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Tag: LGBTQ Issues

  • Jim Petras, Cleveland Heights’ First Out LGBTQ+ Mayor, Aims to Restore Trust in City Leadership – Cleveland Scene

    ‘Tis the season for expressing thanks, and Jim Petras is definitely feeling the spirit. 

    “I’m just so grateful right now, and especially to the people of Cleveland Heights who put their trust in me,” said Petras, a project director for Case Western Reserve University’s IT division who has lived in Cleveland Heights for a decade. 

    On November 4, Petras was elected mayor of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, with 55% of the vote.

    When he takes office on January 1, he will become possibly the only out LGBTQ+ elected mayor in Ohio. Out LGBTQ+ Yellow Springs Mayor Pam Conine’s term ends in December.

    Being mayor was never part of Petras’ plan. Even when he successfully ran for and served on Cleveland Heights City Council, he didn’t have his sights set on the mayoral seat. That changed when Petras realized things just weren’t getting done in Cleveland Heights.

    “City Council could pass laws all day long, but it’s the mayor who is responsible for getting things done,” Petras said. “So if you’re not getting enough done, you need a new mayor.”

    It has been an intensely tumultuous year for the mayoral seat in Cleveland Heights. Khalil Seren – the municipality’s first elected mayor under Cleveland Height’s new governance structure in 2021 – was recalled as mayor in September by 82% of the voters and left office shortly thereafter. The recall vote followed months of controversy surrounding everything from toxic work environments to budget mismanagement to soap-opera-like allegations involving Seren’s wife that included criminal trespassing and homophobic and antisemitic remarks. 

    Petras is ready to turn the page for the Cleveland Heights community. And he said it starts with a ton of listening. 

    “Cleveland Heights is a city with so many civically minded people who care so much about the community and just want to offer their time and talents to help the city do well,” he said. “I look forward to listening and learning from them.”

    With LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination protections, a ban on mental-health practitioners performing conversion therapy on minors, and a parental leave policy using gender-neutral language, Cleveland Heights stands as one of the most LGBTQ-affirming cities in Ohio. 

    Still Petras believes there is more that can be done to support the LGBTQ+ community, including opposing harmful legislation coming from state legislators.

    “I look forward to going down to the Statehouse as mayor and speaking out against any bill that threatens our public schools or our LGBTQ+ community,” he said. 

    As for the distinction of being Ohio’s only out elected mayor, Petras said he is grateful for the opportunity to represent and fight for the LGBTQ+ community. As a founding member of the Ohio Democratic Pride Caucus, he wants young LGBTQ+ Ohioans to know that they too can serve their community in public office. 

    “Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not your time,” Petras said. “If there is something that you are interested in doing, stand up and go after it.” 

    Originally published by The Buckeye Flame. Republished here with permission.

    Ken Schneck, The Buckeye Flame

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  • Amidst Feelings of Betrayal and Hope, Cleveland’s Leather Annual Weekend (CLAW) Leaves Its Namesake City – Cleveland Scene

    Three men huddled on the patio of Leather Stallion Saloon on Cleveland’s East Side on a cool Monday night in late October. They were reminiscing about the early days of Cleveland Leather Annual Weekend (CLAW), an event that dates back to 2001. 

    CLAW has drawn thousands of participants to Northeast Ohio from across the world, all dedicated to the “advancement, education, and celebration of adult leather and kink communities,” all starting with a bar night over two decades ago. 

    “It was just all so organic,” remembered Jim De Long, 67.

    “I would just show up at the bars and ask, ‘What do you need?’” added 72-year-old David Castro. “That’s how I would end up volunteering, handing out packets at a table over here or collecting tickets at a door over there.”

    James Orosz Jr. chimed in. 

    “My mother had just passed away and I immediately found this community of support at CLAW,” he said. 

    For all three, the fact that CLAW took place in their own Cleveland backyard is just as important as the people they met. 

    “Cleveland wasn’t the ‘mistake on the lake’ anymore,” Orosz Jr. said. “During CLAW, it was a special place with a homegrown event we had built that brought good and caring people to our city.”

    That dedication to Cleveland changed abruptly on October 11 when CLAW leadership suddenly announced that the entire event was moving to Columbus in 2026 after organizers were unable to book a contract with any Cleveland-area hotels or venues.

    Reactions poured in swiftly and passionately.

    “In the early days, we never could have considered CLAW leaving Cleveland,” Castro said. “The C stands for Cleveland for a reason.”

    “CLAW belongs in Cleveland,” Orosz Jr. cut in.

    Some longtime volunteers now feel betrayed that the event is moving two hours south and point fingers at management for past oversight that hurt the event’s reputation in Cleveland.

    But organizers say the real problems are changes in hotel ownerships and an increasingly anti-LGBTQ+ political climate.

    The question now becomes: can an event created, developed and named in honor of Cleveland survive in a completely different Ohio “C” city?

    Decades of history

    To find CLAW’s roots, you have to look far earlier than the first event in 2001.

    According to a timeline created by leather historian Rob Ridinger for the Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago, the beginnings of organizing for leather communities in Cleveland started in 1971 with the formation of the Unicorns MC.

    An advertisement for Unicorns MC in a 1972 periodical describes it as “a club for gay men in northeast Ohio who own and ride motorcycles. It welcomes inquiries of membership from like men who wish to contribute to the well being of both the club and the gay community in general.”

    The following year, the Stallions were formed, just a few years after Leather Stallion Saloon opened:

    “Taking as their home bar The Leather Stallion on St. Clair Ave, the western theme was continued with their October run, which they named Autumn Stampede,” Ridinger wrote. Their insignia was an outline of the state of Ohio edged in black with a black horse facing right and the word Stallions above it. The horse theme also echoes in the name of the newsletter, ‘The Stallion Stall.’”

    More leather clubs followed in the 1980s, including Excalibur, Tower City Corps, North Coast Nights and The Rangers. Throughout the 1980s, many Clevelanders competed in the International Mr. Leather (IML) competition, including Marty Donley (1981), Tom Kosinsky (1982), Will Cheeks (1983) and Steve Boger (1984).

    In 2001, Dennis McMahon, the first Mr. Cleveland Leather and a member of the New Age In Leather (NAIL) leather club, needed a competition tied to a nonprofit event in order to qualify for IML. So McMahon and Bob Miller, another title holder, designed the CLAW competition to raise awareness about the spread of Hepatitis B and to bring together various LGBTQ+ organizations and businesses. 

    “And that’s really how CLAW was born, ”said De Long. “It started as a bar night and then it evolved.”

    CLAW was registered as a 501c3 in 2001. The first official CLAW event in 2002 featured a bar party, a silent auction, a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Sunday brunch and a “Dungeon Party.” CLAW added a host hotel in 2003, a vendor mart and kink and fetish educational programming in 2004 and a night of fetish bar parties in 2005.

    “Those early days were just festive,” Castro said. “We were getting people from all over the country and even some internationally. You looked forward to that last weekend in April.”

    Charitable roots

    From the very start of CLAW, organizers made fundraising and nonprofit support the center of the weekend activities. 

    Local organizations like the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland and the AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland were regular recipients of CLAW fundraising. 

    Tom Stebel began volunteering with CLAW at the 2007 event, but stepped up his involvement when he saw how much the event was giving back to the local community. He began attending the open board meetings to provide more information on the local LGBTQ+ organizations, many of which he knew well from his many years of volunteering across Cleveland. 

    “I helped them navigate applications for funding,” Stebel said. “They valued my input and eventually asked me to be on the board.”

    Stebel points to several Cleveland initiatives that CLAW funded, including supporting the LGBTQ+ seniors program at the LGBT Center.

    “[LGBT Center executive director] Phyllis [Harris] and I spoke to the Board about staffing that program, which at the time was a revolving door of volunteers,” Stebel said. “The CLAW Board signed right on and helped provide funding for the first staff position.”

    As CLAW grew in reputation and popularity, the crowds kept increasing. Although CLAW does not have attendance numbers for the early years, by 2011 the event had surpassed 1,000 visitors, growing to over 2,000 by 2019. 

    But as the crowds continued to increase, so too did participants from outside of Ohio, drawn to the accessibility and affordability of Northeast Ohio. Although early funding was directed primarily to Cleveland or Ohio-based organizations and initiatives, the board decided in the early 2010s to shift the charitable giving to reflect the attendees. 

    “Fifty to 70% of the attendees were from out of state, so 50 to 70% of the funds donated went to out-of-state organizations,” Stebel said.

    That included outside-of-Ohio efforts like the Rainbow Railroad, an organization which helps LGBTQ+ people escape state-sponsored violence.

    “[That CLAW donation] meant one person somewhere was going to be rescued and, wow, what a great feeling,” Stebel said.

    ‘Something changed’

    COVID took its toll on the event, but even before that, in the middle of the 2019 event at the Westin Hotel in downtown Cleveland, a pipe burst in the ceiling, raining sewage down on CLAW’s hospitality suite and vendor mart. 

    Much finger-pointing ensued – explanations ranged from faulty pipes to allegations that participants had tried to flush sex toys down a toilet – but what CLAW leadership does agree on: Their security deposit was never recouped. 

    Ken Myers, owner of The Leather Stallion and former CLAW Board member, puts that figure at $56,000.

    Myers is openly critical of many of CLAW’s actions leading up to the move to Columbus, including the decision not to go after that $56,000.

    “[CLAW leadership] kept saying, ‘We did nothing wrong. Everybody loves us,’” Myers said. “But if someone has $56,000 of my money and I did nothing wrong, I’m gonna find a way to get it back.”

    Noel LeBoeuf, the Canada-based executive director of CLAW – a full-time, salaried position – said it was impossible to get the money back because the Westin changed ownership. Additionally, he said the new owners were not fans of hosting CLAW.

    “The new ownership came in and said, “Yeah, we don’t like what you’re doing or what you stand for,’ so outta there we went,” LeBoeuf said. 

    Then COVID hit.

    “What killed us was COVID, plain and simple,” LeBoeuf said. “We had almost 1,800 attendees that were gonna show up in 2020.”

    LeBoeuf said CLAW continued to lose money during COVID as the organization had to pay for storage units and supplies that went unused in 2020. Even their Virtual CLAW events took a loss. 

