Gay City News, September 12, 20012 by Schneps Media

FREE VOLUME ELEVEN, ISSUE NINTEEN SEPTEMBER 12 - 25, 2012

NY Supports Maryland Marriage 18 Mirth After Meth 21 Helping Gay Vets at Repeal Anniversary 34 Hawaiian Idyll 30

David France’s new film about the plague page 10

Activist Peter Staley

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September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

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David France film examines AIDS activists’ legacy 10

Cover Illustration by Michael Shirey

Obama speech caps gay-friendliest convention 08

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Lew Todd is dead at 82 16

Little tramp who could 28

EDITORIAL Pandering in Massachusetts Senate race 14

| September 12, 2012

HEALTH

City’s Only Black Gay Men’s HIV Group Imperiled Declining government contracts, fewer prevention resources squeeze GMAD BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

GMAD

e w Yo r k C i t y ’ s o n l y agency that focuses exclusively on HIV prevention work among gay and bisexual African-American men is struggling financially and may be for ced to close its doors. “The organization will close if the trend does not change,” said Zachary Jones, a senior bishop in the Unity Fellowship Church Movement and the board chair of Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD), a Brooklyn-based AIDS gr oup that was founded in 1986. Later in the same phone interview, Jones added, “I cannot predict that we will be closing. We’re open today, we’ll be open next year, and we’ll be open for the next five years.” A copy of a recent monthly report made to the board and other documents wer e mailed anonymously to Gay City News. A current GMAD employee confir med that the July 2012 report is real as is the dire state of the agency’s finances. “The concern about the agency’s viability continues to grow,” the report read. “We are several hundred thousand dollars short of our annual budget and this is due in no small measure to the fact that the positions of the executive director, deputy executive director, and finance director are largely unfunded.” Tokes Osubu, the executive director, and the two other top staff members have skipped twice-monthly paychecks in recent months. “Over the last quarter I would say at least once a month,” Jones said. “It speaks to their commitment to the organization.” The agency borrowed $25,000 from the Fund for the City of New York to pay staff in June and part of July, according to the report. The report said that GMAD is owed just over $100,000 from “funders,” but it has already spent that cash. “It should be noted that the said amount is what the agency has already expended and if we had these reimbursed on time, our situation would be less dire,” the report read. GMAD is also in “arrears on the rent,” Jones said. A second set of documents that were also mailed anonymously to Gay City News, apparently by the same individual judging by the cover letters that accompanied both mailings, showed that GMAD’s revenues wer e just under $358,000

GMAD's board of directors –– Jelani Hunter, Ivory Thomas, Tokes M. Osubu, Bishop Zachary Jones, Kevin McGruder, and Kevin Coleman –– at the group’s 25th anniversary event in February.

for the first six months of this year and just over $657,000 for the first six months of 2011. The gr oup’s deficit as of July 12 of this year is nearly $284,000. These documents were described to the current GMAD employee who spoke to Gay City News and the employee confir med

screenings in July. GMAD had “40 appointments and just two group meetings” for one of its programs in July. GMAD recruited a single new client that month. The agency is also late in launching an anti-stigma campaign that is funded by the city. GMAD has submitted proposals for other federal and city contracts. The cash shortfall is at least a year old. “It was a slow decline, but it felt very drastic this year,” Jones said. In late 2010, GMAD won a state health department HIV prevention contract valued at $350,000. It subcontracted with VillageCare to deliver some services and GMAD was to pay the Manhattan non-profit $76,000 over the one-year contract. GMAD paid no monthly vouchers to VillageCare from September 2011 through May 2012. GMAD paid VillageCare the $52,941 it owed only after the Manhattan agency complained to the state funder. Osubu blamed the delay on the state AIDS Institute. “Due to the slow response time by AI, GMAD has experienced a serious financial hardship and any monies received were used to pay staff and health benefits or risk cancellation by the insurance company,” Osubu wrote in a July 30 email to VillageCare, according to other documents obtained by Gay City News.

“Unfortunately, it appears that HIV/AIDS... is not the priority of the local or state governments.” –– Bishop Zachary Jones their accuracy. Jones declined comment about the information in these documents. The financial documents listed nine major funding sources. Three that supported GMAD in the first six months of 2011 gave no support this year and the other six made large cuts in their support. GMAD’s total expenses in the first six months of this year were just under $642,000 compared to just over $624,000 for the same period last year. The lack of funds has impacted services, according to the report. Because GMAD could not supply clients with MetroCards to pay for their travel, the agency conducted just 13 HIV tests and two syphilis

Like many small AIDS groups, GMAD relies almost entirely on government grants so if one or more of them is eliminated, it has a significant impact. In 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, $1.15 million, or 88 percent, of GMAD’s $1.3 million budget was from government contracts. In 2009, $1 million, or 76 percent, of the agency’s $1.3 million budget came from government contracts. The agency spent $5,300 on raising private dollars in 2009 and nothing on such fundraising in 2010. Federal funding for HIV prevention has been flat at just under $1 billion a year since 2007. The city and state have cut HIV prevention dollars. Gover nment funders are increasingly spending their cash on HIV testing and treating those who are positive. The theory is that people who learn they are positive will change their behavior to avoid infecting others and, with treatment, they will be less infectious so if they do have unsafe sex, they will be less likely to infect others. “Unfortunately, it appears that as HIV/AIDS... is not the priority of the local or state governments, therefore we have not been refunded in a lot of areas,” said Jones who added that the board was planning a number of fundraising strategies and events. “We do have a core group of people,” he said. “We feel that they are willing to respond to us... I do believe that with the right kind of exposure, those people will respond and encourage others to participate.”

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

| September 12, 2012

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

IMPORTANT PATIENT INFORMATION PREZISTA (pre-ZIS-ta) (darunavir) Oral Suspension PREZISTA (pre-ZIS-ta) (darunavir) Tablets Read this Patient Information before you start taking PREZISTA and each time you get a refill. There may be new information. This information does not take the place of talking to your healthcare provider about your medical condition or your treatment. Also read the Patient Information leaflet for NORVIRÂŽ (ritonavir). What is the most important information I should know about PREZISTA? t P REZISTA can interact with other medicines and cause serious side effects. It is important to know the medicines that should not be taken with PREZISTA. See the section â&#x20AC;&#x153;Who should not take PREZISTA?â&#x20AC;? t P REZISTA may cause liver problems. Some people taking PREZISTA in combination with NORVIRÂŽ (ritonavir) have developed liver problems which may be life-threatening. Your healthcare provider should do blood tests before and during your combination treatment with PREZISTA. If you have chronic hepatitis B or C infection, your healthcare provider should check your blood tests more often because you have an increased chance of developing liver problems. t 5FMM ZPVS IFBMUIDBSF QSPWJEFS JG ZPV IBWF BOZ PG UIF CFMPX TJHOT BOE symptoms of liver problems. t %BSL UFB DPMPSFE VSJOF t ZFMMPXJOH PG ZPVS TLJO PS XIJUFT PG ZPVS FZFT t QBMF DPMPSFE TUPPMT CPXFM NPWFNFOUT

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Rash occurred more often in patients taking PREZISTA and raltegravir together than with either drug separately, but was generally mild. See â&#x20AC;&#x153;What are the possible side effects of PREZISTA?â&#x20AC;? for more information about side effects. What is PREZISTA? PREZISTA is a prescription anti-HIV medicine used with ritonavir and other antiHIV medicines to treat adults with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection. PREZISTA is a type of anti-HIV medicine called a protease inhibitor. )*7 JT UIF WJSVT UIBU DBVTFT "*%4 "DRVJSFE *NNVOF %FGJDJFODZ 4ZOESPNF When used with other HIV medicines, PREZISTA may help to reduce the amount PG )*7 JO ZPVS CMPPE DBMMFE iWJSBM MPBEw 13&;*45" NBZ BMTP IFMQ UP JODSFBTF UIF OVNCFS PG XIJUF CMPPE DFMMT DBMMFE $% 5 DFMM XIJDI IFMQ GJHIU PGG PUIFS JOGFDUJPOT 3FEVDJOH UIF BNPVOU PG )*7 BOE JODSFBTJOH UIF $% 5 DFMM DPVOU may improve your immune system. This may reduce your risk of death or infections that can happen when your immune system is weak (opportunistic infections). 13&;*45" EPFT OPU DVSF )*7 JOGFDUJPO PS "*%4 BOE ZPV NBZ DPOUJOVF UP experience illnesses associated with HIV-1 infection, including opportunistic infections. You should remain under the care of a doctor when using PREZISTA. Avoid doing things that can spread HIV-1 infection. t %P OPU TIBSF OFFEMFT PS PUIFS JOKFDUJPO FRVJQNFOU t %P OPU TIBSF QFSTPOBM JUFNT UIBU DBO IBWF CMPPE PS CPEZ GMVJET PO UIFN MJLF toothbrushes and razor blades.

t % P OPU IBWF BOZ LJOE PG TFY XJUIPVU QSPUFDUJPO Always practice safe sex by using a latex or polyurethane condom to lower the chance of sexual contact with semen, vaginal secretions, or blood. Ask your healthcare provider if you have any questions on how to prevent passing HIV to other people. Who should not take PREZISTA? %P OPU UBLF 13&;*45" with any of the following medicines: t alfuzosin (UroxatralÂŽ) t EJIZESPFSHPUBNJOF % ) & ÂŽ, EmbolexÂŽ, MigranalÂŽ), ergonovine, ergotamine (CafergotÂŽ, ErgomarÂŽ) methylergonovine t cisapride t pimozide (OrapÂŽ) t oral midazolam, triazolam (HalcionÂŽ) t the herbal supplement St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) t the cholesterol lowering medicines lovastatin (MevacorÂŽ, AltoprevÂŽ, AdvicorÂŽ) or simvastatin (ZocorÂŽ, SimcorÂŽ, VytorinÂŽ) t rifampin (RifadinÂŽ, RifaterÂŽ, RifamateÂŽ, RimactaneÂŽ) t sildenafil (RevatioÂŽ) only when used for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Serious problems can happen if you take any of these medicines with PREZISTA. What should I tell my doctor before I take PREZISTA? 13&;*45" NBZ OPU CF SJHIU GPS ZPV #FGPSF UBLJOH 13&;*45" UFMM ZPVS healthcare provider if you: t IBWF MJWFS QSPCMFNT JODMVEJOH IFQBUJUJT # PS IFQBUJUJT $ t BSF BMMFSHJD UP TVMGB NFEJDJOFT t IBWF IJHI CMPPE TVHBS EJBCFUFT

t IBWF IFNPQIJMJB t BSF QSFHOBOU PS QMBOOJOH UP CFDPNF QSFHOBOU *U JT OPU LOPXO JG 13&;*45" XJMM harm your unborn baby. Pregnancy Registry: You and your healthcare provider will need to decide if taking PREZISTA is right for you. If you take PREZISTA while you are pregnant, talk to your healthcare provider about how you can be included in the Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry. The purpose of the registry is follow the health of you and your baby. t BSF CSFBTUGFFEJOH PS QMBO UP CSFBTUGFFE %P OPU CSFBTUGFFE We do not know if PREZISTA can be passed to your baby in your breast milk and whether it could harm your baby. Also, mothers with HIV-1 should not breastfeed because HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in the breast milk. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Using PREZISTA and certain other medicines may affect each other causing serious side effects. PREZISTA may affect the way other medicines work and other medicines may affect how PREZISTA works. Especially tell your healthcare provider if you take: t NFEJDJOF UP USFBU )*7 t FTUSPHFO CBTFE DPOUSBDFQUJWFT CJSUI DPOUSPM 13&;*45" NJHIU SFEVDF UIF effectiveness of estrogen-based contraceptives. You must take additional precautions for birth control such as a condom. t NFEJDJOF GPS ZPVS IFBSU TVDI BT CFQSJEJM MJEPDBJOF 9ZMPDBJOF 7JTDPVTÂŽ), quinidine (NuedextaÂŽ), amiodarone (PaceroneÂŽ, CardaroneÂŽ), digoxin (LanoxinÂŽ), flecainide (TambocorÂŽ), propafenone (RythmolÂŽ) t XBSGBSJO $PVNBEJOÂŽ, JantovenÂŽ) t NFEJDJOF GPS TFJ[VSFT TVDI BT DBSCBNB[FQJOF $BSCBUSPMÂŽ, EquetroÂŽ, TegretolÂŽ, EpitolÂŽ QIFOPCBSCJUBM QIFOZUPJO %JMBOUJOÂŽ, PhenytekÂŽ) t NFEJDJOF GPS EFQSFTTJPO TVDI BT USB[BEPOF BOE EFTJQSBNJOF /PSQSBNJOÂŽ) t DMBSJUISPNZDJO 1SFWQBDÂŽ, BiaxinÂŽ) t NFEJDJOF GPS GVOHBM JOGFDUJPOT TVDI BT LFUPDPOB[PMF /J[PSBMÂŽ), itraconazole (SporanoxÂŽ, OnmelÂŽ), voriconazole (VFendÂŽ) t DPMDIJDJOF $PMDSZTÂŽ, Col-ProbenecidÂŽ) t SJGBCVUJO .ZDPCVUJOÂŽ) t NFEJDJOF VTFE UP USFBU CMPPE QSFTTVSF B IFBSU BUUBDL IFBSU GBJMVSF PS UP lower pressure in the eye such as metoprolol (LopressorÂŽ 5PQSPM 9-ÂŽ), timolol (CosoptÂŽ, BetimolÂŽ, TimopticÂŽ, IsatololÂŽ, CombiganÂŽ) t NJEB[PMBN BENJOJTUFSFE CZ JOKFDUJPO t NFEJDJOF GPS IFBSU EJTFBTF TVDI BT GFMPEJQJOF 1MFOEJMÂŽ), nifedipine (ProcardiaÂŽ, Adalat CCÂŽ, Afeditab CRÂŽ), nicardipine (CardeneÂŽ) t TUFSPJET TVDI BT EFYBNFUIBTPOF GMVUJDBTPOF "EWBJS %JTLVTÂŽ, VeramystÂŽ, FloventÂŽ, FlonaseÂŽ) t CPTFOUBO 5SBDMFFSÂŽ)

| September 12, 2012

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

POLITICS

Obama Speech Caps DNC’s Full Embrace of LGBT Aims At Democratic Convention, gay-positive posture moves from platform to podium BY PAUL SCHINDLER

BARACKOBAMA.COM

i n c e t h e 1 9 9 2 Democratic Convention, when candidate Bill Clinton became the first presidential standard bearer to explicitly court gay voters, the party has moved incrementally — though often awkwardly — toward greater inclusion of LGBT Americans in the family portrait they have presented to American voters every four years. As President Barack Obama closed the Charlotte gathering with his acceptance speech on September 6, it was clear the Democrats have now shed their lingering hesitancy about embracing the community’s major goals. Warning those in the convention hall and the millions watching at home about the stakes come November 6, Obama declared, “If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who

President Barack Obama greets former President Bill Clinton after Clinton’s September 5 address to the Democratic Convention.

are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry or control health care choices that women should make for themselves.”

Making the argument that it was the American people who were responsible for “the change” his administration could claim credit for during the past four years, the

president said, “You’re the reason… why selfless soldiers won’t be kicked out of the military because of who they are or who they love.” And speaking to the poisonous political climate that has made cooperation between Democrats and Republicans nearly impossible in Washington since he became president, Obama said, “But we don’t think that government is the source of all our problems — any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations, or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group we’re told to blame for our troubles.” In May, the president took what some said was a political gamble by announcing his support for full marriage equality after years of insisting he was “evolving.” By the time Democrats met last month to adopt a national platform for the fall campaign, approval of a marriage equality plank came quickly, without opposition. The respective platforms adopted by the Democrats and the Republicans have never been more

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OBAMA, continued on p.9

DEM PLATFORM STARK CONTRAST TO GOP’S ON GAY, WOMEN’S RIGHTS

s the Democratic National Convention got underway in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 4, the party made a big push to circulate a campaign platform that is the most LGBT -friendly in history. Drawing sharp contrasts with the Republicans in Tampa last week, the Democrats endorse mar riage equality and repeal of the Defense of Mar riage Act (DOMA), reaffirm their support for the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that provides protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, call for treating bi-national LGBT couples and their children as “families” under immigration law, push for greater efforts to combat the bullying of queer youth, and emphasize the need for a “science-based” approach to HIV prevention. On the global stage, the party, in a section titled “Advancing Universal Rights,” declares that “gay rights are human rights,” in line with a speech Secr etary of State Hillary Clinton made last December to a United Nations body in Geneva. The Democrats also underscore their support for women’s “right to control their reproductive choices,” for Planned Parenthood, and even for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which fell short of the states needed for ratification decades ago. The platform also differs from that adopted by the Republicans last week in the way its release

was handled. President Barack Obama’s campaign circulated the document late in the evening on Labor Day, nearly 24 hours before the convention began. The Republicans appeared decidedly more reluctant to focus attention on the specifics of their platform. When Politico.com came across a section of the document that had been inadver tently posted on the Republican National Committee’s website the Friday before proceedings opened in Tampa, it was quickly taken down. By the morning of August 28, a day after the hurricane-abbreviated opening day of the GOP convention, Obama senior campaign advisor David Axelrod was ribbing his opponents for their stealth platform, tweeting “The GOP platform. One MORE thing Mitt isn’t eager to release!” A few hours later, a final platform document surfaced, though with little fanfare. The Republicans’ reticence may be part of the Romney-Ryan ticket’s effort to play down clear evidence that social conservatives had sharp elbows out in the platform’s drafting. The document states opposition to marriage equality and fierce support for DOMA in no less than three of its six sections; denounces the Obama administration’s effort to impose “the homosexual rights agenda” in its foreign policy; and, as it has in the past, calls for a human life amendment to the Constitution that would appear to foreclose a woman’s right to choose in all or nearly all situations.

