Opinions
Work to make Harvey Milk proud
Come out, stand up and help deliver hope everywhere
By CHUCK WOLFE
In the late 1970s, when a nascent LGBT equality movement was under attack across the country, Harvey Milk urged us all to fight back by coming out. “You must come out … to your parents … to your relatives … to your friends … to your neighbors … to your fellow workers,” Milk said. “Once and for all, break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions.” He believed coming out was the key to winning, and he was right.
More than 30 years later, his advice is changing our country. We are coming out, and the reality of who we are is replacing the lies and distortions pedaled by our opponents. Ā That’s why voters in Maryland and Washington last year rejected attempts to reverse marriage equality laws. It’s why California enacted an LGBT history requirement for public schools. And it’s the reason the Massachusetts Legislature finally passed a transgender rights law.
Being ourselves, and living our lives with integrity, has opened the eyes of our friends, neighbors, families and coworkers, and research has shown that the more out LGBT people someone knows, the more likely they are to support our equality. Today, brave young people are coming out in high school and even earlier, and the result is record high support among those under 30 for issues like marriage equality and nondiscrimination laws.
That’s why it’s so important that we do more to make it safer for people to come out in places where equality is slow to arrive. Our victories in regions like New England and the West Coast are remarkable, but elsewhere in our country that type of progress seems otherworldly and impossible. Harvey would be proud of our success, but I bet he wouldn’t celebrate for too long before asking how we planned to replicate it in Mississippi, Kansas or Alaska.
The obvious answer is to press for federal laws and policies that would end the patchwork of municipal and state laws that leave so many LGBT Americans living in fear. But until those are in place, we must work to bring hope to a lesbian teenager in Arkansas afraid to hold her girlfriend’s hand, a trans woman in North Dakota who hides her identity to keep a job, or a kid with two dads in Alabama who wonders why others don’t see the loving parents he does.
Coming out delivers that hope. Seeing yourself reflected in a gay local elected official, a lesbian school principal, a bisexual member of Congress ā that has the power to transform how people think about themselves and what they can accomplish. They begin to hope that they can change their own communities, and then they turn that hope into action.
Harvey believed in personal politics and making change where he lived. He helped spark a generation of LGBT people to live more authentic lives, but that started in his tiny Castro camera shop.
“To sit on the front steps ā whether it’s a veranda in a small town or a concrete stoop in a big city ā and to talk to our neighborhoods is infinitely more important than to huddle on the living-room lounger and watch a make-believe world in not-quite living color,” he once said.
We have much left to do before all LGBT Americans enjoy the equal protection of our laws, so let’s make Harvey proud. Come out, stand up and help deliver hope.Ā Everywhere.
Chuck Wolfe is president and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute.
Opinions
Pinto leads Council in working with Bowser to fight crime
We must not coddle young criminals or repeat offenders

The time has come for the D.C. Council to join with Mayor Bowser and pass her crime bill on a permanent basis. Councilmember Brooke Pinto worked to pass part of it in July as emergency legislation. We must accept residents are scared. Some for good reason; others because of hyped media reporting. But the spike in crime is real, though not evenly spread across the city. Most donāt know crime fell from 2021 to 2022. But it is here today, and we must do everything we can to stem it.
We can no longer coddle young criminals or repeat offenders. We canāt say if only we could deal with the root causes of crime things would be OK. While we must do that, work to provide better housing, enough food, better education, and family life, letās also recognize most young people in our community, including those who deal with some of the same issues as the criminals, are not turning to crime. How they deal with the hardships they face, manage to go to school, and live productive lives, should be a focus so we learn from them. Recently the D.C. attorney general awarded the eighth annual Right Direction Awards. Thirty young people were saluted for overcoming significant challenges on their road to achievement. We need to share more of their stories.
How do they manage to stay away from guns and drugs? What allows them to succeed? Itās time for the media in D.C. ā the Washington Post, and TV and radio stations ā to report more comprehensively on youth in the city. For every crime story reported, find a positive story to tell. There are clearly more positive stories out there. It requires more work than following the police blotter. Send reporters into schools, recreation centers, libraries, houses of worship, and they will find the good stories.
