The first openly lesbian Miss America contestant will not only vie for the crown at the 95th annual pageant in New Jersey this weekend, she will also aim to spotlight the injustices faced by gay and transgender people.
“We are still fighting for visibility,” 23-year-old Erin O’Flaherty, who was crowned Miss Missouri in June, said during a media event in Atlantic City ahead of Sunday’s contest final. “So it’s really important for me just to exist in this capacity as completely who I am and be open and proud about it for the LGBT community.”
O’Flaherty said she plans to run for Miss America on the platform of preventing suicide, which disproportionately affects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. When not competing, O’Flaherty, works to provide suicide prevention services to LGBT youth and owns a clothing store.
She said the cause of suicide prevention is personal not only because she identifies as gay, but because she lost a close friend to suicide at age 13.
Miss Missouri Erin O’Flaherty, the first openly gay contestant in the Miss America pageant, poses in Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S., September 8, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Hofstetter
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“I realized in the grieving process that there were signs that I missed,” O’Flaherty said. “So I set out to educate myself on what those warning signs could be and what we could do to end suicide.”
Contestants of the Miss America contest, first held in 1921, select causes that are important to them as part of the competition.
In an interview portion of the competition, contestants are asked questions about their platforms. They are separately judged for their talent, as well as their appearance in evening wear and swimsuits. That element of the competition remains a target for critics who say the competition reinforces the idea that girls and women should be primarily valued for their bodies.
O’Flaherty, whose talent is singing, said she rejects the idea that beauty pageants objectify women.
“The Miss America Organization has absolutely enhanced my life,” O’Flaherty said. “It’s given me a platform to speak about issues that are really close to my heart.”
The Miss America final will be held on Sept. 11 at the beach resort of Atlantic City.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; Writing by Laila Kearney; Editing by Scott Malone)
Pushing, grabbing, punching and obscene gesturing broke out between Donald Trump supporters and protesters at the Republican presidential nominee’s rally in Asheville, N.C., on Sept. 12. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Donald Trump sought to keep the focus squarely on Hillary Clinton’s comment that half of his supporters are a “basket of deplorables” here Monday evening, charging his Democratic rival with running a “hate-filled campaign” with “no policy, no solutions and no new ideas.”
Trump spoke at an arena here where the atmosphere grew tense as protesters repeatedly interrupted his speech. Some of them made obscene gestures as they were removed from the premises. At one point, a man took a fighting stance and then pushed and grabbed male protesters and swatted at a female protester. The protesters appeared to be in an antagonistic verbal exchange with the man.
“While my opponent slams you as deplorable and irredeemable, I call you hard-working American patriots who love your country,” Trump told his supporters during the speech.
While Trump has lobbed charges against Clinton, he has faced criticism throughout his campaign from Democrats and many Republicans that his anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric is dividing the country along racial and religions lines and unjustly attacking people on the basis of their faith and ethnicity.
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Throughout the day, Trump tried to direct attention to the comments Clinton made at her Friday fundraiser. Here in Asheville, he brought a group of supporters up on stage to serve as examples of why Clinton’s criticism was out of bounds.
Clinton: Half of Trump supporters fit in ‘what I call the basket of deplorables’
Play Video0:50
“To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables,'” Hillary Clinton said at a New York fundraiser on Sept. 9. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that, and he has lifted them up.” (Video: The Washington Post / Photo: AP)
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’ Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it,” Clinton said Friday.
Clinton said in a statement the next day that she regretted using the word “half” to describe the Trump supporters.
“Anybody xenophobic? I don’t think so,” said Trump at his rally.
Trump scolds Clinton for ‘deplorables’ comment
Play Video0:56
Speaking in Asheville, N.C., Sept. 12, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton “talks about people like they are objects, not human beings,” following her comments on Trump’s supporters.(The Washington Post)
Trump: If Clinton can’t remember, ‘she can’t be president’
Play Video1:46
At a rally in Greenville, N.C., Sept. 6, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump slammed Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.(Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Donald Trump’s prepared remarks generally serve less as railroad tracks than as aviation waypoints. They’re not the unswerving path he takes as he gives a speech at a rally, they’re place he wants to get to — but, as long as he’s close, that’s good enough.
