Gay City News, November 9, 2011 by Schneps Media

NOVEMBER 9-22, 2011 VOLUME TEN, ISSUE 23

Occupy Wall Street’s Tranarchists page 10 Asexual Is Good page 15 “Other Desert Cities” Bloom page 33

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

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| November 9, 2011

At Least He Was Gay Odd trio of Clint Eastwood, Dustin Lance Black, Leonardo DiCaprio tussle over Hoover’s legacy 32

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You Go, Girl! Darrie Lawrence richly embodies A.R. Gurney’s WASP family matriarch. 34

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

| November 9, 2011

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

| November 9, 2011

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

POLITICS

Right-Wing Hits, But Judiciary OKs Gay Nominee Unanimously, Michael Fitzgerald sent to Senate floor BY PAUL SCHINDLER ichael W. Fitzgerald, an out gay judicial nominee proposed by President Barack Obama for the Central District of California, was favorably reported out of the Judiciary Committee on November 3 on a unanimous voice vote. The favorable action came despite letters targeting the nomination issued the day before from two anti-gay right-wing groups, FRCAction, the legislative arm of the Family Research Council, and the Traditional Values Coalition. The FRCAction letter noted that Fitzgerald’s Senate questionnaire stated he had “made telephone calls or knocked on doors” for the No on Proposition 8 campaign in California in 2008. The letter faulted him for not identifying his efforts as a “potential conflict of interest” in his nomination papers. FRCAction also stated that Fitzgerald has been active with the Stonewall Democratic Club, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, the Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association, and the HarvardRadcliffe Gay and Lesbian Caucus. The letter noted that the Harvard-Radcliffe group worked to block military recruiting on campus because of the discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. Fitzgerald, FRCAction wrote, also provided pro bono representation in 1990 to a man who alleged he had been fired

predilection for innovation rather than a strict adherence to the rule of law.” Alison Nathan, who was confirmed for a seat on the US Court for the Southern District of New York last month, survived an 11th-hour attempt by two other right-wing groups — Heritage Action and the Concer ned Women for America – to derail her nomination. She was confirmed on a straight-party vote on October 13 after four Republicans who voted for her in committee changed their position. The voice vote reporting Fitzgerald’s nomination out of committee does not technically put any of its Republican members on record in support. A Senate source told Gay City News this could allow some or all of them an easy time in later opposing Fitzgerald on the floor. An assistant US attorney in California’s Central District from 1988 until 1991, Fitzgerald has since been in private practice, currently at the Los Angeles firm of Corbin, Fitzgerald & Athey.

Fitzgerald, 52, is a graduate of Harvard University and has a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Following his graduation from Berkeley, he was a clerk to US

OFFICE OF SENATOR BARBARA BOXER

“

Michael W. Fitzgerald’s nomination advanced to the full Senate.

from the FBI due to his homosexuality. “Mr. Fitzgerald has a history of activism that he fails to acknowledge could pose a potential conflict of interest regarding his judicial duties. This oversight raises concerns over his ability to judge impartially,” FRCAction charged. The Traditional Values Coalition wrote, “Fitzgerald’s record for liberal activism is only matched by his taste for judicial activism, as his arguments in numerous cases and extracurricular activities among homosexual transgender organizations show a militant and aggressive

His arguments in numerous cases and extracurricular activities among homosexual transgender organizations show a militant and aggressive predilection for innovation rather than a strict adherence to the rule of law.” Judge Irving R. Kaufman of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. There are currently three out gay and lesbian federal judges with lifetime appointments — Nathan, Paul Oetken, and Deborah Batts — all of whom serve in New York’s Southern District. Like Nathan, Oetken was confirmed earlier this year, while Batts has been on the court since her appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Edward DuMont, who is also gay, still awaits action on his nomination for a seat on the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.

LGBT Groups Quiet on Redistricting Local Stonewall Dems host forum, many others invisible BY DUNCAN OSBORNE he future of legislation sought by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community could hinge on whether New York State Senate districts are redrawn by the members of that body or by an independent commission. “There’s a whole bunch of other stuff that needs to get done,” said Michael Gianaris, a Democratic state senator who represents part of Queens, at an October 26 meeting on redistricting sponsored by the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, a gay political group. With a governor, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, who has been a staunch ally of the queer com-

munity and a State Assembly that is dominated by Democrats, legislation, such as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), a bill that would bar discrimination based on gender identity and expression, hinges on the State Senate, which is currently controlled by Republicans in a slim 32 to 30 majority. Current state law has the 150-member Assembly and the Senate drawing their own districts. Each body then approves the other’s plan. The governor must sign those plans. Surprising no one, the result of that scheme is that each party maintain control of its chambers because every ten years, when redistricting occurs, legislators draw district maps that are made up mostly of their party’s

voters. Some data suggests that Democrats should control both houses. As of April 1 of this year, there were 5.2 million Democrats and 2.7 million Republicans registered to vote in New York. In the 2010 elections, Democrats cast a half million more votes statewide than Republicans. “The State Senate is not Republican because voters picked them,” Gianaris said. As more than one panelist said at the meeting, which was held at the LGBT Community Center, with redistricting, incumbent legislators pick their voters. This year, Cuomo introduced legislation that would have an independent commission draw the lines for state legislative and congressional districts on next

year’s ballot, but neither the Assembly nor the Senate has moved on that bill. Cuomo has threatened to veto any plan that is drawn by legislators. Twothirds of the senators must vote to override a veto, and Senate Republicans could probably not find those 42 votes. The prospects for a stalemate mean that drawing the maps would be done by the courts, either state or federal. “We don’t know who is going to win,” Gianaris said. “We don’t even know who is going to draw the lines.” Redistricting is not just an issue for New Yorkers. Every state is redrawing the maps for their legislatures and US House seats based on the 2010 Census. How those maps are drawn could have an impact on the

community’s ability to enact state and federal legislation for the next decade. Republicans, who are generally hostile to the community’s interests, control 25 state legislatures and Democrats control 15. The remaining states have divided control and one, Nebraska, is nonpartisan. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 21 states have commissions that create their state legislative and congressional districts, an approach that could disrupt the tendency of politicians to draw district maps that protect incumbents or one party. In many cases, however, the commissioners are appointed by the elected officials who would benefit from or be hurt

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REDISTRICTING, continued on p.9

| November 9, 2011

CRIME

Victim Called Pedophile in Katehis Murder Retrial aying his client was “a 16-year-old young man” who “tried to resist the sexual advances of a pedophile,” the defense attorney in the retrial of John Katehis said his client panicked when asked to participate in a sex act and stabbed his 47-year-old gay victim. “He lost control,” said Jay Cohen, Katehis’ attorney, during November 2 opening statements in Brooklyn Supreme Court. “He never intended to kill him.” The victim, George Weber, a WABC radio journalist, was stabbed a total of 50 times. In March of 2009, Katehis, now 19, placed an ad on Craigslist that had “I blow for cash M4M” in the subject line and read “I am a 16-year-old dude looking for quick cash” in the body of the ad. Katehis was offering oral sex for $60. The age of consent in New York is 17. Weber responded to the ad and wanted to have Katehis tie him up and smother him. They corresponded by email over a period of days and negotiated what they would do, when they would meet, and the price. Katehis traveled to Weber’s Carroll Gardens apartment from his parents’ home in Queens. In statements to police, Katehis claimed that Weber gave him cocaine and beer. Tests on blood drawn from Katehis within hours of the attack found no controlled substances or measurable amounts of alcohol.

