The FBI has joined the investigation of violent threats against three LGBTQ+ bars in the Grove neighborhood of St. Louis, and a fourth threat against a children’s play space in the city that was scheduled to host a drag queen story hour. NBC affiliate KMOV reported the addition of federal law enforcement to the probe.
Saturday afternoon, around 4 pm, at least two gay bars in the Grove entertainment district in the city received calls from an individual threatening violence at the establishments. Three bars in the area, Prism STL, Just John, and Rehab, all received calls threatening violence that night.
“The caller off the bat started talking about how they were the Joker, and they were going to blow up the bar, send bombs and shoot up everybody,” Prism bartender Jordan Cox told the Riverfront Times. Cox said it sounded like at least two other people were on the line with the caller.
Just John bar owner John Arnold said he received a voice mail about the same time.
“It said they were going to come in at 3 o’clock in the morning and shoot the place up,” Arnold says. “And that they were tired of us ‘faggots.’”
The same voicemail mentioned a Just John staffer by name, whom the caller said he liked. “They told us to make sure he wasn’t there,” said Arnold.
KMOV reported the FBI is also investigating threats against a children’s play space in the South City area called Urban Fort. The owner said they’ve received violent threats and have been forced to increase security and change the date, time, and location of a scheduled story time hour featuring a drag performer.
“Apparently, the federal government is involved at this point, as well,” Prism owner Sean Abernathy told the Riverfront Times. He says that around midnight on Saturday, St. Louis police showed up with members of law enforcement who looked like they worked for agencies other than St. Louis police.
Since September, the FBI has been on heightened alert for violence directed at LGBTQ+ plus establishments, groups, and events. A threat assessment distributed in the weeks before the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs in November warned that hate crime perpetrators and violent domestic extremists may increase threats against the LGBTQ+ community “due to their reactions to legislative or socio-political changes related to LGBTQ+ topics, and conspiracy theories involving the LGBTQ+ community.”
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement, “The investigations remain ongoing.”
“It’s frustrating,” Prism owner Abernathy told KMOV, “because we’re just people trying to be ourselves, trying to enjoy our lives. We’re not out to hurt anybody, but it feels like it’s a lot of people out to hurt us.”
A new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA finds older LGBTQ+ Americans were affected more negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic than their straight peers.
Using data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, the report examined the demographics, health, and economic experiences of LGBTQ+ adults aged 50 and older during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study was led by Research Data Analyst Lauren J.A. Bouton, with Amanda M. Brush and Ilan H. Meyer, Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy.
Among the findings:
Almost all LGBTQ+ people over 50 received the COVID-19 vaccine, a higher percentage than their straight peers.
More people aged 50–64 identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender than those 65 years of age and older.
More men than women over 50 identified as LGBTQ+, the opposite of younger age groups, where women predominate.
Similar proportions among all LGBTQ+ ethnic groups reported relying on credit cards or loans and savings or retirement to supplement their incomes during the pandemic.
More White LGBTQ+ people reported using the same income sources they used before the pandemic to meet their spending needs.
Reported anxiety and depression numbers during the pandemic were higher among LGBTQ+ individuals than their straight counterparts.
LGBTQ Nation spoke with the study’s lead author to find out what the data reveals and how it can be used to improve the quality of life for a vulnerable population.
LGBTQ NATION: What’s your top-line takeaway from the report?
LAUREN J.A. BOUTON: LGBTQ+ older people, especially older LGBTQ+ people of color, are particularly vulnerable to financial insecurity (food insecurity and housing instability) and health issues such as anxiety and depression symptoms. The vulnerability is compounded by the fact that they don’t have the support many non-LGBTQ+ people have in their lives. For example, they are more likely to live alone, not have children or other supportive family members, and lack LGBTQ+-affirming health care and other services for older people.
LGBTQ NATION: The report states: “Precarity is not new for LGBTQ+ older adults, and COVID-19 may be viewed as part of a continuum of disruptive events that impact the aging experiences of LGBT older adults.” What are some of the other disruptive events that impact aging experiences for older LGBTQ+ adults?