In Greenville, N.C., on Tuesday night, Trump was supposed to criticize Hillary Clinton for telling the FBI that she couldn’t recall details of her email server setup. “Hillary and her top aides told the FBI and others in related lawsuits that they couldn’t recall or remember key facts hundreds of different times,” Trump was supposed to say, according to speech excerpts.
What he actually said was in that vicinity. But it also flew into some tricky territory.
“Hillary and her top aides told the FBI and others related in the lawsuits that they couldn’t recall or remember — can’t remember anything!” Trump said. “By the way, if she really can’t remember, she can’t be president! She doesn’t remember anything! She doesn’t even remember whether or not she was instructed on how to use emails. ‘Were you instructed on how to use?’ ‘I can’t remember.'”
Why’s that tricky? Because asserting that Clinton can’t be president if she doesn’t remember details in an interview would mean that Trump, too, is ineligible for the nation’s highest office. Big league.
As part of The Post’s research for our biography of the Republican nominee, we compiled hundreds of documentsfrom Trump’s past. Among those were a number of depositions from a tiny portion of the thousands of lawsuits to which Trump has been a party over the years. And in those depositions? Constant assertions by Trump that he couldn’t recall or didn’t know the answers to questions offered him.
Trump University insider: My job was to sell, sell, sell
Play Video6:05
“My job was to sell, sell sell,” says former Trump University instructor James Harris, who explains the inner workings of the company, detailing high pressure sales tactics and the battle for profit. (Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)
We can isolate one particular deposition as evidence of this: His September 2012 deposition in a lawsuit regarding Trump University, the real estate training seminar series that has been the subject of fraud allegations and investigations by attorneys general in multiple states.
Over the course of that one interview, Donald Trump says that he doesn’t know the answer to a question hundreds of times. He claims not to recall details related to questions dozens more.
Asked if he attended one of the program’s seminar in Florida, Trump says he did. When? Years ago. What year? Doesn’t remember. Who were the instructors? He didn’t remember. What did they talk about? “I can’t remember specifically.” Was this Trump Institute, the Florida iteration of Trump University? He didn’t know. Did he remember the format of the presentation? He didn’t. Pressed for any detail he remembered, Trump offered one: “The only detail, as I left, I was very impressed.”
That’s from one page of the 600 pages of testimony.
Things he didn’t remember that were related to Trump University:
– When discussions about Trump University began. – The format the initial courses took. – The names of any of the courses. – Seeing the resumes of course instructors. – Why the licensing agreement for Trump Institute ended. – If attendees got a degree.
At one point, Trump was asked if he remembered the names of any of the instructors who provided instruction at Trump University — a group that the organization had touted as being hand-picked by Trump. “Can you identify a single person who was a live events instructor for Trump University?” the attorneys for the plaintiff asked Trump. “You’d have to give me a list,” Trump replied.
So they did.
It continued.
Page after page, same response. The attorneys tried a different tactic, presenting Trump with photos of people and asking him if they recognized the pictures. He didn’t.
(One interesting little detail from that deposition: Trump didn’t remember Trump University having a blog — which it did. The blog has been a source of some embarrassing reversals, such as when it said that Hillary Clinton would be “a great president or vice-president.” In the deposition, Trump said he didremember who wrote the blog posts:Meredith McIver, the woman who was blamed for Melania Trump’s plagiarized Republican convention speech.)
And then there was this.
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This is one deposition. Similar responses are littered through the other Trump documents: Failures to remember meetings, business deals, individuals, if he signed documents. When asked how many times he’d given testimony, Trump figured it was in the hundreds; in each of those hundreds of depositions and interviews, it’s almost certainly the case that Trump was stymied on obscure details any number of times.
What is Trump University?
Play Video1:19
Marco Rubio accused Donald Trump of starting a “fake university” at the Feb. 25 GOP debate in Houston. Here’s what you need to know about Trump University. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
That Trump couldn’t recall particular individuals who may or may not have worked for him or details of how Trump University was put together is not, of itself, disqualifying for the presidency. Nor is it the case that Trump’s insistence that he couldn’t remember those details implies that he has broader memory issues. In some cases, Trump couldn’t remember the details because the lawyers were asking very specific questions about long-past incidents (like walking through his daily calendar from years before). In other cases, Trump was clearly trying to gloss over unflattering information.