Romney specifically disagrees with his party platform and his vice presidential running mate on the question of barring abortion in cases of rape or incest, and he was certainly eager to tamp down any further discussion of Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin’s controversial comments about rape just a week before the convention. On LGBT rights, the Republican platform was largely hostile, though the Log Cabin Republicans trumpeted their success in blocking any mention of restoring the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell military policy. Still, that section of the platform reads, “We reject the use of the military as a platform for social experimentation and will not accept attempts to undermine military priorities and mission readiness.” That language was straight out of the playbook of those who fought to keep DADT in place. Several sentences later, the platform ambiguously reads, “We will support an objective and open-minded review of the current Administration’s management of military personnel policies and will correct problems with appropriate administrative, legal, or legislative action.” The following outlines and analyzes major provisions of the Democratic platfor m related to LGBT and women’s rights and health and compares them to comparable sections of the platform adopted by the GOP.

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PLATFORM, continued on p.PB

| September 12, 2012

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OBAMA, from p.8

starkly different on LGBT issues — as well as on women’s reproductive health (see story below). When Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry faced off against incumbent George W. Bush in 2004, gay concer ns — particularly marriage equality — were still seen as wedge issues that worked against the Democrats. Republicans succeeded in getting state marriage bans on the ballot across the nation on the bet that they would draw evangelical Christians to the polls and help reelect the president. Though Kerry had progressive views on gay anti-discrimination questions, he was ham-handed on the question of marriage — opposing a fed-

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eral constitutional amendment then under consideration but endorsing the proposal, backed by then-Governor Mitt Romney, to put his home state’s recent court ruling in favor of gay marriage up for referendum. In 2012, Democrats have made the political calculation that if gay issues remain wedge issues, their party now has the advantage. Outreach on marriage equality at the convention paralleled the pitch that war ned women that the RomneyR yan ticket threatened their right to choose and to have af fordable access to contraceptives. In introducing the party platform on the first evening of the convention, Newark Mayor Cory Booker highlighted its promise of equality regardless of “who you choose

According to the National Stonewall Democrats, 486 of the 5,963 delegates — or just over eight percent — identified themselves as LGBT. That total exceeded the goal the party had established by 16 percent. The 2012 convention was the culmination of more than 20 years of progress by LGBT Democrats in claiming a full place at the table in their party. At the same time, resistance by the Republicans nationally to taking meaningful steps in the same direction and the stark likelihood that the GOP will control at least one house of Congress and, possibly, both the executive and legislative branches come January demonstrate just how tall an order LGBT Americans continue to have before them.

to love.” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the convention’s chair, told the delegates, “For the first time, a major party platform recognizes marriage equality as a basic human right!” Keynoter Julián Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, in a litany of what the Republican nominee stands opposed to, said, “When it comes to letting people marry whomever they love, Mitt Romney says, ‘No.’” And when, in the highlight of the convention’s first evening, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke, she said, “If proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love, then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.”

sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.” • Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has made clear that while he opposes abortion, he does support exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and to protect the life of a pregnant woman.

OBAMA, from p.9

NON-DISCRIMINATION PROTECTIONS At the core of the Democratic Party is the principle that no one should face discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status. Democrats support our civil rights statutes and we have stepped up enforcement of laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplace and other settings… We support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act because people should not be fired based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. (page 51) BACKSTORY • The Republicans’ statement on discrimination did not include sexual orientation or gender identity. • Though the Democrats speak broadly about ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the focus in Congress has solely been on an employment bill (opposed by Republicans), not ones focused on housing, public accommodations, or credit. Through executive rulemaking, the Obama administration is combating anti-LGBT discrimination in federal housing programs, including those receiving government financing. The Department of Health and Human Services recently made clear that the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act bars discrimination against transgender people, who traditionally have faced broad exclusions in coverage. • The president, earlier this year, declined to move forward on an executive order barring anti-LGBT discrimination by federal contractors. Some advocates voiced confidence such an order would be forthcoming if he is reelected.

MICHAEL SHIREY

MILITARY SERVICE

bilities as other married couples. We support the full repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act. (page 53) The Administration has said that the word “family” in immigration includes LGBT relationships in order to protect bi-national families threatened with deportation. (page 51) BACKSTORY • In three separate sections of its platform, the GOP condemns marriage equality and the “judicial activism” that has encouraged it, supports DOMA and repudiates the administration’s decision to no longer defend it in court, and endorses a federal constitutional amendment banning marriage by samesex couples everywhere in the US. The Republicans assert, “It has been proven by both experience and endless social science studies that traditional marriage is best for children. Children raised in intact married families are more likely to attend college, are physically and emotionally healthier, are less likely to use drugs or alcohol, engage in crime, or get pregnant outside of marriage.”

MARRIAGE EQUALITY AND FAMILY RECOGNITION

AIDS PREVENTION

We support the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law. We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for samesex couples… We oppose discriminatory federal and state constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny equal protection of the laws to committed samesex couples who seek the same respect and responsi-

President Obama established the first-ever comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy for responding to the domestic epidemic, which calls for reducing HIV incidence, increasing access to care, optimizing health outcomes, and reducing HIV-related health disparities. This is an evidence-based plan that is guided by science and seeks to direct resources to the communities at greatest risk, including gay men,

black and Latino Americans, substance users, and others at high risk of infection. (page 35) BACKSTORY • The language regarding “evidence-based” prevention planning is an endorsement for culturally competent efforts that rely on proven prevention techniques –– including condoms and, in the case of injecting drug users, clean syringe exchanges. • The Republican platform, in its discussion of education, touted “abstinence-only” efforts as “sciencebased.” It reads, “Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexuallytransmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS when transmitted sexually. It is effective, science-based, and empowers teens to achieve optimal health outcomes and avoid risks of sexual activity.”

WOMEN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE The President and the Democratic Party believe that women have a right to control their reproductive choices. Democrats support access to affordable family planning services, and President Obama and Democrats will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers. The Affordable Care Act ensures that women have access to contraception in their health insurance plans. (page 51) BACKSTORY • The Republican platform declares, “We assert the

The Democratic platform pointed to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and included testimony from a gay National Guard physician who spoke about the impact of repeal on his family. (page 51) BACKSTORY • The Republican platform omitted language from its 2008 platform pledging to preserve DADT, but included criticism of “social experimentation” in the military, an argument long used to oppose open service by gay and lesbian service members.

GLOBAL LGBT RIGHTS Gay Rights as Human Rights. Recognizing that gay rights are human rights, the President and his administration have vowed to actively combat efforts by other nations that criminalize homosexual conduct or ignore abuse. Under the Obama administration, American diplomats must raise the issue wherever harassment or abuse arises, and they are required to record it in the State Department’s annual report on human rights. And the State Department is funding a program that finances gay rights organizations to combat discrimination, violence, and other abuses. (page 61) BACKSTORY • This language follows up on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech last December to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and the president’s accompanying foreign policy directives. • The GOP platform reads, “The effectiveness of our foreign aid has been limited by the cultural agenda of the current Administration, attempting to impose on foreign countries, especially the peoples of Africa, legalized abortion and the homosexual rights agenda.”

—Paul Schindler

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

David France ﬁlm examines legacy of AIDS treatment activism BY PAUL SCHINDLER

or gay men who lived through AIDS’ worst days in the 1980s and early ‘90s — and perhaps for those who came of age in the decade or so afterward — the opening scenes of journalist David France’s new film “How to Survive a Plague” are eerily familiar. Even much younger New Yorkers may not be altogether surprised by the grim picture they paint.

Directed by David France Opens Sep. 21 IFC Center 323 Sixth Ave. at W. Third St. ifccenter.com

It is 1987, and we read that worldwide AIDS deaths have already reached 500,000 — a tally that will grow to 8.2 million by the time France’s story concludes on the eve of 1996. Riled up and anxious activists have gathered at the LGBT Community Center on West 13th Street at a meeting of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP. Folks familiar to gay and lesbian New Yorkers 45 and older appear on screen. Author Liz Tracey, who went on to edit the newspaper LGNY, opens up the meeting. The scene shifts to a City Hall press conference, where activist and documentary filmmaker Phil Zwickler is pressing Mayor Ed Koch on his inadequate response to AIDS. Koch responds that Zwickler’s assertion is “a falsehood.” In the next scene, gay civil rights attorney David Barr is advising activists on what to expect if they are arrested in a planned City Hall demonstration. At the protest, television producer Ann Northrop is in front of cameras demanding that Koch “exert leadership.” Playwright and screenwriter Larry Kramer is — typically — more barbed: “We’re sending a message to public officials, to closeted public officials, that we won’t be shat on anymore.” We see Zwickler interviewing Jim Eigo, a playwright who is a member of ACT UP’s Treatment & Data Committee. By 1991, Zwickler would be dead from AIDS, but the others would remain active in the fight against the epidemic to this day. In short order, we see ACT UP members spontaneously leave the Community Center and march next door to St. Vincent’s Hospital to stage a kiss-in; we get a bird’s eye-view of the 1989 die-in at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which proved highly divisive within the gay community and drew a defiant response from Cardinal John O’Connor; and we follow activists, also in 1989, as they take over the offices of pharmaceutical giant Burroughs Wellcome to protest the prohibitive cost of AZT, then the only available treatment for AIDS. Relying almost completely on archival footage from 31 videographers — which allows a sweeping story to be told in remarkably cogent fashion — France, at the outset, seems to be aiming for a chronicle of ACT

SUNDANCE SELECTS

HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE

Activist Peter Staley in ACT UP’s early days and filmmaker David France today.

UP’s history. The group emerged out of the combustible passions and despair of that era, and the emotions at play often divided its thousands of members as starkly as it pitted them against the political and medical establishment. Trying to tell that story comprehensively, with due attention to many dozens of important activist leaders, is a tall order — and likely a thankless task. We soon meet a small group of “characters” whom we follow closely through France’s 109-minute film, and it becomes clear that this is their history, not the broader movement’s. “This is not the story of ACT UP,” the filmmaker told Gay City News. “I am hoping that mine is just one of many films that will tell what happened in the plague.” Most of the characters who dominate the film focused their activism on ACT UP’s Treatment & Data Committee and an independent group that broke off from ACT UP in 1992, the Treatment Action Group. “I am a science writer,” France explained. “This was a story I was eager to find out about — how we got these treatments.” Then, stating plainly his thesis about the crucial role treatment activists played in the stunning turnaround that came with protease inhibitors’ introduction in 1996, he added, “This is how we got Crixivan.” The filmmaker acknowledged that documentaries could focus on many other activists who made significant, life-saving contributions. “The bias of my own curiosity took me there,” he said of his film’s approach to AIDS history. If France’s film has a lead protagonist, it is Peter Staley. When we first see him in 1987, he is a strikingly handsome young man, almost angelic in his looks. We soon find out he has an uncanny gift for speaking publicly, spontaneously articulating perfectly formed, logically compelling sentences. He tells us that as a Wall Street bond trader, he was “deeply closeted” until he was handed an ACT UP flyer on his way to work shortly after being diagnosed with what was then called AIDS Related Complex. His mentor at work told him, “‘If you ask me, they all deserve to die because they took it up the butt.” Staley

“had to just stew about it for the rest of the day,” but apparently not much longer. “I got myself to the very next ACT UP meeting.” Despite the unflagging commitment Staley shows throughout the movie, there is also a sadness to him. “I’m going to die from this,” are the first words we hear from him. “This isn’t going to be cured for years and years.” We see Iris Long, who had a 20-year career as a research chemist when she became engaged with ACT UP, telling the group about a conference of the American Society of Microbiology she had just attended. According to Kramer, she “just showed up, this housewife who had been a scientist, and still was, and said, ‘You guys don’t know diddly about what this is. And, anybody who wants to learn about the screwed up system, how it works, how grants are made, how the science works, how everything works, how the NIH works, how the FDA works, how you can deal with all this enormous amount of material, I’ll teach you.’” France said that when Long first became active on AIDS several years before the launch of ACT UP, she had never knowingly met a homosexual. In one of the first scenes where we see Mark Harrington, he is running through several takes of a video in which he explains what ACT UP is. Appearing in a leather jacket and playfully riffing on whether or not he should, in the spot, be smoking a cigarette dangling from one side of his mouth, he could be making a screen test to co-star in a ‘50s movie alongside James Dean or Jean-Paul Belmondo. There’s no hint yet that he’s a Harvard graduate. Public relations executive Bob Rafsky tells us, “I came out at age 40. It was very bad timing to come out in the middle of an epidemic.” Rafsky is the character who conveys the film’s greatest pathos. We watch him celebrate his young daughter’s birthday alongside his ex-wife over several successive years. We also see candidate Bill Clinton indignantly respond to his heckling on the 1992 campaign trail — the moment when “I feel your pain” entered America’s political lexicon — and watch Rafsky’s angry, desperate, even vengeful eulogy for Mark Fisher, the author of the manifesto “Bury Me

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SURVIVORS, continued on p.11

| September 12, 2012

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SURVIVORS, from p.10

Furiously,” outside the Bush reelection committee’s Manhattan offices on the eve of the November election. Staley, Harrington, and Rafsky are seen throughout the film engaging in the sorts of mass civil disobedience associated in our collective memory with ACT UP. Staley is at Burroughs Wellcome. He is among the crew that drapes Senator Jesse Helms’ house with what the rabidly anti-gay North Carolina Republican describes, on the floor of Congress, as a “35-foot canvas, uh, condom.” And, at a protest at the National Institutes of Health headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, where Harrington is interviewed, we see Staley yanked by police from a roof awning over the building’s entrance. But just minutes later, Staley is addressing the 1990 International AIDS Conference in San Francisco, during which he ingeniously deflates the palpable tensions between frustrated activists and scientists chafing under the torrent of criticism they face. A transformational moment, it is among the film’s most stirring scenes. We also watch Staley, Harrington, Barr, Derek Link, and others meeting in small, smoke-filled rooms where they discuss the intricacies of treatment research and protocols. If they weren’t talking about how to save their own lives and those of countless others, we might be tempted to view them as geeks. The film recounts how the treatment activists developed a formal treatment research agenda, one that gover nment of ficials and other scientists slowly came around to. Phar maceutical researchers at Mer ck cr edit the assistance that activist Bill Bahlman gave them during their very earliest protease inhibitor development efforts. Staley, Harrington, and other treatment activists are increasingly seen elsewhere besides protest settings. Staley deftly handles a CNN “Crossfire” appearance where he sits between a hapless Tom Braden, “on the left,” and right-wing firebrand Pat Buchanan, who is surprisingly empathetic on treatment questions until he suggests that gay men who have sex are playing “Russian roulette.” At the 1992 International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, held after the Treatment Action Group (TAG) broke away from ACT UP, Harrington, now attired in a suit and identified as a Harvard graduate, and Gregg Gonsalves, who attended Tufts, are challenged on whether their increasingly insider activism is effective. “It’s silly to risk arrest and the hassles that are attendant upon it if you can get serious attention and negotiations going with other measures,” Harrington responds. About the ACT UP-TAG split, Northrop says, “There was a fear, I

think, that we were getting too close to the people in power, that we would compromise our own principles. And the people who were more interested in the social issues became uncomfortable with that.” Suspicion about the TAG crowd — who were a bit too easy to paint as welleducated white boys — became particularly pronounced when the treatment activists reversed their longstanding demand for accelerated drug approval; they did so in the wake of news out of the 1993 Berlin AIDS Conference that AZT was not delivering the benefits hoped for. While Staley, startlingly, calls AZT “a waste of money for the US taypayer… [that pointed up] naïveté on our part to think that the magic bullet was out there,” Bahlman is soon seen accusing TAG of having “secret” meetings at the FDA that would slow down access to one of the earliest protease inhibitors. France said that the ire aimed at TAG was “heartbreaking” for the treatment activists, who, he said, had concluded “they had allowed themselves to feed into a greed campaign by pharmaceutical companies, in whose interest it was to get speedy approval.” It was on this point that the filmmaker’s archival resources fall short. TAG’s rethinking of its relationship to the pharmaceutical industry is implied, but never explicitly presented in the film, a real loss to the historical record. The period after the Berlin AZT findings was perhaps the grimmest in the fight against AIDS. We see Barr saying, “Maybe that is our future that we’re gonna watch each other die.” Staley repeats his conviction that he will not survive the epidemic. Even before Berlin, at a 1992 protest in Washington, the despair is palpable. Against the backdrop of Stuart Bogie and Luke O’Malley’s elegiac musical score, angry activists pressed up against the White House gate are seen tossing ashes of their loved ones’ remains onto the president’s front lawn. France is certain that despite the dire mood and the factionalism with which AIDS activism was riven by 1993, Staley, Harrington, Bahlman, Link, Gonsalves, Eigo, and others would have kept up the fight even had we all not gotten “lucky,” as Barr put it, in 1996. Thank God we never had to answer that question. But at the movie’s conclusion, when we finally meet all of the activists as they are today, we can see that the aching grief over all who were lost before we got lucky is, as France put it, “not even that far from the surface.” ACT UP, TAG, and the gay and lesbian community as a whole have much to be proud of — and that is certainly reflected in the activists’ closing comments — but each also clearly struggles with Staley’s haunting acknowledgement that “like any war, you wonder why you came home.”

