean, we continue to talk about the needs of LGBTQ plus elders. If Vermont has a larger demographic within that age population coming out of the census, we're going to qualify from our funding, which is exactly what we want. Also, I heard on NPR today that, I think, as of next year, the population of how many seniors are on the state is really going to skyrocket. And, you know, looking at the census 10 years ago when the unmarried partners was included and the previous census dramatic increase in our representation, and this was from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Undercounts and census data can lead to inaccurate and skewed representation in the federal, state, and local governments that set policy and guidance that can directly affect the health and well-being of LGBTQ people. And the tagline, and you're going to be hearing it a lot, if you aren't counted, we don't count. Okay. And now I'm told that Ann is going to give a scintillating review of Paris 7 a.m. and the review may be more scintillating than the book, but we're about to find out. Can, should I hold it or is it clear? It's okay. Okay. This is Paris 7 a.m. by Lisa Wheeland. This review appeared in the November 5th issue of the Lambda Literary Review. The book was published in June of 2019. Lisa Wheeland begins her novelistic account of the life of lesbian poet Elizabeth Bishop with a dream. This literary strategy introduces readers from the outset to the trance-like world of the novel in which reverie, memory, and fantasy mingle freely. Stylistically, Wheeland elects the Omit quotation marks and her liberal use of interior monologue, as well as the decision to blend biographical incidents with fictional accounts seem designed to produce a phantasmagoric effect. Chronological markers do occur, however, in the form of dates accompanying the section headings and in a sweeping concluding sequence in which the writer covers 41 years of the poet's life in 27 fragmentary pages. Within each section, short episodic segments add a transitory sense, suggesting the impermanence of experience and the fleeting passage of time. The central fictitious event on which much of the narrative turns derives from a three-week gap in the historical Elizabeth Bishop's Journal during the poet's peristate in June, 1937. Wheeland has inserted into this timeframe a daring rescue of two Jewish infants from Belgium. The fictional Elizabeth hasn't set out to perform this heroic act, but rather her landlady and friend, the historical Clara, Countess de Chabrion, tricks her into it. This landlady is actually rented to Bishop and the poet's friends during their peristate. Still, when the fictional Bishop learns of the plant to smuggle the two babies from Normandy to Paris, she agrees to help with trepidation. This improbable yet tense episode occurs late in the novel, and though it provides the subject of the dream in the prologue, it doesn't resonate throughout the book as the author may have intended it to. The most chilling and potent feature of Paris 7 a.m. concerns its depiction of France in the years immediately preceding the war. Violence lurks just under the surface. And so Elizabeth begins to hear it too, I'm quoting. I dream almost every night about tanks, Elizabeth hears herself say. During a tour of a cathedral in Eastern France when Elizabeth's friends and lover Louise protests that women aren't admitted into the reliquary, a French cleric tells her in French to fuck off. In a whisper so violent, Elizabeth hears it as a shout. Similarly, on the way to the famous cabaret, Le Boeuf sur Le Tois, a German workman inexplicably tries to kill Louise with his cargo of logs and shouts that she and Elizabeth are both dogs. As Elizabeth concludes after the cathedral incident, something awful is lying in the shadows in wait, some bloodied menacing monstrous thing that no one can even imagine. The scenes at Le Boeuf de Le Tois simmer with sinister foreboding as well as Elizabeth and her German lover Sigrid comingle with Nazis in an atmosphere where the homosexuality of many patrons is hidden in plain sight. Lisa Whelan captures this ominous circumstance with skill. Lesbian desire is everywhere in this novel. In fact, a disembodied love scene appears in the text possibly after a cabaret visit. Presumably, it is between Sigrid and Elizabeth, but no names are mentioned or personal identifiers provided. So the identity of the participants remains indeterminate. Perhaps Whelan does trying to imitate Bishop's personal reticence about her lesbianism or is simply seeking poetic effect. But it's difficult to tell if a reader unacquainted with Bishop's biography and with the lesbian world of Paris in the 1920s and 30s would understand many of the narrative's sapphic physical and relational nuances. My surmises that in this novel, Lisa Whelan hopes to bring in the reader a poetic rendering through a high wire perpulsive fictional account of the life of a poet whose work she admires and references to Bishop's poetry regularly occur. Indeed, the novel itself is named after a poem Bishop wrote during her Paris years. Of course, some readers may be put off by Whelan's fictional liberties or by the appropriation of parts of the poet's work. A repetition of a key line in Bishop's superb Villanelle I arc, for example, or the alteration of the entire poem in the novel's penultimate chapter, may disappoint readers who appreciate Bishop's poetry on its own terms. Still, one must commend the originality and ambitiousness of Paris 7 a.m. Whelan's fascinating effort does provide an interesting new take on a beloved cultural figure. The novel might also lead readers to any of the several excellent Bishop biographies or back to the poems themselves. For that service alone, Lisa Whelan's engaging book deserves our praise. Very informative. Why, thank you. Maybe I'll read it. You could. It's very experimental. You can't figure out who's talking sometimes or who's acting. And I prefer the nuts and bolts of Bishop's actual biography. Her life is so incredibly interesting on its own terms. I don't know that it needs fictionalized, but... Give it a try. So I should have my nap before I read the book. Maybe. Okay. So our trivia question. Yes. So why did this statewide coalition feel the need to issue such a strong statement and choose not to be anonymous? It might be because 1986 was the year that Vermont tried to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and the issue became... And some of the whole country. And if you eliminate discrimination based upon sex, you're going to allow same-gender marriage and gender-neutral bathrooms. So with that... I think we should, what, to say... Head up, women. Happy holidays. Resist. Resist.