(NEW YORK) — Jessica Parker, 40, didn’t transition until she was in her 30s.
She suppressed her identity in her conservative, central Texas town out of fear of rejection or violence. But as more and more LGBTQ people came into her life, she finally felt safe enough to come out, identifying publicly as a woman.
“I feel more myself than ever,” Parker told ABC News in an interview. “I’ve been happier than ever. It’s been a struggle, certainly, but it’s been great and I have a good trans community now.”
Her “chosen family” — the close circle of LGBTQ friends and allies she has cultivated — understands the beauty and power of the LGBTQ community and they’ve become a lifeline for her.
When facing rejection from family members or feeling lost about the challenges faced by the LGBTQ community, that’s where a chosen family steps in. Local activist groups, LGBTQ alliances or clubs, or dedicated spaces like queer bars are often the birthplaces of many chosen families.
As anti-LGBTQ policies and legislation proliferate across the country, finding such a community has become a vital tool. For many queer people, a chosen family can be a means for survival.
“That’s what’s beautiful about the trans community,” said D. Ojeda, a senior national organizer at trans advocacy organization National Center for Transgender Equality. Their pronouns are they/them and they identify as nonbinary.
“What makes us so resilient is that we tend to really be resourceful in making sure that our communities get what they need, even if external forces don’t protect us.”
Increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation
2021 was a record-breaking year for anti-LGBTQ legislation, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Legislatures in 2022 are moving full steam ahead with these ongoing efforts — including bills or governmental directives in Florida, Texas, Alabama, Indiana, and more that target these groups.
Recent bills and laws range from attempting to ban some trans children from sports; to banning trans people from the bathroom corresponding with their gender; to banning curricula featuring LGBTQ subjects in some classrooms.
The trans community has taken its safety into its own hands in many cases. Ojeda says trans activists have been dispatched to barbershops and hair salons, health clinics and other service locations to assess a businesses’ acceptance of trans people.
When someone needs a jumpstart on their car, or when someone needs moral support during a health care procedure — a chosen family will ensure that someone will be there to lend a helping hand.
They say it’s because other LGBTQ people often understand the collective struggles, queer joy and nuances of the community in a way only they may understand.
“We’re always looking out for each other,” Ojeda said. “Even when outside forces want to make sure that we don’t exist — that’s going to be an impossible thing to do. Because our community is resilient. We definitely have this strong, unified force. This is our chosen family.
Building a strong network
It’s why Parker, Ojeda and Ricardo Martinez, CEO of LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas, encourage LGBTQ youth to find or build a strong moral support system that understands the challenges of being part of the community.
A chosen family can save lives, they say.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), LGBTQ community members are at a higher risk for experiencing mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety disorders and suicidal ideations.
Transgender individuals, in particular, are at risk — they are almost four times as likely as cisgender people to experience a mental health condition and suicide, NAMI reports.
The organization also found that discrimination, prejudice, denial of civil and human rights and family rejection are oft the source behind this disparity.
“I’ve made a tremendous amount of friends [in the LGBTQ community], which brings me a tremendous amount of joy. But also heartbreak, right?” Martinez said, referring to the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation and sentiment.
However, he said the heartbreak is short-lived.
He added, “Regardless of what powers are trying to attack us, I know that I can pull back on many of the families that I’ve met, who affirm the identity of their children, folks who I’ve met on the ground who are incredible advocates that have tremendous power not only in their words but in their actions.”
(NEW YORK) — Sen. Marco Rubio, vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine amid Russia’s unprovoked invasion could lead to the “beginning of World War III.”
“I think people need to understand what a no-fly zone means … it’s not some rule you pass that everybody has to oblige by,” Rubio, R-Fla., told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “It’s the willingness to shoot down the aircrafts of the Russian Federation, which is basically the beginning of World War III.”
In a Zoom call with U.S. lawmakers that Rubio participated in Saturday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his request for the West to implement a no-fly zone over his country. But if that can’t be done, Zelenskyy asked for planes instead, several members of Congress said after the call.
Stephanopoulos asked Rubio about a potential deal with Poland to supply aircraft, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is “actively looking at.”
“How about this provision of fighter jets? We would provide the fighter jets to Poland, other Eastern European nations, they would send the jets they now have to Ukraine, do you support that?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
“I do. If that can be done, that would be great,” Rubio answered. “I do have concerns about a couple of things. And that is sort of, you know, can they actually fly them given the amount of anti-aircraft capability that the Russians possess and continue to have deployed in the region? … But generally speaking, it’s something I’d be supportive of.”
Bipartisan support to ban Russian oil imports continues to grow among U.S. lawmakers, but the White House has yet to back it.
“The president has resisted banning Russian oil imports, of course, that would send gas prices soaring even more here in this country. Do you support that?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“I do and I don’t think — you know, I think that’s something that you can construct a plan to phase that in pretty rapidly,” Rubio said. “And you could use reserves for the purposes of buffering that. But we have more than enough ability in this country to produce enough oil to make up for the percentage that we buy from Russia.”
