NOVEMBER 13 - 19, 2008 VOLUME SEVEN, ISSUE 46

YOUR FREE ■ NY SENATE DRAMA ■ FIVE A-Z PIECES ■ LATTER GAY SAINTS

WEEKLY Anti-gay Ruben Diaz Everybody’s got an Mormon martyr’s tale

stands in Dems’ way opinion on Prop 8 couldn’t be timelier
NEWSPAPER P. 2 P. 10-11, 21 P. 13
A M E R I C A’ S L A R G E S T C I R C U L AT I O N G AY A N D L E S B I A N W E E K LY N E W S P A P E R !

Gay City
NEWS
TM

S E R V I N G G A Y, L E S B I A N , B I A N D T R A N S G E N D E R E D N E W Y O R K • W W W . G A Y C I T Y N E W S . C O M

■ POLITICS

Rahm
Emanuel’s
Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell
‘Lesson’
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

A
s Rahm Emanuel told
the Wall Street Jour-
nal, the Clinton White
House lost its way in its first
two years by failing to “do what
you got elected to do.”
Clinton’s handling of issues,
such as “gays in the military”
and others that were “not
what we campaigned on,” led
P. 4

■ SNIDE LINES
Bill Ayers
at the Pentagon! ■ 22
——————————————
■ CHINA RISING

JEFFERSON SIEGEL
Compagnie 111’s
geometric acrobatics
■ 12 A CROWD ESTIMATED AT 10,000 MARCHED ON THE MORMON TEMPLE NEAR LINCOLN CENTER BEFORE HEADING TO COLUMBUS CIRCLE
——————————————
■ ALL LOMBARD
Film Forum takes up
screwball genius
——————————————
■ 15
Prop 8 Backlash Hits
■ DENEUVE CHAOS
“A Christmas Tale”
of failing matriarch
NYC Mormon Temple
——————————————
■ 17 10,000 March in Midtown Amidst Post-Mortems
BY ANDY HUMM the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day win marriage equality in New York.
Saints — the Mormons. Signorile said, “It’s about a right that

N
o speeches. No leaders. But lots of
anger.
Mobilized through social net-
working sites, an estimated 10,000 people
turned out Wednesday night at the Mor-
mon Temple near Lincoln Center in New
York to protest the passage of the Califor-
nia amendment eliminating the right of
same-sex couples to marry and the fact
Gathering at 6:30 p.m. at West 65th and
Columbus, the site of the temple, the crowd
soon marched down Broadway behind a
huge white banner saying “GOD LOVES
GAY MARRIAGE” made by Gilbert Baker,
creator of the Rainbow Flag 30 years ago.
Corey Johnson, one of the key organiz-
ers with Mike Signorile and Ann Northrop,
said the turnout “was a tremendous out-
was taken away, not just marriage.” He
wants those energized to demand all of
our civil rights and that Mormon-owned
companies such as Marriott “stop giving
money to the Church.”
Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel
said, “The spirit of ACT UP is in the air.”
Ben Shepard, a teacher and activist
there with his daughter, Dorothea Imo-

JUDY 14
AND ME that most of the money for the Yes on
Prop 8 campaign came from members of
pouring of grassroots energy and support.”
He hoped that energy can be harnessed to
gene, 5, said it reminded him of the dem-
onstration here after the killing of Mat-
© GAY CITY NEWS 2008 • COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED P. 6
2/ Politics
State Senate Control Iffy
Rebel Democrats hold up resolution, on citing gay marriage opposition
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
A
contentious battle ini-
tially involving four
— but later just three
— State Senate Democratic
rebels has left control of the
Legislature’s upper cham-
ber in doubt, more than a
week after the election. At
first blush, the November 4
results seemed to have given
the Democrats control, by at
least a 32-30 margin, for the
first time in 43 years.
Given the intransigence of
the longtime Republican Sen-
ate leadership, Democratic
control has been deemed
essential to progress on the
marriage equality law and the
Gender Expression Non-Dis-
crimination Act (GENDA), a
transgender civil rights mea-
sure. Only this past summer
did the GOP signal a willing-
ness to finally end the logjam
on school anti-bullying legis-
lation that would include gay
and transgendered youth in
its protections.
The resistance of the
remaining three Democratic
holdouts in getting on board
with Queens Senator Mal-
colm Smith becoming the new
majority leaders is further
complicated by the fact that
gay marriage has become the
focal point for the public vol-
leying on the issue.
Despite all this, Senator
Thomas K. Duane, the spon-
sor of the marriage legislation,
is confident that in the end
the Democrats will emerge as
the majority and that his bill,
already passed by the Assem-
bly, will prevail, no later than
the end of Democratic Gov-
er nor David A. Paterson’s
term in January 2011. And,
an undecided Senate race in
Queens could give the Demo-
crats an additional seat, per-
haps taking the wind out of
the rebellious trio’s sails.
In the immediate wake
of last week’s election, four
Democrats — Senators Ruben
Diaz of the Bronx and Carl
Kruger of Brooklyn, and Sen-
ators-elect Hiram Monserrate
of Queens and Pedro Espada
of the Bronx — announced
that they were not prepared
to support Smith for major-
ity leader, hinting they might
instead vote for the current
Republican leader, Dean Ske-
los of Long Island.
For at least three of the dis-
sidents, the lack of Latinos in
the Senate’s leadership was
Bronx State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., a Pentecostal minister, is making gay marriage the cornerstone of his rebellion against the Democratic
Senate leadership.
one critical concern. In a par-
ticularly blunt articulation of
that concern, Diaz was quot-
ed saying, “We have a black
president now, a black gover-
nor, a potential black major-
ity leader in the Senate, but
not a single Hispanic in any
major statewide or citywide
office.”
Kruger’s primary concern
was less clear, though he
has long had good relations
with the Republican leader-
ship, who took the unusual
step of allowing him to chair
the Committee on Social Ser-
vices, Children and Families,
a post that customarily would
be held by a member of the
majority party.
It was no secret, however,
that Diaz, who has long been
an enemy of the gay commu-
nity — making a spectacle
of his opposition to the Gay
Games coming to New York
in 1994 and to public fund-
ing for the Harvey Milk High
School in 2003 — was also
unhappy with Smith’s com-
mitment to bring marriage
equality up for a vote next
year.
In contrast, Monserrate,
who is currently on the City
Council, has long been a
strong ally of the community
and supporter of same-sex
marriage. By the weekend, he
bailed on the then so-called
Gang of Four, telling Smith
he would support his elec-
tion as majority leader. In
response, Diaz, on November
10, issued a written state-
ment noting that Monserrate
had gone back on a hand-
shake agreement to with-
hold any endorsement for
the time being and making
clear he would not “support
any would-be leader that will
bring gay marriage to the
Senate floor.”
Assuming that Smith would
hold true to his commitment
to a gay marriage vote —
and Paterson reinforced that
pledge at the recent Fall Din-
ner of the Empire State Pride
Agenda, the state LGBT lobby
— Diaz’s uncompromising
stand appeared to threaten
Democratic control of the
Senate by raising the possi-
bility of a 31-31 deadlock.
Diaz’s statement came
amidst efforts by both Smith
and Duane to shift attention
off the gay marriage issue.
Smith was reported to have
said it would not be a top pri-
ority in January, and even
Duane argued that the cur-
rent economic crisis would
have to take precedence in
any legislative action in 2009.
The day after Diaz issued
his ultimatum, he met with
the other members of his now
Gang of Three, Espada and
Kruger, in what might come
to be known as the Arthur
Avenue Summit, a luncheon
in the Bronx’s Little Italy. At
the conclusion of that meet-
ing, Diaz offered a somewhat
different spin on the marriage
issue, saying the three had
agreed that question should
be put to voters in a referen-
dum.
Despite the press play that
proposal got across the state
and on some blog sites that
usually show greater political
acumen, the referendum idea
is, in fact, a non-starter. New
York voters do not currently
have the right to initiate such
ballot questions, and though
Senate Republicans have at
times flirted with passing a
law to enable them to, they
have not seriously advanced
the concept, nor are the
Assembly Democrats about to
surrender their prerogatives
in this way.
The only other way to put
the question to the voters
would be for the Legislature,
in two successive sessions,
to approve a constitutional
amendment referendum.
That approach, too, has no
support among Democrats,
in either the Assembly or the
Senate.
It is unclear how the Gang
of Three expects their latest
maneuver to play out and
whether it might offer Diaz a
fig leaf for coming around to
Smith while insisting that he
will pursue the referendum
while in the majority. Kru-
ger, however, said the trio will
not make a majority leader
endorsement until the Senate
reconvenes in January.
Espada’s motivation, vis-
à-vis the marriage ques-
tion, is also uncertain. Just
days befor e the election,
Liz Benjamin’s Daily News
blog reported that Espada
had told Columbia Univer -
sity journalism student Tom
Brennan that he would vote
for marriage equality in the
Senate.
With all the noise com-
ing from the Gang of Three,
much of the rest of the politi-
cal world is keeping a low pro-
file. The Pride Agenda, which
䉴 SENATE, continued on p.4
13 - 19 NOV 2008
7 DAYS
7 NIGHTS
THU.NOV.13
FILM
Every Minute, Four
Ideas
The IFC Center today winds up
the most extensive US retrospective
ever mounted of the films of Arnaud
Desplechin, one of the most exciting
of France s contemporary filmmakers.
“Kings and Queens” (2004), about two
former lovers, Nora and Ismaël, whose
lives are disrupted by unexpected
crises, starring Mathieu Almaric,
Emmanuelle Devos, and Catherine
Deneuve, screens at 1 & 9:30 p.m. “La
Sentinelle” (1992), about a medical stu-
dent traveling to Paris who discovers
a shrunken human head stashed in his
suitcase and begins an investigation,
starring Emmanuel Salinger, Mari-
anne Denicourt, Bruno Todeschini, and
Emmanuelle Devos, screens at 4 p.m.
323 Sixth Ave. at W. Third St. Tickets
are $12.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
MUSIC
Forward Thinking
Grammy-winning sextet eighth
blackbird will be joined by students
from the Oberlin Contemporary Music
Ensemble to form a conductor-less
supergroup for the world premieres of
commissioned compositions by two
legendary American mavericks (par-
don the word), Frederic Rzewski and
Steve Reich. The program, inspired by
Albrecht Dürer’s haunting 16th-century
engraving “Knight, Death and the
Devil”, is headlined by Rzewski’s bizarre
fantasia on songs associated with war.
And Steve Reich’s funky, rhythmic tour-
de-force, “Double Sextet,” will receive
its first all-live performance. The
Kitchen, 512 W. 19th St. Nov. 13-14,
8 p.m. Tickets are $15; $12 for students
at thekitchen.org or 212-255-5793, ext.
11.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
DANCE
From Outer Space
& Heard on the
Street
After its premiere at the Wexner
Center for Performing Arts in Colum-
bus, Ohio, Bebe Miller Company brings
“Necessary Beauty” — a performance
that converges dance, theater, and the
latest in digital technology in a series
of short dances contained by space
and time that find expression in the
mysteries of physics and the passing
epiphanies of overheard conversations,
to New York. Albert Mathias provides
live music, and Miller collaborated with
video artist Maya Ciarrocchi, animator
Vita Berezina-Blackburn, dramaturg
Talvin Wilks, composer Albert Mathias,
writer Ain Gordon, and lighting design-
䉴 NOV 13, continued on p.6
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 13 – 19 NOV 2008 3

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4/ Politics
A Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ‘Lesson’
Obama’s new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, recalls Clinton mistakes
䉴 continued from cover
to voters putting Republicans
in charge in the Senate and
House in 1994, just two years
after Bill Clinton took office,
Emanuel told the Journal in a
November 8 interview.
The lesson is “Do what you
talked about on the cam-
paign,” said Emanuel, who is
Barack Obama’s chief of staff
and the president-elect’s first
White House hire. “If you got
elected, that’s what people
expect. Don’t go off on tan-
gents where part of your party
is demanding an ideological
litmus test.”
Clinton first promised to
end the ban on service by
openly gay and lesbian sol-
diers in 1991, according to
“All Too Human: A Political
Education,” the 1999 book by
George Stephanopoulos, who
was Clinton’s press secretary
during his first term. The can-
didate reiterated that promise
throughout 1992, according
to gay and mainstream press
reports from that year. Less
than two weeks after the elec-
tion, a debate was forced on
Clinton by opponents of end-
ing the ban on gays in the mil-
itary.
Senator Sam Nunn, a Geor-
gia Democrat, Senator Bob
Dole, a Kansas Republican,
and retired military officers
acting as proxies for active
duty personnel appeared
on talk shows and in press
reports opposing any policy
change.
That debate continued
through Clinton’s inaugura-
tion on January 20, 1993. Five
䉴 SENATE, from p.2
worked hard to assist the
Democrats in gaining their
majority, declined comment
on November 12.
Gover nor Paterson was
quoted calling the rebels “self-
ish,” in pursuit of “personal
luxuries,” and concerned with
“who’s going to get a better
deal; who’s going to get a bet-
ter committee assignment.”
The governor did not make
reference to the marriage con-
troversy, and a spokesperson
said any further clarification
by press time was unlikely,
given the administration’s
release of “our 5 billion in
state spending cuts.”
Duane, however, was will-
ing to confidently predict,
Rahm Emanuel sees dangers in going off “on tangents where part of your party is demanding
an ideological litmus test.”
days later, in a meeting with
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the
military’s governing body, Clin-
ton backed what is now known
as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell after it
was proposed by Colin Powell,
then the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs, Stephanopoulos wrote
in his book.
“Their mishandling of this
was what caused the prob-
lem,” said Tim McFeeley, who
was the executive director of
the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC), the nation’s largest gay
lobbying group, from 1989
until 1995. “They dragged it
out.”
The November 8 Journal
article does not appear to
have been widely read in the
gay and lesbian community,
and there has been little reac-
tion to Emanuel’s comments.
Not all gay groups that were
shown the article by Gay City
News would comment on the
“We’re going to be a Democrat-
ic conference in the majority,”
noting that Democrats control
the presidency, the governor’s
office, all the other statewide
elected offices, and the Assem-
bly leadership.
“I’ve been on the outside
on issues I care about, so I
understand how they feel,” he
told Gay City News, “but when
push comes to shove, Demo-
crats are Democrats. I am not
the least bit concerned, and
none of my colleagues are
concerned.”
Duane noted that Diaz’s
position on gay marriage had
shifted from Monday to Tues-
day, when the voter referen-
dum idea first surfaced.
Asked about Smith’s com-
ment that gay marriage was
record, but they were univer-
sally unconcerned.
“I think that what Rahm
Emanuel was referencing was
the way the Clinton admin-
istration handled Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell in 1993 became a
distraction,” said John Mar-
ble, spokesman for the Nation-
al Stonewall Democrats, a gay
political group. “I don’t think
the Obama administration will
handle this in the same way.”
Gay groups pointed out that
the Obama transition team,
which includes Nunn infor-
mally advising on Pentagon
matters, adopted personnel
policies that bar discrimina-
tion based on sexual orienta-
tion and gender identity. The
transition team has also been
receptive to hearing from gay
organizations on policies and
possible appointees.
“To have a positive, progres-
sive ideology being bandied
not a top priority, Duane,
again pointing to the state’s
fiscal crisis, agreed: “I think
right now it is not a top prior-
ity.” He added that after the
Legislature and the governor
come to agreement on how
to handle the budget issues,
“There’s lots of thing we said
we want to do, including rent
regulation, including gay mar-
riage. In what order? We don’t
know the order. We want to
make sure the governor is
reelected in 2010, because he
is supportive on our issues.”
Asked whether that meant
that the gay marriage ques-
tion could be deferred until
after Paterson’s reelection bid,
Duane was insistent that the
answer was no.
“Before the end of the gov-
about out there is definitely a
welcome sign,” said Brad Luna,
an HRC spokesman. “There’s
no doubt we have a more wel-
coming administration in place
to help us.”
A coalition of 11 gay groups,
led by the Gay & Lesbian Lead-
ership Institute, are running
the Presidential Appointments
Project, a “talent bank” for
queer people who want to work
in the Obama administration.
“We’ve had a really pleasant
and productive relationship
with the transition team,” Mar-
ble said.
Patrick Sammon, president
of the Log Cabin Republicans,
a gay Republicans group,
said he had no doubt that a
President Obama would have
openly gay or lesbian appoin-
tees in his administration,
that he would sign execu-
tive orders that may benefit
the community, and that he
would engage in symbolic
acts that might speak to the
community.
“What our community
should be focused on is being
vigilant to not accept just
that,” Sammon said. “We need
to make sure that he delivers
on the promises he made and
that he outlined during the
campaign.”
Emanuel’s comments may
say more about him than any
Obama policy shift. In pub-
lished reports and comments
from those who worked with
Emanuel in the Clinton White
House, he is described as pas-
sionate by some and too blunt
by others.
Certainly, the 12,000 Amer-
icans who lost their military
ernor’s first term,” he said in
predicting a time frame. “And
it is going to pass with bipar-
tisan support. When exactly,
nobody knows.”
Selvena Brooks, a spokes-
woman for Smith, told Gay
City News, “Rebuilding the
economy is our first prior -
ity. Every thing else will come
after that.”
Cathy Marino-Thomas,
executive director of Marriage
Equality New York, a grassroots
advocacy group, was unfazed
by the comments from Smith
and Duane about priorities.
“That’s really just a little bit
of a reality check,” she said.
“The economy does need to
be taken care of first. It is not
waffling.”
It is unclear whether Kru-
13 - 19 NOV 2008
jobs under Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell because they were gay
or lesbian would likely take
exception to having their expe-
rience described as an “ideo-
logical litmus test.”
Rick Garcia, the director of
public policy at Equality Illi-
nois, the statewide gay group,
and a neighbor of Emanuel’s
in the Chicago Congressional
district he represents, said
that bluntness was typical of
the new chief of staff’s style.
“This is part of his and Sena-
tor Obama’s brilliance,” Garcia
said. “They excite people, but
they also want to give people a
huge dose of reality.”
The Obama administra-
tion is facing two wars and a
wrecked economy with stag-
gering job losses.
“My question is where and
when does Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell fit in and how do we get to
it,” said Aubrey Sarvis, execu-
tive director at Servicemem-
bers Legal Defense Network, a
legal group that aids gay and
lesbian military personnel. “I
think it’s fair to say that Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell is not among
the top five things they are
talking about up on Capitol
Hill and in the White House.”
As Obama did in his Novem-
ber 4 victory speech, Eman-
uel may also be attempting to
tamp down the wild expecta-
tions for a changed nation that
some supporters have.
“From the president’s point
of view, I think he got a very
good guy,” Garcia said. “From
the gay community’s point of
view, this is an administration
that we are going to have to
look at very, very closely.”
ger, Diaz, and Espada are
serious about making Albany
wait until the New Year before
they make their intentions
known, but the outcome of a
paper ballot count in Queens’
District 11 Senate race could
dramatically change their cal-
culations. There, Democratic
challenger James Gennaro,
a City Council member who
supports marriage equal-
ity, trails 36-year incumbent
Frank Padavan by only about
500 votes, with roughly 8,000
absentee votes still to tally.
Gennaro’s campaign,
which long touted their suc-
cess in registering new vot-
ers, has been consistently
upbeat about the Democrat’s
prospects for prevailing in
the end.
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 13 – 19 NOV 2008 5

