SGN March 22, 2024

DR. MARCI BOWERS

BY HANNAH SAUNDERS

SGN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Odyssey Youth Movement has been operating in the Spokane area for 32 years. What started as a support group for Gay and Bisexual men during the height of the AIDS crisis in the early ’90s has grown and shifted to center all LGBTQ+ youth in the region.

“We are now focused on all young folks, specifically teens 13-18 and adults 18-24 from throughout the region. Of course, we’ve expanded to all LGBTQs, all Queer, Trans, and Nonbinary identities. The core of our mission around promoting equity is centered here at our drop-in center,” said Executive Director Ian Sullivan.

BY DANIEL LINDSLEY SGN STAFF WRITER

Try to guess the profession based on the following description: She’s both an artist and a woman of science. She tours the world changing lives and making dreams come true. To the right-leaning press, she might be considered the antichrist, but her supporters and colleagues insist that her work is both far-reaching and indispensable.

BY LINDSEY ANDERSON SGN STAFF WRITER

For 35 years, Rachel Rasmussen worked as an employee of Boeing, the world’s largest passenger aircraft manufacturer. When she started her job, she was a bright-faced 20-year-old looking for a way to earn a living. Despite her naivete, the entire crew welcomed her with open

arms into an environment she recalled as “super friendly.”

Over the next 20 years, Rassmussen enjoyed her work and moved up at the company, eventually becoming a crane mechanic. Then, everything changed when she began presenting as her true self: a Trans woman.

Ian

Progress Report, Budget & Financial Statement GAY COMMUNITY CENTER [SEATTLE GAY NEWS] MARCH 1974

To the Gay Community:

We have acquired a building. After four months of weekly meetings and countless hours of additional work by group members, our efforts are showing tangible results.

The building is located at 1726-16th Ave., between Howell and Olive Streets. It is within one block of the #10-Capital [sic] Hill trolley line and within four blocks of the #4 Montlake and the #13-19th Ave.

It is a large house which has been broken down into five separate apartments, three downstairs and two upstairs. It also has a good size half-basement. The three downstairs apartments and the basement are connected and will be the center proper. The upstairs rear apartment will be rented to a member of the community to help with costs, and the front upstairs will be used for meeting and office space, and someday maybe a VD clinic.

The building should be ready by late April or sooner if work goes smoothly.

Tentative plans for the main plan include:

1) a living room-TV room furnished with sofas and lounge chairs. This room has a fireplace;

2) a pool-table room, maybe with soft drink and candy machines; 3) a library. The halfbasement could be used for a coffee-shop-art gallery. No definite plans have as yet been made. All decisions are being made by the group which has been meeting regularly. This group is open to the entire community. […]

The Gay Community Center has been operating under Gay Community Social Services, a non-profit corporation. This is the same corporation which formed to operate the Community Center in Pioneer Square. However, Gay Community Social Services is also involved in a number of projects which do not relate directly to the Community Center. In order to permit the focus of energies into the Community Center, a new corporation is being formed solely involved with the maintenance of the Community Center. This new corporation is Seattle Gay Community Center […]

This article was edited for length. To view the article in full, go to https:// issuu.com/sgn.org/docs/sgn_march_1974.

Every ten minutes during the dance a representative of each of the lesbian and gay groups in Seattle will be given a one-minute time slot to talk about their organization. (If they go over one minute they will be hooked off the stage.)

The Gay Pride Week planning coalition, made up of men and women from across the community, has come up with a lot of exciting ideas. The celebration will begin Friday, June 28th, and end Sunday June 30th.

The tentative plans start out with the grand opening of the Gay Community Center on Friday evening with a potluck dinner. Evenings [sic] entertainment will include informal music by various lesbian women and gay male artists, a presentation by Puppet-power, and a poetry reading by Kathryn.

Saturday afternoon a potluck picnic downtown at Occidental Square will include ‘gay’rilla theater, balloons, butch/ fem T-shirts, and a kissing booth. The big event of the three-day week-end will be a street dance. Hopefully, this will also be at Occidental Square on Saturday evening.

Sunday afternoon, we’ll truck on over to the Seattle Center for singing, general carousing, and a gay-in at the fountain. […] Housing for out-of-towners, and childcare will be provided through the [Community] Center.

This article was edited for length. To view the article in full, go to https:// issuu.com/sgn.org/docs/june_1974.

Note: Although the second article is from “Vol. 1, Issue 1,” the preceding article, dated March 1974, is from what is considered to be the first issue, before anyone likely realized this would be a regular publication. The transition from newsletter to newspaper format, including the rebrand to Seattle Gay News, occurred some time between 1975 and 1977.

OBITUARY

Remembering Rainbow City Band co-founder Jo-Ann Christen

BY IAN CROWLEY SGN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Seattle educator and musician Jo-Ann Christen passed away on February 22, at age 82. Her passing was followed by an outpouring of love from the communities she served with and helped build.

Christen co-founded Rainbow City Band in 1998, the first LGBTQ band in the city, which has grown impressively since its inception. The organization now includes seven ensembles that perform for thousands per year.

Christen’s close friends attest to how inclusive she was, and how that quality was essential to her work. She welcomed all musicians into Rainbow City Band, no matter their background, during a time where it was very common to discriminate based on identity. People that knew Christen have stressed how much she affected the Seattle music scene, through her dedication and hard work.

Early life

Christen cut her teeth early on in her career by contributing to handful of musical projects. Before moving to Seattle, in the early ’60s, she was apart of the Salvation Army Youth Band. She also played in the New Jersey Symphony and Opera Orchestras and the Festival Brass Quintet, and even backed Sammy Davis Jr. during a gig. She was also in cabaret at the Imperial Theater on Broadway. In addition to all of this, she also taught music in elementary schools in New Jersey.

When she came to Seattle, she worked at Haller Lake United Methodist Church, where she served as the musical director. There she created a program in which local classical musicians would be showcased in the church performances.

In the years that followed, she became a substitute trombone player for the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Seattle Opera. She then founded Blue Water Bass Trio. She became assistant director of the Varsity Drag Jazz Band, which specialized in ’20s and ’30s music.

Other organizations and mentorship Christen was very hard-working, taking on a lot through her career. In addition to Rainbow City Band, Christen founded a slew of other musical groups for amateur musicians in the city. These include the Seattle Civic Band, Purple Passion Swing Band, and Rain City’s Women’s Chorus. She also assumed command of preexisiting Rain City Symphony and Boeing Employees Concert Band.

In tandem with her musicianship and

her ability to create new musical worlds through community, Christen was known by many a mentor. She used her skills to educate, and passed on her abilities and knowledge to young musicians. All of this work was done in order to strengthen them and the music scene at large.

Rest in peace

Jo-Ann Christen was a fixture of a sprawling community that she in many ways helped cultivate. Every year of her

professional career was dedicated to honing her craft and sharing her talents with Seattle and the world. In addition to this, though, she spent her time on earth founding and leading countless musical projects that strengthened and expanded the community into the scene that it is today. She positively affected this city and the musicians within it, indubitably.

JO-ANN CHRISTEN, SEATTLE CIVIC BAND, 2010 – RAINBOW CITY BAND JO-ANN CHRISTEN SIGNED PHOTO, FESTIVAL BRASS, 1968 – RAINBOW CITY BAND

SALVATION ARMY YOUTH BAND, 1962 – RAINBOW CITY BAND

Geeks and Queers at Emerald City Comic Con 2024: Queer spaces and more SEATTLE NEWS

BY DANIEL LINDSLEY SGN STAFF WRITER

Between the Arch and Summit buildings of the Seattle Convention Center, Emerald City Comic Con boasted an estimated 90,000 attendees this year. Just about every feature that was present in 2023 was expanded, from the Artist Alley to celebrity guests — and, most importantly, the Gay stuff.

Once again, North Admiral–based nonprofit Free2Luv hosted the Pride Lounge, a dedicated space for Queer con-goers and allies to hang out, meet each other, and take a break from all the action. Round tables were set up in one portion of the room, with a few collaborative posters laid out, and bean bag chairs were scattered more or less around a pair of TV screens used for gaming.

The lounge also hosted workshops for making and exchanging friendship brace-

lets, and demand for its Drag Queen Bingo event was high enough that the line to get in wrapped around one corner.

Other explicitly Queer panels and events had a strong fan turnout as well (save for the one during the Critical Role panel), but Queer and other minority perspectives really did seem to be woven through every feature of the convention.

Meeting LGBTQ creators in the Artists’ Alley was an endeavor, partly because of the crowds, but also because of the sheer number of people there who tripped my “gaydar.” In previous years, I’d get a “ping” here and there. This year, it was like I was Ellen Ripley in Aliens, with my motion tracker’s screen turning rainbow.

Middle Earth

The Lord of the Rings cast reunion brought Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, and

John Rhys-Davies onto the main stage to talk about their careers and experiences with the films — the usual stuff — but not before giving Sam and Frodo shippers in the crowd a characteristic nod of approval.

“Elijah and I get to see each other all the time,” Astin said. “We eat together, we do crossword puzzles together — all the fan fiction is true.”

Both the films and the books in Tolkien’s massively influential Middle Earth series are criticized for their lack of women characters, but that absence does leave a lot of room for the men to love each other. In that area, the Rings series shines.

It was inevitable, then, that the three cast members passed around a lot of love. Astin referred to Rhys-Davies as a “dwarven god” and praised Wood for being a trooper throughout the filming process.

Exhibitors and socializing

Some of the bigger indie exhibitors made a point of featuring work by and about Queer people and other minorities. Oni Press brought in Queer creators like Jarrett Melendez, best known for his Gay culinary romance comic Chef’s Kiss.

Stranger Comics was promoting its Afrofantasy series Niobe: She Is Life, which was the first nationally distributed comic book with a Black woman as its author, its protagonist, and one of its artists. Founder Sebastian Jones said that the publisher is working with HBO on a TV series set in the broader Afro-fantasy setting of Asunda.

