79% of LGBTQ+ adults feel safety and community are threatened
#170
Welcome to Third Cultured, a newsletter about Queer people in diplomacy, politics, and war from the perspective of Kyle Borland (he/they). My goal is to highlight all the ways today is different (and not so) from yesterday.
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This edition:
Opinion Essay
Queers in the News
Opinion Essay
It’s been a long summer.
Since I last wrote, the world celebrated Pride, my partner and I traveled to Aruba with my parents for some much needed R&R, and our community has seen what felt like a constant rollercoaster of wins and losses in just a couple of months.
I tried and failed to draft multiple versions of this edition, which is why I linked to two posts – #168: Summer Round-Up of Queer Politics and #169: Queer Media I’m Consuming – that I published on the Third Cultured site, but didn’t want to flood your inboxes. Both posts also illustrate the peaks and valleys Queer people have faced this summer. We’ve seen awesome examples of representation that aligned with major legal victories, but we’ve also experienced major setbacks all around the world as political and interpersonal violence against us ramps up to levels not seen in a generation.
79% of LGBTQ adults feel that their safety and the community as a whole are threatened by bans targeting gender-affirming care, drag, books and more.
For trans and nonbinary people, that number rises to 94%.
So far, 21 states have passed such bans with more almost certainly to follow. The anti-hysteria reached such a pitch this summer that the organization running global chess – yes, chess – announced “that trans women have ‘no right to participate in official FIDE events for women until further FIDE’s decision is made.”
I’ll leave you to contemplate their logic because it gives me an aneurysm to even try.
Our enemies are so unhinged that, in the case of O'Shae Sibley, they’ll kill Black Queer people for dancing to Beyoncé in a gas station parking lot.
In response to this flood, Blue States are constructing safe havens for our community.
In Oregon, the state denied a woman’s application to be a foster parent because of her stated Christian opposition to a rule requiring her to “respect, accept and support” the sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression of a potential LGBTQ+ child. (Of course, the woman is suing the state to allow her to do what she wants. Christians can decide on a whim whether or not they’ll provide any imaginable service to Queer people – bakeries, websites, painting our walls – but God forbid anyone put any constraint on them...)
Michigan became the 22nd state to ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth.
In California, the California Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus is leading an effort to repeal Prop 8 in the state’s constitution and enshrine same-sex marriage into state law.
However, even with its strong protections, California became the latest theater in the right’s culture war. We can never forget 10 million Republicans call California home.
In Temecula Valley:
The Temecula Valley Unified School District board — a majority of whose members were endorsed by a conservative Christian organization — refused in May to approve a new elementary school social studies curriculum because it mentioned Harvey Milk, a former San Francisco supervisor and nationally recognized civil rights leader, in a passage that was optional for teachers to use in class. Last month, facing the possibility of a $1.5 million fine and possible legal action, the board backed off and approved a new textbook with the Milk references, which had been reviewed for months by teachers, students and parents.
Newsom pointed out Monday that there was plenty of parental review in Temecula. The Temecula board’s rejection of the social studies curriculum came despite 47 of the district’s teachers recommending the textbook after a pilot program in which 1,300 students used the book this year. No parents expressed any objections to it, according to the teachers union president.
“And they wanted to throw that all out at the last minute and change it,” Newsom said Monday. “They came up to oppose parental engagement, while we’re here celebrating. That’s Orwellian doublespeak.”
In Chino Valley, which earned them a civil rights investigation courtesy of California Attorney General Rob Bonta:
At the same rally Monday, supporters backed the Chino Valley Unified School District’s recent decision to create their self-described first-in-California “parental notification system.” District officials will contact parents if their child used a name or pronoun other than those listed on the student’s birth certificate” or used a bathroom that doesn’t “align with the gender stated” on their official school records. Last week, Murrieta Valley Unified School District adopted a similar policy and more districts are considering doing the same.
There’s also pro-LGBTQ+ legislation the conservatives want to kill.
Recently, Thurmond and Newsom have thrown their support behind AB 1078, which would raise the threshold for school districts to ban books, from a simple board majority to a two-thirds majority. The bill would also strengthen the FAIR Act, a state law that requires districts to include the contributions of African American, Native American, Mexican American, LGBTQ and other under-represented groups in history and social studies curriculum.
The bill’s author, Democratic Assemblymember Corey Jackson of Moreno Valley, said legislation like AB 1078 is more important than ever as the state seeks tougher tools to punish districts that stray from civil rights laws.
