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Love & Marriage inside OCTOBER 12-25, 2011 VOLUME TEN, ISSUE 21
S E R V I N G G A Y, L E S B I A N , B I A N D T R A N S G E N D E R E D N E W Y O R K • W W W . G A Y C I T Y N E W S . C O M
■ REMEMBRANCE
Paula Ettelbrick, Renaissance Lesbian Leader, Dies at 56 BY PAUL SCHINDLER
P
MICHAEL LUONGO
aula Ettelbrick, an attorney who brought an uncompromisingly feminist perspective to policy and social justice advocacy in leadership roles at half a dozen top LGBT organizations, died on the morning of October 7, after battling cancer for the past year. She had turned 56 just five days earlier. Ettelbrick –– who is survived by her partner Marianne Haggerty, an NBC producer, and two children, Adam, 14, and Julia, 12, born during her earlier relationship with civil rights attorney Suzanne Goldberg –– was first diagnosed with peritoneal cancer in 2010 and spent the final weeks of her life at home in Manhattan with the aid of hospice care and family and friends. She is also survived by her brother, Robert Ettelbrick Jr., her sister, Linda Anderes, her aunt, Jean Root, and two nephews. In an advocacy career that spanned a quarter of a century, Ettelbrick worked at Lambda Legal, first as a staff attor-
QUEEROCRACY JOINED WITH ACT UP IN FOLEY SQUARE, FOCUSING ON FINANCIAL CRISIS’ IMPACT ON HEALTH CARE
Queer Voices in Zuccotti Park
ETTELBRICK P. 10
BY MICHAEL LUONGO
CAROL ROSEGG
T
THE LYONS
he banks might still be too big to fail, but the protests against them have become too big not to notice. That much was in evidence on October 5, a bright, warm Wednesday, when several thousand demonstrators filled Foley Square, surrounded by Lower Manhattan’s massive federal and state courthouses. Their purpose was a march to Zuccotti Park, the private patch of land open to the public that symbolically links Ground Zero with the Wall Street Financial District. On Foley Square’s central fountain,
a massive banner announced “Arab Spring, European Summer, American Fall,” tying grassroots uprisings on several continents on the part of people frustrated and outraged by economic, political, and social inequities. In the Arab world, the pop r outpourings triggered violent repression, which in many cases proved ineffective. While there has been violence against protestors by the New York Police Department, notably pepper spraying and body slams along with hundreds of arrests, it in no way parallels the deadly force used in countries like Syria, where thousands have been killed.
22 © GAY CITY NEWS 2011 • COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The people filling Foley Square were a colorful mix. There was a sense of energy and enthusiasm and a youthful spirit, in spite of the divergent ages represented. There were even parents with small children, who were holding hands as well as signs. Many political statements were waved by the crowd, but most prominent was the declaration that the wealthy one percent have robbed the 99 percent — workers, the young, and homeowners. The majority of protestors turned out in everyday attire, though there was a decent sprinkling of lefty Che Guevaraworthy outfits.
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ing to where it belongs — the health care system.” The financial crisis, Gardner said, impacted LGBT issues in other ways. “I think people ought to know that a lot of the homeless are LGBTQ, and others are living in poverty,” she said, challenging the popular notion about the strength of pink dollar spending by a wealthy gay community. The lack of basic job nondiscrimination in many parts of the country is also significant, she added. “A lot of us LGBTQ got the brunt of this,” Gardner stated. “We’re already discriminated against trying to get jobs in the first place. This is an extra hit.
Cassidy Gardner came to Foley Square with Queerocracy, a social justice group marching in conjunction with ACT UP. She said that about 30 people would be marching in total, and the group had two banners. Gardner pointed out that the financial crisis created by the banks was sapping money from HIV prevention and other health issues. “We’re really concerned about the city budget and AIDS service organizations in the city,” she said. “Like many people, I think the banks are getting all the money.” She added, “Thirty years is too long. We can end AIDS by trying to pull some of that fund-
We’re unifying and trying to come together on the issues.” Gardner said Queerocracy had earlier in the day protested in front of Senator Chuck Schumer’s Midtown of fice, “trying to go on all angles” in focusing attention on federal government budget priorities. Schumer, the Senate’s thirdranking Democrat, sits on both the Finance and the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committees. Celebrities have turned out for Occupy Wall Street events from the movement’s beginning in mid-September. Among the most visible have been documentary filmmaker and activist Michael Moore and actors
Jake Goodman, a gay activist with Queer Rising, emphasized that “there are queer people in every movement, in every gender, in every race.”
Humor was much in evidence, even if it was pointed, as when a pig-faced banker slashed at a downtrodden worker falling out of her safety net.
Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo. Kathleen Chalfant, well known in the LGBT community for her stage roles in Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” and Moises Kaufman’s documentary play about the Matthew Shepard murder, “The Laramie Project,” participated in the October 5 march. Sitting on the black granite edge of Foley’s central fountain, overlooking the crowds, she voiced wonderment she had not come downtown earlier. “This is the first day I’ve been here, and I am not absolutely sure there are excuses,” she told this reporter. Chalfant was joined by her husband and a friend, and the group was anxious to march, constantly monitoring the human river leaving Foley Square and pouring into the street in front of Manhattan’s New York Supreme Court to head south. “I’m here because I am an American and I want our country back, and I don’t recognize it anymore,” Chalfant said. “It’s in danger of not only losing its economy, but also its soul.” Acknowledging her work in plays that have posed challenging social questions, she added, “A lot of the characters I’ve played would feel the same way.” Clearly awed by the spectacle unfolding around her, Chalfant, who is 66, said the scene reminded her of marches she attended in her younger days. “Everybody should be here,” she said as she prepared to step off with a march contingent. “This is what patriotism looks like.”
MICHAEL LUONGO
Protesters gathered at Foley Square’s central fountain linked the Occupy Wall Street movement to popular uprisings in the Arab world and in Europe.
MICHAEL LUONGO
Humor was in evidence, too. A small contingent wore foam cheese hats in solidarity with the public employee union protesters in Wisconsin earlier this year, and a pig-faced banker slashed at a downtrodden worker falling out of her safety net. And in the midst of it all, gay voices were present, too, putting LGBT issues into the broader context of opposition to corporate greed and unchecked Wall Street power. Jake Goodman from Queer Rising, a grassroots group that has worked in New York and elsewhere on issues ranging from marriage equality to repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, has participated in several Occupy Wall Street marches and spent a good deal of time at Zuccotti Park. “We’ve been telling people there are queer people in every movement, in every gender, in every race, and this is a movement of the people,” Goodman told Gay City News. One of the messages he aims to get across involves the duplicity of corporations that seem progressive on LGBT issues but have a dark side, as well. “One of the most politically important and relevant messages here is that corporations will one day boast of their LGBTQ work, but then on the other side, is that they are giving money to right-wing candidates,” he argued. “This is a movement where we can bring ourselves and bring our own interests, but also that of the American people, of which we are a part.”
MICHAEL LUONGO
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MICHAEL LUONGO
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Kathleen Chalfant, known for “Angels in America,” “The Laramie Project,” was “not absolutely sure there are excuses” for not having come earlier.
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).$)#!4)/. REYATAZÂŽ (atazanavir sulfate) is a prescription medicine used in combination with other medicines to treat people 6 years of age and older who are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). REYATAZ has been studied in a 48-week trial in patients who have taken anti-HIV medicines and a 96-week trial in patients who have never taken anti-HIV medicines. 2%9!4!: DOES NOT CURE ()6 OR LOWER YOUR CHANCE OF PASSING ()6 TO OTHERS People taking REYATAZ may still get opportunistic infections or other conditions that happen with HIV infection.
)-0/24!.4 3!&%49 ).&/2-!4)/. CONT D s 3EVERE RASH may develop with other symptoms that could be serious and potentially cause death. )F YOU DEVELOP A RASH WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS STOP USING 2%9!4!: AND CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER RIGHT AWAY — Shortness of breath – General ill-feeling or “flu-like� symptoms – Fever – Muscle or joint aches – Conjunctivitis (red or inflamed eyes, like “pink eye�) – Blisters – Mouth sores )-0/24!.4 3!&%49 ).&/2-!4)/. – Swelling of your face $O NOT TAKE 2%9!4!: IF YOU ARE ALLERGIC TO s 9ELLOWING OF THE SKIN AND OR EYES may occur due to 2%9!4!: OR TO ANY OF ITS INGREDIENTS increases in bilirubin levels in the blood (bilirubin is made by the liver). $O NOT TAKE 2%9!4!: IF YOU ARE TAKING THE FOLLOWING MEDICINES DUE TO POTENTIAL FOR SERIOUS s ! CHANGE IN THE WAY YOUR HEART BEATS may occur. LIFE THREATENING SIDE EFFECTS OR DEATH VersedŽ You may feel dizzy or lightheaded. These could be symptoms (midazolam) when taken by mouth, HalcionŽ (triazolam), of a heart problem. ergot medicines (dihydroergotamine, ergonovine, s $ IABETES AND HIGH BLOOD SUGAR may occur in patients taking ergotamine, and methylergonovine such as CafergotŽ, protease inhibitor medicines like REYATAZ. Some patients may Ž Ž Ž Migranal , D.H.E. 45 , ergotrate maleate, Methergine , need changes in their diabetes medicine. and others), PropulsidŽ (cisapride), or OrapŽ (pimozide). s )F YOU HAVE LIVER DISEASE, including hepatitis B or C, $O NOT TAKE 2%9!4!: WITH THE FOLLOWING MEDICINES it may get worse when you take anti-HIV medicines like DUE TO POTENTIAL FOR SERIOUS SIDE EFFECTS CamptosarŽ REYATAZ. Ž Ž (irinotecan), Crixivan (indinavir), Mevacor (lovastatin), s +IDNEY STONES have been reported in patients taking ZocorŽ (simvastatin), UroxatralŽ (alfuzosin), REYATAZ. Signs or symptoms of kidney stones include pain or RevatioŽ (sildenafil). in your side, blood in your urine, and pain when you urinate. $O NOT TAKE 2%9!4!: WITH THE FOLLOWING MEDICINES s 3 OME PATIENTS WITH HEMOPHILIA have increased bleeding AS THEY MAY LOWER THE AMOUNT OF 2%9!4!: IN YOUR problems with protease inhibitor medicines like REYATAZ. BLOOD which may lead to increased HIV viral load and resistance to REYATAZ or other anti-HIV medicines: s #HANGES IN BODY FAT have been seen in some patients rifampin (also known as RimactaneŽ, RifadinŽ, RifaterŽ, taking anti-HIV medicines. The cause and long-term effects Ž or Rifamate ), St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum)are not known at this time. Ž containing products, or Viramune (nevirapine). s )MMUNE RECONSTITUTION SYNDROME has been seen in Serevent DiskusŽ (salmeterol) and AdvairŽ (salmeterol some patients with advanced HIV infection (AIDS) and with fluticasone) are NOT RECOMMENDED WITH 2%9!4!: a history of opportunistic infection. Signs and symptoms of inflammation from previous infections may occur soon after $O NOT TAKE VfendŽ (voriconazole) if you are taking starting anti-HIV treatment, including REYATAZ. REYATAZ and NorvirŽ (ritonavir). The above lists of medicines are not complete. 4AKING s 'ALLBLADDER DISORDERS (including gallstones and gallbladder inflammation) have been reported in patients taking REYATAZ. 2%9!4!: WITH SOME OTHER MEDICINES MAY REQUIRE YOUR THERAPY TO BE MONITORED MORE CLOSELY OR /THER COMMON SIDE EFFECTS of REYATAZ taken with other MAY REQUIRE A CHANGE IN DOSE OR DOSE SCHEDULE OF anti-HIV medicines include: nausea; headache; stomach 2%9!4!: OR THE OTHER MEDICINE Discuss with your pain; vomiting; diarrhea; depression; fever; dizziness; healthcare provider all prescription and non-prescription trouble sleeping; numbness, tingling, or burning medicines, vitamin and herbal supplements, or other health of hands or feet; and muscle pain. preparations you are taking or plan to take. You should take 2%9!4!: ONCE DAILY WITH 4ELL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IF YOU ARE PREGNANT FOOD (a meal or snack). Swallow the capsules OR PLAN TO BECOME PREGNANT REYATAZ use during whole; DO NOT OPEN THE CAPSULES 9OU pregnancy has not been associated with an increase in birth SHOULD TAKE 2%9!4!: AND YOUR OTHER defects. Pregnant women have experienced serious side ANTI ()6 MEDICINES EXACTLY AS effects when taking REYATAZ with other HIV medicines i N STRUCTED BY YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER called nucleoside analogues. !FTER YOUR 9OU ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT BABY IS BORN tell your healthcare provider if your NEGATIVE SIDE EFFECTS OF baby’s skin or the white part of his/her eyes turns yellow. PRESCRIPTION DRUGS TO THE &$! 9OU SHOULD NOT BREAST FEED if you are HIV-positive. 6ISIT WWW FDA GOV MEDWATCH !LSO TELL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IF YOU HAVE OR CALL &$! END STAGE KIDNEY DISEASE managed with hemodialysis or SEVERE LIVER DYSFUNCTION 2%9!4!: IS ONE OF SEVERAL TREATMENT OPTIONS YOUR Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any side DOCTOR MAY CONSIDER effects, symptoms, or conditions, including the following: s ILD RASH (redness and itching) without other symptoms 0LEASE SEE )MPORTANT sometimes occurs in patients taking REYATAZ, most often in the first few weeks after the medicine is started, 0ATIENT )NFORMATION ABOUT 2%9!4!: ON and usually goes away within 2 weeks with no change in treatment. THE ADJACENT PAGES REYATAZ is a registered trademark of Bristol-Myers Squibb. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners and not of Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Š 2011 Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, NJ 08543 U.S.A. 687US11AB06002 06/11
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DETERMINED + UNDETECTABLE REYATAZ CAN HELP GET YOU TO UNDETECTABLE, SO YOU CAN FIGHT HIV YOUR WAY.
ONCE-DAILY REYATAZ IN HIV COMBINATION THERAPY: s #AN HELP LOWER YOUR VIRAL LOAD TO UNDETECTABLE* and help raise your T-cell (CD4+ cell) count s (AS BEEN PRESCRIBED BY PHYSICIANS FOR MORE THAN 200,000 HIV patients since 2003 † s #AN BE TAKEN BY ADULTS WHO ARE STARTING ()6 treatment for the first time and adults who have already been on HIV treatment Do not take REYATAZ if you are allergic to REYATAZ or to any of its ingredients. REYATAZ does not cure HIV and has not been shown to reduce the risk of passing HIV to others. Individual results may vary.
Ask your healthcare team how REYATAZ in combination therapy can help get you to undetectable.
Fight HIV your way.
www.REYATAZ.com * Undetectable was defined as a viral load of less than 400 copies/mL. † Wolters Kluwer. SDI Product Brand
Report. Total Patient Tracker; November 2010.
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FDA-Approved Patient Labeling Patient Information
REYATAZ® (RAY-ah-taz) (generic name = atazanavir sulfate) Capsules ALERT: Find out about medicines that should NOT be taken with REYATAZ (atazanavir sulfate). Read the section “What important information should I know about taking REYATAZ with other medicines?” Read the Patient Information that comes with REYATAZ before you start using it and each time you get a refill. There may be new information. This leaflet provides a summary about REYATAZ and does not include everything there is to know about your medicine. This information does not take the place of talking with your healthcare provider about your medical condition or treatment. What is REYATAZ? REYATAZ is a prescription medicine used with other anti-HIV medicines to treat people 6 years of age and older who are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV is the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). REYATAZ is a type of anti-HIV medicine called a protease inhibitor. HIV infection destroys CD4+ (T) cells, which are important to the immune system. The immune system helps fight infection. After a large number of (T) cells are destroyed, AIDS develops. REYATAZ helps to block HIV protease, an enzyme that is needed for the HIV virus to multiply. REYATAZ may lower the amount of HIV in your blood, help your body keep its supply of CD4+ (T) cells, and reduce the risk of death and illness associated with HIV. Does REYATAZ cure HIV or AIDS? REYATAZ does not cure HIV infection or AIDS. At present there is no cure for HIV infection. People taking REYATAZ may still get opportunistic infections or other conditions that happen with HIV infection. Opportunistic infections are infections that develop because the immune system is weak. Some of these conditions are pneumonia, herpes virus infections, and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infections. It is very important that you see your healthcare provider regularly while taking REYATAZ. REYATAZ does not lower your chance of passing HIV to other people through sexual contact, sharing needles, or being exposed to your blood. For your health and the health of others, it is important to always practice safer sex by using a latex or polyurethane condom or other barrier to lower the chance of sexual contact with semen, vaginal secretions, or blood. Never use or share dirty needles. Who should not take REYATAZ? Do not take REYATAZ if you: N are taking certain medicines. (See “What important information should I know about taking REYATAZ with other medicines?”) Serious life-threatening side effects or death may happen. Before you take REYATAZ, tell your healthcare provider about all medicines you are taking or planning to take. These include other prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. N are allergic to REYATAZ or to any of its ingredients. The active ingredient is atazanavir sulfate. See the end of this leaflet for a complete list of ingredients in REYATAZ. Tell your healthcare provider if you think you have had an allergic reaction to any of these ingredients. What should I tell my healthcare provider before I take REYATAZ? Tell your healthcare provider: N If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. REYATAZ use during pregnancy has not been associated with an increase in birth defects. Pregnant women have experienced serious side effects when taking REYATAZ with other HIV medicines called nucleoside analogues. You and your healthcare provider will need to decide if REYATAZ is right for you. If you use REYATAZ while you are pregnant, talk to your healthcare provider about the Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry. N After your baby is born, tell your healthcare provider if your baby’s skin or the white part of his/her eyes turns yellow. N If you are breast-feeding. You should not breast-feed if you are HIV-positive because of the chance of passing HIV to your baby. Also, it is not known if REYATAZ can pass into your breast milk and if it can harm your baby. If you are a woman who has or will have a baby, talk with your healthcare provider about the best way to feed your baby. N If you have liver problems or are infected with the hepatitis B or C virus. See “What are the possible side effects of REYATAZ?” N If you have end stage kidney disease managed with hemodialysis. N If you have diabetes. See “What are the possible side effects of REYATAZ?” N If you have hemophilia. See “What are the possible side effects of REYATAZ?”