    “Virtual CLAW cost more money than it made because now all of a sudden your Zoom has to get a hundred big accounts to meet the interest,” he said. “But we still continued to do that because the community was still coming together and they needed to have a place to meet.”

    West Coast bound

    When COVID restrictions were lifted in 2021, Myers said there was conversation about CLAW moving from its normal April date to November. Instead, then executive-director and CLAW co-founder Bob Miller and the Board announced that CLAW would instead be held in Los Angeles. Miller had moved to nearby Palm Springs in 2017. 

    Miller said that the reasons for the move to Los Angeles were entirely pandemic-related. He said that the Westin only offered CLAW a choice between Thanksgiving or Christmas to hold their 2021 event. 

    “We thought about how hard it would be for people to get to Cleveland during Thanksgiving weekend,” Miller said. “So we started talking about maybe we could do it somewhere else.”

    Various warm-weather locales were suggested, and Miller said the board ultimately decided on Los Angeles. 

    “There are lots of gay leathermen in Southern California who would be able to drive to it,” Miller said. “One thing led to another and we got this tremendously favorable contract.”

    Many CLAW attendees denounced the move to the West Coast. 

    “CLAW got crucified on social media,” Myers remembered. “I was asked to do a post to say that the Leather Stallion stood with CLAW and I said, ‘Absolutely not. I’m not going down that suicide road.’”

    After that year, CLAW was held in both Cleveland and Los Angeles. That’s when Cleveland’s event started to decline, says Orosz Jr. 

    “There’s no way you can start something in Los Angeles and not half-ass both,” he said. “You would need two separate teams for the two separate events, and that never happened.”

    Miller said the CLAW Board talked about holding both events and decided they could do it. Still, he acknowledged, it has been challenging, for different reasons.

    “There has been difficulty finding a venue in Cleveland and there is difficulty establishing a new event anywhere, even Los Angeles,” Miller said. “Still, it’s a big opportunity for the organization to do more than it had been doing.”

    The Renaissance and the IX Center

    In 2023, CLAW was held at the Renaissance – now Hotel Cleveland – and again there the following year. In 2024, things seemed to take the turn that jeopardized the event’s Cleveland future. 

    According to Myers, CLAW leadership hosted a “horse market” (a group sex event) in a ballroom at the Renaissance without informing hotel staff. Myers said previously such events were held off-site, so as not to run afoul of Ohio laws governing “improper conduct” in spaces that have a liquor license.

    LeBoeuf denied that’s what happened. 

    “Certain behavior from certain individuals did cause some issues there, but it wasn’t everybody,” LeBoeuf said. “A few bad apples can really spoil everything.”

    Miller flatly dismissed any allegations of impropriety. 

    “CLAW are law-abiding people,” Miller said. “There’s nothing illegal about what we do.”

    Stebel did not comment on the legality of what went on in the Renaissance, but did comment on accountability.

    “The situation at Westin was not our fault, but the Renaissance was absolutely our fault,” Stebel said. 

    Regardless, the Renaissance, too, has changed ownership. 

    “The new management group said they didn’t want the contract,” LeBoeuf said. 

    LeBoeuf said CLAW then struggled to find an appropriate venue for 2025 with the square footage they needed for the event. 

    “The only place I could find was the IX Center (a convention and exhibit hall near the Cleveland airport) to have the event and then have a lot of small hotels around the area,” LeBoeuf said. 

    LeBoeuf said IX Center staff approached him at one point to complain about individuals having sex in public bathrooms. 

    “ I did my due diligence and went around and put signs in the bathroom stalls saying, ‘Please be respectful. Let’s not have sex in the bathroom stalls,’” he said.

    LeBoeuf said CLAW attendees were also frustrated by the event: as the IX Center was open to the public, CLAW participants had to be reminded that they needed to be completely covered up and the event was not able to host some BDSM spaces they would normally host. 

    One blogger applauded CLAW staff for their efforts, but derided everything else about the event, from the remote location of the IX Center to the windowless environment to the sparse attendance in the skills and education classes. 

    “There’s no point in beating around the bush: this sucked.”

    Columbus or bust

    LeBoeuf said the months-long search to find a space for 2026 was one canceled meeting after another. 

    “We would have a meeting scheduled, show up, and the meeting would be canceled on the spot,” he said. 

    Destination Cleveland, the nonprofit organization that helps book conferences and travel to Cleveland, said they worked with CLAW to identify potential host properties. 

    “Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, none of the properties was able to accommodate the group” based on CLAW’s requirements, said Emily Lauer, vice president of PR and communications at Destination Cleveland. 

    LeBoeuf blames an “anti-LGBTQ+ political climate” for contributing to the lack of a new venue, whereas Myers said the situation is more of a “self-inflicted wound.”

    “No hotel in Cleveland will help you because you have such a reputation that you are an out-of-control event,” he said. 

    At one point, there was hope that the Cleveland Masonic Auditorium would be a suitable space. 

    “We explained to them what we needed and how people dress at CLAW and they said, ‘We’ve had Metallica here, so we’ve seen more boobs and butts than you can imagine,’” LeBoeuf said. 

    But then TempleLive – the management group that operates the Masonic Auditorium – abruptly ceased operations in September, and that potential contract fell through. 

    At that point Myers advocated for a pause: Suspend CLAW for a year to fundraise and repair relationships with Cleveland hotels and venues. Myers was willing to step in front of these efforts to do everything he could to preserve the event and its Cleveland home.

    “If everyone gets together and knows what challenges we are facing, the better chance we have of solving [the issues CLAW was experiencing] and keeping it in Cleveland,” Myers said. 

    LeBoeuf said taking a year off is not an option, saying that pausing CLAW would be the same as another COVID, a financial burden from which CLAW would not recover.

    “To take a year off would mean just shut the doors and just not come back because we wouldn’t be able to,” he said. “It’d be impossible.”

    With the future of CLAW in peril, LeBoeuf said they had no choice but to turn to other cities: sending out requests for proposals to locales like Detroit and Columbus. When the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus reached out, he immediately questioned if they knew what they were getting into.

    “I was like, “We need to have play spaces,” he said. “They replied, ‘No, you want dungeons, we support that, and we’ve been trying to get you all to come here for three years.”

    When reached for comment, Hyatt representatives redirected The Buckeye Flame’s questions about CLAW to LeBoeuf. 

    After the Hyatt Regency and CLAW signed the contract to host the 2026 event there, CLAW announced the move to Columbus. 

    When some individuals responded negatively, CLAW leadership disabled the public’s ability to comment on the post. 

    “Some of the people commenting negatively had never even been to CLAW,” LeBoeuf said. “So I put my email address out there. I’ve only heard from three people, and I have been able to address all of their concerns.”

    The future of CLAW

    CLAW is slated for April 2-6, 2026. The welcome packet for the event lists two “huge on-site dungeons,” a nighttime event transforming “10,000 square feet into a fully immersive adult playground,” and four cash bars.

    As of October 21, Stebel said the hotel was 42% booked. 

    “ I think that’s a sign that some people are accepting this change to Columbus for this year,” he said. 

    The big question: will CLAW return to Cleveland? 

    LeBoeuf said the intent was never to leave Cleveland for good.

    “We are not saying that we’re done and we’re never coming back,” he said. 

    Others are more skeptical and feel betrayed.

    “[The move to Columbus] was the ultimate insult,” said Jim De Long. “We built it, and now we’re seeing it destroyed.”

    They also highlight that the move to Columbus will cost Cleveland-area businesses and CLAW vendors large sums of money. Myers estimates that the Stallion alone stands to lose at least $25,000 without CLAW in Cleveland. 

    “CLAW is betraying our Cleveland community,” Myers said.

    There has been talk about starting a new event in Cleveland to take the place of CLAW, but nothing has coalesced yet. Long-time attendees and volunteers hope that if something new does indeed pop up, the CLAW name would stay where they feel it belongs.

    “They should give the name CLAW back to Cleveland,” James Orosz Jr. said. “The least they can do for abandoning this city is give back the name.”

    Originally published by The Buckeye Flame. Republished here with permission.

    Ken Schneck, The Buckeye Flame

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  • Cleveland Now Has a Full-Time LGBTQ+ Community Liaison, One of Only a Handful in the Country – Cleveland Scene

    This is not Carey Gibbons’ first gay job. 

    Gibbons has spent over 15 years spent working in LGBTQ-related positions – from roles with theLGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland and May Dugan Center to the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. 

    But Gibbons’ new position – Cleveland’s LGBTQ+ community liaison – is a first in Cleveland and maybe even in Ohio.

    Gibbons was hired in July to the full-time paid position that now stands among only a handful of similar paid positions across the country. 

    Many cities have volunteer or part-time LGBTQ+ liaison positions – including Columbus and Dublin here in Ohio. Cleveland had one as well.

    In 2018, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson appointed a part-time, unpaid LGBTQ+ liaison position, and current Mayor Justin Bibb reappointed the position in 2022. The volunteer role was in addition to the appointee’s full-time position and LGBTQ-related advancements – like the creation of a gender-neutral bathroom in City Hall – were made when time allowed.

    Few cities  – Gibbons estimates around a dozen – have a full-time, paid position.

    Cleveland’s commitment to creating this position is, in Gibbons’ view, sorely needed here in Ohio.

    “This is Cleveland’s time to meet the moment,” Gibbons told The Buckeye Flame. “It’s our time to be seen.”

    According to the job description, the role “will serve as a dedicated advocate and representative for Cleveland’s diverse LGBTQ+ communities, striving to ensure inclusivity, equity, and meaningful access to City resources and services.”

    With people already reaching out to them with expectations on how the position can affect LGBTQ+ lives in Cleveland, Gibbons is careful to explain the limitations of the position: the LGBTQ+ Community Liaison is not a policy-maker.

    “My role is not to stand in front, but to stand at the threshold to ensure the door is open and no one is left outside,” Gibbons said. “This means building connections across city departments and creating supportive services that not only exist on paper but also exist in people’s lives.”

    On paper, Cleveland is doing well by the LGBTQ+ community, especially without statewide LGBTQ+ protections in Ohio in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodations. The city passed a nondiscrimination ordinance in 2009, which was expanded in 2016 to more fully include transgender Clevelanders. The city banned conversion therapy on minors in 2020 and has received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index for several years. 