But we aren’t the ones that suggested that saying you didn’t remember details when being questioned was the sort of thing that should render someone unfit for the nation’s highest office.
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Barbra Streisand on Aug. 18, 2016 at the Verizon Center in Washington. (Paul Morigi/WireImage for BSB)
NEW YORK — Isn’t it rich? Broadway legend and Hillary Clinton supporter Barbra Streisand lampooned maybe-billionaire Donald Trump before a crowd of wealthy Democrats on Friday night, to the tune of “Send In The Clowns.”
Yes, that Broadway classic from 1973 that you now cannot get out of your head (you’re welcome) was repurposed as a gag at a Clinton fundraiser targeting gay donors and featuring Streisand. Clinton spoke and Streisand sang seven songs at the New York eatery Cipriani, part of a blitz of fundraising events organized recently for Clinton as the presidential race tightened.
Unlike most previous fundraising events, this one was opened to Clinton’s traveling press pool for news coverage.
Herewith, the parody lyrics, with apologies to Stephen Sondheim. Extra points if you can name the original musical.
VERSE 1 IS HE THAT RICH? MAYBE HE’S POOR? ’TIL HE REVEALS HIS RETURNS WHO CAN BE SURE? WHO NEEDS THIS CLOWN?
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VERSE 2 SOMETHING’S AMISS I DON’T APPROVE IF HE WERE RUNNING THE FREE WORLD, WHERE WOULD WE MOVE? NAME ME A TOWN? JUST WHO IS THIS CLOWN?
BRIDGE AND WHEN WE THOUGHT WE’D HEARD IT ALL HUFFING AND PUFFING ABOUT HIS BIG FANTASY WALL MAKING HIS ENTRANCE ON STAGE… HE JUST SHOOTS FROM THE HIP HE’S FULL OF BULL HE’S LOST HIS GRIP!
VERSE 3 AND IF BY CHANCE HE GETS TO HEAV’N EVEN UP THERE HE’LL DECLARE… CHAPTER ELEV’N! WHO’D HIRE THIS CLOWN? THIS SAD VULGAR CLOWN… “YOU’RE FIRED” YOU CLOWN!
BRIDGE 2 HILLARY’S KIND… SMART THAT IS CLEAR WHILE SHE IS GIVING US HOPE…TRUMP IS SELLING US FEAR LOOK HOW HE CHANGES HIS VIEWS EVERY TIME THAT HE SPEAKS IT’S LIE AFTER LIE CAN’T TAKE EIGHT MORE WEEKS!
VERSE 4 THIS IS NO FARCE MAYBE HE’S BROKE? IS THIS “THE ART OF HIS DEAL” OR SOME AWFUL JOKE? YOU’VE GOT TO ADMIT… THIS SILLY HALF-WIT… IS SO FULL OF …
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Gene Wilder’s final theatrical movie role came in 1991, but the end of his career on the big screen coincided with the start of another project he was passionate about: promoting cancer awareness.
No where was his passion for fighting cancer more apparent than in his 1991 guest column for People Magazine, in which he spoke openly and honestly about the death of his third wife, “Saturday Night Live” star Gilda Radner, from ovarian cancer in 1989.
In the column, which you can read here, Wilder goes into detail about the pain and suffering Radner went through before and after she was diagnosed with stage IV cancer — and how he believes her death could have been avoided.
She underwent an operation to remove a grapefruit-sized tumor from her body, followed by extensive chemotherapy. Wilder even wrote about Radner’s final days, in which she struggled to escape from a scheduled CAT scan.
“She was raving like a crazed woman,” he wrote, “She knew they would give her morphine and was afraid she’d never regain consciousness … She kept saying, ‘Get me out, get me out!’ She’d look at me and beg me, ”Help me out of here. I’ve got to get out of here.’”
After her passing, Wilder began looking more into advanced ovarian cancer and discovered ways that doctors could have reached an earlier diagnosis and possibly saved her life. He discovered a blood test known as CA 125 that had never been administered to Radner and which is designed to detect tumors regularly created by ovarian cancer. He also learned that a family history of ovarian cancer is often a warning sign. Unfortunately, it took 10 months from Radner’s first exam for doctors to diagnose her with the disease.
