GoGuide Magazine March 2022

GoGuide Magazine Covering Iowa’s LGBTQ+ Communities, families, friends, and allies since 2016.

Iowa City | Coralville | North Liberty | Tiffin | Cedar Rapids | Marion | Hiawatha

Meet Austin Frerick (pictured at right)

A rising star in Iowa’s Democratic Party.

Photo courtesy Frerick campaign

Page 18 Photo courtesy Karpel Group

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GoGuide Magazine Vol. 6; Issue 7 Always in 5G March 2022 Publisher & Executive Editor Tim Nedoba

Operations/Photography Gregory Cameron Photography GoGuide Media

Senior Columnist Erica Barz

Contributors Gregg Shapiro Joey Amato

Graphics/Cover Design GoGuide Media

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News Briefs drinks!

About this event:Virgo Frost, Myling Belle, Hazel Sanchez-Belle, Mindy Belle, and Frisbee Jenkins are scheduled to perform.

Tavern Blue to Goes Gay for a Day

You must go online and purchase tickets in advance for this event.

Ticket range from a table of 4 for $40, 6 for $60, and 8 for $80.

A Tribute to Aretha Franklin:The Queen of Soul University of Iowa - Featuring Damien Sneed and special guest Karen Clark Sheard Thursday, March 10, 2022, 7:30 pm The Auditorium, Hadley Stage

University of Iowa - In 2004, Aretha Franklin brought the house One VIP Table for 20 people for $200 down in the original Hancher AudiThe event takes place Sunday, Individual seats at the bar for $5. torium. Now, we invite her towering April 3 @ 12 pm. spirit into the new Hancher with a Door opens at 11am and show starts multi-media tribute performance at 12pm. Brunch , food and drinks Coralville, IA - According to the by created by Damien Sneed--who are not included with tickets.

For Tavern Blue website Tavern Blue toured with Franklin late in her camore information please the Tavern reer and developed a stronger menwill play host to thier first drag Blue Facebook page. Studio 13 is brunch. tor/mentee relationship with the serving as co-sponsor. soul legend--and an accomplished GG The sepcial event will inclue a collection of jazz, gospel, and soul special brunch menu and specialty musicians.

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IT’S A MATTER OF

@ichumanrights

Gospel music legend and four-time Grammy Award-winner (not to mention her multiple Stellar and GMA Dove Awards) Karen Clark Sheard will bring her signature, one-of-akind multi-octave vocal range and musicality to the stage in honor of Aretha as well.

Erica Barz has the month off. She will return with the April issue.

Go&Vote 2022 A Rising Star in Iowa’s Democratic Party Meet Austin Frerick, Candidate for State Senate in District 37 Marion – GoGuide Magazine first met Austin Frerick in 2018. At that time, he was running in for U.S. Congress in Iowa’s southern district. He was one of several candidates in the primary seeking to be the Democratic nominee. Frederick came to our attention since he was running as an openly gay candidate for Congress. However, as GoGuide got to know the candidate, we were more impressed with his candidacy.

Ultimately, he lost out to the eventual candidate and now U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia Axne. Congress Woman Axne is currently serving her second term in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District. There is no doubt Congress Axne is an outstanding member of Congress and a great representative for all of Iowa. She’s also Iowa’s only member of the Democratic Party serving in Washington, D.C. Even though Frerick lost the campaign, he could still win the support of many Iowans across Southern Iowa.

After losing out on his bid for Congress, Austin left Iowa to take a prestigious position as the Deputy Director of the Thurman Arnold Project at Yale University. This initiative brings together faculty, students, and scholars to collaborate on competition policy and antitrust enforcement research. He is also a Senior Fellow at Data for Progress. He is on the Board of Directors for the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project.

However, Autin’s heart is still in Iowa. He’s now running for State Senator in a contested Primary in Iowa Senate District 37.

I encourage everyone to visit the campaign website. There is no point in regurgitating that information here.

