ACCESSline, Iowa's LGBT+ Newspaper, December 2010 Issue, Volume 24 No 12

Whoa, Nelly!

“... I know that it can be particularly hard as an LGBT youth in a small community or in a rural town. You might never have known an openly gay adult, but know that in rural America there are thousands of gay adults and teens living normal, happy lives. So even if things are hard right now—if every day is a struggle—know that you are never alone. There are lots of people who care about you. We care about you. If you are having a hard time or being bullied, find a family member, a teacher, a coach, or an older friend and ask them for help. If you are not sure who you can trust, know that there are resources online and folks you can call for free to talk to. Bullies will do their best to make you believe that you are bad, or embarrassing, or wrong.

Don’t let them. ...”

— Former Iowa Governor, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, in a video for the It Gets Better Project, November 24, 2010.

Photo: Richard Bernardin

Singer looks back at decade-long career—when the gays fell for her and the stories behind her biggest hits

AIDS Project of Central Iowa’s “the benefit” raises over $31,000

By Chris Azzopardi Like a bird is exactly how Nelly Furtado’s career has unfurled in the 10 years since she dropped her debut, Whoa, Nelly! The Canadian chanteuse was on top of the world, scoring a Grammy for the album’s breakthrough single, “I’m Like a Bird,” before her follow-up, Folklore, went, well, south.

But then she switched directions, tapping into Timbaland’s boom-boom beats for 2006’s “punk-hop” Loose.

Singles like “Promiscuous” and “Maneater” ate up the charts, and there she went—flying again. Her hits collection, The Best of Nelly Furtado, archives her decade-long run and includes three unreleased cuts, leading off with club single “Night is Young.”

Furtado, 31, took us back, recalling the song she wrote on hotel paper as a chambermaid and how “Maneater” started a fire. But the singer, who was catching a break from recording to chat with us, also looked ahead to next year’s upcoming studio album, Lifestyle…

TTInterview on page 12

Page 6

Page 13

“the benefit… A RED CARPET EVENT” successfully raised over $31,000 at the annual variety show and auction held Sunday, November 7, 2010 at the Embassy Suites on the River in Des Moines. All proceeds support HIV care and prevention services, and anti-stigma initiatives provided by the AIDS Project of Central Iowa.

The 24th edition of what was formerly called The AllIowa AIDS Benefit, this year’s event premiered a red carpet experience offering opportunities for guests to be photographed with entertainers or by themselves. The photos were available for purchase at the end of the evening.

Jazz pianist John Krantz and bass player Eric Krieger opened the show. The impressive of entertainers who performed throughout the evening include the following: The Garden TICKETS $20 IN ADVANCE / $25 AT THE DOOR Nightclub Miss Gay Iowa FFI, Stratton & VISITEnsemble, AIDSPROJECTCI.ORG/BENEFIT FOR Candi MORE INFO Company, Imperial Court of Iowa, Danny & Chris Vierling,

TTTHE BENEFIT continued page 4

Simply Cher

Legend talks film comeback, being a gay icon, and son Chaz

TTInterview on page 21

What’s Inside: Section 1: News & Politics

From the Editor: “Sideshow Bob” Iowa News “the benefit” raises over $31,000 Iowa’s Community Health Centers US News World News “The Hits Just Keep On Coming” by Jonathan Wilson “Resistance to Civility” by Tony E. Hansen Creeps of the Week

Section 2: Fun Guide

Entertainment Picks for December 11 Deep Inside Hollywood 11 Nelly Furtado - Interview by Chris Azzopardi 12 Annie Lennox Speaks Out - by Chris Azzopardi 13 The Outfield 14 Recurring Events, Statewide 15 Hear Me Out (Music Reviews) 16 What’s Cooking with Doc 17 The Gay Wedding Planner: “Donning That Gay Apparel” 18 Simply Cher 21 Cocktail Chatter:Vodka Stinger / The Bellini / Grappa 23 Out of Town: Getting to Know Toronto 25 Book Worm Sez: Gay, Straight and the Reason Why 26 Comics and Crossword Puzzle 26

Section 3: Community

Snap Shots from The CENTER 29 First Friday Breakfast Club: Cyndi Pederson 29 Minor Details: This Generation Gap Really Matters 30 Inside Out: “The Power of Thap” by Ellen Krug 31 “We are like geodes” by Rachel Eliason 32 Bisschopswijn recipes 33 Business Directory 36-37

A FUNDRAISER FOR THE AIDS PROJECT OF CENTRAL IOWA

Page 16

3 4 4 4 5 6 7 7 8

Page 21

Page 25

ACCESSline Page 2

Section 1: News & Politics

DECEMBER 2010

DECEMBER 2010

PUBLICATION INFORMATION Copyright © 2010 ACCESSline P.O. Box 2666 Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2666 (319) 550-0957 www.ACCESSlineIOWA.com editor@ACCESSlineIOWA.com ACCESSline is a monthly publication by Breur Media Corporation. The paper was founded in 1986 by the non-profit organization ACCESS (A Concerned Community for Education, Safer-sex and Support) in Northeast Iowa.

Arthur Breur, Editor in Chief Q Syndicate Rex Wockner News Service Contributors: Bruce Carr; Rachel Eliason; Beau Fodor; Tony E. Hansen; Ellen Krug; Bob Minor; Jonathan Wilson; Sandy Vopalka

All rights reserved. Original material printed in ACCESSline (with the exception of information from other sources) may be “lifted” for use in other publications so long as proper credit is given.

Publication of the name, photograph or likeness of any person, business or organization in ACCESSline is not to be construed as any indication of sexual orientation. Opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ACCESSline, ACCESS or the gay and lesbian community. Letters to the editor may be published. We cannot be responsible for errors in advertising copy.

We welcome the submission of original materials, including line drawings and cartoons, news stories, poems, essays. They should be clearly labeled with author/artist name, address, and phone number. We reserve the right to edit letters and other material for reasons of profanity, space, or clarity. Materials will not be returned. A writer’s guide is available for those wishing to submit original work.

Advertising rates and deadlines are available at ACCESSlineIOWA.com. All ads must be approved by ACCESSline’s editorial board.

Section 1: News & Politics

ACCESSline Page 3

From the Editor: Sideshow Bob Just off his triumphant tour destroying the independence of the Iowa Judiciary, “Sideshow Bob” Vander Plaats has a posh new gig: he is the President and CEO of the newly formed FAMiLY Leader, “which is now the parent organization of Iowa Family Policy Center, Marriage Matters, and Iowa Family PAC.” The organization has declared itself “a consistent, courageous voice in the churches, in the legislature, in the media, in the courtroom, in the public square, always standing for God’s truth.”* (Oh, and the “i” in “FAMiLY” is lower case because Sideshow Bob doesn’t want anyone to think that his new position has anything to do with his own ego or anything. Get it? “I” is not as important as “FAM’LY”—or rather, his own hard conservative celebrity status is not as important as forcing his particular idea of “fam’ly values” on everybody else in the state and the country.)

With his new reported $120,000 annual salary he will almost be making as much as Iowa’s new governor—who is not, by the way, Bob Vander Plaats. Fortunately for the state, Sideshow Bob is too far to the right for the comfort of even the majority of Iowa’s Republican Party—this even though the party has the following items in its official platform: “We call for the repeal of sexual orientation in the Iowa Civil Rights Code…”

“We support an amendment to both the U. S. and Iowa constitutions that states that all marriages should be traditional one natural male and one natural female, omitting transgendered.”

“We favor improvement, strengthening, and simplification of adoption laws, and oppose adoption by homosexuals.”

“We oppose the State of Iowa, its Courts, and its political subdivisions creating or recognizing a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals.”

My favorite (and the most extremist): “We support a Concurrent Resolution of the U.S. Congress asserting its Constitutional authority to …[deny]… the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction over cases relating to marriage.”

So even though Sideshow Bob’s own views don’t differ tremendously from the official Iowa Republican Platform, Iowans still thought he was too far to the right for their comfort…

ACCESSline Wants To Hear From You! Send in photos and reports of your events... especially benefits and conferences.

Please send us information on any of the following: • Corrections to articles • Stories of LGBT or HIV+ interest, both in and outside of Iowa • Letters to the editor • Editorials or opinion pieces • Engagement and wedding ceremony announcements or photos • Questions on any topic we print • Photos and writeups about shows, events, pageants, and fundraisers

Please email us at Editor@ACCESSlineIOWA.com. You may also contact us at our regular address: ACCESSline PO Box 2666 Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2666

ACCESSline reserves the right to print letters to the editor and other feedback at the editor’s discretion.

…as he was for his unsuccessful GOP bid for Iowa Governor 2002. And as he was for his unsuccessful bid for Iowa Lieutenant Governor 2006. And, of course, as he was again this year in yet another unsuccessful bid for governor.

Which was when Sideshow Bob found his groove—and showed us all what is really important to him. He couldn’t get the governor’s office, even claiming that his first priority was, “Let’s open Iowa for business”—though remember, he said his first action as governor would be to sign an illegal Executive Order instructing Iowa’s clerks not to issue any more marriage licenses to same-sex couples—so he instead headed a campaign focused on imposing social conservative values on everyone else by punishing supreme court justices who had ruled in a way that he didn’t like. (Notice: further proving his real motivations, he did not jump into a position focused on trying to bring business to Iowa; his top motivation in everything he does is stopping same-sex couples from getting any legal recognition or protection for their long-term relationships.

Isn’t it creepy when “straight” people are so obsessed with gay people?)

Now, it is important to note that it was not a majority of Iowans who thought the justices should be removed from office, it was merely a majority of the Iowans who voted. This was the same tactic used in the Presidential elections for George Bush, which was “motivate the anti-gay folks to vote on a social issue, and they will mark the rest of the ballot for the perceived social conservatives as well.”

But never forget: Sideshow Bob only managed to pull off this judicial injustice by bringing in nearly one million dollars of outof-state special-interest money to do it.

(Yeah, yeah, Iowa’s LGBT community depends on out-of-state help too, but when the spending on a retention election is weighted five to one against the justices, one can’t claim that the voters just “came to the conclusion” that these three justices deserved a “no” vote.)

And Bob is destined to remain in the sideshow, despite his recent moment in the spotlight. Why? Because the people who are actually affected by same-sex marriage will continue to fight for their equal protection under the constitution. And the people who only imagine that they will somehow

lose rights or no longer have freedom of religion, those people will realize that they’ve been suckered by an illusionist only, and that they—like 90% of Iowans polled noticed— are not adversely affected by someone else having the right to be legally married.

The FAMiLY Leader:

Or “Not a Christian? Screw you.”

From their new web site: “The FAMiLY LEADER champions the principle that God is the ultimate leader of the family. Our goal is to honor and glorify God—not a political party, not a candidate, and not a program. The Family Leader is a Christ-centered organization that will lead with humility and service to strengthen and protect the family.”

Marriage: We believe marriage is a permanent, lifelong commitment between a man and a woman.

Sanctity of Life: The Family Leader actively supports protection of life from conception to natural death.

Sexuality: The Family Leader affirms sexual relations within the bond of marriage, and opposes distortions of sexuality or special rights to those practicing distorted sexual behavior.

Judicial Activism: The Family Leader strongly supports efforts to keep judicial activism in check.

Education: We believe truth exists and educational responsibility lies first with parents. The Family Leader works to ensure parents can choose the type of education that reflects their values. *Yeah. You know you’re in trouble when someone starts saying that their truth is better than anyone else’s truth. Just ignore scientific observation or obvious facts, of course, because regardless of whether it has been proven true or not, their version of “God’s truth” is truthier.

Subscribe to ACCESSline

Thank you for reading ACCESSline, Iowa’s only statewide, monthly LGBT newspaper. Our goal continues to be to keep the community informed about gay organizations, events, HIV/AIDS news, politics, national and international news, and other critical issues. Don’t miss it! $36 for 12 issues. Subscribe at: ACCESSlineIOWA.com or…

Send this completed form with $36 for a one year subscription (12 issues) or RENEW AT YOUR PREVIOUS RATE. Send to: ACCESSline, PO Box 2666, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2666 and we’ll send you ACCESSline in a plain brown envelope!

Good for the $36 annual rate!

Name:________________________________________________ Address:_ _____________________________________________ City:______________________ State:_____ Zip:___________

ACCESSline Page 4

Section 1: News & Politics

DECEMBER 2010

IOWA NEWS

discredited by scientific authorities—and Anti-gay organizations lyrepeated, groundless name-calling. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify that funded judicial organizations for listing as hate groups.” ouster declared hate groups by SPLC Bob Vander Plaats to The Southern Poverty Law Center added head new anti-gay an additional eight organizations to the thirteen already on its official hate groups list. conservative group Three of the newly listed organizations were directly responsible for the ouster of Iowa’s three Supreme Court Justices in November.

The American Family Association, the Family Research Council, and the National Organization for Marriage spent nearly one million dollars on their successful campaign to oust the three Iowa Supreme Court Justices who were up for retention votes in 2010.

None of these three organizations is based in Iowa, but they provided money for attack ads on television and radio, and, in the case of the American Family Association, funded “Iowa for Freedom.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center determines its “hate group” designation not merely based on an organization’s objection to homosexuality or homosexual behavior, but on false information and propaganda: “Even as some well-known anti-gay groups like Focus on the Family moderate their views, a hard core of smaller groups, most of them religiously motivated, have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities. These groups’ influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest, because the ‘facts’ they disseminate about homosexuality are often amplified by certain politicians, other groups and even news organizations. … Generally, the SPLC’s listings of these groups is based on their propagation of known falsehoods—claims about LGBT people that have been thorough-

The Iowa Family Policy Center, Marriage Matters, and Iowa Family PAC are now part of a larger umbrella organization called The FAMiLY LEADER. Bob Vander Plaats will be its first President and CEO. “The Family Leader champions the principle that God is the ultimate leader of the family. Our goal is to honor and glorify God—not a political party, not a candidate, and not a program. The Family Leader is a Christ-centered organization that will lead with humility and service to strengthen and protect the family.”

According to a report by WHOTV, “The ‘I’ in FAMiLY is not capitol [sic] because Vander Plaats says “I” is not the most important component in marriage and family.

In addition to being against same-sex marriage, the group “opposes distortions of sexuality or special rights to those practicing distorted sexual behavior” (in other words, they are against affirming LGBT people or any civil rights being applied to LGBT people).

Washington, D.C. - As part of his continuing support for Iowa’s Community Health Centers, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today announced that the Iowa Nebraska Primary Care Association will receive $75,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The funding, which will be used to provide for additional training and technical assistance at all of Iowa’s community health centers, was made available by the Affordable Care Act, historic health reform legislation that was signed into law earlier this year. As Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Harkin played a pivotal role in the Senate

passage of the new law. He also serves as chair of the Senate panel that funds health initiatives.

“Community health centers play a critical role in Iowa, providing health care for thousands who lack adequate health insurance,” said Harkin. “These funds will help to ensure that all Iowans get the quality, affordable health care they need.”

Harkin has been an ardent supporter of Iowa’s 13 federally-funded community health centers and has obtained funds for the facilities’ construction, equipment purchases, and dental expansions through his work on the Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations subcommittee.

Fred Karger starts presidential bid

The 2012 presidential race has officially begun, and openly gay GOP presidential candidate, Fred Karger, is apparently the first self-declared Republican presidential candidate in the 2012 election. He made his announcement on November 23 on

$75,000 coming to support Iowa’s community health centers

SScontinued from page 1

THE BENEFIT Michael Miller, Roosevelt High School “Rent” cast, Tyona Diamond, Michael Jackson (aka Chris Dewees), Madison Cavalier, SaddleItes, Lady Adawnis, Benefit Idol Group, and the Miss Nobodys. Bonnie Bitch (aka Steve Daly), Selena Sakowitz (aka Ross Wallace), Seven Love (aka Tony Zika), and Stinky (akaBryan Smith) served as emcees/auctioneers.

“I had a great planning committee which worked very hard to make ‘the benefit’ a success. I’m very fortunate and grateful”, said Chairperson Frank Vaia. The committee included Alden Adams, Matt Biretz, Jim Grim, Jesus Lopez, Anthony Marinaro, Nathan Ritz, Jim Sterba, Cy Stewart, David Vitiritto, Ross Wallace, and Tony Zika.

Next year will mark “the benefit’s” 25th anniversary. “I’ll’’ be quite a celebration!”, says Vaia.

Radio Iowa.

Karger started running a 90-second television ad on Fox News in late November.

He has also started an exploratory committee for which he hired Nathan Treloar as his Iowa state director.

In May 2010, Iowa’s Republican National Committeeman, Steve Scheffler sent a hostile email to Karger: “…you and the radical homosexual community want to harass supporters of REAL marriage. I am the Republican National Committeeman for Iowa. As a private citizen and knowing literally thousands of caucus goers, I will work overtime to help ensure that your political aspirations are aborted right here in Iowa. Have you studied our past caucuses–you have NO chance here in Iowa!”

In response to Scheffler’s email, Karger

said, “Mr. Scheffler, I’m a fighter. I’m fighting for millions of people around this country who are members of my community and so many others who are deemed second class citizens. We will no longer accept that classification. I, for one, will not be scared away from Iowa by you.”

In the commercial spot, Karger appeals to trying to build unity rather than continuing the current political partisanship: ‘I’m concerned that the partisan rancor is only going to continue and get in the way of our country’s progress. I learned from my mentor, Ronald Reagan, the importance of getting along, and I’ve spent a lifetime working with and supporting Republicans and Democrats a value that has only been reinforced in my fight for civil rights.’

For more information on Fred Karger, visit: FredKarger.com

DECEMBER 2010

Section 1: News & Politics

ACCESSline Page 5

US NEWS news analysis by Rex Wockner

Rea Carey. Photo: Rex Wockner

HHS mandates same-sex-partner hospital visitation The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its final rule Nov. 17 on ending discrimination against samesex couples in hospital visitation policies.

The rule, which takes effect in January, directs any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds—nearly all hospitals—to have written visitation policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

In addition, the hospitals must inform patients of their right to receive visitors of their choosing, “including, but not limited to, a spouse, a domestic partner (including a same-sex domestic partner), another family member or a friend.”

The rule will cover about 6,200 hospitals with more than 35 million patient admissions per year.

“Of all the things same-sex couples have to worry about, of all the discrimination and pressures we face, not being able to see our partner or spouse shouldn’t be one of them,” said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

“Today’s announcement honors our relationships, our love and our basic humanity.”

DADT protesters arrested at White House

Thirteen supporters of direct-action group GetEQUAL were arrested at the White House fence Nov. 15 after handcuffing themselves to it and supergluing their handcuff locks.

They demanded that the Senate join the House in authorizing repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military ban on noncloseted GLBs before the Senate adjourns this year.

Arrested were Dan Choi, Autumn Sandeen, Evelyn Thomas, Mara Boyd, Geoff Farrow, Robin McGehee, Miriam Ben-Shalom, Justin Elzie, Ian Finkenbinder, Robert Smith, Dan Fotou, Scott Wooledge and Michael Bedwell.

“Included in the 13 arrested are veterans and advocates spanning three generations of brave and courageous Americans, who sacrificed their careers and lives to see the day this discriminatory ban on openly gay and lesbian service in the military finally goes into the history books,” said GetEQUAL Director Robin McGehee. “Today, we have sent a loud and clear message to the U.S. Senate and President (Barack) Obama that we expect them to make good on their promises to end this inhumane law this year, during the lame-duck session of Congress.”

DADT was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal District Court earlier this year and, for eight days, an injunction prohibited the military from kicking out open gays or barring them from enlisting. In the end, the Obama administration appealed the injunction all the way to the Supreme Court, which refused to overturn a stay of it issued by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That reinstated the policy for the duration of the appeals of the District Court ruling.

Obama has said he wants Congress, not courts, to end the ban. And Justice Department lawyers argued in court filings that the ban must not be lifted abruptly by a judge because that would harm military operations.

The House of Representatives voted earlier this year to authorize the armed forces to end DADT, but the Senate failed to follow suit.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has been conducting a massive survey of troops and their families, due to be released in December, to help it decide how to end DADT. Leaked reports of the findings suggest that a majority of members of the military are not troubled by openly gay servicemembers.

But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has, for all intents and purposes, vowed to continue to block Senate authorization of DADT repeal, complaining that the massive Pentagon survey didn’t ask the right questions.

“All four service chiefs are saying we need a thorough and complete study of the effects—not how to implement a repeal, but the effects on morale and battle effectiveness,” McCain told MSNBC on Nov. 14. “That’s what I want, and once we get this (current) study, we need to have hearings and we need to examine it and we need to look at whether it’s the kind of study that we wanted. It isn’t, in my view, because I wanted a study to determine the effects of the repeal on battle effectiveness and morale. What this study is designed to do is to find out how the repeal could be implemented.”

The DADT repeal measure is part of the bill that funds the U.S. military in 2011. As a result, McCain’s obstructionism has left the overall funding bill unpassed by the Senate as well.

Some surveys have found that nearly 80 percent of Americans are fine with letting gays in the military come out of the closet by ending the DADT policy.

Meanwhile, two days after the protest, McGehee was invited into the White House to meet with Brian Bond, the openly gay deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, “and (with) someone from the domestic-policies office and the legal counsel.”

“What it proved to me was that we were in a situation where we took bold action and we applied pressure, and the president and his staff were not afraid to talk to the people that really are showing frustration,” McGehee said. “If you apply pressure, it does not mean you’re going to lose your access.”

McGehee insisted that the meeting be on-the-record, which the White House refused to agree to, so the administration representatives merely listened to what she had to say but did not offer comments of their own, McGehee said.

White House DADT demonstration. Photos: Sean Carlson, Talk About Equality “[Bond] said their standard for the meeting was that they would listen and we would talk, but he would not engage further than that,” she said.

Supremes refuse to block DADT

The Supremes are keeping Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in force.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 12 refused to vacate an order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that suspended an injunction from the federal District Court in Riverside, Calif., that prohibited the U.S. government from enforcing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military gay ban.

Which means: DADT can be enforced during appeal of the Riverside decision that found it unconstitutional—unless President Barack Obama, Congress and the Pentagon end the ban in the interim.

Plaintiff Log Cabin Republicans had asked the Supreme Court to vacate the 9th Circuit order, thereby allowing Riverside Judge Virginia Phillips’ injunction to go back into force. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who hears such requests from the 9th Circuit, referred the matter to the full Supreme Court, where Justice Elena Kagan opted not to take part in the decision.

Phillips issued her injunction Oct. 12 after finding that DADT violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free speech, due process and right to petition for redress of grievances.

The injunction remained in place until Oct. 20, when the 9th Circuit issued a brief stay while it decided whether to issue a longer stay, which it did Nov. 1.

During the eight days the injunction was in force, the military stopped kicking gays and lesbians out of the services and began letting them re-enlist.

The Obama administration’s insistence on appealing Phillips’ DADT strikedown has been highly irritating to gay activists, given that the president says he strongly opposes DADT. Obama, however, says the policy needs to be ended by Congress, which created it, not the courts.

The administration also has argued that the Justice Department has an obligation to defend federal laws that are challenged, and that DADT should not be ended abruptly

because that will disrupt and harm military operations.

The Pentagon recently conducted a massive survey of members of the military to help it decide how to end DADT. Leaked versions of the findings, which will be released officially in December, reportedly reveal that most members of the armed forces are fine with GLB people serving openly.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure this year authorizing the military to end DADT but the Senate did not follow suit after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., staged a filibuster over the matter.

“It is unfortunate that an unconstitutional law that is causing substantial harm to military readiness and to tens of thousands of troops is allowed to remain in effect for even one more day,” said Alexander Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United.

“This just underscores the need to continue to put pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow the defense authorization bill (which includes DADT repeal language) to come back up and take its first procedural step before the Senate’s Thanksgiving recess,” Nicholson said.

“Servicemembers United, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Stonewall Democrats, and the Log Cabin Republicans have all strongly and consistently called on Sen. Reid to do just that. It is now time for other organizations, as well as the White House, to publicly do the same.”

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force urged supporters to call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and tell both of their U.S. senators to authorize repeal of DADT by voting for the defense-authorization bill this month.

“We can only be assured of having the 60 votes we need if we can change minds before the new members of the Senate take their seats,” the group said.

But LCR attorney Dan Woods thinks that ship has all but sunk.

“With the likelihood of Congress repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell fading with each passing day, judicial relief continues to be perhaps the most viable avenue for ending this unconstitutional policy,” Woods said. “We and Log Cabin Republicans will continue to fight on to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans who want to serve in our

TTUS NEWS continued page 10

ACCESSline Page 6

Section 1: News & Politics

World News news analysis by Rex Wockner UN dumps gays

The United Nations General Assembly voted Nov. 16 to remove a reference to sexual orientation from a resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

The resolution urges member states to protect the right to life of all people and calls on them to investigate killings based on discriminatory grounds. For the past 10 years, the resolution has included sexual orientation in a list of discriminatory grounds on which killings are often based.

The amendment to remove sexual orientation was sponsored by the African nation of Benin. The vote was 79 to 70 with 17 abstentions and 26 absences.

“This vote is a dangerous and disturbing development,” said Cary Alan Johnson, executive director of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission. “It essentially removes the important recognition of the particular vulnerability faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people—a recognition that is crucial at a time when 76 countries around the world criminalize homosexuality, five consider it a capital crime, and countries like Uganda are considering adding the death penalty to their laws criminalizing homosexuality.”

The General Assembly’s move “flies in the face of the overwhelming evidence that people are routinely killed around the world because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation and renders these killings invisible or unimportant,” IGLHRC added in a joint statement with ARC International.

Voting to remove sexual orientation from the resolution were Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Voting to keep sexual orientation in the resolution were Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bhutan, BosniaHerzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Abstaining were Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belarus, Cambodia, Cape Verde,

Cameroonian activist honored by Human Rights Watch

This year’s gay pride parade in Vilnius, Lithuania. ILGA-Europe photo Colombia, Fiji, Mauritius, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Absent were Albania, Bolivia, Central African Republic, Chad, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Nauru, Nicaragua, Palau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Togo, Tonga, Turkey and Turkmenistan.

DECEMBER 2010

Lithuanian no-promo-homo bill fails in first vote

pride events.”

Amnesty International has denounced the proposals, saying, “It is hard to believe that a member of the European Union should even be considering the adoption of such legislation.”

Last year, Lithuania enacted the “Law on the Protection of Minors Against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information.”

It bans information that promotes sexual relationships, “denigrates family values” or encourages a nonheterosexual concept of marriage and family in any sort of location where such information could be accessed by a minor.

Lithuania’s Parliament on Nov. 17 narrowly rejected a bill that would have banned public promotion of homosexual relations.

The vote was a “first reading”; the second reading, or next vote, will occur in December.

According to the Lithuanian Gay League, the measure would impose fines or jail time for “promoting homosexual relations in public places” or “financing of the promotion in public places.”

“If these amendments are ultimately adopted, the Lithuanian government will have the authority to prosecute on an extremely wide variety of actions and activities,” LGL said. “These actions include, but are not limited to, campaigning on human rights issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity, providing sexual health information to LGBT people, the organization of gay film festivals, and organizing and/or attending

France’s Constitutional Council will decide within three months whether samesex marriage should be legal.

The council was assigned the task by the Court of Cassation, the highest appeals court, in a case that originated in a lower court in Reims.

In assigning the case, the appeals court said that times change, morals evolve and other countries let same-sex couples marry.

France has a civil-partnership act that grants gay couples some rights of marriage.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Mexico City, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

French court to rule on same-sex marriage

Cameroonian gay rights activist Steave Nemande has been honored by Human Rights Watch with its Extraordinary Activism award for 2010.

He has campaigned for decriminalization of gay sex in the African nation.

“Nemande’s courage and expertise in this threatening climate in both Cameroon and the region have brought his organization, Alternatives-Cameroun, international respect,” HRW said.

Nemande accepted the award at a Nov. 15 event in Beverly Hills, Calif., hosted by NBC newsman Tom Brokaw.

Steave Nemande

Leading Polish activist claims police beat him Leading Polish gay activist Robert Biedron of the Campaign Against Homophobia was arrested by police Nov. 11 while protesting at a Warsaw march by right-wing groups.

