TAMPA — Like many Americans, Laura Spaulding joined the military when she was just 19 years old, but her experience in the military did not turn out as she thought it would.
What You Need To Know
Laura Spaulding joined the military when she was 19
The enjoyment for her stopped shortly after boot camp, though, during military police training
She now owns her own business, mentors others
“I really had no choices, I couldn’t afford college on my own. So my only way to get to college was through the G.I. Bill,” Spaulding told Spectrum Bay News 9’s Katya Guillaume.
Spaulding said a career in law enforcement or the military was always something she wanted to pursue.
“It was very challenging both physically and mentally – it was exhausting at the same time – but I liked those challenges and I was learning things that I would’ve never learned anywhere else,” she said as she recalled her time in boot camp.
The enjoyment for her stopped shortly after boot camp, though, during military police training.
“All of a sudden,” Spaulding said, “One evening, I hear over the loud speakers the XO which is like the chief of that base calling individual females by themselves, they would come back and look terrified.” She said the late night interrogation came at a surprise for everyone.
“He asked me who I thought was gay.” Still stunned by the words, she continued to share her story. “You could tell by his demeanor that this was a vengeance thing for him. He was pissed off that Bill Clinton had signed that bill and he was going to find a way to circumvent it.”
Laura knew who she was before joining the military. She thought the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ bill, signed by former president Clinton in 1993, made joining that much better, until it didn’t.
“I said why are you asking me who’s gay,” she said. “I was pretty defiant about it and he said, ‘Because I can’t ask you if you are.’”
Just weeks later, she said she was served with Article 15 charges. “Those are criminal charges,” Spaulding said. “You had two choices, you either sign and get out of the military at that time or you take it to trial and face five years in prison.”
By definition, an Article 15 is considered non-judicial punishment. It permits commanders to resolve allegations of minor misconduct against a soldier without resorting to higher forms of discipline, such as a court-martial.
Like many would, she was frustrated. Laura chose to leave the military, finish her degree and join the police force, but not without a little more difficulty.
She said, “I started just applying to a bunch of police departments and there’s a check: Have you ever been in the military? I said yeah, present your papers … bam it said homosexual and then all of a sudden no, no, no.”
She finally got her breakthrough after applying to several departments and spent seven years in law enforcement.
Today, she’s running her own business.
It’s the first of its kind and she’s using her background to clean up crime scenes across the country.
“My goal has always been in this company, especially since I started franchising to give opportunities to those that are overlooked like I was,” she said.
The majority of her staff are women and minorities. She’s mentoring them and giving them a platform to success.
“I don’t regret one moment of what happened to me or the past,” Spaulding said, “because all those things happened for me, not to me. Everyone has their own why and you have to figure out what that is.”
Olympic diver Greg Louganis, who is an LGBTQ+ activist and HIV awareness advocate, talks with Juan Fernandez and Lesley Marin about Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib coming out as gay and the importance of that visibility for the LGBTQ+ community, especially youth.
NEW YORK — One thing that’s true all over the world is that you can’t really understand a city unless you get to know the people who live there. Luckily for Michael, a middle-aged travel writer played by American actor John Benjamin Hickey, his plans take on a characteristically Israeli twist when he lands in Tel Aviv for a five-day overview. Tomer, the young artist played by Niv Nissim from whom Michael has subletted an apartment, has the dates wrong, initiating what becomes a brief but very sincere exchange between the two men in Eytan Fox’s new film “Sublet.”
Currently playing in select North American cities and available to rent via Video On Demand starting July 9, “Sublet” examines a fascinating generational divide between these two gay secular Jewish men. It also makes for one heck of an ad campaign for booking the next flight to Ben Gurion Airport and hitting the beaches with a tall, cold glass of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.
Fox, whose previous films include the well-received “Yossi & Jagger,” “The Bubble,” and “Cupcakes,” spoke with me via Zoom from his home in Tel Aviv as “Sublet” opened in New York City. Though it was late at night for him, Fox had an exuberance, energy, and amiability that jumped out of my laptop screen — not exactly a surprise after watching this joyful movie. I also noticed that he sat in front of what might be the largest collection of recorded music I’d ever seen outside of a library. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation.
The Times of Israel: Wow, that is one heck of a wall of CDs behind you!
Eytan Fox: My partner, Gal Uchovksy, is a music critic. We’ve got everything: classical, old Israeli music, hip-hop, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, whatever you want. This is just a third of what we used to have, because who needs CDs nowadays, right? These were the ones he couldn’t put into storage.
I ditched most of my CDs for digital, too. Time moves on. And that’s a lot of what your movie is about, too, in a way. Learning to adapt.
Yes. Or, well, maybe not! Maybe saying, “That’s your life, young people, do your thing, and let us do our thing. Let us live our lives the way we know them and love them.” It’s a mix.
Michael, the older man, and Tomer, the younger man, meet and get to understand each other better through this encounter. And perhaps because of the meeting they understand themselves better. We in the audience, we get to watch the conflict, old versus young, being gay in the 1980s and ’90s versus being gay in 2020.
Israeli director Eytan Fox. (Courtesy)
I feel like there ultimately isn’t too much judgment between them, even if there is confusion.
It’s gradual. I mean, the film… only [takes place over the course of] five days, but Tomer starts out a little bit of a prick. We had early cuts where audiences said, “We don’t like the young guy.” He was too aggressive.
I wanted to capture that typical cocky Israeli who knows it all, but underneath is warm and loving, which I feel is very specific of young Israelis. The “thorns of the Sabras” who can seem aggressive and loud, but deep inside they care so much about family and their community.
