2022 is Not Kind to Queer Folks
#120
Welcome to Third Cultured, a newsletter covering all things queer and techno-politics from the perspective of Kyle Borland. My goal is to highlight all the ways today is different (and not so) from yesterday.
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This edition:
Essay/Opinion
Links, Quotes & Things
Essay/Opinion
2022 is off to a horrible start for Queer folks in the US and around the world.
In Florida, the GOP is rushing to implement “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” into every school in the state. Formally known as HB1557/SB1834 or “the Parental Rights in Education” bill – better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill – would ban classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and effectively require schools to “out” students to their parents without their consent.
Anyone alive during the past 30 years knows what this means – more kid suicides.
That is all pointless legislation like this ever leads to – dead kids.
Also according to the Trevor Project:
“LGBTQ youth who learned about LGBTQ issues or people in classes at school had 23 percent lower odds of reporting a suicide attempt in the past year.”
The legislation is so strict that my sister, who teaches K-12, would not be allowed to reference my partner and I in any way that reveals we’re gay men in a committed, gay relationship. What is “conservative” about DeSantis’ Florida, or any Red State’s governance? Is this the Republican’s version of “small, non-intrusive government”?
These anti-LGBTQ+ laws aren’t reserved to the state level. The newly GOP majority city council in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania became the first town in the state to repeal an LGBTQ+ inclusive ordinance that safeguards residents against discrimination based on their sexual orientation, ethnicity or gender identity. Republican donors are also financing the latest wave of book bans sweeping the States to actively target books about LGBTQ+ issues/people, race, and other marginalized identities.
In Michigan, a religious exemption was carved out for faith-based adoption agencies to refuse to place children with same-sex couples, months after SCOTUS decided in a Catholic agency’s favor. The mayor of Ridgeland, Mississippi is withholding $110,000 of funding from local library system on the basis of his personal religious beliefs, demanding that the system purge LGBTQ+ books before his office releases the money.
On an interpersonal level, anti-LGBTQ+ violence is becoming more frequent even in supposedly “safe” cities like Denver or Manchester’s Gay Village in England where the bouncers at our own bars are even joining in on the Queer-bashing.
The regression is occurring even faster outside the West.
Human Rights Watch and OutRight Action International released a report this week announcing that the situation for LGBTQ+ Afghans is deteriorating by the day.
“We spoke with LGBT Afghans who have survived gang rape, mob attacks, or have been hunted by their own family members who joined the Taliban, and they have no hope that state institutions will protect them,” said J. Lester Feder, senior fellow for emergency research at OutRight. “For those LGBT people who want to flee the country, there are few good options; most of Afghanistan's neighbors also criminalize same-sex relations. It is difficult to overstate how devastating – and terrifying – the return of Taliban rule has been for LGBT Afghans.”
Poland is desperate to keep up with eastern Europe’s (and Florida’s) anti-Queer slide.
In Uzbekistan, a pro-LGBT+ blogger was imprisoned for three years.
Over in southeast Asia, Samsung overestimated how progressive the Muslim-majority Singapore was and had to pull an ad after considerable backlash.
Even here in San Francisco, the global Queer mecca, we’re witnessing cultural erosion.
Once proud Queer institutions continue to morph into venues that cater to the cishet people that are taking over our neighborhoods, as LGBTQ+ people are priced out of cities. San Francisco’s Castro Theatre in San Francisco’s gayborhood, the Castro, is converting to a live event venue under new ownership and the LGBTQ+ Cultural District has expressed concern that Queer culture is being erased.
If we don’t celebrate, defend and uphold queerness in San Francisco – who will?
As always, thanks for reading, beautiful people.
