Coming Thursday at Metro Weekly: “How It Ends”
On Thursday, May 10, Metro Weekly is publishing my cover story, “How It Ends,” a special report that looks at what LGBT equality means, where “the movement” is going … and how it ends. Especially after today’s historic news made by President Obama, it feels particularly important to take this step back and look broadly at the efforts being made to advance equality, who’s being left out and how it might be able to be done differently.
As a rare personal aside, I would like to thank the many people I talked with for this story, all of whom have amazing stories and were so gracious with their time.
A preview:
Connecting the dots is difficult within the LGBT community, but not the least of all because — as Cleveland attorney Leslye Huff and others say — the LGBT movement is not an organic movement. Although there are extensive similar problems faced by lesbians, gay men, bisexual people and transgender people, the difficulty of connecting the dots only becomes more difficult once it becomes clear that not everyone is attempting to create the same drawing.
From defining equality and looking at who’s left out, to considering electoral politics, strong advocates of LGBT equality across the country are picturing, thinking about and working from very different ideas of what the LGBT movement is aimed at accomplishing.
Talking with one of the first out lesbian law professors, Rhonda Rivera, and the first out Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, one gets a glimpse into that history Huff values. Hearing from a 17-year-old high-school senior in Idaho, Marisol Cervantes, and the director of a program that works with homeless LGBT youth, Mark Erwin, adds further insights, as do the voices of trans activist and law professor Dean Spade and undocumented activist and law student Prerna Lal. Rory O’Malley performs on Broadway but is working for marriage equality with Broadway Impact, and Mimi Planas helps the Log Cabin Republicans in Miami open up the pathway for more conservative voices for equality. Finally, as his time at the helm of the Human Rights Campaign comes to an end, Joe Solmonese shares his thoughts on what has been accomplished — and why.
From Seattle to Miami, from Boise, Idaho, to New York City, these activists and advocates of all stripes believe that much is happening. Some like Spade, though, don’t necessarily see what’s happening as all good — and see a dramatically different direction that would be best for the pursuit of social justice.
Read the whole story here.
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