I love Tomer’s pride in his neighborhood, how he demands Michael throw away the guidebook.
When I walk down the street, if I see a tourist with a map on their phone I’ll stop and say, “How can I help you? Can I walk you there?” Then I think, “Why am I doing this? This is not me! I am not usually this kind of wonderful person!”
But it’s because I want them to love Tel Aviv. It’s so important to me. Tomer says as much: “I want them to fall in love with us. I want them to not hate us!”
There’s been so much criticism against Israel. And it’s important to say, “We are the good Israel. I am the good Israel.” Look beyond the bad politicians and the bad rabbis. Look at secular Tel Aviv, we’re wonderful, we want peace, we want good relationships with our neighbors.
Since you brought it all up, I live in New York City and work in media, so for many of my colleagues any suggestion there might be a “good Israel” isn’t going to fly. A movie like “Sublet” — which would be good if it were set in Indianapolis or Sydney or anywhere — if you tell a lot of these people to see it, they’ll say, “Oh, it’s just ‘pinkwashing’ Israel.” I am sure you are familiar with that term.
Of course, and I’ve been familiar with it for years and years. It’s a real fear of ours now, that people will say, “I will not see any Israeli film, period.” It can be the most left-wing, pro-Palestinian Israeli film ever made and some say they will still boycott.
I have been accused of being part of a “pinkwash” system. And maybe it has happened. Maybe my work has been used by Israeli government officials or politicians to create a feeling that Israel is so wonderful and progressive with its LGBT community. It might truly be the case.
But! This doesn’t take away from the fact that the LGBT community in Israel is in such a wonderful place.
The LGBT community in Israel is in such a wonderful place
We are so embraced by Israeli society now. It took time. It started in Tel Aviv and then moved to other parts of the country. My partner Gal started an LGBT youth movement, and it’s everywhere. It has branches in Arab villages and in a religious community in Jerusalem. I don’t know of too many other places in the world that have this.
With social media and the internet, what used to only be in Tel Aviv can be seen everywhere. You no longer have to say, “I need to move to Tel Aviv.” We have a community in Afula, in Jerusalem, in the desert. Where there is no youth group, we’ll create one.
It’s funny you mention technology, which clearly has its positives, as you’ve just described. The premise of a broke artist making a few bucks subletting his apartment via an app instigates this whole movie. But your film certainly takes a, shall we say, nuanced view of dating apps.
I need to temper my criticism of young gay people and their lives with dating apps. It’s very much not me or my world. If I was a young gay man who had to use Grindr I’d find it very difficult. I don’t know how young people do it, frankly. But that’s because I’m older!
Michael even says, “What kind of way is this to meet people, it’s like ordering a pizza,” and Tomer says, “A very easy way.” No drama, right?
And Michael tries to be a part of it — but he can’t handle it, he finds it offensive. But I don’t want to say that; I’m trying to understand it. A lot of young people find happiness living their lives this way. Happiness maybe doesn’t have to be about longtime relationships. The most important thing is finding happiness wherever you can.
Happiness maybe doesn’t have to be about longtime relationships
One of the other great moments isn’t just about an age divide, but an Israeli-Diaspora divide, when the young dancer says she’s going to Berlin. People who pay attention are aware of the huge Israeli ex-pat scene there, but Michael is oblivious and seems shocked because, you know, “Germany?” What I love is the younger people don’t even have the energy to explain. They just benignly laugh at him.
It is amazing, isn’t it? I sometimes think how young people seem so unaware of the deep layers of this strange thing. To move to Germany of all places, back to where [the Holocaust] started. When I say this, people look at me like, “What are you talking about? God, you are old!”
I still think there’s something about this that people may be repressing or denying. Nevertheless, it is wonderful that this repaired, special relationship is happening between Israelis and Germans. It’s a good thing, and good that young Israelis look at me like, “What are you talking about?”
As far as a rift with American Jews, it’s true sometimes. American Jews come here and can be shocked, even at the jokes. Holocaust humor is something that surprises Americans. Or even just an American’s perception of how Israelis should engage in Judaism.
I’ll tell you a story. Years ago I was at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, run, at the time, by a wonderful woman named Lia Van Leer. She had an event for American women from Hadassah, the group that raises money for hospitals. She hosts a screening of my first feature called “Song of the Siren.” This is way back in 1994. The movie is a romantic comedy between a young woman and four different men during the Gulf War. Oh, and as a by-the-way, one of the stars of the film happens to be Yair Lapid, who will eventually be our prime minister. He was a hunky model/actor at the time.
We are not only saints who only care about our Jewish history. We have our lives. We go out, we go shopping, we have sex, we have cocktails, it’s not just prayer
Anyway, these women came to Jerusalem to talk about Judaism and contribute money, and they saw this movie and turned to Lia Van Leer, this important and elegant woman, and said, “Why are you showing us this film? Is this how a Jewish woman should behave? Where are her values? Where is her Judaism? She’s fooling around with all these men!”
And Lia set them straight. She said this is who we are. We are not only saints who only care about our Jewish history. We have our lives. We go out, we go shopping, we have sex, we have cocktails, it’s not just prayer.
For me this was an incredible moment that showed what some Jewish people expect out of Israel.
John Benjamin Hickey stars as Michael in Eytan Fox’s ‘Sublet.’ (Daniel Miller)
Certainly there are Jews who anticipate coming to Israel their whole lives, and when they arrive not everything jibes with what they had in mind. But you can maybe say this about Italian-Americans who go to Rome, too.
Yes. But we do have so many specific, additional aspects to the conversation. The Holocaust. Antisemitism. For Italians? Arguing about the food, maybe.
