Miami (AFP) – A celebrated poem by a Black writer who read it at President Joe Biden’s inauguration has been banned for young students at a school in Miami, a group fighting such restrictions said Wednesday.

The school called the Bob Graham Education Center acted after the mother of two students complained about Amanda Gorman’s poem entitled “The Hill We Climb.”

Under Governor Ron DeSantis, an arch conservative set to run for president in the 2024 election, Florida has been a battleground for clashes over cultural and social issues in the United States.

Scores of books have been removed from the state’s school library shelves in recent months, deemed inappropriate for children by conservative parents and school boards.

In this new case, a woman asked in late March that five works in the Bob Graham library be removed on grounds they served to indoctrinate children, according to documents obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project, and shared with AFP. 

One of those works is “The Hill We Climb” which Gorman, then 22, read at Biden’s inauguration in January 2021.

The poem was a call for unity and hope in politically polarized America, and Gorman became an overnight star after reading it on the steps of the US Capitol. 

It has now been removed from the Bob Graham library used by first graders and placed in a section reserved for kids over age 11.

A school material review committee did not explain the reasons for its action.

Gorman, the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate, said she was devastated.

“I wrote ‘The Hill We Climb’ so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment,” she wrote on Twitter.

“Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech.”

The school review committee said the poem did have “educational value because of its historical significance.”

Gorman was the youngest poet ever to perform at a US presidential inauguration.

News of the library restrictions came a week after publisher Penguin Random House and writers’ group PEN America filed a lawsuit against a Florida school district over the removal of books from public school libraries that address race and LGBTQ issues.

By James Oliphant

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose impassioned battles over pandemic lockdowns and divisive cultural issues have endeared him to conservatives, will announce on Wednesday he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, placing him on a collision course with former President Donald Trump.

DeSantis will make the announcement on Twitter during a discussion with Twitter CEO Elon Musk, DeSantis’ political team confirmed. His campaign on Wednesday filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring his candidacy.

Musk confirmed his appearance on a webcast during a conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal, saying he was not endorsing DeSantis.

“I’m not at this time planning to endorse any particular candidate, but I am interested in Twitter being somewhat of a town square,” Musk said.

DeSantis was re-elected handily to a second term in November. His rising profile among Republicans and fundraising prowess likely make him the biggest threat to Trump’s hopes of becoming the Republican nominee for the White House again.

The two men were close allies during Trump’s four years in the White House – Trump endorsed him during his first campaign for governor – but DeSantis has since forged his own political identity. At 44 he may represent the future of the party more than does the 76-year-old Trump.

“Announcing on Twitter is perfect for Ron DeSantis. This way he doesn’t have to interact with people and the media can’t ask him any questions,” said a Trump adviser who asked not to be identified.

DeSantis will convene a meeting in Miami of his top donors, who will immediately launch his presidential fundraising efforts.

During the coronavirus pandemic, DeSantis became the national face of resistance to mask and vaccine mandates and has been a virulent critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who headed the government’s COVID-19 response in both the Trump and Biden administrations.

In stump speeches, he has argued his policies made possible Florida’s economic recovery from the pandemic, turning the state into a magnet for hundreds of thousands of new residents. Florida has consistently outpaced the country in job growth over the last two years.

“His pandemic response effectively made him the governor of Red State America,” said Justin Sayfie, a Florida lobbyist and a former aide to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

In the months leading up to his presidential bid, DeSantis has toured the country, visiting states like Iowa and New Hampshire that will hold early presidential nominating contests next year and talking up his accomplishments in Florida.

But his decision to wait until now to join the fray has allowed Trump to batter DeSantis with a fusillade of attacks, costing him standing in national polls.

AGGRESSIVE AGENDA

DeSantis has rebuffed critics, pushed his priorities through the legislature and punished his enemies. His Democratic opponent in his 2022 re-election campaign, Charlie Crist, called DeSantis a “wannabe dictator.”

When Walt Disney Co, one of Florida’s biggest employers, opposed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that limited discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools, DeSantis moved to strip the company of its self-governing status.