The convention team also rolled out a new “Tavern” feature this year, though I didn’t spend a great deal of time in the Dabbling Dragon, which hosted interactive panels and workshops; or in the Pickled Pixie, which had a few meetups but seemed fairly relaxed besides.

For me, the real party was in Kraken’s Keep, which distinguished itself from the convention’s 21+ “beer gardens” with live music, plentiful seating, soft lighting, and nautical decor. The price of the alcohol was outrageous, but convention food is always pricey, and I suspect that it helped patrons drink in moderation.

Prices notwithstanding, the people I spoke with in Kraken’s Keep all seemed glad to have that space and generally agreed that it was a fantastic idea. The vibes were good enough that, on Sunday night, the bards (a lutist and a singer) proposed to each other to the tune of a cheering crowd.

Conventions like Emerald City Comic Con are far from the only place one can meet like-minded geeks, but few bring so many different “wings” of geekdom into one place. Whether it’s live-action roleplaying like Amtgard or the Renaissance Faire, tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, or the Artist’s Alley, each feature seems to grow and evolve every year. The direction of this evolution seems to be prosocial, and for a long-time con-goer, it’s a beautiful thing to see.

LOCAL YOUTUBER MATT BAUME WITH FELLOW PANELISTS IN “RECLAIMING QUEER HISTORY THROUGH COMICS” – PHOTO BY DANIEL LINDSLEY

ELIJAH WOOD, SEAN ASTIN, AND JOHN RHYS-DAVIES ON THE MAIN STAGE – COURTESY OF REEDPOP

Snohomish County’s Catalyst Café to reopen

BY SHELBY OLSON SGN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In June of 2023, the Catalyst Café in Everett moved to a new location on the lively Hewitt Avenue. Almost one year later, though not quite ready for full operation, it is well on its way, renovating the interior and hosting drag and burlesque shows in the evenings. From the attractive blue storefront to the joyful murals by local Queer artists lighting up the walls, the space — which is three times the size of its predecessor — feels charged with potential energy.

“I’ve wanted to own a café forever,” said owner Adair Gearhart. “I love serving people, and feeding people.” Gearhart, who had been a president of PFLAG’s Everett chapter for years, said they wanted to find a way to combine that love with their volunteer work, and Catalyst was the result.

In addition to being a café, Catalyst has always acted as a hosting space for Queer performances and public officials alike. The goal was be of service in as many ways as possible: providing a safe space, supplying resources, and encouraging community action.

Some of its regular functions included weekly Trans.Formation meetings, “Queeraoke,” Friday Night Magic the Gathering meets, and drag storytime. Gearhart’s hope for the new space is to expand upon these activities, adding things like D&D nights, writing workshops, and a local maker market. “On our days off,” they said, “I’m going to bring in sewing supplies and teach our performers how to make their own outfits.”

Persistence in the face of adversity

The horizon is promising, but the road was not easy. The day Gearhart’s previous landlord saw Pride flags inside the café, their working relationship crumbled, replaced by suspicion and an unwillingness to pay for necessary repairs. Catalyst also was subject to harassment for its drag storytime. At one such storytime, a group of white cis men wearing plate carriers ganged up outside the café, staring from their truck beds across the street. Gearhart was even threatened by Gays Against Groomers, a Gay-led group that believes drag storytime is part of a larger agenda to sexualize children.

By far the biggest roadblock seemed to be funding. “I was supposed to get a $25,000

ODYSSEY

“When you have a Queer identity, your options of trusted adults [to go to] can sometimes shrink pretty substantially…, which makes [youth] even more vulnerable to [certain] kinds of situations,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said the youth drop-in center acts similarly to afterschool programs. Teens can meet new friends within the community but also access resources and programming, like food, a clothing closet with genderaffirming apparel and chest-compression binders, an art room for creative expression, and a library full of Queer literature.

The programming can differ each week, and is dependent on the needs and interests of the youth. Sullivan said it can range from a movie night to discussions about LGBTQ history and culture, healthy relationships, and safe sex. Odyssey partners with local organizations, like the YMCA for discussions on teen violence, for example.

Serving youth Odyssey served about 359 local youth last year. The drop-in center is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for age-specific programming for 13-18-year-olds. Thursday is dedicated to young adults ages 18-24 (18-year-olds can be in either group of youth).

“Most of our college campuses around town have really active student clubs, and even student offices with paid staff,

grant for Queer food service owners,” Gearhart said. “I applied and got told in mid-May, ‘You’re in. You should have your money by the end of June.’ Great, I thought, I’m gonna have this done in no time.” Dependent on this grant, they initiated the move, but after months of no response, they discovered none of the grants ever went out.

Despite these challenges, Gearhart never lost sight of their goal. “I started on what I could do: I bought paint.” They channeled their thrifting and upcycling skills from their experience growing up poor. “Filling the space in a way that feels intentional takes a long time, but it saves money,” they said. Crowdsourcing was also key: they received several donations of appliances, furniture, and even board games. With help from patrons, as well as Traction and the GSBA, reinvigorating the new space was quite literally a labor of love. (Catalyst’s Amazon wish list is still up on all its social media accounts, by the way.)

Already, people have come walking in, looking for food (even a few times during our talk). Gearhart hopes to be ready to open in time for Everett’s second-ever Pride this year.

As one of the very few places in Everett for drag, and with neighboring businesses like Tony V’s that have voiced their support, Catalyst seems set to thrive on Hewitt. “All the

local businesses here have been super kind,” Gearhart said. “This is such a cool area, and I’m excited to be a part of this neighborhood. There is so much opportunity.”

Serving the community

Catalyst is also one of the few Queer spaces that does not serve alcohol. “This is my opinion,” they said, “but if you’re opening a business to serve the Queer community, and you choose to serve alcohol, you’re doing it wrong. You’re not providing a service, you’re just taking their money.”

One of Gearhart’s plans for the new space is to create support groups. “We need a place to build and grow community in a more healthy way,” they said. Many patrons were newly sober people, who enjoyed meeting in a safe, dry space; the new location features private, curtained-off areas for this purpose. The care put toward these details — like the decorative acoustic tiles on the wall, which double as a sensory buffer — form part of this commitment to serving the community.

The menu also reflects this attitude. It was about “creating a spot that really puts the long-neglected parts of the community front and center, in a way that feels like they’re being appreciated,” Gearhart said. “We have this diverse menu that’s very customizable.” At least 80% is or can be made gluten free, sugar free, and vegan.

so [there are more] options [for people] on their college campus, if they are connected to an academic setting like that,” Sullivan said.

About two-thirds of participants fall into the teen category, Sullivan said. This year, Odyssey is focused on opportunities for growth via existing events.

“[We’re] really … making sure that our Pride events throughout June have teen- or youth-specific areas that really create a safe space for them to be at a larger event, but also celebrate them and help them build that community,” Sullivan explained.

At Spokane Pride, which reels in around 30,000 attendees, Odyssey hosts a teen zone beneath a large tent, which offers

activities, resources, snacks, and water.

“[We’re] helping to connect folks, because a lot of the folks that visit us during that festival might be coming from a larger region,” Sullivan added.

At the end of June, Odyssey hosts a smaller neighborhood Pride celebration, known as Pride Perry, and Sullivan hopes to grow the activities there as well.

“[We’re] carving out bigger and better spaces for LGBTQ young folks, and doing so with support from our Youth Leadership Group, so they’ll be helping to design what’s happening, what the activities are, how we plan around it, and all that stuff,” Sullivan said.

Part of making the menu accessible is avoiding upcharges. “I price everything based on the most expensive option, and then average it out. Someone doesn’t choose to have celiac — why should they have to pay more for a smaller sandwich?”

The coffee and baked goods are also sourced from local, Queer-friendly businesses. “There are so many great local businesses, and I want more people to know about them,” Gearhart said.

Places like this are essential in Snohomish County. “The [Queer] community exists here, but it’s so wildly underrepresented,” Gearhart said. “I want to come in and be frankly kind of obnoxious and loud, like, ‘We’re here, bitch!’” They gestured to the giant Pride flags on the wall. “I want Queer people to walk in the front door and know, ‘I belong here, this is for me.’ And let some of that mask down and settle into being their genuine self. And for the ones who are kind of on the fence [about the flags], I want them to come out thinking, ‘Oh okay, that wasn’t bad at all,’ to make things that much easier for the Queer people in their lives.”

Catalyst has always been focused on effecting meaningful change and support for the community. True to its namesake, it continues to be a place for connections to form and grow.

Looking toward prom

The current Youth Leadership Group is leading Odyssey’s Youth Queer Prom

(https://www.odysseyyouth.org/prom) event on April 12 at the Montvale Event Center. The leadership group’s membership changes throughout the season, but youth are a consistent, built-in voice that offers direct feedback and opinions on how to use the space to Odyssey staff.

About 215 youth attended last year’s prom, which at the time moved from a Queer-friendly church basement to Montvale due to its growth.

“We’ll have a dance floor with a live DJ, and the lights and fun glow sticks and all of the things you’d expect at prom,” Sullivan said. “There will be a photo booth, and once they get in, everything inside is free of charge.”

The prom will encompass two floors, with the dance floor on the upper level and crafts and activities tables on the lower level.

“A good chunk of our participants … can get overstimulated, overwhelmed pretty easily. I think most humans get overwhelmed in a crowded, 200-plus-people [setting], and [there] was a youth … conversation on how we can create additional spaces,” Sullivan said.

With the rise in the cost of the event, as well as the cost of living, Odyssey wanted to keep the prom as accessible as possible: tickets are $10, and plenty of sponsor tickets are available if money is a barrier.

ODYSSEY YOUTH MOVEMENT

ADAIR GEARHART, OWNER – PHOTO BY SHELBY OLSON

CATALYST CAFÉ

REGIONAL NEWS

The results are in for Washington’s presidential primary

BY

LINDSEY ANDERSON SGN STAFF WRITER

Voters across Washington checked their party affiliation and submitted their votes for the March 12 primary. Despite dropping out of the race nearly a week before, Nikki Haley still managed to get 149,181 votes, although it wasn’t enough to even earn her even one delegate. Donald Trump earned 43 delegates, with 583,358 votes (75.7%). Trump did the best in Ferry County, where he won 87% of the Republican votes. Though he still won the Republican primary in King County, he performed the worst there, only snagging 61%.