Biedron says police “brutally” beat him. Police say Biedron assaulted a police officer.

Biedron has filed a complaint against one officer with prosecutors. He denied charges that he grabbed a cop’s baton and hit the officer in the face with it.

“We are appalled and saddened by the conduct of the police,” said CAH’s Tomasz Szypula. “We fail to understand how such situations can still take place in a democratic state.”

Colombian high court refuses to rule on samesex marriage

Colombia’s Constitutional Court refused to rule in a same-sex marriage case Nov. 11, saying the plaintiffs’ legal arguments were not good enough to warrant a hearing from the court.

The petitioners had sought to strike language from the Civil Code that defines marriage as a contract between a man and a woman.

But, in a 5-4 vote, the court said, “The charges of violation of the rights to equality,

TTWORLD NEWS continued page 9

DECEMBER 2010

Section 1: News & Politics

ACCESSline Page 7

The Hits Just Keep On Coming by Jonathan Wilson Or, more accurately, the civics lessons just keep on coming, one after another: elementary principles underlying our constitutional democracy that should have been mastered thanks to competent instruction in elementary school. Yet these principles seem to have eluded many of our fellow citizens, on the left and on the right—a testimony, perhaps, to the failure of our commitment to fund quality public education for far too long.

A case in point is the infamous Reverend [sic] Fred Phelps’s protest at the funeral of an American soldier killed in Iraq. Now before the US Supreme Court, the case tests the constitutional right to free expression, free from the threat of offending the protest target and getting hit with a huge money judgment by a sympathetic jury. Like it or not, free expression only has meaning if it is recognized and protected for decidedly— even universally—unpopular views. It is otherwise illusory, available only to cheerleaders, and essentially meaningless. I, for one, celebrate such protests, however distasteful, because they (1) affirm my cherished right to express unpopular views and, in this case (2) actually generate allies for gay/lesbian citizens.

Another case in point is the recent decision of the Iowa Supreme Court endorsing the not-so-novel concept that “equal rights” guaranteed to us by the Iowa Constitution actually means equal rights. When the Iowa Legislature co-opted the term “marriage” as shorthand for access to a whole body of rights and privileges, it set up an inevitable

test case.

It should have been instructive to the discerning that this was a unanimous decision of a Supreme Court comprised of Democrats and Republicans. But the important civics lesson lies in the functioning of a truly independent judiciary. Folks would be naïve to think that the justices were not fully cognizant of their vulnerability to losing their jobs a few at a time with non-retention votes; despite that they did what they genuinely believed to be required by the plain language and meaning of our Constitution.

That makes their unanimous decision all the more impressive: they could easily enough (if integrity meant nothing) made the decision 4-3, the latter being those up for the next retention vote. Integrity did mean something: an independent judiciary remains essential, and the vengeful non-retention vote will do nothing to change equal access to marriage in Iowa.

Yet another case in point is the infamous Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the statute adopted by Congress that purports to exempt states from the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution. Two suits have recently been filed to challenge that misguided piece of pandering legislation. The legislation is no more defensible than would be a similar statute supposedly letting individual states elect not to recognize interracial marriages lawfully performed in another state. Every fifth grader knows— or should know—that an act of Congress cannot amend the dictates of the United States Constitution. Members of Congress

who voted for it, and the President who signed it—all of whom are sworn first and foremost to defend the Constitution—are an embarrassment and should be ashamed of themselves.

And yet another case in point is the recent federal court decision that declared unconstitutional the misguided “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that has compromised the integrity of our military and the security of our nation since the first day it was implemented. The Obama administration, despite the President’s declared opposition to the DADT policy, has dutifully appealed the decision. That is as it should be if the President’s opposition is based solely on a conviction that DADT is merely bad policy.

If, on the other hand, the President genuinely felt that the statute is more than bad policy, and is actually unconstitutional as held by the court, then as one sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution, Obama should have opted against an appeal. His decision either way should have been couched, and explained to the American people, in those terms. Only then would the appropriate civics lesson have been reinforced.

And to think that all of these civics lessons are because of little ol’ us: gay and lesbian American citizens and children of God. Each of these lessons offers up a teaching/learning moment.

Bigotry—whether it be racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise—is simply prideful ignorance. These teaching/learning moments educate the ignorant and, over time, attack bigotry at its core. However

distasteful the public discourse in sorting through them, obvious progress continues to be made.

We need to re-commit to funding quality public education, because every day more ignorant people are being born. We either get these lessons taught by fifth grade, or we’re destined to do this all over again.

In the book, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-minded America Is Tearing Us Apart, Bill Bishop describes an idea that public civility has broken down due to people migrating into self-isolating “likeminded communities”. While reading the book, I kept considering a different issue that may be spurring some of the public hostility. A core element seems to be resistant to change and clinging to old paradigms (e.g. traditions, belief systems, “the way things are done”) that are changing. Thus, the migration of people may influence civility, but civility’s collapse seems more rooted in people willing to cling to certain outdated, if not incorrect, ideals and perceptions.

Bishop proposes the idea that people are migrating towards others that share certain lifestyle patterns. Bishop seems to argue that this goes beyond what happens in the physical world where cultures will form neighborhoods and communities around a particular culture (especially religion) within a country. In these ways, people reinforce their perception of life and what they do because they find others to support them and their existing beliefs. They, together, grow in rejection of what they do not believe regardless of the relevance or accuracy, and reinforce what is perceived as “good” and “bad”. We choose to live near people “like us”. For reasons like safety, peer acceptance, or social norms, this is a conscious decision; in other ways, these decisions are motivated by unconscious perceptions and clinging to perceptions of what is “truth”.

Expectations, accepted values, lifestyles

and the ideas of “normalcy” have changed significantly over the years where traditional beliefs and assumptions are being challenged. Assumptions about economic prosperity were foregone conclusions as part of the post-World War II boom going into the 1970s. Since then, substantial failures like the Vietnam War, the energy crisis, and Watergate eroded trust in social institutions which began to reverse our perceptions and our trust in the social advances that previously seemed like normal parts of American lifestyles. The perceived failures of social institutions (e.g. schools, taxes, welfare, corruption, and public health) provide more fodder against accepting certain viewpoints.

Then, politicians, pundits, advertising campaigns, and wars have further eroded trust to the extent that moderate individuals can no longer seem capable of governing because innuendo and invalid assumptions have replaced responsible actions and logic.

People reject a responsibility for “politically incorrect” actions because that challenges some traditions and assumptions.

As well, ideas of political incorrectness makes people feel like government or the “elites” are acting like a scolding and nagging parent, treating us like adolescent kids. This explains why and how people are willing to use religion to justify an action or comments as well as to belong to something. What Mr. Bishop describes as “mega-churches” do well because they have learned to cater to that. In this highly individualistic society with instant information access, people

simply do not want to be told that they are wrong, that they cannot have something, or that they have been walking down the wrong path.

While Bishop’s observed cluster migration may influence the breakdown in civility, the breakdown seems to have more to do with a growing resistance to inevitable change, resistance to social responsibilities, fervently clinging to invalid (or one-sided) paradigms, and unwillingness to accept opinions that challenge those paradigms.

Certain myths and paradigms in culture and life are no longer relevant to current society, or are no longer as important as they once were. This fosters fear and animosity within those unwilling to accept the change, regardless of the inevitability of change. This clinging to myths (or fears) perpetuates a disconnection from the root of the issues; those wishing to perpetuate the “old” paradigms do so through unfounded rhetoric and demonizing their opposition, even when that is a disservice to the person or the community. Extremism builds as each side outright rejects the other and builds cultural or communication barriers to those opposing viewpoints. The learning that inevitably arises from diverse opinions and compromise premise of the American democracy gets lost in the self-isolation and narrowing of acceptable public policy.

No one is exempt from this idea of conscious or unconscious clinging to assumptions or traditions unless we learn to resist clinging and to let go of our paradigms.

Until then, we will continue to reinforce the

myths and perceptions that manifest in our communities. Until then, people will only “preach to the choir” without learning from counterpoints. Until then, we conform to those paradigms regardless of their intrinsic value to our actual being or to our community as a whole. Until then, people will continue to focus upon misperceptions and upon the individual over the community.

We find ourselves clinging to past “truths” about what we are and why we do things and those “truths” define who we are in the present. Sometimes, this works in our favor by ignoring painful issues to focus upon the positive aspects of life. Sometimes, we have to accept responsibility for our actions as well as inaccurate assumptions, or we have to realize that the perceptions were wrong (perhaps be willing to make amends). Sometimes, the hard issues have to be addressed and cannot be ignored as they impact our interactions both consciously and unconsciously. Yet, we do not have to dwell upon negative experiences, either real or perceived.

Ultimately, the resolution to the civility issues in our current society rests with our own actions, our own speech and our own civil acceptance of opposing points (e.g. the self). What is my part in perpetuating the paradigm and are my assumptions correct?

Am I holding onto myths that perpetuate an inaccurate or outright incorrect perception of reality?

Until we do our part and until we have peace within ourselves as well as with our society, the civility will be a myth.

Jonathan Wilson is an attorney at the Davis Brown Law Firm in Des Moines, and chairs the First Friday Breakfast Club (ffbciowa.org), an educational, non-profit corporation for gay men in Iowa who gather on the first Friday of every month to provide mutual support, to be educated on community affairs, and to further educate community opinion leaders with more positive images of gay men. It is the largest breakfast club in the state of Iowa.

He can be contacted at JonathanWilson@ DavisBrownLaw.com or 515-288-2500.

Resistance to Civility and Changing Paradigms by Tony E. Hansen

ACCESSline Page 8

Section 1: News & Politics

DECEMBER 2010

Creep of the Week by D’Anne Witkowski Peter LaBarbera (aka “Porno Pete”)

Actually, no offense to Frank, but I think a lot of women actually wouldn’t mind DeGeneres doing their pat down if only because she’d probably make the whole experience Have you ever been at an airport looking pretty hilarious rather than humiliating and around you at all of the harried travelers degrading.

Using TSA officers of the same sex as the in flip flops and sweatpants stuffing their faces with dinner-plate-sized Cinnabons and passenger getting the pat down is “to assure thought to yourself, “If only there was a job the public that sexual tension will be taken out of the equation, said LaBarbera. “Hence, that would pay me to grope these people?”

Well, it’s your lucky day. There is such we must take seriously the self-identified desires of homosexuals. a job. As an agent of the Transportation Security LaBarbera asks, “Is it fair ‘Gay’ men define themas being sexually Administration you’ll to travelers who may end up selves attracted to other men. get to participate in the new “enhanced” getting ‘groped’ by homosexual Lesbians are sexually pat downs that include TSA agents who are secretly attracted to women. And are attracted genital touching. The getting turned on through the bisexuals to both.” thing is, if you’re female Thanks for the you can only grope process?” human sexuality lesson, ladies. If you’re male, you can only grope guys. In other words, it’s LaBarbera. Very informative and helpful.

There’s something I think LaBarbera doesn’t the perfect job for homos!

Now, no doubt and obviously, gays and understand, however. When he says, for lesbians are quitting their jobs and unem- example, that “Lesbians are sexually attracted ployed homos are throwing down their “Will to women,” he seems to mean, and believe, Work for Groping Privileges” signs and flock- that lesbians are attracted to all women. ing to their local TSA hiring offices saying, Anyone with a vagina will do. Same thing with gay men and penises.

“Sign me up! Hell, I’ll do it for free!”

LaBarbera asks, “Is it fair to travelers Unfortunately, Peter LaBarbera (a.k.a.

“Porno Pete”) of Americans for Truth about who may end up getting ‘groped’ by homoHomosexuality wants to ruin everyone’s sexual TSA agents who are secretly getting fun by raising the alarm on homosexual turned on through the process?”

This, of course, is only happening in America’s nationwide TSA grope party.

Pointing out that “pat downs” on passen- LaBarbera’s wild imagination. But seeing gers are done by a TSA agent of the same sex, gays and lesbians as anything other than LaBarbera asks, “But what about homosexual sex-crazed perverts who get a secret thrill TSA agents? Isn’t it just as inappropriate for a every time they touch the under wire of your ‘gay’ male TSA agent to pat down male travel- grandmother’s bra or paw at your dad’s nut ers as it is for a normal, heterosexual male sack would ruin LaBarbera’s narrative where homosexuals are lurking everywhere just TSA agent to pat down female travelers?”

Good question. Never mind the invasive- waiting to pounce on you and your private ness of the TSA’s new procedures, the real parts.

The only solution, of course, is to do issue is that God-loving heterosexuals don’t want sex-crazed homosexuals rooting around away with all homosexual TSA employees. Of course, then you have homosexual travelers in their ass cracks in the name of security.

“The reality is, most traveling men “secretly getting turned on” via TSA grope. would not want Barney Frank to pat them So you’ll have to ban them, too. And with no down at the airport security checkpoint,” homos flying or working in airports, well, I LaBarbera continued. “Neither would it be suppose they could always go Gayhound. fair to assign Ellen DeGeneres to pat down female travelers.”

He’s right. Most travelers probably wouldn’t want Barney Frank and Ellen DeGeFor about a day Cindy McCain was neres doing their pat downs because passen- literally a poster woman against anti-gay gers would be all, “Hey, aren’t you wildly bullying. She appears, along with a bunch over qualified for this job? Don’t you have a of celebrities including Gene Simmons, legislation to write or a TV show to tape?”

Dr. Drew, Slash—and a lot of young and

Cindy McCain

impossibly beautiful folks I have personally collective psyche and how that’s basically never heard of because I am too old—in a waving a red cape in front of gay kids. (In PSA for the NOH8 Campaign responding to this analogy, the bullies are bulls. Get it?) the recent and much publicized string of And you very specifically, with your own mouth and voice and weirdly tight face, gay kids committing suicide.

Speaking earnestly while starring into named the ban on gays in the military as the camera with her icy blue eyes, McCain one of these biggest offenders.

John Aravosis of America Blog was says, “Our political and religious leaders tell particularly incensed as he’d just praised LGBT youth that they have no future.

They can’t serve our country openly.” Cindy McCain for the ad the day before.

After cycling through a few more celeb- “Did she lie today or lie yesterday? Either rities who share anti-gay “fun facts” (Dave way she’s a liar and she should be removed Navarro: “They can’t get married.” Steph from the NOH8 video because, as of right now, Cindy McCain Jones: “They can’t donate blood.” Antonio Wait, what? You just got is a hater,” he wrote. to mention, great Cromartie: “They’re done telling us in a PSA that “Not message she just sent to not even allowed to adopt in certain states.” the government treats gays like gay youth. If someone pressures you, cave and Tom “Dancing with the- second class citizens … support hate.”

Stars” Bergeron says, My guess is that Grandpa McCain “What’s worse, these laws that legislate discrimination teach bullies that what didn’t like it. Hence the Tweet indicating that Cindy is, at best, disingenuous and at they’re doing is acceptable.”

This is followed by McCain saying, “Our worst totally clueless. Maybe she actually government treats the LGBT community believes that the Cindy in the PSA and the like second class citizens, why shouldn’t Cindy with the Twitter account would make really good friends. they?”

Truth be told, they can’t. They’d fight These are some mighty feisty words coming from the wife of John “Filibuster all the time. In fact, I suspect Twitter Cindy to keep Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Alive” McCain. would eventually kick PSA Cindy’s ass. You For Cindy to be part of the NOH8 Campaign know, to show her who’s boss. seemed like a pretty big deal.

NOH8 started as a response to the anti-gay Prop 8 in California. It featured celebs, including Cindy Everyone knows The majority of soldiers that United States and Meghan McCain with duct tape over and their families think soldiers hate gay their mouths and the They hate having openly gay guys and people.

NOH8 logo painted on them more than they their faces like they’d gals in the military isn’t that hate terrorists, even, just escaped from the big a deal. This is good news. because at least terrorworld’s most terrifying aren’t trying to Unless, of course, you’re the ists county fair. legalize terror.

Well, it looks like Family Research Council.

So obviously if you Cindy should’ve kept took a poll of soldiers her duct tape on. regarding whether or not to repeal “Don’t Right after the PSA went live McCain Ask Don’t Tell” they’re going to be in favor took to Twitter and announced, “I fully of keeping homos out of fox holes by a support the NOH8 campaign and all it landslide. Right? stands for and am proud to be a part of Wrong. Results of a survey done by the it.” military as part of a feasibility study have Aww, isn’t that sweet? Well, not really. been leaked and guess what? The majority Because here’s the kicker: “But I stand by of soldiers and their families think having my husband’s stance on DADT.” openly gay guys and gals in the military Wait, what? You just got done telling isn’t that big a deal. us in a PSA that the government treats gays This is good news. Unless, of course, like second class citizens and how that you’re the Family Research Council. Then treatment trickles down into the nation’s TTCREEPS continued page 10

Robert Maginnis

Section 1: News & Politics

DECEMBER 2010 SScontinued from page 6

WORLD NEWS to free development of the personality and to not receive cruel or degrading treatment, alleged by the plaintiffs, were not sufficiently argued.”

Colombia Diversa Director Marcela Sánchez.

Photo: Andrés Duque The court added that since the case was dismissed on technical grounds, it may be refiled at any time.

In a statement, the LGBT association Colombia Diversa said it had been hoping for a decision on the merits of the case and may file a new lawsuit.

“The nation lost a unique opportunity to achieve a true concept of equality in access to human rights among all Colombian people, be they same-sex or heterosexual couples,” said the group’s director, Marcela Sánchez.

Lesbian couple denied marriage license in London A lesbian couple who tried to get a marriage license were turned away at the Greenwich registry office in southeast London on Nov. 2.

Sharon Ferguson and Franka Strietzel were told that only opposite-sex couples can marry, even though the United Kingdom’s civil-partnership law lets same-sex couples enter into a union that grants rights and obligations identical to those of marriage.

Ferguson and Strietzel plan to sue the government for violations of the Human Rights Act’s rights to marriage, to respect for family life and to protection from discrimination.

They will be joined by three other same-sex couples who plan to seek marriage licenses and by four heterosexual couples who want to enter into one of the nation’s gay-only civil partnerships.

“No matter how good civil partnerships are with regard to the legal protections and rights they provide, they are still a separate system that was put together to stop gay and lesbian people from being able to marry,” said Ferguson. “Like most people in this world, we were brought up to believe that one day we’d fall in love and get married. This is what we want to do and our sexual orientation should not be an impediment.”

The challenges to both laws are part of a new activist campaign called Equal

ACCESSline Page 9 Sweden, Mexico City, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

Tasmania to see samesex marriage bill

Sharon Ferguson, left, and Franka Strietzel were denied a marriage license in London on Nov. 2 and now are suing the government. Photo: Chris Houston Love, which also seeks to open up the civilpartnership law to straight couples.

“We see the Equal Love campaign as a historic quest for justice—morally equivalent to the campaigns to overturn the bans on interracial marriage in apartheid South Africa and the Deep South of the USA,” said coordinator Peter Tatchell. “The ban on samesex civil marriage and on opposite-sex civil partnerships is a form of sexual apartheid— one law for gay couples and another law for heterosexual partners. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Same-sex marriage is legal in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain,

The Tasmanian Greens party said Nov. 7 that it will introduce a bill in the Australian state’s Parliament to legalize same-sex marriage.

“If we are fair dinkum about removing discrimination we should give all Tasmanians access to the fundamental institutions of our society, including marriage,” said Greens Leader Nick McKim. “If (Australian Prime Minister) Julia Gillard won’t move on the issue we will bring our cognate package of bills on for debate early next year.”

“There is no such thing as ‘mostly equal,’” he added.

The Australian slang “fair dinkum” means “genuine,” in this instance.

Australian states tackle same-sex marriage

Following in the footsteps of the state of Tasmania, the Australian state of South Australia will see introduction of a bill in the state Parliament to legalize same-sex marriage.

MPs from the Greens and Labor parties will lead the charge.

Polls show that a majority of Australians support letting gay couples get married.

TTWORLD NEWS continued page 35

ACCESSline is seeking advertising sales reps in

jobs.ACCESSlineIOWA.com THE JOB BOARD FOR MEMBERS OF

Ames Council Bluffs/Omaha Dubuque Iowa City

LGBT COMMUNITIES

Quad Cities

IN IOWA

Sioux City

…and it’s FREE!

Waterloo/Cedar Falls Help the LGBT-owned and -friendly businesses and services you support to promote themselves by advertising in ACCESSline.

ACCESSline Page 10 SScontinued from page 8

CREEPS you’re pissed, because that’s not the answer you wanted at all. And if a survey doesn’t get the results you want, there’s only one thing to do: blame the survey. As Right Wing Watch pointed out, FRC is crying that “the survey is flawed and cannot be trusted.”

And thus Robert Maginnis’s seven pages of teeth gnashing and foot stomping was born and published on the FRC website.

Maginnis complains that the surveys sent to soldiers and their families don’t ask if the respondent is “one of them.” Because gays are clearly biased and their responses shouldn’t count.

The surveys also don’t define “homosexual,” Maginnis laments, and treat homosexuality like it’s a (gasp!) “neutral factor.”

He also bemoaned the lack of choices regarding privacy concerns. One soldier’s wife who responded to the survey told him she “would not take her children to unit activities where there might be open homosexuals.” Because to see gay is to be gay. She also “was very concerned that her husband would have to share a room with an open homosexual during deployment.” God only knows what she thinks will happen. Maybe she just doesn’t trust her husband.

Maginnis is also upset that the surveys fail “to address religious and moral objections to homosexuality.” Because it’s okay to discriminate someone as long as God says it’s okay.

Using the strictest research methodology, I’ve created a survey that I think would

Section 1: News & Politics be up to Maginnis’s standards. And it’s much more concise than both the military’s 32-page soldier survey or the 11-page family survey. Please use a #2 pencil:

memory of the young people who recently committed suicide after being bullied.

“Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers committed suicide,” he posted. “The only way im wearin it for them 1. I am a: is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe a) heterosexual, right with God. the people of this world have gotten this b) godless homosexual. Please destroy stupid. We are honoring the fact that they my survey. sinned and killed therselves because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE.” 2 Fill in the blank. Homosexuals Yes, really. Did I mention he was a make me ____________. school board member? Oh, to be a gay kid a) puke. in Midland. Those lucky devils. b) cry.

One of McCance’s c) both a) and b). friends commented, I’m not sure that there’s an “Because hatred is honorable way to wish all gay always right...”

3. When you’re around a homosexual people dead even if he had used To which he you better: responds, “No because different words to do it. a) Hide your kids. being a fag doesnt give b) Hide your wife. you the right to ruin the rest of our lives. c) Hide your husband.

If you get easily offended by being called d) ‘Cause they’re raping everybody a fag then dont tell anyone you are a fag. up in here.

Keep that sh** to yourself. I dont care how people decide to live their lives. They dont 4. We need to ban homosexuals bother me if they keep it to thereselves. It pisses me off though that we make a special from the military because: purple fag day for them. I like that fags cant a) God said so. procreate. I also enjoy the fact that they b) There is no other answer but a). often give each other aids and die.”

Did you catch that last part? He “enjoys” when gays get AIDS and die. Ha You know the old saying, “If you don’t ha. You know, typical LOL stuff.

Another friend commented, “You know have anything nice to say, say it on Facebook?” Well, Arkansas Midland School this is somebodys kids here how would you District vice president Clint McCance took it feel if they were talkin about your kids like to heart recently when he posted some vile this. It would make you feel like SH**.”

No worries, McCance knows exactly anti-gay hate speech to rival Fred Phelps and his band of “God Hates Fags” loonies. how he’d feel. “I would disown my kids if What set McCance off was a call for they were gay,” he posts. “They will not be supporters of LGBT youth to wear purple in welcome at my home or in my vicinity. I will absolutely run them off. Of course my kids will know better. My kids will have solid christian beliefs.”

Where these “solid Christian beliefs” will come from I don’t know. Certainly not from their father.

Needless to say, McCance’s comments caused quite a stir with many people calling for his firing.

A visibly uncomfortable and maybe even contrite McCance appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper and apologized for his comments saying they were “too emotional” and “went too far.”

As for the terms “fag” and “queer” he told Cooper, “I know those are hurtful words and like I said, I picked the wrong words to use. And used them poorly. I didn’t bring honor to what I was about.”

I’m not sure that there’s an honorable way to wish all gay people dead even if he had used different words to do it.

He also stated that he doesn’t “wish death on anyone” and that “it does look like I’m a hatemonger or a horrible person and that’s not me at all.”

Um, yes. It does look like that. Very much like that, in fact. It’s kind of hard to accept that a person who thinks, “Hey I have a minute to post on Facebook before I head off to this school board meeting and here’s something totally appropriate to say” isn’t a hatemonger. No matter how much they apologize or resign from the school board on Anderson Cooper 360.

So, yeah. He resigned. And he’s sorry.

But the boot print of mistrust and fear on the backs of LGBT school kids, especially those in the Midland school system, isn’t going to wash out so easily.

Clint McCance

DECEMBER 2010 SScontinued from page 5

US NEWS military without regard to their sexual orientation. Our next step will be to ask the 9th Circuit to expedite the government’s appeal from Judge Phillips’ judgment and injunction.”

LCR Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper commented: “We are committed to pursuing every avenue in the fight against this failed and unconstitutional policy. Log Cabin will continue working to secure the votes needed for legislative repeal, and if necessary, we look forward to seeing President Obama’s attorneys in court next year to prove, once again, that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell doesn’t work.”

Gays sue feds over marriage again

Edie Windsor, right, and Thea Spyer.

ACLU photo The New England legal group Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders filed a multiplaintiff lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act on Nov. 9.

In Pedersen v. Office of Personnel Management, GLAD represents five married same-sex couples and a widower, who live in Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire.

The 11 plaintiffs all have been denied federal rights and protections solely because they are married to a person of the same sex.

The suit, filed in federal District Court in Connecticut, addresses DOMA’s nonrecognition of marriages in connection with federal employee and retiree benefits programs, Social Security benefits, survivor benefits under federal pension laws, work leave to care for a spouse under the Family and Medical Leave Act, and state retiree health insurance benefits that are controlled by federal tax law.

Additional plaintiffs who pay excess federal income tax because they cannot file their federal returns as married couples will join the suit once the IRS officially rejects their requests for refunds.

“Every day that DOMA stands, it arbitrarily divides married couples into two categories,” said GLAD Legal Director Gary Buseck.

Also on Nov. 9, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the feds in New York over DOMA. The group represents 81-year-old Edie Windsor, who had to pay $350,000 in additional estate taxes because the federal government treated her as single, even though she was married to Thea Spyer and their marriage was recognized by the state of New York. “(T)he federal government … taxed Thea’s estate as though we were strangers rather than spouses,” Windsor said. “(It’s) a tax on being gay.”

“These cases provide further evidence that the so-called Defense of Marriage Act is

TTUS NEWS continued page 38

ACCESSline’s fun guide

Our Picks for December 12/1-12/18 Theatre Cedar Rapids: WHITE CHRISTMAS 12/1 US Cellular Center, Cedar Rapids: Hancher presents FIDDLER ON THE ROOF 12/3-12/12 StageWest, Des Moines: THE SEAFARER 12/4 301 N. Johnson St, Iowa City: THE QUIRE’S WINTER CONCERT 12/6 Stoner Theatre, Des Moines: UMBRELLAS NOT INCLUDED: A BROADWAY CABARET: A magical, super-cali-dazzle-riffic musical cabaret to raise money for StageWest Theatre Company.

Featuring cast members from the Broadway touring production of “Mary Poppins” and a special appearance by Des Moines’ own Preshia Paulding as Judy Garland. Master of Ceremonies: Maxwell Schaeffer, KIOA radio personality. Post-show dessert reception with the cast. www.

