Welcome to Chechnya - Metro Weekly - July 9 2020

Contents 

July 9, 2020 Volume 27 Issue 9 

9 

THE RETURN OF RUFUS 

Rufus Wainwright has reemerged after years away with new music 

reflective of his age and our times. 

By Doug Rule 

THE GREAT ESCAPE 

David France shares inside details about Welcome to Chechnya, 

his powerful new documentary about LGBTQ refugees 

running for their lives. 

Interview by André Hereford 

22 

31 

GUARD UP 

Charlize Theron kicks a lot of ass in Netflix’s superhuman 

action thriller The Old Guard. 

By Rhuaridh Marr 

OUT ON THE TOWN p.5 SPOTLIGHT: NISHA GANATRA p.11 

THE FEED: BRAGGING ABOUT BIGOTRY p.13 BRUTAL BEATING p.14 

VIRAL VACATION p.15 UNJUST DESSERTS p.16 DEMANDING JUSTICE p.17 

BASELESS BAN p.18 CARING KAIJU p.19 GALLERY: BY THE PEOPLE ART FAIR p.28 

FILM: MUCHO MUCHO AMOR p.30 MUSIC: RUFUS WAINWRIGHT p.32 

VINTAGE SCENE p.33 LAST WORD p.35 

Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 26 Years 

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley 

Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrators David Amoroso, Scott G. Brooks 

Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim 

Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla 

Patron Saint Zelim Bakaev Cover Photography HBO 

During the pandemic please send all mail to: Metro Weekly PO Box 11559 - Washington, D.C. 20008 • 202-638-6830 

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2 JULY 9, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

JULY 9, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM 

3


Out On The Town 

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. The Decameron Tai Hwa Goh 

Lucius 

Denyce Graves 

Colin Jost 

Compiled by Doug Rule 

HYLTON CENTER’S VIRTUAL 10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 

Next week, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. will let the sun 

shine in as part of the official toast to the Hylton Performing 

Arts Center, the George Mason University-affiliated complex 

that opened a decade ago in Manassas, Va. The two Hollywood 

veterans first came to fame as married members of the “champagne 

soul” quintet The 5th Dimension, known for the Grammywinning, 

chart-topping hits “Up, Up And Away” and “Aquarius/ 

Let The Sunshine In.” Although shifted to a virtual affair, the 

gala retains one very real aspect of the usual in-person experience 

for those attendees who contributed $300 earlier this 

year: a three-course meal along with a bottle of wine prepared 

and home-delivered by Susan Gage Caterers. Saturday, July 18, 

starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 for a link to the broadcast. 

Call 703-993-7759 or visit www.hyltoncenter.org. 

FORD’S THEATRE: LINCOLN’S GREAT WORDS CHALLENGE 

Since June, Ford’s Theatre has been offering free hour-long 

workshops once a week on Zoom exploring the great writing and 

oratory of the 16th U.S. President, with a goal of helping participants 

boost their public speaking skills. Two workshops remain, 

one focusing on “Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address,” which 

many consider his greatest speech, and set for Tuesday, July 

14, at 4 p.m., and concluding with “The Importance of Oratory 

Today,” emphasizing that Lincoln’s words still provide inspiration, 

on Tuesday, July 21, at 4 p.m. In addition to the workshops, 

the Lincoln’s Great Words Challenge invites anyone to show off 

their oratorical skills by recording and submitting a short selfie in 

which they recite a portion of a Lincoln speech of their choosing. 

The challenge runs to July 31. Free. Visit www.fords.org. 

SYNETIC THEATER’S THE DECAMERON 

Synetic Theater’s first production in the era of COVID-19 is 

an inspired, "designed-for-digital production” that adapts the 

collection of short stories Giovanni Boccaccio created in the 

wake of the 14th Century's Black Plague, which still stands as 

the worst pandemic in human history. The Decameron focuses 

on a group of young Italians sheltering-in-place and entertaining 

themselves by telling tales of all kinds. "We have 35 short 

stories produced by 35 very talented artists," says Synetic’s Paata 

Tsikurishvili, who characterizes this collaborative mix of works 

as incredibly diverse yet ultimately very Synetic. The production 

has an interactive element, allowing a choose-your-own experience 

for viewers to watch the short stories in whichever order 

they wish, though they can also opt for pre-selected playlists or 

to watch them serially over a 10-day period starting Friday, July 

10. Through July 31. Tickets are pay-what-you-can over $10. 

Visit www.synetictheater.org. 

SHAKESPEARE THEATRE RADIO PLAYS: 

HAMLET, MAN AND SUPERMAN, ROMEO AND JULIET 

Graduating students from Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy for 


5

Classical Acting Class of 2020 are featured performers in the 

program’s 20th annual summer repertory season. Rather than 

in-person productions staged in rotating rep, this year’s offerings 

are three radio plays streaming for one day each. The series kicks 

off Thursday, July 16, with an honest and biting take on Romeo 

and Juliet directed by Holly Twyford with assistance from ACA 

alum Sara Dabney Tisdale. A visceral and haunting presentation 

of Hamlet directed by Alec Wild begins streaming on Friday, 

July 17, followed a day later with Aaron Posner’s adaptation of 

George Bernard Shaw’s epic Man and Superman. Visit http:// 

aca.shakespearetheatre.org/radioreps. 

TAI HWA GOH 

Target Gallery, the contemporary exhibition space inside 

Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory Art Center, reopens on a limited, 

socially distanced basis to showcase the work of this year’s 

national competitive solo exhibition winner, Tai Hwa Goh. A 

panel of judges selected the Korean-born, New Jersey-based 

artist as the best out of more than 150 applicants. Goh’s site-specific 

installation features delicate, often large or elaborate works 

made from printed and cut wax paper that mimic flowers 

and plants, displayed in exaggeratedly unnatural or artificial 

“arrangements” as a critique of the distorting influence of traditional 

floristry and “human-designed nature.” It further reflects 

the tension between the human desire to beautify interior spaces 

with “artificial selections” from nature that are dramatically different 

from the types that actually burst and bloom in the wild 

and uncontrollable “natural” environments. Opens with a virtual 

reception and walkthrough video tour by the artist on Friday, 

July 10, at 7 p.m. On display to July 26. Studio 2, 105 North Union 

St., Alexandria. Call 703-838-4565 or visit www.torpedofactory. 

org in advance to confirm availability. 

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: HELL AND OTHER DESTINATIONS 

Appointed during President Clinton’s second term as the first 

female Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright also became the 

highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government 

at the time. In Hell and Other Destinations: A 21st Century 

Memoir, published in April, Albright shares insights from her 

life and career, including her post-government work leading the 

National Democratic Institute and helping shape this century’s 

forthcoming leaders in international policy and diplomacy as a 

professor at Georgetown University. Albright will discuss the 

memoir and current events as part of the next virtual offering in 

the “Talk of the Hill with Bill Press” series presented by the Hill 

Center. The pre-recorded discussion will stream on Wednesday, 

July 15. The event is free, but a donation of $10 or more is suggested, 

and registration is required to get the discussion video 

link. Visit www.HillCenterDC.org. 

WOLF TRAP OPERA’S ARIA JUKEBOX 

In lieu of live, in-person performances this summer, Wolf Trap 

Opera has dipped into the vault to present fully staged favorite 

productions from past seasons in its “Untrapped Online” series. 

But the company has also reconfigured its programming featuring 

the talented pool of 2020 Studio Artists to offer several livestream 

performances and cabarets between now and mid-August, 

including a virtual “Master Class with Denyce Graves” set for 

July 22 featuring the superstar mezzo-soprano and Wolf Trap 

Opera alum (Class of 1989) who is the 2020 Filene Artist in 

Residence. The offerings kick off with the popular annual cabaret 

featuring the company’s artists, with piano accompaniment, 

performing popular opera tunes in which “the audience gets to 

choose.” Specifically, each singer lists four arias in their jukebox 

and agrees to perform their aria receiving the most votes online. 

The result is a one-of-a-kind concert encompassing a surprising 

range of styles and composers. This year’s virtual event adds 

a raffle with prizes including free tickets to 2021 productions. 

Voting is open until Tuesday, July 14. Concert streams Saturday, 

July 18. Free, although a minimum donation of $10 is required to 

vote. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www.wolftrap.org. 

THE BIRCHMERE REOPENS 

The Birchmere, Virginia’s legendary concert hall, is planning to 

be the first in the area to reopen since the onslaught of COVID-19 

with two shows this weekend, the Billy Price Charm City Rhythm 

Band on Friday, July 10, and Daryl Davis on Saturday, July 17. 

The venue plans to slowly ramp back up, presenting additional 

shows in July on Friday and Saturday nights, with a lineup 

including Skinny Wallace (July 17), Jumpin’ Jupiter (July 18), the 

Nighthawks (July 24), Free Flowing Musical Experience (July 

25), and The Roadducks (July 31). While adding safety measures 

— plus a $5 COVID fee to every ticket — that include a requirement 

to wear face masks at all times when not seated, as well as 

a request to stay seated as much as possible. Doors open at 6 p.m. 

with the availability of food and beverages, with all shows at 7:30 

p.m. 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Tickets are $15 per 

show. Call 703-549-7500 or visit www.birchmere.com. 

