Glimmers of Queer Hope Amidst Ongoing Global Backlash
#140
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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I’ll be recording a conversation with my friend Cathy Reisenwitz, the writer of one of my favorite newsletters “Sex and the State.” A fellow Alabamian and a prominent libertarian thinker, she’s been published widely, including in the Daily Beast, VICE Motherboard, OneZero, The Week, Newsweek, the Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, and other publications. We’ll be discussing what’s going on with American men, and why whatever it is seems to be doesn’t effect gay/bi men to the same degree as cishet men. I’ll share the conversation when it’s posted, but make sure to subscribe to Cathy’s newsletter below – it’s always one of my favorite reads of the day/week.
This edition:
Opinion Essay
A List of LGBTQ+ Wins
Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws/Violence in the US and around the world
Monkeypox and Gay/Bi Men’s Public Health
Links, Quotes & Gay Shit
Opinion Essay
Even with the problems big cities have seen getting the Monkeypox vaccine to its gay/bi male populations, we are lucky to live in cities with the infrastructure and political heft to get a large percentage of the limited amounts MPX vaccines. My appointment is on Wednesday afternoon – I wasn’t about to wait in a multi-hour long line – and I’m thrilled to have that kind of access via Kaiser.
Although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous. I’ve heard side effects range from prolonged arm soreness to a fever that doesn’t break for a week or two. Whatever happens is infinitely preferable to the pain that’s been described by men who have sex with men (MSM) online who have contracted the disease. Death is extremely rare but apparently the pox are so painful that many consider suicide.
Thank Gaia for quality healthcare and the luck of the geographic draw.
Along those lines, it’s been triggering for gay/bi men to see so many parallels between the response to HIV/AIDS and Monkeypox, but it’s nothing compared to the regression we’re seeing worldwide. Led by Russia, nations that have decided to isolate and target LGBTQ+ people are ramping up their efforts. In Uganda, the government shut down the largest Queer advocacy organization, SMUG, in what is clearly a witch hunt against LGBTQ+ people to satiate a ravenous base. Here in the States, conservatives hosted Hungarian PM Victor Orban at CPAC where he detailed the need for the anti-Queer forces of the world to unite against us as an encroaching menace. There can be no shadow of doubt in 2022 that the global far right, the worldwide fascist movement, is determined to make their fight against LGBTQ+ people a pillar of their war against liberalism and progressivism.
It’s all too easy to frame sexual liberation as a “western value” in their propaganda and they’ve wasted no time nor resources in planting those seeds in their people’s heads. Fundamentalist tendencies from monotheistic faiths make it that much easier. It’s no coincidence that Brittney Griner is a Black, Queer woman that Moscow can exploit against the US in diplomacy and information battles. With our broken state-by-state culture status quo, America makes it too easy for Putin. Between Biden refusing to end draconian sentences for non-violent cannabis offenders with a stroke of his pen and the wave of Red State anti-Queer discrimination, our hypocrisy is on full display.
There are glimmers of hope. Abroad, Ukraine is considering legalizing same-sex civil unions (and later marriage after the war concludes, which isn’t possible at the moment under martial law). At home, the Respect for Marriage Act (ROMA) slated to pass in September and the fact that great power competition against two autocracies can potentially force America to walk its talk, but we’ll have to push it every step of the way. We’re most than up to the task. It’ll just take all of us.
Stay safe and healthy, beautiful people.
As always, thanks for reading.
