Issue 1 volume 17 May 22 - June 4

LGBTQSD.NEWS

MAY 22 - JUNE 4, 2020 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 17

MAY 22 - JUNE 4, 2020 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 17

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LGBTQSD.NEWS

ENTERTAINMENT

COMMUNITY VOICES

The Unlikely History of a Gay Porn Landmark with Filmmaker Rachel Mason P11 Lady Gaga Releases ‘Chromatica’ Album P13

Conversations with Nicole P7

Janelle Monáe Doesn’t Know Time Either, A Candid Talk with the Performer P14

Sauce Up your Life with a Touch of Japanese Flavors P16

Life Beyond Therapy P8

Big Mike & Friends P9

District Attorney News Don’t Get Scammed Out of your Stimulus Check P6

Out of the Archives P10

OPINION

Creep of the Week: The Republican Party P18

Recommended Reading List Honoring the LGBTQ+ Soldier Experience P5

TODD GLORIA

ASSEMBLES UNPRECEDENTED COALITION TO GET SAN DIEGANS BACK TO WORK AND RESTART LOCAL ECONOMY

W

(Photography courtesy of Netflix)

ith the city of San Diego experiencing significant economic impacts due to COVID-19, California Assembly member Todd Gloria (D-San Diego), San Diego mayoral candidate, announced today that he has brought together a broad coalition to create an economic recovery blueprint for San Diego.

The task force, dubbed “Back to Work SD,” is an impressive array of elected officials, industry leaders, and community members — signifying the united coalition of support ready and willing to work with Gloria to lead San Diego through this crisis.

Todd Gloria continues on Page 4

PATTI LUP ONE A COMEBACK IN QUARANTINE

STAGE ICON TALKS HOLLYWOOD, HER BASEMENT VIDEOS AND WHY ‘LADIES WHO LUNCH’ WILL NEVER BE THE SAME

By Chris Azzopardi

READ ALL OF IT ON PAGE P1

THE IMPORTANT HISTORY OF

MEMORIAL DAY

A LOT MORE THAN JUST THE START OF THE SUMMER SEASON

M

emorial Day is a national holiday observed on the last Monday in May. It honors members of the United States military who died while serving our country.

By Paula J. Luttrell Memorial Day continues on Page 5

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COVER STORY

LGBTQSD.NEWS

PATTI LUP ONE

STAGE ICON TALKS HOLLYWOOD, HER BASEMENT VIDEOS AND WHY ‘LADIES WHO LUNCH’ WILL NEVER BE THE SAME

By Kathie Moehlig

I

n Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood,” the wife becomes the boss, the “black screenwriter” is simply a screenwriter, and the gay leading man is just himself.

Naturally, it stars Broadway icon Patti Lu-Pone, who, in conversations like the one we had recently, thrives on brazen authenticity.

In the seven-episode Netflix series, LuPone portrays Avis Amberg, the wife of a studio head whose work is relegated to the kitchen. But not for long, thanks to Murphy’s 1940s corrective where power dynamics shift in favor of the underdogs and outsiders in this alternate reality, a fantasy depiction of Tinseltown’s Golden Age reimagined as diverse, inclusive and unabashedly queer.

That LuPone, 71, portrays a grand Hollywood dame and housewife-turnedstudio head — in, of course, only the most glam fur-fringed couture — should be no surprise given how she’s been commanding the stage through a variety of extravagant personas for a half century. In 1979, as Eva Perón, she won her first Tony for “Evita”; her second win came in 2008, for her portrayal of Rose in “Gypsy.” She’s also been nominated for roles in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “War Paint,” “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and “Anything Goes.”

On Broadway is where she was throwing back martinis in Stephen Sondheim’s 1970 musical “Company,” as Joanne, until the pandemic lockdown forced theaters to shut down.

Now quarantined in rural Connecticut with her husband, Matthew Johnston, and son Josh, Lu-Pone has been doling out delicious bits on social media. In one video she posted to Twitter, she channeled Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard,” making a dramatic entrance from her base-ment steps (when Glenn Close got the role for the Broadway run of the show in 1994,

LuPone said she reacted by trashing a dressing room). Other at-home videos of LuPone involve her giv-ing aptly chaotic, hungover tours of her treasurefilled basement.

When we connect via phone, I tell LuPone that she might actually be happy that, for once, this conversation is occurring between phone lines, not on Zoom. “You’re right,” she says, roaring with laughter. “It really is the Brady Bunch.”

Do you have any more basement videos in the works?

My problem right now is focus and structure. If I don’t do something in the morning, I’m in bed till 4:30 in the afternoon. So, my kid — we’ve come up with a couple more. We just have to get down to it. We have to get up in the morning and go, “OK, now we’re gonna do the video.” We have two plans. So we’ll see.

The problem, Chris, is it has to be spontaneous. It’s the only way it’s funny. The day after my birthday when I was so hungover, I went, half-asleep, (slurring, drowsy) “Let’s … go … make … a … video, I’m ... re–a–dy.” (Laughs.)

If it weren’t for COVID-19, you’d be throwing back martinis on Broadway in ‘Company.’ So, I’m happy to hear you’re still throwing back martinis — or something!

Well, last night we had frozen strawberry daiquiris, but that was really the first time, because I was texting with a friend of mine and she said, “Go have a daiquiri,” and I went, “You know what?

That sounds like a good idea.” And we seem to have all the fixings for it! So my kid made daiquiris for my husband, himself and me. Then I had red wine, which wasn’t too smart. What I’m drinking a lot of right now is red wine.

And I’m just trying … you know it’s really easy to let yourself go!

Have you completely let yourself go?

No! No! I’m holding it together. I have to! (Laughs.) Years ago, a friend of mine, when he was on unemployment, I said, “What are you doing, Tony?” He said I’m preparing for my comeback! So, Chris, I’m prepping my comeback!

You made me teary when you recently sang ‘Anyone Can Whistle’ for Stephen Sondheim’s virtual 90th birthday party. Do you like performing virtually?

What was difficult about it was the technical aspect. My kid was filming it and I had one AirPod in and I’m going, “I can’t really hear,” and then my kid said, “You’re pitchy,” and I was like, “What do you mean I’m pitchy? I’m never pitchy!”

There’s always the fear that, you know, you’re gonna sound like shit.

And Stephen’s thanking everybody who partook, and I wrote him back and I said, “The rub is that we all wish we could’ve done better.” It’s true. I’m sure everybody thought, “Damn, if only I was in costume and makeup and on the stage at the philharmonic with a full orchestra behind me.”

You were singing ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’ in ‘Company,’ which Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald performed during that same birthday celebration.

What did you think of their version?

(Explodes into a thunderous, dragged out cackle.) When it was over, I went, “I’ll never be able to sing ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ again!”

Yeah? Because they set the bar?

No. I don’t think they set the bar — I think they trashed the number!

They set the bar for trashing the number?

Yeah, exactly! That’s what I think! I mean, I say that with great humor, but I’m not going to be able to sing it without thinking of them doing it. (Laughs.)

This is all joke, by the way! This is all humor!

Let’s talk about ‘Hollywood.’ Does it feel good to be part of a project that’s beaming with hopefulness in a time when hope seems harder and harder to find?

Yes, yes, yes. And I hope that is translated across the board. It’s hard.

It’s really, really hard. I mean, I’m having a hard time. We all are. I’m not unique. And my problem is, I don’t know who to believe anymore. I’m so confused by what everybody’s saying.

It’s just … I just … ahh. And you can’t stick your head in the sand because any minute now we’ll be “hi Hitler”-ing (President Trump). So I’m just really confused. I’m confused, I’m lost.

So how do you keep your mind straight? By drinking strawberry daiquiris?

(Laughs.) How do I keep my mind straight? That’s the question! Because my problem has been structure, and I’m the kind of person that goes, “OK, you have to be on the set or you have to be at the theater — OK, great. I know what my schedule is.” But without a schedule, I’m lost. I’m going, “I don’t know what to do.” I guess I am my work.

For structure, what’s the first thing you do in the morning?

I started working out remotely with my trainer. Just to do something, just to feel like something is done. And then as soon as the weather gets really nice, I’m gonna walk up our road, which is part of a mountain, and walk back down. And I have shows coming up, unless they’re going to be canceled, in January. I haven’t done them in a

COVER STORY

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(Photography courtesy of Netflix)

course, it’s the most stunning era for women. Every time I would go to a cos-tume fitting, I was reeling with delight because the stuff was stunning. You feel so glamorous in that time period. I felt really, really glamorous, and I’m just thrilled.

I’ll tell you, even though I knew from a very early age that I was born for the Broadway musical stage, I was one of those kids who wanted to go to Hollywood and be a movie star. Who doesn’t? If you’re in the business, who doesn’t want to be a movie star, especially when you go to a movie theater and see your idols up on the silver screen? When I was 12, I saw Disney’s “Swiss Family Robinson” with Tommy Kirk and marched out of that movie theater determined to go to Hollywood and be his leading lady. At 12! while, so what I started to do, because the weather still isn’t that great where I am right now, I’m listening to the shows that I have to sing in January, just to remember them. I haven’t sung them in a while.

Then I’ll feel like I’ve accomplished something in the day and it hasn’t been — this is our lives! And our lives are being wasted! Not that work is the only thing, but if we can’t figure out what to do in the time that we have been given, that’s pathetic! It’s a blessing, really!

If you were running Hollywood right now, what changes would you make?

I would listen to the artists; I would listen to the writers.

And I would not greenlight pictures be-cause of statistics.

I would ignore the statistics, and I would greenlight films and television shows that I thought were going to be beneficial for education and for parents as opposed to, “Well, that was a big hit; let’s make 9,000 more of those Marvel comics.”

Would you let them make another ‘Mamma Mia!’ movie?

(Deliberates, speaks flatly, deadpans.) No. We don’t need a third?

I hate ABBA. I have always hated ABBA. I will not go see “Mamma Mia!” because I hate AB-BA. And I’ve hated ABBA since I was a kid, because I’m a closet rocker; when ABBA came out, I went, “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding.” My favorite

band is The Band, and so if you’re a rocker, and if you’re a rocker and The Band is your favorite band and ABBA comes along, there’s no way. And so I don’t support ABBA at all.

So you haven’t even seen the ‘Mamma Mia!’ movies?

No. Can’t support ABBA! Is ‘Hollywood’ the gayest thing you’ve ever been a part of?

Is it? Let me think.

Consider that pool party scene — all those naked men, penises hanging out.

Yeah! And the thing that was kind of distressing to me when I was shooting it was: Why am I going home?! Why is Avis going home?!

Yeah. Why doesn’t Avis get to go to the party?

(Feigns weeping.) Why couldn’t she just sit there and ogle the penises? No. I go home early.

Didn’t you talk to Ryan about that?