LB: LGBTQ+ older people have had a lifetime of discrimination and stressful events associated with their sexual orientation and gender identity, which research attributes to adverse outcomes. The pandemic is another mechanism by which inequality is perpetuated against the most vulnerable in our society, such as LGBTQ+ older people. Think about how a person with a low income, few resources, and a lack of supportive people around them were facing the pandemic compared with someone who has resources.
LGBTQ NATION: While vaccination rates were higher among LGBTQ+ older adults vs. their straight counterparts, so were mental health issues. Is that a paradox like it sounds? Shouldn’t a vaccination provide peace of mind in addition to protection from the virus?
LB: We don’t know from this report whether vaccination rates and mental health issues are connected. The mental health measures we used were general depression and anxiety symptoms; they did not specifically refer to the pandemic. What we do know is that LGBTQ+ people of all ages experience higher rates of mental health issues, and that was true even before the pandemic. But LGBTQ+ older people also seek mental health treatments, such as prescriptions and therapy, at higher rates, as well. It is plausible that a higher proportion of people getting vaccinated is related to this behavior of being proactive about seeking medical care.
LGBTQ NATION: The report finds a higher percentage of LGBTQ+ older adults reported anxiety and depression symptoms than straight older folks. Is that partly a greater willingness among LGBTQ+ people to speak candidly about mental health than their straight counterparts have? In other words, could you generalize that LGBTQ+ people are more in touch with their feelings?
LB: Minority stress research has demonstrated that people who are discriminated against systemically or individually experience more stress and that stress is related to higher rates of anxiety and depression symptoms, among other health issues. More LGBTQ+ than straight/cisgender people access mental health treatments, which may mean they are more open and honest about their mental health experiences, but we did not test this hypothesis and cannot say to what extent that may be a part of the explanation of the finding about depression and anxiety symptoms.
LGBTQ NATION: The report used the first U.S. Census Bureau data that included questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. How would you describe the impact that had on your study and will have on future LGBTQ+ research?
LB: We applaud the U.S. Census Bureau for including questions that allow us to identify LGBTQ+ people in the dataset. The Household Pulse Survey allows us to make stronger assessments about the experiences of LGBTQ+ people across the nation. The study makes us better able to understand their experiences with food and housing insecurity and we are able to compare these findings to what we’ve already seen in smaller studies. We are hopeful that the Census will continue to add these questions to other surveys such as the American Community Survey, Current Population Survey, and the Decennial Census so we may continue to make progress in understanding the lives and needs of LGBTQ+ people.
Lingering supply chain issues related to the COVID pandemic are affecting stocks of testosterone available for trans men.
Around the world, sporadic shortages of the hormone are creating anxiety among the trans population over the potential physical and psychological effects of missed doses.
In Mexico, the shortage is having real-world consequences.
“One day, I wrote to all my friends that there aren’t any hormones left at the pharmacy downtown,” Chiapas resident Chiu Palomeque told Global Press Journal. “I told them I would go and check another one and I was like ‘Phew! They have it here. Yes! Come and get it here.’”
But soon after, supplies of the injectable drug ran out. After his first missed monthly dose, Palomeque’s period returned with a vengeance.
“It’s as if knives are stabbing into my stomach,” he said.
The shortage dates back to the beginning of the COVID pandemic when supply chain problems and COVID vaccine manufacturing upended the pharmaceutical industry.
The lack of one affordable option in particular, Primoteston Depot from Bayer AG, hit the uninsured in Mexico hard. A statement from the pharmaceutical giant in July said supply chain disruptions continue to reduce the manufacturer’s ability to produce and supply the drug in Latin America and around the world.
Trans men who have not undergone a hystero-oophorectomy, hysterectomy, or oophorectomy, which involve the removal of the uterus and/or ovaries, are particularly vulnerable to adverse effects. According to Dr. Daniela Muñoz Jiménez, a physician and the founder of the community health organization Trans Salud, the absence of testosterone replacement therapy “becomes catastrophic” for those individuals.
