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Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan on Court Reform, Healthcare, and Tafoya

John Parker
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Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan on Court Reform, Healthcare, and Tafoya

Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan sat down for a joint interview with The Gaily Show and Native Roots Radio in a first of its kind interview for our news programs. She is running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota.

Due to her campaign schedule, our time with Flanagan was brief, but Robert Pilot and I posed questions to Flanagan about the U.S. Supreme Court, her thoughts on healthcare, and her message to voters on what differentiates her from her GOP/MAGA opponent Michele Tafoya. Article continues below.

Watch our conversation

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“This System Is Broken”

If elected this November, Flanagan would be one of 100 people in America who would have the power to exert influence on the Supreme Court. First and foremost through the evaluation and approval of U.S. Supreme Court nominees.

The Supreme Court has been top of mind for the LGBTQ community after a slew of rulings rolling back the queer community’s rights and legal protections from discrimination.

Pressure has also been mounting from Democrats to reign in a court that has no ethics rules. Multiple investigative reports from ProPublica found justices with serious financial conflicts of interest, worth millions of dollars. And yet, Chief Justice John Roberts has refused to implement the same ethics standards that apply to every other federal judge in the country.

Calls to expand the court have been mounting after Trump and Senate Republicans changed the rules to create a MAGA majority. Note: The Gaily Show has issued multiple on-air editorials arguing that after observing this Supreme Court’s near total adherence to Trump and his policies, as well as their constant attacks to dismantle all of Biden’s policies, it won’t matter if there is a Democratic President in 2029. This SCOTUS will simply declare everything that President does as unconstitutional and therefore the court must be re-balanced.

The Roberts Court has also used its “shadow docket” to fast track President Trump’s priorities. He has used it more than any other President in history. As it has no precedent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recently delivered a speech warning that the Court will weaken its legitimacy if it continues to do so. When the Court uses its shadow docket, it doesn’t need to have oral arguments, or evaluate evidence, or issue final rulings to declare what is and isn’t constitutional behavior.

The AP News recently allowed Justice Alito to complain that there was nothing the court could do about how Trump constantly sends his cases to the court’s shadow docket. AP news failed to report that the court can refuse to take up any case Trump sends them.

“My assessment of this court is I think that they have forgotten what their role is in our democracy,” said Flanagan. “We are supposed to have three separate branches of government and the judicial is supposed to be a check, especially on the executive.”

She said it was outrageous that justices are receiving what she characterized as “lavish gifts” from people who have their cases before the court.

“There should be very strict regulations regarding gift bans and making sure that our Supreme Court can’t be corrupted,” the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party candidate said.

In terms of what she would support when it comes to Supreme Court reform, she was clear.

“I think it’s absolutely time to overhaul the Supreme Court and expand it,” said Flanagan. “I’m open to looking at staggered terms [and] term limits.”

Visiting Greater Minnesota, Finds Support For Medicare for all

Flanagan noted that she has been traveling throughout the state and in some cases re-visiting particular cities multiple times.

“I talked to a teacher in Marshall who was like, ‘You’ve been here four times,’ said Flanagan. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, and you’re going to see me again because that’s my job.'”

The Lieutenant Governor explained that she’s felt the DFL should be spending more time in Greater Minnesota, “and not just depending on one area of the state to turn out.”

That was a winning strategy in her primary against U.S. Representative Angie Craig. In counties throughout greater Minnesota, Flanagan ran up the margins in those rural districts, winning sometimes by double digits.

Healthcare costs are top of the list of issues that residents have discussed with her. She shared a story of a farmer from Willmar, Minnesota who told her, “don’t you stop fighting for Medicare for all. That’s the thing that would really help our family.”

Her response? “You got it.'”

She said that she supports Medicare for All because it is comprehensive, which means it includes hearing, vision, and dental — benefits that standard plans ignore.

“They’re central to your overall health and wellbeing,” she explained.

Flanagan said that people are ready for it and that as part of that she wants to do away with the insurance industry’s use of prior authorizations.

“Some dude behind a desk shouldn’t be able to decide whether or not you live or die and get access to the healthcare you need,” she said.

She added that it’s “outrageous” that insurance companies are starting to rely on AI bots to make these decisions.

“I frankly am just sick of people shortchanging us at every opportunity, [and] for what?” said Flanagan. “To line their own pockets while we continue to struggle. It’s got to stop and this is the election to do it.”

MAGA Michele

GOP candidate Michele Tafoya has been releasing ads proclaiming herself to be independent from her party. And yet, a recent Star Tribune analysis found otherwise. Tafoya’s campaign sent the news outlet a statement which read in part, that Tafoya is an “outsider who is beholden to no one and will answer to no one except Minnesotans.”

But the Star Tribune used AI to analyze 350 hours of Tafoya’s podcast going back to 2022. They found that Tafoya, “supported the president’s immigration enforcement and budget cuts” and was particularly enthusiastic about DOGE. “I loved this idea from the get-go,” she said in one podcast episode.

The Gaily Show has previously reported on how DOGE cuts held up needing funding to fight wildfires in Northern Minnesota.

“[Tafoya] has continued to say that President Trump and the direction he’s taking our country is ‘incredible,'” said Flanagan. “She said that she would be honored to receive his endorsement.”

Calling Tafoya “MAGA Michele” and “Trump’s Tafoya,” Flanagan shared that she thinks the former sports broadcaster “will simply be another yes vote for Donald Trump.”

Flanagan said she found it insulting when Tafoya called Minnesotans “provincial” and that Tafoya’s response to record high gas prices was, “keep a stiff upper lip and take one last trip to Starbucks.”

“That’s not an economic plan,” said Flanagan.

Early voting in Minnesota began September 18th and the final day of voting is November 3. On election day, if voters are in line by 8 p.m. at their polling location they will get to vote. To register to vote, find your polling location, and learn what is on your ballot, visit sos.mn.gov/elections-voting/

“Vote and get it out of the way and use that extra time you’ve got to knock on doors, call people, talk to the neighbors in your life about the importance of this upcoming election,” said Flanagan.

To learn more about her campaign, including volunteer and donation opportunities, visit peggyflanagan.com.

Flip the Script Queer Film Festival Sells-Out Opening Night, Runs Virtually Through Oct. 11

John Parker
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Flip the Script Queer Film Festival Sells-Out Opening Night, Runs Virtually Through Oct. 11

The seventh annual Flip the Script Queer Film Festival kicked off with a sold out opening night. The film festival, which runs October 1-11, features in-person and virtual screenings of four feature films and 33 short films. All but one of the feature films will be available virtually through October 11.

We spoke with Matthew Berg, festival director, about this year’s festival. Article continues below.