He’s a strong candidate, and GoGuide endorses him in his primary race not because he’s an openly gay candidate because he’s one of the best candidates for any elected office in Iowa and one that we want to make sure rises to the top. He’s intelligent. He’s personable. And most importantly, he loves Iowa.

Meet Autin Frerick. GoGuide has not edited any answers to our questions.

Tell us about Iowa Senate district 37. What are the top issues in the minds of voters in district 37?

Senate District 37 is comprised of Marion and the northeastern section of Cedar Rapids. It’s a primarily suburban and urban district.

Voters in District 37 are looking for someone who can offer something new to the table. Many voters are fatigued by the challenges that the past few years have brought, and they want someone to stand up and say we can do better. Issues like school funding and stopping vouchers are a couple of the often heard issues we hear, but policies like water quality and quality of life are also things that have come up. Parents want their children to have healthy and secure lives, and you hear that from the issues being discussed.

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What brings you back to Iowa?

About three years ago, I accepted a job at Yale to be Deputy Director of the Thurman Arnold Project, an initiative that brings together faculty, students, and scholars to collaborate on research related to competition policy and antitrust enforcement. So I packed my bags and moved out east from Iowa.

But the pandemic really changed my perspective on life, not being anywhere near friends and family. So with the ability to work remotely came up, I jumped at the chance. I moved back, which made me more in-tuned to what was happening in Iowa, and it was scary to see everything unfold in the way it did. I love Iowa and its historically progressive spirit, and I couldn’t watch it be destroyed like it was. I want to serve the people who have made me who I am today.

I want to fight to improve water quality and stop our rivers and lakes from becoming sewers for multinational corporations. I want to fight to revive local communities and deliver real opportunities to Iowa. I want to reform Iowa’s government to have a moral compass once again and not just be a middleman for Koch, Amazon, and Apple to profit off of our backs. I want our people to be able to have security, to have opportunity, and to feel like they can be who they want to be.

Why should LGBTQ+ Iowans in 37 vote for you over other candidates?

I was in college at Grinnell when Varnum v. Brien decided, and that made a significant impact in my life. It helped me feel empowered to come out to my family and friends and not feel like I had to hide anymore. To mark that memory, my husband Daniel and I actually got married at Grinnell College - what we liked to call a traditional, small-town Iowa, gay, Jewish wedding.

I’m here to stand as an ally for the LGBTQ+ community. We’ve seen so many attacks on our community by Republicans and even by some Democrats too, and I want to help be a part of this new generation of LGBTQ+ leaders who are making impacts and bringing our perspectives to the forefront. We have seen through prior actions like Varnum v. Brien that Iowa can be bold in advocating for human rights, but I want to help revive that progressive tradition that lets LGBTQ+ communities thrive in Iowa.

Currently, Democrats hold only 17 seats in the Iowa Senate. Why do you think Dems are having trouble winning seats in Iowa? How can you change this trend?

I think, too often, that we have trouble finding a vision that is distinctly for the people of Iowa. A large part of it is that national politics and special interests have flooded the discourse in our state’s politics, and sometimes, it’s plain difficult for us to get past the onslaught of right-wing and corporate-backed media in especially smallto-midsize communities. What we need to do is to emphasize “local” and create a straightforward, powerful message for people from Marion to Mason City to Marshalltown to show that Democrats are here to fight for Iowa, and we need to use the bully pulpit to do this too.

Do you have the backing and support of Zach Wahls?

As this is a contested primary, Senator Wahls will be staying out until after the primary election.

Is there anything else you would like to share with the GoGuide readers?

If you would like to learn more about my campaign, please go to austinfrerick.com. We also are looking for volunteers and donations, so if you have the time or funds, it would be greatly appreciated. The Democratic primary is June 7th, and I hope that I can earn your vote.

If elected to the Iowa Senate, how would you vote regarding transgender athletes competing in athletics under their chosen gender identity in Iowa?

The Republican attempts to harm children in the state are, to simply put it, terrifying. Children should have the freedom to participate in whatever sports that they choose to. Transgender kids already face multiple challenges in their lives, and having the state come in and ostracize them harms an already marginalized population.