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

LEGAL

Court Nixes 2001 Adult Zoning Regs Manhattan judge says Giuliani’s final swipe violates First Amendment BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD

GAY CITY NEWS

Manhattan Supreme Court judge has found that the 2001 amendments to New York City’s zoning law regarding adult businesses violate the First Amendment rights of those enterprises. Changing course from some prior rulings he issued in the case, Justice Louis B. York found that the city failed to show that the additional restrictions enacted in 2001 to supplement those put in place in 1995 were supported by evidence showing they were substantially related to advancing any important city policy. York therefore struck them down as unjustified content-based restrictions on constitutionally protected speech. The City Council commissioned a study several decades ago about the effects of adult businesses on the communities in which they were located. That study, which purported to show that such businesses attract crime, lower property values, and expose minors to sexually explicit images (mainly through their outdoor signs), was intended to provide support for proposed zoning restrictions that would sharply reduce the geographical area in which adult businesses could operate. The businesses would basically be excluded from residential and business districts with high pedestrian traffic and become much less visible in New York’s streetscape. Critics of the law complained at the time that the new regulations would confine adult businesses to relatively undeveloped or industrial areas on the edges of the outer boroughs. According to US Supreme Court precedents, zoning laws excluding adult businesses are content-based regulations of speech that can only be justified if serious “secondary effects” on the community are documented. Based on the results of the study, the Council, at the strong urging of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, passed the 1995 amendments to the city’s zoning law, which, according to York’s opinion, “caused the dispersal and elimination of many adult establishments by requiring them to be 500 feet from each other, residences, houses of worship, and schools.” The 1995 provisions also required that if a business wanted to provide sexually-related goods and services and remain in an area where adult businesses were otherwise excluded, it would have to devote “a substantial portion” of the establishment to “non-adult uses.” The city adopted an administrative

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2001, the year he successfully pressed for additional zoning restrictions on adult businesses.

regulation –– referred to as the 60-40 rule –– requiring that “less than 40 percent of the entity’s business could be devoted to adult activities.” Many adult businesses restructured their premises and diversified their stock and services to avoid being classified as an adult business so they could continue operating in residential and business districts. After sending inspectors to monitor compliance, the city determined based on their reports that there were many cases of “sham compliance.” The establishments were in literal compliance with the 60-40 rule, but, according to the city, they were still predominantly dealing in adult goods and services. The city moved to shut down the alleged “sham” establishments, and several lawsuits resulted. Concerned that stringent enforcement of the 60-40 ruled might be interpreted by courts as beyond the authorization of the 1995 amendments, the City Council approved additional amendments in 2001, which are the subject of York’s new ruling. The 2001 Council action imposed requirements intended to essentially foreclose exceptions and make it exceedingly difficult for any establishment to sell adult goods or services in the areas covered by the adultuses zoning ordinance. Rather than clarify the legal status of the zoning efforts, however, the 2001 amendments merely spawned additional litigation. York had previously upheld the amendments, finding they could meet a “rational basis” constitutional standard –– the plaintiffs could not show that the city had no rational reason for the statutory amendments. Higher courts, however, disagreed, concluding that they represented content-based regulation of free speech activity and so must be subject to the more demanding heightened scrutiny constitutional review that free

speech is accorded. The cases were sent back to York for a new look under this more searching standard. Among the evidence York reviewed was testimony from experts retained by the businesses documenting the lack of secondary effects attributable to their operation. One study, conducted by Dr. Bryant Paul of Indiana University, surveyed neighborhood opinion, and found that according to residents living near 60-40 businesses, “the overall quality of life in the 60-40 club’s areas was better, the 60-40 neighborhoods were safer, the 60-40 neighborhoods were a more preferable place to live, and the 60-40 neighborhoods were a preferred shopping area.” Another expert cited by York, Dr. Daniel Lenz of the University of California at Santa Barbara, testified that “60-40 clubs are not associated with negative secondary crime effects, 60-40 clubs were not ‘hot spots’ for crime in their neighborhoods, crimes did not increase with the opening of a 60-40 club, and crimes did not decrease after the closing of a 60-40 club.” Yet another expert looking at property values concluded that “proximity to a 60-40 club does not result in a diminution in value.” In fact, evidence suggested that property values went up near 60-40 clubs! York also found that the original 1995 law had achieved its objective of reducing the number of adult establishments in the city and breaking up then-existing concentrations of such clubs in particular neighborhoods, such as Times Square and Chelsea. The city presented an “expert witness” as well, but York found that he was not credible and gave no weight to his testimony, because his only study involved

a survey of real estate brokers that drew a pitifully small response. His opinions, the judge found, lacked any “real world corroboration.” Having found that the 1995 zoning ordinance provisions had effectively led to a reduction in number and the dispersion of adult businesses and that the businesses involved in this lawsuit had reconfigured to come within the original 60-40 requirements, York concluded the city could not justify the 2001 amendments. There was no study showing that these allegedly “sham” 60-40 clubs had generated the kind of secondary effects that are necessary to justify a zoning exclusion in light of First Amendment free speech protection against contentbased regulation. York noted that the original 1995 regulations gave the city the ability to establish that a business was acting in sham compliance so long as it could demonstrate the negative secondary effects documented in the original City Council study. However, the judge wrote that he “cannot understand how an 18-year -old study of the negative effects of the 100 percent entities can be applied to the current 60-40 entities without determining the actual negative secondary effect of these institutions today.” York issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of the 2001 provisions. Reporting on the decision on August 31, the New York Law Journal commented that it would have no immediate practical effect, “because the 2001 law that it overturned was not enforced while lawsuits challenging its constitutionality winded through the courts.” There is irony in this –– because the 60-40 clubs were able to remain open for many years, their lawyers have the opportunity to commission additional studies to demonstrate the lack of adverse secondary effects from their operation. The city is expected to appeal York’s ruling. Law Department spokesperson Robin Binder told the Law Journal, “We believe the court was right the first time when it ruled that 60-40 establishments have a predominant sexual focus,” referring to York’s earlier rulings in this case. “The city’s ability to regulate adult establishments is critical to preserving neighborhood quality of life.” The Law Department has a reflexive reaction against any ruling it loses, but perhaps it would be wise for it to commission a new study to determine if the 60-40 business do in fact create negative secondary effects before going back to court.

| September 12, 2012

LEGAL

Inmate Gender Reassignment Surgery Ordered In first ruling of kind, Massachusetts corrections officials under US court order BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD

or the first time, a federal court has ordered a state prison system to provide gender reassignment surgery for a transgender inmate. Chief Judge Mark Wolf of the US District Court for Massachusetts issued a September 4 order directing the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to “take forthwith all of the actions reasonably necessary to provide [Michelle] Kosilek sex reassignment surgery as promptly as possible.” Wolf found that denial of the surgery violated Kosilek’s right to be free of “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. “Kosilek is serving a life sentence, without possibility of parole, for murdering his wife,” wrote Wolf. “Kosilek suffers from a gender identity disorder, which is recognized as a major mental illness by the medical community and by the courts. Kosilek is, therefore, a transsexual –– a man who truly believes that he is a female cruelly trapped in a male body. This belief has caused Kosilek to suffer intense mental anguish. This anguish has caused Kosilek to attempt to castrate himself and to attempt twice to kill himself while incarcerated, once while he was taking the antidepressant Prozac.” The Supreme Court has ruled that the Eighth Amendment requires that prison authorities not exhibit “deliberate indifference” to inmates’ serious medical conditions and that they provide adequate care as defined by accepted professional standards. Some cases of gender identity disorder can be adequately treated through psychological counseling, while others require hormone therapy in support of body modifications to conform to an individual’s gender identity. “There are, however, some cases in which sex reassignment surgery is medically necessary and appropriate,” wrote Wolf, observing that in this case the Massachusetts DOC medical staff agrees that Kosilek needs this treatment. According to Wolf’s opinion, a series of DOC commissioners stubbornly resisted medical recommendations, as they had done regarding hormone therapy in this and other cases. “Such cases have recently become more common in Massachusetts because the DOC has repeatedly denied transsexual prisoners prescribed treatment for reasons that the courts have found to be improper,” Wolf wrote. Among the ploys used to avoid pro-

viding gender reassignment surgery, past DOC commissioners have discharged doctors who prescribed it and hired new doctors categorically opposed to it. Commissioners have also argued that prison security concerns justified refusal to provide hormone therapy –– including at an earlier stage of Kosilek’s lawsuit –– but Wolf found the evidence belies that argument. After Wolf ordered that Kosilek be given hormone therapy and allowed to adopt feminine dress and grooming, she continued to live unmolested, despite continuing to be detained in an all-male prison. Wolf dismissed DOC’s argument that Kosilek might seek to escape while being transported to a hospital for the surgery or during the hospital stay. Instead, the judge focused on what appears to be the true motivation for the stonewalling –– fear of political and media criticism, which has already greeted this case (since the ruling, from US Senator Scott Brown and his Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren). Only valid law enforcement concerns can be used to deny treatment; Wolf rejected concern over public relations as an unconstitutional basis for withholding needed medical care. Questions of expense are also out of bounds, the court found. “A prison official acts with deliberate indifference and violates the Eighth Amendment if, knowing of a real risk of serious harm, she denies adequate treatment for a serious medical need for a reason that is not rooted in the duties to manage a prison safely and to provide the basic necessities of life in a civilized society for the prisoners in her custody,” Wolf wrote. This decision is the first to order gender reassignment surgery for a prisoner, but it is not without supporting precedent. In 2011, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found an Eighth Amendment violation in a Wisconsin statute prohibiting the expenditure of state funds for any hormone therapy or reassignment surgery for transgender inmates. In that case, however, the inmate who sued sought only hormone therapy. Wolf also cited a recent decision by the US Tax Court, which reversed longstanding policy of the Internal Revenue Service and allowed a transgender taxpayer to deduct sex reassignment expenses as legitimate medical expenses. Several federal courts, including some courts of appeal, have ruled that gender identity disorder is a serious medical condition, and several have upheld hormone therapy orders. Wolf’s ruling logically follows from those precedents.

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September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR PUBLISHER JENNIFER GOODSTEIN

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Pandering in the Massachusetts Senate Race

TROY MASTERS

troy@gaycitynews.com EDITOR IN-CHIEF & CO-FOUNDER

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

PAUL SCHINDLER

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As Arthur S. Leonard reports on page 13, the chief judge of the US District Court for Massachusetts last week ordered that the prison system in that state provide a transgender inmate with gender reassignment surgery. Michelle Kosilek is serving a life sentence, without possibility of parole, in the murder of the woman she married while living as a man. Noting that Kosilek has attempted both suicide and self-castration, the judge found that medical professionals working in the prison system consider the surgery medically necessary. One of the most hotly contested US Senate races in the nation is underway in Massachusetts, and both candidates quickly criticized the judge’s ruling. Republican incumbent Scott Brown, who is trying to trim his conservative sails to match the state’s liberal electorate, especially with President Barack Obama on the ballot, nevertheless wasted no time in terming the decision “an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dol-

lars.” His challenger, Elizabeth Warren, is a strong progressive and a Harvard law professor as well, so her statement was more temperate, even if its thrust paralleled that of Brown’s. “I have to say, I don’t think it’s a good use of taxpayer dollars,” she told a local radio station. Both statements were unfortunate, pandering not only to society’s contempt for violent offenders but more significantly to its tendency to view transgender health issues as frivolous. A court ruling in favor of a convicted murderer, of course, is not an opportune moment for an LGBT rights advance. But important principles are at stake here that transcend the specifics of this case. Given the disinclination in the Republican Party these days to engaging in nuanced discussion of any issue on which there is a quick crowd-pleasing answer, Brown’s response is not altogether surprising. It is more disappointing that Warren, whose work in the past few years on financial reform issues in Washington has demonstrated a laudable respect for intelligent analysis

and humane values, felt the need for a craven response. Our society imprisons offenders who break the law and threaten the public welfare. There is a broad consensus around stiff penalties when those offenses involve violence, severe injury, and death. Even regarding the death penalty, which most civilized nations reject, Americans have historically shown support, even if faith in that ultimate remedy has declined in recent years. Nobody, however, seriously argues that once imprisoned, inmates should not have their health needs attended to. An inmate with cancer would not be denied chemotherapy, no matter how expensive. Even in cases of non-life-threatening ailments –– broken bones, serious sprains, and the like –– we would not expect prisoners to spend the rest of their lives with deformities. Nor would anyone demand that a prisoner with bipolar disorder or another mental illness that is treatable live with the psychological pain it entails. The Supreme Court has been quite clear that the Eighth

with each worker only utilizing about half of their nine days of paid sick time. The authors also cite statistics for San Francisco showing a drop in workers per establishment at quick service restaurants since a paid sick leave ordinance went into effect there. Looking at the overall number of workers in all restaurants, San Francisco has actually enjoyed greater growth (4.8 percent) than surrounding counties (0.7 percent) since the law was passed. As they do for nearly every piece of legislation aimed at improving the lives of low-wage workers, business interests are sounding alarm bells that simply don’t ring true. It is time for Speaker Quinn to stop getting her “facts” from people known to cry wolf, and bring paid sick days legislation to the floor for a vote. Apurva Mehrotra Community Service Society Manhattan

September 4, 2012 To the Editor: As a queer woman of color who has waited tables in New York City restaurants since 2009, it was disheartening to read someone else claim that paid sick days are bad for me. Like most restaurant workers, I’ve never had paid sick days, and this has forced me to go to work while injured and sick because I couldn't afford to take time off. I work hard, but it's barely enough to even cover the bills, and missing a day could mean being late on rent. At a previous job, I had to take a few days off to care for family, but when I came back for my next shift, I found out I had been fired. If I had had sick days, I would have been able to take the time off to help family get better without losing my job or worrying about

Amendment’s bar on cruel and unusual punishment requires that prisons not show “deliberate indifference” to serious medical conditions suffered by inmates. There is irony here. A society that does not yet clearly have an obligation to provide health care to those outside of prison has one to those behind bars. That is a burden that society accepts when it takes away a person’s freedom, no matter how justified the choice of incarceration is. In the end, this debate is not about convicted killers getting expensive medical care. Or about them getting treatment they would not be owed if they had never committed their crime. Instead, it is about whether we, as a society, take seriously the health needs of our transgender fellow citizens. When Scott Brown uses the word “outrageous,” he is talking much more about society paying for gender reassignment surgery than he is about it spending money on care for a killer. We’ve never heard a peep from him about other expensive medical treatments for violent offenders, even though, as with them, Kosilek’s care is deemed medically necessary. This is a point we wish Warren understood and had the courage to articulate. We hope that conversations with experts in gender identity health issues can help bring her around.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SICK LEAVE DEBATE CONTINUES September 5, 2012 To the Editor: Jon Gilbert and Nancy Ploeger’s opposition to paid sick days legislation (“Paid Sick Days Proposal Risks Jobs, Bad for Everyone,” Aug. 29-Sep. 11) relies on exaggerated claims and incomplete facts to argue it will be bad for businesses. The authors cite a business owner with 21 employees who would face an additional $33,000 annual payroll cost under the law. The only way this number could be accurate is by assuming that all 21 employees use all nine of their sick days and that each employee makes $ 45,000-$50,000 annually. A more honest additional cost estimate would assume workers making a much lower wage, as these are the workers least likely to currently have paid sick days,

making rent. The City Council’s paid sick days bill is not just well intentioned. For over a million NYC workers, it is an urgent necessity. Ai Elo Brooklyn The writer is a New York City restaurant worker and a member of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York.