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6/ Legal
Battling Over ‘Revision’
Legal challenges to Prop 8 raises technical and constitutional questions
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
W
ith same-sex mar -
riage abruptly halt-
ed in California by
the voters’ approval last week
of Proposition 8, a host of law-
suits filed almost immediately
have shifted action back into
the courtroom, where mar -
riage equality had prevailed as
recently as May.
Placed on the November 4
ballot through a voter initia-
tive, Prop 8 adds a new sec-
tion to the California Constitu-
tion, stating, “Only marriage
between a man and a woman
is valid or recognized in Cali-
fornia.” The text is identical to
a prior proposition approved
by voters in 2000, but then as
a statute rather than a change
to the Constitution. The stat-
ute was declared unconsti-
tutional by the Califor nia
Supreme Court on May 15.
According to the statement
Prop 8 proponents submitted
when filing the initiative, it is
intended to invalidate all same-
sex marriages in California,
regardless of when or where
■ POLITICS
Prop 8 Backlash Hits Mormon Church
10,000 march in Midtown amidst Cal vote post-mortem
䉴 CONTINUED, from cover
thew Shepard in October 1998,
though that one turned chaotic
after police tried to break it up.
This march was peaceful.
“Tax the Mormon Church,”
the predominately male crowd
chanted. “The Church of Lat-
ter Day H8te,” a sign read.
Timothy Jordan, 18, said, “I
just want to get married myself.”
He was there with friends Ivy
Williams, 18, and Jellani Brit-
ton, 17, all from Safe Space, a
group that serves at-risk youth.
Lavi Soloway, an activist
and immigration lawyer there
with his baby daughter Lily,
is moving to Los Angeles and
had hoped to get married. He
knows he may have to settle for
a domestic partnership there
now.
State Senator Bill Perkins, a
Harlem Democrat, along with
City Council Speaker Christine
Quinn among the few politi-
cians spotted, was an early sup-
porter of President-elect Barack
Obama. “I believe in transforma-
tion,” he said, adding that the
Legislature in Albany will pass
the marriage took place. Last
week’s victors argue that the
roughly 18,000 marriages of
same-sex couples performed in
California since May are no lon-
ger “valid or recognized” there.
Over the summer, Califor-
nia Attorney General Jerry
Brown took the opposing view,
announcing his opinion that
the amendment, if adopted,
would prohibit the state from
issuing new marriage licenses,
but that it would have no retro-
spective effect. Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who is not an
attorney and had opposed Prop
8 but did not actively campaign
against it, signaled his agree-
ment with Brown. So far, no
official has offered a view about
whether the 18,000 marriages
at issue might still be “valid or
recognized” in other states that
recognize same-sex marriages
— a possibility that would take
literally the proposition’s text in
applying its effect solely to Cali-
fornia.
Even before the groups
opposing Prop 8 conceded on
November 6, three lawsuits
had been filed in the California
a marriage equality bill despite
the obstruction of his colleague,
Ruben Diaz, Sr., a Bronx Demo-
crat (see story, p. 2).
The next stop for activists in
New York is City Hall on Satur-
day, at 1:30 p.m.
This week’s actions here are
the latest in a nationwide wave
of protests that followed the five
percentage-point victory that
anti-gay forces won in California
on November 4 — despite a $35
million No on 8 campaign that
matched the Yes effort.
In addition to the protests,
however, there has also been an
outburst of recrimination and
defense over the way the No on
8 side waged its battle.
Those looking for a silver lin-
ing in Prop 8’s win point out
that in 2000, California vot-
ers approved a statute ban-
ning same-sex marriage by
a 22-point margin. Still, the
referendum seemed safely on
the way to defeat as recently
as early October. Mark DiCa-
millo, director of the respected
Field Poll, wrote that the trend
in his poll and that of the Pub-
lic Policy Institute of California
Supreme Court, arguing that
the measure had been inval-
idly enacted and asking the
court to issue an order block-
ing it from taking effect. On
November 10, a spokesman
for the court announced that it
would make a statement about
the lawsuits this week.
A fourth lawsuit, filed in the
federal district court in Santa
Ana, on behalf of a gay male
couple who married over the
summer, argues that Prop 8
violates the US Constitution,
though news reports were vague
about the specific theory laid
out. The same couple, Arthur
Smelt and Christopher Ham-
mer, previously sued unsuc-
cessfully in a federal suit chal-
lenging the federal Defense of
Marriage Act and the 2000 Cali-
fornia marriage initiative. Their
attorney, Richard G. Gilbert,
told the Orange County Regis-
ter that the California Supreme
Court does not have jurisdic-
tion over any challenge to Prop
8, and that the only court that
could finally resolve the issue
of same-sex marriage is the US
Supreme Court, which refused
showed an increasingly narrow
spread as Election Day neared.
In August, before TV ads on the
issue began, Field had Prop 8
losing 55-38 percent. By late
October, the No side was still
leading 49-44 percent.
The biggest last minute
change in how people polled and
how they voted, DiCamillo wrote
in the San Francisco Chronicle,
was among Catholics, who are
about 24 of the electorate and
whom late polls showed going
44 percent for the measure.
“However,” he wrote, “the
network polls showed that they
accounted for 30 percent of the
California electorate and 64 per-
cent of them voted ‘yes.’ Regular
churchgoers showed a similar
movement toward the ‘yes’ side,”
growing from 74 percent yes in
a pre-election poll to 84 percent
yes in the exit poll.
Notably, the pre-election
poll showed that 58 percent of
Catholics understood that vot-
ing yes would not take away the
full domestic partner rights that
gay couples enjoyed before the
court ruling “versus 47 percent
among non-Catholics.” Many
to hear the couple’s first suit.
Brown, as attorney general,
has the legal obligation to rep-
resent the state in defending
Prop 8, but the usual suspects
among the anti-gay litigation
groups — Liberty Counsel and
the Alliance Defense Fund —
sought to intervene to argue
in favor of its validity. A group
of California state legislators
quickly filed a “friend of the
court” brief supporting those
challenging Prop 8.
The cases pending in the
California Supreme Court rep-
resent three distinct groups of
petitioners. A suit filed by Glo-
ria Allred on behalf of Robin
Tyler and Diane Olson, directly
presents the case of a same-
sex couple who married since
May, arguing that the voters do
not have authority to invalidate
their marriage. A suit filed by
the National Center for Lesbian
Rights, Lambda Legal, and the
American Civil Liberties Union
represents the interests of sev-
eral same-sex couples who had
hoped to marry. And a suit filed
䉴 REVISION, continued on p.21
Catholics seem to have been
swayed by a letter from their
bishops read from most pulpits
on the Sunday before the vote.
While that may explain
whose votes were moved and
why, it does not offer a fuller
view of the No campaign’s
failure to be more effective.
The gay blogosphere was full
of reproaches for a campaign
that almost entirely refused
to feature gays or lesbians or
appeal to emotions the way the
Yes side did, but the invariable
answer from No on 8 leaders
during and after the battle
was, “We know what we’re
doing.” They insisted their ads
were focus-group and field
tested and that they worked
with the voters that they need-
ed to win over.
Mark Monford, columnist
at the Chronicle, called the
response of the No side to the
attack ads by the Yes people
“utterly limp,” writing, “As one
of my politically savvy Chron-
icle colleagues put it, ‘No on
8 was a bad campaign. Bad,
䉴 MARCH, continued on p.7
13 - 19 NOV 2008
7 DAYS
䉴
7 NIGHTS
NOV 13, from p.2
er Michael Mazzola. Dance Theater
Workshop, Bessie Schönberg The-
ater, 219 W. 19th St. Through Nov.
15, 7:30 p.m. On Nov. 13, 6:30 p.m.,
there will be a pre-show coffee
and conversation with Ain Gordon
and Talvin Wilks. On Nov. 14, there
will be a Friday Night Toast after
the performance. Tickets are $26;
$15 for members, students & seniors
at dancetheaterworkshop.org or 212-
924-0077.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
Dreams Dammed
Butoh-influenced choreographer
Erin Dudley presents an evening of sur-
real dance with artist Mark McNamara
and musician Mark Deutsch. Dancers
dangle from the ceiling and steady New
York City’s hectic pace to a slow latex
crawl. The evening explores beauty,
love, and restraint within our limiting
definitions of eroticism and the pre-
sumed banality of domesticity. Danc-
ers Masanori Asahara, Kelly Buwalda,
John Mario-Sevilla, and Omagbitse
Omagbemi perform to mesmerizing
live music by Mark Deutsch on his self
made bazantar. Gene Frankel The-
ater, 24 Bond St., btwn. Lafayette
St. & Bowery. Nov. 13-14, 8 p.m.;
Nov. 16, 4 p.m. Tickets are $18-20 at
smarttix.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
FAITH
FRI. NOV.14
Prayers in Practice
On the heels of the passage of
Proposition 8 in California, which bans
same-sex marriage, Gene Robinson,
the first openly gay ordained bishop
in the worldwide Anglican community
and leader of the Episcopal Diocese
of New Hampshire, and Reverend Erin
Swensen, the fist known transgen-
dered minister in a mainstream Prot-
estant denomination, and Bishop John
Selders, founder of the Inter-Denom-
inational Conference of Liberation
Congregations and Ministries, address
issues facing the LGBT and intersex
communities of faith community at
“Passion & Pride 2008.” Reverend
Swensen kicks off the weekend with an
opening address and celebration, Nov.
14, 8:30-10 p.m. Bishop Robinson’s
keynote address takes place Nov. 15,
9:30-11 a.m., with an open microphone
session to follow from 11:20-12:30.
Bishop John Selders delivers a keynote
address Nov. 15, 3:15-4:15 p.m. The
weekend also includes workshops on
topics including transgender issues,
queer theology, and straight talk on the
Bible. Middle Collegiate Church, 50
E. Seventh St. at Second Ave. Nov.
䉴 NOV 14, continued on p.9
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 13 – 19 NOV 2008 7

䉴 MARCH, from p.6 of faith, African-American voters, rural

bad, bad. Inept, amateurish, incompe-
tent, and, above all, guilty of commit-
ting the first and worst sin of politics:
taking the voters for granted.”
The only direct appeal from a lesbian
or gay person in a TV ad was from Ellen
DeGeneres, who paid for airing it herself.
A reader of Andrew Sullivan’s blog
wrote that he or she worked on both
communities, and others for this loss.”
Geoff Kors, executive director of
Neighborhood
Equality California, was credited with
being a fantastic fundraiser, matching
the right wing dollar for dollar— at least
toward the end — in what became the
most expensive state initiative cam-
paign in US history.
Most of the Yes money — in excess
of $22 million of it — was raised from
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WE WILL NOT REST IN PEACE

No on 8 and the Obama campaign:
“One was top-down, the other bottom-
up. Ironically, it was the presidential
campaign that was a grassroots model,
not the state-level proposition cam-
paign. As soon as I started working for
the No on 8 campaign, I was amazed
at the level of scripting: ‘Don’t say “civil
rights,” don’t say “constitution,” don’t
say “gay.”’ I couldn’t believe it.”
A source within the campaign con-
firmed for Gay City News that it was
indeed a top-down operation and that
its leaders got a lot of complaints about
that from volunteers. “We did a real-
ly shitty job with our ads,” the highly
placed source said. “We should have
had couples or families. Our ads were
too abstract. People couldn’t connect to
them, unlike those of the opposition.”
The Yes ads may have been lies —
about churches being persecuted for
not marrying gays and children being
taught about gay marriage in elemen-
tary school —but they were effective.
Even Barbara Walters on “The View”
was repeating the Yes on 8 lies after
the election, essentially saying that a
Yes vote was understandable.
The right wing was also successful
in exploiting Barack Obama’s opposi-
tion to same-sex marriage in mailers
and robo-calls, particularly in the Afri-
can-American community. The No side
responded with their own robo-calls cit-
ing Obama’s opposition to Prop 8, but
calls using his and Joe Biden’s clear
and early comments opposing Prop 8
went out only during the last weekend.
Some opponents of Prop 8, including
sex columnist Dan Savage, aggressively
seized on an exit poll that found 70 per-
cent of African Americans voting for it,
igniting a furious dialogue over race in
the community. The morning after the
election, he wrote, “I’m done pretend-
ing that the handful of racist gay white
men out there — and they’re out there,
and I think they’re scum — are a big-
ger problem for African Americans, gay
and straight, than the huge numbers of
homophobic African Americans are for
gay Americans, whatever their color.”
Savage failed to note the critical role
African Americans played in electing
Obama — whose future judicial picks
are the only hope for ever overturning
all the anti-gay marriage measures in
place across America — and he and
others also ignored the fact that the
largest harvest of Yes votes came from
older people, Republicans, and church-
goers in general.
The leaders of the No side acknowl-
edged that they did not make a seri-
ous outreach to the African-American
community and did not feature blacks
in their ads. After the campaign they
wrote, “We achieve nothing if we iso-
late the people who did not stand with
us in this fight. We only further divide
our state if we attempt to blame people
Mormons and their temples late last
week quickly became the target of street
protests, mostly generated through
the Internet, across California. There
have been so many protests that gay
Join AIDS activists from around the nation to
journalist Rex Wockner dubbed them demand that President-elect Obama makes fighting
“Stonewall 2.0” as well as “Activism
4.0” because of the manner in which HIV a priority of his first 100 days in office.
they have been quickly organized.
Three thousand LGBT people and
their supporters demonstrated in Salt THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008
Lake City. Hundreds marched in Chi-
cago. In Delta Township, Michigan, a
12:30 pm - Lafayette Park - Washington, DC
militant gay group called Bash Back
took responsibility for disrupting a Free Buses from NYC
service on Sunday at the Mount Hope
Church. Call or e-mail for more info:
And back in California, three law- 917.621.6667 aeboyle@hotmail.com
suits have already been filed to over-
Planning Mtgs- 8pm Mondays LGBT Center
turn Prop 8, making the argument that
it constituted a wholesale “revision”
of the California Constitution — not
merely an amendment — requiring a
two-thirds majority of the Legislature
Metropolitan Community Church of New York
before going to the voters (see Arthur
S. Leonard’s legal analysis on page 6).
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who
Worth Believing!
Metropolitan Community Church of New York is the Spiritual Center of the Queer community
opposed the amendment but refused to in New York City. Our congregation offers a range of celebrations, outreach programs and
campaign against it, supports the legal support services, including Homeless Youth Services and the Sylvia Rivera Food Pantry.
challenges. CHECK OUT www.MCCNY.org for information about our progams, services, and events,
“[Gay people] should never give up,” including CHURCH LADY BINGO and MCCNY'S JACKSON HALL ART GALLERY.
he told CNN. “They should be on it until
they get it done.” a church of lesbian, gay, bisexual and
Attorney General Jerry Brown said transgender people - open to all
before the amendment passed that The Reverend Pat Bumgardner, Pastor
it would not apply to same-sex cou-
ples already married in California, an Weekly Sunday Services: 9 am (Traditional), 11 am (Celebration)
assessment the governor shares. James 3 pm (Mandarin) and 7 pm (Praise & Worship)
Esseks, veteran litigation director of the 11 am features ASL interpreter (first and last Sunday of each month only)
LGBT Project of the American Civil Lib- 446 West 36th St. bet. 9th & 10th Ave. NY, NY 10018 212-629-7440
erties Union, agreed that the amend- website: www.mccny.org email: info@mccny.org
ment was not retroactive, but the plain
language of it says, “Only marriage
between a man and a woman is valid or
recognized in California.” The validity of
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to make a cottage industry out of their
win last week in Arkansas, where gays,
along with any other unmarried cou-
ples, are now barred from adopting or
gaycity
even serving as foster parents. Pity the
children, indeed.
news.com
8 13 – 19 NOV 2008 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM

15th Annual Race to Deliver

God’s Love We Deliver

November 16, 2008
4 MILE RUN/WALK @ 10:00 am s KIDS FUN RUN @ 8:30 am

Join Us in Central Park

Please join us for our 4-mile run/walk and Kids Fun Run to raise funds to continue our
life-sustaining programs. For more information or to register online go to:

www.racetodeliver.org
Since 1985, God’s Love We Deliver has provided nearly ten million homemade,
highly nutritious meals to men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer,
and other life-altering illnesses throughout New York City, Newark and Hudson
County, New Jersey.