LUCIUS 

A four-piece indie-pop band known for its tight harmonies 

between dual lead vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, Lucius 

is presenting weekly live shows. The “Turning It Around Live 

Stream Series” serves as a fundraiser to help small businesses 

facing hardship due to COVID-19 in Los Angeles, where the formerly 

Brooklyn-centered band recently relocated. The schedule 

includes a concert focused on performing covers next Thursday, 

July 16; another “Performing Songs from the Bromley House” on 

Thursday, July 23; and concluding by “Debuting New Music” on 

Thursday, July 30. All shows at 9 p.m. and available as a 72-hour 

stream. Tickets are $15 per show. Visit www.seated.com. 

SIXTH AND I’S LIVING ROOM SESSIONS FINALE 

Until it can re-open the acoustically rich former synagogue 

space, Sixth and I has been presenting a series, in partnership 

with DCist, featuring select artists in free livestream performances. 

The Living Room Sessions series draws to a close with 

a virtual concert featuring several local standout musical performers. 

The lineup includes “queer pop” artist Be Steadwell, 

dance synth-pop band Mystery Friends, jazz artist Luke Stewart, 

a solo set from Lotion Princess, and acoustic guitarist Yasmin 

Williams. Friday, July 10, starting at 3:30 p.m. Free, although 

both RSVPs and donations, which will be shared evenly among 

the venue and the featured artists, are appreciated. Call 202- 

408-3100 or visit www.sixthandi.org. 

COLIN JOST: A VERY PUNCHABLE FACE 

The Saturday Night Live head writer and co-host of its popular 

Weekend Update segment with Michael Che is currently out 

promoting his debut book. A Very Punchable Face: A Memoir is 

said to reveal “the brilliant mind behind some of the dumbest 

sketches on television,” as a result of the Harvard University 

grad’s work at SNL over the past 15 seasons. Tuesday, July 14, 

at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 plus fees, or $32 plus fees for a signed 

copy of Jost’s book, and include virtual access to the event. Call 

202-408-3100 or visit www.sixthandi.org. 

6 

JULY 9, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM


7


Spotlight 

V. TONY HAUSER 

The Return of Rufus 

Rufus Wainwright has reemerged after years away with new music reflective of his age and our times. 

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO, RUFUS WAINWRIGHT CAPtured 

a liberal’s lament with American politics in his 

dramatic song “Going to a Town.” “I wrote it under Bush 

Junior, but since Trump’s been elected, it's kind of come back 

with a vengeance,” the singer-songwriter says. “The song is a 

kind of perennial of sorts, so it's a bit disconcerting. But it is 

looking like a lot of factors are combining to really bring down 

Trump. And it's a good time to be in the United States to really 

fight the good fight.” 

Of course, that fight has gotten a lot harder — and also more 

important — in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But 

Wainwright puts it all in perspective. “It is never easy. It's never 

easy in the face of tyranny. I was watching a Rosellini movie last 

night, Rome, Open City, which is about the Nazi 

occupation of Rome during the war. We’re just 

one on a long list of troubled victories.” 

Wainwright, who otherwise would have 

been in the throes of an extensive global tour, 

considers the pandemic, and specifically the past few months of 

quarantine, a kind of blessing in disguise. 

“I did actually need some downtime, and was a little worried 

about my physical wellbeing,” he says. “I needed a break. I think 

the whole world was spinning out of control before the pandemic 

and everybody needed to just stop for a couple of months, at 

Watch the Video for 

“Damsel in Distress” 

least.” Aside from allowing him to catch his breath and get in 

better physical condition, “probably the best thing about this 

period is that I’ve gotten to see our daughter [Viva] a lot more 

than in the past because I am on the road so much.” 

The quarantine also gave Wainwright time to up his playing 

game. “I’m an okay pianist, but if you were to put me next to a classical 

or jazz pianist, I wilt pretty quickly. But in this last period, I've 

been able to really hammer out some kinks in my technique that 

I've been sort of fluttering around for years.” He’s also returned to 

his old hobby of drawing, something that factors into the artwork 

for Unfollow The Rules, his first pop album in eight years. 

“What's really interesting about this album is that, because I 

went away for ten years to work on my operas and Shakespeare 

sonnets, I had a little bit of distance from the 

pop world,” he says. Wainwright was writing 

the whole time, and songwriting became his 

outlet “for capturing a lot of very honest feelings 

at a very integral moment” — among other 

things, reflections on being a husband, a father, and, more generally, 

life at a certain age. 

Unfollow The Rules could be viewed as a kind of “portal into 

middle age,” says the artist, who will turn 47 next month. “It 

took a long time to get these songs together. Thankfully now 

they all fit. And I'm still middle-aged.” —Doug Rule 

Unfollow The Rules will be available at your preferred music store starting Friday, July 10. 

Turn to page 30 for Sean Maunier’s review. 


9


Spotlight 

The Right Note 

From Chutney Popcorn to The High Note, director Nisha Ganatra’s career 

has often focused on how women empower one another. 

IN 1999, A SWEET CHARM LOCKET OF A FILM WAS 

added to the LGBTQ canon. Chutney Popcorn followed 

the attempts of a young Indian lesbian to reconnect with 

her mother by acting as her sister’s pregnancy surrogate. Jill 

Hennessey, who later went on to fame as TV’s Crossing Jordan, 

starred alongside newcomer Nisha Ganatra, who also co-wrote 

and directed the critically-beloved movie, which is available for 

purchase on Amazon, iTunes, and Vudu. 

“It was a labor of love for all of us, both making it and then 

convincing people that there was an audience for it,” says the 

director, who is part of the LGBTQ community. “It took me a 

while to view it as a success because it didn't get a big distribution 

deal. But I think it was an important movie to make because 

it did stand firmly on the shoulders of all the queer cinema that 

came before it.” 

These days, Ganatra doesn’t have to struggle as hard to get a 

big distribution deal. A sought-after director in TV (Transparent, 

Girls, Mr. Robot), her most recent two films epitomize success 

in Hollywood: Late Night, the sweet, tart tale 

of a powerful late-night talk show host (Emma 

Thompson) whose career and life are revived by 

an ambitious, opinionated young writer (Mindy 

Kaling); and the recently released The High Note, the winning 

tale of powerful singer Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross), who 

reclaims her career and life thanks to an ambitious, opinionated 

Watch the Trailer 

for “The High Note” 

young assistant (Dakota Johnson). Any similarities between the 

two films are entirely coincidental, says Ganatra, conceding that 

perhaps a female empowerment trilogy is in the works. “Maybe,” 

she says with a warm laugh. “Maybe.” 

“With The High Note, what was radical to me was showing a 

black woman in a position of power, leading a joyful life,” says 

the 46-year-old Canadian native. “That is, sadly, radical today.... 

What message are we giving people if we’re not depicting a 

diverse quality of life whenever they are African-American in 

movies and on-screen? 

“Comedies can bring issues to light while they're being funny 

and entertaining,” she continues. “And that's always my goal 

when making a movie: to make sure I have something to say 

about the state of the world, but also to entertain.” 

Ganatra says it was “an absolute dream” to work with Tracee 

Ellis Ross, whose deep, resonant performance as the superstar 

Davis evokes the essence of her own superstar mother, Diana 

Ross. “She's just so fun. She's so smart. She's so charming. We 

know she can make anything funny, we all know 

she's a really talented comedic actress. But for her 

to come along and break our hearts with vulnerability 

and then to blow us all away with singing 

and dancing and performing — well, it's just a little bit unfair that 

she has all of that talent! One person should not be allowed to be 

able to do all of those things!” —Randy Shulman 

The High Note is currently available for purchase digitally and will be released on Blu-Ray on August 11. 


11


theFeed 

FACEBOOK 

Steel 

Bragging About Bigotry 

California GOP congressional candidate claimed she withdrew her daughter from college 

for supporting gay marriage. By John Riley 

LGBTQ GROUPS ARE CRITICIZING A CALIFORNIA 

Republican congressional candidate over a video of her 

bragging that she withdrew her daughter from college 

after the young woman expressed support for marriage equality. 

Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel, who is challenging 

U.S. Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.) in California’s 48th 

Congressional District, has come under fire after video footage 

of her making allegedly homophobic comments at a February 

2014 meeting of The Newport Mesa Tea Party were released 

this week. 

In the video clip, Steel claims she withdrew her daughter 

from UC Santa Cruz after she expressed support for same-sex 

marriage and indicated she was inclined to vote for former 

President Barack Obama. 

“We have two daughters, and one graduated from USC and 

one graduated from Vanderbilt. I always talk about — the USC 

kid was just perfect, but God’s always fair, so they give you [a] 

little different kid for the second one,” Steel said. 

“So she actually begin — began, she chose the University of 

[California,] Santa Cruz, and then she started talking about that, 

you know, ‘I’m going to vote for Obama. … And then she said, 

‘God gave us two men — what’s wrong with gay marriage?’ We 

brought her back and we sent her to [Loyola] Marymount,” Steel 

said to laughter from the audience. 

“So she graduated — she actually went to [Loyola] Marymount 

[for] one year of brainwash, and then after that, we sent her to 

Vanderbilt.” 

Following the video’s re-emergence, LGBTQ groups slammed 

Steel for her comments. 

Equality California said in a press release that Steel has a 

history of anti-LGBTQ actions and statements. In June 2017, 

Steel cast the lone dissenting vote on the Orange County Board 

of Supervisors against funding for the Orange County Human 

Relations Commission, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Steel’s appointee to the commission also voted that same 

month to block the release of a report detailing an increase in 

the number of hate crimes in the county, with immigrants and 

Black and LGBTQ residents making up a substantial number of 

the victims. That move was opposed by Irvine Police Chief Mike 

Hamel, who also serves on the commission and pushed for the 

report’s release. 

