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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STYLE EZ SU C

BY MAURA JUDKIS

Before she even knew she was pregnant with her

second child, Ashley Brauer O’Connor had a dream,

or maybe a prophecy. Back in May 2021, she

dreamed she was scheduling a Caesarean section for

Feb. 22, 2022: 2-22-22, arguably the most interesting

birthday to come along in almost a decade, since

12-12-12. She soon found out she was pregnant, but

her estimated due date was five days later: Feb. 27.

Oh well.

Months later, her doctor informed her the baby

was breech. Did she want to schedule a C-section?

“A nd I’m like, ‘Is it possible that 2-22 is available at

the hospital?’ ” It was. It felt “like deja vu,” says

O’Connor, 38, of Los Angeles. “So, yes, our second

child, on a Tuesday” — Twosday!! — “2-22.”

That’s t he date Jules Zia Passell has been counting

down to her whole life: Born in 2000, she will turn 22

on 2-22-22.

“It’s been the birthday I’ve waited for. I actually

didn’t care about my 21st at all,” she says. She has

always found herself gravitating toward the number

two and wondered what her 22nd birthday, t he fated

date when all the twos in her life would align in some

sort of cosmic coincidence, might bring.

“My whole life, I’ve been trying to find the

meaning for it,” says Passell. “I’m still searching.”

As weirdness goes in these very weird times, Feb.

22 might not rate much more than a blip, but it does

spark curious notions and a line of existential

inquiry: Does it mean everything, or anything, or

nothing at all? What is time, anyway, other than an

arbitrary human construct that happened to, in this

instance, align in a way that’s appealing to the

SEE 2-22-22 ON C2

If you put two and two together,

you g et whatever you need it to be

Here comes Feb. 22, 2022. There’s special significance there, if you believe in that sort of thing.

KELLY MALKA FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

BY JULIANNE MCSHANE

A record 7.1 percent of U.S.
adults self-identify as lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender or some-
thing other than heterosexual,
and members of Generation Z are
driving the growth, according to
results from a Gallup survey pub-
lished Thursday.
The most recent results mark
double the percentage of adults
who self-identified as LGBTQ in
2012, when Gallup first measured
it, and an increase from 2021,
when the same survey found that
5.6 percent of Americans identi-
fied as LGBTQ.
This year’s record high in-
cludes 21 percent of self-identify-
ing LGBTQ Gen Zers who have
reached adulthood — which Gal-
lup defines as those born between
1997 and 2003 — making them
the generational group with the
largest proportion of LGBTQ peo-
ple. Among millennials, 10.5 per-
cent self-identify as LGBTQ,
while 4.2 percent of Generation
X, 2.6 percent of baby boomers
and 0.8 percent of traditionalists
SEE POLL ON C3

Adults who

identify as

L GBTQ hit

record high

BY BETHONIE BUTLER

We’ve reached the point of
winter where we can see a glim-
mer of spring’s i mpending arrival
(it’s no longer pitch black at 5
p.m.!) but it’s still too early to put
that puffer coat in storage. If
you’re feeling the winter dol-
drums, we’ve put together a vari-
ety of shows, movies and specials
to help bring some sunshine in.

1. ‘Grand Crew’

This NBC sitcom from former
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” scribe Phil
Augusta Jackson follows a dy-
namic friend group that regular-
ly hangs out at a wine bar. It’s a
simple enough premise but the
laughs runneth over and the
characters — including Nicole
Byer’s Nicki and Echo Kellum’s
Noah — feel like people we know
in real life. (Streams on Hulu and
Peacock)
SEE FEEL-GOOD TV ON C5

Shows and

movies

that will lift

your mood

BY ELAHE IZADI

The Washington Post has won
two George Polk Awards for jour-
nalism that revealed how the
siege on t he U.S. Capitol unfolded
and how spyware meant to track
terrorists and criminals was used
to infiltrate the phones of private
citizens.
“The Attack,” published about
10 months after the insurrection
at the Capitol, revealed stunning
new details about official failures
that exacerbated the unprec-
edented Jan. 6 attack, while also
chronicling the aftermath and
enduring consequences. Seventy-
five journalists worked on the
project, which involved inter-
views with more than 230
sources and analysis of thou-
sands of pages of court and
internal investigation docu-
ments.
The project, which has been
SEE POLK ON C3

Two Polk

Awards go

to The Post

Coverage of Jan. 6 attack

and ‘Pegasus Project’

report are honored