The special issues around dating that arise for queer teens, and the personal and professional resources that they can turn to for support (from OutCasting Overtime).
Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict shared more than the study of world cultures (from The Rainbow Minute).
U.S. political crisis features queer foes and justice fighters, Cayman Islands grants gay spousal residency status, NHS agency challenges U.K. trans treatment ruling, there’s a gay “first” in Greece and two trans “firsts” in India, “Global Citizen” Elton John gets another honor, and more international LGBTQ news!
Complete Program Summary and NewsWrap Transcript for the week of January 11, 2021
Queer Teen Dating & Mead Mating!
Program #1,711 distributed 11/23/20
Hosted this week by Greg Gordon and produced with Lucia ChappelleNewsWrap (full transcript below): Queer-supportive Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win both run-offs in Georgia to become the state’s first Black and first Jewish U.S. Senators, giving Democrats control of that chamber for the first time since 2008 — but that news is overshadowed by the Trump-incited siege on the U.S. Capitol by his rabid supporters … anti-trans Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is among the Cabinet “rats” and other Trump officials jumping ship … more than two dozen LGBTQ advocacy groups call for Trump’s immediate removal from office … a Cayman Islands Immigration Tribunal orders the legal recognition there, for the first time, of a gay couple legally wed in Ireland … the U.K. National Health Service’s only clinic treating transgender youth appeals December’s High Court ruling denying trans teens puberty blockers and subsequent hormone treatment because the Justices think that trans kids under the age of 18 can’t give “informed consent” … Greece has its first “out” Cabinet minister in Nicholas Yatromanolakis … India has its first two trans-women elected to local village councils: Devika Akka and Sudha … and Sir Elton John wins yet another accolade – this time it’s the Global Citizen Artist of the Year Award [with a brief excerpt from his acceptance speech] (written by GREG GORDON, edited by LUCIA CHAPPELLE, reported this week by TANYA KANE-PARRY and JOHN DYER V, produced by BRIAN DESHAZOR).
Feature: Two TWO-combined Rainbow Minutes celebrate A Stamp For Margaret Mead and A Commemorative Stamp For Ruth Benedict (read by SODA NOBUHLE, produced by JUDD PROCTOR and BRIAN BURNS, with intro music from My Conviction by JOEY DONOVAN from the musical Hair).
Feature: There are more ways for young LGBTQ people to get support for dealing with the normal woes of teenage life — the problem is that many don’t know it. OutCasting Overtime’s VIVIAN has the team’s suggestions from their own experiences (produced by MARC SOPHOS, with intro music from Young Love by TAB HUNTER).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting global LGBTQ communities
for the three weeks ending January 9th, 2021
Written by Greg Gordon, edited by Lucia Chappelle,reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and John Dyer Vproduced by Brian DeShazor(brief Trump incitement and Capitol riot sounds, faded out under:]
The seditious pro-Trump riot that stormed the U.S. Capitol and the Georgia run-off elections that shifted power in Congress showed the clash of realities in the nation’s politics. Just the night before the January 6th insurrection bent on overturning the results of the presidential election, Georgia Democrats Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won seats in the U.S. Senate. Warnock pastors Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s old post. He and Ossoff become the state’s first Black and first Jewish U.S. Senators. They each defeated Trump-supporting Republican incumbents, and are both queer-supportive.
Democrats now control the U.S. Senate for the first time since 2008. It means that anti-queer Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will be replaced by pro-equality Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York.
President-elect Joe Biden has already signaled that he’ll reverse all of the anti-LGBTQ policies and statutes of the Trump administration.
With his support and a narrow Democratic majority in the House, prospects for the enactment of pro-queer legislation have skyrocketed.
The Capitol siege incited by the outgoing president was finally the end for some Trump loyalists, including South Carolina’s “confirmed bachelor” Senator Lindsay Graham. His defection earned him a verbal assault from Trump minions at a D.C. airport.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos led a number of Trump appointees jumping the sinking ship. DeVos was famously unqualified for the position, and will be remembered for her vehement opposition to the rights of transgender students. The American Federation of Teachers said of her departure simply, “Good riddance.”
Mitch McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao resigned as Trump’s Transportation Secretary. Gay ex-presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has been nominated for that post in the Biden administration.
Trump’s openly gay Acting Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Tyler Goodspeed is also getting out. His appointment in July was trumpeted by the LGBTQ Log Cabin Republicans, but there’s been no peep from the group since the coup attempt at the Capitol.
At least nine members of the Trump administration and several national security officials have tendered their resignations as of January 8th.
LGBTQ groups are among the chorus of voices demanding Trump’s immediate removal from office, if he refuses to resign. Under the 25th Amendment, the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet can remove an unfit or unable president – which may be the real reason Cabinet members are escaping. Failing that action, the U.S. House of Representatives can initiate a second impeachment trial.