Kyle (@kgborland)
A List of LGBTQ+ Wins
A Year of Challenges and Some Success for LGBT People (Human Rights Watch)
Beyoncé thanks her gay uncle in new album “Renaissance” liner notes (Harpers Bazaar, LGBTQ Nation)
Biden names gay judge to federal CA bench (Bay Area Reporter)
California man appears cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant, AIDS conference hears (Bay Area Reporter)
Five Calif. Congress members visit Tijuana shelters for LGBTQ asylum seekers (Washington Blade)
France creates new post of LGBTQ rights ambassador (France 24)
From Florida to Poland, We Must March for the Right to Exist (NYTimes)
How one trans man’s abortion story is empowering others to share theirs (Reckon)
Lil Nas X has become a queer icon in Nigeria (LGBTQ Nation)
LGBTQ Asians push to stem hate crimes tide (Bay Area Reporter)
Matt Gaetz tried to insult a teenager’s body. She turned it into over a million dollars. (LGBTQ Nation)
U.N. Steps Up Efforts Against Anti-LGBTQ+ Violence and Discrimination (Advocate)
US library defunded after refusing to censor LGBTQ authors: ‘We will not ban the books’ (The Guardian)
US State Department’s Annual Human Rights Reports on LGBTQI Abuses (Global Equality)
Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws/Violence in the US & around the world
A Right-Wing Think Tank Claimed to Be a Church. Now, Members of Congress Want to Investigate. (ProPublica)
An Okla. city’s first openly gay mayor resigned. Then came the fallout. (WaPo)
Christian school officials accused of trying to “exorcise” a gay student (LGBTQ Nation)
County clerk candidate promises to deny gay couples marriage licenses if elected (LGBTQ Nation)
Florida regulations continue Gov. Ron DeSantis’ war on “woke” businesses (LGBTQ Nation)
Florida’s Ron DeSantis suspends elected state attorney for opposing abortion ban & anti-LGBTQ laws (LGBTQ Nation)
Gay teen couple attacked after they hugged in the street (LGBTQ Nation)
Hope and Fear for LGBTQI Asylum-Seekers at the U.S.-Mexico Border (Global Equality, Human Rights Watch)
Illinois business was targeted by rightwingers for hosting drag queens. Now the city is going after her. (LGBTQ Nation)
Mom accused of blinding her son’s boyfriend claims that her family is the actual victim (Pink News)
Moral Panics Come and Go. Sex Bracelet Hysteria Is Forever. (The Ringer)
Oklahoma School forces parents to sign & notarize “biological sex affidavit” so kids can play school sports (LGBTQ Nation)
Republican attorneys general sue federal government over LGBTQ school meal guidance (NBC News)
Roe v. Wade ruling spurs LGBT Texans to change plans, leave state (Dallas Morning News)
These Ultraconservative Brothers Pulled Strings in Reagan’s Washington. Then One of Them Was Outed as Gay (Rolling Stone)
Washington state probes Christian university's anti-LGBTQ employment policy (NBC News)
Wisconsin School district bans pronouns in teacher email signatures because they make people “uncomfortable” (LGBTQ Nation)
Monkeypox and Gay/Bi Men’s Public Health
African monkeypox cases not concentrated among gay men (Reuters)
As monkeypox strikes gay men, officials debate warnings to limit partners (WaPo)
Democrats seek $21 billion to fight coronavirus, monkeypox, and other outbreak (Washington Post)
Every New Disease Triggers a Search for Someone to Blame (The Atlantic)
Governor Newsom declares state of emergency after SF, NY – Illinois follows all three (Bay Area Reporter, Washington Post)
More than 40 percent of the nation’s confirmed 5,811 monkeypox cases have been reported in California (827) and New York (1862). Illinois has 602.
How to talk about monkeypox effectively, without stigmatizing gay men (NPR)
In a changed world, gay men still remember the anxiety (and lessons) of the darker days of HIV/AIDS (WaPo)
‘It’s Scary’: Gay Men Confront a Health Crisis With Echoes of the Past (NYTimes)
One of the worst meningitis outbreaks in U.S. history is ravaging Florida's gay men (Orlando Weekly)
The US monkeypox response is failing queer men (Vox)
We Can Fight Monkeypox Without Hysteria or Homophobia (NYTimes)
White House to name FEMA’s Fenton as monkeypox coordinator (WaPo)
Links, Quotes & Gay Shit
50 Greatest Fictional Deaths of All Time (Slate)
How a Visual Language Evolves as Our World Does (NYTimes)
How one Mexican magazine adopted inclusive language in Spanish (Nieman Lab)
Last Conviction in Salem Witch Trials Is Cleared 329 Years Later (NYTimes)
Lavender Panthers & LGBTQ Politics in the Postwar Era (Found SF)
On White Queer Fandom and the Erasure of Fans of Color (Teen Vogue)
San Francisco photographer captures Castro's queer street culture (SFGate)
Seven years of sex abuse: How Mormon officials let it happen (AP)
Spirituality Has A New Face — And It’s Queer As Hell (HuffPost)
The Ocean is a Lesbian: Notes on Queer Women and Water (LitHub)
The River Yearned to Run Free. As a Gay Man, So Did I. (Backpacker)
The Surprising Southern Dance Roots of Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ (Texas Monthly)
The World Needs Uncles, Too (Esquire)
Three women on carrying pregnancies after New York legalized paid surrogacy last year. (The Cut)
What It Means to Be an Elderly Gay Man Today (The Nation)
What Should an L.G.B.T.Q. Museum Be? Approaches Vary. (NYTimes)
What Should a Queer Children’s Book Do? (The New Yorker)