The Advocate November/December 2022

IN FEBRUARY 2020, weeks before I was named co-editor in chief of this storied publication alongside David Artavia, I was in Pittsburgh on the set of Happiest Season where I interviewed director Clea DuVall and stars Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis. When David moved over to run Out in the summer of that year, I became the third woman to helm The Advocate in its now 55-year history. My first issue as solo ed chief dropped in December of 2020 and featured DuVall, Stewart, and Davis on the cover. Now, two years to the issue later, I’ve written a piece about DuVall’s latest project High School, the series based on Tegan and Sara’s memoir. And I’m penning my final editor’s letter as the leader of this publication that long ago…

1) Taft Jack Boots in Kashmir A full rubber lug combat sole make these handmade leather and jacquard boots comfortable, durable, and sexy AF. ($295, taftclothing.com) 2) My Little Poodle Bluetooth Speaker Now you can cuddle with your puppy and sing together (we won’t judge). ($38, dollskill.com) 3) Tattooed GoGo Boi Lamp Complete with gold nipples, this lamp can light your way. ($650, pansyassceramics.bigcartel.com) 4) The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Ominous Omnibus Vol. 1 Subtitled Scary Tales & Scarier Tentacles, this comic is the first of three volumes of the complete the Treehouse collection. It glows in the dark and boasts illustrations by the biggest names in graphic writing, with entries from Mark Hamill and Patton Oswalt. ($40, abramsbooks.com) 5) iLola Tea Disc Essentials Set or the Fiore Steeping Cups Everyone adores iLola’s compressed loose leaf single Tea Discs…

It took three uncertain years, including the threat of being separated from his infant son, but for this gay single father, the nightmare has finally ended. Jérôme Roux’s residency story began when he took a position at the New York offices of French-American beauty company Coty Prestige after arriving from Paris on an employer’s visa. Roux was credited by Coty executives with the success of the Jennifer Lopez beauty line, and it was his knack for global marketing and brand management that led him to obtain an O-1 visa — an exceptional talent visa — through self-sponsorship. Roux married in 2015, then applied for and received a conditional green card in 2016. His husband not yet ready to become a father, the couple put off the adoption processes they’d started. Still, several…

OLIVIA JULIANNA (who uses only her first and middle name for privacy reasons) is a political strategist for Gen-Z for Change, a social justice advocacy group that supports abortion rights and aims to create tangible change on “issues adversely affecting young people.” In July, Julianna launched a fundraiser because of remarks MAGA congressman Matt Gaetz made mocking abortion rights activists, calling them “disgusting” and overweight. “It’s come to my attention that Matt Gaetz — alleged pedophile — has said that it’s always the ‘odious… 5’2 350 pound’ women that ‘nobody wants to impregnate’ who rally for abortion,” she began in her tweet. “I’m actually 5’11. 6’4 in heels. I wear them so the small men like you are reminded of your place,” she continued. Gaetz tweeted a picture of her with a…

GLORIA NIETO Gloria Nieto, a longtime activist and journalist in California and New Mexico, died in early September of complications from cancer. She was 67. She had been executive director of the Familia Center, Lyon-Martin Health Clinic, and the People of Color AIDS Foundation in Santa Fe, and was outreach director for the Santa Cruz AIDS Project. She was a member of the Democratic National Committee for eight years and was vice-chair of its LGBTQ caucus. She met with President Bill Clinton at the White House and spoke at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. She also successfully lobbied for employment nondiscrimination legislation and a hate-crimes law in New Mexico. Nieto married Jo Kenny in 2008 in one of the first legal same-sex marriages in California. “She was a Renaissance woman, a…

There continues to be widespread violence against transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming Americans. Thirty-two members of this community, mostly Black women, are known to have died by violent means so far in 2022, after a record 57 such deaths were reported in 2021. Both figures are based on just the number of recognized victims, as many more go unrecognized because of deadnaming, misgendering, or overall lack of reporting. Here are those we’ve lost in the past few months. Cherry Bush, 48, an unhoused trans woman, was fatally shot July 5, in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles. L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón’s office has charged Eric Antonio Sanchez, 29, with one count each of murder and attempted murder with a hate-crime allegation. Bush was “allegedly targeted based on a presumption of…