There’s so much good Israeli food in this movie. What do you look for in a glass of pomegranate juice?
There are so many great juice stands in Tel Aviv now. I look for something sourced from a good farmer, but also a good smile from the server. Look how I checked my white shirt — you say pomegranate juice, I automatically check for the spill.
John Benjamin Hickey, left, stars as Michael and Niv Nissim, right, stars as Tomer in Eytan Fox’s ‘Sublet.’ (Daniel Miller)
Speaking of shirts, I need to ask: the dancer character, she is wearing a shirt from Stone Mountain Park in Georgia. I’ve never been there, but I know about it because friends who grew up in the South complain about going as a kid. They have this enormous carving of the Civil War generals and a cheesy laser light show. What’s the story there?
Young people all over the world know about each other. They go online and order a “cool shirt” even if they don’t know what it means. They like how it looks. Do they have a history with this shirt or what it represents? No! That’s an old person question! It’s just cool! Look at the cool image and the cool lettering.
I asked the wardrobe people about it. I asked, “What does this mean?” They said, “Eytan, you are so heavy.” I don’t know if that’s the correct word in English, but they told me not everything has to mean anything. It means it’s a mishmash. She has an Indian skirt, and this cool T-shirt, then something else is thrown in, and that’s how she dresses.
I said okay. I took responsibility for Michael’s wardrobe. Light blue button-down shirts from J. Crew or Banana Republic, with chinos. And that’s all he’ll wear because that’s what I know. The young people can handle the rest. That’s the exchange.
It was a historic moment in the world of sports when Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay – the first active NFL player to do so.
Nassib said that he did not publicly come out for attention, but rather to help support others who may be in his shoes.
“I want to take a quick moment to say I’m gay,” Nassib said in an Instagram post. “I just think representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope one day videos like this and the coming out process are not necessary.”
Support has been pouring in from across the NFL from players and coaches to administrators and fans.
There is also widespread support in the LGBTQ+ community in New Jersey, with many saying that Nassib’s announcement will help young LGBTQ+ athletes in the Garden State.
“The sports world is still in the deepest, darkest part of the closet,” says Garden State Equality executive director Christian Fuscarino.
Fuscarino calls the public announcement during Pride Month incredibly impactful. He says that it provides hope and much-needed support to young LGBTQ+ athletes who may not be out.
“That sends a message to other young athletes from the LGBTQ community that it’s OK to be who you are and to love who you love and play the sport you are good at,” he says.
Nassib says that the hope is that one day there will not be a need for the fanfare when a person in any industry comes out as homosexual. But until then, Nassib says, “I’ll do my best to do my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting and passionate.”
Nassib also pledged $10,000 to The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth.
It was a historic moment in the world of sports when Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nissib came out as gay – the first active NFL player to do so.
Nissib said that he did not publicly come out for attention, but rather to help support others who may be in his shoes.
“I want to take a quick moment to say I’m gay,” Nissib said in an Instagram post. “I just think representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope one day videos like this and the coming out process are not necessary.”
Support has been pouring in from across the NFL from players and coaches to administrators and fans.
There is also widespread support in the LGBTQ+ community in New Jersey, with many saying that Nissib’s announcement will help young LGBTQ+ athletes in the Garden State.
“The sports world is still in the deepest, darkest part of the closet,” says Garden State Equality executive director Christian Fuscarino.
Fuscarino calls the public announcement during Pride Month incredibly impactful. He says that it provides hope and much-needed support to young LGBTQ+ athletes who may not be out.
“That sends a message to other young athletes from the LGBTQ community that it’s OK to be who you are and to love who you love and play the sport you are good at,” he says.
Nissib says that the hope is that one day there will not be a need for the fanfare when a person in any industry comes out as homosexual. But until then, Nissib says, “I’ll do my best to do my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting and passionate.”
Nissib also pledged $10,000 to The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth.
Why was the month of June chosen to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community? Because the stonewall riots took place back in 1969 in June. The Pride Month of June is an excellent opportunity to peacefully raise awareness through different mediums and rightfully protest against political and legal issues that the LGBTQIA+ community is still facing. Colourful parades in the USA are a prominent feature of Pride Month. In addition, there are many street parties, community events, poetry readings, public speaking street festivals, and educational sessions going on all over – all of which attract millions of participants, and are extensively covered by mainstream media. With the laws and regulations in this space changing in India as well, Pride Month has started gaining a lot of importance here along with wider societal implications. Although condescending attitudes and obvious injustice are still very much a part of
the real, everyday social life for this community, small but significant changes are being seen as society’s perspectives are improving and inclusiveness is being encouraged. This can be vouched for because
“#pride2021india” has been trending more than ever this year.
Fashion celebrates globally
At the very beginning of the month, DKNY came up with the hashtag #DKNYpride, uniting with the largest and oldest organization Herrick- Martin Institute. They ran a social media campaign, connecting the youth
to create a fund-raiser, and featured the social media star and exceptional drag queen ‘Plastique Tiara’, among others. This was followed by the fast-fashion brand FashionNova – which mostly trends amongst the GenZ population – putting up a beautiful poster depicting the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community, spilling tea in a YouTube video, wearing T-shirts that said, My Gender My Rules. The first week was quite an impressive kick start of Pride Month celebrations, and many celebrities were seen indulging in the festive spirit.
Lady Gaga quoted,“No matter gay, straight, bi, lesbian, transgender life – on the right
track baby. I was born to survive,” on E! News. Even brands like Ralph Lauren, Adidas, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nordstrom, Olay Skincare, Ugg, Madewell, Rue21, Gap, Fossil, and Reebok launched their special line of
products dedicated heartily to the LGBTQIA+ community, with vibrant lines of rainbows and a cheery, colourful packing. Christina Aguilera also put out her limited-edition merchandise to celebrate Pride Month 2021.