Watch our conversation

The irreverent coming-of-age trans high school comedy She’s The He opened the festival to a sold-out crowd. Other feature films included My Sunnyside, a documentary of a trans couple’s marriage as they navigate transitions, careers, and family. Hunky Jesus, narrated by George Takei, brought to the big screen the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s annual Easter Sunday tradition: Hunky Jesus. 11 Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence attended the Saturday evening screening, with some traveling from San Francisco and Chicago to participate.

Closing out the in-person part of the festival was Beginning While Ending: A Life Like Most Others, a documentary about a nonbinary octogenarian. All the films, except She’s The He, are available to watch virtually through October 11 — including this year’s 33 short films.

The festival curates its short films into a variety of themes. This year’s are: Thrills and Chills, Comedy, Documentary, Altered Reality, When Sparks Fly, and Everything Changes.

“Altered Realities is a shorts program I’m really excited about,” said Berg. “[These] are filmmakers who just create these really imaginative narratives and transport us to heightened spaces.”

No Barriers

The festival operates on a name-your-price ticket model, which can be from $0 and up to the suggested price of $12.

“We just want folks to be able to see these films and don’t want the cost of participation to prohibit that,” said Berg. Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, along with fiscal sponsorship through Springboard for the Arts, allow the festival to make that commitment to the community.

The festival also doesn’t want cost to prohibit filmmakers from participating.

“We also are happy to waive fees for filmmakers,” said Berg. “Because we don’t want your pocketbook to keep you from participating or submitting [your] films.”

He also noted that attendees may not be able to attend in-person due to work and travel schedules. So the festival worked to provide all but one film virtually through Eventive.

“Folks who can’t make it in person, whether that’s geographically or just you’re not available or you don’t feel comfortable coming into the theater, you can watch from home through our Eventive virtual cinema or wherever you connect to the internet,” said Berg.

A Homecoming

The Flip The Script Queer Film Festival began as conversations in-between film screenings at the Main Cinema during the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. And this year organizers were able to bring the festival to the iconic cinema on Southeast Main Street across the Mississippi from downtown Minneapolis.

“When the first ideas around starting this event happened, it was during that international film festival at the Main Cinema,” said Berg. “So it’s sort of a homecoming for us.”

Berg noted that while last year’s opening night also sold out, it did so on the day of. This year, tickets were gone two full days before the festival began.

“The momentum for us is great,” he said. “The engagement is growing and growing every year, which is just wonderful to see.”

Also continuing to grow are the numbers of LGBTQ filmmakers in the United States. As in years past, festival organizers will open submissions later this year for next year’s festival, after which a volunteer screening team will assist Berg to select the final program for the eighth annual Flip The Script Queer Film Festival coming in 2027.

For more information on the films, tickets, virtual access, and submission process visit flipthescriptfest.org.

As Some Dems Turn on LGBTQ Rights, The Nat’l LGBTQ Task Force Pushes for Economic Justice

John Parker
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As Some Dems Turn on LGBTQ Rights, The Nat’l LGBTQ Task Force Pushes for Economic Justice

With 34 days to go until the midterm elections, a slew of Democratic candidates have turned on the transgender community. This despite the fact that prominent Governors such as J.B. Pritzker and Andy Beshear have urged their party not to do so. We talked with Fernando Z. Lopez, senior strategist and Creating Change director at the National LGBTQ Task Force, about this turn against the community and The Task Force’s strategic push for economic justice. Article continues below.

Watch our conversation

Dems Caving While MAGA floods America with anti-trans bills

“This year it’s approaching 900 [bills],” said Lopez. “So we’re really combating this pounding and pounding and pounding against this messaging. And what I think is beautiful is that it’s not working for the majority of Americans. For 70% of Americans, [they believe] that everyone deserves full and equal protection under the law.”

Democrats have fought back against these attacks, including Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. In a speech to the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund earlier this year, he said, “I won reelection as a pro-diversity, pro LGBTQ+ rights governor in a deep red state at a time when people were questioning if that was possible. Now, some people may have told you that somebody with views like that can’t win a statewide election in a place like Kentucky. Folks, I’m living, breathing proof that it is possible to win everywhere if we stand firm on our values of compassion, of empathy, and of doing right by our neighbors. All of them, no exceptions.”

Despite this, some Democrats across the country have turned on transgender Americans, and by extension the LGBTQ community. Most notably, California Governor Gavin Newsom. But joining him has been the Democratic candidate for Governor in Ohio Amy Acton who refuses to meet with LGBTQ leaders. Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has begun airing political advertisements championing her votes against transgender rights, including adopting language used by MAGA to denigrate transgender and non-binary Americans.

Texas State Representative James Talarico fumbled his position on transgender athletes claiming he supports bans only when “safety” becomes an issue. He failed to clarify what that meant. Even in deep blue California, the Democratic Candidate for Governor Xavier Becerra has come out against trans athletes. In spite of the fact that California has spent a successful decade supporting trans athletes in its schools.

Lopez pointed to a new report this week from the Movement Advancement Project. He shared that MAP found a “bifurcation” happening across America. The states that have refused to support LGBTQ rights have become more hostile, while the states who have supported LGBTQ rights are becoming more inclusive.

Lopez also warned that what MAGA is doing, with its anti-LGBTQ legislation and its campaign messaging, does not promote democracy.

“These are tried and true tactics from fascist and authoritarian regimes,” said Lopez said. “We know that time and time again, folks use and start with the trans community and LGBT communities, but the trans community specifically as an attempt to build this wedge, and we’re currently under that threat right now.”

Lopez also shared that Kentucky provides a model for other red states. He said that is the reason why The Task Force’s Creating Change conference will be held in Louisville next January. The Creating Change Director explained that Kentucky’s success is due to significant grassroots organizing that has built a robust coalition not just aimed at securing LGBTQ rights, but also economic and labor rights.

“The messaging frameworks that [Beshear] really uplifts are these messages around not abandoning the trans community, but doing so from a perspective of faith, from a perspective of family, and from a perspective of fairness,” said Lopez. “When you really break it down to family, faith and fairness, suddenly everyone can get on board with understanding that we all deserve fairness.”

Economic Justice as Intersectional Strategy

As the Trump administration’s tariffs, war in Iran, and general economic policies continue to wreak havoc on everyone’s wallets, except the top 1%,  the National LGBTQ Task Force wants to expand its focus to explicitly include economic justice.

“If you’re familiar with The Task Force, we’ve always, part of our ethos, had an intersectional approach,” said Lopez. “That’s really happened from a racial justice lens and a gender lens. And though that work will continue, what you’ll see rolling out over the next several months, and at Creating Change as well, is a focus on economy and economic justice.”

Lopez explained that economic justice means employment protections, housing protections, wages, cost of living, and environmental justice.

“What’s happening to everyday Americans are kitchen table issues,” they said. “We can’t afford gas; we can’t afford groceries; we can’t afford even going to visit our families. So if we’re struggling, if the majority of Americans are struggling from paycheck to paycheck, then why are folks so focused on these issues of the trans community when that’s not what’s impacting everyday Americans’ lives?”