    Yet Gibbons notes that “Cleveland is a little behind” Columbus and Cincinnatii–”the other two C’s”–in LGBTQ+ protections. 

    In the past year, Cincinnati has created an official LGBTQ+ commission and earmarked $500,000 for trans youth mental healthcare. Columbus has also created their own LGBTQ+ affairs commission and recently awarded a $100,000 grant to LGBTQ+ youth services. 

    “We need to at least meet the other two C’s,” Gibbons said. “Cleveland’s decision to hire this particular role is the city’s way of saying, ‘We are here. We are supporting. We are showing up.’”

    In these first three months of filling this new role, Gibbons has been meeting with as many individuals, departments and organizations as possible, including within Cleveland’s municipal government.

    “I’m one of 8,000 [Cleveland employees],” Gibbons said. “I want to find champions for the LGBTQ+ community in every department.”

    Upcoming plans include possibly creating an LGBTQ+ employee resource group for city employees and a visual display on National Coming Out Day, October 11, with individuals holding up pieces of fabric to form a human pride flag. 

    “We want people to see that the city of Cleveland isn’t just here for the LGBTQ+ community in June (Pride Month),” Gibbons said. “The city of Cleveland is here for the LGBTQ+ community for all of the days of the year.”

    Jorge Ramos Pantoja, communications specialist for the Cleveland Mayor’s Office of Communication, said that the new role is uniquely positioned to work with the administration and city council.”

    “I could not be more proud that we have landed Carey as part of our team,” Ramos Pantoja said. “If Clevelanders reach out to Carey, Carey will listen and will serve as an advisor to the administration and the city council.”

    Drawn to the “Together starts now” slogan for the WNBA’s return to Cleveland, Gibbons wants people to know that with this role and the LGBTQ+ community working together, the city can make substantive progress toward LGBTQ+ protections and equality.

    “I truly believe in collective power,” Gibbons said. “And if we can do that, then for LGBTQ+ community too: Together starts now.”

    Originally published by The Buckeye Flame. Republished here with permission.

    Ken Schneck, The Buckeye Flame

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  • Lakewood Drafts First-in-Ohio ‘Gender Freedom Policy’ in Response to Anti-Trans Attacks – Cleveland Scene

    The City Council of Lakewood has moved forward a “Gender Freedom Policy” in response to attacks on transgender rights both in Ohio and nationally.

    The wide-ranging set of protections pits home-rule – the state policy added in the 1920s to grant power to local municipalities – squarely against the power of the state with regards to protections of trans people living and working in the Cleveland suburb, including drag performers whose performances have been targeted by Ohio legislators. 

    The policy broadly commits to “enshrining and upholding transgender rights.” 

    More specifically, the Gender Freedom Policy pledges that:

    1. No city resources will be used for “detaining or investigating persons for solely seeking or providing gender-affirming care.”
    2. No city resources will be used for “cooperating with or providing information to any individual, in or out-of-state agency or department” on gender-affirming healthcare or gender-affirming mental healthcare performed in Lakewood, a response to reports of the U.S. Department of Justice asking hospitals to turn over “sensitive information about transgender patients younger than 19.”
    3. Investigations of individuals, organizations and businesses performing or hosting drag performances or non-obscene entertainment involving gender identity or expression will be the “lowest possible priority.”
    4. Investigations of individuals, organizations and healthcare providers in Lakewood facilitating gender-affirming care will be the “lowest possible priority.”
    5. Facilitation of other policies and laws aimed to harm transgender and gender-diverse people will be the “lowest possible priority.”
    6. City employees will be trained to protect confidential health information and not collect unnecessary health information related to gender-affirming care.
    7. The city will continue to provide medical coverage for employees and covered family members who seek gender-affirming care, “even if such care must legally be provided outside the State of Ohio.”

    Proposed by Council President Sarah Kepple and Councilmember Cindy Strebig, the resolution and administrative policy passed unanimously out of council’s Committee of the Whole on September 22 and will now be considered at the regular council meeting on October 6. 

    Ohio currently has a law banning gender-affirming care for minors on the books – including a provision that prevents healthcare providers from recommending care outside the state – and a proposed ban currently in the state legislature to ban “adult cabaret performances” in “any location other than an adult cabaret where minors may be present, that is harmful to juveniles or obscene.” This ban would include drag performances. 

    “There is simply not room in the City’s budget or staff capacity to indulge these unconscionable policies which do nothing but distract us from our primary goals of building a strong, sustainable, and welcoming community,” Kepple wrote in a letter to the Lakewood Observer. 

    Above and beyond

    Although many Ohio municipalities have passed LGBTQ+ equality ordinances over the past few years – from LGBTQ+-inclusive nondiscrimination protections, to proclamations declaring June as Pride Month, to the bans on conversion therapy on minors – Lakewood’s “Gender Freedom Policy” goes far beyond any existing local measure in Ohio. 

    Strebig said that Ohioans and Lakewoodites deserve better than the discriminatory policies being put forth by the state and federal government and that the “Gender Freedom Policy” is a step towards greater protections. 

    “With our home-rule authority limited and shrinking under the Republican-controlled [Ohio] Statehouse, we can still identify our priorities and commitments to keeping Lakewood a diverse and welcoming community,” Strebig said at the September 22 meeting.

    LGBTQ+ equality advocates praised the resolution. 

    Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio, said that few municipalities in Ohio have been open to making a public statement that LGBTQ+ people – and specifically trans people – are welcome and deserve the same rights as everyone else within city limits.

    “Choosing to prioritize the needs and values of residents shouldn’t be bold or not worthy, but this is where we find ourselves, and Lakewood City Council gets that,” Adkison told The Buckeye Flame.

    Michael Miller, a Lakewood resident and father of a trans child, thanked the council and expressed hope that the council’s actions would inspire others to pass similar legislation.

    “Even in Lakewood, Ohio, those of us who are raising transgender kids often feel like we’re standing alone,” Miller said. “Tonight, by talking about this Gender Freedom policy, we feel like you are standing up with us.” 

    Originally published by The Buckeye Flame. Republished here with permission.

    Ken Schneck, The Buckeye Flame

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  • LGBTQ Youth Housing Program Ending After Ohio Department of Health Grant Not Renewed – Cleveland Scene

    A program that has helped provide housing to more than 50 central Ohio LGBTQIA+ youth who were experiencing homelessness is ending. 

    Kaleidoscope Youth Center’s Housing Program is closing after a grant supporting it was not renewed by the Ohio Department of Health.

    ODH’s Services for Homeless Youth and Homeless Pregnant Youth Grant operates on a two-year cycle, with the previous cycle ending June 30. The department gave Kaleidoscope $227,247 ($113,623 per year) in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. 

    “This grant has been a significant source of funding for our housing program since 2021,” Kaleidoscope said in a statement. “Notably, this information was received approximately 45 days past the start date of July 1st, and we are now left with a pending deficit and the need to quickly relocate 10 young people without resources.” 

    ODH received 18 applications for funding for the 2025-26 cycle and had $2.2 million to be awarded, ODH spokesperson Ken Gordon said. 

    “Kaleidoscope Youth Center’s application was scored, and based on its low score compared to other applicants, the center was not one of the 15 applicants that were awarded the limited amount of funds available in the current grant cycle,” he said in an email. 

    Kaleidoscope scored 120 out of 205 points, according to Gordon. 

    “The executive summary section includes information about the target audience for the project, but without local data, it makes it difficult to understand why this population was picked,” ODH wrote in an Aug. 19 letter to Kaleidoscope. “… Overall, this application was missing important key requirements throughout the narrative, making it difficult to understand how each deliverable would be carried out.”

    Kaleidoscope is able to re-apply for the next grant cycle, which starts July 1, 2027. 

    KYC housing program  

    Kaleidoscope, which serves LGBTQ+ youth ages 12-24, started the housing program in 2019 and informed current participants in the program about the closure on Sept. 8, Kaleidoscope said in a statement. 

    “Although we do not have a current date by which they will need to move, the soonest would be early to mid-November,” Kaleidoscope said in a statement. 

    Kaleidoscope’s goal is to maintain the housing program through July 2026 when the final lease ends. 

    “This would provide the resources and time to safely and humanely transition current participants while decreasing the threat of returning to homelessness,” according to the statement. “Our youth are scared, and so are we. It is not okay that they are facing the threat of returning to homelessness.” 

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine used his veto power to nix a provision in the state’s two-year budget that would have prohibited giving funds to youth homeless shelters that house transgender youth, even if they also serve youth who are not transgender. 

    Nearly a quarter of LGBTQ youth reported experiencing homelessness or housing instability at some point in their lives, according to a 2022 report by the Trevor Project.Those who experiences homelessness or housing instability were also two to four times more likely to report depression, anxiety and self-harm, along with considering or attempting suicide, the report found.

    LGBTQ+ youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than non-LGBTQ youth, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. 

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

    Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal

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  • Cuyahoga County Unanimously Passes Ohio’s First County-Wide Ban Targeting Conversion Therapy on Minors – Cleveland Scene

    On Tuesday, September 9 – as a statewide conversion therapy ban in the Ohio Statehouse stalls once more – Cuyahoga County became the first and only county in the state to ban conversion therapy practices for minors and “vulnerable adults.”

    Cuyahoga County Council members voted unanimously in favor of the ban, which was sponsored by County Council’s first out gay member, District 6 Councilman Robert Schleper Jr. – and co-sponsored by eight other council members out of the 11 seats in the chamber.

    County Executive Chris Ronayne expressed public support for the ordinance and requested his name be added to the legislation as a co-sponsor ahead of the vote.

    Enforcing the ban

    The ordinance would subject individuals who practice conversion therapy on minors and vulnerable adults to fines on a sliding scale up to $3,500 per incident, and could lose their license practice medicine.

    The county’s Human Rights Commission is tasked with enforcing the ban. If residents believe they have been subjected to conversion therapy practices, they can submit a complaint to the commission. However, the violation must have occurred “within three years prior to the complaint.”

    Those who submit a complaint will have their identity protected under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Schleper said.