Better than ever: an interview with Harvey Fierstein

By Gregg Shapiro Special to GoGuide Magazine March 202 One of the best things about reading a memoir by someone with a distinctive voice – both spoken and written – is that you hear them as your read their book. Let’s face it, award-winning writer and actor Harvey Fierstein qualifies as someone who has a distinctive voice and while reading his revelatory memoir, I Was Better Last Night (Knopf, 2022), you’d swear he was in the room with you, dishing away. Harvey was gracious enough to make time for an interview shortly before the book’s March 2022 publication date.

Gregg Shapiro: Harvey, why was now the time to write your memoir, I Was Better Last Night, and does having a milestone birthday (70) in 2022 have anything to do with it?

Harvey Fierstein: What’s really funny is that so many sources, if you look online, have my birthday as 1954, even though it’s actually 1952. The reason is that when I turned 22, my friend Eric Conklin, who directed the original production of Torch Song, said “You should tell everybody you’re turning 21.” I said, “Why?” He said, “Because if you lie when you’re older, nobody believes it. But if you start at 21, who the fuck’s going to care!”

That year, I moved my birthday to ‘53. The next year, we decided we’d do it again. But I never took it seriously. Things just get picked up by this one or that one. I think it was in New York Magazine that they got the facts wrong and said my parents were Eastern European immigrants. They were actually third-generation Americans. But it got picked up by everyone and everywhere it said I was the son of Eastern European immigrants. My mother was born in Brooklyn and my father was born in the Catskills. So, I wrote the book, and there’s a fact checker, of course. Every time I mentioned my age he sent back a note, “Wikipedia says you were born in ‘54. This one says you were born in ’54,” I had to keep saying, “Why would I lie and make myself older? I’d only make myself younger!” It’s another one of those examples of why you should never lie. I am indeed as old as the mountains. So, did I write the memoir because of the birthday? No. Like everybody else in the fucking world, this pandemic hit. I was a very good boy. I sat down and did all the work on my desk. At that time, we were supposed to be doing a production of Bye Bye Birdie at the Kennedy Center. I finished the rewrites on that. I had rewritten Funny Girl which was done in London and then went on tour in England, and we were bringing it to Broadway. I wanted to make some more changes to it, so I got all those changes done. Kinky Boots was sold to cruise ships, so I had to do an adaptation, a shortening of the show, as I had already done for Hairspray and other shows. That was off my desk and done. I’m working on a new musical with Alan Menken and Jeff Feldman, the guys I wrote Newsies with.

GS: Yes, I read about that in the book.

HF: So, I was all caught up with that. Basically, I was done. Then I sat down and, as I say in the book, I make quilts. I owed a couple of quilts as gifts. I went down to my little sewing room and I made seven quilts in a row [laughs]. Usually, I turn out one a year. Everybody got their birthday quilts, their wedding quilts, whatever it was that was owed. I had cleared my desk and we were still in the pandemic. Then my agent said to me, “Why don’t you write your memoir?” I said, “Because I don’t write sentences.”

GS: You wrote the children’s book. That has sentences.

HF: But that’s kid sentences. I’ve written Op Eds, but for that you just have to get the voice of Edward R. Murrow in your head or something like that. That’s like writing dialogue, as well. All of a sudden, you’re Aaron Sorkin. I thought, “What the fuck? I’ve got a computer. Let me try.” I wrote four chapters, and I sent them to my agent. She said, “This is great!” She sent the chapters out to I think nine publishers, and eight of the nine made offers.

GS: There are numerous powerful moments throughout the book. Without giving away too much…

HF: Oh, go ahead, give it away! I already know what happens.

GS: But I don’t want to spoil it for the readers.

HF: That’s right. Goddammit.

GS: Chapter 57 contains one of the most emotional sequences involving your parents. Would it be fair to say that writing the book was a cathartic experience?