To connect with The National LGBTQ Task Force visit thetaskforce.org.

New LGBTQ print and digital publication Q Minnesota Debuts October 1

John Parker
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New LGBTQ print and digital publication Q Minnesota Debuts October 1

On October 1, Minnesota’s newest LGBTQ media outlet debuts a monthly print magazine and corresponding digital platform. Q Minnesota will be available at locations throughout the state and its premiere issue features seven of Minnesota’s LGBTQ leaders in a “State of the Rainbow” conversation.

We met with two of its co-founders, Andy Lien and and Nell Gelhaus, to discuss their vision for Q Minnesota. Article continues below.

Watch our conversation

Debut Issue Asks Has the Community “Arrived”?

Q Minnesota’s inaugural issue features a cover story asking seven Minnesota LGBTQ leaders to assess “The State of the Rainbow.” The impetus for the headline comes after the sudden closure of Lavender Magazine earlier this year. In its final editorial, the publisher claimed that Minnesota’s LGBTQ community had “arrived,” and this in part meant Lavender had achieved its goals as a publication.

“If the reason behind Lavender’s closure is to say that ‘we’ have arrived, who did ‘we’ include?” asked Lien, who serves as Q Minnesota’s editor-in-chief. “And have ‘we’ indeed arrived? [Q Minnesota is] going to let you know what the people who comprise ‘we’ say about that, or a lot of the ‘we.'”

Lavender’s editorial received immediate pushback in the form of a letter signed by 19 queer Minnesotan leaders, including seven organizational leaders and 12 elected officials.

All seven of those organizational leaders participated in Q Minnesota’s cover story:

  • Kat Rohn, Executive Director of OutFront Minnesota
  • Hannah Edwards, Executive Director, Transforming Families
  • Roxanne Anderson, RARE Productions, Our Space, MTHC
  • Megan Peterson, Executive Director, Gender Justice
  • Nicki Hangsleben, Executive Director, QUEERSPACE Collective
  • Andi Otto, Executive Director, Twin Cities Pride
  • Aaron Zimmerman, Executive Director, PFund Foundation

Each spoke it turn to the myriad attacks the Trump administration has waged on the queer community. And despite having one of the most robust legal frameworks to protect LGBTQ rights, Minnesota has not been immune.

And the cover story reflects in part how Q Minnesota plans to cover politics in the state.

“What I’ve said is that we’re not going to tell you how to think or what to do or how to vote,” said Lien. “we’re going to let other people present their experiences and their thoughts and everyone can make up their own minds and we imagine we’ll want to vote in our own favor, but we know how that goes sometimes.”

Gelhaus, who serves as VP of digital content and marketing, added, “We really want to be all inclusive and focus on some of the communities that haven’t had the coverage that they should have had. And the way that we’re going to do that is by having people from those communities write about their experiences.”

Moving Towards The Future

Lien credited The Gaily Show for laying out the state of LGBTQ media both in Minnesota and across the country as an catalyst to launch Q Minnesota.

“It was when I watched your coverage, when you and Jim were talking about [Lavender’s] closure,” said Lien. “You went through the laundry list of who is and is not covering the queer community in media, and it was shocking. So that just helped kind of gel this need and this desire to do this project, which turned into more than a project. It’s turned into an occupation.”

Thus, Q Minnesota was co-founded, in total by four individuals; Barry Leavitt and Brad Leventhal joined Lien and Gelhaus to launch the monthly magazine within three months of first conceptualizing the idea. Their vision included not just print, but digital.

“We want the website to be way more,” explained Gelhaus. “We’d like it to be more of a virtual community center.”

This includes a calendar of events and organizational directory. Yet it’s in the writing that Q Minnesota wants to make its mark.

“I’m a single mom of three boys,” said Gelhaus. “We won the right to gay marriage. We won the right to go the other way too. I would love to read some of those stories. How are people handling? What do other people’s lives look like similar to mine in that respect?”

Q Minnesota features several contributors, including a well known voice of AM950 Radio: Ellie Krug, host of “The Illegal Trans Woman,” and “Ellie 2.0.”

“We had to have Ellie,” said Lien. “We’re going to have plenty of people who represent all different types of intersecting identities involved with us.”

Lien and Gelhaus also noted past tensions between LGBTQ media outlets in the state. For them, they see the future as an opportunity to move on from that history.

“Until this community has this overwhelming majority and all these rights that everybody else has,” said Lien, “why on earth would we, one, be concerned about competition, and two, not want to lift each other up and amplify like we do with the voices who are writing for us?”

To that end, they graciously invited this writer to pen a piece on the history of Minnesota’s LGBTQ media as a follow-up to our original reporting.

Read Q Minnesota’s debut issue online or find a copy in your neighborhood.

Trans Northland Hosts Health Summit As Local Health Officials Pull Away From LGBTQ community

John Parker
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Trans Northland Hosts Health Summit As Local Health Officials Pull Away From LGBTQ community

Trans Northland will host its first-ever 2SLGBTQIA+ Health Summit on Saturday, Oct. 10 in Duluth, MN. The decision to organize the summit came after a local healthcare conference abandoned efforts to provide programming to improve LGBTQ health outcomes. While the summit was created to address officials bending the knee to the Trump administration, the summit organizers have seized the opportunity to create a day that will strengthen the community in ways other conferences could not.

We sat down with Sean Hayes, co-founder and executive director of TransNorthland, to discuss the summit’s goals and what it will offer. Article continues below.

Watch our conversation

The Trump Administration’s Impact in Trans Refuge State

By law, Minnesota has one of the most robust legal frameworks to create a refuge for transgender people. Between the Minnesota Human Rights Act and recent court rulings from the Minnesota Supreme Court, the state is one of the best in the country for transgender people.

But that hasn’t stopped local county level leaders from bending the knee to the Trump administration. Hayes said that for the second year in a row the St. Louis County’s annual Health and Human Services conference has dropped programming that the Trump administration would consider diversity, equity, and inclusion. According to Hayes, healthcare providers and researchers who typically present on LGBTQ healthcare at that conference had their proposals turned away for a second year in a row.

“it seems that our county here in St. Louis County is taking a more conservative pre-compliance kind of response,” said Hayes. “Whereas we’ve heard several other counties in our state are coming at it from the other end of we’re going to fight this.”

In addition to Minnesota’s robust legal protections, Hayes pointed to the state’s Attorney General, Keith Ellison, for his unrelenting efforts to sue Trump in court to block his attacks on the transgender community.

It’s Not Just Healthcare Conferences

Hayes said that local hospitals have also stopped providing healthcare services for transgender people. Trans Northland immediately stepped in to fill the gap.