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REDISTRICTING, from p.8

by the maps drawn. While the 1965 Voting Rights Act provides guidelines that can result in districts more likely to elect an African-American or Latino candidate, the LGBT community is not a protected class in that federal legislation. “LGBT is not considered under the Voting Rights Act, so there is no legal recourse,” said Keesha Gaskins, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. As a group with common interests, the community could lobby for districts that would be more likely to elect an openly LGBT person. “That’s the essence of redistricting,” Gaskins said. “Communities of common interests.” The community generally pays little attention to redistricting, and this year is no

After he bound Weber’s feet, Katehis said, Weber displayed a knife and he panicked. The two struggled over the knife and Katehis said he accidentally stabbed Weber once. The older man had 50 stab wounds. Katehis had a knife collection and was known to regularly carry knives. Katehis faces a single second-degree murder count that alleges he intentionally killed Weber. Cohen is aiming for an acquittal by saying his client lacked the legally required state of mind to prove intentional murder. He may also be laying the groundwork to ask Neil J. Firetog, the judge in the case, to add a lesser charge of manslaughter for the jury to consider as an alternative to murder. The jury deadlocked at Katehis’ 2010 trial with 11 jurors voting to convict and one holding out for a not guilty verdict. His attorney in that trial, Jeffery T. Schwartz, said Weber was a sexual predator and that Katehis acted in selfdefense after Weber displayed the knife. Cohen is also emphasizing the predator angle. “Mr. Weber wasn’t stopped by that,” Cohen said noting that Katehis’ ad stated he was 16. “He cruised the Internet for somebody young. He wanted a kid.” Cohen had originally considered offering an extreme emotional disturbance defense, meaning his client acted under the influence of that state of mind. If the jury convicted him, but believed he acted in that state of mind, the conviction would be for manslaughter, not murder. The mental health expert who

exception. The Empire State Pride Agenda, New York’s leading gay lobby, did not respond to an email inquiring about any efforts it was making on redistricting. In past elections, the Pride Agenda has often pushed for more Democrats in the State Senate, though that tradition has been complicated by the critical support four Republicans senators provided to the marriage equality victory in June. Nationally, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay lobby, and the National Stonewall Democrats, a gay political group, did not respond to emails on their redistricting work. While gay groups in Illinois and California are known to have participated in redistricting plans this year, it appears that most LGBT organizations have not weighed in. Gary J. Gates, a scholar at

John Katehis’ MySpace page at the time he killed George Weber in 2009.

interviewed Katehis said there was no evidence to support that defense. Earlier this year, Katehis was offered 16 years to life in exchange for a guilty plea to second-degree murder but rejected that offer. Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, the prosecutor in the case, told the jury that the evidence would support the second-degree murder charge. “At the end of this case, you will see that the defendant intentionally murdered George Weber,” she said. “Intoxica-

the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law and a leading demographer of the queer community, said he had received few requests for data. “I’ve had a few questions come my way, but one of the problems was that the Census 2010 same-sex couple data (really the only data source that allows you to get any sense of localized differences in the prevalence of the LGBT community) were made available too late in most state processes,” Gates wrote in an email, noting that for those states working faster than New York on establishing their new lines, “there was not much recent data available to inform redistricting.” Other panelists at the Stonewall event were Timothy Gay, deputy chief clerk of the New York City Board of Elections, and Jerry Skurnik, a founder of Prime New York, a political consulting firm.

tion, panic as a legal excuse, none of that will apply... There is no legal excuse for what the defendant intentionally chose to do.” Nicolazzi described the various statements that Katehis gave to police and implied that many were self-serving falsehoods. The prosecution wants the jury to believe some, but not all of what Katehis told police. “Decide for yourselves if he is really the innocent, the victim, as he may be portrayed to be,” she said.

JON NALLEY

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

MYSPACE.COM

Soliciting sex online, teen stabbed George Weber 50 times

Tim Gay, Jerry Skurnik, Keesha Gaskins, and Senator Michael Gianaris at an October 26 Stonewall Democrats’ forum on redistricting.

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

ACTIVISM

When the System Itself is the Problem Trans women anarchists share Occupy Wall Street message BY GINA QUATTROCHI wo weeks ago, within hours of Gay City News publishing my piece “Occupy Wall Street’s Tragic Lack of Gender Analysis,” a group of trans women reached out to me. They have been an integral part of OWS since its inception and they wanted me to know it. What follows is a distillation of hours of conversation with two of these women, Justine and Zoë, founding members of the “tranarchist” affinity group that helped jump-start a movement that has swept the nation and the world. Justine, a 26-year-old open source technology developer, and Zoë, a 32-year-old community and online activist, joined forces shortly after anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters’ July 13 call for an occupation of Wall Street. With two other trans women and a veteran labor organizer, they collaborated to create OccupyWallSt.org, which became the de facto website of the movement. Their twitter, @OccupyWallSt, is followed by more than 105,000 readers. Clearly, they have a voice, but this is the first time they’ve spoken on the record about themselves as trans women in the OWS movement. Given the time the women spent talking to Gay City News, the breadth of the conversations, and the value of bringing the most salient points they made to readers, their answers are presented as coming jointly from Justine and Zoë, who asked that they be identified only by their first names.

fingers let people communicate their feelings to the group without disrupting the person speaking. We like to think of it as a social technology, a sort of organic hack. Everyone has an opportunity to have direct input at the GA, but what a lot of people don’t know about is what we call the progressive stack. If you self-identify as trans, queer, a person of color, female, or as a member of any marginalized group, you’re given priority on the list of people who want to speak — the stack. The most oppressed get to speak first.