StageWestIowa.com

12/8 Orpheum, Sioux City: MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER 12/10-12/23 Des Moines Community Playhouse: RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S CINDERELLA 12/11 Gallagher Bluedorn, Cedar Falls: WATERLOO-CEDAR FALLS SYMPHONY: HOLIDAY POPS 12/11-12/19 Grand Opera House, Dubuque: NUTCRACKER BALLET 12/12 Harrah’s Council Bluffs: AIR SUPPLY 12/13 Orpheum, Sioux City: A CHORUS LINE 12/15 Englert, Iowa City: INTIMATE AT THE ENGLERT: THE LAB COAT COLLAB: This concert features surprise collaborations between people who’ve never performed together. One month before the show date the performers were handed the contact information of their collaborative partner and given suggestions on a direction their project might take. This concert is an experiment and the results will reflect that for better or worse. www.Englert.org

12/17-12/18 First Christian Church, 2500 University Avenue, Des Moines: DES MOINES GAY MEN’S CHORUS 12/17 Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts, Fairfield: BLURRING BOUNDARIES, MODERN DANCE 12/18-12/20 Sinclair Auditorium, Cedar Rapids: ORCHESTRA IOWA, FOLLIDAYS 12/18 Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts, Fairfield: PIETA BROWN 12/20-12/21 Civic Center of Greater Des Moines: CHRISTMAS MUSIC OF MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER 12/22 Orpheum Theater, Omaha, NE: CHRISTMAS MUSIC OF MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER

... and in January

1/4/2011 North Iowa Community Auditorium: MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT

Deep Inside Hollywood by Romeo San Vicente The second—or is it third?—coming of Ab Fab Edina and Patsy would like another drink; care to join them? Absolutely Fabulous, the British sitcom that made Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley household names in the U.S., is returning for another go-round.

The first incarnation aired from 1992 to 1996 and was then reprised from 2001 to 2004. Six years later, the champagne-guzzling fashionistas are back and ready for more. Recently, Saunders began long-term treatment for breast cancer, so the comic actor’s readiness to step back into Eddi’s outrageous shoes is very good news for the show and its millions of fans around the world. Lumley, meanwhile, has been starring on Broadway in La Bete.

And at 52 (Saunders) and 64 (Lumley), both women are still in prime shape to be devilish in Prada. Ideally, it won’t stop until they’re in their 90s.

Rachel Weisz dives into Deep Blue Sea

Rachel Weisz. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Win that first Oscar and the opportunity to work with more prestigious directors turns into a commonplace occurrence. Not squandering her moment is Rachel Weisz, whose increasingly interesting career finds her shooting a new film with acclaimed gay Brit director Terence Davies. The Deep Blue Sea, adapted from the play by Terence Rattigan, tells the story of a rich woman in 1950s London who leaves her high court judge husband to go live with a hot, young pilot.

Davis often directs autobiographical stories like the critic’s favorites Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes. A notable exception to this was his adaptation of The House of Mirth starring Gillian Anderson.

Now, thanks to A-lister Weisz, the filmmaker may wind up with his most high-profile success to date. Production is underway now in London; look for it in arthouse theaters sometime in 2011.

From porn to real estate to reality TV?

As “Tag Eriksson,” he starred in The Hole, a gay porn parody of The Ring, not to mention several other high-profile adult films. But since leaving that industry several years ago, Frederik Eklund hasn’t quietly gone back into private life. Instead, the young, good-looking man from a wealthy Swedish family wrote a book about his experiences (titled Lord

of the Fruit Flies) and then became a real estate mogul in New York City, one recently profiled in The New York Times and whose multi-million dollar portfolio and celebrity clients like Cameron Diaz make him something of a rising star all over again. Obviously, with a history like that, it was only a matter of time before Bravo TV came calling. And that’s what’s happening to Eklund, who’s in talks to be cast as part of a reality series about real estate brokers. Not bad for a guy who used to bare it all, and proof that there really is life after a porn career.

Richard Hatch hatches a comeback plan

He defined the concept of the reality show villain, the ultimate “not here to make friends” player. And he won Survivor’s landmark first season. And then he lost in a big way when he was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to prison (a charge he still refutes). But Richard Hatch is back and ready to play again. This time around the naked bear will keep his clothes on—a suit to be precise—on the upcoming season of Celebrity Apprentice. He was supposed to have been on Survivor: Heroes and Villains but his passport is on lockdown thanks to that prison time. Celebrity Apprentice is a cooler show to win anyway and given his reputation, he’s going to be tough competition. Watch out, Carrot Top!

Does Tom Cruise wanna Rock?

Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise in “Knight and Day”. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox. When you think of Tom Cruise and the 1980s, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Cocktail is the right answer, obviously, and it’s clearly on the minds of gay director Adam Shankman and his new collaborator, Chris D’Arienzo, too. Together, the pair will bring D’Arienzo’s Tony Award-nominated hair-metal musical Rock of Ages to the big screen and they’d like Tom Cruise to join in on the fun. If Cruise agrees, he’ll be playing a supporting role, a bartender who loves to belt out ’80s hits by Def Leppard and Poison.

And if he wants to juggle a few booze bottles while doing so then who’s going to stop him?

The guilty-pleasure musical is also rumored to be casting the equally unlikely musical talents of Seth Rogen and that well-established song delivery system named Taylor Swift. So please, Mr. Cruise, consent to this role. They have this thing called AutoTune

TTHOLLYWOOD continued page 15

ACCESSline Page 12

the fun guide

DECEMBER 2010

Whoa, Nelly! by Chris Azzopardi Singer looks back at decade-long career—when the gays fell for her and the stories behind her biggest hits Like a bird is exactly how Nelly Furtado’s career has unfurled in the 10 years since she dropped her debut, Whoa, Nelly! The Canadian chanteuse was on top of the world, scoring a Grammy for the album’s breakthrough single, “I’m Like a Bird,” before her follow-up, Folklore, went, well, south.

But then she switched directions, tapping into Timbaland’s boom-boom beats for 2006’s “punk-hop” Loose. Singles like “Promiscuous” and “Maneater” ate up the charts, and there she went—flying again.

Her hits collection, The Best of Nelly Furtado, archives her decade-long run and includes three unreleased cuts, leading off with club single “Night is Young.”

Furtado, 31, took us back, recalling the song she wrote on hotel paper as a chambermaid and how “Maneater” started a fire.

But the singer, who was catching a break from recording to chat with us, also looked ahead to next year’s upcoming studio album, Lifestyle, a return to her Whoa, Nelly! roots.

Did you ever think you’d have a greatest hits album?

Actually, no, I didn’t. In the beginning I didn’t really know I’d still be making records 10 years later; I was kind of just trying it out.

It was my hobby for a long time, and I made my hobby my job. I had planned to go back to university after Whoa, Nelly!—and then I never made it back! (Laughs) But yeah, I’m surprised that 10 years have passed; it gives you a chance to reflect.

I was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame recently, so it was all around the 10-year anniversary of the album coming out. It was all very timely—and kind of cool. Really cool!

Congratulations!

Oh, thanks! For the first album or two I was wondering: Is this really my career? Am I good at this? Is this going to stick around?

After doing it for 10 years, it finally feels like this is definitely a career.

So you’re not going back to university?

It doesn’t mean I won’t. I still have all kinds of dreams. I’m definitely happy making music at the moment.

Which song from the greatest hits album has the best story behind it?

Perhaps one you wrote on hotel paper while you were a maid?

I have a song on Whoa, Nelly! that was written on hotel chambermaid report paper and that song is Party, but it’s not on greatest hits. On greatest hits, Say It Right is cool because it was really late at night that we wrote that song, like four in the morning, and we had just finished watching Pink Floyd The Wall, and (we) were very tired but also inspired, and the song just kind of came. It was a magical moment.

“Maneater” was the same. When we first wrote that song the speaker caught fire because the beat was so loud and ambitious, and the energy was so intense. And we actually put the song away for a few weeks. We were scared of the song! It had some dark energy in it (laughs).

What do you think now when you

hear “I’m Like a Bird”?

I never get sick of singing it, and I’m just happy that people played it on the radio. I’m proud of that song because it had a more sort of funky hip-hop-influenced verse and then a very pop-rock chorus. I’m glad it connected with people.

So many celebrities are making videos as part of the “It Gets Better” campaign, to help prevent youth suicides – Oh, I haven’t seen them. I did perform at the PFLAG event in L.A. I performed “Night is Young” acoustic and I did… I don’t even remember right now! But it was a very positive night and a lot of people were speaking about (gay youth). I was proud to be part of that.

If you could dedicate one of your songs to gay youth, which would you choose?

Something from the beginning of my career, like the first CD—that’s when I first noticed I had a strong gay following, when I used to play “Sh** on the Radio” on my first club tour. I’d always see gay youth in the front row, embracing each other and getting emotional and crying when I would sing the song—because it’s a song about individuality and expressing yourself and kind of breaking free from the pack and doing your own thing. It’s about being true to yourself no matter what.

That song was your response to people who were pissed at you for going mainstream.

Yeah—it’s hard. It’s weird merging art and business; there are always fallouts.

Then you made a bigger leap into hip-hop with “Promiscuous”—did you catch more flack?

No, because hip-hop was always something that I was inspired by. It was like a weapon I had in my back pocket that I hadn’t whipped out yet. My first influences as a teenager were hip-hop and R&B—and I used to rap! (Laughs) On a mainstream level, yeah, my image was definitely drastically different—and I see that now. At the time I didn’t see, but now I look back and go, “Wow, no wonder people were so shocked!”

I did change a lot. I mean, I grew into a woman; I wrote some songs on Whoa, Nelly! when I was 17. You change a lot from that age to, like, 25. It’s a nice synchronicity when you can go through such a personally meaningful transformation and actually capture it on record—and then have other people connect to it.

Where do you plan on taking your next studio album, Lifestyle?

I’m going back to the eclectic feel of Whoa, Nelly!. So far tracks I’ve recorded encompass pop, hip-hop, dance, reggae and alternative-pop.

That’s who I am and that’s how I live my life, and that’s sort of been the way I culturally live my life in terms of what I surround myself with—music or art or even people— so I think that’s why I’m calling it Lifestyle.

I just want a collection of songs that people can connect with, like always, but at the same time I think image-wise I’m going to be different again (laughs). If anything, it’ll be a throwback to who I was when I first came out.

Tell me about working with Elton John on a new version of “Crocodile Rock.”

Photo: Richard Bernardin Yeah, he has a new production coming out—it’s an animated movie called Gnomeo and Juliet, and it’s a cartoon for kids that comes out on Valentine’s Day. So yeah, they approached me to do the closing song and it’s “Crocodile Rock.” And he’s on it—like him and I are on the track together! It’s so exciting.

So you didn’t actually do studio time together?

No—we missed each other by, like, a day.

But we have sung together before. Hey, here’s a perfect example: Ten years ago, Elton and I sang “Legend” together.

We’ve come full circle.

Yeah! Because he was a fan of my first album and he used to talk about it all the time, and he’s really good that way with new music. He’s really on top of it.

The people you work with are all over the map: Timbaland, Josh Groban and James Morrison, for instance. And then Keith Urban shows up on the deluxe edition of The Best of Nelly Furtado for “In God’s Hands.”

I have many fantasies of who I want to be as a singer, so I was having a country fantasy with that song, and “In God’s Hands” always felt like a country record to me.

The reason why I do so many darn duets is because I’ve always wanted to be in a band.

I mean, I’m a solo artist, but I’ve always been jealous of people in bands because I think, “How fun would that be?”

How did you get the nickname Nelstar?

Nelstar was the first band I had. It was a trip-hop group—when I first moved to Toronto when I was 17, this producer and me had this trip-hop duo and we did moody urban trip-hop songs and I performed them around town. It’s a name that’s kind of stuck with me, so I decided to name my label Nelstar.

We have an artist right now named Dylan Murray—he’s excellent, he’s Canadian.

Actually, he performed with me at the PFLAG event—oh, I know what we performed! A

TTNELLY continued page 38

DECEMBER 2010

the fun guide

ACCESSline Page 13

Annie Lennox Speaks Out by Chris Azzopardi Gay icon releases new Christmas album—and opens up about AIDS pandemic, Perez Hilton’s ‘vicious diatribes’ and her own sweet dreams for the world

Legendary status, earned through over three decades in the music business, hasn’t changed Annie Lennox.

Despite being a global superstar, first making an impression as part of the Eurythmics in the ‘80s before going solo, she’s genuinely concerned about the human condition, as her tireless work toward promoting HIV/ AIDS awareness—with her SING campaign, established in 2007—demonstrates. She’s inspired the world through dialogue and travel and music, a platform Lennox uses to fervently convey her feelings on society with her sterling voice.

“Universal Child,” which Lennox originally performed on Idol Gives Back earlier this year wearing a shirt that said “HIV-Positive” (even though she isn’t), is yet another passionate plea—this time, to help heal the world. It takes on new life as it rounds out Lennox’s new, first-ever holiday album, A Christmas Cornucopia, which also includes traditional songs and unconventional carols.

Its heart, however, is still intact.

On the phone, as Lennox speaks to us from her Scotland home about the long-gestating collection, she’s completely grounded, initiating the conversation by mocking how much time her people have given us: “This is your 15 minutes with Annie Lennox,” she opens with a laugh.

And so it is, as Lennox gets heated over issues dear to her heart: her opinion on the current state of HIV/AIDS, feelings about the bullying-prompted suicides, and why sexuality labels shouldn’t exist.

Why release a Christmas album now, after all this time in the business?

It was just the optimum moment. It’s something I’ve been longing to do for many years, and when you do anything in music it takes time. So every album that I’ve ever made has taken up most of the year that I’ve made it in. Then, finally, it came to the point where I was out of contract and I was

like, “What’s my next step?” And then it just occurred to me very obviously, “Ah, this is when I do what I’ve wanted to do for years.”

(Laughs) So it’s just perfect. It’s a labor of love, this whole thing.

It sounds like it too, and it has some extra significance: Your 56th birthday is on Christmas Day. That is correct.

Did you ever get gypped on gifts?

When I was a kid, it was fine—I used to get double, and I felt very good about that.

But I’m at a point where receiving presents is not really the most important thing to me.

(Laughs) Well, of course: You’re more about giving, right?

I prefer to. It’s very nice to get a present, but I like to give. I do.

I’m not surprised. How does “Universal Child” fit on A Christmas Cornucopia?

You know, it was a very interesting thing.

Basically, Island Records, or Universal, who I’m signed to, just loved the song so much; they just kind of said, “You have got to put it on the album. We really, really want you to put it on the album.” So it was almost like their insistence, because I wasn’t sure; I’d been doing traditional Christmas carols, (and thought), “I wonder if this fits in.” But actually now, on reflection, I think it really does fit in.

It really belongs because the focus of all of the songs goes to the nativity. It goes to the birth of a child into the world—even if you’re not Christian, which I am not a Christian—in a way that I was able to identify with it in a metaphorical way, because I was thinking, “Well, this is a symbol. This is a child. It’s all of us. It’s about humanity.” So there was a thread of connection that ran through all the songs, you see.

How did the song come about?

I hadn’t intended to write a song for the album, but one day I had this idea for “Universal Child” and I just started playing around with it while we were recording something.

And basically, I was like, “Ohhh, wow, there’s a really interesting thing happening here.”

So we stopped recording what we were recording and we carried on with “Universal Child” and finished it in the same evening.

Sometimes it’s so strange like that: You write a song and it all comes at once. So that was one of those.

You merge a lot of your passion for activism into your music, particularly as

it pertains to children and AIDS. Why do you think music is such a good platform for these issues?

Music is a great vehicle of communication; everybody loves music—I never really met anybody who didn’t like music.

And music tells stories and communicates ideas, and people are interested in music and musicians.

Sadly, in our culture we’re obsessed with celebrity—celebrity is the thing—and we spend so much money on magazines; we’re so interested in other people’s lives, so-called celebrities, and it’s a bit disheartening because we’re a big world and there’s so many things we could change and put right.

But we’re so consumed by our own consumerist culture that very often we don’t see it.

I had a bit of a turning point when I had an opportunity to go to places that I wouldn’t have had a chance to visit before, and it blew my mind. I thought I knew what poverty was about. I thought I knew, and actually I didn’t know until I saw it for myself.

Right—back in 2003 when you participated in the launch of Nelson Mandela’s HIV/AIDS foundation. How has seeing the devastation caused by poverty and AIDS affected you as a person?

I don’t think anybody could grasp the scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic as it is played out, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where you have 22 million who are infected with the virus. Twenty-two million! And when you have so many deaths—I think it’s 27 million—it’s a figure that you cannot get your head around.

Recently, I was in Berlin and I went to visit the Jewish Holocaust memorial right in the center of former East Berlin, and it’s very, very powerful—all kinds of people who perished in this Holocaust. The figures are staggering. And then you look at the HIV issue and it’s even more.

We were all celebrating the Chilean miners, including myself, and I was so happy to see these men emerge one by one—33 men, out of the earth—and yet I know the price of human life in many places is worthless.

What does being a gay icon mean to you?

(Laughs) It means lots of gay men and women like me! It’s a funny thing: I don’t wake up in the morning and think, “Oh my goodness, I’m a gay icon!” Not at all. But you see, I’m not part of the gay community myself, so it’s not part of my direct experience. But I’m certainly a liberal-minded person, and I actually really almost resent all these labels.

I was watching on YouTube the other day a man—or a woman, I should say, now—who was saying, “Please don’t label me as transgender. I don’t want to be labeled. I’m sick of all these labels.” And I’m thinking, “I’m with you.” I mean, OK, you’re sexually oriented one way, this way or that way or another way, but I want to get rid of labels. I think we want to get to the point of evolution, where it makes no difference if you’re straight, gay, transgender, whatever—just be inclusive. We need to see ourselves as absolutely human beings, first and foremost.

In the ‘70s, when I was a teenager, it was the first time I discovered that anybody was gay. I had never met a gay person before I came down from Scotland, and the changes that have happened so far are huge. I think

Photo: Mike Owen

there have just been huge steps. Gay people have come out, and they’re powerful and working in banks, in clinics, as doctors, teachers, everywhere. It’s just a natural evolution, in a way.

It does worry me very much when I hear about very extreme homophobia arising in places. I think of my friends who, if they went to certain countries, would be ostracized or—it’s unbelievable to think that these extremes do exist, but this is the world we live in. We’re living in a time where you have fundamentalists who are so extreme—either the Catholic Church or in the Muslim areas— and I just think, “Where’s the tolerance?”

How do you feel about the recent string of gay youth suicides, then?

In this day and age, how come a young teenage boy or girl is feeling so conflicted about their sexual orientation that they feel suicidal? This bullying on cyberspace, uncontrolled, and this horrible result of nasty, vicious celebrity bullshit that you get on the Internet—an individual like Perez Hilton coming out on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and saying, “I’m sorry, I’ve seen the light,” let’s make sure that he walks his talk and now that he apparently has seen the light, stop all this bullying—stop it!

It’s disgraceful. It always was disgraceful. It should never be, and he of all people who have benefited so much from his vicious diatribes and his vicious putting down of so many individuals, he now needs to take responsibility and go forward and say, “I will now take responsibility and work for the other side.”

You’ve said that wanting to resist being perceived as a girly-girl prompted your androgynous phase in the ‘80s.

Why didn’t you want to be seen as ultrafeminine?

I wanted to be perceived as a person with my own rights who is not going to be simply understood through my gender, through a certain limitation. Nowadays, women are so sexually explicit and they use this as a tool to get popular, and I find it very one-dimensional. When I see, like, with the rap music, hip-hop girls just being overtly sexual, it bores me. I just think, “Oh, the same old gag.” Surely we could’ve evolved further than that.

I’m all for sexuality being free and liberal, but I feel so sad that it’s like a one-trick pony.

That’s all I see are bum, ass and tits—and it’s

TTCORNUCOPIA continued page 30

ACCESSline Page 14

the fun guide

DECEMBER 2010

The Outfield by Dan Woog Biking north to south for awareness

Topeka and Wichita. But Girdano is prouder that a dozen newspapers and radio stations that had never done a story on an LGBT person covered her ride. The teen and Most cross-country bike riders go west young adult angle particularly intrigued to east. Some take the more challenging those outlets.

There were setbacks. Some stations route, into the wind.

Danielle Girdano bicycled north to sounded excited on the phone, but after receiving her press kit—and realizing what south.

Gay people always seem to do things “LGBT” stood for—they backed off. “This wouldn’t fit our readers,” one person said differently.

But the former marketing director- bluntly.

A radio station in Missouri edited turned-cycling activist and advocate did not every “LGBT,” “gay devise her itinerary community” and randomly. Ride the “hate crimes” referArc—this summer’s ence out of her 1,300 mile, six-week interview before it journey from Minneaired. “It sounded apolis to Dallas— like I rode across the covered that route U.S. for teen suicide for a reason. in general only,” she Girdano wanted said. to publicize the need But the positive for equal rights Danielle Girdano personal encounters for LGBT people, overwhelmed the and raise awareness about the high suicide rate for gay youth. To negative ones. “Whether it’s a small town of do that, she went to the place she thought 150 people, or one of 10,000, it’s still significant to say, ‘I’m here,’” Girdano said. needed it the most: America’s heartland.

One woman—who apparently did not “If I rode coast to coast, I wouldn’t spend all my time in places that had to hear this know what “LGBT” meant—made a “those message,” Girdano said. “This way, I was people” comment. When Girdano personalized the issue, the woman stammered, “But always there.”

The first documented ride by a female you don’t look like…”

“It’s an awakening,” Girdano said. athlete to cross the country from north to south, Girdano’s ride paid tribute to “Awareness leads to dialogue. Even if people a pioneer of social justice for another don’t agree, it’s good to talk.”

Hundreds of supportive e-mails poured oppressed group. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” in. A Facebook page enabled supporters Reverend Martin Luther King Junior said. across the country to talk with each other— and raised awareness even further.

That explains Ride the Arc’s name.

Then there are the LGBT people themThe route and ride “mirror our struggle as a people,” Girdano explained. “It’s uphill, selves. A woman in her 50s told Girdano that hard, long and requires a tremendous she’d just come out to her boss that day— amount of preparation. It’s not a race; it’s a because of the ride. “She was so intimidated journey of endurance.” and fearful she’d lose her job,” Girdano said.

Girdano is no stranger to activism— “And she’d been with the company for 30 or action. A former marketing director, in years. That was very empowering for her.”

2004 she spearheaded a $140,000 project: A girl who had recently tried to commit a weekend honoring Marine veterans of suicide joined a group ride for the final 10 Iwo Jima. miles into Dallas with Girdano. “Stories like Ride the Arc was less about money than that are the reason I did this,” she noted. education. Along the way she gave countless “If we can save one kid, or give hope to newspaper, television and radio interviews. one person, every mile would be worth it.”

Wherever she stopped—for food and water, The cross-country rider added: a bathroom break or the night—she engaged “Martin Luther King went where he was not strangers in conversation. welcome. I’m not comparing myself to him, Girdano is no stranger to small towns. but I wanted to go where I wasn’t welcome Growing up in rural western Pennsylvania, too. I have a right to ride anywhere, and to she said she was “molded to fit into a role. bring my message there.

Men hunted and drove pickups. Women “I rode, I waved. I wished you a good cooked and had babies.” day. If you don’t want one, that’s your Women were not lesbians. She had no problem.” role models. When she finally realized it was Note: For more information, click on OK to be “who I was”—after high school— www.ridethearc.org. Donations may be sent she moved to gay-friendly Atlanta. to Kompetition Services, c/o Ride the Arc, Though some family members have 4503 W University Blvd, Dallas, TX 75209. never accepted Girdano’s sexuality, her All money after expenses goes to LGBT father has. An 84-year-old Iwo Jima organizations.

Marine—“Republican and conservative through and through”—he went so far as to join his daughter’s bike ride in Tulsa.

“He can get through to people who would never listen to me,” Girdano acknowledged.

This fall’s epidemic of gay youth She’s done a pretty good job of getting suicides shocked and saddened millions through herself. She received major TV of Americans. Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” coverage in Minneapolis, Des Moines, video project provided hope to young people

The athletic buddy system

“Nearly everyone on the team wants to struggling with their sexual orientation; LGBT men and women told inspiring stories help,” Witman notes.

One of those helpers is Ben Gardent. He of their own lives, while leaders, including President Obama, added their own voices got involved because he had not come out until age 24—in part because he had no gay of support.

The broad-based effort heartened Glenn athletes as role models. His message: “No Witman. But he also smiled in recognition: matter how difficult things may be now, they He was already leading a similar project, get a whole lot better when you’re older.”

Adam Mills looks forward to speaking admittedly on a much smaller scale.

Witman is the founder, president with young gay athletes—but he says he and captain of the G-Force Hockey Club. may have to wait a while. Coming out where A Denver-based non-profit organization, he lives—Nashville—is not easy. “I will tell G-Force plays some mean hockey—and does people my journey and the rollercoaster ride a lot more. Demonstrating competitiveness, of my athletic career,” Mills says.

“Dealing with the uneasy feeling of teamwork, pride and courage on the ice, they break down negative stereotypes about gay being gay and on a sports team can be overwhelming. It can athletes. affect an athlete’s From the start, performance, as G-Force wanted well as academics. young, gay hockey Having someone players to know who understands about the team— what an athlete goes and, by extension, through can be the to realize that they difference between were not alone. life and death.”

Witman’s e-mail ABS is not and phone number G - Fo rc e ’ s o n ly were on the Internet. project. The team Young athletes were is also working encouraged to call on another effort him for information aimed at young and help—and they athletes. Called did. an “athletic safety Fo r many and respect policy,” reasons, gay athletes it’s an agreement may have a harder Glenn Witman between G-Force time coming out than other youths. It can take longer, too. A and a university or sports organization. The 23-year-old player from Minnesota called. latter agrees to support only those activities He was so closeted, Witman recalls, “he that are “constructive, educational, inspiracouldn’t even say the word ‘gay.’” Witman tional, and that contribute to the intellectual recounted his own story—he did not come and personal development of students.”

The policy includes sanctions for out until he was 28—and put the young man in touch with G-Force’s goalie, who violations. These include probation and suspension of athletes and coaches—even was not fully out.

The Minnesotan responded soon: cancellations of games.

“Thank you. You changed my life!”

G-Force will provide diversity training Now, G-Force is institutionalizing its before the season to programs wishing to support program. They call it the Athletic implement such a policy.

Buddy System (ABS). Anyone wanting help One such session was held in October in coming out to teammates, coaches, family at the University of Toronto. The goal was or friends—or just needing someone to talk to create a dialogue between out athletes to—can contact glenn@gforcehockey.com and other players, students, coaches and or call 303-808-1116. They’ll be paired with support staff. a G-Force player, of whom there are many.

TTOUTFIELD continued page 15

the fun guide

DECEMBER 2010

ACCESSline’s STATEWIDE Recurring Events List The following list is provided by—and corrected by—ACCESSline readers like you. If you would like to add an event, or if you notice a mistake in this list, please email editor@ ACCESSlineIOWA.com.

Interest Group Abbreviations:

L: Lesbian G: Gay B: Bisexual T: Transgender D: Drag +: HIV-related M: General Men’s Interest W: General Women’s Interest A: General Interest K: Kids and Family

Sunday

1st and 3rd Sunday of the Month, TANGO LESSONS AT CSPS, 3-6pm, at 1103 3rd St. SE, Cedar Rapids. Cost is $5. Everyone welcome; no partner or experience necessary. For more info, call Elie at 319-363-1818 or e-mail epsa@aol.com.

[LGBTMWA] Every Sunday, GLBT AA, 5-6pm, at First Baptist Church at 500 N. Clinton St., Iowa City. For more info about Intergroup and Alcoholics Anonymous call the 24-Hour Answering Service at 319-3389111 or visit the AA-IC website: http://aa-ic.org/.

[LGBTMWA] Every Sunday, L WORD LIVES: L NIGHT, 7PM, at the Firewater Saloon, 347 South Gilbert St., Iowa City, 319-321-5895. The night will start with Season 1, Episode 1 of the L Word... because a good thing should never die. FoLLowing the L Word wiLL be a Drag King show at 9:30pm No cover. Tel, 319-321-5895. [ L B T W D ] Every Sunday, THE QUIRE: EASTERN IOWA’S GLBT CHORUS REHEARSALS, 6-8:30pm, at Zion Lutheran Church, 310 N. Johnson St., Iowa City.