Kyle (@kgborland)
Links, Quotes & Things
20 Internet Giants That Rule the Web (Visual Capitalist)
92% Of Top Parental Control Apps Wrongly Block LGBTQ And Sex-Ed Sites (Forbes)
120 German Roman Catholic priests and officials have jointly come out as LGBT+ and called on the church to do better by queer Catholics (Pink News)
“A Viral Underclass”: People With Disabilities Vent Their Covid Rage and Frustration (The Flashpoint)
Alabama’s capitol is a crime scene. The cover-up has lasted 120 years. (AL.com)
American L.G.B.T.Q.+ Museum Names First Executive Director (NYTimes)
A Talk With That Cool-Glasses Guy Who Defeated Amy Schneider on Jeopardy! (Vulture)
An Ode to Andre Leon Talley (Saeed Jones)
Andrew Blaser makes U.S. Olympic history as the first out gay man in this super fast ice sport (LGBTQ Nation)
Anti-trans nonprofit is behind lawsuit over trans inmates (Bay Area Reporter)
Are LGBT K-dramas just queerbaiting? Shows like Netflix’s Vincenzo and Mine are featuring more gay characters but South Korea’s showbiz still has a way to go (SMCP)
Chilean president-elect names two LGBTQ+ people to Cabinet (LA Blade)
Christian couple ban gay man and his ITV producer partner from buying their dream £650,000 Surrey home due to their sexuality - and quote the bible that homosexuality is a sin (Daily Mail)
Did Biden Uphold His Promises to LGBTQ+ Americans in His First Year? (them.)
Florence Is Burning (NYTimes)
For Angela Davis and Gina Dent, Abolition Is the Only Way (Harper’s Bazaar)
Gay Man Says Bouncers Attacked Him At An LGBTQ+ Nightclub (Out)
Haiti, Smedley Butler, and the Rise of American Empire (The Intercept)
HBO leads GLAAD Media Awards for LGBTQ representation (ABC News)
House Democrats ask military historians to document treatment of LGBTQ troops (Stars and Stripes)
How Paris is Burning Left an Indelible Mark on Pop Culture (LitHub
In Venezuela, a soldier can be sent to prison for being gay. The courts could change that. (Washington Post)
Repealing the article from the military’s code of justice would mean the end of penalization of LGBTQ people in Venezuela, Simons said.
“It would tell a lot of people it’s not against nature, it’s not a sin to be LGBT,” Simons said. “And any person, even if you don’t like the military … can participate and form a part of the state without feeling that they’ll be discriminated against for being who they are.”
Jim Obergefell, face of gay marriage, to run for Ohio House (Washington Post)
One year of the Biden presidency: A full timeline (Tracking Biden From the Left)
Scream Has Always Been Queer. The Fifth Entry Makes It Official (them.)
Social Security Opens to Survivors of Same-Sex Couples Who Could Not Marry (NYTimes)
Split on Sinema: LGBTQ groups divided over rebuke of bisexual senator (NBC News)
Texas Trans Girl Is Finalist for Time's Kid of the Year (Advocate)
The Day New Queer Cinema Said: Let’s Do This (NYTimes)
The Gold Rush Returns to California (Undark)
The only people who benefit from people at the bottom fighting each other are those at the top (Sex and the State)
The School Shooting Generation Grows Up (Vox)
‘Traditionally Jewish, but Also Extremely Queer’ (NYTimes)
TV Companies Are Investing In Drag Culture - Does It Help LGBTQ Rights? (Forbes)
US LGBT community draws on AIDS experience to fight Covid (France 24)
Why are gays so terrible at intergenerational friendships? (Washington Blade)
Why are we still rejecting blood donations from gay men? (Mic, Advocate, Stat News)
“There is no practical or necessary reason for all men who have sex with men to be excluded from blood donation,” Sarah Bauerle Bass, an HIV treatment researcher, professor of public health, and director at Temple University’s Risk Communication Laboratory, tells Mic. “It is really a historical holdover from the beginning of the HIV epidemic when the majority of HIV infections were occurring in MSM and there was not rigorous testing in place,” says Bass. In other words, this policy’s homophobic roots are likely the only thing keeping it in place.
Comment: The White House commented on this last week, but they didn’t provide any updates other than to acknowledge the policy was harmful. In true POTUS fashion, they’re scrounging for science to keep it in place rather than ending a policy they know is unjust on its face.