“We established what we’re calling a gender care coalition up this way,” said Hayes, “which is a group of doctors, psychologists, nurses, community health folks, anyone who knows anything about healthcare and gender-affirming healthcare.”

WE Health Clinic also quickly responded to the situation. Hayes said that for transgender youth healthcare they “scrambled to get their certification. They were already providing that care for adults and now are, I believe, the only place in greater Minnesota that’s providing gender-affirming care to trans youth.”

Organizers Created A Comprehensive Summit

The opening keynote will feature the parent of a transgender child. The family recently moved to Minnesota to ensure their child would have reliable access to gender affirming care — only to find that Northern Minnesota wasn’t as accommodating as they thought.

“It has been really challenging up this way for them to be able to receive that care for their kiddo,” said Hayes.

As of this writing, Trans Northland has announced six of their planned workshop sessions. They will share the remaining six closer to the conference, but the first six include:

  • ID documents and legal issues
  • Creating gender-affirming healthcare experiences
  • Cultivating beloved community
  • Addressing religious misinformation
  • Queering Death as a Death Doula
  • Building Bridges of Connection and Community with Trans Northland

“You’re getting [information] from the actual experts when you come to these sessions,” said Hayes.

He shared that when they opened submissions for workshops they planned to fill eight sessions, but received 12 proposals. Instead of turning away the additional four, they changed their format so that they could offer three workshops in each of the four sessions.

“We even had folks who said, ‘Darn it, did we miss the deadline? I have this presentation ready,'” said Hayes. “And I’m like, ‘Darn it, you did, but we’re going to do it again next year!'”

The 2SLGBTQIA+ Health Summit will also be comprehensive in its geographic reach with participants coming from the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior, as well as both northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In addition, the organizers planned the day-long event to take place two days after the St. Louis County Health and Human Services Conference. They hope attendees of that conference will extend their visit to participate in the 2SLGBTQIA+ Health Summit which will be on the campus of University of Minnesota Duluth.

Community Is Protection

Hayes himself will present a workshop, drawing on his work in domestic violence and the anti-violence movement.

“One of the things we know is that when folks are isolated, when they’re not connected into their community, that is when they are at the most risk of harm happening, whether that’s domestic violence, whether that’s some other self-inflicted harm,” said Hayes.

That knowledge has informed his work with Trans Northland which was a volunteer group until he was hired a month before the 2024 general election.

“Our main goal is to build this community together alongside of all of our trans and gender expansive folks that we directly work with,” said Hayes. “We also think a lot about how we build those relationships in connection with other agencies and community groups, nonprofits, businesses within our community. Because for Trans Northland and for most LGBT orgs, we don’t have a lot of funding.”

He also explained that these collaborations are not just with organizations themselves but get down to specific individuals working within them.

“We’ve had to build relationships with individuals at these agencies so that when a trans person reaches out to us and says, ‘Hey, we need help, I’ve been sexually assaulted, where do I go?’ rather than saying, ‘You go to this organization,’ we learned really quickly on […] that if we could say, ‘Go to Joe Schmo […] We know Joe is either an ally, or they’re either a queer or trans person themselves, and they’re going to be the safe person that you can work with within those agencies,” said Hayes.

Personal Stories Dispel Misinformation

When asked about how events like the 2SLGBTQIA+ Health Summit can dispel misinformation about transgender people, Hayes elucidated that it comes down to sharing personal stories.

“It’s really easy to make people seem like the enemy or the bad guy or that there’s something wrong with people because we are trans,” he said. “But it’s a lot harder to take that hateful rhetoric and internalize that when you know someone like Sean Hayes and when you’ve heard my story.”

And since Trans Northland received more workshop proposals than they could accommodate this year, Hayes confirmed the non-profit plans to host the 2SLGBTQIA+ Health Summit again next year.

He said, “we will certainly be back.”

To learn more about Trans Northland’s work visit transnorthland.org.

Twin Cities Gay Scene Turns 20 with New Voices and Rainbow Connection

John Parker
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Twin Cities Gay Scene Turns 20 with New Voices and Rainbow Connection

Twin Cities Gay Scene burst onto the scene in 2006 with a mission. As Co-Owner and Publisher David Birchard-Weissmann put it, “”we started Scene because the Twin Cities needed a guide focused entirely on queer events.”

And today that mission is “to be the Twin Cities’ number one source for queer media and pop culture,” said Cory Birchard-Weissman, co-owner and publisher. Husbands David Birchard-Weissmann and Cory Birchard-Weissmann have shepherded Scene from print to digital, now publishing new stories bi-weekly to its website, social media, and e-newsletter.

To celebrate their twenty-year anniversary, Scene has launched a new directory: Rainbow Connection. “It’s organized into 40+ categories,” said David Birchard-Weissmann. “Everything from bars, restaurants, and retail to legal, financial, health, real estate, sober living, transgender-specific resources, youth services, and Pride chapters around the state.”

The Birchard-Weissmanns also hired Deb Balzer to serve as their new Managing Editor. Balzer’s career started at WROC-TV in Rochester, NY. From there she held posts at CONUS Communications, Farmer’s Almanac, Minnesota 2020, and the Mayo Clinic. Balzer is tasked with expanding Scene’s coverage areas as well as coordinating the publication’s contributors: Derek Murawski-Harguth, Sarah McPeck, David Anderson, Chloe Czaplewski, Mary Brewster, Lala Luzious and Jeong Park. In addition to her editorial duties, Balzer writes Scene’s “Money, But Make It Real” column and “Balzer Talk!”

Photo of Twin Cities Gay Scene team at Outfront Minnesota Gala 2026. Left to right: David Anderson, Derek Murawski-Harguth, Jeong Park, Deb Balzer, David Birchard-Weissmann, Cory Birchard-Weissman.
Photo of Twin Cities Gay Scene team at Outfront Minnesota Gala 2026. Left to right: David Anderson, Derek Murawski-Harguth, Jeong Park, Deb Balzer, David Birchard-Weissmann, Cory Birchard-Weissman.

Their origin story

On Scene’s website, the Birchard-Weissmanns have documented the early days, which includes a photocopy of the first ever designs David Birchard-Weissmann sketched for what would become Scene’s logo.

The cover of Twin Cities Gay Scene's first issue. Kevin Aviance stands with the word Scene written over their middle.
The cover of Scene’s first issue

There’s also a photo of what they’ve dubbed “The Big Black Book.” Inside holds all the notes, musings, and decisions they made to launch Scene, as well as “the plans that worked, the ones that didn’t, and the sheer stubborn hustle it took to get this thing off the ground.”

Their first url was MySceneCity.com. Their first cover story was an exclusive interview with drag queen, fashion designer, and musician Kevin Aviance. Their 5.5 x 8.5 publication was 48 pages long, featuring an interview with Twin Cities DJ Shannon Blowtorch, as well as new reporting on the opening of Pi Bar. Steven Levy helped Scene secure advertisers: UV Vodka, Pfund, Circuit Mom, All God’s Children, and Little Tijuana.