“These culture wars are being used to generate anger to achieve political goals,” Jackson said. “We have to close as many loopholes as possible.”
The crux of the issue, Jackson said, is local control, the decade-old policy that gives school districts a large degree of autonomy in how they operate. Put forth by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, the Local Control Funding Formula was meant to decentralize state education, allowing districts to tailor their spending policies to the unique needs of their students.
In some cases, Jackson said, local control has gone too far.
In North Hollywood, the center of a hate crime investigation after a LGBTQ+ flag was burned, there were dueling protests days later over a Pride assembly devolved into scuffles outside the campus.
Two pathetic people in San Diego even checked out all of the LGBTQ+ books from the Rancho Peñasquitos Library branch’s Pride display in protest and vowed to keep them until the library eliminates what they call “inappropriate content” for children.
Thankfully, it backfired.
“It was just kind of like, ‘Whoa, curveball,’” Ms. Peterson said. “I began to wonder, ‘Oh, have I been misunderstanding our community?’”
Soon, she would get her answer: Stacks of Amazon boxes containing new copies of the books the protesters checked out started to arrive at the library after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the protest. Roughly 180 people, mostly San Diegans, gave more than $15,000 to the library system, which after a city match will provide over $30,000 toward more L.G.B.T.Q.-themed materials and programming, including an expansion of the system’s already popular drag queen story hours.
Worse still, in Lake Arrowhead, a store owner was shot and killed for displaying a Pride flag outside her store. She was a straight ally who is survived by her husband and nine children. If you think that you’re safe from the Christian Fascists because you are not Queer yourself – you are wrong.
Ultimately, the battles in California exemplify the hypocrisy of conservative ideologies. Their politics revolve around the toxic belief that laws exist to reign in everyone else but them. To them – white, Christian, straight, heterosexual people have the God given ability to flout any rule or regulation they see fit. In Red States, their governments can overpower cities and other Democratic voters because “that’s democracy” but when the shoe is on the other foot…it’s infringing on “local control”.
One of the more infuriating things is that they don’t have to answer the question, “Which is it?” Our society is built in a way that conservatives are allowed to be politically inconsistent. They’re encouraged to organize around outrage and vibes that were shouted to them from Fox News and Newsmax from oversaturated TV screens.
Not to mention the need to distract from more and more bankrupt archdioceses and congregations because of sexual abuse scandals. Christianity need to deflect its pedophilic tradition onto Queer people only continues to grow as each day passes. Honestly, at this point whenever you see your local state Republicans start making noise about LGBTQ+ people in any capacity, you should Google what local church scandal they’re trying to cover up in your attention.
As summer gives way to fall, the 2024 election will begin taking up more and more air in the public consciousness. Televised debates will start among the Republican nominees – not to mention a potential debate between California Governor Gavin Newsom and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – and state deadlines to appear on their ballots inch closer day-by-day. I already received the six month notification for California’s primary in March (mail-in ballots will arrive in February).
I say all of that because the level of animosity and violence we’ve seen directed at the LGBTQ+ community in 2023 is only the beginning of the vitriol the Republicans will stir up in 2024. They are determined to keep trans people and the Queer community as a whole in the center of the national debate for the future of our country.
Prepare yourself emotionally, mentally and spiritually for the onslaught. It will be overwhelming so foster a supportive community and determine your personal boundaries for engagement in the coming months. Following the news this summer came close to swallowing me up, but allowing myself to lean on and indulge in my community allowed me to catch my breathe. Stay informed, but check out whenever you need a break and then get back in the ring when you’re ready. It’ll take us all at our best to withstand the Republican assault next year.
Stay safe and healthy, beautiful people.
As always, thanks for reading. (And, don’t forget to “like” this post!)
Kyle (@kgborland)
Queers in the News
1 in 10 adults around the globe identify as LGBTQ (The Hill)
80% of LGBTQ Workers in US Are Out to at Least 1 Colleague (Bloomberg)
Being Gay Is Illegal in Many Countries. L.G.B.T.Q. Travelers Are Going Anyway. (NYTimes)
How Anti-LGBT Laws Are Bad for Economies (TIME)
Research by the International Labor Organization in 2022 shows that as much as 32% of LGBT migrant workers hide their identity or orientation out of fear of safety or job security. And in India, the delay of a passage of a same-sex marriage law and ongoing concerns about LGBT rights is driving queer people out of the world’s most populous country, in a phenomenon known as the “gay brain drain.”