Victoria Beckham got back together with the Spice Girls to celebrate Pride Month and created limited-edition T-shirts with the caption “Proud and wannabe your lover,” referencing their iconic debut single ‘Wannabe’.
Mariah Carey too had dropped a colourful new collection earlier this summer, and Disney unveiled its new range just in time for Pride Month 2021 – a brand new rainbow Disney collection of apparel and accessories.
Gender-neutral clothes are definitely a strong statement, but some of these brands took a bolder step ahead to celebrate the rainbow flag with bright designs and breathable materials, smashing one-liners like ‘Love is
Love’, ‘Love Unites’, ‘I Am Me’, ‘Proud’, and so many more. These captions are brightening this month of June with happiness, freedom, and celebrations all around the world.
Indian knight of shining rainbow
Prince Manavendra Singh Gohil is an Indian Prince, the heir of the Maharaja of Rajpipla in Gujarat. He’s the first prince to proudly accept his identity of being a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. He’s running a charity called ‘Lakshya Trust’ which is doing tremendous work in support of the LGBTQIA+ community. This Ajmer-born Rajasthani-origin heir from Rajpipla has his own story of bravery to live and tell, setting a bar of inspiration for many. Being educated at Bombay Scottish School, and then at Amrutben Jivanlal College of Commerce and Economics (one of the institutions in the Mithibai College campus in Vile Parle, Mumbai), he had gotten married under respect for his family traditions. He later stated, “I thought after marriage I would be alright, that with a wife, everything would become okay, I will have children and become “normal” and then I will be at peace. I never knew and nobody told me that I was gay and that this itself is normal and it will not change. This is what is called
homosexuality and it is not a disease. I tremendously regret ruining the life of my first marriage partner. I feel guilty, but I simply did not know better.” Manvendra Singh’s marriage had remained unconsummated and
he got admitted to the hospital in 2002, suffering from a nervous breakdown post his divorce from that first marriage. Eventually, with professional help and his parents’ support, he confided about his sexual orientation and the mental stress he had endured to his friend, a journalist from one of the well-known news portals of Gujarat. He carried his story out in a publication in 2006. Later, he appeared as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show on 24 th October 2007. He was one of 3 persons featured in the show that was themed as Gay Around the World. And, in 2008, he inaugurated the Euro Pride Gay Festival in Stockholm, Sweden, and also featured in a BBC Television series – ‘Undercover Prince’ which was screened on BBC Three in the UK in 2009. The TV series documented his search for a British boyfriend in Brighton. He also gave a speech at a TED TALK event, and since 2010, he has served as the editor
of the gay male-centric print magazine Fun. In 2013, Manavendra married an American man. Currently, he’s merged with GEP and continues to inspire the LGBTQIA+ community and leads with integrity and
authenticity.
May the rainbow flag fly higher
With time and education, it is no more taboo to belong to a community that gives you the freedom of living life and celebrating one’s identity. Pride Month was not born out of a need to celebrate being gay, but for having the right to exist without persuasion, for being proud of it, and being brave enough to face discrimination. So today, let’s resolve that instead of wondering why there isn’t a straight pride movement, one should be thankful that they don’t need one. If you’re truly an advocate of the freedom to live life as one wants, just be supportive and help make the society more egalitarian.
In a 59-second video Monday, Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib became the first active player in the NFL’s 101-year history to publicly declare he is gay. The end wasn’t accompanied by a bang or a whimper, but rather a cheerful, matter-of-fact announcement that he hoped would make life easier for other players, but especially kids, wrestling with the same decision.
“I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” he began. “I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that like one day videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary … ”
A day later, his wish was essentially granted.
Five years ago, there would have been a half-dozen TV trucks parked at the curb and a few dozen reporters milling about on the sidewalk in front of Nassib’s home for days. Whether it’s a sign of real progress or simply a reflection of our ever-shrinking attention spans, sports headlines have already turned their attention elsewhere. Either way, the next NFL player who comes out probably won’t even get a follow-up call.
That shouldn’t in any way detract from Nassib’s announcement. It took him more than half of his life to gather up the courage — “Sadly, I have agonized over this moment for the last 15 years,” he said — but only a matter of moments for his teammates, rivals, coaches and the league itself to trip an avalanche of congratulations on making the right decision.
“The NFL family is proud of Carl for courageously sharing his truth today,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.
“Proud of you, Carl,” the Raiders tweeted, and the Chargers quickly amplified with a retweet that added, “some things are bigger than a rivalry.”
The list of players who voiced their support began with Darius Stills and Maxx Crosby, teammates who line up alongside Nassib, and quickly spread to guys like Saquon Barkley and Julian Edelman, players whom Nassib & Co. will be looking to crush the second after the ball is snapped.
That shouldn’t surprise anyone, either. Last October, the league launched a series of initiatives highlighting Pride Month, including a public service announcement celebrating former players who had come out, expanding partnerships with GLAAD and The Trevor Project and even debuting a pride-themed NFL shield.
We’ll never know whether it was a genuine commitment to inclusivity or growing public pressure that motivated the boys’ club in the NFL’s executive suite. But when the most popular, powerful sports league in North America puts its stamp of approval on anything happening outside the lines of a field, it’s a safe bet it has been chewed over for hours, vetted by lawyers and audience-tested to the nth degree. And it didn’t hurt, of course, that the league had what amounted to a practice run when Michael Sam, a defensive lineman at Missouri, announced he was gay on the eve of the 2014 draft.