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REYATAZ® (atazanavir sulfate) N
About all the medicines you take including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Keep a list of your medicines with you to show your healthcare provider. For more information, see “What important information should I know about taking REYATAZ with other medicines?” and “Who should not take REYATAZ?” Some medicines can cause serious side effects if taken with REYATAZ. How should I take REYATAZ? N Take REYATAZ once every day exactly as instructed by your healthcare provider. Your healthcare provider will prescribe the amount of REYATAZ that is right for you. N Always take REYATAZ with food (a meal or snack) to help it work better. Swallow the capsules whole. Do not open the capsules. Take REYATAZ at the same time each day. If you are taking antacids or didanosine (VIDEX® or VIDEX® EC), take N REYATAZ 2 hours before or 1 hour after these medicines. N If you are taking medicines for indigestion, heartburn, or ulcers such as AXID® (nizatidine), PEPCID AC® (famotidine), TAGAMET® (cimetidine), ZANTAC® (ranitidine), AcipHex® (rabeprazole), NEXIUM® (esomeprazole), PREVACID® (lansoprazole), PRILOSEC® (omeprazole), or PROTONIX® (pantoprazole), talk to your healthcare provider. N Do not change your dose or stop taking REYATAZ without first talking with your healthcare provider. It is important to stay under a healthcare provider’s care while taking REYATAZ. N When your supply of REYATAZ starts to run low, get more from your healthcare provider or pharmacy. It is important not to run out of REYATAZ. The amount of HIV in your blood may increase if the medicine is stopped for even a short time. N If you miss a dose of REYATAZ, take it as soon as possible and then take your next scheduled dose at its regular time. If, however, it is within 6 hours of your next dose, do not take the missed dose. Wait and take the next dose at the regular time. Do not double the next dose. It is important that you do not miss any doses of REYATAZ or your other anti-HIV medicines. N If you take more than the prescribed dose of REYATAZ, call your healthcare provider or poison control center right away. What are the possible side effects of REYATAZ? The following list of side effects is not complete. Report any new or continuing symptoms to your healthcare provider. If you have questions about side effects, ask your healthcare provider. Your healthcare provider may be able to help you manage these side effects. The following side effects have been reported with REYATAZ: N mild rash (redness and itching) without other symptoms sometimes occurs in patients taking REYATAZ, most often in the first few weeks after the medicine is started. Rashes usually go away within 2 weeks with no change in treatment. Tell your healthcare provider if rash occurs. N severe rash: Rash may develop in association with other symptoms which could be serious and potentially cause death. If you develop a rash with any of the following symptoms stop using REYATAZ and call your healthcare provider right away: N shortness of breath N general ill feeling or “flu-like” symptoms N fever N muscle or joint aches N conjunctivitis (red or inflamed eyes, like “pink eye”) N blisters N mouth sores N swelling of your face N yellowing of the skin or eyes. These effects may be due to increases in bilirubin levels in the blood (bilirubin is made by the liver). Although these effects may not be damaging to your liver, skin, or eyes, call your healthcare provider promptly if your skin or the white part of your eyes turn yellow. N a change in the way your heart beats (heart rhythm change). Call your healthcare provider right away if you get dizzy or lightheaded. These could be symptoms of a heart problem. N diabetes and high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) sometimes happen in patients taking protease inhibitor medicines like REYATAZ. Some patients had diabetes before taking protease inhibitors while others did not. Some patients may need changes in their diabetes medicine. N if you have liver disease including hepatitis B or C, your liver disease may get worse when you take anti-HIV medicines like REYATAZ. N kidney stones have been reported in patients taking REYATAZ. If you develop signs or symptoms of kidney stones (pain in your side, blood in your urine, pain when you urinate) tell your healthcare provider promptly.
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REYATAZ® (atazanavir sulfate) N
some patients with hemophilia have increased bleeding problems with protease inhibitors like REYATAZ. N changes in body fat. These changes may include an increased amount of fat in the upper back and neck (“buffalo hump”), breast, and around the trunk. Loss of fat from the legs, arms, and face may also happen. The cause and long-term health effects of these conditions are not known at this time. N immune reconstitution syndrome. In some patients with advanced HIV infection (AIDS) and a history of opportunistic infection, signs and symptoms of inflammation from previous infections may occur soon after anti-HIV treatment, including REYATAZ, is started. Other common side effects of REYATAZ taken with other anti-HIV medicines include nausea; headache; stomach pain; vomiting; diarrhea; depression; fever; dizziness; trouble sleeping; numbness, tingling, or burning of hands or feet; and muscle pain. Gallbladder disorders (which may include gallstones and gallbladder inflammation) have been reported in patients taking REYATAZ. What important information should I know about taking REYATAZ with other medicines?
Do not take REYATAZ if you take the following medicines (not all brands may be listed; tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take). REYATAZ may cause serious, life-threatening side effects or death when used with these medicines. N Ergot medicines: dihydroergotamine, ergonovine, ergotamine, and methylergonovine such as CAFERGOT®, MIGRANAL®, D.H.E. 45®, ergotrate maleate, METHERGINE®, and others (used for migraine headaches). N ORAP® (pimozide, used for Tourette’s disorder). N PROPULSID® (cisapride, used for certain stomach problems). N Triazolam, also known as HALCION® (used for insomnia). N Midazolam, also known as VERSED® (used for sedation), when taken by mouth. Do not take the following medicines with REYATAZ because of possible serious side effects: N CAMPTOSAR® (irinotecan, used for cancer). N CRIXIVAN® (indinavir, used for HIV infection). Both REYATAZ and CRIXIVAN sometimes cause increased levels of bilirubin in the blood. N Cholesterol-lowering medicines MEVACOR® (lovastatin) or ZOCOR® (simvastatin). N UROXATRAL® (alfuzosin, used to treat benign enlargement of the prostate). N REVATIO® (sildenafil, used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension). Do not take the following medicines with REYATAZ because they may lower the amount of REYATAZ in your blood. This may lead to an increased HIV viral load. Resistance to REYATAZ or cross-resistance to other HIV medicines may develop: N Rifampin (also known as RIMACTANE®, RIFADIN®, RIFATER®, or RIFAMATE®, used for tuberculosis). N St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), an herbal product sold as a dietary supplement, or products containing St. John’s wort. N VIRAMUNE® (nevirapine, used for HIV infection). The following medicines are not recommended with REYATAZ: N SEREVENT DISKUS® (salmeterol) and ADVAIR® (salmeterol with fluticasone), used to treat asthma, emphysema/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease also known as COPD. Do not take the following medicine if you are taking REYATAZ and NORVIR® together: N VFEND® (voriconazole). The following medicines may require your healthcare provider to monitor your therapy more closely (for some medicines a change in the dose or dose schedule may be needed): N CIALIS® (tadalafil), LEVITRA® (vardenafil), or VIAGRA® (sildenafil), used to treat erectile dysfunction. REYATAZ may increase the chances of serious side effects that can happen with CIALIS, LEVITRA, or VIAGRA. Do not use CIALIS, LEVITRA, or VIAGRA while you are taking REYATAZ unless your healthcare provider tells you it is okay. N ADCIRCA® (tadalafil) or TRACLEER® (bosentan), used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension. N LIPITOR® (atorvastatin) or CRESTOR® (rosuvastatin). There is an increased chance of serious side effects if you take REYATAZ with this cholesterollowering medicine. N Medicines for abnormal heart rhythm: CORDARONE® (amiodarone), lidocaine, quinidine (also known as CARDIOQUIN®, QUINIDEX®, and others). N MYCOBUTIN® (rifabutin, an antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis).
REYATAZ® (atazanavir sulfate) N
BUPRENEX®, SUBUTEX®, SUBOXONE®, (buprenorphine or buprenorphine/ naloxone, used to treat pain and addiction to narcotic painkillers). N VASCOR® (bepridil, used for chest pain). N COUMADIN® (warfarin). N Tricyclic antidepressants such as ELAVIL® (amitriptyline), NORPRAMIN® (desipramine), SINEQUAN® (doxepin), SURMONTIL® (trimipramine), TOFRANIL® (imipramine), or VIVACTIL® (protriptyline). N Medicines to prevent organ transplant rejection: SANDIMMUNE® or NEORAL® (cyclosporin), RAPAMUNE® (sirolimus), or PROGRAF® (tacrolimus). N The antidepressant trazodone (DESYREL® and others). N Fluticasone propionate (FLONASE®, FLOVENT®), given by nose or inhaled to treat allergic symptoms or asthma. Your doctor may choose not to keep you on fluticasone, especially if you are also taking NORVIR®. N Colchicine (COLCRYS®), used to prevent or treat gout or treat familial Mediterranean fever. The following medicines may require a change in the dose or dose schedule of either REYATAZ or the other medicine: N INVIRASE® (saquinavir). N NORVIR® (ritonavir). N SUSTIVA® (efavirenz). N Antacids or buffered medicines. N VIDEX® (didanosine). N VIREAD® (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate). N MYCOBUTIN® (rifabutin). N Calcium channel blockers such as CARDIZEM® or TIAZAC® (diltiazem), COVERA-HS® or ISOPTIN SR® (verapamil) and others. N BIAXIN® (clarithromycin). N Medicines for indigestion, heartburn, or ulcers such as AXID® (nizatidine), PEPCID AC® (famotidine), TAGAMET® (cimetidine), or ZANTAC® (ranitidine). Talk to your healthcare provider about choosing an effective method of contraception. REYATAZ may affect the safety and effectiveness of hormonal contraceptives such as birth control pills or the contraceptive patch. Hormonal contraceptives do not prevent the spread of HIV to others. Remember: 1. Know all the medicines you take. 2. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take. 3. Do not start a new medicine without talking to your healthcare provider. How should I store REYATAZ? N Store REYATAZ Capsules at room temperature, 59° to 86° F (15° to 30° C). Do not store this medicine in a damp place such as a bathroom medicine cabinet or near the kitchen sink. N Keep your medicine in a tightly closed container. N Keep all medicines out of the reach of children and pets at all times. Do not keep medicine that is out of date or that you no longer need. Dispose of unused medicines through community take-back disposal programs when available or place REYATAZ in an unrecognizable, closed container in the household trash. General information about REYATAZ This medicine was prescribed for your particular condition. Do not use REYATAZ for another condition. Do not give REYATAZ to other people, even if they have the same symptoms you have. It may harm them. Keep REYATAZ and all medicines out of the reach of children and pets. This summary does not include everything there is to know about REYATAZ. Medicines are sometimes prescribed for conditions that are not mentioned in patient information leaflets. Remember no written summary can replace careful discussion with your healthcare provider. If you would like more information, talk with your healthcare provider or you can call 1-800-321-1335. What are the ingredients in REYATAZ? Active Ingredient: atazanavir sulfate Inactive Ingredients: Crospovidone, lactose monohydrate (milk sugar), magnesium stearate, gelatin, FD&C Blue #2, and titanium dioxide. VIDEX® and REYATAZ® are registered trademarks of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. COUMADIN® and SUSTIVA® are registered trademarks of Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company. DESYREL® is a registered trademark of Mead Johnson and Company. Other brands listed are the trademarks of their respective owners and are not trademarks of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. Princeton, NJ 08543 USA 1246226A9
F1-B0001B-02-11
Rev February 2011
12 - 25 OCT 2011
8/ Crime
Out Gay Prosecutor Leads Narcotics Unit BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
A
fter New York’s Legislature enacted same-sex marriage earlier this year, Marc J. Fliedner and other attorneys and staff in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office went to the Sheraton Brooklyn to celebrate. They were joined by Charles J. Hynes, the district attorney himself. “He came over to the Sheraton and raised a glass and a toast and wished us the happiness that he’s had in 50-some odd years of marriage,” Fliedner said during an interview in his office. That is a very different experience than working in Monmouth County, New Jersey, heading a sex crimes prosecution unit from 1992 to 2001. Fliedner had a wife and two children and was working in law enforcement, which can be less than accepting of homosexuality. “My participation in this career probably made it both harder and sadder that I couldn’t come out,” said Fliedner, now 49. “I would have to say
that I see a significant difference in that now. This is an office where you can thrive being in my position.” It helps that Fliedner is in Brooklyn. If a prosecutor can be described as progressive, then that would be Hynes. His office offers alternatives to prison programs for drug users and has a re-entry program for inmates returning from incarceration that has reduced recidivism. Working with the state courts, it has established special courts, such as drug and domestic violence courts. The Family Justice Center, a unit within the District Attorney’s office, aids domestic violence victims. Hynes has regularly marched in Brooklyn’s Gay Pride Parade and has been very public in cases that concern the queer community. He had the highest profile among numerous elected officials who spoke out about the 2006 killing of Michael Sandy, a gay man, and he was out front on the prosecution of the killers of José Sucuzhanay, an Ecuadorian man who was mistaken for gay and beaten to death in 2008. The defendants Hynes’ office prosecut-
GAY CITY NEWS
In Brooklyn DA office, Marc J. Fliedner leads anti-drug push
Executive Assistant District Attorney Marc J. Fliedner is Brooklyn’s chief of the Major Narcotics Investigations Bureau.
ed in those cases are in prison. Fliedner began his legal career in 1987 in the Brooklyn District Attor ney’s office right after graduating from law school. He departed for Monmouth County in 1992 and then had a private practice in New Jersey from 2001 to 2006. He represented people who had been sexually assaulted as children
Most recently, he was promoted to executive assistant district attor ney and chief of the Major Narcotics Investigations Bureau. That job brings Fliedner’s career back to managing, something he was doing in Monmouth County and an aspect of the job that he missed. He has 17 attorneys and investigators working for him, plus other staff. It also keeps him prosecuting felony cases. “Other than homicides, this is really one of the only venues where you are looking at A1 felony sentencing situations,” Fliedner said. His unit does not run small buy and bust operations. “The objective is that dealing on either community complaints or intelligence that is generated through law enforcement sources, we are trying to attack a whole enterprise and its various layers — and by virtue of that, have a higher impact,” Fliedner said. While the trade in narcotics is certainly less visible than it once was in New York City and seemingly less of a concern to the public, there remain places in Brooklyn where it thrives. “They’re not as serious as they were back in the day, back in the ‘80s perhaps, driving everything, but there are still pockets of activity in certain communities in Brooklyn where there is a lot of cocaine and heroin trafficking,”
“I thought, ‘Could I come back and work comfortably out as a prosecutor?’” and were suing the institutions where the assaults took place. In 2006, he returned to Brooklyn. “It wasn’t Brooklyn and it wasn’t Joe Hynes,” Fliedner said of Monmouth County. “I thought, ‘Could I come back and work comfortably out as a prosecutor?’ I will say that that has worked out tremendously well because he is somebody who is just, and he clearly respects my work and my work ethic.” Working for a district attor ney who has a reputation for not tolerating assistants who lose cases, Fliedner eventually joined the homicide unit, which was a return to one of the macho areas of law enforcement. “There’s no question that homicide has always been the bastion of testosterone in a DA’s office,” Fliedner said. “It was sort of an interesting sociological experiment when I went in as a definitively out prosecutor.”
Fliedner said. Arrests for possessing small amounts of marijuana have driven arrests in America’s so-called war on drugs, and that has drawn objections from progressive groups. For Fliedner, the people who run marijuana sales are not benign. “There is a very booming and profitable marijuana trade which brings with it... a really violent element,” he said. “Most often, where we’re seeing guns in association with organized narcotics activity, it’s in the marijuana sales. It’s more lucrative, it’s faster turnover, and there is more of a motivation for people to maintain their turf.” The new position keeps Fliedner in the work that he most enjoys. “I love being a prosecutor,” he said. “I love being a law enforcement official.”
12 - 25 OCT 2011
Perspective /9 A Hopeful Sign that NYC Marijuana Arrests May Subside BY NATHAN RILEY
T
he New York City Police Department has extended an olive branch aimed at stilling the controversy surrounding the fingerprinting and jailing of people carrying small amounts of marijuana. Three weeks ago, Commissioner Ray Kelly directed officers to simply issue a ticket rather than making an arrest when marijuana found on a suspect is not in public view. The new policy is a tribute to the powerful evidence put forward by a Queens College sociology professor showing that white people are seldom arrested for marijuana possession, while black and brown New Yorkers are taken in at an evergrowing rate. Professor Harry G. Levine calls New York City the “marijuana arrest capital of the world.” The arrest debate is tied to broader grievances over “stop and frisk” policies that encourage cops to search individuals
for suspicious conduct. The NYPD believes aggressive policing deters individuals from carrying guns and helped reduce homicides from 2,605 in 1990 to as low as 781 in 2009. The policy, however, leads to
it represents a thaw from the hardnosed attitude projected by Kelly in City Council budget hearings earlier this year. In March, the commissioner refused to change the approach toward marijuana arrests.
Kelly’s new directive does not alter stop and frisk, but it should protect individuals from criminal charges. constant searches of people who are obeying the law and about whom many policemen end up lying in order to justify the stop and frisk conducted. Kelly’s new directive does not alter stop and frisk, but it should protect individuals from criminal charges and having their fingerprints taken. While not a fundamental change in the NYPD’s posture toward black and brown communities,
“If you think the law is not written correctly, then you should petition the State Legislature to change it,” he said. That is exactly what a Brooklyn assemblyman and a Buffalo state senator did, proposing a bill expanding on a reform statute from 1977 that made marijuana possession of up to 25 grams outside of public view a ticketable violation rather than a misdemeanor crime. The pro-
posed new bill would make all such possession, private and in public view, a violation carrying no jail time or criminal record. Sponsor Mark Grisanti, a Republican senator from Buffalo, represents a heavily AfricanAmerican district, while Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries is an African-American Democrat from Brooklyn. In August, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a program to help minority youth in the criminal justice system but made no acknowledgement of how the pot bust policy was putting so many of them “into the “system.” City Council members responded with a resolution supporting the Grisanti-Jeffries legislation, a clear signal that a serious backlash against the NYPD policy had emerged. A marijuana arrest can have serious consequences. Public housing officials, for example, can use it as pretext for evicting a family. White youth are rarely
saddled with such a record that makes it difficult to get hired, while minority youth, already encountering trouble finding a job, are given records in growing numbers. Angry lawmakers who want to end the “school to prison pipeline” welcomed the change in policy. Jeffries said it is a step forward. At a new conference, he argued either marijuana use is criminal or it is not. “It can’t be criminal for one group of people and socially acceptable for another, when the dividing line is race,” he argued. Using Professor Levine’s research, WNYC Radio prepared an interactive map of “marijuana arrests” that shows how stop and frisks vary by precinct. In my neighborhood on the Upper West Side, the 24th precinct conducts 23 stops per thousand persons and makes 1.1 arrests. Go to East Harlem in the 23rd
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MARIJUANA, continued on p.15
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12 - 25 OCT 2011
10/ Remembrance 䉴
ETTELBRICK, from p.1
ney and later as legal director, from 1986 until 1993; at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), as policy director, in 1993 and 1994; at the Empire State Pride Agenda, as legislative counsel, from 1994 until 1999; at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, as director of family policy, from 1999 until 2001; as executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) from 2003 until 2009; and since then, as the first woman to lead the Stonewall Community Foundation, a philanthropic grant-making agency that supports LGBT organizations in New York and nationwide. Born on a US Army base in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1955, Ettelbrick graduated from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb with a degree in art history in 1978 and received her law degree from Wayne State University in Detroit in 1984. Recalling the career that followed, Richard Burns, who stepped in as interim executive director of the Stonewall Community Foundation in the wake of Ettelbrick’s resignation in August, said, “There are countless LGBTQ citizens around the world whose lives are better today because of Paula.” In a message distributed via email from Brazil on the day of her death, Cary Alan Johnson, who succeeded Ettelbrick at the helm of IGLHRC, wrote, “First and foremost I can say that I found her to be so genuinely, deeply, unfalteringly committed to our liberation as LGBT people. She also had a deep respect for all progressive movements and causes. Paula was one of the most sophisticated strategists I’ve ever met.” In her work at IGLHRC, Ettelbrick strove with particular focus to educate American activists about the need to follow the lead of LGBTQ communities on the ground in countries where the group was seeking to provide support. Goldberg, who remained close to her former
NEWS BRIEFS Supreme Court Refuses to Take Up Gay Adoption Case The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of an April ruling by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that dismissed a lawsuit brought by a gay couple seeking a proper birth certificate for the Louisiana-born child they jointly adopted in New York. The court’s action, announced October 11 without comment, lets stand a decision by the Louisiana registrar of birth certificates, Dar-
Paula Ettelbrick, 1955-2011.
partner until Ettelbrick’s death, said that the work at IGLHRC shifted her focus from a “constitutional” perspective to one founded in “human rights.” A major thrust of the work, she added, was to put the “responsibility” on governments and existing human rights movements,
leadership.” Sue Hyde, who directs the Task Force’s annual Creating Change conference, wrote that Ettelbrick’s “story is incomplete without calling forward her inspiring and visionary work as a community organizer par excellence.” It was Ettelbrick, Hyde said, who pioneered efforts to increase the representation of LGBT Americans in the US Census, at a time “when to do so was regarded as quixotic.” Calling her “a great hero,” Ross Levi, ESPA’s executive director, noted that as the group’s general counsel, Ettelbrick took the lead in negotiating provisions of the city’s 1997 domestic partnership law with Mayor Rudy Giuliani. At the time that law was enacted, it was the most comprehensive package of such benefits in the US. Kate Kendall, who heads up NCLR, said, “Paula was possessed of singular intelligence, integrity, ferocity, and wit. She was also unfailingly generous and open-hearted. She will be missed as a tireless advocate of the most disenfranchised.”