HF: Yes, the whole thing really is. When I started, I asked Shirley MacLaine because she’s written 300 books about her 700 different lives. She said, “Write what you remember because your brain has a way of editing, and it will give you what you need for this book. You’ll remember things for other books and other things, but write what you remember and just be true to what comes up.” I said, “Even about other people?” She said, “Yes. When you’re writing about other people, you’re really writing about yourself. Just trust that.” That’s what I did. There were hundreds of stories that I could have told. I just tried to sort of follow a line of thought and let it be.

GS: That’s interesting because the chapters in I Was Better Last Night are presented in chronological order, beginning in 1959 and concluding in 2022. Is that how they were written?

HF Yes, I wrote it exactly as it is. As you say, that particular chapter, I knew was coming because I knew what happened to bring that memory back. I’m trying to say it as you said, to not give it away. What happened between me and my brother, when he sat down to watch the last revival of Torch Song. My editor was incredibly gentle with me. Now and then he’d say, add more here or there. But the only real note that I got from him was he wanted to move that story into chronological order since the rest of the book is. I said, “No. That’s in emotional order.”

GS: It needed to be where it was.

HF: Exactly! Most celebrity autobiographies begin “I was a kid and I saw a show and I said, ‘I wanna be a star, too!’” Which is obviously not my story. I never wanted to be in show business. I didn’t want to be a writer. I didn’t want to be an actor or a drag performer. It was not my dream at all. That’s why it was so important to do it chronologically. I wanted to show how I lived my life being true to the moment I was in.

GS: In I Was Better Last Night you take readers on a journey through modern theater, from The Gallery Players and La Mama to off-Broadway and Broadway. With that in mind, would you agree that in addition to being a memoir, the book also functions as a theater history lesson?

HF: I guess it does. I have certainly been told that by a bunch of people who’ve read the book. When I was talking to Patti LuPone about it, she said, “Geez, I wish I had done what you did. She came through theater school and right into the legitimate, not through the experimental. As I say in the book, I came from an art school, so I always approached is an art. Theater was part of an art movement, and I got involved because I wanted to meet Andy Warhol. Little did I know they would put me in drag. I guess there is a history there.

Certainly, when I look around me, and I look at the people that I grew up with – Kathleen Chalfant and Obba Babatundé -- and, of course, La Mama became something bigger. There were lots of others. Meeting Matthew (Broderick) at 18, or Estelle Getty who was a housewife from Bayside, Queens. She wouldn’t even admit she was from Bayside. She told everybody she was from Long Island [big laugh]. I said, “Estelle! Bayside is in Queens. Shut up!” What is history? After all, history is just day after day after day after day. I did start, as a baby, in this experimental theater. I wish that experimental theater still really existed. There were a few of us

that I would say destroyed off-off-Broadway. I think greed is what destroyed off-off-Broadway. I think what happened was when people saw Tom O’Horgan make it, when Hair became a hit, that had a lot of people going, “Where’s my Hair?”

GS: But don’t you think that experimental theater might exist in cities where it’s a little more affordable to do that kind of thing? Say, Austin, Texas.

HF: There will always be experimental theater. It’s just, how is it looked at? Is the government funding there for it? I hear a lot of people saying, “Let’s not waste money on theater.” Torch Song Trilogy wouldn’t have been what it was if not for a government grant. I don’t know if you know this, but I just gave a grant to the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center to build a theater laboratory because rehearsal space is incredibly expensive in New York and almost impossible to find. David Rockwell is designing it and I’m hoping it’ll be open in two years. I tell a story in the book about how (years ago) we were rehearsing up at the YMCA, and the director just disappeared and left us with the bill for the rehearsal room. If I can leave a rehearsal room behind… Lin-Manuel (Miranda) developed Hamilton in the basement of the Drama Book Shop. For my shows, I used the basement of La Mama which was this small space, but big enough for us to rehearse and develop what we needed to do. I even did a couple of shows down there.

GS: Chapters 19 through 22 give readers insight into the inspiration for and the writing of Torch Song Trilogy and then much later you write about the recent revival with Michael Urie. What was it like to revisit the creation and the revision of Torch Song Trilogy?