God’s Love We Deliver

166 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013
sWWWGODSLOVEWEDELIVERORG
13 - 19 NOV 2008
7 DAYS Trans Indians Under Assault
䉴
7 NIGHTS Police target hijras as government debates sodomy law
NOV 14, from p.6 BY DOUG IRELAND
A
14, 6 p.m.-Nov.16, 1:30 p.m. Admis- s India’s gays, lesbians,
sion is $65 for the weekend, includ- and gender noncon-
ing meals, or $50 for Nov. 15 only. For formists struggle for
complete information and registration legal recognition of their civil
details, visit pride2008.eventbrite.com. rights and the end to their
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ criminalization, an ugly two-
day incident of police violence
DANCE against hijras — as the trans-
Queer on the genders are known — and
Streets LGBT activists in the south-
“Hip-Hop: Out, Loud & Proud II” is eastern city of Bangalore, the
an evening that brings together hip-hop nation’s third largest, illus-
and spoken word artists of various sex- trates their continued tenuous
ual orientations, ethnicities, and races position in the world’s second
from New Jersey and around the coun- most populous country.
try to explore human sexuality in hip, According to reporting from
poignant, and often humorous ways. the Times of India, the coun-
Pandora Scooter, a New Jersey-based try’s newspaper of record, and
self-identified “queermamasapien,” other local media as well as
hosts a line-up that includes God-des an October 24 press release
& She, from Madison, Wisconsin; from Bangalore’s Campaign
Shorty Roc, from Brooklyn; the series for Sexual Minorities Rights
first transgendered artist, kay ulanday (CSMR), the incident began
barrett, from Chicago; Poetic Assasin, on the morning of October 20,
from New Brunswick; and Bry’Nt, from when five hijras were arrested
Brooklyn. New Jersey Performing and charged — “falsely,” says
Arts Center, Chase Room, 1 Center the CSMR — with “wrongful
St. at Park Pl., Newark, 8 p.m. Tick- restraint” and “extortion” for
ets are $16 at njpac.org or 888-466- begging. Although arrests of
5722. hijras for public begging are
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ commonplace, and usually
lead to them being sent to a
Coming Together “beggars colony,” the use of the
Fast extortion charge allowed police
“The 60x60 Project” is a multi- to hold them, without bail, at a
media extravaganza pairing 60 com- local police station.
posers with 60 choreographers for While they were in custody,
a one-hour surfing of today’s music said CSMR, “In the station
and dance scenes, each piece lasts Assistant Commissioner of
60 seconds. “The 60x60 Project” Police (ACP) H.T. Ramesh beat
embraces today’s new aesthetic of one of them with a lathi (a long,
“channel surfing” while asking: How thick police baton), breaking
short can a composition be to get its her bangles and other jewelry
message across? Eclectic by nature, and making her bleed. Another
“60x60” dance offers diversity of hijra was forced to clean the
styles, ranging from ballet and tango floor of the police station.”
to postmodern movements and from After a phone call from one
neo-romantic chamber music to jazz, of the arrested hijras, a cri-
hip hop, and techno. Choreographers sis team of five activists from
include Mary Cochran, Guta Hedwig, Sangama, Bangalore’s sexual
Pascal Rekoert/Flexicurve, and Dixie minority resource and health
FunLee Shulman. Composers include center, visited the police sta-
Laurie Spiegel and Maggi Payne. tion to meet with officials
World Financial Center Winter about the arrested hijras. ACP
Garden, 12:30 & 7 p.m. Free. Ramesh and Police Inspector
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ Shivashankara Murthi repeat-
edly slapped and kicked these
PERFORMANCE activists, beating them with
No Olive, Please lathis. The LGBT crisis team
Basil Twist’s innovative puppetry members, all with some legal
unites with drag diva Joey Arias’ leg- training, were then taken to
endary voice to transport audiences another police station, where
to unpredictable worlds, channeling police beat them with lathis,
ecstatic desires, lavish nightmares, sexually abused them, and
and bizarre premonitions. “Arias With ordered them to strip, yelling,
a Twist” is a feast for the senses, cen- “Are you a man or a woman?”
tering on rare songs and reinventions “Take off your clothes, let us
of popular favorites. HERE Arts Center, see what you have there!” and
145 Sixth Ave. at Dominick St., one “How dare you come to my
block below Spring St. Wed.-Sun., 9 .m. area to support hijras?”
The assistant police commis-
䉴 NOV 14, continued on p.14 sioner slapped one of the LGBT
Human Rights/9
Trans actress Karpaga is set to star in D. Sivakumar’s “Paal.”
crisis team’s activists named
Dilfaraz four times, while his
police inspector slapped activ-
ist Madesh two times and put
a wooden block on his head.
ACP Ramesh screamed, “I will
beat you here and your head
will break in the center!”
All five LGBT crisis team
activists were arrested on
charges of “unlawful assem-
bly,” “obstructing a public ser-
vant in the performance of his
duty,” and “riot.”
Alerted by Sangama, some
150 protesters— including
human rights activists, law-
yers, trade union leaders,
and activists from women’s
and communal organiza-
tions — gathered outside the
Banashankari Police Station,
demanding to see the assis-
tant police commissioner to
negotiate the release of the first
group of arrested hijras, espe-
cially those who’d been physi-
cally assaulted and required
medical attention denied them
in custody.
When Ramesh agreed to see
six of the activists, including a
representative of the Garment
and Textile Workers Union,
he told them, “We are asked
by the senior officials to beat
them [the hijras] up. We will
not release them even if you go
to the chief minister. We have
orders from senior officials
to round up all hijras on the
streets of Bangalore and book
them under extortion cases.”
Earlier that same day, the
newspaper Mumbai Daily
Advance and Analysis reported
that Bengalore’s deputy chief
of police for the city’s south dis-
trict, S. Rati, had launched “a
new drive against the eunuch
menace.”
When the activist delega-
tion questioned the legality
of such an order, the assis-
tant commissioner shouted,
“Arrest these people and beat
them up!” The defenseless del-
egation was then attacked by
a half-dozen policemen led by
Ramesh himself, who brutally
beat the activists with fists and
lathis and then shoved them
into lockup.
Police then turned on the
150 or so activists remaining
outside, charging them with
lathis and beating them while
hustling many of them into a
police van. Activists carrying
cameras were singled out and,
in total, 31 were arrested and
crammed into a small police
van. Police physically abused
male-to-female transsexuals in
the group.
The 31 activists spent seven
hours in the van with no water
until taken to a magistrate’s
home; even there, lawyers who
had arrived to represent them
had to blockade the road to
prevent the police from driving
the activists away again rather
than produce them before the
judge.
After a day and a half in
custody without food, water,
or medical attention for the
injured, the hijras and the
activists who had come to pro-
test their arrest were released
on $40 bail each, a consider-
able sum for the impoverished
transgenders. But Deputy
Police Chief Rati afterward told
the Mumbai Daily Advance,
“We will continue on this drive
until the eunuch menace is
completely eliminated.”
In a statement from its New
York office protesting the police
violence, the Human Rights
Watch said, “Bangalore human
rights organizations, includ-
ing the People’s Union for Civil
Liberties-Karnataka (PUCL-K),
have extensively documented
police harassment and abuse
of hijras. In Bangalore, as
elsewhere in India, hijras are
often unable to obtain identity
papers because their gender
identity and appearance do
not correspond to their sex at
birth. As a result, many can-
not find housing, education,
or legal employment — or, in
many cases, even vote. The
effective loss of basic citizen-
ship rights — coupled with
widespread social prejudice
against people who violate
norms for ‘masculinity’ and
‘femininity’ — leaves them eco-
nomically marginalized and
exposed to police abuse.”
Human rights activists dem-
onstrated in the capital of New
Delhi on November 7, demand-
ing that the government take
action to discipline the police-
men involved in the Bengalore
assaults on the hijras and the
LGBT activists.
There are an estimated 1.5
million to 2 million transgen-
dered in India.
The police campaign to
“eradicate” Bengalore’s hijras
comes in the middle of a con-
tinuing public brawl between
ministers of the national gov-
ernment over Article 377, the
so-called anti-sodomy statute,
which is a holdover from British
colonial rule and provides for
both fines and imprisonment
for “crimes against nature.”
The law is used against gays,
the transgendered, and even
AIDS workers. Health Minister
Anbumani Ramadoss believes
Article 377 is severely hamper-
ing the struggle against AIDS
and wants it repealed, but
Home Minister Shivraj Patil,
who controls the police forces,
is firmly for maintaining the
statute criminalizing private
sexual conduct and gender
nonconformity.
India’s IBN network, on
November 7, reported that this
dispute can only be resolved
by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, the first person of Sikh
faith to hold that post. The
Sikh’s holy book, the Guru
Granth Sahib, is silent on
the question of homosexual-
䉴 INDIA, continued on p.19
10/ Perspective
■ TAKING ON PROP 8
13 - 19 NOV 2008

Not a Gr8 Idea

BY ELIYANNA KAISER AND GARY PARKER

L
ike everyone else in
our community, we
are upset about the
passage of Proposition 8 in
California. At a time when
the country is celebrating
the election of the first Afri-
can-American president, the
LGBT community suffered
one of its biggest civil rights
setbacks in recent history.
And make no mistake about
it, we are angry.
Unfortunately, some of the
anger our community feels is
being directed in unproduc-
tive and questionable ways,
like the protest being held on
Wednesday, November 12,
outside the Manhattan Mor-
mon Temple on Columbus
Avenue.
There have been numerous
media reports about how indi-
vidual Mormons gave mega
millions to the Yes to Prop 8
campaign at the encourage-
ment of Church leadership.
Unfortunately, many Ortho-
dox rabbis, Catholic priests,
Pentecostal ministers, and
Baptist preachers have done
the same, not just in Califor-
nia but in other states’ anti-
gay ballot initiatives, or to help
elect anti-gay candidates here
in New York.
Campaigns like the Empire
State Pride Agenda’s Pride in
the Pulpit exist to reach out
to clergy and work with com-
munities of faith, instead of
regarding them as enemies.
This has proven to be a win-
ning strategy. Not to mention
a boon to LGBT folks who
are too often forced to choose
between their religious identi-
ties and their sexual orienta-
tion.
In contrast, the purpose of
Wednesday’s rally is unclear.
Some of the distributed mate-
rials use the slogan, “No More
Mister Nice Gay.” Funny? Yes.
Nuanced and productive? No.
We have serious concerns
about focusing our anger at
another minority group. It’s
pretty easy to point fingers
at Mormons, but it is heart-
breaking that anyone in the
LGBT community would capi-
talize on the prejudice that
exists against another minor-
ity population. This is not the
path to equality.
And where does it end?
Seven in ten African Ameri-
cans in California reportedly
voted for Proposition 8. Does
the rally march up Columbus
Avenue and picket Harlem
next? We must challenge our-
selves to take the high road. It
is our responsibility to educate
those who do not celebrate our
diversity.
We have a task ahead of us
that is bigger than ourselves.
To organize a protest for the
purpose of giving our trauma-
tized community a place to be
angry is important, but not
enough. We must collectively
come together and assess next
steps and analyze what went
wrong. Clearly the media and
fundraising campaign waged
by the supporters of Prop 8
successfully connected to vot-
ers. In the future, we must
out-fundraise, out-volunteer,
and out-campaign them.
It is now clearly up to New
Yorkers to provide national
leadership that puts our civil
rights movement back on
track for all Americans. The
power to do this does not
rest in whipping up hate and
resentment, but in building
a national consensus that all
are created equal.
Eliyanna Kaiser is a long
time LGBT activist. Gary Parker
is the founder of Greater Voices,
the coalition of LGBT progres-
sive political clubs.

■ TAKING TO THE STREETS

Direct Action Empowers Us

BY COREY JOHNSON

A
s the saying goes,
actions speak louder
than words — and the
LGBT community all across
the country has shown that
since the election last Tuesday.
It was a bittersweet feeling on
Election Night after a resound-
ing win by Senator Barack
Obama — yet with devastating
losses in Arkansas, Florida,
Arizona, and, most painfully,
with Proposition 8 in Califor-
nia.
Last weekend in cities all
across California and Utah,
thousands of people took to
the streets to protest Proposi-
tion 8. In Los Angeles and in
Salt Lake City, gay and lesbian
people, along with our allies,
took the demonstrations out-
side the Mormon temples in
each city.
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter -Day Saints (LDS)
leadership in Salt Lake City
urged its members to donate
money to Proposition 8. The
most recent numbers seem to
indicate that they poured over
22 million dollars in to take
our civil rights away (this was
much more than half of the
total money raised), and most
of this was sent from outside
of California.
Last weekend, I decided to
call a protest that took place
last night in New York. I was
joined by veteran heroic activ-
ists Michelangelo Signorile,
Ann Northrop, John Voelcker,
Brian Zabcik, Jay Blotcher,
and Ron Goldberg in mobiliz-
ing thousands of New Yorkers
to take the streets for the first
time in years.
As a 26-year-old gay man,
I didn’t live through the pro-
tests of ACT UP and Queer
Nation that raised awareness
throughout the country dur-
ing the AIDS epidemic, when
our community was dying and
the government wouldn’t lis-
ten. It’s truly inspiring what
we’ve seen in California, New
York, and across the rest of the
country — an entire generation
of young gays and lesbians are
showing up, protesting, mak-
ing their voices heard, and
engaging in meaningful action,
most for the first time in their
lives.
Some in our community
have voiced apprehension and
concern about protesting the
Mormon Church, especially
outside of a temple. Let us be
clear: we are not protesting
Mormons but the leadership of
the LDS who now feel embold-
ened by their so-called “suc-
cess” in California. They are
already plotting how to extend
their reach into other states
that may show progress on
gay and lesbian civil rights in
the near future.
Recent news stories indi-
cate that Church elders have
strategized against relation-
ship recognition for gay cou-
ples since 1997. We are on the
cusp of achieving marriage
equality in New York State and
must show them that we will
not lie down, but will stand tall
against their actions. It would
be a mistake to ignore our
opponents and not show them
that we will fight back against
their attempts to roll back our
basic human rights.
Yes, we are fighting a bigger
battle — which is to win the
hearts and minds of Ameri-
cans from all walks of life and
every geographic part of the
country — but this does not
mean that we should not take
direct action, which is one of
the oldest and most successful
forms of civil rights advocacy
in our country’s history.
If we can take one positive
away from the passage of Prop-
osition 8, it would be that a
fire has been lit in people who
haven’t been involved before in
our struggle for equal rights,
and it doesn’t appear like the
flame will be extinguished any
time soon.
Now is the time to seize the
mantle of change.
Corey Johnson was a co-
organizer of the March 12 No
on Proposition 8 Demonstration
and March in Manhattan. John-
son is a gay activist and politi-
cal director for Towleroad.com