Equality California also alleges that Steel’s campaign has 

accepted significant contributions from the Ahmanson family 

and its personal donor organization, Fieldstead and Company, 

who have a history of donating to anti-LGBTQ causes, including 

the campaign in support of Proposition 8 in 2008. 

“Michelle Steel’s tired brand of homophobia has no place in 

Orange County and no place in the halls of Congress,” Equality 

California Managing Director Tony Hoang said in a statement. 

“Michelle Steel says she wants to represent Orange County 

families in Congress, but she’s made her contempt for thousands 

of her would-be constituents crystal clear. 

“Voters in California’s 48th Congressional District rejected 

[former Congressman] Dana Rohrabacher’s homophobia in 

2018, and we’re confident they’ll do the same to Ms. Steel this 

year,” Hoang added. 

“Orange County families want and deserve a representative 

like Harley Rouda, who will fight to protect our civil rights — not 

someone who thinks LGBTQ+ people are second-class citizens.” 

Hans Furtago Laursen, a Seal Beach resident and urgent care 


13

theFeed 

doctor in Southern California who is raising a son with his husband 

in the district, also condemned Steel’s remarks. 

“When I take care of patients on the front lines fighting 

COVID, I don’t care who they are, whom they love or what they 

look like,” he said. 

“I know I would treat Michelle Steel fairly if she were my 

patient. But she says she wouldn’t represent me and my family 

fairly as our member of Congress. She is acting just like our last 

Congressman, whom we fired, who thought homeowners should 

be able to refuse to sell their homes to families like mine.” 

Laursen added: “I’m on the front lines fighting COVID, but 

she wants to represent me by saying that families like mine don’t 

count. She’s saying that my 1-year-old son, my husband, and I 

don’t really count as equal before the law in her eyes. 

“The Supreme Court says we are, but she doesn’t. I know 

this — I’m going to work extra hard to make sure that someone 

like Harley Rouda, who values and fights for all his constituents, 

continues to represent me in Washington, D.C.” 

KFOR 

Council 

Brutal Beating 

Gay realtor says he was beaten unconscious 

in Oklahoma anti-gay attack. By John Riley 

A 

GAY OKLAHOMA REALTOR CLAIMS HE WAS BEATen 

unconscious last week by two people who yelled 

homophobic slurs at him and a friend. Christian Council, 

of Edmond, Oklahoma, claims he and a friend were heading 

home for the night when he says they encountered a parked car 

blocking his parking space. He honked his horn twice, prompting 

the car to move so he could park his car. 

But Council says that as soon as they exited the car, a man and 

a woman were waiting behind the car. 

“It was clear that when they could tell my friend and I were 

gay, or that we appeared to be gay, they knew they could do what 

they did to me,” Council told NBC affiliate KFOR. “[W]hen they 

saw us and saw what we looked like, they said ‘oh are you two a 

couple of faggots?'” 

The male member of a couple then attacked Council, kicking, 

kneeing, and punching him, causing him to fall to the ground and 

lose consciousness. Someone called the police, who arrived on 

scene shortly afterward. 

“When officers arrived he was still on the ground, all of the 

involved parties were still there,” Master Sergeant Gary Knight, 

of the Oklahoma City Police Department, said. 

Council suffered a gash below his right eye, and swelling 

on his head and body. He says it’s still hard to breathe. “I’m in 

a lot of pain,” he said. “I’ll never forget the feeling of my neck 

snapping back and forth every time he would hit either side of 

my head.” 

Council says the couple yelled homophobic slurs throughout 

the attack, but that charge does not appear in the police report. 

He believes the assault constitutes a hate crime. Police later 

arrested and charged Amery Dickerson and Bennett Stone with 

misdemeanor assault and battery. Both have been released without 

being booked in jail. 

Council claims he didn’t recognize the suspects, but was told 

they were dropping off a friend at the building across the parking 

lot from him. A GoFundMe has since been set up to help pay 

for Council’s medical expenses and potential legal fees in a civil 

lawsuit. The page has thus far raised more than $15,000. 

“As a Realtor, Christian will need to cover his medical 

expenses and also take some time off from showings as he 

recovers. Christian also hopes to pursue a civil case against 

his attackers. Any help to cover his expenses would be greatly 

appreciated,” Jake Langford, the fundraiser’s organizer, wrote 

on the GoFundMe page. “Any amount not used will go to a non 

profit that supports victims of hate crimes.” 


theFeed 

FACEBOOK, INSTYAGRAM 

Hannon 

Viral Vacation 

Gay man slammed for visiting Fire Island while experiencing 

COVID-19 symptoms. By Rhuaridh Marr 

Social media has erupted with anger after a gay man visited 

Fire Island despite having recently experienced COVID-19 

symptoms. Fire Island Pines in New York is something of an 

LGTBQ haven, known to be a popular vacation destination 

particularly for gay men visiting from New York City. But those 

who descended on the small hamlet over the July 4th weekend 

were pilloried on social media after footage emerged of people 

congregating on beaches and in houses without social distancing 

or face masks. 

“Nooooo Fire Island gays! What are you doing?!” Twitter 

user Kade Boehme wrote, alongside a video of shirtless crowds 

on a beach. 

“Remember all them that got smacked down by Rona after 

that winter circuit party, y’all are just gonna drag that shit back 

to the city with you,” Boehme added. 

Boehme referenced the Winter Party Festival, held in Miami 

in March. At least one gay man who attended the circuit party 

later died from COVID-19, with his partner, who also tested positive 

for the virus, alleging that they contracted it at the festival. 

While criticism was widespread, one Fire Island vacationer 

in particular has drawn the ire of social media. Corey Hannon, 

a 27-year-old gay man, informed his Instagram followers that he 

was sitting on a Fire Island beach despite possibly experiencing 

COVID-19 symptoms. 

Hannon wrote on his Instagram Story, “I wanna Kiki but my 

body says, nope not yet…. thought the Covid was gone.” 

Screenshots of Hannon’s Facebook account show him openly 

discussing symptoms, including a post on July 4 saying, “Fuck 

you Miss Rona. I thought I was cured.” 

A few days earlier, on June 30, he said he was “feeling grateful,” 

adding, “day 7 and my body has decided it is done with 

COVID-19.” 

After Hannon’s Instagram Story went viral, he posted an 

update saying that he did have COVID-19. 

“I did have COVID, everyone knows I had COVID, and you 

know what I did? I sat in my fucking bedroom and quarantined 

myself for eight fucking days,” he said. “I suffered through 

COVID, and now I’m out celebrating. So go f*** yourselves. I 


15

theFeed 

hope all of you get f***ing COVID.” 

The CDC currently recommends that those with suspected 

COVID-19 symptoms isolate from others until they have recovered. 

Contact with other people is not recommended until a 

person has gone three days without a fever, has seen an improvement 

in their respiratory symptoms, and it has been at least 10 

days since their symptoms first appeared. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hannon’s video led to further criticism. 

He eventually deleted the Instagram Story, and on Sunday, 

June 5, uploaded a video to Facebook apologizing for his actions, 

Queerty reports. 

He claimed his response to criticism on Instagram was meant 

to be a joke to friends, and he “never meant for it to make it to 

my story.” 

“I am terribly sorry this happened. I would never go out there 

and righteously infect people,” he said. “I apologize that I went 

out, maybe too early. I am a human being. I made a mistake and 

I am sincerely sorry for that.” 

Hannon said he felt unwell on June 22, started to self-isolate 

after speaking with his physician, and took a COVID-19 test on 

June 30 after his symptoms improved. 

Despite being warned that the results of the test could take up 

to 10 days, he went for a spray tan on July 3 in New Jersey, and 

then traveled to Fire Island on July 4. At the time of the video, 

Hannon had yet to receive the results of his test. 

“I would never go out and maliciously infect people. I’m not 

a murderer. I’m not a bad person,” he said. 

Hannon said his videos were “never supposed to be leaked. I 

apologize if you think I’m a bad person because of this. I made a 

mistake and am now paying the price, unfortunately.” 

He also criticized the social media response to his actions, 

saying he had been booed from a train, had dealt with reporters 

outside his house, and had even received death threats. 

However, Hannon was far from alone in potentially ignoring 

social distancing and isolation guidelines during his Fire Island 

trip. Social media was flooded with photos and videos of parties, 

both on the beach and in homes, showing crowds of shirtless 

men without masks or distancing. 

One person decided to deliberately antagonize those complaining 

about the lack of distancing and masks at Fire Island 

parties. Giancarlo Kristian Albanese, a currency analyst at 

EverythingFx, posted a photo of a party, filled with hundreds 

of shirtless people, and told those concerned about COVID-19 

transmission to “kiss my asshole.” 

“Fuck Your mask. Fuck your social distancing. Fuck your 

vaccine. Fuck your eugenics,” he wrote. “Kiss my asshole if you 

think I’m an ass.” 

The Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association sent a 

message to locals urging them to report large gatherings that 

contravened guidelines. 

“With the unexpected parties in our community over this 

past weekend, I want to reassure you that FIPPOA has [been] 

working with State and local officials to keep the community 

safe,” the Association wrote. 

“We are extremely concerned about the health of our residents 

in the Pines,” FIPPOA continued. “We are distressed by 

the irresponsible behavior of some residents and visitors.” 

The Association added: “We need your help. If you see something, 

say something. We urge you to report large gatherings 

immediately to 911.” 

FIPPOA said that parties on the beach are forbidden, and 

reminded owners that those on the beach are required to adhere 

to social distancing or wear a face mask. House parties would 

also be regulated and monitored, FIPPOA said, adding that the 

police would be “vigilant with regard to enforcing the Executive 

Order with regard to house parties.” 

