World News

Column: How a homophobe repented and became an imperfect LGBTQ+ ally

Published

3 weeks ago

June 9, 2024

Gustavo Arellano

I remember him well: his toothy smile. His spiky shag haircut. His high cheekbones and ringing laugh.

I also remember what I called the teenager. Queer. Fairy. Even worse names.

We attended Anaheim High in the mid-1990s. I was a senior, he was a freshman. He was one of the few out students on a campus that was overwhelmingly Latino. He endured taunts, epithets and bullying, while cutting down his antagonists with withering insults more often than not.

It didn’t stop me and others.

I learned my homophobia from macho cousins and a father so anti-gay that when my classmate came over to our house for my sister’s party, my dad forbade us to go in the pool, lest something infect us. Homosexuality, my thinking went, was not just an abomination. “They” were a threat to the people I loved — Americans, Mexicans, Catholics, good people — by merely existing.

When my best friend, Art, told me to check my prejudice, I’d spout off a litany of biblical verses — Leviticus this, Genesis that, a hell of a lot of Paul. Nothing could convince me that I should stop my nastiness, let alone accept gay and lesbian people as normal.

An HBO movie changed everything. In Mr. Elder’s biology class, we watched “And the Band Played On,” based on the bestselling book by Randy Shilts about the early days of AIDS. I turned away in disgust at any hint of same-sex affection. But the story — about how the Reagan administration and society at large let a terrible disease spread because it first emerged in the gay community — haunted me.

I might have thought homosexuality to be terrible — but an uncaring government that let people die because of who they were was far worse. A few months later, I went up to my classmate and apologized. I was sincere, but I’ll never forget the understandable skepticism on his face.

I’ve been trying to atone for my sins ever since.

I told my brother when he entered fourth grade to tell me when he and his friends played a schoolyard game called Smear the Queer. One person randomly got the label, and everyone else threw a football at him. I knew it wasn’t a matter of if my brother would join in but when — because I was taught that game, too.

One day, he came home excitedly and reported that he and his friends finally played Smear the Queer. I explained what the word meant and what the game represented, and made him swear to never join again.

Professionally, I went on to slam politicians and groups that try to deny LGBTQ+ people their rights and dignity. Today, I have close LGBTQ+ friends and still get in heated debates with loved ones about their latent and overt homophobia.

I am an imperfect ally, though. I cannot erase the hurt I inflicted before, so I remember those dark days to remind myself that I can always do better.

That’s why a recent poll done for The Times by NORC at the University of Chicago and paid for by the California Endowment brought me some hope about this country’s long, painful journey toward accepting LGBTQ+ people — and was also a gut check on how much work there still is to do.

Christians hold signs as they gathered to pray and protest

The survey was a sequel of sorts to a pioneering 1985 Times project asking people how they felt about homosexuality. The differences between then and now are stark. Back then, 73% felt gay and lesbian relationships were wrong, which an accompanying Times story noted was almost unchanged from a similar 1973 Gallup poll. This most recent poll? Just 28% felt that way.

In 1985, 51% of respondents thought there should be workplace protections for gay and lesbian people. Today, the number is 77%. The older poll showed that 35% were “uncomfortable around gays.” This time around, the question wasn’t even asked.

The 1985 Times study was released with no photos or comment. This time around, we published our findings with moving essays by my current and former LGBTQ+ colleagues. The poll and essays were part of a project called “Our Queerest Century” that is live on our website and will appear in print as a special section June 23.

These surveys show that beliefs do change with time and exposure. But while there’s more acceptance of gay and lesbian people today, a new intolerance has emerged. The 1985 poll didn’t ask about transgender people. The Times/NORC poll did — and the results are discouraging.

More than a third said they would be very or somewhat upset if their child came out as gay or lesbian (in 1985, the figure was 89%). But if the child came out as trans or nonbinary, the percentage increased to 48%. When it came to letting people “[live] their lives as they wish,” only 19% “strongly or somewhat disapproved” if the person was gay or lesbian. Trans or nonbinary? 31%.

Even more telling was a question about whether increased attention on trans and nonbinary people in the media and politics was good or bad. Only 16% thought it was good, while 40% thought it was bad (42% answered “neither”).

The poll unsurprisingly shows that politics and religion correlate with people’s opinions on LGBTQ+ issues. But I also feel that a lack of familiarity plays a huge role. While 72% of American adults in the Times/NORC survey said they knew someone who identified as gay or lesbian, only 27% said the same about transgender or nonbinary people. When you have a come-to-Jesus moment with someone you’ve been taught to see as “different,” you quickly realize how foolish you are.