NEWS BRIEFS By ANDY HUMM

Metro-North
Leaves from
Ground Central
Connecticut Superior Court
Judge Jonathan E. Silbert, in a
New Haven courtroom on the
morning of November 12, signed
the final judicial order required
to implement last month’s rul-
ing by the State Supreme Court
finding a constitutional right to
marriage by same-sex couples in
that state.
According to the Hartford
Courant, less than a half-hour
later, State Representative Beth
Bye and her fiancée, Tracey Wil-
son, became the first couple to
legally wed in Connecticut. Their
ceremony took place at West
Hartford Town Hall.
The experience “took my
breath away,’’ Bye said, accord-
ing to the Courant.
The newspaper also reported
that Jennifer Vickery and Peg
Oliveira took their vows in New
Haven, before a bronze statue of
the leader of the Amistad Revolt,
an 1839 uprising aboard a Span-
ish school by Africans abducted
from what was then the Brit-
ish colony of Sierra Leone. The
would-be slaves anchored in US
waters near Long Island, and in
1841, the Supreme Court found
they were legally free, allowing
them to return to their homeland.
On October 10, the Connecti-
cut Supreme Court, in a 4-3 rul-
ing, paved the way for this week’s
happy occasions.
Obama Yay: No
Discrimination
in Hiring
The Obama transition team
issued a statement saying that it
will not discriminate in hiring on
the basis of sexual orientation or
gender identity and expression,
among a variety of other bases.
The American Civil Liberties
Union praised that step and urged
the new administration to issue
an executive order to ban such
discrimination in federal contract-
ing and to get Congress to pass
the federal Employment Non-Dis-
crimination Act with protections
for both categories as well.
Obama Boo:
Nunn Named to
Transition Role
Former Democratic Sena-
tor Sam Nunn, a key architect of
the 1993 policy that bans openly
gay people from military service,
has been named by Obama to
“an informal senior adviser role
throughout the defense transition
process,” a spokesperson for the
transition team said. Nunn once
headed the Senate Armed Ser-
vices Committee, a post he used
to block President Bill Clinton’s
original plan to end all barriers to
gay military service.
Obama Yay: Met
with Bishop
Robinson
Gene Robinson, out gay
Episcopal bishop of New Hamp-
shire, said in a speech in London
where he received an award from
Stonewall, the LGBT lobby group,
just after the election, “I have
had the amazing honor to have
had several one-on-one conver-
sations with Barack, and advise
his campaign not just on LGBT
issues, but LGBT issues as they
affect communities of faith,” the
Pink News reported.
“I can tell you he is the genu-
ine article,” he said. “”He knows
our issues and he is willing to
speak about them to audiences
who may not want to hear.”
The UK Times reported that
Obama met with Robinson three
times, partly “to discuss what it
feels like to be ‘first.’”
Robinson said he told Obama,
䉴 BRIEFS, continued on p.18
13 - 19 NOV 2008
■ DEBACLE IN CALIFORNIA
Gays Must Blame Themselves, Not Blacks, for Prop 8
A
s a black, a gay activist,
and a resident of Los
Angeles, I watched as
Proposition 8, a state consti-
tutional ban on same-sex mar-
riage, was approved by Califor-
nia voters. I also watched how
within 24 hours many LGBT
activists squarely placed the
blame on black residents, who
voted 70 percent in favor of the
measure.
I further watched and read
how black gay protestors
opposed to the same-sex mar-
riage ban and in favor of same-
sex marriage were called the
“N” word during a demonstra-
tion march in Westwood.
And finally, I’ve read how
African-American blogger
Jasmyne Cannick was assailed
by everyone from West Holly-
wood Mayor John Duran to her
fellow LGBT bloggers for her
recent Los Angeles Times com-
mentary addressing the impact
of race relations within the
LGBT community on Prop 8.
My advice to the LGBT com-
munity, the organizers of No
on Prop 8, the many differ -
ent LGBT funders, and the
remaining members of the Gay
Mafia is that they take serious-
ly the racial, ethnic, and socio-
economic factors of black and
people of color communities as
they endeavor further in the
marriage equality quest.
As a longtime advocate and
now a consultant within the
LGBT arena, I can tell you
from personal experience that
there is a deeply arrogant
belief among many within the
■ A DYKE ABROAD
Blaming Blacks (And Latinos, Whites, and Queers)
I
f our defeat in California
tells us anything, it’s just
how pathetic the gay civil
rights movement currently is.
Instead of putting ourselves
out there, engaging in real
community organizing, we
more often focus on raising
money, taking meetings, and
lobbying and advertising our
way to civil rights.
After all, it’s easier to send
an email or make a speech or
a donation than go across the
street and knock on our neigh-
bor’s door. There, we might
have to confront homopho-
bia in the flesh and that other
problem — race.
In Los Angeles, after the
news broke that seventy per-
cent of African Americans
voted for Proposition 8, the
LGBT community that black
communities should instantly
whip onto the gay civil rights
bus just because we too are a
minority.
In some cor ners of our
diverse LGBT community,
there is a blatant disregard
for culture, religion, and the
oppression of other racial and
ethnic groups. Many working
A deeper conversation concerning
LGBT race relations lies ahead,
one the community seems eager
to shy away from.
class blacks and Latinos are
struggling to pay rent, put food
on the table, and, yes, dodge
bullets; their first instinct is not
to lift their eyes up from their
burdens to see the connection
to the white- faced, seemingly
privileged LGBT leadership
that would move them to sup-
port marriage equality.
These are big chunks of
truth that the LGBT communi-
ty seems ill-prepared to accept,
never mind tackle. In this new
age of Obama, a much deeper
conversation concerning LGBT
race relations lies ahead, one
that for now the community
seems eager to shy away from.
Instead of focusing anger
toward black community,
LGBT Americans must seri-
ously take a long, hard look at
themselves. For starters, here
“blame the blacks” game
began. At one pro-marriage
rally, some white queers actu-
ally called their black co-pro-
testers “niggers” and made
general threats against African
Americans.
On the flipside, their politi-
cally correct racist counter-
parts called anybody “racist”
who called attention to the fact
that seventy percent, yes sev-
enty percent, of African Ameri-
cans voted like bigots. Let’s go
throw bricks at the Mormon
Church instead.
Why can’t we throw bricks
at them all? On November 4,
nobody put a gun to the heads
of black voters and made them
pull the lever for Prop 8. Or
swapped the “Yes” box for the
“No.” They weren’t on drugs, or
Perspective/11
BY HERNDON L. DAVIS
are a few points to consider:
1. Why couldn’t the LGBT
community get the queen of
all American cities, San Fran-
cisco, to vote in higher num-
bers on such a crucial ques-
tion? Remember that blacks
make up a tiny six percent of
California’s total population
— far, far more millions of non-
black people voted yes to ban
same-sex marriage than did
black folks. So why all the rage
against black people? Why not
rage instead against Castro
district residents or those in
the Bay Area generally who did
not vote at all!
2. Why in Los Angeles were
there seemingly six radio ads
an hour to vote no on Prop 8
during the morning run on the
Latino 96 FM station but abso-
lutely none on the black 102.3
FM KJLH station or the black
and notoriously homophobic
106 FM radio? Where were the
funds for the media outreach
there?
3. Why were there less than
five black people across the
entire state coordinating a No
on 8 campaign targeting the
black community? And why
was there only one town hall
BY KELLY JEAN COGSWELL
sleepwalking. Or mentally defi-
cient after years of The Man.
They were just garden-variety
bigots and now fair game for
queer activists.
The poll numbers read like a
demographic map of where queer
activists rarely make an appearance.
Nothing absolves them.
Not white racism, or the fact
that statistically black voters
are a small group and their
homophobia doesn’t have
much impact. Except on black
queers. Who would probably
like to count.
that I know of targeting Afri-
can Americans in Los Angeles?
That one LA town hall meeting
was held just two weeks before
the election at the mostly white
and wealthy USC campus in
the middle of the evening rush
hour and with parking avail-
able only at $8.
Why not hold a town hall at
a community center in Comp-
ton with free parking at 7:30
p.m., maybe six weeks before
election, with follow-ups in
Leimert Park, West Adams,
Watts, Gardena , and in other
areas in South Los Angeles?
And where was the door-to-
door neighborhood canvassing
and phone banking directly
targeting black communities? I
know of only one organization
in the entire state of California
that initiated a phone bank-
ing activity a few days before
the election directly aimed at
black communities. I know of
no door-to-door work.
4. Also, where was the out-
reach to black LGBT-affirming
clergy to assist with African-
American churches across Cal-
ifornia ? I’m fully aware there
was some work done on this,
but just two weeks before the
election. Again, it was not fund-
ed or staffed in a way sufficient
to make a significant impact.
5. How on earth did the
LGBT leadership think that
running just a handful of ads
in historically black newspa-
pers across the state was going
to be effective in swaying vot-
ers?
6. Finally, where was the all-
This vote was less a refer-
endum on gay marriage than
a wake-up call on how people
really see queers. Now we
know that seventy percent
of black Californians, more
than half of Latinos, plenty
of Asians, and almost half of
whites think queers are sub-
human, unequal, only wor -
thy of partial citizenship. Lost
marriage rights are the least of
it. Homophobia translates into
important “ask” and with it the
justifications for “why”? Again,
there was the blanket assump-
tion that all black folks will do
back-flips onto the civil rights
bus for gays and lesbians.
Think again.
To reach black and people
of color communities, it will
take a well thought-out and
fully funded, fully staffed stra-
tegic plan, time, and patience.
Remember, blacks went from
slavery to “separate but equal”
to desegregation to tolerance to
gain only over centuries, and
even today as a group still lag
behind in many areas of social
justice, even with our legal
rights. In spite of the black
man heading to the White
House, many African Ameri-
cans still face steep odds.
So if the LGBT community
would like to continue to com-
pare itself to the black civil
rights struggle, it may want
to readjust its timeline a bit.
Blacks are painfully aware that
it took hundreds of years to go
from slavery to the presidency.
Could LGBT equality take
a whole lot longer than many
have expected? If we don’t want
that outcome, we best consider
all these issues as the marriage
battle moves on to New Jersey,
New York, Iowa, possibly DC,
and, of course, another round
in California.
Herndon Davis is a media
consultant, author, and TV/
radio host. He can be reached
directly at herndondavis.com
and diversityTV.tv.
lost jobs, lost homes, runaway
kids, youth suicides, gay-
bashings, murder, HIV.
If we care about gay rights
at all, we have to start put-
ting blame where it’s due. On
everybody. All the African-
American, Latino, and Asian
bigots, plus the white bigots
from Mormons to Catholics
to atheist conservatives. The
elderly voted against us in
large numbers, and eighty-
two percent of Republicans.
They’re all responsible. All
accountable.
Blame, especially, goes to
activists that have made too
few efforts in minority commu-
nities over the years. Including
the “No on 8” campaign whose
䉴 BLAMING, continued on p.22
12/ Dance
The Whole Is Greater
Exporting cultural appropriations in a complex, compelling way
BY BRIAN MCCORMICK
C
hina is rising and its
unique cultural tradi-
tions are on display all
over the world. In the category
of dance, Chinese acrobatics
has deservedly emerged as a
form with great mass appeal.
New York, of course, has
its own local companies that
perform on smaller scales
regularly, but, especially in
the wake of the 2008 Sum-
mer Olympics, demand is
high and the time is nigh.
BAM’s Next Wave Festi-
val made an overt gesture
toward that spirit, presenting
Compagnie 111 from France
November 5-8. The compa-
ny’s new work was conceived
and directed by Aurelien
Bory and featured14 Bei-
jing Opera performers aged
18-59 — acrobats, singers,
■ THEATER
Careful, They’re Radioactive
Two new productions explore, revel in rage and cynicism
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
D
avid Mamet’s “Speed
the Plow” is so
unabashedly cynical,
so shot through with spiritual
corruption that it’s absolutely
delicious. Mamet’s take on
the shallowness of the movie
business, and the familiar art
versus commerce argument
comes at the audience at a
breathtaking pace, filled with
acid and anxiety aplenty, but
it’s the nearly overwhelming,
toxic, and animalistic fear that
each of the characters embod-
ies that drives the story.
The playwright’s bleak view
of humankind shows that
despite all the trappings and
power one may achieve, men —
and women — are still driven
by ambition, self-involvement,
and sex. It’s as if “Animal Plan-
et” had taken up these char-
acters as representative of the
Hollywood species.
Mamet’s interest here is not
a new one –– Broadway play-
wrights attempting to get even
with Hollywood is a conceit as
old as film, but in his hands
it is a 90-minute race through
a particular house of horrors,
one that’s scary and disturbing
but a heck of a lot of fun, too.
Bobby Gould has been pro-
and dancers all.
Billed under the genre of
nouveau cirque, “Les sept
planches de la ruse” (“The
Seven Boards of Skill”) offered
a surprising meditation not
only on the visual and dra-
matic splendor of geometry
and physics, but also on the
individual’s surrender to the
collective.
The work’s central idea and
massive set are derived from
the ancient Chinese game of
qi qiao ban, which consists of
seven geometrical elements—
five triangles of different sizes,
a square, and a rhombus —
that when placed together
form a larger square.
The piece begins with the
large complete square lying
on its side on a thick cush-
ioned platform, carpeted in
black. As a lone figure sit-
ting on the edge of the mas-
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moted to head of production at
a major studio. As the curtain
rises, he’s reading an obscure
but critically acclaimed novel
that’s been passed on to him
from the studio chief, who asks
that he consider green-lighting
it for adaptation.
Enter Charlie Fox, a would-
be producer who has been a
friend — the nature of Hol-
lywood relationships is an
underlying theme in the play
— for 11 years as they learned
the business together. Charlie
has a sure-fire prison/buddy
film with a major star attached.
They plot to get it sold and
make millions.
But a problem crops up
when Bobby’s temp secretary,
Karen, enters and becomes
the subject of a bet between
the two men that Bobby can
sive tangram plays serene
Chinese music on a violin,
round black figures — the
butts of the performers —
emerge from behind her, sil-
houetted by soft yellow light.
The ensemble flips, rolls over,
and rushes onto the stage,
and begins to manipulate the
giant geometric form.
As the pieces of the puzzle
begin to separate, a young
female dancer in black
becomes the focus, until she
dives into a rectangular open-
ing and is entombed when the
large square is pieced togeth-
er again. Dim gray lighting,
spooky whirring of wind, and
the hum of machines accom-
pany a sequence during
which the players — dressed
mostly in black with some
notable exceptions — work
䉴 THE WHOLE, continued on p.17
Raúl Esparaza as Charlie, Jeremy Piven as Bobby, and Elisabeth Moss as Karen in David
Mamet’s “Speed the Plow.”
sleep with her. To try to win
the bet, Bobby asks Karen
to read the obtuse novel and
give him a report on it that
night at his home. Karen does
and convinces Bobby to make
the novel a film, showing him
how he’d be creating “art” and
something uplifting for audi-
ences.
In the final act, the two sto-
ries collide. Bobby for all his
power doesn’t have a clue what
to do and is buffeted by Karen
and Charlie, who are engaged
in a full-on death match. Karen
is revealed as every bit as venal
as the two men. Charlie had
said that in Hollywood women
use sex to get what they want
while men use their positions.
13 - 19 NOV 2008
RICHARD TERMINE
Compagnie 111 and Scènes de la Terre presented “Les sept planches de la ruse” at the BAM
Howard Gilman Opera House, November 5-8 as part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival.
if she’s really the doe-eyed
newcomer or a shrewd would-
be player.
Raúl Esparaza almost runs
away with the show, though,
as the manic and desperate
Charlie. Esparaza pulls no
punches, and his wild swings
from abject fear to overwhelm-
ing arrogance are breathtak-
BRIGITTE LACOMBE
ing.
Scott Pask has designed the
versatile and accurate set that
cleverly transforms for each
act, and Brian MacDevitt’s
lighting is topnotch.
Sure, you’ll want to take a
He’s proven right, and Bobby shower after spending time
makes the safer choice. with these characters, but you
What makes this work so can’t deny that it’s wicked good
well is that these characters fun.
are never anything other than
I
what they present themselves n the post-9/11 world, our
to be. The game is about each culture has implicitly been
trying to see clearly — and then engaged in “security the-
battle to the death for survival. ater.” Mike Daisey’s engaging
Neil Pepe has directed his and thought-provoking mono-
three-member cast with cool logue, “If You See Something
precision. Jeremy Piven is a Say Something,” now at Joe’s
wonderful Bobby, with just Pub, does something won-
enough humanity to be prey derful by stripping away illu-
for Charlie and Karen. Piven sion and calling this cultural
masters the subtleties of the moment by its proper name.
part with great skill and actu- Daisey’s well-crafted piece
ally elicits sympathy for his interweaves stories of his visit
plight. to Los Alamos, New Mexico,
Elisabeth Moss does a great
job as Karen. One never knows 䉴 RADIOACTIVE, continued on p.20
13 - 19 NOV 2008
Latter Gay Saints
A haunting, sly psychodrama; a timely tale of a Mormon martyr
BY DAVID KENNERLEY
“W
hen it comes
down to it, you’re
on your own,”
asserts Roger, one of the many
selfish, disaffected cynics in
“Mouth to Mouth,” the New
Group’s electric drama about
betrayal, recrimination, AIDS,
and untimely death.
While all this sounds like a
downer, the play is, strangely
enough, far from it. In fact, this
work by Kevin Elyot, originally
staged in the West End in 2001
to much acclaim, is one of the
smartest, nastiest tragicom-
edies of the season.
On the surface, the plot is
razor-thin. The play opens with
the gay, middle-aged Frank
(David Cale) yammering about
his AIDS-related ailments
while his dear friend Laura
(Lisa Emery), in sunglasses,
puffs steadily on a cigarette,
remaining silent and oblivi-
ous. Only when she removes
those glasses do we realize she
is horribly distraught. About
another topic entirely.
Later, there’s a flashback to
one year earlier when — dur-
ing a wine-soaked gathering
at Laura’s house to welcome
her 15-year old son, Phillip
(the Abercrombie-gorgeous
Christopher Abbott, who first
appears shirtless), back from
an extended trip to Madrid —
we witness events leading up
to her trauma. Frank, we dis-
cover, holds an alarming secret
that spins out of control.
“I’m sure I used to be
happy,” Laura says to Frank,
not really sure of herself at all.
While the play’s complex
flashback structure, doling
out details in tantalizing bits,
keeps us on the edge of our
seats, it’s the impeccably sharp
direction by Mark Brokaw
(“The Constant Wife,” “Cry-
Baby”) and top-notch produc-
tion values that truly impress.
The elaborately choreographed
scene changes are punctu-
ated by a blaring, tacky tango
soundtrack that grows more
sinister as the evening unfolds,
and a continuously moving
white curtain, reminiscent of
those in a hospital ward, that
makes the transitions feel like
a supernatural magic trick.
Which is wholly appropriate,
given that ghosts do crop up
on occasion.
The immaculate set by Ric-
cardo Hernandez (“Caroline,
or Change”), with its French
doors, blond wood cabinetry,
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and shiny fixtures, perfectly
conjures a stylish, if soul-
less, middle-class home. Mark
McCullough designed the
striking lighting.
If the darkly wacky scene at
Laura’s house just outside of
London smacks of the familiar,
there’s good reason. For it’s a
close cousin of a similar barbed
farce by Mike Leigh titled “Abi-
gail’s Party,” also set in a Brit-
ish suburb, staged three years
ago by The New Group. That
work, directed by Scott Elliott,
the New Group’s artistic direc-
tor, featured two “Mouth to
Mouth” actors, Emery and
Elizabeth Jasicki, who plays
Cornelia, Laura’s daffy sister-
in-law.
Rounding out the party
are Dennis (Richard Topol),
Laura’s listless husband, and
Roger (Darren Goldstein), Den-
nis’ gruff, opinionated brother.
One delicious scene finds
Frank dining with his dis-
solute physician and friend,
Gompertz (Andrew Polk).
Their encounter, where they
consider overwrought menu
items, spot celebrities, and lust
after young busboys between
tableside bumps of cocaine,
underscores the wanton decay
in their lives. “Lets you snort
a line off his stiffy in the lav,”
Gompertz says of the busboy,
not joking.
In response to this and
many other offbeat zingers
in this well-acted, deviously
engrossing effort, I was among
the scant few audience mem-
bers who guffawed out loud.
I
f they handed out an award
for Most Timely Play Based
On Past Events, surely the
little Off-Off Broadway drama
with big aspirations, titled
“Missa Solemnis or The Play
About Henry,” would win by a
mile.
Although borrowing a page
Jai Catalano as Todd and Matt Huffman as Henry Stuart Matis
Christopher Abbott at Phillip with Lisa Emery as his mother Laura in Kevin Elyot’s “Mouth to
Mouth.”
from published accounts in
2000, depicting the true story
of anguished Henry Stuart
Matis, who killed himself after
failing to reconcile his Mormon
faith with his sinful same-gen-
der urges, the play could have
been ripped from today’s head-
lines as well. For Henry’s plight
is intensified by the homopho-
bic efforts of his Church to
pour millions of dollars to help
win Proposition 22, which
blocked California from rec-
ognizing same-sex marriages
until that measure was struck
down earlier this year.
Given last week’s crush-
ing gay marriage bans in Cali-
fornia, Arizona, and Florida,
again largely spearheaded
by the Church of Latter Day
Saints, Henry’s pain is palpa-
ble and, for many in the audi-
ence, immediate.
“Missa Solemnis,” by the
way, refers to Beethoven’s
plaintive Mass, considered a
masterwork by scholars yet
rarely performed due to its
Theater/13
GRAHAM T. POSNER
saving the event for the climax,
which misses a vital chance for
dramatic tension.
To be sure, there are indeed
some engaging moments. The
bedroom scene, where Todd
cavorts buck-naked and the
guys wrestle, generates some
real heat. Their awkwardly ten-
der chemistry is credible and
touching. The nudity is com-
pletely warranted, amplifying
Todd’s openness, and Cata-
lano’s less-than-Chelsea-chis-
MONIQUE CARBONI
eled physique is refreshing.
Yet under the spotty direc-
tion of Linda S. Nelson, the
play sags under the weight of
its ambitions. Some scenes are
overlong, the pacing is off, and
the staging often too static.
complexity. Does this timely, Thankfully, “Missa Solem-
heartfelt drama, written by nis” is greatly lifted by strong
Roman Feeser (who is not Mor- performances, namely Huff-
mon — he’s a native New York- man, who could stir compas-
er and Kabbalist), live up to its sion even in a Prop 8 zealot.
cumbersome, self-important He perfectly evokes the real
title? Henry Matis, whose knees, as
The formulaic coming-out described by Newsweek, “were
plot offers few surprises. The deeply callused from pray-
32-year-old Henry (Matt Huff- ing for an answer that never
man), whose devout Mormon came.”
parents (Bill Fairbairn, Gail Marisa Merrigan designed
Winar) fret over their son’s the comfy, cluttered set, with
“lifestyle choice,” seeks counsel the parent’s kitchen styled in
from a crusty bishop (Warren black and white, and Todd’s
Katz) who is more sympathetic abode splashed with orange
than we might expect. After and crimson.
finally acting on his desires Is there much here beyond
with Todd (Jai Catalano), who that offered by other works that
lives in Manhattan’s West Vil- have tackled gay versus Mor-
lage and is exceedingly com- mon themes? Not really. But
fortable in his own gay skin, “Missa Solemnis” does offer a
Henry begins a long-distance poignant reminder of why the
affair. Church is so threatened by
Yet all that musky intimacy gays redefining a sacrosanct
proves to be too much. institution. Perhaps if this pro-
Because the play opens vocative work had been staged
with Henry placing a gun to in Salt Lake instead of New
his head, the focus is on what York, the referendum results
led to his decision, rather than might have been different.
14
■ THEATER
Still Standing Guard
Peter Mac salutes Garland as savior in his ’80s Long Island youth
BY WILL MCKINLEY
J
udy Garland was one of
the world’s biggest stars
until her death in 1969
at the age of 47. Then she
became larger than life.
A quarter century later,
Peter Mac was a teenager on
Long Island seeking solace
from an abusive father and
small-minded high school
tormentors. The comfort he
found in Garland’s movies,
music, and mythos for ms
the basis of “Judy and Me,”
a touching coming-of-age
story with a unique twist.
Mac the playwright re-imag-
ines the 1960s-era Garland
as a modern-day guardian
angel, guiding his fictional
alter ego Anthony through his
troubled teen years. And Mac
the performer plays the for-
ever 40-something Garland in
drag, with surprising subtlety
and nuance.
“Judy and Me” is like a gay
variation on “It’s a Wonderful
Life,” with the spectral Gar-
land mentoring the young
man, delightfully played by
the Alfalfa-esque Christopher
Brick, through his darkest
hours. And who better to guide
a sensitive young performer
through a rough patch than
a former sensitive young per-
former whose entire life was a
rough patch?
The autobiographical
drama, which began life at the
Duplex and later enjoyed an
extended run at Rose’s Turn,
addresses heavy issues like
homophobia, domestic abuse,
and suicide, but with a light
tone that never devolves into
preachiness. Charles Tolliver
directs a consistently strong
cast, including Basil Meola,
Chris McCabe, Elyse Beyer,
and Jean Ann Kump as Mac’s
“Laaawn Guyland”-accented
mom.
I spoke with Peter Mac at
St. Luke’s Theater, on the set
meant to approximate the bed-
room of his youth.
WILL McKINLEY: What
are you feeling right now,
moments after the show?
PETER MAC: Relief, to be
out of the costume, out of the
heels, out of the makeup.
WM: What was it about
Judy Garland that meant so
much to you as a kid?
PM: I attribute her voice, her
films, and her wit to my surviv-
al. I channeled everything that
was going on at home and at
school into that. She provided
JUDY AND ME
St. Luke’s Theater
308 W. 46th St.
Tue.-Sat. at 8 p.m.;
Sat., Sun. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 7 p.m.
212-239-6200, judyandme.com
so much joy to me when I was
going through a really tough
time.
WM: Did you lose people
from your life when you came
out?
PM: My parents got divorced
when I was 16, just around the
time that I came out. My father
left that summer. Luckily I had
a mom who basically accepted
it from the get-go. She came to
terms with it relatively easily.
WM: At the Sizzler?
PM: Yes. I came out at the
Sizzler. That’s true.
WM: Was the management
aware of what was going on?
Did they bring you a cake?
PM: No, but we still go back
every April to commemorate it.
We sit in the same booth.
WM: You grew up only 45
minutes from The Village. And
yet, it’s a different world out
there on Long Island.
PM: In the city there is such
a mixed bag of people, from all
different walks of life. Nobody
pays any mind to it. I’m not
saying there isn’t homophobia
in Manhattan, but I can walk
down the street in drag and
I’m not going to get beaten up.
I could never do that on Long
Island. I’d get the shit knocked
out of me.
WM: Do you attribute that
to the Island’s blue-collar leg-
acy?
PM: I think so. I grew up in
a very middle-income neigh-
borhood — Italian, Irish, lots of
macho guys. The school was a
real football jock school. If you
wanted to do theater, you were
pegged as gay whether you
were or not.
WM: Is it better there now?
PM: A lady came to see the
show last week and introduced
herself as a teacher from
Sewanhaka High School. She
said, “It’s just as bad as when
you were there, if not worse.”
She has to tell her students
every day that the word fag is
not an adjective.
WM: Maybe you should plan
a night for Sewanhaka stu-
dents and alumni.
13 – 19 NOV 2008
WM: The show’s been
open for a couple weeks now.
Have you had any negative
response?
PM: There was an elderly
gentleman and his wife who
were obviously uncomfortable,
talking throughout the show.
When the two male leads
began to make out onstage,
that was the straw that broke
the camel’s back. He stood up
and started spitting slurs at
us, “I hate fucking queers. I
hate fucking faggots.”
WM: How did you handle
that?
PM: The boys were fright-
WILL MCKINLEY
ened out of their wits, but they
kept playing the scene. As qui-
etly as we could, the gentle-
Peter Mac, playwright and star of “Judy and man was escorted out. Then
Me.” we called the cops. That’s all
we could do.
PM: We had talkback dur-
ing the previews and one guy WM: Did you fear for the
in his 50s said he didn’t like safety of your actors?
the attempted suicide scene. PM: Definitely. He could
And I said, “Maybe it’s good have had a gun on him. He
that it made you uncomfort- could have been one of these
able because that’s what peo- crazy fanatics. His wife stayed
ple need to see.” People who behind, until the end. She
are saying faggot, gaylord, walked up to my partner, who’s
and queer need to know that also the producer of the show,
it does take a toll, and that and said, “You should know
is the result — a 16-year - you’re all an abomination.”
old boy who wants to slit his
wrists. WM: You’ve experienced
vandalism, as well.
WM: On a national level, do PM: Yes. Somebody took
you think things have gotten a sharp object and embed-
better for gay teens? ded the words “Queers at St.
PM: The abuse is still there. Luke’s” into the marquee of
Matthew Shepard’s death [in the theater.
1998] was the impetus for me
to start writing the show. And WM: Does that reinforce
then in February of this year your mission for the show?
a 14 year-old kid named Law- PM: All of these events make
rence King was shot and killed me realize just how important
at school because he brought the story is. That’s what we
a Valentine’s Day card to keep hearing from audiences,
another boy. That’s the reason whether they’re gay, black,
this show came back. I believe Jewish, or any kind of minor-
that homophobia is on the rise ity. A lady who was very over-
again, due to the political cli- weight told me she was picked
mate in this country. on mercilessly every day at
school. She related. A lot of
WM: Terms like “San Fran- straight people come up to me
cisco values” and “the real after the show and say, “I’m
America” have gotten a lot of not gay, but this is my story.”
play recently. Do you think the The show does seem to touch
tenor of the presidential cam- people, which is nice. Make
paign reinforced certain preju- people laugh and make people
dices? cry. It’s great. That’s why I’m
PM: I definitely think that’s an entertainer.
true. I think John McCain is a
very ugly human being. I can’t WM: If Judy were here now,
even bear to listen to anything what would she say to you?
the man has to say. As a gay PM: I think she’d say, “Peter,
man I can safely say that we’re darling, thank you very much.
at the bottom of the totem pole I think you’re doing a marvel-
when it comes to our voices ous job. And you’ve made it.
being heard. It’s still okay to You’ve finally made it over the
hate us. rainbow.”
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
7 DAYS
7 NIGHTS
䉴 NOV 14, from p.9
through Dec. 31. Tickets are $35-$100 at
here.org or 212-352-3101. More infor-
mation at http://www.basiltwist.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
DANCE
SAT.NOV.15
Live From Buenos
Aires
Argentine company Tango Fire
returns to New York with a program
showcasing ten torrid dancers accom-
panied by the fiery musicians of Qua-
trotango. The company offers a journey
through the history of tango, from its
origins in the red light district of Bue-
nos Aires to the glamour of the Roar-
ing 20s and its evolution to the world
of contemporary ballroom. The per-
formance also features singer Javier
“Cardenal” Dominguez, a regular per-
former in many of the most important
tango houses in Buenos Aires, and
showcases the music of Astor Piazzolla
and others. Brooklyn Center for the
Performing Arts, Brooklyn College,
2900 Campus Road (#2 or #5 train to
Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn College), 8
p.m. Tickets are $30-$75 at Brooklyn-
CenterOnline.org or 718-951-4500.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
GALLERY
Bruce’s Beefcake
An icon of gay art and one of the
most famous names in physique pho-
tography, Bruce Bellas is remembered
today as a pioneer of beefcake. Begin-
ning in the 1940s and continuing until
his death in 1974, Bellas photographed
some of the most important figures in
the world of physical culture — body-
builders. His images are featured in
this exhibition, Bruce of Los Angeles
Inside/ Outside by Bruce Bellas,” and
powerHouse book of the same name,
with text by Vince Aletti. The pow-
erhouse Arena, 37 Main St. near
Front St. in DUMBO, weekdays, 10
a.m.-7 p.m.; weekends, 11 a.m.-6
p.m. through Nov. 16. For more infor-
mation, visit powerhousebooks.com or
call 718-666-3049.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
Lusty Power
Mark Beard presents an installation
of homoerotic power, “Gracious Dicta-
tor: The Seduction of Power.” Clam-
part, 521-531 W. 25th St., ground
fl. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. through
Nov. 22. For more information, visit
clampart.com or call 230-0020.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
Dignity for All
Magdalena Castaneda, a bi-cultural
Puerto Rican-born lesbian, paints por-
traits that explore, reveal, and honor the
human spirit, one person at a time. The
paintings on exhibit in “Cultural Expres-
sions in Art” evolved out of her past
䉴 NOV 15, continued on p.16
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 13 – 19 NOV 2008 15

