It is time those who keep trying to compare this election to previous elections to recognize there is no comparison. There has never been a sitting vice president running against a disgraced former president, who lost the last time he ran. There has never been an African American/Asian American woman, running for president as a major party nominee. There has never been a candidate who replaced the original candidate of a major party on the ticket, with only three months until the election. 

There also has never in recent years been such a unified Democratic Party, running against not a political party, but a cult. There has never been a major party candidate running for president held liable for sexual assault and convicted of 34 felonies. There has never been a time when a woman’s right to control her own healthcare has been taken away after being considered a constitutional right for nearly 50 years. There has never been a time when a woman’s right to an abortion has been on so many state ballots. And there has never been a candidate who rants regularly on his social media platform, mostly inane nonsense, at the same time his running mate tells a sitting vice president to ‘go to hell,’ in response to something she never even said. We have never had a candidate for vice president who has in essence told women without children they are useless. The total lack of class of the MAGA Republican ticket is also something we have never seen before. So to all those like the MAGA Republican Marc Theissen, who writes in the Washington Post, saying he can compare this election to previous ones, they might want to take the time to read some history.

What’s clear is we don’t know who will win this election. We don’t know how many Americans there are who would choose to vote for a once defeated former president, convicted felon, who tried to stage a coup to remain in office. Yes, he could win even if that were to seem like an alternate reality. Unfortunately, with today’s divided electorate, we can surmise what the result in 43 states will be. It is only in seven states that there is some doubt about the result. I wish I had a crystal ball, but I don’t, and neither does anyone else. From what we have seen in recent years, polling is not an accurate predictor. 

There are the types of issues in this campaign we have seen in previous elections, when wars and the economy have played a big role. Today we have divisions over the Israel/Hamas war, with debates on how the United States should deal with Israel, and the future of the Palestinian people. There is the war in Ukraine and questions some have about our continued support for Ukraine, and how we are working with our allies. Then there are what are usually called kitchen table issues: inflation, and the cost of food, gas, rent, and education. Then add the issue of crime. We know climate change is taking a much larger role in elections, especially for young people who will live longer with the results if we do nothing about it. These are the issues, even if not exactly the same, that have been around in previous elections. Yet this election is still so different. 

It is what is new and scary I believe this election will be decided on. It will be decided by a very small number of voters, in a small number of states. It will be won by Harris if enough voters fully understand our democracy is actually at risk if Trump wins. They must understand the impact of the Supreme Court ruling granting a president nearly absolute immunity. Understand what happens if Trump’s acolytes, who will be in his government, remake our government based on the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. It will be decided by those who understand what additional rights will be taken away if Trump is able to appoint more judges with lifetime terms to the Supreme Court, and other federal courts.

With all this at stake we still don’t know how people will vote. But I have confidence in the American people, and believe Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will win. But I also know for that to happen, they will need everyone who supports them to be out and working hard, whether raising money, knocking on doors, or talking to family and friends to get them to vote. That last one can really have the greatest impact over the next two months. 

Everyone who supports the Harris/Walz ticket needs to sit down and make a list of every one of their friends and family members. Then start calling. First you need to ask each person for a commitment to vote. Then you must help them understand why their vote is so important. Explain to them they are not only voting for themselves in this election, they are voting for you. 

You need to share with them what this election could mean to your life. If you are a young person concerned with climate change, explain to them they are voting to make the world safer and healthier for you, who will be living in it the longest. If you are a woman who wants to ensure you have control of your own healthcare, and the right to an abortion, explain to them why this election is so crucial to you. If you are a member of the LGBTQ community and want to ensure your rights aren’t taken away, and instead of going backwards, you have a chance to get full equality, explain to them why their vote in this election will have a direct impact on your life. If you are African American and want to ensure you have your civil rights, economic equality, the right to vote, and that the nation doesn’t go back to giving police ultimate power, and the right to ‘stop and frisk’ as Trump has stated he supports, then explain to them why this could literally be a vote for your life. If you are Latino and a Dreamer, and want the right to live safely in this country without looking over your shoulder every day, worrying about the possibility of a member of your family being deported, explain to them why this is a vote for your safety and your future. If you are Asian American and want to ensure you can live without discrimination, explain why this is a vote for you. 

This election must be made to feel personal for each voter. People need to understand what electing Trump will mean to each one of us, and how it will directly impact every person’s life. You can do that by calling all your friends and family, and then asking them to call their friends, like a giant telephone tree. It will make the difference to winning or losing.

Again, in the end, this election is about all of us. It is about our individual rights as guaranteed in our Constitution. It is about what our country will look like going into the future. It is about how we interact with the rest of the world knowing we have a global economy, and the result and impact of doing nothing about climate change doesn’t stop at our border. It is about the opportunity to continue to move forward toward that ‘more perfect union,’ promised in our Constitution. So, when you speak with your friends and family do so honestly, and do it with passion. Because for all of us to live a good, safe, and healthy life, in a peaceful, safer, and healthier world, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz must win.

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

The backlash against DEI and other inclusive programs at America’s largest companies continues, with news last week that Ford Motor Company will scale back its internal DEI initiatives.

The announcement follows a move by retailer Target to reduce its Pride merchandise in June and, of course, the uproar last year over Bud Light’s trans-inclusive marketing efforts. 