Trust me, I thought about that. But no, I didn’t. That was in the script and I went, “OK, I gotta leave the party.” But I’m trying to think — is that the gayest thing? Maybe it is. I’m trying to think of anything I’ve done. I can’t remember anything that I do and that I’ve done. Maybe. I don’t know.

That party that Avis doesn’t get to go to — have you ever gone to an industry party like that in your life?

No. I mean, I’ve gone to pool parties with tons of Broadway dancers who were gay, but they kept their clothes on.

That seems less fun.

Well, their bodies were incredible to look at, but they were all clothed. Well, barely clothed! Everybody had a speedo on!

If someone decides to reimagine your life in 70 years, what parts of it would you ask that they keep factually intact and which parts would you allow them to reimagine?

All of it! I think they should keep it all factually intact! It’s been a rebellious life. And it’s been interesting. I hope it’s not over — the rebellion part, and the interesting part. No — they don’t have to reimagine anything. It’s been a lot of fun.

You’ve turned down diva roles in the past, like one that Ryan offered you on ‘Glee.’ Avis does have some diva qualities, though.

What about her diva-ness made you say yes to playing her?

I hadn’t read any scripts when Ryan pitched it to me.

All Ryan said was that I was going to be the wife of a studio head and I would inherit the studio and make movies for gays, minorities and women.

That’s all he told me. But Ryan is such a champion, and I’m not offered a lot of roles, and I’m not going to turn down Ryan or a role that he offers me. He expanded the role for me in the process, and of

To be challenging the patriarchy like Avis does — was that cathartic for you?

Yeah, I think so. Any time a woman gets to push back on any kind of male authority, it’s cathar-tic. Push back and succeed. But I seem to have done that all my life, just in life, and then in my career.

But I’ve always kind of pushed back because authority needs to be explained to me. I need to understand, “Why do you have authority?” If it’s something you want me to do as a hu-man being, I’ll do it; but if you are authoritarian about it, I need to understand why.

When in your career have you felt slighted or like you didn’t get what you deserved be-cause you’re a woman?

Hmm. A lot of times. I would say the majority of my career — not necessarily on the musical stage. You know, I think I got what I deserve as far as roles are concerned. I think I’ve had a var-ied career.

But in the development of them, I think that I’ve been stifled because I was a woman.

The opinion that you have is not valued because you’re a woman. That kind of stuff. I’ve always questioned authority and I’ve always spoken up for what I perceived as injustice.

Always. I think it’s just in my DNA. That’s just how I thought. And it has nothing to do with being a woman or a man — it has to do with me being Patti.

It was different to watch you have that rough sex

scene with actor David Corenswet be-cause I was like, “Oh, wait — we don’t typically see this.” We don’t get to see a woman over 50 go at it in full view like you two do.

Yeah!

Did you relish that moment because for whatever stupid reason it’s still so rare to see that onscreen?

Yep, are you kidding?

Gimme more Gina, as they say! I had a sex scene with Dylan McDermott that was rougher but that was cut!

Yeah. That was sad. (Laughs.)

What advice did the intimacy coach give you? How does that even work?

He was a great guy. And he was always there to make us comfortable. I don’t know what other intimacy coaches do, but I don’t think I need an intimacy coach. I think I know what I’m doing. I’m certainly not uncomfortable, and if I was uncomfortable, I would talk to the director or the actor I was working with. As long as the coaches don’t interfere with acting, I’m fine with them. But if they start to interpret for us, then I’m not happy.

As we near the upcoming presidential election, I was curious: What advice do you have for LGBTQ people who struggle with the fact that some of their family members are still sup-porting and voting for Trump?

Oh, I’m having a real hard time with that, Chris. I don’t have family members necessarily that I discuss it with, so I don’t know if they do. But I have close friends and I actually had to cut one loose. It’s heartbreaking. But I’m thinking of my own mental health and I’m not going to get into an argument with anybody about that piece. Of. Shit. I’m just not. I can’t. I have very dear friends, they’re Republicans; it’s really hard. It’s really hard to talk to people. I don’t even want to talk to these people.

As editor of Q Syndicate, the LGBTQ wire service, Chris Azzopardi has interviewed a multitude of superstars, including Cher, Meryl Streep, Mariah Carey and Beyoncé. His work has also ap-peared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, GQ and Billboard. Reach him via Twitter @chrisazzopardi.

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NEWS

LGBTQSD.NEWS

Todd Gloria continued from Page 1

Images of Todd Gloria volunteering at the St. Paul’s Senior Services (courtesy photos)

“The next mayor has to have a real plan and productive relationships with local leaders, experts, and community members in order to get San Diegans back to work and kick-start our local economy. Rebuilding and moving forward requires us to come together and that’s what ‘Back to Work SD’ is about,” said Assembly member Gloria. “While public health guidelines must dictate the timing of this process and the full opening of San Diego’s economy is still some time away, we have to start preparing now.”

Congressman Scott Peters and Paola Avila, vice president of International Business Affairs at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, will serve as the task force’s co-chairs.

“This coalition represents a united San Diego that only Todd Gloria can bring together,” said Congressman Peters. “From workers to small business owners, it’s clear that Todd is the person people trust and believe can lead San Diego through the pandemic and back to some sense of normalcy.”

In the coming weeks, the task force will convene to discuss concrete strategies and policies to rebuild San Diego’s local economy and create jobs/return San Diegans to work. The group intends to publish a formal blueprint within the next few months.

Gloria is a former San Diego City Council member, City Council president, and interim mayor. He served as the city’s Budget Committee chairman for six years. Currently, he serves as the California Assembly member for the 78th District and is the majority whip of the state Assembly. If elected San Diego’s mayor, Gloria will be the first person of color and the first LGBT person elected mayor in city history.

Gloria’s Back to Work SD task force consists of the following members (titles and organizations used for identification purposes only): • U.S. Congressman Scott Peters (CA-52) • California Treasurer Fiona Ma • San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher • San Diego Unified School Board member Richard Barrera • Dr. Cheryl Anderson, professor and interim chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, UC San Diego School of Medicine • Jason Anderson, renewable energy/clean technology advocate • Paola Avila, vice president of International Business Affairs, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce • Dr. Tahir Bhatti, wellness physician, UC San Diego Health • Phil Blair, executive officer, Manpower HR Staffing • Janice Brown, chief strategy officer, Brown Law Group • Mark Cafferty, CEO, San Diego Economic Development Corporation • Bill Fulton, urban planner • Dr. Alan Gin, economist, University of San Diego • Jay Goldstone, former COO, city of San Diego • Dr. Kyra Greene, executive director, Center on Policy Initiatives • Mikey Knab, restauranteur • Keith Maddox, executive secretary treasurer, San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council • Ari Matusiak, former White House director of Private Sector Engagement (2011-14) • Namara Mercer, executive director, San Diego Lodging Association • Dr. Fadi Nicolas, chief medical officer, Sharp Behavioral Health Services • Jason Paguio, president/CEO, Asian Business Association San Diego • Maya Rosas, director of policy, Circulate San Diego • Dr. Dara Schwartz, lead psychologist, Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital • Admiral Dixon Smith (ret), EVP, R.E. Staite Engineering, Inc. • Jason M-B Wells, San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce • David Wescoe, former CEO, San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System • Angie and Jon Weber, Cowboy Star/California Restaurant Association

Curbside pick up

LGBTQSD.NEWS

NEWS

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Memorial Day continued from Page 1

RECOMMENDED READING LIST HONORING THE LGBTQ+ SOLDIER EXPERIENCE Originally known as Decoration Day, it began in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans usually observe the occasion by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings or participating in parades. It is the unofficial start of the summer season!

The Civil War ended in 1865 and claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history. It resulted in the establishment of our first national cemeteries.

One of the first Memorial Day celebrations was held by a group of freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, less than a month after the confederacy surrendered in 1865.

In 1966, the federal government declared Waterloo, New York as the official birthplace of Memorial Day. It was chosen because every year since 1866, it has hosted a community-wide event while businesses stayed closed and residents decorated soldiers’ graves with flowers and flags. Many Northern states followed in this tradition, but Southern states honored their dead on separate days until after World War I. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and some parts of South Carolina still practice Confederate Memorial Day in April.

The holiday originally honored only those lost in the Civil War. But after World War I, it evolved to include that war, and now commemorates veterans taken by World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cities and towns across America usually celebrate by holding parades including military personnel and veterans organizations. The largest of these take place in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. One of the most moving tributes on Memorial Day is the laying of the wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The cemetery is on the banks of the Potomac River directly opposite Washington, D.C. This has been a tradition for 152 years, beginning in 1868. It serves as a stark reminder of the beauty and brevity of life.

In San Diego, Memorial Day will not look the same this year. But we can still barbecue and hoist a flag! Most importantly, we must remember the true meaning of the day and the military heroes it honors.

FIGHTING PROUD: The Untold Story of the Gay Men Who Served in Two World Wars

By Stephen Bourne In this astonishing new history of wartime Britain, historian Stephen Bourne unearths the fascinating stories of the gay men who served in the armed forces and at home, and brings to light the great unheralded contribution they made to the war effort. “Fighting Proud” weaves together the remarkable lives of these men, from Royal Air Force hero Ian Gleed — a flying ace twice honored for bravery by King George VI — to the infantry officers serving in the trenches on the Western Front in WWI — many of whom led the charges into machine-gun fire only to find themselves court-martialed after the war for indecent behavior. Behind the lines, Alan Turing’s work on breaking the “enigma machine” and subsequent persecution contrasts with the many stories of love and courage in Blitzed-out London, with new wartime diaries and letters unearthed for the first time. Bourne tells the bitterly sad story of Ivor Novello, who wrote the WWI anthem “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” and the crucial work of Noel Coward — who was hated by Hitler for his work entertaining the troops. “Fighting Proud” also includes a wealth of long-suppressed wartime photography subsequently ignored by mainstream historians.

This book is a monument to the bravery, sacrifice and honor shown by a persecuted minority, who contributed during Britain’s hour of need.

SOLDIER OF THE YEAR

By Jose Zuniga In March of 1993, the Army pronounced Gulf War veteran Sgt. Jose Zuniga the 1992 Soldier of the Year. Six weeks later, Zuniga’s military career ended when he revealed that he was gay. This is an intensely personal account of the homophobia and hypocrisy that pervades the American military.

GAYS AND THE MILITARY: Joseph Steffan versus the United States

By Joseph Steffan In April 1987, Joseph C. Steffan, one of the 10 highest-ranking midshipmen in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy, and only six weeks from graduation, was denied his diploma and forced to resign his commission because he answered “Yes, sir” to the question, “I’d like your word, are you a homosexual?”

Six years later his cause, and that of other gay men and lesbians seeking to serve their country by enlistment in the military, has become the subject of intense national controversy. This unusual and innovative work, based on the litigation strategy and court papers filed in the case of Joseph C. Steffan v. Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense, et al., brings the resources of clinical psychiatry, clinical and social psychology, cultural history and political science to bear upon the fundamental questions at issue: How is sexual orientation determined? How and why have socially prejudiced stereotypes about male and female homosexuals developed? Why have gays faced special obstacles in defending themselves against discrimination? How much political power do gays have?