Suffolk County Police Department was reportedly called to 

the beach in Fire Island Pines twice on Saturday over reports of 

large crowds failing to follow social distancing, the Daily Mail 

reports. Police said they patrolled the gathering and reminded 

revelers about social distancing, but issued no citations. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement on Sunday 

urging local officials to uphold COVID-19 prevention measures. 

“As we end this holiday weekend, I urge everyone to be New 

York Tough: wear a mask, socially distance, use hand sanitizer 

and continue the smart practices that have made our state a 

national leader in combating this virus,” Cuomo said. 

“I also remind local governments of their duty to enforce 

the standards that have made [New York’s] reopening safe and 

successful.” 

Unjust Desserts 

Maine transgender man sues Dunkin’ Donuts franchise for wrongful termination 

and sexual harassment. By John Riley 

A 

TRANSGENDER MAN HAS FILED A FEDERAL DIScrimination 

lawsuit against a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise 

in Scarborough, Maine, alleging that he was sexually 

harassed by co-workers, demoted, and ultimately fired after 

being outed by his manager. 

Kye Hubbard, of Westbrook, Maine, filed the lawsuit in the 

U.S. District Court for the District of Maine last Wednesday, 

alleging that he was harassed and discriminated against because 

of his gender identity. 

The lawsuit names Cafua Management Co. LLC, a 

Massachusetts-based franchise which owns Dunkin’ Donuts 

stores in seven different states, and its subsidiary, Exit 42 

Donuts, LLC, which operates the store where Hubbard worked 

for 11 months from February 2018 to January 2019. 

In May 2018, Hubbard alleges that a store manager outed him 

as transgender to his co-workers, even though he had requested 

confidentiality. Afterwards, Hubbard’s co-workers sexually 

harassed him and called him several transphobic slurs. 

When he complained to a corporate manager, he was told his 

supervisor would be fired, according to the lawsuit. But the store 

manager was simply transferred to another store. 

In June, the franchise hired a new manager, who allegedly 

revoked some of Hubbard’s shift leader responsibilities and 

excluded him from management talks in which he had formerly 

participated. Hubbard also alleges that his computer 

privileges were revoked. When Hubbard threatened to report 


theFeed 

the manager’s conduct to 

Cafua’s human resources 

department, the manager 

allegedly asked if there 

was anything “sexually” 

she could do to prevent 

him from reporting her, 

according to the lawsuit. 

That manager also 

repeatedly misgendered 

Hubbard, sent him a 

message calling him 

“sexy,” and posted a customer 

complaint about 

Hubbard for all other 

employees to see. After 

Hubbard filed a complaint 

about the second 

manager, he was demoted from his shift leader position. 

Hubbard claims he was ultimately fired for vaping on 

work property about a week after telling management that 

he had reported the harassment to the Maine Human Rights 

Commission, even though other employees had been permitted 

to vape outside the store, so long as they were not seen by customers. 

Two months after he was fired, Hubbard amended his 

complaint with the Human Rights Commission, reiterating his 

earlier allegations, and alleging that he was also discriminated 

against in violation of the Maine Human Rights Act — which 

prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender 

identity — as well as the Maine Whistleblowers’ Act and Title 

VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in a 6-3 decision 

that the prohibitions on sex discrimination in Title VII of the 

MIKE MOZART 

Civil Right Act apply to 

instances where LGBTQ 

people are discriminated 

against because of 

their sexual orientation 

or gender identity. As 

a result, LGBTQ people 

who believe they 

have been discriminated 

against in the workplace 

are now empowered 

to sue for damages and 

compensation. 

A spokesperson for 

the Maine Human Rights 

Commission told the 

Bangor Daily News that 

the commission did not 

issue a formal determination in Hubbard’s case, but sent him a 

“right-to-sue letter” in December 2019 that allowed him to pursue 

a civil lawsuit. 

According to the lawsuit, Hubbard is requesting a jury trial 

and is seeking back pay, compensation for mental anguish and 

financial stress, and reinstatement to his former position — or 

additional compensation, or “front pay,” if he can’t be reinstated. 

Cafua Management Co. refused to comment on the pending 

lawsuit, but a company spokesperson said that Dunkin’ franchises 

are independently operated by owners, who make their own 

decisions about employment issues. 

“Dunkin’ and our independent franchisees have a longstanding 

history of embracing diversity,” Dunkin’ Brands spokesperson 

Michelle King said. “Discrimination is completely inconsistent 

with our values, and we strive to create inclusive work 

cultures.” 

Demanding Justice 

Transgender teenager Brayla Stone found dead 

from alleged hit in Arkansas. By John Riley 

A 

17-YEAR-OLD TRANSGENDER 

teen girl was found dead in a vehicle 

in Sherwood, Arkansas, on the 

outskirts of Little Rock, with some people 

alleging she was the victim of a hitman. A 

passerby called police around 2:55 p.m. on 

June 25 to report a car parked on a walking 

path in the area. Police responded to the 

report, and discovered the dead body of an 

unidentified person inside the car. 

The body was taken to the Arkansas 

State Crime Lab for identification, and was 

later identified as Brayla Stone, of North 

Little Rock. The death is being investigated 

as a homicide, reports Fox affiliate KLRT. 

A change.org petition calling for justice 

for Stone claims that the alleged killer 

boasted on social media that he was paid 

FACEBOOK 

Stone 


17

theFeed 

$5,000 for the crime. 

In a now-deleted Instagram post, the user “tapnseason” 

allegedly took a pticture of a pile of cash, including $100 and $50 

bills, writing: “I zipped em for 5K. Money Well Spent,” accompanied 

with laughing emojis. 

It is not clear how the author of the petition reached the conclusion 

that the post was in reference to Stone’s murder, since 

the post didn’t directly mention her name. The petition calling 

on police to further investigate her death has since been signed 

by more than 330,000 individuals. 

LGBTQ advocates were angered after local media identified 

and referred to Stone using her “dead name.” But KLRT defended 

its use of her birth name, claiming that Stone’s family asked 

the station to continue using her birth name. 

Stone is one of at least 18 transgender individuals, mostly women 

of color, who have been killed in the United States this year, with an 

uptick in the number of murders over the past two months. 

On the same day that Stone’s body was found, transgender 

woman Merci Mack was found dead in the parking lot of a Dallas 

apartment complex. 

The following day, the body of transgender woman Shakie 

Peters was found near Amite, Louisiana. On Friday, another 

transgender woman, Bree Black, was found shot dead in 

Pompano Beach, Florida. 

The Human Rights Campaign, which has been tracking the 

murders of transgender and nonbinary individuals, issued a 

statement mourning Stone’s death. 

“Brayla Stone was a child. A child, just beginning to live 

her life. A child of trans experience. A young Black girl who 

had hopes and dreams, plans and community,” Tori Cooper, 

the director of community engagement for the Human Rights 

Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative. 

“As a nation, we failed Brayla — as we have failed every transgender 

or gender non-conforming person killed in a country that 

embraces violence and upholds transphobia, racism, homophobia. 

Guns are not as important as people.” 

PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF RUSSIA 

Baseless Ban 

Russian voters approve constitutional ban 

on same-sex marriage. By John Riley 

Putin 

RUSSIAN VOTERS HAVE APPROVED A CONSTITUtional 

referendum defining marriage exclusively as a 

union between one man and one woman. In addition to 

banning marriage equality, the approved referendum included 

more than 200 constitutional amendments, including ones that 

enable the president to fire federal justices, to fire Supreme 

Justices following approval by the Federation Council, and to 

extend presidential term limits — enabling President Vladimir 

Putin to stay in office until 2036. 

The proposals, voted on by the public over seven days, were 

approved by more than three-quarters of all voters, though 

opposition parties allege that the referendum was rigged in favor 

of Putin from the start, reports NBC News. 

In the run-up to the vote, Putin and his allies had attempted 

to gin up support for the constitutional changes by exploiting 

the gay marriage vote, including an anti-gay commercial where 

an orphaned boy finds out he is being adopted by a gay couple. 

In the commercial, the especially effeminate member of the 

couple pulls out a dress for the boy to wear, while the orphanage 

officials look on in horror. 

“What Russia do you choose?” the voiceover says. “Decide the 

future of the country. Vote for the amendments to the constitution.” 

It is hard to gauge what effect the commercial and other 

anti-gay propaganda may have played in drumming up support 

for the constitutional changes, but a recent poll from April finds 

hostile attitudes continue to persist, with half of all Russians saying 

they believe gays and lesbians should either be “eliminated” 

or isolated from Russian society. 

Prior to the vote, the Russian LGBTQ Network issued a 

statement questioning the motives of those behind the referendum, 

arguing that the purpose of the marriage ban and other 

“reforms” were simply an attempt to maintain Putin’s stranglehold 

on power. 

The ban on marriage equality comes on the heels of the country’s 

2013 “gay propaganda” law, which criminalizes the distribution 

of materials that promote or condone homosexuality and 

same-sex relationships, on the premise that such materials will 

be easily accessed by minors, and could influence the opinions 


theFeed 

toward homosexuality. 

Two years ago, the country banned all Pride events, and last 

year, the government took action to prevent LGBTQ groups 

from officially registering in the country. 

The Human Rights Campaign denounced the passage of 

the marriage ban and the extension of Putin’s term, calling the 

Russian president a “threat to the human rights of all.” 