Ettelbrick was proudest of her initiatives to ensure domestic partnership rights, beginning in New York City, and her efforts to protect lesbian custody rights. many of which had never advocated on behalf of LGBT people, to ensure greater equality. Rea Carey, executive director of the Task Force, wrote, “I will truly miss Paula — her sass, her smarts, and her smile. She was supportive of me and of other women in leadership positions. In fact, upon becoming the executive director of the Task Force, I received a note card from her along with a contribution to the Task Force in honor of women’s
Kevin Cathcart, Lambda Legal’s executive director, recalled, “When Paula Ettelbrick came to Lambda Legal 25 years ago to fight for the rights of gay men and lesbians, it took not only vision and a passion for justice –– it also took courage to stand up in court and in the public eye during that earlier time in our history. Paula was fearless.” In her work at Lambda, NCLR, the Pride Agenda, and the Task Force,
Ettelbrick aggressively maintained that the fight to expand rights and protections for gay and lesbian couples and families must benefit as broad a definition of family as possible. In 1993, in a collection edited by William Rubenstein titled “Lesbian, Gay Men and the Law,” Ettelbrick wrote an essay “Since When Is Marriage a Path to Liberation?” that spelled out a feminist critique of how the institution had historically constrained the freedom and rights of women. The community, she argued, should be pressing for social and legal changes to support alternative family structures truer to the reality of queer lives. Writing earlier this year in Washington’s Metro Weekly, Chris Geidner looked back at the “intellectual sparring” at Lambda Legal between Ettelbrick and staff attorney Evan Wolfson, who now heads up Freedom to Marry, over what posture the legal advocacy group should adopt toward what was then an incipient marriage equality movement. A decade ago, Ettelbrick reiterated her reservations about a narrowlyfocused push for marriage rights at a forum moderated by this reporter; her arguments created no small amount of consternation among the panel’s organizers from Marriage Equality New York. Goldberg told Gay City News that Ettelbrick was proudest of her initiatives to ensure domestic partnership rights, beginning in New York City, and her efforts to protect lesbian custody rights, very often under attack in divorces and partnership break-ups. In addition to her leadership roles in the community, Ettelbrick taught courses on law and sexuality at Barnard, Columbia Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, New York University School of Law, and Wayne State. Goldberg said that a memorial service for Ettelbrick will be announced at a later date.
By PAUL SCHINDLER
lene Smith, who refused to issue a new birth certificate for a child born there and legally adopted by Mickey Smith and Oren Adar at the age of five. Following instructions from the state attorney general, Smith argued Louisiana does not allow adoptions by unmarried couples and should not be required to do anything that could be construed as allowing a same-sex couple to adopt –– or have any kind of legal status at all. A district court judge had ruled in the couple’s favor based on the US Constitution’s Full Faith and
Credit Clause, finding that it was unnecessary to move on to any analysis of their equal protection claim. In 2010, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit also found for the couple, but ruled that the trial court needn’t even have decided the full faith and credit claim since Louisiana law clearly requires the registrar to issue the new birth certificate as a ministerial function. Republican Attorney General James D. “Buddy” Caldwell, however, asked for “en banc” review by the full Fifth Circuit, which ruled in April that the lower federal courts
lack jurisdiction in such cases. A plaintiff, the majority found, must first seek relief in state court, and failing there, appeal to the US Supreme Court. Despite that finding, ten of the 11 judges in the Fifth Circuit majority gratuitously stated that the full faith and credit claim would fail on the merits in any event. Some members of the majority also found that the couple’s equal protection claim lacked merit, drawing a forceful dissent from a colleague who challenged their reasoning on that point and also argued the
issue was not properly before the appeals panel since the district court had not taken it up. In a statement from Lambda Legal, which represents the couple, supervising senior staff attorney Kenneth D. Upton said, “The Supreme Court is leaving untouched a dangerous Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that carves out an exception to the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the US Constitution and to the uniformly recognized respect for judgments that states have come to rely upon. This decision leaves adopted chil-
dren and their parents vulnerable in their interactions with officials from other states.” Lambda had argued the Tenth Circuit came to a different conclusion regarding a similar birth certificate controversy involving an Oklahoma statute. However, according to Jennifer Pizer, the legal director of the UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute on sexual orientation law and public policy, the Fifth Circuit’s ruling was the only one to posit the view that the lower federal courts
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BRIEFS, continued on p.17
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
12 –25 OCT 2011
■ LEGAL
With DADT Repeal, Log Cabin Victory Vacated
11
THE KUBA LAW FIRM
Saying issue is “moot,” Ninth Circuit renders 2010 ruling on constitutionality a nullity BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
F
inding that the “case or controversy” that gave rise to the Log Cabin Republicans’ (LCR) lawsuit challenging the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy’s constitutionality and enforcement was put to rest by the September 20 repeal, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the court has no jurisdiction to decide the government’s appeal of District Judge Virginia Phillips’ decision to strike down the policy last year. Since the government will not have its day in court to challenge her ruling that the anti-gay policy violated the Fifth Amendment due process rights and First Amendment free speech rights of gay and lesbian service members, the San Francisco-based panel’s September 29 ruling vacated Phillips’ decision and returned the case to the District Court with instructions to dismiss it as moot. Phillips’ decision will therefore effectively be wiped off the books and rendered a nullity. Phillips’ ruling was in force for several days last fall before the Ninth Circuit stayed it pending the government’s appeal, and the status of her decision was called into question once President Barack Obama signed the DADT Repeal Act on December 22. That law did not immediately end the policy nor did it affirmatively establish the rights of gays and lesbians to serve in the military. Instead, it required the president, defense secretary, and chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to certify that ending the policy would not impair military effectiveness before moving on its demise. Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and Joint Chiefs Chair Michael Mullen made that certification in late July, which allowed the Pentagon to end DADT 60 days later. In early 2011, the gover nment moved to put the case on hold while the steps spelled out by the Repeal Act were carried out. LCR’s counsel, Dan Woods of White & Case, argued that the law’s provisions were conditional and uncertain, and the court denied the government’s request to suspend the proceedings. Parties were instructed to submit briefs on the government’s challenge to Phillips’ ruling and on LCR’s appeal of her dismissal of the group’s equal protection claims. The government made the argument
that in the wake of the Repeal Act, the question of DADT’s constitutionality was no longer at play and that instead the issue was whether the mechanism Congress adopted establishing the conditions for repeal was constitutional. Although the repeal was certified in July, the panel heard argument on September 1, at which time LCR made the case that even if the policy expired on September 20, its challenge remained significant for several reasons. The Repeal Act merely allowed the Pentagon to end the policy, it did not require the military to open up service to gay and lesbian soldiers, nor did it give them nondiscrimination protections. Even if DADT goes away, the Executive Branch retains a free hand to set conditions on gay and lesbian service — under Obama or any successor. LCR also pointed to other cases and claims for injuries suffered by individuals due to DADT’s past enforcement that are pending in the courts or could be brought. The policy’s constitutionality is relevant to those cases, so the appeal process should be allowed to play out, the group argued. But the government persuaded the court that well established precedent holds that if Congress repeals a statute subject to constitutional challenge, a lawsuit mounting that claim is moot as is any district court finding for the plaintiffs. The appeals panel pointed out that LCR’s standing as a plaintiff was limited to seeking a declaration the policy was unconstitutional and an injunction against its enforcement. With the policy repealed, an injunction against its enforcement would be meaningless. The possibility that Congress or the Executive would reinstate the policy or a similar constraint on gay and lesbian service members serving openly was purely speculative, the panel found. Responding to LCR’s argument that the constitutional question was relevant to other claims regarding past enforcement of DADT, the panel wrote, “Because Log Cabin has stated its intention to use the district court’s judgment collaterally, we will be clear: It may not. Nor may its members or anyone else. We vacate the district court’s judgment, injunction, opinions,
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DADT, continued on p.15
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12/ Perspective ■ A DYKE ABROAD PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER JOHN W. SUTTER
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T
he 2011 Nobel Committee, on October 7, split the Peace Prize among Liberians Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni writer Tawakkol Karman, recognizing them “… for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” It’s one of only 12 Peace Prizes given to women in the 112 years of the award, and the first for an Arab woman. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is probably the most conventional of the three — a Harvard-trained economist who became postcolonial Africa’s first woman president. Elected in 2005, she’s worked to promote development for her impoverished country, getting 4 billion dollars in foreign debts forgiven and supporting the rights of women and girls. The Liberian activist that made her election possible was sister laureate Leymah Gbowee, who worked first as a trauma counselor with former child soldiers before participating in the fledgling women’s peace movement trying to end years of bloody civil war, widespread rapes, and the kidnapping of children to force them into combat. The movement began in Monrovia in 2002 with a daily peace encampment near a small market where women dressed in white, fasting and praying. Gbowee joined them, working to unite Muslim and Christian
women and developing additional strategies. One tactic was a sex strike to persuade husbands to support the peace movement. It was extremely successful. Another time, they threatened curses. Not long after a huge march on Monrovia’s City Hall in 2003, dictator Charles Taylor agreed to meet with his opponents. Three days later, there was a ceasefire. Soon after that, all sides negotiated an agreement that has held up, thanks to ongoing work. Taylor is currently awaiting a verdict at the Hague after being tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The women’s peace movement in Liberia has sparked interest all over the continent, encouraging women in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Zimbabwe to begin putting pressure on their own governments. The third laureate, Tawakkul Karman, a journalist and leader in Yemen’s democratic revolt, has been equally inspiring to women in the Arab world. The head of Women Jour nalists without Chains, she’s a longtime critic of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, organizing protests since 2007 to demand rights for women and increased press freedom. It was her arrest in January that sparked massive protests demanding a democratic government. Since her release, she’s been with the other protesters in “Change Square,”
despite very real fears she’ll be murdered or kidnapped. Like other women protesters from the Arab Spring, she’s faced not only threats from her government, but also from conservative forces in her own Islamic opposition party, Islah, who have denounced her uncovered face and close contact with men. Her own father was opposed and tried to get her to stop, but when she wouldn’t he finally joined her. Like the Liberian activists, the growing visibility of Karman is hugely important for women in the region. She’s openly called for women to take to the streets. They’re responding in droves, though most keep to the back of demos and wear abayas and face veils. It’s difficult to say what these awards mean for lesbians in Central Africa or Yemen. Even in democratic countries, we’re often excluded from women’s movements and our work rarely sees the light of day. The day these three extraordinary women were informed of their award, for example, a South African court finally offered some small measure of justice in the murder of lesbian activist Zoliswa Nkonyana, who was beaten, kicked, and stoned to death six years ago by a gang of youths. The trial was postponed more than 50 times by a reluctant justice system and the incompetence and bigotry of local cops, but in
the end, at least four out of the 20 accused were found guilty. The fact that the trial was held at all was due to pressure from groups like FreeGender, a black lesbian organization in Capetown whose founder Funeka Soldaat said that though they were happy about the judgment, too many people had been acquitted due to police incompetence. She helped found the group because lesbians were being raped and killed and nobody cared. Mobilizing was tough. “Lesbians were too scared to attend public demonstrations,” she said. Creating FreeGender would let them stand as a group against homophobia, hold workshops, and try to get cops trained. The group has come a long way. In June, it hosted the first national black lesbian conference in South Africa and participated in a groundbreaking Department of Justice task force aimed at combating the wave of rapes targeting lesbians there. The LGBT community could take a page from Nobel Committee’s book and do more to highlight the work of queer activists like Funeka Soldaat, both with funding and recognition. It’s how more activists are inspired. For baby dykes, activists, and anybody who’s ever wanted to save the world, visit the Lesbian Avenger Documentary Project at lesbianavengers.com. Check out Kelly Sans Culotte at http://kellyatlarge.blogspot.com/.
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■ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR >> EDITOR@GAYCITYNEWS.COM
SHIRKING A PUBLIC DUTY
Web master Arturo Jimenez Arturo@gaycitynews.com Gay City News, The Newspaper Serving Gay and Lesbian NYC, is published by Community Media, LLC. Send all inquiries to: Gay City News, 515 Canal Street, Unit 1C, NYC 10013 Phone: 646.452.2500 Written permission of the publisher must be obtained before any of the contents of this paper, in part or whole, can be reproduced or redistributed. All contents (c) 2010 Gay City News.
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Subscriptions: 26 issues, $90.00 (c)2011 Gay City News. All rights reserved.
October 5, 2011 To the Editor: I am a resident of Ledyard, New York, where Rose Belforti is refusing to sign samesex marriage licenses (“Anti-Gay Marriage NY Town Clerk Wangles Extraordinary Accommodation,” by Duncan Osborne, posted online on Sep. 30; updated on page 2W). I went to the September town board meeting and requested, along with many others, that she resign. Since then, I have been active in Ed Easter’s write-in campaign to defeat her in November. Easter decided to oppose Rose after attending the last town board meeting.
She will appear on the ballot, endorsed by the Republican Party. Letters of support and/ or donations can be sent to: Elect Ed Easter, PO Box 153, Aurora, New York 13026. Greg Robbins Ledyard, New York
PASSING AND PUMPING September 15, 2011 To the Editor: Paul Schindler’s “Moving Beyond Shock on Transgender Health,” (Sep. 14-27) is an excellent article. My experience is that dis-
cussing the risks of “pumping” with young trans women has zero effect on discouraging them from “being pumped.” As the article says, it is all about passing and being attractive. Let’s hope progress will come soon on better health coverage for trans people. Grandma Turtle, Transwoman Via Gaycitynews.com
AN HONOR TO OFFICIATE September 10, 2011 To the Editor: I am so thrilled that my home state of New York has finally given the green light to mar-
riage equality. Although I’m not gay myself, I have both family and friends who are and they deserve the right to be treated equally. I am a Humanist Celebrant, and have already been registered with the City Clerk in New York City to perform marriage ceremonies since 2005. Similar registration is not required in other parts of New York State. I consider it an honor to help any couple make the ultimate commitment to love, respect, and honor each other for the rest of their lives, and it would be a special honor to do so for LGBT couples, who have fought so hard to win that right. Maureen Mower moeloe1126@aol.com Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
12 - 25 OCT 2011
Perspective /13
■ SNIDE LINES
Occupy Wall Street’s Inner-Peace Officers BY SUSIE DAY
A
lthough the Wall Street Occupation is galvanizing about 84 percent of the marginalized 99 percent, no one stops to think that it’s the New York Police Department that helps to make this possible. If New York City cops hadn’t arrested more than 700 peaceful marchers on the Brooklyn Bridge and pepper-sprayed the unresisting eyeballs of nonviolent protesters, thousands of ordinary people would have been deprived of that can-do, fight-the-power feeling so necessary for social upheaval. Yet cops have been slow to take credit for their part in the fight against free-market injustice. Time, then, someone said, “Thanks, cops.” To show my appreciation for the NYPD — yea, cops worldwide — I have devised a series of police empowerment workshops, which may be presented, for a nominal fee, at any precinct. Exercise 1: Centering Few people realize the psychic brutality that the police face at a mass demonstration when up against whining, Billof-Rights know-it-alls. So we must create a safe, nurtur ing space that will allow the
inner cop to heal. Have cops form a circle, cross-legged on the floor. (Gently discourage self-ridicule if the cartilage in their knees keeps popping; this is a sign of change and should be affirmed.) Now ask cops to close their eyes and
through a beautiful, deserted alley. Now, enjoin cops to imagine catching these thugs and smashing their heads — nonviolently — against city dumpsters. Play a CD of T ibetan temple bells and whale noises. Burn sage.
Few people realize the psychic brutality that the police face at a mass demonstration when up against whining, Bill-of-Rights know-it-alls. imagine a big, glowing ball of navy-blue light in the middle of their circle. Suggest they relax, breathe, and just be. Ask cops to imagine that, with each breath, this light enters their heavy shoes, travels up their uniforms, through their billy clubs, their stunguns, all the way to their badge chakras, until it bursts out of their police hats in an arc of radiant energy — their police “force,” if you will. Ask cops to use this force to imagine themselves, perfectly safe and relaxed, chasing anti-globalization thugs in slow motion
Exercise 2: Breaking Down Stereotypes Have cops center. Pass out paper and pencils. Ask cops to go deep within themselves, and then write down all the myths and vicious put-downs about police that they have encountered from bigoted civilians. Examples: Cops ar e mor e likely to stop and frisk a person of color than a Caucasian because it makes them look “cool.” Cops have an extra muscle in their brains that prevents them from answering calls for help in poor or nonwhite neighborhoods. Cops
mostly bust black people for smoking marijuana because the police are part of a conspiracy to create a global “prisonindustrial complex,” etc., etc. Channel the energy flow so that cops begin to experience their innate cop-consciousness. When did they realize they were “that way?” Were they born cops, or were they traumatically initiated into “the life” by another cop? Give cops time to see themselves as part of a cutting-edge, stylishly oppressed in-group. Are there cop tendencies? Mannerisms? Would they feel more validated in a separatist “police state?” Discuss. Exercise 3: Letting Your Cops Out to Play Your cops are now ready to move from fantasy to reality. Ask them to center and visualize themselves lying on a beautiful, warm beach. Watch their gruff exteriors melt away as you explain that there is a great Scheme of Things, and that each of them has a place in it. Yes, like grains of sand on this beach — or tiny strands of chorizo in a cosmic meat grinder — every cop is part of the Whole. And, as a single drop of seawater contains the
entire ocean, within each cop is the entire US Department of Homeland Security. While cops are thus deeply relaxed, calmly ask them to imagine that the United States now holds more than 2.4 million prisoners, about two-thirds of whom were unemployed before incarceration or had yearly incomes of $5,000 or less. As cops sink further into bliss, get them to picture the recent, tough-oncrime laws that send people to prison for life for relatively minor offenses, the new immigrant detention centers and supermax prisons, and the long-term isolation punishment at prisons like Pelican Bay, where hunger strikes are prisoners’ last remaining calls for help. Cops should experience complete empowerment and peace with their world — most of which is now behind bars. Now ask cops to open their eyes. Voilà! It’s all real! There is a God! Everyone exchange email addresses. Group hug! And the next time those cops bust a bunch of complaining radicals, they’ll do it with pride — and an awareness that they work for a Higher Power.
The Disturbing Message of “Beyond Scared Straight” BY EILEEN MCDERMOTT
A
s a journalist who started out writing for the LGBT media and a member of the LGBT community myself, I am very concerned about the potentially homophobic messages being reinforced by A&E Network’s show “Beyond Scared Straight.” I understand that the series, which recently launched a second season, is aimed at rehabilitating troubled teens on their way to prison by subjecting them to a hazing ritual by real prisoners –– an approach meant to raise eyebrows. But I have concerns that the program is actually perpetuating and even condoning violence against gay teens. Behaviors that are accepted
and encouraged during the program include threatening to dress the kids up in women’s
kids watching the show. Those comments are perpetuating the verbal abuse and violence that
Doesn’t a distinction somehow need to be made to explain that the rape dynamics and homophobic comments are about power rather than sexuality? clothing, calling them faggots, and threatening rape. I understand the intent of this intimidation is to scare the kids straight, but… is that also meant literally? It would seem so. There are gay kids among those teens on the program, rest assured. And there are gay
goes on in schoolyards everyday –– and that is resulting in suicides all over the country. This is not the time for a show that uses bullying as a behavior modification tactic. I think someone from the show needs to address these troubling implications of
“Beyond Scared Straight.” I understand that prison is what it is –– we’re not going to end homophobic, violent behavior among inmates as long as it thrives, largely unchecked, on the outside. But doesn’t the program at least need to emphasize that such behavior is wrong and unacceptable, rather than implicitly encouraging it? And doesn’t a distinction somehow need to be made to explain that the rape dynamics and homophobic comments are about power rather than sexuality? Why is the prison guards’ unmistakable role in cultivating these behaviors glossed over? At the end of the day, these kids are not prisoners. They
are 12(!) to 17-year-olds who are going back out onto the street and into the schoolyards. One teen was getting into fights because he said he was being called gay and accused of looking gay. The show’s solution was to have the prisoners bully him and call him sissy and faggot in order to scare him into staying out of jail. I don’t see how this is helping that kid, who could very well be gay and now be coping with far more selfhatred than before, thanks to A&E. He was not doing well in the follow-up sequence, and I’m not surprised. Being taunted and bullied makes kids angry or desperate. It doesn’t make them straight in any sense of the word.