The Ford news was first reported last week when a memo from CEO Jim Farley was leaked to Reuters by right-wing activist Robby Starbuck, “who has campaigned against DEI programs as well as corporate participation in LGBTQ events and the issuance of public statements concerning — or the deployment of business strategies to address — matters from climate change to systemic racism,” as the Blade reported.

Starbuck, a music video director-turned-anti-woke crusader claimed credit for Ford’s decision, writing that the company “fears” him. “We’re now forcing multi-billion dollar organizations to change their policies,” he said in a post on X.

No one had ever heard of this guy or his homophobic and racist campaign until recently, which begs the question: Why are some of America’s largest companies reflexively caving to these destructive demands?

In addition to Ford, Starbuck has claimed credit for sparking similar changes at Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson, Polaris, and most recently Lowe’s, after threatening to expose “woke policies” at the companies. 

Lowe’s last week revealed in a memo that it would stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and would no longer sponsor parades and festivals like Pride celebrations. 

Of course, some of these changes are normal business decisions driven by the bottom line. Does expending internal resources to comply with HRC’s criteria for a good score do anything to boost business? Are these companies hedging now in anticipation of retaliation by a Trump administration if he wins in November?  

But the timing of these recently announced changes raises eyebrows given all the pronouncements by Starbuck and they are disconcerting because our corporate allies have sometimes made the difference between anti-LGBTQ laws taking effect or not. 

It’s maddening that one pony-tailed blogger could scare huge corporations into abandoning affirming programs for its employees and customers. Starbuck has called DEI programs “evil” and CNN reported that his wife Landon is a leading opponent in Tennessee of affirming medical care for trans teens and drag queen story hour events.

Predictably, Starbuck is a Trump supporter whose scientifically challenged opinions have been amplified by Elon Musk. He is a climate change denier and anti-vaxxer who told CNN that LGBTQ Pride events promote sex to children, the oldest and most disgusting slur used against our community. 

The corporate CEOs and boards caving to this homophobe should grow a spine.

Thankfully, the news from corporate America isn’t all bad. In April, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in a shareholder letter touted a range of programs — “from resource groups for employees who are Black, LGBTQ+, or have disabilities to a fund aimed at helping entrepreneurs of color, investments in rural communities, and recruiting efforts at historically Black colleges and universities,” according to a report in Axios. “He also said that the $30 billion racial equity commitment the bank made in 2020 was ‘nearly completed’ and would become a permanent part of the business.”

“We’re thoughtfully continuing our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts,” he wrote.

And earlier this week, Aetna announced that it would become the first major health insurer to offer intrauterine insemination (IUI) as a medical benefit to all members nationwide, regardless of a patient’s sexual orientation or partner status. Aetna is the nation’s third largest health insurer, so the policy change “has wide-reaching implications for LGBTQ Americans,” the company touted in a release.

For those corporate leaders searching for a response to Starbuck and his ilk, I suggest they listen to former Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette whom I interviewed for the Blade in January upon his retirement. Gennette, who’s gay, pioneered Macy’s own extensive DEI programs and disagreed with how Target and others caved to right-wing demands. 

“It’s when you flip and succumb to pressure that you get yourself sideways,” he said, noting that, “It always comes back to your core values. We had Pride merchandise at the front of our stores and we were participants in Pride parades around the country. George Floyd put us on notice about being vocal about our internal programs and how you use your CEO voice to be true to what you’re doing internally.”

 There remain plenty of CEOs out there who are doing the right thing. Ford, Lowe’s, and the others placating MAGA blowhards are alienating potential customers and undermining their LGBTQ employees and should reverse these misguided and cowardly decisions.

Kevin Naff is editor of the Washington Blade. Reach him at [email protected].

Among the “Terminally Online,” someone who is so involved with internet culture that they have something of an obsession with it, is a phrase known as “touching grass.” To touch grass means to log off, engage with the real world, and prioritize one’s offline relationships. While this conjures up all kinds of images of young adults playing video games in a room full of dirty laundry, piled up pizza boxes, and crusty socks hanging everywhere—the truth of the matter is that all of us could do well to “touch grass.”

Since COVID-19 use of the internet and social media has skyrocketed. In fact, what COVID did was merely accelerate our ongoing migration into the digital world. The LGBTQ community has always been at the forefront of this migration due to the marginalized status we occupy in society. Despite what some may argue, only recently have public displays of affection become acceptable, and even today some of those exchanges are met with hostility and discrimination. 

With the rise of social media has come increased use of social media apps, and one of the number one social networking sites—outside of big three (Facebook, X formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram)—are dating apps. Grindr specifically has ranked as one of the most downloaded apps in iTunes (#25 at time of writing) and in the Google play store. It is particularly interesting to consider how much of our lives we have entrusted to apps of all varieties—ranging from our favorite moments with our families, to our most intimate details. Sharing these kinds of moments might have seemed unfathomable to us in earlier decades, but today this has become second nature to most. 

What many fail to realize, or chose not to acknowledge, is that social media companies are well aware of the destructive tendencies that their products tap into. Nearly every aspect of these platforms has been intentionally designed to increase user engagement, and tap into our unconscious fears and desires. We fear missing an important event, we desire romance and intimacy, and worry about missing an important email that could change the trajectory of our careers.

