Latest news with #LavenderScare
Reuters
6 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Overview of Federal Actions on LGBTQIA+ Rights Practical Law The Journal
The current Trump administration has enacted policies that significantly lower federal protections for LGBTQIA+ individuals, particularly transgender people. The administration has relied heavily on executive orders and agency directives to affect the rights of LGBTQIA+ individuals as they relate to military service, health care, education, and civil rights enforcement (see, for example, Executive Order 14183, titled 'Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,' and Executive Order 14173, titled 'Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity'). For most of US history, LGBTQIA+ individuals faced negative treatment in various settings. For example, during World War II, the federal government dishonorably discharged gay individuals from the military. Additionally, from the late 1940s through the 1960s, a time known as the Lavender Scare, the US government either fired or forced gay individuals to resign from government service. (See Nat'l Park Serv.: LGB Military History and Libr. of Cong.: LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide.) The modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement is commonly believed to have begun in 1969, when a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York City instigated a spontaneous uprising by LGBTQIA+ patrons. The following year, in 1970, the first Pride marches took place in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. (Libr. of Cong.: The History of Pride.) Over the course of the movement that continues today, the federal government has taken steps to either expand or contract the rights of LGBTQIA+ individuals. Several times, restrictions imposed by one administration on these rights have been reversed by later administrations, reflecting changing political and social priorities. Major federal milestones in recent history include: Lawrence v. Texas. In 2003, the US Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws nationwide and decriminalized same-sex sexual conduct. In so holding, the Court overturned its 1986 holding in Bowers v. Hardwick (478 U.S. 186 (1986)). It held that an adult's consensual sexual intimacy at home is a vital interest in liberty and privacy that is protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (539 U.S. 558 (2003).) The repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' In 2010, the Obama administration repealed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' allowing gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals to serve openly in the US military. The policy had previously been enacted in 1993 and required service members to hide their sexual orientation or face discharge. (US Dep't of Def.: Don't Ask, Don't Tell Resources.) United States v. Windsor. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (passed by Congress in 1996) that banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages. The Court found that the law violated the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection. (570 U.S. 744 (2013).) Obergefell v. Hodges. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right nationwide. It held that the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee same-sex couples the right to marry. (576 U.S. 644 (2015).) Bostock v. Clayton County. In 2020, the Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 shields employees from workplace discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The decision extended federal workplace protections for these employees and made it illegal for employers to fire or discriminate against someone for being gay or transgender. (590 U.S. 1731 (2020); for more information, see Sex Discrimination Under Title VII and the EPA and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination Under Title VII on Practical Law.) 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that under the First Amendment, the state could not compel a website designer to create work that violated her values. The decision highlighted the tension between free expression and anti-discrimination laws. (600 U.S. 570 (2023).) The Trump administration has rolled back various LGBTQIA+ protections that were enacted by the preceding Biden administration. Additionally, state and local governments continue to pass legislation impacting LGBTQIA+ rights (for more information, see Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression Discrimination State and Local Laws Chart: Overview on Practical Law). Counsel should stay informed on evolving policies and court rulings under the current administration to effectively advise on LGBTQIA+ rights in areas such as employment, health care, education, and public accommodations. (For resources for counsel to assist employers in addressing sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace, see Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Velshi Banned Book Club: ‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club' by Malinda Lo
Written in vivid detail with nuanced characters and artistic restraint characteristic of Lo, the hugely celebrated and widely acclaimed 'Last Night at the Telegraph Club' is a poignant story of self-discovery and first love. Under the heavy shroud of McCarthyism and persecution of LGBTQ+ Americans - known now as the Lavender Scare - Lily bears the weight of her family, her Chinese-American community, her friends, her first love, and her identity. Though the novel tells a very specific story,
Washington Post
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Why artists should perform at Trump's Kennedy Center
A number of artists have chosen to pull previously planned acts from the Kennedy Center lineup. Two prominent examples are the tour of Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'Hamilton' and Washington National Opera's production of Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce's 'Fellow Travelers,' an opera about a gay couple trying to find their way during the McCarthy era's Lavender Scare (supported by WNO but withdrawn by members of the creative team). Likewise, some audience members have chosen to shun the venue, regardless of the nature of the performance.