12 - 25 OCT 2011
14/ Education
Path to LGBT Education Unclear in New York California law mandating inclusive history curriculum may be safe for now BY ANDY HUMM
O
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has total control over the New York City schools and could initiate LGBT history if he chose to. After California enacted SB48, its FAIR Education Act, to do just that, O’Donnell heard Regents’ chair Merryl Tisch say she was “positively inclined, but noncommittal” on mandating LGBT history in New York. A call to Tisch for clarification was not returned by press time. Assemblyman Matt Titone, a Staten Island Democrat who is gay, said he “fully supports the concept,” but echoed O’Donnell’s point that curricula in New York State “is in the hands of professionals.” The Regents are appointed by the Legislature, and Titone said he would approach the borough’s representative, Christine Cea, on the matter.
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pponents of California’s new law mandating the teaching of LGBT history in public schools say they have fallen short in their current drive to put a referendum striking it down on the 2012 ballot. The statute goes into effect January 1, though anti-gay forces may yet have other tricks for overturning it up their sleeves. New York supporters of such inclusive education are getting in gear, but legislation is not an option. Out gay City Councilman Daniel Dromm, a Jackson Heights Democrat, is pushing a resolution calling on the city Department of Education to integrate LGBT history into the curriculum. Regarding the chances of bringing about inclusive instruction statewide, Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, an out gay West Side Democrat, said that in New York, unlike California, “We do not legislate curricula. We have the Board of Regents to do those things.” He added that he hopes the Regents will see to it “that our lives are reflected in history.”
Tommy Craven, an out gay recent high school graduate spoke at the October 11 City Hall press conference, flanked by gay historian Jonathan Ned Katz, PFLAG’s Suzanne Ramos and Drew Tagliabue, Councilman Daniel Dromm, and Reverend Ron Tompkins, a Methodist educator. The group held up pictures of LGBT historical figures including Gertrude Stein, Harvey Milk, Billie Jean King, and Bayard Rustin.
Dromm gathered advocates for LGBT education at City Hall on October 11, National Coming Out Day, to press for action. “A comprehensive curriculum that includes LGBT Americans leads to a greater feeling of safety and a better sense of self among students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression,” Dromm, who was out as a fourth grade teacher in Queens, said in his release. Tommy Craven, an out gay young man who graduated from high school in Jasper, Indiana, in May, said, “Only history [of gay people] I got was AIDS history.” He said he saw the movie “Milk” and read about gay history in books, but emphasized, “It would be great to be able to bring what I learned into the classroom.” Dromm said he has reached out to the Department of Education about the teaching of LGBT history as well as for data on how prevalent Gay Straight Alliances are in the city’s schools. “They are evasive,” he said. Officials have not given out the number of GSAs nor do they require them in schools, and they are not saying what they will do about integrating LGBT issues into curricula. Responding to a query from Gay City News, the DOE press office pointed out that the schools have had a Respect for All program, aimed at helping “students embrace differences in others” since 2007, that the system operates schools named after slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and civil right leader Bayard Rustin, and that works by Stephen Sondheim, Truman Capote, Walt Whitman, and James Baldwin are studied in class. The response did not spell out how the lives of those composers, poets, and novelists are contextualized in the curriculum.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has total control over the New York City schools and could initiate LGBT history if he chose to. Dromm introduced his resolution in April and has gathered 13 co-sponsors since then. No hearing on it is scheduled, but out lesbian Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a Chelsea Democrat, said in an email, “LGBT history is an important part of American history, especially here in New York, which has been home to countless LGBT activists and has served as an epicenter for the gay rights movement. Ensuring that the contributions of LGBT individuals are recognized and incorporated into our classroom curriculum will help provide New York City students with a well-rounded education.” Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, an out gay Sunnyside Democrat who was educated in Astoria, said, “I didn’t know anyone gay in my school or neighborhood. Harvey Milk had been elected ten years earlier. Had that been taught, I would have known it would have been possible to be openly gay and be an elected official.” There is no mandate that schools in the state or city integrate LGBT issues into curricula, but neither is there anything stopping them. In the early 1990s, city schools introduced a second grade curriculum called “Children of the Rainbow” that reflected family diversity, including households headed by gay and lesbian parents. It was accepted in some districts and fiercely fought in conservative ones such as Community School District 24 in Queens –– Dromm’s old district. The tabloid fallout over the controversy made school officials and politicians in the intervening years loath to push the issue, Dromm said, a fear he hopes to overcome with this renewed push.
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
䉴
MARIJUNANA, from p.9
precinct and the number of stops vault to 91.1, with 7.4 arrests per thousand. Most stops produce no evidence of criminal conduct. But in neighborhoods with black and brown youth, frisks are constant and intrusive. The terrible irony is that this represents an explosion of marijuana arrests in a state that decriminalized smoke more than three decades ago. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, just 34,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession from 1981 to 1995, but in the past 15 years, criminal charges were pressed against 540,000 people for herb. More
䉴
DADT, from p.11
orders, and factual findings — indeed, all of its past rulings — to clear the path completely for any future litigation. Those now-void legal rulings and factual findings have no precedential, preclusive, or binding effect. The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell provides Log Cabin with all it sought and may have had standing to obtain. Despite the fact that the panel ruled the Ninth Circuit lacked jurisdiction to consider the appeals of Phillips’ ruling, one member, Circuit Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, saw fit to write a lengthy concurring opinion repudiating Phil-
12 –25 OCT 2011 than 50,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession in 2010. “The New York Police Department has provided no evidence that these massive numbers of arrests have done anything to reduce crime, and there is also no evidence that more people are smoking marijuana today than in the 1980s,” the group charged. New York City’s policy has become an international scandal, and the Voice of America reports that Bloomberg opposes the Grisanti/ Jeffries bill “because reducing the offense would encourage marijuana use in public places and reverse efforts to clean up neighborhoods and eliminate open air drug markets.”
Jeffries and his allies point to the ineffectiveness of the city’s policy, noting that most stops produce no charges and suspicion seldom results in evidence of a crime. Curbing the practice, reformers say, will improve police efficiency and curb the practice of trumping up an underlying fact pattern to legally justify searches. The police commissioner addressed some of these concerns when he ordered that cops “during a stop may not charge the individual with a misdemeanor if the marihuana recovered was disclosed to public view at an officer’s direction.” Advocates of change are cautious about how effective Kelly’s directive will prove. Bill Gibney of Legal Aid said, “It is
15 our experience that it takes more than a memorandum from the commissioner to change a deeply ingrained street practice like making marijuana arrests.” Gibney is particularly concerned about individuals from out-of-state or who have little or no identification. In these circumstances, a person should be able to post $100 bail and be released, but it is possible they will be arrested and jailed. Kelly’s pronouncement seemed made in good faith, but no matter how far short of hopes it falls, it is clear that growing public disenchantment with the war on drugs and especially a disproportionate crackdown on marijuana is getting the ear of public officials.
lips’ use of the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas sodomy decision in applying heightened scrutiny to the government’s arguments defending DADT. Given the criticism some leading Republican presidential candidates have made regarding DADT’s repeal — and the ability of the Executive Branch to reinstitute restrictions on gay and lesbian service, potentially without congressional approval — the question about the policy’s constitutionality, unfortunately, is not purely academic. Woods stated he will seek review of the three-judge panel’s ruling by an en banc panel of the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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12 –25 OCT 2011
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LOVE & MARRIAGE Gay City NEWS
WEDDING SUPPLEMENT
O C T. 1 2 - 2 5 , 2 0 11
■ POLITICS
The Secrets of Our Success
At Center “marriage de-brief,” insiders draw lessons from the June 24 Albany win BY PAUL SCHINDLER
GAY CITY NEWS
A
strong governor, the “political prowess” to show opponents and fair-weather friends there’s “a political price to pay” for standing in the way, and an “exceedingly disciplined” coalition that “made room for everyone to work” and was willing to reach out to “voices not with you earlier.” Those were among the critical factors that led to the victory of marriage equality in the New York State Senate on June 24, according to a panel of insider advocates at an October 6 “marriage equality organizing de-brief” held at the LGBT Community Center. The evening was put together by the Washington-based New Organizing Institute, which works to replicate successful social change strategies nationwide. The most important contributor to the success in Albany? “Fifty-eight percent,” said Ross Levi, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda. That was the level of support that equal marriage rights scored in a series of public opinion polls leading up to the legislative showdown in Albany. Levi noted that in 2000, the comparable polling number in New York State was mired somewhere in the mid-30s. “Support needs to be a mile wide and a mile deep,” he said. Not surprisingly, the hands-on leadership of Governor Andrew Cuomo, who personally negotiated with the four Republican senators who contributed to the 33-29 victory, came in for considerable praise. “I relearned the power of strategic leadership,” said Marc Solomon, the national campaign director at Freedom
Marc Solomon, Jeff Cook, and Cathy Marino-Thomas were among the panelists at an October 6 “marriage de-brief.”
to Marry who beat back two efforts at constitutional amendments to overturn marriage equality in Massachusetts as head of MassEquality. “The governor was passionate and exceptionally skilled at leveraging power and reading each target.” Emily Giske, a government affairs specialist at the consulting firm of Bolton-St. John’s who has held top posts in the state Democratic Party for years, spoke about “the real heroics of Governor Cuomo,” arguing, “He had the political gravitas to say to others in Albany, ‘Come on in, the water’s fine.’” Levi, Solomon, and Jeff Cook, the president of Allegiance Strategies, LLC, a political consulting and lobbying firm, talked about the way the community, in
the 2010 elections, proved it was prepared to hold elected officials accountable. Three senators who voted no on marriage equality in 2009 were defeated the following year, in good measure because of concerted efforts by the LGBT community — Queens Democrat Hiram Monserrate, in his special election attempt to recapture a seat he was expelled from because of a domestic violence conviction; Buffalo’s Bill Stachowski, in the September Democratic primary; and Queens Republican Frank Padavan, in the November election. “We can’t take our opponents or our supporters for granted,” said Cook, who focused his efforts in Albany on courting Republican support. “And in
the case of those who betray us, there has to be a political price to pay, and in 2010 there was.” Solomon said, “In 2010, we showed that voting with us was a smart political choice. For many Republicans, they saw that for the first time.” The ability to demonstrate that lesson, several panelists emphasized, followed from what many had viewed as a devastating political setback — the December 2009 vote in which marriage equality went down in a 38-24 vote in the Senate. “We arrived at last year’s elections with a roadmap,” Levi said, “ironically from the earlier failure.” Brian Ellner, who headed up the New York marriage effort for the Human Rights Campaign, emphasized the crucial influence of unity among advocates. “Coalitions can work, but they have to be exceedingly disciplined,” he said. “In ‘09, lawmakers used our internal differences against us. This year, no disagreement ever got out of the room.” Gregory T. Angelo, chair of the New York State Log Cabin Republicans, focused on the efficiencies of pooling resources. “I find a tremendous amount of redundancy in grassroots and nonprofit groups,” he said. “And there are finite financial resources. The coordination helps to eliminate redundancy.” Ellner, who oversaw a series of dozens of YouTube video endorsements by well-known New Yorkers, emphasized the importance of expanding the breadth of support for the issue.
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MARRIAGE DE-BRIEF, continued on p.3W
12 - 25 OCT 2011
2W
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■ POLITICS
Anti-Gay Marriage Town Clerk Wangles Accommodation Upstate Ledyard, Rose Marie Belforti reach deal to bring in temps to process licenses BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
W
FACEBOOK.COM
hile two New York town clerks resigned from their jobs rather than violate their religious beliefs by signing marriage licenses for gay and lesbian couples, a third town clerk who also claims to have religious objections to gay marriage will hire a temporary deputy clerk to process marriage licenses in her office and keep her job in an upstate town.
“Most towns this size have a deputy in the budget,” Rose Marie Belforti, the Ledyard town clerk, said at a September 12 town meeting. “They have a line item for the salary of a deputy. I do not. I do all the work myself and I rarely hire a deputy.” Belforti was quoted in the Citizen, a newspaper serving Cayuga County, which posted the article on auburnpub. com. The paper paraphrased Belforti saying that “the town paid for the ser-
k Ledyard Town Clerk Rose Marie Belforti.
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vices of deputy clerks since 2005 and the highest amount paid out was $200 in 2010.” A September 27 story about Belforti in the New York Times presented her as a deeply religious person who has moral objections to homosexuality. This unusual hiring of temporary clerks just to handle marriage licenses suggests that Belforti is as concerned with keeping her job as she is with not processing licenses for gay and lesbian couples. Belforti first informed the town board
from the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization that defends the right to hear and speak the truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation. She informed the Town Board that she would be compromising her Christian moral conscience if she were to participate in the same-sex marriage licensing procedure.” The memo was forwarded to Adam Van Buskirk, the Ledyard city attorney, who did not respond to emails and a call seeking comment.
What is not clear is how the town will police Belforti to ensure that she does not issue marriage licenses to heterosexual couples. of her objections at its August 8 meeting, when she gave them a memo prepared by the Alliance Defense Fund, a rightwing legal group that now represents her. As town clerk, Belforti takes the minutes at town meetings. Her description of her actions is generous. “Town Clerk Rose Marie Belforti gave a memo for Town Clerks who are opposed to processing same-sex marriage applications based on religious beliefs to the Town Board,” she wrote. “The memo was
A September 1 story in the Citizen indicated that by then the town had decided to hire temporary clerks to handle marriage licenses. The temporary clerks will work only when a marriage license has to be processed, so those seeking to wed are required to make appointments in advance. “The clerk, until this matter is resolved, is not doing any marriage licenses,” the Citizen quoted Ledyard Councilman Jim
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“We didn’t fall into the trap of preaching to the converted,” he said. “That meant sometimes putting yourselves in uncomfortable positions with your base. But reaching voices not with you earlier.” He singled out an endorsement by Barbara Bush, one of the twin daughters of former President George W. Bush, a figured widely reviled in the gay community for his support of a federal constitutional amendment barring marriage by same-sex couples. Ellner said that videos made by popular figures such as New York Ranger Sean
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Frisch saying. “At least, that’s what she has agreed to. In the interim, appointed deputy clerks will attend to all marriage licenses, but these deputy clerks are not there at all times.” Ledyard appears to have gone to great lengths to accommodate Belforti. No other New York municipality or county is known to have made such an arrangement. Aside from the two town clerks who resigned, another who has religious objections to gay marriage stopped presiding at weddings, but still processes marriage licenses. There are 932 town clerks in New
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Avery and celebrity chef Mario Batali put the marriage equality story on the sports and food blogs, another part of the effort “to keep flooding the news with positive things.” Cook, reflecting on the outreach to Republicans, emphasized the importance of “the dialogue, the language” that was used. “We need to be bilingual,” he said, “and speak Republican and Democratic. With Republicans, we talk about family and freedom. We had to be thoughtful and respectful of those we spoke to.” Visiting a Republican state senator, he said, “was a real challenge for some in the community from a left
background… but the sole focus in this community was on winning.” Despite the campaign’s success in engaging Republicans on their own terms, Cathy Marino-Thomas, chair of the grassroots Marriage Equality New York, said the other end of the political spectrum was not ignored. “We made room for everyone to work,” she said, “on everything from lobbying to civil disobedience.” Queer Rising, a direct action grassroots group, staged a series of protests involving civil disobedience — targeting everyone from Cuomo to Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos. In the immediate aftermath of the June 24 victory, Solo-
mon told Gay City News that his group sometimes turned to Marriage Equality New York because it had the “street cred” to prevail on some activists to cool down their rhetoric and tactics. Some panelists clearly felt that the wind was at their backs by the time the climactic Senate vote arrived in late June. “There was a feeling of inevitability,” Giske said. “People were rooting for us, even those voting no. Our opponents felt we had the momentum.” “In the end, we were talking just ‘marriage’ — not ‘marriage equality,’” Levi said, “and I dare say that drove the other side nuts.”
York. What is not clear is how the town will police Belforti to ensure that she does not issue marriage licenses to heterosexual couples who may come to the office without an appointment. On August 30, Katie Carmichael and Deirdre DiBiaggio sought a marriage license at the Ledyard town clerk’s office, but were denied one by Belforti. The couple were accompanied by Arthur J. Bellinzoni, a board member at People For the American Way Foundation (PFAW), a liberal advocacy group. Bellinzoni contacted PFAW on August 15 to alert the organization to Belforti’s position on marriage, according to Deb-
bie Liu, PFAW’s general counsel. Liu said that Bellinzoni and the couple are friends and PFAW and the two women did not plan to challenge Belforti. PFAW is representing the couple. Belforti may have committed a crime when she denied a license to the couple. It is a misdemeanor in New York for a public official to knowingly refrain “from performing a duty which is imposed upon him by law or is clearly inherent in the nature of his office.” Jon E. Budelmann, the Cayuga County district attorney, is investigating, but any action hinges on finding that Belforti intended to deprive the couple of a benefit. “I think they clearly have the right to
the license and she had no right to refuse it,” Budelmann told Gay City News. “The issue is does it rise to the level of a crime.” Auburnpub.com reported that at the October 10 town board meeting, Town Supervisor Mark Jordan said that his conversations with the New York Association of Towns convinced him that Ledyard is “totally in the right” in asking couples to make appointments to obtain a marriage license. The matter appears to be at a stand off currently with the couple the pondering a lawsuit. Ledyard officials and Eric M. Schneiderman, the state attorney general, did not respond to requests for comment.
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■ LEGAL
US Judge Rejects Binational Couple’s DOMA Challenge Central California district court says 1982 Ninth Circuit precedent controls BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
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n a decision released on September 28, US District Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the Central District of California ruled that Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals precedent binding on that district court requires him to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Customs and Immigration Service’s refusal to recognize a samesex marriage between an American citizen and an Indonesian man. Wilson relied on a 1982 ruling that predates positive advances in gay rights at the Supreme Court.
Howerton, in which the circuit upheld the Immigration Service’s denial of an I-130 petition on behalf of a same-sex couple who married in Colorado (a county clerk having issued a license because the state had a gender-neutral marriage statute that no court had yet construed to bar same-sex unions). The appeals court in Adams rejected all arguments by the petitioners, including claims of sex discrimination and Fifth Amendment due process and equal protection violations. Adams has never been overruled or disavowed by the Ninth Circuit and so is binding on all trial judges in that circuit.
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The plaintiffs, Michael Ernest Roberts and Hamdi Lui, married in Massachusetts in 2009. The same day, Roberts, the US citizen, filed an I-130 petition on behalf of his husband with Customs and Immigration’s California Service Center seeking recognition of his spousal status. The Service denied the petition and was upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals in January of this year. The men then filed an action with the district court, claiming the government’s refusal to recognize their marriage violates their Fifth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection and constitutes “sex discrimination” prohibited by the Immigration and Nationality Act. Their suit effectively challenges Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bars federal agencies from recognizing same-sex marriages. In support of their claim, they cited the Gill v. Office of Personnel Management case, currently on appeal at the First Circuit Court of Appeals, in which a US district court in Massachusetts found Section 3 unconstitutional. Gill and this case are two of several in which the Republican-led House of Representatives intervened earlier this year to defend DOMA, after the Obama Justice Department, nominally the defendant, announced it views the 1996 law as unconstitutional. Unfortunately, in the Ninth Circuit, anybody seeking recognition of a samesex marriage in the immigration context faces the 1982 precedent of Adams v.
Ironically, the 1982 decision was written by Anthony Kennedy, who as a Supreme Court justice wrote the opinions in 1996’s Romer v. Evans, which struck down Colorado’s Amendment 2 barring state and local gay rights laws, and 2003’s Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down the remaining sodomy laws –– two landmark decisions that laid the foundation for the current legal assaults on DOMA. “In Adams, the Ninth Circuit held that ‘Congress’s decision to confer spousal status… only upon the parties to heterosexual marriages has a rational basis and therefore comports with the due process clause and its equal protection requirements,’” Judge Wilson wrote. “The fact that DOMA was enacted years after the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Adams is not persuasive given that marriage as defined in Section 3 of DOMA is consistent with Adams. While Plaintiffs and Defendants point out the alleged deficiencies in the reasoning in Adams, this Court is not in a position to decline to follow Adams or critique its reasoning simply because Plaintiffs and Defendants believe that Adams is poorly reasoned.” Metro Weekly, an LGBT newspaper in Washington, reported earlier this month that the Justice Department had challenged the House leadership’s reliance on Adams in its brief in the case. Wilson pointed out that the prerogative to overturn a Ninth Circuit precedent “rests not with this District Court,” but with the circuit or the Supreme Court.
