Randy Rainbow roasts Donald Trump over response to Coronavirus
The latest video from YouTube comic Randy Rainbow is proving particularly popular. To the tune of the song “Adelaide’s Lament” from Guys and Dolls, Rainbow takes on the every-changing response from President Donald Trump’s administration to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is no secret that a dangerous, scary and infectious disease has been dominating the news cycle of late,” begins Rainbow, “and it’s here to chat to us now: President Donald Trump!”
Posted yesterday, the parody video finds Rainbow highlighting inconsistencies in Trump’s response to the virus, such as previously calling the threat posed by the virus, “a Democratic hoax.”
Rainbow also doesn’t hold back on his criticism of Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump has put in charge of the US’s response to COVID-19 – the infection caused by the current strain of coronavirus sweeping around the world.
As of yesterday, 2,952 people in the US have been confirmed to have the virus, and of these reported cases, 57 have died. Other many have the virus and not be showing symptoms.
Worldwide, there have been 170,000 confirmed cases and just over 6,500 deaths.
Yesterday, in a bid to stem the virus, the cities of New York and Los Angeles announced the closure of all bars and restaurants for at least two weeks. Movie theaters have also closed, with several states also closing schools.
Authorities are reminding people to frequently wash their hands, practice social distancing (i.e. limit the number of people you see or mix with), and to self-isolate if they suspect they have any symptoms of coronavirus. For more advice, check the guidance from the World Health Organization.
Pete Buttigieg’s Coded Language Reveals the Limits and Promise of LGBTQ Progress
According to family lore, my father suspected I was gay when I was six because I liked cars with windshield wipers in the rear. (As a shrink, he’s always had a penchant for looking under the hood, so to speak.)
There were other clues too. I used to prance around the yard flitting my wrists and waving my arms, chirping in a high-pitched, affected manner: “I’m a boy!” My father would gently take me aside, crinkle his nose and shake his head, saying, “Try not to do that thing with your wrists.” At other times he asked if my flamboyant declarations that I was a boy reflected some worry that I actually wasn’t.
The truth was, I wasn’t worried about whether I really was a boy, nor did I want to be a girl. The truth was, I was just being me.
I thought about this painful part of my childhood when Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the presidential race earlier this month. Watching an openly gay candidate advance this far toward the presidency was thrilling for many LGBTQ Americans, including me. Yet I also winced at key moments in his campaign, such as when he struggled poignantly to voice his feelings.
Indeed, at certain moments, hearing Buttigieg’s words was excruciating for me both because of the personal resonance of his struggle and because of what it says about where the country is on LGBTQ equality.
Calibrating his words
When Buttigieg was asked by The New York Times editorial board why he didn’t embody the anger many Americans feel about the state of the nation, he insisted that his presidential bid was “propelled by a level of passion,” and added that “some people are given more room to be emotive than others.”
Pressed on what he meant, he explained that he was sometimes asked to “have more of a flourish in displaying my emotions, and it is precisely because I feel very strongly about lots of things that I have learned to master how I might feel about anything and channel that into action.” He concluded by saying he is “mindful as the new guy that maybe waving my arms is not the best way to convey what I care about.”
Most LGBTQ people will find this language familiar, if incomplete. We are used to carefully calibrating how much of a “flourish” we give off when we express ourselves. We’ve spent our lives learning, by necessity, to “master” our passions and channel them into action that feels safer than acting on them directly. We’ve become experts at communicating in code – and at decoding communication.
So I did a double take at some of Buttigieg’s remarks. What did he mean when he said that, “as the new guy,” waving his arms may not be the best way to communicate his passions?
Being “the new guy” isn’t particularly relevant to whether waving his arms is an effective way to communicate. But being the gayguy is. If LGBTQ folks have learned that it’s dangerous to move our bodies in certain ways, that danger is surely magnified for political candidates seeking the support of tens of millions of Americans.
What is clear is that, while these identities and behaviors are not harmful themselves, the way family, peers, colleagues and service providers react to them can have a profound impact on the well-being of those who don’t conform to expected norms.
Although Americans believe that anti-LGBTQ discrimination has significantly waned in recent years, research shows that it’s not just political candidates who continue to feel they have to hide their true selves to reach their full potential, as even the openly gay presidential candidate apparently did.
In December, the What We Know Project, a research initiative I oversee at Cornell University, released one of the largest-ever analyses of research on the impact of discrimination on LGBTQ well-being. We identified hundreds of studies that linked anti-LGBTQ discrimination to mental and physical health harms, including depression, anxiety, PTSD and suicidal behavior.