Q: I was surprised you responded to my op-ed. Why did you take the time? A: Your op-ed raised a lot of tough questions about the role and treatment of young women in Liberty Square, questions we’ve been struggling with ourselves. We want folks to know that we share those concerns, and hope that by reaching out we can find ways to work together to improve the situation for young women in Liberty Square and other Occupations around the world. Your op-ed also really brought home the problem of visibility. Because OWS is a leaderless movement, we’ve been hesitant to speak publicly from what might wrongly be perceived as a position of authority. But as the movement has grown, we’ve noticed that the contributions of women, trans folks, people of color, and others, aren’t being recognized. So we felt the need to speak out and shed some light on the true diversity of the Occupy movement. Q: Trans people have been key in

Justine and Zoë, trans women anarchists who collaborate on the OccupyWallSt.org website and the @OccupyWallSt Twitter feed.

many liberation movements. Do you feel a connection to those who preceded you? A: Absolutely. Sylvia Rivera and the other heroes of Stonewall are a huge inspiration, as are the countless unsung trans heroes who’ve fought and continue to fight for social and economic justice. It’s no coincidence that the people who suffer most under systems of oppression are often the first to rise up against those systems. We have the least to lose. For us, reforming the system is not enough. The system itself is the problem.

young trans sex workers who don’t have the resources to come to Zuccotti Park or have Internet access to the movement? A: They’re one of the reasons we decided to share our story. We want all trans and gender non-conforming people, particularly youth, to know they are part of OWS. They have a lot to teach us about building community and surviving without institutional support. OWS needs that wisdom and experience. We’ll help them connect; they just have to reach out through whatever means are available to them.

Q: Why do you call yourselves anarchists, a term that makes so many people anxious and often has negative connotations? A: The corporate media has a vested interest in smearing anarchists as crazy kids who want violence and chaos, but open any newspaper and you’ll see that it’s the one percent that’s spreading violence and chaos, not anarchism. We’re proud to call ourselves anarchists in the tradition of great thinkers like Emma Goldman. We’re the people who dare to ask questions like, “Why is it even necessary for a small group of men in Washington and Wall Street to control the lives of billions of people?” Our solution is simple. We’re building a compassionate, egalitarian society by putting power back where it belongs — in the hands of local communities.

Q: So if transgender youth want to come down to Liberty Square to get involved, what should they do? A: The best place to start is the Info Desk, near the corner of Liberty and Broadway. One thing to ask about is “Queering OWS,” or the “Queer Caucus,” which is open to anyone regardless of culture, gender identity, or sexual orientation. We absolutely encourage LGBT youth to come down to the square, make some new friends, and even get some free food while they’re at it.

Q: You talk about the activism of trans people in OWS and other movements, but what about homeless trans youth or

Q: I’m fascinated by the General Assembly, the human mic, and all those hand signals used during mass meetings. I especially like the “sparkle fingers” [waving your fingers over your head to signify enthusiastic agreement]. A: GA process is designed to facilitate collective thinking in a way where every person participating is engaged in the discussion and, most importantly, having fun! Non-verbal cues like sparkle

Q: What is your greatest fear for OWS right now? A: We continue to fear police aggression. Most cops are decent people who just want to do their jobs, and many quietly support the movement, but the brutalities inflicted on peaceful protesters are not just a case of a few bad apples. Instead, we are subject to an unwritten policy of intimidation and unaccountability clearly intended to undermine our civil rights. We’re especially concerned for trans people because the NYPD lacks protocols for trans incarceration. After the mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge last month, a trans man was segregated from his fellow protesters, chained for eight hours next to a restroom, denied food and water, and humiliated by the very officers charged with his protection. As trans women, we risk incarceration in men’s detention, where the danger of violence against us is real. Injustices like these discourage many of us from participating in civil disobedience. It’s unacceptable. Q: One of the things people criticize most about OWS is the lack of specific demands. What do you say to that? A: We haven’t published a “one demand” on our website because no catch phrase can end inequality for all. Every community has their own set of demands to end the unique forms of oppression they face. What right do we have to tell them otherwise? Furthermore, we believe the trust of the American public has been so thoroughly betrayed by politicians that we can no longer wait for another broken promise. Rather than making demands of the one percent, we call upon the 99 percent to fight back and start building a better world today. Q: If people want to help, what can they do? A: The best way to help is by organizing your communities and workplaces to

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OWS, continued on p.31

| November 9, 2011

CIVIL RIGHTS

DA May Probe Cop Who Punched Gay OWS Protestor Victim’s attorney says charges possible in Wall Street violence BY DUNCAN OSBORNE he attorney for a gay, HIV-positive man who was punched by a New York City Police Department deputy inspector during an Occupy Wall Street march said that the Manhattan district attorney is weighing a criminal investigation into that deputy inspector. “Deputy Inspector Cardona committed an assault,” said Ron Kuby, the attorney for Felix Rivera-Pitre, following a nearly two-hour October 31 meeting at the Manhattan district attorney’s office. “Whatever else is done to him, he should be arrested immediately.” On October 14, Rivera-Pitre, 37, was in a march in the Wall Street area. He brought flowers that he was handing out to other marchers. At one point, Johnny Cardona, the deputy inspector, told him to get on the sidewalk. Rivera-Pitre stated that he responded, “There’s no sidewalk to get on to” and Cardona punched him. Kuby said that four assistant district attorneys, a police department Internal Affairs Bureau investigator, and a member of the district attorney’s Official Corruption Unit attended the meeting. Rive-

GAY CITY NEWS

Felix Rivera-Pitre (r.) with his attorney, Ron Kuby, at an October 31 press conference.

ra-Pitre was treated like a witness, Kuby said, and not like a defendant who was there to tell his side of the story. “He was not there under some sort of queen for a day agreement,” Kuby said. Such agreements allow potential defendants to talk to prosecutors under a deal that whatever is discussed may not be used at trial if the prosecutor charges the defendant. Videos of the incident taken from several angles show Cardona and Rivera-

Pitre passing each other on the street. Cardona either touches Rivera-Pitre, who turns around in response, or Cardona pulls him around and then punches him. In the videos, Rivera-Pitre falls down and the two are surrounded by marchers and photographers. In published reports, police have said that Rivera-Pitre tried to elbow Cardona and the deputy inspector, who joined the police department in 1990, responded to that. No video shows Rivera-Pitre striking Cardona. Some have concluded that Cardona was reacting to Rivera-Pitre’s affect. “Because I look like a pansy,” RiveraPitre said at a press conference following the meeting when asked why he thought Cardona punched him. Lending some support to the theory that Cardona may harbor anti-gay views is a roughly six-month long public sex sting that targeted gay and bisexual men that Cardona oversaw when he headed a Bronx transit command in 2006. The operation, which targeted men at the Fordham Road subway stop on the D line, lasted from May 18 until December 8. Police arrested at least 35 men at that location. Arrests were made in every month except November. Just five offi-

cers made those 35 arrests, suggesting it was an organized sting with specific officers assigned to that duty. Of the five, two made 30 of the 35 arrests. Kuby is pressing the district attorney to charge Cardona with misdemeanor assault. That avoids having the prosecutor present the case to a grand jury, which is a secret process that DAs sometimes use to effectively excuse police wrongdoing. “At this point, there has been no willingness to prosecute police officers,” Kuby said. “We continue to ask the district attorney’s office to step up.” Cardona had sworn out a complaint against Rivera-Pitre, and police issued an order, called a 61, that directed officers to arrest Rivera-Pitre if they encountered him. That order has supposedly been voided, and police have said that RiveraPitre will only be arrested if the district attorney charges him. “If they do arrest Felix, it will be an arrest that is doubly unlawful,” Kuby said. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to respond, writing in an email, “We don’t comment on or confirm investigations, or comment on meetings w/lawyers,” and the police department press office did not respond.

