THE FIGHT CALIFORNIA'S LGBTQ MONTHLY MAGAZINE APRIL 2020
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<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 1
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2 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> | www.thefightmag.com
<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 3
<strong>THE</strong>CONTENTS<br />
ON <strong>THE</strong> COVER<br />
& ON THIS PAGE<br />
TOM GOSS<br />
COVER PHOTO, CONTENTS PHOTO<br />
& FEATURE PHOTO<br />
BY DUSTI CUNNINGHAM<br />
FEATURES<br />
11 RENT RELIEF<br />
MORATORIUM ON EVICTIONS<br />
12 COPING WITH COVID<br />
LOCALS RESPOND TO <strong>THE</strong> PANDEMIC<br />
16 FEELING PRODUCTIVE<br />
AN INTERVIEW WITH TOM GOSS<br />
18 CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (AGAIN)<br />
A SEQUEL IS IN <strong>THE</strong> WORKS<br />
22 MENTAL HEALTH SURVIVAL GUIDE<br />
JAMES GUAY’S COPING TIPS<br />
24 JOB OFFERS<br />
WHO’S HIRING RIGHT NOW<br />
29 VIRTUAL PRIDE<br />
NEW LIVE-STREAM EVENT<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
08 <strong>THE</strong> TALK<br />
10 <strong>THE</strong> CITY<br />
14 <strong>THE</strong> ROSTOW REPORT<br />
22 <strong>THE</strong> SHARE<br />
26 <strong>THE</strong> ART<br />
30 <strong>THE</strong> FINAL <strong>FIGHT</strong><br />
4 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> | www.thefightmag.com<br />
4 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> | www.thefightmag.com
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<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 5
<strong>THE</strong>EDITOR<br />
“COVID-19 has transformed our<br />
world. Not only has it led to spiked<br />
infections, it’s also instilled mass hysteria,<br />
global grief, worldwide trauma<br />
and a huge stop to our everyday<br />
normal routines,” writes <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong><br />
contributor James Guay, LMFT<br />
(“Mental Health Survival Guide,”<br />
pages 20-21).<br />
One of Guay’s tips for coping with<br />
a worldwide pandemic is to “spread<br />
compassion.”<br />
“We are all in this together, even if<br />
we have differences in how it affects<br />
us given our specific circumstances<br />
and vulnerabilities.” writes Guay.<br />
“… Some of us are on the front<br />
lines providing essential services.<br />
Others are in self-quarantine to prevent<br />
spreading this infection. There<br />
are still some of us who are denying<br />
the gravity of all this or not caring<br />
about the impact of our exposure to<br />
others in our communities. It brings<br />
out the best and the worst in us.<br />
This moment can magnify our<br />
soft spots and increase our anxiety,<br />
depression, loneliness, suicidal<br />
>> IN THIS ISSUE
The Fight ad.indd 1<br />
2/18/<strong>2020</strong> 4:20:52 PM<br />
<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 7
<strong>THE</strong>TALK<br />
TERRANCE<br />
MCNALLY<br />
FEEL<br />
INVISIBLE<br />
“He somehow makes<br />
people who feel<br />
invisible in the world<br />
feel like they have a<br />
place in our canon.”<br />
—Kerri Washington, in an interview<br />
with The New York Times<br />
in 2019, profiling playwright<br />
Terrance McNally, who died of<br />
complications from the coronavirus<br />
last month.<br />
NATHAN<br />
LANE<br />
<strong>THE</strong>IR<br />
LIVES<br />
“I love it when I<br />
know something<br />
I wrote softened<br />
the parents who<br />
had banished their<br />
son and daughter<br />
from their lives<br />
when they came<br />
out to them as<br />
gay and lesbian.”<br />
—Playwright Terrance<br />
McNally (Love! Valour!<br />
Compassion!, The Spider<br />
Woman) in a speech<br />
accepting the lifetime<br />
achievement award at the<br />
2019 Tony Awards. McNally<br />
died of complications from<br />
the coronavirus last month.<br />
He was 81. RIP.<br />
KERRI<br />
WASHINGTON<br />
OUR<br />
GREATEST<br />
“I just think he<br />
is one of our<br />
greatest American<br />
writers.”<br />
—Nathan Lane, in an interview<br />
with The New York<br />
Times in 2019, profiling playwright<br />
Terrance McNally,<br />
who died of complications<br />
from the coronavirus last month.<br />
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<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 9
<strong>THE</strong>CITY<br />
>> BY PAULO MURILLO
MORATORIUM ON EVICTIONS
SOCIAL DISTANCING
<strong>LGBTQ</strong> COMMUNITY
<strong>THE</strong>ROSTOWREPORT<br />