For those who have undergone the procedures, discontinuing hormone therapy increases the risk of decalcification, or the loss of bone calcium.
With or without those surgeries, drastic changes in cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and glucose can occur within days, while the psychological effects can be just as debilitating, reviving the gender dysphoria that hormone therapy addresses.
Trans men in Mexico who are uninsured rely on inexpensive versions of the drug like Bayer’s Primoteston. Alternatives, including Nebido from Grünenthal, can cost ten times as much.
According to Sony Rangel, a founder of trans support service Transmasculinidades MX, trans men and transmasculine individuals are more economically vulnerable than their transfeminine peers, because trans women often start their transition at an older age.
While shortages persist, organizations like Rangel’s and online communities are getting the word out on available supplies and alternatives.
In Canada, Ontario’s trans community on Reddit is sharing helpful information.
“Hi all!” read a post in December. “Just wanted to share that yesterday, I went to pick up my renewal for injectable testosterone at a Shopper’s Drug Mart in Ottawa and was informed that there was a shortage, that it was on back order, and that it wouldn’t be available for a while. They said they have other forms available (gels & capsules) and would fax my doctor to get a prescription for one of those, but heads up if you inject T!”
A high school in Stoughton, Massachusetts was the site of a protest Tuesday night over the school’s ban on what it calls “political” flags and posters in classrooms.
The action was organized by Stoughton High School senior Olivia Tran, who was suspended last week for leading a student demonstration against the policy during class hours. Tran draped a large Pride flag outside the school’s administration office in that protest and the group refused to return to class.
Tuesday’s demonstration took place in and outside a previously scheduled school committee meeting, where Tran encouraged students and residents of the school district to “advocate for the disenfranchised.”
School Superintendent Thomas Raab instituted the speech policy in September, when he informed teachers that classrooms were to be considered “neutral” spaces. Flags with “political” messages, including Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, would be banned, and teachers who failed to comply would be subject to “disciplinary action.”
Three teachers at the school initially balked at the request and were called to the principal’s office, according to local news outlet The Enterprise. After receiving a letter threatening “further disciplinary action,” each complied.
The ban originally applied only to flags. Now all material deemed “political” is forbidden.
Teachers were advised not to discuss the policy with students, according to staff, who spoke anonymously for fear of reprisal.
Dozens of students and parents turned out for the demonstration and meeting.
Superintendent Raab addressed the group before public comment.
“It is important to have allies at school,” he said. “We have a fully trained, educated staff and we have provided teachers with lanyards and progressive ally stickers.”
“But we must keep classrooms neutral,” he said. “We can’t pick and choose which flags are appropriate or not.”
While committee members generally agreed with the superintendent’s policy, they faulted Raab for a lack of communication.
“Thank you for acknowledging the community’s concerns and for being a part of discussions with us,” committee chair Sandra Groppi told Raab. “It is important, when implementing new policies, to do things slowly and take everything into consideration.”
Vice-chair Katie Pina-Enokian added: “This community is very strong, so it would’ve been important to discuss before.”
Public comment included a rabbi who cited Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests as reasons to ban political speech in classrooms and a local parent who advocated for the American flag: “It’s for everyone.”
Olivia Tran, who spoke with her mother by her side, was cheered on by fellow students.
“I am bisexual, and I am an Asian American girl,” Tran said.
“There is no ‘neutral.’ Give us the justice we deserve.”
Finding a safe and supportive environment to age in place has become increasingly possible in recent years in traditionally friendly enclaves. San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Provincetown, MA, are some of the towns and cities where older adults can continue to live their best lives in the gayborhood.
For many, though, a planned community is the preferred destination. A growing number are built and run with LGBTQ retirees in mind. Still, with an estimated 2.7 million people in that group, supply dedicated to this population segment has a long way to go to catch up with demand.
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Here’s a list of 10 communities at the leading edge of serving LGBTQ retirees. From high-rises to log cabins, like-minded neighbors can also find comfortable living from coast to coast – and on the golf course.