“For weeks after Gilda died, I was shouting at the walls. I kept thinking to myself, ‘This doesn’t make sense,’” Wilder wrote. “The fact is, Gilda didn’t have to die. But I was ignorant, Gilda was ignorant – the doctors were ignorant.
“We were all so ignorant about ovarian cancer. That’s one of the reasons I went to Congress to testify,” he continued. “I don’t like giving speeches. It makes me nervous. But I kept hearing Gilda shouting, ‘It’s too late for me. Don’t let it happen to anyone else.’”
The same year Wilder wrote the article, he helped open a new ovarian cancer detection program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, naming it in Radner’s honor. Wilder also founded Gilda’s Club, a community support network for cancer patients and their families. In 1998, Wilder went into further detail about Radner’s cancer treatment in the book “Gilda’s Disease,” which he co-wrote with oncologist Dr. Steven Piver.
Wilder’s death at age 83 was announced by his family on Monday.
According to a statement from Wilder’s nephew, Wilder died at home in Stamford, Connecticut, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease as a recording of Ella Fitzgerald singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”- one of his favorite songs – played in the background.
He had all but retired from the industry at the time of his death, with his last credited on-screen role coming in a few episodes of “Will & Grace” back in 2003. He also lent his voice to an episode of “Yo Gabba Gabba” in 2015.
Photographers take pictures of a passerby as she hugs a statue depicting a nude Donald Trump on Aug. 18.
For a minute there, it looked like the naked Donald Trump statue was going to come and go in San Francisco, as it has in other cities.
A few laughs, lots of selfies, and everybody makes the joke about the missing genitalia. And we’re done.
But, just as the buzz was fading, some honest-to-God San Francisco broke out.
First, Lefty O’Doul’s offered to display the horrible-looking thing, which makes sense for a sports pub. A little publicity, something for the tourists to see, and it’s San Francisco quirky.
Then the Police Department got involved, announcing that whoever showed up to retrieve the statue would be charged with vandalism. So, having successfully taken a statue into custody, now the SFPD is going all hard time on what was supposed to be a one-day joke.
And that was followed by a protester, local artist and transsexual man, Shane Brodie, who complained that the statue — which included the title “The Emperor Has No balls” — was not only fat-shaming but ridiculing trans bodies and shouldn’t be put on display.
My theory of what’s offensive is if someone feels offended, it should be considered.
Brodie has appeared in the Castro, nude, holding a sign that said, “I love my fat body.” He tweeted: “I’m protesting with my lovely fat queer trans body and at the Trump statue site in the Castro.”
The protest was an unexpected turn of events, even for someone like local writer and body image expert Virgie Tovar, who went over to look at the statue when it was originally staged. She said that a friend who is new to the city “wanted to have a San Francisco cultural moment.”
Tovar said she originally did not find the statue “offensive or upsetting” and posted a photo of it on social media. And that’s when the backlash hit.
“I was overwhelmed by the intensity of reaction,” Tovar told me Monday. “I think I had missed the nuance that it was trans-phobic. On one hand it seems Trump is being parodied, but it is actually at the expense of people already experiencing intense marginalization.”
OK, so with that logic, the Trump statue should be put in a dark room and never be seen again.
Except …
Is the statue a work of art? Tovar said she thinks it is.
“Art,” she said, “creates important cultural conversations. And we’re having one right now.”
But just because something is upsetting doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be displayed. This is the city, remember, that commissioned a bust by edgy artist Robert Arneson of assassinated Mayor George Moscone. When it was unveiled in 1981, the pedestal had bullet holes, drops of blood, a depiction of a handgun and the words “bang, bang, bang, bang.”
It was in such poor taste that Arneson received death threats. Rather than display it, the city rejected the piece and it was sold to a private collector.
But by 2012, it was back. Purchased by San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, it was displayed as recently as 2013. Speaking to a Chronicle reporter in 2012, Christopher Moscone, George’s son, said the original unveiling was “a slap in the face.”
“But with the passage of time,” he said, “I think this is probably a good place for it now. Artists want to provoke passion and feeling, and he definitely achieved that.”
Frankly, I doubt the Trump statue is going to reach such artistic heights. But the “art versus parody” discussion is worth having.
And then there are politics, both local and national.
