Table of contents for November/December 2022 in The Advocate

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…

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…

“I THINK I’M the only person in the history of the United States to take the president to a gay bar,” says Henry Muñoz III, the new owner of Funny or Die, who took Joe Biden to visit the Stonewall Inn in New York City. Muñoz is a wealth of experience, accomplishments, intelligence, and great stories. “I remember in the 1960s picking up a copy of The Advocate as a little boy and saying, ‘What is this magazine?’” he reflects. “[When] you’ve been around that long, you know the importance of storytelling. So, the fact that the president of the United States went to Stonewall, that he took time to understand, and that he treated it with the importance of a national monument.… I think it says a lot.” Funny…

The state of queer music is bold and strong in 2022. With the amount of LGBTQ+ talent in the game right now, it’s a packed race for the top tier. Queer stars Lil Nas X, Steve Lacy, Brandi Carlile, Jake Wesley Rogers, and Lizzo put out purely great music this year, and sapphic pop has never been better. Artists like FLETCHER, Zolita, and Muna are putting out some of the best pop music on the market. So, after much deliberation, here are our 12 best songs by LGBTQ+ artists this year: 12 C’mon Baby Cry” by Orville Peck The gay “yeehaw” agenda is going strong on Orville Peck’s latest album Bronco, which features the heart achingly beautiful “C’mon Baby Cry.” Peck displays his mournful baritone voice in this classic country…

A TEXAS MAN who contracted monkeypox received a lot of mixed attention after sharing images of the progression of the infection, which had manifested itself in part on his face. By sharing his MPX experience in public, the gay Houstonian says he hopes to raise awareness about its prevalence while also removing the stigma and bringing attention to its isolation. Following the Fourth of July holiday, Wesley Wallace traveled to Austin for Hippie Hollow Otter Fest, a weekend event attended by queer men on Lake Travis, to have a leisurely time on the water. “ It ’s a lake, boat, shoreline kind of thing,” the 42-year-old tech professional told The Advocate. When he returned from the weekend of drinking, socializing, and soaking up some rays, he noticed some irritation on…

It’s almost impossible to not be mesmerized by Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, when she’s at the podium. Fluent in English, French, and Haitian Creole, Jeane-Pierre is as swift with retorts as Rachel Maddow, but without the bracing sarcasm and obvious disdain often coming from commentators (unless you ask her about Ted Cruz). She’s had a life of firsts under her belt (she’s the first Black, gay, Haitian American, and immigrant woman to ever serve as press secretary), but it certainly wasn’t a given. Born in the French Caribbean island of Martinique, Jean-Pierre, grew up in Queens, New York. Her mother, a devout Catholic, worked as a home health care aide. And though he was an engineer by training, Jean-Pierre’s father became a taxi driver after coming to…

The Rest of the Biden Team All the President’s LGBTQ+ advocates Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre isn’t the only amazing LGBTQ+ member (or staunch ally) among President Joe Biden’s team. In a difficult political climate, when the right is painting the community as toxic, Vice President Kamala Harris has been embracing the LGBTQ+ community and shining a light on issues important to us. She and husband Doug Emhoff have continued to highlight LGBTQ+ issues in unexpected ways, like surprising the crowd by showing up at D.C.’s Capital Pride festival — and hosting the first celebration at the VP’s residence in honor of LGBTQ+ Pride month (and also the first time in history a drag queen has performed there — that we know of). Harris and Emhoff continue to hold listening events…

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…

For more than two decades, indie pop stars Tegan and Sara Quin crafted a mystique as the epitome of effortlessly cool. But, as it turns out, even the hip artists behind hits like “Walking With a Ghost,” “Closer,” and “Everything is Awesome” were once awkward teens navigating friendships, first loves, and broken hearts. The duo is featured on the first digital cover of Pride (a sister publication of The Advocate), where they talked about how, just like the rest of us, the Quins struggled through the discovery of their identities — in their case as twins, individuals, and queer women. This makes their stories both unique to Tegan and Sara, as well as instantly recognizable to any queer kid growing up in the ’90s. The musicians expounded on these experiences…

