“Each year we are inching closer to full legislative equality. But legislative equality does not equal acceptance and it does not equal security. With the constant attacks around women’s rights, Transgender rights, racial disparity, HIV criminalization, immigrant’s rights, income inequality, poverty and homelessness, we need to wake up to the fact that marriage equality, while important, is in some respects just the shiny object that the government is dangling in front of us while leading us off the edge of a cliff.
“This is not our end game. It never has been.
“The term IndiVISIBLE was meant in part as a shout-out to the SCOTUS case, because when one hears the word ‘IndiVISIBLE’ one typically thinks of the phrase that follows it, ‘with liberty and justice for all.’
“But the teem IndiVISIBLE was also suggested to remind that without equal attention paid to all these other issues that affect us, without a shift of focus beyond marriage rights and onto a broader queer convergence movement, we really have nothing.”
Maselli’s words were just the beginning. He then introduced Josh Kilby, who began his talk with “Happy pride, comrades!” Kilby talked about the gains made in recent years by the LGBTQ community in terms of military service (unless you are Trans) but pointed out that the community “fought this battle without questioning the utter devastation the U.S. Empire causes around the world.”
The new frontier of the Queer rights movement, said Kilby, is that, “We stand in unconditional solidarity with ‘Black Lives Matter,’ for unrestricted, free abortion on demand and without apology, for free access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis to anyone who feels they need it and without judgement, and most importantly, we do not tolerate racism, sexism, transphobia in our community at all.”
R. (Ronald) Lewis, poet and performer, then delivered a blistering broadside, that has to be heard to be experienced. Lewis goes after capitalism, which, “commodifies the unconquerable” and he goes after the sanitized history of the Stonewall Riot, pointing out that Stonewall is now a place that celebrates “Gay” liberation without mention of, as Rachel Simon says in her piece, “Sylvia Riviera and Marsha P. Johnson, two trans women of color who were the first to resist arrest on the fateful night.”
When I first arrived at Pride, Anthony Maselli told me that I should be at the stage at 4:30, because he was part of a plan to “radicalize Pride.” It’s this next bit that stirred to crowd to wild cheers, and outraged protest. When Maselli said, “It’s time for us to dispel the bitter myth that we, (the queer community) are all men, all wealthy, and all white, because that is not the majority of who we are,” a man in the crowd shouted, without apparent irony, “That’s a lie! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“We are under attack,” said Maselli, “by the religious, cultural, economic and political right that targets LGBTQ people, women’s economic, reproductive and sexual freedoms, and is organized around a racalized notion of national culture. A religious freedom framework is being deployed to undermine all civil rights laws.”
Maselli asks, “Rhode Island has marriage, now where do we go from here?” and answers, “We are queering living wages, access to health care and transgender justice. Queering total immigration reform and ending incarceration. We are queering feminism, queering the way we talk about race, queering HIV activism, queering heteronormative ideas of marriage and couplehood, queerly engaging in radical protest, getting old queerly. We need to create a movement that says not only, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it’ but one that says “Join us, dream with us, dare with us, go for broke, and change the world.’
“What if IndiVISIBLE was more than just a word printed on a tee shirt, what if this was our queer vision for what we do next?”
]]>Kurt Bagley, president of Rhode Island Pride, introduced the mayor who spoke of Providence as a city that is accepting and supportive of people regardless of their sexual orientation. Elorza was especially proud of his recent move to include transition-related healthcare coverage for all city employees, current and retired, who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming.
The mayor noted that RI PrideFest and the Illuminated Night Time Pride Parade was coming up in two weeks, (June 20) but called special attention to his signature 2015 Providence International Arts Festival, which will will take up the length of Washington St and much of Kennedy Plaza next week.
“We want accountability,” said C. Kelly Smith, one of the protest organizers. “I recommend that the LGBTQ and allied community boycott the Haven Brothers until such time as we get an explanation and justice for Joey.”
According to another speaker, Catanzaro was unable to attend the protest “because he is suffering from severe head trauma,” but that he was appreciative of the support from the LGBTQ community.
Former state Representative (and candidate for Lt. Governor) Frank Ferri was in attendance, and said that he has confidence that the police will bring justice for this crime.
Anthony Maselli lamented that a hate crime committed against a gay man in 2011 remains unsolved. “I’m not here to tell you that all the police are bad people,” said Maselli, “I’m here to tell you that the police are not our public servants but are slaves to a system that is stacked against us.”