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November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

REMEMBRANCE

Lou Maletta, TV Pioneer, Dead at 74 BY ANDY HUMM ou Maletta, who brought gay and AIDS issues, entertainment, and erotica to cable television for 20 years — in New York and nationally — died of liver cancer on November 2. He was 74. Long before “Ellen,” Logo, out gay news anchors, and the rise of the Internet, Maletta was reaching hundreds of thousands of LGBT people hungry for representations of themselves and news about the burgeoning movement. In 1981 in upstate Woodstock, Maletta started the Gay Cable Network (GCN) with “Men & Films,” a show that took advantage of the new freedom in cable TV to “put the male body back on the map,” as he said at the top of every show. While cable regulations forbade showing sexual penetration or any touching of genitalia, Maletta’s artful editing brought steamy male-to-male sex to a wide audience. His interest in sex was keen, and he was famous for the sex parties that he ran out of his shifting headquarters over the years, but his vision was much

PHOTOS BY ROBERT DODGE

larger. He soon used his professionalquality video and editing equipment to produce news and entertainment programs — from Slave Dave’s “In the Dungeon,” about S&M and bondage, to the news program “Pride and Progress” that eventually became the “Gay USA” show this reporter still co-hosts with Ann Northrop. Maletta told Gay City News in 2009 that what motivated him to expand his programming was watching a 30-yearold friend “turning into someone who looked 90 six months after being diagnosed with GRID [Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, the first acronym for AIDS] in 1982. No one had seen a KS lesion on TV until we put it on cable.” Maletta’s “Gay Week in Review” was sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation did a weekly “Naming Names” segment, targeting those who engaged in defamation of gay people. (When Bob Hope told an anti-gay joke, he made amends by taping a public service announcement condemning antigay bigotry that frequently ran on GCN.) Maletta covered arts and entertain-

Frank Kameny, the pioneering activist who battled job discrimination at the federal government in the 1950s, coined the phrase “gay is good” in the 1960s, and stayed involved in the movement until his death at 86 on October 11, National Coming Out Day, was bade farewell in a Lying-in-State at Washington’s Carnegie Library on November 3. His casket was carried into the library by four pall-bearers in US military dress joined by out gay Washington City Councilmen David Catania and Jim Graham. Mayor Vincent Gray spoke at the ceremony and was joined by the entire City Council. The day before the Lying-inState, the National Park Service

announced that Kameny’s longtime home had been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Service’s statement read, “For years, Dr. Kameny’s residence at 5020 Cathedral Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC, served as a meeting place, archives, informal counseling center, headquarters of the Mattachine Society, and a safe haven for visiting gay and lesbian activists. It was here that Dr. Franklin E. Kameny developed the civil rights strategies and tactics that have come to define the modern gay rights movement.”

Last year, a street near Washington’s Dupont Circle was renamed Frank Kameny Way.

ment in a show called “Be My Guest,” on which celebrities from Harvey Fierstein to Derek Jarman to Patrick Stewart appeared and Quentin Crisp famously interviewed Divine. He made performers such as Sybil Bruncheon (John Burke) famous, in part through a panel show modeled on “What’s My Line?” And there were sports correspondents from “Gutter” George to Bill Balmer to Lee Sharmat, who also co-hosted news programming. At a time when the New York Times would not use the word “gay” and most mainstream outlets gave scant coverage to LGBT news or culture, Maletta and his crews were ubiquitous at LGBT events, not just delivering their reports to viewers of Manhattan Cable channel 35, but also shipping out tapes for weekly showings in 20 cities from San Francisco to Cincinnati to Atlanta. These were not the first gay-themed cable TV shows — “Emerald City” on channel J in Manhattan had that distinction — but Maletta’s 20-year run of original programming demonstrated enormous staying power in an adverse commercial and social climate for gay content. His shows coincided with the emergence of the AIDS epidemic and provided virtually the only television coverage the crisis got at that time. The new Gay Men’s Health Crisis did a weekly AIDS report with Federico Gonzalez, and eventually the New York City Department of Health’s Office of Gay and Lesbian Health did a segment called “Lavender Health” hosted by Ron Vachon, Ellen Zaltsberg, and Frank Oldham, among others. Perhaps the most ambitious of Maletta’s projects was his coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions from 1984 to 2000. Using teams of volunteer reporters, including knowledgeable leaders such as Vivian Shapiro and Philip Reed, he secured press floor passes so that politicians from Senators Strom Thurmond and Bob Dole to Governors Ann Richards and Jerry Brown could be put on the spot on LGBT and AIDS issues. During AIDS’ darkest days in 1988, Maletta’s crews went to New Orleans for the Republicans and Atlanta for the Democrats, were put up by local activists, and covered not just the politics inside the halls but the intense ACT UP demonstrations in the streets, as well. Maletta bought satellite time so that one-hour programs could be beamed around the country every night. (Coming home from New Orleans through Mississippi, we stopped at a Hardees, and when Maletta walked in with his spandex outfit and a gay T-shirt, the place went deadly silent.

SAN JOSE FUNERAL HOME

Gay Cable Network founder put sex, politics on the tube

Lou Maletta wears his white hat and his “Men & Films” T-shirt on his funeral prayer card.

I didn’t think we’d get out alive, but perhaps the locals were just too shocked to react.) Northrop, since 1996 my co-host on “Gay USA” — which has continued on Manhattan Neighborhood Network and Free Speech TV since Maletta ceased programming in 2001 — said, “He had a tremendous vision and unlike most people, he acted on it and made it happen. Because he was such a rebel and way before his time, he didn’t reap the benefits, which could make him cranky and difficult. But he is a really important figure in our community.” Indeed, Maletta’s vision of a 24-hour gay network was mentioned in the mainstream media in

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MALETTA, continued on p.31

| November 9, 2011

COMMUNITY

Drug Reformers Assess Their Progress

Why Let the Billionaires Have all the Fun?