The normally hypersensitive Trump has been entirely silent on the statue. Not a peep or a tweet. It is a reminder that one thing a bully cannot stand up to is being laughed at.
And of course locally, Supervisor Scott Wiener is running for state Senate, and his attempts to advocate for displaying the paunchy statue gets him some publicity. When the protests began, however, he had to affirm his support for the transgender community and speak out against making fun of “the way Trump’s body is depicted.”
“The Trump statue is political art,” he texted. “I interpret the statue — as do many people — as exposing (literally and figuratively) Donald Trump as the fraud he is.”
Now the word is a compromise is in the works, although there may have to be a ruling by the city attorney, believe it or not. Any fines for vandalism would be paid, and the statue would be sprung from jail. The artist is expected to fly out for an unveiling this week. But there’s bound to be more to come.
And to think, in other cities this lasted only a day.
C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist.
Outrage grows over Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the national anthem2:26
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is well-known for his scrambling on the football field, but he has not dodged the off-the-field controversy generated recently by his decision to stay on the bench while the national anthem was performed.
“Ultimately it’s to bring awareness and make people realize what’s really going on in this country,” Kaepernick told the San Jose Mercury News on Sunday. “There are a lot of things that are going on that are unjust, people aren’t being held accountable for, that’s something that needs to change … this country stands for liberty, freedom, justice for all. And it’s not happening for all right now.”
And while Kaepernick has also said he has “great respect” for the men and women in the U.S. military, which he says includes family members and friends, he feels he can’t “stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”
Kaepernick isn’t even the first professional athlete to sit out a popular patriotic anthem in protest. Back in 2004, then-Toronto Blue Jays slugger Carlos Delgadodrew the ire and respect of many fans for refusing to participate in the ceremonial singing of “God Bless America” during games, in part because of his opposition to the Iraq War.
St. Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey (12) and wide receiver Tavon Austin (11) and tight end Jared Cook (89) and wide receiver Chris Givens (13) and wide receiver Kenny Britt (81) put their hands up to show support for Michael Brown before a game against the Oakland Raiders at the Edward Jones Dome. Jeff Curry / USA Today Sports via Reuters
The Puerto Rican-born player said at the time: “It’s a very terrible thing that happened on September 11. It’s [also] a terrible thing that happened in Afghanistan and Iraq … I just feel so sad for the families that lost relatives and loved ones in the war. But I think it’s the stupidest war ever.”
In 1996, the Denver Nuggets’ Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was suspended for one game by the NBA after he refused to stand for the National Anthem, citing his personal and religious beliefs. He and the league eventually reached a compromise where he would bow his head and pray silently during the song.
And last year, some members of the Minnesota Twins raised eyebrows when they were no-shows during the performance of the anthem. However, their absence had nothing to do with politics, according to the team.
Still, Kaepernick’s unique background and tenuous stature in the NFL have made the timing and the tenor of his refusal to rise for “The Star Spangled Banner” particularly striking.
In 2012, the 49ers plucked him out of relative obscurity to become the back-up quarterback to Alex Smith. When Smith was sidelined during a strong season, Kaepernick took the reins and, in a controversial decision, then-coach Jim Harbaugh kept him under center as the new QB. He then set a record for rushing yards in his position — leading his team all the way to the Super Bowl. After a miserable first half, Kaepernick brought the team within one play of winning the title. And even though they came up short, an unlikely star was born.
Colin Kaepernick: I’ll Continue to Sit for National Anthem0:53
The son of a black father and white mother, Kaepernick never knew his birth parents. He was adopted at 6 weeks old by a white couple from Wisconsin. “I knew I was different to my parents and my older brother and sister,” he said last year. “I never felt that I was supposed to be white. Or black, either. My parents just wanted to let me be who I needed to be.”
All Sports Everything founder and editor Shana Renee Stephenson believes that Kaepernick’s upbringing may have made him even more cognizant of the prejudices that some white Americans harbor towards black Americans.
“His white parents raised a black man in America to know he was a black man in America, to be conscious of racial bias when it arises,” she told NBC News. “As a result, Kaepernick’s racial identity is firmly rooted in his personal experiences, observations, as well as the historical context of race in America — all from the vantage point of being a black man in America.”