For decades, companies from Grindr to Facebook have employed social science researchers to harness the addictive qualities of apps. Think about it, that all too familiar “Brrrrup” notification from Grindr. It’s almost Pavlovian in the way it causes us to immediately reach for our phones wondering who has contacted us, or what pic we’ve just been sent. This sound has intentionally been designed to be distinct from other apps, and thus to attach itself to a specific part of our brain. Researchers have shown we get a dopamine hit from getting a like, retweet, share, or other response—imagine what happens to our brains when we think a romantic encounter looms around the corner.

This strategy is highly effective. Grindr has one of the largest daily returning user bases of any social media company, and its users rank among the highest for time spent on the app. That downward motion to refresh the grid of profiles in proximity to you, that’s also been engineered to increase engagement. It’s like the pull of a Las Vegas slot machine with each swipe down offering the possibility that the next grid will be the one with your soul mate. While I’ve met several gay friends who met their partners on apps, and I’ve used the app to connect with a member of parliament who gave me a private tour while in London, I’ve also met many other men with an unhealthy, if not anti-social, relationship to the app.

My own reliance on these apps was reflected back to me recently, after becoming the victim of an internet scam artist. He had used several fake social media profiles to find out my interests, learn about me, and find out how I could be best manipulated. Gay romance scams are an understudied topic, one in which only a few researchers like Carlo Charles has studied. In speaking with him I have come to understand my story is not unique, and follows an all-too-familiar pattern. I was left wondering after engaging with his work how this happened, and why it happened to me.

While in Montreal this past summer for a conference I was given an answer, and had a mirror put up in front of my face. A very attractive young man messaged me, and he was also a fellow academic. He thought he recognized me from elsewhere, but looks can be deceiving—especially amid a grid of pixelated images. I had already decided after nearly becoming the victim of a scam I wasn’t interested in hooking up, dating, or anything other than being friends—plus I was there to work and had early morning appointments. Despite my encouragement to get out there and that he’d have no problems finding someone to make out with he decided to stay on the apps, “Everyone will just pass me by, so I’ll stay here on the apps, and maybe I’ll go to the gay sauna later.” 

While I’m no prude, or a stranger to the apps or the saunas, it made me realize the addictive hold apps have had on our community. Apps like Grindr have created the illusion of an endless supply of men, and that the perfect lover lies just around the corner with the next swipe. These apps also leverage social-psychological aspects of human behavior against us to increase engagement. Like Facebook, apps like Grindr have made us dopamine addicts seeking instant gratification. When you pair that with other substances these encounters can quickly become dark experiences.

The next day was the Pride parade, and it must have lasted more than an hour. I saw him on the app and encouraged him to come down. He refused thinking he would be rejected. I told him he ought to, and that I’m sorry I couldn’t meet up with him as I had to get to the airport. 

My career has been spent living in rural areas—areas known to be hostile toward LGBTQ people, but also areas in which even the community can be difficult to become involved in—and apps became a way to find some semblance of community. However, like many aspects of online life, these spaces are poor alternatives to real human interaction. Despite advertising otherwise, social media companies are businesses, and their business is keeping us logged on and engaged. Perhaps the solution is for us all to touch grass, and find the beauty that exists in all things—even if it’s not the ideal.

Christopher T. Conner is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri. His latest book, ‘Conspiracy Theories and Extremist Movements in New Times’ is available from Bloomsbury Press/Lexington.

On day four of the Democratic National Convention, Kamala Harris told the nation why they should elect her president. In a strong and eloquent speech, she shared her background, and her vision for the future. She talked about her family, her immigrant parents, how she grew up, her career as a prosecutor, attorney general, senator, and now vice president. She told us how she will govern, and her goals for the nation. She talked of her plans to move forward on issues including: affordable healthcare for all, affordable housing for all, affordable food, and quality, affordable education. She spoke of national security, and ensuring a strong military, of her support for our allies, and working for a safer, healthier, world. 

In a perfect world every voter would read both Trump and Harris’s convention speeches before they vote. If they did, I believe Harris would win in a landslide. But this will be a close election. There are still third-party candidates like Cornell West and Jill Stein, who have no chance of winning, but their being on the ballot will only help Trump. Then there is the crazy RFK, Jr. who has now endorsed Trump. We pretty much know who will win 43 states. Only in seven: North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, is there a question. Whoever wins those, or at least enough of them to reach 270 electoral votes, will be our next president. 

One feels a sense of joy when listening to Harris. She speaks clearly and positively, when sharing her approach to the world.  She proudly said about her career, “every day, in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words: Kamala Harris, for the people. And to be clear, my entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people.” She reminded us of what we all know, Trump also only ever had one client, but in his case, it was himself. 

She told us how she will govern, and what we can judge her success on saying, “we are charting a new way forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class because we know a strong middle class has always been critical to America’s success, and building that middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.” She went on to say to women, and the LGBTQ community, “America cannot truly be prosperous unless Americans are fully able to make their own decisions about their own lives, especially on matters of heart, and home.” She reminded all “too many women are not able to make those decisions. Donald Trump handpicked members of the U.S. Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom. And now, he brags “I did it, and I’m proud to have done it.”

She reminded us “As vice president, I have confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances, and engaged with our brave troops overseas. As commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” She went on to say “I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence. That America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership. I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.”

She spoke of the Israel/Hamas war and her commitment to Israel saying, “I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas, caused on Oct. 7, including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival.” But she also gave her commitment to the Palestinian people saying she will work to ensure that, “the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.” 

She closed saying, “We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. And on behalf of our children, and our grandchildren, and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment. It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: the privilege and pride of being an American.” 