Sam was selected by the Rams in the seventh round, then cut before the team broke training camp and signed to the practice squad with the Cowboys. He never played in a regular-season game there, either, but even that short stint demonstrated that acceptance of an openly gay player had reached the tipping point.
“thank you for owning your truth,” Sam tweeted, “and especially your donation to the @TrevorProject.”
Nassib, who has logged five NFL seasons with three different teams, credited players like Sam for paving the path he followed.
“I stand on the shoulders of giants,” he said. He also asked that the media “give me some space as I navigate this exciting time in my life.”
Nassib put $100,000 of his own money behind the Instagram post in a contribution to The Trevor Project, a non-profit organization devoted to preventing suicides among LGBTQ youth.
“Studies have shown,” he said, “that all it takes is one accepting adult to decrease the risk of an LGBTQ kid attempting suicide by 40%. Whether you’re a friend, a parent, a coach, or a teammate — you can be that person.”
Nassib has already stepped forward. If his example encourages more people to become “that person,” his legacy will be bigger and more enduring than simply being the “first.”
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Boone Police say the 25-year-old man who was arrested Monday has been charged with four counts of trespassing to commit a hate crime and four counts of third-degree harassment. The man’s attorney declined to comment Tuesday.
Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
In today’s pop culture landscape, we have inspiring LGBTQ celebrities who are coming out at younger and younger ages — like YouTube sensation JoJo Siwa who came out as gay in 2021 at age 17, or Zaya Wade, the transgender daughter of Siohvaughn Funches and Dwyane Wade, who came out to her parents at age 12 but (according to dad) has known her gender identity since she was 3 years old. Our current climate has by no means eradicated the homophobia that just a few decades back was as commonplace to sit-com TV as a laugh track, but the progress is undeniable, as we remember the generations of LGBTQ stars who hid their true identity for fear of being blacklisted from the business, jeered in the press, or alienated from their loved ones.
Celebrities like Colton Underwood or Caitlyn Jenner who came out later in life, undergoing some time in the public eye perceived to be heterosexual or cisgender, unilaterally tend to express relief at living more honestly, even as they now grapple with the stigma they’d always feared, as well as the very real discrimination they know they will face from certain individuals and communities. In 2018, Sir Ian McKellen, who came out at 48 years old, tweeted in honor of his three-year anniversary of living as an openly gay man.
“I’ve never met a gay person who regretted coming out — including myself,” he wrote. “Life at last begins to make sense, when you are open and honest.” We commend all these stars’ bravery in trusting the public with who they are and paving the way for others to do the same, whether it’s at 15, 30, 45, or 75 — it’s never too late to start living your truth.
NEWARK — There were only six tiny vials of coronavirus vaccine in the refrigerator, one Air Force nurse on duty and a trickle of patients on Saturday morning at a federally run mass vaccination site here. A day before its doors shut for good, this once-frenetic operation was oddly quiet.
The post-vaccination waiting room, with 165 socially distanced chairs, was mostly empty. The nurse, Maj. Margaret Dodd, who ordinarily cares for premature babies at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, had already booked her flight home. So had the pharmacist, Heather Struempf, who was headed back to nursing school in Wyoming.
Across the country, one by one, mass vaccination sites are shutting down. The White House acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that it would not reach President Biden’s goal of getting 70 percent of American adults at least partly vaccinated by July 4. The setback stems from hesitancy in certain groups, slow acceptance by young adults and a swirl of other complex factors.
The Newark site, which closed on Sunday, was the last of 39 federally operated mass vaccination centers that administered millions of shots over five months in 27 states — a major turning point in the effort Mr. Biden described last week as “one of the biggest and most complicated logistical challenges in American history.” Many state-run sites are also closed or soon will be.
The nation’s shift away from high-volume vaccination centers is an acknowledgment of the harder road ahead, as health officials pivot to the “ground game”: a highly targeted push, akin to a get-out-the-vote effort, to persuade the reluctant to get their shots.
Mr. Biden will travel to Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday to spotlight this time-consuming work. It will not be easy — as Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the president’s coronavirus response coordinator, discovered last weekend, when he went door-knocking in Anacostia, a majority-Black neighborhood in Washington, with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser.
In an interview on Tuesday, Dr. Fauci said he and the mayor spent 90 minutes talking to people on their front porches. But even with a celebrity doctor at the door and the prospect of giveaways at the vaccination center in a high school a few blocks away, many remained hesitant. Dr. Fauci said he persuaded six to 10 people to get their shots, though he did encounter some flat refusals.
“We would say, ‘OK, come on, listen: Get out, walk down the street, a couple of blocks away. We have incentives, a $51 gift certificate, you can put yourself in a raffle, you could win a year’s supplies of groceries, you could win a Jeep,’” Dr. Fauci said. “And several of them said, ‘OK, I’m on my way and I’ll go.’”
But in Newark, where more than three-quarters of the population is Black or Latino, the numbers tell the story. In Essex County, N.J., which includes Newark, 70.2 percent of adults have been vaccinated. But Essex also includes wealthy suburbs; in Newark, the figure is 56 percent, Judith M. Persichilli, the state’s health commissioner, said in an interview.
The Newark vaccination site, in a converted athletic facility at the New Jersey Institute of Technology that is ordinarily home to the school’s tennis teams, was set up and run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in conjunction with the Defense Department and other federal agencies. It opened on March 31; when it was operating at full tilt, its medical staff administered as many as 6,700 shots a day.
By Saturday, the daily tally was down to about 300. The long, corridorlike tents that had once shielded lines of patients from cold weather were empty. Of 18 registration desks, only four were in use, and most of the vaccination cubicles were unoccupied.