CONDUCT UNBECOMING: Gays & Lesbians in the U.S. Military

By Randy Shilts Published during the same year the American military instituted “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and 18 years before President Barack Obama repealed it, “Conduct Unbecoming” is a landmark work of social justice and a searing indictment of the military establishment’s historic bigotry toward its gay servicemen and women. Randy Shilts’s eye-opening book describes the bravery, both exceptional and everyday, not only of gay soldiers throughout history, but also of gay men and women serving in our modern military. With each anecdote and investigation, Shilts systematically dismantles the arguments against allowing gays to serve in the military.

BARRACK BUDDIES AND SOLDIER LOVERS: Dialogues with Gay Young Men in the U.S. Military (Haworth Gay and Lesbian Studies)

By Steven Zeeland Among all the literature published on gays in the military, Steven Zeeland’s first book remains one of a kind. “Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers” is a raw, unsanitized personal record of conversations the author had with young soldiers and airmen stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. Zeeland’s intimate involvement with these men enabled him to document in honest, visceral terms the day-to-day reality of gay military men’s lives and how they work, play, and, in many instances, how the military actually helped them come out.

Ironically, despite the military’s antigay policies, these men found that military service placed them in environments where they had to come to terms with their erotic feelings for other men, and sent them overseas to places where they found greater freedom to explore their sexuality than they could have back home. While a few of Zeeland’s buddies were targeted for discharge, most portray an atmosphere of sexually tense tolerance and reveal a surprising degree of openness with straight co-workers and roommates.

WARRIOR PRINCESS: A U.S. Navy SEAL’s Journey to Coming out Transgender

By Kristin Beck Chris Beck played high school football. He bought a motorcycle, much to his mother’s dismay, at age 17. He grew up to become a U.S. Navy SEAL, serving our country for 20 years on 13 deployments, including seven combat deployments, and ultimately earned a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. To everyone who saw him, he was a hero. A warrior. A man.

But underneath his burly beard, Chris had a secret, one that had been buried deep inside his heart since he was a little boy — one as hidden as the pantyhose in the back of his drawer. He was transgender, and the woman inside needed to get out.

This is the journey of a girl in a man’s body and her road to self-actualization as a woman amidst the PTSD of war, family rejection and our society’s strict gender rules and perceptions. It is about a fight to be free inside one’s own body, a fight that requires the strength of a “Warrior Princess.”

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PUBLIC SERVICE / OPINION

LGBTQSD.NEWS

LGBTQ San Diego County News PO Box 34664 San Diego, CA 92163 858.886.9458 PUBLISHER Terry Sidie

DISTRICT ATTORNEY NEWS

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Nicole Murray Ramirez nicolemrsd1@gmail.com 619-241-5672

Summer Stephan

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Cesar A. Reyes creativedirector@lgbtqsd.news

—District Attorney Summer Stephan has dedicated more than 29 years to serving justice and victims of crime as prosecutor.

She is a national leader in fighting sex crimes and human trafficking and in creating smart and fair criminal justice solutions and restorative justice practices that treat the underlying causes of addiction and mental illness and that keep young people from being incarcerated.

A

s your district attorney, I’m committed to increasing communication and accessibility between the DA’s office and you, the community. One way I have been doing that is through this monthly column, where I provide consumer tips on public safety matters.

For the most part, difficult times bring people together. But for dishonest actors, uncertain times equals dollar signs and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. With Americans receiving up to $1,200 in stimulus funds, scammers have already began devising ways to swindle folks from their money.

As stimulus checks begin arriving by mail and direct deposit, it’s important to be on the lookout for common scam strategies. Fake social media messages, phony calls, and bogus websites are common ways swindlers try to take money from victims. By being alert and recognizing the strategies scammers use, you can keep your money in your bank account.

THE IRS WILL NOT CONTACT YOU: • If you receive a phone call claiming to be from the IRS, it is a scam. The IRS will not contact you by phone and will not ask for any information in order for you to receive a stimulus check.

•You are not required to pay money in advance in order to receive your stimulus check.

Anyone claiming that you need to deposit money into a bank account is trying to scam you.

EDITOR editor@lgbtqsd.news

(Photo by rawpixels.com)

DON’T GET SCAMMED OUT OF YOUR STIMULUS CHECK

•If you need to set up direct deposit for your stimulus check, communicate directly with the IRS at irs.gov/coronavirus BEWARE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGES AND PHONE CALLS: •There is no government agency that will contact you through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

•Any social media messages claiming to be from the IRS, or any government agency, are fake.

•The number of scam calls and messages are likely to increase during the pandemic now that scammers know many Americans will be getting a stimulus check.

•Even if a phone number looks legitimate, such as from a local area code, remain cautious as scammers can “spoof” fake numbers in order to appear more believable.

The stimulus check process is automatic: •Scammers may send you phony links asking you to fill out a form, give out personal information, or pay an amount of money in advance.

However, the stimulus check is processed automatically, so anyone asking you to volunteer any information is trying to scam you.

•Furthermore, there are no processing fees for the stimulus check. Anyone asking you to pay fees before getting paid is lying.

•You cannot pay to speed up the process. Anyone who claims you can is not being truthful.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN SCAMMED: •Report it as soon as possible. Reporting the crime as soon as you can will give you a greater chance of stopping the culprits.

•Report stimulus funds theft to the California Attorney General or the Federal Trade Commission.

We are all dealing with enough, the last thing we should have to worry about during this pandemic is someone stealing the assistance we so badly need. By keeping these tips in mind, you can be better prepared to identify and prevent scams.

SALES sales@lgbtqsd.news STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Big Mike Phillips Bmsd1957@gmail.com 619-807-7324 COPY EDITOR Dustin Lothspeich WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA info@lgbtq.news CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Big Mike Phillips Chris Azzopardi Dana Wiegand D’Anne Witkowski Michael Kimmel Paula J. Luttrell Summer Stephan

DISTRIBUTION LGBTQ San Diego County News is distributed free every other Friday of the month. © 2020. All rights reserved.

OPINION/LETTERS LGBTQ San Diego County News encourages letters to the editor and guest editorials. Please email them directly to editor@lgbtqsd.news and include your name, phone number and address for verification. We reserve the right to edit letters for brevity and accuracy. Letters and guest editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers or staff.

SUBMISSION/NEWS TIPS Press releases and story ideas are welcomed. Send press releases, tips, photos or story ideas to editor@lgbtqsd.news. For breaking news and Investigative story ideas, contact the editor by phone or email.

Copyright © 2020 LGBTQ San Diego County News Editor’s Note: The opinions written in this publication’s editorial and opinion pages are the author’s own and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the staff and/or publisher of LGBTQ San Diego County News. The newspaper and its staff should be held harmless of liability or damages.

COMMUNITY VOICES

LGBTQSD.NEWS

MAY 22 - JUNE 4, 2020 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 17

Conversations with Nicole Nathan Fletcher and the HRC victory Nicole Murray Ramirez —Nicole Murray Ramirez has been writing a column since 1973. He has been a Latino/gay activist for almost half a century and has advised and served the last seven mayors of San Diego. Named the ‘Honorary Mayor of Hillcrest’ by a city proclamation, he has received many media awards including from the prestigious San Diego Press Club. Reach Nicole at Nicolemrsd1@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @Nmrsd2.

Nathan Fletcher

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There are many people in our communities across North America who live alone, be they single or seniors (especially many LGBTQ seniors), so we launched our “Reach Out and Touch Someone” project encouraging and reminding people to check in on their friends regularly by phone, email, text.

hen Leon Williams became the first (and still only) San Diego County Supervisor of color, his chief of staff was Neil Good, a gay man who became the second openly gay candidate to run for public office (first was Al Best, second was Good, third was Chris Kehoe) and a past chair of the San Diego Democratic Party. It was under Williams’ term that he pushed for the establishment of the San Diego County Human Relations Commission, with Good being the main point man for its establishment.

Interestingly enough, years later, another gay man Tony Zampela would push Councilman John Hartley to establish a Human Relations Commission for the city. When Williams left the County Board of Supervisors, the conservative members of the board could not

wait to remove the commission and did so. San Diego County used to be the national headquarters of the American Nazi Party and there were many hate crimes happening in the county — and sadly, there are many still happening now. During the years after Leon left the board, I worked with Supervisor Ron Roberts and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis in efforts to reinstate this important commission that has included people of color, religious leaders and LGBTQ+ members. At every effort and after months of lobbying and major staff work of both Roberts and Dumanis over the following years, we could never again gain the third vote that was needed (there are five members of the Board of Supervisors).

Years later, the city of San Diego — with the leadership of Hartley and Zampela — established a Humans Relations Commission that continues to this day. I have had the honor to have been elected its chair for four terms. What I discovered was that more than half of the hate crime incidents were still being recorded with the county.

When Fletcher announced his candidacy for county supervisor, I immediately met with him and gave him the history of the county’s Human Relations Commission and he made a

commitment to me that one of his priorities would be to reinstate it and he and his staff (especially Susan Guinn) have been working on it since last year.

The recent incidents with Ku Klux Klan and Nazi facemasks in Santee, as well as last year’s shooting at the Chabad of Poway Jewish synagogue and other hate crime incidents against non-documented workers and asylum-seekers within San Diego County, brought more serious support on the County Board and because of Supervisor Fletcher’s intense work and leadership, history was made on Tuesday, May 19, when Fletcher received a unanimous vote in support of reinstating the San Diego County Human Relations Commission. It will now to be rightfully named after Leon Williams, who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting along with senior advocate Bill Kelly, LGBTQ Center Policy Director Rebekah Hook-Held, Councilman Chris Ward’s aide Tyler Renner, and myself. It is rare, especially nowadays, for politicians to keep their promises and commitments but Fletcher has been one of the rare exceptions since his days in the state Assembly when I first met him.

Our county...all communities owe him much for this historic victory that benefits all of us!

Happy Harvey Milk Birthday!

Mayor Kevin Faulconer

May 22 would have been Harvey Milk’s 90th birthday and the date of the 12th annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast of San Diego County (which had to be canceled). So here in San Diego, we are celebrating his birthday with color wreaths on all the Harvey Milk Street signs in Hillcrest and laying a wreath at his memorial bench in Balboa Park. Mayor Kevin Faulconer will lay the first wreat at the Harvey Milk Street sign. Also, this week Councilman Chris Ward and I are working on getting a plaque in his name dedicated at the Historic Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial (thank you for your work on this, Tyler Renner). I had a long talk with Harvey’s nephew, global human rights advocate Stuart Milk, and there will be more exciting announce-

ments coming from the Harvey Milk Foundation. I want to sincerely thank Eddie Rey (Equality Business Alliance), the Imperial Court, Cara Dessert, Rebekah Hook-Held and Carolina Ramos of the LGBTQ Center for all their help and support for the Rainbow Wreath Celebration at Harvey Milk Street and Milk Memorial Bench in Balboa Park!