Los Angeles Times
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Post-Trump purge, can the Kennedy Center save itself? How Mark Morris showed the way
Washington, D.C. — Like much else in the nation's capital, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is in a state of uncertainty. For 53 years, this massive performance complex has served — with bipartisan grace and, at its best, conspicuous American flair — to honor a single U.S. president. But in February the center was appropriated by another president who now also rules as chairman of a board of trustees, all of whom are his appointees. The takeover resulted in the firing of the center's long-serving president, Deborah Rutter, one of the country's most impressive arts leaders. Over the last decade, she expanded an already vast institution's offerings. The center's new temporary president, Richard Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany, lacks arts management experience. In the meantime, the new administrators warn that the Kennedy Center is impoverished, that the facility has become shoddy and that some of its programming ill serves the American ideal. Diversity and drag are out, which has led to the disinviting of, among others, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C., from performing on the premises. Celebrating Christmas, promises Grenell, is very much in, as will be striving for profit-making programming. One suggestion is commercializing the center to take advantage of its real estate value and prime location on the Potomac. On a recent afternoon I wandered the Kennedy Center's grand hallways leading to an opera house (home of Washington National Opera), concert hall (home to the National Symphony) and the Eisenhower Theater (suited for drama and dance), all overseen by a super-sized bust of JFK. I visited the galleries and shops and restaurants, the Millennium Stage (where a free chamber music performance was taking place) and checked out a recent addition, the Reach, a $250-million complex of flexible venues, an investment the new administration bemoans. It was a beautiful spring day, and the Kennedy Center appeared to be well-tended but unusually quiet. Other than a small crowd listening to members of the National Symphony perform chamber music, I felt like I had the building practically to myself. A clerk in one of the gift shops was thrilled to finally have a customer. I was the only one in the galleries. Exhibits still reflected diversity. Rainbow flag Kennedy Center T-shirts remained for sale. There have been cancellations in protest of the takeover — notably Rhiannon Giddens, the Broadway production of 'Hamilton' and what was to have been the Washington premiere of Gregory Spears' moving opera 'Fellow Travelers,' based on the Lavender Scare, the 1950s federal persecution of gay men and lesbians in government. But Mark Morris' potentially controversial new ballet, 'Moon,' was having its world premiere that evening as planned. Morris may be America's leading choreographer, but he also can be a fanciful bad boy of dance. Tell him he can't do something and, I've been told, look out. It would be hard to imagine the current Kennedy Center welcoming Morris' manner of dispensing Christmas cheer. His brilliant yuletime hit, 'The Hard Nut,' based on Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker,' has been delighting audiences of all ages for three decades, but it does happen to include a comedic maid in drag. When the Kennedy Center last fall commissioned Morris to make an evening-length centerpiece for its vast 'Earth to Space: Arts Breaking the Sky' festival, nothing more was intended than to honor JFK's initiative that led, in 1969, to Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first Earthlings to walk on the moon. The festival is an exuberant example of the sweeping events that Rutter created. It includes concerts, opera, dance, film, talks, installations, exhibits, interstellar musical journeys of one oddball sort or another, appearances by astronauts and space-specialist celebrities, not to mention daily screenings of a new film, 'The Moonwalkers,' featuring Tom Hanks. All of this takes on new meaning, especially if we recall JFK's 1962 speech at Rice University in Houston. In it he defended the enormity of the Apollo 11 mission's expense by noting, 'There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet,' and warned that 'its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again.' NASA is preparing for a moon landing again in 2027. The temptation, this time, goes beyond scientific curiosity to colonization, mining rare elements and using the moon as a waystation to Mars. The two most zealous space buffs on Earth loom large in Washington, with Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in a moon race with their respective rocket enterprises, Blue Origin and Space X. Enter Mark Morris. He had been cagey all along about what he had in mind, other than to include the moon landing and the Golden Record, the disc that astronomer and media personality Carl Sagan made for Voyager 1 and 2. Launched in 1977, these two NASA spacecraft were the first intended to leave our solar system. The recording includes sounds, voices and music of the Earth's peoples, in hopes that it just might reach intelligent life somewhere out there. 