Case in point: me, again.

A decade after my shameful behavior toward my Anaheim High classmate, I read a powerful column by Times sportswriter Mike Penner that revealed he would return from vacation as Christine Daniels.

“I am a transsexual sportswriter,” Penner wrote. “It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words.”

I was so moved that I sent a note of appreciation through a mutual friend. To my surprise and delight, Daniels wanted to meet me to talk about dealing with sudden fame. I was then at the OC Weekly, and The Times had featured me and my column, “¡Ask a Mexican!”, leading to an avalanche of attention.

I was nervous, and not just about meeting a writer whose work I had long admired. I didn’t know anyone who identified as transsexual and worried that I would offend Daniels by asking an inappropriate question or using the wrong name or pronoun.

Pride flag is raised by a man in uniform outside a building while another man in uniform watches.

At a panini spot in Old Towne Orange, Daniels quickly disabused me of my low-key transphobia. I found myself focusing on the person before me: Kind. Hilarious. Brilliant. Happy. In the Weekly, I continued to proudly bash the ghouls who ridiculed Daniels, all the way to the sad day in 2009 when Mike Penner, who had returned to using that byline in The Times, died by suicide.

Today, as city councils reject calls to fly rainbow flags during Pride Month and school boards ban books and curricula that touch on anything LGBTQ+, as adults protest drag time story hours in the name of protecting children and hurl invectives at drag nuns while mocking the rise of “Latinx,” I remember my journey from hatred to humility.

I asked Bamby Salcedo, president and chief executive of the TransLatin@ Coalition, about the best way to change closed hearts and minds.

It’s not “about doing a training or checking a DEI box” she said, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion; it’s about having difficult conversations from a place of love, “because hate doesn’t win.”
A heartfelt push back to someone’s anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes, Salcedo said, can “put out that seed of change. And if you plant it, la cosecha sale [the harvest comes].”

I remind myself that people can change — and those who’ve experienced a road to Damascus moment must urge others to follow our path.

The most avoidable sin is ignorance, after all, and all sinners must repent. Take it from one.

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China’s BYD posts 21% jump in quarterly EV sales, closes gap with Tesla

Published

4 hours ago

July 2, 2024

worlddailyinfo

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s BYD (BYDDY) posted a 21% rise in second-quarter electric vehicle sales, closing the gap with Tesla (TSLA) after handing back the world’s top EV vendor title to the U.S. rival in the first quarter.

BYD sold 426,039 EVs in the April-June quarter, according to Reuters’ calculations based on its monthly sales reports. That’s around 12,000 vehicles fewer than Tesla’s vehicle deliveries estimated for the second quarter.

FILE PHOTO: BYD and Autotorino store in Milan — BYD and Autotorino store in Milan. (Reuters)

Tesla is expected to report a 6% drop in April-June quarter vehicle deliveries on Tuesday, the first time the U.S. firm is set to post two straight quarters of decline, as it deals with stiff competition in China and slow demand due to a lack of affordable new models.

The company may again cede its EV championship to BYD if the actual results turn out to be softer than estimated, with Barclays predicting an 11% drop in second-quarter deliveries, Tesla’s biggest ever.

Tesla has hit a speed bump after years of rapid growth that helped make it the world’s most valuable automaker. It warned in January that deliveries growth in 2024 would be “notably lower” as a boost from months-long price cuts wanes.

The EV maker has cut output of its best-selling Model Y electric car by a double-digit percentage number at its Shanghai plant since March to address weakening demand for its aged models in China, its second-largest market after the United States, Reuters reported in May.

By comparison, its top Chinese competitor BYD maintained steady growth in EV sales, while EV upstarts such as Nio reported stellar growth last quarter. NIO’s vehicle deliveries in the second quarter more than doubled to 57,300 units.

Price cuts and a growing shift in consumer demand to EVs and hybrids from gasoline-powered vehicles are the main reasons behind Chinese EV makers’ strong sales in recent months, said Cui Dongshu, secretary general, China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

Sales of new energy vehicles including EVs and plug-in hybrids in China made up 46.7% of total car sales in May, a fresh monthly high, as per CPCA data.

(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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World News

Biden slams SCOTUS presidential immunity ruling, ignores questions about dropping out

Published

8 hours ago

July 2, 2024

Stepheny Price

President Biden slammed the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity in Trump v. United States, saying it means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do, in a speedy address Monday evening.

The president spoke for less than five minutes – four minutes and 40 seconds to be exact – before turning his back to the press and walking away.