I ask everyone to join Kamala Harris in fighting for the ideals she is fighting for. By defeating Trump, and electing Kamala Harris the nation’s 47th president, we will make both the United States, and the world, better and safer places for us all.  

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

A think tank in Washington has built a time machine, an invention right out of H.G. Wells’s science fiction. They call their Time Machine a “transition plan for the next conservative President.” In fact, this plan is an invention designed to transport LGBTQ Americans back six decades to an unrecognizable landscape of isolation and invisibility. 

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is a policy and personnel database for MAGA warriors ready to take over all federal departments and agencies. LGBTQ Americans are nailed in “Promise #1.” Out of 992 pages, “sexual orientation” is introduced on page four — ahead of global threats, national sovereignty, the U.S. border and immigration issues, the economy, and “God-given individual rights”. 

“The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors,” the Time Machine plan begins. “This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender awareness, gender-sensitive….out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contracts, grant regulation and piece of legislation that exists.”

Big government’s “purpose is to replace peoples’ natural loves and loyalties with unnatural ones,” according to the Time Machine that will enforce what is “natural law” in politics and religious morality. It is ready to transport us back in time to Federal policy and personnel issues before sexual orientation, before gender awareness and our identity itself.

The fight for gay and lesbian civil equality began on the battlefield of the U.S. Civil Service Commission. Decades of investigations and ruined lives were rooted in the language of federal personnel policy. Words like “revulsion,” “notorious,” and “nasty” morphed into the numbing regulatory-speak of “proper metonyms,” “suitability” and “overt conduct.” Prior to Stonewall, the struggle for equality began in Washington with hard-fought litigation and individual plaintiff’s challenges to federal personnel policy preserved today in the briefs, opinions, activists’ letters and declassified memos in the National Archives. For gay men and lesbians in the day, it was a brutal fight to build a new world of equality and shared legal status.

The Civil Service Commission Chairman John W. Macy (1917-1986), Lyndon Johnson’s “personnel man,” in 1966 cut to the core of the federal ban on gay and lesbian employment in a three-page letter written to the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. Macy’s letter can be summarized as follows: you don’t exist.

“We do not subscribe to the view, which indeed is the rock upon which the Mattachine is founded, that “homosexual” is a proper metonym for an individual. Rather we consider the term “homosexual” to be properly used as an adjective to describe the nature of overt sexual relations or conduct… We see no third sex, no oppressed minority or secret society, but only individuals, and we judge their suitability for Federal employment in the light of their overt conduct.”

The world of John Macy is where the Heritage Time Machine will land. Homosexual is not the right “metonym” (oh, please), his figure of speech for human beings. You are not a noun. You are an adjective! You are a conduct, not an “oppressed minority.” There is no such thing as “sexual orientation.” The significance of the formal apology of the United States government delivered in 2009 by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director to Mattachine Society President Frank Kameny, would be deleted. “I am writing today that this policy (of discrimination) which was at odds with the bedrock principles underlying the merit-based civil service, has been repudiated by the U.S. Government, due in large part to your determination,  life’s work, and to the thousands of Americans whose advocacy your words have inspired.” John Berry, OPM Director, continued, “I am happy to inform you that the memorandum signed by President Obama directs the OPM to issue guidance to all executive departments and agencies regarding their obligations to comply with these rules and regulations.” 

For LGBTQ Americans, our greatest achievement was the establishment of identity. We are a community, a people with a shared legal status facing discrimination and hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills from state legislatures nationwide. There is a moment when the Time Traveler in Wells’s story “The Time Machine” is terrified to find himself stranded in another era. “At once like a lash across the face, came the possibility of losing my own age, of being left helpless in this strange new world.” With the Project 2025 Time Machine, we face that real possibility.

“History is written by the winners,” said Donald Trump’s Attorney General William Barr after the Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador. It was actually George Orwell who wrote, “history is written by the winners.” Barr knows his Orwell. “So it largely depends upon whom is writing the history,” concluded Barr.  Will that be Heritage, or us?

Charles Francis is president of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. and author of ‘Archive Activism: Memoir of a ‘Uniquely Nasty’ Journey.’

Funny to read the debate about who has the bigger one. Trump keeps saying he does. Clearly it matters to him. Then you hear Democrats saying no, Harris does. One has to remember they are both referring to political rallies. Democrats are right, Harris has the bigger ones. 

Again, we can laugh at this, but the reality for Democrats is this is screwing with Trump’s mind, and the size of the Harris/Walz rallies is a clear sign of the renewed energy that has consumed the party since Harris became the candidate and named Walz her running mate. This kind of joyful energy has clearly been missing.

Democrats now have their work cut out for them to ensure it continues for the next two and a half months. The result will be large numbers coming out to vote on Nov. 5. And all this was happening even before the Democratic convention began. It started with Harris’s first rally in Atlanta after Biden dropped out, and endorsed her. Then it continued in Philadelphia after she named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her choice for vice president, and did a joint rally with him. Since then, the large crowds have kept coming. Democrats saw them as they moved on to Michigan and then Wisconsin. What is really promising are the endorsements Harris is getting as she travels to her rallies. The first one came before her rally in Arizona. For the first time in its history, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the oldest organization representing Latinos, founded in 1929, has endorsed a presidential candidate, Harris. LULAC’s mission “is to advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health and civil rights of the Hispanic population of the United States.” They clearly see Harris as the person to help them achieve their mission.