Eternally Yours by Patrice Caldwell Described as a “one-of-a-kind anthology,” editor Patrice Caldwell — founder of People of Color in Publishing, a “grassroots organization dedicated to supporting, empowering, and uplifting” POC writers — does that and more with Eternally Yours. These authors, who include literary luminaries such as Adib Khorram, Casey McQuiston, Julian Winters, and Anna-Marie McLemore, write of romantic relationships among ghosts and ghouls, banes and brujas, angels, asuras, sirens, vampires, and haunts. There’s even one story that explains the origin of Bloody Mary herself. These 15 supernatural and multicultural takes on eternity define love around the globe — in air, through water, across time, through reincarnations, and despite blood, curses, death, and even being hunted across universes by war angels. 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers by Adam Sass…

DR. KELETSO MAKOFANE The MPX outbreak of 2022 has disproportionately affected gay and bisexual men. But fortunately, there are many researchers, including members of the LGBTQ+ community, that are working hard to stop the spread. One leading figure is Keletso Makofane, PhD, a public health researcher and activist at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. Makofane’s main research focus is the global HIV response among sexual minority men in eastern and southern Africa. But this year, he pivoted to MPX. Earlier this year, Makofane and other activists initiated an effort to conduct community-based research to understand how to respond to the outbreak. The project later turned into an initiative to coordinate action across organizations and activists working to address MPX. Even amid the MPX…

“I FEEL LIKE I’M BACK IN THE GAME AGAIN.” And he is. Legendary nightlife staple and Billboard-charting dance artist Kevin Aviance has seen a resurgence this year in his public profile, and while that bump was undoubtedly expedited when Beyoncé sampled one of his songs on her most recent album, Renaissance: ACT I, Aviance’s star was already steadily on the rise, booking DJ gigs across North America. The artist made his name with hits like “Din Da Da” and “Give It Up” in the late ’90s and early 2000s, had a line of women’s heels in his name for two seasons, and was once named by Billboard as one of the most successful dance artists of all time. “I’ve never stopped working; I’ve been stopped,” he says. The self-described “Black queen”…

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.…

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,…

In the opening scene of new Frevee series High School, Hole’s “She Walks On Me” blares over speakers while TikTok stars (but acting newcomers) Railey and Seazynn Gilliland rock out in flannel, tees, and wide-legged trousers, subtly evoking the 1990s. A queer icon of that decade, Clea DuVall is the perfect executive producer and showrunner, along with Laura Kittrell, to shepherd friends Tegan and Sarah Quin’s 2019 memoir High School to the small screen. “I wanted [the show] to feel timeless,” she says, “I wanted there to be a classic element to it where the show could be now or it could be three years ago — not leaning too hard into, Hey look, nobody has cell phones, allowing it to be that simple, more innocent time even though they’re…

Māhū are individuals with a “dual male and female spirit,” described as a third gender people in Native Hawaiian and Tahitian culture. Author Wong-Kalu, who is māhū, founded Kulia Na Mamo, a community organization that aims to improve the quality of life for their community. Kapaemahu means “a row of māhū” and refers to the four stones that stand on Waikiki Beach, placed as a tribute to the four māhū who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii. The stones were buried in 1941 to make way for a bowling alley, then removed and placed on a dedicated space in Waikiki again. Niihau Island is the only place in the world where native Hawaiian — called niihau and olelo niihau, or mother tongue — is the primary language. The Niihau…

It’s an unusually warm September day in Los Angeles and actor Harvey Guillén is supine on a hot pink background, sporting dainty boy shorts, a black bra, and a classic white that’s unbuttoned and falling an unusually warm September day in Los Angeles and actor Harvey Guillén is supine on a hot pink background, sporting dainty boy shorts, a black bra, and a classic white around him, framing him in the pink. In one hand, the star of the campy vampiric hit What We Do in the Shadows holds the receiver of a corded landline — a relic from days past — and in the other he clutches, in some shots, a teddy bear, and in others, a boy doll. Britney Spears fans and former 90s kids will likely recognize…

IF YOU CAN see her, you can be her. That’s the slogan driving Jeannine Shao Collins, the president of SeeHer, an organization dedicated to increasing accurate portrayals of women and girls in the media. With the help of a variety of media, marketing, and entertainment leaders, SeeHer strives to eliminate gender bias in the industry in hopes of creating a more inclusive world on- and off-screen. It’s become more than a mission — it’s a movement. You’ve been doing incredible work through SeeHer to accurately portray women in the media. Can you give us a little background on your mission? SeeHer is part of the ANA — the Association of National Advertisers — and we’re made up of a coalition of 100 or so marketers, advertising agencies, and media companies…