HF: They’re your children, so they never really leave you. You may not think about them in the same way all the time, but they don’t leave you. You ask a mother about her son when he was six, and she can tell you a story about that time. It doesn’t mean you live with those stories every day. But they’re always there. Unfortunately, as you get older and people die on you, you remember them, or you go back to those stories time and again to remember how you all met and all that. With something like Torch Song, which is so much a part of my life, there was no real shock to going back and looking at that stuff again. Seeing Michael do it was not a shock either, because I cast all of my understudies. The show ran on Broadway for five years, but I didn’t play it all five years. There were other Arnolds and I saw all of them. There were matinee Arnolds, and then we had a bus and truck tour, and a regular tour. I saw all of those guys play it. I saw it in London with Tony Sher, who died a few weeks ago. He won the Olivier for Torch Song. Writing a memoir is not a time to blame other people [laughs]. When you’re writing plays, it is.

GS: I’m so glad you said that because one of the things that I think will strike readers about I Was Better Last Night is the brutal honesty with which you write about alcoholism and sobriety, as well as your suicide attempt. What do you hope readers will take away from that?

HF: There’s a certain point when you’re writing something like that…I don’t really care [laughs]. I needed to tell the truth and you hope that the truth will do good. When you’re writing fiction, you care more about how it’s read and what somebody gets out of the fiction. When you’re writing non-fiction, it’s like, “This is what happened, like it or not, Cookie.” The only hope is that I hope you know I’m telling it the best I can and being truthful. Because the truth does affect people, that I know. When you’re writing drama, you are manipulating an audience, and a story, and emotions. When I was writing the book, of course, there’s still an art to it, but I’m not turning away from something because it’s not comfortable. I’m going to say it. If somebody thinks I’m an asshole, let them think I’m an asshole. You read the book, and thank you very much for doing so.

GS: That’s my job!

HF: You see in the book that I don’t have an answer for my own gender. Had I been born in 1980, instead of 1952, would I be a woman now? I don’t know. I don’t have those answers. I don’t have the luxury of being born in a different society. The first (trans) person I knew was Christine Jorgensen, who died owing me money, that bitch [laughs]. When I was writing the book, I was going through photographs. There’s a picture in the book of me and Marsha P. Johnson and Jon Jon marching in a Gay Pride march. I put that picture up and somebody wrote to me telling me about Marsha, like you should know who this person was. I was like, “What are you talking about? This was a friend of mine!”

GS: Thank you for mentioning pictures. I live four blocks south of Wilton Manors in Fort Lauderdale. In the book you include a photo of the WiltonArt.com street sign that features a quote by you. What does it mean to you to be immortalized in this way?

HF: While it’s very flattering, another place I looked had it that Walt Whitman said it! With one hand, you’re flattered, and with the other, you’re slapped across the face.

GS: At least they got the attribution right in Wilton Manors.

HF: That’s lovely, it really is lovely. It’s a lovely thing to see something link that. I was watching some interview with Billy Porter and as if by accident, they walked down the block where there was a mural on the side of a building of his portrait. As if, “Oh, I didn’t know that was there!” You sort of laugh, like, yeah, right! You brought a film crew because you didn’t know your picture was there on the wall [laughs]. That sort of stuff of celebrity is always funny. Especially when you have friends who are famous and you try to just be human beings together, but then you go out in public, and you realize that they mean a whole other thing to the public than to you.

If You’re Able, Please Donate All donations go directly to the Clinic!

University of Iowa Health Care - LGBTQ Clinic Iowa City- The UI Health Care LGBTQ Clinic opened in 2012 under the directorship of Dr. Nicole Nisly, Professor of Internal Medicine, and Dr. Katie Imborek, Associate Professor of Family Medicine. The LGBTQ Clinic started out with a Tuesday evening Clinic at Iowa River Landing and was financially housed in the Department of Internal Medicine. In the past 8.5 years since its inception, the “clinic” has expanded beyond the Department of Internal Medicine and follows the providers and staff whenever and wherever they are seeing patients. The core team consists of four primary care providers (two in Internal Medicine and two in Family Medicine), one pediatric endocrinologist, one PharmD, and multiple registered nurses and medical assistants.

