Headlines from the Granite State
Virtual Pride
Seacoast Outright took Portsmouth Pride online in early October.
“We’re trying something new this year, like many of our colleagues and partners throughout the Seacoast,” the organization’s Executive Director Hershey Hirschkop told Seacoast Online. “We want to give our community a chance to come together in celebrating our pride in a safe and healthy way. And for us, this year, that’s going to be online.”
Activities included a drag queen story hour with Rhonda from Rollinsford, a screening of “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin” cohosted by Dover High School’s Project Dream, a Zoom panel with ACLU’s Trans Justice Organizer Palana Belken and a talk on intersectionality in partnership with the YMCA, and “The Main Event Online Watch Party,” featuring local personalities and entertainers.
More: seacoastoutright.org
LGBTQ candidates
For Granite State readers who haven’t voted by Nov. 3, don’t miss these LGBTQ candidates on your ballots:
Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, won the Democratic primary election for State Senate, District 21, by 62.96 percent. If elected, Perkins Kwoka will become the first LGBTQ woman to serve in the Granite State Senate.
Congressman Chris Pappas ran uncontested in the state’s Democratic primary race to hold his seat in the US House. Pappas is the first openly LGBTQ person elected to Congress from New Hampshire, and cochair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. He is facing Republican challenger Matt Mowers in the general election on Nov. 3.
State Rep. Jim MacKay, an incumbent, won the Democratic primary election for the state’s House, representing Merrimack District 14, by 85.46 percent.
Republican State Rep. Joe Alexander, a Hillsborough 6 incumbent, also moved on to the general election with 14.63 percent in a nine-way race as one of five candidates moving on to the general.
Also advancing to the Nov. 3 general election are Democratic incumbent State Reps. Lisa Bunker, Rockingham 18; Gerri Cannon, Strafford 18; Sue Mullen, Hillsborough 7; Andrew O’Hearne, Sullivan 7; Joshua Query, Hillsborough 16; Linda Tanner, Sullivan 9; and Joyce Weston, Grafton 8; and challengers for the state’s House Nikki Fordey, Hillsborough 20, and Bryce Stack, Hillsborough 21.
Homophobic slur
The Human Rights Campaign called out Donald Bolduc, the Republican former US Army officer and a primary contender for Jeanne Shaheen’s seat in the US Senate, for making a homophobic slur in a recent ad. The slur called into attention further positions Bolduc holds against LGBTQ people.
In his 15-second cable TV ad, Bolduc said, “I didn’t spend my life defending this country to let a bunch of liberal, socialist pansies squander it away. I’m Don Bolduc, I approve this message and I’m asking for your vote.”
According to the HRC, Bolduc also rejects the basic argument for antidiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in the workplace and in health care, and does not support marriage equality.
“A campaign run on hate has no place in New Hampshire or anywhere in this country,” Human Rights Campaign spokesperson Wyatt Ronan told Manchester, NH–based WMUR-TV 9. “History shows that New Hampshire is won by supporting and advancing the rights and protections of LGBTQ Granite Staters, not demeaning them.”
Bolduc lost his primary bid in September.
HealthCare Leader
VA Medical Center in Manchester earned the distinction of 2020 LGBTQ Healthcare Equality Leader from the Human Rights Campaign, earning a perfect score of 100.
Scores were based on four criteria: LGBTQ patient-centered care, patient services and support, employee benefits and policies, and patient and community engagement. For the second year, health care centers also had to offer transgender-inclusive benefits to employees to be named as leaders.
“The health care facilities participating in the HRC Foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) are not only on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are also making it clear from their participation in the HEI that they stand on the side of fairness and are committed to providing inclusive care to their LGBTQ patients,” said HRC President Alphonso David.