Then just before Harris and Walz appeared at another huge rally in Nevada, Harris won the endorsement of the Culinary Union, in existence for nearly 90 years. It’s the largest organization of working women in Nevada, and as the endorsement noted, “the chance to elect the first Black and South Asian woman president of the USA is both energizing and historic, and we are ready to make history together.” The union represents 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno. The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak more than 40 different languages.

All this energy is clearly making a difference. The respected Cook Political Report moved Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, from leaning Republican, to toss-up. Then the NY Times/Sienna poll showed Harris up by 4% in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. All of this is a huge change in just a few weeks. Harris then campaigned in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday, Aug. 16 where she outlined some basic economic proposals. Greeting her there was a new Cook Political Report poll, which showed she had a one-point lead in North Carolina, putting the state squarely back in the swing state category.

Then on Monday, the Democratic National Convention, being held in Chicago, began. Its first day honored President Joe Biden. He was honored for more than 50 years of public service, which began when he was first elected to the New Castle County Council, Delaware, in 1970. He will leave a positive legacy not matched by many in our country’s history. In his gracious speech, he turned the party, and the mantel of leadership, over to Kamala Harris. In doing so he continues to serve the country. We heard from the incredible Hillary Rodham Clinton, who received a well-deserved lengthy standing ovation, as she talked about finally seeing Kamala Harris break that glass ceiling. Over the next few days, two more presidents will endorse Harris. Trump couldn’t even get his own vice president to endorse him. The Democrats’ only problem is how to schedule so many great speakers for prime-time TV coverage. There is a wealth of talent wanting to speak for Harris and Walz. Democrats will be speaking directly to young people, to women, to the LGBTQ community, to African Americans, Latinos, and Asians and to every American.

I have been to five conventions. The first as a 17-year-old in Atlantic City in 1964 that nominated Lyndon Johnson. The last, the history making one in Philadelphia in 2016, where the first woman to lead a major party ticket, Hillary Clinton, was nominated. This one I will watch on TV, but it is no less exciting. While Trump continues to worry about size, Kamala Harris will win this election. Then on Jan. 20, 2025 she will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States of America.

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

BY AMIE BISHOP and KENDRA HUGHBANKS | International humanitarian law is failing in its promise to protect aid workers and civilians alike in situations of armed conflict. Indeed, 2023 was the most fatal year for humanitarian workers ever recorded. Concurrently, thousands of civilians have lost their lives because they fell through protection gaps. On Aug. 19, World Humanitarian Day, Outright International joins the United Nations in calling for states to #ActForHumanity by ensuring accountability for armed actors’ wanton attacks, and for humanitarian actors to be boldly inclusive in how they prevent and protect against violations of international law. 

Among those who bear significant risks in conflicts and other humanitarian crises due to these protection gaps are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people. Internalized biases and discriminatory environments result in armed actors directly targeting LGBTIQ people, while humanitarian responses may actively overlook or passively exclude them. A recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar highlighted how LGBTIQ people’s gender identity or sexual orientation is “weaponized” by the military junta “to inflict hypersexualized forms of rape, torture, harassment, and other forms of sexual abuse” against them. The Special Rapporteur called on states to do more to ensure accountability for these crimes, and on UN agencies and other humanitarian actors to “ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the most vulnerable communities, including those that have historically faced discrimination and violence.” In Afghanistan, LGBTIQ people face harrowing violence at the hands of the Taliban, while the UN system itself appears to largely disregard their suffering. Meanwhile, LGBTIQ people are among the tens of thousands dead as a result of brazen bombardments by the Israeli Defense Forces on Gaza and mass killings of civilians by the Rapid Support Forces across Sudan. Survivors continue to be subjected to crimes against humanity such as gender persecution and mass forced displacement, which may disproportionately impact LGBTIQ people. From the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haiti to Ukraine — where Outright International is managing a program aimed at improving LGBTIQ inclusion in humanitarian action — LGBTIQ people experience emergencies in unique ways that must be accounted for in humanitarian action.

Institutionalized and social discrimination do not relieve States of their obligations to uphold the rights of LGBTIQ people, even during armed conflict. Nor do such conditions diminish the responsibility or commitment of humanitarians, who must remain steadfast in their principles to alleviate suffering in a neutral and impartial way. Stakeholders in the humanitarian response must examine and maximize their power to improve recognition and inclusion of LGBTIQ people’s humanity. Working with and listening to LGBTIQ people — activists, organizations, and ordinary individuals — is vital to ensuring their protection and inclusion in humanitarian action.

Just one week ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross urged the world to renew its commitment to the Geneva Conventions on their 75^th anniversary. The Geneva Conventions are the backbone of humanitarian law, ensuring the protection of civilians and humanitarians working in conflict settings. Despite this, LGBTIQ people are still not fully and equally protected during conflicts. Furthermore, since humanitarian law applies concurrently with human rights law, States must still respect, protect, and fulfill the right to nondiscrimination even in emergencies. When humanitarian agencies respond to crises, they must take a comprehensive approach to protecting and promoting people’s rights under both humanitarian and human rights law. This includes addressing the specific risks and vulnerabilities of LGBTIQ people while adhering to core humanitarian principles.