The Technology Is a-Changing

Scene has had to navigate one of the most rapidly changing media environments in American history. In quick succession, a slew of new technologies shook traditional print to its core: websites, mobile devices, and apps.

“Scene has effectively rebuilt itself every few years to stay where its readers are,” said David Birchard-Weissmann. He said their transition to digital-only in 2014 was “early for a regional queer publication to make that shift.” Major LGBTQ news organizations like Chicago’s Windy City Times would eventually drop print as well — a trend the entire newspaper and magazine industry has had to contend with.

In 2022, the Congressional Research Service issued a report finding that between 2002 and 2022, over 200 local daily newspapers either reduced publishing frequency or shut down as revenue fell 80% over that same time period. LGBTQ media was not immune and often at greater risk. By the turn of the twentieth century, the Minnesota-based LGBTQ publications Q Monthly, GLC Voice, Equal Time, and Gaze Magazine had all closed.

When Scene launched in 2006, it joined Lavender Magazine as the only LGBTQ publications serving the Twin Cities. KFAI’s Fresh Fruit Radio continued broadcasting news and conversation about the queer community — now the longest running LGBTQ radio program in the United States.

Club lights background with text: Scene, myscenecity.com
Early logo for mySCENEcity.com

But the relationship between Lavender Magazine and Scene was contentious. According to Scene, Lavender Magazine sent them cease-and-desist letters, while blocking them out of event sponsorships at non-profit events.

Yet Scene carved out a space for itself through a mix of entertainment, community stories, a Pride planner, and eventually hiring contributing writers. The first contributor came when David Birchard-Weissmann discovered the website derekplease.com run by Derek Murawski-Harguth.

“[I] thought, ‘wow!’ Derek is a great writer,” he said. “Editorial content was not my forte and I thought Derek would be great at this. He was our first contributor and continues with us today.”

As Scene continued to grow, the Birchard-Weissmanns brought on Mary Brewster to cover fundraising and LGBTQ community events. Jeong Park covers queer people of color while Lala Luzious writes entertainment commentary and conducts interviews with community members. Today, Scene has eight contributors.

The Campaign For Marriage Equality

A seminal moment in Minnesota’s LGBTQ history was the marriage equality battle that lasted from 2011 through 2013. After years of trying, Republicans, bolstered by large donations from Catholic organizations, forced a ballot measure through the Legislature in 2011 to amend the Minnesota constitution to ban marriage equality.

But the vote wasn’t held until November 2012 and what followed was a grueling campaign that was larger in scope than any campaign in the state’s history. According to an article in the Star Tribune posted after the election, Minnesotans United For All Families, the organization leading the effort to defeat the amendment, had 27,000 volunteers make over 900,000 phone calls to voters in the last week of the campaign.

“As one of only two LGBTQ publications in Minnesota at the time, it often felt like we were the only ones covering this story,” said David Birchard-Weissmann. “I guess it was less like reporting and more like bearing witness.”

He said that as an LGBTQ media outlet their readership was already in favor of marriage equality and so their editorial mission shifted towards encouraging readers to reach out to Scene’s non-readers.

“We all had family, friends and colleagues who didn’t read Scene,” said David Birchard-Weissmann. “We were trying to reach those people through our readers.”

Cover photo of the Birchman-Weismanns holding a orange sign that says "Vote No: Don't Limit The Freedom to Marry"
Cory and David pose on the cover to support marriage equality

And the two co-founders took a risk to meet the moment.

“Cory and I are usually private and stay behind-the-scenes,” said David Birchard-Weissmann. “But in 2012, we put ourselves on the cover during the Marriage Equality vote because we felt passionately about the importance of this pivotal moment in Minnesota.”

They timed that issue to come out right before the election.

This editorial approach contrasted with Lavender Magazine who published a few anti-marriage equality articles. After the publication shutdown in the summer of 2026, a coalition of Minnesotan LGBTQ leaders and elected officials wrote in a joint letter, “we note that “Lavender Magazine” itself platformed opposing viewpoints and stood in the way of the work of same-sex marriage equality.”

On November 6, 2012 the constitutional amendment failed with only 48% of the vote.

“Election night 2012 is one I still think about,” said David Birchard-Weissmann. “Cory and I didn’t actually get married until New Year’s Eve 2017, but no one was going to tell us we couldn’t.”

Six months after that election, the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill legalizing marriage equality, authored by the late Minnesota State Representative Karen Clark. As the bill marched towards passage, supporters gathered in the rotunda of the state capital. They chanted “Love will prevail!” The Birchard-Weismann’s were there.

“We didn’t cover that moment so much as a story,” said David Birchard-Weissmann. “We showed up and participated in the rally [as] ourselves.”

The next chapter

Over the past three years, the Birchard-Weissmans have rebuilt their operation into a mobile-first platform. Their goal is for users to have a Facebook or Instagram-like scrolling experience, “everything is built to be read comfortably right from your phone — no squinting, no pinching to zoom.” Twin Cities Gay Scene logo

And with the closure of Lavender Magazine, Scene is now the oldest running LGBTQ publication in Minnesota. As it comes during their twenty-year anniversary, the Birchard-Weismanns see it as opportunity.

“The anniversary isn’t just a nostalgia lap,” said David Birchard-Weissman. “It’s being used as the moment to relaunch Scene’s next chapter.”

While they consider their ability to adapt as key to their enterprise, the Birchard-Weissmans said their readers are their biggest strength.

“We are most grateful to our community for their love and support these past 20 years,” said David Birchard-Weissman. “Here’s to the what’s next.”

ACLU-MN Sues Detroit Lakes School District Over Its Rainbow Ban

John Parker
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ACLU-MN Sues Detroit Lakes School District Over Its Rainbow Ban

The ACLU of Minnesota has filed a lawsuit against the Detroit Lakes School District in Northern Minnesota over its “rainbow ban.” Instituted this past summer, the new policy prohibits the display of rainbows in all shapes and forms from its schools. We spoke with the ACLU of Minnesota’s Deputy Legal Director Catherine Ahlin-Halverson about the lawsuit, what it means for students, and what happens next. Article continues below.

Watch our conversation

Board Surprises District with policy no one asked for

“We filed this lawsuit because the rainbow ban casts a pall over the entire Detroit Lakes School District,” said Ahlin-Halverson. “[It chills] speech in support of LGBTQ+ students and families, who deserve to be cared for, valued, and protected.”

The Detroit Lakes School Board sprung the policy on an unsuspecting school district this past July. Four board members wrote the policy in secret and then added it to the agenda as a last minute addition at 7 a.m. on a Monday morning. They immediately voted on and passed it.