Diverse coalition meets in LA, recognizes tough slog ahead BY NATHAN RILEY he Drug Policy Alliance, in its 25th year of struggling against the demonization of drug users and unjust drug laws, displayed its growing potency at a November 2-5 conference in Los Angeles. The group began as the Drug Policy Foundation, a buttoned-down organization of lawyers, professors, and doctors when Ronald Reagan was president. In 2000, the Foundation merged with the Lindesmith Center, named after Alfred R. Lindesmith, an Indiana University sociology professor who before World War II was already questioning the notion that drug users were helpless victims of powerful chemicals. He concluded that a public health response could get better results. During the Alliance’s timid dawn, the “L” word — legalization — was discouraged, and discussion of sex workers’ rights was wholly off the agenda. Today a radical change has taken hold. White is no longer the dominant color within the Alliance ranks. Alice A. Huffman, president of the California NAACP, explained, “White elite were the first abolitionists, and that doesn’t matter because they have the time and the resources. But when we come along and add our voices, we take it to another level — a coalition of people with different agendas but a common cause: ending the drug war.” In the black community, Huffman explained “it is not the idea the marijuana is good but the consequences of the war on drugs — the evictions, jailings, and the unfairness.” In her community, the dangers of drug use are widely accepted, but the harsh zero-tolerance measures fall hardest there, turning many African-American leaders against law enforcement’s heavy hand. At a big rally in LA’s McArthur Park, amidst hip hop performances, Dorsey Nunn, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and a leader of the national movement of formerly incarcerated people, made a passionate plea for ending the mass jailing of drug offenders. He also demanded

that law enforcement begin to respect the dignity of people of color across the country. Javier Sicilia, the Mexican poet, lost his son to drug war violence and now leads a mass movement against the current enforcement approach, drawing ten of thousands of protesters to the streets in his country. Addressing the rally, he made poignant reference to the 52,000 dead in Mexico by comparing that figure to the 58,272 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Today a radical change has taken hold. White is no longer the dominant color within the Drug Policy Alliance ranks. While the brutality in Mexico was the biggest atrocity discussed by participants, New Orleans offered a cautionary tale about what drug reformers call “the New Jim Crow.” Hurricane Katrina devastated black neighborhoods and led to a mass exodus that guaranteed Republicans a majority in Louisiana and a restoration of white leadership in the city. Shortly after the hurricane, police made mass arrests of women on the streets of the French Quarter, charging them with committing crimes against nature for soliciting oral and anal sex. The convictions labeled them predators, with a red warning on their driver’s licenses stating they are “sex offenders.” Their names are distributed on pamphlets alerting the public that a sex offender is in the neighborhood. After a lawsuit was filed, the practice became seen as indefensible and the Legislature repealed the law. It was no victory, however, for the women already convicted, who are still required to announce themselves as sex offenders. Andrea Ritchie, a lawyer specializing in police misconduct who co-authored “Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States,” cast a “queer lens” on the New Orleans story and stressed the overlap between the war on drugs and the prevailing repressive policing of sex and gender.

䉴

DRUGS, continued on p.29

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ues to tear LGBT binational couples apart because the bonds between them are just ‘not the same’ as heterosexual bonds. And too many LGBT people have themselves felt coerced by outside forces into a relationship that felt unnatural. It’d be understandable if they had instant sympathy for two clearly adorable creatures, who just want to left alone to swim and snack on fish and enjoy one another’s company. They aren’t

couples to point to, how do we hope to win the culture wars? Thankfully, the back2stonewall blog rose above mere pajamas activism, urging its readers to phone or email the zoo to complain. I smelled a bigger story here, however. Just exactly what goes on at these zoos? Phoning up a few of my outdoorsy friends, I learned that zoos apparently try to control every aspect of the lives of their animals. Praying away the gay may, in fact, be small potatoes compared to the unforgiving regime inflicted on those unlucky enough to call zoo home. One source — using an admittedly heteronormative

bothering anyone and there is no evidence their presence undermines flock morale.” The blog compared the penguins’ plight to the threat faced by Josh Vandiver and Henry Velandia, a married Princeton couple fighting Velandia’s deportation to his native Venezuela. A friend, the Daily Kos blogger wrote, suggested that if spawning young penguins were really the motivation, some penguin porn and a paper cup should do the trick. More than one Internet poster noted that homosexuality among animals seals the deal on the argument that being gay is not a choice. If we don’t have committed and loving penguin

metaphor — explained that the climate on the inside at zoos is something like it was in college dorms before the pill. Lights out, no talking, not a peep out of you. Sensing, perhaps, that the scrutiny may get more intense than they would like, Toronto zoo officials are now saying Pedro and Buddy can resume their status quo ante once they fulfill their obligation to the species. I’m not buying it. I just don’t think they get it. Meanwhile, for all the huffington and puffington, where, really, is the outrage.? Why is there no Occupy San Diego Zoo?

Buddy and Pedro Already Have Their Tuxedos

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At a time when gays from Gotham to Montpelier, Des Moines, and Dupont Circle are dragging their butts from the exhaustion of so many weddings, the news out of T or onto — which, after all, taught us everything that could be known about such affairs — was certainly sobering. Buddy and Pedro, a longtime gay couple, are being forcibly separated by Canadian authorities. The two met in Toledo, where they were part of a bachelor flock of penguins. Since their arrival in Toronto earlier this year, they’ve showed unmistakable signs of their commitment to each other. One zoo keeper told the Toronto Star, “They do courtship and mating behaviors that females and males would do.” But let’s not be coy. Here’s the dish: During the day, the pair are part of a group of 12 who swim and frolic together. When the sun goes down, however, the two pair off. All the time. The Star detailed that Buddy, 20, and Pedro, 10, often make a “braying” noise back and forth — think donkey, without the cute outfit — in a mating ritual. “They defend their territory, preen each other [see the earhair trimming scene in “Love! Valour! Compassion!”], and are constantly standing alone together.” When a Star reporter showed up to check out the love birds, Pedro followed Buddy out of the water for a lengthy tête-àtête. So what’s up with the authorities’ heavy hand? Being Canadian, the zoo keepers are way too savvy to admit to any moral objections to Pedro and Buddy’s relationship, nor would they embarrass their nation by bringing up crazy American claims about curing the gays. No, the story they’re going with is all very scientific — because, you know, Canada’s

not the North American society at war with knowledge. Supposedly, Buddy and Pedro are a pair of endangered African penguins — no explanation, mind you, is offered for the Latino name. Toronto claims it is acting in compliance with “a species survival plan among zoos.” A Toronto official told the National Post there that if the couple “weren’t genetically important, then we’d let them do their thing.”