On the Democratic side, Joe Biden is the projected winner and earned all 92 delegates from 751,224 votes (83.5%). While a full sweep is never likely, especially with multiple opponents on the ballot, the fact that Biden didn’t earn more votes surprised many. His biggest challenger here came from uncommitted voters, who made up nearly 10% of the votes.

The “uncommitted” movement began just weeks before the primary and made waves in the Ohio race. Dissatisfied with the president’s handling of the war between Hamas and Israel, protesters, activists, and many young voters mobilized through social media to encourage Democrats to protest US aid to Israel. The movement did the best in King County, with 45,107 votes (13.6%).

RASMUSSEN

CONTINUED FROM COVER

“The first thing I noticed as I started transition was [that] people refused to work with me,” Rassmussen said to the SGN “I had never experienced that before transition. Then, jokes — anti-Gay jokes. When I first came out, there were Gay jokes, mocking a female voice over the radio, just people [saying] how angry they were that Washington State was planning to ban conversion therapy. Why come up to me and tell me how horrible it is to lose that? Just the permissiveness of all that, it led to the sexual assault.”

The abuse Rasmussen faced was ongoing. It began with verbal accusations, probing questions about her transition and personal life, the use of the F-slur in a diversity training exercise, and taunts and jabs about Queer and Trans identities, all while supervisors looked on but said nothing. Soon, the verbal assaults became physical. In one instance, a coworker groped her. In another instance, another sexually assaulted her with a broomstick.

Rebuffed by HR

Each time Rasmussen reported her harassment to HR, and was either dismissed or blamed for somehow encouraging the abuse simply by existing. “I engaged HR right off the bat. That’s the rule at the company, so I was following their own rules,” Rasmussen recalled. “I had never reported to HR before transition. I didn’t even know my secondlevel manager before I transitioned.”

Despite the dismissals, she continued to report each incident, hoping, eventually, something would change within the company. It never did. “It felt like gaslighting. I would be told sometimes that it was my fault or that I just needed to let people get used to me. It felt dismissive,” she said.

Boeing’s HR not only blamed Rasmussen for the abuse she suffered but also made excuses for her coworkers. “They would put the burden on me to make everyone else comfortable with me,” she said. The department also justified outing her to new hires. “When I objected to that and said it puts me in danger, [HR] responded that it’s no different than saying someone is Black or a woman,” Rasmussen added.

Trump’s trials

Though still in the running and projected to earn the nomination, twice-impeached Trump is also currently being indicted in four separate cases. He faces two felony counts of obstructing an official proceeding, one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and one felony

to commit false statements, one count of filing false documents, and one count of conspiracy to file false documents. Regarding documents seized at his Mar-a-Lago residency, Trump faces 32 felony counts of willful retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act, six felony counts of obstruction-related crimes, and two felony counts of false statements. He is also simultaneously being indicted in New York on 34 felony counts of New York penal law for falsifying documents regarding the hush-money case.

On Tuesday, March 19, Trump argued for sweeping immunity in front of the Supreme Court, arguing that future presidents could be blackmailed with potential lawsuits and jail time after they leave office if immunity is not assumed to continue after their term ends. Trump also argued that if the court was unwilling to grant him maximalist immunity, it should delay all of his trials until after the November election, as he is now the projected winner in several primaries, including the one in Washington State.

ELAINE THOMPSON / AP

count of conspiracy for his involvement with January 6. In Georgia, Trump faces one count of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, one count of conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree forgery, two counts of false statements, two counts of conspiracy

“I hope this lawsuit can create an environment where women, Gay employees, and Trans employees can feel safe coming to work.”

Feeling abandoned

The job she once loved was slowly turning into a nightmare for Rasmussen. Her days became lonelier as former work friends now refused to talk with her or work alongside her. When some coworkers were willing to stand in solidarity with Rasmussen, they also faced harassment.

“There was somebody who did stand up for me, and they put a Trans rights sticker on their locker. The next day, their locker was beaten over the sticker, and there were broomsticks laid against their locker.” This occurred shortly after the aforementioned broomstick assault.

The employees at Boeing knew their behavior was wrong. They could see the weight their constant bullying put on Rassmussen’s shoulders, but they never did anything to stop it. “I vividly remember a

coworker telling me that he knows what is happening to me is wrong, but because it didn’t affect him, he wasn’t going to say anything,” she said. “It made me feel like I’m drowning in a lake, and someone is standing there with a life preserver, and they’re not going to throw it to me. I felt completely abandoned.”

Eventually, Rasmussen left the operations department for a new position with the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion department. Rassmussen took the position to help increase the representation of women in Boeing’s workforce and to escape the harassment she faced daily. “I wasn’t harassed in DEI the way I was [before],” she said.

Her new job was short-lived, however. Just two years in, the company laid her off with little explanation as to why.

Washington’s primary race seems to be indicative of national trends. A 2024 BidenTrump rematch is on, despite the efforts of Haley and “uncommitted” activists. Regardless of the outcome, the next general election will end with the oldest serving US president in history taking on inflation, growing resentment toward the LGBTQ+ community, and increasing debate about wars abroad.

“I have seen Boeing openly move people around. They could have easily positioned me somewhere else. I had no reason to expect that they wouldn’t,” Rasmussen said.

After losing her DEI position, she applied for 29 other jobs with Boeing, mostly mechanic jobs like the one she’d held for over two decades. She knew it inside and out and also knew there was a high demand to fill more mechanic positions — the company was even offering $10,000 in referrals to cover the cost of relocation. “I applied for the role, I passed a proctor exam for it, but I couldn’t get through the interview,” she said.

Legal action

Now, Rasmussen is taking legal action against the company. “Boeing, over and over again, has made hollow and empty commitments about protecting her and other employees,” Jay Free, Rasmussen’s attorney, said. “I hope this lawsuit finally encourages them to turn those empty promises into action.

“This lawsuit arises from the Washington law against discrimination. You cannot mistreat somebody based on their gender identity, their gender, or their sexual orientation. That’s the web of it.”

“Everyone should feel safe at work and be able to address any concerns and not [suffer] retaliation for raising a concern,” Rassmussen added. “I want the culture to be one of respect and dignity for everybody. There really should be zero tolerance for harassment. Boeing says there is zero tolerance, but there is a lot of tolerance for harassment.”

After 32 years, six months, and two days working for Boeing, Rassmussen doesn’t know what she’ll do next. “It changed who I am. I don’t trust people. I lost friendships. It’s been devastating. I don’t enjoy life the way I used to. To be targeted for who I am, I don’t feel safe in the world anymore,” she admitted.

“That’s exactly why Rachel is bringing this lawsuit, so people like her can report to work free from harassment and be who they are,” Free added. “I hope this lawsuit can create an environment where women, Gay employees, and Trans employees can feel safe coming to work.”

SAMUEL CORUM / SIPA / AP

BOWERS

If you guessed “counterculture rock star,” you’d be wrong. But regardless, everyone in the LGBTQ community should know about Dr. Marci Bowers.

She’s an obstetrician, gynecologist, and surgeon best known for her work in genderaffirming and reconstructive surgeries. During her award-winning 36-year career, she has helped deliver over 2,000 babies and performed over 2,000 vaginoplasties, and she has a long list of world firsts.

For instance, since at least 2014, she has led medical missions to countries like Kenya and Burkina Faso to train doctors there in clitoral restoration surgery, a procedure vital to women’s sexual health and autonomy in regions where genital cutting is common.

Bowers took some time out of an “epic” week of skiing in Tahoe to speak about her memories of Seattle in the ’80s and ’90s, as well as the mainstream media’s shortcomings regarding gender-affirming care, and other topics.

Time in Seattle

“I didn’t really come from the Gay community,” Bowers said of her life “B.C.”, or “before change.” She moved to Seattle in 1986 for an OB/GYN residency and ended up working at the Polyclinic and Swedish Medical Center for 13 years.

She remembers at least a few Queer Seattlites fondly. One in particular stood out to her as a kind of mentor, at least in his “mannerisms” and “compassion” for patients.

“I had a very influential resident by the name of John Hesla,” Bowers said. “I didn’t even know he was Gay when I started residency, but he had a bedside manner that was exemplary.”

Bowers recalled being impressed at the “throng of people” who attended Hesla’s Christmas party, where “there were so many Gay people in one place,” compared to cities like Minneapolis or St. Paul.

Sadly, Hesla was one of the many people taken from this city’s Queer community by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. At his funeral, Bowers recalled, the illness itself was only spoken about in euphemisms. She said she wants to “carry [Hesla’s] name forward,” and she really can, now that she has become a more public figure.

Mind you, that publicity was never part of her long-term plan. In fact, Bowers “never even wanted to do gender surgery at all,” she said. “It was fate that took me there.”

Forging her own path

Bowers “went live” and transitioned in 1998, which was a “big shock” to some of the people around her. “But honestly, by two, three years later, nobody really knew... I just wanted to live a woman’s life, and that’s all I really did.”

By the mid-’90s, Bowers had left the Polyclinic to forge her own path and practice medicine solo. She found that, although many of her professional colleagues were supportive, and she “was able to get people to share call coverage,” she “wasn’t invited to any of the elite groups.”

“I could have left town, or I guess I could have reinvented myself somewhere else, but I wanted to stay in Seattle,” she said. “The only provider who would offer me space was... a primary care doc by the name of Rob Killian.”

Dr. Killian is notable for being the second provider in Washington state to offer HIV care. If his website is up to date, he’s still practicing medicine today, though he seems to have moved from the office Bowers described as “maybe 400 square feet.”

