Opinions
The Past and Present of Nate Parker
Rape, racial justice, and rehabilitation are on Hollywood’s doorstep

Nate Parker (Photo by gdcgraphics; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
Nate Parker is the breakout director and star of the much-anticipated film “The Birth of a Nation,” due out in October, a century after D.W. Griffith’s racist movie of the same name. It emerged at the Sundance Film Festival as a compelling film about the 1831 Nat Turner rebellion. But it has been overshadowed by the terrible way Parker and Fox Searchlight addressed Parker’s 2001 acquittal in a rape case in which he and college wrestling teammate (now co-writer) Jean Celestin had sex with a drunk woman. The studio showed more concern for the film’s Oscar chances than for the woman, who killed herself in 2012.
The controversy over Parker’s past sparks a memory from my own. I was 25. An older man invited me to dinner at his home in Southwest DC, where he spoke animatedly of how composer Leonard Bernstein had once spent a day with him giving insights into “Mass,” the theatre piece he composed for the opening of the Kennedy Center.
My host kept refilling my drink as the evening wore on. I finally said I needed to go, by which point I was plastered. He said I was in no condition to walk home, and urged me to stay over. But he wanted sex, and I did not. I thanked him and began my unsteady walk home. I had never been in that condition. As a student at Villanova, I had been the one who stayed late at a party so my friends finishing the keg had someone sober to see them safely back across Lancaster Avenue.
I would likely have been raped that night in Southwest had my survival instinct not propelled me out the door. But I would not have called it that; I would have felt foolish and blamed myself. I did not then have Beverly Johnson’s vivid description in Vanity Fair of the day she realized Bill Cosby had given her a cup of drugged cappuccino. She cursed him and escaped.
Being impaired by drugs or alcohol does not give permission to others to take sexual advantage of you, any more than the unjust barriers to getting a rape conviction make the accused morally innocent. Parker’s acquittal was partly based on his accuser having previously given him oral sex. But as 22-year-old Nafisa Ahmed tweeted, “Just because I gave you $5 in the past, doesn’t mean I have to give you $5 in the future.” The optics were not improved by Celestin joining in, as if he found tempting leftovers in the fridge.
Despite the controversy, I am eager to see Parker’s film on its own merits. I have never been a big proponent of boycotts as an activist tactic. I prefer engagement to disengagement. Yet I respect that boycotts are a legitimate tool of activism.
I have other differences with Parker. He associates homosexuality with what he disparagingly calls the feminization of black men. At a time when producer and director Lee Daniels is breaking ground with gay characters in his television series “Empire,” Parker’s homophobia is sadly dated.
Parker’s film redresses a century-old artistic crime in the portrayal of our nation’s racist past. Birther-in-Chief Donald Trump’s thinly veiled white supremacist presidential campaign shows that the past is not even past.
But the value of art does not excuse wrongdoing by an artist. I feel little sympathy for these men after reading the details of the case. They need to show more contrition and atonement. Still, Parker was acquitted of the rape charge. Celestin won on appeal, though not on the substance.
And there are blatant racial double standards. Roman Polanski fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to “Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with a minor” in a plea bargain. Yet he won an Oscar for Best Director in 2002 for “The Pianist,” which he could not come to America to receive.
Our understanding of sexual consent has fortunately evolved, though the deck remains stacked against women making rape accusations. At the same time, I have to ask: doesn’t an African American artist deserve the same chance for rehabilitation that was extended to a white one? I have no easy solution, just questions and an old memory of vulnerability.
Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist. He can be reached at [email protected].
Copyright Ā© 2016 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.