Buddy and Pedro: we hardly knew ye.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. How wonderfully metrosexual of them! We’re not fooled, and we’re not amused. Gay activists immediately peeled back the eco-explanation and found, at its core, the old canard that homosexuality threatens the survival of our species. The Huffington Post noted the “commotion” in the LGBT media, and at least 1,000 readers posted their disgust at the Toronto zoo’s authoritarian approach. The Daily Kos was more direct, laying out the real meat that makes this a queer issue: “Our own government contin-

| November 9, 2011

PERSPECTIVE

Asexual Is Good BY SEBASTIAN MAGUIRE love sex. I love talking about it. I love experiencing it. Its manifold expressions will always intrigue me. And I am asexual. You might be thinking how I could be asexual if I am steeped in a life so seemingly sexual. The answer is simple — I do not experience sexual attraction the way most other people do. Coming to this conclusion was not easy. It took more than a decade of bad dates and false starts at relationships. After much research and intense soul-searching, I have decided to come out. In a world that demands sound bites and eschews nuance, explaining asexuality can be challenging, to say the least. What connects me with other asexuals, or “aces” as many community members call themselves, is the lack of sexual attraction. According to a widely, though not universally, accepted definition, asexuality

is the sexual orientation of individuals who do not experience sexual attraction. Asexuality is neither celibacy nor any other type of choice. Asexuality is neither an illness nor the symptom of an illness. Most significantly, asexuals experience the same need for love and emotional connection as any other person. The guiding principle to understanding asexuality is recognizing and appreciating diversity in human sexuality. There are billions of sexualities in this world and for each individual a unique interplay of libido, attraction, and behavior. Within the asexual umbrella, there is a wide range of how people experience their own individual sexuality. There are asexuals who desire and even seek out romantic relationships or sexual outlets; there are those who do not. In fact, many asexuals are quite sex-positive, seeking to understand other sexualities just as they want to be understood. There are even those for whom sexual attraction might

be possible. I fall into this gray area, sometimes termed “demisexuality,” since I can develop sexual attraction only after forming an emotional connection with an individual. Emotional connection is not simply a personal preference or a social dictate as it might be for others; it is necessary for me to experience sexual attraction.

ear Social Justice Diary – My mind is blown. I just read Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow.” It’s about racism and the War on Drugs, all highly factual. You can look at just two studies in the book and see a sort of “post-black” apartheid: On the New Jersey Turnpike, where 15 percent of drivers are racial “minorities,” black and white motorists violated traffic laws at exactly the same rate. But 73 percent of all arrests were of black drivers. On a stretch of I-95 outside Baltimore, where 21 percent of drivers are African-Americans and other people of color, these nonwhite drivers comprised 80 percent of those pulled over and

searched by police. US justice has gone “colorblind,” writes Alexander: so long as cops use no racial epithets “courts generally turn a blind eye to patterns of discrimination by police.” The relatively few white people who were searched in New Jersey turned out to be nearly twice as likely as African Americans to carry illegal drugs, and five times as likely as Latinos to be found with contraband. In both studies, whites were more apt than people of color to be carrying illegal drugs or contraband in their vehicles. I am outraged, Social Justice Diary. Granted, people of color experience vast inequality. But I hadn’t realized the even vaster inequality experienced by my racial group: people of non-color. If white people go to all the trouble of starting drug

porate-sanctioned identities. To the contrary, queerness should be a welcoming place for all individuals who are happily not straight. From my years of activism, mainly around marriage equality, I am taking away lessons to apply to an emerging activism around asexuality. I view the struggle for marriage equality as a long process of dispelling ignorance both among the general population and, at times, within the LGBT community. Standing on the edge of the queer movement, where I believe asexuality is now, means constantly facing down such ignorance. At the end of the day, however, the rewards for everyone are great — a more open and just society liberated from the things that shackle human expression, creativity, and connection. Asexuals have something very important to contribute to this goal by helping others critically examine sexuality in a new light. Asexuals can show all of us something very honest and powerful about love. I invite the LGBT community to learn more about asexuality by visiting asexuality.org.

enough to make it out of prison on parole. The Drug War, in fact, reconstitutes the Jim Crow segregation that Civil Rights protesters gave their lives to stop. “We have not ended racial caste in America,” writes Alexander, “we have merely redesigned it.” Exactly! It is SO unfair that black people get all this atten-

— police officers treat me like I was invisible. My people did not march for racial equality in the 1960s to be ignored by the cops now. I mean, YO, whattup with that? Yesterday, to test my thesis, I took my Anglo body all over Manhattan, carrying a black plastic garbage bag stuffed with ten pounds of marijuana, some anthrax, and a rocket launcher. Took the A Train, walked past police precincts… nothing. Meanwhile, at a public high school in the Bronx, six African-American eighth graders were handcuffed, arrested, and physically assaulted by NYPD officers after they found cell phones in the students’ lockers. As a person with the certifiable genome of a Mary Poppins, Dear Diary, I find this totally unacceptable. I demand Equal Opportunity Oppression! That includes full-service frisking, sentencing, prison time, crappy treatment upon release, and

I fall into a gray area, sometimes termed “demisexuality,” since I can develop sexual attraction only after forming an emotional connection with an individual. In such a sex-saturated society, asexuality can often be obscured, confused, marginalized, and vilified. This is especially true in the hypersexual-

The Mad Activist Considers the New Jim Crow BY SUSIE DAY

ized world inhabited by many gay men. For many years, I inhabited this world, which was at once a refreshing refuge from compulsory heteronormativity and a conservative constraint on my own self-actualization. As I speak more about asexuality, I have been receiving reactions of shock and ridicule from gay men. This is often accompanied by the denial of asexuality’s existence. Erasure of this type is especially distressing, though not surprising, given what bisexuals, as one example, often have to endure. Misunderstanding is understandable since the term is — and was for me, until recently — novel. Beyond this, I detect under lying hostility, as if their own relatively privileged positions are threatened. Such a posture indicates to me a failure to think beyond narrowly drawn and usually cor-

cartels, setting up drug trafficking networks, exploiting drug workers, selling drugs, laundering drug money, and actually using drugs in far greater numbers than black people, why, then, are we not afforded equal treatment under the law? Why can’t we get busted too? “The New Jim Crow” describes how the Drug War monitors and arrests black people, processes them through court systems that dole out years of prison time for nonviolent drug “offenses,” and then legally disenfranchises those lucky

I took my Anglo body all over Manhattan, carrying a black plastic garbage bag stuffed with ten pounds of marijuana, some anthrax, and a rocket launcher. tion from the US justice system — and us white people get next to nothing! I’m sure that’s why I, as a Caucasoid, suffer so hugely from low self-esteem

䉴

DAY, continued on p.16

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

PERSPECTIVE

As For Chelsea, Goodbye to All That AND JOSEPH LOGIUDICE hr ee strikes and you’re out, Chelsea. After being called “faggot” three times during the past summer while walking in the once predominantly gay neighborhood of Chelsea, we decided to move. We loved Chelsea, but we had to leave her because she is not the same gay neighborhood that we remember. The iconic gay neighborhood of the past has been changed for the worse by the neo-hetero-homophobic-heterosexist transplants, who have relocated to New York City from small towns throughout the United States, bringing with them their small minds. This drastic and dramatic change started slowly in 2000 and has advanced more quickly since about 2009.

