This Spring’s High School Musicals Can Still Be Heard, Thanks to ...

Laura Benanti has been a major voice on Broadway for more than 20 years, having won a Tony for “Gypsy” in 2008” and garnering Tony nominations for four other performances — in “Swing” i... Show more

Laura Benanti has been a major voice on Broadway for more than 20 years, having won a Tony for “Gypsy” in 2008” and garnering Tony nominations for four other performances — in “Swing” in 2000, “Into the Woods” in 2002, “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” in 2010, and “She Loves Me” in 2016. During the coronavirus shutdown, she is doing her part to encourage young singers who may wish to follow in her footsteps. In a March 13 tweet, Benanti noted that these are “dark times for all,” but added that she’s “trying to find some bright spots.” Benanti continued, “If you were meant to perform in your High School musical and it was cancelled please post yourself singing and tag me. I want to be your audience!! Sending all my love and black market toilet paper.” And so video performances of musical theater classics are flooding Twitter, tagged with @LauraBenanti as well as the hashtag #SunshineSongs. @christinalicata posted herself and a male co-star singing the heartbreaking love song from “Phantom of the Opera,” “All I Ask of You.” @i sbeele, deprived of bringing her performance as Tevye in an all-female “Fiddler on the Roof” to her local audience, got her chance to sing the iconic “If I Were A Rich Man” in response to Benanti’s challenge. @eileen_kaden, maybe a bit of a Mama Rose (“Gypsy,” come on people), posted a clip of her daughter in the role of Miss Honey in “Matilda.” A very young looking @lifeiwantu got his chance to sing “Giants in the Sky” from “In the Woods,” though he was humble in presenting himself to a worldwide audience, writing, “I’m awkward I know.” @jasen_cummings wa...

Sex Workers Slammed as Clients Disappear, Non-Profits Shutter

The sudden emergence of the coronavirus crisis has left many vulnerable sex workers scrambling to make ends meet in a line of work that relies heavily on in-person services, forcing the... Show more

The sudden emergence of the coronavirus crisis has left many vulnerable sex workers scrambling to make ends meet in a line of work that relies heavily on in-person services, forcing the workers — many of whom are transgender women of color — to search for emergency housing and employment while much of society has retreated into hibernation. Sex workers and advocates in New York City, which is now the epicenter of the pandemic, and in the nation’s capital, have faced similar predicaments during the wide-sale shutdown of businesses and non-profits in both cities: A major loss of clients who are keeping their distance due to coronavirus guidelines, the abrupt shuttering of organizations that provided drop-in services sex workers have long utilized, and the exacerbation of shelter needs, among other immediate issues. “It’s been hard for me because a lot of my clients have sat back during this time,” said TS Candii, a sex worker in New York City who has been on the front lines of the local movement to decriminalize sex work. “You have to imagine the sex worker standing on the corner with masks and gloves… we don’t want to look like we’re sick and have coronavirus.” Work is just as hard to come by in Washington, where many businesses and service providers are similarly closed for the time being. “The date list that sex workers tend to rely on are not calling right now,” said Emmelia Ruiz of DC’s No Justice, No Pride, which is a collective of organizers and activists fighting for justice for marginalized trans and queer folks, many of whom are sex workers. “People are experiencing loss of place...

During Crisis, Trump DOJ Targets Trans Student-Athletes

While the coronavirus crisis overwhelms hospitals and states beg the federal government for emergency assistance, the Trump administration is allocating time and resources toward attack... Show more

While the coronavirus crisis overwhelms hospitals and states beg the federal government for emergency assistance, the Trump administration is allocating time and resources toward attacking transgender student-athletes. The Justice Department (DOJ) is now explicitly opposing a policy in Connecticut that allows student-athletes to compete in accordance with their gender identity, marking the latest chapter in an ongoing battle over whether trans youth should have the right to play sports in the state. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) has maintained that its policy is simply a reflection of state law protecting transgender student-athletes and that it is also aligned with Title IX, a 1972 federal civil rights law intended to protect individuals from discrimination on the basis of sex in education institutions that receive federal funding — a category that includes virtually every school in the nation. But the administration, which last year tasked the Office of Civil Rights with the responsibility of investigating the policy, is now taking advantage of the public’s focus on the coronavirus crisis to rail against the CIAC by pushing far-right talking points about gender when nobody is watching. The DOJ statement was filed in connection with a lawsuit challenging the CIAC policy. In a March 24 statement of interest signed by Attorney General William Barr, the administration stated that the CIAC’s interpretation of Title IX “may not account for the real physiological differences between men and women.” “Instead, schools must have certain biological males — namely, tho...

