WE’RE ALL ARTISTS
Historically speaking, the world of art has had a bit of an accessibility problem. Of course, there have always been starving artists, but for years in order to be an artist who could afford to feed oneself, you needed wealth, education, connections, and time. This means that for a long time, the world of art — especially media with high barriers to entry like film and fine art — was dominated by those with the social power to do so: wealthy, straight white men.
All art, regardless of medium, is an act of narrative building. For centuries, paintings, novels, songs, and films have informed the values and beliefs of the dominant culture. When straight white men dominated the art world, their ideas, thoughts, and feelings dominated as well. That’s because art is a reflection of the artist. Regardless of how you enact your creativity, art takes the abstract — pain, emotion, ideas, truth — and makes them physical. Art is about taking your inner world outside of you and showing it to the world.
Today, art is more accessible than ever before. With the advent of social media, more and more artists are able to make a living for themselves, even if they’re not the next Picasso. However, as social media algorithms and cryptocurrencies become more and more out of control (or rather, in control), the pursuit of art becomes more commercialized. Suddenly, art isn’t about self-expression. It’s about engagement and profit. Art created for these means is no longer a reflection of the artist; it’s a reflection of the audience, or at least what the artist thinks the audience wants.
This is something I fall victim to all the time. My chosen creative medium is writing (obviously). I often use writing to work through painful emotions and express complicated opinions. It’s the process of writing, less so the end product, that’s so sacred to me. Yet, every time I write something, I have this feeling that what I made isn’t valid unless other people look at and enjoy it.
When we engage in creativity for creativity’s sake and acknowledge the value of art outside of profit or praise, we engage in something life-affirming. In the face of systems that threaten our lives, we create our own communities that affirm our humanity and have our backs. The LGBTQ community has a long history of creation. Queer cultural traditions like tea dances, ballroom, and drag were all created out of this need to see ourselves as we are and to share these authentic selves with our own self-created world, a world that won’t attack, oppress, or suppress us.
In this way, we’re all artists, even if we don’t put pen to paper or paint to canvas. When you solve a problem, plan an event, or craft an argument, you’re being creative. You’re using your personal paradigm — the unique experiences, emotions, and opinions that make you you — to create something that once didn’t exist, something that can maybe help others see a world worth living in.
Throughout this issue, you will find a parade of queer art that will teach you more about yourself and others. But to truly explore your inner world, embrace the artist in you. Even if you don’t have the practical skills of a capital-A Artist, think, feel, and trust yourself to create. Even if you hate the end product, the process will be illuminating. We all have complex inner lives and the universal desire to be understood and seen, and creativity is a muscle we all possess that, when flexed, allows us to know ourselves and the world we live in more intimately.
Read these stories and more online at thegavoice.com
U.S. Surpasses Spain in Monkeypox Cases
The U.S. now has the highest levels of monkeypox in the world, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of July 29, the last time the CDC case count was updated at the time of writing, there are 4,906 reported cases of monkeypox in the U.S., causing the U.S. to surpass Spain with 4,298 cases.
351 cases have been reported in Georgia, the second highest in the South after Florida with 373.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on July 23, the strongest call to action the agency can make. The most recent such announcement was for COVID-19 in 2020. Infectious disease experts have warned that the number of monkeypox cases is likely higher than the numbers reported, and more testing and contact tracing would reveal a far larger number of cases. Worldwide, there have been 22,485 reported cases in 79 countries, surging from only around 200 at the end of May.
The U.S. has yet to declare a public health emergency, despite the surge in cases. The White House has also yet to appoint a monkeypox coordinator.
“The pandemic, which has held the United States and almost every other country in its grip, should have taught us valuable lessons about how to manage a public health emergency, but it seems we are making some of the same mistakes we made not even three years ago, when the SARS-CoV-2 virus started to spread,” Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, wrote on July 31.
Plans have been announced to distribute an additional 800,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine, but as Dr. Gupta writes, “the demand for vaccines is outpacing the supply.”
While anyone can contract monkeypox through close personal contact, many of the people who are being affected by it are gay and bisexual men. Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted infection, but it can be transmitted through sexual and intimate contact as well as through shared bedding. The virus spreads through contact with body fluids and sores. Symptoms for monkeypox are similar to the flu, including fever, headache, muscle aches, chills, exhaustion, and swollen lymph nodes, as well as body rashes.
Historic Number of LGBTQ People Are Running for Office
According to new data from LGBTQ Victory Fund, the only national organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ leaders to public office, more LGBTQ candidates are running for office than in any other election in U.S. history, and they are significantly more diverse.
According to the report, at least 1,008 openly LGBTQ people are running for office so far, compared to 1,006 total candidates in 2020 and 716 total candidates in 2018. The greatest increase in LGBTQ representation is happening on the state level; 543 percent more LGBTQ people are running for statewide office than in 2020. 73 percent more are running for federal office, and 12 percent more are running for state legislatures.
There are almost over 100 more LGBTQ people of color running this year than in 2020, a 58 percent increase overall. There has been a greatest increase in Asian American and Pacific Islander LGBTQ candidates, 78 percent compared to 2020. There was also a 66 percent increase in Black candidates and a 34 percent increase in Latinx and Hispanic candidates.
There are also more trans candidates running than ever before. 55 trans people are running this year, a 62 percent increase from 2020. There are also 20 gender non-conforming candidates, a drastic increase from zero in 2020. Bisexual candidates are also continuing to increase with 103 this year, a 32 percent increase from 2018.
“The writing is on the wall for the LGBTQ community and our allies: our rights are on the ballot this year,” Mayor Annise Parker, the President and CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund, said in a statement. “The people we elect this cycle will make decisions about what our kids are allowed to learn and say in the classroom, what health care choices people will be allowed to make about their own bodies and possibly, whether we will continue to be allowed to marry those we love. With more LGBTQ people running than ever before, this election also brings incredible opportunity to elect fiercely prochoice, pro-equality leaders up and down the ballot. The LGBTQ leaders we elect will not only be critical voices in halls of power across the country; their success will be a deafening rebuke to the wave of hate impacting our community.”