Kaepernick has been quoted as saying: “My racial heritage is something I want people to be well aware of. I do want to be a representative of the African community, and I want to hold myself and dress myself in a way that reflects that. I want black kids to see me and think: ‘Okay, he’s carrying himself as a black man, and that’s how a black man should carry himself.'”
This statement is a far cry from the kinds of remarks on race made by fellow QBs of color like Cam Newton and Russell Wilson, who have seemed to take great pains to appear post-racial.
NBA players Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James speak onstage during the 2016 ESPYS at Microsoft Theater. Getty Images
Unfortunately for Kaepernick, unlike those two superstars, he has struggled over the last two seasons, as he has chafed under new coaches, offensive schemes, and a sense that the 49ers franchise itself is in disarray.
To many football observers, this season was make or break for the 28-year-old, and his less-than-stellar pre-season performance has led some experts to predict he wouldn’t even make the roster this season — and that was even before the national anthem flap.
Right now, Kaepernick reportedly has the support of his teammates and some prominent figures in the game, even if the organization and league have distanced themselves from his actions. If he is cut by this team, it’s unclear whether another squad would take a chance on such a polarizing player, but there a certainly a number of franchises with needs at the quarterback position.
“The quarterback position is so bereft in the NFL, I’d be surprised if they cut him and I’d be shocked if another team didn’t take a chance on a player with his skill set,” Edge of Sports writer Dave Zirin told NBC News. “If that happens? We’ll know that the right wing politics that dominate NFL owners boxes was more powerful than their desire to win.”
Meanwhile, Kaepernick’s opponents are making their anger known by tweeting memes mocking his personal wealth (he is owed $11.9 million by the 49ers) as a symbol of his supposed hypocrisy, pointing out that he was once fined for hurling a racial slur at another player. Some have even taken to setting his jersey on fire. And his actions have inspired a spirited debate online about what role athletes can and should play in terms of political debate, and whether not paying respect to “The Star Spangled Banner” is a bridge too far.
Considering how much flack American gymnast Gabby Douglas received simply for failing to put her hand over her heart during the performance of the anthem at the Rio Games, it stands to reason that Kaepernick’s outspokenness (he has called GOP nominee Donald Trump “openly racist,” for instance) could reverberate for the rest of what is left of his career.
“If this is how it all ends for Kaepernick, then kudos to him for not compromising his beliefs for the sake of a check. There are certain things you can’t put a value on, and your convictions should be one of them,” said Stephenson. “Shame on the NFL and its franchises for not supporting a player’s right to exercise his First Amendment.”
It is worth noting that while Smith, Carlos and Ali, are now honored for using their platforms to speak their mind — they were all vilified during their heyday, as excoriated for many of the same reasons as Kaepernick is today.
“The arc of history bends toward justice,” said Zirin. “People will look back at this moment in history and wonder why more people didn’t step up. The writers who are bashing will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.”
This summer will mark the fourth time British hockey players Kate Richardson-Walsh and Helen Richardson-Walsh will be competing in the Olympics. The long-time teammates made history in London in 2012 when they won Great Britain’s first Olympic hockey medal in two decades. In Rio, they’re gunning for gold, but before their first match, they’ve already made their mark—this time, as the first same-sex married couple ever to compete in the Olympic games.
This year’s Summer Olympics will feature a record number of publicly out LGBT athletes—44 according to an estimate by Outsportsmagazine, nearly double the number of the London 2012 Olympics. But casting a shadow over this historic moment is the fact that members of the LGBT community are frequently a target of horrific violence in Brazil.
Kate and Helen’s journey is something of an Olympic love story. They’ve known each other since they were children, played on teams together for over a decade, and made their Olympic debut together in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. They began to date in 2008 after the Beijing Olympics, after Kate broke off her engagement to Brett Garrard, the former captain of Great Britain men’s hockey team. In 2013, they got married in Oxfordshire,combining their last names, and invited the entire team to celebrate. For the most part, the couple tries to keep their personal and professional lives separate, but when Helen was left out of hockey World Cup in 2014 because of an injury, Kate admitted in an interview with The Telegraphthat she had to take her “captain’s hat off” and support her wife.
“We’re a couple, we love each other, and we happen to be playing in the same team,” said Kate, in an interview with BBC. “I think because our teammates and our friends and family have all been so supportive and understanding of that we also don’t see anything strange or different.”