Commentary
On this Transgender Day of Visibility, we canāt allow this administration to erase us
All people deserve to have our experiences included in the story of this country

By KELLAN BAKER | Since 2009, the world has observed Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) each March 31. The importance of āvisibilityā feels especially significant this year, not only as a trans person but for me as a researcher whose career has been centered on equity and inclusion for transgender people. My work over the past 16 years, which has focused on advancing fairness, access, and transparency in health care for gender diverse populations, could not have prepared me for the speed and cruelty at which the Trump administration has worked to literally erase transgender people from public life. Ā
From banning transgender people from serving openly in the military, blocking access to best practice medical care, and making it all but impossible for us to obtain accurate identification documents that match our gender, the impact of these attacks will be felt for years to come. As a scientist dedicated to fostering the health and wellbeing of diverse communities, I am particularly devastated by the intentional destruction of the federal research infrastructure and statistical systems that are intended to ensure the accurate and comprehensive collection of data on the full diversity of the U.S. population.
The importance of data cannot be understated. This makes the efforts by the federal government to remove survey questions, erase variables from key data sets, and stifle research even more alarming. By simultaneously removing access to existing datasets, removing gender (and other key measures, such as sexual orientation, race, and disability) from key surveys, terminating federal funding for research projects that include trans people, and censoring research projects at federal data centers, this administrationās goal is to erase the lived experiences of trans people ā with the idea that if we donāt exist in data and in research, the federal government can claim that we donāt exist at all.
Just in the past two months, weāve seen a rapid decimation of the inclusion of transgender people in federal research and their visibility in the federal statistical system.
Data sets that included gender measures have disappeared from federal websites. Critical data sets used by federal and state policymakers, public health staff, and researchers, such as the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), were removed from the CDC website in response to a Trump executive order that made it the policy of the administration to recognize only two sexes, male and female. Although some datasets have been put back up, gender variables have been removed.
Surveys that had asked about gender identity no longer do. Claiming that the removal of gender identity measures from key national surveys such as the American Housing Survey, Household Pulse Survey, and National Health Interview Survey were ānon-substantial,ā the Trump administration has essentially skipped the extensive notice and public comment process that is required to make these types of changesāthe same process that were used to add gender identity (and sexual orientation) measures.
In addition, attempts to exclude trans people and other communities facing disparities from surveys will result in a lack of large enough sample sizes to conduct quality data analysis, while reducing any chance of analyzing racial and ethnic differences among trans people.
Hundreds of grants supporting inclusive research have been terminated. The unprecedented move of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to terminate research grants that include transgender people is just one example of this administrationās rush to eliminate funding from active scientific projects. In many cases, similar agencies are also now required to remove gender identity measures from federally supported surveys. Prominent trans health researchers have watched as their research portfolios are halted, work stopped, staff laid off, and participants left without care.
At the Institute for Health Research & Policy at Whitman-Walker, for example, we have already had seven studies terminated, with a financial impact that exceeds $3 million. One of these cancelled grants was a multi-year, longitudinal study in partnership with the George Washington University to explore the impact of structural racism and anti-LGBTQ bias on HIV risk among young queer and trans people of color nationwide. The notices of termination for this and other awards clearly spell out the administrationās disdain for groundbreaking research that seeks to understand and address health disparities related to LGBTQ populations, particularly trans people.
Censoring research. As seen with recent changes implemented by the CDC, the censorship of gender-related terms on federal websites and scientific publications is intended to further the erasure of evidence detailing the disparities faced by LGBTQ people.
On a day dedicated to honoring the lives and contributions of trans people, the impact that these egregious actions will ultimately have on the health and wellbeing of trans and nonbinary people is chilling. Without access to this knowledge, researchers will not be able to examine the repercussions of the harmful policies put forth by this administration and many states across the country, including bans and restrictions that negatively impact trans peopleās physical and mental health, economic security, and educational outcomes.
Although there has been an effort by non-government entities to collect and store previously collected data prior to the Trump administrationās purges, state surveys, private research firms, and academics cannot fill the void left by the federal governmentās decision to halt data inclusion. Ensuring that public entities and researchers can continue to use these datasets is only one piece of the puzzle being taken on by groups such as the Data Rescue Project and repositories like Data Lumos. Work also continues thanks to the efforts of the U.S. Trans Survey, the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), and the important research and analysis of both Gallup and The Pew Research Center. Yet, gaps still exist due to threats of federal funding cuts to organizations committed to safeguarding inclusive data assets in the wake of the administrationās continued assault on trans rights.