“Russia is tripling down on its attacks on the basic human 

rights and dignity of LGBTQ people by adding constitutional 

prohibitions against marriage equality,” HRC President 

Alphonso David said in a statement. 

“Putin and his administration used propaganda brochures 

leading up to the election promising a return to ‘traditional family 

values,’ using marriage between loving couples as a wedge to 

push through his nefarious agenda. It is shameful, manipulative 

and malicious.” 

TWITTER 

Caring Kaiju 

Godzilla’s child comes out as transgender 

in adorable short film. By Rhuaridh Marr 

DESTROYING CITIES, FIGHTING BARAGON, AND 

being an incredible LGBTQ ally? All in a day’s work 

for Godzilla. That’s according to an adorable new short 

film from stop motion artist and video producer Cressa Maeve 

Beer, which was shared by Godzilla’s creator — Japanese entertainment 

studio Toho — on the iconic kaiju’s official Twitter 

account. 

Titled “Coming Out,” the film sees Godzilla 

taking a break from fighting Baragon after noticing 

that Godzilla Junior seems unhappy. 

Junior is unwilling to reveal what’s up, but after an episode 

of beloved (and LGBTQ-friendly) anime series Sailor Moon and 

some tea, she reveals her true self to Godzilla. 

What follows is a sweet, funny montage as the King of the 

Monsters does his best to be a supportive and loving parent, 

all rendered in glorious stop-motion animation that effectively 

evokes the original films. 

Cressa Maeve Beer tweeted that she was “honored and 

beyond happy” that Toho had supported and shared her film. 

The short film also received support from Legendary 

Entertainment, which produced 2014’s Godzilla and its 2019 

Click Here to 

Watch the Video 

sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Legendary tweeted that 

Cressa’s film was a “beautiful Godzilla-themed celebration of 

Pride.” 

Cressa later tweeted that accepting her own gender identity 

had saved her life. 

“I’m 33. I make stop motion videos of monsters doing innocuous 

things. I use too much hot sauce, buy too 

many books, and creep on dogs at the park,” 

Cressa tweeted. “Understanding who I was and 

beginning hormone therapy saved my life.” 

She also shared some of the inspiration behind the film, after 

a fan tweeted their thanks. 

“Thank you. As an older trans woman, Godzilla was something 

my late father and I shared when I was little,” Twitter user 

@skottichan wrote. “I lost him when I was 7, so he never got to 

meet the real me. Thank you so much for this.” 

Cressa responded: “This means the world. I watched Godzilla 

movies with my dad. I lost him before he got to fully see me, but 

our last conversation was my coming out to him, and somehow 

he pushed through his dementia to show me love. This short is, 

in some ways, dedicated to his memory.” 


19

The 

Great 

scape 

David France shares 

inside details about 

Welcome to Chechnya, 

his powerful new 

documentary about 

LGBTQ refugees 

running for their lives. 

Interview by André Hereford 

20 



21

Since 2017, a deadly anti-gay 

“cleansing” has threatened the 

survival of LGBTQ people living 

inside the Chechen Republic. 

The nation’s Putin-supported leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, proudly 

denies the purge, despite reports from victims, survivors, and 

their families of brutal atrocities. A brave few have rendered 

official testimony before government commissions, and spoken 

directly to the media. Their ongoing battle to bring the truth to 

light, and justice to the abused, took a significant step forward 

with the Pride Month premiere of HBO’s must-see, real-time 

documentary Welcome to Chechnya. 

Slipping behind the Chechen Republic’s iron curtain of 

intolerance to shoot a film required extreme preparation and 

precision for director David France and his crew. “The people 

who were at real risk were the Chechens who were making their 

escapes,” says France of the documentary’s subjects. The film 

follows queer rebels like Anya, a 21-year old fleeing the country 

with help from an underground network of activists led by 

Russian LGBT Network emergency program coordinator David 

Isteev. “The second level of danger,” France adds, “was for the 

activists who were doing that work.” 

Urgency permeates nearly every scene, as the film, embedded 

with Isteev’s operation, stops in a Moscow safe-house run 

by activist Olga Boronova, and races towards freedom with 

formerly detained gay couple Grisha and Bogdan. Yet, France 

— the Oscar-nominated director of the essential HIV-AIDS documentary 

How to Survive a Plague — insists he never felt in peril 

for himself, thanks to thorough planning. “We created these 

levels of deniability,” he explains. “When we were in public, it 

was not known that I was working with anybody else in that 

public setting. If discovered, I would just be my own person and 

explain that I was a tourist or whatever. But, hopefully, not let it 

be known that what I was filming was these daring extractions 

of people.” 

The filmmaker and crew kept their shoot undercover by porting 

around decoy devices. “I had a cellphone that I filled with 

tourist photographs. I had cards for my camera that were evidence 

of my having been a tourist and nothing else. I made sure 

to create a fictional explanation for what I was doing that always 

separated me from what the activists were doing and what the 

survivors were doing.” 

Stealth allowed France to emerge with startling footage supporting 

the testimony of refugees like Grisha and Bogdan, both 

eyewitnesses to the regime’s campaign of detention and torture. 

And digital subterfuge was required to cloak the refugees’ identities, 

since, even beyond Chechnya’s borders, there are forces that 

aggressively pursue those who escape in order to silence them. 

“That's why they're being protected with different faces,” says 

executive producer Neal Baer, “because the Chechen diaspora 

has received word to eliminate these people wherever they are.” 

Baer, who joined the project after the filming, lauds the courage 

of all of the onscreen participants, and the director. “I'm 

proud of David, and I'm grateful to the refugees and the activists 

for allowing David to film. This was a film made by a lot of people. 

But David [earns] the praise for what he's done.” 

France, in turn, hails those who entrusted their stories 

to this movie and its producers, who also include How to 

Survive a Plague collaborator Joy Tomchin and actor Jesse Tyler 

Ferguson. A former investigative journalist for Newsweek, GQ, 

and New York Magazine, France took every precaution to assure 

the film’s subjects of the utmost discretion. “We were filming 

people's faces, people whose identities could never be known, 

and promising them that we would protect the footage that we 

were shooting, that we would never let it out of our hands. We 

would never put it in a place where it could ever be intercepted.” 

Having successfully evaded enemy interception, Welcome 

to Chechnya exposes this shocking story to a world roiled by 

the uncertainty of a pandemic, and unprecedented financial, 

political, and social upheaval. Adding to the 2020 deluge, the 

situation for LGBTQ Chechens won’t be improved by recent 

developments in mother Russia, where voters just approved a 

ban on same-sex marriage. And, no surprise, under the current 

presidential administration, no Chechen asylum seekers have 

been granted safe haven in the United States. 

But France sees signs of hope in those who have found safer 

haven, like Bogdan and Grisha, the latter of whom discloses his 

true identity in the film as Russian-born Maxim Lapunov. The 

couple were on hand for the film’s world premiere at the 2020 

Sundance Film Festival, “a really exciting moment,” France recalls. 

“I saw them next in Berlin, and they came with Maxim's 

mother. It was just really wonderful to see them meeting 

their audience, and understanding what they had accomplished 

already through their act of bravery, in coming forward and 

22 


ecoming the only plaintiffs to bring a case against their abductors, 

and the members of the Chechen security forces who 

tortured Maxim so violently, then began to hunt him down to 

silence him. To see how audiences reacted to that, it really gave 

them power, I think, and a new understanding of what they had 

been able to accomplish, even if their case has so far not produced 

real justice.” 

METRO WEEKLY: Did you originally move to New York from 

Michigan to be a journalist? 

DAVID FRANCE: No. I moved to New York to be a gay. 

Unfortunately, I landed in New York just a couple of weeks 

before HIV was first reported. I got to the city in June of '81. The 

first reports of HIV were in July, the July 4th weekend, 39 years 

ago. I took up journalism when everybody in the community 

was called upon to do something. And I knew that I couldn't do 

what so many others were doing. I couldn't be a good caregiver. 

I didn't have a good bedside manner. I was freaked out about 

death and dying. So I found an arm's length role for myself in 

journalism. My first series of articles were all about the epidemic, 

and I continued covering it for all those years. 

MW: One of your jobs was at the New York Post, where you reportedly 

experienced discrimination. How did that go down? 

FRANCE: I was counseled by a mentor when I applied for a job at 

the New York Post to not present any of my background, because 

they would not hire me if they had understood that I came up 

through the queer presses. So I went in as a total neophyte. 

They hired me to give me a try, to bring me up as a cub reporter 

in the old newspaper system. I was working on the investigations 

desk with the investigations editor. I was his assistant. He 

discovered my clips and called me into his office to present me 

with my own history as a queer journalist, and fired me on the 

spot for being queer, for not having told him that I was queer, 

which would have precluded my hiring in the first place, and for 

having deceived him. It was my queer background that triggered 

the firing. 

MW: Did you feel vindication, seeing the Supreme Court rule this 

summer that the Civil Rights Act includes LGBTQ employees 

under its protections from being fired for their sex or orientation? 

FRANCE: I absolutely did. It was I think the most consequential 

LGBTQ decision from the Supreme Court ever. I think it's going 

to impact people's lives in real, important ways across the country. 

We have yet to see how it's going to play out. I think there's 

“I’ve worked in 

conditions of danger in 

the past where I had to 

be very careful about 

revealing what I was 

doing. But LITERALLY 

NOTHING CAN 

PREPARE YOU FOR 

THE KIND OF 

PARANOIA THAT'S 

NECESSARY FOR 

WORKING 

INSIDE RUSSIA.” 

going to be some skirmishes around it, but it sets the U.S. law for 

the first time in defense of LGBTQ rights in employment. That's 

pretty fundamental. 