Rubio said the Biden administration’s unwillingness to stop importing barrels of Russian oil each day is simply “an admission that this guy, that this killer, that this butcher, Vladimir Putin, has leverage over us.”
“Why would we want that leverage to continue,” Rubio asked. “Why would we have someone like him to have the power to raise gas prices on Americans which is basically if he cuts us off, what would happen in the reserve?”
“So I think we have enough that we should produce more American oil and buy less Russian oil or none, actually, none at all,” he added.
When asked whether it was “responsible” for Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to suggest in a tweet that someone should assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin and “take this guy out,” Rubio did not condemn the comments, as others, like Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, did.
“Well, look, people are watching what’s happening in Ukraine and what this man is doing to these people, what this monster is doing to human beings, and they’re very angry about it,” Rubio said, adding that “at the end of the day I do think Vladimir Putin is going to face some problems internally in Russia.”
“How the Russians seek to take care of it is up to them,” Rubio continued. “I’m not sure he was calling for a U.S. action in that regard. I think what he was basically trying to say, at least my reading of it is, I wish someone would take this guy out and remove him from power one way or the other. I think the whole world wishes that.”
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield is standing by the White House and NATO allies’ opposition to implementing a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“President Biden has been very, very clear that American troops will not be put on the ground or in the air to escalate this war and make this an American war against — against the Russians,” she told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. “But we’ve also been very clear that we will support Ukraine in every other way possible.”
Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. will continue to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “in every other way possible” after Zelenskyy angrily denounced NATO’s refusal to impose a no-fly zone and blamed the West for “all the people who will die from this day.”
In a Zoom briefing with members of Congress on Saturday, Zelenskyy said if a no-fly zone couldn’t be implemented, Ukraine needs fighter jets to defend itself against Russia’s invasion. The White House told ABC News the administration is working with Poland to transfer Soviet-era jets from that country and looking into possibly repaying Poland for them.
Asked by Stephanopoulos, “Is that on the table, is that going to happen?” Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. is in “close consultations” with the Polish government and NATO allies.
“We have not in any way opposed the Polish government providing these — these jets to — to Ukraine and we’re working, as you noted, to see how we can backfill for them.”
Pressure is growing from Democrats and Republicans for the White House to impose tougher sanctions on the Kremlin, including a ban on oil imports from Russia, but Thomas-Greenfield reiterated the White House’s hesitation to do so.
“The president has been clear with President Putin that the consequences of his actions in Ukraine will be felt and it will be felt by the Russians. At the same time, we’re trying our best to minimize the impact on our own country, on our own energy security, as well as the energy security around the world.”
She said Biden remains in discussions with NATO partners and his closest advisors on how to address energy issues while adding that sanctions imposed by the U.S. and allies have already had an impact on the Russian economy.
“The ruble is worth less than a penny right now. The Russian Central Bank is — is not being — not functioning completely, the stock market has been closed. So the sanctions are having the impact and Putin is feeling the results of those sanctions.”
Biden said last week it was still “too early” to determine if Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine, even after the targeting of civilian areas and a nuclear power plant. When Stephanopoulos pressed her on evidence of shelled kindergartens, orphanages and hospitals, asking, “Isn’t that a war crime?” Thomas-Greenfield said, “any attack on civilians is a war crime.”
“We’re working with partners to collect and provide information on this so that we could investigate this and have it ready in the event that war crimes are brought before this government.”
When asked by Stephanopoulos “what kind of incentives can the United States and the West offer” Putin to move forward with a negotiated peace treaty, Thomas-Greenfield said a return to negotiations is “still on the table.”
“Putin has made the decision that he wants to continue with confrontation, with escalation with attacks on civilians and to move forward with this war that Russia is feeling as much as anyone. We’re seeing that hundreds of Russian troops are being killed every day. Russians are demonstrating in the streets against this. So clearly President Putin is feeling the consequences of his actions, but I can’t explain why he’s — he has continued to move forward in the aggressive way that he’s continuing to do in Ukraine.”
(NEW YORK) — Though threatened by the Kremlin for decades, for former Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, the Russian invasion of his country, he says, is a tragedy that Ukrainians didn’t envision becoming reality.
The 68-year-old told ABC’s “Nightline” the situation has united his people in a way that caught Russian forces off guard.
“Russia has never in its history encountered such determination, such a high democratic spirit and spirit for freedom,” Yushchenko told ABC News in a video interview from an undisclosed location in Ukraine. “In terms of spirit, [of] understand[ing], a totalitarian Russia cannot defeat Ukraine.”
Yushchenko, who served as the country’s president from 2005 to 2010, said Ukraine has developed a democracy for the last 20 years despite internal bickering.
“Putin is in an absolute, extreme isolation and that is why, every day, his reputation as the Russian president declines and his political beliefs, including nuclear inclinations, are devaluing fast,” he said.
By comparison, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has worked hard to consolidate the Ukrainian nation, Yushchenko said.
