2 DECEMBER 10, 2015 METROWEEKLY.COM METROWEEKLY.COM DECEMBER 10, 2015 3 EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Randy Shulman DECEMBER 10, 2015 ART DIRECTOR Volume 22 / Issue 32 Todd Franson MANAGING EDITOR Rhuaridh Marr NEWS 6 Rights AlliAnce SENIOR EDITOR by John Riley John Riley CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 8 Blood cRiminAls Doug Rule by John Riley SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS 12 Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim community cAlendAR CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR Scott G. Brooks CONTRIBUTING WRITERS FEATURES 16 FiRst lAdy Gordon Ashenhurst, Sean Bugg, Connor J. Hogan, With the dAnish giRl, tom hooper Troy Petenbrink, Kate Wingfield brings to life the story of WEBMASTER lili elbe, an oft-forgotten David Uy transgender pioneer by Rhuaridh Marr PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Julian Vankim 20 gilded lily SALES & MARKETING the danish girl Film Review PUBLISHER by Rhuaridh Marr Randy Shulman BRAND STRATEGY & MARKETING 22 he von RApps peRFoRm with the Christopher Cunetto t t Cunetto Creative NSO pops And stephAnie J. 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Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization. © 2015 Jansi LLC. 4 DECEMBER 10, 2015 METROWEEKLY.COM METROWEEKLY.COM DECEMBER 10, 2015 5 Now online at MetroWeekly.com CDC says HIV diagnosis rates down NewsLGBT Gay imam says Trump evokes Third Reich WEEKLY METRO Rights Alliance The fight for reproductive rights is more intertwined with the LGBT movement than many realize by John Riley HE ANIMUS AGAINST THOSE WHO SUPPORT LGBT students in religiously-affiliated educational institutions. LGBT rights and against those who believe we should But while such shows of solidarity have been fairly recent, have bodily autonomy and reproductive choice flows the two movements initially grew out of a similar background from the same poisonous tree,” says Kate Kendall, and context. Tthe executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights “In the 1970s, much of what LGBT people were talking about (NCLR). “It’s a sense that individuals are not entitled to their was sexual freedom and liberation, the idea that our choice of own autonomy, to their own authentic lives, if it runs afoul of a sexual partner should not subject us to harassment, discrimination certain code of how we should behave.” or stigma,” says Kendall. “In the same way, those seeking bodily As such there exists a “natural alliance” between the LGBT autonomy for women to make reproductive choices were also rights movement and the women’s/reproductive rights move- seeking some sexual freedom, so that if a woman chose to termi- ment. It’s a relationship that relies on mutual support — and, nate her pregnancy, that was between her and her conscience, her quite often, shares the same adversaries, such as those from the and her doctor, but it wasn’t something that government should cultural right. be involved in. To the extent there was any early sense that these That’s why several LGBT organizations helped pack a movements are separate, that lasted for five seconds.” Northwest D.C. church last Saturday as part of a rally to show Angela Ferrell-Zabala, director of African American lead- solidarity with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, ership and engagement at Planned Parenthood Federation of in the wake of a Nov. 27 shooting at a Planned Parenthood America, also agrees that the alliance between the reproduc- clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo. And why earlier this summer, tive rights movement and the LGBT movement has been a Planned Parenthood issued a statement from its president, “natural fit.” Both movements seek to provide people with the Cecile Richards, praising the Supreme Court for legalizing information and access to services they need to make informed the right of same-sex couples across the nation to marry. Last decisions about their bodies and their health. And in addition spring, members of both movements fought against an attempt to facing staunch opponents, both movements also strongly by Congress to overturn two D.C. nondiscrimination laws, one counter attempts to stigmatize or shame people who seek to dealing with access to contraception and the other dealing with exert personal autonomy through their personal sexual or 6 DECEMBER 10, 2015 METROWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY METRO METROWEEKLY.COM DECEMBER 10, 2015 7 LGBTNews health-related decisions. building blocks or paving stones in how each of our movements “Queer people have abortions. Sex education policy direct- and our rights have advanced.” ly affects LGBTQ youth. The reality is that butch women, Carey also warns that the fates of both movements often masculine women, bisexual people seek out contraceptives,” rise and fall together. For instance, the day after the Supreme says Kierra Johnson, executive director of URGE: Unite for Court decided the Hobby Lobby case — in which the court ruled Reproductive & Gender Equity, an organization focused on employers could refuse to pay for insurance coverage for con- reproductive and social justice in the South. “The reality is traception under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act that what we’re fighting for, which is full access to health care (RFRA) — a group of pastors wrote to President Obama asking needs, is something that is important to all people. All women him to expand the religious exemption for his executive order and LGBTQ people. And, unfortunately, the opposition likes to barring federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT try to create a dichotomy or break us off from each other, but people. In addition, the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby we’re all the same.” Lobby heavily influenced the Indiana legislature when it passed Johnson notes that URGE and other social justice organiza- its own version of a state-level RFRA that critics said effectively tions have often been involved in states where both reproduc- condoned anti-LGBT discrimination. tive rights and LGBT rights have come under attack. For exam- “Our fates are tied together,” she says. “It is not a long jump ple, in Florida, there have been battles not only over restricting from an employer, because of their religious beliefs, saying to an access to abortion, but over whether LGBT couples should be employee ‘I will not let you have birth control,’ to get to ‘You’re able to raise, foster or adopt children. a gay man, and because I don’t believe in that, I’m not going to “One of the things we don’t talk about as much in the repro- let you have PrEP.’” ductive rights movement — and probably not as much in the Carey says that many of the same strategies to limit access LGBT movement in a very big way — is that people also have to reproductive health services at the state level under RFRA the right to enjoy sex and their sexuality, free from coercion laws are also being used to advance “religious exemption” and violence,” Johnson adds. “Sex and sexuality are integral laws designed to undercut the LGBT rights movement, such as parts of who we are as human beings. We live in a society where attempts to allow clerks to refuse to marry or deny same-sex discrimination runs rampant based on how people think or feel couples marriage licenses. And she warns that those involved or judge based on sex and sexuality, which is a real impediment in the LGBT rights movement cannot be afford to be apathetic to people living healthy and happy lives. about attacks on reproductive rights, lest they find themselves “We have to work together,” she continues. “Long gone is the targeted in future. time where it’s strategic to be siloed in our activism, or siloed in “Looking back at our history, Bowers v. Hardwick, the ability our understanding of what justice is and should be. We can’t win to have sex with the person you want to have sex with in your policy change, we can’t win culture change, and we can’t win real own home, was dependent on the success of the reproductive victories for the people in our lives without coming together.” rights movement,” says Carey. “Not a lot of people know that. Rea Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task We need to remind people of where we’ve come from, and that Force, says that not only are both movements intrinsically we have this shared sense around the decisions that each of us linked from a historical and modern-day perspective, but have gets to make about our own bodies, whether that’s who we have been “walking hand-in-hand” from a legal standpoint. sex with, or whether or not we’re ready to have a child at this “Legally, when you imagine a pathway towards both legal point in our life.