POLITICAL CONNECTIONS NOT ENOUGH IN STATE SENATE RACE August 29, 2012 To the Editor: Regardless of how well placed or connected Brad Hoylman is, I think it is a sad

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LETTERS, continued on p.18

| September 12, 2012

PERSPECTIVE

The New Democrats? BY KELLY JEAN COGSWELL I wasn't the only one gasping in astonishment last week at how visible queers were at the Democratic Convention. They broke ground by including a progay plank in their platform openly supporting same-sex marriage. Straights like Rahm Emanuel, Obama's first chief of staff, brought us up, acknowledging Obama's work to allow queers to serve openly in the military. Tammy Baldwin, the out dyke US representative, spoke to the crowd. So did Jared Polis, the out gay congressman from Colorado who didn't just present gayness in the flesh, but used the words, declaring, "My greatgrandparents were immigrants. I am Jewish. I am gay." In contract, the Republican National Convention officially invited the gay Log Cabin Republicans to attend for the first time, but the GOP had no openly gay speakers, and most importantly, its platform was "more aggressive in its opposition to women's reproductive rights and to gay rights than any in memory" according to a New York Times editorial. Only four years ago, the Obama strategy was only minimally better than the

Republican one. We were kept offstage at all costs, seen as a political, though not financial, liability. Throughout his run, Obama avoided gay photo ops and any promises he made were to our trusty leaders behind closed doors. At the same time, he campaigned openly with some of the same gay-hating preachers as Bush. Adding insult to injury, he asked Rick Warren, architect of some of the most vicious and deadly gay-hating campaigns in Africa, to bless his administration. I guess it didn't take, that invocation. Or maybe God has switched sides. Eventually, we got more than a thank you for our checks. The last few years have seen the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Hillary's hugely important speech on the international stage declaring gay rights are human rights, and Obama's own declaration that LGBT people might just deserve equality in America, too, in particular when it comes to same-sex marriage. We're told that this was the plan the whole time. Deal with the economic crisis, pass health care reform, and then when the most dire things were out of the way, move on to The Gays. Yeah, maybe that was the plan. Or maybe Obama only kept his promises

because for once we held the Democrats accountable. Starting with Warren's appearance at the inauguration, when we squealed like hell. We also ranted about betrayal when Obama's Justice Department defended some of the US's anti-gay policies in court. We demonstrated, filed our own lawsuits, threatened to keep our money in our pockets, sometimes sidelined our own Democrat-ass-kissing national organizations, to declare that if they didn't do better, they'd have to win 2012 without our big gay dollars and our big gay votes. And it paid off. Now, in the post-Convention excitement at growing acceptance and visibility, it's essential to keep in mind that legal rights and cultural change do not emerge only from the audacity of hope, or as gifts from our benign leaders. If we just sit around thinking nice thoughts and cheerleading an ostensibly supportive party, not only will we not make more progress, but the little we've gained will be rolled back, quicker than you can exclaim, "Goddamn." Change is the result of work. A ton of it. Using as many strategies as possible. Street activism and demos. Fat donations. Letters, emails, sit-ins, measured

Todd Akin Inspires Perp Power Movement BY SUSIE DAY Snidelines News/ Kansas City, MO — By now it is well known that Missouri Representative Todd Akin explained his opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape, by saying that women who experience “a legitimate rape” can avoid pregnancy by telling their bodies to “shut that whole thing down.” It is also well known that a firestorm of protest ensued. Less known, however, is the fact that, under the media radar, Mr. Akin’s observation is encouraging a growing number of malcontents to come out of the closet and claim their rights as “legitimate” predators. “I’d just like to thank Mr. Todd Akin for saying there is such a thing as legitimate rape,” said Dick Jackwad, currently serving a 32-year sentence for “illegitimate” sexual assault. Mr. Jackwad described how, after years of “uppity” women and girls calling him a monster, it was empowering to be given per-

mission by a “real Congressman” to see himself as “legit,” and not one of “those Nelly wannabes” who merely drug or verbally coerce their targets. It was because of this newly discovered “predator pride” that Mr. Jackwad founded the Dick Jackwad Defense and Liberation Committee to Free Dick Jackwad. “Every day, thousands of men who do what I’ve done are walking around free,” he said. “They never even get indicted. So who’s the real victim here? Oh Lord, Lord, why hast you forgot me?” Social analysts note a certain religious fervor in much of the selfavowed “Perp Rights” movement, saying it is no accident that Representative Akin is a religious conservative with Tea Party support. “I believe it was God himself that put Todd Akin on the House Science Committee,” said Kansas City housewife Patty O’Door. Mrs. O’Door, 41 and the mother of seven, is also a member

of the newly formed support group Adult Parents of Legitimately Abused Children (APLAC). She continued, “Mr. Akin’s legitimizing words reflect our deep scientific belief that God is a real man’s man, not a girlie-man. He is a highly spiritual thug. So show me where in the Bible it says that women and children are human beings with the right to stand up for themselves. Same for fruits.” Although Mr. Akin has publicly retracted his statement, the undercurrent of support for it remains strong. In fact, it is because of Todd Akin — whom they call “The Great Legitimator” — that many predators say they have found the courage to fight negative stereotypes embedded in such words as “rapist,” “murderer,” and “psychopath.” They explain that, by carrying out what the liberal elite would call crimes, they are righteously upholding over 5,000 years of patriarchal monotheism. “Are you telling me I don’t have the

editorials, furious diatribes. Also important are movies, art, and books that in radical acts of imagination help us see more clearly the world around us –– and imagine a whole new one. Artists can be like scientists, exploring the universe of identity in a controlled environment, sharing their results. LGBT activists can't let up now. Just look at the erosion of pro-choice gains. Most states have implemented so many restrictions on abortion, it's all but illegal. And in terms of race, the Jim Crow laws may have been pulled from the books years ago, but New Racists are back at it, most notably passing laws designed to keep minorities and poor people from voting. Their language and rhetoric are full of hate. And individuals that five or ten years ago may have been indifferent to the subject when Collin Powell was secretary of state and Condi Rice was advising President George W. Bush, now hold strong and repellent views that amount to Black is Bad. And so are independent women. It doesn't take much to shift the tenor of a party. A whole nation can suddenly swing to the right. Former allies can jump ship. Complacency will kill us. So can refusing to see ourselves as part of the larger American project of liberty and justice for all. Queers of color, immigrant queers, those of us with tits, and poor queers are already more embattled than ever. Hate's contagious. Everybody will pay if we don't push forward together.

legitimate right to possess my own assault rifle?” asked Abraham Isaacson, outraged member of the Staten Island, New York chapter of APLAC. “You telling me I don’t have the right to take my God-given son out in the backyard and use this legal weapon to legitimately blow his head off? Well, let me tell you something: I get to do anything God tells me to do. You slut.” So far, God has not responded to repeated requests for comment, except to confirm that this reporter is, in fact, a slut.

Romney Tries Again with African Americans New Orleans — In the past, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has traded campaign barbs with incumbent President Barack Obama about who has destroyed more jobs for US workers by “outsourcing,” or moving American companies overseas. Today, however, Mr. Romney changed his tack, saying that outsourcing is “America’s best way to preserve democracy,” and pledged that, if elected, he would outsource to a developing country his own job as commander-in-chief. Possibly to counter a recent NBC/ Wall Street

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SUSIE DAY, continued on p.34

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

REMEMBRANCE

Lew Todd Is Dead at 82 Fierce activist with diplomatic touch steered careful course toward gay advances BY NATHAN RILEY

COURTESY: STEVE-SHLOMO ASHKINAZY

he gay rights movement changed history, and it changed Lew Todd from a private person into a public servant who helped integrate LGBT New Yorkers into the city’s political life as well as the inner workings of its government. Todd, decisive, pragmatic, and amiable, left his mark on New York City, and when he died on September 3 at 82 after an extended hospitalization, he left behind friends from all walks of life. In addition to gay New Yorkers who will miss him, there are undoubtedly fellow shipmates from his Korean War service in the Navy and members of the Fire Department, where he had administrative responsibilities for the last ten years of his work life, who fondly recall the deep impression he left on them. Todd was a small businessman approaching middle age when Stonewall mobilized the gay community. Still, he threw himself into the flurry of largely youthful and ebullient energy that the 1969 Christopher Street riots spawned.

Lew Todd as a sailor during the Korean War and later in life.

Activists challenged the general public while scrambling to organize their fellow gays. Ending shame and reflexive timidity was a recurring preoccupation of the lengthy meetings the fledgling Gay Activ-

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ists Alliance (GAA) held in the Firehouse on Wooster Street in Soho. Politics galvanized pride. GAA was perhaps most famous for its zaps, unexpectedly sudden and militant demonstrations that took direct aim at the sources of pervasive anti-gay policies that persisted well into the 1970s. One zap attacked the Taxi and Limousine Commission for its requirement that any gay applicant for a hack license furnish a psychiatrist’s note attesting to their mental stability. Todd jumped into the gay liberation movement with both feet. The owner of a Mr. Softee ice cream route, he sold his business to help pay for his activist pursuits. Todd was a pragmatist, and funneled his energies into organizing gays around the country. He and Morty Manford, a lawyer and gay activist whose life was cut short by AIDS, took to the road over a six-month period to encourage new GAA chapters across the US. Hitting gay bars at peak hour on Wednesday nights, they would ask the bartender to turn off the music so they could explain the organization to patrons. The new chapter would then meet on Friday or Saturday evening to elect officers. At each venue, they would leave copies of “20 Questions about Homosexuality: A Political Primer,” the foundational GAA pamphlet, and hope for the best. At the Firehouse, Todd and Manford’s efforts were dubbed the Johnny Appleseed Project. At home in New York, Todd had a knack for mentoring. Allen Roskoff, a lifelong activist who now heads the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, was a close friend who learned lobbying and public relations skills from him. They

put their know-how to practical use. One evening, Todd, Roskoff, and a few friends visited the Rainbow Room, a swank nightclub at the top of Rockefeller Center, and started dancing together. The venue flunked that test. Earl Wilson, a gossip columnist for the thenliberal New York Post, was on hand to record their expulsion. Steve-Shlomo Ashkinazy, one of Todd’s lovers and a lifelong friend and fellow activist, said the zap provided evidence of the city’s pervasive public accommodations discrimination and strengthened the argument for a local gay rights law. Gay marriage was a demand in those early glory days of activism, as was the call for an end to mob control of gay bars. In 1973, Todd, Ashkinazy, and others invested in the Ballroom, a restaurant and nightclub what would serve a homosexual clientele on West Broadway in Soho. The group chose the location for the low rents then available in the neighborhood, but knew they were running up against the State Liquor Authority’s regulation against serving homosexuals in bars. Todd and his partners never went to court, instead simply filing an application with the SLA, which folded rather than fight the issue. The Ballroom became the city’s first club operated by and for gays. A practical approach toward government became a Lew Todd trademark. The Ballroom was widely praised for its food, and Todd and Ashkinazy soon became friends with Joe Papp, the founder of the Public Theater. When Papp’s son Anthony, who also died young of AIDS, came out, Joe asked them to offer him a job and mentor him. The elder Papp, in turn, gave the Ballroom the catering contract for the Public, which later led to a similar deal with the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Ballroom became fundraising central for the movement — at a time before finding money to support political and social causes became the professionalized pursuit it is today. For many groups, fundraising had largely been a matter of passing the hat, so the Ballroom parties represented a big step forward; countless groups reached out to Todd for help in staging benefits. Todd’s commitment to providing space for gay community fundraising continued when he and others opened Chez Stadium on Greenwich Avenue. After Ed Koch was elected mayor in 1977, he quickly became a lighting rod for criticism within the gay community. Though the former silk stocking district

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TODD, continued on p.34

| September 12, 2012

“Brad is the kind of progressive reformer our City needs in Albany. He has a proven record on the issues that matter most.” -CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER CHRISTINE QUINN

“I am proud and excited to endorse Brad Hoylman For State Senate. He shares my progessive values and commitment to reform, and I know he will continue to champion so many of the causes that I have fought for throughout my career.”

“Brad Hoylman has a proven track record of advocacy for the residents of the West Side and Lower Manhattan.”

NATOR TO TOM M DU D ANE SENATOR DUANE

-CONGRESSMAN JERRY NADLER

“Brad has a proven track record of defending our neighborhood and has been at the forefront of key preservation efforts.”

Also endorsed by:

-ASSEMBLYMEMBER DEBORAH GLICK

“Brad brings all the qualities needed to this senate district. He’s smart, progressive, a consensus builder, and a leader.” -ASSEMBLYMEMBER DICK GOTTFRIED

VOTE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY THIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH VISIT WWW.BRADHOYLMAN.COM OR CALL 212.206.0033

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

POLITICS

Maryland Marriage Equality Defenders Head to NYC September 13 fundraiser features Governor Martin O’Malley, Council Speaker Christine Quinn BY PAUL SCHINDLER

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

n March, Maryland joined Washington State as one of two states to enact marriage equality in 2012 through the legislative process. In response to the success of anti-gay forces in mobilizing opposition and forcing referendums in both states, voters must now approve the new marriage laws at the ballot box in November. On September 13, Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley, who signed the Maryland law, will headline a fundraiser in Manhattan on behalf of Marylanders for Marriage Equality. Josh Levin, the group’s campaign manager, explained the importance of New Yorkers stepping up to support progress on civil marriage rights in Maryland and elsewhere. “We all know how big a deal it was that New York –– the nation’s financial and cultural capital –– won marriage equality last year,” he told Gay City News in an email. “Now, it’s Maryland’s turn. A win here would be a giant leap forward, a major expansion of recent gains, given that Maryland would be the first state below the Mason-Dixon line to have marriage equality. And let’s not forget the obvious: a successful public vote on marriage would be a severe blow to our opponents nationwide.” New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn will join O’Malley in addressing the fundraiser’s guests. Opponents of the new law garnered more than the 56,000-signature hurdle to put it on the November ballot for voter approval. Earlier this year, the Baltimore Sun reported that the Maryland Marriage Alliance, made up primarily of African-American religious leaders — many of them affiliated with mega-churches in Prince George’s County, which borders Washington, DC — said it would be out front in pushing the referendum effort. That alliance is backed by the state’s Catholic Conference and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a right-wing group that fights gay marriage and other same-sex partnership advances nationwide. A Hart Research Association poll taken in late July showed that the new law has the support of 54 percent of voters versus 40 percent who plan to vote against it. Four months earlier, the margin for marriage equality was 51-43. Support for the law among African-Americans, who make up nearly a third of Maryland residents, has

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley headlines a fundraiser to protect his state’s new marriage equality law in Manhattan on September 13.

grown from 40 to 44 percent, while opposition declined from 49 to 45. Since May, both the NAACP and President Barack Obama have endorsed marriage equality. Political professionals who contest referendum questions agree that the specific language printed on the ballot can be critical to the outcome. When the Maryland ballot language was released last month, advocates indicated they were satisfied, while those pushing to repeal the law voiced unhappiness. The ballot question, which voters must either approve or reject, will read: • Civil Marriage Protection Act (Ch. 2 of the 2012 Legis-

lative Session): Establishes that Maryland’s civil marriage laws allow gay and lesbian couples to obtain a civil marriage license, provided they are not otherwise prohibited from marrying; protects clergy from having to perform any particular marriage ceremony in violation of their religious beliefs; affirms that each religious faith has exclusive control over its own theological doctrine regarding who may marry within that faith; and provides that religious organizations and certain related entities are not required to provide goods, services, or benefits to an individual related to the celebration or promotion of marriage in violation of their religious beliefs. Other famous names included on the September 13 fundraiser invitation include Barbara Bush, the former president’s daughter; hip hop mogul Russell Simmons; filmmaker John Waters, most of whose work has involved stories about his native Baltimore; professional hockey player Sean Avery, who spent the past four seasons with the New York Rangers; Bravo executive Andy Cohen; and actors and performers Sandra Bernhard, Julianna Margulies, Julianne Moore, Edward Norton, and Sarah Jessica Parker. The event takes place at Jimmy at the Top of the James Hotel, 15 Thompson Street, between Canal and Grand Streets, 6-8 p.m. Tickets begin at $250 at https://secure. mdfme.org/nyc or Amie@akmdevelopment.com. In addition to Maryland and Washington State, marriage equality is also on the November ballot in Maine, where LGBT advocates are seeking to overturn a 2009 referendum that repealed the gay marriage law enacted there earlier that year, and Minnesota, where anti-gay groups are looking to impose a state constitutional ban on marriage by same-sex couples.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 䉴

LETTERS, from p.14

state of affairs that a person connected with big real estate inter ests will be the one to replace Tom Duane (“Hoylman Longest on Specifics, Repeatedly a Target in Debate With Broad Agreement,” by Duncan Osborne, Aug. 29-Sep. 11). Most of us here in Manhattan –– most likely a surprise to you and your high living associates –– struggle to hold on to a place to live (whether we're straight or gay). People attending to the real estate interests of New York University will not be representing me in Albany. Just look at the pile of money this guy has in his pot compared to the other two candidates. With this election, it looks like the moral base that Duane represented will be lowered. Sad, but this definitely fits 2012 American politics. William Stribling

PRESERVING GAY HISTORY

PETE FISHER’S LEGACY

August 29, 2012 To the Editor: I definitely agree that gay history and its legacy should be preserved, recognized, and institutionalized (“Spring Street Gay History Site Denied Landmark Status,” by Duncan Osborne, Aug. 29-Sep. 11). I signed the petition to have the Stonewall Inn bar on Christopher Street become a state and federal landmark. At 71 and as one of the oldest survivors of the 1969 Stonewall raid, I am compelled to be a component in the preservation and legacy of the gay rights movement. Having written one book that includes the Gay Straight Alliance and the Stonewall Democrats of New York, of which I am a member, I am currently writing another that will include all known LGBT groups. Scott G. Brown

August 24, 2012 To the Editor: I am sorry I did not know Pete Fisher, but that is happily because our cause grew each year from its start with the early Mattachine Society in 1950 (“Pete Fisher, Pioneering Author of ‘The Gay Mystique,’ Dead at 68,” by Andy Humm, Aug. 15-28). Now there is so much going on, we are missing many people and events we would like to know and thus miss many who would have made our personal life better as they made and are making our life as a movement and community better. Billy Glover WRITE US! Send letters to the editor, of 250 words or less, to editor@gaycitynews.com or to 515 Canal St., Suite 1C, New York, NY 10013. We reserve the right to edit letters for space or legal considerations.

| September 12, 2012

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

FILM

Disappearing/Reappearing Act A teenager hiding out finds succor from a gay buddy and his clique BY GARY M. KRAMER dapting his bestselling young adult novel, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” writer/ director Stephen Chbosky has crafted a beautiful, sensitive, and often heartbreaking film. What makes this impressive coming-of-age drama resonate — for viewers of any age — is that it gets teenage life right. More than deftly capturing the dynamics of cliques and bullies and the way kids act around parents and teachers, Chbosky accurately presents the way teens, who overdramatize their every emotion, speak. The authorturned-filmmaker also depicts poignantly and without judgment how teens experiment with drinking and drugs, as well as romantic and sexual desires.

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER Directed by Stephen Chbosky Summit Entertainment Opens Sep. 21 Landmark Sunshine Cinema 143 E. Houston St., btwn. First & Second Aves. landmarktheatres.com AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 1998 Broadway at W. 66th St. amctheatres.com Opens citywide Sep. 28

SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT

As Patrick, Ezra Miller portrays a gay high school senior who camps it up in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and is predisposed to bring cheer to those around him.