Attendance at the Haven Brothers protest was undoubtedly impacted by the 500 person strong Black Lives Matter march that was happening in Providence from 3 to 6pm. Organizers are planning more events outside Haven Brothers in the future.
Haven Brothers is a Providence landmark. Established as a horse drawn restaurant in 1888, it is one of the oldest restaurants on wheels in the world. According to Channel 10 News, “One of the owners of Haven Brothers told NBC 10 News that he was told about the incident inside the trailer and was upset. He said he did not know that the victim was thrown out, even though he said he felt unsafe leaving the truck.”
[Joe] Catanzaro, 24, said he was being bullied for being gay, and as a result, suffered serious head trauma and other injuries.
“There were two guys in line making fun of me. They were making fun of my hat — it was a velvet red hat — so I stood up for myself, asked them why they were bullying,” Catanzaro said.
That set one of them off, according to Catanzaro. He was attacked and choked by one of them inside the truck. Patrons pulled the attacker away, and Haven Brothers employees asked Catanzaro to leave.
“I told them I wasn’t leaving the trailer until the cops came, and I was calling the cops. And one of the cooks from the grill came up to me with a butcher knife and said, ‘Get the hell out of the trailer,'” Catanzaro said.
Catanzaro left and was met by several other associates of the men inside. They continued to beat him unconscious, and according to witnesses, didn’t stop there — kicking him as he lay motionless on the ground before fleeing the area.
Thanks to Daniel Ciora for getting the video on this.
]]>If freshman legislator Robert Nardolillo accomplished anything with the introduction of legislation that seeks to criminalize the transmission of HIV, it was to demonstrate the hard won strength and unity of the LGBTQ and medical community in resisting a return to the ignorance, fear and stigma attached to the disease in the 1980s.
Though Nardolillo, in presenting his bill to the House Judiciary Committee claims to have done research on the issue, it became immediately obvious that he had not talked to any of the assembled experts in public health policy in the room last night. If anything, it looks like Nardolillo’s research amounted to little more than copying section 44-29-140 of a draconian and unhelpful South Carolina law passed in 1988, at the height of AIDS hysteria in the United States.
Nardolillo, who did not respond to my request to answer questions before the hearings, did speak to Zack Ford at ThinkProgress and when confronted with studies demonstrating the dangers of this kind of legislation, showed himself to be impervious to reason, saying,
‘Have I read the research? I did,’ Nardolillo confirmed, saying that he still felt that HIV was too serious not to prosecute in a distinct way.
Stephen Hourahan, Executive Director of AIDS Project RI strongly disagreed. The legislation’s passage, said Hourahan, “would mark a backwards step” in dealing with HIV. Since the bill criminalizes knowingly transmitting HIV, the bill will, “privilege the ignorance of not knowing your status.” We don’t want the mantra to be, “Take the test and risk arrest,” said Hourhan, adding that such a bill would create a “viral underclass” and should be opposed by all.
Paul Fitzgerald, executive director AIDS Care Ocean State, echoed Hourahan’s comments, adding, “I don’t believe that it’s smart” to pass such a bill.
Anthony Maselli, a healthcare worker and LGBTQ activist, said that transmission of HIV with “malicious intent is improbable and rare.” The law, says Maselli, “adds insult to injury” and is “a slap in the face.” At the conclusion of his excellent testimony, Maselli was greeted with applause from those crowded into the room.
Anthony DeRose, representing the Rhode Island Democratic Party LGBTQ Caucus and the Young Democrats of Rhode Island pointed out that as a country, we are in the process of rolling back similar laws. Laws such as the one Nardolillo introduced, said DeRose, are “outdated.”
Dr. Amy Nunn of Brown University, who I featured in a piece back in December during a State House event held for World AIDS Day, said that passage of such a law would set back decades of work here in Rhode Island. She called Dr. Michael Fine of the Rhode Island Department of Health a visionary for suggesting that Rhode island might be the first state to eliminate HIV transmission through sound public policy.
Rounding out the night’s testimony was Miriam Hospital’s Kristen Pfeiffer, chair of the RI HIV Prevention Coalition and Ben Klein, a Senior Attorney at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. Both were vociferous and forceful in firmly opposing the legislation.
In the face of such strong opposition, it seems extremely unlikely that this legislation will advance out of committee.
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