“He’s doing very important work. It’s possible,” he added, “that we’ve not been this united in 30 years. Tragedy and pain can unite.”
Zelenskyy has continually released televised updates as Russian forces continue to launch missile attacks and advance on the ground into the country. Zelenskyy has said he is Russia’s number one target in this war, his family, the second.
Yushchenko is no stranger to threats against his own life. He survived a dioxin poisoning in 2004 when he ran against a Kremlin-favored candidate for the presidency.
Yushchenko’s face was memorably heavily disfigured for years and some Ukrainian officials alleged that the Russian government was involved. The Kremlin has never officially responded to those allegations.
Yushchenko said his country is appreciative of the steps taken by the U.S. and Western allies to help the Ukrainian people, including sanctions and aid, but he reiterated calls for a no-fly zone.
The former president said “the Achilles’ heel of the Ukrainian defense” is strategic Russian airstrikes.
“When we’re talking about what Ukrainian soldiers want to have on the war field, any soldier’s first sentence would be ‘close airspace over Ukraine,'” he said.
ABC News’ Mary Marsh and Karin Weinberg contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Recently, an update to the national COVID-19 strategy was released, designed to manage the virus so most Americans can return to daily life without disruption.
The country is moving to a new phase in which the COVID-19 threat changes from “pandemic” to “endemic.” That means the virus will likely continue to circulate within the population, but at low rates or seasonally.
The updated strategy should fill us with optimism. But we should couple that with a healthy dose of caution.
“As we move toward a COVID-controlled life, it’ll be ever-important to assess for real-time changes in the virus and its community impact because we know just how unpredictable this virus can be,” said Dr. Atul Nakhasi, an internist at the Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center in Los Angeles.
How can we know if it’s safe to unmask and resume our normal activities? What signals should we look for to determine if we need to resume social distancing? Below are five indicators that may provide us with answers.
1. Case numbers:
In Los Angeles County, where Nakhasi practices, public health officials have developed an alert system designed to signal the risk level of the virus. If the number of new cases stays below 200 per 100,000 people, then the risk level remains low.
Though vaccination plays a key role in keeping case numbers low, it’s not the only way to get there. Most people who become infected with COVID-19 develop some level of immunity to the virus. Widespread infections combined with vaccinations have led one group of scientists to determine that 73% of Americans are, at least for now, immune to omicron, the dominant variant. They say that percentage could increase to 80% by mid-March.
2. Hospitalizations:
If we see hospitalizations continue to decrease and remain stable, that will suggest endemicity. The CDC has pivoted away from case numbers to focus on hospitalizations. That’s because, even if the overall reported number of cases stay low, an increase in hospitalizations could indicate that the virus has mutated and the risk of infection may be increasing rapidly.
“A new phase of the pandemic requires a recalibration of metrics that directly highlight true population impact,” said ABC News contributor and Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Childrens Hospital John Brownstein, P.h.D.
“While cases have uncoupled from severe illness, hospitalization numbers will continue to be a robust indicator that public health can rely on,” he added. “Though not the most timely (measure), hospital capacity will continue to reflect risk levels in communities and help guide decisions on mitigation efforts.”
3. Death rates:
According to Jodie Guest, an epidemiologist at Emory University, one measure of the severity of the virus is death rates. If we see fewer than 100 COVID-19 deaths a day nationwide, according to Guest, the virus has reached the endemic phase. Of course, we will need to keep an eye on variants and particular regions of the country where community spread may be different.
4. Wastewater samples:
Yeah, it’s gross, but the wastewater that flows through our sewer systems can tell us a lot about diseases that might be circulating in the community. In fact, data from the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System showed that 70% of wastewater facilities found that virus levels had decreased compared to two weeks ago — another sign COVID-19 cases are on the decline.
Wastewater samples are especially important because people shed the virus when they are in the early stages of infection. That means we can identify rising infection rates even before people begin to show symptoms.
Dr. Ted Smith, an associate professor of environmental medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, said that “wastewater concentrations are dropping in North America.” Though he cautions that infection rates typically drop in the spring and summer, “the genomics is supportive of a tamped situation.”
5. Outbreak clusters:
If we’ve learned anything at all about COVID-19, it’s that it’s highly contagious. That means public health officials need to be able to identify clusters of outbreaks in schools and workplaces, which likely portend rising levels of disease.
One big caveat:
As we move into the endemic phase of the virus, many people will be tempted to think COVID is a thing of the past. If only it were so. For one thing, every community is different. Vermont’s vaccination rate is around 80%, while Alabama’s is closer to 50%. Residents of these two states are facing two very different scenarios in the months ahead.
Likewise, even in cities like Los Angeles, Nakhasi warned that “it’s really important for us to recognize the disproportionate impact this virus has had on our under-resourced and vulnerable communities and prioritize their health, well-being, and life as we prepare for the next surge.”
Also, just because fewer of us are getting sick, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take smart precautions like washing our hands and continuing to get booster shots when recommended.