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If you’re looking for a resort-like community with a continuum of care, Fountaingrove Lodge is ideal. Amenities on the 10-acre campus in Santa Rosa, CA, include golf, fine dining, a comprehensive wellness program featuring fitness instruction, and, as residents age, in-home continued care services. A memory center program for residents with cognitive impairment related to Alzheimer’s or dementia eases the burden of care for loved ones.
In California, Palm Springs is already a mecca, so it makes sense that the desert oasis would be home to a first-class assisted living community for finding your chosen family. The development has 24 units and comes with the features you’d expect such as chef-prepared meals and an on-site nurse. It also offers multiple levels of medical care.
Life at the John C. Anderson Apartments in Philadelphia, located in the middle of the city’s gayborhood, centers around the 6000 sqft garden courtyard maintained by building residents. Built in 2014 with community input, the modern, airy complex features 67 affordable one-bedroom apartments with ceramic-tiled baths, wall-to-wall carpeting, and sun-filled, open floor plans, plus a community room adjacent to the courtyard for events, and retail shops serving senior needs on the ground floor, including a convenient coffee spot.
Options for lesbian-only communities are few, but this Ft. Myers retirement village is a popular choice. The site features 278 home and RV lots on 50 acres, many overlooking two women-made freshwater lakes. Amenities include a clubhouse with pool, fitness center, hot tub, billiards room, library, clay room with kiln, card room, “a really great dance floor” and a wide variety of art programs, plus tennis, pickleball, shuffleboard, and bocce courts.
This 165-acre gated community started as an entirely queer development but has welcomed straight allies in growing numbers. Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northwestern North Carolina, the forested community features 28 log-cabin homes and 78 lots available to build on; major development was stalled in the last recession. The tranquil setting, which includes a mountain stream and plenty of wildlife, is the development’s most-prized amenity.
Just 30 minutes outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, Birds of a Feather is a 140-acre gated community founded in 2004. The independent living compound is designed for aging in place, with up to 3 acres ready for building either a custom home or one of several plans designed by architects for the community.
Fifteen miles from Portland, OR., you’ll find Rainbow Vista, an apartment development geared toward active seniors. Studios and one-bedrooms come with a kitchenette, with prices ranging up to $1,245 per month. The communal facilities include a large event space, a video theatre, an exercise room, a game room with a pool table, and a music room.
For those not into snowbirding south for retirement, this modern apartment complex in Cleveland, Ohio, offers city living in affordably priced one and two-bedroom apartments, plus amenities like a fitness center and community room. Conveniently located close to transit, shopping, and parks. It’s the first LGBTQ-friendly senior housing complex in the state.
Chicago’s Town Hall Apartments, located in the North Halsted gay district, comprises two buildings: a historic former police station and a colorful new six-story building next door featuring 79 units dedicated to affordable senior housing. Studio and one-bedroom apartments offer sweeping city views; a senior center provides programs, services, and a full-time social worker. Outside, a sprawling, second-floor rooftop terrace is a popular destination, while the community Rainbow Room features event programming. The building also has a fitness and computer area. 60 percent of residents are LGBTQ older adults.
Located on 15 acres in Durham, North Carolina, Village Hearth is a first-of-its-kind cohousing community that includes 28 single-story, fully equipped cottages with open floor plans, skylights, vaulted ceilings, and hardwood floors. The main complex features a common house with a gourmet kitchen, plus exercise, game, and craft rooms.
A transgender member of the Asheville City Board of Education has resigned after a months-long campaign of harassment by a representative of a national hate group.
Peyton O’Conner announced her resignation from the board on Monday night, effective immediately.
Ronald Gates, a self-described pastor and “ambassador” for the Arizona-based hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, started showing up at Asheville City Board of Education meetings in October, hectoring the board with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, denouncing critical race theory, and misgendering board member O’Conner.
“Mr. Gates is a fascist whose hatred and fear-mongering have no place within the Asheville City School’s community,” O’Conner wrote in her letter of resignation to the board. “He is dragging a well-funded group of fascists into our town in order to claim his own 15 minutes of fame. His views are ignorant, disgusting, and vile.”