Disney has since filed a federal lawsuit against the governor, accusing him of weaponizing state government to retaliate against the company.

When an elected Democratic state attorney said he would not prosecute anyone for defying DeSantis-backed limits on abortion, DeSantis removed him from his position.

He has made crusading against what Republicans call “woke” education policies a centerpiece of his politics while supporting conservative candidates for local school boards.

He backed a legislative measure that prohibits the teaching of “Critical Race Theory” – an academic doctrine that views U.S. history through the lens of oppression – in state public schools despite little evidence it was being taught.

Republican lawmakers in Florida handed DeSantis a bevy of conservative victories in its recent session: They expanded the state’s school voucher program, prohibited the use of public money in sustainable investing, scrapped diversity programs at public universities, allowed for permitless carry of concealed weapons and, perhaps most notably, banned almost all abortions in the state.

The widespread abortion ban may help DeSantis appeal to the party’s evangelicals, but may damage him significantly in the November 2024 general election should he make it that far. Pro-business Republicans have also been critical of his feud with Disney, arguing that it is at odds with the party’s traditional hands-off approach to regulation.

Republicans nationwide have taken notice of his aggressive approach to governing. DeSantis and his affiliated political action committee raised more than $200 million in support of his gubernatorial re-election bid.

Also watching has been Trump, who has taken to deriding his one-time protégé at rallies, nicknaming him “DeSanctimonious” and claiming credit for making DeSantis the political rising star he is today.

On the stump, DeSantis has a wholly different style than the bombastic Trump: low-key, buttoned-down and prone to favoring policy over personal attacks. His campaign speeches can sometimes feel like PowerPoint presentations.

A key question going forward will be how DeSantis responds to what will certainly be a nearly endless stream of insults and insinuations from Trump. So far, he has attempted to dismiss them as “noise” and said he is focused on “delivering results.”

It may not be in DeSantis’ interest to fire back. He needs to win over some portion of Trump’s supporters. Instead, he likely will try to walk a careful line between not denigrating Trump while making clear he favors many of the same policies with perhaps a steadier hand on the tiller.

Prior to his election as governor in 2018, DeSantis served as a U.S congressman for three terms. His wife, Casey DeSantis, is considered his closest political adviser. The couple has three children.

(Reporting by James Oliphant, additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer, Jasper Ward and Ben Klayman; Editing by Ross Colvin, Alistair Bell and Howard Goller)

Washington (AFP) – New HIV infections in the United States fell by 12 percent in 2021 compared to 2017, continuing a decline driven by fewer cases in younger people, especially gay and bisexual men, official estimates showed Tuesday.

Infections fell from some 36,500 to 32,100, with the starkest decrease — 34 percent — among 13-to-24-year-olds, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

Men who have sex with men account for an estimated 80 percent of infections in this age group. 

“Our nation’s HIV prevention efforts continue to move in the right direction,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

Nevertheless, these gains were unequal among different racial groups, with new infections among young white people dropping most, followed by Hispanic and then Black Americans.

One of the greatest indicators of improvement was the rise in access to PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), pills or shots taken to prevent HIV infection from sex or injection drug use. 

In 2021, 30 percent of the estimated 1.2 million people who could benefit from PrEP were prescribed it, compared to just 13 percent in 2017.

But the disparities in access were stark when broken down by race. Just 11 percent of the Black population who could benefit from PrEP were prescribed it, compared to 78 percent of the white population.

“Efforts must be accelerated and strengthened for progress to reach all groups faster and equitably,” said Walensky.

Annual HIV incidence in the US increased from 20,000 infections in 1981, when the virus was first discovered, to a peak of 130,400 in 1984 and 1985. 

The rate stabilized between 1991 to 2007, with approximately 50,000–58,000 infections annually, and then decreased in recent years to 34,800 infections in 2019.

Washington (AFP) – Ron DeSantis is to announce his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in a livestreamed Twitter chat with the platform’s billionaire owner Elon Musk on Wednesday, touting his ultra-conservative record as governor of Florida as a blueprint for the nation.