Most of the patients, including some teenagers brought by their parents, were there for their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Many — like Abdullah Heath, 19, who took a year off after high school and will attend Rutgers University in the fall — said they were hesitant. But Rutgers requires vaccination, so Mr. Heath had little choice.
“I wanted to wait to see how other people were when they took the shot,” he said.
Alfredo Sahar, 36, a real estate agent originally from Argentina, said he had received his first dose on the spur of the moment, without an appointment, when he tagged along with his wife to the Newark site. The couple showed up for their second doses on Saturday with a young friend, Federico Cuadrado, 19, who was visiting from Argentina and received his first shot.
“Relax this arm,” Major Dodd said as Mr. Cuadrado rolled up his sleeve. But she will not be administering his second shot; with the site now closed, he will have to go elsewhere.
At the height of its vaccination drive, New Jersey had seven mass sites: six run by the state, plus the FEMA site in Newark. Two of the state sites have closed, another will shut down this week, and the last three are expected to do so in mid-July, said Ms. Persichilli, a nurse and former hospital official. She called the FEMA site, which vaccinated 221,130 people in all, “invaluable.”
Mr. Biden has said repeatedly that equity — making sure people of all races and incomes have the same access to care and vaccines — is crucial to his coronavirus response. FEMA determined the locations for its mass vaccination sites using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “social vulnerability index” to identify communities most in need, Deanne Criswell, the FEMA administrator, said in an interview.
It was a learning experience for the agency, she said, adding that 58 percent of the roughly six million shots administered at the mass vaccination sites were given to people of color.
“We didn’t have a playbook for this type of an operation,” Ms. Criswell said. (The agency now has one that is 44 pages long.)
In New Jersey, traffic at the mass vaccination sites started tapering off about six weeks ago, Ms. Persichilli said. At about that time, the state moved to a “hub and spoke” strategy, creating pop-up sites in churches, barbershops and storefronts surrounding existing vaccination centers that could store and supply the vaccines.
The state also has 2,000 canvassers — 1,200 paid, partly with federal taxpayer dollars, and 800 volunteers — who have knocked on 134,000 doors in areas with low vaccination rates to direct people to nearby clinics. And the Health Department is planning vaccine clinics at a rock music festival, a balloon festival and a rodeo in Atlantic City.
Overall, New Jersey is way ahead of most states: 78 percent of adults have had at least one dose of a vaccine. In four states — Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Wyoming — the figure is lower than 50 percent.
“We’re running a marathon, and we’re in the last couple of miles, and we’re exhausted, and they’re going to be the most difficult ones,” Ms. Persichilli said. “But they are also going to be the most satisfying ones.”
Public health officials know that the last mile of any vaccination campaign is indeed the hardest. The eradication of smallpox, considered the greatest public health triumph of the 20th century, came after a highly targeted global campaign that lasted two decades. Polio has still not been eradicated in some countries, Dr. Fauci said, because of vaccine hesitancy, including among women who express unfounded fears of infertility.
“We should have eradicated polio a long time ago,” he said.
The federal effort has been enormous, involving more than 9,000 people from across the government, as well as 30,000 National Guard members supporting Covid-19 vaccination in 58 states and territories, according to Sonya Bernstein, a senior policy adviser for the White House.
With the large vaccination sites winding down, FEMA is also pivoting. The agency still supports more than 2,200 community vaccination centers and mobile vaccination units. Now FEMA is rolling out a new pilot program to offer shots at or near recovery centers that it sets up after hurricanes and other natural disasters. The first of these opened this week in St. Charles Parish, La., which has a large minority population and was devastated by Hurricane Laura last summer. Only 51 percent of the adult population in St. Charles Parish has had at least one shot, according to data from the C.D.C.
In Newark, the mood on Saturday was bittersweet. People like Major Dodd and Ms. Struempf, thrown together in a crisis, were exchanging phone numbers with newfound friends and colleagues as they planned to go their separate ways. After living in hotels for more than two months, they were both eager to depart and wistful about the prospect.
Michael Moriarty, the FEMA official in charge of vaccination operations in the New York-New Jersey region, surveyed the scene: the vacant cubicles and chairs, the boxes of unused latex gloves, the brown paper taped to the floor to cover the tennis courts. It would not take long to undo, he said, adding, “They’ll be playing tennis here at the end of the week.”
Popular commercial TV channel RTL Klub says it may have to show some of the Harry Potter films, Bridget Jones Diary, and episodes of Friends after the 22:00 watershed. “Series like Modern Family would be banned,” said RTL. Programmes here are categorised in six categories and the channel believes these programmes would end up in category five, along with films such as Billy Elliott and Philadelphia, as they could be seen as either portraying or promoting homosexuality.
Congratulatory posts flooded social media on Monday when Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib announced on Instagram that he is gay, becoming the first active N.F.L. player to do so.
Jerseys and T-shirts bearing his name were the top sellers among all N.F.L. players on Monday, according to Fanatics, the league’s e-commerce partner. Stars like Giants running back Saquon Barkley — who played with Nassib at Penn State — and Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt quickly voiced their support for Nassib on Twitter. Well-known advocacy organizations praised his declaration as monumental.
“I think people are going to see what I’ve seen for years, that sports are a lot more accepting than people give it credit for,” said Cyd Zeigler, the co-founder of Outsports, a news website that covers L.G.B.T.Q. athletes and issues in sports.
Yet Nassib said in his post that he had “agonized” over the decision to go public about his sexuality, after keeping it to himself for 15 years. That he is the only active player who is publicly out in one of the four major American men’s pro sports leagues suggests the height of the barrier that male athletes face openly acknowledging a gender or sexual identity that doesn’t conform with thosetraditionally tolerated in locker rooms.