■ IN THE NOH

Divas for President

Lesbian gala, conversation with Cumpsty, Lombard magic

T
BY DAVID NOH he New York Musical Theatre for Dancers’ gala benefit performance
Festival Gala (November 2) (October 27). Angela Lansbury, eternal-

D
id the power of two ultimate turned out to be a triumphantly ly tall and glamorous, hosted, citing her
divas help gloriously usher in lesbo event, honoring Robyn Goodman, rewarding experiences with choreogra-
a new president and, hopeful- the fully out producer of “Altar Boyz,” phers like Onna White and Joe Layton.
ly, a completely new deal for our coun- “Avenue Q,” “In the Heights,” and more. George De La Pena, who was Nijin-
try? If you were at the Barbara Cook- Her lover, set designer Anna Louizos sky in the 1980 film, gave a testimonial
Audra McDonald “Broadway Voices for (“Curtains, “White Christmas”), sat about CTF’s vital aid in helping him get
Change” concert on October 19, you with her throughout, except when she an education and subsequent teaching
certainly would be a believer. was dragged onstage by emcee Kevin posts. Jane Krakowski and Cheyenne
A packed-to-the-rafters Al Hirschfeld McCollum, Goodman’s co-producer Jackson yummily performed “Two Lost
Theater roared its approval, especially (who hilariously appeared in drag as Souls” from “Damn Yankees” –– oh, can
toward the middle of the concert, which her), and even played a roadie, spraying that big boy move!
attained a white-hot brilliance with the the stage with smoke for the entrance Awards were given to Tommy Tune,
two singers consistently topping one of the original “Altar Boyz” cast. who slyly turned the finale into “The

MICHAEL R FAULKNER
another with their choice and interpre- “[title of show]” cast members Susan Tommy Tune Show,” and the beauti-
tation of song. Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff said, ful Sono Osato, “Miss Turnstiles” in the
“Ridiculous!” McDonald gasped, after “This is for you, Robyn,” and engaged original Broadway production of “On
a particularly effective Cook rendition, in a very lengthy kiss, which Goodman the Town.”
while all her partner could mutter after Celina Carvajal rocked the house at the New York Musi- later admitted “Made me hot”; Raul

T
her partner’s similar demonstration of cal Theater Festival Gala with a funky song from “Bed- Esparza gave her props for discovering hat very show is being revived
vocal prowess, was “To sing like that bugs!!!” him for “Tick, tick…Boom” and sang, with an Encores! presentation,
and look like that –– it isn’t fair!” “Why,” from that show; and Celina Car- running November 19-23 at City
A somewhat sheepish Matthew Brod- Mitchell, who jovially stuck his ears vajal proved herself a real star in the Center, with Warren Carlyle and Scott
erick and glittery Sarah Jessica Parker out with his hands before joining making with a funky song from “Bed- Ellis recreating the original Jerome
introduced the evening and would per- McDonald in their stirring duet from bugs!!!,” which she began by looking Robbins choreography. Director John
haps have been better off just saying “Ragtime.” down at her scanty, bare-midriff cos- Rando is thrilled with the cast, which
what they felt rather than reading the The evening ended with McDonald’s tume and saying, “I’m so glad I ate!” includes Andrea Martin, as the horny
fulsome prepared material. heartfelt “America the Beautiful” and cabdriver Brunhilde Esterhazy, a role

T
McDonald brought an Obama doll Cook’s gorgeous reading of the verse to he dreamily muscled Herman she was probably born to play, Justin
which she kissed and set upon the “God Bless America,” which culminated Cornejo, flying through the air Bohon, Leslie Kritzer, Julyana Soe-
piano and, later, another Obama in a full-out group sing with everyone as “Le Corsair,” stole the show
“facsimile” appeared –– Brian Stokes present. at “On Broadway!,” Career Transition 䉴 DIVAS, continued on p.16

