Homophobic and tribalistic foreign countries have resulted in gay asylum seekers being hosted in the U.S. buy asylum is getting harder to claim,
Monday, July 30, 2018
Trump administration wants to curtail US criticism of homophobic policies of some African countries
Western governments face quandaries on pressuring
non-democratic or developing countries on backward social policies, partly because
sometimes the customs are based on religion (especially Muslim).
But Mick Mulvaney, the OMB director, suggested during a State
Department “Ministerial on International Religious Freedom” suggested that the
Trump administration would reverse Obama’s policy of sometimes sanctioning
countries for excessively homophobic policies.
The country with the biggest problem right now may be Kenya, But Nigeria is very bad (as covered before)
as has been Uganda.
Sub-Saharan Africa has been influenced by some evangelical
ministers who have pushed anti-gay agendas, as “un African”.
Homophobic and tribalistic foreign countries have resulted in gay asylum seekers being hosted in the U.S. buy asylum is getting harder to claim,
Homophobic and tribalistic foreign countries have resulted in gay asylum seekers being hosted in the U.S. buy asylum is getting harder to claim,
The Trump administration has also said that Pride flags
should not fly at US embassies (but I was not aware they ever had).
Yet mainstream churches and various companies and
universities have to be concerned about homophobia when sending interns,
employees, volunteers or students to these countries, sometimes under serious
situations (like epidemics).
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Summer pop-up and rental spaces supplement bars in the summer: now its Fairfax, VA
The one-night or short-term rentals of other bars or pop-up
spaces continues in July, to distract us from the loss of Town.
Saturday, July 28, 2018, Northern Virginia Pride held an
event at the Auld Shebeen Irish pub in the center of Fairfax City, VA, hear
where Chain Bridge Road (123) and Main Street (236) meet. MCC Nova is not far away.
You walked down a circular copper staircase to the basement
dance floor, which was bisected somewhat by a divider and sitting area, all of
it in front of the bar, with a small performance stage on the other side of the
floor.
The crowd was moderate, maybe 60 people or so, much of it
collegiate, maybe some of it from nearby George Mason University, a campus
popular with political libertarians.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Baltimore Eagle closes after unusual business dispute with landlord, who allegedly treated this as a "franchise"
Just a few weeks after Baltimore Pride, where I attended the
Baltimore Eagle, the Baltimore Eagle has suddenly ceased operation on Wednesday,
25, 2018, after a dispute with the company from which they leased the
property. Here is their statement.
It’s interesting that the management of the bar claims that
the owners tried to treat them as a “franchise”. This squabble reminds me of a president whose name should not be mentioned.
The Metro Weekly also has a story about the closing.
The story is a bit of a shock so soon after Town
Danceboutique in Washington was forced
to close after it lost its lease.
The Baltimore Eagle space had been nicely done, with an upstairs
patio and dance floor.
The DC Eagle site as of now works normally. I have not been to it yet since Town closed. I don’t
know how these bars are related but I’ve always been under the impression they
are rather independent of one another. They are reported to have leather dress codes for some nights, but I've gotten the impression that in recent years they have tried to become inclusive.
Town DC had run a "Bear Night" every other Friday after the original DC Eagle lost its lease a few years ago, before its new property on Benning Road NE opened. But Town continued the Bear night until June 29, right before closing. It also ran a series of country and western square dancing lessons.
It is somewhat common for trademarked names for bars (like JR’s)
to be used in multiple cities in the gay community. The topic of how the businesses operate is a
bit of a mystery, but any franchising is probably much less formal than with
retail stores and convenience stores. Franchising is also an important concept in media (even gay newspapers); my own blogs and websites have no franchise relationships (my "do ask do tell" book series would be regarded as an "informal" franchised series, although I haven't tried to make anything of this -- until there is a movie!)
It takes a long time to build a large dance disco facility from scratch.
Update: Aug. 24
When in Rehoboth last Saturday I saw some ad saying that this bar had opened. I just checked, and there is a story that the bar re-opened, with some apparent changes, around July 31. See story on Aug. 16 for link.