Other gay athletes who have gone public with their sexuality have said they felt pressured to suppress it — and may still despite currents in society shifting to more acceptance — for simple yet powerfully prohibitive reasons. In locker rooms, on fields and on courts, male athletes are taught to embrace heteronormative standards of masculinity.
“I think it’s men and the machismo culture that pro sports are played, in particular,” that has inhibited men who identify as gay, bisexual, or queer from coming out, said Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.
Still, some male athletes ventured to do so despite concerns about their safety and backlash from teammates and fans. In February 2014, the N.B.A. became the first of the four major American sports leagues to have an openly gay active player when Jason Collins, who had come out publicly the previous spring, joined the Nets. He retired from playing later that year.
Michael Sam, who had been an all-American selection during his college career as a defensive end at Missouri, announced that he is gay weeks ahead of Collins’s signing, in the lead up to that year’s N.F.L. draft. The Rams selected him in the seventh, and last round, and an overjoyed Sam cried and kissed his boyfriend on national TV in one of the most visible displays of gay male sexuality in the history of sports.
But the Rams cut Sam before the end of training camp. The Dallas Cowboys then signed Sam to their practice squad, but he did not play in a regular season game. He retired from football in 2015.
Intermittently, a handful of other notable male professional athletes made announcements about their sexuality throughout the years only after their sports careers had ended. But in the mid-aughts the stream of male former players to publicly come out as gay quickened, seeming to herald a shift in sporting culture. Athletes like the former N.B.A. player John Amaechi (2007) and retired N.F.L. players Wade Davis (2012) and Kwame Harris (2013) publicly announced that they are gay in memoirs, magazine cover articles and, in Harris’s case, in a CNN interview.
Major League Soccer has had two active openly gay players — Robbie Rogers, who came out in 2013, and Collin Martin, who did so in 2018.
In Major League Baseball, Glenn Burke, an outfielder who spent four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics in the 1970s, is known as the first player in major league history to come out to his teammates during his career. He came out publicly in 1982, three years after his last major league game. Burke, who died of AIDS complications in 1995, was supported by some teammates but was largely met with discrimination.
The momentum for other gay male N.F.L. athletes to come out while they were still playing may have dwindled when Sam’s career fizzled out before it began. Nassib’s announcement may have been more readily accepted — publicly, at least — among his peers because he is already a dependable veteran.
Nassib has already played five seasons in the N.F.L. and has kept a relatively low profile at an unglamorous, but important, position. Drafted by the Cleveland Browns, he has appeared in 73 games, starting in 37 of them while recording 143 tackles.
Being labeled a “distraction” has long been a stigma assigned to players who espoused any view or identity that stood out from their teammates, but there’s an upside to Nassib’s increased fame, Zeigler said. His visibility could offer more chances to discuss topics surrounding L.G.B.T.Q. athletes.
“Tons of people are going to be talking about this over the next couple of days, then again when he shows up for his first game and then again when he intercepts the ball and runs it back for a touchdown,” Zeigler said. “Teams and players can handle a couple of extra cameras. This will be here for a while.”
Men’s pro teams in America have lagged behind women’s, where L.G.B.T.Q. stars in team and individual sports have publicly identified themselves and still been celebrated. W.N.B.A. stars Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Elena Delle Donne are among the league’s current players who have come out as lesbian and Layshia Clarendon, who openly identifies as transgender and nonbinary, in January became the league’s first player to have a top surgery while active.
The outspoken United States Women’s National Team soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who is engaged to the W.N.B.A’s Sue Bird, said after a Women’s World Cup match in 2019 that “you can’t win a championship without gays on your team.” That year’s World Cup included more than three dozen players and coaches who are gay, in fact, and the winning United States team had at least one couple among its members.
In the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the highest-caliber mixed martial arts promotion, the best female fighter of all time, Amanda Nunes, is an out lesbian.
In contrast to L.G.B.T.Q. male athletes, their out peers in women’s American sports leagues have enjoyed more acceptance from the public and from their heterosexual teammates in recent years. Rapinoe and Bird are among the most popular and marketable female athletes in the world. In Nunes’s last fight in March, she brought her infant child and fiancée inside the octagon after defeating her opponent.
According to Taylor Carr, chief of staff at Athlete Ally, an advocacy organization for L.G.B.T.Q. athletes, that could owe to a greater sense of camaraderie in women’s sports brought on by other collective social fights. Female athletes have for decades fought for equal pay, and the W.N.B.A. prominently led in many social justice causes, including a successful campaign by Atlanta Dream players to oust the team’s owner, the Republican former senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, after she opposed the Black Lives Matter movement the league’s teams were supporting.
“When you have all of these people in women’s athletics who are sending very clear signals about what they believe, it makes you feel like ‘I have the ability to compete and live as my personal self,’” Carr said. “I am not just an athlete, I can bring my entire self to the court.”
There are signs of Americans’ growing acceptance of L.G.B.T.Q. people, a cultural shift that may encourage other gay, bisexual and queer male athletes to come out publicly. Seventy percent of respondents in a Gallup poll conducted this year said they support same-sex marriage, a 10 percent jump from 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled that all states must recognize those unions. Nearly 6 percent of respondents in a 2020 Gallup poll identified as L.G.B.T.Q., a 1 percent jump from 2017.
It may take longer for that sea change to erode homophobic attitudes in male sports leagues, particularly the N.F.L. Players have previously faced backlash for offensive comments, some made in the immediate aftermath of a high-profile athlete publicly identifying as gay.