Charlie (Logan Lerman) is about to enter his first day of high school — 1,385 days to graduation, he counts. He has had a troubled summer, and while he hopes to have something of a fresh start in school, he is inclined to stay as invisible as possible. As such, he does not raise his hand in his English teacher’s (Paul Rudd) class even though he knows the answers. And while Charlie would prefer not to eat alone in the cafeteria, he

does because he does not have any real friends. Charlie’s loneliness changes, however, when he meets Patrick (Ezra Miller), an outspoken senior taking freshman woodshop. Patrick, who is gay and having a secret relationship with football player Brad (Johnny Simmons), takes Charlie under his wing. He introduces Charlie to his stepsister Sam (Emma Watson) and other members of their clique, affectionately dubbed “the island of misfit toys.” Soon, Charlie is going to midnight shows of “Rocky Horror,” and each character experiences a personal, often romantic, crisis that tests them and their friendships. While “Perks” is Charlie’s story, out actor Miller gets a juicy supporting role. Having given a breakthrough performance in “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” Miller shines in “Wallflower.” He camps it up as Dr. Frank-NFurter in the “Rocky Horror” scenes, and adroitly conveys Patrick’s painful romantic setbacks. The ingratiating actor spoke to Gay City News about being queer, playing gay, and the perks of not being a wallflower. GARY M. KRAMER: You play a gay teen in “Wallflower,” and you have played a queer teen before, in “Every Day.” You also just came out publicly. Do you feel a resonance with taking roles like Patrick? EZRA MILLER: I don’t think there is any role like Pat-

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WALLFLOWER, continued on p.33

| September 12, 2012

THEATER

Mirth After Meth Some subjects are simply too taboo for comedy –– is crystal one? BY DAVID KENNERLEY f you think “Methtacular!,” the bio-play by Steven Strafford, might be some straggler from the New York Fringe Festival, you’re not far of f. Earlier this year, the piece was a hit at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, where it won honors including Outstanding Solo Performance.

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METHTACULAR! Playroom Theater 151 W. 46th St., eighth fl. Through Sep. 23 Thu.-Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sun. at 5 p.m. $18 at kefproductions.com Or 866-811-4111

But when I read the promotional blurb — a “hilarious and harrowing” account of crystal methamphetamine addiction, complete with catchy tunes — I cringed. The party-and-play drug, affectionately known as “Tina” or “T” in some circles, has plagued the gay community for years and refuses to

Steven Strafford in his Cincinnati Fringe Festival Award-winning one-man show “Methtacular!”

loosen its grip. In June, the methrelated death of 30-year -old adult film star Erik Rhodes, in Manhattan, caused a big stir in the media, a grim reminder of the drug’s vicious power. Do we really need a lacerating comedy about crystal? In this case, the answer is a resounding yes. For “Methtacular!,” which chronicles Strafford’s descent into rampant, meth-fueled, raw sex

with a parade of strangers, at the cost of friends, family, work, health, and pretty much everything else, deeply respects its subject while skewering it. And what a subject! Strafford recounts his torrid affair with the drug, starting about a decade ago when he was 22, living in Chicago, lonely and vulnerable. When a guy he met on a phone sex line offered him some, it was love at first bump.

“There is nothing wrong with me,” he shrieks, feeling the adrenalinepumped euphoria. What followed was a string of binges at strangers’ apartments, bathhouses, and his own place when his boyfriend was home. And when he wasn’t. Even after he lost multiple theater jobs (he was an aspiring actor), cycled through a few boyfriends, and found himself virtually homeless, couch surfing or crashing at Man’s Country, he still couldn’t come clean. His mother begged him to return home, but he was in denial. “No more feelings, please,” he commands, before doing another bump of “synthetic courage.” Later, he used needles for a mor e intense high. Which meant the lows were lower, too. But as gripping as the story is, “Methtacular!” would be nothing without Strafford’s brilliantly sassy delivery. Under the assured guidance of Adam Fitzgerald, the play is selfdeprecating without being self-indul-

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METHTACULAR!, continued on p.33

who LIKE Guys , S L g a e ik l O H W s l a G and

Dear guYS

Life, libErty and the pursuit of hapPinesS began with me . P.S. get your history straight and your nightlife GAY.

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

FASHION

Evita: Gay Icon Then & Now Argentines still sort myth from reality of poor young woman whose husband’s power brought her renown BY MICHAEL LUONGO s Evita lay dying of cervical cancer in the presidential residence in 1952, her skin sallow and thin, a man sat with her, whispering, “To be a faggot, to be poor, what they say of Eva Peron in this ruthless country is the same thing.”

EVITA: PASSION AND ACTION

Eva was in shimmering white, foreshadowing the ghost she would soon become. She touched the man’s shoulder and answered delicately, sadly, “I think you are right, Paquito.” It’s one of the most important scenes in “Eva Peron: The True Story,” starring Argentine actress Esther Goris. The 1996 movie was Argentina’s middle finger to Madonna, who was then in the country bringing Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical to the screen.

MICHAEL LUONGO

Consulate General of Argentina 12 W. 56th St. Through Sep. 28 Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sep. 22-23, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Free and open to the public 212-603-0443 Evita-inspired fashion designs by Roberto Piazza during a runway fashion show in the Buenos Aires City Legislature Building on July 26, 2012, the 60th anniversary of Evita's death.

But did this remarkable exchange between Evita and Paco Jamandreu, a defiantly out gay man and the famous first lady’s favorite dress designer and confidante, ever happen? “This is a lie,” according to Osvaldo Bazán, the author of “Historia de la Homosexualidad en la Argentina,” a more than 600 page tome that takes readers

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from the pre-Columbian era to that nation’s 2010 same-sex marriage law. Maria Eva Duarte de Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron and best known to the world as Evita, is a gay icon to many. She was made that way largely because of the women we gay men love who have played her on stage and on screen –– Patti LuPone, Elaine Paige, and Faye Dunaway, as well as Madge. Evita is even the name of one of Tel Aviv’s most popular gay bars. Bar co-owner Shay Rokach said it was named for her because “Eva Peron was involved in charity and a supporter of the human rights. Evita as well is a central pole in the LGBT community.” In Argentina, though, Evita’s status as a gay icon is more complicated. It’s true she surrounded herself with gay men, perhaps almost from the time she arrived in Buenos Aires in 1935 as dreamy-eyed teenager Eva Duarte –– poor, uneducated, and illegitimate –– up until her death on July 26, 1952 as one of the most powerful women who ever lived. But it’s this power as the female half of a political couple that founded the Partido Justicialista, better known as Peronism, that has done her in at home. She’s too divisive. Half the country, gay men included, adore her. Among many of the rest, especially upper class Argentines, she’s hated. As a political wife, Eva Peron is often compared to

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EVITA, continued on p.23

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The Putos Peronistas, an LGBT Peronist group, emphasizing transgender activism, marching in the 2010 Buenos Aires Gay Pride Parade. “Puto” translates roughly as “faggot.”

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EVITA, from p.22

Hillary Clinton, also a gay icon with a solid pro-LGBT record as secretary of state. Christopher Andersen even wrote a book about Clinton called “American Evita.” But if you really want to understand why many Argentines are puzzled when foreign gay men say they see Evita as a gay icon, think of her like Nancy Reagan. Nancy had the right elements. An actress whom gossip said was hardly chaste, a clotheshorse with gay designer friends. But her husband’s genocidal approach to AIDS means Nancy will never bear the gay icon crown, even among Log Cabin Republicans. It’s within this political context –– and not the hazy glitz of stage, screen, and song –– that outsiders must consider Eva Peron’s twisted history as a gay icon, then and now, in Argentina.

Bazan. “After the film, you could say she became a gay icon, but Peronism was very homophobic, absolutely homophobic,” he said. “For kids to form the group Putos Peronistas is a contradiction. We are talking about a political party established in a military coup, a military coup in Latin America by a pro-Nazi military general in the decade of the 1940s.” Still, Bazan added, “Without a doubt, there are other friends of Eva who showed very comprehensively to Eva the gay world.” He mentioned in particular, Miguel de Molina, a flamboyant, openly gay Spanish actor and singer. “This story of Paco Jamandreu is a lie, but Eva had a very close relationship with the gay world,” Bazan said.

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EVITA, continued on p.36

“This is not the theme,” Bazan said when asked what impact Evita’s friendships with gay men had on gay life in Argentina when she was alive. “Homosexuality was hidden then.” Bazan thinks Goris’ deathbed scene rewrote Argentine history, perhaps with the intention of making Evita a gay rights heroine for a more tolerant audience. He said he spoke with screenwriter José Pablo Feinmann, a man he described as “a well known Peronist author, intellectual, close to power, and a friend of Cristina” –– Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina’s current Peronist president, who often compares herself to Evita. Bazan explained, “It is very clear that Evita was a friend of Paco Jamandreu, and that Paco was gay. It is not certain that this conversation ever happened… Feinmann told me, ‘It’s a biography, it’s a film, it’s a fiction.’” Feinmann did not respond to my request for comment. Bazan added, “It’s certain that later, now, after the passing of the [2010 marriage] law,” LGBT rights groups take Feinmann’s scene as truth. That baffles

MICHAEL LUONGO

Evita and Her Gay Friends

A dress that Argentine designer Paula Nateloff made for Evita Peron, part of “Evita: Passion and Action,” at New York’s Consulate General of Argentina through September 28.

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

| September 12, 2012

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

| September 12, 2012

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

FILM

A Cult of Masculinity and Control Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix as master and slave in Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest BY STEVE ERICKSON aul Thomas Anderson made his first three films in three years. Since then, the gaps in his filmography have grown increasingly large. It’s been five years since his last film, “There Will Be Blood,” and his current one, “The Master.”

THE MASTER Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson The Weinstein Company Opens Sep. 14 Citywide

There’s less and less room in American cinema for the kind of adult-oriented filmmaking Anderson favors. Robert Altman seems to be Anderson’s biggest influence, but after the ‘70s, Altman himself was out of favor with the studios; his best ‘80s film, “Secret Honor,” was made in collaboration with a college class. By Hollywood standards, Anderson’s budgets are relatively low, but he’s not making the kind of films with fivefigure budgets that could be partially raised on Kickstarter. Much of the buzz around “The Master” has revolved around the similarities between the Cause, a quasi-psychoanalytic organization founded by Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and the early days of Scientology. I was more struck by the ways in which Anderson

Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master.”

has started to repeat himself. He comes very close to recycling imagery from his 2002 comedy “Punch-Drunk Love,” except that there’s nothing funny about the anger and violence expressed in “The Master.” When “The Master” begins, Freddie (Joaquin Phoenix) is serving in the Navy in the final days of World War II. An alcoholic prone to violence, he drifts through a string of jobs after his release from the military. He first meets Lancaster when

they get into a fight while Freddie tries to take the older man’s photo. After Freddie gets in trouble for concocting a toxic brew of booze, he takes refuge on Lancaster’s boat and becomes part of Lancaster’s crew, participating in the Cause and living in his house. This is the first film in which Phoenix is really convincing as a middle-aged man. Here, his looks are in the process of fading, and he seems about ten years older than his actual age. The quasi-doc-

umentary “I’m Still Here,” in which he played himself as a perpetually stoned, talent-free rapper wanna-be, showed he has little vanity. “The Master” confirms it, but it also reveals a raw intensity new to Phoenix’s work. His voice sounds like it was squeezed out of his vocal cords by force. Although Anderson cast actresses as talented as Laura Dern and Amy Adams, he didn’t give them much to do. “The Master” is a guys’ movie. While there are no gay characters, unlike Anderson’s “Boogie Nights,” there’s a greater homoerotic charge between Freddie and Lancaster than I’ve ever felt between two men in an Anderson film. The Cause gives them an instant intimacy, as Lancaster gets to ask Freddie about his sex life. However, their relationship remains unequal — one of master and servant or, at worst, owner and unruly pet. Lancaster manipulates Freddie and, in the end, Freddie uses what he learns to manipulate women. Rebelling against an all-digital future, Anderson shot “The Master” in 65mm. It will be shown in that format in several theaters around the city. (The only other recent film shot in 65mm is Ron Fricke’s documentary “Samsara,” and the Landmark Sunshine is showing that on digital video, albeit with very high quality projection.) Anderson says he wanted to capture the look of ‘40s and ‘50s Hollywood cinema. “The Master” is no retro pastiche,

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THE MASTER, continued on p.29

Little Tramp Who Could Chaplin musical strives to find colorful drama in the era of black and white movies BY DAVID KENNERLEY

n bringing silent film legend Charlie Chaplin’s rags-toriches-to-exile-to-redemption story to the stage, the creators of “Chaplin” faced some serious

hurdles.

CHAPLIN Barrymore Theatre 243 W. 47th St. Tue., Thu. at 7 p.m.; Wed. at 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m.; Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m. Sun. at 3 p.m. $66.50-$135.50; telecharge.com Or 212-239-6200

Among them: condensing a sprawling narrative, making a century-old star feel relevant for today’s discerning audiences, striking the right balance of pathos and comedy, and translating the spirit of black-and-white silent films onto a three-dimensional stage. Not to mention finding an ultra-talented actor to fill the little tramp’s oversized shoes. The result is decidedly a mixed bag. Though the new bio-tuner, directed and choreographed with flair by Warren Carlyle (“Finian’s Rainbow”), falters here and there, “Chaplin” exudes an endearing charm and hits some magical notes. And by far the brightest note is relative newcomer Rob McClure, who is spot-on as the broad, impish performer with a

gift for making people laugh. Not only is his physical comic timing marvelous, but he delicately reveals darker depths below the surface. Even when McClure’s Chaplin is being a brute, it’s hard not to side with him. Also noteworthy in the 24-person ensemble are Jenn Colella as Hedda Hopper, the villainous gossip maven bent on knocking the cocky performer off his high horse, and Wayne Alan Wilcox, who makes the most of the underwritten role of Sydney, gamely playing second fiddle to his more talented younger brother. “Chaplin” also boasts some eye-popping flourishes. The versatile movie studio set (designed by Beowulf Boritt) features an enormous brick backdrop that allows for dazzling video projections (by

Jon Driscoll) depicting London slums and Hollywood glamour. The choice to limit the color palette to black and white, with an occasional pop of red, is a bold one (the women even wear black lipstick). The costumes, by Amy Clark and Martin Pakledinaz –– especially the glittering decoperiod gowns –– are impeccable. Apparently, some of these innovations were lacking in the original 2010 staging at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, then titled “Limelight.” No doubt Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan (“Hairspray”) struggled with the book, trying to distill a vibrant 88-year life into two-and-one-half hours. Unfortunately, at times the plotting feels

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CHAPLIN, continued on p.29

| September 12, 2012

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Freddie demolishes a jail cell while Lancaster, confined to the next cell, urges him to calm down. These scenes are among the most powerful I’ve seen this year. Unfortunately, they suck all the oxygen out of the rest of the film. When Freddie’s not in a rage, “The Master” suffers. It also doesn’t benefit from seeming like a partial reprise of “Punch-Drunk Love,” where Adam Sandler’s character dealt with many of the same issues. Anderson got a great performance out of Sandler, something I never dreamed possible, and he gets one out of Phoenix here. But for all the passion mustered by Phoenix, the final third of “The Master” grinds to a halt. The Cause purports to offer visions of past lives, but it can’t offer a satisfying ending.

THE MASTER, from p.28

JOAN MARCUS

however. At first, it seems to be aiming for something akin to “Mad Men” or Todd Haynes’ “Far From Heaven” — capturing the past with all the knowledge and freedom of the present. Haynes made a film that Douglas Sirk might have if he’d been able to openly depict gayness. The opening lines of “The Master” are about STDs, and the film is frank — to the point of being crude — about sex in ways that no Hollywood film made in the ‘50s could have been. All the same, that’s not its real agenda. “The Master” is centered on a number of set pieces between Lancaster and Freddie. In one, Lancaster asks Freddie a series of embarrassing questions while ordering him not to blink. In another,

Rob McClure in the title role of Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan’s “Chaplin,” directed by Warren Carlyle.

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CHAPLIN, from p.28

like a dutiful list of milestones, preventing real dramatic tension from taking hold. Loving mother teaches young Chaplin to observe quirky human behavior and is soon thereafter committed to a mental asylum? Check. Origin of the trademark tramp character? Check. Career jumps from Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios to Essanay to Mutual to First National, where he creates his own studio and rockets to global fame? Check. His bumpy relationship with the devoted Sydney? Check. His three failed marriages before getting it right with wife number four? Check. Being exiled for Com-

mie leanings and having a casting couch overflowing with underage girls? Check. And so on, until his Oscar triumph in 1972. The score by Christopher Curtis is a pleasant mix of tender, soul-baring ballads and plangent anthems, inflected with riffs of the jazz age. Yet some songs are syrupy rehashes of what we’ve already witnessed onstage. The notions conveyed in the hopelessly buoyant Act One number “Life Can Be Like the Movies” are refuted, predictably so, late in Act Two. Likely the mawkish passages are meant to mimic the style of his movies. But that doesn’t make them feel any less cloying in this context. Perhaps the biggest misstep by “Chaplin” is underestimating the intelligence of its audience, pounding certain themes again and again. That his hard-knock childhood is the impetus for his comedy, his need to find a place in the world to call home, his desire to bring joy to millions — all of these points are overstated. “Once you’ve found the story, you can make it your own,” his mother says. At the height of his fame, Chaplin observes, “Everybody wants to be me. Except me.” The impending fall from grace — symbolized by the little tramp precariously walking a tightrope high above the crowd — is also referenced repeatedly. There are two songs about it, where Hedda and company ask “What’cha gonna do when it all falls down?” I counted how often that sentiment appears in the script — more than 30 times. Not since “Sunset Boulevard” has a big Broadway musical dared to revisit the heady days of silent film and its aftermath. If the goal of “Chaplin” was to renew appreciation for this fascinating cinema pioneer, whose work was the first to portray the dreams, fears, and sorrows of Everyman, then this show should be considered a success. Like the man himself, the show is deeply flawed, but the humor and humanity shine through.