Membership is open to all GLBT folks, as well as allies who support the community. There are no auditions; you only need to be willing to attend rehearsals regularly and learn your music. The Quire prepares two full concerts each year in the winter and spring, and occasionally performs shorter programs at events in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area. The Quire is a member of Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA), and has developed a reputation for excellence and variety in its concert programs. For more info, visit http:// www.thequire.org/. [ L G B T M W A ] Every Sunday, QUEER GUERRILLA BRUNCH, Locations around Iowa City to be announced each week. LGBTQIs & Allies gather for Sunday brunch to celebrate community and create visibility. Sign up for future brunches on Facebook at http://www. facebook.com/group.php?gid=120517046371 [ L GBTMWA] Every Sunday, RAINBOW AND ALLIED YOUTH, 8-11pm, The Center, 1300 Locust, Des Moines, IA 50309. Social group for Queer youth 25 years and under [ L G B T ]

Monday

1st 2nd Monday of the Month, IOWA PFLAG NORTH IOWA CHAPTER MEETING, 7pm, at First Presbyterian Church, 100 S. Pierce St., Mason City.

Meetings are held the First and Second Monday (alternating) of the month. For more info, call 641583-2848. [ L G B T M W A K ] 1st Monday of the Month, IOWA PFLAG QUAD CITIES CHAPTER MEETING, 6:30pm, at Eldridge United Methodist Church, 604 S. 2nd St., Eldridge.

For more info, call 563-285-4173. [ L G B T M W AK] 4th Monday of the Month, IOWA PFLAG WAUKON/NORTHEAST CHAPTER MEETING, 7pm, First Lutheran Church, 604 West Broadway Street , Decorah, IA 52101. in the Fellowship Hall at First Lutheran Church, Decorah. 604 West Broadway Street. (563) 382-2638‎ [ L G B T M W A] Every Monday, DES MOINES GAY MEN’S CHORUS REHEARSALS, 7-9:30pm, Plymouth Congregational Church, 4126 Ingersoll Avenue, Des Moines, IA . For more information about singing with the Chorus, contact Rebecca Gruber at 515-865-9557. The Des Moines Gay Men’s

Chorus does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. [ G M A ] Every Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday, HAMBURGER MARY’S WEEKLY HAPPENINGS at 222 Glenbrook Dr. SE, Cedar Rapids, off of 1st Ave. Mondays – Charity Bingo at 8pm with a special guest hostess; Tuesdays – Kid’s Night; Wednesdays – Game Night; Thursdays – Mary-oke with Nic from 9pm to 1am; Fridays – Drag Show at 9pm (all ages) and 11pm (21 and over); Saturdays – Open Mic Night followed by Drag Show at 9pm (all ages) and 11pm (21 and over). For more info, e-mail hamburgermaryscr@ mchsi.com or visit www.hamburgermaryscr.com.

[LGBTMWAKD] Every Monday Wednesday Thursday Saturday, GLBT ONLY AA MEETINGS IN DES MOINES, 6pm - SAT 5pm, at 945 19th St. (east side of building, south door). [ L G B T M W A ]

Tuesday

2nd Tuesday of the Month, IOWA PFLAG AMES CHAPTER MEETING, 7pm, Youth and Shelter Services Offices, 420 Kellogg Ave., 1st Floor, Ames, IA 50010. Meets in the Paul Room of Youth and Shelter Services at 420 Kellogg Avenue, Ames. For more info, call 515-291-3607. [ L G B T M W A K ] 2nd Tuesday of the Month, GLRC OF CEDAR RAPIDS BOARD MEETING, 6:30-8pm, Cedar Rapids, IA . at 6300 Rockwell Dr, Cedar Rapids.

Meetings are open to the general public. For more info, call 319-366-2055 or visit: http://www. crglrc.org/. [ L G B T M W A ] 2nd Tuesday of the Month, SPIRITUAL SEEKERS, 7-8:30pm, Iowa City, IA . at Trinity Episcopal Church, 320 E. College St, Iowa City.

Spiritual Seekers is a group for people of all faiths, or of little faith, who wish to make deeper connections between their sexual identities and the spiritual dimension in their lives. Meetings include discussion of specialized topics, telling of pieces of our faith journeys, and occasional prayer and meditation. (On the 4th Tuesday of each month, the group gathers at a local restaurant for food and fellowship.) For more info, contact Tom Stevenson: tbstevenson@mchsi.com or 319.354.1784. [ L G B T M W A ] Every Tuesday, OUT (OUR UNITED TRUTH): A GLBT SUPPORT GROUP, 7-8:30pm, Peoples Church Unitarian Universalist, 600 3rd Avenue Southeast, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401. For more info, call 563-359-0816. [ L G B T M W A ] Every Tuesday, ACE INCLUSIVE BALLROOM, 7-8:30pm, Old Brick, 26 East Market Street, Iowa City, IA 52245. All skill levels are welcome.

American social dance, Latin, a mix of dance from the last 100 years. For more info, contact Mark McCusker at iowadancefest@gmail.com, 319621-8530 or Nora Garda at 319-400-4695, or visit http://iowadancefest.blogspot.com/. [ L G B T M WA] Every Tuesday, ARGENTINE TANGO, 7:309:30pm, Iowacity/Johnson Co Senior Center, 28 South Linn Street, Iowa City, IA 52240. Practice and open dance. A donation of $1-2 per person is requested for use of the Senior Center. For more info, contact Karen Jackson at 319-447-1445 or e-mail kljedgewood@msn.com. [ L G B T M W A ] Every Tuesday, KARAOKE IDOL, 9pm, Studio 13, 13 South Linn Street, Iowa City, IA 52240.

Drink specials and great competition! Visit www. sthirteen.com. [ L G B T M W A ] Every Tuesday, ACE HAS FACE THE MUSIC & DANCE, 7-9pm, 26 E Market St, Iowa City, IA 52245. All skill levels are welcome. Tango, Waltz, Disco, Country, American social dance, Latin, a mix from the last 100 years. Join on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group. php?gid=372454708295. For more info, contact ACE experiment at 319-853-8223. [ L G B T M W A] First and Third Tuesday, YOUTH FOR EQUALITY, 4-6pm, The CENTER, 1300 W Locust St, Des Moines, IA 50309. A service and action group for youth who identify as LGBTQI and their allies. Open to all students in grades 5 through 12.

TTEVENTS continued page 28

SScontinued from page 14

OUTFIELD Panelists Andrew Goldstein (a G-Force player better known for his All-American lacrosse achievements at Dartmouth College), David Farber (University of Pennsylvania) and Blake Anderson (Central Hockey League) shared personal stories.

“Some of the main points were that everyone has a different experience, but the general language in a locker room is a big problem in sports,” Goldstein says. “Upon coming out we found that our coaches were sometimes big allies who wanted to be mentors/educators and do the right thing to protect their athletes and create a supportive environment.”

Goldstein also notes that “in general, we should give our teammates more credit to change. Although they may denigrate gays in the locker room, they don’t generally mean harm by it. Once they’re more aware

SScontinued from page 11

HOLLYWOOD now and it does wonders for people like you. Furthermore, if a poll were taken right now, it would be unanimous that audiences really want to hear you take on Warrant’s “Cherry Pie.”

Drew Barrymore’s next Angels idea

You can thank Drew Barrymore’s tenacious producing skills and this season’s successful reboot of ’70s TV staple Hawaii Five-0 for the following bit of news: Charlie’s Angels may be returning to your television screens. The big-screen version starring Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz was successful enough to spawn a somewhat less successful sequel. But the Angels have always really been more at home on the small screen.

And after a year in development, three new crime-fighting ladies are headed back to the set for a pilot. Production is scheduled to take place in Miami early in 2011, which means there’s not much time to assemble a powerful triad of sexy, smart, hair-flipping women to fill the shoes of the legendary Kate, Jaclyn and Farrah. An entire squadron of executives is trying to figure out how to meet Megan Fox’s salary quote right now.

True Blood to feature even more lesbians

In the great battle of Gayest Show On Television That’s Not Already The A List: New York, most people would simply declare Glee the winner. But that’s just because those people haven’t gotten on board the True Blood train yet. Not even counting the gay man-vamps, TB is a homopalooza of sexy femme ghouls, a lesbian blood utopia. So why

ACCESSline Page 15 that their words hurt a teammate, they can change dramatically.”

Though Goldstein felt the audience reaction in Toronto was very positive, he knows that “these sessions tend to attract those with similar views. We need to make sure the message reaches all types of people, including those who never consider gays in sports an issue or a reality.”

G-Force’s next step, he says, is to speak in high schools and to youth programs, reaching younger closeted athletes and their straight teammates and coaches.

Then, perhaps, a program like ABS would no longer be needed.

For more information about G-Force, visit gforcehockey.com.

Dan Woog is a journalist, educator, soccer coach, gay activist, and author of the “Jocks” series of books on gay male athletes.

Visit his Web site at www.danwoog.com. He can be reached care of this publication or at OutField@qsyndicate.com. not add another next season? That’s what will happen with new character “Naomi,” an Asian-American cage fighter who enjoys the company of other females when not fighting them to the death. The possibilities for entanglements with the shows other lez-leaning ladies like Kristin Bauer, Evan Rachel Wood, Jessica Tuck and Lindsey Haun are practically endless. No one’s been cast in the role of Naomi yet, but that sound you just heard was every Asian actress in Hollywood practicing kickboxing moves and their sensually-biting-stuff techniques.

Sarah Silverman takes off her clothes for Sarah Polley

Acclaimed actor-director Sarah Polley (Dawn of The Dead) has already wowed critics with her Julie Christie-starring feature Away From Her and expectations are high for her upcoming comedy Take This Waltz, starring Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen.

Sarah Silverman has been part of the cast for a while now, as Rogen’s sister, but news of her shooting a nude scene for the film has just surfaced. Strangely enough, this news has reverberated around the Internet not so much among lesbians or straight men, but among her gay male fans. Silverman has long been a champion of gay rights and of hilariously edgy gay jokes, so she’s become something of a queer comedy diva. And even if her following isn’t so into the lust-inducing properties of her “big naturals” (as she frequently refers to them) it seems they’re very much on board for her decision to finally show them off to the world. The opportunity to pay good money for this show of flesh is coming along in 2011.

Romeo San Vicente believes that naked people are inherently hilarious. He can be reached care of this publication or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com.

“... Falling in love will not send you to hell. Love is beautiful. You are beautiful. Sex with someone you love is always beautiful. I love you, Uncle Ronnie.”

— The end of a letter from Randy Roberts Potts to his Uncle, Ron Roberts, who committed suicide in 1982, as presented in Mr. Potts’ video for the It Gets Better Project. (Ron Roberts was the son of the anti-gay televangelist, Oral Roberts. Mr. Potts is Oral Roberts’ grandson. Ron Roberts was gay, and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his heart six months after coming out.)

the fun guide

ACCESSline Page 16

DECEMBER 2010

Hear Me Out by Chris Azzopardi

Sugarland, The Incredible Machine

CEDAR AIDS SUPPORT SYSTEM

Having already bent country music during their glorious hit-making, genreshaking run, change seemed inevitable for power-duo Sugarland’s fourth album. And on the slick The Incredible Machine, the restless twosome of Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush are coloring so far outside the lines they’re not even on the right page – twisting their rural-living construct, built on career pinnacles “Baby Girl” and “Stay,” into a bustling downtown of whomp-whomp drums and ’80s-zinged anthems. Country purists will gasp at some of their admirable risk-taking: a reggae breakdown on “Stuck Like Glue,” synth sounds, and a thing for arena rock. Suddenly, Sugarland’s not down-home – they’re country’s answer to U2. Nettles blasts tunes like bombastic opener “All We Are” and nostalgic torch song “Tonight” into space with her powerhouse pipes, but it’s not her singing that’s off. Whereas previous Sugar-

land outings thrived on imagery-speckled narratives, The Incredible Machine switches on the generic platitudes, power messages of hope and love delivered with heart but less ingenuity. “Stand Up” seems written for our times, a call-to-change chant that could be the It Gets Better theme song, while sweet piano lifter “Shine the Light” would make a really good Hallmark card. Both go down easy. It’s telling, though, that the best cut is one that sounds like classic Sugarland: “Little Miss,” the song that stays truest to their roots. Next time the band decides to pull a Faith Hill, they should keep that in mind.

Grade: B-

Paula Cole, Ithaca

time she’s written every song since 1999’s Amen, doesn’t take any dramatic detours, resisting modern trends just like her stubborn contemporaries Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos. Instead, Cole returns safely to the groundwork she laid out with decadedefining hits like “I Don’t Want to Wait,” her sublime soprano still in check. She launches with the lessons-learned “The Hard Way,” a bittersweet number that’s got the grit so much of McLachlan’s work has lost since Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. The demise of Cole’s relationship, obvious by simply scanning the track names (“Waiting on a Miracle,” “Elegy,” “P.R.E.N.U.P.”), carries her through the self-referential 10 tracks, ending with optimism on “2 Lifetimes.” She speaks her mind on “Somethin’ I’ve Gotta Say,” especially conjuring heyday Cole, and gushes over her daughter on the sweet “Violet Eyes.” And then there’s “Sex”—softcore porn that plays over a slinky eight minutes with pillow talk like, “I’m picturing you as I touch my inside.”

Even if the horny and heartbroken Ithaca sounds more like the album Cole needed to make than the one we needed to hear, she sometimes touches you there too.

Grade: B-

Also Out

Oh how the years go by—except for Paula Cole, who’s stuck in her ’90s glory days like she never left the original Lilith Fair or shaved her armpits. But without hairy situations, of course referring to her divorce, we wouldn’t have Ithaca. Cole’s fifth LP, the first

Robbie Williams, In and Out of Consciousness – The Greatest Hits 1990-2010 Solo suited Robbie Williams just fine, as he made viable bids on a chunk of pop stardom—many of which are included on this 39-track career retrospective. Williams’

dexterity as a recording artist is spotlighted over two CDs, gleaning tracks from as far back as his days as a boy-bander in Take That. “Shame,” the leadoff single, is a countrycandied song, but hardly the best of the set.

Look to disc two for that, where there’s his biggest hit, “Angels.” And Nicole Kidman. And Kylie Minogue.

Jason Mraz, Life is Good

Music’s goodwill ambassador—and outspoken ally—sums up his lifework in the title credo of this five-song digital EP, offering a more aggressive take on “Coyotes,” off his latest studio album, and four new selections.

They keep his proverbial mojo of looseygoosey going with the jazzy “Freedom Song,” dancey “San Disco Reggaefornia” and the swaying sweetness of “Up.” That they’re live is all the more cool since Mraz is even better when there’s a crowd to play for.

Dar Williams, Many Great Companions

Best known to the queer community because of her gender-bending contribution “When I Was a Boy,” the regarded folkie splits her latest release into two discs: one for as-originally-recorded favorites, another for acoustic, collaborative takes on them.

Mary Chapin Carpenter gently caresses the chorus of the beautiful “The One Who Knows,” while out musician Patty Larkin adds an understated vocal to the new “Boy.” A two-decade career deserves something as good—and full—as this.

Chris Azzopardi can be reached online at chris@pridesource.com.

Serving Northeast Iowa by: - Offering confidential support services with compassion and respect for the diversity of those impacted by HIV or AIDS - Increasing awareness and understanding in communities - Offering CASS services free of charge

319.272.2437 | 800.617.1972 www.cvhospice.org

CASS A program of Cedar Valley Hospice

the fun guide

DECEMBER 2010

ACCESSline Page 17

What’s Cooking with Doc by Dr. Michael Fenster Have your cake and eat it too this holiday season

Dr. Michael Fenster, MD, F.A.C.C., FSCA&I, PEMBA, and chef, says the holidays do not have to be a culinary wasteland of depravation [we think he means “deprivation” but either way… ].

Tampa, FL—To eat or not to eat … that is the question we ask the most during the holidays. Is it better to stick to our diets or to allow ourselves a few morsels of culinary delights? Dr. Michael Fenster, chef and practicing cardiologist, says absolutely not! He says studies have shown that we do better on a diet or healthy eating program when we allow ourselves a bit of a treat. ”What makes the holiday season so difficult for so many people is that it is not just a weekend event like a Memorial Day backyard grill, but a non-stop barrage from October through January,” explains Fenster. “We are inundated with offerings everywhere; in the media, at workplace and every point in between. If we are not careful we can find ourselves caught back into a sugar-salt-fat vicious cycle.”

To allow for some culinary holiday cheer without falling into the abyss, Dr. Fenster recommends adapting some of Grassroots Gourmet principles to combat the holiday treat temptation:

Timing and Proportion:

If you are attending holiday parties and plan to sample the wares, mark that time and place. Once you arrive and see what is offered, make your decision and pace yourself. Think of the treats the way you would a wine tasting; a little sample of this and a little sample of that spaced out over the course of the event. Allowing at least 15-20 minutes between samplings will allow time for your stomach to signal the brain you’ve eaten some yummies. Before you know it, you’ll feel satiated with a lot less than if you had come in and sampled everything all at once.

Be Fresh:

Don’t be tempted by the pre-packaged offerings. These are not only often higher in calories but loaded with food and flavor modifiers. If you’re going indulge, hold out for that fresh, handmade treat—make it count!

Limit Your Exposure:

There are plenty of enticements all around. Do not purchase pre-packaged treats to keep around the house. If it isn’t there, you can’t eat it.

During the holidays, Dr. Fenster also recommends that we plan to maintain our current weight, whatever that is, and not try to lose weight. “Enjoy the holidays in a guilt free fashion—that’s food for the soul!

Consider not gaining excessive weight during the holidays as your goal and getting back to the exercise and weight loss after the New Year will be much easier.”

To add to your holiday cheer, Dr. Fenster offers up this delicious dessert.

Eggnog Crème Brûlée topped with Rum Caramel Makes 6 – 4 ounce servings 360 calories per serving; 29g fat; 22g

carbohydrate Here is a fantastic holiday dessert.

The comforting flavors of a classic eggnog delivered in the sumptuous form of a velvety smooth crème brûlée. Straining the liquid ensures a smooth creamy texture; the definition of the crème brûlée. The natural organic sugar, a 1:1 replacement for white refined sugar, has subtle molasses notes that give the brûlée some additional depth and merge seamlessly into the topping.

The dark rum caramel compliments the brûlée’s spice notes and adds a dark rich, caramel toffee taste along with a satisfying crunch.

Crème Brûlée:

• 1 ¾ cups heavy cream • ¼ cup brandy • ½ cup organic sugar (divided into two ¼ cup portions) • 8 egg yolks • 1 vanilla bean • ¼ teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon • ¼ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg 1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Place six 4 to 6 ounce ramekins in a roasting pan, and fill the pan with water so that the water comes up halfway to the tops of the ramekins.

2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat bring ¼ cup of sugar, cream, brandy and the contents of the vanilla bean (add the bean as well, you will remove it later) to a simmer.

3. In a stand mixer, or other bowl whip the egg yolks with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar until the yolks turn a lighter, paler yellow. Add in the cinnamon and nutmeg.

4. Remove the vanilla bean from the heated cream. Slowly, a little at a time, add ½ of the hot cream mixture to temper the egg yolk mixture.

5. Add the remaining cream and strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer.

6. Divide the liquid among the ramekins.

Place in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes until set, but the middle still trembles slightly.

7. Remove and chill at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, or overnight. Prior to serving, remove the brûlées and top with the rum caramel (recipe follows).

8. To top the dessert, place a little hot caramel in the middle then swirl the ramekins until the caramel coats the edges.

Rum Caramel:

• ¼ cup dark rum • 1 cup organic sugar (1:1 replacement for refined granulated white sugar) Be extremely careful when cooking with melted sugar; it is hot and sticky.

Keep an ice bath close by in case the sugar splatters onto you.

1. Heat a medium sauté pan over medium heat and add the sugar rum mixture.

The alcohol will cook out leaving the flavored sugar.

2. The sugar will then start to liquefy, gently stir so that it does not burn in any one place.

3. The sugar will turn a deep rich brown and start to smoke. Heat for one more minute then remove and top the desserts.

ABOUT MICHAEL FENSTER, MD, F.A.C.C., FSCA&I, PEMBA Michael Fenster combines his culinary talents and Asian philosophy with medical expertise, creating winning recipes for healthy eating. He is frequently asked to present live cooking demonstrations as well as giving numerous radio interviews on health and food shows both nationally and internationally. Michael is a certified wine professional and chef, receiving his culinary degree from Ashworth University where he graduated with honors. He has worked professionally in kitchens prior to entering medical school and maintained his passion for food and wine throughout his medical career. Mike helped manage the award winning Napa Alley in Roanoke, Virginia, and hosted a local cable TV cooking show, “What’s Cookin’ with Doc” in Dublin, GA. He has written columns for SheKnows.com and HealthyAging.net, is a regular columnist for the culinary magazine Basil and News-Link.net, as well as a member of their Council of Chefs and a monthly health and fitness contributor to The Tampa Tribune. He recently cooked up heart healthy fall soup on the nationally

syndicated television show “Daytime.”

Michael Fenster, MD, is a Board Certified Interventional Cardiologist, currently on staff with the Cardiology Specialists of Florida at Hernando Heart Clinic. He has participated in numerous clinical trials and spoken nationally on a variety of cardiovascular topics to audiences ranging from lay public to peer presentations at the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology meetings. He has also published numerous professional peer reviewed articles and served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at North East Ohio University College of Medicine (NEOUCOM). Michael recently graduated summa cum laude from Auburn University’s Physician’s Executive MBA program.

Michael holds a JuDan (10th degree black belt) ranking in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, which he has studied over the last three decades. He lives in Spring Hill, Florida, with his wife Jennifer.

To see cooking demonstrations with Michael Fenster and more recipes, visit WhatsCookingWithDoc.com.

Recipes © Michael Fenster www.WhatsCookingWithDoc.com

“No wonder they have so many houses! They need them to keep all their different beliefs in.”

- Jon Stewart on Cindy and John McCain’s changing stances on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

ACCESSline Page 18

the fun guide

DECEMBER 2010

The Gay Wedding Planner: Donning That Gay Apparel by Beau Fodor It’s the most wonderful time of the year, your friends and family are gathered around you, and the church or venue is already fabulously decorated. Why not have a Christmas wedding? Here are ideas and tips to have a fantastic Christmas wedding with all the trimmings. (Not to mention “budget friendly”, too… just sayin’!)

Red and green are natural colors for a Christmas wedding—it is likely that your church or venue site will already be decorated in red and green for other events and holiday parties. But don’t feel limited to this palette. Other possibilities, which will work with existing decorations, include: • silver and white • silver and light blue • burgundy, forest green, and gold (as long as the existing decorations aren’t too primary) • gold and cream • aqua/teal and red (my new personal favorite!)

You’ll want to reflect the season and your theme, but you won’t want your invitation to look like a holiday card. The solution? Forgo a folded card, opting for the traditional thick white card, with a border and engraved or thermo-graphed text. You can highlight the Christmas wedding theme in the border with white snowflakes, an elegant holly trim, or a drawing of a poinsettia.

Since people make plans for the holidays well ahead of time and often have many parties and events to attend at this time of year, you’ll want to send your invitations a little bit early—about 12 weeks before the event. You might also consider “save the date” cards in addition to the invitations, which will ensure that those most important to you will be able to attend.

Wedding Cake Gift Tower:

Having each tier look like an individually wrapped package is a popular look that is perfect for a Christmas wedding. You might also do a take on a Bûche de Noël or yule log, with a tiered chocolate cake that has holly— either real or made of gum paste—cascading down the side. Use marzipan—an almond

paste used in many holiday desserts—as a filling.

That Gay Apparel

A lean, one-button velvet blazer worn with great fitting jeans has that simple chic sophistication in the style of Jude Law. Think about layering a T-shirt with a thin V-neck or a bold dress shirt without the tie. The understated combination of a rich fabric like velvet worn with something casual like a pair of jean gives the look a wonderful feeling of hip, dressed-down elegance that’s perfect for a creative business environment or house party. If the climate is too warm for velvet, try wearing a lightweight polished wool blazer instead, or just the spiffier shirt.

If you’re in a more conservative sector, try the new slim, two-button suit silhouette which really spotlights a gorgeous colored shirt and tie. You can wear your gray suit, but go the extra mile when choosing a shirt color.

Instead of an ordinary pale blue, wear vivid lavender with a rich eggplant tie. Or, wear a deep jade French cuff shirt worn a bit open without a tie for a Hollywood insider look.

Don’t forget a pair of goldtone aviator-style sunglasses for your grand entrance!

When the invite is definitely formal, a fantastic-fitting tuxedo is your best option for looking classy and elegant. Keep to a French cuff shirt and stay clear away from those goofy-looking vests with sports logos or teddy bears in top hats for an eternally elegant formal holiday look.

A Christmas wedding dress needn’t be that different from any other kind. Wear the one that flatters you most, and top it off with a long red velvet cape. Or embrace the trend of color in wedding dresses by adding a beautiful red silk sash to the waist of your gown. You could also seek a dress with lots of sparkly beads and sequins to evoke the snowiness of the season. And of course, a faux-fur wrap and muff are always fun.

Christmas Botanicals: Since flowers can be more expensive at this time of year, think creatively. A mirrored platter with pillar candles and sprigs of holly is both elegant and romantic. Buy ornaments in bulk on-line, and create centerpieces of bowls or vases of ornaments. For a simple but elegant look, put pots of poinsettia with a ribbon trim in the center of each table. Fake snow used to be tacky, but there are now very good products available. Set candles or small flower arrangements in the middle of snow. And for my favorite touch, use fake snow instead of an aisle runner. Or, you can always hire a snow-making machine to really make your Christmas wedding a winter wonderland.

What about…

A NEW YEARS EVE WEDDING

This is personally one of my all-time favorites! Here’s a list of how to get started for your New Year’s Eve nuptials: 1. Reserve your ceremony and reception locations. Be aware many venues may be reserved for New Year’s Eve parties.

Try to make reservations more than a year in advance, if possible. Schedule the times for night, starting your reception at around 8pm so your guests will be there at midnight to ring in the New Year.

Inform guests 2. well in advance with a save the date notification before sending invitations. Because it’s a holiday, many people may have standing plans or reservations they’ll need to cancel. Do this as soon as you have officially determined the date, aiming for at least six months in advance.

3. Plan your food and drinks. Since guests will be eating later, it’s a good idea to just stick with hors d’oeuvres and dessert for food. Mention in the invitation that guests should eat something beforehand and you’ll be serving snacks and appetizers since they’ll be eating later than usual.

Make sure you include lots of champagne on your drink list, as well as coffee.

4. Decide on wedding colors and attire.

Beau Fodor is an Iowa wedding planner who focuses specifically on weddings for the LGBT community. He is also the host of the new docu-reality show “BRIDES & GROOMS”, which is co-produced

by Pilgrim Films and Coolfire Media, and will be premiering this winter on cable television. Beau can be reached through iowasgayweddingplanner.com or gayweddingswithpanache.com.

Having a wedding on New Year’s Eve is a good opportunity to do a black tie event. Everyone will enjoy the chance to dress up to ring in the year. Black, gold and silver are the colors typically associated with New Year’s, so use those if you can.

5. Send invitations to your guests. Do this around three months in advance instead of the usual two-month timeframe used for wedding invitations.

6. Plan your decorations and flowers for the wedding. Think about incorporating the Christmas decor already in place!

When doing a black tie theme, red and white roses are a great choice for flowers.

Include noise makers, confetti and party hats. Have a big clock or TV for the countdown.

7. Purchase party accessories and favors to go with the New Year’s Eve theme.

Good examples are personal champagne bottles, fortune cookies, a CD with the songs which were a hit during the past year, bells which say ring in the new year with your names or personalized calendars for the year to come (do it yourself or use the local copy shop).

DECEMBER 2010

the fun guide

ACCESSline Page 19

ACCESSline Page 20

the fun guide

DECEMBER 2010

the fun guide

DECEMBER 2010

Simply Cher by Chris Azzopardi

Photo: Screen Gems

Legend talks film comeback, being a gay icon, and son Chaz They don’t make ’em like Cher anymore.