O’Conner was appointed to the seat in March 2021 by the Asheville City Council to fill a term ending in 2024.
O’Conner’s resignation follows a board meeting at which she ripped up a letter transmitted by Gates that demanded “parents, school board members, and local clergy be informed if teachers plan to allow ‘indoctrination teaching’ in the school system.”
Alliance Defending Freedom identifies itself as a “legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, parental rights, and God’s design for marriage and family.” The Southern Poverty Law Center describes it as a “hate group.” ADF has joined with like-minded organizations in Europe in support of forced sterilization of transgender individuals.
When Gates took the mic for public comment, he repeatedly misgendered O’Conner, despite rebukes from the board chair. O’Conner interjected: “Mr. Gates, I would ask that you refrain from bigotry and hate speech. That is not my gender.”
Gates went on: “We should be focusing on reading, writing, math, and history, true history, instead of sexual immorality or indoctrination or CRT. As I shared, the submittal of the information, it was submitted before the board, respectfully, and the individual that took time to rip up that information is not known, as you reflect it, as ‘Miss.’ I will say ‘Mr.’ if the blood was drawn XY, which is a male.”
Board members can be heard repeating “no,” and Gates is gaveled out of order and told to yield his time. The pastor and his supporters were escorted from the room by security, as Gates continued his rant.
“The ADF has a playbook,” O’Conner wrote in her resignation letter. “Essentially, Mr. Gates will continue attacking until he is censured in a way that allows him (with the assistance of the ADF) to create a lawsuit and turn our district into the circus and s**t show that he and the ADF desire. This isn’t a guess, the ADF makes no attempt to hide its tactics. It’s a group with 1.6 million followers, they are looking for their next opportunity for their next Fox News press blitz.”
Asheville is one of the most progressive cities in the southeast. According to the last U.S. Census, the Asheville area has 83% more LGBTQ+ people than the typical American city or town. In 2021, the city council unanimously passed one of the country’s most sweeping anti-discrimination ordinances, protecting residents based on sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and several other classes.
A Seattle-area pub was hit by gunfire yesterday, days before a scheduled drag queen story hour and bingo night.
The Brewmaster’s Taproom in Renton, Washington, just south of Seattle, was hit a single gunshot to their front window in a drive-by shooting around noon on Wednesday. The pub’s monthly Drag Queen Storytime and Rainbow Bingo events will go on as planned on Saturday.
Brewmaster’s owner Marley Rall told LGBTQ Nation she was working at home when she got a text from an employee at the coffee stand next door to the pub. “They just texted me and said, ‘Hey, I just watched this.’”
Rall said the assailant had removed the license plates from the car and was wearing a mask and gloves.
Rall posted to Facebook: “So just an update for everyone. Our taproom was shot at today around noon. We believe it has to do with the people who are upset about our Drag Queen Story Time. We would like you to know we are still going to have drag queen storytime. But we also want to be transparent with parents. Renton PD is aware and has set up cameras.”
“Hatred isn’t pretty,” one commenter posted. “Hang in there. A lot of us will be there to support you! Grateful for your inclusion of all people.” Rall, who lives with her husband in Renton, calls herself a staunch ally of the LGBTQ+ community.
The shooting comes after plans for a protest at the event by right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ groups came to light. “We are aware of the chatter and threats,” Rall wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday. “Every month we get emails and phone calls about our Drag Queen Story Time. Never have we had issues, but this time feels different.”
The single gunshot came from a silver four-door sedan hours later.
Rall said she noticed unusual activity on the tap room’s Facebook page Monday night. “I get a notification,” Rall said, and a woman “had posted on our newsletter, ‘This is fucking disgusting,’ and ‘You’re fucking groomers and you’re pedophiles,’ and then had scrolled through our Facebook page to go find another post from the month before, specifically for our drag queen storytime and bingo.”