    Conversion therapy is defined in the ordinance as “any practice or procedure that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to reduce or eliminate sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward a person of the same gender or non-binary person.”

    Every major medical and psychological organization in the world rejects conversion therapy practices, citing increases in anxiety, depression and suicidality.

    The ordinance cites an extensive 2019 Williams Institute study on the medical, social and psychological effects associated with the conversion practices – which often involve the use of aversion conditioning techniques like “electric shock, deprivation of food and liquid, smelling salts, and chemically induced nausea.”

    According to the study’s findings, at least 698,000 Americans report being exposed to some type of conversion therapy during their lifetime, including about 350,000 people who report they were subjected to conversion practices as adolescents.

    ‘Your support means more than you realize’

    Schleper worked closely with local activists like Brandon West, who crafted the city of Lorain’s conversion therapy ban in 2024.

    “This was brought to me by a group of concerned citizens that wanted me to sponsor this legislation, and I was happy to do so,” Schleper said. “When a small group of concerned citizens decide that they would like to create change, they can do so.”

    Schleper called the ban’s passing a “pivotal moment” for the county and profusely thanked his colleagues for their support.

    “Your support means more than you realize – and not just to me, but to so many lives across the county,” Schleper said. “With the passage of a conversion therapy ban, this legislation is another thread in the fabric that strengthens us as a county.”

    Councilmembers Michael Gallagher and Martin Sweeney both offered public statements in support of the “landmark legislation.”

    “The best thing I can say about [conversion therapy] is that it’s medieval,” Gallagher said. “This really isn’t a tough decision. Some people may consider it political…[…] but ultimately, we really need to protect people.”

    Additionally, councilmember Meredith Turner pointed to the unanimous vote as a point of unity and shared vision among council members.

    “Our collective vote will send a clear message that we are all children of God and that we will protect our residents,” she said.

    Banning conversion practices in other counties

    The ban’s passing comes on the heels of other Ohio cities enacting similar ordinances, including Whitehall and Westerville.

    In total, 14 municipalities have banned the practice, including Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo.

    “It is more important than ever for our cities and counties to step up to protect their LGBTQ+ residents, and I hope Cuyahoga County will continue to set an example for others in Ohio and across the nation,” said Madelyn Smith, Northeast Ohio Organizer for LGBTQ+ civil rights group Equality Ohio. “I am so proud of Cuyahoga County.”

    Ohio Democrats have introduced two bills in both the state Senate and House of Representatives that would ban conversion therapy on minors. Neither bill has been given a single hearing in the Republican-controlled Statehouse, and there isn’t a clear path to advance the legislation there.

    Schleper told The Buckeye Flame he believes other counties can also take on this issue.

    Cuyahoga County has its own mechanisms for passing the ordinance because it is a chartered, home-rule county, which gives councilmembers more autonomy. However, Schleper said that shouldn’t stop other counties from trying.

    “The bottom line is: If they want to get [this ban passed], they will,” he said.

    Originally published by The Buckeye Flame. Republished here with permission.

    H.L. Comeriato, The Buckeye Flame and Ben Jodway, The Buckeye Flame

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  • Ohio and Other States With Anti-Transgender Laws See Increased Youth Suicide Rates

    Ohio and Other States With Anti-Transgender Laws See Increased Youth Suicide Rates

    click to enlarge

    Photo illustration by Ben Jodway / Original photo by Delia Giandeini, Unsplash

    Suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary young people increased significantly in states that adopted anti-transgender laws between 2018 and 2022, a study by The Trevor Project concluded.

    The study looked at suicide rates over five years in the 19 states that passed a total of 48 anti-transgender laws. Ohio was included in the study along with 33 other states, but there was no state-by-state breakdown.

    Depending on the year and the state, suicide-attempt rates for youth under age 18 rose between 7% and 72%. Among young people ages 13-24 – the study’s entire cohort – suicide rates rose 38% to 48%.

    The peer-reviewed article, published on Sept. 26, concluded that there is a need to “consider the mental health impact of recent anti-transgender laws and to advance protective policies.”

    According to the study, laws that were reviewed include those that limit access to gender-affirming care or to bathrooms, as well as laws that prohibit transgender and nonbinary youth from participating in sports teams or other activities that match their gender identity.

    There are five bills in the Ohio Statehouse that would negatively affect transgender people, if passed. An Ohio anti-transgender bill that has already passed is HB 68, which bans gender-affirming care for minors. The bill became law and was recently upheld by Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) plans to appeal the decision.

    TransOhio, a nonprofit supporting transgender people in the state, sees the “stress caused and harm done to trans youth” firsthand, said Dara Adkison, the organization’s executive director.

    “Even just the proposal of bills has a negative effect on trans people across the state, and we help so many harmed by these anti-trans bills,” Adkison said. “It’s incredibly important to see the mental health effects of anti-trans legislation highlighted – though all too often, suicide attempt rates are connected to queerness, not to the hate-mongers trying to create an environment of stress, fear and bigotry.”

    In his work with PFLAG, Cleveland Heights psychologist Jes Sellers said he has “encountered numerous trans individuals and worried family members who are experiencing heightened levels of manifested anxiety and fear as they face overt, politically fueled discrimination in Ohio. The CDC’s Youth Risk Survey provides us with compelling data that transgender youth are indeed at greater risk for serious mental health problems.”

    State Rep. Jodi Whitted (D-28) was “saddened, but not surprised” by The Trevor Project’s study – as a social worker, an LGBTQ+ government official and “a human who cares about others.”

    “I am continually amazed that members of our legislature, and some individuals running for office, continue to prioritize and champion legislation that evidence shows has led to the death of children,” she said. “If there is a young person out there reading this article, and seeing this quote, I want you to know that I value you for who you are. You are the future of Ohio and there are people in the Statehouse who are fighting for you and your families.”

    The Buckeye Flame reached out to State Rep. Beth Lear (R-61) and State Rep. Gary Click (R-88) and did not receive a response.

    Click was enlisted by the Center for Christian Virtue to co-sponsor HB 68, the statewide ban gender affirming healthcare for minors and ban on trans female athletes in kindergarten through college.

    Lear is the co-sponsor of HB 183, a bill that would require that restrooms and locker rooms in Ohio’s schools and colleges be designated for use by individuals who are one “biological sex.” It also would mandate that individuals only use the restroom that corresponds to the gender listed on their birth certificate issued at the time of their birth. In one hearing, Lear said that Ohioans who support trans youth should have “a millstone hung around [their] neck and be thrown into the deepest sea.”

    Originally published by The Buckeye Flame. Republished here with permission.

    Ben Jodway, The Buckeye Flame

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  • Suns owner Mat Ishbia accused of anti-gay slur in voicemail tirade

    Suns owner Mat Ishbia accused of anti-gay slur in voicemail tirade

    Mat Ishbia, billionaire owner of the Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Mercury, is under fire for a leaked voicemail in which he reportedly referred to business rivals as “cocksuckers.” “We fucking took those cocksuckers down, fuck them, and we’re gonna keep fucking sticking it to them forever,” Ishbia said in the voicemail…

    TJ L’Heureux

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  • Conservatives Defunded A Public Library — And Things Got Dire

    Conservatives Defunded A Public Library — And Things Got Dire

    Like many public libraries across the country, the main branch of the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library in Jonesboro, Arkansas, set up a variety of displays for Pride Month in June 2021. There were showcases of books by LGBTQ+ authors, an exhibit that explained the different community flags and a section of kids books featuring LGBTQ+ characters.

    According to its staff and supporters, the library hadn’t had any obvious issues celebrating Pride prior to 2021. But that month spurred community backlash that contributed to the county voting the following year to cut library funding in half.

    More than a year after the vote, the cuts have finally gone into effect, and the results are dire. The library and its other branches (there are eight, including the main branch) are now forced to operate with reduced hours and smaller staffs and have had to cut services that community members previously relied on.

    “The Pride display in June 2021 was a huge catalyst and the main reason why the library was defunded,” Dean MacDonald, a supporter and advocate for the CCJPL, told HuffPost.

    Conservatives across the country began targeting public libraries during the backlash to the sweeping social justice movements that took hold in 2020 in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Using the guise of “parental rights,” conservatives whipped up a moral panic: first about children learning about the United States’ racist past and then about kids learning about LGBTQ+ rights, falsely asserting that members of the LGBTQ+ community were preying on children or that books about gay or trans people should be treated like pornography.

    “When the children’s [Pride] display went up, that’s when it really hit the fan,” said Vanessa Adams, the director of the CCJPL, who was previously the library director in another Arkansas county.

    David Eckert, who was the library director in the summer of 2021, was surprised when the complaints started rolling in. He told KAIT-TV in Jonesboro that he initially got a lot of positive feedback — close to 30 support emails — about the Pride display, compared with the three formal complaints he received. But eventually that changed.

    “It had actually been up for three weeks before I heard a complaint,” Eckert told the station’s news team at the time. “I’m not exactly sure why there was a problem this year, especially because before I started working here, we’ve always put this type of material out every June.” (Eckert resigned in November 2021 amid controversy over library policies.)

    “I dream of a world where this argument that we are having today will make us laugh at ourselves.”

    – A resident supporting the library at a board meeting

    At a three-hour library board meeting in August 2021, residents argued over a proposal to allow the board to approve of displays and guest speakers. The vote failed to pass, with board Vice President Mike Johnson saying that librarians should be trusted to make such decisions.

    But another library proposal quickly divided the area: Board member Amanda Escue went on to suggest a new policy that would require the board to approve “sensitive materials” before the library could make a purchase.

    Many residents spoke out against the proposal.

    “I dream of a world where this argument that we are having today will make us laugh at ourselves and dismiss it as insanity,” one resident said at a September 2021 board meeting, according to KAIT.

    Others turned to mistruths about LGBTQ+ materials to support it. “The topic is not about religion, the topic is not about your sexual orientation, the topic is why do the children, the young children, need to see the pornographic explicit material,” one resident said during the public comment section of a library board meeting, KAIT reported in a separate story.

    Escue resigned from her position weeks before the board could vote on her proposal about “sensitive material,” citing her family’s move to Randolph County, Arkansas, as the reason, according to The Jonesboro Sun.