In effect, it prohibits safe space stickers, as well the display of rainbows on posters, buttons, stickers, etc. This includes what students wear and put on their backpacks.

Almost 100 people attended the August school board meeting and the majority of attendees spoke out against the new policy.

School principals have shared how there is no record of complaints that could justify the ban. Superintendent Mark Jenson in multiple meetings has repeatedly asked the board about how administrators should enforce the ban. For example, as it relates to personal mugs of staff members or family photos on desktops.

The lawsuit alleges that the Board’s comments in both official meetings and to the media haven’t adequately answered these questions.

Ahlin-Halverson explained that vague language regulating speech is dangerous in that individuals with power can apply them inconsistently based on their personal viewpoints which undermines constitutional protections.

Lawyers for the district drafted a resolution for the board that would have paused enforcement until the specifics about implementation were clarified and rolled out. But the board refused to pass the resolution at a September meeting.

The next day the ACLU filed its lawsuit.

“[Students] have the right not to experience bias and discrimination, and that is what a ban like this causes for them,” she said.

The case alleges the Detroit Lakes School Board’s rainbow ban violates: free speech protections under the Minnesota State Constitution, equal rights protections under Minnesota law, including the Minnesota Human Rights Act, as well as Minnesota’s Open Meetings law.

The lawsuit also contends the four board members who forced the policy through knew what its impact would be and so they refused to allow committee review, board discussion, or public readings.

It names those four board members as defendants, in addition to the district, and seeks civil penalties against them: John Steffl, Sanford Nelson, Michelle Okeson, and Michael Walther.

Students Feeling The Impact

One of the first things to go were safe space rainbow stickers that teachers had displayed on their classroom doorways for years. According to Ahlin-Halverson, they were either damaged or torn down.

The ACLU’s lawsuit represents two students and their families. One is a high school junior who is the president of the school’s LGBTQ student association.

“Since the rainbow ban was adopted, our client has had other students suggest that our client’s expression of their identity and their clothing and what they’re wearing was inappropriate and was banned by the school board,” Ahlin-Halverson said.

The second is an elementary student who has LGBTQ parents and is concerned about if they can even talk about their family in school without being punished.

“LGBTQ+ students are at higher risk for having mental health challenges and isolation because of conduct like this. Policies like this. This is what puts them at risk,” Ahlin-Halverson said.

Next Steps in Legal Process

The ACLU of Minnesota is hoping for an immediate injunction against the rainbow ban. The school district has roughly three weeks to respond to the lawsuit before the case moves ahead in Becker County District Court.

For updates and more information visit aclu-mn.org

15 Years After Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal, LGBTQ Service Members Face New Battle

John Parker
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15 Years After Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal, LGBTQ Service Members Face New Battle

September 20 marked an important date for LGBTQ service members: the fifteenth anniversary of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The twentieth of September is now celebrated annually as National LBGTQ Veterans and Service Members Day. But this year’s celebration comes as the Trump administration is once again banning transgender service members, as well as erasing both the support systems and the visibility of all LGBTQ service members and veterans. We spoke with Lucas F. Schleusener, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Out in National Security, to unpack DADT’s impacts on America and to better understand what’s happening now under Trump. Article continues below.

Watch our Conversation

A History of Exclusion

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a policy passed into statute in 1993 that barred gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military,” Schleusener explained. Between its passage and its repeal, the military used DADT to expel more than 13,000 LGBTQ service members — including over 2,000 Arabic linguists after September 11.

But DADT was itself an extension of President Dwight Eisenhower’s executive order prohibiting queer people from holding security clearances in any branch of the U.S. government, effectively barring them from all types of positions. The time period was known as “The Lavender Scare,” which ran parallel to the government’s rabid “Red Scare” policy of seeking out suspected communists in the federal government.

“For your listeners, you can watch the TV show ‘Fellow Travelers,'” Schleusener said. “It has Matt Bomer in it and it’s just wonderful. That’ll explain that a little bit.”

President Clinton issued two executive orders amending Eisenhower’s, one in 1995 and another in 1998. But that progress was marred by Clinton’s broken campaign promise to allow gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the armed services. He hailed at the time the “compromise” that the Defense department wouldn’t inquire as long as service members didn’t disclose.

“Unfortunately, that requires service members to lie, which is contrary to the oath they take when they join the military,” Schleusener said. “Also, it’s very hard to trust your teammates if you’re constantly making up boyfriends or girlfriends or altering your weekend plans or hiding things.”

And the Don’t Ask part of DADT ultimately proved to be a lie.

“They promised to not pursue the gay people who wanted to serve,” Schleusener explained. “Of course, in fact [they] pursued a lot of gay people and a lot of lesbians and a lot of people that they took to be those things. There are interesting stories of women in particular who perceived to be too butch to be heterosexual, and there are stories of men who were too effeminate but were not queer who got harassed under this policy.”

According to Schleusener, investigators scoped out gay bars as well as went through people’s phones and emails. Moreover, service members would trip up and accidentally reveal the gender of their partner which would launch an investigation.

A Schism in the federal government

But thanks to the efforts of LGBTQ advocacy organizations, they were able to open up a schism in the federal government, between agencies allowing LGBTQ people to work and those who didn’t.

Schleusener pointed to the 1980s court case High Tech Gays versus Defense Security Cooperation Office (DISCO).

“High Tech Gays was a social club of gay rocket scientists and aerospace engineers in Southern California who worked for defense contractors,” Schleusener said. “And they eventually were like, ‘We’re out and proud. We have a booth at local gay pride. Can we not be punished for being queer?’ And they sued and they got all the way up to the Ninth Circuit.”

The ninth circuit agreed with them and the Supreme Court didn’t take up the case, which let the ninth circuit’s ruling stand.

Then, with the repeal of Eisenhower’s executive order in 1998, the rest of the government was forced to give security clearances to LGBTQ employees, including the CIA, FBI, State Department, and Treasury. Employee resource groups, such as ANGLE at the CIA and GLFA at the State Department, worked internally to improve the rights of LGBTQ employees.

“I don’t want to undersell the amount of organizing and the amount of effort and the number of people who took risks to push a federal government that was interested in using the closet to decide the boundary between respectable Americans and people who can serve the country and people who can’t,” Schleusener said.

Pathway to Repeal

The Obama administration began its efforts to repeal DADT by commissioning a six-month study to confirm that lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members wouldn’t comprise the military’s ability to carry out its mission. Transgender service members were not included in the discussion.

At the time of the study, every other NATO country, except Turkey and Greece, allowed LGTBQ service members to serve in their armed forces.

This added to the already internal schism in the US federal government, which further isolated the US Defense Department. It created a ridiculous situation that Schleusener said led to “the US military [respecting] the fact that there were gay colonels and master sergeants and master chiefs and quartermasters and whatever all across NATO.”