college students or working professionals, most of whom are not gay-friendly but, ironically, chose to move to a well-known, distinctively gay neighborhood because they wanted to live in a trendy, pretty, clean, and safe area with a lot of wonderful shopping opportunities. The old, wise saying that the gays beautify a neighborhood for the straights to invade and occupy is so very true and real. An important question to ask is: Do the heterosexuals who relocate to Chelsea even know that it was once a gay neighborhood or do their heterosexist and heteronormative thinking and behavior make them egocentrically oblivious? In 2005 we moved to Chelsea from Brooklyn because we wanted to feel welcomed, accepted, comfortable, and safe in a gay neighborhood. We longed for the sense of community that so many other minority groups have been fortunate enough to experience. So, we crossed the East River from one borough to another. As native N e w Yo r k ers, our transition was easy. Michael, 36, was born and raised in the Kings Bay/ Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, while Joseph, 31, grew up in Bath Beach/ Bensonhurst. We were familiar with

Contrary to what some individuals believe, a gay ghetto was never a bad thing. And a gay diaspora is not necessarily a good thing. Throughout recent years, gay men and women have been evicted from Chelsea and have been replaced by heterosexual women and men, whether single or coupled, younger or older,

䉴

DAY, from p.15

the permanent inability to vote. Why am I not considered worthy of arrest for the crime of “driving while ofay”? Where is the white Amadou Diallo? The white Eleanor Bumpurs? Whiteys Unite: demand your right to be shot for looking nervous and pulling out a wallet! Let’s use our racial clout to get police to our neighborhoods to knock down our doors and ice our grandmothers. In the era of the New Jim Crow, Social Justice Diary, I eschew my role as the New Mr. Charlie. White people wear dreads and baggy pants, too. These were

Chelsea because, like so many other gay men, we were regular visitors since the mid-1990s, escaping our largely heterosexual and heterosexist — and often homophobic — neighborhoods in Brooklyn for a taste of gay life.

JEFFREY HORNSTEIN

BY MICHAEL CAROSONE

inated against. We gays were once the majority in Chelsea, and it was empowering. Now, we are the minority, feeling powerless, discarded, and disrespected. Sadly, we are outcasts once again in a neighborhood that we made our own. In the past, when we walked down the streets in Chelsea, we did not receive scornful stares and hateful comments. We were able to wear our tight pink shorts and our tight lavender

Michael Carosone and Joseph LoGiudice recently moved from Chelsea to Astoria.

So, in 2005, we decided to be residents of Chelsea, no longer visitors; however, it is no longer the same neighborhood of which we once so enthusiastically wanted to be a part. Years ago, it was a place where we were allowed and able to be our gay selves, without being embarrassed, ashamed, uncomfortable, ostracized, hated, and judged. We were free to be who we were and who we wanted to be. We were open-minded, evolved, progressive, and liberal. We did not feel oppressed, repressed, marginalized, stigmatized and discrim-

hard-won cultural victories and should come with validating police harassment! If you club us, do we not bruise? If you taser us, do we not scream? Are we so inadequate? So… un-jiggy? Perhaps if I composed a little hip-hop song, the Power would notice me: RAP SONG OF J. ALL-FIRED PRUFWACK I am the wacker cracker and I like to smoke pot, So what I got to do to get the po-po on my block? I packing dope in my bag of all kinds

tank tops without the looks of disdain and ridicule. We were able to walk along the Hudson River Park shirtless without looks of contempt and horror. We were able to hold hands and hug and kiss in public without the looks of disgust and intolerance. But not now. Obviously, most of the new heterosexist, homophobic, straight transplants in Chelsea have never seen real live gay men and women. We are like wild animals in a zoo whom they are observing for their own pleasure or displea-

and shapes and flavahs, Even got me a shirt that sez, “I Am Troy Davis.” But no mattah how I’m risky, or the highs of my addiction, The cops don’t stop and frisk me, and I’m never sent to prison… Speaking of prison, a disproportionate number of the more than 2.4 million people behind bars in this country are African-American. Not to sound racially insensitive, but black people are totally hogging up vital prison resources! They’re overcrowding our cells! Bogarting jumpsuits! Using up Styrofoam dish-

sure. Whether we are caged or uncaged does not make a difference. Contrary to what some individuals believe, a gay ghetto was never a bad thing. And a gay diaspora is not necessarily a good thing. Are the new heterosexuals in Chelsea trying to divide and conquer us? We gays have been forced to disperse, which makes it more difficult for us to unite and fight for our rights and equality. Is this what they want? So, who is to blame for this destructive change to Chelsea? Well, here are the culprits — realtors, business owners, corporations, colleges and universities, the media, Mayor Bloomberg and the local politicians. Nowadays, Chelsea is one big theme park and tourist attraction. It has been glamorized, romanticized, and gentrified for the new heterosexuals and their bigotry. Chelsea is dead. What is the next gay neighborhood? This month, we moved to Astoria, Queens in order to be around more native New Yorkers and more gay men. Will Astoria be the new Chelsea? Maybe. Maybe not. At least we have not noticed the neo-hetero-homophobes in Astoria. Finally, here are new names for our once-beloved Chelsea — Hetero-sea, Straight-singles-sea, Straight-couples-sea, West Gramercy, Gramercy West, Transplant-sea, Tourist-sea, Spoiledbrat-sea, Trust-fund-baby-sea, Sorority-girl-sea, Frat-boy-sea, Entitled-sea, Small-town-sea, Wanna-be-sea, Get-a-life-sea, Stroller-sea, Prudish-sea, Luxury-building-sea, Shopping-sea, Heterosexist-sea, Homophobiasea, and Not-home-for-us-anymore-sea!

es and plastic cutlery for hi-carb, inedible prison food! Selfishly monopolizing shackles! We say, ¡Basta! So here is my plan, Social Justice Diary — a new approach to Civil Rights. If including black people in the middle class mainstream didn’t work, maybe including white middle class people in the prison system will. Call me crazy. But if enough people like me faced the same level of suspicion and drug busts and rates of incarceration, maybe the New Jim Crow would realize how very, very old and demented he is. And then maybe he would finally go away.

| November 9, 2011

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

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November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

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t $IBOHF SPUBUF UIF JOKFDUJPO TJUF PO ZPVS TUPNBDI BSFB BCEPNFO XJUI FBDI EPTF %P OPU JOKFDU EGRIFTA® JOUP TDBS UJTTVF CSVJTFT PS ZPVS OBWFM t %P OPU TIBSF OFFEMFT PS TZSJOHFT XJUI PUIFS QFPQMF 4IBSJOH PG OFFEMFT DBO SFTVMU JO UIF USBOTNJTTJPO PG JOGFDUJPVT EJTFBTFT TVDI BT )*7 What are the possible side effects of EGRIFTA®? EGRIFTA® NBZ DBVTF TFSJPVT TJEF FGGFDUT JODMVEJOH t 4FSJPVT BMMFSHJD SFBDUJPO 4PNF QFPQMF UBLJOH EGRIFTA® NBZ IBWF BO BMMFSHJD SFBDUJPO 4UPQ VTJOH EGRIFTA® BOE HFU FNFSHFODZ IFMQ SJHIU BXBZ JG ZPV IBWF BOZ PG UIF GPMMPXJOH TZNQUPNT m B SBTI PWFS ZPVS CPEZ

