National
Sandy inundates gay N.Y. beaches
Fire Island suffered widespread flooding during storm
The Great South Bay inundates the harbor in Fire Island Pines, N.Y., on Oct. 29 (Photo courtesy of Karen Boss)
Superstorm Sandy caused widespread damage to New York’s Fire Island on Monday as it approached the Eastern Seaboard.
The National Weather Service reported seven homes in Davis Park, which is Fire Island’s easternmost community, washed out to sea during high tide on Monday night. A firefighter in Ocean Beach, a village with roughly 150 year-round residents to the west of the gay resorts of Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines, told the Washington Blade the storm damaged or destroyed up to 40 oceanfront homes.
“There are confirmed reports of houses lost to the ocean elsewhere on Fire Island, but none in the Pines,” said the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association in an e-mail it sent to local property owners on Tuesday.
FIPPOA further noted it has “confirmed reports” of “extensive washovers from the ocean” in the eastern part of the hamlet and a “very severe breach from the ocean to the bay just east of the Pines.” The group also noted oceanfront homes experienced “extensive damage” to pools and decks.
“We know that there is extensive flooding from the bay and the ocean and the bay is experiencing very high tides at this time,” said FIPPOA. “Our dunes are destroyed along the length of the community.”
“We are the only community on fire island without catastrophic damage,” reads the message.
Suffolk County officials on Saturday ordered a mandatory evacuation of Fire Island, which is only accessible by ferries and private boats, on Saturday.
The year-round population of the 34-mile long barrier island east of New York City is less than 500, but can swell to as many as 30,000 during the summer.
Cherry Grove resident Ken Woodhouse told the Blade from his Peekskill, N.Y., home at least 75 people took a Sunday morning ferry from the beach to Sayville across the Great South Bay on Long Island. Local media reports indicate police rescued 14 people on western Fire Island who defied the evacuation order.
Karen Boss, who lives in the Pines year-round with her husband, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday afternoon the bay had completely submerged the hamlet’s harbor during high tide. A video she posted to her Facebook page showed waves crashing over bay front bulkheads.
Boss told the Blade in an e-mail earlier on Tuesday the storm surge flooded her bay front home last night. She also reported high winds also toppled trees and power lines.
“I have never experienced it this bad,” said Boss.
It is not immediately clear whether the Sip n’ Twirl nightclub and other local businesses rebuilt after a fire destroyed them nearly a year ago suffered any damage. Construction crews recently began rebuilding the adjacent Pavilion nightclub destroyed during the same Nov. 2011 blaze. Co-owner Andrew Kirtzman could not immediately confirm to the Blade whether Sandy caused any damage to the site.
Woodhouse reported the storm surge lifted Bay View Walk in Cherry Grove nearly a foot. He said the water did not enter his bay front house.
“We’re right on the bay, and she’s dry as a bone,” said Woodhouse.
Damaged oceanfront homes in Fire Island Pines, N.Y., (Photo courtesy of Karen Boss)
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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