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16
䉴 DIVAS, from p.15
listyo, and Tony Yazbeck.
Michael Cumpsty will
appear in a role cut from the
MGM 1949 film bowdlerization
of the show, and he described
it to me as the fiancé “of the
beautiful anthropologist whom
they describe as obsessed with
men but whom Comden and
Green really wrote as a nym-
phomaniac. His name is Pitkin
Bridgework, a very long-suffer-
ing judge who says, ‘I under-
stand, you have a problem, but
I love you anyway.’ He keeps
showing up, like when she’s at
the bar fooling around with the
sailors and she’s like, ‘Honey,
will you settle the check? We’re
going next door.’
“At the end of the show
he has a little song where he
basically says, ‘I don’t under-
stand and I’m pissed off,’ and,
although it’s very understated,
winds up with the little girl
who goes around sneezing
throughout. So it’s really sweet
and not very big, but he keeps
walking into these situations
and saying, “Dar-ling,” and the
orchestra goes bump-bump
and that happens three or four
times.
“One of the most remark-
able things about my life is the
number of opportunities I’ve
been given to be in musicals,
despite the fact that I don’t sing
very well. When I was in “The
Heiress,” there was a moment
offstage when that character
sang and somebody else had
to sing it for me.
“I took a lot of singing les-
sons for ‘42nd Street,’ and the
[producing company] Dodgers
were just fantastic with me and
said, ‘You’ve got the 11 o’clock
title number. If you can’t sing,
we don’t care — we’ll make
a tap number and put it in
afterwards to finish the show,’
which they did. I sang it as well
as I could, but two or three
times during the course of the
run I sang it in a different key
from the one the orchestra was
playing. [Laughs].
It happened once when we
were raising money for Broad-
way Cares and I made a speech
afterward and apologized, and
Billy Stritch, who was also in
the show, said, ‘Never apolo-
gize, they probably didn’t even
know!’”
Cumpsty, who has graced
New York with numerous
Shakespearean performances,
including Hamlet, Richard
III, and Timon of Athens, as
well as his delightful, bare-
bottomed turn in “Enchanted
April,” is gay, but, surprising-
ly, no one ever brings it up: “I
have a partner of twelve years,
John Dias, who was associate
producer at the Public Theater
and directed and produced the
play ‘Well,’ and just started his
own theater company — not
Michael Cumpsty and Andrea Martin, from the cast of the “On the Town” production at
Encores! November 18-23.
a good time to be doing that,
but…
“The funny thing is that
whenever we go anywhere, that
photographer Bruce Glikas
takes our picture and posts
them and people are always
saying, ‘You’re on Broadway.
com,’ and there we are, look-
ing goofy at some opening,
but nobody ever connects me.
Maybe they take it for granted,
but nobody ever brings it up.
“It came up only once, when
I was doing ‘42nd Street.’
Before it opened, I did an inter-
view in which I talked about
John, and the director of that
show got all upset and called
the press office and said that
can’t be in print — he’s playing
the male lead! But again, the
Dodgers stepped in and said
he can do whatever he wants,
and they were brilliant and
basically said shut up.
“That was sort of the reflex-
ive response — ‘We can’t
have him playing that!’ and it
wasn’t that long ago. I really
can’t imagine how being gay
would professionally impact
anybody negatively. If it was,
say, Disney looking to cast
Tarzan and they found some
gorgeous hunk and he kept
talking about his boyfriend in
interviews, Disney might not
give him the job. I don’t know if
that’s prejudice as much as an
economic thing of ‘Are teenage
girls going to project onto a guy
they know is gay?’
“I’ve always called John my
husband. We were thinking if
gay marriage passed in Cali-
fornia, we would go there and
get married. I was never partic-
ularly motivated toward mar-
riage. I’m of the camp that feels
civil unions would be okay as
long as they were closely moni-
tored and we were sure that
they were equivalent in every
way. I don’t need it to be called
‘marriage,’ but we still have
Massachusetts and Connecti-
cut, and I’m optimistic about
New York.
“I’m sorry it went down in
California — it was so close
and everybody worked so hard
13 – 19 NOV 2008
edly in both, but I preferred
it when she mixed up the
loosey-goosey comedy with
plangent romantic yearning,
as she did in “Hands Across
the Table” and “Swing High,
Swing Low,” a sumptuous
pastiche of musical/screw-
ball/melodrama directed by
gay, underrated Mitchell Leis-
en, whose special eye defined
that shimmeringly glamorous
Paramount look.
By the time of the crappy
“Fools for Scandal” (1938),
Lombard had had enough of
JOAN MARCUS
being madcap and went dra-
matic, rewardingly, with “In
Name Only,” perhaps the best
romantic triangle film of them
all, and the grippingly somber
“Vigil in the Night,” in which,
but, realistically, when I look as an unbelievably noble
at where things are and where nurse, she nonetheless acts
they were when I was a kid, it’s with a luminously stoic real-
staggering how far we’ve come, ity that removes all sanctimo-
literally through the blood, niousness.
sweat, and tears of so many She crowned her career with
people!” her final film, “To Be or Not to
Be,” in which, her technique
utterly effortless by then, she
gave the greatest light comedy
performance ever recorded on
film. The current Broadway
flop adaptation of this had me
desperately yearning to see
it again. Star Jan Maxwell’s
statement that not only had
she never seen it, but had
never seen any Lombard film,
for me, bordered on the hereti-
cal.
COURTESY DAVID NOH
Lombard was blessed with
everything and yet strange-
ly cursed, as she seemed to
attract tragedy with terrify-
Carole Lombard, preternaturally glowing in ing regularity. A serious early
George Stevens’ “Vigil in the Night” (1940), car accident nearly ruined
whose centennial is being honored by a Film her career and left her with
Forum retrospective November 21-December 2. a visible scar on her cheek;
her r omance with singer
F
ew stars have ever been Russ Columbo ended when
as special as Carole he accidentally shot himself
Lombard (1908-42), to death with a rifle; even her
whose centennial is being hon- Hollywood royalty marriage
ored with a Film Forum retro- to Gable evidently wasn’t the
spective (November 21-Decem- monogamous paradise all
ber 2; visit filmforum.org). envisioned — with everything
From her chiseled, white- ending in the airplane crash
blonde goddess-y beauty to that killed both Lombard and
her perfect body (with enough her mother, while on a World
junk in the trunk to rival J-Lo) War II bond-selling tour.
and superb sartorial flair, she Marilyn Monroe is, of
was visually breathtaking, but course, the blond movie icon
oh so much more. who refuses to be forgotten,
Historians regularly credit but I wish newer generations
Howard Hawks’ breathless would be made aware of a
“20th Century” (1934) as the woman who died even young-
moment Lombard learned er and was infinitely more tal-
how to act, but two years ented, beautiful, and fascinat-
before that, in “No Man of Her ing. Lombard’s films live on, of
Own,” opposite future hus- course, and if you really want
band Clark Gable, she demon- a total immersion, try stay-
strated a radiantly appealing ing sometime, as I did, at the
Every Girl quality, as a librar- Carole Lombard House, an
ian stuck in a small town and enchanting bed and breakfast
loathing every minute of it. in the home where she was
Soon after, the screwball born, in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
hits came rolling in, like her right next to a beautiful bridge
quintessential “My Man God- named after her. (carolelom-
frey,” and the over-rated pair bardhouse.com)
of “Nothing Sacred” and “True
Confession.” She screamed Contact David Noh at Inthe-
and carried on uninhibit- noh@aol.com.
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
7 DAYS
䉴
7 NIGHTS
NOV 15, from p.14
expressionistic use of oil color to the
classical painting methods of “under-
painting,” and the realistic rendering of
the subject. LGBT Community Center,
208 W. 13th St. through Nov. 28.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
SUN.NOV.16
OPERA
Feting the Best
Opera News presents its fourth
annual awards ceremony honoring
John Adams, Natalie Dessay, Renée
Fleming, Marilyn Horne, and Sherrill
Milnes. Susan Graham and Thomas
Hampson are co-hosts, with awards
presented by Plácido Domingo, Alan
Gilbert, Garrison Keillor, James
Levine, and Marian Seldes. Grand
Ball Room, the Plaza, Fifth Ave. at
Central Park So., 6 p.m. reception;
7 p.m. dinner. Tickets are $850; $400
for dinner and program only. Complete
information and tickets at 212-769-
7009.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
GALLERY
Fleshing Out
Street Life
Catherine Opie’s body of photo-
graphic work, created since the early
1990s, spans such diverse genres as
studio portraiture, landscape pho-
tography, and urban street photogra-
phy to explore notions of communal,
sexual, and cultural identity. From
her early portraits of queer subcul-
tures to her expansive urban land-
scapes, Opie has offered profound
insights into the conditions in which
communities form and the terms by
which they are defined. Guggen-
heim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave.
at E. 89th St., Sat.-Wed., 10 a.m.-
5:45 p.m.; Fri., 10 a.m.-7:45 p.m.
Through Jan. 7. Admission is $18;
$15 for students & seniors; pay what
you wish Fri. after 5:45 p.m.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
The Even Couple
Gilbert and George met in 1967
while students in London and began
to create art together, developing a
uniquely recognizable style both in
their pictures and in their presenta-
tions of themselves as living sculp-
tures. Over 40 years, they developed
a new format that created large-scale
pictures, visually and emotionally
powerful, through a unique creative
process. The Brooklyn Museum is the
final venue in an international tour that
marks the first retrospective of the art-
ists’ work in more than 20 years. The
exhibition was organized by the Tate
Modern, London, with the collabora-
tion of the artists, who consider this
to be the definitive presentation of
their art. 200 Eastern Parkway at
Washington Ave. near Grand Army
䉴 NOV 16, continued on p.18
13 - 19 NOV 2008
Playful Antagonisms
Arnaud Desplechin again trains his lens on family dysfunction
BY STEVE ERICKSON
Arnaud Desplechin creates
a cinema of excess. His recent
IFC Center retrospective was
aptly titled “Every Minute,
Four Ideas.” At first glance, “A
Christmas Tale” seems likely to
offer more of the same. It runs
a sprawling 150 minutes and
serves up a huge cast of char-
acters. Yet it’s Desplechin’s
most sober and controlled
film so far. Less promisingly, it
also marks the first time he’s
repeated himself.
In many respects, “A Christ-
mas Tale” is a reworking of the
ideas and characters behind
Desplechin’s last narrative
film, “Kings and Queen.” It
takes its starting point from
the scene in that film where a
father coldly reads a declara-
tion of hate to his daughter.
Mathieu Amalric plays much
the same self-destructive but
amusingly eccentric charac-
ter this time around; in both
films, his performance seems
modeled on the on-screen and
off-screen personae of French
New Wave icon Jean-Pierre
Léaud.
Ultimately, “A Christmas
Take” takes on a life of its
own, but it’s still a bit discon-
certing that an artist in his
40s would start rewriting his
own work.
Junon (Catherine Deneuve)
and Abel (Jean-Paul Roussil-
lon) have three adult children
— Elizabeth (Anne Consigny),
Henri (Mathieu Amalric), and
Ivan (Melvil Poupaud). In a
court case brought on by a
business failure, Elizabeth
paid Henri’s debts on the con-
dition that he never see her
or any other family members
again.
Five years later, Junon’s
health concerns bring the
䉴 THE WHOLE, from p.12
to pull the objects into an
upright position, giving them
the appearance of geologic
icons.
While the humans are
mostly dwar fed by these
enormous figures, they are
adept at scaling them, flip-
ping off them, and using their
own weight to play with bal-
ance. The visual and physical
effects are always engaging,
particularly during passag-
es when the performers use
larger shapes to balance other
parts and move them across
A CHRISTMAS TALE
Directed by Arnaud Desplechin
In French, with English subtitles
IFC Films
Opens Nov. 14
Lincoln Plaza, IFC Center
family together for an uneasy
Christmas. She’s come down
with leukemia and needs a
bone marrow transplant. Henri
and Ivan’s son Paul become
her only hopes, although Henri
is very uncomfortable with her,
and Paul struggles with men-
tal health issues. Drinking and
smoking heavily, Henri shows
up at her house with his girl-
friend Faunia (Emmanuelle
Devos).
The dysfunctional family is a
world cinema staple, currently
enjoying new life in Jonathan
Demme’s “Rachel Getting Mar-
ried.” Like Demme’s film, “A
Christmas Tale” fully explores
the dramatic potential of fam-
ily get-togethers, whether
arranged for marriages or holi-
days.
Desplechin treats the sub-
ject with an ironic playfulness
far from the trainwreck-gawk-
ing a lesser director would
turn it into. Even when calling
his mother and sister vulgar
expletives and then passing
out from alcohol and drugs,
Henri maintains an odd dig-
nity. If it’s possible, Henri and
Junon hate each other with a
smile on their faces.
In American films — and,
perhaps, American life — fam-
ily members don’t make their
disdain for each other so obvi-
ous and then remain a part of
each other’s lives. Outside of
the blatant misanthropy of a
Neil LaBute or Todd Solondz,
it’s hard to picture an Ameri-
can mother -son discussion
beginning with the question
“Still don’t love me?” and not
the stage. These are literally
mesmerizing, paced slowly
enough to affect brain activity,
and accompanied by equally
soothing ambient music.
Many of the images are
stunning, beautiful, and even
awesome. Precarious balanc-
ing acts click dangerously tilt-
ing shapes into a new, stable
equilibrium, and the audience
gasps and claps in approval
and to ease their own tension.
Dancers are sandwiched by
the set elements, scale wide
gaps between them, or slowly
use their toes to slide down
tight slots. A performer dives
Catherine Deneuve is Junon, a family matriarch whose illness brings together her fractious family in “A Christmas Tale.”
ending with either tearful
reconciliation or a shouting
match.
As a director, Desplechin’s
style is marked by an anything-
goes soft touch. “A Christmas
Take” tells the story of Henri’s,
Elizabeth’s, and Ivan’s child-
hoods through shadow pup-
pet animation. He uses the
iris, a circular device blocking
out the edges of the screen, a
device commonly utilized in
silent cinema and then revived
by the French New Wave in the
’60s.
Several times, characters
speak directly to the camera.
Even when it’s not overtly
showy, Desplechin’s direction
is dynamic; he makes an event
out of Catherine Deneuve pre-
paring a cup of coffee.
As a screenwriter (in collab-
oration with Emmnauel Bur-
off into the void. While the
women sing, the men, unseen
at first, all huddle up the
diagonal of one of the largest
triangles, and are revealed,
all singing now, as they skit-
ter down the side like domi-
noes.
But there is a sinister side
to things in this imagined
world, and more than a hint
of fascism. T rue, this is a
group engaged in mostly har-
monious pursuits as a collec-
tive unit, but they are in ser-
vice of a giant monolithic and
dark entity — one that con-
trols their every movement,
Film/17
dieu), however, Desplechin
has grown tamer. “Kings and
Queen” was distinguished by
bizarre bursts of action with
no direct ties to the central
story — a Tarantinoesque
shoot-out, Amalric break-
dancing. Almost everything
in “A Christmas Tale” fits the
generally somber mood —
even the soundtrack’s inter-
ludes of free jazz, hip-hop,
and Irish folk music, and the
scene in which a nightclub DJ
scratches records.
Desplechin’s best film, the
2000 “Esther Kahn,” depicts
a Jewish girl trying to succeed
as an actress in 19th-century
London. Esther’s problems
don’t stem from sexism or
anti-Semitism, for the most
part; instead, she feels like an
outsider to the entire human
race. For her, acting is a way
shapes their freedoms, and is
capable of making them dis-
appear.
At one point, while the three
women sing again, the forms
are arranged and manipu-
lated to look like a row of
three giant fish opening their
mouths or six serrated edges
chopping the air, depending
on your ideology. It is a pow-
erful theatrical image, docile
humans framed by menacing
mechanistic movements of
silver-black teeth.
But like the dragon in “Dr.
No,” this monster is the work
of man. Is this a metaphor for
IFC FILMS
of understanding “normal”
behavior by imitation.
On the surface, “A Christ-
mas Tale” is far more conven-
tional than “Esther Kahn,”
which contains one of the
decade’s oddest performances.
But deep down, the two films
shares the same worldview. In
most of his films, Desplechin
explores the ways in which
people find themselves caught
up in alien worlds, where fam-
ily ties are no guarantee that
his characters will love each
other or have anything in com-
mon.
Even when they address dif-
ficult or painful subject mat-
ter, the sheer weight of mate-
rial contained by Desplechin’s
films shows a passion for sto-
rytelling exceeding the self-
imposed boundaries of most
directors and screenwriters.
China, a French projection of
Chinese culture, or an Ameri-
can projection of French art
and Chinese democracy?
Any of the three, or even if it’s
none of the above, the unfor-
tunate classification as circus
had the audience laughing at
some disturbing moments,
in addition to the genuinely
funny ones, which the chil-
dren in the audience were
especially good at identifying.
In any case, art that can
produce critical thought and
open dialogue is always wel-
come, especially here and
now in these United States.
18
■ REMEMBRANCE
Philip Reed Is Dead at 59
Gay former Manhattan City Councilman was longtime health advocate
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
P
hilip Reed, an openly
gay African American
who lived with HIV for
more than a quarter-century
and served on the New York
City Council from 1998 until
term limits prevented a reelec-
tion bid in 2005, died at St.
Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital
Center on November 6, from
pneumonia that resulted as
a complication of leukemia.
Reed was 59.
Reed represented District 8
on the Council, an area that
encompasses portions of the
Upper West Side and Manhat-
tan Valley as well as East Har-
lem and includes a majority
Latino electorate. In two of his
elections, he faced tough Lati-
no opponents with strong roots
in East Harlem. A Democratic
district leader for years in his
neighborhood on the West
Side, Reed was well-connected
to the African-American Har-
lem leadership. At a City Hall
swearing-in ceremony shortly
after his first election in 1997,
Congressman Charles Rangel
was the featured speaker.
At that same ceremony,
Reed spoke movingly of the
difficulties faced by his par-
ents, a biracial couple at a
time when such intermarriage
was still relatively rare, con-
troversial, and in some states
illegal. Harry Lirtzman, a close
friend of Reed’s and his execu-
tor, said that Reed was proud
of the fact that another biracial
African American was seeking
the presidency, and was over-
joyed on Election Night when
news of Barack Obama’s vic-
tory was made official.
Reed declined rapidly the
following day, Lirtzman said,
and on Thursday he died.
Reed was born and raised
in New York by his mother
and stepfather, both of whom,
䉴 BRIEFS, from p.10
“At the end of the day you have
to decide whether or not you are
going to be paralyzed by threats
and by violent possibilities or
whether you just move on and
do what you feel called to do
despite the risks.”
Massachusetts
Battle over
Marriage?
The right wing lost a battle
last year to get a mere one
quarter of the Massachusetts
Legislature to agree to put a
constitutional amendment on
the ballot banning same-sex
13 – 19 NOV 2008 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
7 DAYS
7 NIGHTS
䉴 NOV 16, from p.18
cate, with particular interest Plaza. Wed.-Fri., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat.