This year’s World Humanitarian Day theme recalls the fundamental nature of the humanitarian principle of humanity. Outright’s recent investigation into good and promising practices for LGBTIQ inclusion in humanitarian response highlights ways that humanitarian practitioners and donors can leverage their power to better account for the humanity of LGBTIQ crisis-affected people. This research provides an important launching point for humanitarian actors to revitalize the central role of inclusion in the way they #ActForHumanity. By leveraging their power and principles, humanitarian stakeholders can spark positive social change to create a protective environment with LGBTIQ crisis-affected people. By ensuring meaningful LGBTIQ inclusion in humanitarian response, humanitarian actors not only set a path toward guaranteeing that peace and justice processes are more accessible, substantively equal, and reflect the diversity of conflict-affected societies. They also, in a world that at times seems numbed to violence, provide a sorely needed affirmation of the core humanitarian principle that all human lives have value. 

Amie Bishop is director of humanitarian and global development programs for Outright International and Kendra Hughbanks is a guest writer for Outright International.

Three years have passed since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

The Taliban continues to arrest LGBTQ Afghans one after another, and punishes them in public in front of people and local Taliban authorities across the country. There is no news about their fate. And the severity of repression and increased violence against LGBTQ people by the Taliban has, unfortunately, been away from international attention and their situation is deliberately ignored.

The Supreme Court of the Taliban over the last three years has published several rulings regarding the punishment of LGBTQ people for “lawat,” a reference to sexual relations between two men in Sharia law, and most punishments of LGBTQ people has taken place in public in five provinces: Kabul, Parwan, Sarpul, Zabul, and Kandahar.

A court in the Saidkhel district of Parwan province on July 1 announced it had tried and punished four people for “lawat.”

The Supreme Court of the Taliban in a newsletter said the Seyed Kheli district’s primary court sentenced three defendants to a year in prison and 39 lashes. Another defendant received a 2-year sentence and 39 lashes.

The Taliban in June publicly punished dozens of LGBTQ people in Sarpul, Parwan, and Kabul provinces.

Some of the LGBTQ people who the Taliban freed from their prisons told the Rainbow Afghanistan Organization that they were subjected to sexual exploitation, gang rape, and all kinds of torture, including electric shocks, physical beatings, and fingernail removal that caused severe pain and suffering.

On the other hand, the spreading of hatred and the issuing of harsh punishments for LGBTQ people by the Taliban is not hidden from public view. The Taliban, for example, continues to execute LGBTQ people by toppling walls on top of them.

The Taliban in May 2023 published a declaration that emphasized the implementation of Sharia law in Afghanistan. The Taliban issued dozens of final verdicts of “Islamic retribution and ‘hudud’” (“hudud” are Islamic penal codes under Sharia law) and punishments that included stoning. Four people were reportedly executed when walls fell on to them.

Gul Rahim, a Taliban judge, told the German newspaper Bild in July 2021, just before Afghanistan fell, there are “two punishments for homosexuals: Either stoned, or they have to stand behind a wall that falls on their head. The height of the wall should be 2.5 to 3 meters.”

The Taliban used this method to punish LGBTQ people when they were in power between 1996-2001.

Taliban member Mohammad Khel said on Afghanistan International TV on March 28, 2024, that those who are of two sexes — and it is not clear whether they are male or female — should be killed immediately, should be killed tomorrow, and should have been killed yesterday. He continued the program host’s answer, and said he is a Muslim and the Quran has ordered him to kill. The Supreme Court of the Taliban two days before the interview ordered the flogging and punishment of an LGBTQ person in Khaf Sefid district in Farah province for “lawat.”

Mohammad Khel, a member of the Taliban group, told @AFIntlBrk ; A person who is bisexual and it is not clear whether he is male or female should be killed right now, he should be killed yesterday, he should be killed tomorrow, and he should be killed in the morning.1️⃣👇 pic.twitter.com/vHMVOjijKS

— Ali Tawakoli 🇦🇫🏳️‍🌈 (@ali_tawakoli) March 28, 2024

LGBTQ people have always been excluded from U.N. Security Council declarations and resolutions, despite the Taliban’s public punishment of LGBTQ people and the Taliban’s increased violence against them.

Each Security Council resolution — Resolution 2679, and Resolution 2721 — the U.N. Security Council adopted over the last three years has ignored LGBTQ Afghans.

We, the LGBTQ community of Afghanistan, see the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has adopted this wrong approach, which has completely excluded the experiences of LGBTIQ people in its human rights reports from 2021 until now. This omission in UAMA reports for the past three years shows gender-based violence that LGBTQ Afghans face is being ignored.

The U.N. has unfortunately not adopted any new, more inclusive approaches in the implementation of its resolutions, declarations and meetings for Afghanistan; despite Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International’s declarations and concerns to the U.N. and the international community regarding the unfortunate situation of LGBTQ people and women in Afghanistan and requests to pay more attention to it. The U.N. and the international community always excludes a vulnerable group — such as the LGBTQ community, which experiences the most violence in Afghanistan and has been sidelined and ignored for years from all resolutions and declarations — and deliberately ignores their situation.

The U.N., the U.N. Security Council, and UNAMA’s disregard for the unfortunate situation of LGBTQ Afghans is a slap in the face to the concept of human rights in Afghanistan.