“We are in an endemic phase when cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have reached a steady state,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, a practicing physician and dean at Brown University’s School of Public Health. “Remember, though, that ‘endemic’ is not the same as ‘not dangerous.'”
Dr. Jay Bhatt is an internist, instructor at UIC School of Public Health and an ABC News contributor.
(NEW YORK) — As many states relax COVID-19 protocols, birthing practices continue to be impacted by the virus nearly two years after the World Health Organization declared it a global pandemic.
Kyaira White is set to give birth for a second time during the pandemic, with her baby due in late spring.
“I was hoping things would be over,” White, of Ellenwood, Georgia, told ABC News. “I’m just not looking forward to having to have a C-section and have your mask on.”
As a first-time mom, White didn’t know what to expect when she gave birth to her son last year.
“Everything was so new to me,” she said.
Weeks after recovering from COVID-19, she tested positive for the virus upon admission on what she said turned out to be a faulty batch of rapid tests. She said she wasn’t able to see her son in the neonatal intensive care unit for several days until it was sorted out.
“The hospital kind of was just giving me the runaround because they knew I didn’t know anything,” she said.
Much has been learned about the virus in the past two years, particularly around the risk of infection for newborns following delivery, allowing medical associations to update their guidance. However, COVID-19 continues to complicate families’ plans, oftentimes limiting who can be at the hospital and, if a parent tests positive before the delivery, restricting visits to NICUs.
Some hospitals also may still lag on standards of care when it comes to keeping otherwise healthy COVID-positive mothers and their newborns together, which can help foster bonding and breastfeeding, by instead separating them, according to Dr. Lori Feldman-Winter, a professor of pediatrics at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Section on Breastfeeding.
“We understand how to care for mothers and babies during the pandemic, even when mothers present with positive PCRs for COVID,” Feldman-Winter told ABC News. For instance, immediate skin-to-skin contact was something “we weren’t sure about early in the pandemic,” but which the AAP currently recommends, she said.
Varying practices across hospitals means pregnant women should be prepared to advocate for themselves, and that hospitals might need to improve their care practices, according to Feldman-Winter.
“It is shocking, actually, how long it takes to get policies from the AAP into practice,” she said.
Where the latest guidance stands
AAP’s clinical guidance on care for infants born to a mother with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 has remained largely unchanged since May 2021. The organization says that mothers and infants can room-in safely, as long as the mother is well enough.
“The evidence to date suggests that the risk of the newborn acquiring infection during the birth hospitalization is low when precautions are consistently taken to protect newborns from maternal infectious respiratory secretions,” the AAP said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also note that the latest evidence “suggests that the chance of a newborn getting COVID-19 from their birth parent is low, especially when the parent takes steps (such as wearing a mask and washing hands) to prevent spread before and during care of the newborn.” It advises birth parents to talk to their health care provider about the the “risks and benefits” of rooming-in and shares precautions to take in the hospital. “Having your newborn stay in the room with you has the benefit of making breastfeeding easier, and it helps with parent-newborn bonding,” it says.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also advises that COVID-positive mothers and their infants “should ideally room-in according to usual facility policy,” due to the benefits of early and close contact, including “increased success with breastfeeding, facilitation of mother-infant bonding, and promotion of family-centered care.”
“Decision-making around rooming-in or separation should be free of any coercion, and facilities should implement policies that protect an individual’s informed decision,” it says.
The guidance deviates when an infant is in the NICU, where there typically is separation following a positive test, Gail Bagwell, president of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses, told ABC News.
“We cannot risk having moms in the NICU that are COVID-positive because the other babies are immunocompromised,” Bagwell said. “That said, our goal is to not separate moms from their babies. It’s a balancing act between the trauma that the baby could experience from not being with its mother to keeping every other child in that NICU safe.”
In practice
Early on in the pandemic, when much wasn’t known about the virus, COVID-positive mothers would often be separated from their newborns in the hospital. That started to shift in summer 2020 with updated CDC guidance that emphasized the mother’s autonomy in the decision, according to Dr. Melissa Bartick, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies breastfeeding.
“Unfortunately, a lot of hospitals had this separation policy, and they never changed that policy,” explained Bartick, who said she continues to hear reports of COVID-positive mothers and their infants being separated.
How long hospitals require COVID-positive parents to isolate before being able to visit the NICU may also vary from 10 to 14 days, Bagwell said.
It’s difficult to assess nationally what hospitals’ policies are currently when it comes to COVID-positive mothers due to a lack of tracking. The CDC’s national survey of Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care does look at room-in policies, though the 2020 survey did not address COVID-19 specifically, Feldman-Winter said.
“It would be useful to have a survey of exactly what hospitals are doing now with respect to infected mothers and infants, and … if they are separating, why they’re still separating,” Bartick said. “That would be useful to know because that should not be a standard of care right now.”
Hospital policies may be impacted by COVID-19 transmission in the area, their interpretations of CDC guidance and their risk tolerance, Bagwell said.
“Some people have lower tolerance for risk and other people have a higher tolerance for risk,” she said.