in the prevention of asthma, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (until 11 p.m. first
which is a significant public Sat.); Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Exhibition
health problem in the neigh- runs through Jan. 11. Admission is
borhoods he served. $8; $4 for students & seniors.
Reed was feisty and loved ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
to poke fun at sacred cows; MUSIC
when asked about HIV fund- Gould, Bach &
ing issues by this reporter, Strauss
he once said, “Oh, the AIDS Pianist Magdalena Baczewska,
activists are always saying in a tribute to the late Canadian Bach
the sky is falling,” before going virtuoso Glenn Gould, performs “Gold-
through a litany of other ills berg Variations, BWV 988” and Rich-
facing his constituents. Rever- ard Strauss’ “Sonata in B minor, Op.
end Pat Bumgardner, pastor of 5” as part of the Saint Andrew Music
the Metropolitan Community Society’s “Music on Madison” series.
Church NY, an LGBT congre- Madison Avenue Presbyterian
gation, told Gay City News in Church, 921 Madison Ave. at 73rd
an email, “He was a faithful St., 3 p.m. Tickets are $15; $10 for stu-
friend, not in the way people dents & seniors at the door. For more
usually conceive — he was information, visit mapc.com.
often snarly and hard to take, ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
but he also went out of his way
to make sure I/others knew he COMEDY
loved us.” Hell’s Kitchen
City Council Speaker Chris- Hell-Raising
tine Quinn, who joined Reed in Three Crazies, One Obamaniac
1999 as a member of the small Brad Loekle’s weekly “Electro Shock
gay and lesbian caucus there, Therapy Comedy Hour” presents three
recalled him as “an ardent brassy broads –– headliner Jessica
and tireless pioneer for LGBT Kirson! (NBC’s “Last Comic Standing”),
rights.” “He made an extraor- Shecky Beagleman (New York’s Under-
dinary difference in the quality ground Comedy Festival); Ophira Eisen-
Philip Reed, with one of his two gay and lesbian Council colleagues, then-Councilwoman of life for all New Yorkers, espe- berg (Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend”)
Margarita Lopez. cially with his work to reduce –– and one Barack-lovin’ black dude, Chad
asthma, increase affordable Stringfellow (Los Angeles’ Comedy Store).
the New York Times reported, HIV to advance to AIDS. housing, improve neighbor- Therapy, 348 W. 52nd St., 10 p.m. No
were white. The Times also For a time during the 1980s, hood parks, and keep local cover charge, $6 cosmos all night.
reported that he was involved Reed ran an HIV services museums and cultural insti- ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
in the riots that broke out program in Brooklyn and for tutions in Harlem,” she said in
at the Stonewall Inn the last many years served on the HIV a written statement. TELEVISION
week of June 1969. He spent Planning Council that advises City Comptroller William Lifesavers
most of the following decade in the city on the disbursement of C. Thompson, Jr., wrote, This month’s installment of “In
San Francisco, where he was federal funds it receives under “Phil brought an unmatched the Life,” the public television news-
a salesman for Otis Elevator, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act. passion to any task at hand. magazine, features the Trevor Proj-
during which period Lirtzman He also did work with the Har- He was a true New York City ect, which works to combat suicide
met him. vey Milk High School, a public leader.” among LGBT youth; “Freeheld,” an
Reed became HIV-positive school serving LGBT and ques- According to Lirtzman, in Oscar-winning film about a dying
in the early 1980s and in the tioning youth administered by the past several years, Reed lesbian New Jersey police sergeant’s
mid-’90s was ill with bone the Hetrick-Martin Institute. was on disability and used battle to win partnership benefits for
marrow cancer. Reed’s doc- Prior to winning his City his time to travel, especially her longtime companion; and a con-
tors were confounded, Lirtz- Council seat in 1997, Reed to Martha’s Vineyard, a cher- versation between Alan Van Capelle,
man said, by the fact that the waged two unsuccessful bids, ished getaway since his youth. executive director of New York’s
cancer and the later leukemia one for the Council, the other Reed is survived by his twin Empire State Pride Agenda, and Randi
and the chemotherapy used to for the State Senate. On the sister, Elinor Reed, who lives in Weingarten, the out lesbian head of
treat them never triggered his Council, he was a health advo- Manhattan. the New York City teachers’ union.
WNET, channel 13, 10:30 p.m.
marriage. Encouraged by the tic director of the California Bee reported. The board, which did not offi- ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
elimination of same-sex mar- Musical Theatre in Sacra- Jeff Whitty, who created cially fire him, thanked him
riage by a California initiative, mento where he has worked “Avenue Q,” whose show for his service.
leaders of the Massachusetts
Family Institute say they want
to try again.
for 25 years, was besieged
by the gay theater community
when his $1,000 to the Yes
was headed for the theater,
also remonstrated with Eck-
ern, but did not threaten him,
Sir Elton:
Settle for BOOKS
MON.NOV.17
Marc Solomon, leader of on Prop 8 campaign came to and eventually got him to Second Class Essentially Very
MassEquality, which preserved light. Marc Shaiman, com- donate a like amount to the Elton John waded into Funny
the court victory for same-sex poser of “Hairspray,” told Human Rights Campaign. “I the debate over the amend- Alison Bechdel, cartoonist and author
marriage there, told the Boston him, “The idea that your fear for what Mr. Eckert’s dis- ment in California. “We’re not of the graphic memoir “Fun Home,” talks
Herald he was “not at all con- donation came from a sal- missal would say about the married,” he told USA Today, about her new book, “Essential Dykes
cerned, although I’m vigilant.” ary that for a short amount of theater,” he wrote in his blog, referring to his partner, David to Watch Out For,” a collection drawn
time was drawn from profits “that there’s only room for the Furnish. “Let’s get that right. from her famous, long-running comic
Musical from a show I wrote upsets pro-gay crowd.” Apparently We have a civil partnership. strip. Barnes & Noble Bookstore,
Theater me terribly and I would never Eckert made the donation to What is wrong with Proposi- Broadway at 82nd St., 7 p.m. Free, but
Director Out allow anything I write to play the Yes campaign at the sug- tion 8 is that they went for all readings are subject to change. Call
Over Prop 8 there and will encourage my gestion of his church. marriage. Marriage is going ahead to confirm at 212-721-5282
Donation colleagues to consider doing By November 12, Eckert to put a lot of people off, the
Scott Eckern, the artis- the same,” the Sacramento resigned from his position. word marriage.” 䉴 NOV 17, continued on p.20
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
This past June, New Delhi had its first LGBT Pride March.
䉴 INDIA, from p.9
ity, but some conservative Sikhs argue
that its prohibitions against “lust”
apply to same-sex relations, and some
high-ranking Sikh clergy have issued
denunciations of gay marriage and
describe homosexuality as a “practice
to be avoided.”
Meanwhile, India’s highest court
is moving closer to ruling on a seven-
year-old petition filed by the Naz Foun-
dation, an AIDS-fighting organization,
to remove homosexuality from the pur-
view of Article 377, which also applies
to cases of child abuse and nonconsen-
sual sexual activity. Currently, anyone
convicted of homosexuality under the
statute faces imprisonment for a mini-
mum of ten years to life as well a hefty
fine.
India’s solicitor general, on behalf
of the government, argued before the
High Court in October that Article 377
acts as a deterrent to homosexual con-
duct, which he said was a cause for the
spread of HIV and AIDS in the country.
“It was right for those in the LGBT
rights movement to have reposed faith
in the judiciary instead of asking the
political class for change,” said New
Delhi-based gay rights activist and
lawyer Aditya Bondyopadhyay. “The
reaction of the court so far has been
positive, non-prejudiced, and scientific
while the government has taken an
unscientific, moralistic, and homopho-
bic view.”
The next High Court hearing on
the Article 377 case is scheduled for
November 17.
Voices Against 377, the principal
group campaigning for repeal of stat-
ute and also a plaintiff in the case, has
launched a petition drive for a million
signatures in favor of repeal.
There are some cracks in the wall
of official homophobia and transpho-
bia. In May, the government of Tamil
Nadu, the seventh largest of India’s 28
states, with more than 66 million peo-
ple, became the first to grant recogni-
tion to the transgendered in its official
documents. Applications for admission
to educational institutions and govern-
ment hospitals and for ration cards and
welfare now allow sex to be designated
as M, F, or T.
13 – 19 NOV 2008 19
FREE...
The complete fifth season of “The L Word”
Enter for a chance to win at www.gaycitynews.com
A hijra named Pooja told the Times
of India, “The green book [ration card]
gives me a sudden sense of belonging
to the society — I can now apply for
a passport, and open a bank account
with no uncomfortable questions
asked.” There’s been an avalanche
of other “T”s who have successfully
applied for recognition in Tamil Nadu
since May. Unfortunately, no other
state has yet followed suit. “THE L WORD returns to DVD with THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON on October 28th in a collectible
Reporting from the Times make 4-disc set. DVD includes all 12 dramatic and deliciously provocative Fifth season episodes from
clear, however, that advances are hap- Showtime’s successful long-running series featuring all the beauty, chaos and complexities of a group
pening on other fronts. Its film critic of women who inhabit Los Angeles’ lesbian community plus behind-the-scenes special features.”
last month noted that beautiful Bol-
lywood actress Karpaga is “the first
transgender in the country to don the
leading role in a mainstream movie,”
titled “Paal,” now being filmed. Kar-
paga was training to be a dancer when
director D. Sivakumar recruited her
for the film.
The Times critic also observed that
recently “Bollywood has offered sev-
eral quite mature portrayals of homo-
sexuality, be it Madhur’s ‘Page 3,’ in
which for the first time a gay charac-
ter was looked at without prejudice,
or the critically acclaimed ’My Brother
Nikhil.’”
A new film, “Dostana,” “may just be
able to bring homosexuality to the fore-
front and into mainstream cinema,“
wrote the Times, adding, “In ‘Dostana,’
Bollywood hunks Abhishek Bachchan
and John Abraham pretend to be a
couple in a bid to rent an apartment,”
and share a kissing scene. “While Bol-
lywood films still have a long way to go
when it comes to creating an award-
winning, sensitive film solely focusing
on homosexuality, at least the first
stone has been laid in that direction,”
the Times continued, “and hopefully
some day there will be awareness and
understanding in urban India about
homosexuals.”
The Voices Against 377 web site is
at http://www.voicesagainst377.org.
The Naz Foundation’s web site is nazin-
dia.org. The Bangalore LGBT group
Sangama is at http://sangama.org,
and the Coalition for Sexual Minorities
Rights may be contacted through them.
Doug Ireland may be reached through
his blog, DIRELAND, at http://direland.
typepad.com/.
20/ Opera
Magic Abounds
Podles ignites Haydn cantata; Racette equal to Minghella’s “Butterfly”
BY ELI JACOBSON
C
atherine Clement
wrote a book called
“Opera: the Undoing
of Women,” analyzing the fate
of operatic heroines from a
feminist perspective. Women
in opera and the divas that
embody them often find their
greatest moment, their apothe-
osis in art, in situations that
most of us would truly dread
experiencing in public or pri-
vate.
One of those situations
is being dumped, with your
lover not even bothering to tell
you in person. But put that to
music and get a diva to sing it,
and you’ve got magic.
One of the earliest operatic
heroines was the mythical
Ariadne, abandoned by The-
seus on the isle of Naxos. Ewa
Podles embodied this lost soul
for the Chamber Music Society
of Lincoln Center (seen Octo-
ber 28th) in a cantata set by
Haydn.
David Finckel, cellist and co-
artistic director of the Cham-
ber Music Society, said that
the whole program “Dreams
of Fancy, Tales of Loss” was
inspired by the dramatic power
of Podles’ singing. Her wide-
ranging, powerful, and agile
contralto voice is an exotic mix
of the strange, the beautiful,
the earthy, and the virtuosic,
with even some rather ugly
tones that combine to create
a frisson harking back to the
golden age of singing.
The voice alone would have
delivered the message, but
Podles is also very connected
to the text, digging into the
words and vividly projecting
the situation. Haydn’s cantata
is programmed fairly often in
recitals and can be dull. But,
heard here in an unfamiliar
arrangement for string quintet
and harpsichord, the Podles
䉴 RADIOACTIVE, from p.12
where the first atomic bomb
was detonated, with the story
of Sam Cohen, one of that
bomb’s creators. We see our
gover nment’s response to
security challenges for exactly
the sham it is; no one really
knows what they’re doing.
Daisey ends his piece with a
graphic and slightly harrow-
ing demonstration of exactly
that point, but I won’t reveal
that.
Still, this is not all doom and
MADAMA BUTTERFLY
Metropolitan Opera
Lincoln Center
Nov. 15, 19 & 27
$27-$295; metopera.org
channeling Philip Glass as
he chased around a limited
group of notes with a pound-
ing repetitive rhythm to hyp-
notic effect.
Finckel contributed a
moody, melodic cello solo by
John Corigliano and teamed
up with his wife, pianist Wu
Han, in Janacek’s “Pohadka
(Fairy Tale),” which was spiky
and lyrical at the same time.
MARTY SOHL, MET OPERA
Luckily, this program was
recorded live by Deutsche
Grammophon for release on
iTunes. Check ChamberMu-
sicSociety.org for more infor-
In “Madama Butterfly,” Patricia Racette mation on downloading.
plays Cio-Cio San as a poised, demure child-
M
woman whose struggles made her grow up agic of a theatrical
early. variety is still being
supplied in the late
factor turned this chestnut Anthony Minghella’s produc-
into a hurricane of anger, tion of “Madama Butterfly” at
regret, longing, and despair, the Metropolitan Opera (seen
wildly moving from one mood November 1). This opera
to another while her voice tore almost becomes a monodrama
into the notes. as the geisha heroine’s inner
Podles sang in a more life takes it over. Luckily, in
restrained, evocative manner Patricia Racette this produc-
in Respighi’s impressionistic tion has found a protagonist
“Il Tramonto,” about a woman worthy of Minghella’s sparely
who elopes with her lover to poetic visual style.
see the dawn together only to An honest, intelligent sing-
wake and find him dead.
The instrumental por -
tion of the program moved
er, Racette’s cool, soft-grained
soprano and handsome,
healthy all-American good
wildly across the centuries looks and stalwart stage per-
and involved some very exotic sona do not immediately bring
instruments. William Bolcoms’ to mind a fragile, teenage Jap-
“Dream Music No. 2” included anese geisha. But, like the late
the xylorimba, vibraphone, and Dorothy Kirsten, Racette is an
bongos, and suggested a trippy artist who combines perceptive
percussive romp through beat- dramatic insights with sterling
nik New York in the ’60s. technical control to compel the
Kenneth Cooper played audience to believe in her total-
a “Chromatic Fantasy and ly onstage.
Fugue for Harpsichord” by The Butterfly of the produc-
Johann Sebastian Bach tion premiere, Cristina Gallar-
that had the baroque genius do-Domas, who returns for the
gloom. He accurately points
out that ordinary people, if not
the Department of Homeland
Security, can be counted on to
keep plane hijackings impos-
sible. Truth, even uncomfort-
able truth, in the face of hype
is always a welcome tonic.
Daisey is an extraordi-
nary performer, and under
the direction of Jean-Michele
Gregory, the simplicity and
artistry of his presentation
supports one of my long-held
beliefs: a well-told story almost Mike Daisey is an extraordinary performer, who brings simplicity and artistry to “If You See
always makes exciting theater. Something Say Something.”
13 - 19 NOV 2008
7 DAYS
spring run (and HD transmis- 䉴
7 NIGHTS
NOV 17, from p.18
sion), lacked the vocal focus ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
that Racette brings to the role,
though she is more visually TRAVEL
appropriate. Why Schlep?
In the first act, Racette for- Why does travel feel like such a
went any coy girlish antics and tedious obligation of waiting in lines,
played Cio-Cio San as a poised, traveling as dehumanized cargo,
demure child-woman whose checking off a list of sites, having
early experience of loss and the prearranged clichéd moments,
struggle forced her to mature and going through the laborious
early. motions? Geralyn Stevens of Conti-
The increasingly tragic sec- nental Airlines and Matthew Link,
ond and third acts, where the editor in chief of OffRamp101.com, a
heroine gains in maturity, new website described as “National
found the American sopra- Geographic Traveler meets The Daily
no going from strength to Show,” host a panel discussion about
strength. Racette’s voice has LGBT travel in the age of cumbersome
a soft lyrical warmth that is security delays and ever-shrinking air-
undergirded by firm vocal sup- plane leg room. Participants include
port and a hint of metal, lend- Gretchen Kelly, transportation editor
ing necessary stamina and for Meeting News magazine and wine
tonal cut for this marathon and spirits editor for MetroSource,
role. and David Kaufman, international
Maria Zifchak was allowed, travel editor of American Express
this time, to bring greater sis- magazines. LGBT Community Cen-
terly warmth to her portrayal ter, 208 W. 13th St., networking
of Suzuki; Minghella’s direc- at 6 p.m.; program with Q&A to
tion had highlighted the mis- follow at 7. At 8:30, there will be
tress/servant dynamic over a drawing for two tickets on Con-
the compassion of Butterfly’s tinental, good through Sep. 2009, to
devoted servant. anywhere in the continental US, Alas-
Dwayne Croft, also return- ka, Canada, the Caribbean, or Central
ing as Sharpless, sounded America. You must be on hand to win.
vocally refreshed, his tone Admission is $10; $5 for OutProfes-
full of sap, and his acting was sionals members. To RSVP, visit out-
more detailed and involved professionals.org/op/208.
than ever. ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
Unfortunately, Italian tenor
Roberto Aronica provided
another instance of a young
Italian singer with first-rate
vocal material but second-rate ROMANCE
TUE.NOV.18
musical imagination and third- We’ll Have a Home
rate vocal technique. His hand- By Christmas
some, burnished but thick, If you’re hoping not to be without
overloud voice was gracelessly a honey this holiday season, gay psy-
pressurized through the notes, chotherapist Angelo Pezzote, author
only managing to hold together of “Straight Acting –– Gay Men, Mas-
due to the brevity of the role. culinity, And Finding True Love,” offers
Patrick Summers is a solid, a workshop to find the keys to open
caring professional in the pit new doors and meet more friends,
who always takes good care of Mr. Right, or maybe Mr. Right Now.
his singers while keeping the He says the event can also help those
orchestra attentive to detail who are partnered keep the love they
and texture. have. LGBT Community Center, 208
W. 13th St., 8-10 p.m. Free. For more
information, visit askangelo.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
CABARET
WED.NOV.19
Star Dust
Klea Blackhurst took New York by
storm with her acclaimed tribute to Ethel
Merman, “Everything the Traffic Will
Allow.” Billy Stritch is an award-winning
KENNETH AARON
composer, arranger, vocalist, and jazz
pianist. The two collaborate on a review
based on the music of Hoagy Carmi-
䉴 NOV 19, continued on p.21
13 - 19 NOV 2008 Perspective/21
䉴
7 DAYS
JUMP, from p.21
■ LAST WORD ON CALIFORNIA