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14 DAYS 14 NIGHTS THU.OCT.13
PERFORMANCE Motion Emotion
Bill Bowers’ “Beyond Words” is a poignant journey in mime, music, and monologues through small town America, exploring what it is to be a boy and how that boy –– whose grandfather was a lumberjack and father was a farmer, and who himself is a mime that happens to be gay –– becomes a man. Scott Illingworth directs. Urban Stages, 259 W. 30th St. Mon., Thu. -Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat., Sun., 5 p.m., through Oct. 30. Tickets are $40 at smarttix.com or 212-868-4444. ✯
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Bill Bowers in “Beyond Words”: Oct. 13
Climbing PoeTree’s Alixa and Naima: Oct. 14
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THEATER Country Comfort CAP 21 Theatre Company presents “Southern Comfort,” a new musical by Dan Collins (book and lyrics) and Julianne Wick Davis (music), based on Kate Davis’ 2001 Sundance award-winning documentary about a group of transgender friends living openly, honestly, and courageously in rural Georgia. The show has a folk/ bluegrass score. Thomas Caruso (“Zombie,” “Mimi
Le Duck”) directs a cast including Annette O’Toole, Jeff McCarthy, Jeffrey Kuhn, and Todd Cerveris. CAP21 Black Box Theatre, 18 W. 18th St., fifth fl. Wed.-Sat., 7 p.m., through Oct. 29. Tickets are $18 at cap21.org. ✯
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FILM All Films Minnelli “The Complete Vincente Minnelli” is the first full New York retrospective of
the Hollywood master in more than two decades. This 35-film series pays homage to one of the all-time great Hollywood directors, with a career that included successful forays into the musical (“Meet Me in St. Louis,” “An American in Paris,” and “Gigi”), subversive and deeply personal melodramas and sensitive biopics (The Bad and the Beautiful,” “The Cobweb,” “Home From the Hill”), and airy comedies (“Father of the Bride”). BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Pl. Through
Nov. 2. Admission is $12; $9 for students & seniors. Information at bam.org. ✯
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PERFORMANCE Performing While Black & Latina/o
Series, a festival celebrating works by black, Latina/o, and Blatina/o artists. On opening night, Oct. 14, 8 p.m., Alixa and Naima, of Climbing PoeTree, deliver an intimate evening of interactive poetry and storytelling, along with sampona beat boxing, on a journey of spiritual awakening, women’s empowerment, and queer expression ($20). On Oct. 15, 6 p.m., Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s documentary “Black in Latin America,” cel-
The Bronx Academy of Art & Dance presents its annual BlakTina Performance
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SONYMA celebrates the legalization of same sex marriage in New York State.
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ebrating the massive influence of millions of people of African descent on the history and culture there, will be screened (free admission, with a $5 buffet dinner). On Oct. 20, 8 p.m., in “Captured! Dance on Camera,” choreographers Arthur Aviles, Gabri Christa, and Joey Tomocik share their film projects and discuss how creating for the screen differs from staging their work (free). On Oct. 21, 8 p.m., Paris Aeon, Vir-Amicus (Damon White), Ryan Green –– Music of Lamentatia, Mel Greenwich, and Cisco Perez present “Voices Rising!,” an evening of song ranging from jazz to blues to experimental crooning ($15). On Oct. 22, 8 p.m., BAAD! Presents an evening of dance featuring Jennifer “Beastie” Acosta, Jessica Danser, Gierre Godley, Kraven Seneca, Richard Rivera, Rokafella with Retumba, Dina Sabb-Mills, Saeed Siamak, Mila Thigpen, and Miltieri Tucker ($20). On Oct. 23, 3-7 p.m., Charles Rice-González celebrates the release of his debut novel of South Bronx queer youth culture, “Chulito.” He reads from the novel for five minutes at 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 (free). On Oct. 27, 8 p.m., Nigerian dyke poet Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene performs “Volcano’s Birthright{s},” her one-
woman, multi-media sensory overload that fuses poetry, choreography, film, and music ($15). On Oct. 28, 8 p.m., in “Danse Macabre and Monster Mash!,” BAAD! resurrects choreographers who have crossed over, with James Atkinson (as Alvin Ailey), Noele Phillips (as Katherine Dunham), Peter Cramer (as Bob Fosse), Jessica Danser (as Martha Graham), and Pedro Jimenez (as Michael Jackson). Jack Waters hosts ($15, includes post-show closing party). BAAD! is located at 841 Barretto St., btwn. Garrison & Lafayette Aves., Hunts Point (#6 train to Hunts Point Ave.) For information and tickets, visit BronxAcademyofArtsandDance.org or call 718-842-5223. ✯
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was “Hair” (Oct. 22, 8 p.m.); “Vice Palace: The Last Cockettes Musical,” the company’s fabled final performance piece, here presented in a concert version by San Francisco’s acclaimed Grand Guignol Thrillpeddlers, with original Cockette Richard Scrumbly Koldwyn (Oct. 21-22, 11 p.m.); plays from acclaimed new talents David Caudle, Michael Small, Bekah Brunstetter, and Claire Downs; and exciting performances and work from Robert I. Rubinsky, Annie Golden, Vangeline Theater, Reverend Billy, Jennifer Blowdryer, “Last Comic Standing” comedian Joey Gay, The Unitards, and 3 Teens Kill 4 (3TK4). Theatre 80 St. Marks, 80 St. Marks Pl., btwn. Oct. 1-31. For complete information and tickets, visit howlfestival.com. ✯
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ists who emerged in the 1970s during the early years of the feminist revolution –– Tee A. Corinne (1943-2006, St. Petersburg, Florida), JEB (Joan E. Biren, born in 1944, Washington DC), and Cathy Cade (born in 1942, Honolulu). In addition, this exhibition pays tribute to these pioneering women by showing work of contemporary lesbian photographers including Catherine Opie and Cass Bird that engages and reworks their founding vision in contemporary lesbian life. The Leslie/ Lohman Gallery, 26 Wooster St., btwn. Grand & Canal Sts. Tue.-Sat., noon-6 p.m., through Oct. 22. More information at leslielohman.org. ✯
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A Month of Howls
When You Can’t Get It Out of Your Head
HOWL! Arts Project and the Actors Fund host “HOWL! Arts Project 2011,” a month-long series of non-stop music, film, theater, performance art, burlesque, drag entertainment, and pure family fun. Highlights include: a revival of Harold Rome’s 1937 “Pins and Needles” (Oct. 14-15, 8 p.m.); “Sun (Audio Movie),” a musical comic-Orwellian epic struggle between the nuclear gods and the natural gods written by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, whose only other collaboration
RH Gallery presents “Melodymania,” an exhibition based on the theme of songs that get stuck in your head. This experience is projected into artworks that emanate music, even in their silence. Newsha Tavakolian’s series of portraits “Listen” capture Persian female singers who have been banned from performing in public or producing albums in Iran. A portrait of Kurt Cobain by Mark Seliger depicts the tone of his music in his expression, as does
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GALLERY Awareness & Representation Among Lesbians
“Lesbians Seeing Lesbians: building community in early feminist photography” focuses on three of the most prominent photographers of this generation of art-
the portrait of Bob Dylan by Elliott Landy. Bonnie Engelhardt Lautenberg’s striking portraits of Lady Gaga live in performance resonate similarly. Bruce Nauman’s print Violins/Violence is a pun that is simultaneously verbal, visual, and aural. Mathew Barney’s photograph “The Executioner’s Song” originated from his film “Cremaster 2,” loosely based on Norman Mailer’s book about Gary Gilmore, a convicted killer and the alleged grandson of Harry Houdini. RH Gallery, 137 Duane St., btwn. W. Broadway & Church St. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m., through Oct. 29. For more information, visit rhgallery.com. ✯
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MUSIC Light Opera With Bubbles
The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players present their gala opening concert, at which artistic director Albert Bergeret and his merry crew present favorite G&S scenes, songs, parodies, overtures, and the ever-popular
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tour-de-force challenge –– audience requests performed impromptu with full orchestra. Audience members enjoy a complimentary glass of bubbly at intermission. Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2535 Broadway at 95th St. Oct. 16, 5 p.m. Tickets are $67-$87, with $8 off for seniors and half-price tickets for children 12 and under, at nygasp.org or 212-864-5400. ✯
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FILM Morrisroe-Maniacs Dixon Place presents a screening of three rarely-seen Super-8 films by the late photographer Mark Morrisroe, including “Hello From Bertha” (1983), “The Laziest Girl in Town” (1981), and “Nymph-OManiac” (1984). 161 Chrystie St., btwn. Delancey & Rivington Sts. Oct. 16, 5 p.m. A $5 donation is suggested. ✯
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HEALTH Out for Blood
Gay Men’s Health Crisis presents a forum
on the continuing exclusion of gay men from the pool of blood donors in the US, a policy the group is working to overturn. GMHC’s director of public policy, Nathan Schaefer, is joined by Val Bias, chief executive officer of the National Hemophilia Foundation, James Fox, director of corporate communications at New York Blood Center, and Adam Gilbert, the alumni student advocate at Indiana’s DePauw University in “Out for Blood,” a panel discussion on revising blood donation guidelines for gay men. GMHC, 446 W. 33rd St., seventh fl. Oct. 18, 6-7:30 p.m. For more information, call 212-367-1016 or email krishnas@gmhc.org. ✯
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CABARET Coax the Blues Right Out of the Horn In “Perfect Harmony,” Broadway and cabaret star Jason Graae celebrates Jerry Herman’s 80th birthday with songs from beloved Herman classics including “Hello Dolly!,” “The Grand Tour,” “Mame,” “La Cage Aux Folles,” “Mack and Mabel,” and “Milk and Honey.” John Boswell is musical director. Laurie Beechman Theatre in West Bank Cafe, 407 W. 42nd St. Oct.
18, 19 & 24, 7 p.m.; Oct. 25, 9:30 p.m. Cover charge is $20, with a two-drink minimum. Reservations at 212-695-6909. ✯
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DANCE Gender and SelfAwareness New York Live Arts’ “Lobby Talks” explores “Transgender in Dance” with a panel of practitioners in contemporary dance and performance who identify as transgender or gender-variant. The dialogue will explore several themes, including how the gendered body finds itself within a heightened state of display and awareness. Jeanne Vaccaro, who is writing her Ph.D. dissertation in the NYU Department of Performance Studies on “Felt Matters: Crafting Transgender and the Politics of the Handmade Body,” moderates a panel that includes Yve Laris Cohen, who makes performances, objects, and the occasional video, all of them dance; niv Acosta, a Washington Heights-based dancer who trained at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance; and Philadelphia choreographer and dancer devynn emory. New York Live Arts lobby, 219 W. 19th St. Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m. Free.
READING A Novel from Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla Author and filmmaker Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla reads from his novel “The Two Krishnas,” a compelling saga about infidelity, and joins his Magnus Books publisher Don Weise for a talk on writing about sexual politics and gender orientation. Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 2289 Broadway at 82nd St. Oct. 18, 7 p.m. Free, but call ahead to 212-362-8835 to confirm. ✯
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Double Female Trouble Dixon Place hosts a double book launch party celebrating fiction releases from two women writers. Laurie Weeks reads from her new novel, “Zipper Mouth,” which captures the freedom and longing of life on the edge in New York. With ranting letters to Judy Davis and Sylvia Plath, an unrequited fixation on a straight best friend, exalted nightclub epiphanies, and devastating morning-after hangovers, Weeks’ novel chronicles the exuberance and mortification of a junkie and the chaos of everyday life. Kate Zambreno’s “Green Girl,” set in London, features Ruth, an American girl,
Kate Zambreno: Oct. 18
who works as a celebrity perfume spritzer at a large department store, as well as at other jobs, such as clothes-folder and sexshop-worker. Ruth and her friend Agnes are obsessed with the French New Wave, as well as with stylish films like Julie Christie’s “Darling,” models, and fashion magazines. 161 Chrystie St., btwn. Delancey & Rivington Sts. Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m.
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cannot appropriately take up the claim made by Smith and Adar. As a result, she said, the Supreme Court would not find itself compelled to settle any differences between circuits on that specific legal finding.
California Streamlines Birth Certificate Updates for Transgenders Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has signed legislation that simplifies the steps transgender Californians must take to obtain a new birth certificate reflecting their gender, requiring them merely to provide medical certification they have undergone “clinically appropriate treatment.” Noting that medical professionals need not spell out the specifics of that treatment, Masen Davis, executive director of San Francisco’s Transgender Law Center, said the Vital Statistics Modernization Act, signed October 9 by Brown, “eliminates outdated and onerous barriers that transgender people face when trying to update their IDs. Having identity documents
12 –25 OCT 2011 that match who we truly are is critical to our ability to work, travel, and thrive.” Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat who wrote the new law, said, “The government belongs to transgender people as much as it belongs to anyone else. California’s records belong to Californians. It’s as simple as that.” New York’s Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, in a press release, noted that it has sued the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene challenging the city’s requirement that transgender people undergo surgery before obtaining birth certificates with corrected sex designations. The suit alleges that the city’s surgical requirement is arbitrary and that it subjects transgender people to harassment and discrimination in violation of the city Human Rights Law. In late 2006, the health department recommended modification to the surgery requirement for birth certificate changes, only to later pull back the proposal after public hearings were held –– despite the fact that the hearings produced virtually unanimous support for liberalizing existing policy. Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who was then the city
InvisibleDogs.org
health commissioner and now heads up the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledged “we were at fault” for the mixed signals, but in comments to Gay City News offered very little by way of clarification about the change in course. Advocates in California and New York noted that the new policy Brown approved follows new guidelines from the US State Department for amending passports.
Post: Cuomo Team Nixed Transgender Health Medicaid Funding One day after news surfaced that a panel advising the Cuomo administration had recommended that hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery costs incurred by transgender New Yorkers be covered under the state’s Medicaid program, the New York Post reported that the state health commissioner had “shot down” the proposal regarding surgical costs. “Gender reassignment surgery is a fundamentally complex medical issue,” the newspaper quoted Dr. Nirav Shan, the commissioner,
saying in a September 30 story. “However, no consideration is being given to any change in current state policy and any proposal to have gender reassignment surgery funded by Medicaid would be rejected.” The previous day, the Post reported that Mike Long, the head of the state’s Conservative Party, dismissed medical treatments for transitioning transgenders as “cosmetic,” arguing, “This is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars. This is an expensive mandate. We already live in the highest-taxed state in the nation.” Kemp Hannon, the Nassau County Republican who chairs the Senate Health Committee, told the newspaper, “It doesn’t seem to be appropriate.” However, Ross Levi, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, told the Post that California and Minnesota provide Medicaid funding for such care. ‘‘We believe Medicaid should cover health care that is medically necessary,” Levi said, expressing the hope that Cuomo, who supports the Gender Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) pending in the Legislature, can be brought around on the issue of transgender health care costs.
17 House GOP Triples Budget For DOMA Defense When Attorney General Eric Holder informed Republican House Speaker John Boehner that the Justice Department, having concluded that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, would no longer defend the 1996 law from challenges to the ban on federal recognition of valid same-sex marriages, the GOP leadership exercised its prerogative to step in, initially allocating $500,000 in public funds to do so. Under terms of a September 29 amendment to the contract between the House and the law firm of Bancroft PLLC, however, the total amount payable to outside counsel for defending DOMA could increase to $1.5 million. Technically, the contract with Bancroft was authorized by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), made up of the top three members of the majority party and the two ranking minority party members. In fact, approval of the contract and its amendment came on 3-2 votes, with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer in opposition. In an October 4 statement, three House Democrats ––Robert
A. Brady of Pennsylvania, Charles Gonzales of Texas, and Zoe Lofgren of California –– wrote, “The entire contracting process has lacked any semblance of transparency. Our letters of warning and our questions about how any of the numbers were reached and where the money would come from have gone unanswered. Now, we find that Speaker Boehner’s hand-picked lawyers have exhausted the half-million dollars we were told would be the total cost and they need an additional $1 million dollars –– or 300 percent of the original contract, to continue the work.” On October 7, the Hill newspaper reported that at the right-wing Family Research Council’s annual Values Voters Summit in Washington, Boehner threatened to withhold the money to pay Bancroft from the Justice Department budget. “We’re going to take the money away from the Justice Department, who’s supposed to enforce it, and we’ll use it to enforce the law,” he told the gathering. On September 26, leading advocates for repealing DOMA –– Democrats Jerrold Nadler of New York, John Conyers of Michigan, and out gay and lesbian Barney
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The North Shore-LIJ & Rudin Family Greenwich Village Development Plan
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s Create 1,700 new jobs s Create a 15,000-square-foot park s Create a new 564-seat elementary school s Cleaner air and energy-saving features to make this project the City’s first certified LEED-Neighborhood Development project s More light and air with a 13 percent reduction in bulk from existing buildings Visit our website to find out what you can do to make this plan a reality for our community.
“I’m impressed by the many public benefits the project will offer, including union jobs, new green space and an elementary school.” Former Mayor Edward Koch
To find out more and voice your support, visit www.WestsideHealthcareCoalition.com.
Former Mayor Edward Koch and George Gresham, Co-Chairs.
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Deluxe and De-Lovely An expanded version of “Arias with a Twist” returns, and it’s a must-see
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ith an obvious infusion of capital and an expansion in scale, the 2008 downtown hit “Arias with a Twist” has moved uptown — though, to be accurate geographically, it’s actually headed crosstown to the Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center. With a larger show, its title has been amended to reflect its grander setting, but fortunately for its established fans — and those just discovering this madcap masterpiece — its essence, its wit and delicious vulgarity, and Joey Arias’ amazing presence are undiminished. Arias is an accomplished performer with an astonishing vocal range and a wry outlook. The story, such as it is, concerns a woman abducted by aliens, probed, and returned to Earth, where she lands first in the Garden of Eden before embarking on an odyssey that
ARIAS WITH A TWIST DELUXE Henry Street Settlement Abrons Arts Center 466 Grand St. at Pitt St. Through Oct. 16 Wed.-Fri. at 8 p.m. Sat. at 8 & 10:30 p.m.; Sun at 7 p.m. $35-$65; ovationtix.com Or 212-532-3101
ends in New York. There, our girl becomes a towering presence — literally looming over the Manhattan skyline — and ultimately a chanteuse. Don’t look for logic; relax and enjoy the ride, particularly a psychedelic journey in which the character, having eaten a mushroom in Eden, pays a visit to Hell. All of this is framed by Basil Twist’s outstanding puppetry and design work, both of which make the most of the expanded space. As Arias romps in clothes by Thierry Mugler, the world around him springs to life. Flowers bloom, the skyline
STEVEN MENENDEZ
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
Joey Arias and the marionette orchestra in “Arias With a Twist Deluxe,” running through October 16 only.
looms, tricks of scale are constantly surprising, and Arias himself becomes a puppet. Aided by a hardworking team of six accomplished puppeteers, the magic keeps growing, but the show hasn’t lost the rougharound-the-edges quality that makes it so enchanting. The larger space makes the video sequences more effective than they were in the diminutive
HERE Arts Center. The show is a celebration of performance excellence. Arias is a classic drag artist who knows how to use illusion to create magic. He remains a unique visionary who stands out in a drag scene that has become more predictable and generic. For Arias, camp is a tool, not an end in itself. No less than a showcase for
Arias’ talent, the show is a wonder of puppetry. Twist’s wild vision and exciting executions are fully realized in an antique wooden marionette orchestra that appears with Arias in a hauntingly beautiful nightclub sequence that evokes a Billie Holiday mystique. The puppets seem almost human, which is their magic, and Arias’ interaction with them is real and touching — adding yet another dimension to the show’s illusions. In the end, this scene and the manic Busby Berkeley finale that follows remind us of the kind of magic that two brilliant guys with a bunch of crazy ideas and yards and yards (and yards) of fabric can accomplish. Unbounded creativity and monumental skill make for an unforgettable evening. I was amazed at how many of the show’s images had stayed with me from three years earlier, and I was thrilled to be able to see them all again.