“There was one exam room and a little eight-by-eight-foot waiting area,” Bowers said of the place. “It reminded me of the living room of The Birdcage... And of course the receptionist was this Latin drag queen, who was quite flamboyant and used

to toss her hair around. I came from this kind of hoity-toity clinic to this place that was obviously gender diverse.”

Trans 101

Even after moving into a bigger office space, business was slow, and Bowers felt that something else had to change. In 1998, opportunity came knocking.

There is plenty of coverage of how Bowers then learned gender-affirmation surgery — how she trained under a pioneer in the field, Dr. Stanley Biber, and took over his practice in 2003 when he retired.

A lot of that coverage, and Bowers’s media appearances since then, seem to fall into the category of “Trans 101.” In other words, she has been asked to answer basic questions about transness and gender-affirmation surgery for the benefit of confused and frightened cisgender people.

The work of educating the straight masses is valuable and necessary, especially since Bowers is now the president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. But I felt it was important to ask: To many members of the Trans community, she basically is a rock star, so does she feel like one?

“No, not really,” Bowers said. “My kids, you know, they put me in my place... I am proud that I’m on the cutting edge of two social justice movements in the world.”

I asked about how she handles that pressure, what gives her hope, and what questions she wished the media were asking.

“It’s complicated, but it doesn’t feel like pressure because of how it’s all organically involved,” she said of her work. “I can only do so much in a day, and the next day I’ll do something else... You’re in harmony with the forces of good in the world, when it just puts you in places where you’re able to do good.”

Bowers said she wanted the media to ask more questions about gender diversity and less about transition regret. Some outlets, whether left-leaning or not, are “obsessed with people who change their mind” — who amount to just 1% of those who undergo transition surgeries, according to the Associated Press.

“I think there’s a lot of hope out there,” Bowers said. “This is who we are. This is not something that’s going to go away... Gender diversity is just part of the human fabric.”

For the Trans people who might want to follow in her footsteps, Bowers had this advice: “It’s a bit of a card game [of] when to play, which card at what time — don’t show your hand too early. In other words, if you want to go into Transgender medicine, I know of individuals who have been turned away from medical school completely. So hold that queen of spades a little longer than you think you need to.”

“I think there’s a lot of hope out there… This is who we are. This is not something that’s going to go away... Gender diversity is just part of the human fabric.”

Bisexual Health Awareness Month: Facts and challenges

BY LINDSEY ANDERSON SGN STAFF WRITER

March is Bisexual Health Month, and according to a new poll from Gallup, more people in the United States identify as Bisexual than ever before.

In 2024, 7.6% of all Americans identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community — doubling the numbers of just 12 years ago. Among those is an increasing number of Bisexuals: 57% of people Gallup identified as LGBTQ+ said they were Bisexual.

Mental health

While LGBTQ+ people of all identities are more likely to report mental health challenges than heterosexual people, Bisexuals are more likely than any other sexual orientation to experience anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. A study from the Bisexual Resource Center found that 40% of people who identified as Bi had attempted suicide at some point in their lives; Bisexual women were six times more likely to have attempted in the past 12 months than heterosexual women.

Bisexual youth are especially prone to mental health-related issues. In a study by the Human Rights Campaign, only 44% of Bisexual youth reported having a trusted adult they could confide in. In comparison, 54% of Lesbian and Gay youth felt they had an adult ally in their lives.

Substance abuse

Bisexual people of all ages are also more likely than homosexual or heterosexual people to experience substance abuse issues. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association, Bisexual women are among some of the highest users of drugs and alcohol in the LGBTQ+ community. According to the Bisexual Resource Center, 40% of Bisexual women reported using marijuana, 12.5% reported an alcohol use disorder, and 12.5% reported an opioid use disorder — all higher than the numbers for Lesbians and straight women. According to the BRC, one in three Bisexuals reported substance abuse issues.

“We know that statistically, Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Americans face increased risks for mental health and substance use issues, which is often related to stress caused by stigma, discrimination, and harassment,” said Miriam E. Delphin-Rittmon, the leader of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Marginalized identities

DARINA BELONOGOVA / PEXELS

In 2024, 7.6% of all Americans identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community — doubling the numbers of just 12 years ago. Among those is an increasing number of Bisexuals: 57% of people Gallup identified as LGBTQ+ said they were Bisexual.

Several studies show that people with multiple marginalized identities are more likely to struggle with mental health issues. Bisexual people who also identify as Transgender, Nonbinary, and/or BIPOC are at even higher risk of mental health and substance abuse issues. Transgender and BIPOC people make up a large section of the Bisexual community. Forty percent of BIPOC LGBTQ+ people identify as Bisexual, and half of all Transgender people identify as also Bisexual. According to the HRC, LGBTQ+ BIPOC students are 27% more likely than their peers to attempt suicide. The study also found that 28% of LGBTQ+ BIPOC adults are uninsured.

Sexual assault and health Bisexual people make up the largest demographic of sexual assault reporters.

Bisexual men are more likely to have experienced sexual abuse as minors than heterosexual men and have a 143% higher chance of experiencing intimate partner violence in adulthood. According to the CDC, 66% of Bisexual women have reported rape, intimate partner violence, or stalking. Bisexual men and women are at an increased risk for sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are less likely than Gay and Lesbian people to disclose their sexual orientation to their doctors. Thirty-nine percent of Bisexual men and 33% of Bisexual women admitted to the HRC that they have not disclosed their sexual orientation to their healthcare provider.

Bisexual women are more likely than heterosexual women to get tested for HIV,

but studies show they are also more likely to participate in activities that increase risk for HIV, such as anal sex and condomless sex. On the contrary, Bisexual men are less likely to get tested for HIV, which has resulted in Bi men being disproportionately affected by the virus. Bi men and women also have a higher risk of HPV, which can lead to cervical and anal cancer.

Compared to the general population, Bisexual women are more likely to develop breast cancer, heart disease, and obesity. These numbers are associated with the fact that Bisexual women are less likely than Lesbians and heterosexuals to access preventive care, such as mammograms and pap tests, and more likely to encounter mental health issues that can coincide with obesity.

Bi erasure

While Bi people continue to face elevated risks for mental, physical, and sexual health ailments in disproportionately higher numbers, experts believe the culprit lies in Bi erasure. Often, Bisexual people feel invisible in their community due to antiquated, biphobic ways of thinking. Bisexual people in straight-passing relationships may not always feel welcome or accepted in Queer spaces due to the stigma that they’re “not Queer enough.” Other times, Bisexual people feel their identities erased when they receive comments about their sexuality being “just a phase” or a “stepping stone to homosexuality.”

The best thing allies of the Bi community can do to close the gap in health disparities is to accept the identities of their friends and family, validate their experiences, and be supportive of their life choices. Bisexual people in same-sex relationships are still Bisexual. Bisexual people in different-sex relationships are still Bisexual. Bisexual people who have never had a relationship are still Bisexual. There is no right way to be Bi. Taking care of ourselves and our community is the first step in closing the gap.

MIKHAIL NILOV / PEXELS

Kids bully kids because adults bully adults

BY TEDDY MACQUARRIE SGN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Nothing could have prepared me for this particular student’s story. I was in my third year as a teacher in a mental health program for children and adolescents. Every day, I would greet new students and say goodbye to old ones.

I would estimate that about a third of my students at any given moment were Queer. Most of those faced steep challenges with their families, especially parents who refused to acknowledge the students’ pronouns, chosen names, and gender identities, or whose religious beliefs opposed their sexual orientations.

“Joshua” was admitted to the program one Thursday morning and was in my first class of the day. Once a sunny and outgoing 12-year old who had come out in sixth grade and presented as Gay, he didn’t face these challenges per se, but instead another common set: he had been severely, collectively, and relentlessly bullied by his peers in an affluent, conservative, suburban school district outside of Fort Worth, Texas.

He had become withdrawn, bitter, and self-hating, and had resorted to self-harm and self-destructive behaviors. It was clear to me, the therapy team, and his parents that Joshua’s mental health challenges were a direct result of the bullying and harassment he faced as a Queer preteen.

His stories horrified me. Reviewing his intake files was one of the most enraging experiences I encountered in my nearly decade-long career as an educator. The worst aspect of his account wasn’t merely the brazen cruelty of Joshua’s peers or the severe mental health impact it had on him (four suicide attempts by the age of 12 is four too many), but the complacency of his school and community regarding his mistreatment.

In some ways, Joshua was lucky: He wasn’t alone. He had parents who advocated for him and were able to seek treatment, and eventually transferred him to a more supportive school. Even with these resources, however, he and his family had to face how his former school both officially and unofficially sanctioned the mistreatment of Queer kids, and how the community around him normalized the attitudes, beliefs, and social structures that made that mistreatment inevitable.

Abetting bullying

Tragically, Joshua’s struggles are not an isolated case. In a brief published after its 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Mental Health, the Trevor Project, a Queer student advocacy organization, found that not only did the majority of Queer youth (52%) who were enrolled in middle or high school report being bullied either in person or electronically in the past year but that Queer students who reported being bullied in the past year had three times greater odds of attempting suicide.

The heartbreaking case of Nex Benedict, the Nonbinary teen in Oklahoma who ended their own life after being attacked by classmates in February, fits the same pattern that caught Joshua in its web of violence, harassment, and neglect. In Benedict’s case, reactionary political forces created a climate of hostility and discrimination in Oklahoma schools that culminated in the teen’s victimization and subsequent suicide. Joshua’s case looks eerily close, save for the insistent interventions by his well-resourced parents.

In order to address school bullying of Queer teens, we have to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth about the way that it reflects the attitudes and behaviors of the adult world: kids bully kids because adults — and the institutions they build and run — bully adults.

Schools that refuse to understand how institutional power aids and abets the social hierarchies that build them will, without exception, enable youth as they bully those considered less socially included. Bullying is how they rehearse for the social roles they’re being prepared for, and those who

In order to address school bullying of Queer teens, we have to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth about the way that it reflects the attitudes and behaviors of the adult world: kids bully kids because adults — and the institutions they build and run — bully adults.

bully are securing as high a place in that hierarchy for themselves as possible. Bullying arises from behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs that they learn from adults.