UPDATE: USNS HARVEY MILK I had a good talk with officials of General Dynamics (NASSCO) here in San Diego and am happy to report that the building of the USNS Harvey Milk is right on schedule and the next official ceremony, “the laying of the keel,” should take place later this year — right on target!

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COMMUNITY VOICES

MAY 22 - JUNE 4, 2020 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 17

LGBTQSD.NEWS

‘LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19’ LIFE BEYOND THERAPY Michael Kimmel —Michael Kimmel is a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in helping LGBT clients achieve their goals and deal with anxiety, depression, grief, sexually addictive behavior, coming out, relationship challenges and homophobia.

Contact him at 619-955-3311 or visit lifebeyondtherapy.com.

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he title of this column was inspired by the novel “Love in the Time of Cholera,” written by Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, first published in Spanish in 1985 and in English in 1988. From my research, I discovered that seven cholera pandemics have occurred in the past 200 years, with the first pandemic originating in India in 1817 and more recent cholera pandemics in South America and Yemen.

Let’s talk about “Love in the Time of COVID-19.” During traumatic times like pandemics, we temporarily regress to levels of more primitive functioning. This, of course, makes life more difficult and stressful. We are — rightfully — worried about our present and future and our attitudes and behavior reflect that worry in a variety of ways. I notice that I crave sweets more than I did before the pandemic. Why? Because they feel comforting to me and, yes, I too have regressed. Therapists are not immune to human emotions! But perhaps the difference is that I am aware that I have regressed and I am working with it consciously, not allowing it to play out

(Photo by rawpixels.com)

“FIND WAYS TO LOVE YOUR PARTNER MORE DURING THE TIME OF COVID-19.

ASKING EACH OTHER, RIGHT NOW, TODAY, HOW CAN I LOVE YOU MORE?”

The Center

Is Here For You

With Food Programs!

The Center knows that food security is critical to the members of our LGBTQ community, especially now during COVID-19. The Center, in partnership with the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, continues to host two Center Food Banks per month to distribute nutritious and healthy food, using social distancing and safety protocols.

Food Banks are located in The Center’s parking lot at 3909 Centre Street, San Diego, CA 92103.

Neighborhood Food Distribution Tuesday, June 2, 2020 / 7:30am–10:30am The Center hosts a distribution for the ‘Community Cares Project’ of the San Diego Food Bank on the first Tuesday of each month.

Senior Food Bank Tuesday, June 23, 2020 / 12noon–3pm You are eligible if you are low-income and 60 years or older. You can simply enroll in the program by applying in person at our site on the day of the event, or by calling the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank at 866.350.3663. The Senior Food Bank takes place on the 4th Tuesday of every month.

For more information, visit the San Diego Food Bank website at www.sandiegofoodbank.org or contact Sarah Merk-Benitez at 619.692.2077 x214 or smerkbenitez@thecentersd.org.

The Center Emergency Services: • Emergency Referral & Help Desk • Behavioral Health Services by Zoom Health Care • Individual Program Meetings & Check-Ins via Zoom • Virtual Support Groups • Critical Housing Needs • HIV Testing by Appointment • Food Resources

If you need Emergency Services, please call The Center at 619.692.2077 x 211

The San Diego LGBT Community Center 3909 Centre Street • 619-692-2077 www.thecentersd.org

unconsciously and mess up my life (and waistline).

I notice that my clients who are living with their partners are, in many ways, having the hardest time with the pandemic. Being quarantined together, during a time of global crisis and uncertainty, is hard on any person, but when you’re doing it with your partner, it can be really rough on the relationship.

When we are coupled and we regress, we have someone right beside us, often 24/7, who is also regressed. When two people are both functioning at more primitive levels, who can “help” the other when both need to be helped? For example: with most couples, when one person has the flu but the other doesn’t, the healthy one can take care of the sick one.

But when both people have the flu? Uh oh! Who’s the loving caretaker now? This is where we are with the pandemic: who’s that kind, compassionate caretaker now, when both of us are scared, worried about health and finances, and likely working from home (or not working at all).

How can you work with this mutual regression? Find ways to love your partner more during the time of COVID-19.

Asking each other, “Right now, today, how can I love you more?” is a direct, loving way to find out. And when it’s your turn to answer the question, keep it reasonable (e.g., something your partner is actually capable of doing).

Making impossible requests like “You need to stop being so needy” or those that require major personality changes aren’t helpful.

And if you are alone and regressing, how can you love

yourself more during the time of COVID-19?

Do things that make your body happy: find movement it enjoys, treat it kindly, touch it gently, masturbate, get out in the sun, wear fabrics and textures that make your body feel safe and comfortable, eat things that your body likes — find a combination of food that makes your body happy (healthy) and food that your mind wants (comforting junk food). This will keep you from developing the “COVID-15” (pounds) while still enjoying some pleasantly junky food.

Do things that make your mind happy: watch movies/ videos that lift your spirits, limit your exposure to news/ social media, talk with friends, take some Zoom classes (there are so many to choose from) and read books that stimulate/ intrigue/comfort you. Go for walks and say hello to everyone you meet (socially distanced, of course) — it’s one of the few real-life types of social connections we can have right now. I find people are much friendlier now because we spend so much time at home, away from other people. In my neighborhood, I see so many people walking their dogs, and I often tell them, “What a great dog” (because I’m a dog lover, I don’t have to lie) and — boom — there’s an instant, human connection of sorts, made through a nice word about someone’s dog.

Whether you’re coupled or not, during the pandemic, you don’t have to be a victim of your own (or another’s) regression. Instead, you can — consciously — work with it and use it to actually make your life better. Try it and see for yourself.

COMMUNITY VOICES

LGBTQSD.NEWS

MAY 22 - JUNE 4, 2020 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 17

BIG MIKE AND FRIENDS Big Mike Phillips —Big Mike Phillips is an activist, fundraiser, bartender and photographer who has lived in San Diego for 30 years. He has helped create two nonprofits and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. He has been a photographer for more than 25 years and has recorded our LGBTQ history not only in San Diego but around the country, including three LGBTQ marches on Washington D.C. Contact Big Mike at 619-8077324, or bmsd1957@gmail.com.

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iving in San Diego for the past 30 years has profoundly changed my life in so many positive ways. I came here from San Antonio, Texas to be with my best friend in the world as he was dying of AIDS. It was during this time that I was introduced to so many HIV/AIDS organizations and charity groups. I had, for the very first time, witnessed such loving, kindness and compassion for others that I never saw in Texas. It was because of those dedicated people and organizations that my best friend was showed such dignity, whereas in Texas, he was literally put into a closet while he was in the hospital because the AIDS ward was full. San Diego was compassionate to him till the day he died by showing him comfort, caring and most of all, love.

I started my very first job at the Brass Rail as a bartender and quickly got to learn about the Imperial Court de San Diego and its members. Every Wednesday and Sunday nights, the Imperial Court would have a drag show to benefit the court system; in those early days, a lot of those shows still benefited the AIDS community. In fact, when Nigel Mayer and I co-founded our charity organization Ordinary Miracles, it was the Imperial Court that was one of our very first sponsors and continued to be until we ended it. After I joined the membership of the Imperial Court back in the 1990s and served three terms as board president, we stopped doing Ordinary Miracles.

It was during these years that I met one of our community’s hardest-working volunteers — in fact, we call each other brothers, me being the oldest and much wiser, of course (he would question that comment). Michael Lochner, who is a strong and no-nonsense kind of guy, with his snow-white hair, has grown in our community as a dependable and respected leader in our community as well as in the HIV/ AIDS community. The story of his love for the people he represents and works so hard to make sure they have a better life has become part of his legacy of his life here in San Diego. Most people who know Michael call him Mikie, taking the name Mikie Too after one of our most respected leaders and mentors of the Imperial Court, LaLa Too. He grew up in Rochester, New York in a family of seven siblings, and being the oldest of four boys and three girls is where he probably got his leadership skills. Growing up in such a large family comes with a lot of responsibilities as the first born. Raised in a strict Roman Catholic environment, he was still a strong-minded individual who found out at an early age that he had a voice and used it to stand up for what he strongly believed in. It was when he was 19, he came out to his family, but not in the way he had planned. He found himself using his voice then, which opened a new journey in his life, and he has never looked back since. In 1990, Mikie took a HIV test, but waited four years to hear the results.

In February 1994, he was told he was HIV-positive and by November of 1994, Mikie was diagnosed with AIDS. This began his career as an AIDS activist. Mikie told me his story about the first time he participated in the Rochester, New York AIDS Walk, where he was accompanied by one of his very close friends. During the

Michael Lochner

Gary and Mike

walk, a news reporter started harassing his friend to speak to the camera, which he did not feel comfortable doing. Mikie blurted out, “Leave him alone! He’s walking with me because I’m HIV-positive.” By the time Mikie got home, his Mom was waiting for him and she wasn’t too happy, saying: “Really Michael? Your grandfather saw you on the news. You couldn’t tell your family first? We had to learn this on the evening news?” That evening, Mikie outed himself as both being gay and HIV-positive to his family. His parents did not receive the news very well. In fact, one Sunday evening, Mikie found himself with his Mom and Dad, their best friends, the pastor of Holy Cross and one of the nuns sitting around the kitchen table. They had gathered to discuss his lifestyle and how him being gay and HIV-positive was not a part of God’s plan for him.

Well, that made Mikie decide it was time to move so he could be his honest self. He relocated to Deerfield Beach, Florida to give his parents and his family time to hopefully become more accepting — which they were over the years. After two years in Florida, he made his way back to Rochester.

In 1999, Mikie made the bold decision to move to San Diego to get a

fresh start. In fact, he jumped right into getting involved with the Ryan White Program process back in 2000.

In 2001, he joined the San Diego HIV Consumer Council, and a few years later became vice chair of the HIV Consumer Council. In 2009, Mikie joined the HIV Planning Council and in a short time, was elected vice chair. It seemed like Mikie had finally figured out why he moved to San Diego — it had opened doors for him to be able to fight for those living with HIV/ AIDS like he was and be their voice.

Since moving to San Diego, Mikie has and continues to be a part of the HIV/AIDS community, whether as an advocate or planning member, and his passion will always be to ensure that the HIV/AIDS community has a seat at the table.