LGBTQ Afghans today are bewildered that the same international community that championed free elections and LGBTQ rights is willing to compromise its own moral values to cave in to an extremist ideological group that represents an armed clerical regime that has established gender apartheid in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have succeeded in silencing the voices of LGBTQ people in Afghanistan by using repression, violence, torture, and punishment in public. The U.N. and others in the international community have given this opportunity to the Taliban and their supporters by ignoring the situation of LGBTQ people, by silencing the voice of the Afghan LGBTQ community outside of Afghanistan.

We, and Afghanistan’s LGBTQ community are deeply concerned about the Security Council and UNAMA’s neglect of these serious violations. We believe that what is happening in Afghanistan is a clear example of gender apartheid and human crime.

We condemn every U.N. meeting, declaration, and resolution on Afghanistan that excludes the LGBTQ community. We consider it a violation of the human rights charter.

Ali Tawakoli is an Afghan LGBTIQ rights activist and director and founder of the Rainbow Afghanistan Organization.

Growing up as a closeted gay kid in Massachusetts, I never imagined that decades later I’d help bring Pride House to my adopted home of West Hollywood for the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

In the 1980s around Boston, sports ran in my family’s blood. The Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics reigned supreme in my childhood home. Cheering for them as a family created some of my greatest memories as a kid.

Despite the Celtics’ legendary rivalry with Los Angeles, Southern California is where I’ve called home as an adult. Over the years, I’ve contributed to the LGBTQ+ community in and around the Los Angeles area since moving here.

What we’re building for Pride House in West Hollywood in 2028 — as well as Pride House during the 2026 FIFA World Cup — will be memorable.

That became apparent to me last week in Paris, as an incredible, inspiring group of people gathered at Pride House Paris to officially launch our efforts 5,000 miles away.

West Hollywood Mayor John M. Erickson spoke eloquently about his personal connection and passion for sports, and why Pride House in his city is so important to him.

“As the first openly gay athlete at my college and now the mayor of West Hollywood, the center of LGBTQ+ activism and a hub of culture, creativity, music, and inclusivity, I look forward to welcoming the world to experience Pride House in West Hollywood in 2028,” Erickson said after the event. He played volleyball at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Former West Hollywood mayors John D’Amico and Lindsey P. Horvath (current Los Angeles County supervisor) were also there to celebrate the moment.

“Experiencing Pride House in Paris gave us insights for Pride House LA-West Hollywood as part of the 2028 Games,” Horvath said. “Pride House, as well as international LGBTQ+ athletes and fans, will be at home in West Hollywood in four years!”

Other notable athletes from across the sports world were there to “pass the torch” of Pride House from Paris to Los Angeles, including three Olympic champions: U.S. diver Greg Louganis, whose legacy we will no doubt celebrate at Pride House; Australian diver Matthew Mitcham; and Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe.

Bill May, an artistic swimmer who hopes to be chosen for the U.S. team in 2028, was also there to celebrate, as was Olympic figure skater Javier Raya, the founder of Compete Proud.

We also have the support of some inspiring athlete ambassadors, including many with ties to Southern California: NBA legend Jason Collins, Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy, Olympic figure skater Randy Gardner, Olympic beach volleyball player Nicole Branagh, pro soccer player Collin Martin and Robert Dover, the first openly gay man to compete at an Olympics.

Pride House brings together the LGBTQ+ community at the Olympics and Paralympics. As a gay former baseball and football player, as well as a longtime sports fan, I’m excited to see Pride House come to fruition in 2028 right here in West Hollywood.

We will need community support for our planning and execution of Pride House over the four years leading to the Los Angeles Olympics. You can become a Founding Team Member now and will be recognized as such through 2028! For more information and to make a donation, go to the Out Athlete Fund website, or you can reach out to me at [email protected].

We cannot wait to welcome LGBTQ+ athletes, coaches and fans to Pride House in West Hollywood at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and Paralympics.

For more than half a century, Outfest: The LGBTQ Film Festival has been a major cultural institution in the LGBTQ community in Los Angeles. However, Outfest has disappeared without even a farewell or a “thank you.” The community learned of the organization’s implosion via a recent article in the “Los Angeles Times,” which announced UCLA’s “Queer Rhapsody,” a de facto L.A. LGBTQ film festival that seemingly came out of nowhere, had no LGBTQ community input, and was programmed to occur at five non-LGBTQ spaces across the city.

Three weeks ago, I conducted a quick survey of 14 gay/queer people in L.A. who are culturally and politically attuned to what is happening in the LGBTQ community. The disappearance of Outfest was shocking news to all of them, who heard it from me for the first time.

How could this happen?

I have written about the problems numerous times in various outlets. Be patient with me as I repeat the reasons again for the sake of newcomers and puja, a Sanskrit-derived word meaning “remember.”

The dominant political ideology in the LGBTQ community in L.A. and throughout the U.S. is assimilation, sometimes called “hetero imitation,” practiced particularly by the neo-homophile (1985-2010) and parts of the queer generations (2010-present). If assimilation is taken to its logical conclusion, that ideology will gradually and imperceptibly result in the disappearance of the LGBTQ community and the dilution of identity. It is happening all around us, with Outfest as the most recent example.

The paradox is that while other groups are desperately trying to create real community, where people assume responsibility for each other, LGBTQ people are blindly and unconsciously letting their community slip through their fingers.

Since about 1985, beginning with the AIDS pandemic, the evolution of the LGBTQ community has been hijacked by an elite group. This elite capture has led to a radical change in the community’s power structure, shifting from a grassroots, community-based effort where LGBTQ people were creative participants to a situation where they have become apathetic and disengaged spectators. Elite capture represents a hierarchy and values based on wealth, elite education, race, and certain sex and gender determinants — with lots of empty words and tokenism.

