Tag: LGBTQ

Categories
Politics

L.G.B.T.Q. Elected Officers in U.S. Quantity Practically 1,000, Rising Quick

L.G.B.T.Q. Elected Officials in U.S. Number Nearly 1,000, Rising Fast

The number of elected gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender officials has continued to rise, growing by about 17 percent last year to nearly 1,000 nationwide – more than double what it was four years ago, according to a new annual report.

Their ranks now include two governors, two U.S. senators, nine congressmen, 189 lawmakers, and 56 mayors, according to the report from the LGBTQ Victory Institute, which trains candidates for public office. In total, the group identified 986 elected LGBTQ officials.

“There are more LGBTQ people who take the plunge and choose to run for office,” said Annise Parker, president and chief executive officer of the institute. The 2010-2016 Mayoress of Houston, Ms. Parker, was one of the first openly gay mayors of a major American city.

This is the fifth year the institute has polled the nation, and the total representation of LGBTQ in elected offices has risen to 986 today, from 843 in 2020, 698 in 2019 and 448 in 2017, out of roughly half a million electoral positions .

Of all racial groups, elected Black LGBTQ officials grew the fastest over the past year, with a 75 percent increase in representation, the report said. The number of elected LGBTQ officials from various races rose 40 percent.

The institute prosecutes federal officials, state-wide civil servants, state legislators as well as local and judicial officials. Every state except Mississippi now has at least one elected incumbent who identifies as LGBTQ, the report said.

Ms. Parker said LGBTQ candidates could win across America now, citing Mauree Turner, who was elected to the state MP in Oklahoma last year and is black, Muslim and non-binary.

“The right candidate with the right message can be chosen anywhere,” said Ms. Parker. However, she said bias and discrimination continue to be of concern, especially against transgender candidates.

The partisan divide is one-sided: 73 percent of LGBTQ officials are Democrats and less than 3 percent are Republicans, according to the institute.

“There are more trans-elected officials than Republican elected officials,” Ms. Parker said.

She said former President Donald J. Trump was “probably the best Democratic recruiter you can have,” suggesting that general anti-Trump Democratic zeal fueled the rise in LGBTQ candidates win the office.

As of 2021, there will be at least one elected transgender officer in 23 states, according to the report. The surge in transgender representation last year came entirely from elected transgender women, who grew 71 percent from 21 to 36; there was no growth in the number of transgender men, which remained constant at five.

Ms. Parker said a key goal is to “fill the pipeline” of LGBTQ candidates from local to high office so that there is “a pool of potential presidential candidates from our community” in the future.

She praised Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who ran for president in 2020 and is now federal minister of transportation. But she said she hoped LGBTQ officials would continue to climb the ranks to become governors and senators – traditionally more realistic launch pads for a White House run than small town mayor’s office.

For the time being, however, town halls will remain one of the few political arenas in which LGBTQ officials are fairly represented by six mayors among the top 100 cities based on their proportion of the population. The most prominent is Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago.

Despite the rapid growth, the institute estimates that LGBTQ individuals still make up 0.19 percent of the country’s elected officials, compared to an estimated 5.6 percent of the population.

Categories
Entertainment

David Archuleta Comes Out as A part of the LGBTQ+ Group

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 01: Musician David Archuleta attends the 88th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade on December 01, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Michael Tullberg / Getty Images)

David Archuleta speaks about his sexuality during Pride Month. On June 12, the former american idol The candidate wrote a personal note to his social media followers about his experiences as a queer person who grew up in a conservative religion. “I like to stay to myself, but I also thought it was important to share this because I know so many other people with religious upbringing feel the same way,” he wrote. “I have been open to myself and my close family for a number of years because I am not sure of my own sexuality.

“I came out gay to my family in 2014. But then I had similar feelings for both genders, so maybe a spectrum of bisexuals,” he continued. “Then I also learned that I don’t have as many sexual desires and urges as most people, which works, I think, because I’ve made a commitment to save myself until I get married. What people call asexual when they have no sexual urges. ”

David is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a church that discourages its members from promoting same-sex marriages. The singer said he felt compelled to talk about his own experiences because there might be others like him “fighting for their beliefs” – and he asked followers to be “more understanding and compassionate” towards these LGBTQ + “believers” be. He said, “I don’t think it should come down to accepting one or the other. To find peace, I had to accept that both are real things that I experience and make who I am. ”

David said he stepped out of his comfort zone to share his story, to “bring more awareness to people in my same situation,” to let them know, “you are not alone”. He added, “You can be part of the LGBTQIA + community and still believe in God and His gospel plan.” Read David’s full caption below.

