National
Safe haven for service members
About 13,000 service members have been abruptly fired from their jobs with the U.S. military as a result of 15 years of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. In 2005, a bill (H.R. 1059, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act) was introduced to repeal the law and replace it with a policy of non-discrimination throughout the U.S. armed forces; it never made it out of committee.
Reintroduced in 2007, again the bill never made it out of committee. In 2009, the bill was reintroduced as H.R. 1283, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2009 and is currently awaiting action by the Democratic leadership in Congress.
Starting out as a group of service members who were concerned about the small numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans being included in the debate over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Servicemembers United was born. The mission statement for this non-partisan and non-profit organization includes the following list of goals:
• To engage in education and advocacy on issues affecting gay and lesbian troops and veterans.
• To serve as an associational organization for the gay and lesbian military, veteran, and defense community.
• To represent the voice of Iraq/Afghanistan-era gay and lesbian troops and veterans.
• To advance and inform public debate on the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.
Servicemembers United provides “substantive representation for gay and lesbian troops and veterans in the discourse and debate of the issues that affect their service and their lives.” As a non-profit organization, Servicemembers United requires donations and fundraising efforts to operate.
And that’s where Motley Bar, the upstairs of EFN Lounge, enters the picture. Motley Bar, 1318 9th St., N.W., has thrown its support behind this organization with a weekly fundraising event aptly named “Active Duty Thursday”.
Billed as a “safe haven” for those serving in the military, “Active Duty Thursdays” at Motley Bar offers an open, comfortable, familiar environment for military personnel, which eases the tension caused by frequenting an openly gay establishment.
When presented with the concept of a military night at Motley Bar, owner/manager Bill Gray quickly adopted the idea. The weekly event has been built on a word of mouth platform using such social networking tools as Facebook and Twitter with numbers of attendees increasing weekly.
With the help of Servicemembers United, Motley Bar uses this night to help bridge connections between those in attendance. When caught up in the storm of being discharged from the military there are many questions that require answers not so easily obtained; the connections made on any Active Duty Thursday could potentially provide answers.
From 9 p.m.-2 a.m. each Thursday, “Active Duty” includes a mix of veterans, military supporters and family members of active duty personnel along with a sizable number of active duty personnel. The bar is filled with various musical genres outside the normal dance beats you find elsewhere: rock, punk, ska, etc. Motley Bar also enables iPhone users to access the bar’s music library and control the playlist via Apple’s “Remote” application.
Check out Motley Bar’s Active Duty Thursdays Facebook page and Servicemembers United has a detailed site that provides much more information. For general inquiries about Servicemembers United, e-mail [email protected].
National
Queen Jean is Tony’s first transgender winner
Designer/activist wins for work on ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’
It was a historic night at the 79th annual Tony Awards on Sunday as Queen Jean won the award for Best Costume Design of a Musical, making her the first out transgender person to win a Tony.
“This experience has been monumental. We are here for the legacy of queer people, trans people,” she said. “We are taking up space in ways we have to take up space. We have to shift the paradigm. So I just want to say, thank you all so much for this incredible honor. The world right now is deeply, deeply combating so many ailments, and we know as a society that when we come together, we can make real, permanent change.”
She won the award for her work on “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” and was also nominated for best costume design of a play for “Liberation.”
In addition to her stage work, Queen Jean is the founder of Black Trans Liberation, an organization that supports trans and gender-nonconforming people in New York City.
National
Madonna turns Times Square into massive dance floor
Pop icon celebrates Pride month with surprise performance
Pop icon Madonna celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York City’s Times Square on Thursday to the delight of 50,000 fans.
She performed for about 15 minutes high above street level, including several songs from her new album “Confessions II” due on July 3, along with a trio of songs from the first “Confessions on a Dance Floor.”
In addition to the brand new “Love Sensation,” she performed “I Feel So Free” and “Bring Your Love,” plus “Hung Up,” “Get Together” and “I Love New York.” She wished the crowd a happy Pride season; the event was shared with audiences through Grindr’s first-ever livestream.
National
Gallup finds LGBTQ support among Americans is dropping
Marriage equality support lowest since 2016
Gallup, one of the leading organizations in public opinion polling, has found that LGBTQ support among Americans is dropping.
The poll, whose data was collected using Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, was conducted in May and was published on Wednesday. The data was collected through telephone interviews from a sample of more than 1,000 adults living in all 50 states and D.C. using random digit dialing.
It highlights declining attitudes surrounding LGBTQ issues in multiple areas — from support for same-sex marriage to views on gender identity and the morality of one’s sexuality.
One of the most striking findings was that support for marriage equality fell six points from its 2022-2023 high.
The survey also found that 62 percent of Americans view gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable, the lowest level since 2016 just after same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide by the U.S. Supreme Court.
One newer question on the poll found that the perceived morality of changing one’s gender has dropped eight points since 2021, indicating the American public is less supportive of transgender people.
The data attributes much of the decline to shifting Republican views alongside the party itself. Conservative leaders have pushed back against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that were intended to foster greater acceptance of LGBTQ people and other historically disadvantaged groups.
President Donald Trump has been a guiding force behind waves of anti-LGBTQ sentiment, particularly when it comes to trans rights. The president has enacted multiple executive orders, including Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which mandates that gender be defined by one’s sex assigned at birth. He also signed Executive Order 14183, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” which barred qualified trans applicants from joining the military and led to the removal of trans service members already serving in the armed forces.
Additionally, he signed Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which prohibits trans female athletes from participating on women’s and girls’ sports teams.
In February, Gallup found that an estimated 9 percent of Americans identified as part of the LGBTQ community in some form.
The organization also found that 23 percent of adults under age 30 identify as LGBTQ, compared with 10 percent of those ages 30 to 49 and 3 percent or less among those ages 50 and older.
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