Kids who are bullied are taught how to be subservient to those with more privileged positions. When schools, parents, and communities fail to act in order to protect them from bullying, they endorse the social hierarchies that it reflects.

Joshua and Nex weren’t just mistreated, they were allowed to suffer by schools that, implicitly or explicitly, believed that this violence was somehow just. The mentality in communities such as Owasso, Oklahoma, and the conservative suburbs of Texas is that the “right kids” — in the

words of Oklahoma Senator Tom Woods, “that filth” — were being bullied.

These attitudes were further entrenched through the incendiary rhetoric pushed by Oklahoma Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters and his unqualified appointee to the Library Advisory Board, non-Oklahoma resident and Libs of TikTok influencer Chaya Raichik.

Our message as we combat anti-Queer bullying is that there is never such a thing as a “right kid” for such targeting, and that the tragic death of Nex Benedict and others were entirely preventable through adequate responses to violence, harassment, and discrimination. Yet the attitudes of the adults running the schools gave the green light

for these incidents through the increased politicization and scapegoating of Queer and especially Trans kids.

As a Queer former educator, the experiences of bullied Queer children and youth hit close to home. They remind me of my years as a neurodivergent Gay kid in the Texas panhandle, my struggles with administrators and parents over “lifestyle” issues, and the many hours I’ve spent trying to support, guide, and mentor Queer students facing sometimes extreme challenges.

Whether they hit close to home or not though, these young people’s pain should light a fire under us to make our schools and our communities safer for all.

The lives of our youth are at stake.

IMAGES COURTESY OF THE TREVOR PROJECT

MIKHAIL NILOV / PEXELS

Trans social media icon Noahfinnce brings autobiographical album tour to Seattle ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

BY IAN CROWLEY SGN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

YouTuber and pop-punk musical artist Noahfinnce (born Noah Finn Adams) has set sail on his North America headlining tour, featuring opening acts such as Chase Petra, Teenage Joans, and TX2. The multi-instrumentalist’s itinerary started on March 14 in Detroit, and is set to end in mid-April. This coincides with his new album that just dropped at the beginning of the month, titled Growing Up on the Internet, a reference to the artist’s longrunning stint as an online content creator that helped springboard his music career.

The new album was produced and cowritten by Stefan. Additional producers on the project include Danny Jones and Dougie Poynter of McFly, Julia Sykes, LAWRENT, Thomas Mitchener, and Arcades. Some of its songs include the title track, “Growing Up on the Internet,” the anti-TERF anthem “Scumbag” (a personal favorite of the SGN team), and “3-Day Headache,” which was featured on BBC Radio 1’s “Tune of the Week.” In the upcoming weeks, Noahfinnce is going to release a music video for “Alexithymia,” which is a cut off the new record, on his YouTube channel.

When talking about the title and themes of the record, he said, “I only recently

began processing the effect that growing up on the internet, with hundreds of thousands of eyes on me, has had on my development

as a person.” The record directly deals with this experience, and reckoning with those feelings and how it has shaped him and how it is shaping all of us.

“Human beings weren’t built to perceive and compare ourselves to millions of others,” he added. “We were made to pick berries and build relationships within our local communities.” This sentiment speaks to central themes of the album: that the internet and information overload is creating tensions in our lives, and that authentic expressions of self can be a remedy for that.

“Scumbag” mini-review

One of the songs off the new record, “Scumbag,” is a thumping, loud, and energetic track that speaks directly to TERFs (Trans-exclusionary radical feminists) in its lyrics. The song’s narrator calls out people who signify progressive politics, only to in the same breath call for the dehumanization of marginalized groups. The vocal performance is very impressive and lively, complimented by distorted guitars and tinny, brash, and expressive synthesizers. At just under three minutes, the track is begging to be played over and over, and given its status as an anthem against hate, it calls for many listens both for the music and the song’s never-fading relevance.

The tour

Noahfinnce’s tour will span North America, hitting every major area of the US. It comes to the PNW for its last leg: The Crocodile in Seattle on Sunday, April 7, and a show in Portland the night before. Make sure to download, buy, or stream “Growing Up on the Internet,” stay tuned for the new music video, and get tickets and see the show in April!

Themes

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

FILM Dynamic Love Lies Bleeding a steamy, hallucinogenic neo-noir daydream laced with nitroglycerin

BY SARA MICHELLE FETTERS SGN STAFF WRITER

LOVE LIES BLEEDING

Theaters

Love Lies Bleeding is the first truly great film of 2024. Director Rose Glass delivers on the promise vividly showcased in her 2019 debut Saint Maud, unleashing a twisted, surrealistic neo-noir thriller that craftily defies easy categorization. Funny, shocking, and emotionally intoxicating at an almost primordial level, this chaotic love story is an imaginative blast of character-driven nitroglycerin and is guaranteed to be one of the year’s best.

Set in 1989 in the sun-drenched nowhere of an isolated New Mexico desert community, the story follows gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) and wandering wannabe bodybuilding champion Jackie (Katy O’Brian). The latter is making a four-week pit stop in the small town to train for an upcoming competition in Las Vegas. The former is trying to stay away from her gun range–owning father Lou Sr. (Ed Harris) while also being a protective voice of reason for her sister Beth (Jena Malone), whose abusive husband JJ (Dave Franco) regularly beats her.

What happens next is where all the heartstopping fun is found. Lou and Jackie enter into a sexually charged relationship, the heat generated by their mutual attraction melting the screen. Lou Sr. is evil to the core.

JJ is a timid, emasculated, drunken loser who uses Beth as a punching bag to prove he’s still a man. Drugs get used. People are killed. The wall between reality and fantasy comes

Pushing outside the comfort zone

Love Lies Bleeding director Rose Glass on redefining and busting genre convention with her exhilarating, female-led neo-noir

BY SARA MICHELLE FETTERS SGN STAFF WRITER

Love Lies Bleeding is an exhilarating neonoir featuring megastar Kristen Stewart and newcomer Katy O’Brian as a pair of starcrossed Lesbian lovers who, after a surreal series of events, find themselves neck-deep in gun-running, addiction, familial trauma, and cold-blooded murder. The film is a hallucinatory marvel that never follows the expected path, and in which events build to an idiosyncratically inventive conclusion that euphorically blew me away.

Set in small New Mexico town circa 1989, the story follows gym manager Lou (Stewart) and wannabe bodybuilding superstar Jackie (O’Brian). The former wants to live as quietly as she can, attempting to look after her sister Beth (Jena Malone) — currently in an abu-

sive marriage to an otherwise emasculated drunken lout named JJ (Dave Franco) — while also staying as far away from her sinister, gun range–owning father Lou Sr. (Ed Harris). The latter is on her way to Las Vegas to compete in a giant bodybuilding competition, and she’s decided to put down temporary roots in this slice of deserted American nowhere to focus on her training.

I’m not going to spoil what happens next.

Just know that sparks fly when Lou and Jackie meet,as the pair almost instantaneously fall head over heels for one another.

I sat down with acclaimed director Rose Glass to chat about her freewheeling shot of character-driven nitroglycerin. The following are the edited transcripts of what the talented filmmaker had to say:

crumbling down and leads to shockingly violent revelations in which innocent and guilty alike are left pleading for their lives.

Glass composed the script for all this brazen nonsense with fellow indie filmmaker and longtime friend Weronika Tofilska, and their collaboration is a thing of unhinged beauty. While there are obvious echoes to classic film noir, Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, Donna Deitch’s Desert Hearts, George Butler’s Pumping Iron II: The Women, John Dahl’s Red Rock West, Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls, and Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s Bound, that’s all surface-level foreplay. Glass and Tofilska are not hamstrung by their influences and do not attempt to copy any of them. Instead, their material is its own unique animal, jumping from genre to genre to genre with gleefully cutthroat enthusiasm.

This is what makes the film so glorious. An “anything goes” mentality permeates the production right down to the marrow. Glass unapologetically challenges the viewer to keep track of what is going on, and she fearlessly asks the audience to accept horrifying and appalling actions by her protagonists that in lesser hands would be repellently unacceptable. Tonal and stylistic choices are like something out of a hallucinogenic daydream (or better yet, nightmare), and the climax owes as much to 1950’s B-grade science fiction crossed with the early works of the Coen brothers as it does to legendary noir auteurs like Fritz Lang or Jean Negulesco.

Glass kept me on my toes, and I had to keep up with everything that she was doing. She took wild swings of artistic legerdemain that I found breathtaking. This is a rare motion picture where I legitimately wondered how things were going to turn out from one moment to the next. Scenes of pitch-black comedy are immediately followed by sequences of gut-wrenching terror, while hard-hitting jolts of blatantly gooey soap-opera melodrama are smothered by steamy acts of romance and lust that left me wiping the sweat from my brow.

Stewart is stupendous. Lou initially appears to be an emotionally castrated sad sack who is going to brood her way through this pulp fiction from her first appearance to her last, but that’s only a smokescreen. She paints with a broad brush that allows the character to spring to life with complicated gusto. This is a real person dealing with hard-hitting issues, ranging from the

absurd to the tragic. She can be pitiable one moment and hilarious the next. Lou contains internalized multitudes that make her sneakily dangerous when the chips are down and brutally tough decisions must be made if one is to survive.

Newcomer O’Brian matches her more high-profile costar beat for beat. While she’s had small roles in everything from Disney+’s The Mandalorian to a slightly bigger one in Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantomania, this is her first true chance to showcase her expressive talents. Jackie arrives in town with little spoken backstory, so the pieces of her journey have to be assembled entirely through the actor’s performance. O’Brian manages to do this with magnificent precision. Even when the bodybuilder did something inexcusably heinous, I still found myself rooting for her to persevere and find a way out of the impenetrable moral darkness and back into the regenerative light.