This administration suggests that removing one of the only tools available for identifying an entire population of people is a ānon-substantialā action. This not only questions the intelligence of the American people but is a direct insult to trans folks everywhere. All people deserve to be counted and to have our experiences included in the story of this country. Transgender people have always been a part of this country, and even if our nationās surveys choose to exclude us, we continue to existāauthentically, unapologetically, and forever visible.
Kellan Baker, Ph.D., M.P.H, M.A., is executive director of the Institute for Health Research & Policy at Whitman-Walker.
Opinions
LGBTQ autistic people must reclaim narrative about their lives
April is Autistic Acceptance Month

It has been 10 years since I started to work on a project that later became āAutistic Initiative for Civil Rights,ā the first autistic self-advocacy group in Russia and Ukraine, created by autistic people for autistic people. In a region where most āpsychiatristsā couldnāt distinguish autism from schizophrenia, and autistic people were considered to be a āchildhood diagnosisā by many āexperts,ā the idea seemed weird. Especially because I was promoting a neurodiversity paradigm: An idea that the diversity of human brains is normal. The problem of autistic people is not in autism itself, but in discrimination and stereotypes, and being autistic is an even bigger part of me than being trans. Autistic people need support, not a cure.
No wonder that our first allies were LGBTQ organizations, because LGBTQ people knew better than others what it meant when people considered you to be ill and damaged because of their biases.
But there is another reason why the autistic and LGBTQ communities have always been close. There is a connection between being autistic and being LGBTQ.
āPeople who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth are three to six times as likely to be autistic,ā as the largest study committed on this topic showed. Most of the studies show that the rate of LGB people among the autistic community is two to three times higher.
I started to write about it in Russian, creating special websites and social media projects about LGBTQ autistic people, because Russian is the most common language in post-USSR. I hate Russian politics, but I wanted a wider audience.
I translated a lot of great personal stories written by LGBTQ autistic people from English into Russian, and most of the stories I translated were from the U.S..Ā
For years, autistic communities in different countries used the American autistic community as an example and sometimes even as a role model because so many great disability rights activists and autistic activists came from the U.S.
For example, as a young teenager whoād just found out that they were autistic, I was deeply inspired by the news that autistic activist Ari Neāeman became the first openly autistic presidential nominee in American history after President Barack Obama in 2009 appointed Ari to the National Council on Disability. I read it in times when, in Russian and Ukrainian, almost all information was written in a way that was telling me that I donāt have a future. And even this information was mostly translations of some old American big charitiesā texts. It was American, not Ukrainian or Russian activists who questioned those biases.
For autistic people like me, the American autistic activists, including American LGBTQ activists, were the anchor.
And now, when the autistic community in the U.S. is under attack from the MAGA government, it may have a global impact, harming not just autistic people in the U.S. but autistic people worldwide, and LGBTQ autistic people will suffer the most.
Robert F. Kennedy, the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, promoting the idea that autism is caused by vaccines. In Russia, it is a very common stereotype, and many general practitioners believe in it. I used to speak about WHO norms and American and European studies to fight it, and I am sure that many activists in countries with poorer medicine and higher risks of disease that can be prevented by vaccination did the same. But now, when the leading health organization in an extremely influential country is saying that vaccines cause autism, it made people stop vaccinating their kids globally, which will increase the possibility of a new epidemic.
But there is another problem, an even bigger one, from a moral perspective. Kennedy is erasing years of autistic fights to stop making autism look like a health crisis.