More than 25 queer rights groups signed onto a letter issued by the media advocacy group GLAAD that says, “As LGBTQ organizations and movement leaders, we call for the immediate and unequivocal removal of Donald Trump as president of the United States via the invoking of the 25th Amendment or by impeachment if necessary. … [W]e cannot afford to sustain even another day with this destructive and seditious man in the White House.”
Gay Congressmen David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Mondaire Jones of New York are helping to write a new single-issue Article of Impeachment charging Trump with inciting the breach of the U.S. Capitol. To date, out Wisconsin Representative Mark Pocan has also voiced support for impeachment.
In other news, a gay Cayman Islander has been granted permanent residency status for the man he legally married in Ireland. The Immigration Appeals Tribunal overruled a Caymanian Status and Permanent Residency Board decision on the application for a “spouse of permanent residency holder” to Randall Pinder, the husband of Caymans citizen Paul Pearson.
The Caymans Marriage Act defines marriage as between a man and a woman. However according to the Caymans Compass newspaper, the Tribunal said in late December that the law relates only to ceremonies within the islands.
As long as a couple is legally married according to the laws of the country in which the ceremony was performed, they are entitled to have that union recognized in the Caymans, the Tribunal decided.
According to the Compass, the Tribunal allowed a gay man to be added to his male spouse’s work permit as a dependent in 2017, but this is believed to be the first case involving a permanent residence application.
The legal status of same-gender couples has been intensely debated in the British Overseas Territory for several years. An unequivocal ban on marriage equality was struck down by the Cayman Islands Grand Court in 2019, but that rejection was overturned by the Court of Appeal a few months later. A less-than-marriage Civil Partnership Law for same-gender couples took effect in September.
December’s British High Court decision to deny puberty blockers to trans kids under the age of 16 is being challenged. As expected, the only National Health Service agency that operates a gender identity clinic for transgender children has appealed the ruling.
The ruling forced the London-based Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust to stop endocrinology referrals.
In the High Court’s view, most teens would be incapable of giving informed consent. It claimed that it is “doubtful” that 14- or 15-year-olds could understand “the long-term risks and consequences” of taking blockers and subsequent hormone therapy, and “highly unlikely” that even younger children could.
A late-December media statement by the clinic announcing the appeal assures its patients that they “will continue to receive their medication until the outcome of this application to the court is known.” However the thousands on years-long waiting lists and new patients who have yet to be referred for treatment will not be able to access those medications until then. Clinical reviews of current patients will be conducted “to make sure they fully understand” their treatments.
In Greece, a major queer first came out of a minor Cabinet reshuffle by center-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Openly gay forty-four-year-old Nicholas Yatromanolakis was named Deputy Minister of Culture on January 4th. The Athens native studied political science and international relations as an undergraduate, and got his Master’s in public policy from Harvard. He’s been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ equality, for protecting the mental and physical health of children, and for the social inclusion of marginalized communities. His rescue dog and ginger cat are Instagram celebrities thanks to their proud “papa.”
Two transgender women were elected to local offices in India on December 30th — the first trans women in the country to accomplish that. Devika Akka was elected to the local government in the village of Saligrama. A trans woman known as Sudha won election in Kallahalli by more than 400 votes out of about a thousand votes cast.
Forty-six-year-old Devika told local media that, “Now that [voters] have placed their confidence in me, I will strive to live up to their expectations.”
Finally, iconic pop star Sir Elton John has won yet another accolade. The international advocacy group Global Citizen named the outstanding queer philanthropist its Global Citizen Artist of the Year for the ongoing work of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The award honors “a creative individual or group using their platform to create change through not only conversation but also meaningful impact.”
A star-studded late December online event was hosted by activist-entertainer John Legend, who also provided a musical performance. Carrie Underwood, Common, and Gwen Stefani also performed, and presenters included Miley Cyrus, Oprah Winfrey, John Oliver, Katie Couric, and Usher.
Sir Elton confessed during his acceptance speech his feeling that “I didn’t really do enough as a gay man – I should have been there with ACT UP … I should have been much more political than I was.”
He’s more than made up for that since the early 1990’s, but he spoke more of the future than the past:
[sound/ELTON:] “I’m so grateful that people know about the Elton John AIDS Foundation and consider it a wonderful organization to contribute to and to work with. But for me, it reminds me of all the work yet to do. We’ve got our foot on the accelerator, we cannot take it off. … Thank you very much from a 73-year-old man, who still wants to work tirelessly for this, but I need you young people with me. Young people are the future of the world. We want the young people to pass the message on. And if I’ve got you by my side, then I think we can beat this.”
© 2021 Overnight Productions (Inc.)
© 2021 Overnight Productions (Inc.)
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