“This is a fundamentally new principle, and it’s a dangerous precedent, because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States,” Biden said.

The Supreme Court ruled that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts.

TRUMP IMMUNITY CASE: SUPREME COURT RULES EX-PRESIDENTS HAVE SUBSTANTIAL PROTECTION FROM PROSECUTION

Trump and Biden squared off in their high-stakes 2024 election debate rematch last week. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, left, )

In a 6-3 decision, the Court sent the matter back down to a lower court, as the justices did not apply the ruling to whether or not former President Trump is immune from prosecution regarding actions related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Biden continued his address, saying that the American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s assault on democracy on January 6th makes him “unfit” for public office and the highest office in the land.

“The American people must decide if Trump’s embrace of violence to preserve his power is acceptable. Perhaps most importantly, the American people must decide if they want to entrust the presidency to Donald Trump once again. Now knowing, he’ll be even more emboldened to do whatever he pleases, whenever he wants to do it,” Biden said.

Biden also spoke about the character of the nation’s first president, George Washington, and how he believed power was limited, not absolute.

Biden wrapped his speech and dodged questions from reporters as he left abruptly.

Reporters shouted questions at Biden, asking him if he plans to drop out of the presidential race following his debate with Trump.

TRUMP TOUTS SUPREME COURT’S PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY RULING AS ‘BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND FOR DEMOCRACY’

US President Joe Biden speaks during a Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, US, on Monday, May 27, 2024. (Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Biden has not taken questions from the press and has used teleprompters at his events, including a fundraiser in the Hamptons, following his disastrous debate performance against Trump last week.

“Today’s Historic Decision by the Supreme Court should end all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me, including the New York Hoaxes – The Manhattan SCAM cooked up by Soros backed D.A., Alvin Bragg, Racist New York Attorney General Tish James’ shameless ATTACK on the amazing business that I have built, and the FAKE Bergdorf’s “case.” PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media site Truth Social.

BIDEN CAMP DISMISSES TRUMP IMMUNITY RULING: ‘DOESN’T CHANGE THE FACTS’

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and argued he should be immune from prosecution from official acts done as president of the U.S. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

The former president was charged in August 2023 by Special Counsel Jack Smith with conspiring to overturn the results of his election loss to President Biden in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump has denied doing anything wrong and has said this prosecution and three others are politically motivated to try to keep him from returning to the White House.

Trump shared his reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on his presidential immunity case, saying it’s a “big win for our constitution and democracy,” according to his Truth Social page.

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“THE SUPREME COURT DECISION IS A MUCH MORE POWERFUL ONE THAN SOME HAD EXPECTED IT TO BE. IT IS BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN AND WISE, AND CLEARS THE STENCH FROM THE BIDEN TRIALS AND HOAXES, ALL OF THEM, THAT HAVE BEEN USED AS AN UNFAIR ATTACK ON CROOKED JOE BIDEN’S POLITICAL OPPONENT, ME. MANY OF THESE FAKE CASES WILL NOW DISAPPEAR, OR WITHER INTO OBSCURITY. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” Trump posted.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.

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World News

Hurricane Beryl Flattens Grenada’s Carriacou Island

Published

11 hours ago

July 1, 2024

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

Officials in Barbados said on Monday that the island had been spared the worst of Beryl.

The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, told a nationwide broadcast from the island’s emergency operations center that as many as 20 fishing boats, including two popular cruisers, had possibly sunk. Still, she added, “This could have been far worse for us.”

Roughly 40 homes were known to have sustained roof or structural damage so far, she said, though that number was expected to rise as more than 400 residents returned home from shelters.

On St. Lucia, storm surge caused significant damage to fishing vessels, sinking at least 20 boats, according to initial reports. Dozens of homes were also damaged.

People across the eastern Caribbean had started preparing for the storm over the weekend, including those doing some last-minute shopping for supplies.

“Hurricanes are not something that we take lightly at home as a family,” said Fleur Mathurin, who lives on St. Lucia, where some parts of the island were experiencing power outages. “Having my family, my grandmothers, great-grands, gone through Hurricane Allen and Gilbert, this is something that they always preach to us.”

As of Monday afternoon, the storm was expected to continue tearing its way through the Caribbean, reaching Jamaica with potential hurricane conditions by Wednesday according to the National Hurricane Center.

Julius Gittens contributed reporting from Christ Church, Barbados; Linda Straker from Gouyave, Grenada; Kenton X. Chance from Kingstown, St. Vincent; Sharefil Gaillard from Gros Islet, St. Lucia; and Maria Abi-Habib from Mexico City.

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