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IN THE NOH

Home Place Like Noh The 50th state’s endless delights, Shakespeare in Paradise, “The Meeting” gloriously resumes BY DAVID NOH fter staying away for four ridiculous years, the siren song got to be too much for me and I finally returned to my homeland of Honolulu for one delicious month. A truly legendary time was had, filled with the most yummy food, friendship, and romance — the sort of magical time I wish for anyone on their next vacation anywhere. The inevitable question always posed by those I know there, even after decades of living in New York, is, “Are you ever going to move back here?” For the first time, really, my response was not a resounding “No!,” so appealing and, of course, gorgeous did I find so much of the island. Where once Hawaii had seemed a beautiful, but culturally desolate trap, I was quite taken by the rich variety of diversions offered, many of them giving our beloved, but ever more commercialized and tourist-pandering Big Apple a run for its money. I attended the 26th annual music competition Ka Himeni Ana at the historic, beautifully restored Hawaii Theater. Presented by the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame, amateur artists vied with each other for prizes, performing traditional Hawaiian music quite wondrously unamplified. This year’s worthy veteran honoree was singer/ pianist Mahi Beamer, whom I used to go hear and sing with many a night at the old Andrew’s restaurant. Clustered intimately around a piano with music stars like Robert Cazimero, as well as regular local Joes, I’d thrill to Mahi’s virtuosic ivory tinkling and warbling of everything from Hawaiian classics to Broadway standards. I sang “The Very Thought of You” one night, a song Mahi had forgotten, and was gratified to know he included it in his repertoire thereafter. The winner of this year’s competition was Kuini, a literally fabulous trio of transvestites resplendent in towering bird of paradise headdresses and flowing, endlessly trained holokus (traditional formal gowns). They breathtakingly, hilariously encompassed the highest artistry and camp simultaneously, singing in traditional Hawaiian falsetto voices and then suddenly breaking into their lower male registers during one chorus, which drove the audience mad with delight I spoke with Kimo Stone, the Hall of Fame president, who told me that, alas, he had to miss the concert he was producing, as he had an important paying music gig that night at the Outrigger Canoe Club (featured in “The Descendants”), which once restricted Asians from joining. “There, I was, playing coun-

David Noh with Kimo Stone, president of the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame at Iolani Palace.

try music for the haoles [white people],” he chuckled. “But didn’t Manu Boyd do a great job as emcee?” I agreed, for Boyd, a skilled musician himself, achieved the perfect balance of instructive and knowing humor, teaching us the important Hawaiian word for shoulder, as well as decrying the lack of beautiful, traditional vanda orchid leis these days, which are all too often replaced with the lesser, sniff-worthy dendrobium. Stone said, “Manu totally understood the need for context. Hosting the show is not just about filler or empty patter, and his sensibility is much like both Mahi’s and Kuini’s, with their costumes and hair — funny, knowledgeable, and campy. It’s totally authentic, but without any fear of judgment. “One of the gifts of our culture is that it wasn’t embarrassing to be gay or effeminate or whatever. That was typical of Polynesia, but not anymore. In modern times, we call it mahu, but the traditional Hawaiian word was ho’aikane. It was like the Native American Indians with their two spirits. Most rational people had this, and it’s only as a result of a twisted version of religion that judgment has been imposed, which seems to be on the rise. “Visitors to Hawaii would have a much better time here if they could experience something real culturally. There is so little opportunity or promotion for that in the Waikiki hotels. Isn’t that like a nobrainer? Shouldn’t we put some emphasis on the host culture in a real way rather than a patronizing pseudo-luau way? “Hawaiians were particularly blessed and gifted musically, and I would even speculate that we might have been selected for that. After a thousand generations, the highest form of Hawaiian art, above our beautiful feather-work or canoe making, is poetry, which is prized more than anything else. We have a proverb that says, ‘In the language is life, in the language is death.’ Words are

so strong, and we had the illusions and metaphors. The words were never direct, with their secret meanings, both sexual and otherwise. “Our original healthy attitude toward sex made it one of the quirks of history that the Calvinist missionaries, of all people, landed here from New England. They were religious extremists to the right of the Taliban, who were into destroying idols, like the Taliban blowing up those giant Buddhas. “After the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, and the government takeover of our land, one of the first things they did was outlaw our language being taught in school. If you want to kill a culture, stop the teaching of its language. When you can no longer think in your own culture, you end up kind of lost.” I brought up the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s, a movement that saw new interest in traditional music and culture, and Stone observed, “That actually all began as early as 1963, with John Dominis Holt writing the essay ‘On Being Hawaiian,’ which laid out the importance of the Hawaiian culture. Until then, our culture was a matter of historical examination, archaeology. “Then the music started, with the group Guava Jam (Peter Moon and Robert and Roland Cazimero), with their hip folk rock sensibility married to Hawaiian lyrics. Their song ‘Kawika’ nailed it. Then there was Gabby Pahinui, with his extraordinarily compelling vocal style, alala [to bleat like a goat], and Auntie Genoa Keawe, with her chalangalang style. “After that you had the singer-songwriters Keola and Kapono Beamer, John and Randy, Leon and Malia, Olomana! That all sort of established the Makaha Sons of Niihau, who were imitating Moe Keale of the Sons of Hawaii. They were verbatim, note for note, and then they grew into their own almost choral style. [Lead singer] Israel Kamakawiwo’ole eventually found it too much of a box for

him, wanting to stretch out into a reggae style, modern stuff.” Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Over the Rainbow” is sometimes now cited as the world’s most popular recording, even with his botching of the E.Y. Harburg lyrics. I mentioned this to Stone and he replied, “Everything about it is wrong, the lyrics, the chord procession. Musicians sort of rolled their eyes, because that music is sort of a lame attempt. I remember when it came out, for years I thought, ‘This is stupid !’But I finally get it. There’s this almost hypnotic quality to that ‘ooo-ooo-ooo’ that has nothing to do with Dorothy. “You have to forget that, to appreciate it on its own terms. But the generation above me doesn’t get it, or Iz, at all, and they make up much of our induction committee. Most of our honorees have been dead artists, and I have to fight to remind the committee that the Music Hall of Fame needs living people, before they pass away. But they think that the greats that have died will be forgotten if they aren’t remembered this way. There needs to be a balance.”

Stone played with his own wonderful group at ‘Onipa’a, a celebration of Queen Liliuokalani’s birthday held on the grounds of Iolani Palace on September 2. It was a magical, sunny day, and to sit on that historic grass, listening to such magnificent music (much of it, original compositions of the Queen) and watching splendid hula dancers, was sheer bliss. A walking tour of the palace grounds followed the celebration, which included re-enactments of the tragic events of 1893, during which venal, ruthless, and powerful descendants of those Bible-banging missionaries outrageously overthrew the monarchy.

I experienced another kind of culture and royalty by attending a performance of the rarely done “Henry VIII” by the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, now in its 12th year, on August 15. I was most impressed by the quality of the acting and period production. Even on a shoestring, this was far more appetizing than the rash of recent, modern-dress Bard shows with no sets and uncertain movie stars currently rife in New York. It was directed by local light Taurie Kinoshita, who also acts and writes, with her very gifted husband, Nicolas Logue, a perfect, roaringly royal and charismatic Henry. At Coffee Talk in the newly very hip neighborhood of Kaimuki, I interviewed 䉴

IN THE NOH, continued on p.31

| September 12, 2012

THEATER

Kicking It “Forbidden Broadway” back with a vengeance; “Tender Napalm” can’t find its footing BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE

Philip Ridley’s new play

hey say you never know what you have until you lose it. And I’d add to that, you never know how much you’ve missed something until you get it back again.

FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: ALIVE AND KICKING

59E59 Theaters 59 E. 59th St. Tue.-Thu. at 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. at 8:30 p.m.; Sun. at 3:30 p.m. $18; 59e59.org Or 212-279-4200

Such is the case with “Forbidden Broadway,” back after a nearly threeyear absence, and it’s as sharp, funny, and deliciously wicked as ever. Creator Gerard Alessandrini has lost nothing of his wit in the interim. What has always made him such an accomplished satirist –– Alessandrini’s been at it for three decades –– is his uncanny ability to find just the right points to tweak. So, even when shows that I love like “Once” get his gimlet-eyed treatment, it’s possible to laugh uproariously at the send-up without losing a bit of affection for the original. That’s how to do satire successfully. To give away many of the specific jokes would be unkind, but suffice to say that all the predictable targets get a mirthful, musical shellacking. One of the best moments comes right near the beginning, when Ricky Martin is spoofed with “Living Evita Loca.” “Once” gets taken to task for its simplicity in a world

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IN THE NOH, from p.30

Logue, who teaches drama at Windward Community College and told me, “I’m originally from Buffalo, New York. From about age 16, I was a really young Equity actor in Manhattan, but I burnt out. It wasn’t really much fun. I didn’t have the look of a young leading man, so it was character bits, which I loved, but doing the same show for nine months at a time got really old. “I wanted to be in college and be in shows, and that’s kind of a problem when you’re in Equity that young. I went

Marcus Stevens (left) and Scott Richard Foster in Gerard Alessandrini's “Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking.”

of over-produced spectacles. Sondheim comes in for his share of ribbing for “Follies” and “Into the Woods,” and Catherine Zeta-Jones’ performance of “Send in the Clowns” at the 2010 Tonys (look it up on YouTube) is recalled. Sutton Foster takes it on the tap shoe for her turn in “Anything Goes,” and not even Audra McDonald is spared. There’s also a great bit about “Newsies,” and, while not new in the past season, there are fresh pokes at “The Book of Mormon,” “Spider-Man,” “Wicked,” and “Mary Poppins.” There’s even a parody of the TV show “Smash” –– unexpected and quite wonderful. My only complaint is that the show is way too kind to Matthew Broderick –– though “Nice Song If You Could Sing It” starts to get there. As in the previous editions, all the parts are played by a seemingly inexhaustible and very talented group of four performers who are required to do everything from broad impressions to full-throated Broadway singing. They are all are newcomers to the “Forbidden Broadway” world, and they’ve taken to it naturally. Natalie Charlé Ellis (the tall one) takes on Elphaba, Bess, and

home, to SUNY Buffalo, and did two degrees — Chinese studies and theater. I luckily got a Fulbright grant to go to China, and there I wrote and produced sort of fusion Chinese operas and Western dramas while I was training in Chinese opera during the day fulltime. “I traveled around China playing classic Chinese opera, and then I came to Hawaii, where I met my wife, Taurie. She had her own company, Cool Theater, and was born and raised here. She started doing theater at a young age, a performance artist originally, who broke into directing more traditional work. I

Donna Murphy. She has a beautiful legitimate voice and a clear talent for dead-on impressions. Jenny Lee Stern (the small one) tackles Elena Roger in “Evita” and Patti LuPone as well as Cristin Milioti from “Once.” She’s simply spectacular. Scott Richard Foster is an equally accomplished singer and comic, whether spoofing Porgy or reminding us how truly wretched “Rock of Ages” is. Marcus Stevens is tireless, taking on Harvey Fierstein, Mandy Patinkin, and Stephen Sondheim. The cast members work together beautifully under the fluid direction of Phillip George and Alessandrini and ably abetted by David Caldwell on the piano. Fans of the show will miss some of the outlandish costumes from long-time “Forbidden Broadway” designer Alvin Colt, but Philip Heckman is a worthy successor who knows how to poke fun. This edition, currently scheduled to run only through January 6, is called “Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking.” It certainly is, and that’s a very happy event for all of us who love theater — and love to make fun of it just as much.

CHRISTIAN COULSON

TENDER NAPALM

CAROL ROSEGG

47th Street Theatre 304 W. 47th St. Tue.-Sat. at 8 p.m. Sun. at 7:30 p.m.; Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m. $29-$79; telecharge.com Or 212-239-6200

Justin Sayre and his International Order of Sodomites celebrate disco legend Sylvester at the Duplex on September 20.

“Tender Napalm,” getting its US premier at 59E59 Theaters, very nearly works. Staged in the theater’s diminutive black box, the entire playing area is a strip of linoleum down the center, with the audience raked on either side. The two characters, identified only as “Man” and “Woman,” engage in an extended cage match, which is mostly linguistic but at times physical –– either way, in a violent manner. A tempestuous relationship is played out through a variety of narrative styles, ranging from epic to comic book, and each of the characters takes on different roles in the changing stories. Intellectually, it’s engaging to watch two fairly ordinary people, who meet at a party, go on prolonged flights of fantasy, which, one assumes, are metaphors for the ups and downs of the relationship. We get a bit of information dropped here and there to ground us in what their reality might be, but long stretches of the 100 minutes are spent in an argument about which person’s band of blue monkeys is more powerful. The poetry is sometimes quite beautiful, but the piece remains cerebral until very near the end when we finally see something in each of the characters that humanizes them, making them almost real rather than esoteric creations of the playwright. Ridley has an interesting idea, but he’s unwilling to share it on an emotional level and so his faux-absurdist artifice hobbles the potential for real connection between the audience and the characters. He ends up showing off rather than showing us anything about the nature of love and relationships. Blake Ellis as Man and Amelia Workman as Woman are what make the evening. They are fascinating to watch, and each is very much in control and committed to what they’re doing. They seem to know what’s going on, even if no one else does.

love being in her shows, and it’s kind of one of the reasons I fell in love with her. When I got a job in London, teaching at Maggie Smith’s school, she moved her company out there and directed 12 productions. Maggie Smith was a wonderful lady. I was a nobody, running a brand new course, a blip on her radar, but she was always very pleasant to me.”

Justin Sayre claims that when he moved to New York, he thought it 䉴

IN THE NOH, continued on p.32

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

OPERA

Cultural Dissonance, Musical Harmony At Glimmerglass, updated “Aida” falters, “Armide” proves its mettle BY ELI JACOBSON he theme of this summer’s Glimmer glass Festival was “Cultures in Conflict.” Verdi’s “Aida” is usually performed in large theaters, but Francesca Zambello decided it perfectly fit her theme and the cozy 914-seat Alice Busch Opera Theater. Unfortunately, her modernized production did not make a persuasive case for a smaller venue. We were in the midst of a 21st century Middle Eastern or African tribal war where the Egyptians seemed to be under siege. Machine guns and military fatigues abounded. The Triumphal Scene was an indoor victory party, with dancing soldiers and a few bits of plundered treasure dragged across the stage. In the Judgment Scene, Radamès was waterboarded (luckily he has no singing here), and the Tomb Scene featured lethal injection with the tenor strapped to a gurney. The unit set was recycled from the 2008 “Shakespeare” season –– a two-tiered gallery distressed to resemble a bombed-out palace interior. An open wall and a jeep failed to transform it into the banks of the Nile in Act III. Musically, the Ethiopians triumphed over the Egyptians. Radamès’ onstage torture was not to blame for the shallow tone and pressed high notes from out gay African-American tenor Noah Stewart. His male model good looks and crossover potential have garnered him a Decca recording contract, a chart-topping debut album in the UK, and major press attention. But all the hype and his chiseled torso stripped to the waist could not distract the listener from his struggles with a role two sizes too heavy for his pleasant lyric tenor –– even in a house this size. Mezzo Daveda Karanas was a disappointing Amneris, her tone undersized and shallow like a comprimaria out of her league. Her low notes lacked chesty resonance and the high notes were thin and pressed –– she had no vocal trump cards to play. Traipsing around the palace in between bombs blasts in high heels and designer sheaths, she suggested an insecure debutante rather than an imperious princess. Michelle Johnson fielded a lush, wide-ranging, and expansive spinto soprano that was perfect for Aida. The high C in “O Patria Mia” was attacked securely if loudly. Her seductively spun tone in the “La, tra

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IN THE NOH, from p.31

would be like MGM in 1947. Reality him like a ton of bricks, but he has turned the lemons of his expectations into the sweetest, most refreshing lemonade with various events, especially his monthly “The Meeting” that brings together the I.O.S. — International Order of Sodomites — in an always witty, warm, irreverent, and musical tribute to all the things we love, including salutes to Diana Ross and author Judy Blume. His star-studded Judy Garland cel-

KARLI CADEL/ THE GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL

Peggy Kriha Dye and Colin Ainsworth in the Glimmerglass Festival/ Opera Atelier production of “Armide.”

le foreste vergini” section of the duet with Radamès combined lush tonal velvet and silvery spin reminiscent of Leontyne Price and Renata Tebaldi. Johnson occasionally seemed to be pushing a little hard for effects. She has a real Verdi voice and needs to shape and caress the vocal line rather than pump it out. Her encounter with the magisterial sable-toned Amonasro of Eric Owens in the Nile Scene provided the musical and dramatic highlight of the evening. Egyptian conductor Nader Abbassi could not make the Glimmerglass orchestra rival the Met’s, but his tempos were well chosen and effective. “Aida” is a 19th century spectacle with two-dimensional characters and old-fashioned dramaturgy. Zambello’s references to current genocidal civil wars around the world seemed pasted onto the surface for effect.