As UI Health Care has added expanded services specifically for transgender patients, they have grown their secondary team to include gynecology providers, urologists, plastic surgeons, oral surgeons, dermatologists, speech therapists, child psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists, and even law professors and students. The majority of persons involved in the care of LGBTQ patients at UIHC are providers and employed clinical and non-clinical staff. They have a number of volunteers including medical students and resident physicians who spend time shadowing providers outside of their mandated clinical time in hopes of garnering the necessary knowledge to care for patients identifying as LGBTQ dermatologists, speech therapists, child psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists, and even law professors and students. The majority of persons involved in the care of LGBTQ patients at UIHC are providers and employed clinical and non-clinical staff. They have a number of volunteers including medical students and resident physicians who spend time shadowing providers outside of their mandated clinical time in hopes of garnering the necessary knowledge to care for patients identifying as LGBTQ in a medically competent and culturally humble way.

How You Can Make a Difference Like all philanthropic funds related to UI Health Care, federal law prohibits the provision of direct patient services (such as money toward medications, surgical procedures, etc). However, funds can be used to support additional training and education for providers through LGBTQ-focused conferences. Additionally, it could be used to fund a position such as a social worker or care navigator to help assist LGBTQ patients through the complex care system of insurance coverage, prior authorization, and specialty care.

Finally, we would hope to use the donations to directly impact patients in significant financial need that preclude their ability to purchase personal items that assist in their overall health and well-being. The majority of these items would be used by transgender and gender non-conforming persons-those who are the highest risk for health disparities and systemic discrimination.

Our Goal We hope to raise $10,000 to purchase items that would greatly reduce the gender dysphoria experienced by these individuals and increase their safety as they walk through a world that is largely ciscentric and heterosexist. In addition, we would hope to provide travel vouchers for LGBTQ patients who did not have the means to travel to the clinic for services. Thank you for helping us achieve our goal.

NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity working to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.

Photo’s provided by UIHC

www.CoralvillePrideFestival.com www.Facebook.com/OfficialCoralvillePrideFestival www.Twitter.com/ReachOutM www.issuu.com/goguideiowacity

Coralville Pride Festival 2022

“Set in Stone” Sponsorship Packet

Date: Sunday, September 4, 2022 Location: 1009 2nd Street, Coralville (Adjacent to GreenState Credit Union)

Time:1-8 pm

For Sponsorship Information Please Visit www.issuu.com/goguideiowacity

www.

CoralvillePrideFestival. com

Make a difference in our community with your support in PrideFest 2022.

Your sponsorship allows you to speak directly to the local LGBTQ+ communities and sets a positive example for all to follow.

Inclusion Equality Diversity Leadership Community

Coralville Pride Festival Announces 2022 Theme and New Sponsors The event will take place Sunday, September 4 at the Coralville GreenState Credit Union Location.

Coralville, IA - It takes an entire community to make an event like this happen, and Coralville Pride Festival wants to recognize this fact and thank the community for all of its support. Our 2022 theme is “Pride in Community.”

The Second Annual Coralville Pride Festival is happy to announce its first presenting sponsor. GreenState Credit Union. This sponsorship speaks highly of GSCU. It once again demonstrated its commitment to diversity and supporting the local community.

This sponsorship will allow the Festival to return to its preferred weekend of September, and the event will be outside! The support will also enable the possibility to grow even more prominent in its second year.

Coralville Pride Festival is also excited to announce that Miller Lite and Vizzy Hard Seltzer joining GreenState Credit Union in not only renewing for 2022 but increasing their financial commitment to this second-year event.

Also renewing in 2022 are iHeart Media CR|IC, City of Coralville, @ILoveGayIowa, and Hawkeye Title and Settlement. This is only the beginning.