I have long advocated for working with Congress to set up internships for D.C. students in every congressional office; 535 kids a year would get experience, good connections, and a resume boost. If we are serious about this, and have a focus on our youth beyond those who commit crimes, everyone will benefit.
Council Judiciary Committee Chair Brooke Pinto introduced several bills including the The Active Act. This legislation would further beef up penalties for gun crimes, creating a new offense for illegal disposal of a gun or ammunition while a person is fleeing police. Then increasing penalties for endangerment with a firearm and firing many bullets at once. At the same time, she looks to expand alternatives to incarceration, creating a task force to examine possibilities for diversion programs to avoid jail time for nonviolent misdemeanor offenses such as drug possession. The Active Act also creates more hurdles for pretrial release in cases involving people charged with violent or dangerous offenses. It would require judges to issue written explanations if they decide to release before trial a person charged with committing a violent offense.
In response to the LGBTQ community, Pinto with Council members Christina Henderson, Robert White, Charles Allen, Vincent Gray, Matt Frumin, Janeese Lewis George, and Anita Bonds, introduced the āTransgender and Gender-Diverse Mortality and Fatality Review Committee Establishment Act of 2023.ā Pinto wrote, āAlthough data are limited, some studies suggest transgender people are ātwice as likely to die as cisgender peopleā due to āheart disease, lung cancer, HIV-related illness and suicide,ā with trans women being ātwo times as likely to dieā compared to cis men and āthree times as likelyā compared to cis women being disproportionately vulnerable to the aforementioned risks, as well as to violence and murder, with one in four trans women likely to be victimized by a hate-related crime.ā It is anticipated the information from this committee will contribute important data and analysis, and provide important resources, for the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention and for transgender and gender-diverse people across the country informing future strategies and interventions to drive down the disparate outcomes we are currently seeing.
We must ensure the legal system is not a revolving door. That crimes committed with guns are punished seriously, and young people who commit violent crimes can be held without bail if they are ongoing serious threats to the community. Clearly, going easier on violent criminals is not working the way some hoped it would. Again, simply saying we will deal with it by getting to the root of crime will not deal with the crime we have today. It should happen, and will have an impact, but not right away, and we need to reduce crime today.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
Opinions
Is anyone else sick of Cassidy Hutchinson?
Trump loyalist feted by mainstream media after belated change of heart

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump loyalist who belatedly turned on her boss, the man she āadored,ā is this weekās mainstream media obsession, turning up multiple times on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, āThe View,ā and seemingly everywhere else. The only person getting more airtime this week is Taylor Swift, after urgent news broke that sheās dating an NFL player. (The āTodayā show led twice with that very important story this week.)
For sure, Hutchinsonās testimony before the Jan. 6 committee in front of 13 million viewers took courage, given how many Trump supporters are inclined to violence against his critics.
But Hutchinson remained loyal to Trump even after the Jan. 6 insurrection and planned to move to Florida for a job with him after he left the White House on Jan. 20. She initially took the advice of Trumpās attorneys to claim she didnāt recall the events leading up to the attack on the Capitol.
Some of us saw Trump for what he is back in 2015: a racist criminal and pathological liar, an ā80s has-been and washed-up reality show host in orange makeup and a bad wig.
Whereās our party?
Easily duped people like Hutchinson helped elect Trump and then supported him throughout all the too-numerous-to-mention scandals ā mocking the disabled, insulting a Gold Star family, ridiculing war heroes, siding with Neo Nazis in Charlottesville, and on and on. Not to mention a botched response to a pandemic that killed more than one million Americans. Trump refused to wear a mask (we recently learned because it smeared his extensive makeup) and poked fun at Joe Biden for wearing one.
Most of Trumpās die hard supporters jumped ship after Jan. 6, but not Cassidy Hutchinson. She even told Mark Meadows that she would ātake a bulletā for Trump. She told āThe Viewā that it was a ādifficult momentā to watch former White House staffers denounce Trump after Jan. 6, due to her blind loyalty to him. She resisted her own motherās pleas to abandon Trump and not move to Florida with him. She blamed Trumpās advisers for his bad decisions.
It all smacks of brainwashing. Anyone who is so weak willed that they are easily manipulated by the ācharmsā of Donald Trump has no business anywhere near the White House. Hutchinson has demonstrated not just bad judgement, but disastrous judgement.