Sporting Diplomacy
The Olympics brings together athletes from countries with vastly different attitudes and laws for LGBT people. The event has in recent years become a site for diplomacy around global LGBT rights. The increasing number of athletes who are comfortable publicly discussing their sexuality is an indication of how successful that campaign has been.
But while some teams and communities can be very welcoming of LGBT players, there are still several countries participating in the games in which a person can be fined, arrested, or put to death for being LGBT. When countries come together for international sporting competitions, this schism becomes ever more apparent. “There are closeted Olympians who compete in every single athletic competition,” said Hudson Taylor, founder of Athlete Ally, a nonprofit organization that is looking to end anti-LGBT sentiment in sports. “There is still something about sports culture that is less inclusive than it can and should be.”
LGBT rights took on even more prominence internationally in the months leading up to the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, when Russia banned the dissemination of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” around children, effectively prohibiting any public discussion of gay rights. When asked what this meant for visitors to the games, President Vladimir Putin said, “One can feel calm and at ease. Just leave kids alone, please.” Gay rights activists protested the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for its inaction, given that the principle of non-discrimination is enshrined in the Olympic charter. Later that year, the IOC introduced an anti-discrimination clause to its host city contract, ahead of bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
A protester holds up a placard during a demonstration against Russia’s anti-gay legislation (Reuters/Andrew Winning)
In some cases, the desire to host the games can impact national policy. Last year, Kazakhstan, one of the finalists for the 2022 Winter Olympics, approved anti-gay propaganda legislation. Athlete Ally sent an open letter to the IOC president Thomas Bach saying that a country that wished to host the Olympics could not have discriminatory laws. Taylor believes this pressure led Kazakhstan to subsequently kill the legislation. “Sport can and should play an integral role in shaping and reforming LGBT policies worldwide,” Taylor said.
With the Olympics coming to Tokyo in 2020, Hiroshi Hase, Japan’s minister responsible for education and sport who chaired the bid for the Olympics, told Buzzfeed recently that they hope to build public awareness of LGBT rights.
“As an out athlete, I found myself feeling grateful that I am not a winter Olympic athlete because I would have been very nervous to travel to Sochi,” Ashley Nee, an openly gay American kayaker who will be competing in Rio, said in an interview with Athlete Ally. “Debating whether or not to attend an Olympic games because of a fear of personal safety because of your sexuality is not a part of the Olympic dreams I had envisioned as a young girl but that is the position the IOC put many athletes in these past winter games.”
In Brazil, a spate of brutal murders of gay and transgender people in recent yearshave made international headlines. “It is not easy to be gay, transsexual, or transvestite in Brazil because you face discrimination at home, in the schools, in church, at work, in the streets, by the government,” said Luiz Mott, founder of the Grupo Gay da Bahia, the oldest LGBT rights group in Brazil. The organization tracks violence against the LGBT population in Brazil based on press accounts. It estimates that nearly 1,600 people have died in anti-LGBT violence in the past four-and-a-half years, and that a gay or trans person is murdered in Brazil nearly every day.
Anti-LGBT violence at odds with Brazil’s tolerant culture (Reuters /Nacho Doce)
The violence is at odds with the more progressive and tolerant elements of Brazilian society.São Paulo hosts the world’s largest gay pride parade, while gay characters are common in Brazilian television. Brazil’s government has introduced several progressive laws and policies, and same-sex marriage has been legal since 2013. Activists argue that the anti-gay sentiment in Brazil stems from the influence of the country’s powerful Catholic and evangelical churches, whose leaders have stymied legislation that would toughen penalties for hate crimes. Brazil isn’t the only country these types of conflicting views. South Africa, one of the first countries to legalize gay marriage in 2006, still suffers from a high rate of LGBT violence, particularly towards lesbians.
Social media is increasingly enabling citizens to document atrocities in the absence of official government data. Tem Local, for example, was launched in May last year as a platform for citizens to report attacks along with their location. “In Brazil the prejudice is veiled and cowardly. You can be lesbian, gay or transgender as long you don’t leave the house,” said Antonio Kvalo, one of the site’s founders. “With this data we can give visibility to the aggression and press society to take action against LGBT-phobia.”