I really cannot pinpoint when Mike and I actually became great friends, but I have been involved with many Imperial Court events and seen him there being involved. I served as the president of the board for the Nicky Awards a couple of times and I noticed he was always there to help. As the years went by, he himself became more involved with the leadership roles of the Imperial Court, running for the position of Prince Royal and

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winning, then becoming Emperor — his title is the Majestic Scorpion Emperor XLIII Mikie Too. Mikie credits his involvement under the reign of the Black Scorpion Emperor Chris Grinston and Diamond Rainbow Empress Selena Dia. He is currently serving his third term as president of the board. I have had the honor to work with Mikie as he has chaired the Scott Carlson/ Dan Febal Thanksgiving Community Dinner for almost a decade; chaired the annual Children’s Easter Egg Hunt for a number of years; and been on the board of the Nicky Awards and co-chaired with LaLa Too and I as well for the past several years. It seems like if the court is doing something, there is Mikie making sure it happens.

The Imperial Court has become a family to him and allows him a way to give back and add meaning to his life.

On a personal level, not only have Mikie and I worked together for years with the Imperial Court, we have worked together with other charity organizations to help raise money and bring awareness as well. In fact, just before the coronavirus pandemic, Mikie, along with Miguel Donaty, Shannon Wagner and I, put together the 30th Anniversary of Being Alive event, which raised much-needed money. It’s always fun and hard work but we both love working together for the better cause.

One of the best parts of Mikie’s life here in San Diego is when he met the one person who has become his partner, William Gary Graves (he goes by Gary). They met online in 2018 and a few months later, Gary came to visit. Mikie says one of the things he remembers most that first night was the $104 cab ride from the airport to his place. Wow, that was expensive (I never asked why it cost so much). While Gary was here visiting, Mikie received a call that his mother was dying. He asked Gary if he would stay and take care of his dog Spirit, to which he agreed. After Mikie buried his beloved mother and came home, they hit it off really well and have been together ever since. Gary is an incredible chef, which has Mikie always bragging about how delicious his meals are at home. Both Gary and their dog Spirit (who was a gift to Mikie from the Imperial Court board of directors after his step down as Prince Royal in 2014) keep him on his toes. She is a pit bull with the sweetest temperament but thinks she is the watchdog of the neighborhood.

I am honored and proud to know such a wonderful human being, a man who has become my brother, mentor and role model. We have our families that are given but then we have the families we choose as we grow in life.

San Diego has become better for having such a loud voice for the HIV/AIDS community and for the many lives Mikie has touched though his charitable work. He will tell you he is a shy person, but that is far from the truth.

He has earned the friendships of U.S. Congress members and Senators, state elected officials to the last several San Diego mayors, and activists who have worked closely with him. He was appointed by our very own Nicole Murray Ramirez, the head of the International Court System and a national activist as King Father of the Imperial Court de San Diego, to a title of leadership in appreciation for his hard work.

Thank you, Michael Lochner, for taking that chance to move to San Diego in 1999 — you have made the world a better place.

To contact Mikie: 619-972-6369 Email: mdfrank25@yahoo.com Facebook: Michael Lochner

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COMMUNITY VOICES

MAY 22 - JUNE 4, 2020 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 17

LGBTQSD.NEWS

EMILIO’S COFFEEHOUSE OUT OF THE ARCHIVES Dana Wiegand —Lambda Archives, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to collecting, preserving and teaching the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in San Diego and the Northern Baja California region, is located at 4545 Park Blvd., in University Heights. To learn more, stop in or visit their website at lambdaarchives.org.

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milio Velasquez was a dedicated pioneer of LGBT rights in Tijuana, Mexico and was instrumental in bringing Spanish-language HIV/AIDS education materials to Tijuana and the neighboring city of San Diego. Velasquez was trained as a lawyer but decided that he would rather volunteer within Tijuana’s LGBT community and run his café — Emilio’s Coffeehouse — which would become a central hub for Tijuana’s gay community during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Emilio’s Coffeehouse was inspired by Velasquez’s visits to San Diego’s Gay Center for Social Services (aka The Center) in the early 1970s; the downstairs café was supported primarily by straight patrons, whereas the upstairs offices became a community services center for LGBT people and people with AIDS in Tijuana. Emilio founded the human rights organization Frente Internacional para las Garantias Humanas en Tijuana (International Front for Guaranteed Human Rights in Tijuana) aka FIGHT in 1980 and operated it out of the upstairs offices of the coffeehouse building. Emilio’s Coffeehouse and FIGHT began offering community services in 1980, beginning with weekly rap sessions and self-esteem building groups followed shortly by an out-patient STD free clinic that temporarily operated out of Emilio’s friend’s apartment. In order to fundraise for their up-and-coming Community Services Center, Emilio’s Coffeehouse began hosting the first drag shows in Tijuana, which would provide a new type of job opportunity in Tijuana’s gay bars.

1980 was also the beginning of the coffeehouse’s trouble with police raids; though being gay was not illegal in Mexico, the Tijuana police force raided Emilio’s — along with other LGBT bars and businesses — and arrested the patrons. After the first raid, Emilio bailed out all patrons who had been arrested and swiftly began an anti-police abuse campaign. Emilio and volunteers distributed flyers that warned local authorities that the community would stage a massive protest in front of the local jail should there be any more raids of this type. Fortunately, this action effectively ended police raids on Tijuana’s LGBT spaces for the next 11 years.

In order to build a stronger sense of community, Emilio and his associates founded the Tijuana chapters of Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), Dignity, the Imperial Court, and Alcoholics Anonymous as well as additional youth, lesbian, and sport groups. During an August 1982 rap group, Emilio and others at the session began talking about forming an HIV/ AIDS prevention and education program.

This program aimed to locate and distribute Spanish-language AIDS prevention materials — the vast majority of said materials were printed in English — and make them accessible to the non-English speaking gay population in Tijuana. They reached out to their contacts and successfully acquired some of the first HIV/AIDS prevention literature printed in Spanish and began distributing them to the gay and medical communities, as well as local

Emilio (left)

helps to

n of a man carry a coffi

DS. 1990

ho dies of AI

name Max w

Dr. Carlos Diaz (center), Emilio (righ willing to devo te most of his tim t) Carlos, the one medical do ctor in Tijuana e to treating th AIDS patients, e and Emilio, the most visible ac city’s growing population of community. 19 tivist in behalf 90 of Tijuana’s gay

health authorities — who, up until this point, had been uninterested in becoming involved with the AIDS epidemic. This contact with the local health authority led to Tijuana’s health officials paying “direct visits” to people with AIDS in 1984. In 1985, Emilio’s launched the Gay and Lesbian Community Information Center hotline service, which offered information about their HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services. The same year, Emilio’s founded Tijuana’s first AIDS-focused organization called the AIDS Assistance and Education Fund, which was later renamed Tijuana AIDS Organization in 1986. 1986 was also the year that the first shipments of AIDS medications were received by Emilio’s Community Service Center and distributed to those affected in Tijuana. Emilio’s additionally functioned as Tijuana’s first successful testing center for HIV as a result of their involvement with Mexico’s first national “HIV seroprevalence study” of gay and bisexual men, which resulted in the establishment of Mexico’s Federal National AIDS Council (CONSIDA). However, many of Emilio’s straight clientele were scared off by the HIV testing center existing in the same building as the coffeehouse.

Around this time, Emilio’s expanded their community services programs to other locations to make them more accessible throughout the city. Under the direction of Dr. Carlos Diaz, they established an AIDS hospice located in the La Morita area, a no-cost outpatient AIDS clinic in downtown Tijuana, an AIDS information center in Tijuana City Hall, created “hundreds of workshops,” and did many radio and television presentations in order to further educate the public. In 1988, Emilio Velasquez founded Organizacion SIDA Tijuana (OST), as well as a support group for people with AIDS and their families — the first of its kind — at the coffeehouse headquarters. OST soon became a major authority on HIV/AIDS in the Mexican media. In 1990, Velasquez founded Frontera Gay, Tijuana’s gay newspaper, and ran it out of their headquarters for the next 11 years. Led by Max Mejia for 10 of those years, the creation of Frontera Gay enabled the creation of the Cultural Network which “organized Gay Pride cultural events throughout Tijuana’s different cultural venues for several years.”

The rise of the political party PAN in 1991 affected Emilio’s, as the party was attempting to once again shut down gay businesses by resuming the illegal raids. In response, Tijuana’s gay community came together in order to once again put a stop to police abuses of this kind. As a result of this victory, many

of Tijuana’s cis female sex workers sought help at Emilio’s to end similar police abuses against them as sex work — like homosexuality — was not illegal in Mexico. One hundred and seven local sex workers met with Max Mejia, women’s rights activists, and human rights activists in the downstairs coffeehouse for two years until they had successfully put an end to those types of police abuses.

On Feb. 11, 1993, members of OST met with members of Ernesto Ruffo Appel’s government in order to agree on a government policy that supported the fight against AIDS in Tijuana, marking a new chapter in government involvement in the fight against AIDS in Mexico.

Sadly, in 1999, staff at Emilio’s began hearing of extreme abuses of transgender and gay members of the community — once again — at the hands of the Tijuana police. According to members of rap groups held at Emilio’s,

the Tijuana police were abusing transgender women and gay men openly in the streets and even inside of the victims’ own apartments. Emilio’s conducted interviews with victims and published the results in two consecutive issues of the Frontera Gay newspaper. Emilio’s subsequently formed a support group for transgender people and cross-dressing men at their headquarters.

For the next four years, Emilio’s Coffeehouse struggled to keep their doors open in the face of eviction, with Velasquez himself penning an article on the topic for Update San Diego.

Sadly, Emilio’s Coffeehouse was forced to close their doors in 2004.

Emilio Velasquez passed away of cancer-related complications in September 2006, leaving behind a prolific legacy and a groundbreaking career of AIDS activism in Tijuana and San Diego.

LGBTQSD.NEWS

ENTERTAINMENT

MAY 22 - JUNE 4, 2020 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 17

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THE UNLIKELY HISTORY OF A GAY PORN LANDMARK FILMMAKER

RACHEL MASON on the Netflix documentary she made about her parents who ran a gay porn empire

By Chris Azzopardi

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ay porn is not what straight, religious-conservative married couple Barry and Karen Mason thought they’d become known for. But for over 35 years, they owned a bookstore that sold videos like “Confessions of a Two Dick Slut” and “Meat Me at the Fair” in West Hollywood. And now thanks to their daughter, filmmaker and artist Rachel Mason, her parents’ story is a Netflix documentary.

For the couple, however, selling and producing gay porn was just business as usual. Hard times forced Karen, a former journalist, and Barry, a former special visual effects engineer who worked on Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” to think fast, so they took over Circus of Books, which became a queer cultural institution. Karen and Barry, who still own the building even though Circus of Books closed in 2019, would go on to become wealthy LGBTQ activists and PFLAG parents.

But in the 1980s, the business was kept a secret from their three children, including Rachel and her gay brother Josh, who appear in the “Circus of Books” documentary — along with former porn star Jeff Stryker and “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” winner Alaska Thunderfuck. TV titan Ryan Murphy executive produced the film.