The former Miami Dolphins receiver Mike Wallace posted on Twitter after Collins’s announcement in 2013 that he didn’t understand why with “all these beautiful women in the world and guys want to mess with other guys.” Wallace later apologized and deleted the post.
San Francisco running back Garrison Hearst apologized in 2002 for using a slur and saying he wouldn’t want a gay player as a teammate after the retired Minnesota Vikings player Esera Tuaolo publicly came out as gay that year. Hearst’s comment elicited public apologies from the 49ers’ team owners and then-head coach Steve Mariucci, but no penalty from the league.
For its part, the N.F.L. has made efforts to publicly support L.G.B.T.Q. inclusivity. The league sponsored a float in the 2018 and 2019 New York City Pride Parades, participated in promotional efforts during Pride Month in June like changing official social media avatars to include rainbows, and supported the You Can Play Project, which provides resources to encourage inclusivity in youth sports.
Troy Vincent, the executive vice president of football operations, wrote an essay last year in which he argued that the N.F.L. was ready to welcome its first openly gay player. The league’s official social media accounts, including the Raiders’, responded to Nassib’s video with heart icons.
Lapchick, who has studied gender and hiring practices in major sports leagues for over 25 years, noted football’s changing cultural landscape. “If you told me five years ago that the N.F.L. and individual teams would use hearts in their communications, I wouldn’t have guessed that,” he said. “Especially among men, there was a fear of coming out, and he broke that fear. I think the reaction will show other N.F.L. players that they can do this, too.”
Andrew Das and James Wagner contributed reporting.
New York (WABC)-Gay rights pioneer and AIDS activist turns 70 this week.
When Yvonne Ritter was 18, she celebrated her birthday at Stonewall on the night of the riots. A transsexual, Ritter, was arrested and thrown into a police van.
She was afraid that her parents would know who she really was.
“Yvonne has been and is a respected pioneer,” said Dr. Barbara Warren, Senior Director of LGBT Programs and Policies at Mount Sinai Health’s Diversity and Inclusion Office.
Ritter’s friend Scott Morrow says there was a period of actual physical violence between law enforcement and gays over their right to be themselves.
On June 28, 1969, the gay rights movement was born, before long-haired liters turned 18.
She became a nurse, an AIDS activist, and a medical reformer who saved hundreds of lives, but first that night she had to talk about how to get out of police detention.
“Let me go,” Ritter said. “If I get caught in this outfit, my dad and mom will kill me.” It worked and she was let go. In a very different way, she continued to release others.
“I stood up for many transgender people,” Ritter said. “Some are younger than me and some are older.’Don’t worry about girls, no one can kick us,’” I said.
Morrow said Ritter was his second mother.
“I have been adopted as a child,” he said. “I lost a lot. My parents adopted me at the age of 12. I was abused a lot when I was a kid.”
Dr. Warren explains everything Ritter did-and she was helped.
“It wasn’t easy,” Warren said. “Remember that she was interracial in Latin X.”
AIDS was killing people all over the world.
“Others went with full PPE, but she entered only her and held people’s hands while they were dying,” Warren said. “She has done a lot to help people all over the country, always gracefully and always with humor.”
Next week, on June 28th, the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, Ritter will celebrate his 70th birthday and continue to work with young people like the young people that night.
“Be yourself,” Ritter said. “You don’t have to play games for someone who you are.”
NEW YORK (WABC) — A gay rights pioneer and AIDS activist turns 70 this week.
When Yvonne Ritter was 18, she celebrated her birthday at the Stonewall the night of the riots. Ritter, who is transsexual, was arrested and thrown into a police van.
She was terrified that her parents would find out who she really was. “Yvonne was and is a revered pioneer,” said Dr. Barbara Warren, who is the senior director for LGBT Programs and Policies in the Office for Diversity and Inclusion at Mount Sinai Health.
Ritter’s friend Scott Morrow says there was a time when there was real physical violence between law enforcement and gays for the right to be themselves.
On June 28, 1969, the gay rights movement was born and the night Ritter, with long hair in the front, turned 18.
She would go on to become a nurse, an AIDS activist and medical reformer who saved hundreds of lives – but first, that night, she had to talk her way out of police custody.
“Please let me go,” Ritter said. “My father and mother will kill me if I get caught in this outfit.” It worked and she was let go. In a very different way, she would go on to free others.
“I stood up for a lot of trans people,” Ritter said. “Some younger, some older than me. I said, ‘Girl don’t worry about it, ain’t nobody can kick us.'”
Morrow said that Ritter has been a second mother to him.
“I’m adopted as a child,” he said. “I lost a lot. My parents adopted me at 12, suffered a lot of abuse as a child.”
Dr. Warren explains everything Ritter did — and she was helped.
“It wasn’t easy,” Warren said. “Remember too, she was LatinX and biracial.”
AIDS was killing people all over the world.
“Others went in full PPE, but she would go in just her and hold peoples’ hands as they were dying,” Warren said. “She did a lot helping people around the country always with grace and always with humor.”
Next week, on June 28, the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Ritter will celebrate her 70th birthday, continuing to reach out to young people just like the young person she was that night.
“Just be yourself,” Ritter said. “You don’t have to play games for people you are who you are.”
Egyptian police on Tuesday arrested a Tiktok star who has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for her posts on social media. Haneen Hossam, a 20-year-old Cairo University student who became an influencer on video sharing app Tiktok, was sentenced in absentia on Sunday alongside four others. While all five were fined 2,000 Egyptian pounds (£9,160) for encouraging women to share videos in exchange for money, which Egyptian authorities equated to human trafficking, Ms Hossam received a harsher
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