The superdiva, and queen of all gay icons, has been able to successfully pull off singing and acting throughout her nearly 50-year career—and she does both in Burlesque, her long-awaited return to the big screen out Nov. 24. Cher’s role as Tess, an L.A. club owner who gives a small-town girl (Christina Aguilera in her acting debut) a shot at fulfilling her dream as a singer, is the Oscar winner’s first major part since Tea with Mussolini over a decade ago.

“Tess is a character who, in the face of great adversity, manages to pull herself up by her bootstraps and rise like a phoenix— and that is Cher,” says writer-director Steven Antin, who nabbed the actress for his bigbudget film debut.

Breaking from her Las Vegas show at Caesars Palace, which closes in February after three years, Cher coolly strutted into a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., with a big smirk and an off-theshoulder sequined shirt—proof that the legend’s not letting her 64 years get in the way of sustaining her sexiness.

Sitting in was Stanley Tucci, who plays her gay assistant and pal (much like the actor did in The Devil Wears Prada, alongside Meryl Streep). The two stars laughed a lot over the dirty texts they shared and the scenes they shot together. Cher also talked about her indecisiveness over doing Burlesque, why gay men adore her, and shooting an “It Gets Better” video with daughter-turned-son Chaz Bono.

There’s no question that this is an incredibly gay movie.

Cher: (Laughs) One guy said, “This is gay Fantasia!”

How does this rank among the gayest things you have done in your career?

Cher: Not even anywhere! It doesn’t even rank. I don’t think of it as a gay film, but of course gay guys love musicals. And it’s fun! Gay guys like to have fun, and so I think that’s what it is.

Do they, Stanley?

Stanley Tucci: How would I know?

(Sarcasm) Cher: He’s just an actor!

You’ve played gay now for Cher and

Meryl Streep. Who’s the better boss?

ST: (Points to Cher) Well, she’s much nicer.

Cher: That’s right—Meryl was horrible!

(Both laugh) Gay men have always been a big part of your career. Can you reflect on that?

Cher: I’ve said this many times, but I think gay men either love you or they don’t even notice you’re alive on the planet. And if they do love you they kind of stick with you through thick and through thin, even when you’re not popular. They recognize kindred spirits that don’t really fit into society, either.

And, of course, there’s sequins.

Cher, we haven’t seen you onscreen in a long time. What about Burlesque drew you back?

Cher: You know, I just wanted to sing.

I wanted to sing in a film. It was my heart’s desire from the time I was about 4, so that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t want the film (at first); this was a process. I thought that (Tess) could be a good role. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted in the beginning, but she did turn out to be who I thought she should be.

What do you love about Tess?

Cher: She’s my kind of girl. I love that she’s working really hard and she’s not getting anyplace but she’s not giving up. I love the relationship she has with all the (burlesque) girls and with him (Tucci).

She’s a very likable character, so it’s not like you’re taking a big risk. In the beginning she was so not likable, and I just kept saying, “She’s just complaining and she’s angry with the girls and yelling at them all the time.” I just thought somebody like this would’ve just sold the club.

One of Tess’ best moments is the musical number “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me.” How do you personally identify with that song?

Cher: Stanley and I were talking about this. If you’ve been in this business, you know what being down is, and if you keep going then you know what struggling through down means.

Many have tried to transition from pop diva to actress, and many have failed—but you were one who’s done it spectacularly. What advice did you have for Christina?

ST: It’s not going to work for Christina.

We’ve discussed this, and Christina knows it. (Laughs)

Cher: (Laughs) I think a couple of things had to happen for her to feel comfortable with me, because she didn’t know me. We met a week before (filming began), and she had to realize that I was going to be there to support her and not do any kind of weird actress crap. I really saw as we went on, our scenes together just got better and better. I think she really has the talent to keep going.

Cher: I would’ve never done this (as my first film). The first thing that was on film (in my acting career) was an ensemble piece, but the first thing that was a film (1983’s Silkwood), I had no idea what I was doing and I was holding (Meryl Streep’s) hand through it.

How do you think your performance playing gay in Silkwood stands up to gay characters now?

Cher: I don’t think you “play gay.”

ST: You don’t.

Cher: I didn’t. If you look at her, she was just a person, and you just play a person. I think for Stanley it was more of a stretch, but the truth is we giggle like (we did in) that first scene all the time. He makes me laugh hysterically, and I just don’t think you play that. (Looks at Tucci) I don’t think in The Lovely Bones you played a murderer; you played a person.

How was it for you and Stanley to connect as characters?

Cher: We don’t get along to this day!

(Laughs) ST: It was awful; they’re paying me for these interviews. (Laughs) It was great. I was very nervous to meet Cher, there’s no doubt about it. But once we started working, we got along very well and we had a great time.

In fact, they had to wrangle us in to keep us from laughing all the time.

Did you improvise while filming?

Cher: There’s that part where we’re at the rack hanging clothes and at the end he grabs me with his legs—that was so not expected! (Laughs) ST: (Laughs) No one would actually write that in the script.

Cher: I remember when I opened the rack and he looked at me, I just started laughing hysterically. That wasn’t in (the movie).

We would go off on our little tangents. It was fun for us and I think when you’re having fun on the screen, people get it.

Some of the best scenes in the film are the ones you both share. What was it like off-screen?

ST: What you saw onscreen is exactly what was happening off-screen, and I’m not kidding. Whatever that relationship was is the relationship that this is.

Cher: He makes me laugh hysterically, and I just make him roll his eyes and smile.

That’s the truth. (Both laugh) ST: It’s true, because she’s really filthy.

ACCESSline Page 21

Cher: No, it’s not true! I swear!

ST: I’m going to show you a text…

(Laughs) Cher: We do have several texts that I hope never see the light of day.

Cher, did you get to wear any Bob Mackie?

Cher: One (for the number) “Welcome to Burlesque.” That was done specially for the film; I just don’t happen to have those things (in my closet). I have a lot. In my auction I gave the ones I didn’t really love away, but the ones I love, I’m going to keep them until they fall apart.

You wore something to the MTV Video Music Awards this year that was very similar to the outfit in the “If I Could Turn Back Time” video. Was that planned?

Cher: I wear that every night (laughs). I just had it and I didn’t have time to think of an outfit and thought it would be fun.

What’s next for you?

Cher: There’s an album, but I haven’t been able to get to it. That’s going to be the next thing I really want to do—unless a movie with Stanley comes up.

You also voice a character in 2011’s animated film Zookeeper.

Cher: Yeah, I play a lioness: Sylvester Stallone’s wife (laughs). It’s not a big part; it was my first voiceover and it was really great. That’s how they cornered me, because when I came out—I had been there for hours and I was really tired and I walked out the door—there was Steven (Antin, the Burlesque director) and Clint (Culpepper, president of Screen Gems). Clint got down on one knee and said, “You have to come to the office!”

And so I did.

Clint said you tried to pull out of the film. Was that only because of the character?

Cher: Yeah. In life I don’t know what I want nearly as much as what I want in a character. I complained a lot about the hours—we had many 16-hour days in heels.

It was hard.

Are there plans to film a video with Chaz for the “It Gets Better” campaign directed toward LGBT youth?

Cher: We haven’t talked about it. She’s been… she, I do this all the time; the pronouns are just f----d. He’s doing the documentary and this book, so that’s been taking up all the time.

Looking back at your early career, what advice would you give yourself?

Cher: Shut my mouth! (Laughs) ST: You would shut your mouth?

Cher: Yeah, I would shut my mouth a lot more than I have in my life. I wouldn’t have done anything different because you just do what you do, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. You just have to keep going. Mistakes are just mistakes.

“Let’s adjust our pacemakers, and show a bit of respect toward all people.

Or should we not eat our Christmas ham this year? It is one of the things that are prohibited in the Fifth Book of Genesis.”

— Wille Riekkinen, Bishop of Kuopio, Finland (in the Synod of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church), regarding conservative objections to Synod’s approval of prayer services for the union of same-sex couples. (The “prayer services” are not official “blessing ceremonies,” much less marriage, but are seen as a compromise to allow “respect” for same-sex couples while maintaining marriage as strictly a male+female arrangement.)

ACCESSline Page 22

the fun guide

DECEMBER 2010

DECEMBER 2010

the fun guide

ACCESSline Page 23

Cocktail Chatter by Ed Sikov 1 Part October, 4 Parts American Musical Theater

The late-summer doldrums had set in, and it was only 10 o’clock on Saturday morning. Robbie was entirely red from head to toe—hair, face, neck, chest hair (and the skin underneath), legs and feet. Ever arrogant, he’d accented his sunburn by wearing a pair of bright orange gym trunks with the word “PRIDE!” spelled out in crimson letters.

He was sprawled on a shaded deck chaise drinking iced coffee in misery. Kyle was on the couch inside, not as red, but just as unhappy.

The puppies had had a bitter fight a half-hour earlier about some issue involving one of the bartenders in town, and their yapping was so painful that the rest of us left the room. I skittered around the deck drenching our tired, baked container flowers in MiracleGro in the futile hope of making them look like they did in June. Dan, of course, was upstairs in our room all morning reading neuroscience journals, avoiding the whole bad scene.

We all went to the beach at noon, as usual, but were back home by 1:30—the sun was too relentless, the sand too hostile.

The puppies hadn’t kissed and made up yet, but they were in the same room, which was a positive sign. The house had the faint, funky aroma of, well, six overheated men in a funk.

Dan, Kyle, Robbie and I arranged ourselves around the living room trying to pretend that the moving air from our single rotating fan was enough. (Note to self: Why were we so cheap that we hadn’t bought a second one?). Craig couldn’t stand sitting still and had lumbered into the kitchen. He was going through the liquor cabinet, hoping to find some sort of hidden treasure. I hoped he’d find it, since I was at a total loss as to what to make for “le cocktail du weekend.”

My imagination was fried.

Because of a regrettable scene two weeks earlier, we’d been forced to label our own bottles as though this was a boarding house. No more share and share alike. Craig, the showman, seized on that uncomfortable fact and ran with it. “Hmmm,” he began in his vaudevillian, let-the-comedy-begin voice.

“Here’s Ed’s Absolut! See? It says ‘E-d’ on it.

‘Ed!’ ” He waved the bottle in the air and set it down. “And here’s Dan’s Pernod. ‘D-a-n.’ And Joe’s Beefeater, and Kyle’s Kahlua. ‘K-i-l-e.’ ” He paused for dramatic emphasis. “But…” Then, in a pitch-perfectly hoarse imitation of a certain actress-chanteuse, he sang out, “It’s everybody’s RYE! RYE! RYE! RYE! RYYYYYYE!” Dan and I dissolved in laughter. The puppies were mystified. “Who’s he doing?”

Kyle asked Robbie. “I have no idea,” Robbie answered.

“Elaine…” I began but couldn’t stop laughing. “Stritch!” Dan managed to get out.

“In (gasp) Company!” The puppies both still looked blank.

“I’ve got it!” I shouted. “Le Cocktail du Weekend!”

“What do you make with rye?” Dan asked through his tears of mirth.

“No! No! Vodka Stingers!” This cracked Dan up all over again, leaving the puppies more baffled than ever.

“It’s from a song by Stephen Sondheim,”

I said in the insufferable professorial voice I can never shake, having been a college professor. “­‘The Ladies Who Lunch.’ We have it on our iPods. We’ll play it later. I have to go to the liquor store right now!” And with that, I put on my oversized, fat-camouflaging plaid shirt and headed for the harbor.

The Vodka Stinger (Classic Version)

• 1 part Absolut • 1 part white creme de menthe (Do not under any circumstances use the green variety; show some respect for the classics, kids.)

An Updated Vodka Stinger (my own less candy-like variation) • 4 parts Absolut • 1 part white creme de menthe 1. Ice. 2. Cocktail shaker.

3. Old-fashioned glasses, martini glasses, or even brandy glasses—just give it some style.

The Scarborough Fair

It’s very loud in the city—much louder than any Fire Island sound system blasting the recent archaeological discovery, Barbra Streisand. But I’ve kept a bit of my summer garden in preserved form, and it’s literally a tonic.

Just before we left the beach house, I was seized with an overwhelming need to take something with me—something to get me through the tough, cold northeast winter.

Dan had already put his suitcase outside the gate when, stricken with this impulse, I dropped my stuff, sprinted to the container garden in the back, and ripped out bunches of herbs.

“What are you doing?” said Dan when I reappeared carrying two fistfuls of aromatics.

“What are you doing?” I replied as I stuffed them into my backpack. He answered on cue: “What are you doing?!” It’s a routine we do.

“I don’t know,” I said as I picked up my backpack. “It’s part of a Native-American harvest ritual.”

“Don’t be racist,” Dan scolded. We distracted ourselves by insulting each other as we walked to the ferry.

By the time we got home, the herbs looked pretty sad, so to refresh them I wrapped them in a wet towel and stuck them in the refrigerator. I decided to make an herbal infusion, so the next morning, I bought a fifth of Absolut.

After doing some cursory Internet research, I decided I knew better. (I’m obnoxious.) So I washed the ragged bouquets, dried them in a salad spinner, and laid them out on the counter. I hadn’t planned this desperate harvest at all; the herbs I’d blindly grabbed at twilight consisted of sage, thyme, tarragon, lovage, parsley and rosemary. The infusion ingredients instantly chose themselves: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Don’t you just love that song? I put the iPod on its little donut and set it to my Paul Simon playlist, then gently bruised the herbs to release their oils and juices, stuffed them in a large, clean, Mason-type glass jar, poured the Absolut in and sealed it.

I waited one day too long. On the third day, the infusion was a gorgeous shade of

bright green; the next day it starting browning, and I yanked the herbs out before the thing started to look like peat moss run-off.

The taste? Well, the Garfunkle herb mix tasted very good, though in the future I might just use rosemary (it’s got the best flavor) and some parsley for color. Turning an herbal infusion into a cocktail is easy: you can have it straight up at room temperature, put it on the rocks, stick the bottle in the freezer or add some seltzer and a lime segment. Simple!

And if a guest says your handcrafted infused vodka is not to her liking? Just tell her to go reap it in a sickle of leather. That should shut her up. (But what the hell does it mean?)

“The Scarborough Fair”

Get some herbs. I’d try rosemary first, with some parsley for color. Measurements are useless here, since the whole point is to make it handcrafted by you. Wash and dry the herbs thoroughly, put them in a glass jar with a lid that seals tightly, pour in enough Absolut to cover the herbs, and seal the jar.

Taste often. When it looks and tastes right to you, strain the infusion back into the Absolut bottle or the bottle or jar of your choice. Drink it straight, or mixed with some seltzer or a small splash of tomato juice.

In the Drink: Grappa vs. the Bellini

“Let’s go to Italy,” Dan suggested out of

the blue.

“Yay!” I cried and jumped onto his lap. He was reading The Economist, which got badly crushed, and he spilled his seltzer, and I got chewed out.

I’d never been to Italy, so to me it was a dream-like country with 583 kinds of pasta (like strozzaprelli, or choked priests, which conjured images of kinky intra-clerical sex acts gone terribly wrong), seafood antipasti, fabulous wines and deep-fried artichokes. Oh, and the great gay artists: the repressed Michelangelo and Caravaggio, the bad boy of the Baroque who wasn’t repressed at all.

Venice came first. I convinced Dan that we should take a private water taxi to our hotel, so we sped along the waterways directly to the front door. That’s when Dan fell into the Grand Canal.

There he was, bobbing in the filthy water, clutching his sinking suitcase with one hand and grasping the dock with the other. The taxi guy fished him out rapidamente, and the hotel staff came rushing out shouting, and the only things that went missing were a guidebook and Dan’s entire self-esteem.

Reader, I couldn’t help myself: I laughed.

This was not a wise move.

We had dinner last night with our Pines housemate Chipper, who was aghast at the waterlogged details I dropped. “No,” he said.

“Ja wohl,” I replied darkly. Dan was furious.

“You promised you weren’t going to tell,” he complained. “And anyway, that’s not Italian; it’s German.”

TTCOCKTAILS continued page 28

ACCESSline Page 24

the fun guide

DECEMBER 2010

DECEMBER 2010

the fun guide

ACCESSline Page 25

Out of Town: Getting to Know Toronto by Andrew Collins North America’s fifth-largest city, Toronto ranks among the world’s favorite gay urban destinations, with exceptional art and history museums, superb shopping, two stellar theater districts and a tourist board keen on courting the lesbian/gay market (bit.ly/dcsYyd). The name Toronto means “meeting place” in the language of the native Huron Indians, an apt moniker given how easy it is to make new friends in the city’s affable Church Street Gay Village.

Toronto’s popularity in recent decades among immigrants of numerous and farreaching ethnic backgrounds has helped infuse it with a diverse personality, exceptional culinary offerings, and an eclectic visual and performing arts scene. Adding to the colorful mix is that Toronto has Canada’s largest gay and lesbian population, including openly gay city councilors, school trustees, and other public officials, and in general a highly progressive political climate. The city’s Pride Parade is one of the world’s largest, held each year in late June and early July.

Toronto may be enormous, but it’s still pedestrian friendly. In the early 70s, planners debated whether to tear down much of the city’s historic infrastructure and replace it with high-rise housing and concrete office parks. By and large, the government decided to keep things as they were, promoting the restoration of many older neighborhoods.

This policy has worked out favorably, and downtown now contains a bounty of invigorating neighborhoods filled with well-kept, mostly Victorian and Edwardian homes.

One of the favorite areas for exploring is Chinatown (really more of a “Pan-Asian town), this also near to the esteemed Art Gallery of Ontario—which received a stunning new addition when famed architect Frank Gehry redesigned the museum in 2008.

You’ll find not just top-notch Chinese but also Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, Korean, and other Southeast-Asian eateries throughout this neighborhood, especially along Spadina Avenue and its neighboring blocks.

North of the city’s central Financial District, the domain of many sleek hotels and office towers, is the University of Toronto, where more than 65,000 students are enrolled. The heart of the campus is at King’s College Circle, a small ellipse dotted with impressive 19th- and 20th-century school buildings. Due east lies Ontario’s governmental center, Queen’s Park, where you’ll see the Ontario Legislative and Parliament buildings.

Just above the park is the vast Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), which is the second-largest museum in North America (after New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art).

South of the Financial District along the lakefront is the 100-acre Harbourfront Centre, a former industrial wasteland that now that’s been reinvented into an entertainment-and-retail district with a massive antiques center, performance spaces, restaurants, and “The Pier: Toronto’s Waterfront Museum”, which has exhibits tracing the city’s considerable maritime history. Gaze across the Inner Harbour, and you can make out the Toronto Islands, which you reach by a 10-minute ferry ride from the terminal, just behind the Westin Harbour Castle. Choose the ferry headed for Hanlan’s Point (boats leave regularly throughout the day, the cost is $6.50 round-trip) to reach the clothing-optional beach, which has a huge LGBT follow-

for perfectly brewed lattes and espressos, and Pizzeria Libretto (pizzerialibretto.com) on Ossington, for incomparably good woodfired, blistered-crust pizzas. Not too far from this area, at Chiado (bit.ly/d6ezhz), you’ll be treated to some of the most sophisticated Portuguese cooking in North America, from rabbit braised in Madeira wine to poached salt cod.

Finding Gay Nightlife

ing, and keep in mind that Lake Ontario can be windy, and the islands are always several degrees cooler than the mainland (which on hot summer days is a blessing).

Astride the Financial District are the city’s two major performing arts areas, the King Street theater district (to the west) and the Front Street theater district (to the east— keep going and you’ll reach the bustling St. Lawrence Market, with its incredible food stalls, and the smartly redeveloped Distillery District, with its chic shops and eateries).

Toronto has the English-speaking world’s third largest performing arts scene, with outstanding theater, music, opera, and dance.

Also near the King Street district is the 1,815foot CN (Canadian National) Tower, whose 1,465-foot-high Space Deck is the highest observation deck in the world.

It’s an easy walk from downtown to the Gay Village (aka Church Street Village), whose commercial spine is Church Street, from about Bloor south to Gerrard Street.

In addition to finding most of Toronto’s gay bars and restaurants in this area, you’ll also discover several great fashion, book and gift shops.

Toronto’s most colorful ethnic neighborhoods lie west of downtown, where the hipster-factor is also highest. Walk along Queen Street West to experience the heart of the city’s alternative culture—you’ll find everything from offbeat antiques stores to vintage clothing boutiques, shops specializing in witchcraft, and “dive-y” tattoo parlors.

Farther west, Queen Street intersects with yet another strip of trendy, hipster-infested bars, cafes, and shops: Ossington Avenue, which is definitely worth a tour.

Up until the middle of the 20th century, Toronto endured a reputation as a hardworking, earnest, but rather dull metropolis.

The incisive writer Jan Morris once described it as “a small provincial city of almost absurdly British character.” A walk through the many bustling ethnic neighborhoods, around the vibrant Gay Village, and past the quirky, counter-cultural businesses along Queen Street West reveal just how dramatically times have changed.

Restaurant Tips

You’ll find dozens of gay-friendly restaurants in Church Street Village, but it’s often

more about socializing than eating fantastic food in these parts. One of the best ethnic neighborhoods for noshing is Greektown, a short drive east of Church Street Village, where you’ll find numerous tavernas lining Danforth Street—Mezes (mezes.ca) and Pantheon (bit.ly/988Tri) are good bets.

Close to many theaters and a 15-minute walk south of Church Street Village, the Wine Bar at 9 Church Street (9church.com) serves wonderfully inventive, farm-to-table fare and features a terrific wine list. A bit east of the area, for arguably the best Thai food in the city, check out Mengra (mengraithai.com), which is set inside an atmospheric old warehouse and turns out beautifully prepared food.

Head farther east into up-and-coming Leslieville, sometimes dubbed “Lesbianville” in light of one of the neighborhood’s most visible demographics, and you’ll find some nifty little eateries along the main avenue, Queen Street East—Pulp Kitchen (pulpkitchen.ca) is a favorite over here, as is Lady Marmalade (ladymarmalade.ca), a funky place serving delicious breakfasts.

Queen Street West has scads of outstanding eateries, from high-end superstars like Nota Bene (bit.ly/aUT8Ei), which specializes in stellar mod-Italian cuisine, to romantic Paramour (paramourdining.com), a sophisticated modern bistro on the trendy Ossington Strip. Also consider Clafouti Patisserie for delicious baked goods, Quaff Cafe (cafequaff.ca)

Contrary to its long-ago-pious reputation as “Toronto the Good,” a distinct naughty side has grown up over the years around the city’s gay club scene, which is centered in Church Street Village. There are quite a few favorites in these parts, including Slack’s (slacks.ca, an attractive restaurant and bar especially popular with the lesbian see-and-be-seen set), the longfamous Woody’s and neighboring Sailor bar (woodystoronto.com—fairly youthful, good mix, fun videos), Fly (flynightclub.com—a pulsing nightclub that appeared regularly in the U.S. version of Queer As Folk), Zipperz/Cellblock (fun for drag shows and cabaret), the Barn (thebarnnightclub.com— super-cruisy men’s bar), and Crews & Tango (crewsandtangos.com—drawing women and men, with great cabaret shows).

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg— walk up and down Church, and you’ll find plenty of others, as well as gay-popular restaurants, shops, saunas (Steamworks— steamworksonline.com) is probably the most popular), and more.

Where to Stay

For many discerning travelers, the dashing, historic, and enormous Fairmont Royal York Hotel (fairmont.com/royalyork) is the only address they’ll consider when visiting Toronto. A short cab ride from the Gay Village, it’s right by theaters, Queen Street, and the Harbourfront. Rooms retain the ambience that has earned this property a following among kings and, well, more than a few queens. Chic, design-driven Hotel Le Germain (germaintoronto.com) stands out for its smart, contemporary rooms and convenient location near theaters and museums.

In the heart of Queen Street West’s shopping and dining, the art-filled and happily eccentric Gladstone Hotel (gladstonehotel.com) is

TTTORONTO continued page 28

the fun guide

ACCESSline Page 26

DECEMBER 2010

Book Worm Sez by Terri Schlichenmeyer

“Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why”

by Simon LeVay ©2010, Oxford University Press $27.95 USA / $29.95 CAN 412 pages, includes notes

Some things just can’t be tolerated.

Take, for instance, when food touches other food on your plate. Or when socks don’t match up. Or if, like, somebody, like, repeatedly uses a catch-phrase without, like, thinking.

We all have our individual likes, traits, and dislikes. But are our selves shaped by outside influence, or did we enter the world this way? Was our behavior learned or innate? In the new book Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why by Simon LeVay, you’ll find answers to similar questions of a more intimate sort.

Nearly two decades ago, Simon LeVay published a scientific paper asserting that gay men differed from straight men in brain structure; specifically, a cluster of nerve cells controlling sex drive were, in gay men, of the size that LeVay observed in straight women’s brains.

Since the publication of his paper, vast amounts of further research have been done concerning same-sex attraction and the nature / nurture debate. In this book, LeVay takes a deeper look at new findings.

While some gays and lesbians are “surprised” later in life by feelings of samesex attraction, LeVay says that sexual identity, while not always immediately apparent, is present at birth (although women, throughout life, appear to be more “fluid” and cannot always be categorized). As small proof, he points to several cases in which male infants were, for one reason or another, “assigned” to live as the opposite sex. In most cases, upon adulthood, the “assignment” turned

out to be wrong.

Childhood abuse has been theorized to be an influence on gayness, but survivors deny it as a factor. Some theories claim that older siblings hold sway. And as for “choice”, LeVay cites several quasi-claims of “conversions”, in which therapy reportedly changed sexual preference.

Overall, LeVay says, nothing is “cut and dried” but the probable reason that someone is gay has to do with genetics, hormones, and stress that individuals receive in utero.

Studies show, for instance, that mice are influenced by chemicals secreted by their mothers and by littermates. Humans, likewise, are affected in similar ways, which could lay to rest so many questions.

And one of the hints may—literally—be at your fingertips.

While there is no doubt that Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why is an intriguing book that makes sense on several levels, there’s one big problem with it: you almost need a PhD

Q-PUZZLE: “Beyond Brady”

Across 1 Well endowed 5 Cole Porter’s Indiana hometown 9 Tie it to become wife and wife 13 Seesaw sitter of verse 14 Sparkle 15 Wilde land 16 Harvey Milk portrayer Sean 17 Send tumbling 18 Final Foursome org.?

19 Half of a lesbian couple with 10 kids 22 Madonna, in a creche 23 Mary Cheney’s partner Heather 24 Escorted from the door 27 Streep kisser at the Oscars 31 “Why should ___ you?”

32 “Bear” that’s not a bear 34 Nureyev’s nyet 35 Partner of 19-Across Tracy 38 Catchall abbr.

39 “What does she see ___?”

40 Go bananas 41 Saltwater swimmer 43 Swamp critter 44 Pique condition?

57 Norse port

45 Porn star Long ___ Silver

58 Shiite leader

47 Nickname of 19-Across for her family

59 Jethro of rock

53 “I Sing the Body Electric” poet Whitman

60 From A to B, to Debussy

54 Room for Marga Gomez

61 Warrior Princess of the boob tube

55 East of Eden director Kazan

62 Bear market order

Down 1 Like some cats 2 Visitor at lesbianation.com 3 Second starter 4 Maker of things you shoot off 5 Pears of a gay pair 6 Judy Jetson’s brother

to follow much of what author Simon LeVay says. Yes, it’s steeped in medical lingo. Yes, LeVay includes a glossary and heavy-duty notes to explain the scientific terms and acronyms. Still, this book is a challenge.

If you’re up for that challenge, though, you’ll be rewarded with a pondering and thought-provoking examination of a private subject that has a very public focus. LeVay leaves no hypothesis unexamined, which leaves readers satisfied that every corner of this argument has been thoroughly dusted off.

Give yourself some time if you decide to tackle this book, because it’s nowhere near light reading. Still, “Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why” is surely food for tolerance.

7 Police incursion at Stonewall 8 Eliciting boos, perhaps 9 Where bitches hang out 10 Easy partner 11 Kind of stimulating 12 Pond swimmer 20 “At Seventeen” singer Janis 21 Faith in music 24 These are a few of my favorite things 25 Make heady 26 Old record label 27 Overdo it at South Beach 28 “___ at time!” (No threesomes!)