Here, Mason discusses the power of straight parents as activists, what it says about porn that celebs who shopped at the store won’t openly admit it, and the awkward dinner table talk her parents have with her partner, transsexual porn star and activist Buck Angel.

It’s funny to hear your mom say in the doc, ‘I don’t know what you’re gonna make out of all this filming. No one is going to be interested in this.’ And now, of course, it’s on Netflix for the world to see.

That’s her whole constant mantra: No one’s gonna care, this is not interesting to anybody. I think that was her way of having a smokescreen. Of course, it’s actually fucking amazing that I’m like, “Deep penetration on these videos you made sent me to college.” How could that not be interesting? You know, I think it’s her way of misdirecting, but also at the same time, it could also be true for her: It was not interesting. This was a boring job for many years (laughs).

It’s like when she walks by the dildo wall but won’t look at it.

(Laughs) I do have to say there’s a part of her, sadly, that is really kind of prudish and disgusted by her whole thing. I find that offensive and sad because I love

You know, my mom’s a totally reluctant celebrity, if you want to call her that. She really is a subject right now. And I think on the one hand, it’s uncomfortable for her when people walk up and know her for something she kept a secret for several years.

Your mom seems like the kind of person who really knows how to command a room.

She got up on the stage at Outfest and just said, “Had I known you guys were all going to be here, I never would’ve agreed to doing this.” The audience is laughing and it’s like, “Mom, you just got an audience of 2,000 people to laugh.” But she’s like, “Now can I go?

I don’t like this.” (Laughs.) That’s part of her sheer brilliant comedic instincts. She kind of knows, like Woody Allen, that she has this kind of nebbishy, over-the-top insulting quality that is just so funny.

And her dynamic with your father — the way she interjects when he doesn’t tell the full story — is really hysterical.

I think that’s part of their comedic duo vibe that is so amazing. I have to say, I milked it for all that it’s worth in the documentary (laughs).

and appreciate everything that she was involved in, and I actually think that the work she did was critical.

Do your parents bond with Buck over porn?

It was really funny the first time we had a family dinner. My mom said, “Do not bring this up to my grandma,” my mother’s mother who is still alive. “Do not bring up the business at the dinner table tonight.”

And of course, we’re sitting there and there’s dead silence; then my mom was like, “Buck, I have a question.

I got an email today from one of these distributors — do you ever work with this guy?” I’m like, “Mom! You totally outed him as being in the business!” She’s just so business-focused that it’s kind of hilarious. But my parents and Buck can just talk shop together, and I can listen and be kind of coming up with the sequel in my head, or like an episode for the TV series.

How do they feel about being Netflix-famous?

In a weird way it’s a good time to be an anonymous celebrity because everyone’s wearing masks (laughs).

How did the idea for the documentary come to you?

It really began in 2004. I had taken a lesbian and gay studies class, as it was called at the time, and it was about just sort of the history of LGBTQ experience. So the teacher, Jonathan D. Katz, a very prominent media studies scholar, his focus was on Robert Mapplethorpe, specifically gay imagery and photography, and the art that wasn’t above ground. It was sort of this subculture, and I remember my parents had Robert Mapplethorpe books in their store and I mentioned it to him. I said, “You know my parents carried his stuff?”

And he was like, “What was their store?” And I said Circus of Books and he said, “Wow, Rachel, that is the most important store on the West Coast and that store really helped me to come out.” I think he was himself from LA; I was at Yale at the time. I was like, “What do you know about Circus of Books?”

I didn’t know my parents’ little LA weirdo store would’ve been something anyone would’ve known this far east, let alone at a fancy school like Yale. So it just gave me an impression that I needed to do something about it. And he said, “This is part of gay history.

It’s not just a little store. It’s actually the historical record because gay history didn’t have a chance to be Interview with Rachel Mason continues on Page 12

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Interview with Rachel Mason continued from Page 11

Barry and Karen Mason (photo courtesy of netflix)

Rachel Mason (photo courtesy of netflix)

documented because it was underground.” So when the store started to close in 2015, that’s when I started really documenting it in earnest.

And your mom had low expectations. She didn’t think this film would amount to anything.

Oh yeah — no.

What does she think of the finished film?

She just feels like I did a good job, basically. And that it just would be better if it were about anyone except her (laughs). One thing she says that I have some sympathy for: “I don’t picture myself looking this age.” I’m following her around at age 75. A lot of it is unflattering because she let me follow her around, and she’s, like, squatting down to pick up DVDs (laughs). It’s kind of funny. I kept being like, “Mom, turn this way. I don’t like this angle. It’s not good.” But at the same time, I’m chasing her — she moves like a motherfucker!

Did your mom ever try to control the narrative?

Kind of. But I know how to work around that.

What was it like to learn about Josh’s struggle to come out during the making of the film?

That was one of the interviews that actually I reshot because I had shot the film in a different way going into it.

I was working hand in hand with Cynthia Childs, my producer, and I was going to be more of a distant subject.

When I started to cut the film together, the most poignant moments were in all of the different interviews when people would look at the camera or look at me and say, “Your dad was going to go to jail.” I was like, “Shit, they’re talking to

me; I need to actually be seen and heard on the other side of this.” I didn’t get that with my interview with Josh.

The second time around, I did the questions, and I didn’t expect my own reaction to be so shocked by what he said. I was really so blown away, and it was so horrible to hear these things and to look back at myself with a sense of shame that I so was a self-absorbed teenager who loved everything gay and was wanting it, and here’s my poor little brother who’s trying to be so perfect and trying to hold it all together. And here he has this freaky, insane sister being an artist, and maybe that’s what gay looks like to him. And the store is also this crazy place where a lot of people died of AIDS, and he sees that world.

So he’s caught in between these images that are not realistic of what he could have for himself as a gay man.

What was it like to hear the stories of your parents’ relationship with those who were dying of AIDS, and how they kind of became surrogate parents to them because their families disowned them?

I feel like that is part of the real untold story and untold chapter in gay history — it’s not exclusive to my parents.

When you think back to the AIDS crisis, these men were dying in these horrible situations alone in the hospital because people were afraid to touch them. The bravery of not just my parents but all the different people who would show up for these men was so profound. I really have to say I look at my parents in a really heroic light myself at that moment, but I also think back on the fact that there were other people like them.

Before our call, I was talking to my dad. There’s been some tension among family members on Facebook, and we’re still having a hard time wrapping our heads around the fact that some of them still support Donald Trump.

I’ll tell you: My partner and lover is Buck Angel and his parents are Trump supporters.

What I think is really fascinating is he talks to them and he actually fully gets into it. I think it’s important to address it full-on and be like, “OK, you can support the guy who is gonna actually take your son’s right to exist.” If you have the stomach to engage, it’s actually a good idea to engage.

Your parents remind me of my dad.

Is your family Christian or religious?

Yeah. They’re Christian and Catholic. My dad identifies as a Baptist, but he supports me and he lets people know he supports me.

That is really powerful, if he does let people know that he supports you.

Well, our conversation stemmed from a Facebook war with family members who are anti-LGBTQ. My dad commented and said to them that he supports me and who I am, and that what they’re saying could potentially harm LGBTQ people.

That’s very powerful when people like your dad and my mom similarly do that because those are the most important activists. You and me being queer and waving our rainbow flag is actually sort of not really tipping the scale for those people; it’s people like your dad and my mom who are actually saying, “Look, I am still gonna go to church and I’m gonna

find it in the Bible where Jesus says we can love everybody.

And in the Old Testament, where you can reinterpret the word, the actual definition of what it means to lie down with another man, in fact, and totally recognize that there’s the possibility that we have a wrong interpretation here.”

The film comes at a time when queer spaces are vulnerable to the pandemic and are at risk of closing.

Having gone through that experience with your parents, what are you feeling?

First off, my heart’s breaking for all the businesses. I look back at the strange timing: I could’ve never predicted that I’d be making a story about a story that’s unfolding currently, and that we’re in the time of a pandemic and the documentary is entirely basically based in the time of a pandemic for the gay community. It’s almost like we’re living in that active moment where everyone is deciding the thing that you see my mom trying to decide when she’s talking about whether or not she can close the business.

People are wrestling with that.

All businesses.

Did you ever wonder why the store catered to gay men and not queer women?

I guess that’s sort of interesting. Certainly, there were lesbian clerks and women customers, and there were trans people. They had trans clerks and trans customers, and, in fact, they had Buck Angel work there — the very first trans guy to basically do porn at all. So there was a variety.

But probably the vast majority were gay men. I think it’s because that exact neighborhood was called Boystown (laughs) and it was located in a gay boys’ neighborhood. I’m not an expert so you can’t quote

me on this, but it’s pretty well known that men are the predominant consumers of pornography, especially in a store where you have to walk in and physically appear. Also, it was a meeting ground. I think it just naturally became a hotspot for gay culture.

What did you find out from Ryan Murphy about shopping at the store?

Ryan basically said that store was so important to all gay men in LA. I think he was just no different. In fact, Ryan happens to be a very famous, powerful gay man — and I won’t name names — but think of any gay man who was alive at that time in Hollywood and they no doubt went into that store.

Did you try to interview any of these other men?

Yeah, I’ve reached out to a few — again, I won’t say the names — and I’ve noticed things have leaked out here and there and I’m like, “Wow, I don’t know who said that. The gossip mill. I will just say think of a (famous) gay man over 50 and they were in Circus of Books.”

So the gossip is true?

Absolutely. And celebrities who aren’t even straight or gay or male. Rose McGowan posted that she loved the store’s selection of Italian Vogue, and Kathy Griffin posted about how she did her Christmas shopping at the store. So the celebrities who’ve come out, that’s awesome and fun and cool. It does speak volumes that people can’t just jump out and wave the flag of, “Yeah, I went to that store; it’s a porn store.” Because porn still has a stigma. I think that’s what we’re looking at right here, and I really hope to be part of the change that destigmatizes it.

ENTERTIANMENT/PUZZLE

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Q Puzzle

KISSING TAYLOR SWIFT’S BROTHER

LADY GAGA

RELEASES ‘CHROMATICA’ ALBUM MAY 29

L

ady Gaga announced that her highly anticipated sixth studio album, “Chromatica,” will be released on May 29 via Interscope Records.

The album features collaborations with Ariana Grande, Elton John and Blackpink and is executive produced by BloodPop and Lady Gaga.

“Chromatica” will be available in a variety of physical formats including standard CD, vinyl in various colors, and cassettes in various colors. In addition, Lady Gaga has launched an array of new merchandise including pink jock straps, G-strings and an exclusive vinyl color at ladygaga.com.

The first single from the album, “Stupid Love,” which debuted at No. 1 on iTunes in 58 countries, has 300 million streams worldwide since release and marks Lady Gaga’s 16th Billboard Top 10 hit.

The song’s video, which was shot entirely on an iPhone 11 Pro, skyrocketed

to No. 1 trending on YouTube worldwide upon release and has garnered more than 70 million views.