■ DANCE
Belgian Love(less) Letter BY GUS SOLOMONS JR
T
he first dance event of BAM’s 2011 Next Wave Festival, “To the Ones I Love” by Belgian-based Compagnie Thor (performed September 29 through October 1) blends modern and contemporary ballet movement done by nine men in a pristine, white space. Company director Thierry Smits choreographed it and, with Thomas Beni, also designed the set. The dancers reshape the floor plan by sliding around six white benches of different lengths that look like square-cut logs. The benches conceal colored T-shirts (costumes by Luc Gering), which the men change often throughout the piece. The white floor and backdrop form a canvas for light designer Beni’s washes of vivid color that modulate the visual mood. In an insouciant program note, Smits states that the colors “perhaps represent the chakras or the colors of the gay flag — as you wish!” The novelty of the hour-long piece is that its nine dancers are all men of African heritage, displaying, as could be expected, a wide range of body shapes and skin
shades. A less copasetic aspect of the ensemble is the divergence in their dance training backgrounds. Smits says the reason for this casting is “so that one thing would appear more than something else… humanity.” The intriguing potential of the exotic mix, however, remains unexplored. For all the lifting, mutual supporting, and body contact, the dance could hardly feel less erotic or, in fact, reveal less “humanity.” The men treat each other more like pommel horses than partners. Skin color, as an element of décor, is not a unique concept — however politically incorrect that notion might be. But there’s no excuse for making a boring dance. A pseudo-gravitas pervades the way the nine dancers perform the feline floor work, balletic jumps, and mutual lifting. The dancing is strong and workmanlike, but uninspired and joyless as well. No emotional attachment to what the men are doing is evident, despite moments of presentational flourish following some tricky move. As in a sports exhibition with no winner, the stakes here are low.
Smits’ formal structure contains much to commend it — a round-robin series of duets, which switches one partner every few phrases; overlapping duets on the benches with dancers’ backs to the audience, where unison pairs are separated in space; counterpoint passages of lifts that fill the space with kinetic flurries and group unison phrases. Smits is an astute dance crafter, but the “theatrical context” his program note suggests is absent from this work. The dance remains an exercise. Most disconcerting is the lack of stylistic unity among the dancers, especially in ensemble passages. The variety of their training backgrounds — including ballet, contemporary, African, and martial arts styles — delivers no consistency of line, attack, or dance carriage, making unisons visually ragged, even though rhythmically unified. Neither Smits’ choreography nor his dancers’ execution of it makes clear what its theatrical driving force is. Maxime Bodson’s sound design, which incorporates copious selections of Bach’s most familiar music along with atmospheric electronic
(MARIE-FRANCOISE PLISSART)
Compagnie Thor adopts the rainbow
The workmanlike quality of “To the Ones I Love” is evident; the joy, less so.
sounds, was added to the dance after it was made, which may explain why it seems so unconnected. The standing ovation on opening night suggests the audience at BAM Harvey was enthralled. But given that standing Os are today virtually obligatory at BAM, it could be that the crowd was simply engaged in another reflexive ritual, much like what they had just witnessed.
12 - 25 OCT 2011
20/ Books
America Only Gets Queerer Michael Bronski’s sweeping, nuanced historical investigation yields striking new insights By Michael Bronski Beacon Press $27.95; 286 pages
anecdotes and portraits that illustrate this ringing assertion. Bronski shows how same-sex affinities were practiced and, indeed, often honored by Native Americans even before the first European colonists arrived with their censorious and repressive religions. To cite just two examples, the 1702 “Memoir of Pierre Liette on the Illinois Country” reported that “the sin of sodomy prevails more among [the Miami] than in any other nation, although there are four women to one man.” And in the “Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expeditions,” written by Nicholas Biddle between 1804 and 1810, the explorers detail how, among the Mamitarees, “if a boy shows any symptoms of effeminacy or girlish inclinations he is put among the girls, dressed in their way, brought up with them, & sometimes married to men.” Queers were active participants in the Revolutionary War. The cross-dressing Deborah Sampson Garret enrolled as a man in the Continental Army and fought in may battles over three years before her real gender was unmasked after she was wounded. She published a popular memoir of her exploits, and in 1816, “after years of petitioning and with help from Paul Revere, [she] was finally awarded the full pensions she deserved by both the state of Massachusetts and Congress.” And there was the combative evangelist Jemima Wilkinson, who in 1775 “believed that Christ entered her body and that she was now neither female nor male… She renamed herself ‘Publick Universal Friend,’ refused to use the pronouns ‘she’ or ‘he,’ and dressed in gender-neutral garments that made her sex unreadable.” In the mid-1780s “the popular press and pamphlet culture covered her sermons in detail and placed particular emphasis
BEACON PRESS
I
f you’re one of those people who think history is dull, boring, and irrelevant to your life today, Michael Bronski’s brilliant new “Queer History of the United States,” just published by Beacon Press, should disabuse you of such blinkered notions. Bronski has been one of our most articulate and original gay liberationist writers and journalists for decades. His roots are in the feisty, radical Boston collective that produced Fag Rag, one of the seminal liberation publications that flowered in the early ‘70s, and he made his bones as a gay theorist with his important 1984 book “Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility,” and cemented his reputation as a creative thinker with “The Pleasure Principle” (1998), which remains a mustread for every sentient queer. In addition to a half-dozen other books he’s either written or edited, the prolific Bronski’s cultural and political journalism has adorned not only the gay press but mainstream publications, as well. A longtime columnist for the Boston Phoenix, Bronski now teaches LGBT, gender, and media studies at Dartmouth. But, thankfully, Bronski doesn’t write like an academic –– his cant-skewering prose is clean, clear, jargon-free, and accessible, as befits his journalistic training. And “A Queer History of the United States” is such a good read it could be called a page-turner, were it not for the fact that practically every page is so rich with provocative and gripping observations, ideas, and analyses that one wants to pause and reflect on them. “America is queer,” writes Bronski, “and only gets queerer.” This sweeping synthesis of 500 years of American history as seen through a myriad of queer eyes –– building on the last four decades of groundbreaking gay historiography that began recovering our hidden history as a crucial part of the early liberation struggles –– contains many eye-opening
A QUEER HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
BEACON PRESS
BY DOUG IRELAND
Journalist, cultural critic, and professor Michael Bronski has just published a brilliant book of scholarship, “A Queer History of the United States.”
on her sexually ambiguous persona. She had a huge following that verged on a cult…” We might today call Wilkinson and Sampson Garret transgender, but Bronski rightly warns us against applying today’s labels and language to gender rebels of centuries past before such terms were coined and acknowledged. (Bronski details how cross-dressing female soldiers were also well known in our Civil War). Bronski traces the development of a “new American masculinity” in contrast to the overly civilized, effete British model. Indeed, the very first play written and produced in the US, a comedy of manners called “The Contrast, “ pitted a British-identified character, “Mr. Billy Dimple” –– a “flippant, pallid, polite beau who devotes the morning to his toilet… and then minces out” –– against the American Colonel Manly, “who is all that his name implies.” This political, even revolutionary play clearly enlisted what today we would characterize as homophobia to stir up anti-British sentiment. But in the newly liberated colonies, “passionate same-sex friendships were often public and acknowledged by the culture in which they thrived.” Bronski extensively quotes from the Marquis de Lafayette’s concupiscent letters to George Washington which “can be read as communications from a hurt,
angry lover.” As the new country grew in size, “westward expansion often meant a release from the enforced gender restrictions they faced in the East… Life on the western frontier was frequently sex-segregated, creating homosocial communities and relationships,” which Bronski illustrates through citations from poetry and fiction of the time, as in Western poet Badger Clark’s “The Lost Pardner,” which concludes: The range is empty and the trails are blind, And I don’t seem but half myself today. I want to hear him ridin’ up behind And feel his knee rub mine the good old way. The rapid growth of San Francisco in the wake of the 1840s Gold Rush led to a city that in mid-century had only 300 women out of a population of 25,000 –– not surprisingly, “same-sex dancing was perfectly acceptable, as was entertainment featuring cross-dressing.” Already in 1855, British adventurer Franky Marryat, in his memoir “Mountains and Molehills, or Recollections of a Burnt Journal,” labeled San Francisco “Sodom by the Sea.” Bronski underscores the importance of New England’s transcendentalist movement
in refining same-sex affinities. “A wealth of homoerotic sentiments are present in the poems and journals of Henry David Thoreau… which by the 1840s became increasingly erotic,” while Ralph Waldo Emerson’s infatuation with a young student, Martin Gay, is explored. And “the homoerotic content in Emily Dickinson’s poetry is notable for its time,” as are the writings of Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne –– including “Melville’s articulation of erotic attraction for Hawthorne.” Julia Ward Howe, author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” also wrote a play, “The Hermaphrodite,” which is “a manifestation of a culture in which gender role limitations and nontraditional sexual relationships were actively, albeit in a coded way, discussed as political issues.” But in the second half of the 19th century, it was the American anarchists whose “writings about homosexuality are a radical break from most thinking in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: they argue that sexuality is natural and positive, that sex can be solely about pleasure and, if consensual, should not be the subject of any laws.” At the same time, “the scientific discovery of ‘homosexuality’ [the term was first used in
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QUEER HISTORY, continued on p.21
12 - 25 OCT 2011
Film /21
A Warm Light’s Refraction Earnest bio-doc strains to capture Paul Goodman’s unconventional brilliance
“P
aul Goodman Changed My Life,” a documentary at times dry and surprisingly conventional given its iconoclastic and fascinating subject, could have been titled “Paul Goodman Changed Many Lives.” The film opens with friends, colleagues, students, and critics recounting their impressions of a man whom William F. Buckley, Jr. described as “a pacifist, bisexualist… anarchist, and a few other things.” Goodman, who died in 1972 at the age of 60, was, in fact, all those things and a few others. He was a political radical and the “philosopher of the New Left.” The late Susan Sontag is seen in an interview describing him as “a gadfly, a poet, [a writer of] fiction, plays, and essays…. a moralist… a practicing lay psychologist… and a professional outsider.” She said, “He was hard to classify” and “all over the place.” “Paul Goodman Changed My Life” is all over the place, too. Jonathan Lee’s documentary hopscotches around Goodman’s work and life to chronicle this intellectual giant’s growth and influence. There are stories of him growing up fatherless, not getting a fellowship for grad school, and getting fired from Black Mountain College, a mid-century experiment in pro-
䉴
QUEER HISTORY, from p.20
the US in 1878] generated language that promoted more open discussion about the subject —ironically, it immediately led to a clear articulation of negative stereotypes about homosexuals. For the first time in US history, same-sex desiring people could now feel diseased.” Bronski traces the crucial role the theatrical stage played as a transmission belt for discussions of a wider spectrum of sexualities. He’s unearthed examples that –– even though I consider myself fairly well versed in homo history –– were new to me. For example, “the
PAUL GOODMAN CHANGED MY LIFE Directed by Jonathan Lee Zeitgeist Films Opens Oct. 19 Film Forum 209 W. Houston St. filmforum.org
gressive education located in North Carolina. He published a landmark book on the soullessness of postwar consumer life, “Growing Up Absurd,” that became a cultural touchstone for mid-‘60s young people, as well as texts on urban studies and education. A good part of his life was devoted to psychology and Gestalt Therapy, a movement he co-founded. One of the most poignant sections, late in the film, involves the untimely death of his son. Unfortunately, Goodman seems almost too big a subject for the director to wrap his head around. Lee celebrates Goodman’s unique approach to his life and work, which was starkly at odds with convention. However, the scenes of Goodman giving speeches and being interviewed communicate his energy and ideas better than any of the reminiscences by the film’s talking heads. While there are excellent uses of photographs and archival footage, some of them — such as clips of Martin Luther King talking about “Growing Up Absurd” or a throwaway line in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” — fail to
illuminate anything about Goodman other than that he developed a famous reputation. Goodman’s poetry and writing are featured prominently, sometimes narrated by folks like Edmund White and Garrison Keillor. Writer Jerl Surratt asserts that Goodman’s poems “dealt with homosexuality in such a frank way… it was shocking,” and the film explores the influence Goodman’s work had on other poets, including Frank O’Hara, who was 15 years his junior. Ned Rorem says that Goodman’s openness about his sexuality helped him, but he is more impassioned in talking about how well suited Goodman’s poetry was for being set to song, a pursuit for which
the composer is renowned. A good chunk of the film is dedicated to Goodman’s bisexually, which many in his life viewed as full of contradictions. He remained married even as he frequently picked up boys. In an interview, his widow, Sally, asked if she was permitted to have affairs as well, responds, “Absolutely not,” a double standard that made her “mad.” Her husband, she reveals, also cheated at croquet. Goodman’s late son’s girlfriend says that so many years later she is still irked that the first time she met Goodman he was more interested in the handsome male companion he picked up on a plane than in his son and her. In one account,
opening scene of Mae West’s 1927 play ‘The Drag’ –– featuring homosexual characters and a drag ball –– has two characters discussing the ideas of Karl Ulrichs,” the 19th century German agitator for homosexual liberation who is considered the pioneer of the LGBT movements for sexual liberation. The play was closed down by authorities, as was the iconic Yiddish playwright Sholem Asch’s classic 1907 drama “The God of Vengeance” for its lesbian content. Such widespread stage portrayals contributed to the Republican-controlled New York State Legislature’s vote to ban any theatrical performanc-
es “depicting or dealing with the subject of sex degenerates or sex perversion.” As automobiles became cheaper and available to the masses, Bronski notes, they became “the site of sexual freedom,” a “new innovation in romantic and sexual privacy [that] was also a boon to samesex relationships.” The sexual revolution for queers sparked by World War II received the ultimate and peculiarly American tribute when it found expression in advertising –– as exemplified in a campaign for Cannon Towels that ran in magazines like Life and Better Homes and Gardens, each
installment based on servicemen’s tales. “True Towel Tales: No. 6” showed “a group of presumably naked soldiers in a grounded canoe; the central figure is standing, covered with a palm frond, in a bathing-beauty pose. The advertisement clearly displays the men as sexual objects and highlights their vulnerability, in sharp juxtaposition to the realities of war.” Similarly, an ad for Pullman railroad sleeping cars showed two soldiers taking off their shoes and socks to enter an Egyptian mosque with the sexually suggestive caption, “I never did this in daylight before!” These are just a few of the
ZEITGEIST FILMS
BY GARY M. KRAMER
Paul Goodman’s radical and visionary perspective captured the imagination of mid-‘60s youth with his widely read “Growing Up Absurd.”
Goodman “made passes at a soldier and his wife,” for which he was beaten up. It is unclear, however, which advance got him in trouble. “Paul Goodman Changed My Life,” is full of such ambiguity. Other anecdotes in the film seem more salacious than enlightening. Judith Malina, co-founder of Manhattan’s experimental Living Theatre, insists that Goodman would give “his best heart and his best ideas” even to a stranger he met for a quick blowjob. If there were people in Goodman’s life who rejected him because of his sexual behavior, his politics often made him the object of hate. The FBI had him under surveillance for his antiVietnam protests and presence at draft card burnings. We learn that Goodman’s daughter worried about all this, but the specific impact of such official harassment is left unexplored. “Paul Goodman Changed My Life,” may prompt viewers to read and learn more about this remarkable man who lived life on his own terms. Although almost everyone interviewed in the film recalls Goodman fondly, the overall feeling it leaves about its subject is more lukewarm that the filmmaker likely intended. Given that Goodman changed so many lives, another of his other admirers might have chosen a more pointed approach to this complex intellectual.
many revelatory historical nuggets in “A Queer History of the United States.” Bronski has an extraordinary command of the material and also does a masterful job of synthesizing the work of fine gay historians, including Martin Duberman, John D’Emilio, Lillian Faderman, Terence Kissack, and dozens of other too numerous to mention. The war on same-sex imagery and writing currently waged by today’s “family values” crowd has, as Bronski demonstrates, its precursors in the social purity movements, sometimes led
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QUEER HISTORY, continued on p.28
12 - 25 OCT 2011
22/ Theater
War of the Words Linda Lavin puts the fun back in dysfunctional; Jonathan Groff loses his glee BY DAVID KENNERLEY
THE LYONS Vineyard Theatre 108 E. 15th St., btwn. Fourth Ave. & Irving Pl. Through Nov. 11 Tue. at 7 p.m.; Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m. Sat., Sun. at 3 p.m. $75; vineyardtheatre.org Or 212-352-0303
A
THE SUBMISSION
CAROL ROSEGG
Lucille Lortel Theatre 121 Christopher St., btwn. Bleecker & Hudson Sts. Through Oct. 22 Tue., Wed. at 7 p.m.; Thu.-Sat. at 8 p.m. Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m. $65; mcctheatre.org Or 212-352-3101
Michael Esper, Dick Latessa, and Linda Lavin in Nicky Silver’s new play “The Lyons.”
ourselves and we want them to reform, discover human connection, and perhaps find some modicum of redemption. This fall, Linda Lavin opted not to reprise her lauded roles in the Broadway transfers of Kennedy Center’s “Follies” and Lincoln Center’s “Other Desert Cities” so she could originate the role of Rita. And it’s a lucky thing, too, since her turn as the tart-tongued matriarch is nothing short of a tour -de-force. She infuses the garrulous Rita with an acerbic urgency that’s alternately hilarious and heartwrenching. “Your father and I were fighting all the time... When the kids are at camp, the knives come out,” she says matter-of-factly as she arches her eyebrows and scratches her nose. Director Mark Brokaw (“The Dying Gaul,” “How I Learned To Drive”) strikes a nice balance between comic and caustic, and mixes up the staging to maximum effect. Providing relief from the hospital room scenes is a frantic monologue given by Lisa (Kate Jennings Grant) at an AA meeting, her figure spotlighted against a backdrop of darkness. Another unexpected scene finds Curtis (Michael Esper, who brings a fragile ferocity to the role) in an empty studio apartment, playing a deranged catand-mouse game with a handsome real estate agent/ actor (Gregory Wooddell). While on one level it is pain-
fully amusing to witness this family implode, Silver’s fundamental point shines through. No matter how horrible the past, how dashed your dreams, how damaged your psyche, or how advanced your age, it’s never too late to wrangle a fresh start. And if people don’t like it, they can fuck off.
A
nother edgy comic drama, “The Submission,” by actor -cumplaywright Jeff Talbott, has more explosive social issues on its mind. The premise is intriguing, albeit farfetched. Danny Larsen (Jonathan Groff, in unctuous charmer mode), an aspiring
gay white playwright in his 20s, gets his poignant work — about a troubled black mother and son trying to escape the projects — accepted into a prestigious theater festival. Problem is, he chose to submit the play under the decidedly more ethnic pseudonym of Shaleeha G’ntamobi, which he made up. He was sure that if he used his real name, it would be passed over like the rest of his work. Troubles mount when Danny hires Emilie (Rutina Wesley, from HBO’s “True Blood”), a clever, headstrong AfricanAmerican woman, to pose as the playwright until opening night, when they would reveal Danny as the real genius behind the
work. To complicate matters, Danny’s best bud Trevor (Will Rogers) begins seeing Emilie on the sly. Pete (Eddie Kaye Thomas), Danny’s partner, starts to resent the cockamamie scheme. Once you accept the idiocy of this plan, fraught with red flags and more suited to a television sitcom than a serious piece of theater, you can relish the increasing tension as the hired hand insinuates her own identity into the process. Danny loses control, jealous that he’s missing out on collaborating with the director, and the stage is set for a nasty debate about race and oppres-
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WAR OF THE WORDS, continued on p.27
JOAN MARCUS
t first glance, Nicky Silver’s new dark comedy, “The L yons,” appears derivative at best. It’s a yet another quirky dysfunctionalfamily play. It’s a nagging-Jewish-mother play. It’s a codgeron-his-deathbed play. And yeah, one of the four principal players is gay — practically standard issue for this sort of affair these days. And it’s set in Manhattan, natch. Despite these tropes, the acclaimed author of such penetrating gems as “Pterodactyls” and “Beautiful Child” has crafted a fresh, incisive piece that both tickles the funny bone and strikes a nerve. Amazingly, this is his seventh play to premiere at the Vineyard Theatre. A couple of them went on to Broadway, and this stunner could be worthy of a transfer, too. The L yons family is truly despicable—hardly the sort of folks anyone would choose to spend an evening with. The father, Ben (Dick Latessa), suffering from end-stage renal cancer and lying in his hospital bed, has given up on any pretense of politeness and barks “fuck you!” repeatedly to his family. The mother, Rita, who can barely conceal her relief that her husband of 30 years is finally kicking the bucket and has already started plans to redecorate the living room, ignoring Ben’s groans of protests. She sees nothing wrong with asking if he prefers Chinese modern or French provincial. The children are even worse. Lisa is a bitter alcoholic still in love with her abusive ex-husband. Curtis, the estranged, delusional gay son, is a struggling short-story writer who wallows in self-pity, blaming his failures on his lousy childhood. As they bicker and snipe at one another, they expose a lifetime of rancor and lies. They’re not called the Lyons for nothing. But we stick with these vile creatures, not just because the acting is superb across the board or that the dialogue is sharp and full of surprises. It’s because we recognize a part of
Jonathan Groff and Rutina Wesley in Jeff Talbott’s edgy comic drama, “The Submission.”