29 Sailor’s load 30 Comical bandleader Kay 32 Totally gay guy 33 Publisher Adolph 36 Diana’s accessory 37 Stocking material for queens?

42 Bottom’s circus favorite?

43 Horny animal 45 Thomas of poetry 46 Care prefix 47 Groups waiting for wedding licenses 48 Doest own 49 Woods of Legally Blonde 50 Edna, for one 51 Crime-solving game 52 San Francisco’s Nob ___ 56 Pledge of Allegiance ender • SOLUTION ON PAGE 28

DECEMBER 2010

the fun guide

ACCESSline Page 27

PHOTOGRAPHER

QUAD CITIES: MASSAGE

IOWA CITY: INSURANCE

CEDAR RAPIDS: WINE & GIFTS

FREELANCE WRITER

the fun guide

ACCESSline Page 28 SScontinued from page 23

SScontinued from page 15

COCKTAILS He must have been truly offended by my little breach of a major confidence to miss the My Fair Lady reference. I do feel guilty—but not guilty enough to withhold from you the supremely hilarious sight of a dripping Dan being hoisted out of the drink by a young boater with great lats. And the way he reeked as he trickled onto the dock!

Molto disgustoso!

Chipper changed the subject: “Did you go to Harry’s Bar for Bellinis?” Now I was indignant. “I would not set foot in that, that trappola per touristica, if Hemingway’s life depended on it. Besides, I hate Hemingway.”

The Bellini was indeed invented in Harry’s Bar in Venice, where the alcoholic, overrated writer hung out. We had our guidebook Bellinis in the more gracious Danieli Hotel, which is equally trappola, but at least there are some gorgeous young Venetian waiters who look like they’d rather be in South Beach.

The Bellini is an overly sweet mess of a drink that should only be made with fresh peach juice and good Prosecco. Most places use sweetened peach nectar and cheap bubbly.

I’ll stick with Italy’s more chest-hair-oriented grappa. Grappa is essentially firewater. It has the clear, clean taste of grain alcohol—but it’s kissed by the faint essence of the grape from which it’s distilled. I ordered it at cocktail hour.

Dan was embarrassed. “You’re not supposed to drink that before dinner!” “Oh, pooh! Supposed by who?” I said, admiring my impromptu rhyme. The point is: drink grappa when you want grappa. And I’ll take a mediocre grappa over a bad Bellini any day.

The Bellini Get yourself an electric juicer, run perfectly ripe peaches through it, and mix with chilled Prosecco.

Grappa Buy a bottle. Drink it. What? You don’t like your new chest hair? So shave it.

Ed Sikov is the author of Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis and other books about films and filmmakers.

SScontinued from page 25

TORONTO a favorite of LGBT travelers.

Up around the Gay Village, you’ll find several well-priced, charming, and LGBTpopular B&Bs. These include the appealing Banting House (bantinghouse.com), an elegant Edwardian home on beautifully kept grounds; the fanciful brick-and-clapboard Dundonald House (dundonaldhouse.com), which is steps from the bars and has a common sauna and hot tub; and the affordable House on McGill (mcgillbb.com), a renovated 1890s property whose units share baths but are otherwise comfortably furnished and spacious. Victoria’s Mansion (victoriasmansion.com) is another reasonably priced, elegantly furnished B&B in Church Street Village.

Andrew Collins covers gay travel for the New York Times-owned website About.com and is the author of Fodor’s Gay Guide to the USA. He can be reached care of this publication or at OutofTown@qsyndicate.com.

EVENTS [LGBTMWA]

Wednesday 1st Wednesday of the Month, CEDAR RAPIDS CHARTER CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN BUSINESS WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION, For more info, visit charter-chapter.tripod.com. [ L W ] 1st Wednesday of the Month, WOMEN’S SACRED CIRCLE, 6:30-8pm, Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center, 120 E. Boyson Rd, Hiawatha, IA 52233. This group is for women who are interested in gathering for spiritual growth.

The direction and activities of the group are determined by participants. $5 per session. For more info, visit www.prairiewoods.org. [ L W ] 1st Wednesday of the Month, CONNECTIONS’ RAINBOW READING GROUP, 7pm, Iowa City Public Library Meeting Room B, 123 South Linn Street, Iowa City, IA 52240. For more info, contact Todd at: faunides@yahoo.com. [ L G B T M W A ] 2nd Wednesday of the Month, STONEWALL DEMOCRATS, THE GLBT CAUCUS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, 6:30-8pm, Hamburger Mary’s CR, 222 Glenbrook Dr. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403. For more info, contact Harvey Ross at linnstonewall@gmail.com or call 319-389-0093. [ LGBTMWA] 2nd Wednesday of the Month, WOMEN FOR PEACE KNITTERS, 7-9pm, Hiawatha, IA . at Prairiewoods, 120 E. Boyson Rd., Hiawatha.

Knitting, crocheting, and discussion. For more info, call 319-377-3252 or go to www.womenforpeaceiowa.org. All ages and levels of needlework skills welcome. Come knit for charities. [ L W ] Every Wednesday, HOT MESS EXPRESS, 9:30pm, Des Moines Social Club, 1408 Locust St., Des Moines, IA . The hottest most messiest citizens of Des Moines providing a comedic look at the hottest most messiest current events around the world. Featuring: Paul Selberg, Rachel C. Johnson, Kelley Robinson & Tyler Reedy [ L G B T A ] Every Wednesday, TRANSFORMATIONS IOWA, 7-9pm, The Center, 1300 Locust, Des Moines, IA 50309. TransformationsIowa is a Transgender support group. It is open to all ranges of the gender spectrum, male to female, female to male, cross dressers, drag queens, gender queer, questioning, as well as friends, significant others and allies. [ T D ] Every Wednesday, U OF I GAY LESBIAN BISEXUAL TRANSGENDER AND ALLIES UNION MEETINGS, 7-9pm, Iowa City, IA . at the Penn State Room #337 of the Iowa Memorial Union, U. of Iowa campus, Iowa City. For more info, visit http://www.uiowa.edu/~glbtau/ or e-mail glbtau@uiowa.edu. These meetings are open to the public. [ L G B T M W A ] Second Wednesday, OUT NETWORKING, 5:30, Des Moines Social Club, 1408 Locust St, Des Moines, IA 50309. A social, business, and philanthropic networking organization for anyone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning or supportive. The group presents year-round events focused on business, culture, community, and philanthropic subjects. [ L G B T A]

Thursday

1st 3rd Thursday, EVENINGS FOR SPIRIT, 6:30-8:30pm, West Branch, IA . at SpiritHill Retreat, 604 Cedar Valley Road, West Branch.

First, third, and fifth Thursdays of each month.

Women gather at SpiritHill (or other locations) to share our spiritual experiences, visions and longings. The evenings include time for sharing and time for silence. Laughter, tears and singing are often shared as well. No specific spiritual practice is followed. This event is always open to newcomers. For more info, call 319-643-2613, or e-mail spirit-hill@earthlink.net. Calling in advance is highly recommended to confirm the location for the specific month of interest. [ L W ] 2nd Thursday of the Month, OPEN MIC WITH MARY MCADAMS, 7-9pm, Des Moines, IA. at Ritual Café, on 13th St. between Locust and Grand, downtown Des Moines. Visit www.ritualcafe.com.

For more info, e-mail mary@marymcadams.com.

[LGBTMWA]

2nd Thursday of the Month, IOWA PFLAG OMAHA/COUNCIL BLUFFS CHAPTER MEETING, 7pm (6:30pm social time), Omaha, IA . at Mead Hall, First United Methodist Church, 7020 Cass St., Omaha. For more info, call 402-291-6781. [ L G B TMWAK] 3rd Thursday of the Month, OPEN MIC HOSTED BY KIMBERLI, 7-10pm, Cedar Rapids, IA . at the Blue Strawberry Coffee Company (now open after the flood), 118 2nd St. SE, Downtown Cedar Rapids. Signup at 6:30pm or by e-mailing flyingmonkeyscr@aol.com the week prior to the open mic. [ L G B T M W A ] 3rd Thursday of the Month, LGBTQI YOUTH MOVIE NIGHT AT THE CENTER, 6:30-10pm, The CENTER, 1300 Locust, Des Moines, IA . This is part of the LGBTQI youth program, anyone 24 years old and younger is welcome. Come down spend the evening with your friends and make some new ones. 515-243-0313 [ L G B T + ] 3rd Thursday of the Month, IOWA PFLAG DUBUQUE/TRI-STATE CHAPTER MEETING, 7pm, Dubuque, IA . at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 1276 White St., Dubuque. For more info, call 563-5829388. [ L G B T M W A K ] 3rd Thursday of the Month, CONNECTIONS GAME NIGHT, 7-9pm, Iowa City, IA . at Donnelly’s Pub, 110 E. College St., in downtown Iowa City.

[LGBTMWA] 4th Thursday of the Month, PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S NETWORK (PWN), For more info, visit www.pwn.org, e-mail pwn@pwn.org, or call Shelley Woods at 319-981-9887. [ L W ] 4th Thursday of the Month, THE GLBT READING GROUP, 7:30pm, Cedar Rapids, IA . Red Cross Building at 6300 Rockwell Dr. NE, Cedar Rapids. The group is open to new members; contact crglbtreadinggroup@yahoo.com for further info. [ L G B T M W A ] 4th Thursday of the Month, except months like November, PFLAG CR, Linn Co and Beyond, Meets at People’s Church (in Cherry Room) 6:30 p.m., 600 3rd ST, Cedar Rapids Iowa 52401,Contact Person: Diane Peterson, Phone: 319-362-9827(Email ddpeters57@gmail.com for alternate dates.)

Every Thursday and Friday, SHANNON JANSSEN, 6-10pm, Cedar Rapids, IA . Dawn’s Hide and Bead Away, 220 E. Washington St., Iowa City.

Shannon performs a variety of music including original songs on the Grand Piano in the hotel’s beautiful atrium. No reservations required. [ L G BTMWA] Last Thursday of the Month, DRAG KING SHOW, 9pm-2am, Studio 13, 13 S. Linn St, Iowa City, IA 52240. The show starts EARLY at 9pm, so all you fans under 21 (meaning 19 & 20) can come for a jam packed hour of show! Your kings will also have another photo signing with awesome king swag! Plus, a SECOND mini show after the signing!!! $3 Bomb shots, $2 Calls and Domestics, and $1 Wells and shots! Cover is only $3! [ L G B TD]

Friday

1st Friday of the Month, FAIRFIELD ART WALK, Fairfield, IA. For more info, visit www.

FairfieldArtWalk.com. [ L G B T M W A ] 1st Friday of the Month, GUERRILLA QUEER BAR MEETUP!, Tired of the same old bars? Crave the idea of bringing your queer and straight friends together in a fun, new environment? We’re descending upon an unsuspecting straight bar and turning it into a gay bar for the night. To join in: join our Facebook group, Google group or Twitter feed. You’ll receive an email the morning of each event with the name of a classically hetero bar and the meeting time. Call your friends, have them call their friends, show up at the bar and watch as it becomes the new “it” gay bar for one night only.

Visit http://groups.google.com/group/iowa-cityguerrilla-queer-bar. [ L G B T M W A ] 1st Friday of the Month, FIRST FRIDAY BREAKFAST CLUB, Sherman Place, 1501 Woodland Avenue, Des Moines, IA 95030. The First Friday Breakfast Club (FFBC) is an educational, non-profit corporation for gay men who gather on the first Friday of every month to provide mutual support, to be educated on community affairs, and to further educate community opinion leaders with more positive images of gay men. It is the largest breakfast club in the state of Iowa.

Hoyt Sherman Place, 1501 Woodland Avenue, Des Moines, IA 95030. Contact Jonathan Wilson at (515) 288-2500 or email: info@ffbciowa.org [ GB]

DECEMBER 2010 1st Friday of the Month, DAWN’S COFFEE HOUSE, 5-8pm, Iowa City, IA . Dawn’s Hide and Bead Away, 220 E. Washington St., Iowa City. First Friday of every month between February 6 and December 4. Music and light snacks are provided.

Proceeds from the door are split between the nonprofit of the month and the store (to cover the cost of snacks). Any other donations received go 100% to the non-profit. $3 cover. For more info, phone 319-338-1566. [ L G B T M W A ] 2nd and 4th Friday, DRUMMING CIRCLE, 7pm, Cedar Rapids, IA . Unity Center of Cedar Rapids, 3791 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids. Every 2nd and 4th Friday of the each month. For more info, call 319-431-7550. [ G M ] 3rd Friday of the Month, OLD-TIME DANCE FOR ALL, 8pm, Iowa City, IA . A Barn Dance 12 miles east of Iowa City at Scattergood Friends School. A Barn Dance 12 miles east of Iowa City at Scattergood Friends School. Admission is $5.00 per person. Singles and couples, beginners and veterans welcome. The music is live, and all dances are taught and called (that is, prompted while the music is playing). Note: (1) same-sex couples are common at these dances, (2) they’re no-alcohol, no-smoking events, (3) every dance is taught, so beginners are welcome, and (4) people can attend alone or with a partner. People of a variety of ages show up, and the atmosphere is friendly and inclusive. For more info, phone 319-643-7600 or e-mail treadway@netins.net. [ L G B T M W A ]

Saturday

4th Saturday of the Month, LESBIAN BOOK CLUB, 7pm, Davenport, IA . is reading books by or about lesbians. Non-lesbians are welcome to attend. All meetings are held at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 3707 Eastern Ave., Davenport.

For more info, call 563-359-0816. [ L ] 4th Saturday of the Month, TANGOVIA, 7:30pm, Iowa City, IA . join area tango dancers at the Wesley Center, 120 N. Dubuque St., Iowa City.

Enjoy a candlelit evening of dance, hors d’oeuvres, and conversation in a relaxed atmosphere. Cost is $5. Partner not necessary. Beginners welcome to come at 7pm for an introductory lesson. For more info, call Gail at 319-325-9630, e-mail irelandg@ gmail.com, or visit www.tangovia.com. [ L G B T MWAD] Every Saturday, WOMEN FOR PEACE IOWA, Noon to 1PM, Collins Rd NE & 1st Ave SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402. hosting Weekly Street Corner Vigils for peace, rain or shine. Meet at the corner of 1st Ave. and Collins Rd. SE (in front of Granite City Brewery), Cedar Rapids. Show your support for our troops by calling for their return from Iraq.

For more info, e-mail khall479@aol.com. [ L G B T MWAKD] Every Saturday, BAILE LATINO: SALSA, CHACHA, MERENGUE AND BACHATA LESSONS, 3:30-5:30pm, Cedar Rapids, IA . taught by Gloria Zmolek, at CSPS, 1103 3rd St. SE, Cedar Rapids. No experience or partner necessary. All ages welcome.

No sign-up required. $5 per person requested. For more info, contact Gloria at 319-365-9611 or visit www.crsalsa.org. [ L G B T M W A K D ]

ACCESSline Page 29 Section 3: Community Snap Shots from The CENTER First Friday Breakfast Club:

DECEMBER 2010

Glenda Stevens will be missed.

Equality Iowa (EQIA) reenergized itself about twenty-one months ago and The CENTER is our main project. We are currently reorganizing the Board of Directors who will oversee The CENTER. As EQIA and The CENTER move in a new direction we will be providing a snap shot of our work and those involved with the work. To reach us: www.equalityiowa.org, calls 515-243-0313, or email thecenterdm@gmail.com.

This month we have two individuals contributing to the snapshot on one of our outstanding volunteers, Glenda Stevens.

I first met Glenda at church in 2006.

She was living in near Greenfield to be close to work. She traveled to Indianola and Des Moines weekly for meetings, social outings, and church. She had worked for the same employer for 30 years. After the civil rights code added sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes, she began her transition, on the job, educating a large number of employees in the process.

In September of 2007 Glenda was diagnosed with brain cancer. The surgery to remove the tumor was successful, but the type of cancer was not curable. At this time she was given six months to live. While being treated she was always educating health professionals on transgendered issues. She was always open to questions and helped many understand some of the challenges the transgender community faces.

After she was released from surgery we could not find a nursing home that would take Glenda. She spent the next two months in a hotel with the church bringing meals in.

This was done so she could be close enough to have her treatment in Des Moines.

Glenda beat that six-month time period.

She continued her faith and work for three more years. She moved to Indianola—not

an easy feat for someone that wasn’t allowed to drive for a number of months. The people in town got used to seeing Glenda biking around town. She did encounter some difficulties, but she handled these with dignity.

She always tried to help other understand her transition process. But being the simple and kind person she was she was sometimes taken advantage of.

Glenda was there to help at The CENTER from day one. She pitched in to do what needed done. Cleaning, cooking, carrying, setting up, tearing down, if it needed done Glenda would have her sleeves rolled up and be doing it. Although she was living on a limited budget with many medical expenses she would also contribute monetarily. It would not be uncommon for her to leave a contribution after having worked at The CENTER during the day. Her last contribution was possibly her greatest.

She remembered The CENTER in her will.

Glenda’s life experiences followed that of many transgender community members, one who was bullied and harassed throughout her life. This did not diminish Glenda’s life in any way. Her enthusiasm, willingness to pitch in, and spirit will be missed by those at The CENTER. — Sandy Vopalka Glenda Stevens was set free from her pain in the early morning hours of November 2, 2010. I only had the privilege of knowing her for three short months as her hospice chaplain. The woman I grew to love and respect left me wishing I could have had years to know her, rather than months.

The woman I met in a dimly lit hospice room would change me as she had changed others. Glenda became my sister that day. I was protective of her against a nursing home staff that didn’t have the time or inclination to get to know what a jewel they had in their midst.

I am blessed to have a calling that allowed me to spend unlimited quality time with Glenda. No matter how rough her illness got, we never lost our connection. She believed me when I told her that there wasn’t anything she could do or say that would make me stop loving her. Her friends along with her hospice family loved her through the rough spots. Her room was always filled with fresh flowers, cards and good things to eat—all lovingly provided by friends who considered themselves to be her family.

Glenda left her mark on everyone she met. That much was obvious at her memorial service where I was able to visit with people who had known her long and well. Crying and laughing together over the stories of our gregarious friend, we began to soothe the ache in our hearts. All of life is made up of such precious memories.

— Rev. Jody Maxfield

“I’m a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being… by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.”

— Actor Paul Newman (1925-2008)

Cyndi Pederson

Our speaker on November 5 was Cyndi Pederson, appointed director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs in February 2007 by Governor Culver and Lt. Governor Judge.

After a gracious acknowledgment of FFBC member William T. Jackson (who was her predecessor in that post from 1986 to 1998, under governor Terry E. Branstad), thanking him for his continuing counsel and colleague-ship, Pederson presented a most interesting and savvy account of her accomplishments as head of Cultural Affairs and her hopes for the department’s future.

The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, as Pederson noted, has primary responsibility for development of the state’s interest in the areas of history, the arts, and other cultural matters.

Its mandates include: • Developing a comprehensive, coordinated, and efficient policy to preserve, research, interpret, and promote to the public an awareness and understanding of local, state, and regional history.

• Stimulating and encouraging throughout the state the study and presentation of the performing and fine arts and public interest and participation in them.

• Implementing tourism-related art and history projects as directed by the General Assembly.

• Designing a comprehensive, statewide, long-range plan—called “Imagine Iowa 2010”—with the assistance of the Iowa Arts Council to develop the arts in Iowa.

Cyndi Pederson (The department is designated as the state agency for carrying out the plan.)

• Encouraging the use of volunteers throughout its divisions.

Constantly evident in Pederson’s talk was her ardent commitment to quantifying the value of history and the arts to the people and the legislature of Iowa, not simply in what are often rather vague “quality of life” terms, but in terms of real economic impact in the state. The wide-ranging and long-term projects she described are always grounded in

TTFFBC continued page 32

ACCESSline Page 30

Section 3: Community

DECEMBER 2010

Minor Details: This Generation Gap Really Matters by Bob Minor Minor Details: by Bob Minor The election returns are in. There are many ways to look back at them as we look forward to a new Congress characterized by even more Republican bullying.

For many of us, the country took a step backward. It looks like a real mess, at least in the short-run.

But there are clues for the long-term.

Future success is possible for those of us who find the Tea Party and the old Republican solutions regressive, stale, and destructive.

The Democratic loss was affected by turnout. And the age of those who turned out speaks volumes about long-term issues.

In the 2008 presidential election, 18-to29-year-olds made up 18% of the electorate while those 65 and over made up 16%. Young people actually outvoted those 65 and over in 2008, and that 18-29 age group was the only one where white voters preferred Obama.

This year, the 18-29 year-old vote was down to 11% of the electorate and seniors were up to 23%. Exit polls indicate that the 18-29 demographic was the only age group won by Democrats this year: 57% as opposed to 40% for Republicans.

The gender and racial breakdowns didn’t change as much, though the electorate was older and whiter than the presidential election. The GOP has clearly gone gray.

Put another way, almost 24 million 18-29 year-olds voted in 2008. Nine million showed up last month, a 15 million-vote difference. How, then, did this matter, given that the Republicans won by 5 million votes nationally?

There are all sorts of ideas about why this happened, some blaming young people.

But if we want them to vote, older people scolding them won’t work. We’ve got to consider how to get them back in the mix by re-inspiring that audacity of hope?

I’m absolutely convinced after thirty-five years of teaching, that young people want

SScontinued from page 13

CORNUCOPIA sad. It’s a sad thing because people fought so hard to liberate us and to give us the vote and to give us more equal opportunities, and it looks sometimes to me like we’re really going backward.

So you’re still very much a feminist.

I am feminist. I’m utterly feminist, and I’m very disappointed when people are afraid of the word and step away from the word. I told you I don’t like labels, but this is an important label. This is very important, and the fact that people are stepping away from it is a travesty. What we need to do is to take ownership of the word “feminist” and we need to reinvent it so that people embrace it again. It’s a travesty that feminism is looked on as something that they should recoil from.

If you had a genie in a bottle, what would be your three wishes for the world?

Healing. The genie would have to take all the extremists in the world that leaped immediately to arms and to warfare and get the opposing forces to get their mindset changed so that their priority should be only about finding solutions, only peaceful solutions. Unfortunately, we’re stuck in places like the Middle East, into the perpetual catch-22

to know what someone really believes. And that they want to know that people really believe what they say, enough to fight for it convincingly.

The hero they voted for in 2008 might have done the best he could, given the situation, but he and his party did not govern the way he ran—as fighters who really believed.

From the beginning when Obama appointed old insiders as advisors and ignored the agents of change in his campaign, to the constant willingness to concede his position to get “something” done even before the fight, to the inability to communicate what he really believed were his ideals after being a great campaign communicator, the evidence as they saw it was that “change they could believe in” looked pretty cautious, insider, and stale.

Yes, yes, it might be that they should have understood some greater lesson, that they should have already learned to hang in there the way older generations were used to doing.

Okay. Who’s teaching them that?

These are young people from whom those older generations reap monetary dividends by distracting them with gadgets and stuff.

They’re also not taught a real people’s history about change but dead facts that are testable on standardized exams. They’re seldom given hope any more.

But there is also a huge difference in how the dominant Baby Boomer demographic and these younger people see reality. They care about different things, while most politics plays on what appeals to Boomers and their elders.

While the most vocal group of seniors is arguing about the government not fooling with their Medicare and Social Security, they’re also supporting politicians who want to curb both for younger generations. Those of someone being killed, someone killing someone else—and then it goes on and on and on and the bloodletting goes on and on and on, and there seems to be no solution.

I don’t ever know if it’s going to be possible because we’re human beings and we’re incredibly odd, but it would be wonderful to see peace. All these divisions that occur ironically between religious beliefs—Christians, Muslims, whomever— are the biggest tragedy on the planet. And then, of course, the sustainability of the planet—who knows where we’re at; we talk about global warming, about pollution, and we do a lot of talking. But I’d like to see the government really taking more responsibility on a global scale.

And then I’d like to see a real sort of development in preventable disease: Access to medicine that can prevent the deaths of millions of people, I’d like to see that. I’d like to see healthcare systems fully staffed.

I’d like to see access to treatment. I’d like to see healthcare systems that are on their knees, in some way becoming effective. I’d like to see the end of corrupt governments.

I’d like to see transparency of governments.

I’d like to see all of these corrupt systems that are functioning, and all of these people who have scooped up so much money, taking accountability. It’s things like this that I think a lot about.

who are younger than these Boomers aren’t even sure there’s going to be anything left for them. They wonder whether they’ll even be able to pay off their huge college loans.

While pop culture more and more reflects the younger generation, the issues of their seniors seem backward, quaint, and even unexplainably bigoted.

Look at one of the most popular shows of younger generations, Glee. In a November episode, “Teenage Dream” a song originally released by Katy Perry (a straight woman whose first big hit was “I Kissed a Girl”), is sung as a serenade from one young high school boy to another boy.

And, guess what? Teenagers of all stripes loved the song so much that they led the charge to make it a #1 Hit Single.

The old guard in the religious right seemed silent and unconcerned as they fought for the gray vote.

While quickly dismissed by some, pop culture tells us, in fact, what is extremely important for winning the long race. It’s a measure of what it means to young people who are not loaded down with the emotional baggage that we elders carry.

To hear from their TV, movies, and music—that negative attitudes toward LGBT people are simply an out-dated product of past generations’ fear and ignorance—is to realize that the fights the elders carry on are not young people’s fights at all.

Could the pressure from pop icon Lady Gaga’s tweeting against “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” be what actually led Harry Reid to consider voting on it?

Crazy is in full-bloom on our political landscape. And much of our politics seems to be a reaction to that crazy. It’s there that tired old white men and the people who are into them still rule.

But that’s not the future, no matter how it screws up the present. And it’s not what elected Barak Obama in the first place. It was

Robert N. Minor, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas, is author of When Religion Is an Addiction; Scared Straight: Why It’s So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It’s So Hard to Be Human and Gay & Healthy in a Sick Society. Contact him at www.FairnessProject.org.

those of all ages who believed that Obama wouldn’t look backward to the Clintons and the politics of past generations.

What keeps the darkness of the political landscape from overtaking the social landscape where most young people live—the landscape we’ll need to travel in if we want change—is the bright light of the cultural landscape where young people’s influence is king.

The impact of the religious right and the old guard has no future there. In the long run, they have no future in politics either. And if a political party wants to win, it will need to understand that sooner, rather than later.

“You could move. “ — “Dear Abby’s” response to a reader who wrote the following to her, in regard to a gay couple who moved in across the street: “...these weirdos are wrecking our property values! How can we improve the quality of this oncerespected neighborhood?”

DECEMBER 2010

Section 3: Community

ACCESSline Page 31

Inside Out: The Power of Thap by Ellen Krug On a humid August morning in 1970, I started eighth grade and met Tharp, the new kid on the block, a transplant, a jock from Sioux City. As he boarded the school bus that day, I was decked out in multicolored bell bottoms and a Nehru jacket. I held up my right hand and made the peace sign. “Peace man,” I said with a big smile.

Tharp gave me a look like I was crazy.

Later, Tharp would become the quarterback of the high school football team. I would become a front line guard charged with protecting Tharp from big testosterone fueled boys intent on tearing the quarterback apart. I was a tough sh-- and did my job well.

Eventually, wanting a personal nickname for Tharp, I bastardized it into “Thap.” For him, I became “Kruggie.”

We became inseparable and remained in contact in college and graduate school.

We each attended law school, with him moving to Boulder and me to Boston. We talked on the telephone weekly, sharing all of our challenges and successes. We were in each other’s weddings.

We became “uncle” to each other’s children.

It was a very special relationship which we each cherished.

As Thap’s first marriage was falling apart, he and I met in some hole-in-the-wall town in Nebraska, the midpoint between Cedar Rapids and Boulder. We drove around cornfields with beers in hand, him talking and me listening. That was, after all, what best friends do for each other.

When the voice in my head told me that I was not some straight man and that I needed to be ME, to have my own life, Thap was the first person I came out to. “It’s no big deal Kruggie. I will love you no matter who you are,” Thap told me. I knew instantly that he meant it.

When I started dressing as Ellen, Thap visited me in Minneapolis. I played a trick on him at the airport. Wearing a skirt and

with my hair curled, I sat in the waiting area where we had planned to meet. Instead of making eye contact with him, I simply looked forward, as if I was waiting for someone else.