Lee says she’s found that, at the same time, companies with more inclusive policies towards LGBT people tend to have more positive financial outcomes. “They have higher productivity, they have higher stock prices,” she adds.
Exclusionary measures have a significant impact on economic gains from tourism. Another survey by Open for Business, found that the Caribbean, a region popular for its idyllic beaches and islands, dissuaded some 18% of potential tourists from the U.K., U.S., and Canada from visiting the region within the next three years because of a lack of inclusive policies. The region stands to lose as much $689 million, or 0.93% of its regional GDP, over anti-LGBT laws and stigma.
“People do pay attention to especially these very harsh bills that are likely to have consequences for potentially even tourists,” Lee tells TIME.
I Was A Queer Pastor For 15 Years. Then The Death Threats Began. (HuffPost)
The Gen Z Cliff: Why young Americans are mobilizing on abortion and LGBTQ rights (Reckon)
The Right’s Attempted Extermination Campaign of Queer People Is Textbook Fascism (The Nation)
USAID releases its first-ever “LGBTQI+-inclusive” plan for foreign aid (LGBTQ Nation)
When Protest Is 'Terrorism,' Material-Support Charges Are Next (Forever Wars)
The arrests also speak to another tradition in this country, one coterminous with the War on Terror and whose legacy the War on Terror reflects: state violence against Black liberation. Cat Brooks, the executive director of Oakland-based activist coalition The Anti-Police Terror Project, says the crackdown on resistance to Cop City represents a template that can be deployed nationwide by right-wing state governments, prosecutors, and allied police departments.
"If they're allowed to be successful, they could take out grassroots organizing groups across the country," Brooks tells FOREVER WARS, who warns of a potential chilling effect even if those organizers aren't directly targeted by prosecutor.
"Solidarity bail funds, collective bail funds have been part of the Black resistance movement, most notably since the Civil Rights Movement, and with the 2020 George Floyd rebellion, that's something that's picked up again," Brooks explains. "A lot of the political conversations that we're having at ATPT are looking at what lies ahead over the next 18 months as we enter the next presidential [election], with not just one law-and-order violent presidential candidate but two. And if you correlate the repression against vulnerable bodies of color that happened in 2015, 2016 and actually never [ceased], we can expect more of that."
It's not a hypothetical concern for Brooks. The Anti-Police Terror Project provides bail funding for arrestees, too—particularly Black, brown, trans and nonbinary people engaged in movement work. They could be targeted if California decides what's going on in Georgia represents a promising innovation. "We have no intention of slowing down," Brooks says. "I'm hoping it's not what we see, but when state repression happens, it often is what we see."
When Your Sexuality Is Against the Law (NYTimes)
Sierra Leone is one of more than 30 African nations (over half the continent) that criminalize same-sex relations. While most of the gay people I spoke with there did not seem to fear being arrested, they said discrimination against them was widespread in housing, employment and family life.
Meanwhile, American Christian groups with records of fighting L.G.B.T.Q. rights have poured millions of dollars into African countries, according to a 2020 report. Some American evangelicals have been known to encourage anti-L.G.B.T.Q. legislation in countries such as Uganda.
But Africa is not uniformly homophobic, and I found some physical and virtual space emerging for L.G.B.T.Q. communities. In São Tomé and Príncipe, an island nation off the west coast of Africa, homosexuality has been legal since 2012. “Sexuality is free,” the country’s prime minister, Patrice Trovoada, adding that in his country, “you don’t have this hate attitude” toward gay people.
Who’s Afraid of Social Contagion? Our ideas about sexuality and gender have changed before, and now they’re changing again. (Boston Review)
Why ‘Patriots’ Will Always Hate Queers Like Us (Rolling Stone)
So what does all this mean?
First, while I’m sorry to be partisan about this, there is no way a queer person or ally can ethically support Republicans right now. Again, I know that many Republicans are not bigots, and maybe one day the sane people will take control of their party. But right now, the nationalists have the upper hand. To empower them is immoral.
Second, as the scholar Timothy Snyder warns, “do not obey in advance.” Do not self-censor, do not diminish yourself, do not preemptively comply with what you think those in power want you to do. As Snyder writes, “most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.” Don’t do that.
Finally, there’s a lesson here about solidarity. Privileged gays like me need to stand together with others being targeted by the people now targeting us: Trans populations first and foremost, but anyone the MAGA crowd sees as not American enough. At the root of populism, and its cousin, fascism, is the demonization of the other.