>> BY ANN ROSTOW
Insta<br />
>> WHAT HAPPENED? • MUTING <strong>THE</strong> SOUND •IN GOD <strong>THE</strong>Y TRUST • SPUD STATE • AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
FEATURE INTERVIEW
<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 17
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<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 19
“IT’S A RESET TO<br />
COME BACK TO<br />
OUR COMMON<br />
HUMANITY AND<br />
ADDRESS DESTRUC-<br />
TIVE O<strong>THE</strong>RING OF<br />
EACH O<strong>THE</strong>R. IT’S A<br />
TIME TO WAKE UP<br />
TO OUR INHERENT<br />
GOODNESS, WORTH<br />
AND VALUE.”<br />
20 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> | www.thefightmag.com
An abridged version of <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> contributor<br />
James Guay’s online feature on dealing with the pandemic.<br />
For the full version visit: www.livingmorefully.com<br />
BY JAMES GUAY, LMFT<br />
has transformed our world. Not only has<br />
COVID-19 it led to spiked infections, it’s also instilled<br />
mass hysteria, global grief, worldwide trauma and a huge stop<br />
to our everyday normal routines. So, how do we cope with a<br />
worldwide pandemic given our fears of infection and spread?<br />
How can we practice greater compassion at a time when we fear<br />
limited resources? How can we take into account the impact of<br />
our actions on others who may be more vulnerable than us?<br />
Increase Self-Awareness<br />
The first step to managing our COVID-19 stress better is<br />
getting ourselves off auto-pilot by increasing our self-awareness.<br />
Let’s call this what it is, again. We’re experiencing collective<br />
trauma and grief on a worldwide level. We’re responding<br />
to this with panic, fear, disbelief, hopelessness, numbness, denial,<br />
hoarding behaviors, and a wide variety of other thoughts,<br />
feelings and behaviors.<br />
We first need to know what we’re dealing with internally and<br />
the best way to do this is to bring a sense of curiosity, without<br />
judgement. When we criticize ourselves for our reactions, it’s not<br />
safe for those things to come into conscious awareness. If we<br />
don’t create enough safety for us to feel what we feel, think what<br />
we think, and sense what we sense, then they will operate at the<br />
mercy of our unconscious, out of our awareness. Unaddressed,<br />
they’ll wreak havoc on our lives, like this coronavirus has. Mindful<br />
curiosity, without judgement, is the first step to treat what is bothering<br />
us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.<br />
Attend to Thoughts, Feelings<br />
& Body Sensations<br />
Attending to our internal landscape, we need to acknowledge<br />
what’s there, allowing for whatever exists without trying<br />
to force it to be different. When we reject what we find or<br />
judge it, it often gets more intense and lasts longer than it<br />
otherwise would. Next, by naming what we find we get closer<br />
to identifying it and attending to it in ways that are needed.<br />
We then need to be with what we find in a balanced way,<br />
not denying/minimizing/ignoring but also not overindulging/<br />
obsessing/ruminating. We need to give it the space and time<br />
it deserves to inform us of what’s going on so that we can<br />
take appropriate actions, if any, and let it flow through us into<br />
something different.<br />
Take Mindful Action<br />
Before we take any actions, let’s ask ourselves, is<br />
this the best course of action right now? Sometimes we’re<br />
doing something just to do something, and it’s not actually<br />
what we need. Other times, we are in producing mode in an<br />
attempt to justify our worth and value. I’ve had to even pace<br />
myself in writing this and take longer than I’d like to, because<br />
I recognized that I needed my own downtime first in order to<br />
process everything that’s going on and take care of myself in<br />
the ways I’m encouraging you to do here.<br />
There are lots of great lists out there about what kinds of<br />
activities we can do while staying at home. We don’t have to<br />
do any of these things but rather whatever feels supportive<br />
and nurturing right now.<br />
Create Down Time<br />
We are at an opportune time for a global reset on<br />
how we manage our time. For far too long, and really since<br />
the Industrial Age, we have promoted production and DOING<br />