At risk
The reports of violence could understandably make some LGBT athletes nervous about visiting Rio. Sean Williams, an analyst at Integrated Risk Management,suggests that LGBT travelers stick to areas with a high concentration of LGBT venues and mid-to-upper-class neighborhoods. Those who venture to away, he said, should “maintain a low profile”.
Robbie Mason, a publicly gay Olympic rower for New Zealand, will be taking some precautions while at the games in Rio. “I have full trust that inside the ‘Olympic bubble’ it will be very safe,” he said. “I will be vigilant if or when I go outside the bubble, which won’t be until at least after I’ve finished competing.”
LGBT athletes can find a welcoming space in Rio at Pride House, which is modeled after Olympic venues hosted by countries for players to mingle. The first Pride House was organized at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, and subsequent ones have been held in Warsaw, London, Glasgow and Toronto, during major sporting events (Russian officials rejected an application for a Pride House at the Olympic village in Sochi.) “It is a place where LGBT visitors can expect to get advice and support on keeping themselves safe in the area, as well as what to do if they experience hate crimes or violence,” said Keph Senett, a coalition member of the house.
Thanks to heavy security presence in Rio during the games, there’s a high likelihood that LGBT athletes and fans will be safer during the two weeks of the Olympics than most LGBT Brazilians have been in a while.
Update, Aug. 20: Great Britain’s women bested to the Dutch to take field hockey gold in Rio, making Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh the first married, same-sex couple to win Olympic gold medals together.
Amazon is reportedly piloting a program that will allow some technical teams to clock in just 30 hours per week.
These employees will be salaried and receive the same benefits as those working traditional 40-hour weeks, but their pay will be reduced proportionally by 25%, reportsthe Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
A few dozen technical employees will test the shorter schedule. They are expected to work Monday through Thursday from 10am to 2pm with flexibility outside of those hours. This ensures that employees working 30 hours a week will have at least 16 hours of overlap with their other colleagues.
Although Amazon said it does not intend to extend the experiment to all departments, it believes the initiative will help improve gender diversity. At a recent event hosted by the company, it admitted that the “traditional full-time schedule may not be a ‘one size fits all’ model.”
The proposed reduction in hours comes a year after a scathing New York Times investigation. Interviewing more than 100 current and former employees, the article portrayed Amazon as a cut-throat environment that drove many to quit. Not only were 80-hour workweeks almost expected, employees were reportedly penalized when personal problems interfered with their work. Senior vice president Jay Carney had refuted the allegations.
The less intensive schedules could also boost productivity. People who log fewer hours at the office are more productive and consequently, better paid, according to theOrganization for Economic Co-operation and Development. And as tech jobs exchange hands from humans to robots, a reduced workweek could poise a win-win situation for both employees and employers.
News of actor Gene Wilder’s death spread quickly through Hollywood, with stars taking to Twitter to pay their respects to the comedy legend.
Wilder was best know for his role as Willy Wonka in the 1971 big screen version of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” He had memorable roles in Mel Brooks’ films “The Producers,” “Blazing Saddles,” and “Young Frankenstein.”
According to his nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, Wilder died from complications from Alzheimer’s disease at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 83 years old. Walker-Pearlman described his final moments:
“He was eighty-three and passed holding our hands with the same tenderness and love he exhibited as long as I can remember. As our hands clutched and he performed one last breath the music speaker, which was set to random, began to blare out one of his favorites: Ella Fitzgerald. There is a picture of he and Ella meeting at a London Bistro some years ago that are among each or cherished possessions. She was singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” as he was taken away.”
Read some of the touching tributes to the actor below.
Longtime collaborator Mel Brooks said he was “blessed” to work with Wilder.
Wilder also played Will Truman’s boss on “Will & Grace” in 2003, his last role. Actor Eric McCormack called him a “genius.”
Wilder’s “Sunday Lovers” costar Roger Moore reminisced:
Fellow comedians praised Wilder’s talent as well.
“Orange is the New Black” star Uzo Aduba called him “the genius” and “the talent” among many other accolades, sentiments other stars echoed:
Gene Wilder passed away. Wow, what a lovely career. Wonka, Dr. Frankenstein, Jim the Waco Kid… Gilda Radner must be giddy right now. #RIP
In the Rift 