It’s all sumptuously shot by cinematographer Ben Fordesman (Out of Darkness) and pieced together with visceral urgency by editor Mark Towns (Censor), while veteran composer Clint Mansell (Noah, Moon) delivers a sonically adventurous score that’s extraordinary. Harris is chillingly haunting as the primary villain, and Franco is such a repugnantly sexist neanderthal that I wanted to hiss every time JJ made an appearance.

Actress Anna Baryshnikov also makes an unforgettable impression. Yet I find I don’t want to say too much about her character and what part she plays in all of this madness. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone deliver as vivid a portrait of addiction, manipulation, longing, despair, and desire as she does here, and Baryshnikov does it with a stylistic agency that runs the gamut between comical farce and blistering heartbreak with mesmerizing aplomb.

With only two feature-length endeavors to her name, I’m still ready to name Glass as one of the most exciting filmmakers of her generation. If Saint Maud is widely considered one of the better horror films of the past decade, then I can only speculate how Love Lies Bleeding is going to be received. Personally, I think it is one of the greatest sophomore follow-ups by any director that I’ve had the good fortune to experience in decades, and I say give her carte blanche to do whatever the heck she wants from this point forward.

LOVE LIES BLEEDING –

JENA MALONE, KRISTEN STEWART, WRITER/DIRECTOR ROSE GLASS, KATY O’BRIAN, AND ANNA BARYSHNIKOV AT THE LOS ANGELES PREMIERE OF LOVE LIES BLEEDING –

CHARBONNEAU / A24

Unforgettables: Cinematic milestones with Sara Michelle

Guarding Tess — Nicolas Cage’s overlooked, empathetic gem still resonates 30 years on

BY SARA MICHELLE FETTERS SGN STAFF WRITER

Nicolas Cage’s run during the 1990s was one pretty much every actor dreams of but only a scant few experience. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas. He made two of the best romantic comedies of the past three-plus decades in Honeymoon in Vegas and It Could Happen to You, and between them starred in one of the greatest neo-noirs ever made, Red Rock West His three-picture summertime action run of The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off speaks for itself. He bookended the decade too: starting things off working for David Lynch (Wild at Heart) before closing it out alongside Martin Scorsese (Bringing Out the Dead).

But that wasn’t all. Intermixed between all of those justifiably lauded wonders were several risky endeavors, some of which worked out (the melodramatic weepie City of Angels — a remake of Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire — was a box office smash despite middling reviews), a few where they did not (the snuff thriller 8MM crashed and burned, as did yuletide crime comedy Trapped in Paradise), and others in which his performances are so indescribably bizarre that, no matter the film’s overall quality (or lack thereof), they still must be seen to be believed (the softcore sex drama Zandalee, the racism comedy Amos & Andrew,

the pre-Pulp Fiction pulp fiction Deadfall, and the Rashomon-like, Atlantic City boxing-espionage-military murder mystery Snake Eyes. And don’t even get me started on whatever it is Cage was doing in the hardcore noir remake Kiss of Death

Lost in all of this genre madness, Cage teamed up with icon Shirley MacLaine and Police Academy director Hugh Wilson to make 1994’s Guarding Tess. It’s a quiet film, somber, subtle, unabashedly sweet. Few big jokes. No large set pieces (even with its raceagainst-the-clock abduction climax).

And yet, I say this understated gem features the Oscar-winning actor at the height of his powers. This is a memorably gentle character study that’s only gotten better with age and, here on its 30th anniversary, just thinking about the film again is enough for a single happy tear to form in the corner of my eye.

It’s hard to fully express what it is exactly that makes this motion picture remarkable. This is the straightforward story of crack Secret Service agent Doug Chesnic (Cage). He feels his talents are being wasted protecting former First Lady (and recent widow) Tess Carlisle (MacLaine) at her family estate in the middle of Midwest nowhere. Just when he’s finally going to be reassigned, she persuades the current president to keep Doug right where he is — in charge of her protective detail. They unsurprisingly butt heads from that point forward.

Wilson — one of the creative minds behind WKRP in Cincinnati, who then became the director of a string of ho-hum comedies like the aforementioned Police Academy and also Burglar, Rustlers’ Rhapsody, Blast from the Past, and, yes, even The First Wives Club (I’m not much of a fan, sorry not sorry) — crafted the original screenplay with PJ Torokvei (Back to School, Real Genius), and it’s shockingly great. The pair composed an introspective, character-driven treatise on friendship, aging, found family, and workplace drudgery that’s intimately touching and cathartically unrestrained. It also fits Cage and MacLaine’s immense talents perfectly.

It is clear these two characters were likely dreamt up with both actors in mind. But where Cage and MacLaine could have easily hammed it up to stratospheric heights in a playful battle to see which of them could go over the top the furthest (and loudest), instead they made the choice to tone things down. Each Oscar winner relies upon their physicality, their wardrobes, and the environment to do much of the heavy lifting for them. They inhabit Doug and Tess with stoically confident restraint, bringing an internalized authenticity to their performances that makes their battle of wills — and more importantly, the unspoken respect they have for one another — all the more effective.

This also means that when they do decide to

cut it loose, those moments predictably stand out, and always in a good way. Cage’s pent-up ferocity always comes to the forefront in the most unexpected of ways, while MacLaine’s slow-burn emotional breakdowns are heartrending. They play comedic and dramatic bits with eloquent ease, and this allows them to be mean, belligerent, and unkind to one another without ever losing the audience’s goodwill. We like Doug and Tess, no matter what.

Wilson surrounds them with a stellar supporting cast that includes Austin Pendleton, James Rebhorn, Richard Griffiths, Dale Dye, Harry Lennix, Edward Albert, and uncredited Noble Willingham. They all fit in seamlessly, everyone making a noticeable impression but not so much that they take the spotlight away from Cage or MacLaine.

There’s this sublime moment in 2022’s meta-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent when Cage, playing himself (sorta…it’s too complicated to explain here), and Pedro Pascal, as a billionaire mega-fan (who may or may not also be a bloodthirsty drug lord) chat about everything from 1988’s Vampire’s Kiss to 2018’s Mandy. It’s funny and silly in all the best ways, and the obnoxious enthusiasm the two share while reminiscing over so many of the actor’s films is infectious.

But when they get to this title, things stop cold. There is an immediate serenity. They smile: one because they are so genuinely touched that the other is so fond of this somewhat overlooked, maybe even semiforgotten flick, the other because their personal hero appears to hold it in the upper echelons of their filmography the same way they do. It’s a magical scene for a multitude of reasons, and while their interaction is fictional, that does not make any of the kind things they say about the film a lie.

Far from it. There is an empathetic grace to Guarding Tess that’s timeless. It embraces change and allows its characters to make mistakes, scream in anger, reveal harsh truths, find peace in honesty, and create lasting connections that will prove to be unbreakable when it matters the most. This is a story of compassion and understanding that’s universally resonant on a level that goes far beyond gender, age, sexuality, or ethnicity.

Cage’s 1990s run was one for the record books. Guarding Tess is one of the reasons why. It’s unforgettable.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, Guarding Tess is available on DVD and Blu-ray, and can be purchased digitally on multiple platforms.

GUARDING TESS – TRISTAR PICTURES

Sara Michelle Fetters: How do you go from the claustrophobic, internalized, almost overwhelming terror of Saint Maud into something that is so steeped in American noir with Love Lies Bleeding?

Rose Glass: It must have been some weird pressure-cooker buildup of frustration or something. I think the process of getting your first film made is so terrifying, and long and slow and uncertain and full of fear and self-doubt. Maybe the film [Saint Maud ] reflects that a bit. I think coming through the second one, it was slightly widening this feeling and just wanting to take a big swing. To push myself out of my comfort zone a bit.

SMF: This film is also more of a creative collaboration, in that you worked with fellow filmmaker Weronika Tofilska on the script. What was that collaboration like, and how did you two come up with this particular story?

RG: It was wonderful. I loved the process of writing this with Weronika. We’ve been friends for years, so we already knew each other’s tastes. She’d read drafts of Saint Maud, and I’d been reading her stuff. I hadn’t tried cowriting before. It was a bit of an experiment, and it definitely leads you to places that you wouldn’t get to by yourself.

I came to her with a little, embryonic version of the idea, which was basically just “bodybuilder has a mental and physical unraveling while training for their first big competition” and probably there’d be some murder involved. [Weronika] and me, we shared an office together and just locked ourselves in there and brainstormed. We gave each other permission to be led by what felt like the most exciting, fresh version of this story, whilst deliberately leaning into a lot of quite familiar tropes in hopes of doing something unexpected with them.

SMF: The movie almost feels an oldschool noir, but then also a neo-noir. But then it also becomes a dark, pitch-black comedy, and then it also sometimes feels like it’s a remake of a sci-fi film from the 1950s. It’s like the two of you were doing all of this and dabbling and channeling your Ida Lupino meets Wim Wenders, and then all of a sudden you watched Attack of the 50-Foot Woman.

RG: [laughs] Well, yeah, it’s probably some weird thing of two brains being smooshed together, and you end up with some quite strange results.

We’re obviously both film nerds. We were mapping out the story as we went and probably, on some subconscious level, aware of trying to push against the idea of what a sensible or proper film that [is] made by a woman should be. I think both of us are quite frustrated by that notion of the idea that there’s like a slight appetite for women filmmakers and characters to be somehow also morally righteous and upstanding in some way. I think we both very much enjoyed not doing that, and I think we’ve both got a fairly irreverent sense of humor. We were just trying to entertain each other as much as we could.

SMF: None of this would work if we did not believe Lou and Jackie were complete, three-dimensional characters. If their stories — and not just the stories that we see but the backstories that they bring in that you can only hint at — are lived. That these are lived experiences that these two women have had and then suddenly bring them together. How difficult was it to build these characters on the page, and then what was the process like when you brought Kristen and Katy in to inhabit them?