    The board voted 4 to 2 not to adopt the proposal.

    Then, at the end of September 2022, just weeks before the election, a group called Citizens Taxed Enough announced it had gathered enough signatures to put decreased funding for the library on the ballot. It framed the issue as one of tax relief for residents, but Citizens Taxed Enough said on social media that the group had looked into the library’s finances because staff refused to remove or move books it didn’t approve of. Recently, Citizens Taxed Enough insinuated itself into a Facebook post to say that the library was a place where children could access pornography.

    HuffPost reviewed Facebook posts identified as belonging to members of the Northeast Arkansas Tea Party, a right-wing group supporting the ballot measure to cut the library’s funding in half. In the posts, made in the lead-up to the 2022 election, the members falsely claimed that library staff were providing sexually explicit material and abusing children, and they criticized a Drag Queen Storytime event as predatory toward children.

    “It really blindsided us because we hadn’t heard any rumors that they were going to put it on the ballot.”

    – Vanessa Adams, director of CCJPL

    Library supporters and patrons in Craighead County, Arkansas, which is home to more than 100,000 people (the majority of whom live in Jonesboro), said they were taken aback when defunding the library ended up on the ballot in November 2022.

    “It really blindsided us because we hadn’t heard any rumors that they were going to put it on the ballot,” Adams said about the measure, leaving support groups like Citizens Defending the Craighead County Library little time to get the word out about voting.

    The ballot measure to cut library funding passed by 48 votes.

    “I didn’t think this would happen to start with,” Adams said. “I was certain this community would come out to support the library.”

    The effect of the November 2022 vote wasn’t felt until the end of last year. The library is forward-funded, so it had enough funds to keep operating as is for a full year after the election.

    The library will receive $2.6 million this year, down from $4.7 million the prior year. Adams managed to stave off closing any of the eight branches. However, she had to lay off 13 people while two people who retired were not replaced. Overall, the library is down to 30 employees from 45.

    The branches also have reduced hours, with all of them — save for the main branch — closed on Saturday. None of the libraries is open on Sunday.

    The library has also had to cut some services. Before the cuts, library staff would bring materials to elderly people and people in long-term health care facilities. Now they’ll have to scale back such outreach. The library also won’t be able to regularly support courier services, which can bring materials requested by patrons from one branch to another.

    Perhaps most chilling is that the defunding means there are fewer books available.

    “Our materials budget has taken a big cut,” Adams said. “It’s really sad. There are fewer books and fewer e-books, which were really popular.”

    Criticism and fearmongering surrounding public libraries is part of a disturbing trend that’s taken hold around the country. Librarians have been fired for refusing to remove books with LGBTQ+ themes from shelves, and some libraries have dealt with threats of physical violence.

    In Jonesboro, there’s a chance that a measure to reinstate library funding could be on the ballot next year. But advocates are aware that they need to tread carefully — after all, this time around they’d be convincing residents to take on a tax increase. However, some community members are already offering financial support to the library after the cuts.

    “We’re getting monetary donations left and right,” Adams said. “The community is understanding and is really stepping up to help us.”

    In the meantime, there’s still support for the library — even with all the cuts.

    “The public perception is that Jonesboro is for all this, but there have been tons of people who have spoken up from all political backgrounds,” MacDonald said. “People have written off Arkansas, but there are people coming out of the woodwork that are people fighting back.”

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  • Some mosquitoes like it hot

    Some mosquitoes like it hot

    Newswise — Certain populations of mosquitoes are more heat tolerant and better equipped to survive heat waves than others, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

    This is bad news in a world where vector-borne diseases are an increasingly global health concern. Most models that scientists use to estimate vector-borne disease risk currently assume that mosquito heat tolerances do not vary. As a result, these models may underestimate mosquitoes’ ability to spread diseases in a warming world.

    Researchers led by Katie M. Westby, a senior scientist at Tyson Research Center, Washington University’s environmental field station, conducted a new study that measured the critical thermal maximum (CTmax), an organism’s upper thermal tolerance limit, of eight populations of the globally invasive tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. The tiger mosquito is a known vector for many viruses including West Nile, chikungunya and dengue.

    “We found significant differences across populations for both adults and larvae, and these differences were more pronounced for adults,” Westby said. The new study is published Jan. 8 in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

    Westby’s team sampled mosquitoes from eight different populations spanning four climate zones across the eastern United States, including mosquitoes from locations in New Orleans; St. Augustine, Fla.; Huntsville, Ala.; Stillwater, Okla.; St. Louis; Urbana, Ill.; College Park, Md.; and Allegheny County, Pa.

    The scientists collected eggs in the wild and raised larvae from the different geographic locations to adult stages in the lab, tending the mosquito populations separately as they continued to breed and grow. The scientists then used adults and larvae from subsequent generations of these captive-raised mosquitoes in trials to determine CTmax values, ramping up air and water temperatures at a rate of 1 degree Celsius per minute using established research protocols.

    The team then tested the relationship between climatic variables measured near each population source and the CTmax of adults and larvae. The scientists found significant differences among the mosquito populations.

    The differences did not appear to follow a simple latitudinal or temperature-dependent pattern, but there were some important trends. Mosquito populations from locations with higher precipitation had higher CTmax values. Overall, the results reveal that mean and maximum seasonal temperatures, relative humidity and annual precipitation may all be important climatic factors in determining CTmax.

    “Larvae had significantly higher thermal limits than adults, and this likely results from different selection pressures for terrestrial adults and aquatic larvae,” said Benjamin Orlinick, first author of the paper and a former undergraduate research fellow at Tyson Research Center. “It appears that adult Ae. albopictus are experiencing temperatures closer to their CTmax than larvae, possibly explaining why there are more differences among adult populations.”

    “The overall trend is for increased heat tolerance with increasing precipitation,” Westby said. “It could be that wetter climates allow mosquitoes to endure hotter temperatures due to decreases in desiccation, as humidity and temperature are known to interact and influence mosquito survival.”

    Little is known about how different vector populations, like those of this kind of mosquito, are adapted to their local climate, nor the potential for vectors to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. This study is one of the few to consider the upper limits of survivability in high temperatures — akin to heat waves — as opposed to the limits imposed by cold winters.

    “Standing genetic variation in heat tolerance is necessary for organisms to adapt to higher temperatures,” Westby said. “That’s why it was important for us to experimentally determine if this mosquito exhibits variation before we can begin to test how, or if, it will adapt to a warmer world.”

    Future research in the lab aims to determine the upper limits that mosquitoes will seek out hosts for blood meals in the field, where they spend the hottest parts of the day when temperatures get above those thresholds, and if they are already adapting to higher temperatures. “Determining this is key to understanding how climate change will impact disease transmission in the real world,” Westby said. “Mosquitoes in the wild experience fluctuating daily temperatures and humidity that we cannot fully replicate in the lab.”

    Washington University in St. Louis

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  • Por qué las personas adultas de la comunidad LGBTQ+ deben prestar atención a la salud cardíaca

    Por qué las personas adultas de la comunidad LGBTQ+ deben prestar atención a la salud cardíaca

    Newswise — ROCHESTER, Minnesota — En estudios recientes se ha observado una tendencia preocupante en la salud cardiovascular de las personas adultas de la comunidad LGBTQ+. Tienen una peor salud cardíaca en comparación con las personas cisgénero heterosexuales. Las personas LGBTQ+ también tienden a tener una mayor prevalencia de factores de riesgo de enfermedad cardiovascular.

    La Dra. Rekha Mankad, cardióloga de Mayo Clinic, explica lo que puede aumentar el riesgo de enfermedad cardiovascular en las personas adultas LGBTQ+ y lo que se puede hacer para disminuirlo.

    “La comunidad LGBTQ+ es un grupo de personas marginalizado”, dice la Dra. Mankad. “Uno de los primeros problemas es que quizás no acudan a realizarse exámenes médicos periódicos”.

    Cuando se trata de prevenir enfermedades cardiovasculares, es fundamental conocer los factores de riesgo.

    Estos son los factores de riesgo comunes de las enfermedades cardíacas:

    • Presión arterial alta
    • Colesterol alto
    • Consumo de tabaco
    • Diabetes
    • Falta de actividad física
    • Obesidad

    “Son cosas de las que hablamos con todos, pero se debe consultar con un proveedor de atención médica para hablar acerca de esos factores de riesgo”, explica la Dra. Mankad.

    Alrededor de la mitad de las personas LGBTQ+ dicen que han sufrido discriminación en el entorno sanitario, lo cual es un factor que hace que sea menos probable que vean a un médico en comparación con las personas cisgénero heterosexuales.

    “Si a una persona le preocupa ir al médico, seguramente no va a hablar de los aspectos que la ponen en riesgo de presentar enfermedades cardíacas”, aclara la doctora.

    La Dra. Mankad dice que otro factor puede ser la presencia de factores estresantes particulares de los grupos marginalizados.

    “Existen tensiones interpersonales, tales como la autoestigmatización y cuestiones relacionadas con el ocultamiento. Además, lidian con problemas como los prejuicios que han sufrido y, posiblemente, la violencia”, aclara.

    El estrés puede derivar en otros problemas

    “Si una persona se expone a mayor estrés, es más probable que presente ansiedad o depresión”, dice la Dra. Mankad. “Además, es menos probable que salga y haga ejercicio porque siente incomodidad en un vestidor o vestuario. Estos son algunos de los muchos factores que luego pueden generar una mayor probabilidad de desarrollar esos factores de riesgo de enfermedades cardíacas”.

    Ante estas circunstancias, es fundamental que las personas de la comunidad LGBTQ+ sean proactivas con respecto a su salud cardíaca.

    “Les diría a las personas de la comunidad que no duden en ver a un proveedor de atención médica y que le hablen con honestidad”, agrega la Dra. Mankad. “Háganle saber sus preocupaciones en relación con la salud en general, en especial la salud cardiovascular, y elaboren un plan sobre lo que pueden hacer para proteger el corazón a largo plazo”.

    ###

    Información sobre Mayo Clinic
    Mayo Clinic es una organización sin fines de lucro, dedicada a innovar la práctica clínica, la educación y la investigación, así como a ofrecer pericia, compasión y respuestas a todos los que necesitan recobrar la salud. Visite la Red Informativa de Mayo Clinic para leer más noticias sobre Mayo Clinic.