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12 –25 OCT 2011
23
KEN HOWARD/ METROPOLITAN OPERA
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Anna Netrebko as the title character of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena.�
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From Seductress to Tragic Queen Anna Netrebko tackles bel canto in “Anna Bolena� at the Met BY ELI JACOBSON
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ince its 1830 premiere, Donizetti’s “Anna Bolenaâ€? has transformed the careers of its creators and performers. Its triumph at Milan’s Teatro Carcano established Donizetti as one of the top opera composers of his day. Giuditta Pasta, as the original protagonist, became the creative muse of Donizetti and Bellini after having redefined the prima donna roles in the older repertory of Mozart and Rossini. Maria Callas’ triumph in the 1957 La Scala production spurred the rediscovery of neglected bel canto operas and inspired many successors. The bel canto revival kept Joan Sutherland, Leyla Gencer, Montserrat CaballĂŠ, Marilyn Horne, Beverly Sills, and others busy for the next two decades. Unfortunately, the Metropolitan Opera waited until those ladies were gone from the scene to add “Anna Bolenaâ€? to its repertory. Anna Netrebko has established herself as an artist with the personal charisma, vocal glamour, and box office clout to compete with the divas of the past — this despite a coloratura technique that lacks some of their technical polish and musical finesse and a performing style that features more passionate flamboyance than interpretive subtlety. Netrebko’s recent forays into bel canto
have disappointed, showing an incomplete understanding of the style. Her beautiful Slavic voice sounded too dark, opaque, and inflexible to articulate the little notes, while her volume was, for the most part, loud and louder. However, Netrebko at age 40 has chosen “Anna Bolenaâ€? as the vehicle to reinvent herself from a seductive ingĂŠnue into a mature prima donna. As heard on September 30, the Russian superstar has refined her interpretation since her successful role debut in Vienna last April. The coloratura is now integrated into the phrasing of the vocal line and articulated with greater precision. Netrebko sang several excellent trills and cunningly faked the rest, and she paid more attention to dynamic markings, floating silvery pianissimos in the final mad scene. On the debit side, her deluxe voice with its lush vibrato and covered vowels, is rather sluggish, lagging behind the beat in the cabalettas and fast-moving ensemble work. The development of her voice points toward heavier Puccini, Verdi, and Tchaikovsky roles, which are coming soon. Unlike the sharp-witted, ambitious historical Anne Boleyn, Donizetti’s operatic Anna Bolena is a noble, martyred victim. Netrebko is by nature an earthy extrovert with an irrepressible peasant
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ANNA BOLENA, continued on p.27
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■ IN THE NOH
Dirty Fun Dancer to director, Ali Forney heroes, stylish cougars BY DAVID NOH
THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
“D
irty Girl” is one hell of an entertaining road movie (Regal Union Square, Clearview Chelsea, AMC Lincoln Square), being the tale of self-described high school slut Danielle (Juno Temple) who sets off from her home in Oklahoma to find her real daddy, accompanied by her classmate — shy, chubby, closeted Clarke (Jeremy Dozier). It’s 1987, a time of big hair and fun pop tunes, which both delightfully spice up this rookie effort by dancer and choreographer turned director Abe Sylvia. I met young Sylvia at the Crosby Street Hotel, and before our interview he graciously turned off his phone, saying, “Nobody ever calls me anyway. I’m such a homebody, have only a handful of friends I talk to. It was my birthday Friday and I just stayed in with my dogs. “The movie is not a true story, but I did grow up in Norman, Oklahoma, in the 1980s and was overweight, wanted to be a dancer, and was always fascinated by girls who were more provocative than I was. Luckily, unlike Clarke’s parents [played by Mary Steenburgen and Dwight Yoakam], mine were very liberal, accepting people. I came out when I was 15, and it was very easy because my mother always had gay friends and I knew what gay meant, just a part of growing up.” Sylvia is one of a number of dancers turned directors — a group that includes everyone from Herbert Ross and Stanley Donen to today’s Adam Shenkman and Shawn Ku. They come to directing with an innate sense of combining visuals with movement, rhythm, editing, space, and time. Speaking of Ku, Sylvia said, “It’s funny because I was in the chorus of ‘The Producers’ [third Nazi from the right and the Village People’s Indian], and Shawn was across the street doing ‘Fosse.’ We both retired from dancing to make movies at the same time — he went to USC and I went to UCLA. “I was in ‘Cats,’ playing the same role [director] Rob Marshall did 15 years before, and when he came to UCLA to lecture us students about ‘Chicago,’ I asked him what made him become a director, and he told a funny story about how in ‘Cats,’ the first thing he did was jump on the back of a car and he had to hold a handstand for 15 minutes. I wanted to jump up and say, ‘I totally relate to that because I had that very same moment in that same costume.” One of the film’s highlights is a sequence in which Danielle and Clarke ecstatically vogue to the late, great Teena Marie’s “Lovergirl” on the car radio: “It
Juno Temple and Jeremy Dozier in Abe Sylvia’s “Dirty Girl.”
broke my heart when she died. I’m a person who’s always soundtracking everything in my life, know what was playing on the radio at any big moment. To me that song was my sister and her girlfriends, who had a dance they’d do to it in the car. The song choice was between ‘Lovergirl’ and another one and, as with all my music choices, I played them for my sisters and when they’d go, ‘Aah!’ in recognition, I’d make that choice.” Clarke is obsessed with Melissa Man-
chester, and Sylvia said, “For the climactic scene with ‘Don’t Cry Out Loud,’ we had a problem because she was a big supporter and had given us all her other songs, but she didn’t write that one and the publishing rights for it was our entire music budget. I had emailed her anyway for approval about the use of her image, etc., and told her about this. She wrote back and said, ‘I’ll call Carole [Bayer Sager, the composer], and the next day, it was well within our budget.”
Gene Tierney and Judith Anderson in their famous powder room face-off in Otto Preminger’s 1944 “Laura.”
Sylvia found it ironic that even though he read tons of actors for his leads in Los Angeles, he had to go to England for Temple [whose father is director Julien Temple] and Texas for Dozier: “With Juno, it was very serendipitous. She even has Tom Petty lyrics tattooed on her wrist in honor of her father. Auditioning, she just blew all the cylinders out and her accent killed. She just transforms herself, and I think that’s why people don’t always recognize her when they see her. She’s gonna be the next Meryl, that’s the kind of actress she is.” I told Sylvia that she had this authentic trashiness that reminded me of Traci Lords, and he laughed, “John Waters said the same thing!” Sylvia, who’s single, doesn’t miss dancing: “I haven’t in years, still have arthritis in my ankle. I do miss being in the dressing room with the chorus girls and boys, funniest fucking people on the planet. I’d been in a lot of Broadway shows that didn’t work, but to watch Susan Stroman on ‘The Producers,” how she worked and how calm she was, always made me want to emulate her. “Mel Brooks was also there every day, totally fun, and his wife [the late Anne Bancroft] was so fabulous, always the first to get up and dance with us at the parties. I was dancing at Gary Beach’s birthday party and somebody started kind of freakin’ behind me. I turned around and it was Anne Bancroft, a great dancer!” The cherubic Jeremy Dozier was near unrecognizable that day at the Crosby, and told me, “I’ve lost a total of 120
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DIRTY FUN, continued on p.26
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26 DIRTY FUN, from p.24
pounds on this weight loss journey. I used Nutrisystem for a couple of months to get started, then got sick of that and started counting calories, not eating as much fast food, hiking, and using an exercise bike in my bedroom. “I was a senior at the University of Texas in Austin when I sent Abe an audition tape I made in my dorm room at about 3 a.m. between exams. I ripped the sheets off my roommate’s bed, tacked them on the wall, shot it, sent it to California, and got the part two years ago.” Dozier, also currently a singleton, thankfully makes no bones about being gay: “Particularly in today’s society, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s not the whole of me, just a piece of the fabric that makes me up. I’m grateful I come from a very supportive and loving family who just wanted all their kids to find somebody to love and wanted whoever I ended up choosing to be a part of their lives. “When the film is shown at festivals, so many people come up to me and say, ‘This is my story’ or ‘I am Clarke.’ It’s set in the ‘80s, but so many of the issues are so important today — self-love and being yourself. I was picked on in high school — a lot of people unfortunately are — but it was never to the extent that Clarke was. Clarke’s arc was what really made me want to play him, going from this shy, closeted gay kid to this proud, out guy that stands up to his dad and finds his voice.” Like Temple, Dozier is utterly fearless, especially in a striptease scene he had to perform in a bar: “Abe is a choreographer, and his friend Bill Szobody came in to help. I’m not a dancer, but they took me step by step and by the time it came to shoot, I felt confident in the steps, and Abe had created such a loving, supportive set. It was scary at first, but knowing everybody wanted the best for you, after the first take, you kind of forget and move on.” Dozier, born in 1986, had to steep himself in the period, especially Manchester: “It was terrifying to sing in front of her, especially her most iconic song. She wasn’t supposed to be there, but there she was and she was in the trailer next to mine as I tried to rehearse, keeping it down so she couldn’t hear me through the wall. But she was so sweet and said she loved it. “Mary Steenburgen also served as kind of a mother figure on the set and came up beforehand and said, ‘Look, in the third film I did, I had to tap dance. Never had before or ever did it again [and won the Oscar for it, in ‘Melvin and Howard’]. So, don’t worry about it. Get up there and have fun because you never know when you’re gonna get to do it again!’” Dozier’s career is moving along nicely, with two other films in post-production:
MIKE RUIZ
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Mike Ruiz, who offered a new perspective on Lance Base, was honored at the October 6 Ali Forney Dinner.
“‘Rock Paper Scissors,’ a teen comedy which is like ‘Superbad’ meets ‘Dodgeball,’ really hilarious, and ‘Right Next Door,’ an indie thriller about a family that is dark and twisted who hire a babysitter who slowly learns they aren’t what they say they are.”
N
ot as lucky with their family support systems as Sylvia and Dozier are the kids who benefit from the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing and resources for homeless LGBT youth. At the group’s sparkling annual benefit dinner October 6 at Midtown’s Studio 450, Kevin Jennings, the CEO of the nonprofit Be the Change, dancer and choreographer Lamont Joseph, and photographer Mike Ruiz were honored for their inspiring contributions. Ruiz’s presence was also felt in the silent auction, to which he had donated a number of works, including a startlingly out of character, glam-punk portrait of Lance Bass, about which he said, “I do these celebrity transformations by finding a side to them that might be brewing under the surface, and Lance ended up loving it. He was really tired of being portrayed in a certain way, and these images went viral within two seconds on the Internet. People were like, ‘OMG, that’s Lance Bass!,’ and celebrities love that sort of reaction, when people see them in a whole different light. “It’s very humbling to be honored tonight for something I feel like I’m on autopilot to do as my responsibility, and it just inspires me to want to do a lot
more. I moved to New York when I was 20 in 1987. I could easily have ended up on drugs or worse and didn’t have a lot of guidance back then. I identify with these kids today, especially with all the bullying you see on the Internet. You’re really aware of how much oppression is still going on. “If I had had a program like this at my disposal — although I’m grateful the way my life turned— I could have gotten a much earlier start in life. I only started my career when I was 30, after getting over the hurdles. I’m originally from Montreal, and, although my parents were very accepting, it took me a long time from 17, when I came out to myself, until 25, when I came out to them. I was just so terrified of being rejected. All the things these kids are subjected to I was afraid would happen to me.” About being a regular — affectionately referred to as “Auntie Mike” — on TV reality show “The A List,” Ruiz said, “One of the reasons I wanted to do the show was to bring light to some healthy nurturing relationships with my dad or my partner, in the context of a reality show which is not really known for that kind of mindset. It was a really amazing experiment to buck the whole genre, transcend it, really, and it’s given me an amazing platform to do all of this stuff, so I’m really grateful for it. Ruiz has been with his partner, Martin Berusch, for two years, and the couple plan to marry: “I proposed to him on the show, wanting to share with the world a really beautiful moment and caught him off guard — and didn’t expect to get so super emotional myself. We haven’t set a date yet, but the episode, which just aired, has started a powerful ripple effect with people coming forward and saying, ‘Wow, you can really have a healthy loving relationship, not rooted in the stuff that is typically projected onto our community.’” Ruiz became a photographer when “I got a camera for Christmas, one of the luckiest breaks of my life.” He also survived being a model, which he joked was “worse than being homeless [laughs]. No, I don’t want to belittle that plight at all. I went to Paris to model and got mugged, didn’t have any money, and my parents wouldn’t send me any. I literally was homeless for about a week. I would have to steal food and stuff to eat, and when I moved to New York, I really struggled financially and emotionally, trying to fit in, so I totally understand how difficult it can be.” The evening was hosted by uncannily youthful actress Ally Sheedy. Her mother, the late literary agent Charlotte Sheedy, identified as a lesbian, as does her 17-year-old daughter, Rebecca. I said to Sheedy that lesbianism obviously skips a generation in her family, and she laughed, “Rebecca came out to me at 14, but we were talking about it before, an evolving conversation. I’ve been in love with the [LGBT Commu-
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nity] Center for a while, and they asked me to emcee tonight, which I’m happy to do, my big favorite cause!” Adorable Rebecca, who like Ally was wearing a chic outfit purchased online (“We’re very simple people”), plans to study either biology or women’s studies in college, and counts as her favorite movies of her mom’s her lesbian vehicle, “High Art,” and “The Breakfast Club,” in which Sheedy played that alienated Goth girl who — so weird back then — has become a template for subsequent generations of girls. “I still get a lot of feedback on that, it’s cool, a great thing!,” Ally said. “I loved John [Hughes, the late director]. We were like a part of a group, these young kids, and he liked to play around, and if anyone wanted to try anything for their character, he’d be like, ‘Go ahead, do it, do it! He let me bring a lot of stuff to it and also wrote a lot of it — a mixture. “I just did a pilot for a series here in New York called ‘Modern Love.’ I play — surprise! — a gay mother [laughs], an editor at the New York Times. As you say, being typed as the original Goth girl to a lesbian now is very cool. There are never enough parts, and I’m like, ‘Thank you for calling!’”
“O
ut of the Shadows: the Fashion of Film Noir” is an exhibit about an enduring genre at Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library through November 1 (40 Lincoln Center Plaza, Amsterdam Ave. at 64th St.; tinyurl.com/3j7lp3p). Immerse yourself in iconic black and white images of your favorite dangerous noir babes and vamps in all their bigshouldered, pinstriped, bias-cut satin, ankle-strapped glory. My favorite piece is an original Bonnie Cashin sketch for an outfit worn by Judith Ander son in “Laura.” As Anne Treadwell, the redoubtable Anderson played my favorite movie cougar of all time, who had a parasitic gigolo in Vincent Price and an exquisitely venomous powder room encounter with Gene Tierney. Why doesn’t someone do an entire exhibit, or retrospective, for that matter, inspired by those fearless, fierce movie dames — Mary Astor (“Midnight,” “The Palm Beach Story”), Ruth Chatterton (“Female,” “Dodsworth’), Constance Bennett (“Two-Faced Woman”), Joan Crawford (“Female on the Beach”), Ina Claire (“Ninotchka”), Vivien Leigh (“The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone”), Patricia Neal (Breakfast at Tiffany’s”), Sylvia Miles (“Midnight Cowboy”), Nina Foch (“An American in Paris”), and, of course, Gloria Swanson (“Sunset Boulevard”) — who made no bones about paying for and getting exactly what they wanted, be it hunky twink or husky mink? Contact David Noh at Inthenoh@aol. com and check out his new blog at http:// nohway.wordpress.com/.
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ANNA BOLENA, from p.23
vitality. She lives in the moment, for the moment; introspection and passive suffering are not her forte onstage or off. As the doomed queen, Netrebko was best in scenes of confrontation and defiance. Her dramatic interpretation seemed a series of external effects — some brilliant, like the final whispered incredulous “Ad Anna... giudici?” at the end of Act I. The hysterical fear she could finally display when briefly left alone at the beginning of Act II was also compelling. But Netrebko on opening night, after singing the melancholy “Al Dolce Guidami” superbly, acknowledged the ovation with a self-satisfied smile and wink. Clearly sustaining a dramatic mood is not as serious a priority for her as it was with Callas or Sills. By the second performance, she toned down the smile. The production surrounding the diva was a somber, somewhat dull affair. Her colleagues were generally competent but gave her little to spark off of. Marco Armiliato’s conducting was the biggest damper. Idiomatic and impressive in verismo operas, Armiliato is strictly a routinier in bel canto — primarily concerned with maintaining four-square tempos and indulging the singers. Rhythmic contrast, dramatic emphasis, and tonal color were neglected, making the score sound generic and banal. Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova replaced Elina Garanca as Giovanna Seymour. In previous appearances, Gubanova has been something of a cipher, but here she displayed a rich, vibrant Verdian mezzo, digging passionately into the conflicted future queen’s music. The role, however, was written for a lyric soprano with a lighter, more youthful sound than the prima donna’s; at
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WAR OF THE WORDS, from p.22
sion in contemporary America. For the most part, “The Submission” sidesteps the landmines that sink these kinds of racial screeds by viewing the issues from fresh angles. Danny argues that being maligned as a gay man is just as hurtful as the discrimination facing black women. Emilie is insulted by such a comparison. Danny lets slip some shockingly racist comments, but feels his observations are justified — sometimes, political correctness muddies the truth. The climactic showdown following the play’s premiere, where the ugliest epithets are launched like missiles whose damage can never be repaired, is supremely moving. Despite solid performances from a committed cast, the artificiality of the plot — and the polemic — renders the
12 –25 OCT 2011 times, Gubanova’s effect was too strident or too matronly. Ildar Abdrazakov’s pleasant, softcentered baritonal bass limned a King Henry VIII that was more lover than tyrant. Fast-rising American tenor Stephen Costello sang the wimpy rejected former lover Percy. His stage demeanor consisted of one blank hangdog expression and a round-shouldered slouch. The sound of his voice is basically pleasant if small. When Costello pressed for volume or high notes — which unfortunately occurred often — the tone turned grainy and bleaty. The contralto quality of Tamara Mumford’s lovely voice gave appropriate tragic and masculine colorings to the often undercast trouser role of Smeton. David McVicar’s production, like the towering sets of Robert Jones, started out impressively but increasingly ran out of ideas and variation. Jones’ unit set consisted of a dark wood-paneled palace chamber on the left, with a white brick interior/ exterior space on the right. A shifting central wall with large gate doors reconfigured the two spaces with minimal set dressing. Like Jenny Tiramani’s historically authentic costumes, Jones restricted his palette to black and white, occasionally contrasted with a splash of bright color. M c Vi c a r ’ s d i r e c t i o n w e n t f r o m insightful — the first duet of Giovanna and King Enrico was changed into a private bedroom scene late at night — to mere traffic cop herding of principals and chorus on and offstage. When Netrebko took center stage in the long final scena, reservations were forgotten and the audience fell under her spell. It took too long for us to get there but when we did, it was worth it. See why when “Anna Bolena” is transmitted live in HD to movie theaters worldwide on Saturday, October 15 at 12:55 p.m. Eastern time.
characters less than real as well, undercutting emotional resonance. Regrettably, perhaps relative newcomer Talbott was allowed too much creative control by director Walter Bobbie (“Venus in Fur”). The clunky coda, which sifts through the ashes of the damage, is superfluous and should have been cut. To be sure, “The Submission” asks some probing questions about bigotry and ethnic stereotypes that, while posited many times before — David Mamet’s “Race” from last year comes to mind — certainly bear repeating. This fiercely intelligent drama also wonders if a play’s power can be drawn from the work itself or if it is inextricably linked to the author. Likewise, it asks why a slur is okay within one group, yet heinous when uttered by anybody else. Understandably, we get no easy answers.