TRACK LIST 1. “Chromatica I” 2. “Alice” 3. “Stupid Love” 4. “Rain on Me” (with Ariana Grande) 5. “Free Woman” 6. “Fun Tonight” 7. “Chromatica II” 8. “911” 9. “Plastic Doll” 10. “Sour Candy” (with Blackpink) 11. “Enigma” 12. “Replay” 13. “Chromatica III” 14. “Sine from Above” (with Elton John) 15. “1000 Doves” 16. “Babylon”

For more information, please visit: ladygaga.com

ACROSS 1 Nine inches 5 Lie beside 9 Roddy McDowall’s _Planet of the ___ _ 13 Woody Guthrie’s son 14 Lesbian magazine Vice ___ 15 Part used in forking around 16 Like a generation, to Stein 17 More frigid 18 “Here it is!”

19 Come on a ship 21 With 23-Across, movie in which 34-Across kisses Austin Swift 23 See 21-Across 25 Box to Vidal 27 Behind, financially 28 Large splits 29 Collette of _The Hours_ 30 To no ___ (in vain) 33 X, sometimes 34 Draco Malfoy portrayer in the Harry Potter series 38 Some commuter trains 41 Bob Marley, e.g.

42 Cut 46 “Get your rear in gear!”

48 Like Captain Jack Sparrow 51 Port in the land of samurai 52 Recurring cry of 54-Across 54 Character played by 34-Across 56 Shoot your wad 57 Ice queen Katarina 58 _Corydon_ author Gide 60 Pussy ___ of punk rock 62 Jodie Foster’s alma mater 63 _ ___ to a Small Planet_ 64 French 101 verb 65 Straights on the Kinsey Scale 66 Bus. school course 67 Twosome

Solutions on page 18 QSyndicate.com

DOWN 1 Mineo of movies 2 In favor of Chaz?

3 Mere participant 4 Zip 5 Old nuclear power org.

6 Cash inducement 7 Visitors at advocate.com 8 Scarlett’s plantation 9 Hun head 10 Barbara Higbie, for one 11 When queening usually occurs 12 Sebastian’s “Under the ___” 14 Gore, who wrote 63-Across 20 P on Socrates’ paper 22 Frida played by Salma 23 Seizure for Caesar 24 Figwear for Adam and Steve 26 IRS info 28 Op. ___ 31 Doc for lions and tigers and bears 32 It arouses you in bed 35 Phantom’s Opera instrument 36 Red Book author 37 Kept from being a breeder 38 “Xanadu” band, for short 39 L of GLAAD 40 Scare the pants off of 43 Characteristic of Diana 44 Dancer Duncan 45 Your, among Friends 47 Emulates Dick Button 49 Day one 50 Log Cabin org.

52 Like some Greek columns 53 Linda Ellerbee’s _ ___ It Goes_ 55 Presidential title role for Kevin Kline 57 _The Laramie Project_ st.

59 ___ Tin Tin 61 Homophobe senator Cruz

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I

really hadn’t planned on telling queer powerhouse singer-actress-activist Janelle Monáe that I made food for my boyfriend the night before I got on Zoom with her.

That afternoon, Monáe was feeling it all. This global pandemic, the quarantining. She told me she can’t even create right now because she doesn’t have the mental bandwidth. When we linked up, her mind was understandably heavy and momentarily adrift.

While talking about Amazon’s second season of its thriller “Homecoming,” Monáe accidentally called her character — a war vet who we first meet on a boat, alone and drifting, unsure of how she got there — an “ex-veterinarian.” “I said veterinarian,” she started, realizing her slip-up. “It’s that quarantine mind!”

Then I diverted her attention to her neo-soul album “Dirty Computer,” a life-affirming celebra-tion of queerness released in 2018.

I began by telling her about my night before we Zoomed, when my spiraling mind happened to find a rare moment of pure, unencumbered joy within that album as I prepared for our virtual chat.

Songs from “Dirty Computer” had my boyfriend and I bopping in the kitchen. Emerging from her face was a smile so wide I could almost see my reflection in it. It was like I’d cracked a code. A pandemic-era topic universal enough that it got even Janelle Monáe curious that she, during a promo tour for a TV show, couldn’t help but ask me a question everybody is asking everybody because all we do is cook now: “What were y’all eatin’?”

Monáe’s in isolation too of course, trying to navigate not merely how to be an artist but if that’s even possible for her right now.

From lockdown, she at least looks put together. Greeting me like the bots she sings about, she says, “Hi, I’m Janelle and I don’t know who I am today.” She ap-pears to be reclining on a couch, a white top hat perched on her head; her virtual backdrop is appropriately one for “Homecoming.” In August, Monáe leads the cast of the slavery-themed horror film “Antebellum,” which was initially scheduled to be released in April.

And though it was just in February, it seems like another life when Monáe opened the Oscars and celebrated diversity and being, as she proclaimed on national TV during her performance, a “black queer artist.” Previously, in 2018, she came out as pansexual, after years of telling the press she was dating androids.

So no wonder she was looking forward to headlining NYC Pride Island on June 27. In a state-ment, she called it a “dream.” But summer gatherings, including NYC Pride Island, have been canceled.

Monáe is still doing what she can; recently, she took part in a special performance for Verizon’s Pay It Forward Live, when she and Verizon made donations to small businesses owned by those in the LGBTQ community and other minorities affected by COVID-19.

“Stay up, Chris,” she gently consoles as we wrap, offering the same kind of bright-eyed hopeful-ness contained in “Americans,” one of the songs that, for a few dazzling minutes, took me out of life as we now currently know it. She continues: “And send my love to your boyfriend.” Even in a pandemic, even when she’s not creating, Monáe has so much to give.

How are you coping with everything that’s happening right now?

I don’t know. I probably won’t know until, like, next month.

Time is not real to me. I feel like I’m in a warped, alternate universe, especially watching everybody walking around with masks and avoiding each other and dealing with an administration who hides information and is putting capitalism above the health and well-being of our people. I have no grasp of reality right now.

It’s like living in the twilight zone.

Yeah. I write too much science-fiction to be dealing with this shit right now. It’s too on the nose. (Laughs.)

JANELLE MONÁE

DOESN’T KNOW TIME EITHER The queer icon talks ‘too on the nose’ pandemic, LGBTQ representation and Pride plans

By Chris Azzopardi

How does ‘Homecoming’ fit into the kind of stories you want to be telling?

We’re on a journey with her as she discovers her identity, and I think when you go back into her past, there are some decisions that she makes that I just would not make as a human. But when I was creating her backstory and understanding her motivation, I realized that this person could have been dealing with a lot of childhood trauma, and it gave reason to why she is the way she is.

I think that this show has a lot to say about capitalism over citizenship and community, and the well-being of our citizens. I think it has a lot to say about how we treat ex-vets and mental health. And it’s a character study on minorities and those who are marginalized and how they go on their rise to being powerful and also having their freedom through living in their truth, so that was super important to me.

And the show’s queer representation — how is the fact that your character just happens to be in a relationship with a woman meaningful to you?

Like you said: representation. It always matters. You think about the number of shows that are greenlit and films that are greenlit, and we’re still in that minority. It’s still not equal in terms of storytelling. There are so many cis, het-normative stories, and that’s not a reflection of the real world. I don’t want to give away too much, but there is a strong presence of (queerness) in “Homecoming.” I hope the folks feel seen.

How would this kind of representation have changed your life as a young woman growing up in Kansas City?

I would probably feel less alone. I’d be more intrigued. When you grow up in small towns and you have large families, and when being Baptist and going to church is the center of your family and

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your household — in addition to going through that and trying to love yourself and finding out who you are and what you want to be and deciding how you want to live your life — I think that having that representation would have made things easier for a lot of us.

When was the first time you identified with someone from the LGBTQ community and what did that mean to you?

That’s a really good question. There were, of course, a lot of artists who have come before me that have walked in their truth, like (openly queer singer-songwriter and activist) Meshell Ndegeocello. Even if they didn’t say, “Hey, I’m gay,” there was just a certain freeness that I got when I looked at David Bowie, a freeness I got that blurred the lines of gender. And I’ve always felt a part of everything, and as I find out more about myself and who I am, I look at myself and all of us as experiences. I just don’t believe in those binaries.

But I love identifying as a woman, and I’m not mad when I’m not called a woman. I feel so a part of everything, and I am a part of everything.

Earlier this year, you tweeted #IAmNonBinary.

Does that mean you’re using they and them pronouns now?

I use free-ass-motherfucker pronouns. That’s the pronoun that I use. Absolutely.

Over the years, you’ve gradually taken on more of an activist role, both as a vocal advocate but also in the way you’ve chosen projects. Your art is clearly a conduit for your messaging of unity and empowerment. How do you see yourself evolving as an activist and artist?

I never considered myself an activist. I think there are really people out on the front lines who are doing that groundwork in our communities. I have a mic; I have a studio; I’m doing film. I’m doing all those things. And I’ve never considered myself that.

People have kind of placed that label on me, but I don’t feel pressure. I think I feel more pressure just as a citizen to lend my support and my voice. I think even if I never wrote another song in my life, if I saw something happening to someone who couldn’t protect themselves or take care of themselves and they were in a marginalized group, then I’m gonna say something about it. That’s just been me since I’ve been little. I’ve never allowed people to bully my little sister or people who were helpless and couldn’t defend themselves. I’m just not gonna stand for that. I guess I look at myself as anti-bully, and I will whoop your ass in different ways if you try to op-press or harm other people that I love and I care about. And I care about my community.

How do you feel about where we’re at now with LGBTQ representation? And what do you hope is next in that regard?

This page images of “Homecoming,” premieres May 22 on Amazon Prime (photo courtesy of netflix)

I think it’s getting better. I think we have a long way to go. I think it’s a more nuanced conversa-tion because we’re dealing with sexuality and we’re dealing with gender. A lot of it is a journey, it’s not just a destination. And there’s new terminology that’s coming, and we have to be open and nonjudgmental within our community.

I’ve definitely received a lot of judgment, and I can’t say that I haven’t judged myself, but at this point I think that life is a mystery. We are uncovering truths about us, just like this show does, and the more information we have, we should never feel ashamed to lean into that gray area. Don’t become a prisoner or a slave of your past. Move forward accordingly once you discover who you are and what it is that you want to be.

But I want to say that I think that we still have a lot more work to do in terms of allies. Folks who are more privileged, who are the majority and the minority, I think that they can share the mic.

Are you currently creating? And while I have ‘Dirty Computer’ on my mind — will you make music with the queer community in mind for your next work?

I don’t know what kind of music I’m gonna make.