🙏❤️ share my thoughts pic.twitter.com/NELz0Ufc10

– David Archuleta (@DavidArchie) June 12, 2021

Categories
Health

In Covid-19 Vaccine Information, LGBTQ Folks Worry Invisibility

In Covid-19 Vaccine Data, LGBTQ People Fear Invisibility

Even if some people are reluctant to reveal such data, research shows that clinicians overestimate how many patients would refuse to self-report. A 2017 study found that around 80 percent of doctors felt that patients would be reluctant to provide this data, but only 10 percent of patients said they would refuse to do so.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also stated that it should be optional for patients to report their gender identity. The ability to report yourself is key, according to proponents. “It’s important that people identify like any other demographic,” said Chris Grasso, vice president of information technology and data services at the Fenway Institute. “We want to normalize data collection – just like we ask people questions about their age, race, or ethnicity.”

LGBTQ advocates have been raising alarm bells throughout the pandemic, writing letters to health organizations and the new government, and asking authorities to report on coronavirus testing, care outcomes and vaccine intake in their communities.

Some states and jurisdictions have started moving forward: Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC are collecting and reporting some of this data in their Covid-19 monitoring systems. And in September, the Governor of California signed a bill requiring healthcare providers to collect the data for all communicable diseases.

But it wasn’t until March that the California Department of Health hadn’t released its sexual orientation and gender identity statistics. And other officials raising concerns from those trying to keep their sexuality private have expressed concern about the gathering of this information. For example, Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who is gay, said in a discussion with other elected officials in April 2020, “There are a lot of people in Colorado who don’t want this information out there.”

Despite the lack of data, the CDC notes that LGBTQ people may have more severe Covid-19 results than heterosexual people, in part due to a higher prevalence of pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma, cancer, obesity and smoking .

Categories
Health

Some LGBTQ Folks Are Saying ‘No Thanks’ to the Covid Vaccine

Some LGBTQ People Are Saying 'No Thanks' to the Covid Vaccine

To date, around 54 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, of which nearly 28 million have been fully vaccinated. At Callen-Lorde and other medical centers that treat many LGBTQ patients, health care workers have reported higher demand for the vaccine in white patients than in those with skin color.

According to a study by the Williams Institute published in February, LGBT people of color were twice as likely to test positive for Covid-19 as non-LGBT white people. Although blacks are at higher risk of contracting the disease, experts say that this population is particularly concerned about the vaccine. In a study published this month in Vaccines magazine, 1,350 men and transgender women who were predominantly identified as gay or bisexual reported the likelihood of receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. The black participants expressed significantly more vaccine reluctance than their white counterparts, according to the study.

Healthcare workers face the same resistance from their patients. “Some people just said literally, ‘Well, no – Trump was involved in getting this vaccine going, so I’m not going to get the vaccine,” said Jill Crank, a nurse at Johns Hopkins Community Physicians in Baltimore.

Studies show that all population groups, including those in the medical profession, have concerns about the Covid vaccine. According to a survey published in December by KFF (formerly Kaiser Family Foundation), about three in ten healthcare workers are reluctant to get the vaccine, compared to about a quarter of the general population.

Dezjorn Gauthier, 29, a black transgender man who lives about 20 minutes from Milwaukee, said that while he can’t get the vaccine, he doesn’t want it.

“It’s a no-go at the moment,” said Gauthier, a model and business owner who has Covid-19 antibodies because he contracted the coronavirus last year. The vaccine has been developing “so fast and so fast that I am just a little hesitant,” he said, adding that he was also unsure of the vaccine’s ingredients. “There is a fear in the church.”

Updated

March 5, 2021, 2:50 p.m. ET

For members of the LGBTQ community, and especially for people of color, the hesitation is partly due to the already existing distrust of the medical facility, according to the experts.

Categories
Entertainment

New Star of ‘The Promenade’ Sees a Probability to Make L.G.B.T.Q. Characters Seen

New Star of ‘The Prom’ Sees a Chance to Make L.G.B.T.Q. Characters Visible

During her second day on a movie set, Jo Ellen Pellman ran into an angry Meryl Streep.

“You owe me a house!” Streep, a three-time Oscar winner, growled with twinkling eyes as she removed her blazer and pounced on 24-year-old Ingénue.

Pellman’s eyes widened. “I am sorry!” she said and raised her hand apologetically.

“And cut!”

Pellman played Emma Nolan, a schoolgirl in a narrow-minded Indiana town who wants to take her friend to prom in the Netflix adaptation of the musical “The Prom”. Like Emma, ​​Pellman is a Midwestern who identifies as queer. But unlike her character, the young actress grew up in a supportive environment that influenced her view of the movie’s potential.

“For young people who identify as LGBTQ, I hope it can be a two-hour break from everything that’s happening in the world,” she said. “Like, ‘It’ll be fine, my people are out there.'”

Even so, this is her first film role, it happens to be the lead role, and her co-stars – including Streep, James Corden, and Nicole Kidman as Narcissistic Broadway actors who parachute in to help their character – are names among those she looked up for a long time.

