U.S. President Joe Biden’s Pride Party touches a broad range of hot-button LGBTQ+ issues.
Bonnie J. Morris carries the ball for generations of female athletes in “What’s The Score: 25 Years of Teaching Women’s Sports History.”
And in NewsWrap: Tel Aviv hosts Israel’s happiest Pride, Karlsruhe Pride-goers beaten in fiery assault, Maryland homes consumed by rainbow flag-burners, white supremacists target northern Idaho Pride picnic, U.S. rightwing expands war on Drag Queen Story Hour, rainbow erasure sweeps the Middle East, Disney kisses off "Lightyear" censors, and more international LGBTQ news!
Complete Program Summary and NewsWrap Transcript
for the week of June 18, 2022
Biden’s Pride & “What’s The Score”
Program #1,786 distributed 06/20/22
Hosted this week Greg Gordon and produced with Lucia Chappelle
NewsWrap (full transcript below): Some 170,000 celebrants march in or watch another peaceful LGBTQ Pride Parade in Tel Aviv … violent thugs attack Pride paraders in the German city of Karlsruhe, and organizers question the underwhelming police response … four houses burn in a Baltimore, Maryland suburb and three are hospitalized after vandals burn Pride flags and related decorations at two homes across the street from each other [with comments by neighbors captured by local TV station WJZ] … a citizen’s tip leads police to arrest 31 white supremacists bent on rioting at a Pride Picnic in the Park in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho … Pride month Drag Queen Story Hours face escalating threats around the U.S., including in the San Francisco Bay area and in Moline, Illinois … the Republican-dominated Michigan state Senate rejects a routine LGBTQ Pride Month Resolution that they had approved — word for word - in 2021 [with floor comments by Michigan’s only proudly out state Senator Jeremy Moss] … the Horry County, South Carolina Council unanimously rescinds a Pride Month resolution that it had unanimously passed in May, apparently ignorant of its connection to LGBTQ rights … the Lincoln, Nebraska City Council rescinds an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity that they’d passed unanimously in February after a local religious right group threatens to petition the issue onto the November ballot … Kuwait’s government criticizes social media posts by staff at the U.S. Embassy celebrating Pride Month … Saudi Arabia bans the rainbow on toys, clothing, and other children’s item as “un-Islamic” and a “promotion of homosexuality,” similar to what Qatar did in December, while its government is now warning visitors and competitors coming to the World Cup they’re hosting later this year not to display “provocative” rainbow attire … and filmgoers in at least 14 countries won’t be able to see Lightyear, the latest installment in Disney/Pixar’s animated Toy Story franchise, after the studio refuses to cut a loving kiss between a major supporting character, Hawthorne, and her wife (written by GREG GORDON, edited by LUCIA CHAPPELLE,
reported this week by WENDY NATIVIDAD and MICHAEL LEBEAU, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR).
Feature: U.S. President Joe Biden brought Pride back with a vengeance against the torrent of anti-LGB and especially T laws sweeping the country. At the reinstated White House Pride Month Reception on June 15th, Biden signed an Executive Order covering gender-affirming services for youth, mental and reproductive healthcare, inclusive school curricula, housing, senior issues, and conversion therapy and data collection. He pledged his on-going commitment to advancing equality.
Feature: Recent political attacks against trans athletes are bringing heightened media coverage to all women athletes — but then, issues around women in sports have been debated for centuries. This Way Out’s BRIAN DESHAZOR talks with Bonnie J. Morris, the author of What’s The Score: 25 Years Of Teaching Women’s Sports History, a new book that puts the past and the present into perspective (with intro and incidental music by KETSA).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending June 18, 2022
Written by Greg Gordon, edited by Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Wendy Natividad and Michael LeBeau,
produced by Brian DeShazor
“‘Tis the season to be prideful”: close to 170,000 people paraded with LGBTQ Pride on June 10th in Tel Aviv. This year’s crowd in Israel’s most welcoming seaside city was substantially larger than last year’s estimated 100,000. COVID cancelled 2020 celebrations.
Brief remarks by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and Israeli Social Equality Minister Meirav Cohen kicked off the festivities. Several other government officials and politicians participated. U.S. Ambassador Thomas Nides and a delegation from the embassy were among the international dignitaries in the procession.
The mood in Tel Aviv was considerably more relaxed and festive than it was at Jerusalem’s march a week earlier. Participants there have been routinely threatened, and violent assaults have occurred.
More than two-dozen men assaulted a Pride parade in the German city of Karlsruhe on June 4th. They surrounded and beat a woman carrying a rainbow flag, which they set on fire. Several other marchers were attacked, and at least one required hospitalization.
Organizers are complaining about a failure of police response.
German journalist Amelia Brandt saw it all. She tweeted, “Despite a police presence of at least ten vans, only nine police officers got out and took care of those affected.” Brandt also says she witnessed some emergency service providers treating the injured with anti-queer rhetoric.
Officials issued a statement on June 6th to say that they are investigating the allegations of police malfeasance. None of the attackers have been arrested.
Karlsruhe is located in Germany’s northeast, and is home to more than 300,000 people.
In the U.S. state of Maryland:
[SOUND: Neighbor #1] “I went from being extremely sad to being extremely angry.”
[SOUND: Neighbor #2] “You know, people are just trying to live their lives and this is a place where most people are comfortable.”
[SOUND: Neighbor #3] “Hate has been unleashed in this country, and people have been emboldened to act on their hate.”