“The commitment of the local community is overwhelming. We’re so appreciative and this is only th beginning” said executive director tim Nedoba The event in 2022 will be an outdoor festival (as originally envisioned), and the added space will be a full-sized beverage garden, food court, entertainment stage, and expanded information booth & vendor space. The Festival Village experience will be like no other LGBTQ+ fall event.

Coralville Pride Festival is a Reach Out Marketing, LLC Special Event (ROMLLC Events

www.CoralvillePrideFestival.com

Iowa House and Senate and Governor Kim Reynolds Signs Bill Pass Banning Girls and Women from Competing in Sports in Iowa Des Moines - The bill takes effect immediately, meaning trans girls who were allowed to play with their school teams just yesterday — are now not.

“Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity, and it’s completely unfair,” Reynolds said before the signing.

No equity problems arose when trans girls were freely allowed to play sports in Iowa, said Becky Smith, executive director of LGBTQ youth advocacy group Iowa Safe Schools, in a statement.

The bill was borne purely out of political motivation, Smith said. “The passage of this bill will directly result in increased suicidality, disparate mental health outcomes, and further isolation of trans children,” Smith said.

Legal challenges lie ahead for the Iowa Law States that have passed similar bans like Florida. West Virginia has faced lawsuits from national groups like the Human Rights Campaign and the ACLU. The U.S. Justice Department challenged a ban in West Virginia, saying it violates Title IX and the 14th Amendment.

According to the ACLU Iowa website: This cruel law violates the civil rights of transgender girls and women in our state. We should all agree that it’s vital for our schools to value, support, and protect our kids and young people who are transgender.

But the sad reality is that enacting this law does the opposite. Our legislators and the governor heard from vulnerable Iowa kids and their families about how vital participation in school sports is to them in living fully as themselves in all aspects of their lives.

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Finally, and most importantly, to the girls whose rights Governor Reynolds just took away, you know more than anyone that today is a hard day. But please also know that people all over the country are

behind you, believe in you, and value you for who you are. No law can ever take that away from you.”

State Representative and candidate for U.S. Congress in the first congressional district denounced Transgender Bill after the Iowa House of Representatives.

On Monday, the Iowa House voted on House File 2416, which would ban all transgender girls from participating in middle school, high school, and college sports. The Republicans argued that the bill is necessary because transgender girls, who were assigned male at birth but have transitioned or are transitioning to becoming female, have an unfair advantage over cisgender girls in athletics.

Of course, we all want girls’ and women’s athletics to be fair. Title IX was a tremendous milestone in this effort. However, a complete ban is far too broad – it is a sledgehammer where a more nuanced approach is needed. Transgender kids have been participating in sports in Iowa for 15 years with no documented cases of unfairness.

Schools and athletic associations constantly adapt and evolve policies to ensure fairness for all. We should allow them to continue this work without heavy-handed legislative intervention. This bill does real damage to transgender kids and their families. It also sends the message that Iowa is an unwelcoming place at a time when our declining population and workforce require attracting and retaining young people.

This bill also probably violates federal law. In a decision penned by the staunch conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch just a few years ago, the Supreme Court held that discrimination against transgender people constitutes unlawful discrimination “because of sex” under Title VII. The Court would likely adopt a similar interpretation for similar language in Title IX. Although there is an argument that gender equity in sports is a compelling state interest to warrant a different result in Title IX cases, it is difficult to see how a complete ban is narrowly tailored to achieve that interest. In short, a total ban on transgender kids in sports is probably unlawful because it is far more discriminatory than it needs to be to serve any legitimate state interest.

West Side Story Now Available on Disney+ “Five Stars” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian New York - Acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg presents an inspired reimagining of the beloved musical West Side Story. The film that critics celebrate as “electrifying” (Alonso Duralde, The Wrap) and “a total triumph” (Matt Goldberg, Collider) has been nominated for 7 Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress and 11 Critics’ Choice Awards.

West Side Story is also Certified-Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes™. Rejoice in the spectacular new choreography alongside the iconic songs – plus see astonishing all-new footage of Spielberg at work in documentary filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau’s revealing “The Stories of West Side Story” – by adding 20th Century Studios’ West Side Story to your musical collection on Digital March 2 and 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™ and DVD March 15.