'Moon,' which is a series of short dances that lasts just under an hour, begins with an animated display of five-pointed stars in a semicircle on a screen that served as the backdrop for the Eisenhower stage. The stars slyly become the circumference of the U.S. presidential seal. But rather than leading to outrage, an image of JFK appeared beneath the seal, and then one of the moon. The audience laughed and then warmly applauded. Morris' silvery moon was a place of mystery and wonder. Musical choices were agreeably eccentric. Beyond the Golden Record's greetings in many languages to aliens, Morris turned to gloriously schmaltzy swing, bluegrass and country recordings from the '30s, '40s and '50s. These included Al Bowlly's 'Roll Along, Prairie Moon,' Bill Monroe's 'Blue Moon of Kentucky,' Bonnie Guitar's 'Dark Moon' and Hildegarde's 'Honey-Coloured Moon.' Pianist and organist Colin Fowler, joined by bassist Jordan Frazier, added their contributions from the pit. A few of György Ligeti's startlingly strange solo piano numbers from 'Musica Ricercata' showed up. Dancers rolled by on wheeled stools like little space people to some of Marcel Dupré's eerie '24 Organ Inventions.' With gorgeously impressionist lighting (by Mike Faba), intriguing outer space projections (by Wendall K. Harrington), elegant costumes (by Isaac Mizrahi) and little toy spacemen scattered about, the Morris 'Moon' became a luxuriant dreamlike escape from Washingtonian reality. Most important of all, his company had never been better, and the dancers themselves provided the real fantasy. Otherworldly movement somehow matched the different music in ways that seem rational but not needing to make sense. Movement, itself, was adventure, around every turn an imaginative new surprise. To walk into a newly uncertain Kennedy Center can feel fraught. But in his program note, Morris asks us to 'observe and enjoy Moon and Space, without understanding a thing.' The genius of 'Moon,' however, is to remind us that wonder can be around the least expected corners. Can 'Moon' remind NASA to go to the moon to wonder, not to plunder? Probably not. But it can remind artists that if 'Moon' matters, so still must a Kennedy Center that nourishes and produces such work. Following the three Kennedy Center performances, 'Moon' will be visible in the next seasons over parts of America, including Southern California, where Morris has a large following and favored status in many venues. (The head of the Broad Stage in Santa Monica came to D.C. for the premiere.) In the meantime, Morris' 'Pepperland' reaches the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills next month and the Music Center Plaza in downtown L.A. is offering daily two-minute afternoon breathing and Morris-choreographed movement 'microbreaks,' meant to help us 'pause, reflect and recharge.' Kennedy Center, please, before it is too late, pause, reflect and recharge. America needs you. And you, if you decide to understand a thing or two, will need us.
The Independent
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Matt Bomer reflects on being ‘unfairly' outed by media
The actor Matt Bomer appeared on Monday's episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson 's podcast, speaking about how he felt when the media outed his sexuality. Bomer came out as gay publicly in 2012 during the Chase Humanitarian Awards, thanking his partner, Simon Halls, during his speech. However, Bomer told Ferguson that outlets such as Perez Hilton took 'over [his] own personal narrative before [he] even had a chance to'. Speculation around Bomer's sexuality was rife before he came out, with tabloid media outlets discussing his personal relationships before he ever had. 'It wasn't because I didn't want to,' Bomer emphasised, 'I didn't even have an opportunity to.' The actor also spoke of his concern that he didn't want his family 'to feel like they were some kind of shameful secret or something I was sweeping under the rug so I could have a great career'. Although Bomer had never 'officially' come out to the media, he never hid his sexuality when out in public. Bomer said he didn't feel that he had the platform to actually announce his sexuality, adding that his right to come out publicly was 'stolen by people who did have a microphone at the time'. As well as not being given the agency to come out on his own terms, Bomer also previously claimed that being outed as gay meant he lost out on the chance to play Superman in the 2000s. However, Bomer found success as Neal Caffrey in White Collar and, more recently, as Hawkins in Fellow Travelers. Fellow Travelers, which aired on Paramount in 2023, explores the effects on LGBTQ people who are forced to live in the closet in the 1950s. Set in Washington, DC, Bomer stars opposite Jonathan Bailey. The two start an intense affair as Senator McCarthy (Chris Bauer) launches the 'Lavender Scare', a persecution of gay people in the United States. Bomer said it was refreshing to play the part of a gay man, particularly after both White Collar and Magic Mike cast him in the mold of ' a straight leading man'.