Whether a hospital is designated as a baby-friendly facility, meaning it has practices that optimize mother-baby bonding, could also impact room-in policies, according to Becky Mannel, clinical assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and director of the Oklahoma Breastfeeding Resource Center.
“Most hospitals, especially if they were hospitals who were really already trying to follow best practice and keep moms and babies together … I would think that most hospitals are back to doing that,” she said. “We still have hospitals that didn’t have that as routine practice, so it’d be really easy for them to use COVID as an excuse to continue doing what they want to do.”
New moms may also be put in a tough spot trying to decide what to do if they test positive for COVID-19, Mannel said.
“If they’re actually not giving you really all of the current recommendations, have you made an informed choice at a time that you’re extremely vulnerable?” she said.
Kimarie Bugg, president of the Atlanta-based breastfeeding advocacy group Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere, said some moms may be able to advocate for themselves, while others might not have enough information.
“They say, ‘OK, fine, I’ll do whatever you say,'” she told ABC News. “It’s inconsistent.”
With her second baby due later this spring, White is optimistic she will have a smoother experience. She hopes she’ll be able to have her mother, in addition to her husband, with her for support — unlike last year, when she was only able to have one support person.
“Some things are definitely changing, but since COVID it’s been really different and painful. People aren’t even able to get into the hospital at all,” Bugg said. “So many grandmothers I know are sitting in the parking lot while their daughter’s in the hospital because they cannot go in.”
Where guidance goes from here
As more is learned about the virus, that could continue to impact guidance and policies, Bagwell said.
“It depends on what we find out,” she said. “As we learn more about this disease, as it goes from the very pandemic type of state that we’re in now to more endemic, like seasonal flu, I would predict that things would again change more.”
For instance, she said, during certain times of year NICU visitors are limited to just parents due to the flu.
The designs of NICUs — often open bays with multiple infants in the same area — also could have an impact on protocols. Even before COVID-19, there was a push for more family centered care in NICUs, such as private rooms with beds, Bagwell said.
“The newer NICUs that are being built are incorporating more of the single-patient room design into their NICU design,” Bagwell said. “Parents are caregivers and they’re the ones that take the babies home, so we want them there 24/7 if possible.”
The behavior of future variants could also impact guidance, Feldman-Winter said.
“It’s always ‘to be continued,'” she said. “That’s why we call the guidance ‘interim guidance,’ which we look at monthly, really, to see if we need to update or reaffirm.”
(NEW YORK) — Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, has the potential to make history as the first Black woman on the country’s highest court.
She was nominated by a historic White House, with the first female and Black vice president in U.S. history — Kamala Harris.
Black women have continued to “break the glass ceiling,” in politics, sports, the humanities and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Despite this progress, there is still a long way to go to achieve racial and gender diversity.
Here are some of the women paving the way for generations to come:
Erin Jackson, first Black woman to win a medal in speed skating
Jackson, 29, won gold for the United States in the women’s 500-meter speed skating competition at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. She’s the first Black woman to ever medal in the sport.
Diversity in winter sports remains abysmal — Jackson is one of few Black athletes on Team USA for the 2022 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games.
When asked by “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts about the lack of diversity in the sport, Jackson said she hopes her achievement helps get “more people to come out and try” winter sports.
In an interview with Team USA, she said: “I hope I can be an example. I would love to see more people of color in all the winter sports. It helps to have some visibility out there, to be able to see other people like you doing something maybe you’d never thought about doing before.”
Jackson, who has been an inline roller skater since she was 10 years old, had only begun practicing speed skating in 2017. She qualified for her first Olympic team in 2018 within months of formally starting to train on the ice, according to Team USA.
Simone Leigh, first Black woman to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is one of the most anticipated international art events and in 2022, Leigh will take the world stage to highlight her work made for and dedicated to Black women.
Leigh, born in Chicago, Illinois, is a multimedia artist who explores the experiences of Black femme-identifying people, often referencing African art and traditions of the African Diaspora, according to the Institute of Contemporary Art.
“Leigh’s unique sculptural work explores and elevates ideas about history, race, gender, labor, and monuments, creating and reclaiming powerful narratives of Black women,” the ICA said in the announcement of her participation.
For the Biennale, Leigh created “a series of new sculptures and installations that address what the artist calls an ‘incomplete archive’ of Black feminist thought, with works inspired by leading Black intellectuals,” the ICA said.
Her work will be on view from April 23 to Nov. 27, 2022, in Venice, Italy.
Clarice Phelps, first Black woman to help in the discovery of a periodic element
Phelps is a nuclear chemist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and in 2010 she played a key role in discovering and confirming Tennessine, a new element on the periodic table. But her groundbreaking work isn’t done — she’s also part of the international effort to discover elements 119 and 120.
Phelps, an advocate for diversity in STEM and youth outreach for the sciences, told ABC News that the discovery of Tennessine was one of the highlights of her career: “While my part may have been small in the entirety of the element discovery team, I think the impact of my presence was monumental for Black girls who don’t normally see themselves occupying spaces and disciplines like this.