Research also shows that the behavior of family and society can make LGBTQ individuals feel less safe in coming out. Studies show that rejecting behaviors by parents – shaming, ostracism and efforts to “straighten out” atypical youth – can increase the likelihood of psychological distress, low self-esteem and the risky behavior that can lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
The damage remained consistent whether the discrimination was actual or perceived, meaning just the fear of being stigmatized or mistreated has a measurable effect. This may help explain why so many sexual and gender minorities strive, at great cost, to repress their true selves.
As a researcher I try to stay dispassionate about the data, but it hit me hard as I watched statistics pile up about the pain I quickly recognized as my own.
Emotional repression
Such repression has its own consequences, as Buttigieg has eloquently described, in a speech last April before an audience of LGBTQ supporters, when he characterized the closet as “a kind of war” that nearly ended his life.
A 2009 study found that lesbian, gay and bisexual people held their emotions inside when bracing for stigma, leading to a greater likelihood of psychological distress. The authors concluded that “suppression may serve a self-protective function in that it prevents retaliation from perpetrators.”
Another study, from 2016, identified repressing anger as a common coping mechanism for gaymen and lesbians in anticipation of harassment and the need to conceal their identity.
Yet another study looked at the links between gender expression among lesbian, gay and bisexual people and mental health, and found that having a nontraditional gender expression was correlated with “greater psychological distress and greater social anxiety.”
All this is consistent with the wider body of stigma research, which suggests that large numbers of LGBTQ people remain closeted because, if you perceive a penalty for being honest about who you are, you’re more likely to conceal that – and such concealment has health consequences.
As Buttigieg’s struggle to express himself – and mine and millions of others – remind us, too many LGBTQ people still feel that they must, but simultaneously can’t, wave their arms to truly be seen.
INSIDE THE ANTI-TRANSGENDER STATE LEGISLATION ACROSS THE COUNTRY: Across the country, there are dozens of anti-equality bills attacking the transgender and non-binary community — especially youth. These bills range from those that seek to criminalize doctors who provide lifesaving care to trans youth to bills that block student-athletes from competing on teams consistent with their gender identity. More from The New York Times.
MUST WATCH MONDAY — “WE HAVE BEEN HERE THIS WHOLE TIME”: Non-binary actor Liv Hewson (@LivHewson) uses their personal experiences and platform to let LGBTQ people, especially LGBTQ youth, know that they are not alone. More from HRC.
“We have been here the whole time.”
Non-binary actor @LivHewson uses their personal experiences and platform to let LGBTQ people, especially LGBTQ youth, know that they are not alone. pic.twitter.com/kjfuWEGWDI
PLEDGE TO BE COUNTED IN THE 2020 CENSUS: Critical funding for programs that support our communities, and LGBTQ people specifically, are determined by the Census — a nationwide population count by the federal government that occurs once every ten years. Moreover, this count ensures our elected leaders at all levels of government are representing roughly the same number of people. Sign the pledge via HRC.
LA PRIDE PARADE POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: The celebration, this year in its 50th year, will now happen on September 4-6. More from The Advocate.
All around the world, LGBTQ events are being cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic. More from Reuters.
LGBTQ groups announce event cancellations, office closings due to COVID-19: HRC announced it has postponed all of its public events through the weekend of April 4; including its dinners in Los Angeles on March 28 and Houston on April 4. More from Washington Blade and HRC.
HARVARD’S FALL 2019 MED SCHOOL CLASS WAS 15% LGBTQ: Other medical schools are seeing similar increases of students who identify as LGBTQ. More from Daily Herald.
LGBTQ CENTER IN RALEIGH VANDALIZED WITH ANTI-LGBTQ STICKERS: The Center has filed a police report for the stickers, which Lindsey Lughes, Executive Director of the LGBT Center of Raleigh, calls “a message of hatred.” More from ABC 11.
IN THE STATES
OHIO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH USES TAXPAYER MONEY TO HIRE AN ANTI-LGBTQ, CONVERSION THERAPY “ADVOCATE” TO DEFEND TRANSPHOBIC GENDER MARKER LAW: More from Ohio Capital Journal.
Ohio is 1 of 2 states that doesn’t allow corrections on birth certificates to reflect gender identity.
The state should fix this rather than waste taxpayers’ money to fund their effort to deny trans Ohioans the ability to correct their birth certificate. t.co/gZsEeSKMM9
GET CULTURED – Entertainment, arts and sports news!
NATIONAL MUSEUM CARDIFF IN WALES UNVEILS LGBTQ STORIES: More from BBC.
GLOBAL EQUALITY NEWS
RUSSIAN LGBTQ ADVOCATE FACES TRIAL FOR SHARING IMAGES OF VULVAS: Yulia Tsvetkova used the photos to demystify and reduce the taboo of people’s bodies. More from France24.
READING RAINBOW – Bookmark now to read on your lunch break!
South China Morning Post takes a look at royal families who are supportive of LGBTQ communities.