at the expense of balance and BEING. Both doing and being<br />
are essential in living a full life but when they’re out of balance<br />
we’re more likely to experience illness, burnout, boredom and<br />
overall dissatisfaction in life.<br />
We need to slow down to do more. If we’re over-producing and<br />
over-working, there comes a place of diminishing returns. We can<br />
lose our creative spark, concentration and focus. We lost connection<br />
with our life force that replenishes us and keeps us inspired.<br />
For a more balanced life, we need to be clear about what’s<br />
most important to us, take action based on these goals, take<br />
in the nourishment from doing this, and then rest in order to<br />
recuperate. When we circumvent this process and don’t allow<br />
enough down time, especially during crises like we’re currently<br />
experiencing, we increase our suffering.<br />
Spread Compassion<br />
We are all in this together, even if we have differences<br />
in how it affects us given our specific circumstances<br />
and vulnerabilities. We’re all in this together despite our responses.<br />
Some of us are on the front lines providing essential<br />
services. Others are in self-quarantine to prevent spreading<br />
this infection. There are still some of us who are denying the<br />
gravity of all this or not caring about the impact of our exposure<br />
to others in our communities. It brings out the best and<br />
the worst in us.<br />
This moment can magnify our soft spots and increase our<br />
anxiety, depression, loneliness, suicidal thoughts/actions, and<br />
relationship conflict including domestic violence and abuse. It can<br />
engender harmful racism, discrimination and xenophobia. There<br />
are many <strong>LGBTQ</strong> youth and adults that are not in safe homes<br />
during all of these stay-at-home orders. This moment in time<br />
highlights our wealth inequality and the systems that support it.<br />
Hyper-capitalism, hyper-individualism and extreme religiosity are<br />
systems that make it difficult to adapt appropriately to a pandemic.<br />
Mindfulness WITH compassion is the antidote for what ails<br />
us. When we increase our awareness in the present moment<br />
with curiosity, instead of judgement, and bring compassion to<br />
whatever we discover, we can navigate our response to reallife<br />
threats, like pandemics. We honor our organic response,<br />
get to know it, be with it and create space inside for how we<br />
can care for it with gentleness, grace and even fierceness. It<br />
takes both tremendous courage and vulnerability to do our<br />
internal work, especially at a time like this.<br />
<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 21
<strong>THE</strong>SHARE<br />
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<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 25
<strong>THE</strong>ART<br />
>> <strong>LGBTQ</strong> ARTISTS
JEROMY VELASCO
28 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> | www.thefightmag.com
PRIDE
<strong>THE</strong>FINAL<strong>FIGHT</strong><br />
The Mirror<br />
In The Entrance<br />
In the entrance hallway of that sumptuous home there<br />
was an enormous mirror, very old; acquired at least<br />
eighty years ago.<br />
A strikingly beautiful boy, a tailor’s assistant, (on<br />
Sunday afternoons, an amateur athlete), was standing<br />
with a package. He handed it to one of the household,<br />
who then went back inside to fetch a receipt. The tailor’s<br />
assistant remained alone, and waited.<br />
He drew near the mirror, and stood gazing at himself,<br />
and straightening his tie. Five minutes later they<br />
brought him the receipt. He took it and left.<br />
But the ancient mirror, which had seen and seen again,<br />
throughout its lifetime of so many years, thousands of<br />
objects and faces—but the ancient mirror now became<br />
elated, inflated with pride, because it had received<br />
upon itself perfect beauty, for a few minutes.<br />
—Poem by C. P. Cavafy, written in 1930.<br />
Translated from the Greek by Daniel Mendelssohn.<br />
30 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> | www.thefightmag.com<br />
<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 29
<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2020</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> 31
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32 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> | www.thefightmag.com