Rall was also made aware of a protest flyer originating with right-wing group Wake Up WA State that had spread across social media and was shared by advocacy group LGBTQIA+ Renton and a local councilwoman. Calls for protest also made their way to Reddit, where one poster suggested shooting up a transformer to deprive Brewmasters of power during the event.
“So I screenshot it and send it to the city,” Rall says. “This is a thing and somebody clearly wants to replicate what was going on in North Carolina.” She was referring to a
Following the shooting Wednesday, Wake Up WA State scrubbed their Facebook account of any reference to the event.
“Wake Up WA State is shutting its pages down at least for now,” wrote group organizer Justine Andrina. “We talked about it a lot and made this decision because the people running the groups are putting themselves at risk at this point and the benefit is outweighing the risks [sic].”
A deleted post archived by a Brewmaster supporter illustrated Wake Up WA State’s role in the protest and purported cancellation.
Andrina shared: “Per the organizer holding the protest: ‘Based on some recent developments we’ve decided to pull the plug on Saturday. Someone took a shot at the bar today.’ I don’t know if it was a false flag or a patriot who got too hotheaded. Either way, it now seems like a major security issue and since children will be present, we made the decision to cancel. If you are able to make a note of that on Wake Up WA FB, it would be appreciated. Thanks.”
“Whoever did this to Brewmasters,” Andrina wrote, “you’re sick in the head.”
Rall says both her parents lost family in the Holocaust, and they made sure she could recite the poem First They Came.
“Just because it doesn’t personally impact you, one day, you’re going to turn around and nobody’s going to be there, because it will,” she said. “This is about keeping everybody safe, and making sure that everybody continues to feel comfortable coming out and being their authentic self.”
Like the ex-gay movement that rose to prominence in the early 2000s and then came crashing down as leaders recanted their “conversions,” the detransition movement is showing similar signs of a crack-up.
Ky Schevers is just one of the prominent voices of the detransition movement to reconsider her choice to reject her gender evolution and publicly denounce transition. She began her transition in college but ended it after coming to the belief that gender dysphoria was a false idea caused by misogyny and trauma, a theory she shared widely in interviews and online.
Now Schevers – who is transmasculine and uses she/her pronouns – has regrets about her place in the detrans movement. From 2013 to 2020, she regularly wrote and made videos about her detransition. She was featured in several major publications – even interviewed by anti-trans journalist Katie Herzog – to promote the idea that transgender identity isn’t legitimate and that gender dysphoria was a mix of internalized sexism and trauma response for her.
But now she’s speaking out against the movement she once supported.
“Trans people deserve access to support, and it makes no sense to shut down people’s access to medical transition just because some people end up detransitioning,” she told Slate.
The number of people reporting detransition is small. According to a study this year from UCLA’s Williams Institute, 1.3 million adults in the U.S. identify as transgender, or 0.05 % of the population. Another 300,000 youth, ages 13-17, do so, as well.
Of those who transition, about eight percent report detransitioning, according to a 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality, and most – 62 percent – of that eight percent said detransition was temporary. A 50-year survey in Sweden revealed about two percent of the trans population regretted undergoing gender-affirming surgery.
Schevers said the detransition movement she helped spark became overtly transphobic and repressive and left no room for doubt or questioning individuals.
While she came to believe her own gender dysphoria was in check, it came roaring back over time. “My sense of being a woman unraveled, and I was feeling more like a dude or a gender weirdo,” Schevers said. “But I was fighting against these feelings because I’d built a life in the detransition community, and I knew a lot of the other women in the community wouldn’t be happy with it if I came out as trans.”
The detrans movement assigns a variety of reasons to what they consider the false concept of gender dysphoria and provides attendant solutions to the non-existent problem.
Detrans promoters liken the urge to transition to drug or alcohol addiction, encouraging sufferers to avoid triggers and commit to abstinence, concepts adopted from 12-step programs. They characterize dysphoria as internalized misogyny stemming from a lack of self-love. One theory, known as “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” describes being transgender as a social contagion spread among adolescent girls online, like accusations of witchcraft among young women at the Salem witch trials.