It’s Not the Last Word on California

䉴
7 NIGHTS
NOV 19, from p.20
chael, one of America’s most treasured
songwriters, who wrote “Star Dust” (the
most recorded song ever), “Georgia On
My Mind,” and “Skylark.” Metropolitan
Room, 34 W. 22nd St. Nov. 19, 7:30
p.m., Nov. 20-21, 9:45 p.m. The cover
charge is $30, with a two-drink minimum.
Reservations at metropolitanroom.com or
212-206-0440.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
THEATER
Women in Words
Brawdeville: Women in Perfor-
mance Art, an all-women’s theater col-
lective that produces two all-original
mixed-media variety shows per year,
premieres a new reading series with
Ingrid Jungermann, writer and director
of “The Art of Leaving,” and her cast.
This is Jungermann’s second play and
her second short film, “Love Sucks,” has
been accepted at Frameline: San Fran-
cisco International LGBT Film Festival,
Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival,
and Image + Nation: Montreal LGBT
Film Festival. The Tank @ chashama,
217 E. 42nd St., 7 p.m. Reading will
be followed by a Q&A with the writer
and actors. Tickets are $5 and include
snacks; beer and wine will be on sale.
For more information on Jungermann,
visit bombshellfilms.net.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
PERFORMANCE
Never Get Enough
Tantalizing burlesque, Houdini-
esque escapes, songs about testicles,
improv, and more! Theses are the treats
promised at Evan Laurence’s “Sexahol
Revue.” Other performers include David
F. Slone, Lady Clover Honey, Jeff Mar-
tini, The Nuck Fuggets, Rita Petite, Bob-
bie Horowitz, Cherry Pitz, Layla Lepore,
and Sarah Conrad and Joseph Schules.
The Parkside Lounge, 317 E. Hous-
ton St., btwn. Ave. B & Attorney St.,
7-9 p.m. Admission is $5 and there’s a
two-drink minimum.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
It is time to get a grip. The
defeat in California is déjà vu
all over again. In New York
City, a gay rights ordinance
was defeated for years until
Peter Vallone became leader of
the City Council and brought
the bill to a vote. The Assem-
bly first passed a gay rights bill
for New York State in the early
1990s; it didn’t become law
until 2002. After each defeat,
✯ the LGBT community fought
back; we will fight again.
The religious right won
victories this year. The most
famous was nominating Sarah
Palin, but the most painful
was Proposition 8 in Califor-
nia, writing into the State Con-
stitution an amendment — or
is it a “revision?,” see story on
page 6 — saying only men and
women could marry.
In California the margin
was small but unambigu-
ous. In Florida, Arkansas, and
Arizona, it was a rout for our
side. By super-majorities, the
LGBT community was barred
from marrying or in the case of
Arkansas adopting children, or
even serving as their foster par-
ents. But we are everywhere and
䉴 REVISION, from p.6
✯ sexual orientation as a “sus-
by San Francisco, Los Ange-
les, and Santa Clara County
contends the proposition puts
them under “inconsistent obli-
gations” — having to enforce
the new constitutional provision
while also continuing to respect
the right to equal protection the
State Supreme Court identified
in its May ruling.
All three cases posit the
theory that Prop 8’s enact-
ment was invalid because it is
a “revision” rather than a mere
“amendment” of the California
Constitution. Amendments
✯ can be adopted through voter-
initiated referenda, but a revi-
sion can only be made if the
BY NATHAN RILEY
the issue will not disappear.
The Mormons didn’t use a
new playbook, they kept harp-
ing on the children. And adults
are uncomfortable with the
notion of lesbians and gays near
children. This anxiety pushed
voters in the wrong direction.
The early polls this year had
the LGBT community winning
and then the right-wing cam-
paign started and public opin-
ion shifted. It is hard to avoid
the conclusion that the LGBT
campaign lost the contest for the
hearts and minds of the voters.
But that is wrong.
The sad truth is that even
with the tremendous gains in
tolerance for LGBT persons,
doubts can be raised and peo-
ple can be made intolerant by
talking about gays being a bad
influence on children. The rem-
edy is being open about our
lives and making friends.
As has been widely noted, the
black community voted for Prop
8. This is sad but not a disaster.
They are Democrats, they voted
for Barack Obama; they believe
in civil rights and detest dis-
crimination. We have common
values and we can educate this
couples to that right it viewed
pect classification,” placing an
insurmountable burden on
the state in justifying its tradi-
tional definition of marriage.
In making the case that Prop
8 redefined fundamental rights
and reduced the courts’ authori-
ty to define them, San Francisco
Chief Deputy Attorney Therese
M. Stewart argues, “This Peti-
tion is brought on the ground
that the California Constitution
does not allow a bare majority
of voters to divest a politically
unpopular group of rights con-
ferred by the equal protection
clause.” The 1911 constitutional
amendment authorizing voter
initiatives “did not include the
community. Black gay men
and lesbians are increasingly
coming out within their com-
munities of origin. But it is no
accident that support for Prop
8 existed in a community where
many people remain closeted.
Marty Rouse, an experi-
enced organizer for the Human
Rights Campaign, worked in
California on the No on 8 cam-
paign. He came away heart-
ened by the widespread sup-
port he found for the LGBT
community. As straight people
learned about the nature of the
opposition to marriage equal-
ity, they would express their
concern and their support for
us. They understood it is cruel
to tell a person, “You can’t
marry.” The opponents of mar-
riage equality have no staying
power because their message
of hate, in repeated doses,
becomes sickening.
The victory of the religious
right was pyrrhic. It won’t
stand. Rouse stood at a polling
place with his “No on 8” sign
and people stopped and joined
him. They were not volunteers
and just wanted to help. They
were straight but believed a per-
heavily on a 1990 Califor -
nia Supreme Court decision
that invalidated an initiative
amendment intended to pre-
vent the state courts from
interpreting the California
Constitution to grant greater
rights for criminal defendants
than provided under the US
Constitution. The high court
struck this down as a “fun-
damental change in our pre-
existing governmental plan,”
because it shifted the power
to define the rights of criminal
defendants under the Califor-
nia Constitution from the Cali-
fornia Supreme Court to the
United States Supreme Court,
which has no authority to
interpret state constitutions.
son should be free to love. The
polling place he worked was
at a junior high school. When
a basketball game ended, the
youth came out, saw the signs,
and spontaneously chanted,
“No on 8.”
The support for marriage
equality was wide and deep;
straight people understood. It
wasn’t enough but it was a dra-
matic shift from the 61 percent
who voted against gay marriage
in the 2000 referendum.
This energy was everywhere
as Election Day approached,
but it was nowhere to be found
in September. As the campaign
started, volunteers were not
making phone calls or carrying
signs, contributions dribbled
in. The LGBT community got
energized as it became clear
the religious right was trying to
take away our right to marry.
The next time the LGBT
community will fight back
quickly with vivid arguments
and renewed energy. We must
remember that the gains we
have made come from being
out; if we do, those gains will
grow. The right’s victory in
California is temporary.
upholding voter initiative consti-
tutional bans on same-sex mar-
riage. “Those cases were wrong-
ly decided,” Prop 8 opponents
argue, also noting that those
courts never found a fundamen-
tal right to marriage for same-
sex couples in the first place.
The Prop 8 challengers also
assert that because the prop-
osition does not amend the
Constitution’s equal protection
clause, it leaves a fatal incon-
sistency within the document.
That inconsistency would
impair the high court’s role in
defining constitutional rights.
The petition filed by the
LGBT legal advocacy groups,
signed by Shannon Minter of
the National Center for Les-

HEALTH
THU.NOV.20
Together in
Strength
The Lesbian Cancer Initiative (LCI) hosts
its 5th annual “The C-Word,” a commu-
nity-building forum for lesbians, bisexual
women, and transgendered people affected
by cancer, and their loved ones and health-
care providers. The discussion will be led by
both members of the community who are
affected and by representatives of service
organizations. LGBT Community Center,
208 W. 13th St., socializing at 6 p.m.;
program from 7-9. Free. For more informa-
tion, visit gaycenter.org/health/lci.
䉴 7 DAYS, continued on p.22
Legislature first approves it by
a two-thirds majority and then
voters ratify that, or a spe-
cial constitutional convention
adopts it and it is subsequent-
ly seconded at the ballot box.
Those challenging Prop 8
argue that the measure is a
revision because it does more
than simply embed a particu-
lar definition of marriage in the
Constitution. Rather, they say,
it must be seen in light of the
California Supreme Court’s
finding that the right to marry
is fundamental and that in
weighing the equal protec-
tion claim by gay and lesbian
power to veto the judiciary’s rul-
ings upholding the equal protec-
tion rights of unpopular minori-
ties,” she stated.
The Legislature’s role in
such a “revision” is neces-
sary, Stewart’s memorandum
argues, because “if we are to
contemplate changing one of
the ‘permanent and abiding’
principles of our system — if
we are to effect a change that
will have lasting implications
for the ordering of society —
the Constitution requires that
we do so deliberately and with
solemn consideration.”
The Prop 8 opponents rely
Prop 8, they argue, similarly
transfers from the court to the
voters the power to determine
the equal protection rights of
an unpopular minority group.
This is a difficult argument to
make; the California Supreme
Court has rejected challenges
to a variety of initiative amend-
ments making significant alter-
ations in the state’s political
arrangements, such as the infa-
mous Proposition 13 drastically
revising the state’s property tax-
ing authority. The challengers
concede that similar arguments
have been rejected by the Alaska
and Oregon Supreme Courts in
bian Rights, makes a similar
argument, stating that Prop 8
destroys “the courts’ quintes-
sential power and role of pro-
tecting minorities and enforc-
ing the guarantee of equal pro-
tection under the law.”
The Supreme Court’s initial
reaction to the petitions will be
known soon, but it seems like-
ly that the matter will take lon-
ger to resolve if the court gives
Prop 8 proponents time to file
briefs in response and deter-
mines that oral argument is
necessary to resolve the com-
plicated constitutional ques-
tions at stake.
22
■ SNIDE LINES
Obama Picks Bill Ayers as Secretary of Defense!
B
arack Hussein Obama,
newly elected presi-
dent of the People’s
Republic of America, today
announced his choice of Wil-
liam Ayers, a former leader
of the ’70s militant anti-war
group, the Weather Under -
ground, for US Secretary of
Defense. The appointment
allays concer ns of many
peace movement progressives
who had feared that Defense
Secretary Robert Gates, over-
seer of the military surge in
Iraq, would be asked to stay
on.
“Man, oh, man, socialism
has finally come to America!”
sobbed Ayers, when reached
by telephone. “I’ve waited so
long — now I’ll show them
who’s washed up!”
A yers was referring to
attacks by John McCain’s
presidential campaign, which
alleged that Obama harbored
some sort of nefarious, anti-
American ties to the 63-year-
old Ayers, whose organiza-
tion in the 1970s bombed
government sites and staged
confrontational rallies to stop
America’s war in Vietnam. As
McCain became more desper-
ate for support, his insinua-
tions of an Ayers conspiracy
became increasingly com-
mon. The final presidential
debate contains a McCain ref-
erence to Ayers as a “washed-
up terrorist.”
Bill Ayers is, in fact, an
elementary education theo-
rist who has spent the last
few decades above ground,
infiltrating the University
of Illinois at Chicago as a
Distinguished Professor of
Education and Senior Uni-
versity Scholar. In 1997, he
won Chicago’s Citizen of the
Year award for his work on a
䉴 BLAMING, from p.11
strategy was, according to the
blogosphere, only marginally
better than crossing their fin-
gers and hoping “conservative”
voters of color didn’t turn up.
This in a year with the first
black candidate for president!
In fact, the poll numbers
read like a demographic map
of where queer activists them-
selves rarely make an appear-
ance.
I blame it partly on “cultural
difference.” Instead of chal-
lenging racism, that phrase
has increasingly become a
mask for it, the perfect excuse
for white and middle class
BY SUSIE DAY
public school reform project.
Today, he says his past activ-
ism would make him the per-
fect advisor to the president
in matters of “armed strug-
gle.”
H i s t o r y , h o w e v e r, m a y
prove that some Republi-
can suspicions were correct.
Bursting with post-election
Ayers revealed he has been
advising Obama all along, even in
his election night appearance.
glee, Ayers revealed that he
has indeed been advising
Obama all along, even in such
matters as his election night
appearance. “Who do you
think told Michelle to dress
the whole family in red and
black?” asked Ayers. “Way to
subliminally convey our radi-
cal egalitarian, anarcho-com-
munist values!” Ayers said he
looks forward to implement-
ing further “right-on” chang-
es.
“Comrade Obama and I
share a common dream,”
Ayers continued. “We agree
the only way to achieve true
human dignity and justice is
by securing the United States
as an iron-fisted, free-love
liberated zone. To that end,
I shall recommend starting
our administration off with a
series of small property bomb-
ings — of our own military-
industrial complex.”
Such a project would,
according to A yers, ef fec-
tively end the US occupation
of Iraq and Afghanistan and
prevent further encroach-
ments into Pakistan. “First,
activists to stick to their com-
fort zones. Latinos need Latino
outreach workers, and not just
any Latinos, but Latinos from a
similar background. Anything
less is racist, neo-colonialist,
and won’t work. “Great,” say
the middle-class organizers of
all colors. “I didn’t want to go
there anyway.”
Instead of thinking like
niche marketers where like
pitches to like, maybe we
should consider how Christi-
anity and Islam have success-
fully converted whole civiliza-
tions using cultural outsiders.
And not just at gun or saber
point. If they can do it, why not
us?
w w w.G AYC I T Y N E W S .c om
13 – 19 NOV 2008
we bring the boys and girls
home,” explained A yers.
“Then we order them to blow
up Lockheed Martin, Black-
water, Raytheon, AIG — all
the major military contractors
and implicated multination-
als. Finally, we get them to
organize the masses so that,
together, we turn these cor-
porate/ military installations
into daycare centers, food
coops, legal clinics. Whoa,
let’s not forget the Capitol
Building — that would make
a great birthing center.”
Ever “unrepentant,” Ayers
added, “I feel we can’t do
enough.”
President George W. Bush
and Vice President Richard
B. Cheney have not returned
phone calls for several days.
Anonymous sources close to
the president-elect say that
Bush and Cheney are among
several officials from the out-
going administration who are
being held incommunicado at
socialist labor camps, newly
constructed for “the real
washed-up terrorists.”
Experts are unable to pre-
dict how long it will take to
accomplish the “People’s liber-
ation” of the US defense infra-
structure. Former Secretary of
State Colin Powell, who may
well be positioning himself for
a role in the new administra-
tion, cheerfully conjectured:
“We could be in this for years.”
Reached by email, past
Having assigned blame, our
challenge is to transform it by
re-launching our civil rights
movement, this time across
all races, classes, ages, and
ethnic groups. Waiting for the
perfect alignment of activists
can’t be an excuse.
How hard can it be to go
into a neighborhood that’s not
our own and introduce our-
selves? How hard can it be to
ask a bigoted pastor to act like
Christ and value love rather
than beat on his doors like an
avenging angel when he spits
on us? What are they going to
do? Chase us down the street?
(They already do). Call us rac-
ist degenerates if we apply the
presidential contender Hillary
Rodham Clinton, who denies
rumors of her own ambitions
for an Obama Cabinet post,
nevertheless supported the
Ayers appointment. “Let’s
remember that Barack Obama
is the first African-American
to be elected president,” wrote
Clinton, whose current Sen-
ate web page photo shows
her sporting an attractive
blue headband with match-
ing fringed poncho. “No way
is Barack going to play the
Establishment game and pull
the same imperialist crap —
that would be so lame. Peace
Out. ;)”
Everyone in the so-called
“red” states who voted for
McCain was unavailable for
comment. However, the rest
of America appears auda-
cious enough to hope for real
change.
“I want to be able to tell my
kids that everybody’s equal,
war is bad, and the Earth
should be saved — with-
out them thinking I’m some
whacked-out, post-hippie
depressive,” said Minerva
Blaustein, 58, kindergarten
teacher in Astoria, Queens. “I
need to know that things are
getting better.”
Nineteen-year -old Ricky
Sandoval of Brooklyn agreed.
“Baby, I could enlist, get my
degree, and still be able to stay
home and protect my country
from its own war economy,”
said Sandoval. “Because,
now that Obama’s won, the
last thing this country would
do is forget about the deaths
we’ve already caused and
send more troops to the Mid-
dle East — right? The last
thing?”
Details at 11. On the
Weather channel.
phrase “civil rights” to some-
thing as perverse as gay mar-
riage? We all own the promise
of those words.
At a moment when Obama
has crossed a million color
lines on his road to the White
House, it’s time to explode our
own bigotry, let a Guatemalan
go into a black neighborhood.
A Vietnamese into a Mexican
one. Rich ones into poor ones.
Encourage white people, the
most numerous activists, to
risk awkwardness and mis-
steps to go everywhere. In fact,
let’s ignore race altogether as
we target everyone. The stakes
are high — queer lives, queer
liberation, equality.
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
7 DAYS
7 NIGHTS
䉴 7 DAYS, from p.21
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
POETRY
FRI.NOV.21
Bowery Pros
Contributors to the “Bowery Women”
poetry anthology present an evening of
short pieces of provocative performance
poetry in eight individual performances,
of eight minutes each.Participants
include Caribbean-American poets Bow-
ery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery and Rodlyn
Douglas; post-Beat surrealist Janet
Hamill; political poet Kristin Prevallet,
who has studied with the dean of perfor-
mance poetry, Karen Finley; experimen-
tal poet and performer LeeAnn Brown;
“Bowery Women” co-editor Marjorie
Tesser; The O’ Debra Twins, who host the
city’s most notorious open mic; feminist
poet Seren Divine Brevigleiri; and noted
erotica writer and poet Tsaurah Litzky.
Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery at
E. First St., 8 p.m. Admission is $5.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
FAITH
SAT.NOV.22
Supporting Loving
Values
The Fourth Universalist Society in
the City of New York, a Unitarian-Uni-
versalist Congregation and an officially
designated Welcoming Congregation
— meaning it formally welcomes and
supports the LGBT community — may
be one of the best-kept secrets in New
York. Tonight, the congregation pres-
ents its third annual Auction Gala: An
Evening of Love, Light & Loot. Organiz-
ers are looking for donations of goods
and services for the evening at 4thu.
net/auction. Ten percent of the gross
revenues of the evening will go to The
Wedding Party (theweddingparty.org),
which brings visibility to the gay and
lesbian marriage equality movement
through its annual wedding ceremonies
that have kicked off New York’s LGBT
Pride March. 160 Central Park W. at
W. 76th St., 6- 10 p.m.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
Musique à la
SAT.NOV.23
Mode
Musique à la Mode, a chamber
music ensemble that seeks to provide
new and classical music to a diverse
audience, presents “Once Upon a
Time: Stories Told Through Music,” the
first concert in its Music at the Bowery
Series. The afternoon includes Stravin-
sky’s trio version of “A Soldier’s Tale,”
and music by Mendelssohn, Trimble,
and Ridout. St. Mark’s Church in-the-
Bowery, 131 E. Tenth St. at Second
Ave., 2 p.m. Tickets are $10; $5 for stu-
dents & seniors at brownpapertickets.
com/event/48614, at 800-838-3006, or
at the door. 䉴 JUMP, continued on p.22
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 13 – 19 NOV 2008 23

GAY CITY CLASSIFIEDS

DEADLINE WEDNESDAY 5:00PM MAIL 145 SIXTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10013 TEL 646-452-2485 FAX 212.229.2790

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24 13 – 19 NOV 2008 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM

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