Register to Attend the Virtual Gay City News Impact Awards Broadc...

The annual Gay City News Impact Awards, presented by MetroPlus Health Plan, is returning in the form of a free, virtual, live broadcast on November 11. Attendees can register at gaycity... Show more

wsimpactawards.com. The ceremony, which honors LGBTQ trailblazers and allies in New York City, will be emceed by Paul Schindler, the founding editor of Gay City News, who retired from his role as editor-in-chief in 2020 after more than two decades of service covering New York City’s LGBTQ community. Attendees can join the free online Zoom broadcast, which includes a live chat, allowing folks to engage and cheer on the honorees. Accompanying the Gay City News Impact Awards will be a special issue of Gay City News on November 4, as well as a special magazine that will be published. Honorees will be highlighted with their photos and bios detailing their background and achievements. In addition to MetroPlus Health Plan, the event is also made possible by the support of additional sponsors including Amida Care, New York’s largest Medicaid special needs health plan; Tusk Strategies; Breed Evolutions Corp; TD Bank; and the East Midtown Partnership. Some of this year’s honorees include transgender advocate TS Candii, who is the founder of Black Trans Nation; Elisa Crespo, the executive director of Equality New York, an LGBTQ advocacy organization; Lyosha Gorshkov, the co-president of Brighton Beach Pride (RUSA LGBT); Pat Martin, the founder and CEO of HarlemYes Inc.; and Alexander Roque, the executive director of the Ali Forney Center, an LGBTQ youth homeless shelter in New York City.  Past honorees have inclu...

25 Years of REM’s “Adventures in Hi-Fi”

How many rock bands get the chance to make 10 albums? If they reach that mark, how many still have a substantial audience at that point? REM’s “New Adventures in Hi-Fi,” newly available... Show more

an expanded 2-LP/1 Blu-Ray edition celebrating its 25th anniversary, captures the band at a turning point. After drummer Bill Berry was struck by a cerebral aneurysm onstage in 1995, he decided to quit REM, and this would be the last album he made with them. It was constructed from leftovers from their previous album, “Monster,” and songs written on tour. In just its first two songs, it splits the difference between “Automatic for the People” and “Monster.” “How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us” is somber, dominated by a repeating piano riff and light on guitar, but glances towards Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti Western theme music. “The Wake-Up Bomb” follows it by revisiting the glam-influenced crunch of “Monster,” complete with tambourines and organ. The closer, “Electrolite,” reworks the melody of “Nightswimming” with a much more elaborate arrangement. Warner Bros. gave the band an $8 million dollar advance after they had a major hit with “The One I Love,” released by the semi-independent IRS label. They would re-up with $80 million dollars, which at the time was the largest advance ever given to a musician, when REM’s original contract ran out. But “New Adventures in Hi-Fi,” while not exactly experimental, isn’t a safe bet either. It only hit “E-Bow the Letter,” peaking at #49. No wonder – the spacey song, featuring backing vocals from Stipe’s idol Patti Smith, sounds more like a deep cut than a t...

Gay City News: October 21, 2021

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Trans Netflix Employees Walk Out Amid Chappelle Controversy

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cates led a rally outside of Netflix offices in Los Angeles on October 20 in support of trans Netflix employees who walked off the job to protest Dave Chappelle’s transphobic comments in his comedy special, “The Closer.” The rally, which also focused on Netflix’s handling of workplace issues stemming from the controversy, drew significant media attention and added to the fallout over a comedy special that has since led to the suspension of one trans employee and the firing of another after they both stood up against “The Closer.” Trans activist Ashlee Marie Preston organized the rally and decried the special as harmful toward the transgender and non-binary community. “Artivists/Creators, grassroots organizers, public figures, and supporters spanning multiple communities are coming together to underscore the importance of responsible content offerings that prioritize the safety and dignity of all marginalized communities,” Preston wrote on Instagram. “We aim to use this moment to shift the social ecology around what Netflix leadership deems ethical entertainment, while establishing policies and guidelines that protect employees and consumers, alike.” According to the 19th, protesters faced counter-protests calling for Netflix to keep the transphobic special on the platform, though the company has resisted demands to remove it. According to the 19th, hecklers at the protest yelled out saying “jokes are funny.” During the special, Chappelle boldly announced that he is a trans-exclusionary radical feminist or TERF and stated that “every human being on Earth had to pass through the ...

Congress Can Help Make Affordable Health Care a Reality

Access to affordable health care is personal. For too long, people living on the margins, particularly those in the performing arts and LGBTQIA+ community, have not had access to the co... Show more

age they deserve. Thankfully, Congress acted earlier this year to make health care more accessible by enhancing marketplace tax credits in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). However, these subsidies will expire at the end of 2022 unless Congress acts now. If that happens, enrollees could see their premiums double, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s a price that’s too high for anyone to pay. I come from a vibrant community of gig workers. Since we do not receive health care through an employer, we rely on the federal marketplace to purchase coverage. Without these tax credits, countless gig workers could face the difficult decision to forego coverage due to cost. Again, this is too high a price to pay. The restaurant, tourism, and entertainment industries were some of the hardest hit during the pandemic. Drag entertainers like myself rely on bookings in crowded bars and restaurants as a primary source of income. When the city shut down, so did much of our work. As we begin our financial recovery with the rest of our New York communities, we cannot afford increased health care expenses. With the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, these health insurance subsidies can be made permanent in the current reconciliation package making its way through Congress. I call on Senator Schumer to continue to be a strong voice for workers like myself and fight for acces...

THE RACE TO DELIVER: Inside the many grocery delivery apps taking...

This is the first story in amNewYork Metro’s five-part series examining the proliferation of grocery delivery services across the city — and the impact they’re having on residents and b... Show more

k-and-mortar business owners alike. In a city where the sight of delivery workers whizzing by on an electric bicycle with an insulated bag strapped to their back has become ubiquitous, a handful of new grocery delivery apps have emerged — all marketing the speed at which they can have a forgotten dinner ingredient, pint of ice cream, or roll of toilet paper at your door. Startups including JOKR, Gorillas, and Fridge No More are slowly marking their territory in New York City, setting up shop in a select handful of neighborhoods and luring in customers with the promise of getting their order within ten or fifteen minutes, whether it’s two items or 20. They join a legion of other delivery apps that have changed the dining game in New York City, like Uber Eats and DoorDash, who deliver hot meals from restaurants right to your door, and InstaCart which outsources your grocery list to a contracted worker who will do the shopping for you and deliver it to your home. Fresh Direct, the city’s oldest online delivery service, delivers all their food from their mega-warehouse in the south Bronx. Apps like JOKR and Gorillas mirror Fresh Direct’s approach. Their orders are filled in their own warehouses, not at independent grocery stores or restaurants — but that’s where the similarities end. Rather than concentrating their stock in one huge warehouse, they make use of “dark stores,” micro-warehouses scattered acros...