Adding to the pressure was bipartisan support for LGB service members which led to Congressional hearings on repealing DADT. In turn, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Admiral Michael Glenn Mullen, shifted his stance on the law.

“Mike Mullen became a substantial advocate,” Schleusener said. “And then continued to be an advocate for open trans service later because he came around to the idea that compelling service members to lie to the military, and to their colleagues, was corrosive to their oath — and also corrosive to the effectiveness of the force.”

In 2011, Congress voted to repeal DADT and President Obama signed the legislation. And on September 20, “stroke at midnight, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed,” Schleusener said. “The next day the Marine Corps has a recruiting booth at the Tulsa LGBT Center.”

As of this year, 18 states and roughly half a dozen cities recognize September 20 as National LGBTQ Service Members and Veterans Day. And the last executive order that Obama issued while in office was to fully repeal Eisenhower’s ban on LGBTQ federal employees.

From Opponent to Champion for LGBTQ rights

In 2013, when the Supreme Court ruled in United State v Windsor that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional that ultimately transformed the Defense Department into an advocate for marriage equality.

The Windsor case meant that the Defense department had to recognize the marriages of legally married service members. But what happens when that service member is deployed to a base in a state that still banned marriage equality?

“[The Defense department decided] to use its old rules from pre-Loving v. Virginia,” Schleusener explained, “which was back when interracial marriage used to be illegal in parts of the country, to extend marriage benefits to service members and members of the National Guard based on which state they’d legally been married in to override local bans.”

The New Lavender Scare

When taking office for the second time, the Trump administration immediately began to erase LGBTQ people from the Executive branch.

“At the start of this administration, they removed all of the employee resource groups,” he said. “Those are affinity organizations inside the federal government for not only for LGBT people, but for women, for African Americans, for Latinos, for parents of disabled children, for Jewish folks, for Christian folks.”

Recall that it was ERGs like Angle at CIA and GLFA at the State Department who had successfully steered those agencies towards more inclusive workplace environments.

Current Defense Secretary, and former Fox News Host, Pete Hegseth is on the record saying he wants to bring back Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

In 2016, because there was no law like DADT banning their service, President Obama allowed transgender service members to serve openly by lifting the Defense Department’s internal ban. But, without a law codifying these rights, future Presidential administrations could re-enact the ban.

The Trump administration did just that during his first term. The courts blocked his efforts then and have been doing so again in his second term. However, the Supreme Court intervened to allow him to begin expelling trans service members despite the fact that lawsuits are still on-going.

“The Supreme Court gave a green light to this kind of harm,” Schleusener said. “We are at about half of the trans service members — Active Guard and Reserve, of the 4,300 — [who] have been found and pushed out.”

Schleusener estimates that the entire process, from identifying a trans service member, investigating them, expelling them, finding a new recruit to do their job, on-boarding and training them, costs between $10 to $20 million dollars per individual trans service member expelled.

Moreover, the Trump administration has cruelly revoked retirement benefits and support services to those they’ve expelled.

Trans service members have filed three active court cases against the Trump administration. Schleusener said that the case before Judge Ana C. Reyes in the DC circuit has found that the Trump administration is acting out of animus and not national security. If that decision holds, Schleusener explained, Trump’s ban will likely fall.

To learn more about Out in National Security’s work, visit outinnationalsecurity.org.

Author Greg Howard Discusses “The Travelers,” Grief, and Why Kids Deserve Queer Stories

John Parker
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Author Greg Howard Discusses “The Travelers,” Grief, and Why Kids Deserve Queer Stories

Greg Howard’s newest middle-grade novel “The Travelers” follows Ben, a 12-year old boy who loses his mother and has to live with his grandmother in a house filled with mysterious clocks. In an interview, Howard told us, “I lost my mom when I was five years old, and I was not really given the tools by the adults around me to deal with that.” With “The Travelers,” Howard hopes to change that and more. Article continues below.

Watch our conversation

Navigating Grief and Queerness

Howard, who turns 60 this year, said that characters like Ben didn’t exist in books when he was growing up.

“[Younger me] would have been surprised and shocked that it was just not an issue that Ben was gay,” Howard said. “In all of my books, my kids are at different points of the coming out process. And in this one, I just wanted the kid just to be gay and he’s comfortable with it. His mom was. So it is not an issue. It is not the story. It just is part of who he is.”

In The Travelers, Ben discovers a time portal at his grandmother’s house, hidden in the antique clocks scattered throughout the home. Through this portal Ben is able to meet his mother when she was his age and to investigate his family’s history and secrets.

“Ben has to jump in and figure out what is going on in this house and see if he can save his mom,” Howard said.

While he is searching for his mom and trying to learn the truth about his family, Ben also develops a found family. First with his grandmother, then through new friends and a father-figure.

“What I wanted to do in the novel was show the way we as gay people, through this 12-year-old boy, build families around us by simply opening ourselves up and being our authentic selves with new people,” Howard said.

Howard drew on themes from his own lived experience to think through how he wanted to approach writing about found family.

“When I left for college, I kind of just cut my family out of my life because they did not know who I was,” he said. “They didn’t know I was gay, and I just assumed there would be rejection and that they wouldn’t be able to deal with it. So for decades, I just didn’t let them be a part of my life.”

Howard noted “when they finally found out, of course, as it is with everything, I should have been worried about [half] and half of them I shouldn’t have.”

Publishing Challenges and Book Bans

This year, Banned Books Week will be held the first week of October. When asked about his own experience, Howard described a “soft censorship” from publishers.

“There’s nothing salacious going on in [my] books. They’re very sweet, wholesome stories, but just the fact that the kid is gay is too much for some of these people,” Howard said.

A common justification that anti-LGBTQ school board members and activists will use to ban queer books is to claim that the themes are too mature for middle-grade fiction. But Howard deftly shows why that argument doesn’t hold up.

“There are kids living this every single day,” he said. “I certainly lived it, and I know I’m not the only one; and I lived it at a much younger age, also knowing at that time that I was attracted to other boys.”

From his perspective, he said that librarians and school staff are stuck between providing students access to diverse books while having to fend off anti-LGBTQ school board members and parents.

“So it’s just easier to take those books off the shelves,” Howard said. “Which is so sad because it’s just taking those kids’ experiences and their stories and telling them it doesn’t matter.”

Howard’s novel “Middle School’s a Drag You Better Work” was targeted by Fox News and U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert.

He also shared about a disturbing email he received a number of years ago from a father whose son had brought home Howard’s novel “The Whispers.” The father accused Howard of grooming children and indoctrinating youth with a homosexual agenda. The message included a photograph of the book ripped up in the trash can.

“God, I don’t know if that son of his is gay or not; but if he is, he just saw his father throw him away and tell him he’s worthless,” Howard said. “And it broke my heart.”

In spite of this toxicity, some schools continue to persist in bringing diverse books and authors to their students.