DeSantis will be banking on borrowing some of the tech mogul’s star power to outshine clear frontrunner Donald Trump, who has swept all before him in the early stages of the contest and is polling in greater numbers than all the other contenders combined.

“I will be interviewing Ron DeSantis and he has quite an announcement to make,” Musk confirmed on Tuesday, promising the 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) event would be unscripted, with “real time questions and answers.”

“It’s going to be live. Let it rip,” Musk told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council conference.

The announcement will come with a campaign launch video and the start of a three-day retreat in Miami for some of DeSantis’s wealthiest donors, who will be briefed on the campaign before the governor makes a swing through several early voting states next week. 

Long viewed as the most viable challenger to twice-impeached former president Trump, DeSantis is better known than most of the hopefuls in the chasing pack for the Republican nomination — but still lacks the frontrunner’s national profile.

The format offers him a dual advantage — giving him precious access to Musk’s 140 million followers, many of whom are in Trump’s base, and, if he wins the nomination, the attention of a chunk of younger, less conservative voters that he will likely need for a shot at the White House.

Ratings in decline

DeSantis has used his platform as Florida’s chief executive to burnish his conservative credentials, signing off on some 80 new state laws this spring, many targeting “woke indoctrination” in schools and other public institutions.

They include a ban on the discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools, a block on funding for efforts to promote diversity at public universities and one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

But the 44-year-old’s official launch comes with his ratings in decline despite a slate of right-wing legislative wins in his state.

A number of policy missteps have prompted disquiet about his readiness to take on Trump, with donors worried he may have peaked too soon. 

He faces the daunting task of closing an enormous polling gap, with Trump posting leads close to 40 percentage points, despite being indicted on felony financial charges and being found liable for sexual abuse in a New York civil trial.

But DeSantis goes into the campaign with a large cash advantage over his rivals in the pack chasing Trump — a war chest of potentially more than $100 million — and buoyed by strong turnout at a series of recent campaign events.

Never Back Down, a super PAC that has acted as the governor’s de facto campaign arm before he announced, has a ground operation in most of the early nominating states and is making plans to expand. 

Behind the scenes, the Trump and DeSantis camps have been jostling to secure political endorsements from state lawmakers while, at the national level, Florida’s congressional delegation has broken heavily for Trump.

Personal touch

Musk is a well-known DeSantis admirer, although he was clear that Twitter would remain neutral on the nomination and that his hosting of the campaign launch should not be taken as an endorsement. 

“I’ve said publicly that my preference, and I think the preference of most Americans, is… to have someone fairly normal in office,” he said, without making any explicit criticism of Trump.

The former president was banned from Twitter after the 2021 assault on the US Capitol by his supporters, and has not returned since being reinstated in November.

He has been attacking DeSantis almost daily on his record, character and fitness for office but responded to Wednesday’s announcement with relative restraint — simply posting favorable polling on his own online platform, Truth Social.

“Announcing on Twitter is perfect for Ron DeSantis. This way he doesn’t have to interact with people and the media can’t ask him any questions,” a Trump aide said.

The governor has also been criticized for lacking the personal touch that Trump’s supporters say is one of the former president’s biggest assets.

But the former naval officer and congressman has been redoubling his efforts more recently to stay behind after speaking engagements to press flesh, sign autographs and have his picture taken with supporters.

“If we make 2024 a referendum on Joe Biden and his failures and we provide a positive alternative for the future of this country, Republicans will win across the board,” DeSantis said during a visit this month to Sioux Center, Iowa. 

By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) – A Florida restaurant that puts on what it calls family-friendly drag performances sued Governor Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida on Monday to halt enforcement of a new law banning minors from attending such shows.

Hamburger Mary’s, an Orlando bar and restaurant that presents drag show performances, comedy sketches and dancing, filed the suit in federal court in response to the law, which the Republican governor signed last week.

Senate Bill 1438 allows the state to fine or revoke the liquor license of an establishment that admits minors to a performance that “simulates nudity, sexual conduct or specific sexual activities.”

DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This bill has nothing to do with children, and everything to do with the continued oppression of the LGBTQ+ community,” the owners of Hamburger Mary’s wrote on Facebook.

The Facebook post offered a broader critique of DeSantis’ policies to eliminate books and public school courses that refer to LGBTQ themes or the U.S. history of racial oppression, asking, “When does it stop?”

DeSantis, who is expected to announce he is seeking the Republican nomination for president this week, has pursued policies in Florida that restrict LGBTQ rights.

He signed the “Protection of Children” bill the same day he also signed bills to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth and requires transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to their sex at birth.

The lawsuit asks the court to block the law, saying it violates the constitutional right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.

“It prohibits protected speech based on the identity of the speaker,” the lawsuit said.

The law erroneously targets drag shows as deviant when they have become “part of mainstream culture,” it said. “It is a form of family entertainment, enjoyed by all.”

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Joaquin Phoenix is set to star in a new NC-17-rated gay romance movie.

The ‘Beau is Afraid’ actor will star in ‘Far From Heaven’ director Todd Haynes’ upcoming new project, which the filmmaker has described as a “gay love story” set in Los Angeles in the 1930s.

Speaking during Cannes Film Festival, he told IndieWire: “The next film is a feature that’s an original script that I developed with Joaquin Phoenix based on some thoughts and ideas he brought to me.

“We basically wrote with him as a story writer. Me and Jon Raymond and Joaquin share the story credit.

“And we hope to be shooting it beginning early next year. It’s a gay love story set in 1930s L.A.”

Haynes explained how Phoenix has been constantly looking to push the boundaries with the movie, which helped lead to its NC-17 rating in the United States.

As defined by the Motion Picture Association’s film rating system, the rating – which goes one beyond the R Restricted level – means: “No one 17 and under admitted. Clearly adult. Children are not admitted.”

It’s not known what the rating will be elsewhere in the world, with NC-17 falling somewhere between the UK’s 15 and 18 ratings.

Meanwhile, Haynes – who has worked on the likes of ‘Poison’, ‘Velvet Goldmine’, ‘Carol’ and new movie ‘May December’ – reflected on his upcoming schedule as he continues to make romantic period dramas, including those telling queer stories.

He said: “All I can do is just keep hunkering down and committing to each project. I have more features planned.

“I have also episodic projects coming that are planned, that are really exciting. I’m going back to work with Kate Winslet with something she brought me for HBO.”

Groundbreaking drag comedian George Logan has died aged 78.

Best known for starring as drag artist Dr Evadne Hinge in the landmark BBC sitcom ‘Hinge and Bracket’, he passed away earlier this week, with his death confirmed by UK entertainer and ‘Benidorm’ actor Bobby Crush, 69.

He posted on social media on Sunday (21.05.23): “RIP George Logan, also known as ‘Dr Evadne Hinge’ of ‘Hinge and Bracket’.

“We appeared in panto together in this glorious production of at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in 1989… I’m saddened by news of his passing today.”

The tribute sparked a flood of tributes from fans and friends who fondly remembered George and his co-star Patrick Fyffe when they drew millions of TV viewers in the ’70s and ’80s when it ran from 1978 to 1981.

They also appeared as their characters in a string of other popular TV shows including ‘The Ronnie Corbett Show’ and the BBC’s ‘The Good Old Days’, and were seen as pioneers of making drag acts mainstream.

George documented his life and how he grew up gay in Scotland in the 1960’s in his autobiography ‘A Boy Called Audrey’, published in 2015, in which he said: “A gay pub near where I lived put on drag acts. One day, the pianist didn’t turn up. The landlady said, ‘You play the piano don’t you? I’ll give you two quid to play for the act?’ So I did, and became the regular pianist.

“As I was watching all these acts I realised they were getting eight quid for doing gags I’d heard a hundred times. I thought, ‘I could do that and play the piano at the same time and keep the whole 10 quid to myself.

“That’s how I got into show business, although I didn’t get the 10 quid. As I was a beginner I got eight for doing both – but eight quid for half an hours work wasn’t bad.”