Update: Aug. 24
When in Rehoboth last Saturday I saw some ad saying that this bar had opened. I just checked, and there is a story that the bar re-opened, with some apparent changes, around July 31. See story on Aug. 16 for link.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
LGTBQ Nation warns public on the aggressively anti-gay materials promoted by Family Research Council
John Gallagher of LGBTQ Nation today warned about the
possibility that the future Supreme Courts could roll back not only gay
marriage but the sodomy law ruling in 2003. It isn’t impossible.
The article seems to be motivated by the claim in the
article that Family Research Council’s Tony
Perkins used the 25th anniversary of “don’t ask don’t tell” for the
military as announced by Bill Clinton as a start of social decay. That is, the military
must ask and intrude (and so should society -- subjunctive mood).
I couldn’t find this claim in the site.
But I did find the site having materials that are
aggressively and personally intrusively anti-gay, such as this PDF, resurrecting doomsday arguments
that had been in use during the 1980s by groups like “Dallas Doctors Against
AIDS”. The site also complains that
Fairfax County Public Schools is trying to brainwash students into denying the
importance of biological gender.
Indeed, some of the materials reflect a belief among many
that accepting gender and sexuality diversity interferes with the interest that
many men will maintain in marital sexuality.
The idea that one’s life, as well as the lives of everyone around one, should
conform to some sort of monolithic natural order seems important for many
people to feel incentivized to continue to play by the rules.
There is also a concern that diversity in these matters will
threaten parents and even associated family members with having to confront emotional
bonding issues within the family or community with those who are very
different.
FRC (near Verizon Center in downtown DC) was targeted by an unfortunate gun attack in 2012, as analyzed here in Mother Jones.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
CVS fires pharmacist who impounds a transgender woman's hormone prescription
A CVS pharmacist refused to fill a prescription for a male-female
transgender woman and even confiscated the prescription. CVS has fire the pharmacist. The chain has a policy that an employee with
a religious or moral objection to a prescription must refer it to another employee. USA Today story from the Arizona Republic is
here.
The ACLU also has a blog post on the incident.
Another woman was denied miscarriage medication by a
pharmacist who believed that the medication caused abortion.
There is another (miscarriage) case like this in Peoria, Ill.
Six states allow employees to refuse prescriptions on
religious or moral grounds. Some members
of Congress want to make this federal law.
Presumably this problem could happen with Truvalda (PrEP) or even protease inhibitors. An interesting question could come up with PEP (post-exposure prophlylaxis). Oddly, the HIV.gov page has no info on PEP.
Presumably this problem could happen with Truvalda (PrEP) or even protease inhibitors. An interesting question could come up with PEP (post-exposure prophlylaxis). Oddly, the HIV.gov page has no info on PEP.
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Shenandoah Pride 2018 in Harrisonburg VA today
There was a nice little Shenandoah Valley Pride 2018 celebration in
the Court Square in Harrisonburg VA today, about 140 miles SW of Washington DC,
and a few miles from the James Madison University campus.
There were probably about 400 people there in early afternoon.
There was a stage with drag performers and rock music.
There were food stands on the south side, but the main bar
on the Square was the Artful Dodger.
Today it became a gay bar. It has two small stages, one outside. There was a breakfast food menu, which became a serviceable, tasty lunch menu at the bar.
The heavy rain in the DC area today did not get across the
Blue Ridge much. The sun was out most of
the time.
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Military HIV policy not as well known as the transgender issue
There is a case where the US military automatically refuses
to deploy anyone who is HIV+ and it is being challenged in court. The case is Harrison v Mattis and DFoe v
Mattis, Outserve-SLDN press release link here.
I’m not sure whether in these cases the servicemembers have
zero viral load because of protease treatment.
This sounds purely like a medical issue. Would protease reliably work in deployment
overseas? I don’t know.
This issue is not as well known as Trump's attempted transgender ban, which just took another loss in court.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Lack of competition prices Truvalda out of the market; it really can be cheap enough for self-pay with competition
James Krellenstein, Aaron Lord and Peter Stanley offer a
major op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday, July 17, 2018, “Why don’t
Americans use more PrEP?” The manufacturer of Truvalda has a monopoly so it costs
about $20,000 a year. But the generic overseas can be as little as $900 a year.
The demise of insurance coverage of Truvalda under the GOP assault
on Obamacare and Medicaid is complicated, as explained here in an early 2017article in Time. But, as libertarian groups like Cato would
point out, the problem largely goes away if there is more competition in making
the drug.