Neighbors in the welcomimg Baltimore suburb of Abell are horrified at the loss of four homes to a fire thought to have been started by a Pride flag burning. Their dismay was captured by local TV station WJZ after vandals ignited a flag and other rainbow decorations adorning at least 2 homes on opposite sides of the street. Three residents were hospitalized. At last report one is in serious condition, and two are in critical condition.
Police officials have yet to declare these to be hate crimes. They will only say that they are investigating a case of “malicious burning.” Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are reportedly assisting in the investigation.
[SOUND: Neighbor #2] “For God's sake, leave people alone. Just leave people alone. You don't know how many people have been affected by this.”
Thirty-one white supremacists arrested near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on June 11th did not go there to leave people alone. They planned to attack a local LGBTQ Pride picnic.
They’re all members of the Patriot Front, an offshoot of the deadly 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A suspicious local resident who “saw something and said something” was the real hero of the story. They noticed a group of masked men in blue shirts, khakis and baseball caps carrying shields piling into a large van. The 911 caller told police the men “looked like a little army.”
According to police officials, the arrested faux soldiers came from Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and only one actually from Idaho. Each man is charged with conspiracy to riot.
Organizers from the North Idaho Pride Alliance were relieved. They told local TV station KXLY that their annual Pride in the Park event was the largest in its six-year history.
Pride Month attacks on Drag Queen Story Hour are escalating. When bedazzled drag queens read life-affirming children’s books to young kids and their parents, ignorant critics have taken to equating the events with sex shows and strip clubs.
Such absurdity led at least five men identified as members of the neo-Nazi Proud Boys to storm the San Francisco-area San Lorenzo Library this week. Hurling homo- and trans-phobic bile, they shouted “groomer” at Drag Queen Story Hour host Kyle Chu, who was reading in drag as Panda Dulce, dressed in a San Francisco Giants baseball outfit. Dulce recalls one of the menacing invaders wearing a T-shirt that said, “Kill Your Local Pedophile” under the image of an assault rifle. The aggressive disruption left the pre-school kids and their parents fearing for their safety.
Alameda County Sheriffs were able to diffuse the June 11th confrontation. Lt. Ray Kelly told reporters that the incident was being investigated as a hate crime, and that the men could face criminal charges for the “annoying and harassing of children.”
Meanwhile a Drag Queen Story Hour Youth Drag Workshop scheduled for June 18th in Moline, Illinois is cancelled. The sponsoring non-profit Clock Inc. deemed the persistent email threats against organizers, participants, and hosting venue Bass Street Landing to be “too substantial.” They could not guarantee the safety of the young attendees.
In other Pride-related news, the Republican-controlled Michigan state Senate on June 14th defeated a resolution declaring June LGBTQ Pride Month -- exactly the same resolution they approved last year. Three Republicans and all the chamber’s Democrats voted in the minority.
Democrat Jeremy Moss is the state’s only out gay Senator. He chastised his Republican colleagues:
[SOUND: Moss] "It's an election year and you choose to exploit divisiveness and discard this resolution. They call people groomers only in 2022, but it doesn't solve your problems. They push don't say gay only in 2022. But it doesn't solve your problems. They protest drag queens only in 2022. But it doesn't solve your problems. They prey on people's fears, but it doesn't solve your problems. We instead choose inclusion. We choose love. We choose respect. We choose human dignity. We choose pride."
The Horry County, South Carolina Council has unanimously rescinded a Pride proclamation they say they had “accidentally” unanimously passed in May. Councilmember Johnny Vaughn told CNN that the resolution “just said Pride Month.” The fact that it was in support of their LGBTQ citizens had escaped them. Their June 7th vote to rescind was in response to a torrent of email criticism from locals who knew what “Pride” meant.
Horry County includes the notoriously conservative cities of Conway and Myrtle Beach.
The Lincoln, Nebraska City Council “observed” Pride Month on June 13th by rescinding an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The measure had passed unanimously just four months ago.
The vote was close: four to rescind the ordinance, and three to maintain it. The majority bowed to a local petition circulated by the Nebraska Family Alliance threatening to put the issue on the November ballot.
The war on the rainbow is escalating in the Middle East. Kuwait summoned Ambassador James Holtsnider earlier this month to complain about the U.S. Embassy’s celebration of Pride Month in queer-supportive social media posts.
Saudi Arabian authorities this week began seizing and banning the sale of rainbow-colored toys, children’s clothing, hair clips, bows, hats and pencil cases. An official claimed that they “encourage homosexuality” and “contradict the Islamic faith and public morals.”
Qatar mounted a similar rainbow confiscation campaign during the holiday season last December. Officials there are now warning fans and competitors coming to the World Cup later this year against any displays of the rainbow flag as a queer rights “provocation.” Major General Abdulaziz Al Ansari says it’s for their own safety.
Finally, filmgoers in Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and almost a dozen other countries won’t be able to see the latest installment of Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story franchise, Lightyear. Why? Disney officials are refusing to cut a kiss between major supporting character Hawthorn and her wife. Producer Galyn Susman said at the movie’s red-carpet premiere in London, “something as important as the loving and inspirational relationship that shows Buzz what he’s missing by the choices that he’s making … that’s not getting cut.”
The animated film is also likely to be banned in China, according to “Reuters.”
Actor Chris Evans is the voice of “Buzz Lightyear” in the Toy Story prequel. He told Variety that he’s “honored” to be part of a film that “embraces the growth that makes us human,” and called social media trolls and other homophobic critics “dinosaurs.” Evans told Reuters, “The real truth is, those people are idiots.”
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