    Mayo Clinic

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  • I Had Quintuple Bypass Surgery. A Trait I Never Guessed Might Affect My Heart May Be To Blame.

    I Had Quintuple Bypass Surgery. A Trait I Never Guessed Might Affect My Heart May Be To Blame.

    My ex-wife used to say my heart kept her awake at night. The pounding, she said, sent reverberations through the mattress. Like the partner who snores, I was unaware of this nocturnal Buddy Rich drum solo. Even if I did notice, and it shames me to say, even if I believed her, I wasn’t sure what I could have done to prevent it. My options seemed limited. Either it beat or it didn’t.

    A few months ago, that theory was tested. After reporting a pain in my neck to my physician, I walked into an outpatient diagnostic exam in Portland, Maine, expecting to be home for dinner. In the catheterization lab, I was awake, lying in a dark room and somewhat pleasantly buzzed from calming medication as a large humming angiographic X-ray machine orbited my body. The medical team was friendly and chatty, and as they played sophisticated music trendier than anything I might have suggested, we joked that the procedure seemed more like a spa treatment.

    I don’t remember if the chatter or music stopped first, like one of those comedies where the needle is snatched from the turntable as it scratches the record. They sat me up and pointed to a black and white grainy video of my beating heart, saying, “Watch.”

    A puff of what looked like smoke billowed. I learned the smoke was actually an injectable dye, which should have entered my heart instead of curling backward. A voice in the dark, suddenly laced with accusation, asked, “How long did you say you’ve been feeling discomfort?”

    As a closeted gay man who grew up in the southern United States, I have maintained hypervigilance toward potential threats my entire life. First, that someone would find out that I was gay, and after I came out at 43, that someone would wish to do me harm. This wasn’t the discomfort they were questioning, but as the cardiologist explained the procedure that would stop my heart (it was quite literally put on ice), I couldn’t help but wonder if they were somehow related.

    During my 10 days in the hospital, I shared a room with four different roommates. All of them, like me, older white men, but there was one thing we didn’t have in common: Unlike me, they were all heterosexual. Even in their ill health, perhaps because of it, three out of four made sexually harassing and often misogynistic comments toward the female nurses. This small sample mirrors my experience in the world — a large percentage of men displaying their toxic masculinity, prompting me to retreat deep into the closet. The difference here was that I could not escape.

    Even if I had wanted to remain private and denied the existence of who I love, which no one should ever have to do to maintain a sense of safety, it was impossible. With each shift change and on every round with multiple health care workers, one question always surfaced: Who do you have to care for you when you return home?

    The author in the hospital with his daughter, Marisa Dameron.

    Courtesy of William Dameron

    I came out multiple times a day in the hospital. Because I live in liberal New England, where diversity usually is celebrated, this was not a difficult task. However, more often than not, even after clearly articulating that Paul was my husband, he was referred to as my “partner.” What would my experience have been like if we were in Florida?

    In conservative regions of the country, where there is an insidious assault on the LGBTQ+ community — especially trans people — in a particularly focused and horrific manner, how would a scared young queer person navigate the double trauma of surgery and then bigotry?

    When I asked the cardiologist if I faced any specific risks with open-heart surgery, he replied that my most significant risk was my young age. Blushing, I laughed. He did not.

    “The amount of blockage for someone your age, 59, is extensive and something we typically see in someone much older and will likely reappear. We’re only treating the symptoms, not the underlying cause, and you may have to face this again at some point.”

    My husband, Paul, has never complained about my heart, but he snores. (Hello, karma). The maximum nudge count is three before I’ll get up and stumble through the dark into the spare bedroom. While staring at the ceiling — I used to be a side sleeper before the surgery — my mind goes back to those nights with my ex-wife and the beating drum. Was my heart issuing a warning?

    The American Heart Association reported that LGBTQ+ individuals were 36% less likely to have ideal cardiovascular health and found higher levels of heart disease among transgender individuals related to stigma and discrimination.

    The New York Times notes that LGBTQ adults “face unique stressors — stigma, discrimination, the fear of violence — which can both indirectly and directly lead to disease” by causing chronic inflammation and raising blood pressure and heart rate, among other effects.

    While I cannot make a direct correlation between my heart disease and this particular environmental stressor, consider my three straight siblings whose blood pressure is normal and cholesterol levels are ideal.

    My cohort and older LGBTQ+ individuals have survived legalized discrimination, attacks from performative Christianity, assaults from right-wing politicians, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, gay bashing and worse. What did not kill us then was only a matter of time.

    The author and Paul (left).
    The author and Paul (left).

    Courtesy of William Dameron

    For all the progress we have made, we are currently experiencing a devastating backlash. We, as a society, must come to understand that banning books with LGBTQ+ themes, legislating hatred in the form of “Don’t Say Gay” laws, halting gender-affirming care and enacting anti-trans laws, like those in Florida and other conservative states, are not protecting our children but instead are erasing them. Forcing our children into silence now is quite literally breaking their hearts. The Silence=Death project was born of the AIDS crisis but is still significantly resonant.

    The worst part of quintuple bypass surgery was not waking up with a tube down my throat, choosing between breathing or speaking, or looking at the reflection in the mirror of what looked like an autopsy cadaver riddled with scars and bruising. It was not the bizarre end-of-the-world nightmares, the uncontrollable sobbing or even learning to sleep on my back. It was the pained expression on my husband’s face when he realized death was no longer a theory but a fact. I will die. I will cease to exist, and someday, perhaps sooner than he previously thought, he will forever sleep alone.

    If there was a worst thing about open-heart surgery, it is logical that there would be a best or, perhaps, least worst thing. It forever altered my outlook on life, to cherish all I am so fortunate to possess and speak up when I am feeling pain instead of remaining silent. I want our children to know that living joyfully in an imperfect world is possible, to find great beauty, even in pain, and to love with abandon.

    Was my heart tapping out an SOS those many years ago? I will never know, but this I do: In the face of death — no, because I faced death — I never felt so grateful to be alive. My heart no longer pounds to break free.

    May our children be so fortunate.

    William Dameron is an award-winning blogger, memoirist, essayist and author of the novel “The Way Life Should Be” and his memoir, “The Lie,” a New York Times Editors’ Choice. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Times (UK), The Telegraph, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Salon, Oprah Daily and in the book “Fashionably Late: Gay, Bi & Trans Men Who Came Out Later In Life.”

    Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch.

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  • Ramón Barthelemy wins 2023 LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year

    Ramón Barthelemy wins 2023 LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year

    Newswise — The LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year award recognizes an educator who has significantly impacted STEM students through teaching, counseling, advocacy, and role modeling. Dr. Barthelemy is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Utah. Before joining the faculty at the U, Dr. Barthelemy was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and an AAAS Science Policy Fellow. As a Fulbright Fellow, Dr. Barthelemy researched university physics education in Finland. As an AAAS Fellow, he focused on STEM education policies and helped support equity in STEM education. His current position focuses on physics education research, with a broad range of interests from student learning in the classroom to policies that govern the physics community and impact physics careers. Last year, Barthelemy and collaborators published  a pioneering study that revealed the barriers that LGBTQ+ physicists face in the field. His current research focuses on understanding the social network development of Ph.D. physicists who identify as women and/or as part of the LGBTQ+ community. This unique project focuses on Ph.D. scientists beyond academia and includes the government and private sectors. This work aims to better understand how these groups build their professional networks and navigate them to find their definition of career-related success.

    When asked how his life experiences have shaped his perspective as an educator, Dr. Barthelemy said, “…being queer has impacted how I think about binaries. I do not see the world as a place where there is one incorrect and one correct answer. Rather I see a very complex world in which multiple kinds of explanations and models can be used to understand our lives and the world around us. As a scientist, this dips into ideas of philosophy of science and how we are not necessarily claiming to have a T truth, but instead are working to develop and refine models that help us explain and predict the natural world.”

    His nominators noted, “…he combines stellar graduate work in physics education research with some of the deepest and most significant work on gender and LGBTQ+ issues in Physics that has so far been written.” When asked what advice he would give his younger self and scientists just beginning their adventures in physics, Barthelemy “…would tell a younger version of me to trust myself and to build a community of people who support one another and want to see each other succeed.”

    Out to Innovate awarded LGBTQ+ Engineer of the Year to Dr. David Jansing, Ph.D., a remote sensing scientist at Johns Hopkins University, and LGBTQ+ Scientist of the year to Dr. Victoria Orphan, Ph.D., the James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science and Geobiology at Caltech.

    Adapted from a release by Out to Innovate.

    University of Utah

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  • LGB adults at risk of suicide and self-harm

    LGB adults at risk of suicide and self-harm

    Newswise — Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people are more than twice as likely than their straight peers to experience suicidal thoughts or self-harming behaviours, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

    The study, published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, is the first ever to analyse nationally representative data on sexual orientation and suicidality in England whilst being able to compare individual sexual minority groups. The researchers analysed data combined from two household surveys of 10,443 English adults (aged 16 and over), representative of the population, sampled in 2007 and 2014.

    As well as finding an increased probability of past-year suicidal thoughts among lesbian or gay adults when compared with heterosexuals, and of lifetime non-suicidal self-harm among bisexual, lesbian or gay people, they also found that depression, anxiety, and experiences of discrimination or bullying may contribute in part to these increased risks.

    Concerningly, the researchers found no improvement in these inequalities in suicidal thoughts and self-harm between the two time points.

    Lead author Dr Alexandra Pitman (UCL Psychiatry) said: “While national surveys of British attitudes towards same-sex relationships suggest that society has become more tolerant of people who are gay, lesbian or bisexual, there is clearly a long way to go, as the mental health outcomes we were studying did not improve across our study period.

    “People with sexual minority identities continue to face more discrimination and bullying than heterosexual people and are also more likely to experience common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Our study suggests that these experiences of discrimination and bullying may have some role to play in increasing the risk of suicidality and this requires further research.

    “Clinicians should be aware of these issues, so that we can best support the mental health of LGB patients, while society as a whole also has a role to play in helping to reduce discrimination. Government bodies, schools, workplaces and individuals should all consider their own cultures and attitudes towards people from sexual minority groups and challenge discriminatory behaviour.”