“I would hope that the next generation of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, etc., do not have to find themselves alone amongst a sea of faces that do not reflect what they see in the mirror everyday,” she added. “I hope that working in this field allows others to see the valuable contributions that employing diversity yields and make adjustments to enact real change in their workplace environments.”
Jessica Watkins, first Black woman to live on the International Space Station
Watkins has become the first Black woman assigned to a mission at the International Space Station. She will orbit Earth as she conducts research in a microgravity laboratory as a mission specialist for the SpaceX Crew-4 mission.
Watkins, 33, earned a bachelor of science in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University, and a doctorate in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She joined NASA as an intern and has since worked at various research centers before being selected in 2017 for NASA’s Astronaut Candidate Class.
This will be her first journey to space since becoming an astronaut. She’s officially fulfilling a dream she’s had since she was a young girl.
“A dream feels like a big faraway goal that’s going to be difficult to achieve or something you might achieve much later in life,” Watkins said in a video released by NASA last year. “But in reality, what a dream realized is just one putting one foot in front of the other on a daily basis. If you put enough of those footprints together, eventually they become a path towards your dreams.”
(NEW YORK) — Don Natzke, who lost his sight at age 12, says still being able to vote has played a pivotal role in his life.
“It’s true of all citizens, but certainly for people with disabilities, the people who are making the policies are very important to us,” he told ABC News. “For example, what my community chooses to do to have accessible transportation available affects how I’m able to move around my community.”
Natzke, who is now retired, grew up in Wisconsin and says the only way he could vote was to appear at a polling place and have someone read, mark and cast the ballot for him.
“But as technology has moved along, we’ve ended up having the possibility of accessible voting machines and different ways to vote. This is particularly important,” he told ABC News.
Leading up to the 2020 election, in order to expand voting during the pandemic, the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission encouraged the use of absentee ballot drop boxes and allowed a friend or family member to drop off a ballot for another voter. Election officials placed about 570 absentee ballot drop boxes across 66 of the state’s 72 counties.
Natzke says that, since he was high-risk for COVID, he didn’t feel comfortable going to the polls in-person. He had reservations about mail-in-voting because of Postal Service delivery delays. He said having the drop boxes as an option was essential because he was able to have his son, one of his primary caretakers, drop off his ballot.
But now, in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud, states that enacted policies making it easier to vote, such as drop boxes and drive-thru voting, expanded polling hours, and increased absentee voting options, have started to roll back those options.
Disabled voters say they and their caretakers are suffering the consequences.
In Wisconsin, changed election policies will make it harder for disabled voters to cast their ballots, Natzke said. While people with disabilities can still benefit from accommodations such as accessible voting machines, they still face hurdles getting to polling sites and sometimes having to use outdated equipment.
Last month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court denied a request from the elections commission to keep the drop boxes through the state’s April election and barred anyone other than the voter from mailing or returning a ballot.
It comes as the court will hear arguments next month on whether it’s valid to use drop boxes in future elections.
Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which brought the lawsuit challenging guidelines allowing drop boxes, told ABC News he’s not necessarily against drop boxes but says it’s up to state lawmakers, not election officials, to change election rules.
Since the 2020 election, Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled legislature has passed a slew of election-related bills. However, with many of them adding more requirements to voting or giving more power to partisan actors, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers says he will veto any legislation that makes it harder for people to vote.
Esenberg and other backers of the policy rollbacks in Wisconsin say their efforts are aimed at cracking down on election fraud, despite no serious fraud having been found in the 2020 election.
Esenberg also pushed back on claims disabled voters are being disenfranchised, saying people with disabilities can vote by requesting “door-to-door” service through the Postal Service to get their ballot delivered. Advocates say that doesn’t always work because some disabled voters are confined to bed.
Those in the disability community say there are still roadblocks for some with mobility issues, and argue the legislature’s work is causing harm.
“Well, it’s democracy,” Esenberg responds. “What you have to do at that point, is go out and win small elections. So, your side will have a majority in the legislature and you’ll be able to get what you want.”
“The disability community is not against fraud-free elections; we’re not against that. But we also don’t want our civil rights trampled on in the process,” said Stephanie Birmingham, an advocacy coordinator at Options for Independent Living and someone who has used a wheelchair since an early age.
Natzke agrees, saying there is no evidence of widespread fraud. “The cure is far worse than the illness.”
Just this year, 27 states have pre-filed or introduced legislation making it more difficult for people to vote. At least three of those states introduced measures specifically aimed at people with disabilities that make it harder to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
In Texas, under new voting law S.B. 1 — which includes new requirements to mail-in voting, more power to partisan poll watchers, and cuts back on early voting hours — lawmakers added new requirements and potential criminal penalties for assisting voters, including those with disabilities.
Now, aides must fill out extensive paperwork and take an oath that they did not pressure the voter to choose them for assistance.
Voters with disabilities and their aides say they are left to fend for themselves, trying to figure out what the new rules mean.