Jean-Baptiste Lully’s “Armide” (1686) also presents a pair of lovers from opposite sides of warring cultures and religions. Philippe Quinault’s libretto (later adapted by Gluck for his “Armide”) presents psychologically complex protagonists at war with themselves as well as each other, yet strangely similar. The Saracen princess and sorceress Armide is a proud and independent woman who believes her pagan magic will keep her from ever being owned or dominated by a man. Love is a weapon, marriage a prison. The Christian knight and crusader Renaud believes his religious principles and military honor make him impervi-

ebration in June will stand as one of the undoubted cultural highlights of 2012, and he brings “The Meeting” back to the Duplex on September 20, with a muchneeded celebration of disco legend Sylvester. (9:30 p.m., 61 Christopher Street at Seventh Avenue South, Sheridan Square; theduplex.com) Born in the flatulently euphonious Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, from a young age, Sayre was inspired by the Garland/ Mickey Rooney movies where, as he said, “They were always throwing a show together in some barn. That is exactly what I wanted

ous to the attractions of love and sex. Their pride comes before a fall –– for each other. Armide weaves her spells to seduce Renaud and bring him down, but she herself succumbs to the spell of an older and more powerful magic –– true love. Renaud gives in to his repressed sensuality, opening the door to a romantic attachment, but eventually realizes the weakness in that and returns to his fellow crusaders. Not, however, before voicing his unbroken love and deep regret over abandoning Armide. She tries to give herself over to Hatred and Vengeance, but fails. Love is both her blessing and her ruin. Each lover is incomplete without the other, and yet they cannot be together without giving up a crucial part of their identity. The Glimmerglass production was originally created by Canada’s Opéra Atelier in 2005 and triumphed in Toronto and at the Palace of Versailles. Director Marshall Pynkoski and set designer Gerard Gauci mixed the conventions of baroque theater with the brilliant stylization of ancient Persian art and illuminated manuscripts, creating a jewel box of visual delights onstage inlaid over a background of gold. Forced perspectives and trompe l’oeil visuals created a world where illusion and reality were indistinguishable. Choreographer Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg seamlessly integrated the dances with the stylized movements of the principals. In fact, sometimes it was hard to tell the dancers from the singers –– tenor Colin Ainsworth as Renaud and bass-baritone Curtis Sullivan as Hatred both stripped down to leotards revealing elegant, gym-toned physiques. Zingg’s choreography –– ballet is equal to song in French tragédie en musique –– ranged stylistically from stately minuets for the Christian court to Italian acrobatic dances for the demons. Peggy Kriha Dye was a proud but increasingly vulnerable Armide, her colorful soprano as supple and specific to emotional expression as her body. Colin Ainsworth was initially impressive for both blond good looks and refined vocalism as Renaud, but seemed to lose steam as the evening progressed. Mireille Asselin and Meghan Lindsay were sprightly and elegant as various nymphs and handmaidens. The rest of the singers were vocally unimpressive, but created specific and witty characterizations. Lully’s music for “Armide” is more uptempo than “Atys” –– dance rhythms are omnipresent. Conductor David Fallis and his consort of baroque instruments kept the singers and dancers light on their feet but able to point up the drama tellingly. This was a presentation worthy of an international festival.

to do.” Although always flamboyantly himself, he said he luckily never suffered from bullying “as I was accepted because I could make people laugh.” His influences ranged from comedians like Jackie Gleason to George Carlin and, especially, Jack Benny (“his timing, alone!”). What Sayre does is especially important given the dearth of actual cultural role models for young gays in the wake of a generation of inspiring mentors wiped away by AIDS. He expresses delight in the fact that queer kids are now taking a real interest in

figures like Charles Ludlum, Holly Woodlawn, and Jackie Curtis, and Sayre is a besotted admirer of Justin Vivian Bond: “After years of not knowing who and what had come before us, this resurgence of interest and queer art in general is marvelous!” Do yourself a favor and get to the Duplex for the next “Meeting.” I’ll definitely be there, and you’re bound to feel mighty real. Contact David Noh at Inthenoh@aol. com and check out his blog at http:// nohway.wordpress.com/.

| September 12, 2012

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METHTACULAR!, from p.21

gent, earnest without being sappy, and poignant without being preachy. The impish actor is a master at spinning out tangents that feel spontaneous. He weaves his sordid tale with songs in the mold of his favorite musicals as well as gaudy ‘70s-style game shows (“What’s My Meth?”), where he lures volunteers from the audience

䉴

WALLFLOWER, from p.20

rick. This felt like an epically rare, once in a lifetime role to play –– a person who is that much of a hero, but also a conceivable, real kid. I definitely love to play any character that was written with as much depth and dimension. GMK: Had you read the book before you considered playing Patrick? EM: Yes, for years before it was a character that could be played! I had this big imaginary story firmly in my head, which was outstanding and incredibly helpful for molding a part. I’ve read it seven times between age 14 and when I left high school, rendering the book less necessary. I was cultivating an idea of Patrick in my head, not knowing that I could actually accomplish that vision or have any say in it. GMK: What did you bring to Patrick that wasn’t on the novel’s page or in the screenplay? EM: Hard to know where lines blur, but I thought a lot about Patrick’s origins and what made him become a caretaker. He stuck with his father through the departure of the mother and tending to a broken father. For a kid, the notion of taking care of a dad going through a

onstage. John McDaniel (LA Drama Critics Circle Award for a production there of “Chicago”) is the music director. Strafford’s gift for physical comedy — a well-timed eye roll here, a coquettish shoulder shrug there — is reminiscent of Charles Busch or Lipsynka, minus the drag outfits. It’s this glorious mash-up of brutal confessional and campy burlesque that lifts this piece above ordinary one-person shows.

The production values are more sophisticated than what you might find at a Fringe play. There’s a realistic set (by David L. Arsenault) of an urban apartment with hardwood floors, exposed brick, and solid doors that easily morphs into a game show scene with the pull of a spectacularly tacky Mylar curtain. At key moments, the Panasonic plasma screen comes alive with heartbreaking video clips of

his flummoxed mother recalling her son’s trip to hell and back. To be sure, much of the appeal of this cautionary tale lies in its inher ent happy ending (we know he doesn’t die). Triumphantly creating a deeply personal work, Straf ford achieves catharsis with his courageous “Methtacular!” He likely provides a measure of catharsis for certain audience members as well.

divorce can create a pattern of wanting to help or cheer people up. His childhood was making jokes and learning to stand on his own two feet.

hatred and bigotry can be bridged.

the floorshow in Chelsea and Pittsburgh. Each community is insane and unique and amazing. It was great fun for us dorky actors to step into that totally devoted world.

GMK: What were you like in high school? EM: I was a failed extrovert. I never had the patience or restraint to keep my head down when it would have been advisable –– to avoid getting scapegoated or ostracized. Even the wallflower tactic –– the perks are mostly expendable –– you can dodge bullets if you keep your mouth shut. But I can’t. GMK: Were you often called “faggot” as Patrick is in the film? How did you react? EM: Constant bombardment! It’s intense to look at the etymology of words like that. At a point I felt “faggot” went from having my feelings hurt to a feeling of condescension. I became the annoying LGBT police against words like “gay” and “faggot,” asking, “What are you taking about? Where do you base that word?” Not the best move for avoiding trouble. If someone can have courage to step up to people who use poisonous words, like “faggot” and “gay,” to show the emotional affects of how it hurts you, sometimes gaps of

GMK: Do you think it’s easier for teens to come out at a younger age now? EM: Yeah. I think people have been pushing and pushing against a really old and reluctant-to-crumble wall for a really long time. The wall –– dammit to hell –– still stands, but we have managed to make some cracks, and more people are able to see the light of possibility and acceptance and inclusion. GK: In the film, you got to perform the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” stage show. What can you say about your experience with “Rocky Horror?” EM: My older sister showed “Rocky Horror” to us when I was eight, when she was babysitting us. It was like having my mind blown open in so many different directions. I’ve gone to floorshows. When I got this part, I went to

GMK: You had some mild kissing scenes –– with Johnny and Logan. Who’s a better kisser, and what kind of guys are your type? EM: They both have supple lips and, yeah, I got to kiss Johnny for a little longer, but it’s hard to have a comparative mind when it comes to two such strapping lads. I’m attracted to people who are comfortable with themselves –– not selfobsessed, narcissistic, egomaniacal types. GK: If we were playing “Truth or Dare,” like Patrick and his friends do in the film, what would you dare me to do? EM: Hmm… I’d dare you to write a really awesome article. I’d double dare you. Ah, that’s a terrible answer.

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PERSPECTIVE

At Anniversary, Working to Secure Justice for LGBT Vets BY KULSOOM NAQVI As the one-year anniversary of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) repeal approaches, we have a great deal to celebrate. Since September 20, 2011, gay, lesbian, and bisexual men and women have been serving in the Armed Forces without fear of being discharged for who they are or who they love. But though the military has implemented open service, discharges that took place under DADT and the prior ban on gay and lesbian service continue to impact the lives of veterans who served under those previous policies. At Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), I hear their stories. Older veterans, discharged during the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s, call seeking help after being discharged for “unfitness” or “unsuitability” and receiving “undesirable” or “other than honorable” discharge characterizations based purely on sexual orientation. Some look to change their discharges to set right a personal injustice or to ensure that the blot on their honor does not live on even after they have passed. Others call when

䉴

SUSIE DAY, from p.15

Journal poll that showed 0% support from black voters, Mr. Romney chose to deliver this campaign message to the New Orleans chapter of the NAACP. “I’d like to send myself to work in a country such as Bangladesh,” stated Mr. Romney. “There, I would be happy to accept a large cut in pay, working for perhaps five to seven cents an hour, laboring 14-hour shifts in 95-degree

䉴

TODD, from p.16

congressman was more responsive than his predecessors, many activists lambasted him for not doing enough, especially when AIDS emerged in 1981 and 1982. Koch was equally ferocious toward his critics. It was at this point that Todd made a decision that defined his public life as the community moved toward the ACT UP era of militancy — he supported the mayor. Todd brought his Koch loyalties to his role as a founding member of the city’s Stonewall Democratic Club. Todd leveraged his ties to the mayor and his role at Stonewall to keep lines of communication between the city and the gay community open even during the tensest days of the AIDS crisis. In the

the repeal and were rejected. At SLDN, we provide free and direct legal services to help veterans make these changes to their records, and thereby overcome the barriers and personal indignities that their separation documents have created for them in civilian life. When we gather in New York City on September 18 to celebrate the oneyear anniversary of repeal, we will pay tribute to one such veteran –– Melvin Dwork. Mr. Dwork, now 90 years old, was discharged during World War II and only last year, with SLDN’s help, was he able to right a decades-old wrong; he is set to receive a retroactive upgrade of his discharge to “honorable.” With it, he will be able to qualify for muchneeded VA benefits. It’s for him –– and the countless others like him –– that we must continue to fight until the mission is complete. And proceeds from the September 18 event will go, in part, to doing just that. If you are a veteran interested in upgrading your discharge paperwork pursuant to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, contact SLDN at 202-3283244 or visit sldn.org to learn more and set up a free legal consultation. To attend the event in New York City to support these efforts, visit sldn.org/ intrepid2012.

they learn that, in spite of the fact that the regulations under which they were discharged were repealed years ago, they are still prevented from obtaining badly needed medical attention from the Veterans Administration (VA) because of their negative discharge characterizations. Many younger veterans, discharged under DADT, call because they received “general” discharge characterizations when their service merited “honorable” characterizations; as a result, they cannot use their GI Bill and are unable to pay for college. I’ve talked with unemployed veterans who describe being rejected for jobs after they submit their discharge documents. Some veterans are told directly by their would-be employers that the reentry code or discharge characterization makes hiring them impossible as a matter of that organization’s policy, because the characterization or reentry code they received is associated with misconduct or poor service. In other cases, veterans read between the lines when they notice a drop in an employer’s enthusiasm after seeing the discharge document. They suspect that

having a narrative reason for separation that includes phrases like “homosexual act” or “homosexual admission” gives potential employers an unspoken reason to reject them. Even in the absence of perceived discrimination, many people simply object to a separation document labeling them in this way. Fortunately, there is a remedy. Each branch of the Armed Forces maintains review boards that consider requests for changes to the discharge records of veterans. In the past, those discharged on the basis of sexual orientation were able to upgrade their discharge characterizations in limited circumstances, but other aspects of their records would remain unchanged. Since DADT’s repeal, the Department of Defense has issued guidance that offers qualifying veterans broader standards for upgrading their discharge characterizations to “honorable.” In addition, veterans may change their reentry codes to favorable classifications and replace their narrative reasons for separation with sexual-orientation-neutral phrases. Those who qualify can apply for these changes even if they attempted to upgrade their records before

heat, exposed to toxic chemicals in a so-called free-trade zone, unencumbered by labor or environmental regulations.” The audience, 97% African American, erupted in thunderous, footstomping applause. Mr. Romney’s pledge is seen as part of a last-minute strategy to salvage a floundering, worker-phobic campaign. “Furthermore,” added Mr. Romney, “I vow to take my presidential Cabinet and the entire Treasury Department

with me.” Mr. Romney went on to explain that, by working directly for corporations such as Coca-Cola, Exxon Mobil, and Walmart, entering data or toiling on assembly lines, he and his “fellow comrades” would have no time to squander on everyday Oval Office administration — thus completely eliminating big government. These remarks drew more hearty applause. A poll following the speech, however,

showed African-American support for Mr. Romney had risen only to 0.05%. “I’m still not going to vote for him,” said audience member Jim Bailey, putting on his hat to go. “I just liked picturing that guy with his shirt all ripped up and sweaty. Made my day.” Rumor has it that Clint Eastwood will play Mitt Romney in a campaign film entitled “OutSource! The Good, the Bad, and the Romney.” Everyone in the GOP is praying there will be no empty chairs.

early ‘80s, the leadership of a nascent community center, where many LGBT groups had offices, wanted to purchase the former school on West 13th Street where they had been tenants for several years. The onslaught of AIDS made the need more pressing, but among the center’s board members were some of Koch’s harshest and most vocal critics. The mayor threatened to block the purchase by putting the building up for sale at a public auction, a move that would have priced the community center out. Todd quietly offered advice and assistance to the center’s board in identifying recruits who could help them make the case to Koch that he should ignore his adversaries for the greater good of the LGBT community. Over time, voices

trusted by the mayor persuaded him to back off from plans for an auction and instead negotiate a sale of the building to what is now known as the LGBT Community Center. Todd spent the last decades of his life as a shrewd conciliator in difficult circumstances. A member of the city’s Loft Board, he helped pave the way for large spaces downtown to be opened up to residential uses against the business community’s determination to retain industrial zoning there. On behalf of the LGBT community, he was an ambassador to Democratic leaders with religious and other constituents whose demands and priorities clashed with the needs of gay New Yorkers. Todd became widely regarded as a man of discretion who

could smooth troubled waters. Perhaps most remarkable was Todd’s success in steering through mainstream politics — he was a big supporter of Alan Gerson’s successful 2001 run for the City Council in Lower Manhattan — while retaining the love and respect of activists on the left, like Roskoff and Ashkinazy, who were often critical of compromise. It was Lew Todd’s gift to the gay cause that he could reconcile its unprecedented flowering with the conservative temperament of New York society’s more conventional pillars. Funeral services for Lew Todd will be held Thursday, September 13 at 11 a.m. at the Greenwich Village Funeral Home at 199 Bleecker Street, between McDougal and Sixth Avenue.

Kulsoom Naqvi is a staff attorney at Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (sldn.org).

| September 12, 2012

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36 EVITA, from p.23

A retrospective of Molina’s work last year at Buenos Aires’ Centro Cultural Recoleta left an impression of him as a male Carmen Miranda. Molina experienced the best and the worst of life in Argentina as an openly gay man. In 1942, on the heels of a sex scandal involving military cadets that launched a gay panic, Molina was arrested and deported, his play shut down, simply because he was openly gay. He soon returned, however, meeting Eva Peron in 1946. Thereafter, he remained close to her, even if Juan Peron did not approve. “When Miguel de Molina would come to the Casa Rosada or to Olivos, he would annoy him,” Bazan said of Peron. Knowing Molina’s close relationship to the couple, the Spanish Embassy asked him to plan a party for them in 1948. Peron requested that Molina sing “La Otra,” which was identified with Molina’s main rival, Concha Piquer, and had no masculine form, its double-entendres emphasizing Molina’s homosexuality. Molina left Argentina in 1955, the year Peron was deposed, but later returned to Buenos Aires. A year before his 1993 death, he was inducted into Spain’s revered Order of Isabella the Catholic. Molina was among the gay friends of Evita the famous, but even as an unknown, she befriended homosexual men. Among them was hairdresser Julio Alcaraz, who created her iconic chignon bun hairstyle. Like many of the gay men she met, he was with her until the end, styling the hair on her exquisitely preserved corpse, helping prepare her to be displayed like Moscow’s Lenin in a never-built tomb. Interviews with Alcaraz informed the 1972 “Queen of Hearts” British documentary that inspired Tim Rice. Argentine writer Tomás Eloy Martínez referred to Alcaraz in his historical novel, “Santa Evita,” which itself was a mix of reality, myth, and conjecture. Martínez describes Alcaraz taking the awkward, struggling teenage actress under his wing. The novel’s protagonist, an investigative journalist, interviews Alcaraz, who shows him a bun from Evita’s hair. Years ago, Cesar Cigliutti, president of Comunidad Homosexual Argentina, told me the bun was a trick for a bad hair day emergency but became integral to the first lady’s style. It’s not hard to imagine how in the 1930s Eva Duarte found gay friends. Buenos Aires was awash in Depressionera social upheaval, and Spain’s civil war made the city an epicenter for Spanish cultural figures. The most famous was gay playwright Federico García Lorca, whose plays were performed at the Teatro Avenida on Avenida de Mayo. García Lorca lived a few blocks away in the 1929 Castelar Hotel, in room 704, now a mini-museum. A brass plaque on the hotel’s entrance also marks his stay.