A large Atlanta middle school will host Howard to speak to their sixth grade students, all 600 of them.

“They told me 600,” Howard said. “It is terrifying within itself. Just terrifying.”

While he’s excited about the event, he said he does prefer smaller settings. “I much prefer to be more one-on-one with kids. They tend to get more real with you. And when you’re in a smaller group, they will expose their heart to you.”

To learn more about Howard and his books, visit greghowardbooks.com. Buy your copy of The Traveler here.

“Cutting Edge” Traces Hockey’s Queer Roots From Hobey Baker To Today

John Parker
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“Cutting Edge” Traces Hockey’s Queer Roots From Hobey Baker To Today

While everyone waits for season two of “Heated Rivalry,” author Daniel Gawthrop has just published “Cutting Edge: Hockey as Queer Culture.” In it, he charts hockey’s queer roots and provides readers not just with history, but his own reflections as a gay man who played hockey as a kid and re-discovered it as an adult. Article continues below.

Watch our conversation

Hobey Baker: One of Hockey’s Greatest Stars

Gawthrop introduces readers to Hobey Baker who was a phenom football and hockey player at Princeton University, as well as an air force pilot in World War I. His prowess on the football field was so considerable that President Woodrow Wilson took time out of his inauguration day to watch Baker play.

But hockey was Baker’s passion. Such was his greatness, Gawthrop said, “there’s been an award trophy named after him for the top US men’s collegiate player every year. He was one of the first players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame some decades later.”

Baker came from privilege, living in what Gawthrop called “high society.”  And, as it turns out, he had an older lover, Percy R. Pyne.

“[Baker’s] love letters are actually in the archive at Princeton, which is interesting,” Gawthrop said. “It’s there for all to see if you want to.”

It was the 2024 ESPN podcast “Searching for Hobey Baker” that surfaced this history for the general public. Gawthrop said that “no one’s really ever talked about the man behind [the award], other than his playing prowess, until the David Duchovny-hosted podcast happened.”

The Roots of Hockey’s Masculine Culture

Gawthrop explained that because hockey emerged as a colonial sport played by the upper classes, “its promotion was that you had to be tough to do it. You had to be a real man.”

The connection between colonialism, militarism, and hockey strengthened during both World Wars when military recruiters specifically wanted hockey players to serve in the armed forces.

Gawthrop charts two distinct approaches to hockey that emerged in the twentieth century: talent and finesse vs brute force. Nowhere was that better displayed than the historic 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR.

The author shared that against the Soviets, the Canadians engaged in “terribly dodgy behavior that no Canadian should be proud of at all.” He noted that Canadian player Bobby Clarke delivered a dangerous two-handed stick check to the ankle of the Soviet’s star player, Valeri Kharlamov.

Gawthrop quoted Clarke as later saying, “If I didn’t learn how to lay on a two-hander now and then, I never would’ve got out of Flinflon.” Flinflon being Clarke’s small Manitoba hometown.

Additionally, Gawthrop pointed to another Canadian player, Jean Parisé, who threatened referees by throwing his stick when he received penalty calls.

He explained that it was the Philadelphia Flyers who took toxic masculinity to the next level when they became known as the “Broad Street Bullies” for their play style that relied more on intimidation and violence than skill.

This toxic culture has driven away young queer players. Gawthrop said the situation is so bad that instead of finding the hit series “Heated Rivalry” enjoyable, some gay professional hockey players were initially triggered by it.

“They were traumatized by watching the first 20 minutes of the show because it brought up all of these things that happened to them while they were actually competing,” he said.

Former hockey player Matt Kenny told various Canadian media outlets that he had a panic attack whose effects lasted five days. Brock McGillis said to “PinkNews” that the series’ first episode had a similar impact on him. However, both Kenny and McGillis have shared that they ultimately liked “Heated Rivalry.”

For his part, Gawthrop said that, “everyone should be able to succeed in the game at whatever level they’re at happily without this kind of trauma.”

From Youth Hockey To Gay Games

Gawthrop, author of “The Trial of Pope Benedict” and “The Rice Queen Diaries,” chose to weave into “Cutting Edge” his own personal history with hockey.

He began skating at 10 and played competitively for two years before giving it up.

“My memoir aspects were similar to what all gay men who’ve tried to play the game have experienced no matter how good we are,” he said. “It’s that whole thing of discovering the beauty of the game, the magic of it, making the plays, being on the ice, and then gradually having the disillusionment.”

While hockey’s locker room culture drove him away, he found it disturbing how he could also use it to fend off questions about his sexuality.

“After being away from the game,” Gawthrop said, “I went and played drop-in to stop questions about why I didn’t have a girlfriend. I knew that no one would think I was gay if I played hockey — and that was a terrible realization.”

He walked away from the game again.

But when the Gay Games came to Vancouver in 1990, Gawthrop was dismayed to find out it was organizers in Los Angeles who were putting together the hockey event.

So he reached out to the organizers and asked, “Why should a team from LA be organizing an event in Vancouver?”

They told him, “Because nobody from the host city was willing to do it.”

To which Gawthrop replied, “I’ll do it.”

He named the team the Real Puckers.

After the Gay Games, Gawthrop and Vancouver Sun reporter Kevin Griffin co-founded the Cutting Edges, a competitive LGBTQ+ hockey association in Vancouver. They chose the team name to reflect the fact that they would have to play in a league where all the other teams were comprised of straight and closeted players.

“The idea of gay men playing hockey in a straight league against straight men was cutting edge,” Gawthrop explained. “That was something that was just very unusual.”

Immediately, the Cutting Edges came up against the toxic culture that forced so many of them to leave the sport.

The straight teams “didn’t want to lose to ‘a bunch of fags,'” Gawthrop said. “[But] when they did start losing to us, then it was like, ‘Oh, well, let’s go have a beer.'”

That was what it took for change he said, “we went out and beat this team.”

Women’s Hockey: The Power of Unions

When it came to women’s hockey, Gawthrop said what made all the difference towards advancing the sport was having a union.

While there were women’s hockey leagues before World War II, funding disappeared because of the war. The modern game that we know today, Gawthrop said, was not spontaneous. It came through organizing. He pointed to the various boycott threats the Professional Women’s Hockey Player Association made as instrumental to the development of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

“It was only when a player’s union got together, and they established what they wanted, before they would agree to do a professional league,” he said.

Another example he gave was how women’s games would be interrupted and forced to stop because “some beer league team had rented ice at a certain hour.” A beer league team being one that plays for fun and socializing over beers afterwards.

“And these [were] top flight women players,” Gawthrop said. “I mean, [it was] really degrading. So the establishment of that union before the funding came together for the PWHL really made the difference.”

Buy your copy of “Cutting Edge: Hockey As Queer Culture.” Readers can connect with Gawthrop on Substack at danielgawthrop.substack.com.

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