And now that she has a book to peddle, the mainstream media predictably line up to sing her praises and she spills all sorts of tea, from Rudy Giuliani allegedly sexually assaulting her to Mark Meadows burning White House documents in his office fireplace. She didnāt follow the parade of staffers who quit after Jan. 6 and she didnāt report Meadows for allegedly destroying government property. And now weāre supposed to shell out $30 for her vapid book about finally seeing the light, long after the rest of the world had figured out Trump for the incorrigible threat to democracy that he represents.
Hutchinson deserves our gratitude for her Jan. 6 committee testimony. But nothing more. And the mainstream media have got to stop their practice of reckless revisionist history and praising the undeserving.
Opinions
Speaker Kevin McUseless calls for Biden impeachment inquiry
Stunt will backfire on Republicans in 2024

Congress has joined the world of the insane with Republicans calling to impeach any Democrat they disagree with. It is happening in Wisconsin to the new Supreme Court justice, and now lily-livered Kevin McUseless, facing threats from his MAGA members, announced an impeachment inquiry of President Biden.
He could name no reason, and in fact during the nine months of Republicans investigating Biden, they have found none. Two weeks ago, he said he wouldnāt do this without a vote of the House, but moderate Republicans rightly figure this will all backfire on them, so wouldnāt agree to vote for it. Meanwhile the country is waiting for House Republicans to do their job and pass a budget, which they are unable to do. The result could close the government again. That will also backfire on them, as it will hurt so many people.
So, what better time for Democrats, thinking independents, and any sane Republican left, those willing to put the country above their own party, and in the case of Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), even their own reelections, to just vote all these Republican clowns out of office?
Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who will lead the inquiry on Biden, has for the nine previous months come up with zilch ā nothing meriting impeachment or even further investigation. The IRS whistleblowersā testimony he touted was contradicted by the FBI in sworn testimony. But then it isnāt Comer asking for this impeachment inquiry, it is Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, and the MAGAs holding McUseless hostage. Those two should be arrested for criminal behavior, charged with being an embarrassment to the country. They are joined by the likes of Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), recently thrown out of a Denver theater for groping her boyfriend, vaping, taking pictures, and recording a show, Beetlejuice. This is todayās Republican Party.
Clearly, most elected Republicans are not willing to stand up to these jokers; all afraid of the Trump cult, aka the Republican Party. They are being threatened with a primary by Trump if they do. They would lose the primary, part of the reason Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) just announced he would not run again. The Trump cult controls roughly 35% of the party and you canāt win without them. But Trump-supported primary winners have shown they lose general elections.
I am more confident than some in a Trump/Biden replay, Biden will win by 10 million votes this time, but not get one more electoral vote. It will again be about seven or eight states. If Republicans go ahead with this impeachment Democrats will win in 2024.
As to Hunter Biden, he should be punished for anything he did wrong, like any private citizen; whether it is not paying his taxes or lying on a gun permit application. President Biden should stop inviting Hunter to the White House, and curtail his public embrace of his son. It hasnāt helped his son, and is clearly not helping his own campaign, or for that matter any other Democrat. What he does in private is his business. The president has two homes, one in Wilmington, and one in Rehoboth Beach, where he can meet with, and entertain his son. I think the president owes that to the people he is asking to support him. He owes it to the party to not put himself in positions his opponents can take advantage of.Ā
Joe Biden has been a public servant since he was 28 years old, starting on the New Castle County Council, in Delaware, in 1970. He ran and won his Senate seat in 1972. He has never been accused of any impropriety until the Republicans decided they could make unfounded accusations for political gain. He has shown himself a decent and honest man. A man with empathy for those less fortunate; and a president with one of the most successful administrations in modern times.
So McUseless, do your worst. Bend over for the MAGAs and get screwed. Hope it hurts. You have no balls as depicted in a recent funny meme where Barbie is shown on her knees in front of Ken, saying she finally understood; McUseless was the model for Ken.
The country will survive McUseless and the congressional Trump cult and be stronger for it. The decent people of the country will end up winning and McUseless, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and their cronies, will be relegated to the dustbin of history with nary an asterisk to their names. If there is an asterisk it will read that they were useless, venal, and screwed up.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
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