I was at the first founding meeting of the National Lesbian 

and Gay Journalists Association, which came after my firing 

from the New York Post. That organization really reformed hiring 

practices at newspapers. For the most part, we've seen queer 

journalists flourishing in newspapers large and small, and news 

operations across the country. So that through the movement 

itself, changes were affected in that industry. But this new ruling 

goes so far beyond it. We see that just in the diversity of plaintiffs 

HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS 


23

in the case, who were skydiving instructors and undertakers, 

and areas where the companies are much smaller and have been 

historically much less responsive to social change and the fundamental 

impacts of the queer movement over the last decade. 

MW: At the time that this happened at the New York Post, since 

this was before there was an advocacy group on the side of gay and 

lesbian journalists, did you feel you had any recourse to fight that 

discrimination? 

FRANCE: No, I knew that I had no recourse. At the time, there 

was no gay rights law in New York City. That came later. There 

was nobody for me to complain to. I was simply out of a job. Also, 

I was being told very clearly that there would be no job for me 

in journalism. There were very few openly gay journalists at the 

time. I think there were two. One was at the New York Post, and 

he was protected by the union there. Once you got in the union, 

you were protected from the kind of hostilities that I was experiencing. 

And I hadn't yet been at the paper long enough to get into 

the union. That's what they were doing there with this kind of 

gate keeping, to make sure that they were able to figure out who 

was queer and who wasn't, before union eligibility. The New 

York Times had no openly gay journalists at it. The Wall Street 

Journal had no openly gay journalists. The only other one that I 

knew of at the time was at the San Francisco Chronicle. That was 

Randy Shilts. It was an entire field that was foreclosed to queer 

people, and it was just one of many. 

MW: I understand the deep-seated bias that existed, but what 

rationale did people have for caring if a gay or lesbian wrote a news 

article? It doesn't make any sense. 

FRANCE: Right? What do they care if somebody is transgender 

while embalming a dead body? Hatred just doesn't make any 

sense except to people who are hating. 

MW: Last week, Russian voters approved a constitutional ban on 

same-sex marriage, in addition to all other sorts of referendums 

that they "approved." Based on what you know and what you're 

hearing from people in Russia and in Chechnya, is this a real gut 

punch? Is it something that they were expecting and are prepared 

to keep fighting? 

FRANCE: Well, my friends in Russia just feel entirely hopeless, 

unfortunately. The vote tally, as it were, is packed with fraud. 

We've seen it in city after city, in exit polls. In Saint Petersburg, 

for example, the majority of voters [polled] said that they voted 

against the constitutional amendments. However, the city itself, 

in the final official tally, was something like 70 percent in favor 

of the constitutional amendment. This is really not a case of the 

Russian electorate going against queer people. It's really a case 

of the Kremlin just taking over the role of autocracy and dictatorship, 

and dressing it up as the public will. That's what has 

people so dispirited. 

MW: That's a really curious thing, too, that it does look from the 

outside like it's the public will. It looks like Putin’s side has won 

over the hearts and minds of the people in the Russian federation. 

That they really just do believe that queer people don't deserve civil 

rights, certain human rights. Is that how it feels walking around 

Chechnya, for example, is there a sense of people being unwelcoming 

to any LGBTQ presence? 

FRANCE: Well, I guess it depends on where you are in the country. 

Moscow and Saint Petersburg are modern cities. They have 

gay clubs. They have gay social and political organizations. 

There's a queer presence that you don't see in other places. But 

nationwide polls tell us that almost half of Russians find gay 

people to be totally unacceptable. That is because they've been 

fed this propaganda against the community by state-controlled 

media. Activism has no purchase on state controlled media, 

because it's state-controlled media. That is almost every media 

outlet in the country. The very few that are Russian-based that 

have a kind of liberal worldview are so marginalized by the political 

structure that they have very little impact. 

You could do a major investigation, as the newspaper Novaya 

Gazeta did in 2017, and reveal these atrocities in Chechnya that 

are being undertaken by the government against the queer community. 

And the rest of the country will know almost nothing 

about it. It doesn't create a wave of followup stories by other 

newspapers and television outlets, because it's not part of the 

approved national narrative. It's the lone voice in the distance 

with a very small readership, and it just doesn't get picked up. 

MW: In that environment, how did you find your way into telling 

the story in Welcome to Chechnya? 

FRANCE: I made contact with a very small group of activists that 

have very quietly constructed this vast underground network of 

safe houses and pipelines to be able to rescue queer Chechens 

from certain death, and try and find ways to get them out of the 

country. I asked them if I could come and film their work, and 

they said yes. I went immediately into the underground when I 

arrived in Moscow, and traveled in and out of that network for 

much of the next 18 months. My view of life in Russia is really 

constrained. My view of queer life in Russia is constrained by 

my having only experienced it from inside these cloistered safe 

houses. 

MW: Did you have any opportunity to involve authorities here or 

in Russia? Was it necessary to contact the state department, the 

embassy, or anyone like that? 

FRANCE: I only did reporting to the state department after I 

finished my reporting inside Russia. I wanted to confirm that 

the U.S. had not received any of the people who were seeking 

extraordinary visa invitations from foreign countries. And they 

confirmed that, that there were no people brought in through 

this network who were allowed to come into the U.S., while 

countries like Canada and others, with a much more liberal 

“This is a story of the queer community on a 

global level, who are responding in very direct 

and increasingly dangerous ways to PROTECT 

THE PEOPLE WHO ARE BEING HUNTED AROUND 

THE GLOBE BY THE CHECHEN AUTHORITIES.” 

24 


HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS 

view of immigration, generously extended invitations to scores 

and scores of people to come and put down roots, and to join 

local queer communities, and rebuild their lives. I didn't work 

at all with the Russian government either. Because my story, 

and the story that is captured in the film, is really about what 

ordinary Russians were taking on themselves, in the absence of 

any government response to the revelation that these atrocities 

were taking place. I was drawn to that story because it seems so 

reminiscent of the stories that I’ve read about the Nazi regime, 

where it was not possible to petition the regime for protection 

or help. But instead, people had to take on that work themselves. 

MW: In regards to our government granting asylum to refugees 

from Chechnya, do you see that changing? 

FRANCE: Not with this administration, no. I see an absolute 

urgency to change the administration. Then to begin to piece 

together the federal government, which has been so gutted. And 

then to reconsider this concept of “What is America?” I think 

we're being invited to do that by the Black Lives Matter folks in 

really powerful ways. 

MW: Making this film entailed being entrusted not only with the 

subjects' stories, but in some cases their identities and their lives. 

How did you approach the responsibility of telling their stories, 

and being mindful of the risks that they were facing? 

FRANCE: I knew it was a big ask. It was something that we all 

took on very earnestly. In a way, we had to become part of the 

system to protect their lives. It wasn't just a simple matter of 

reporting, the way most of my work has been, but about joining 

— well, embedding really — in the world that they found themselves 

in. Learning the security challenges, and then taking those 

to an extreme. We had security advisors who worked with us on 

every aspect of the project, including how to film in public places 

where, if it were discovered we were filming, we could endanger 

the operations that were being taken. We had a special group 

that advised us on data security, how to handle that footage, how 

to move that footage out of the country, how to edit that footage 

without it being at all susceptible to Russian hacking, for example. 

We had to build an air-gapped edit suite. In fact, our whole 

studio was air-gapped. 

MW: What does that mean? 

FRANCE: Well, that meant that none of the computers were 

connected to the internet, nor had they ever been connected to 

the internet. They were internet-naïve computers. The footage 

never touched a computer that had ever touched the internet. 

We knew we couldn't be penetrated from state actors, which is 

what we were concerned about anyway. 

Traditionally, you would send your footage out for numerous 

tasks — transcription, for example — which we couldn't do. 

We brought in transcribers who we vetted. Every member of 

the crew was vetted for their background. We didn't allow any 

internet-connected devices, such as iPhones or mobile phones 

or Google Watches, or Apple Watches, or anything like that into 

our edit suite. So that we could feel confident that we weren't 

inadvertently exposing anybody to any further peril. It was very 

cumbersome. It certainly extended the length of time it took to 

make the film. But it was part of our commitment to make sure 

that nothing we did would have any negative impact on the lives 

of the people who entrusted their stories in us. 

MW: It sounds like almost a military operation. Having survived 

the plague years, did that help prepare you for this? 

FRANCE: No, it didn't. What it helped me prepare for, although 

not truly effectively, were the years that I spent doing war 

reporting in the '80s and '90s. I’ve worked in conditions of danger 

in the past where I had to be very careful about revealing 

what I was doing. But literally nothing can prepare you for the 

kind of paranoia that's necessary for working inside Russia. For 

that, I needed really to lean on my Russian crew. The majority 

of people who worked on the film are Russian, most of them 

Russian exiles living in the States. They grew up in that paranoia. 

They were able to check me when I didn't immediately understand 

the need for that kind of suspicion. 

We talk about military operations, but our security walked 

us through rehearsals before every operation. These are literal 


25

“NATIONWIDE POLLS TELL US THAT ALMOST HALF 

OF RUSSIANS FIND GAY PEOPLE TO BE TOTALLY 

UNACCEPTABLE. That is because they've been fed this 

propaganda against the community by state-controlled 

media. Activism has no purchase on state controlled media.” 

rehearsals. What will you do if this happens? What if this happens? 