    The researchers had previously found, when analysing the same dataset (see note*), an increased probability of depression, anxiety, alcohol misuse and drug misuse among LGB adults compared with their heterosexual peers**. In the current study they found that half of lesbian or gay adults had experienced bullying and one in five had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation within the past year. For bisexual adults, almost half had experienced bullying and one in ten had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation within the past year.

    The researchers found that even after accounting for the increased risk of common mental health problems (depression and anxiety), lesbian and gay adults were still more than twice as likely as heterosexuals to report past-year suicidal thoughts, and lesbian, gay and bisexual adults were more than three times as likely to report lifetime non-suicidal self-harm than heterosexuals. The findings were similar for both men and women, and these inequalities had not changed between 2007 and 2014.

    When investigating the comparative likelihood of past-year suicide attempt, the researchers found an increased risk for bisexual adults when compared with heterosexuals, but this was no longer apparent when taking into account the increased risk of common mental health problems. The researchers caution that as the proportions with past-year suicide attempt were relatively low, their findings do not necessarily rule out an elevated suicide attempt risk among the sexual minority group as a whole.

    Further analysis suggested that experiences of bullying may contribute to the increased probability of suicidal thoughts among lesbian or gay adults, and that experiences of discrimination and bullying (both categorised as minority stress factors) may each contribute to the increased risk of self-harm among lesbian, gay and bisexual adults.

    First author Garrett Kidd, who worked on the study as his dissertation for a Clinical Mental Health Sciences MSc in UCL Psychiatry, said: “Our findings add to a concerning picture of health inequalities experienced by lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

    “Our health services need to be improved to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ people, as some people may not feel comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation, which can hamper an understanding of their health and social needs. We also need to offer more mental health services specifically catered to LGBTQ+ people, ideally alongside community-based support.”

    The researchers say that further research is needed to fully understand the reasons why sexual minority groups are more likely to experience suicidal thoughts or self-harm, such as how victimisation, family environment or stigma might be contributing factors, and in order to develop public health interventions that could reduce suicidality and potentially save lives.

    The lead researchers were supported by the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre.

     

    * The dataset, the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) for England, included questions on sexual orientation but not gender identity. The next survey in the APMS series will include questions about gender identity, so that future analyses will be able to look at both gender and sexual identity, and therefore investigate mental health in LGB groups as well as transgender and gender diverse groups.

    ** UCL News, 2021: Mental health disorders and alcohol misuse more common in LGB people. See also evidence that LGB youth are more likely to experience depressive symptoms from as young as age 10 and these symptoms persist at least into their early 20s (UCL News, 2018: Depressive symptoms higher for gay, lesbian and bisexual youth from age 10); the UCL researchers also studied to how reduce LGBTQ+-targeted discrimination and bullying in schools (Video explanation, full study)

    Notes to Editors  

    Garrett Kidd, Louise Marston, Irwin Nazareth, David Osborn, Alexandra Pitman, ‘Suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt and non-suicidal self-harm amongst lesbian, gay and bisexual adults compared with heterosexual adults: analysis of data from two nationally representative English household surveys’ will be published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology on Friday 9 June 2023, 00:01 UK time and is under a strict embargo until this time.

    The DOI for this paper will be 10.1007/s00127-023-02490-4.

    Garrett Kidd has also written a blog about the study, which will be published at https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mental-health/2023/06/07/examining-the-relationship-between-sexual-orientation-and-suicidality/ (embargoed copy available on request).

    About UCL – London’s Global University

    UCL is a diverse global community of world-class academics, students, industry links, external partners, and alumni. Our powerful collective of individuals and institutions work together to explore new possibilities.

    Since 1826, we have championed independent thought by attracting and nurturing the world’s best minds. Our community of more than 50,000 students from 150 countries and over 16,000 staff pursues academic excellence, breaks boundaries and makes a positive impact on real world problems.

    We are consistently ranked among the top 10 universities in the world and are one of only a handful of institutions rated as having the strongest academic reputation and the broadest research impact.

    We have a progressive and integrated approach to our teaching and research – championing innovation, creativity and cross-disciplinary working. We teach our students how to think, not what to think, and see them as partners, collaborators and contributors.  

    For almost 200 years, we are proud to have opened higher education to students from a wide range of backgrounds and to change the way we create and share knowledge.

    We were the first in England to welcome women to university education and that courageous attitude and disruptive spirit is still alive today. We are UCL.

    www.ucl.ac.uk | Follow @uclnews on Twitter | Read news at www.ucl.ac.uk/news/ | Listen to UCL podcasts on SoundCloud | Find out what’s on at UCL Minds

    University College London

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  • Taylor Swift Breaks Silence And Condemns Anti-LGBTQ Bills During Eras Tour

    Taylor Swift Breaks Silence And Condemns Anti-LGBTQ Bills During Eras Tour

    Taylor Swift kicked off Pride Month by condemning anti-LGBTQ+ legislation during the Eras Tour concert in Chicago.

    “We can’t talk about Pride without talking about pain,” she said on Friday during her concert. “Right now and recently there have been so many harmful pieces of legislation that have put people in the LGBTQ+ and queer community at risk. It’s painful for everyone. Every ally. Every loved one. Every person in these communities.”

    She continued: “And that’s why I’m always posting, ‘This is when the midterms are. This is when these important key primaries are.’”

    Swift’s speech was met with mixed reactions from fans. Several fans applauded her on Twitter for speaking out on LGBTQ+ rights and against politicians who are pushing anti-transgender legislation.

    Swift alluded to wanting to be more vocal on political issues after the release of her 2020 documentary “Miss Americana”. But until this week, the singer had not spoken publicly about the recent legislation targeting LGBTQ+ people in the country, including during her concert in her home state of Tennessee, which passed a drag ban earlier this year.

    “We can support as much as we want during Pride Month, but if we’re not doing our research on these elected officials — Are they advocates? Are they allies? Are they protectors of equality? Do I want to vote for them?” Swift said during her speech on Friday.

    Some fans were critical of her words and labeled them as performative.

    They also referenced the recent and ongoing controversy surrounding her rumored relationship with 1975 frontman Matty Healy, who has previously made harmful remarks about marginalized groups.

    Other fans pointed to the irony of Swift benefiting from queer communities through the music video for her song “You Need To Calm Down,” yet failing to condemn the recent attacks on the community until Friday.

    “Being with you during Pride Month, getting to sing the words to ‘You Need To Calm Down’ where there are lyrics like, ‘Can you just not step on his gown?’ or, ‘Shade never made anybody less gay,’ and you guys are screaming those lyrics,” Swift said this week during the Eras Tour.

    She continued: “Such solidarity. Such support of one another and such encouraging, beautiful acceptance and peace and safety. And I wish that every place was safe and beautiful for people of the LGBTQ+ community.”

    Some fans have speculated that safety concerns might have been the reason Swift didn’t bring up anti-transgender legislation during earlier Eras tour concerts. But others believe she has the privilege to speak out as a white woman, pointing out that celebrities with marginalized identities, such as Lizzo, had already taken the risk of speaking out on these issues during their concerts.

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  • This Gay Teacher Quit After 8.5 Years — And One Thing Pushed Her Over The Edge

    This Gay Teacher Quit After 8.5 Years — And One Thing Pushed Her Over The Edge

    Weeks after stepping down from her job as a high school math teacher, Alyssa Marano arrived at a contentious school board meeting in Hernando County, Florida.

    “No one is teaching your kids to be gay!” Marano said Tuesday. “Sometimes they just are gay. I have math to teach. I literally don’t have time to teach your kids to be gay.”

    “This gay teacher, who accepts her students exactly as they are, outscored the county by 15% in geometry and outscored the state by 10%,” she added. “And now a sub will take my spot in my cold, bare classroom.”

    Hundreds of people had shown up for the meeting, largely due to an ongoing controversy over a fifth-grade teacher who had shown her students a Disney movie that included a gay character. Armed law enforcement officers were present. The public comment portion of the evening stretched on for hours. Many parents, teachers and students stood up and defended educators, but there were still plenty of other speakers who complained about “wokeness” in schools.

    For Marano, the frenzy over culture wars instead of focusing on education and students was the nail in the coffin.

    “There’s been a fire in me for a year now,” Marano told HuffPost. “I love teaching, I love my students and I love my colleagues, but I know they’re on a witch hunt.”

    And Marano felt like she had a target on her back.

    “I’m accepting of people for who they are,” she said. “I believe all students deserve access to education and resources. And I’m gay.”

    “I believe so much in education that I’m willing to leave it right now in hopes of it becoming better in the future.”

    – Alyssa Marano, high school math teacher

    Resigning after more than eight years of teaching was partly a method of self-preservation, since she hopes to work in a classroom in the future. Marano was worried about getting fired for violating Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which limits what teachers can say about gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom and allows for a teacher’s license to be revoked if they break the law.

    “I believe so much in education that I’m willing to leave it right now in hopes of it becoming better in the future,” she said.

    She is far from the only educator leaving her post in the district, which has about 24,000 students and 3,100 staff members. Thirty-three teachers are resigning and 15 more are retiring, a Hernando County Public Schools spokesperson told HuffPost. Jenna Barbee, the teacher who showed her class “Strange World,” a movie about climate change that has a gay character, has also recently resigned.

    Under the guise of “parental rights,” elected officials and talking heads across the U.S. have worked to restrict what teachers can tell students about gender, sexuality and race. Meanwhile, school boards have banned books by claiming that materials with LGBTQ+ or racial justice themes indoctrinate children.

    This is especially true in Florida, which, under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — who has announced a 2024 White House bid and is holding up the state’s policies as an example of what he’d do as president — has become ground zero for enacting and enforcing strict educational policies. Hernando County is a deep-red pocket of the state approximately 50 miles north of Tampa, where Donald Trump and DeSantis dominated their most recent races by large margins.

    There’s a culture of fear among teachers, Marano said, especially after they saw how quickly the Florida Department of Education began investigating Barbee. Shannon Rodriguez, a parent in the district and a member of the school board who is backed by the ultraconservative group Moms 4 Liberty, reported Barbee to the department after she learned about students seeing the movie last month.