Schevers says of her own dysphoria, “I tried to explain it in a radical feminist framework, and find the root causes, and do everything to make these feelings go away, and that didn’t really work. The only thing that did work to make them go away was accepting them. I had to make a move to accept them.”
Less than two weeks before the midterm elections, the window for transgender voters to verify their identities for voting is closing fast.
Roadblocks for trans people to acquire accurate identification abound, while ID requirements to vote are getting stricter in a growing number of states. The predictable result will be fewer trans people voting in 2022, just as their rights are coming under attack from anti-LGBTQ candidates.
According to the latest research from UCLA’s Williams Institute, over 200,000 trans voters could be disenfranchised this November.
It could be worse. A 2015 study from the National Center for Transgender Equality reveals voter participation from trans people is higher than among all eligible voters, 54% to 42%, meaning more trans voters will manage to cast a ballot despite the barriers to their participation.
Trans people face numerous challenges in changing their official ID gender markers. The process can take time, money, and access to medical care that many trans people, particularly younger individuals, don’t have.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, 10 states require documentation from a medical provider in order to change a trans person’s gender marker. Eight states require proof of surgery, a court order, or an amended birth certificate. And ten states have “burdensome” or “unclear” policies on changing gender markers.
Changing a birth certificate to get a new ID can also present problems. 12 states require trans people to undergo some form of gender-affirming surgery before officials will revise a birth certificate. Four states don’t allow changing a birth certificate gender marker at all.
Name changes aren’t easy, either. Nine states require people to publicly post a name change request online, which can lead to harassment or violence.
“Such obstacles can impact voting in the 35 states that have voter ID laws,” according to the Williams study. “In these states, voters encounter additional verification requirements at the polls on top of federal standards for voter registration and eligibility determination. The strictest of these voter ID laws require voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polling place, and provide no alternative for voters who do not have a photo ID, or as is often the case for transgender voters, have an inaccurate photo ID.”
UCLA Williams Institute
According to the Williams study, “Transgender people who are Black, indigenous, or people of color, young adults, students, people with low incomes, people experiencing homelessness, and people with disabilities are overrepresented among the over 203,700 voting-eligible transgender people who may face barriers to voting due to voter ID laws in the 2022 midterm election cycle.”
UCLA Williams Institute
Trans voters can seek help updating their state and federal identification with organizations like the National Center for Transgender Equality, which provides up-to-the-minute requirements for voter ID state by state, and other gender and name ID change information.
Voter ID laws are promoted by their primarily-Republican sponsors as a way to protect against voter fraud, a nearly non-existent problem in the United States, despite the hype. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and The Brennan Center for Justice have called voter ID laws a form of “voter suppression” that mostly disenfranchises Democratic voters.
“Regardless of whether you’re transgender, every eligible voter should be able to cast their ballot without fear of harassment or discrimination,” Olivia Hunt, policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told LGBTQ Nation. “Onerous ID requirements are just one of the many strategies used to exclude marginalized people from participating in the political process. This kind of voter suppression is contrary to the guiding principles of American democracy, and is a blatant violation of the fundamental constitutional rights of all Americans.”
When asked to confirm his age, Out Democrat Robert Zimmerman replied with an easy and emphatic laugh: “No.”
For the record, the out Long Island Democrat – who is running for an open seat to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District – is 68. It’s not a young age to hold elective office for the very first time, let alone to fight off an unrepentant MAGA opponent, who, at 34, is exactly half Zimmerman’s age.
But the New York native, who graduated cum laude from Brandeis University and earned an MBA at Fordham, is a seasoned politico and strategist.
He has served on Capitol Hill as a senior congressional aide and advisor to successive reps for his district, and also as the owner of a communications strategy firm he founded there in the late 1980s.
Zimmerman is also an elected member of the Democratic National Committee, a former president of the American Jewish Congress on Long Island, and a longtime media advocate for candidates and causes, appearing regularly on all the major cable news networks, and on broadcast venues like The View.