They will begin with a questionnaire, sometimes 10, 12, 

15 pages about the mission. Then we would create the narrative 

that I would present if I was caught, about what I was doing and 

why I was doing it. Only one time did we need to actually call 

upon that alternative script. That was as we were leaving the 

Chechen Republic with Anya, who is in the film. I was in the car 

behind her, the security car. We were just following behind, with 

no acknowledged connection to the car in front of us. We were 

stopped at a checkpoint where my American passport raised 

alarms. I was detained and questioned about what I was doing 

there. All of the rehearsal made it seamlessly possible to argue 

my way out of detention. It really paid off. 

MW: Writing about the AFI Docs Festival recently, I was struck by 

how of-the-moment some of the selections were. The festival had, 

for example, a film about the female officers of the Minneapolis 

police department, which is a really important movie to show right 

now. It seems documentary filmmakers have to anticipate where 

the story they're covering might land by the time they're finished. 

With that in mind, how do you account for what the story is going 

to be by the time your work is done? 

FRANCE: That's a really good question. This is my first documentary 

shot in real-time, a sort of vérité documentary. I knew that 

what I was studying was the activists, and their lives, and their 

motivations for taking on such a dangerous assignment without 

any previous experience doing such harrowing work. I knew 

that there would be a story in that no matter what the outcome 

was. Then for me, it was a matter of spending enough time with 

them so that I could understand their outcomes, and I could 

understand their challenges. And I could understand what it was 

like to be them. I knew there would be an answer to this question 

no matter what they were able to accomplish in this field. 

MW: Speaking of outcomes, do you have any updates on Anya, or 

Bogdan and Maxim? 

FRANCE: Anya is still a mystery. I'm hoping that the information 

that we have is accurate, that says that she's safe and alive, and 

that she remains that way. But I don't have any contact with her, 

unfortunately. Bogdan and Maxim are still 

Watch the Trailer for 

“Welcome to Chechnya” 

living in the shadows in Europe. They're 

moving from place to place. They have to 

keep moving in order to keep from being 

discovered. That has meant that they've 

suffered some additional dangers because of the shutdowns and 

border crossing controls that have been put in place because of 

the pandemic. 

MW: What about people in the film whose identities are clearly 

visible, David Isteev and Olga Baranova in Moscow. How will this 

film coming out affect their work? 

FRANCE: Well, Olga was forced to leave Russia, as chronicled 

in the film. David remains there with his colleagues doing the 

work. Both of them felt that it was important for them to show 

their faces in the film as a way to increase their physical safety, 

to make them into public figures in a way that made it less 

likely that anything very severe could happen to them, without 

repercussions. For them, it was an act of self-defense that caused 

them to want to keep their original faces in the film. In addition, 

they wanted to let the world know about the work that they're 

doing. Because they really need the support of world leaders to 

continue to offer avenues for the people who have survived this 

atrocity in Chechnya to find homes in new countries. They need 

political partnership with Western countries to allow them to 

do it. They also need you and me to know about the work that 

they're doing, so that we can write about it, tell the world about 

it, and support it. They need financial support. This film has 

become a tool for them to let the world know how much help 

that they really need, that they can't do this alone. They can't do 

it just within the queer community. 

As David says at one point in the film, he and the Russian 

LGBT network and the Moscow Community Center, working 

together, have been able to organize most of the international 

queer organizations to be part of this underground railroad. 

When they move people from one country to another, they hand 

them to representatives of the queer organizations in those countries. 

Those people help the refugees set themselves up safely. 

They help them begin their work to integrate into their new 

societies, into their new cultures. They do everything necessary 

to keep them safe while they're there. This is really a story of the 

queer community on a global level, who are responding in very 

direct and increasingly dangerous ways to protect the people who 

are being hunted around the globe by the Chechen authorities. 

MW: I understand that it will help David and Olga to raise their 

profiles. But on the other hand, in the film, you cover pop singer 

Zelim Bakaev, who it seemed was targeted because he had such a 

high profile. What has happened to him? 

FRANCE: He is presumed dead, unfortunately. His profile unfortunately 

was only in Chechnya and not outside of Chechnya. He 

sings in Chechen. That meant that there was very little in the 

way of international outcry around his disappearance. 

MW: More people will know about it now, which is... 

FRANCE: Which is unfortunately too late 

for him. 

MW: But hopefully it will be in time for 

someone else. What do you hope this film 

accomplishes? 

FRANCE: The main thing I hope is that it helps the activists continue 

the conversations that they need to have, in order to be 

able to continue their work. The essential part of their work is to 

continue saving lives. That's what I hope it will do. 

Welcome to Chechnya is now available on HBO Max. 

Visit www.hbo.com. 

To reach the Russian LGBT Network hotline, 

contact kavkaz@lgbtnet.org. 

26 



27

Gallery 

Azadeh Sahraeian 

By the People Art Fair 

GEORGETOWN’S HALCYON HOUSE PRESENTS A 

partnership with the art consulting firm 

Monochrome Collective to showcase nearly 500 

works of art by more than 100 emerging and established 

artists from across the region. Interested parties could 

request a virtual tour of the fair led by curator Nina O’Neil 

among the offerings at this year’s virtual edition, where 

the artworks span mediums from painting to sculpture, 

photography to fiber, with prices starting at $220 and many 

available for under $1,000 each. This year’s artist roster 

includes Wole Ajagbe, Kate Ballou, Spencer Beck, Shana 

Blakley, Annie Broderick, Gerardo Camargo-Perez, Julia 

Chon, Chris Combs, Marlon Diggs, Cheryl Edwards, Anna 

Fine Foer, Te’Juan Friend, Tara Gupta, Peter Ibenana, 

Barbara Januszkiewicz, Lexis Jordan, Megan Koeppel, 

Anne Marchand, Ada Pinkston, Azadeh Sahraeian, Dafna 

Steinberg, Andre Szabo, and Joel Vincii. Through Sunday, 

July 12. Visit www.bythepeople.squarespace.com. 


Joel Vincii 

Lexis Jordan 

Ada Pinkston 


29

Television 

Miracle Worker 

The stars align for an endearing portrait of the iconic TV psychic 

Walter Mercado in Mucho Mucho Amor. By André Hereford 

ACROSS THE SPANISH-SPEAKING UNIVERSE AND BEYOND, THERE 

never will be another like the late, legendary Walter Mercado. A vision of 

androgynous opulence, he ruled the Latin American airwaves as “the world’s 

greatest astrologer,” beaming hope and positivity to the masses. Described as dramatic, 

fabulous, and “like a religion” unto himself, Mercado narrates his own compelling life 

story through interviews recorded in the final year of his life in Netflix’s loving documentary 

Mucho Mucho Amor (HHHHH). 

A staple in millions of households since the late ’60s, the star vanished from public 

view after airing his final broadcast in 2006. Cristina Costantini, who made the equally 

uplifting 2018 documentary Science Fair, and her co-director Kareem Tabsch find 

Mercado living comfortably, though not extravagantly, at his home in San Juan, Puerto 

Rico, attended to by his longtime assistant, Willy Acosta, as well as a family of nieces, and 

his beloved pooch Runo. From there, Mercado spins the tale of how he became “Walter 

of the Miracles,” and, in his own words, “fabricated a famous person” out of himself. 

One or two of his self-mythologizing stories indeed sound fabricated, 

or at the very least exaggerated for effect. Yet, whether he’s recounting 

his boyhood in the Puerto Rican countryside as a divine healer of 

broken birds, or merely joking about his sex life, Mercado remains 

singular in his ability to strike a note of profound sincerity. He believes in his power to 

heal and to help people, and apparently, he always has. 

Employing news and archival footage, Mucho Mucho Amor concretely summarizes 

his broadcasting career for anyone unaware, and offers up rarely seen clips for those 

who might already cherish him — including scenes from his early career as an extremely 

expressive actor on telenovelas. We see his start on Telemundo, hosting Walter, Las 

Estrellas y Usted (Walter, the Stars and You), the first show on television solely devoted 

to astrology, he claims credibly. Regularly appearing on the daily news show Primer 

Impacto, in addition to his own show airing throughout the U.S., Latin America, and 

Europe, Mercado was broadcasting to an audience, at its peak, of 120 million each day. 



Interviews with Lin-Manuel Miranda, 

singer Nydia Caro, and superstar comedian 

Eugenio Derbez, among others, attest 

to the famous fortuneteller’s cultural 

impact. Many speak to the hope and inspiration 

that Mercado, always seen in full 

hair and makeup, represented for young 

queer viewers growing up within the very 

macho Latino culture. To that end, the 

directors do get the man to address his 

enigmatic sexuality on-camera, although 

he responds elusively with the best line in 

the movie. 

The film also spends necessary time 

exploring Mercado’s closet, not for skeletons, 

but to marvel at his collection of custom-made 

cloaks, robes, and capes. On a 

more introspective level, he also discusses 

his spirituality, and how he combines elements 

of Buddhism, Christianity, Santeria, 

and mysticism into what he calls interfaith 

religion. Mercado’s message above 

all was simply to spread love and peace, 

which he did unfailingly 

until he passed away in 

November of 2019. One 

truly joyful element of the 

film is to see that love returned to him. 

HistoryMiami Museum invites the octogenarian 

to appear at the opening of a 

career retrospective exhibit, and, despite 

ill health, Mercado is determined to make 

an appearance. Relaying the suspense of 

whether or not he’ll be able to share that 

beautiful night with his public, Mucho 

Mucho Amor builds to a sweet celebration 

of joy and love overflowing. 