    Marano said she’s worried that small gestures, like displaying a Pride flag, and teachers talking to students about their lives outside of school could be grounds for disciplinary action under the Don’t Say Gay law.

    “Providing students with a rainbow flag doesn’t mean you’re teaching kids to be gay,” Marano said. “The American flag has been used as a tool for the GOP, and I have that up in my classroom. Am I a Republican now?”

    “I’m in the happiest and healthiest relationship I’ve been in, better than when I was closeted and dating men, and I can’t share that,” she added.

    It’s a lot for teachers to have to worry about, in addition to educating their students.

    “You cannot teach kids to be gay or straight,” Marano said. “I just want my kids to be able to solve for X.”

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  • Expert on Disney: Can ‘Little Mermaid’ enchant audiences into forgetting culture wars?

    Expert on Disney: Can ‘Little Mermaid’ enchant audiences into forgetting culture wars?

    Tulane University professor Peter Kunze, an expert on Disney’s history and societal impact, is available to speak to media on all things House of Mouse, from the feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to the cultural weight Disney’s casting decisions carry as it revamps old films for new audiences. 

    With Disney’s latest live action feature “The Little Mermaid” set to hit theaters May 26, Kunze said any lingering complaints about the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel fail to consider that the film has always included African-Caribbean influences. 

    “’The Little Mermaid’ has always used Black musical styles like calypso and other Caribbean influences in songs like ‘Under the Sea’ and ‘Kiss the Girl,’” Kunze said. “This movie doubles down on that and creates space for inclusion.”

    As Disney continues to remake its animated features as live action movies, some have called for the media and entertainment company to be even more progressive. The planned live action remake of “Lilo & Stitch” was criticized for casting lighter-skinned actors, and actor Peter Dinklage took aim at Disney’s announcement of a planned remake of “Snow White and The Seven Dwarves.”

    Kunze said Disney tries to walk a fine line to avoid controversy.

    “They’re not trying to be progressive, and they’re not trying to be conservative,” Kunze said. “They’re trying to work the middle. The problem is, as our society becomes more and more polarized through a range of factors, the middle is going to draw the ire of the left and the right.”

    Kunze said the irony of Disney coming under fire now by the “anti-woke” crowd is that the modern Disney renaissance was catalyzed by Howard Ashman, a theater talent and gay man whose vision, songs and casting decisions helped “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast” cement Disney as an animated musical powerhouse in the 1990s.

    “This is the point where Disney went from being a theme park company to being a major media conglomerate,” Kunze said. “And a lot of these individuals who have been written out of the story of the Disney Renaissance, at least by the company, were gay.”

    Kunze discusses this and more in his new book “Staging a Comeback: Broadway, Hollywood, and the Disney Renaissance,” due out in September.

    Tulane University

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  • Immigration experts on Title 42, analysis of immigration policies, and other migrant news in the Immigration Channel

    Immigration experts on Title 42, analysis of immigration policies, and other migrant news in the Immigration Channel

    Title 42, the United States pandemic rule that had been used to immediately deport hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed the border illegally over the last three years, has expired. Those migrants will have the opportunity to apply for asylum. President Biden’s new rules to replace Title 42 are facing legal challenges. The US Homeland Security Department announced a rule to make it extremely difficult for anyone who travels through another country, like Mexico, to qualify for asylum. Border crossings have already risen sharply, as many migrants attempted to cross before the measure expired on Thursday night. Some have said they worry about tighter controls and uncertainty ahead. Immigration is once again a major focus of the media as we examine the humanitarian, political, and public health issues migrants must face. 

    Below are some of the latest headlines in the Immigration channel on Newswise.

    Expert Commentary

    Experts Available on Ending of Title 42

    George Washington University Experts on End of Title 42

    ‘No one wins when immigrants cannot readily access healthcare’

    URI professor discusses worsening child labor in the United States

    Biden ‘between a rock and a hard place’ on immigration

    University of Notre Dame Expert Available to Comment on House Bill Regarding Immigration Legislation, Border Safety and Security Act

    American University Experts Available to Discuss President Biden’s Visit to U.S.-Mexico Border

    Title 42 termination ‘overdue’, not ‘effective’ to manage migration

    Research and Features

    Study: Survey Methodology Should Be Calibrated to Account for Negative Attitudes About Immigrants and Asylum-Seekers

    A study analyses racial discrimination in job recruitment in Europe

    DACA has not had a negative impact on the U.S. job market

    ASBMB cautions against drastic immigration fee increases

    Study compares NGO communication around migration

    Collaboration, support structures needed to address ‘polycrisis’ in the Americas

    TTUHSC El Paso Faculty Teach Students While Caring for Migrants

    Immigrants Report Declining Alcohol Use during First Two Years after Arriving in U.S.

    How asylum seeker credibility is assessed by authorities

    Speeding up and simplifying immigration claims urgently needed to help with dire situation for migrants experiencing homelessness

    Training Individuals to Work in their Communities to Reduce Health Disparities

    ‘Regulation by reputation’: Rating program can help combat migrant abuse in the Gulf

    Migration of academics: Economic development does not necessarily lead to brain drain

    How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected immigration?

    Immigrants with Darker Skin Tones Perceive More Discrimination

     

    Newswise

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  • Blood bank director welcomes FDA blood donation change that will affect members of LGBTQ community

    Blood bank director welcomes FDA blood donation change that will affect members of LGBTQ community

    The announcement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that it has finalized risk-based guidelines for blood donation related to sexual activity is being welcomed by the longtime director of the Blood Bank at Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical center. 

    “The FDA guidance on individualized risk assessment of blood donors is an important step forward in assuring availability of blood for our patients while maintaining the highest level of safety,” said Robertson Davenport, M.D., director of transfusion medicine and professor of pathology. 

    “The FDA is making changes to how blood donors are screened based on high quality scientific evidence. Since the first implementation of indefinite deferral of men who have sex with men (MSM) there have been great strides made in donor testing and in the understanding of epidemiology of HIV. We now know that there are many MSM who are very low risk. Alternatively, we know that there are other donors who are at increased risk of HIV who were no covered under the previous deferral, such as heterosexuals with a new sexual partner and those who engage is certain sexual activities. The new individualized risk assessment more clearly focuses on potential donor who are at risk and allow for donation by low risk individuals regardless of sexual orientation. This is an important step forward in increasing blood donations.”

    Learn more about the Michigan Medicine Blood Bank, which recently moved to a new state-of-the-art space in University Hospital. 

    Davenport encourages all would-be blood donors who previously had been ineligible to donate under the former guidelines to monitor sites such as the American Red Cross page for the LGBTQ community for updates on when they may begin donating under the new guidelines.

    Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan

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  • Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill Imperils HIV Fight

    Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill Imperils HIV Fight

    Newswise — [KAMPALA] Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill, if signed into law, could lead to the withdrawal of foreign aid and threaten goals to end HIV/AIDS by 2030, advocates warn.

    Uganda’s parliament passed the revised Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), which criminalises homosexual conduct, with minimal amendments this week (2 May).

    The legislation was first passed at the end of March but revised in April after President Yoweri Museveni returned it to parliament for amendments.

    “If it becomes law, it will increase stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ people and men who have sex with men, further limiting prevention and treatment services.” – Richard Lusimbo, director-general, Uganda Key Populations Consortium

    The bill includes a punishment of life imprisonment for same-sex sexual conduct and up to ten years behind bars for attempted same-sex sexual acts. It also imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and criminalises the “promotion” of homosexuality, which many people fear will encourage homophobia.

    UNAIDS had warned that passing the bill into law would jeopardise progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS and undermine fundamental human rights including the right to health and the right to life. 

    “Uganda’s new Anti-Homosexuality bill is an outrage,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS.

    “Access to timely and quality health care is a human right – sexual orientation should not determine one’s rights.”

    Anne Githuku-Shongwe, director of the UNAIDS support team for eastern and southern Africa, said Uganda had made “excellent progress” in tackling the AIDS pandemic. “This new bill, if passed into law, would undercut that progress,” she warned.

    Human rights ‘disaster’

    According to a study published in The Lancet, HIV prevalence is significantly higher among men who have sex with men (MSM) and in African countries with laws that criminalise same sex relationships.

    “If it becomes law, it will increase stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer] people and men who have sex with men, further limiting prevention and treatment services,” said Richard Lusimbo, director-general of Uganda Key Populations Consortium, a human rights organisation.

    Lusimbo explained that the bill, if passed into law, would be a disaster to the human rights of LGBTQ people, to public health and the fight against HIV/AIDS.

    The US government has threatened to withdraw funding for Uganda through its President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) if the law is passed.

    “At this time, we are reviewing the possibility that the AHA, if signed, might prevent us from providing lifesaving prevention, care and treatment services equitably to all Ugandans receiving PEPFAR support,” said a US State Department spokesperson.

    PEPFAR’s annual HIV/AIDS response investment in Uganda is about US$400 million.

    Despite the pressure from the US and other governments, there is speculation that President Museveni will most likely sign the bill into law. However, the power of ascension of a bill does not lay primarily with the president.

    The Ugandan parliament can also pass the bill into law if the president does not assent to or veto a bill after it is passed by parliament within 30 days or if the bill is returned to parliament twice.

    In his speech on April 22, at conference themed ‘Protecting African culture and family values’, President Museveni thanked members of the Ugandan parliament for passing the bill.

    “It is good that you rejected the pressure from the imperialists,” he said, reflecting his support for what has been described by activists and advocates as a draconian law.

    The bill is setting the pace for other African nations as countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and others indicate readiness to introduce similar bills in solidarity with Uganda.

    Charles Brown, executive director of Preventive Care International (PCI), a Ugandan non-governmental organisation that focuses on HIV, says the bill is harsh and not well thought through. He fears it will further entrench inaccessibility of health services for people in same sex relationships.

    “Already, the landlady of one of my offices in western Uganda called me saying that she was told that our organisation promotes homosexuality and she is scared of being arrested,” Brown told SciDev.Net, fearing eviction.

    “We hope that the president doesn’t sign it into law,” he added.

    This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.

    SciDev.Net

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