Don’t Be Dumb at Brunch: A Harvey Milk Airport Terminal, Trump’s Anti-Trans Nominee, Man-Laptop Marriage
Happy Sunday! We’ve got a great group of stories this week that includes statistics on how love is winning all over the United States and a long overdue honor for Harvey Milk. We also have some Sex and the City news, but not what you think. Finally, we have another story about how the man in the White House continues to hurt our community, along with a doozie for Whack Job of the Week. Check it out below.
Here are the week’s 5 news stories that’ll keep you looking well-informed at brunch:
1. Here Come the Gays!
The Tax Policy Center has reviewed tax returns from 2015 to help identify which metro cities have the highest percentage of gay marriage in the US. Not surprisingly, San Francisco leads the country with 1.52% of all marriages. They are followed by Santa Rosa, California and Seattle — both over 1%.
Others in the top 10 are Boston, New York, Miami, San Diego and both Portlands (Maine and Oregon). Sad not to see our home town of Los Angeles on the list. Conversely, Provo, Utah has the lowest percentage at 0.13%, followed by Brownsville, Texas and Youngstown, Ohio.
Other interesting facts discovered by the Tax Policy Center are that gays and lesbians report 10% more earned income than their straight counterparts and 15% of same-sex marriages are interracial — more than double the rate for opposite-sex couples.
2. The Milk Terminal at SFO
San Francisco officials are planning to name Terminal One at San Francisco International Airport after LGBTQ icon and former City Supervisor, Harvey Milk. Milk was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone in 1978. Milk was also the first openly gay elected official in a major city.
The original legislation introduced in 2013 wanted to name the entire airport after Milk as a tribute to his great leadership and to raise awareness of LGBTQ history. Not to mention it’d be a great way to give hope to those young LGBTQ kids growing up all over the country and the world. After all, as Harvey always said, “You gotta give them hope.”
We are looking forward to the day when more parts of the American infrastructure are named for other historical figures in our community like Bayard Rustin, David Mixer, Frank Kameny and Cleve Jones. The final vote on the legislation is April 3.
3. Governor Miranda?
Former Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon announced this week her long-rumored run for Governor of New York with education and healthcare as the centerpiece of her campaign bid to unseat fellow Democrat Andrew Cuomo. If she wins, she’ll be the first openly queer governor of the state.
Not everyone is happy though. Former openly gay New York City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn called Nixon an “unqualified lesbian.” Quinn later apologized for the reference to Nixon’s sexual identity but not the “unqualified part.” Apparently Quinn is upset that Nixon didn’t support or endorse her during her run to be the first openly gay mayor of New York City.
Quinn claims that just going and speaking at marriage equality rallies is not the same as running a government. We are curious if she’s just bitter or has a point about experience. Then again, the man in the White House had zero experience and he got elected. We just want Samantha to be her running mate.
4. Trump Attacks the Trans Community Again
The man who claimed he would be “great” for the LGBTQ community is attacking it again. Trump has selected anti-Trans delegate Bethany Kozma to represent the United States at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
Kozma has a history of transphobia by regularly supporting “bathroom bills” across the country as well as proliferating the unsubstantiated link between sexual predation and where a trans person wants to pee. In her important role as U.S. delegate, Kozma will have a role in the language used in the outline for a U.N. document on what the organization will do for women’s rights next year.
You can join OutRight Action International in its call for Trump to remove Kozma by signing the petition available here.
5. Our Whack Job of the Week: Anti-Gay Activist Chris Sevier
We now pronounce you “Man and Laptop.” Yes, you read that right. We talked about Chris Sevier on our podcast in 2016 when he filed a lawsuit against the state of Utah because it would not allow him to marry his laptop.
Now, he didn’t really want to marry his laptop — it was his way of protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling in 2015. A U.S. District court in Utah dismissed the lawsuit this week and he plans to appeal.
Sevier has quite the history of filing frivolous lawsuits and attacking the gay community. He really seems to love wasting taxpayer money and it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Check out this interesting story about his depressing legal history against the LGBTQ community and his estranged family. Love, between two persons, will always win, Chris.
Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo were one of two plaintiff couples in California’s 2013 challenge of Proposition 8, which brought marriage equality back to the state after being ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court. These activists also host the weekly podcast The Husbands. Catch them there or follow them on Instagram @JeffZandPaulK.