“I’m the only Democrat running for Congress in New York who has been nationally denounced by Donald Trump,” said Zimmerman proudly. In 2016, “He called me ‘a disgusting Hillary flunky.’”
Zimmerman is up against Republican MAGA standard-bearer George Devolder-Santos, a Wall Street executive who’s earned the endorsements of far-right congressional Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.
Devolder-Santos was at Donald Trump’s ellipse rally on January 6 and contributed to the insurrectionists’ defense fund. After losing in 2020 to NY3’s current rep by 13 points, Devolder-Santos claimed, to no effect, that the election was rigged.
“George Santos is gay,” said Zimmerman. “That’s where his commitment ends. He actually has publicly endorsed the Don’t Say Gay legislation that has been put forward in Florida and in 19 states. He actually uses words like ‘grooming’, and he chooses to embrace and stand with homophobes and bigots like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
“Yes, I hope I have the privilege and honor of making that local history by being a first member of our community in Congress,” said Zimmerman.”The bigger point is making sure we have a member of Congress who’s going to stand up for our community. I’ll do that. George Santos repeatedly has shown quite the opposite, that he stands with the homophobic agenda.”
Like many in his generation, coming out was an evolving proposition for Zimmerman.
“I grew up in the suburbs of Long Island in the 70s. That was a very isolating time to be gay. Jeez, I’ve never really talked about it much before, but I used to hang out at the diner on Friday night. I didn’t want to tip my parents I didn’t have a date, or a date for the school dance, or something like that,” Zimmerman remembers with a quiet laugh. “Sounds minor to say that, but I remember those times.”
Zimmerman recounted being counseled by a trusted former teacher that conversion therapy was an option for young men like him.
“I knew I wasn’t going to do that, but that was a mindset in those days and, of course, was very isolating, because you felt very unseen. You felt you were very much unheard in the crowd, if you will.”
Political activism, said Zimmerman, “gave me my voice.”
One place he learned to use it was on-air at the height of the cable news era. “My first segment was with Pat Buchanan, actually,” said Zimmerman, referring to the one-time CNN Crossfire host and the man who gave the term “culture war” its provenance at the 1992 Republican National Convention.
“He put his arm around me, and he looked at me and said, ‘Let me tell you how this works, kid. If you’re coherent and you show up on time, they’ll keep booking you.’ He wasn’t entirely wrong. And then we began this segment, and he blew me away,” recounted Zimmerman, laughing. “It was a rite of passage.”
And after being the voice for so many others, Zimmerman decided to advocate for his own candidacy.
Asked if his opponent is just a grandstanding MAGA provocateur, he shot back, “Let me tell you something. This is a toss-up district, ‘leaning’ Democrat. We do not have this nailed down. Not by a long shot. This is not a district that’s won. This is not a ‘safe seat.’ I don’t want anyone who’s reading this to think that someone this extreme can’t win. Extremists win all the time.”
“They’re relentless and you’ve got to be equally determined to fight back,” he continued. “Clarence Thomas said in his opinion on Dobbs [the decision overturning Roe v. Wade], that marriage equality is on the line. He isn’t kidding around, and he often speaks for the majority of that court. He’s saying what we all know is on their mind. He’s saying what’s on their agenda. Dammit, we have to make sure people wake up to understand it and take action to address it.”
For Zimmerman, making it to Congress means “standing up a whole series of legislation to deal with homeless gay youth, the traumas our transgender young people are facing, making sure we finally outlaw, federally, conversion therapy. In the same way, passing the Women’s Health Protection Act and codifying Roe. This is legislative action we can take. We’ve got to be focused on doing it on many different fronts. And that includes state legislatures.”
Asked about the young people protesting Don’t Say Gay in Florida, Zimmerman replied thoughtfully to the contrast with his own time growing up, in the 1970’s.
“I love their openness. I love their passion. I love the fact that gay and straight kids are coming together,” said Zimmerman. “I’m just not going to let another generation of young, LGBTQ+ young people be put back in the closet. Not on my watch. I know what’s at stake, and the heartbreak that can lead to.”