I’m not in a musical space. I’m not inspired. I’m just not inspired right now. I mean, I want to be; I want to be using this time and come out with five albums. But my heart is just so broken right now with everything that’s going on. So I’ve been DJing; that’s been inspiring. Deconstructing songs, my favorite songs. And I’ve been listening to Childish Gambino, and I love Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” remix with Beyoncé. Been listening to that. But I’ve just been trying to figure out how to put my boots on the ground and how to thrive in a pandemic.

It’s affected me. I’m not a black, single mom with five kids or a single parent trying to make ends meet because she got laid off. I’m not in that position. We’re in this, but we’re not all in the same boat. And for me, I feel a sense of urgency to figure out how we can come together as citi-zens. Once I get that down pat and understand what this all means and I can get some foundation then maybe I can go to a creative space, but right now my mental real estate is dealing with this pandemic.

You were supposed to perform at NYC Pride Island this summer. What message would you like to send out to all the dirty computers of the world who will be celebrating Pride in a very different way this year?

I love you. I was looking forward to being there, but all of our health is important. I would hate to be irresponsible and hold a concert and bring people together and then people pass away as a result of us trying to have a concert right now. But I have a feeling that in the future, I will come back.

The organizers of Pride New York are trying to put together something special that I may be a part of, so just keep your ears glued. (On May 15, it was announced that Monáe would be among the performers taking part in NYC’s virtual pride celebration on June 28.)

And to answer your last question: I did say I wasn’t really inspired to make music, but because I am a dirty computer at heart, whatever I do is always going to be through the lens of being a part of the LGBTQIA+ communities. That is who I am, so I can’t help but to have that perspective. So, I’m sure whenever I start making music (laughs), I will still be a free-ass-motherfucker mak-ing music.

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HOT DISH

LGBTQSD.NEWS

SAUCE UP YOUR LIFE WITH A TOUCH OF

JAPANESE FLAVORS

By Cesar A Reyes

W

hen cooking at home, you have to get creative.

You can recreate all the delicious foods that you used to eat out before we had to shelter in place at home for safety. One of my favorite world cuisines is Japanese food. And because sushi might be a little out of my (or your) cooking level, I wanted to start with a couple of sauce recipes that will help make that chicken dinner into a Japanese teriyaki bento box you so dream about. These sauces and salad dressing will be a way to bring some of the delicious flavors of a bento box into your kitchen and some can be made in bulk to have on-hand for whenever you want to add some flavor to a dish.

TERIYAKI SAUCE:

This recipe makes about 1½ cups when sauce has been reduced and thickened.

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup sake (you can use dry sherry or rice wine) ½ cup mirin (you can substitute with ½ cup water plus 3 tablespoons of sugar) ½ cup soy sauce ¼ cup sugar 2 tablespoons of honey (to thicken) optional

INSTRUCTIONS:

In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients (I start with sugar and then add liquids to prevent splashing). Bring mixture to a boil and continue stirring until sugar has completely dissolved. Once boiling, lower heat to medium low and cook on simmer for 10-15 minutes until sauce has thickened (note: it won’t be the thickness of honey but also not runny). The sauce will be ready when small bubbles appear. Let cool, then pour into a sterilized jar and keep in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 weeks.

CHICKEN TERIYAKI:

Cut your chicken into large bite-sized pieces (I’m using one large skinless chicken breast) and lightly season with salt and black pepper.

In a pan, heat oil and cook chicken on each side till it’s golden brown. Remove from pan, wipe pan with paper towel. Bring chicken back to pan and pour teriyaki sauce to coat chicken.

You can add extra sauce to serve on the side.

The teriyaki sauce also pairs well when cooking salmon or tofu.

CARROT GINGER SALAD DRESSING

You know that delicious creamy dressing usually on the salads at Japanese restaurants?

Well this recipe is so easy that you will use it as your official dressing from now on. You can make it as thin or thick as you like. Thick can be used as dip for veggies.

INGREDIENTS:

3 medium carrots coarsely chopped (I peeled mine) ½ cup of oil (olive, grape seed or avocado oil) ½ cup peeled, chopped fresh ginger (if you’re new to ginger, start with ¼ cup; I enjoy the taste so ½ cup is great for me). One trick to peeling ginger is to use a spoon, I find it much easier than a peeler. ¼ cup rice vinegar 3 tablespoons chopped onion 1 tablespoon of soy sauce 1 tablespoon of sesame oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

If you blink, you will miss it: place ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. Add oil or water depending on how thin or thick you want your dressing. That’s it, you’re done. This will make about 4-5 cups that can be poured into a sterilized jar and kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

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SUNOMONO

(JAPANESE CUCUMBER SALAD)

I can never get enough of this salad in my bento box when I go out to eat and after trying the recipe, I never have to go without it. This is a very simple salad that you will want to make in batches so you have extra.

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 Japanese cucumbers or 4 Persian cucumbers (don’t use regular cucumbers as they are too big and also have too much liquid for it to work) 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar 1 tablespoon of sugar ¼ tablespoon of salt 1/3 tablespoon of soy sauce 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds

INSTRUCTIONS:

Slice cucumbers thin (if you have a mandolin slicer or a cheese greater with the slice side, they work great. If not, the regular way works fine, just make sure your slices are thin). Sprinkle with salt and let sit for 5 minutes to have all the liquid come out, then squeeze the cucumbers to remove excess water (don’t be afraid, I use a flat pan and paper towels to press down to get as much of the excess water out as possible).

Mix rice vinegar sugar, soy sauce in a bowl and stir until sugar dissolves. Add to cucumbers and finally sprinkle with sesame seeds (I toasted my sesame seeds since I like the taste, but that is not a necessary step).

TEMPURA BATTER

This batter will help you make the delicious tempura vegetables and shrimp that accompany any bento box and the light batter is one of my favorites. You should prepare items first and heat your oil before prepping batter.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of tempura flower (or all-purpose flour; sift to remove any clumps and to make light and soft) 1 large egg 1 cup of water (the colder the better)

INSTRUCTIONS:

TEMPURA DIPPING SAUCE: This will make 1½ cups

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup water 4 tablespoons of mirin 4 tablespoons of soy sauce (preferably Shoyu) 1 tablespoon of sugar

INSTRUCTIONS:

In a small pot, pour water, mirin, soy sauce and sugar, bringing sauce to a light boil on medium heat. Remove from heat and let cool, then pour into sauce bowl. You can store leftover sauce for up to 3 weeks.

The last thing you need to finish this meal is some steamed rice.

Serve and enjoy!

In a medium bowl, gently beat 1 egg until yolk and egg whites are just barely incorporated. Add the cold water to the egg.

Next, add the flour into the bowl and lightly combine (don’t overmix the batter, clumps are OK, it does not need to have the consistency of cake batter).

The batter is now ready for immediate use.

If you are not using it right away, place in the refrigerator for few short minutes (this batter has to be made fresh and used right away).

When using batter, here are some steps to keep in mind: First, lightly coat vegetables and shrimp in flour before dipping in batter. This helps batter to adhere better.

Once coated, dip items into batter gently, you want a light coating of batter — don’t overdo it.

When frying, make sure your oil is between 340 and 360 degrees. I test my oil with little droppings of batter; they should float up as soon as they hit the oil. If they sink, your oil is not hot enough.

Have a drying rack or a plate with a paper towel to absorb any excess oil. Tempura should be served as soon as it’s cooked to avoid getting soggy and oily.

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OPINION

MAY 22 - JUNE 4, 2020 VOLUME 1 ISSUE 17

LGBTQSD.NEWS

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CREEP OF THE WEEK: REPUBLICAN PARTY

By D’Anne Witkowski

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here is a lot to be worried about when it comes to the public health crisis we are currently in. The biggest worry is, of course, getting sick and dying. The second is getting someone else sick and killing them.

Or, at least, it is for most people. But there’s a staunch bunch of morons who are fighting for the freedom to contract and spread a disease that has already killed nearly 80,000 people in the U.S. Eighty thousand. That’s a hell of a lot more than Trump promised us a couple of months ago. Remember when he said it would be just a handful of cases? That he had it all under control?

Well, he didn’t. And doesn’t. And so, the greatest health crisis this country has faced in my lifetime is being contended with state by state. And not every state has people in charge with brains. That means that Trump’s “States Are On Their Own” non-plan is a super terrible strategy.

And so, states that have Democratic governors, like my home state of Michigan, are much more likely to have some measures in place to keep people safe and alive.

But that, my friends, is tyranny! Or at least that’s what the people protesting efforts to keep them from getting sick and dying believe.

The protests are supposed to appear like a grassroots movement, but they aren’t. In Michigan, for example, protests started with backing from the Michigan Conservative Coalition and the Michigan Freedom Fund, right-wing conservative organizations backed by the DeVos family. As in Betsy DeVos. You know, the woman Trump hired to supposedly be in charge of education in this country. The one who hates transgender kids? That one.

The protesters also like swastikas, Confederate flags, guns and Trump.

On Mothers’ Day — and, yes, that’s where the apostrophe goes in my family — I went for a walk and as I passed the nursing home on the corner, I saw the windows had signs with black numbers written on them facing outward. For a moment I didn’t understand what I was seeing. Then I realized: those are room numbers. So people can come up to the windows and “visit.”

My own mother came by my house clad in her mask to drop off a cake she’d made for me and my wife as a Mothers’ Day present. When she comes by now, she knocks not on the door, but on our large front window, and it never fails to scare the

daylights out of me to look up and see this frantic masked woman on my porch.

So, to everyone who is refusing to wear a mask and demanding their right to go back to business as usual, I say [swear words]. Seriously. You know, “I would kill for a haircut” is supposed to be hyperbolic, not an ideology.

Eighty thousand people in this country are dead.

And Trump is complaining that testing, which is absolutely crucial to reopen the country, makes us look bad.

“If we did very little testing, we wouldn’t have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad,” he said out loud to reporters.

A couple things: First, we actually don’t do much testing compared to other countries. Secondly, not testing is what actually makes us look bad. If we stop testing, the number of cases being verified might go down, but the number of dead will continue to go up.

And the Republican Party’s response to all of the dead is, “More death, please!” It’s astounding to me that any Republican can claim they are a pro-life party while at the same time telling their constituents to just go out on the town to show this virus who is boss.

A word to the unwise: the virus is boss. With no vaccine, no cure and still very limited testing, humans are not in charge here. And, unfortunately, the dumbest humans in the country are often the loudest. And Trump is loudest of them all.

I heard a commentator somewhere say that COVID-19 is the first time a health crisis has been politicized. This is, of course, not true. AIDS was made a political issue rather than a public health issue by Republican leaders because the people who were dying were by and large gay men. And now Republican leaders are doing it again because so many COVID-19 deaths have been people of color.

It’s a shame how little we learn from mass death in this country.

Stay home if you can. Stay safe. Stop voting for Republicans.

D’Anne Witkowski is a poet, writer and comedian living in Michigan with her wife and son. She has been writing about LGBT politics for over a decade. Follow her on Twitter @MamaDWitkowski

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