Thap walked right in front of me and stopped ten feet away. “Where r u?” he texted. It was a hilarious affirmation that maybe, just maybe, I could pull off appearing as a woman. After that, I was no longer “Kruggie.” Instead, I became “Ellie.”

It was Thap who I called as I transitioned, asking for help with crisis after crisis. My ex wife is fighting with me. My children are rejecting me. I’m losing clients at my law firm because I’ve come out as Ellen. I’m depressed and wondering if it is all worth it. I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life.

In response, Thap was reassuring and loving. “Ellie, you will survive this and then you will be happy. You can do it. Don’t give up.

And don’t be stupid— this is who you are. You have no choice here.”

Words that I needed to hear repeatedly, sometimes at 2:00 in the morning. Throughout it all, Thap never wavered, never ran.

It became time for me to select a surgeon for my reassignment surgery. One candidate practiced in southern Colorado; the other was in Phoenix. I called Thap to tell him that I’d stop in Boulder on my way to interview the surgeons.

“Why don’t I come with you?” Thap said matter-of-factly.

Wow, I thought. It’s one thing to be supportive of your best friend as he moves from male to female but a whole other thing to accompany him to talk to doctors about changing his penis to a vagina. That falls into the platinum level of love.

Thus, I found Thap next to me in an examining room of a small, somewhat disheveled clinic in Trinidad, Colorado.

The doctor entered and before I could ask a single question, Thap was interrogating

When I started dressing as Ellen, Thap visited me in Minneapolis. I played a trick on him at the airport.

Wearing a skirt and with my hair curled, I sat in the waiting area where we had planned to meet. Instead of making eye contact with him, I simply looked forward, as if I was waiting for someone else. Thap walked right in front of me and stopped ten feet away. “Where r u?” he texted.

the doctor: How long would Ellie’s surgery take? Would she need to be in the hospital the entire time or would there be a recovery period at some location close to the hospital?

Certainly, I got in my share of questions, but there was Thap, making sure we got all the important answers.

Our next stop was to see the surgeon in Phoenix. Again, Thap was an active interrogator. At one point, the doctor wanted to examine me. When Thap stepped out into the hall, the doctor asked how long my “partner” and I had been together. I laughed, and responded, “Oh no, he’s way too controlling for me.”

About a year ago, Thap again visited me in Minneapolis. It was close to midnight and we were coming back from a restaurant on a crisp full-moon night. As we walked on the sidewalk, in the distance I could see a man coming our way. He was weaving, obviously drunk. As he got closer, my personal radar became active, telling me that this man could be trouble. Thap’s radar was on too, and he moved me to the side, placing his body in between the man and me.

The man, who really did not intend any harm, I’m sure, stopped, blocking the sidewalk. With slurred speech, he asked for money and started to reach in our direction.

Thap pushed me back behind him even further, and shouted at the man, “No touch, no touch!” Thap made sure the man could not get to me, and again yelled, “No touch!” The man backed off and we passed by quickly.

A minor incident in the scheme of

Ellen Krug is a writer, lawyer, human.

She was a trial attorney for 28 years before realizing there is more to life. She is now on sabbatical to write a book, and if that does not work out, to wait tables. She is parent to two adult children and hoping for the best, despite the odds. She can be reached at EllenKrug75@gmail.com. the world, yes, but it showed me that forty years later, the quarterback was now protecting the guard.

How the world has changed, yet remained the same. I am loved by someone for who I am, regardless of gender or orientation. The best friend I could ask for.

It is a wonderful thing.

ACCESSline Page 32

Section 3: Community

We are like geodes by Rachel Eliason

The story of Seth Walsh is another A geode is a gray lumpy stone. It’s also geode hit too hard, gone too soon. Other Iowa’s state rock. If you are wondering why a gray lumpy stone is the state rock, I will kids at his Texas school told him, “the world tell you. This particular gray lumpy rock is doesn’t need another queer.” Sadly he agreed hollow, and the hollow space inside allows and hung himself. minerals to coalesce and grow into crystals.

So what, on the outside, is a gray lumpy stone Opening Up is, on the inside, beautiful.

In the response of the LGBT community Many people are like that. On the we find a third alternative, something less outside they can be gray lumpy and boring, drastic than surgery and less destructive but once you see what they have inside they then suicide. In the viral video of a Texas city are beautiful. This is why councilman, Joel Burns I say many people are talks about growing like geodes. up gay and gives an That gray lumpy impassioned speech exterior is often no reaching out to LGBT accident either. It’s youths. In that moment protection. We put on we see something that our game face, our dark doesn’t usually happen sunglasses or make up. in geology: we see a We hide behind a mask, geode open itself. He a suit or an identity. We sheds his outer self and seek to blend in, to hide for a moment we see the colors that might the true inner beauty of betray us. This is why I this man. say LGBT folks are more It’s not just Joel like geodes than others: either, it’s happening all too often we hide our everywhere. Everybeauty, fearing harasswhere I turn I find LGBT ment. people talking about Transsexuals are this, opening up about Photo: Wikimedia Commons the most like geodes. their own pain, their There, I said it. Why do I single out trans- stories and their own lives. In doing so they sexuals? I do this because in order for some are shedding layers of gray at a frightening of us to show our beauty we need to be cut pace, exposing themselves. It’s raw and first. For reasons buried in our psychology, shocking, but it’s also beautiful. When I neurology and/or physiology, we cannot watched Joel’s outpouring for the first time, show the world our true beauty until some I cried. As I watched Ellen DeGeneres talk surgeon opens us up. about the “it get better” campaign, I could So when I go to a rock shop and see see tears in her eyes too. cut geodes, all sparkly and polished, I think These are tears of sorrow, but also tears they are the mineral equivalent to a trans- of healing. As song writer Charlie Murphy sexual. But cutting, by a skilled rock jeweler says in one of his songs, “When the tear in or by a skilled surgeon, is only one way to the heart grows wider, feel how the love can open up. flow.” We are growing, as individuals and as However, there are other cruder a community. methods.

The most difficult and troubling question raised by these suicides is what can we do? I would argue that we are in fact doing Hammer Blows You can take any geode and hit it with a something. We are sharing our stories. We hammer. That will open it up. The problem are letting the world see the pain and the is that you might just as well destroy the beauty of being gay. We are showing our very beauty you are trying to release. And insides.

More to the point we are showing yet many geodes are opened this way.

As are many LGBT people. Right now LGBT youth that there is another way. The our community is facing some deep crush- hammer blows of harassment, bullying and ing blows. When I see the images of Tyler homophobia do not have to be the end. They Clementi, the boy who jumped to his death can be opportunities as well. They, and we, after his roommate filmed him having sex can learn that our best defense is not to with another man and then posted the video grow more and more gray lumpy protection, online, I see a geode hit too hard. For one hoping to survive the blow, but instead we brief instant I see his beautiful face, then it can be more open, showing our beauty to those who will appreciate it. crumbles and is gone.

Straight Americans need … an education of the heart and soul. They must understand—to begin with—how it can feel to spend years denying your own deepest truths, to sit silently through classes, meals, and church services while people you love toss off remarks that brutalize your soul.

— Bruce Bawer, The Advocate, 28 April 1998

SScontinued from page 29

FFBC the fact that “cultural affairs” is an industry, a commercial activity like any other, and must be promoted as economic development just like any other industry. These projects impact not just leisure and entertainment, but also education, tourism, even the health industry. Yet Iowa’s commitment to history and the arts, as measured in the department’s budget, remains a mere 34 cents per citizen— dead last in the Midwest.

As one example among many, Pederson cited the huge change that the Des Moines Social Club has brought to its Western Gateway neighborhood: that area has now become so desirable that the club is in real danger of being priced out of its formerly near-derelict building!

Following her fast-moving talk and a short Q&A session, Cyndi Pederson went home to compose the required post-election resignation letter to former governor/ governor-elect Terry Branstad. She said she is hoping to be asked by him to stay on in her Cultural Affairs post and—after the fine impression she made on us—we’re all hoping so, too.

DECEMBER 2010

About Cyndi Pederson A Des Moines native, Cyndi Pederson earned her Bachelor of Arts in art education from Iowa State University in 1979, and a degree in Management from Drake University in 2008. In 1998, she served as a member of Governor Vilsack’s transition team and was named Chief of Staff to First Lady Christie Vilsack. In 2005, she joined the Department of Cultural Affairs as Coordinator for the Iowa Great Places initiative (an outgrowth of Christie Vilsack’s Iowa Libraries project), which combines state resources with local assets to make Iowa communities great places where people want to live, work and play.

In July 2006, she was appointed interim deputy director of the Cultural Affairs department, and was named interim director in January 2007 and director the following month . Pederson also worked with the Secretary of State’s office to develop “Capitol Project,” which brought Iowa high school students to Des Moines to learn about government at first hand. She is married to John Pederson, a lobbyist in the areas of natural resources, water quality, commerce, and agriculture.

“Yet, we're told by the bill's supporters that we need legislation to protect ourselves from this kind of marriage? No, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a marriage-protection bill. It is emphatically an anti-marriage bill. This rhetoric used by supporters of HF 2183 may be slick but it is grossly inaccurate. What are you trying to protect heterosexual marriages from? There isn't a limited amount of love in Iowa. It isn't a non-renewable resource. If Amy and Barbara or Mike or Steve love each other, it doesn't mean that John and Mary can't.”

— Iowa Rep. Ed Fallon (D-Des Moines), February 20, 1996

ACCESSline Page 33 Section 3: Community Iowa’s Own “family” owned Bisschopswijn warms the holidays

DECEMBER 2010

mixture until hot over a medium setting on your crock pot or medium heat on your stove top. Do not boil.

3. Reduce the temperature to low and simmer for 30-60 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure the brown sugar has dissolved completely.

4. Taste the Bisschopswijn occasionally.

Remove the spice bag when the desired amount of “spice” is reached.

5. Ladle the hot Bisschopswijn into mugs and serve with a Cinnamon Stir Stick.

Cranberry Stuffed Apples Baked in Mulled Wine

Bisschopswijn is made in Pella, Iowa.

The company is proudly “family” owned.

Note: These recipes were published in last year’s December issue of ACCESSline, too. Yeah, we’re big fans!

Bisschopswijn – “Market Recipe” If you ever sample our product at a farmer’s market or craft show you will be sampling this recipe. This is the family friendly recipe or for those who don’t want to indulge in the wine recipe. We often make this for parties and set up what we call a “cider bar”. We put out bottles of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, peach schnapps, cinnamon schnapps, apple schnapps and fruit flavored brandies and let guests embellish their spiced cider to their own personal taste. Always put out a few cinnamon sticks for stirring.

• • • •

32oz. cranberry juice 32oz. apple cider ¼ cup light brown sugar 1 oz. (generous 1/4 cup) Bisschopswijn – Mulled Wine and Cider Spices Stove Top or Crock Pot Method 1. Combine the cranberry juice and apple cider in a large crock pot or large sauce pan. Add the brown sugar and stir until it is dissolved.

2. Place Bisschopswijn spices in the muslin bag provided. Close the bag by pulling the strings and tying them into a bow. Place the bag of spices into the juice mixture. Cover the crock pot or sauce pan and heat the

Ingredients • 4 large golden delicious apples, peeled and cored to within 1/4 inch of the bottom • 4 tablespoons whole cranberry sauce • 1 cup dry red wine • 2 tablespoons of Bisschopswijn – Mulled Wine & Cider Spices • 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces • 4 tablespoons sugar Optional topping • 1 cup heavy cream, stiffly whipped with 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 3-qt casserole and set aside.

2. Fill the center of each apple with cranberry sauce, mounding it ever so slightly on top.

3. Stand the apples in the prepared casserole, arranging them so they don’t touch the casserole sides or one another.

4. Pour the red wine evenly over the apples, then sprinkle in the Bisschopswijn – Mulled Wine & Cider Spices and butter into the casserole, distributing them evenly around the apples.

5. Finally, sprinkle 1 T sugar over each apple.

6. Bake the apples, uncovered, for 50-60 minutes, till tender, basting with the casserole liquid (not the spices) every 10 minutes.

7. Serve hot or warm, spooning a bit of the liquid (without the spices) over the top of each apple and adding, if desired, a dollop of the whipped cream.

Bisschopswijn - Traditional Netherlands Recipe

Bisschopswijn is also known by many other names including the German

“Gluhwein” or the “Hot Wine” served in the Christmas Markets of the Czech Rebublic. It has many “cousins” such as the Scandinavian “Glogg” and other versions from Italy, Romania, and Chile which all use the same basic ingredients with a few variations.

• Two 750ml bottles of dry red wine • 2/3 cup of granulated white sugar • 1oz (generous 1/4 cup) Bisschopswijn Mulled Wine and Cider Spices Stove Top or Crock Pot Method 1. Pour the red wine in a crock pot or sauce pan. Add the sugar and stir until it is dissolved.

2. Place 1oz. of Bisschopswijn spices in the muslin bag* provided. Close the bag by pulling the strings. Place the bag of spices into the wine mixture. Cover the crock pot or sauce pan and heat the mixture until hot over a medium setting on your crock pot or medium heat on your stove top. Do not boil.

3. Reduce the temperature to low and simmer for 30-60 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure the sugar has dissolved completely.

4. Taste the Bisschopswijn occasionally.

Remove the spice bag when the desired amount of “spice” is reached.

5. Ladle the hot Bisschopswijn into mugs and serve with a Cinnamon Stir Stick.

Makes six 8 ounce cups.

Bisschopswijn – Mulled Wine & Cider Spice Recipe This is our signature recipe. We have

been serving this recipe in Pella since the 70’s. It is a variation of the classic Bisschopswijn recipe served in The Netherlands.

• 32oz. cranberry juice • 12oz. apple cider • 12oz. dry red wine • ¼ cup light brown sugar • ¼ cup apricot flavored brandy • 1 oz. (generous 1/4 cup) Bisschopswijn Mulled Wine and Cider Spices Stove Top or Crock Pot Method 1. Combine the cranberry juice, apple cider and red wine in a large crock pot or large sauce pan. Add the brown sugar and stir until it is dissolved.

2. Place Bisschopswijn spices in the muslin bag* provided. Close the bag by pulling the strings.

3. Place the bag of spices into the juice and wine mixture. Cover the crock pot or sauce pan and heat the mixture until hot over a medium setting on your crock pot or medium heat on your stove top.

Do not boil.

4. Reduce the temperature to low and simmer for 30-60 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure the brown sugar has dissolved completely.

5. Taste the Bisschopswijn occasionally.

Remove the spice bag when the desired amount of “spice” is reached.

6. Just before serving add the apricot flavored brandy and stir until combined. Ladle the hot Bisschopswijn into mugs and serve with a Cinnamon Stir Stick.

Makes seven 8 ounce cups.

ACCESSline Page 34

Section 3: Community

DECEMBER 2010

DECEMBER 2010 SScontinued from page 9

WORLD NEWS

Muslims protest for sexual rights in 12 nations Members of the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies staged simultaneous actions in 12 nations Nov. 9 under the theme “One Day One Struggle.”

Hundreds of members of 40 organizations held panels, workshops, film screenings, theater performances, photo exhibits and press conferences in Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey “to assert that sexual and reproductive rights are universal human rights based on the inherent freedom, dignity and equality of all human beings.”

“Rising conservatism fueled by militarism, increasing inequalities, the politicization of religion and Islamophobia have strengthened patriarchal and extremist religious ideologies that use sexuality as a tool of oppression,” organizers said. “This has manifested itself in various forms over the last year, be it the revocation of the permit for the regional Asia Conference of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Association by the police in Indonesia, or the harassment of conference participants by radical Islamic groups, or political pressure on a women’s group promoting women’s

Section 3: Community rights in Islam in Malaysia, or women like Sakineh Ashtiani being sentenced to death by stoning in Iran, or killings of hundreds of women and transsexuals in Turkey under the pretext of honor.”

CSBR is a solidarity network of progressive organizations and academic institutions in the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Southeast Asia working to promote sexual and bodily rights as human rights in Muslim societies. For more information, see www.wwhr. org/csbr.php.

in this year’s progress reports and encourage the commission to continue asserting the principles of nondiscrimination and equality in accession negotiations with the countries,” said Lilit Poghosyan, senior programs and policy officer for ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

It is a requirement of EU membership that a nation have legal protections against anti-gay discrimination.

“Once we get this study, we need to have hearings. And we need to examine it. And we need to look at whether it’s the kind of study that we wanted.”

— Senator John McCain regarding the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” study, which was scheduled to be released on December 1, 2010.

On October 28, NBC reported that anonymous sources leaked the results of the Pentagon’s survey, and that the majority of U.S. troops surveyed don’t care if another soldier is gay or not.

More than 30 U.S. officials, including senior officials from 11 federal departments and agencies, defended the country’s human rights record before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva Nov. 5.

At the U.N.’s “Universal Periodic Review” session for the United States, the government submitted a report that said, among other things: “In each era of our history there tends to be a group whose experience of discrimination illustrates the continuing debate among citizens about how we can build fair societies. In this era, one such group is LGBT Americans.”

The U.S. officials told the U.N. that President Barack Obama is committed to repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and to banning workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Assistance: Bill Kelley

“Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future. … They can’t serve our country openly… our government treats the LGBT community like second class citizens, why shouldn’t [bullies]?”

— Cindy McCain, wife of Senator John McCain, in the NoH8 campaign’s YouTube video “An Anti-Bullying Message From the NOH8 Campaign”.

U.S. defends its human LGBT issues included in rights record to U.N. EU accession reports

LGBT issues figure prominently in the European Commission’s Nov. 9 progress reports on the hoped-for addition to the European Union of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Iceland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.

The report on Croatia notes that LGBT people face threats and attacks that are inadequately investigated by the authorities. Macedonia’s report points out that the nation’s laws do not provide adequate nondiscrimination protections.

Turkey violates the human rights of, in particular, transgender people, its report said. Albania and Montenegro ban antigay discrimination but need to do more to prevent actual discriminatory incidents, their reports said.

“We welcome the way in which the human rights of LGBT people are raised

ACCESSline Page 35

“I fully support the NoH8 campaign and all it stands for and am proud to be a part of it. But I stand by my husband’s stance on DADT.” — Cindy McCain in a Friday, November 12 Tweet.

ACCESSline Page 36 DIRECTORY NOTICE The ACCESSline community directory is updated each issue. LISTINGS ARE FREE but are limited by space.

Free online listings are available at www.ACCESSlineIOWA.com.

Information about new listings must contain a phone number for publication and a contact (e-mail address, land address, or website) for our records. For more information or to provide corrections, please contact Editor@ACCESSlineIOWA.com or call (319) 550-0957.

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund 1133 15th Street NW, Suite 350, Washington, DC 20005 www.victoryfund.org.

202-VICTORY [842-8679] Human Rights Campaign National political organization, lobbies congress for lesbian & gay issues, political training state and local www.hrc.org 1-800-777-HRCF[4723] Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund I I E. Adams, Suite 1008, Chicago, IL 60603 www.lambdalegal.org 312-663-4413 Fax: 312-663-4307 National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) 1325 Massachusetts Ave NW, Ste 600, Washington, DC, 20005 www.ngltf.org / taskforce.org National Organization for Women (NOW) 733 15th ST NW, 2nd Floor Washington, DC 20005 www.now.org 202-628-8669 PFLAG National Offices 1133 15th Street NW, Suite 350, Washington, DC 20005 info@pflag.org - www.pflag.org 202-467-8180 The Trevor Lifeline The Trevor Project operates the only nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention lifeline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. Each year, our lifeline fields more than 30,000 calls from LGBTQ youth as well as their families, friends and educators.

(866) 4-U-TREVOR - (866) 488-7386 Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year All calls are toll-free and confidential

STATE ORGANIZATIONS Equality Iowa P.O. Box 18, Indianola, IA 50125 www.equalityiowa.org 515-537-3126 Faithful Voices Interfaith Alliance of Iowa’s marriage equality project. www.faithfulvoices.org Imperial Court of Iowa Non-profit fundraising & social, statewide organization with members from across the State of Iowa.

PO Box 1491, Des Moines, IA 50306-1491 www.imperialcourtofiowa.org Iowa Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) Janis Bowden, President, IA NOW janleebow@aol.com PO Box 41114, Des Moines, IA 503111 Iowa Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA) 921 Diagonal Rd, Malcom, IA 50157 polebender60@yahoo.com 641-990-1411 Iowa PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gay) State Council PO Box 18, Indianola, IA 50125 http://community.pflag.org/Page. aspx?pid=194&srcid=-2 515-537-3126 or 641-583-2024 Iowa Pride Network 777 Third Street, Suite 312, Des Moines, Iowa 50309 Pridenetwork.org Executive Director: 515-471-8062 Outreach Coordinator: 515-471-8063 LGBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force PO Box 1997, Des Moines, 50306 515-243-1221 One Iowa 500 East Locust St, Ste 300 Des Moines, IA 50309 515-288-4019 Fax: 515-244-5846 www.OneIowa.org Stonewall Democrats of Iowa 5 Creekside Ct Mason City, IA 50401 Contact: Harvey Ross HRoss007@aol.com 319-362-3099

Section 3: Community Ames First United Methodist Church 516 Kellogg Ave, Ames, IA 50010 Contemporary worship Sat. 5:30; Sun at 8:30 and 11:00am. www.acswebnetworks.com/firstunitedmcames/ 515-232-2750 Living with HIV Program 126 S. Kellogg, Suite 1 Ask for Janelle (Coordinator) 515-956-3312 ext 106 or I -800-890-8230 ISU LGBTA Alliance GLBT Support, Activism, Social Events, Newsletter L East Student Office Space 2229 Lincoln Way, Ames, IA 50014-7163 alliance@iastate.edu http://www.alliance.stuorg.iastate.edu 515-344-4478 Lord of Life Lutheran 2126 Gable Lane, Ames 50014 Services Sundays at 9:00a.m.; Wed. 7:00pm.

515-233-2350 PFLAG Ames Youth and Shelter Services Offices 2328 Bristol Drive, Ames, IA 5001 2nd Tuesday, 7pm www.pflagames.org 515-291-3607 Romantics Pleasure Palace 117 Kellogg Street, Ames, IA 50010-3315 http://www.romantixonline.com 515-232-7717 United Church of Christ-Congregational 6th & Kellogg, Ames, 50010 Sunday Continental Breakfast, 9:00am; Sunday School, 9:30am; Worship 10:45am. uccames@midiowa.net.

515-232-9323 Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames 1015 Hyland Ave. Services: 9am and 11am, Sunday www.uufames.org uufa@aol.com 515-292-5960 Unity Church of Ames 226 9th St. Sunday service and Sunday school 10:30am.

Wednesday mediation 6:30pm, . www.websyt/unity/ames Daily dial-a-blessing 515-233-1613

Arnolds Park, Okoboji, Spencer, Spirit Lake The Royal Wedding Chapel 504 Church Street, Royal, IA 51357 712-933-2223 www.TheRoyalWeddingChapel.com Wilson Resource Center An Iowa Great Lakes area gay-owned nonprofit community based organization.

PO Box 486, 597 W. Okoboji Rd., Arnolds Park IA 51331-0486 F.JosephWilson@aol.com. www.wilsonresource.org 712-332-5043

BURLINGTON Arrowhead Motel 2520 Mount Pleasant St Burlington, IA 52601-2118 319-752-6353 www.arrowheadia.com HIV/AIDS Screening @ Des Moines County Health Department in Burlington 522 N 3rd By appointment between 8:00am to 4:30 319-753-8217 Confidential RISQUES IV (adult store) 421 Dry Creek Ave, West Burlington, IA 52601 (319) 753-5455 Sun - Wed 8am-Midnight Thurs - Sat Open 24 Hours www.LoversPlayground.com Steve’s Place 852 Washington St, Burlington 319-754-5868 Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Services start at 10:30 am 625 N 6th St, Burlington, IA 52601-5032 (319) 753-1895 - www.uuburlington.org

Cedar Falls - Waterloo Adult Cinema 315 E 4th St Waterloo, IA 50703-4703 (319) 234-7459 Black Hawk Co. Health Department Free HIV testing (donations accepted); MW, 1:00pm to 3:00pm; Thurs, 1:00pm to 4:45pm 1407 Independence Ave. (5th fl) Waterloo 50703 319-291 -2413 Cedar AIDS Support System (CASS) Service, support groups & trained volunteers for persons with HIV/AIDS in Waterloo/CF call Elizabeth or Karla, 319-272-AIDS(2437). cvhospice@forbin.net

Cedar Valley Counseling Services Promoting personal growth and development in a strengths-based environment Joan E. Farstad, MA, Director.

319-240-4615 www.cvcounseling.com farstd@cvcounseling.com.

Cedar Valley Episcopal Campus Ministry. In Lutheran Center 2616 College St, Cedar Falls, IA 319-415-5747 mcdinoiwa@aol.com www.episcopalcampus.org Community AIDS Assistance Project (CAAP) Funding for special personal needs, community projects, and small grants that are AIDS related.

PO Box 36, Waterloo, IA 50704 LGBTA Support Group at Hawkeye Community College Call Carol at 319-296-4014 for time & location of meeting chedberg@hawkeyecollege.edu Iowa Legal Aid Free civil legal service available to low income persons who qualify under income/asset guidelines.

607 Sycamore, #206, Waterloo, IA 50703 1-800-772-0039 or 319-235-7008 Kings & Queens Tap 304 W. 4th St, Waterloo, IA www.//myspace.com/kingsandqueensspace 319-232-3001 Romantix Waterloo (Adult Emporium) 1507 La Porte Rd, Waterloo, IA 50702 319-234-9340 http://www.romantixonline.com/ Stellas Guesthouse 324 Summit Ave, Waterloo, IA Private B&B, Overnight accommodations for adults only.

319-232-2122 St. Lukes Episcopal Church 2410 Melrose Dr, Cedar Falls, IA 50613 www.st-lukes-episcopal.org Services: Sunday 8:00 & 10:15, Thurs 11:30 319-277-8520 St. Timothys United Methodist Church 3220 Terrace Drive, Cedar Falls, 50613 sttims-umc.org, 319-266-0464, info@sttimsumc-org, Contact Rev. Linda Butler “... welcome of all persons, including those of all sexual orientations and gender identities.”

Together For Youth 233 Vold Dr, Waterloo, IA 50703 www.TogetherForYouth.net 319-274-6768 UNI-LGBTA Alliance-Student Organization 244A Bartlet Hall, University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls 50613 lgbta@uni.edu 319-222-0003 United Church of Christ Cedar Falls 9204 University Avenue, Cedar Falls 319-366-9686 Unitarian Universalist Society of Black Hawk County 3912 Cedar Heights Dr, Cedar Falls, IA 319-266-5640

Cedar Rapids/marion Adult Shop 630 66th Ave SW, 319-362-4939 Adult Shop North 5539 Crane Lane, 319-294-5360 Cedar Rapids Unity (Formerly GLRC of Cedar Rapids) Support, social activities. lnfo@crglrc.org, cedarrapidsunity.org or write to PO Box 1643 Cedar Rapids 52406-1643 Call and leave a message—all calls will be returned. 319-366-2055 Christ Episcopal Church “We have a place for you.”

220 40th Street NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404 319-363-2029 www.ChristEpiscopal.org Club Basix Open 5pm to 2am M-F, Sat & Sun 3pm-2am 3916 1st Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids 319-363-3194 Coe Alliance Education, activism & fun for GLBTQ and straight students, staff and people from the community.

Coe College 1220 First Ave NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 For information contact: coealliance@coe.edu or Erica Geers, faculty advisor at 319-861-6025 Community Health Free Clinic 947 14th Avenue SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401 319-363-0416 www.communityhfc.org Free Medical Services provided for the uninsured and underserved patients of Cedar Rapids, Marion and the surrounding areas in Eastern Iowa.