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The Fall Festival
of LGBT Arts and Culture October 24th - November 6th
Stories, Photos, & Tickets on our website:
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Our 9th Year Continues! with Drama and Comedy Family fun, & Feuds Lesbian Poets, and Lesbian Shorts (plays, that is) Political Theatre (deliciously incorrect) and Dancing Zombies? Why Not!
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE RECIPIENT OF OUR 2011 CHARLES GORMLEY AWARD FOR SERVICE TO THE LGBT COMMUNITY WILL BE
MARRIAGE EQUALITY NEW YORK Please join us for our Anniversary and Award Dinner Monday, October 24, 6:30 PM at the Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Avenue (between 11th and 12th) For reservations please email 39th@dignityny.org or call 212-529-6322. Tickets: $45 ™
Please also join us for our 39th Annual Anniversary Liturgy and Social: Sunday, October 23, 7:30 PM, St. John’s in the Village Church 218 W. 11th Street (and Waverly Place) and every Sunday for liturgy and social at the same time and place.
www.dignityny.org 646-418-7039
QUEER HISTORY, from p.21
by progressives, that began in the 19th century and continue today to threaten the larger cultural space that courageous same-sexers have won for themselves. This book is also a catalogue of our enemies down through the years. Bronski’s radical liberationist politics are evident on every page and will no doubt irritate the oh-so-homogenized assimilationists whose rhetoric dominates today’s official gay discourse. He writes, “While we are all Americans –– and heterosexuals may be a lot queerer than they think –– being ‘just like you’ is not what all Americans want. Historically, ‘just like you’ is the great American lie. The overwhelming, even giddy diversity of America precludes such simple analogies. ‘Just like’ is often a false argument. In the past decade, the argument that same-sex marriage is ‘just like’ inter-racial marriage has led to far more misunderstanding and anger than agreement and clarity…” Bronski’s examination of five centu-
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DIGNITY/NEW YORK
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BRIEFS, from p.17
Frank of Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Jared Polis of Colorado, and David Cicilline of Rhode Island –– wrote to Boehner asking that BLAG brief House members on Bancroft’s defense of DOMA. That request followed a similar letter, which went unanswered, sent in early April.
Obama Returns to the Human Rights Campaign Two years after making his first appearance at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Washington dinner, President Barack Obama returned on October 1, tying advances his administration has made on LGBT rights to the broader argument for his reelection. When the president attended the 2009 HRC dinner, tens of thousands of demonstrators were in Washington for the National Equality March, an event aimed at emphasizing not only the community’s growing weariness with incremental change but also its increasing frustration with the slow pace of progress out of Obama. Twenty-four months later, the president has still not articulated what many in the community feel he has waited too long to embrace –– support for marriage equality –– and eleven months ago, Democrats lost control of Congress after four years, without having enacted basic employment protections for LGBT Americans. Still, the president clearly had a good deal more to show for his record this past Saturday evening than two
ries ends in 1990, but his impeccable scholarship and pungent, often witty narrative is as relevant as today’s headlines. One has to know where one’s been to be able to chart a meaningful course to where one would like to be. From literature to fashion to relationships with other social movements, the queer story as told by Bronski will open your eyes. The great historian Arnold Toynbee once observed, “‘History’ is a Greek word which means, literally, just ‘investigation.’” Bronski is a superb investigator, intellectually rigorous, whose work has always challenged conventional wisdoms with subtle nuance. That’s why “A Queer History of the United States” can be profitably read both by novices on the subject and by those with a serious background in gay historiography. Even if you disagree with Bronski’s interpretations, they will make you think. This is an important book, one that should have pride of place on every queer bookshelf. Make sure it’s on yours.
years ago. Of the progress he outlined on October 1, only one accomplishment –– enactment of a federal hate crimes law –– was in place when he last addressed HRC. Since then, Obama noted, the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy has ended, his administration has stopped defending the Defense of Marriage Act and endorsed specific repeal legislation, all hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding (virtually every one in the nation) must give gay and lesbian partners of patients the same visitation rights afforded straight spouses, and the long-standing ban on the HIV-positive foreign travelers entering the US has been overturned. To the speech’s laundry list of accomplishments and goals, the president added some emotional grace notes, saying, in reference to the treatment of a gay service member’s question at a recent Republican presidential debate, “We don’t believe in the kind of smallness that says it’s okay for a stage full of political leaders –– one of whom could end up being the president of the United States –– being silent when an American soldier is booed.” And, he said progress happens not only in Washington, but also “when a father realizes he doesn’t just love his daughter, but also her wife.” “I don’t have to tell you that we have a ways to go in that struggle,” the president acknowledged. “I don’t have to tell you how many are still denied their basic rights –– Americans who are still made to feel like second-class citizens, who have to live a lie to keep their jobs, or who are afraid to walk the street, or down the
hall at school.” But even as Obama encouraged the LGBT community to continue pressing him for more action, he challenged the HRC crowd to help him achieve his more comprehensive agenda, in an unmistakable reference to the importance of next year’s election. “I also need your help in the broader fight to get this economy back on track,” he said. “You may have heard, I introduced a bill called the American Jobs Act. It’s been almost three weeks since I sent it up to Congress. That’s three weeks longer than it should have taken to pass this common-sense bill… Now, you may have heard me say this a few times before –– I’ll say it again: Pass the bill. Enough gridlock. Enough delay. Enough politics.” But, then, getting at the unavoidable politics at the heart of the matter, the president added, “HRC, you know how Congress works. I’m counting on you to have my back. Go out there and get them to pass this bill.”
Bloomberg Honored for Marriage Advocacy by Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign –– at its October 1 annual Washington dinner where President Barack Obama made his second appearance as keynote speaker –– recognized New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg with a Nation-
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BRIEFS, continued on p.29
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BRIEFS, from p.28
al Ally for Equality Award. HRC honored Bloomberg for his work in advancing marriage equality in New York State. Introduced by Sarah Jessica Parker, the mayor framed diversity as a positive for economic growth and marriage equality as fully compatible with conservative principles. “In our city, there is no shame in being true to yourself,” Bloomberg told the crowd. “There is only pride. We take you as you are –– and we let you be who you wish to be. That is the essence of New York City. And that is why we are the most diverse city in the world and the economic engine for the country.” Praising the enactment of gay marriage as a bipartisan achievement –– four State Senate Republicans joined 29 Democrats in putting the issue over the top with one vote to spare –– the mayor said, “Marriage equality is fundamentally consistent with both parties’ principles –– and especially, I would argue, conservative principles. Limiting the intrusion of government into family affairs, promoting family stability, keeping government out of private contracts between consenting parties: The conservative case for marriage equality could not be stronger.” Bloomberg said that the victory would not have been possible “without the leadership” of Governor Andrew Cuomo and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the out lesbian Democrat widely viewed as the mayor’s favorite in the 2013 election. During his first three years in office, the divorced Bloomberg dodged the issue of gay marriage, making joking reference to his own matrimonial disappointment. Then, in February 2005, as he announced he would appeal a Manhattan Supreme Court justice’s pro-marriage equality ruling, he voiced his support for a gay marriage law in the Legislature. Along with thenAttorney General Eliot Spitzer, the mayor chose not to take the course later adopted by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and thenAttorney General Jerry Brown (now governor) when California’s Proposition 8 was challenged in court and they declined to defend the voter initiative. In late 2005, just weeks after his first reelection, Bloomberg voiced ambivalence about the appeal the city had filed, telling Gay City News, “My hope is that the court will say that it is legal under the Constitution.” If that
12 –25 OCT 2011 did not happen, he said, he would lobby legislators to adopt marriage equality through law. This spring, the mayor twice traveled to Albany to do that, and held a major fundraiser to support the issue. During the second visit to the Capitol, he spoke to the Republican Senate majority conference as it deliberated over whether to allow a floor vote on the question. On June 24, hours after the conference okayed a vote, the Senate passed the measure by a 33 to 29 vote and the governor signed it into law.
Military Chaplains Free to Officiate at Gay Weddings In a September 30 memorandum to the military service chiefs and assistant and under secretaries at the Pentagon, Defense Department Under Secretary Clifford L. Stanley announced that military chaplains may officiate at any private ceremony whether on or off a military installation. The memo spells out, therefore, that chaplains have the right to marry same-sex couples. It also makes clear, however, that no chaplain is required to perform this function if doing so would be at “variance with the tenets of his or her religion or personal beliefs. On September 21, one day after repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell went into effect, Jeh C. Johnson, the Defense Department’s general counsel, issued a memorandum stating that determinations about use of department property and facilities for private functions, including religious and other ceremonies, must be made on a sexual orientation-neutral basis. Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which for years pressed for an end to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, praised the new policies. “We are pleased the Department of Defense has made it clear that a military chaplain is allowed to perform any lawful ceremony that is consistent with his or her beliefs and is not required to perform a ceremony that is inconsistent with those beliefs,” Aubrey Sarvis, SLDN’s executive director said in a written statement. “We are also pleased that access to military facilities will be granted on a sexual orientation-neutral basis. The guidance issued today strikes the right balance between respecting the faith traditions of chaplains and affording all service members the same rights under current law.”
Alex Nicholson, who heads up Servicemembers United, an organization of LGBT active duty personnel and veterans, predicted that many chaplains are likely to welcome the chance to officiate at gay and lesbian weddings. “Now that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is gone, there is nothing prohibiting chaplains whose denominations do not discriminate from treating same-sex couples equally in accordance with state and local laws,” he said. “There are many chaplains in the military who simply do not believe that gay and lesbian servicemembers are second-class citizens, and those chaplains should have the freedom to practice their religion as they see fit, including officiating at ceremonies that their denominations recognize.” Speaking at the Values Voters Summit, hosted in Washington last week by the anti-gay Family Research Council, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, now a Republican presidential hopeful, charged that President Barack Obama “has now instructed people in the military to break the law.” He said that military chaplains who marry same-sex couples would be acting “in direct contravention to the Defense of Marriage Act.”
Serial Husband Gingrich Declares Gay Marriage “Temporary Aberration” Declaring that marriage equality is a “temporary aberration,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted it “will dissipate.” Gingrich, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, made his remarks, reported on the Iowa Caucuses 2012 blog of the Des Moines Register, at a Best Western motel in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on September 30. “I believe that marriage is between a man and woman,” the blog quoted Gingrich saying. “It has been for all of recorded history and I think this is a temporary aberration that will dissipate. I think that it just fundamentally goes against everything we know.” In 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously that same-sex couples there have the right to marry. Gingrich was a major funder of the 2010 campaign that successfully removed all three of the high court justices whose seats were up for public renewal in last November’s election. Gingrich is on his third marriage. Both of the first two ended after he began affairs with the wife that followed.
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WED.OCT.19
DANCE 40 Bites of Choreography & Innovation
DanceNow’s “Joe’s Pub Festival” presents four cabaret evenings of dance, featuring bite-size choreographic gems from 40 of New York’s most innovative dance makers. On Oct. 19, 7 p.m., the line-up includes Adam Barruch Dance, Sidra Bell Dance, Camille A. Brown, Sean Curran, Dash/ Gregory Dolbashian, Sara Joel/ Anna Venizelos, LOVE| FORTÉ –– A Collective, Stefanie Nelson, Gus Solomons jr/ Kyle Olson/ Matt Flory Meade, and David Parker and the Bang Group. The program on Oct. 20, 7 p.m., includes alexanDance Performance, binbinFactory, Terry Creach, John Heginbotham, Jamal Jackson Dance Company, Luke Murphy/Movement Underground, Portables/Claire Porter/Jen Katz, POW!, Iain Rowe, and small apple co. On Oct. 21, 7 p.m., the line-up includes Hilary Easton + Company, Gina Gibney Dance, Benjamin Kimitch, Nicholas Leichter Dance, Loni Landon Projects, Malcom Low/ Formal Structure, John-Mark Owen Presents, Raving Jaynes/ Amy Larimer, Amber Sloan, and TAKE Dance. On Oct. 22, 7 p.m., “Joe’s Pub Festival” presents BANGdance, Jane Comfort and Company, INSPIRIT/ Christal Brown, Doug Elkins Choreography, Kawamura the 3rd, Liberation Dance Theater, Deborah Lohse, Pengelly Projects, Ellis Wood Dance, and zvidance. Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St., btwn. Fourth St. & Astor Pl. Tickets are $15 at joespub. com or 212-967-7555, or $20 at the door. ✯
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FRI.OCT.21
DANCE Merce’s RUGS
The Repertory Understudy Group of the Merce Cunningham Company, which is due to disband at the end of 2011, performs works by the master in its final appearance at 92Y’s “Friday-at-Noon.” The company performs 1964’s “Winterbranch,” set to music by La Monte Young, and “Scramble,” from 1967, with music by Toshi Ichiyanagi. 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St. Oct. 31, noon. Admission is free. ✯
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Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter John Legend, one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” who was a child prodigy on the piano, presents an intimate evening of performance and storytelling
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Felice Picano, the pioneering gay author whose latest book is “Contemporary Gay Romances,” joins Paul Russell, whose new book “The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov” tells the story of a literary icon’s gay brother, for a reading, discussion, and book signing. Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 2289 Broadway at 82nd St. Oct. 20, 7 p.m. Free, but call ahead to 212-362-8835 to confirm. ✯
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MUSIC A Legendary Evening
READING Lolita’s Brother
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The Lesbian Sex Mafia welcomes Tina Horn, a kinky porn star who is the self-proclaimed smartest ass in show business, for an upbeat seminar aimed at helping folks live out and take pride in their spanking fantasies. Tops will empower themselves with the skills necessary to administer the most delicious spanks, and bottoms will learn how they can facilitate the treatment they’ve always deserved. The workshop will also touch on other types of impact play such as flogging and caning, as well as on basic role-play and dominance/ submission techniques. This workshop welcomes novices, old hands, couples, women, men, and queers of all identities and orientations. A hot live demo will be presented. LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St. Oct. 21, 8-10 p.m. Admission is $10; $5 for LSM members.
The Unitards –– Mike Albo, Nora Burns, and David Ilku –– are back and tardier than ever with a new line-up of outrageous, biting, farcical, and, oh yeah, funny sketches and monologues. Making mockery of the mundane and fools of the fabulous, the Unitards will have you spitting up your cocktail as they skewer everything from Brooklynites and cheese to gay dads and babysitters, with a hefty whiff of progressive punch. Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie St., btwn. Delancey & Rivington Sts. Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m. Admission is $9.99, cash only at the door. ✯
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NIGHTLIFE Is Spanking Your Fantasy?
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PERFORMANCE Unitards, New and Abused
ART: Fraver
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with audience interaction. “I used to watch Michael Jackson on television, and I figured I could do what he was doing,” Legend has said. Gene & Shelley Enlow Recital Hall, Kean University, 215 North Ave., Hillside, NJ. Oct. 23, 7 p.m. Tickets are $225 at enlowhall. kean.edu or 908-737-SHOW. ✯
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WED.OCT.26
RELATIONSHIPS Alchemy, Love (& Marriage)
Gahl Sasson, a spiritual teacher and author of “A Wish Can Change Your Life: How to Use the Ancient Wisdom of Kabbalah to Make Your Dreams Come True,” leads a gay spirituality workshop, “The Alchemy of Same-Sex Relationships,” as part of the New York Society for Ethical Culture’s OUT@NYSEC series. The session will explore the “gay gap,” the differences between straight and gay relationships, the concepts of soul mates and twin-flames, the influence of astrology, and the paradox of 44 percent of young people believing marriage is headed for extinction, but 95 percent of them still wanting to get married. New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W. 64th St. at Central Pk. W. Oct. 26, 7 p.m. Admission is $30 at kaspresents.com or at the door. ✯
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ACTIVISM God & Gays
THU.OCT.27
In a special “town fair” organized by more than 20 sponsoring organizations –– including the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Human Rights Campaign, Faith in America, the Jewish Daily Forward, and Lambda Legal –– community leaders gather to “take religion back from the religious right.” The event celebrates the publication of “God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality” (Beacon Press), by columnist and activist Jay Michaelson (jaymichaelson. net), which argues that shared religious values support, rather than oppose, full equality for LGBT people. Publisher’s Weekly called the book “a salvo in the case for equality.” Leaders from the sponsoring organizations will address the town fair. LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St. Oct. 27, 7-9 p.m. ✯
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THEATER In Matthew’s Memory
In 2000, Moisés Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project premiered “The Laramie Project,” a docu-drama stage performance exploring the attitudes of the
residents of Laramie, Wyoming, toward the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard. The 4th Universalist Society of New York presents a production of “The Laramie Project” to benefit the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Interweave, a Unitarian organization that combats the homophobia and transphobia faced by its members. 160 Central Park W., btwn. 75th & 76th Sts. Oct. 28-30, 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 at 4thu.org/laramie/. An extended run is planned for November. ✯
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AT THE BEACH Halloween in P-Town With its mild, ocean-warmed autumns, Provincetown, at the far end of Cape Cod, can make for a beautiful Halloween treat. On Oct. 28, 10 a.m., start the Eve of All Saints commemoration with a cemetery walking tour, where you can meet the most famous local worthies of yesteryear. ($15 fee covers admission to the Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum.) That evening, 5-8 p.m., the Wave Bar at the Crown and Anchor, 247 Commercial St., hosts a Spooky Weekend Meet & Greet. (No cover charge.) At 8 p.m., the Crown & Anchor’s Cabaret Room hosts a screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” (No cover charge.) At 9 p.m., the Paramount Bar at the Crown and Anchor hosts the Spooky Bear Weekend Saints & Sinners Party, with bear/ leather/ uniform attire. ($5 cover charge.) Club Purgatory at the Gifford House, 9-11 Carver St., starts the
music and dancing at 10:30 p.m. On Oct. 29, Town Hall, 260 Commercial St., hosts the First Annual Masquerade Ball, with children’s activities outside on the lawn during the day and the ball beginning at 8 p.m. (Tickets are $25 at the Town Clerk’s Office or the Marc Jacobs store.) At the Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum, High Pole Hill Road, 11 a.m., author Josh Delaney reads from his new novel “Pieces of Eight,” the tale of the people and events that surround the 18th century wreck of the pirate ship Whydah. The Crown and Anchor, 247 Commercial St., hosts the Spooky Bear Afternoon Tea, 2-5 p.m. Wear your wildest and nastiest T-shirts. The Boat Slip, 161 Commercial St., hosts its legendary Tea Dance, 4-9 p.m. An informal Hallowqueen Promenade, establishing P-Town as the New Salem, begins on Ryder St., next to City Hall and proceeds to Atlantic Ave., 7: 30 p.m. The Cabaret Room at the Crown and Anchor, 247 Commercial St., 8 p.m., hosts the Bears of Comedy –– Frank Vigliotti, Neil Thornton, and Blake Evans-Sherman. (Admission is $18.) The Paramount, also at the Crown and Anchor, holds the Spooky Bear Party & Costume Contest (cash prizes!), 9 p.m. ($10 cover charge.) The Atlantic House, 4-6 Masonic Pl., 9 p.m., throws the Big Halloween Party, featuring music by resident DJ and Billboard Magazine reporter David LaSalle. On Oct. 30, the Boat Slip, 161 Commercial St., holds the Last Tea Dance of the Season, 4-7 p.m. DJ Mary Alice spins. ($5 cover.)
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