Kious Kelly, Gay Mount Sinai RN, Died Due to Lack of Protective E...

Just five weeks ago — before all of this — I was sent by New Alternatives for Homeless LGBT Youth, where I’m on the board, to look in on a client hospitalized in Mount Sinai who was in ... Show more

Just five weeks ago — before all of this — I was sent by New Alternatives for Homeless LGBT Youth, where I’m on the board, to look in on a client hospitalized in Mount Sinai who was in terrible pain and not getting proper care. The nurses and doctors were pleasant enough, but they were not giving the young man the relief he needed as he was in constant agony and could not even sip water. After about five hours of advocacy, Kious Kelly, the assistant nursing manager, showed up with a rainbow pin and a calm, caring manner and made things happen for the young man — getting him pain relief and pulling him back from the brink of wanting to take his own life. He was an angel to this troubled, homeless, African-American kid. On Wednesday, I read that due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) — something that was a problem at Mount Sinai before all this — Kious was infected with COVID-19 two weeks ago and died the day before. “Kious didn’t deserve this,” one nurse to ld the New York Post. “The hospital should be held responsible. The hospital killed him.” The story says that “another nurse described ‘issues with supplies for about a year now,’ during which it got ‘to the point where we had to hide our own supplies and go to other units looking for stuff because even the supply room would have nothing most of the time.’” This crisis has exposed that our profit-driven, under-funded “healthcare system” is wholly inadequate in normal times — and completely unprepared for what we are asking doctors and nurses and other staff to do now. All well and good for our elected officials to be scre...

What We Hold Back

Written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Mike Doyle, “Almost Love” is an affable romantic comedy-drama about a handful of neurotic New Yorkers. Adam (out gay actor Scott Evans) is... Show more

Written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Mike Doyle, “Almost Love” is an affable romantic comedy-drama about a handful of neurotic New Yorkers. Adam (out gay actor Scott Evans) is five years into his relationship with internet influencer Marklin (out actor Augustus Prew). The couple have not tied the knot, however, because of an issue that comes to a head in the film. (They are also in “couples,” as in therapy.) Meanwhile, their supportive friends are dealing with equally fraught relationships. Cammy (Michelle Buteau) is having a relationship with Henry (Colin Donnell), who has a terrible secret; Haley (Zoe Chao) is tutoring a 17-year-old student (Christopher Gray), who is in love with her; and Elizabeth’s (Kate Walsh) marriage may be on the skids. Doyle chatted with Gay City News about his debut feature film, the nature of relationships, and the why queer cinema is important. GARY M. KRAMER: “Almost Love” depicts several codependent characters and relationships. What inspired you to address these themes in the way you did? MIKE DOYLE: I wasn’t looking to address codependence head on, but it’s in the fabric of many relationships. What I was attempting to do was create a patchwork of relationships — four iterations — and hit them at different points, but at a point where each couple found themselves stuck. Codependence can be why we get stuck; we lose sight of ourselves and are not the best us in the relationship. That’s part of the landscape. There is a fine line between mutual inter-dependence and codependence. I wanted to show in the backstory… it wasn’t imbalance, but something ...

LGBTQ Youth Shelters Strained By Coronavirus Crisis

Homeless LGBTQ youth are facing significant barriers to emergency housing and other services as a result of public restrictions brought on by the coronavirus crisis — all while those on... Show more

Homeless LGBTQ youth are facing significant barriers to emergency housing and other services as a result of public restrictions brought on by the coronavirus crisis — all while those on the inside of shelters endure elevated risk of contracting the virus and organizations feel financial strain to absorb increased demand for services. The new realities have slammed the most vulnerable New Yorkers and those who help care for them. Numerous service providers have been forced to halt in-person services in favor of limited, remote-only offerings and some homeless shelters, including Sylvia’s Place — a homeless shelter operated by the Metropolitan Community Church of New York (MCCNY) — have stopped accepting new applicants altogether, according to Kate Barnhart, the director of New Alternatives for Homeless LGBT Youth. That shelter, she said, is currently at full capacity and will aim to prevent the spread of the virus by reducing its numbers through attrition while some residents move along. “There is a total breakdown of leadership in the city and state in terms of either making sure youth programs had a plan for dealing with this situation and making sure people have necessary supplies,” Barnhart explained in an interview with Gay City News. “It’s an ongoing problem.” Still, MCCNY, which also runs the Sylvia Rivera Food Pantry, announced March 25 that it is continuing to distribute a range of food to communities in need. The demand for their food programs has skyrocketed by 400 percent in just 10 days, underscoring the profound level of food insecurity sparked by the crisis. The economic do...