Barbara Beckert, director of the Disability Rights Wisconsin’s Milwaukee office, said she has experienced a significant influx of calls from caretakers as well as voters voicing frustration, hurt and confusion about the rollback of drop boxes and absentee ballot return assistance A main reason is that some of the new rules contradict legal disability protections.
Though Wisconsin state law says only the voter may return his or her ballot, section 208 of the Voting Rights Act permits a voter with a disability from getting help doing so from a person of their choice.
“It’s my understanding that in a situation like that, federal law would preempt the state law. However, you know, this is a difficult situation. It’s been very challenging to know how to advise a voter in that situation,” she explains.
The difficulties come as turnout among voters with disabilities has surged in recent years. In 2020, all disability types and demographic groups experienced higher turnout, with nearly 62% of all people with disabilities voting, according to recent data from the Program for Disability Research at Rutgers University and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Now, they worry the new measures will reverse those historic gains.
Texas just held the first primary of the midterm season, and advocates say the new rules imposed significant challenges.
“We talked to one lady the other day who had applied multiple times and never got her ballot, so she ended up not voting,” Chase Bearden, deputy director of Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, told ABC News.
And in Wisconsin, voters are bracing for April’s election, where judicial, educational and municipal officers are on the ballot.
Don Natzke, now a senior citizen, hopes for a better understanding of the hurdles people with disabilities often face.
“We recognize that there are times that we all need to accomplish what everybody else needs to do. But sometimes we need to do that differently,” Natze said. “It makes me wonder, you know, is my vote really something that’s valued?”
(NEW YORK) — Anastasiia Novitska was supposed to be wearing a lace wedding dress last week, surrounded by family and friends, while she exchanged vows with her future husband. She was instead forced to cancel the wedding and leave her fiancé behind as Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Basically, my life was destroyed just in one single night,” Novitska told ABC News Live in an interview on Friday. “We were getting everything ready for the wedding, we already started decorating the hall, all of the guests were booked, some of them were already in the city waiting for the wedding day and when I woke up early in the morning, I realized unfortunately, it’s no longer going to happen.”
The Russian invasion was a shock to Novitska, just like most of Ukrainians. She described the second day of the invasion, when her neighborhood was beginning to come under attack.
“I thought that everything would be safe in my city. But then on the second day of the war, on the 25th of February, while I was asleep I heard that bombs were attacking the airport next to me,” she recalled. “The attack was so hard that all of us were awake just in two seconds, we went into the underground, but thank God everyone was safe.”
She then made the tough but necessary decision to leave her home and entire life behind to find safety in Poland. Her fiancé stayed behind to fight in the war.
The United Nations says over one million people have fled from Ukraine since the fighting began. More than half of those refugees have fled to Poland, the U.N. says.
“I had to leave everything I had in my country, I had to leave my fiancé, I had to leave my relatives, my friends,” Novitska said. “When I walked into my room to say bye to my dress, which was hanging next to the wardrobe, I started crying because God knows when I will wear it again and if I will see those people who I left in my house.”
Novitska said she’s still in contact with her fiancé, and that he has called and texted her every day since they’ve been separated.
“At the moment he’s helping the volunteers to gather the clothes, food, water, and all needed stuff for our soldiers,” she said.
“He’s going to build the barracks to save the city in case tanks and soldiers come in. Hopefully, he will be safe, and I will see him again and he will stay alive,” Novitska added, while holding back tears.
While speaking with ABC News Live, a loud alarm that sounded like a siren began to go off on her phone. It was an alert from her hometown.
“They are having air bombs attacking,” she explained. “This was an alarm to go to the underground. There is a possibility bombs will come into our city. To be safe, it rings on my phone and radio to force all the people currently outside on in the house or in the flats to go immediately underground.”
Although she’s safe in Poland now, that’s one way she’s able to keep track of what’s happening back home.
Novitska said she hopes one day soon she will be reunited with her loved ones and be able to have the wedding she was forced to say goodbye to last week.
“I’m still hoping the next day that I will hear the magic words that the war has finished and that I can return back and start planning my completely new life,” said Novitska. “I know that everyone is praying for this, but we’re just hoping for better.”
(NEW YORK) — Matthew and Christy Johnson describe watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “heart-wrenching.”
The Johnsons, of Littleton, Colorado, are one of hundreds of families in the United States who were in the process of adopting a child from Ukraine when the conflict there began.
“It feels like living through a nightmare,” Matthew Johnson told “Good Morning America.” “She’s not legally our daughter but for all intents and purposes we feel like our daughter is over there with bombs flying around her, and all we can do is pray.”
The Johnsons, parents of five biological children, first met the child they hope to adopt, an 8-year-old girl named Margarita, this summer when they hosted her for several weeks through Host Orphans Worldwide, a nonprofit organization that matches host families in the U.S. with Ukrainian children.
Margarita returned to Colorado in December to spend the holidays with the Johnsons, and flew back to Ukraine on Jan. 15.
The Johnsons said they received one of the final pieces of documentation needed for the adoption process just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.