Mucho Mucho Amor is currently streaming on Netflix. Visit www.netflix.com. 


Movies 

Guard Up 

Charlize Theron kicks a lot of ass in Netflix’s superhuman 

action thriller The Old Guard. By Rhuaridh Marr 

ONE MAJOR PROBLEM WITH MODERN SUPERHERO FILMS IS A DIStinct 

lack of tension. Whether it’s super strength, supernatural powers, or the 

super useful ability to evade death altogether, we know that, regardless of the 

danger present, our onscreen heroes are unlikely to kick the bucket. 

Enter Netflix’s The Old Guard, which would seem to suffer from a similar problem. 

It focuses on a centuries-old group of immortals who, regardless of damage, can heal, 

get back up, and carry on fighting the good fight. Much like Deadpool and Wolverine 

(and making the most of its R rating), bones snap back into place, necks untwist, and 

bullets pop out of gaping, bloody wounds. But this adaptation of Greg Rucka and 

Leando Fernández’s comic book series isn’t business as usual. The themes are similar 

and the concepts well-trodden, but Charlize Theron’s powerful performance as main 

immortal Andy and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s confident direction transforms The Old 

Guard (HHHHH) into something much greater than the sum of its familiar parts. 

Andy forms an immortal foursome alongside Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe 

(Marwan Kenzari), and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), who hire themselves out to those in need 

— whether it’s typical “good guy” missions or mingling with less savory 



sorts in order to fund their extra-extended existence. Their tightly 

choreographed operation quickly falls into ruin after Merrick (Harry 

Melling), a billionaire pharmaceutical CEO, hires ex-CIA agent Copley 

(Chiwetel Ejiofor) to help capture the group, exploiting their powers to sell immortality 

for profit. Further complicating matters is the appearance of Nile (KiKi Layne), a young 

Marine who discovers her own immortality while deployed in Afghanistan. 

From here, the plot is incredibly familiar to anyone who has sat through a recent 

Marvel or DC effort, as well as countless other action thrillers. Nile joins the team, gets a 

crash course in immortal life, there’s lots of fighting, a big twist throws the team into disarray, 

and then they regroup and head into a final battle to prevent some world-altering 

outcome. Nothing here is truly groundbreaking, but it doesn’t really matter. 

Ultimately, The Old Guard is a good film, and that’s largely thanks to some strong 

performances, particularly from Theron and Layne, and to a plot that might span 

The Old Guard starts streaming Friday, July 10 on Netflix. 

millennia but remains appropriately contained, 

with only minimal use of flashback 

to establish its scale. Keeping tight control 

of everything is Prince-Bythewood, who 

carefully leads the audience through a 

series of impressively structured set pieces 

— whether it’s Andy slaughtering a private 

army in a church, the team storming a skyscraper 

penthouse, or a sharply captured 

fight on an airplane between Andy and 

Nile. There’s bullets, swords, and blood 

aplenty, but Prince-Bythewood ensures 

nothing is ever lost in the mass of bodies, 

keeping the action clear and tightly staged. 

Between fights, things get surprisingly 

philosophical, with the film happy to 

debate the merits of life, the increasing 

lethality of humanity, and the loss that 

comes with eternal living. Rucka adapted 

his own comic for the script, and while 

some lighter moments wouldn’t have 

gone amiss, he gets appropriately bleak at 

times — particularly in the flashback tale 

of one immortal who learned to horrific 

effect the downside of never being able 

to die. There’s also a prominent same-sex 

relationship — introduced 

nonchalantly with Joe 

and Nicky spooning while 

sleeping on a train — that 

later offers a passionate rebuttal to the 

“weak men are gay” jokes that perpetuate 

the action genre. 

As for the immortality problem, that 

perhaps is where The Old Guard truly manages 

to stand out. As it transpires, death 

will eventually come for us all, allowing 

a conclusion with genuine tension for a 

superhero film — even if the genre’s blatant 

franchise-building is unashamedly evident. 


31

Music 

V. TONY HAUSER 

Rufus Rules 

Rufus Wainwright has created a straightforward, expertly crafted 

work that neatly bookends the first half of his career. By Sean Maunier 

DESPITE ITS TITLE, UNFOLLOW THE RULES IS ABOUT AS CLOSE TO A 

conventional Rufus Wainwright album as you can imagine. Aside from “You 

Ain’t Big,” a quick foray into country, he mostly cleaves to his signature brand 

of piano pop, marked by orchestral flourishes and his characteristically languid vocals. 

Its simplicity is intentional, meant to hearken back to his acclaimed debut album, 

Rufus Wainwright, and introduce the next big chapter of his career, all part of his 

longtime aspiration to get a late-in-life second wind (not unlike his fellow Montrealer 

Leonard Cohen). 

Just like that debut album, this is Rufus Wainwright at his most focused, playing 

with a stripped back acoustic sound that sounds almost minimalistic compared to some 

of his more exuberantly baroque albums. His cleverness as a songwriter, while it was 

certainly evident from the beginning, has deepened over the years and Unfollow the 

Rules (HHHHH) feels in many ways like a culmination of what he has learned along 

the way. While the album boasts several strong tracks, it finds its peak on “Damsel in 

Distress,” a stirring tribute to both the iconic Joni Mitchell and L.A.’s Laurel Canyon, 

Wainwright’s adopted home. 

Wainwright gives us a handful of memorable moments elsewhere 

too, including the swaggering country-adjacent “You Ain’t Big,” an 

ode to the real or perceived authenticity of Kansas, Alabama, and a 

handful of other places that he conflates with one another. “Hatred” stands out for its 

intensity, a notable outlier in an album that is otherwise more subdued. Wainwright 

also allows us to see him gush a little on “Romantical Man” and its follow-up, “Peaceful 

Afternoon,” which captures a prolonged joyous moment of domestic bliss, as the 

normally artistically detached Wainwright gets explicitly personal, reflecting on his 

relationship of 13 years. 

Watch the Video for 

“You Ain’t Big” 

Unfollow the Rules is available to stream and purchase on July 10. 

As much as Wainwright seeks and generally 

achieves a certain timelessness with 

his songwriting, the opening and closing 

tracks feel very much of the present 

moment. In the context of the pandemic, 

the final track stands out as the most 

sobering and thematically heavy track on 

the album. Originally intended as a tribute 

to those isolating in their homes to protect 

themselves and others, “Alone Time” concludes 

the album on a calming note after 

the fraught tension of “Hatred.” The track, 

released in April, features Wainwright 

crooning soothingly over piano and choral 

lines, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back,” a 

phrase that took on extra weight when 

Wainwright dedicated the song to COVID- 

19’s dead and dying. As strange a moment 

as this is to be releasing an album at all, it 

is not lost on Wainwright that it’s an even 

stranger time to be reaching for a late-career 

second wind. 

If Rufus Wainwright is unfollowing the 

rules at all, he is doing so by subverting 

the expectation that we might see him 

come out with another 

idiosyncratic project like 

his recent operas, or his 

2016 interpretation of 

Shakespeare’s sonnets. Rather than experimenting 

and breaking more rules of pop 

music, he is instead breaking with his own, 

handing us a straightforward, expertly 

crafted work that neatly bookends the first 

half of his career. 


VintageScene 

Assorted Shots, 1998 

To see more photos from this event online, click on the photos below. 


33


LastWord. 

People say the queerest things 

“As a cisgender woman, I now understand 

that I should not have considered this role, 

and that the transgender community should undeniably have the opportunity to tell their own stories. ” 

—HALLE BERRY, in a statement vowing to “listen, educate and learn from this mistake” after she was criticized for saying she was 

considering playing a transgender male character in an upcoming film, and misgendering the character during her description of him. 

“I vow to be an ally in using my voice to promote better representation on-screen, both in front of and behind the camera.” 

We can’t search the entire body, but by the best evidence, 

“ 

we do not have infected cells.” 

—DR. RICARDO DIAZ of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, speaking to The Telegraph after a Brazilian man was found to have no trace 

of HIV in his body after a drug trial using a cocktail of antiretrovirals and nicotinamide, and no detectable viral load 15 months after 

ceasing the medication, However, other scientists have warned that this doesn’t represent a “cure,” and might be a unique instance 

of remission through antiretrovirals alone. 

“You’re a gay homosexual piece of crap 

who’s going to burn in hell. ” 

—An excerpt from a racist, anti-gay rant by Tennessee resident SONYA HOLT aimed at Black Lives Matter protesters, WCYB-TV reports. 

Holt screamed “white lives matter, white lives are better,” called a teenager a “poor little Black girl with a messed-up mind,” and told 

a male protester to “cross the line, fag boy.” Holt has since been fired from her job at Keith Family Vision Clinic in Johnson City. 

“Such practices constitute an egregious violation 

of rights to bodily autonomy, 

health, and free expression of one’s sexual orientation and gender identity. ” 

—VICTOR MADRIGAL-BORLOZ, the United Nations’ Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination 

based on sexual orientation and gender identity, in a report calling for conversion therapy to be outlawed globally. 

He said the practice “exclusively [targets] LGBT persons with the specific aim of interfering in their personal integrity and autonomy” 

and could even constitute torture when conducted forcibly. 

“He attacked me after calling me a ‘fucking faggot,’ 

put me in a chokehold and started punching me in the back of the head. ” 

—ALANA REALI, alleging that Portland, Maine, resident Michael Roylos assaulted her in a grocery store parking lot because he didn’t 

like the way she had parked her car. Royals has been charged with aggravated assault, the Bangor Daily News reports. 


35

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