MICHAEL LUONGO

䉴

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

Maria Belen Correa, an Argentine transgender activist and performer, channeling Evita Peron during the stage show held after the 2008 Buenos Aires Gay Pride Parade.

Once the city’s most glamorous street, Avenida de Mayo is lined with hotels, yet there’s a reason García Lorca chose this one. Decades before gay hotels like the Axel or El Lugar Gay, the Castelar was where homosexual visitors stayed, its Turkish sauna a draw. The sauna’s ancient wooden changing rooms, stained glass ornamentation, and even the wooden refrigerator behind the bar give a glimpse of what gay life, furtive and yet an open secret, might have been like when Eva Duarte boarded a train in Junin to bite into Argentina’s Big Apple.

The Modern Day Legacy Of Evita Perhaps the most important Argentine maintaining Evita’s legacy is Gabriel Miremont, the out gay curator of the Museo Evita. Years ago, in an interview with him I did for Out Traveler, Miremont told me Evita connected with gay men because of her poor background. “Both have the same problem, they stay beside the society, marginal,” he said, words similar to what Feinmann imagined passed between her and Jamandreu. Beyond Alcaraz, however, little is known about Evita’s earliest gay friends, Miremont said. In New York this month to open the exhibit “Evita: Passion and Action” at the Consulate General of Argentina, Miremont acknowledged Evita is a gay icon in much of the world. Among gay Americans, though, he finds what he calls “the Barbie Evita” problem –– an overemphasis on clothes and glamour that grew out of the Lloyd Webber-Rice play and Madonna’s movie. Miremont’s hope is in visiting the exhibit of Evita’s clothing and photographs and modern art inspired by

her, glamour will be “the starting point, what you see first.” After that, he said, “you have to understand all her works, all the good she did for people. The way she changed the society.” Miremont has always told me that while “Evita,” the play, “as a work of art is beautiful,” he does not feel it is historically accurate. In fact, while the song “Don’t Cry for Me” is now often performed even at official government events in Argentina, the full play has never been formally produced there. This is not because of those who hate Evita, but instead because her admirers are offended by the “Goodnight and Thank You” scene where Eva entertains a revolving door of men. Mir emont cr edited the curr ent Broadway revival, directed by Michael Grandage –– which boasts the greatest gay quotient ever, with Ricky Martin playing Che –– with more accuracy. When he saw it in London in 2006, women were inaccurately shown voting in 1946, a year before they gained their suffrage. He was pleased to see women sadly pass ballot boxes while men voted in Grandage’s latest production. To be sure, Argentine hearts have undoubtedly been softened by Buenos Aires native Elena Roger’s star turn as Evita, both in the West End and on Broadway. Miremont said he was pleasantly surprised in conversations with Michael Cerveris, who portrays Juan Peron, how well versed the actor was in Argentine history. Despite Miremont’s worries about the emphasis in “Evita” on fashion, for some gay Argentine men her glamour and the relationship it had with social issues are equally important. Designer Roberto Piazza is one half of an Argentine power couple; his wedding to Walter Vázquez was a major news event in Buenos Aires. Piazza said he finds creative inspiration from both Evita and Jamandreu, whom he knew personally before his 1995 death. For the 60th anniversary commemorations of Evita’s death, Piazza presented a spectacular collection of clothing inspired by Evita, Jamandreu, and Dior in the Buenos Aires City Legislature Building. The show’s runway passed over an area where Evita’s body

laid in state during Argentina’s twoweek mourning period in 1952. Regarding Evita’s legacy, Piazza explained, “Much of the history is inspired by sources that are at times contradictory –– from her extremely luxurious style [to the fact that] Evita was very much a woman of the people.” Through fashion, he said, Evita supported the work of her gay contemporaries. “She loved gay people and cared for and protected Paco through a thousand aberrations that she did,” Piazza said. “And today she has become a major icon for the gay people.” However, he added, “I do not believe she is a gay icon. I believe she is an icon for all of society.”

Evita and Argentina’s Same-Sex Marriage Law Buenos Aires’ gay pride march begins in Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada and Evita’s balcony. It continues along Avenida de Mayo, passing García Lorca’s Castelar Hotel to Congreso, where a rally is held just yards from the city’s tiny, virtually unnoticed AIDS memorial. The last time I photographed the parade was in 2010, the year the gay marriage law passed. A few floats commemorated Juan and Evita Peron, linking them to Néstor Kirchner, the former president who had died days before, and his first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who was by then president. A few months before, on July 21, standing between portraits of Juan and Evita in the Casa Rosada, Fernandez signed the bill making marriage equality the law of the land, propelling Argentina into the front ranks of nations on LGBT rights. Fernandez even evoked Eva Peron in her speech, saying she knew what it felt like for Evita when women gained the right to vote. Cheering in the audience was Esther Goris, whose version of Evita was a prediction of sorts for that happy day in the life of gay Argentina. Were the real Evita alive, would she too have cheered Fernandez on? We will never know for sure, but both the myth and reality of Evita strongly suggest the answer is an unqualified yes.

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live without fear

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September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

JORGE COLOMBO

SEPTEMBER 23. Lady & “Love” Together At Last

Fairgrounds VIIII, better known as Gay and Lesbian Day at Six Flags, promises to be the largest private LGBT event in the nation. This year’s theme celebrates the fabulousness of fist pumping Jersey, with appearances by Melissa Gorga, Joe Gorga, and Greg Bennett from Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” Gorga will perform her dance hits “On Display” and “Rockstar.” Reichen Lehmkuhl, of “The Amazing Race” fame, and recording artist Dina Delicious will also appear, and DJs Steve Sidewalk, Seth Gold, and DJ Barney of Philly spin. Six Flags, Jackson, New Jersey, ten miles east of NJ Turnpike exit 7A on I-195. Sep. 14, from 6 p.m. Tickets begin at $48 at gaysixflags.com. A portion of proceeds benefit the LGBT Community Center, the Imperial Court, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

SAT.SEP.15

GALLERY Gender & Masculine/ Feminine Ideals

THU.SEP.13

RICK SIMON

THEATER Best of Fringe

Now in its seventh year, the FringeNYC Encore Series gives folks who couldn’t get enough in August more chances to sample the best. The Encore Series includes seven LGBT-themed shows: Chris Phillips’ “Pieces,” directed by Brian Zimmer, portrays the turmoil faced by a gay public defender assigned to represent a damaged young man accused of brutally murdering a gay Hollywood power player. SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam St., btwn. Sixth Ave. & Varick St. Sep. 13, 7 p.m.; Sep. 16-17, 8 p.m. Josh Mesnik’s “Have I Got A Girl For You, directed by Sara Sahin, explores how a newly sober gay musical theater actor get his life back on track –– by running a female escort agency, of course! The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal St., btwn. Bleecker & Houston Sts. Sep. 13-14, 10 p.m.; Sep. 15, 21-22,

7:30 p.m. “Danny Visconti Is Hill-Bent,” is Danny Visconti and Adam Wachter’s musical, directed by Connor Gallagher, about a Hillary Clinton-obsessed chorus boy’s chance encounter with the secretary of state, after which he is immediately sucked into a scandalous night of booze, strippers, the Eagle, porn stars, and prank-calling Michele Bachmann. Huron Club, 15 Vandam St., btwn. Sixth Ave. & Varick St. Sep. 15, 5 p.m.; Sep. 27, 7 p.m.; Sep. 29, 3 p.m.; Sep. 30, 8 p.m. “Standby –– The Musical,” written by Alfred Solis, Keith Robinson, Amy Baer, and Mark-Eugene Garcia and directed by Marc Connor Eardley, is the story of five travelers, haunted by troubled pasts, awaiting the flight of their lives –– a journey to redemption in the afterlife. The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal St., btwn. Bleecker & Houston Sts. Sep. 20, 27, 7:30 p.m.; Sep. 29, 10 p.m. Philip Mutz and Susan-Kate Heaney’s “Gay Camp,” directed by Phillip Fazio, is the story of “confused” campers Josh and Anton, who are sent to be “cured” at Camp Acceptance. A deliciously evil headmaster, gay Twister, Santorum surprises, and more innuendos than you can shake a dildo at are in store. The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal St., btwn. Bleecker & Houston Sts. Sep. 21-22, 27-28, 10 p.m. In Tara Grammy and Tom Arthur Davis’ “Mahmoud,” directed by Tom Arthur Davis, one Iranian actress portrays an Iranian engineercum-taxi driver, a fabulously gay Spaniard, and a preteen Iranian-Canadian girl, whose stories intertwine in unexpected ways. Huron Club, 15 Vandam St., btwn. Sixth Ave. & Varick St. Sep. 22, 25, 8 p.m.; Sep. 23, 3 p.m.; Sep. 29-30, 5 p.m. Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood’s “5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche,” directed by Sarah Eisenstein, is set in 1956, when the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein are having their annual quiche breakfast. Will they be able to keep their cool when Communists threaten their idyllic town? SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam St., btwn. Sixth Ave. & Varick St. Sep. 23, 5 p.m.; Sep. 25, 30, 8 p.m.; Sep. 27-28, 9 p.m. Tickets for all shows are $18 at SohoPlayhouse. com or 212-691-1555.

“In-Between & Outside” is a series of portraits by Sara Swaty exploring gender identity and the human form across a broad spectrum of individuals. The works, curated by Cora Lambert, were created with an interest in how cultural preconceptions about gender have created unattainable ideals about masculinity and femininity. The Leslie-Lohman Museum Window Gallery, 26 Wooster St., btwn. Grand & Canal Sts. The exhibition is visible from the street and on view 24 hours a day. Through Oct. 8. Closing reception is Oct. 5, 6-8 p.m.

GALLERY Andy and His Kind

METMUSEUM.ORG

FRI.SEP.14

NIGHTLIFE Jersey Fabulous at Six Flags

military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy with a celebration of American troops that will honor Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The event –– emceed by broadcast journalist and host of “The View” Barbara Walters –– will be held aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum, W. 46th St. at the Hudson River. A VIP hour begins at 5:30 p.m. on Sep. 18, followed by the main event from 6:30-9:30. Admission is $250; $150 for current service members; $1,000 includes the VIP event at sldn.org.

“Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years” aims to provide the first full exploration of the “dominant” influence that the iconic painter, print-maker, sculptor, and filmmaker had on contemporary art. Structured in five thematic sections, the exhibition juxtaposes prime examples of his work against other artists who in key ways reinterpret, respond, or react to him –– including, in the section titled “Queer Studies: Camouflage and Shifting Identities,” David Hockney, Robert Gober, Catherine Opie, Richard Avedon, Peter Hujar, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. Sep. 18-Dec. 31; Fri.-Sat., 9:30 a.m.-9 p.m.; Tue.-Thu., Sun., 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Admission is $25; $17 for seniors; $12 for students.

MON.SEP.17

WED.SEP.19

FAITH Love Free or Die

The Right Reverend Gene Robinson, an Episcopal bishop who formerly headed the New Hampshire diocese, is the subject of “Love Free or Die,” a new documentary about both the struggles and acceptance he faced that premieres on PBS on Oct. 29 (lovefreeordiemovie.com). Robinson appears in conversation with Dr. James A. Kowalski, dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. 1047 Amsterdam Ave. at 112th St. Sep. 17, 7 p.m. The film will be screened. This event is free.

NIGHTLIFE Meaty Mondays Daniel Gray and Aurelia Monet host the hottest men and the hottest DJs for a bar-b-q evening of $3.50 margaritas, $3 shots and drafts, and 35-cent (!) wings. Bone Lick Park, 75 Greenwich Ave. at Seventh Ave. So. Every Mon. at 8 p.m. 212647-9600.

TUE.SEP.18

COMMUNITY A Year After Repeal

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and OutServe mark one year since the formal end of the

GALLERY Reading Gender

“Del LaGrace Volcano: A Mid-Career Retrospective” is the first US museum exhibition of the gender variant artist's 30-year career. Little shown and therefore little known in this country, Volcano, a pioneer of LGBT photography, is widely celebrated as a significant figure at the center of a European conversation about the body, gender, and sexuality whose work undercuts assumptions about the legibility of gender. The exhibition if curated by Jonathan David Katz and Julia Haas. Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, 26 Wooster St., btwn. Grand & Canal Sts. Opening reception is Sep. 19, 6-8 p.m., and the exhibition runs through Nov. 11. An artist talk takes place Sep. 22, 2-4 p.m.

BOOKS All Tarted Up David Muniz, late of Next Magazine fame, and David Lesniak, who together own and operate Outsider Tart, the first American bakery in London, celebrate the launch of their new book, “Piece of Cake: Homebaking Made Simple.” Rizzoli Bookstore, 31 W. 57th St. Sep. 19, 5:30-7:30 p.m. RSVP to rsvp@ rizzoliusa.com.

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14 DAYS, continued on p.39

| September 12, 2012

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14 DAYS, from p.38

THU.SEP.20

BOOKS Remembering Cheryl B. Through Her Work

Cheryl Burke (Cheryl B.) was a journalist, poet, performer, and playwright who came of age in the vibrant ‘90s East Village art scene and died last summer at the age of 38 from complications from treatment for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. “My Awesome Place,” her autobiography due to be published on October 23, was her first book. Tonight, as part of “Drunken! Careening! Writers!,” Kelli Dunham, Anne Elliott, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Sarah Schulman, and Virginia Vitzthum read from Cheryl B.’s work. KGB Bar, 85 E. Fourth St., btwn. Bowery & Second Ave. Sep. 20, 7 p.m. Free admission.

CABARET Nalbone Will Ride Them Today When Gregory Nalbone takes akes on a Mick Jagger/ Keith Richards anthem them like “Wild Horses,” if you didn’t know now it already, you realize he really hass a night, brass set. His rendition soars. Tonight, he returns to the stage at Metro-politan Room with his interpretaations of ballads and pop/ rock hitss and his charm, backed by musical di director David Schaefer, with Saadi Zain on bass and Russ DiBona on drums. 34 W. 22nd St. Sep. 20, 7 itanroom. p.m. The cover is $25 at metropolitanroom. com or tinyurl.com/9g4t46l, and there’s a two-drink minimum.

SAT.SEP.22

THU.SEP.27

PERFORMANCE Freaky Saturday Afternoon

BENEFIT In the Name of Courage

As part of Fourth Arts Block's annual FAB! Festival, NY Innovative Theatre Foundation presents “Freak Fiction,” a show in which a bevy of indie theater’s most outlandish and grotesque performers take their works off the page and bring them to life for the audience. On the scaffold today are Dandy Darkly, Lady Aye, the lyrically and fashion-challenged Bobby Oahu (aka Josh Hartung), Jennifer Harder, and Trav. S.D. Kraine Theatre, 85 E. Fourth St., btwn. Bowery & Second Ave. Sep. 22, 3:30 p.m. Admission is free.

The New York City Anti-Violence Project hosts its 16th annual Courage Awards, this year honoring Tony Award-winning actor B.D. Wong, the Verizon Hopeline, which provides lifesaving cell phones to domestic violence victims and survivors, and the Interbank Roundtable Committee, an LGBT affinity group for financial services industry employees. Studio 450, 450 W. 31st St. Sep. 27, 7 p.m. The evening includes cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 7; the awards presentation as well as a video screening of “AVP Is Action,” produced by the Watsons creativity company, at 7:45; and cocktails and a dessert tasting at 8:15. DJ Kevin Graves spins for the Courage Awards After Dark, from 9-11:30. Tickets are $175; $250, including a 6 p.m. VIP reception, at avp.org.

SUN.SEP.23

PER PERFORMANCE Lady & “Love” Together At Last Lad

Lad Circus, a troupe of fearless femme fatale acrobats and Lady dance dancers, came onto Brooklyn's underground scene in 2005, and since 2007 has run the House of Yes,” an infamous hub of circus, theat and art parties in East Williamsburg. Meanwhile, “The theater, Lov Show” always gets the sexy goin' with its tightly Love ch choreographed and costumed numbers, theatrical appeal, aand gorgeous girls and boys. A little cabaret, a little ballet, and a whole lotta rock 'n' roll, it has entertained all audiences, from glitzy nightclub fashionistas to gritty downtown theatergoers. Tonight, Lady and “Love” share the stage, in a show that features Kae Burke, Anya Sapozhnikova & Lady Circus!, Angela Harriell & “The Love Show” Dancers, m master magician the Great Dubini, and emcee David F. Slone, Es Esq. House of Yes, 342 Maujer St., btwn. Morgan Ave. & Wat Waterbury St. (L train to Grand St.). Sep. 23, 9 p.m.; doors ope open at 8. Admission is $10.

Pride’s 15 Years in Jackson Heights Queens Pride House celebrates its 15th anniversary with a benefit honoring Selena Blake, a documentarian who directed the film "Taboo Yardies," about homophobia in Jamaica; Ross Levi, the former executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda; Reverend Charles McCarron, Pride House’s first executive director who now heads Episcopal Community Services of Long Island; Daniel Cano, a former Pride House intern and workshop leader who now attends Hunter College, and Voces Latinas, which works with immigrant Latinas in Queens living with or at high risk for HIV/ AIDS. Raphael Miranda, an out gay meteorologist at WNBC, will emcee. Novo, 78-23 37th Ave. in Jackson Heights. Sep. 27, 6-9 p.m. Tickets are $60 at queenspridehouse.org. Queens Pride House is located at 76-11 37th Ave., Suite 206, and the telephone is 718-429-5309.

September 12, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

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