My own blood pressure medication is cheap, as is the arthritis
med; in both cases, there are multiple similarly effective medications with
different manufacturers.
But a topical medication for actinic keratosis (essentially early
squamous cell carcinoma) from England
costs $1000 a bottle.
There is a severe shortage of the newest shingles vaccine
(very important for HIV+).
Jack Andraka’s work suggests that many cancer screenings
could be made cheap, but doing this with medications will be much harder. But he wants to use nanobots to deliver
targeted chemotherapy without side effects.
Monday, July 16, 2018
Federal judge rules faith-based agencies on Philadelphia city contract for child placement may not discriminate
A federal judge in Philadelphia has ruled that two agencies
responsible for adoption or fostering of children, may not turn away same-sex
couples as parents on religious grounds if they receive money under a contract
with the City.
The agencies were Catholic Social Services and Bethany Christian
Services. The judged ruled that their
setup makes them public accommodations.
Both agencies had insisted however that prospective parents
be “religious” and present pastoral letters.
The agencies do accept single parents, however ironically.
The issue could become bigger if more agencies place
children of asylum seekers if released at the border when for some reason the
parents don’t get reunited.
Metro Weekly reports on an HRC study showing that young evangelicals
are increasingly likely to support same-sex marriage – for personal support of
others, and for increasing the availability of possible adoptive parents.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Pride picnic for Fairfax County Public Schools, 2018
Today I visited the FCPS Pride (Fairfax County Public
Schools, VA) Pride picnic.
I got there a bit late and heard less about races and
politics than last year(see the July 16, 2017 post, with link to more speech
videos).
Recall, I worked as a substitute teacher in 2004-2005 and
again in 2007. There was a major incident
involving my own online speech at the end of 2005 which I have discussed widely
on these blogs before.
The political climate, with respect to LGBT but also speech,
has changed since I was there.
Today the event seemed a little smaller. There was more emphasis specifically on trans
(or fluid) teachers or students than before, relative to the entire LGBTQ experience
as a whole.
One transgender speaker talked about how the group had
originally organized as a “huge closet” like the “CIA”. Kristin Beck (the former Navy Seal, someone
completely fit to be president of the United States in my estimation)
Small groups of previously marginalized people meet in
public spaces and get into the news, first of bloggers, and then gets uploaded
to the bigger media, and curated onto a much bigger stage. This can work both
ways, but it doesn’t always mean “solidarity”.
Friday, July 13, 2018
Pop-up gay bar for MLB All-Star baseball game in Washington temporarily replaces Town this week
Washington Nationals relief pitcher gives the Washington
Blade an interview as Washington DC prepares for the All-Star
game.
The Nationals are not doing as well this year, struggling to
stay above .500, partly because of injuries and underperforming players. (They are grown men.) Doolittle is signed by some nerve inflammation
of a toe.
But the Washington Blade set up a temporary MLB Pop-Up gay bar for five days (July 13-17), open evenings, next to Walters sports bar and National’s
Park, on N St SE off Van Street, just north of the Half Street entrance to the park
and the larger bar.
The bar has a dance floor and is most welcome now that Town
Danceboutique is closed. Think of it as
a temporary replacement for Town.
One wonders if there is space somewhere near Nationals Park
and the Audi field for soccer next door, with a dance floor for weekend rental.
Could something more permanent come out
of this pop-up? DC United will play soccer in the new field. Gay Belgian actor Timo Descamps (“Judas Kiss”)
has often tweeted about soccer.
Tracks used to be located near Half Street, across M Street
a couple blocks down, long before all the high-rise real estate development. Velvet Nation was also in the area.
Thursday, July 12, 2018
GOP-controlled House passes bill allowing adoption agencies receiving federal funds to turn away LGBT parent adoption applications based on religious grounds
Remember in 2000 when the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy
Scouts could legally discriminate against gays because they were a private
organization. Libertarians celebrated
the ruling on ideological grounds, and then watched city after city deny them permits
on tax-owned land.
We all know that, despite the “conservative” ruling, the BSA
has turned around on this (to the extent that the Mormon Church had to
separate). Maybe we can take comfort in that outcome in contemplating the
Supreme Court.
But the GOP House has voted to allow religious organizations
who accept federal funding to deny gays (or particularly legally married gay
couples) the opportunity (not the right) to adopt. Here is the LGBTQ Nation story .