Now, they said they are waiting daily to hear about the safety of Margarita, who lives in southeastern Ukraine.
“Over the past several months we’ve been able to do video chats or send her messages and packages, but we haven’t heard anything [from her] for the last week,” said Christy Johnson. “So it’s been really heart-wrenching.”
The Johnsons said they have heard from other families in the U.S. that the institution where Margarita is staying is safe, but they have no idea what is next for the young girl they describe as “funny and delightful” and a member of their family.
“When she left in January we were telling her, ‘We’ll come. We’ll see you in Spring,'” said Matthew Johnson. “Now it’s devastating. We can’t fulfill that promise anymore.”
While more than 1.2 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, millions more people remain in the country, including children.
Prior to the war, approximately 100,000 children in Ukraine were being raised in institutions, according to government statistics, a United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, spokesperson told ABC News.
Many of the institutions are located in hot spots, according to the spokesperson, who added that many of the children in institutions, such as boarding schools and orphanages, have disabilities.
These institutions are being evacuated without proper monitoring of the children’s situation, according to UNICEF.
Hannah and Brent Romero, of Villa Platte, Louisiana, said they submitted the final paperwork to adopt a 15-year-old boy from Ukraine on Jan. 17, just weeks before the war began.
The boy, whose name they asked not be used, has Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition in which a person’s body no longer makes insulin.
“We ask him every day about that and he says he’s doing OK,” said Brent Romero. “But I think he’s not telling us the full truth because he doesn’t want us to worry more than we’re already worried about his health.”
The Romeros said they are able to stay in touch with the boy — whom they have known since 2019, when they hosted him for nearly eight weeks in Louisiana — through text messages mostly while he shelters in place in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine.
“We stay up until he’s awake so we can see if we can catch him before we go to sleep,” said Hannah Romero. “He told me yesterday, ‘I didn’t sleep well … because the air raid sirens kept going off and we had to go in the basement.'”
Hannah Romero, a high school English teacher, and Brent Romero, a pastor, are flying from Louisiana to Poland on Friday to join a group of Americans who have gathered there to help support children who make it out of Ukraine.
Hannah Romero said she plans to stay in Poland for two weeks, while Brent Romero said he plans to stay indefinitely, until he can bring the 15-year-old boy home. The couple, already parents of two sons, said they are also hoping to take in the boy’s 11-year-old sister, whom they have never met.
“We’re not asking permission to adopt them right now,” said Hannah Romero. “We’re asking permission to bring them here temporarily, just to keep them safe and until everything else can be figured out.”
She continued, “It might take years to figure everything else out, but that’s OK. We need them to be safe in the time being.”
Hundreds of miles away from the Romeros, in Florida, Kelly Lee, a mom of five, including four adopted children, is working to help a 16-year-old girl she is in the process of adopting get safely to the U.S.
Lee, of Oviedo, Florida, and her husband, Kevin, are now applying for tourist visas for the girl and her sister and 7-year-old nephew, all of whom were able to escape to Hungary.
“The whole [adoption] process is on hold, and it’s really just a matter of getting them safe is what’s important,” said Lee. “Our first attempt is to apply for these tourist visas.”
Lee said she has seen what she describes as an “army of moms” working together in the U.S. to help children in Ukraine, connecting on social media and helping each other navigate language barriers and the extreme circumstances of war.
“We’re getting messages from families saying, ‘We need help. We have this kid we need out,'” said Lee. “So it’s been a joke that it’s like an army of moms have come together to try to get their children. They’re researching in a country that they can’t even read websites, but they’re trying to figure out buses and trains.”
In Oregon, Jennifer Mitchell, is one of the moms leading the charge.
Mitchell, a mom of eight, including three children adopted from Ukraine, is one of the founders of Host Orphans Worldwide, the organization that matches host families in the U.S. with Ukrainian children.
While Host Orphans Worldwide does not facilitate adoptions, about 75% of kids in its program end up getting adopted by people in the U.S., according to Mitchell. She said Ukraine has a high number of U.S. adoptions because it has both one of the shortest wait times for international adoption and one of the largest populations of children in need.
Mitchell’s husband traveled to Poland this week to assist a team on the ground supporting refugees, while Mitchell is home in Oregon coordinating between families in the U.S. and orphanage directors in Ukraine.
“We’ve gotten money to them to buy food because they were running out, and we’ve helped with bus transportation and train tickets to get kids out of Ukraine,” she said. “We have a few orphanages in the eastern part of the country that are surrounded and it is safer for them to stay put than to move. It is a dire situation.”
Mitchell said in one of those orphanages is a 12-year-old girl she and her husband were in the process of adopting, noting they have not spoken to her in over a week.
“There’s probably closer to 100 kids in that orphanage,” she said. “Even evacuating them puts a target on their back.”
With no end in sight to the conflict with Russia, Mitchell said she fears what the end result will be for children in Ukraine.
“The orphan crisis in Ukraine was already bad and this, it’s just going to be a humanitarian emergency,” she said. “It is horrific.”