Moreover, on Feb. 13, President Donald Trump issued an executive order stating that the administration would be creating a commission to attempt to lower the population of autism. People like me are called to be part of an āepidemic.ā
In reality, there is no āepidemicā of autism; it is just more specialists who are able to diagnose autism and more people who are ready to search for a diagnosis for them and their children, and autistic people are not a problem for āour [American] economy and our security.ā
I spoke with Sam Crane, an autistic disability policy expert and a former legal and policy director of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, the organization I used as an example when I was creating my own autistic initiative group:
āCalling autistic people a threat to our country and reopening the discussion about autism and vaccines does nothing to help us,ā Crane said. āWe need access to healthcare, community-based supports, education, and civil rights ā all of which are under threat under this administration. We also need to support research on actual quality-of-life issues, including research by autistic researchers ourselves ā both of which this administration has defunded. This especially hurts autistic people who face other kinds of discrimination, such as autistic people of color and autistic LGBTQ people. People who have filed discrimination complaints about multiple kinds of discrimination have had their investigations halted ā forcing them to drop their complaints about race or gender discrimination in order to keep their disability discrimination claims active. People may soon be forced to decide between getting gender-affirming healthcare and getting community-based services for their disability-related needs. We deserve real support, but instead this administration is treating us like a problem to be solved.”
Indeed, the Trump administration treated both autistic and LGBTQ people ā especially trans people ā as a problem to be solved.
LGBTQ autistic people will suffer one of the first, partly because they have fewer chances to fight LGBTQ-phobia and systemic discrimination. And there is also a risk that LGBTQ groups may not understand why they should fight for their autistic siblings.
It will have a broader impact because of the visibility of American activist communities ā both autistic and LGBTQ communities. Stereotypes about autistic LGBTQ people will travel across borders just like autistic self-advocacy spread across the world.
Also, there were USAID programs that helped disabled people and LGBTQ people abroad, and this help now will be stopped.
MAGA is not just harming autistic LGBTQ people in the USA, itās harming them globally.
It is April; Autism Awareness Month, promoted by a big charity that was globally demonizing autism, but autistic activists reclaimed April, making it Autistic Acceptance Month.
Now autistic activists, especially autistic LGBTQ activists, need to reclaim the narrative about their lives once again, and the LGBTQ community needs to help them in doing this. This is a fight against the system. Autistic LGBTQ people will always be a part of both the autistic and the LGBTQ community. The question is, would a LGBTQ community help us in this critical moment of our history?
Commentary
Children of American service members defend Pentagon DEI policies
Students protested Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during Germany visit

āAnd a little child shall lead them.ā (Isaiah 11:6)
Since the new U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth began his assault on diversity, equality, and inclusion in the U.S. armed forces, hundreds of students at U.S. military schools in Europe and Japan ā the children of American servicemembers stationed overseas ā have staged walkouts and other demonstrations to protest the new policies.Ā Ā
When Hegseth visited Stuttgart, Germany ā the headquarters of U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command ā on Feb. 11, more than 50 students from the Alexander Patch Middle School held the first of these protests when they left their classes and gathered in the schoolās courtyard for an hour-long protest meeting.
More than a hundred students at the Nile Kinnick High School in Yokosuka, the children of Navy parents and Defense Department employees based at Yokosuka, Japan, the headquarters of the U.S. 7th Fleet, walked out of classes and held a protest in the schoolās courtyard on Feb. 21, chanting and carrying banners.
āI love this school; I think one of its strengths is its diversity,ā said Kinnick High School senior Chase Hassell, president of the student council and leader of the walkout. āI think we have such a great multicultural community, and I think that itās important for the development of all children ā not just us ā to have experience with different people of different beliefs and backgrounds,ā Hassell told Stars and Stripes after the demonstration.
And on March 6, hundreds of students participated in demonstrations at Humphrey High School at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, and at Ramstein High School and Kaiserslautern High School in Ramstein, Germany, and Wiesbaden High Schools in Wiesbaden, Germany, carrying signs that proclaimed āSolidary in Diversity,ā āCensorship is Un-American,ā āOur Classrooms Are Not Your Ideological Battleground,ā āThis Affects People of Color, LGBTQ+, Woman, and Everyone,ā and āMore Books, Less Bigots!ā
Thereās a great deal of anger around the country about what the Trump administration is saying and doing. But anger is not enough. These students are not just angry, theyāre actually doing something to fight back. Maybe we all have something to learn from them.
Daniel Volman is the director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, D.C., and a specialist on U.S. national security policy toward Africa and African security issues.
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