RG: The process of writing it was quite tricky, in that it’s balancing a quite twistyturny plot. As a feat of plotting and story mechanics, this was more involved than either of us had done before. But, like you said, [it depends on] grounding it in just two characters that you hopefully care about and buy, but at the same time balancing out the urge to not overexplain who they are or where they come from. To leave some things blank, so that people hopefully can piece things together themselves. I think by making them very real charac-

ters, they can anchor the story. I think you’re then able to reach further into the ridiculous, more far-reaching elements of the story if you ground [the script] in real people.

In terms of then integrating Kristen and Katy, it was a bit different for each of them. Kristen I had been picturing from pretty much the very beginning of writing the script. You go through the whole mental exercise of “who’s the fantasy cast for each character?” There wasn’t a fantasy cast for Jackie, because I couldn’t think of anyone big and famous who looked like her. Whereas Kristen, we offered her the role [of Lu], and fortunately she liked the script. I think more than that, she liked Saint Maud. I’m not sure. I think with this script, she was like, “I’m not sure what this is, but let’s go for it.” [laughs]

But because of that, I was able to write Lou for her. I was writing it picturing Kristen, and then Kristen said yes, so I could keep writing it for her. Hopefully her interpretation of the character aligns with what I was hoping. I don’t know. I just think it is really fun to see her do something so crazy.

I think she’s really funny in the film, and it plays into the obviously moody, angsty side of her, which people seem to love and vilify in equal measure, depending on where you come down on it. I just let her really lay into that and have her play a character who’s kind of a terrible asshole, really, but also lovable, really likable, super charismatic, and kind of a heartthrob. Kristen’s a real movie star.

Katy — I was checking with her recently — I think it was literally two weeks before we started shooting when we cast her.

SMF: Oh my gosh.

RG: Right? [laughs] Which was very stressful. We were already out in Albuquerque doing all this prep, and we’d seen so many people, hundreds of tapes. In the end, she sent one in, and it was just a massive relief. She’s incredible. It was like, why didn’t we find each other sooner? She’s perfect.

They both bring so much to [the film].

I think what I love about Katy is that, obviously, she’s got this incredible muscular physicality, and she can very effortlessly switch into this action hero, more hardened character. But also very quickly, and just beneath the surface, she’s actually a real softie, very sweet and kind of vulnerable. Even though her character does a lot of really terrible things, she’s the innocent of the piece.

SMF: In a lot of ways, this is a story about addiction and dealing with internalized traumas. Yet also, it’s also about coming to grips with that euphoria of falling in love. It’s interesting that you say Lou and Jackie do these terrible things, but a lot of it is coming from a place of either trying to overcome these various traumas and addictions, or it’s because they’re just so in love with one another that they lose sight of what it is that they’re doing. Maybe all of this makes them entirely wrong for one another.

Am I reading too much into all of this?

RG: No. Not at all. If anything, I think

that probably anyone who does anything terrible thinks they’ve got quite a good reason for doing it. I guess what I like about a film is being able to be put in the shoes of somebody doing something awful or extreme or something. On the surface, you’re like, I would never do that. But then hopefully through the story, you’re like, shit, maybe given different circumstances, I could commit a terrible [crime]. I never wanted this to be the version of the story where these two are saints and everyone around them is bad, that it’s them against the world. It’s quite simply in the beginning: The men are awful. Unquestionably. But the women get to be awful too. That’s by design.

Also, there is their romance. Hopefully you’re rooting for them to stay together while simultaneously being aware that it seems to be a pretty terrible combination. The idea the things we want aren’t necessarily the best things for us, that’s another level to their relationship.

SMF: It’s so nice to see openly Queer characters who are not defined by just their sexuality, by being Lesbians. They’re allowed to have flaws, to be fallible. They’re allowed to do some horrible things. But we’re also still allowed to love and adore them. We want to see them succeed.

RG: And their sexuality isn’t the main obstacle! I feel like probably, given the time and place the film is set, that maybe they probably would have encountered more homophobia than the characters do in this film. But it’s like, that’s there, but it’s not the forefront of the story. This is not a coming out story. It’s not about the fact they’re Queer. They just are. That was fun to do.

SMF: You also get to display your horror chops a little bit at times here. There’s quite literally a jaw-splitting moment in the movie that is going to have people…well…let’s just say the shriek that went through the audience was incredible. But for you, how do you know how much to show and when to pull back? Was there ever a worry that you could get too extreme?

RG: No. There wasn’t. In a way, the title [Love Lies Bleeding] was almost a statement of intent. From the beginning, given how melodramatic the title is, there’s going to be a lot of violence, and there’s going to be a lot of sex, and that’s all good, clean fun. Well, not so clean, maybe. [laughs] It’s often just a balancing up of what you can pull off practically, what you can actually get away with showing convincingly. The headsplitting bit you refer to, I think we wanted, at some point, to have a big close-up where you see it actually happening. But then that leads you to other difficulties. So it becomes an offscreen thing that you play mostly through the sound and Jackie’s reaction or through other characters’ reactions. Sometimes not showing is better, because people’s imaginations fill in the gaps in a more gnarly way than you could have actually done on screen.

But there was very little pulling back in the film. Generally, the notes I was giving to most of the departments, the actors, and the crew was like, go for it. This was never going to be an exercise in subtlety.

SMF: For audiences, now that Love Lies Bleeding is coming off the festival screenings and going into wide theatrical release, what do you want audiences to take away? What are you hoping that they’re talking about when they’re leaving the theater?

RG: I’m so shit at answering this question. My glib answer is that I hope they take away that it’s very difficult to quit smoking and you should never start. [laughs]

I hope they just have a lot of fun. It seems to be being received wonderfully by people who we hoped would like it. Maybe I’m trying to have my cake and eat it, but to me, I’m like, I feel it has something for everyone. I’m hoping people who maybe on the surface might be like, I’m not sure those characters are for me — because maybe they’re not used to seeing films with these kinds of women at the lead — will still take a chance. I think it’s a very warm, inclusive film. I’m delighted when people come out of it being like, “That was really funny! That was fun!” I’m like, see? I told you. I really appreciate that.

LOVE LIES BLEEDING – A24

BOOKS

Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific a compelling exploration of Queer

BY MADISON JONES SPECIAL TO THE SGN

Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific marks Howard Chiang’s third and most recent attempt to bridge the scholarly gap between Sinophone (meaning “Chinesespeaking”) and Queer studies. Despite sharing similarities in subject matter to his previous written works, this iteration sees Chiang set out upon an even more ambitious and all-encompassing project.

By employing his own methodology of “transtopia,” the author meticulously posits the Sinophone Pacific as a key region of academic and geopolitical significance for global LGBT studies. “Both Hong Kong and Taiwan, like sexual and gender variance, have occupied a peripheral space in mainstream historical inquiry. They are too small, too invisible, and thus too unimportant,” he writes.

Chiang laments on how the academic circles and Queer communities of Western countries (primarily the US) collectively talk about and understand other Queer identities globally. In his view, dominant “Western” narratives of transness and Queer struggle have unconsciously been assumed as the “default” way of understanding all instances of sexual and gender variance across different times, locations, and cultures.

He fleshes this point out primarily in the second chapter, titled “Stonewall Aside: Why Queer Theory Needs Sinophone Studies.” He heavily cautions against using localized events, like the Stonewall Riots, to create universalized narratives of Queer and Trans identity, because often they aren’t entirely relevant or helpful in understanding Queer communities outside of that context.

The author’s wariness of the dangers posed by dominant, hegemonic cultural

identities and geopolitics

narratives of queerness and transness is also how he draws strong connections to Chinese and Sinophone studies. To Chiang, Taiwan and Hong Kong both hold unique marginalized perspectives within the dominant cultural discourse around “Chineseness” — offering important parallels and insights into how we can historically understand the formulations of non-Western Queer and Trans identities.

To demonstrate these parallels, Chiang highlights the tongzhi movement (同志運 動) of the 1990s and 2000s as a key example. The term tongzhi, originally meaning “comrade” or more literally “same ideal” in Chinese, was first reappropriated and queered by communities in the Sinophone communities of Taiwan and Hong Kong before being imported back into Mainland

China by Queer activists. Chiang notes that the tongzhi movement made numerous significant gains, such as the 2004 Gender Equity Education Act in Taiwan. He uses the impact of this movement to illustrate how these communities have historically been catalysts of LGBT identity formation and political struggle in the region.

The concept of transtopia

Chiang further discusses “transtopia’’ as a theoretical framework that can potentially resolve the current roadblocks he identifies in Queer scholarship. His concept of transtopia adopts a Foucauldian methodology to analyze how societal discourse changes collective understandings of sexual and gender-variant people over time.

Instead of the linear, “grand” histori-

cal narrative often portrayed by Western scholarship, transtopia argues that there is a global web of different discursive center points loosely (or closely) affiliated, influenced, and connected to one another evolving over time. To Chiang, the dominant Transgender discourse in Western countries is neither special nor irrelevant; rather it is merely one among many others around the world that we can learn from historically.

Chiang at this point in the book even says outright that he prefers to identify himself with the term “transtopian” over “transgender,” because his own unique experiences with gender identity growing up in Taiwan don’t quite line up with dominant, Western notions of “transness.” Similar motivations are what also inform his decision to use the term “Sinophone” instead of “Chinese” when referring to Chinese-speaking communities that exist outside of, but still sit in the overarching shadow of, the politically and culturally dominant Chinese mainland.

To demonstrate his transtopian methodology in practice, Chiang spends the latter half of the book investigating many focal points, including Taiwanese Renyao (人妖) history, the 2013 Hong Kong anonymous Transgender woman/cisgender man marriage case, and the 1932 Hangzhou case of Tao Sijin’s murder by her lover Liu Mengying, among others.

Chiang notes that transtopia would also be applicable as a tool to analyze circumstances outside of the purview of the book, with the intention of this work being a launching point for others to investigate their own local instances of Queer or Trans history and political struggle.

Overall, Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific thoroughly accomplishes what it sets out to do and proves through its potential and rigor to be a seminal work in both Queer and Sinophone studies.