In handling refugees, now a sensitive issue, the government
has to work with faith-based social services organizations like Lutheran Social
Services and Catholic Charities. I haven’t
actually heard of any complaints recently against either of these (there were
problems with Catholic Charities during the Mariel Boatlift in 1980), it’s clear
that there is a public interest in faith-based groups being willing not to
discriminate among volunteers, hosts, or anyone who could offer assistance.
It makes no logical sense to shrink the pool of possible
adoptive parents (as the article notes).
Religious objections seem to be based on the idea of making traditional
(heterosexual) families feel more powerful and satisfied with their own marital
sexuality as proven by procreation. But the law also adds to circular thinking, that gays are second class citizens for not having family responsibility.
Update: July 31
The Williams Institute at UCLA has a study "How many same-sex couples in the U.S. are raising children?" It may seem surprising.
This proposal in the House is called the Aderholt Amendment.
The Williams Institute at UCLA has a study "How many same-sex couples in the U.S. are raising children?" It may seem surprising.
This proposal in the House is called the Aderholt Amendment.
Monday, July 09, 2018
Outserve-SLDN announces new program for LGBTQ service members and veterans with mental health or substance issues
OutServe SLDN, Strive Health, and Veteran and First
Responder Healthcare have announced a new program to assist LGBTQ service members
with mental health or substance abuse issues, press release here.
SLDN will obviously have to watch court behavior very
closely with regard to Trump’s next appointment to the Supreme Court, to be announced
tonight. So far the courts have been OK in forcing the Pentagon to allow
transgender members to continue service in many circumstances, despite Trump’s
attempts.
The new Court appointment will not have any affect on the
repeal of DADT, because this was accomplished by Congress, not the courts. But
watch the political climate in Congress this fall.
Sunday, July 08, 2018
How MCC inspired the National Council of Churches in the 1980s; a Trump SCOTUS still unlikely to undo gay marriage
Today, at MCC Nova in Fairfax VA, pastor Emma Chattin, in a sermon “Unsettling Wilderness Voices”, related a narrative how UFMCC never has had full accreditation with the National Council of Churches, but in 1983 (when I was living in Dallas and Don Eastman was pastor of MCC Dallas) gave pastors from NCC the experience of a common communion.
There was also an interesting ethical question: some “voices”
seem to come from “angels” ("messengers") or people with incredible activist ability (Hogg?)
but others seem to come from others who need to have you give them attention
(like on Facebook). In he discussion,
the idea of not having to believe your own thoughts came up as a mental health
idea.
Walter Olson has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal,
reinforcing the idea that gay marriage will not be put in jeopardy by another Trump
Supreme Court appointment. Roberts, Alito and Gorsuch all endorsed Kennedy’s
very limited reasoning on the case, and the idea that public accommodations in
general should not discriminate. How
would these justices feel about Sarah Sanders and the Red Hen?
Tuesday, July 03, 2018
Lesbian married couple denied opportunity to volunteer as foster parents in immigration crisis; more on transgender ban
Lambda Legal reports on a serious case, where it is litigating
against DHS and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, when they denied an
application from a lesbian married couple to apply to become foster parents for
a refugee child for religious reasons.
The couple is Fatma Marouf and Bryn Esplin, and both teach
at Texas A&M in College Station, SE of Dallas. The
lambda legal link is here. The case is Marouf v. Azar.
I would be concerned here because religious organizations assisting
DHS with the current immigration crisis should not use their own religious
criteria in turning away volunteers. This case dates back to February, before the
worst of the crisis.
Public policy demands that, given the urgency of the border
crisis, reconciling humanitarian need with the rule of law, government will
need volunteer assistance and will need to expect social service agencies,
however faith based, not to apply their own religious tests on volunteers.
I visited the border area myself May 30. I’ve spent time in College Station only once,
in 1982, when I was living in Dallas, to play in a chess tournament.
In the summer and fall of 2016 I did have some contact with
Lutheran Social Services (through a local Presbyterian church in Arlington) and
did not encounter any issues at all with sexual orientation of volunteers who
would assist (Syrian, Iraqi or Afghan) refugees
But in 1980, Catholic Charities in Dallas was unwilling to
accept gay volunteers to assist Cuban refugees from the Mariel Boatlift.