Pellman projected full confidence in the stars’ presence, said Ryan Murphy, the film’s director. “She wasn’t afraid,” although her experience until then consisted of roles like Girl # 2 in an episode of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”.

Meanwhile, Murphy, whose credits include American Horror Story and Pose, said, “I was so nervous when I first directed Meryl Streep – I think I did four takes. I was trembling. “

Pellman said she was barely immune to Streep’s stellar power. “I love how it came across,” she said, grinning from home in Cincinnati, where she has lived with her mother since March, during a Zoom interview last month. “Inside I was like ‘OMG, this is Meryl Streep!'”

It took Murphy a single meeting to decide Pellman was his Emma.

“I saw your tape and I knew it,” he said. “She had this mixture of soul and sperm and mind – and that amazing smile.”

Pellman, a graduate of the University of Michigan, was working three jobs opening calls in New York City upon hearing of the nationwide search for the role. “It felt like a long shot,” she said. But Pellman, a strange woman herself, felt Emma’s optimism and determination when she saw the play on Broadway starring Caitlin Kinnunen.

She didn’t know until shortly before meeting Murphy that Ariana DeBose, who plays Emma’s friend Alyssa Green, would be the only other actress there. “I saw Ariana’s name on the call sheet and I freaked out because she’s someone I’ve looked up to throughout my career,” she said.

But Murphy said when Pellman was nervous, she wouldn’t let up. “As soon as Jo Ellen started talking about her life, she didn’t even have to read,” he said. “She spoke very movingly about being a strange woman and having a gay single mother to raise her. I remember she left and I just thought, ‘Thank god this is over – we found our girl.’ “

Pellman was less sure. But she got a hint about her interview. “He hugged us at the end of foreplay,” she said. “When does that ever happen? A hug from Ryan Murphy? That’s huge! “

When Murphy called the next day to tell Pellman that she had gotten her dream role, she was reading the coats at a thrift store in Bushwick. The first person she called was her mother. Or rather tried.

Monica Pellman didn’t answer.

It was a rare absence for the woman Pellman blames for raising her in a supportive, LGBTQ-approved household – an experience she is grateful for deviating from Emma’s. “When I graduated from high school, it wasn’t a big deal,” she said. “I just blew out while watching TV one night.” Mom i think i’m weird “And she said,” That’s perfectly fine. “She just wanted me to be happy.”

Pellman’s mother, who calls her “pretty much the coolest person ever,” declined to be interviewed for this article. But she was invisible during our conversation in November and laughed at her daughter’s admission that she was fluent in Ubbi Dubbi, the gibberish language popularized by the PBS program Zoom, and handed Pellman handkerchiefs as she talked about an emotional moment The film in which Emma explains that she has never felt so alone in her life.

Unlike Emma, ​​Pellman wasn’t an outcast who grew up in Cincinnati, a far cry from Edgewater, Indiana, the fictional setting for the film. She describes her high school as “fairly progressive”. Most of her close friends were gay, she said, adding, “I’m lucky because I’ve never been bullied.”

It was this confirmation from which she drew Emma in her portrayal as a powerful – albeit reluctant – leader who makes her own as the film progresses. “It’s the best feeling in the world to know that I can bring my real self into the role,” Pellman said. “And not just accepted, but celebrated.”

“When she called to tell me she got the role, there was a certain rightness in the world,” said Brent Wagner, who recently retired as chairman of the musical theater department at the University of Michigan. “Because if she hadn’t got it, she’d be out there fighting for the Emma’s of the world.”

She and DeBose, a queer woman who Pellman calls “the one person who always knows exactly what I’m going through,” founded the Unruly Hearts Initiative to connect young LGBTQ people with organizations that help provide housing, mental health services and mentoring help.

This isn’t the only time she has shared her talents. In 2017 she traveled to India and led theater workshops in Mumbai with imprisoned women and victims of human trafficking.

Pellman proudly points out that this is not her first appearance in the New York Times. She was featured in a 2019 article about a battle to get a refund of the $ 1,200 she and her roommate paid in dubious apartment registration fees.

“And I won!” She said.

Despite the praise she recently received – Kidman referred to her “1940s movie star face” in an email – Pellman has Selina Meyer’s mouth. “During the scene in which all these evasive balls were thrown at me by crew members, I was hit very hard in the face,” she said, reflexively yelling a nickname back. “It was very funny. Everyone laughed.”

DeBose, 29, said Pellman was the person on set who brought people together – and she speaks regularly on FaceTime. “She’s Emma 2.0,” she said. “She’s great at fellowship, and she’s the person who got the troops together.”

For her part, Pellman said she hopes the film speaks directly to young people who identify as LGBTQ. “I hope they say, ‘I’m worthy of a happy ending,” she said.