Film Synopsis: Directed by Academy Award® Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award® winner Tony Kushner, “West Side Story” tells the classic tale of fierce rivalries and young love in 1957 New York City. This reimagining of the beloved musical stars Ansel Elgort (Tony); Ariana DeBose (Anita); David Alvarez (Bernardo); Mike Faist (Riff); Brian d’Arcy James (Officer Krupke); Corey Stoll (Lieutenant Schrank); Josh Andrés Rivera (Chino); with Rita Moreno (as Valentina, who owns the corner store in which Tony works); and introducing Rachel Zegler (Maria.) Moreno – one of only three artists to be honored with Academy®, Emmy®, GRAMMY®, Tony® and Peabody Awards – also serves as one of the film’s executive producers.

Bringing together the best of both Broadway and Hollywood, the film’s creative team includes Kushner, who also served as an executive producer; Tony Award® winner Justin Peck, who choreographed the musical numbers in the film; renowned Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor and GRAMMY Award® winner Gustavo Dudamel, who helmed the recording of the iconic score; Academy Award®-nominated composer and conductor David Newman (“Anastasia”), who arranged the score, Tony Award®-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (“Fun Home,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie”), who supervised the cast on vocals; and GRAMMY®-nominated music supervisor Matt Sullivan (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Chicago”), who serves as executive music producer for the film. The film is produced by Spielberg, p.g.a., Academy Award®-nominated producer Kristie Macosko Krieger, p.g.a. and Tony Award®-winning producer Kevin McCollum. “West Side Story” has been adapted for the screen from the original 1957 Broadway show. Original choreography by Jerome Robbins, based on the stage play, book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, play conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, music by Leonard Bernstein.

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards® including Best Picture!

Bring Home Steven Spielberg’s masterful reimagining of West Side Story on Digital March 2 and 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™ and DVD March 15.

West Side Story will also be available on Disney+ starting March 2.

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3/2022

GAY WINE WEEKEND SONOMA - NEW DATES FOR 2022 - July 15-17 A Weekend of Wine & Celebration in California Wine Country To Benefit Face to Face, Sonoma County HIV/AIDS NETWORK

Sonoma, Ca – Out In The Vineyard is proud to announce GAY WINE WEEKEND 2022 in California Wine Country is back – Featuring the TWILIGHT T-DANCE, a weekend of wine & celebration, benefiting Face to Face, Sonoma County HIV/AIDS Network.

Gay Wine Weekend 2022 will take place July 15 through July 17 in Sonoma County, California.

“After a 2-year absence due to Covid we are thrilled to be back with a full weekend of Food, Wine, and Wine Country.” Says Out In The Vineyard owner, Gary Saperstein. “We will be following all guidelines that are in place at the time of the event. We are fortunate that the weekend takes place in the summer months when most events will be at outside venues.”

Chateau St. Jean Winery once again will host the Twilight T-Dance, the signature event of the three-day weekend. Featuring a selection of their wines in one of the most stunning Wine Country settings.

Gay Wine Weekend includes three full days of LGBT events in Northern California’s magnificent Sonoma & Napa Valleys - home to some of the world’s most prestigious wine & wineries. Celebrate with world class wine and culinary delights, VIP receptions, wine tasting excursions, a Drag Queen brunch and wine auction, the Twilight T- Dance at California’s iconic Chateau St. Jean Winery and a Pool Soiree along with After Parties to celebrate community.

VIP All Access Party Passes and Individual Tickets are now on sale.

Full details and Ticket Information: https://www.outinthevineyard.com/gay-wine-weekend-2022 About OUT IN THE VINEYARD Out In The Vineyard is an experiential Wine Country Event and Travel company promoting positive LGBT lifestyles and offering exclusive, luxury itineraries and events in Wine Country for the discriminating gay traveler and their friends! www.outinthevineyard.com or www.facebook.com/outinthevineyard