Orlando : Times may change, great legs are forever

Woolf’s love letter to her ex’s beautiful legs and deplorable writing skills

BY CLAR HART SGN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ORLANDO

Virginia Woolf

2024 First Vintage Classics

© 2024 Carmen Maria Machado

$17.72

198 pages

Content warning: Racism

When I used to hear about Great Art, I assumed its creation mirrored its exalted treatment: with a sense of transcendence, in service of a sublime muse, an enlightened homage to the great beauty the writer saw in the world.

Then I learned that the Sistine Chapel was created as a “fuck off” to the Pope, Goya’s royal portraits were snide satires, and Orlando was Woolf’s way of taunting both her ex’s artistic ambitions and her own father’s intellect.

So, when creating Great Art, it turns out spite works too.

Comparing Orlando to Well of Loneliness (last week’s review) is interesting. They’re both 1928 releases. Both are written by rich, white Queer women. Both display casual racism and classism. Both are based on real people: Orlando on Woolf’s lover Vita Sackville-West and Well of Loneliness on Radclyffe Hall’s own life. One difference: Orlando was a popular success; Well of Loneliness was banned.

It’s like comparing the proselytizing influence of Queer Eye vs Boys Don’t Cry.

Queer Eye, like Orlando, is campy and welcoming, its characters playing flattened façades hiding complicated selves. It draws viewers in with markers of other social value, such as wealth, status, and looks, without doing anything that would alienate the straight crowd, like two men kissing. Well of Loneliness, in comparison, is realistic and also, crucially, fucking sad.

In brief (something the book struggles with), Orlando is born a dude with legs hot enough that Elizabeth I summons him

to court. He has various adventures and romances, finally going to Constantinople as a diplomat, where he takes a nap and wakes up a woman, still with hot legs that, the narrator complains, the public is now deprived of.

Orlando also happens to live for 300 years. During their extensive life, Orlando struggles with various forms of fulfillment and flits from one thing to the next, trying on for size types of love, art, marriage, and shopping. They have incredible adventures, such as trysts on pirate ships and daring escapes, which are noted but not described.

Instead, long, meandering pages describe Orlando’s circuitous prose and winding thought patterns. The book paints human existence as a struggle with time, some moments taking years and some years taking moments, and in the same way, we’re drawn into a spiraling thought or miserably long description, only to suddenly jump over a major life event, such as an engagement or the birth of a child, in a single sentence. What can I say? Woolf knows her way around a punch line.

Orlando is funny and a bit bitchy. It’s very obviously written for a lover. It reads like the first conversation you have with a friend when they just met The Love of Their Life (for that week) and spend all dinner describing how they’re a genius of prop comedy for brushing their teeth with a mascara wand.

That doesn’t mean it’s a kind description. Orlando is flighty and jumps from one interest to another, sexually adventurous but prone to hurting their lovers and them-

selves. They’re interested in writing, but after spending 300 years penning a poem that is published to much acclaim, they are simply done with the whole thing. They’re a gifted diplomat, but without any thought or effort. They fetishize the Romani and consider themselves one of them, while the Romani conspire to murder them for being too self-absorbed.

In short, it’s a book written about someone Woolf deeply loves and is deeply annoyed by.

Woolf was hurt by Sackville-West’s promiscuity (even though both were married to men during their entire affair). While they were both writers, Sackville-West was more popular and far faster than Woolf. In her youth, Sackville-West was driven by the art, but as she grew, she started writing mostly to finance her gardening career. Woolf was also frustrated when SackvilleWest lost out on her inheritance, an estate that shows up in the novel, and SackvilleWest accepted it rather than fighting.

Orlando is gifted, gorgeous, and accomplished yet unable to make anything meaningful out of it. Orlando ponders their sadness, seen here in the form of being haunted by a gray goose that they can never quite catch. Most critics interpret the goose as a stand-in for true creative genius and Woolf’s way of spitefully whispering “you’ll never be as gifted as me,” like most artists who are critical darlings but struggle with popular success. But the goose could be any of the many things that Sackville-West simply could not dedicate herself to catching — including, perhaps, Woolf herself.

VINTAGE

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

BY TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER SPECIAL TO THE SGN

SHAYLA LAWSON

© 2024 Tiny Rep Books / Penguin

$29.00

303 pages

Minneapolis has always been one of Shayla Lawson’s favorite cities, perhaps because they were at one of Prince’s first concerts. They weren’t born yet, though: they were in their mother’s womb. But it was the first of many concerts.

In all their travels, Lawson has noticed that being a Black American has its benefits. People in other countries seem to hold them in higher esteem than do people in America. Still, there’s racism — for instance, their husband’s family celebrates Christmas in blackface.

BOOKS

K. Ancrum brings Intersex representation to the page in latest novel How to Live Free in a Dangerous World a poetic journey worldwide with observant eyes

BY LINDSEY ANDERSON SGN STAFF WRITER

K. Ancrum was always a writer, as long as she could remember, though her stories were just for her. “I wanted to read certain types of stories, so I had to write certain types of stories,” she said.

Her passion for writing led her to a platform that wooed many young creatives in the 2010s: Tumblr. “I had a Tumblr story, because I liked to write during class, because I was a horrible student,” she said. “For some reason, it got a lot of attention, even though I wasn’t tagging it with hashtags so people could find it.”

One day, a literary agent stumbled upon Ancrum’s posts and reached out, suggesting she seriously consider a career in writing. Ancrum began sending letters to publishing agencies, and by the time she finished her senior year of college, she had scored a deal with Macmillan to write her debut novel, The Wicker King

All of Ancrum’s books exist in the same world. As a result, they hold a similar tone. “I like the feeling of things being spooky but not scary,” she explained. “I like the thrill of darkness without the need for it to be genre fiction. All my books are contemporary plus. I like the ‘walking around and talking’ genre, where nothing is happening but everyone is going to each other’s houses.”

Paying homage to her life’s experience

Ancrum’s latest book, Icarus, also focuses on seniors in high school in her spooky world, though this time, she’s also incorporating an identity she hadn’t written much about yet. “I’ve been an author for many years,” she said, “and I am also an Intersex person. I was talking about being Intersex on Twitter, and an Intersex resource group reached out to me. They were like, ‘Oh, … there aren’t a lot of Intersex authors who are creating a lot of content. Do you have an Intersex book for us?’ and I had to say, ‘No.’ It felt very shameful that I hadn’t done something to pay homage to the experience of my life and the ways I love.”

Realizing she needed to write about Intersex people — not just for herself but for those in the community — Ancrum got to work on Icarus. “I wanted to portray that element of life,” she recalled, “not to make it a story

Yes, Lawson was married to a Dutch man they met in Harlem — “not Haarlem,” Lawson is quick to point out — and after the wedding, they became a housewife, learned the husband’s language, and fell in love with his grandmother. Alas, he cheated, and the marriage didn’t last. He gave them a dog, which loved them more than the man ever did.

They’ve been to Spain, and saw a tagline in which a dark-skinned Earth Mother was created. Said Lawson, “I find it ironic, to be ordained a deity when it’s been a... journey to be treated like a person.”

They’ve fallen in love with “middleAmerican drag: it’s the glitteriest, because our mothers are the prettiest.” They changed their pronouns after a struggle “to define my identity,” pointing out that in many languages, pronouns are “genderless.” They contemplated Frida Kahlo in Mexico, and thought about their own disability. And they wish you a good trip, wherever you’re going.

about the main character being Intersex and dealing with the experiences of that, but actually to have it be like The Danish Girl, where the person who is exhibiting this particular feature is seen through the goggles of somebody who loves them. That influences the way readers will receive the experience of knowing, being with, and loving, and the concept of what it is to be Intersex. So, Icarus is about a boy who falls in love with another Intersex boy.”

Writing about an identity not often discussed in media and pop culture put some pressure on Ancrum to “get it right.” She also noted that the rich diversity among the Intersex community means that no one piece of media could ever come close to depicting the myriad ways Intersex people exist, love, and define themselves.

“With Intersex people, there’s such a broad variety of ways in which the condition exhibits,” Ancrum explained. “There are so many different ways you can be Intersex that the only way I could represent it was [that] this person shares these features, they identify as this. So, it wasn’t that much of a difficulty, because I was drawing from my own experiences and how I walk through the world as an Intersex person.”

“No matter where you are,” says Lawson, “may you always be certain who you are. And when you are, get everything you deserve.”

Crack open the front cover of How to Live Free in a Dangerous World and you might wonder what the heck you just got yourself into. The first chapter is artsy, painted with watercolors, and difficult to peg. Stick around, though — it gets better.

Past that opening, Lawson takes readers on a not-so-little trip, both worldwide and with observant eyes — although it seems, at times, that the former is secondary to that which Lawson sees. Readers won’t mind that so much; the observations on race, beauty, and love; the attitudes of others toward America; and finding one’s best life are really what take the wheel in this memoir anyhow. Reading this book, therefore, is not so much a vacation as it is a journey of discovery and joy.

Misunderstood identities

Writing literature about misunderstood identities is something Ancrum has become an expert in. Her first book, The Wicker King, was about Bisexual young men. She originally wrote the story for a friend who felt alone in his Bi identity. “He felt very much like a ghost in the world,” she recalled.

Since that book, she’s expanded on the world she created out of love for her friend and featured Sapphic and Pansexual protagonists, and even a token straight one.

Like all her stories, Icarus is about a Queer kid learning what it takes to be an adult. “Lots of the topics throughout Icarus are echoed throughout my other books,” Ancrum said, “like neglect, child abuse,

a lot of found-family elements, a lot of Queer community elements, … loneliness and isolation, the experience of realizing you have same-gender attraction — that is the kind of thing you can find in my other books. [This] one … specifically centers on a child who has taken on everything he has, and he is succeeding but still feels bereft.”

Like the man who flew too close to the sun, Icarus is a strong character from the beginning. However, his journey is not in flexing his strength but in finding ways to accept his faults. As Ancrum said, “Icarus is a book about somebody who is very strong, learning to be vulnerable and learning to share themselves.”

Icarus is available on March 26.

K. ANCRUM – COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

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