The Advocate June 2021

THE FIRST QUEER person I (knowingly) met was a former classmate of my mom’s (they attended high school in the ’50s during the rise of McCarthyism and birth of TV). I was maybe 7 when we ran into him at a restaurant in Connecticut. Afterward, I asked my mother what “gay” meant. She replied, “It’s when a man loves a man, or a woman loves a woman.” It was the ’70s, and not the sort of description most people had for LGBTQ+ folks at the time. As someone who came out about 10 years later, I appreciate her reply to this day. Not long after that, a lesbian couple joined our Episcopal church. They became a part of my mom’s wider friend circle and we ended up going camping with them…

Even a change for the better requires a bit of adjustment — including the great change in the nation’s leadership. With Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president, LGBTQ+ political activists are operating in an atmosphere that’s far different from that of the Donald Trump-Mike Pence administration. The White House and federal agencies, once occupied by adversaries, are now full of allies, plus a goodly number of out LGBTQ+ folks. Activists are happy and relieved to have an administration that is so far keeping promises on equality and inclusion, but they’re aware that they’ll sometimes have to nudge it in the right direction. “The change already is palpable,” says Julianna S. Gonen, policy director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. When Trump became president, LGBTQ+ advocates found themselves…

LEE MENTLEY San Francisco activist Lee Mentley was known as “the princess of Castro Street” — which became the title of his 2016 memoir — and the godfather of the rainbow flag. He died January 20 of congestive heart failure at his home in Sonora, Calif.; he was 72. A native of Los Angeles, he moved to San Francisco in the 1970s and helped open the city’s Gay Community Center, where he ran the Top Floor Gallery, showcasing the work of artists and photographers. He also managed punk bands and became the first out gay city employee with the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Neighborhood Arts Program. In 1978, as a member of the executive committee for the Pride Foundation, he facilitated the creation of the first rainbow flag. “He was involved…

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and a new global study shows that many people with HIV are living in strength. Surveying nearly 2,400 people with HIV in 2019 and 2020, the recently released Positive Perspectives Study found a majority of respondents were well aware of that undetectable equals untransmittable (or U=U, for short), the medically recognized finding that if a person achieves and maintains viral suppression through their HIV regimen they cannot transmit the virus. Connecting with people in over 25 countries and several continents, the survey found that two-thirds of participants discussed U=U with their doctor or health care team. “These people were more likely to report a range of good health outcomes compared to those who were unaware of U=U or had learned about it from other sources,” according to the HIV…

Chef Michael Twitty describes his first book, the award-winning The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, as “a blend of culinary history, personal memoir, and social commentary sprinkled with a few recipes.” He chose this approach for a simple reason. “I wanted my whole being represented,” he explains. “I’m an African-American, I’m gay, I’m Jewish, I’m of Southern heritage, I’m a bear, I’m all of these things crossing paths. And I wanted to write a book that responded to that history and those stories in a precise and personal way.” The Cooking Gene follows Twitty’s heritage and Southern cooking back through the lives of enslaved Black people (and white plantat ion owners), back through the Great Passage, back to Mother Africa. While Africans brought…

INGREDIENTS 2.5 pounds chicken wings, drumettes separated from wing portion2 tablespoons West African wet seasoning (below)2 tablespoons light brown, turbinado, coconut, or palm sugar1 tablespoon suya spice2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce¼ cup water3 tablespoons canola oil and the juice of 3 fresh limes½ cup natural peanut butter, no sugar or salt added if possible3 thinly sliced scallions for garnish and flavor sesame seeds (benne) if you like DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 1. Combine all ingredients except scallions in a large bowl and add chicken and coat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for three hours. 2. Prepare a long flat roasting pan by covering the bottom with parchment paper or foil. Add the chicken and bake uncovered for 45 minutes or so until juices run clear. 3. Remove wing pieces and toss in a…