Lambda also reports on briefs today before the Ninth Circuit
to block Trump’s partial transgender military ban, here.
Monday, July 02, 2018
Zoning policy in DC may have contributed to Town DC's closing, and is harmful in other cities too
I found an article on real estate in “Greater Washington”
that may shed some more (indirect) perspective on Town Danceboutique’s losing its lease
and closing July 1, after a “party to end all parties” (it would have ended around 3 AM EDT, which is
right on the cusp west Coast time, right?)
The libertarians and Cato Institute crowd are right on this
one. Zoning laws often wind up hurting
the businesses they intended to help. In
Washington, there are relatively few new houses, except for tear-downs and “renovations”
of old ones, in white, affluent areas (and there are plenty of black and mixed
affluent single home areas too). Developers tend to go into high density areas
and make land deals that probably look good on paper (with absurd land values)
but which don’t make a lot of sense for the population that can afford to live
in the area.
Until about mid 2012 I could park in the Town lot. Then it got difficult (it shared with 930 Club).
Across Florida Ave., parking lots were developed (Parker Brothers-Monopoly
style) into the glitzy Schay Apartments, with their high ceilings. (One
resident put a “bar” in his window for the lines in front of Town to see.)
Town was set back on 8th Street from Florida Ave.,
with the Patio (open for less than four years, given what Town put into it) by
a pizza shop and tiny parking lot. I don’t
know if that was part of the land sale (it sounds likely). It might have been better had the Town building
be flush on Florida Ave.
Then one could
envision leaving the disco to stay, and building a needed (customer pay) parking
garage behind it for all the clubs and businesses, given the deterioration of
late night weekend Metro service – which people tell me had no effect on the crowds
but it may have affected the future. In
New York, for example, you could then put retail stores above the garage (like
a Best Buy) – but in DC we run into the stupid height limit – again, zoning (and
increased rents and land values for the air rights allowed).
The population that would rent these new apartments (or buy
the condos) probably wants a disco like Town to stay -- many of the people would not have
cars. Are real estate developers
thinking about this, even out of business interest? I doubt it.
These land deals seem too remote, too related to Wall Street and hedge funds.
The other big wild card in the big disco business these days
(esp. since Orlando and Paris) is security, because of the times (and there is
more than one ideological enemy). In any
“changing” neighborhood, providing security, especially for patrons coming and leaving
late at night possibly at a long distance from public transportation and
needing secure parking, will be an issue for any new location.
I think that big events and dances in the future will more
often have to be held in rented hotel or similar spaces, in buildings with 24-hour
use – at least in high land cost cities like Washington.
But, across a narrow street from the Howard Theater there is an empty lot. Maybe you could build a dance bar there.
In Baltimore, there has been no direct replacement for the Hippo (after closing in late 2015, partly because local laws made it difficult for a new owner to get a liquor license -- zoning again), although the remodeled Baltimore Eagle, ten blocks to the north, seems to be absorbing the "preppy" as well as leather crowd.
Update: July 4
Would a former Toys-R-Us store make a suitable site for Town to rent? Just a thought.
Furthermore, I would wonder if the loss of Town, as well as increase in supply or units, will put downward pressure on rents in the immediate Shaw neighborhood for recently constructed buildings, because now it isn't quite as desirable for a certain kind of urban gay consumer. This purchase by Jefferson Apartments may not have been thought through as well as it should have even on laissez-faire business grounds.
It's worthy of note also that DC's Red Hen (no connection to the restaurant in Lexington VA that expelled Sarah Sanders) is not far away (on 1st St). I ate there on the way to Town Friday night and it was delicious and expensive.
Update: July 4
Would a former Toys-R-Us store make a suitable site for Town to rent? Just a thought.
Furthermore, I would wonder if the loss of Town, as well as increase in supply or units, will put downward pressure on rents in the immediate Shaw neighborhood for recently constructed buildings, because now it isn't quite as desirable for a certain kind of urban gay consumer. This purchase by Jefferson Apartments may not have been thought through as well as it should have even on laissez-faire business grounds.
It's worthy of note also that DC's Red Hen (no connection to the restaurant in Lexington VA that expelled Sarah Sanders) is not far away (on 1st St). I ate there on the way to Town Friday night and it was delicious and expensive.
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