Recently, outstanding investigative reporting by the “New York Times” revealed how elite capture looks day-to-day at GLAAD, an important national LGBTQ media advocacy organization. This elite capture, to a greater or lesser degree, is happening throughout LGBTQ communities.

As a result of elite capture, gay-centered journalism has largely disappeared. LGBTQ news sites on social media “curate” news, often at a shallow and sensational level. Local news, like Outfest’s disappearance, has vanished, intellectually and spiritually impoverishing all of us. Incredibly, no investigative reporting occurs anywhere by the LGBTQ media, depriving LGBTQ people of critically vital information about what’s really happening in their communities. This is a historically singular type of new technology censorship.

Gay men and lesbians over 55 have disappeared at a time when they should be assuming the role of tribal elders, providing community stability, tending to our spiritual well-being, and transmitting lived learning and tribal history to our youth.

Feedback from LGBTQ people about Outfest’s implosion

A shorter, different version of this article, titled “Outfest: Call Home,” about Outfest’s mysterious disappearance, ran a week ago on Danny Battista’s and my MailChimp site called “Gay Tribal Elder,” which has been published almost weekly since 2015. Astonishingly, of the 200 articles ever published there, this one garnered the most responses from readers. Intelligent, insightful community feedback was received, which appears below without attribution since there was not enough time in the day to track down all the senders for permission.

One individual keenly observed that it was interesting Ms. Ha Duong of the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and a central organizer of “Queer Rhapsody,” talked about the importance of the LGBTQ community and then listed five non-LGBTQ spaces where the films would be shown. Does this sound like hypocrisy to you? For more than half a century in LGBTQ cultural life in Los Angeles, Outfest played a unifying community role of great historical and political importance. Does screening “Queer Rhapsody” in five non-LGBTQ film sites sound like more disunity and fragmentation to you?

Another reader linked me to two important articles that suggest labor union organizing by Outfest workers was involved somehow in its demise. One article in the Hollywood Reporter (Sept. 26, 2023) by Mia Galuppo reported that 11 Outfest staff members announced plans to unionize with the Communication Workers of America Local 9003 as Queer Filmworkers United. QFU requested that the Outfest board voluntarily agree to the unionization so that a vote supervised by the National Labor Relations Board would not be necessary.

A second article, titled “Outfest Board to Voluntarily Recognize New Union After Laying Off 5 Employees,” by Brian Welk appeared on *IndieWire* (Sept. 29, 2023.) The five laid off were union organizers, a common anti-union tool used by union busters. The laid-off workers were Martine McDonald, director of creative development, the only Black Outfest staff member; Gabi Grossman, senior programming coordinator, the only trans worker; Alex Gooter, development coordinator; Hanson Bursic, marketing manager; and Daniel Crooke, senior programmer.

CWA and QFU stated that the union agreement was not valid until the board signed the QFU mission statement, which, at that time, had not been done. CWA filed a labor grievance with the NLRB in this matter.

The Outfest board said the layoffs were planned before the union organizing began. The board had been planning to downsize the organization for financial reasons. In all fairness to the board, the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to the income of nonprofit cultural organizations. The important questions are: Why was the LGBTQ community not informed about this crisis? Does the leadership of LGBTQ organizations, characterized as quasi-corporate and under the control of elite capture, lack the skills, experience, and community consciousness needed to sustain those groups, such as Outfest, that started out as grassroots, community-based endeavors?

Additional reader feedback stated that Outfest folded due to a power struggle between the board and its executive director, David Navarro. The quick progression of events in September 2023 does make a person wonder and question. On Sept. 26, 2023, the 11 workers petitioned the board to unionize; on Sept. 28, 2023, the board seemingly agreed to the union provisionally but not legally; then, on Sept. 28, 2023, Executive Director Navarro announced “an unanticipated leave of absence for at least 45 days”; then board member Zachery Alexander Stephens, declaring how much the board loves unions, resigned from the board and was appointed acting executive director; and then silence. Anyone who knows about nonprofit governance knows the board legally has the apex power, and the executive director serves at the discretion of the board. Was it a power struggle that wiped out one of the major LGBTQ cultural institutions in Los Angeles without a bang or a whimper?

One of the items that caught my eye was the admission by the Outfest board president, Dr. Nii-Quaterlai Quartey, that the board was having difficulty reaching a “quorum,” the minimum number of board members needed to legally transact its affairs. This is sometimes a dodge, or it more likely meant the organization was divided and in big trouble. Why was there no local community news about this precarious situation in the LGBTQ community in Los Angeles?

UCLA, which helped to feed my intellectual growth in a doctoral program in 1968 and 1969, has grown into an elitist institution and is extremely wealthy. Does the fact that the UCLA Film and Television Archive is now programming “Queer Rhapsody,” the de facto LGBTQ film festival in Los Angeles at five non-LGBTQ locations without any community involvement, mean that assimilationist ideology and elite capture have taken over another community institution, tearing it from its community roots? Anything torn from its roots will wither and die.

Don Kilhefner, Ph.D., 86, is a pioneer gay liberationist, a founder of the LA LGBT Center, the Van Ness Recovery House, and the international Radical Faeries movement. He now spends his time working, writing, eldering, and dancing to dirty music.