CSPS Legion Arts Contemporary Arts Center 1103 3rd St. SE info@legionarts.org 319-364-1580

Faith UMC 1000 30th Street NE, Cedar Rapids, 52402 Pastor Kathy Moore Sunday services at 11:00am. www.crfaithumc.org 319-363-8454 Foundation 2 Crisis Counseling 24-hour telephone crisis counseling. f2crisis@aol.com or www.f2online.org 1540 2nd Ave. SE Cedar Rapids, IA 319-362-2174 or 800-332-4224 Hamburger Mary’s 222 Glenbrook Dr., Cedar Rapids, IA 52403 319-378-4627 www.hamburgermaryscr.com Linn County Public Health 501 13th NW Free confidential HIV testing, 319-892-6000 Linn County Stonewall Democrats 2nd Wednesday of every month, 6:30-8 p.m.

The LGBT Caucus of the Democratic Party, meets at Hamburger Mary’s, 222 Glenbrook Dr. SE, behind 2nd Wind off of 1st Ave SE in Cedar Rapids. For more info, contact linnstonewall@ gmail.com Rapid AIDS Grant Wood Area Red Cross 3600 Rockwell Dr NE, Cedar Rapids, 52410 319-393-9579.

People’s Church Unitarian Universalist A welcoming congregation.

600 Third Avenue SE 11am Sunday. 319-362-9827 PFLAG CR, Linn Co and Beyond Meets at People’s Church (in Cherry Room) 600 3rd ST, Cedar Rapids Iowa 52401 Contact Person: Diane Peterson Phone: 319-362-9827 6:30pm on the 4th Thursdays except months like November. (Email ddpeters57@gmail.com for alternate dates.)

Stonewall Democrats of Linn County Contact Roy Porterfield royboycr@mchsi.com 319-362-5281 Tri-ess, Iota Kappa Phi Chapter P.O. Box 8605, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52408 We are a transgendered organization supporting crossdressers, their families, and friends. www.yahoo.com/group/Tri-essIotaKappaPhi www.tri-ess.org, 319-390-6376 E-mail: Georgia georgia523@yahoo.com E-mail: Judy marlenemarschel@yahoo.com Unity Center of Cedar Rapids “A center of positive, practical Christianity.”

3791 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids www.unitycr.org - (319) 393-5422

CLINTON Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Clinton 309 30th Avenue North, Clinton, IA 52732 (563) 242-4972 - uuclinton.org Sunday services at 10:30 (year-round) Where YOUR spiritual and ethical journey is welcome! Rev. Ruby Nancy, minister

Council Bluffs, Omaha (Ne) AIDS Interfaith Network 100 N. 62nd, Omaha, NE Call Br. Wm. Woeger 402-558-3100 Broadway Joe’s 3400 W Broadway, Council Bluffs, IA 51501 712-256-2243 Citizens For Equal Protection 1105 Howard St, Suite #2, Omaha, NE 68102 www.cfep-ne.org - info@cfep-ne.org 402-398-3027 Council Bluffs NOW Write PO Box 3325, Omaha, NE 68103-0325

DECEMBER 2010 Heartland Gay Rodeo Association (HGRA) (Midwest Division of the International Gay Rodeo Association) PO Box 3354, Omaha, NE 68103 www.hgra.net - 402-203-4680 HGRA serves both Iowa and Nebraska Imperial Court of Nebraska P.O. Box 3772, Omaha, NE 68103 402-556-9907 L.E.O. (Leather Engineers of Omaha) Educational-social group for Gay Men with interest in Leather Lifestyle. Meets 2nd Saturday at Gilligan’s Pub at 7:00pm.

L.E.O. PO Box 8101 Omaha, NE 68108.

The Max 1417 Jackson at 15th, Omaha, NE 68102 6 bars in 1 - 402-346-4110 MCC Omaha 819 South 22nd, Omaha, NE 68103 Sun 9 & 11 am Wednesday “ReCharge” Worship, Wed 7pm 402-345-2563 PFLAG Omaha Mead Hall, First United Methodist Church 7020 Cass St. (Omaha) 2nd Thursday, 7, 6:30 Social time 402-291-6781 River City Mixed Chorus Gay/lesbian chorus PO Box 3267 Omaha, NE 68103 Call Stan Brown, marketing 402-341-7464.

Romantix Council Bluffs (North) (Adult Emporium) 3216 1st Ave, Council Bluffs, IA 51501-3353 http://www.romantixonline.com 515-955-9756 Tri-ess Chapter, Kappa Phi Lambda Chapter Omaha, NE 68107 We are a transgendered organization supporting crossdressers, their families, and friends. www.tri-ess.org, 402-960-9696 E-mail: Judy marlenemarschel@yahoo.com Romantix Council Bluffs (South) (Romantix After Dark) 50662 189th St, Council Bluffs, IA 51503 http://www.romantixonline.com 712-366-1764 Youth Support Group for GLBT Youth 13-21, meets twice monthly.

Omaha, NE - 402-291- 6781

Decorah Decorah Human Rights Commission Contact: City Clerk 400 Clairborne Dr, Decorah 563-382-3651 Meetings: First Tuesdays, 5:30pm Luther College Student Congregation Contact Office for College Ministry 700 College Dr, Decorah, IA 52101 563-387-1040.

PFLAG Northeast IA (Waukon/Decorah) First Lutheran Church 604 W Broadway St, Decorah, IA Meetings: 4th Mondays, 7pm-9pm in the Fellowship Hall Call Jean @ 563-535-7680 PRIDE Luther College Diversity Center, 700 College Dr, Decorah, IA 52101 Contact Chris at 563-387-2145 or Melanie at 563-387-1273 Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Meets alternating Sundays at 10:30am, Decorah Senior Center 806 River St Call Bill at 563-382-3458.

Des Moines AIDS Project of Central Iowa Free HIV testing, prevention supplies, care services, food pantry, information.

711 E. 2nd, Des Moines, IA 50309 515-284-0245

DC’s Saloon 610 S. 14th St., Omaha, NE Open everyday 2pm-1am, western/levi/leather.

402-344-3103

Blazing Saddle 416 E 5th St, Des Moines, IA - 515-246-1299 www.theblazingsaddle.com

Diamond Bar 712 S. 16th St., Omaha, NE 10am - 1am, M-Sa, closed Sun 402-342-9595

The CENTER 1300 Locust The new LGBT and progressive place to be. thecenterdm@gmail.com Facebook: The CENTER & Equality Iowa www.equalityiowa.org 515-243-0313

Front Runners/Front Walkers Walking/jogging club.

P.O. Box 4583, Omaha, NE 68104 402-496-3658.

Gilligan’s Pub and Grill 1407 Harney, Omaha, NE Everyday 4pm-1am Friday and Sat. After hours 12-4am 402-449-9147 GLBT Rainbow Outreach Omaha Serving GLBT community in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Excellent message and info. Also office for Imperial court of Nebraska.

1719 Leavenworth St, Omaha, NE www.rocc.org - 402-341-0330

Buddies Corral 418 E 5th St, Des Moines, IA - 515-244-7140

Church of the Holy Spirit-MCC Pastor Pat Esperanza Sunday service 10:30am at the 1st Christian Church 2500 University, Des Moines chsmccdmia@aol.com 515-287-9787 Des Moines Diversity Chorus [A gay-friendly mixed chorus] Rehearsals on Mondays at 7 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Beaver Ave. at Franklin St., Des Moines.

All are welcome, no auditions.

PO Box 65312, West Des moines, IA 50265 Julie Murphy, Artistic Director jahmurphy@hotmail.com, 515-255-3576, desmoinesdiversitychorus.org

DECEMBER 2010 Des Moines Gay Men’s Chorus 515-953-1540 PO Box 12269, Des Moines, IA 50312 dmgmc@mchsi.com, www.dmgmc.org.

Family Practice Center Safe, supportive LGBT health care.

200 Army Post Road, Ste 26 www.ppgi.org 515-953-7560 First Friday Breakfast Club Educational breakfast club for gay/bisexual men. Meets first Friday of each month.

Contact Jonathan Wilson for meeting topic and place. 515-288-2500 JonathanWilson@DavisBrownLaw.com First Unitarian Church 1800 Bell Avenue Services Sundays at 9:30 & 11am 515-244-8603 The Gallery (adult store) 1000 Cherry St Des Moines, IA 50309-4227 (515) 244-2916 Open 24 Hours www.LoversPlayground.com The Garden 112 SE 4th Des Moines, IA 515-243-3965 Wed-Sun. 8pm-2am www.grdn.com Gay & Lesbian AA & AI-Anonymous Mon. 7 pm; Tues. - Thurs. 6 pm; Sat. 5:30 pm at Drake Ministries in Ed. Bldg. 28th & University Gay and Lesbian Issues Committee 4211 Grand Avenue, Level-3 Des Moines, IA 50312 515-277-1117 Iowa Affirmation Lesbian/Gay United Methodist Thoreau Center, 35th & Kingman Blvd.

Write Affirmation PO Box 1726, Des Moines, IA 50309 Java Joe’s Gay friendly 214 4th St. 515-288-5282 Lavender Victory Fund Financial assistance for women in need for medical emergencies. lavendervf@aol.com Le Boi Bar 508 Indianola Rd, Des Moines, IA Liberty Gifts 333 E. Grand Ave., Loft 105, Des Moines, IA Gay owned specialty clothing, jewelry, home decor. 515-508-0825 Libertygiftsonline.com MINX Show Palace 1510 NE Broadway, Des Moines, IA 50313 Open 9am - 2am, M-Th; 9am - 4am, F-Sat. 10am -9pm Sun. 515-266-2744 National Association of Social Workers (NOW) (Nat’1 Organization of Women in Des Moines) www.meetup.com/locale/us/ia/desmoines North Star Gay Rodeo Association of IGRA, Iowa Division of North Star NSGRA@NSGRA.org or 612-82-RODEO Rainbow Union, Drake University Contact Sara Graham ru@drake.edu Ray Perry Law Firm 515-279-2244 Free Initial Consultation PFLAG Des Moines 515-537-3126 or write 3520 Grand Ave #51, Des Moines, IA 50312 Plymouth Congregational UCC Church and the Plymouth GLBT Community 4126 Ingersoll Ave. 515-255-3149 Services at 5:30pm Sat, 9am & I lam Sunday. www.PlymouthGLBT.com Polk County Health Department Free STD, HIV, and Hepatitis B & C testing.

HIV. Rapid testing also offered.

1907 Carpenter, Des Moines, IA 515-286-3798.

Raccoon River Resort Accommodations for men, women, or mixed in campgrounds, lodge, Teepees or Treehouses. Reservations: 515-996-2829 or 515-279-7312 Ritual Café On 13th between Grand and Locust.

Gay owned great music, awesome food and coffee. 515-288-4872 ritualcafe@aol.com - ritualcafe.com Romantix North Des Moines Iowa (Bachelor’s Library) 2020 E Euclid Ave, Des Moines, IA 50317 www.romantixonline.com 515-266-7992 Romantix 1401 E Army Post Rd, Des Moines IA 50320 www.romantixonline.com - 515-256-1102 SOFFA Iowa (Significant Others Family Friends and Allies of people who fall under the Gender Variant umbrella) Monthly meetings held at The CENTER, 1300 Locust contact Jaye at: (515)779-5185 thecentersoffaiowa@gmail.com

Section 3: Community Spouses of Lesbians & Gays Contact Ruth Schanke, 515-277-3700 St. John’s Lutheran Church 600 6th Ave “A Church for All People.”

Services Sat 5pm, Sun 7:45, 8:45 & 11am.

See web page for other services.

515-243-7691 - www.StJohnsDSM.org TransformationsIOWA Monthly meetings for the female to male, male to female, transgender community, cross dressers, gender queer, questioning, and their significant others. For location and info, email Jayden at thecenterdmtrans@gmail.com or call 515-779-5187 Trinity United Methodist Church 1548 Eighth Street - 515-288-4056 Services Sundays at 10am Urbandale UCC An open & affirming congregation.

3530 70th St., Urbandale, IA 50322 515-276-0625 Walnut Hills UMC Join us at 8:30 or 10:30am for Sunday worship. Sunday classes and group studies are at 9:30am. 515-270-9226 12321 Hickman Rd, Urbandale, IA 50323 Westminster Presbyterian Church 4114 Allison Ave - www.WestPres.org Sunday services 8:45 and 11am. Of note is their Gay Lesbian Straight Affirmation small group ministry. 515-274-1534 Word of God Ministries Join us at 3:30 for Sunday Worship at 3120 E 24th St, Des Moines, IA 515-276-6614 Women’s Culture Collective (WCC) A lesbian social group.

Des Moines, IA - www.iowawcc.org Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure Open daily. Gay-friendly 2723 Ingersoll, Des Moines, IA 515-244-7694

Dubuque Adult Warehouse 975 Jackson St., Dubuque, IA 563-588-9184.

Dubuque Friends Worship Group (Quakers) Tired of being rejected by your church?

Tired of following church pronouncements that smack of homophobia? Join us at an unprogrammed meeting on Sunday at 10am.

Open and Affirming St. Mark’s Community Center 1201 Locust Street, Dubuque, Iowa 52001 563-556-3685 for info and directions Dubuque Pride Monthly social group, meeting for meal and conversation. www.dubuquepride.org Dubuque Regional AIDS Coalition Direct services, education. HIV+/AIDS support group and family/friends support group. Contact Kay Auderer or Connie Sprimont, Mercy Health Center. 563-589-9606.

PFLAG Dubuque St. John’s Lutheran Church 1276 White St. 3rd Thursday, 7pm 563-582-9388 Q Bar East 90 Sinsinawa Ave, The Strip, East Dubuque, IL 61025 qbar.east@gmail.com Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Dubuque 1699 Iowa St., Dubuque, IA “The uncommon denomination.” Adult religious education meets Sunday at 9am before general services at 10am. www.uuf-dbq.org. 563-583-9910

Fort Dodge Romantix Fort Dodge (Mini Cinema) 15 N. 5th St, Fort Dodge, IA 50501-3801 http://www.romantixonline.com

Grinnell Saints Ephrem & Macrina Orthodox Mission. Welcoming worship in the Eastern Christian liturgical tradition.

Sunday services at 10am. (Affiliated with the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America.)

Divine Liturgy is served Sundays during the College academic year 1:30 p.m., Herrick Chapel, Grinnell College Campus 1226 Broad Street, Grinnell, IA 641-236-0936 Stonewall Resource Center Open 4:30pm to 11:30pm, Sun through Thurs and by Appointment.

Grinnell College 1210 Park Street PO Box B-1, Grinnell, IA, 50112 srcenter@grinnell.edu 641-269-3327

INDIANOLA Crossroads United Church of Christ (UCC) An Open & affirming congregation. Services: Sunday 10:30am, Summer worship: June, July, Aug, @ 9:30 am, worshiping in the Lounge at Smith Chapel, Simpson College, corner of Buxton and Clinton. Mailing address: P.O. Box 811, Indianola, IA 50125 515-961-9370.

Iowa City AA (GLBT) 319-338-9111 Meetings Sundays 5 - 6pm at First Baptist Church, 500 North Clinton Street. For more info, call IC Intergroup Answering Service, Congregational Church UCC An Open and Affirming Congregation Sunday Worship 9:15am (July & August) 30 N. Clinton St. (across from Ul Pentacrest) 319-337-4301 - www.uiccic.org Counseling Clinic 319-354-6238 Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender sensitive and supportive counseling for individuals, couples, families and groups. Sliding Fee. 505 E Washington St., Iowa City, IA 52240 Counseling and Health Center 319-337-6998 Client-centered therapy.

Les-Bi-Gay-Trans always welcome.

616 Bloomington St, Iowa City, IA

Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City Inclusive and free religious community nurturing intellectual and spiritual growth and fostering ethical and social responsibility.

10 S. Gilbert, Iowa City, IA Sunday services: 9:30am & 11:15am. www.uusic.org 319-337-3443 United Action for Youth (UAY) A GLBTQA youth group providing support and counseling for teenagers and young adults processing sexual identity issues. Meets Mondays 7-9pm at UAY 410 Iowa Ave. Iowa City, IA 319-338-7518 or Teen Line, 319-338-0559.

The Ursine Group Bear Events in the Midwest.

PO Box 1143, Iowa City, IA 52244-1143 319-338-5810 Vortex Gifts 211 E. Washington, downtown Iowa City 319-337-3434 Women’s Resource Action Center (WRAC) Leads & collaborates on projects that serve U of l and the greater community, offers social & support services, including LGBT Coming Out Group.

University of Iowa 130 N. Madison, Iowa City, IA 52242 319-335-1486

Marshalltown

Crisis Center 319-351-0140 1121 Gilbert Court, Iowa City, 52240

Adult Odyssey (Adult Video Store) 907 Iowa Ave E - 641-752-6550

Emma Goldman Clinic 227 N. Dubuque St, Iowa City, IA 52245 319-337-2111or 1-800-848-7684.

Domestic Violence Alternatives/ Sexual Assault Center, Inc. 24 hour Crisis Line: 641-753-3513 or (instate only) 800-779-3512

Faith United Church of Christ 1609 De Forest Street, Iowa City, IA Services Sundays at 9:30am 319-338-5238 GLBTAU-U of lA Student support system and resource center, info, activism, events, and other community involvements.

203 IMU, University of IA Iowa City, IA 52242-1317 glbtau@uiowa.edu 319-335-3251 (voice mail) Hope United Methodist Church Worship Service at 9:30am.

2929 E. Court St., Iowa City, IA Contact Rev. Sherry Lohman. 319-338-9865 Human Rights Commission (City of Iowa City Human Rights Commission) 319-356-5022; 391-356-5015; 319-356-5014 Fax 319-887-6213 humanrights@iowa-city.org ICARE (Iowa Center for AIDS Resources & Education) Practical & emotional support, youth programs, information, referrals and support groups.

3211 E 1st Iowa City, IA 52240-4703 319-338-2135 Iowa City Free Medical Clinic Free & strictly confidential HIV Testing.

2440 Towncrest Dr Iowa City, Call for appointment 319-337-4459 Iowa City NOW PO Box 2944, Iowa City, IA 52244 for information & meeting times/places Iowa Women’s Music Festival P.O. Box 3411, Iowa City, IA 52244 319-335-1486 Men Supporting Men 319-356-6038, Ext 2 HIV prevention program exploring issues that gay/bisexual men deal with on a daily basis.

Discussion Groups, Educational Series, Safer Sex Workshops, Book Club. Contact Andy Weigel, email: aweigel@co.johnson.ia.us New Song Episcopal Church 912 20th Ave, Coralville, IA Sunday services at 10am.

Rev. Elizabeth Coulter, Pastor Rev. John Harper, Associate.

319-351-3577 Pride Committee WRAC 130 N. Madison, Iowa City, IA 52242 Bridget Malone - 319-338-0512 Charles Howes - 319-335-1486.

Romantix Iowa City (Pleasure Palace I) 315 Kirkwood Ave, Iowa City, IA 52240-4722 www.romantixonline.com 319-351-9444 Studio 13 13 S. Linn St. (in the Alley) Iowa City, IA Open 7pm ‘til 2am, daily 319-338-7145 Thich Nhat Hanh based “Mindfulness” meditation and study group Iowa City Public Library, Sundays 1 to 2:30pm Usually Room E 319-354-4065 U of I Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Staff & Faculty Association c/o WRAC, 130 N Madison, Iowa City, IA 52242, 19-335-1486

MASON CITY Cerro Gordo County Dept. of Public Health 22 N. Georgia Ave, Ste 300 Mason City, IA 50401.

Free confidential AIDS testing. 641-421-9306 PFLAG North Iowa Chapter 641-583-2848 1st Presbyterian Church 100 S. Pierce.

1st/ 2nd Monday (alternating), 7pm

Mount Vernon Alliance Cornell College 810 Commons Cir # 2035 alliance@cornellcollege.edu www.cornellcollege.edu/alliance Contact person: Glynnis 319-895-5874

NEWTON PFLAG Newton 641-521-7436 UCC Church, 308 E 2nd St N 3rd Thursday, 7pm

Pella Common Ground (Central College) Support group for GLBT students and allies.

Contact: Brandyn Woodard, Director of Intercultural Life woodardb@central.edu 641-628-5134

Quad Cities AIDS Project Quad Cities Info, education & support. Ste 360 1351 Central Park West Davenport, IA 52804 563-421-4266 Augie’s Tap 313 20th St, Rock Island (IL) Noon - 3am daily. 309-788-7389 Black Hawk College Unity Alliance Serving GLBT community at Black Hawk College.

6600 34th Ave, Rock Island, IL 309-716-0542.

Connections Nightclub 563-322-1121 822 W 2nd St, Davenport, IA 52802 DeLaCerda House 309-786-7386 Provides housing & supportive services, advocacy and referrals for people living with HIV/ AIDS. P.O. Box 4551, Rock Island, Il. 61201 Good Samaritan Free Clinic 602 35th Avenue Moline, IL 309-797-4688 gsfc@mchsi.com - Provides free primary medical care to patients age 16-64 who are working but have no medical insurance. Patients are seen by volunteer physicians, nurss practicioners, and physician assistants. www.GoodSamaritanFreeClinic.org The Hole-In-The-Wall 309-289-2375 A Private Membership Men’s Club Located 3 miles east of Galesburg, IL just north of I-74 at Exit 51 www.HoleInTheWallMensClub.org Holy Spirit Catholic Faith Community Meets one Sunday per month for Mass at 6:30pm at MCC-QC 3019 N. Harrison St, Davenport, IA Mailing: PO Box 192 East Moline, IL 61244 For more info, call 309-278-3359 Mary’s On 2nd 563-884-8014 832 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

ACCESSline Page 37 MCC Quad Cities - Svcs Sat 5pm, Sun 11am Bible study Wed 7pm 563-324-8281 3019 N Harrison, Davenport, IA 52803 Men’s Coming Out/Being Out Group Meets 2nd & 4th Thursdays, 7pm.

QCAD.OutForGood@GMail.com 309-786-2580 PFLAG Quad Cities 563-285-4173 Eldridge United Methodist Church 604 S.2nd St., Eldridge 1st Monday, 6:30 pm Prism (Augustana College) 309-794-7406 Augustana Gay-Straight Alliance Augustana Library 639 38th St, Rock Island, IL Contact Tom Bengston Quad Citians Affirming Diversity (QCAD) Social & support groups for lesbian, bi, and gay teens, adults, friends & families; newsletter.

309-786-2580 - Community Center located at 1608 2nd Ave, Rock Island.

Quad Cities Pride Chorus.

At the MCC Church in D’port, 7pm Wed. qcswede64@aol.com Call Don at 563-324-0215 Rainbow Gifts www.rainbowgifts.net 309-764-0559 T.R. Video Adult books & video 3727 Hickory Grove Rd, Davenport, IA 563-386-7914.

Venus News (Adult) 902 W 3rd St, Davenport, IA 563-322-7576

SHENANDOAH PFLAG Shenandoah 712-899-2743

Sioux City Am. Business & Professional Guild.

Gay Businessmen.

Meets last Sat. of the month; ABPG P. O. BOX 72, Sioux City, 51102 abpguild@yahoo.com Grace United Methodist Church 1735 Morningside Avenue 712-276-3452.

Jones Street Station (Bar) 712-258-6922 412 Jones St. Nightly 6:00pm to 2:00am.

Mayflower Congregational Church.

1407 West 18th Street Call 712-258-8278.

Morningside College Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Alliance 712-274-5208 Contact Professor Gail Dooley, Advisor Morningside College GSA 1501 Morningside Ave. Sioux City, IA 51106-1717 dooley@morningside.edu PFLAG Siouxland PO Box 1311, Sioux City, IA 51102 siouxlandPFLAG@aol.com Romantix Sioux City 712-277-8566 (Adult Emporium) 511 Pearl St, Sioux City, IA 51101-1217 St. Thomas Episcopal Church Service Sun 10:30am 406 12th St, Waverly, IA Rev Mary Christopher 712-258-0141 Western Iowa Tech. GSA widemal@juno.com for info.

Zaner’s Bar 712-277-9575 3103 N Hwy 75, Sioux City, IA 51105 Monthly drag shows & events; hometown bar for Imperial Court of Iowa’s Western Chapter zaners-sioux-city@hotmail.com

Waverly Cedar Valley Episcopal Campus Ministry.

717 W. Bremer, (St. Andrew’s Episcopal) Waverly, IA www.episcoplcampus.org 319-415-5747 Gay, Lesbian Bisexual Student Alliance Wartburg College, Waverly, IA 50677 Contact Susan Vallem 319-352-8250 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church 717 W. Bremer We welcome all to worship with us on Sunday at 10:30 am. Bible discussion Wed. 6:45pm Rev. Maureen Doherty, Pastor 319-352-1489

ACCESSline Page 38 SScontinued from page 10

US NEWS not simply an abstract insult to the dignity of same-sex couples and their families— although it is indeed a deeply offensive law,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “DOMA causes real harm to people like Joanne Pedersen, Ann Meitzen and Edie Windsor, denying them economic security, health coverage and other critical federal rights and benefits that other married couples take for granted.”

The section of DOMA that prevents the federal government from recognizing states’ same-sex marriages already was struck down as unconstitutional earlier this year in two cases from Massachusetts, but the Obama administration has appealed the rulings.

The section, which the federal District Court in Boston found unconstitutional in three ways, states: “In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”

The language overrides any state’s determination that a couple is married and says that they are not married for purposes of all federal laws and programs, even though the federal government otherwise has always deferred to state determinations of marital status.

The Boston court said DOMA violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by treating married gay couples differently from married straight

Section 3: Community couples without any rational basis for doing so. It also found that DOMA violates the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by intruding in areas of exclusive state authority, and violates the Spending Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution by forcing Massachusetts to discriminate against its married gay citizens in order to receive certain types of federal funding.

President Barack Obama does not support same-sex marriage, although he did in 1996 when he was campaigning for an Illinois Senate seat. But in a recent White House meeting with five progressive bloggers, the president suggested he might be getting ready to change his mind again.

“I do not intend to make big news sitting here with the five of you, as wonderful as you guys are,” Obama said at the Oct. 27 meeting.

“But I’ll say this. … I have been to this point

unwilling to sign on to same-sex marriage primarily because of my understandings of the traditional definitions of marriage. But I also think you’re right that attitudes evolve, including mine. And I think that it is an issue that I wrestle with and think about because I have a whole host of friends who are in gay partnerships. I have staff members who are in committed, monogamous relationships, who are raising children, who are wonderful parents, and I care about them deeply. And so while I’m not prepared to reverse myself here, sitting in the Roosevelt Room at 3:30 in the afternoon, I think it’s fair to say that it’s something that I think a lot about. That’s probably the best you’ll do out of me today. … The one thing I will say today is I think it’s pretty clear where the trendlines are going … the arc of history.”

Assistance: Bill Kelley

“The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies. The Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association strongly opposes a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.”

— The Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association, the world’s largest organization of anthropologists, February 26, 2004, “in response to President George W. Bush’s call for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage as a threat to civilization.” (aaanet.org)

DECEMBER 2010 SScontinued from page 12

NELLY song from Lifestyle: a duet called “Be Okay.”

It’s a really, really pretty song. Another duet!

You’ll have to release a duets album.

We tried to put a few of these duets on this greatest hits. I don’t think we got Michael Bublé on there, though; I have a really cool duet with Michael Bublé: “Cuando, Cuando, Cuando.” Now that I say it out loud, I do have a lot of duets with guys! I have hardly any with women. Who knows—maybe I’ll have a female feature on my next album. I’m due!

You made a remark to Genre magazine in 2005 that everyone is a little gay— remember that?

(Laughs) Oh yes! I was quoted and misquoted in many publications. It was pretty funny. That went really far. I was quoted as saying that everybody was gay, which is not really what I meant. I think sexuality is … a very alive thing. It’s very human. And I think we all embody the masculine and feminine— and so does the world. Right now we’re entering into a feminine time and everybody is embracing their feminine energy, which is really nice.

Maybe you weren’t totally off with that comment, though. Now it seems everyone is a little gay with all these celebrities jumping on the bi bandwagon.

I say everything first if you notice! Just go back: I say, do and wear everything first, if you really look at it. And that’s a quote!

(Laughs) Always a step ahead?

But I’m too far ahead! I’m never on trend (laughs).

DECEMBER 2010

Section 3: Community

ACCESSline Page 39