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t *ODSFBTF JO HMVDPTF CMPPE TVHBS JOUPMFSBODF BOE EJBCFUFT :PVS IFBMUIDBSF QSPWJEFS XJMM

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TJUF SFBDUJPOT $BMM ZPVS IFBMUIDBSF QSPWJEFS GPS NFEJDBM BEWJDF JG ZPV IBWF UIF GPMMPXJOH TZNQUPNT BSPVOE UIF BSFB PG UIF JOKFDUJPO TJUF m SFEOFTT m CMFFEJOH – rash – itching – swelling – pain – irritation The most common side effects of EGRIFTA® include: m KPJOU QBJO – nausea – vomiting m QBJO JO MFHT BOE BSNT – rash m TXFMMJOH JO ZPVS MFHT – itching – muscle soreness m UJOHMJOH OVNCOFTT BOE QSJDLJOH 5FMM ZPVS IFBMUIDBSF QSPWJEFS JG ZPV IBWF BOZ TJEF FGGFDU UIBU CPUIFST ZPV PS UIBU EPFT OPU HP BXBZ 5IFTF BSF OPU BMM UIF QPTTJCMF TJEF FGGFDUT PG EGRIFTA® 'PS NPSF JOGPSNBUJPO BTL ZPVS IFBMUIDBSF QSPWJEFS PS QIBSNBDJTU $BMM ZPVS IFBMUIDBSF QSPWJEFS GPS NFEJDBM BEWJDF BCPVU TJEF FGGFDUT 5P SFQPSU TJEF FGGFDUT DPOUBDU &.% 4FSPOP UPMM GSFF BU FYU :PV NBZ SFQPSU TJEF FGGFDUT UP UIF '%" BU '%" Keep EGRIFTA® and all medicines out of the reach of children. General information about the safe and effective use of EGRIFTA®: .FEJDJOFT BSF TPNFUJNFT QSFTDSJCFE GPS QVSQPTFT PUIFS UIBO UIPTF MJTUFE JO B 1BUJFOU *OGPSNBUJPO MFBáFU %P OPU VTF EGRIFTA® GPS B DPOEJUJPO GPS XIJDI JU XBT OPU QSFTDSJCFE Do not give EGRIFTA® UP PUIFS QFPQMF FWFO JG UIFZ IBWF UIF TBNF TZNQUPNT ZPV IBWF *U NBZ harm them. %P OPU TIBSF ZPVS EGRIFTA® TZSJOHF XJUI BOPUIFS QFSTPO FWFO JG UIF OFFEMF JT DIBOHFE %P OPU TIBSF ZPVS EGRIFTA® OFFEMFT XJUI BOPUIFS QFSTPO 5IJT 1BUJFOU *OGPSNBUJPO MFBáFU TVNNBSJ[FT UIF NPTU JNQPSUBOU JOGPSNBUJPO BCPVU EGRIFTA®. If ZPV XPVME MJLF NPSF JOGPSNBUJPO UBML XJUI ZPVS IFBMUIDBSF QSPWJEFS :PV DBO BTL ZPVS IFBMUIDBSF QSPWJEFS PS QIBSNBDJTU GPS JOGPSNBUJPO BCPVU EGRIFTA® that is written for healthcare professionals. 'PS NPSF JOGPSNBUJPO BCPVU EGRIFTA® HP UP XXX EGRIFTA DPN PS DPOUBDU UIF "9*4 $FOUFS UPMM GSFF BU What are the ingredients in EGRIFTA®? "DUJWF JOHSFEJFOU UFTBNPSFMJO *OBDUJWF JOHSFEJFOUT NBOOJUPM BOE 4UFSJMF 8BUFS GPS *OKFDUJPO

¥ &.% 4FSPOP *OD "MM SJHIUT SFTFSWFE &(3*'5" JT B SFHJTUFSFE USBEFNBSL PG 5IFSBUFDIOPMPHJFT *OD

| November 9, 2011

14 DAYS 14 NIGHTS Jonathan Warman directs the New York premiere of Tennessee Williams’ “Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws,” a tale of society matrons and street hustlers intent on enjoying a cocktail-laden lunch who break into song-and-dance numbers as apocalypse approaches. This production provides two particular treats — Everett Quinton, a core member of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company, as lecherous and prophetic restaurant manager Erin Markey and John Waters phenomenon Mink Stole as society lady Madge. La MaMa, 74A E. Fourth St., btwn. Second Ave. & Bowery. Nov. 10-12, 10 p.m.; Nov. 13, 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $18; $13 for students & seniors at lamama.org or 212-475-7710.

DANCE Lubovitch at the Baryshnikov The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company returns to the Baryshnikov Arts Center with a two-week season, with two programs, that features a world premiere set to a commissioned score by composer Yevgeniy Sharlat and performed live by the ensemble Le Train Bleu, under the direction of conductor Ransom Wilson. The season also features three acclaimed company works — “The Legend of Ten,” “Men’s Stories,” and “Dvo ák Serenade.” The Baryshnikov Howard Gilman Performance Space, 450 W. 37th St. Nov. 10-13, 15-20, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 13 & 20, 3 p.m. Tickets are $15-$45 at smarttix.com or 212-868-4444. For information on Nov. 9 Opening Night Gala tickets, at $250, visit lubovitch. org or call 212-221-7909. Visit the company website, as well, for information on programs A and B.

OPERA The Medium of Menotti In Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Medium,” Mme. Flora, a fake medium, is raising her naïve, teenaged daughter and a mute gypsy boy taken off the streets. During a séance, Flora feels a pair of hands gripping her her neck, startling her so much she abruptly ends the séance. But did she really feel anything? Her search to find the truth leads to murder and mayhem. Chelsea Opera Company presents “The Medium,” which Virgil Thompson described as “the most gripping operatic narrative” he’d seen in years, to celebrate the centenary of the composer’s birth. St. Peter’s Church in Chelsea, 346 W. 20th St. Nov. 10-12, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 12, 4 p.m. Tickets are $30-$35; $20 for students & seniors at chelseaopera.org; $35-$40/ $25 at the door. More information at 866-811-4111.

POLITICS Gay and Conservative In its last formal meeting of the year, the Log Cabin Republicans hold “Conservative Conversations!” Margot Morell discusses her book “Reagan’s Journey” and the life and times of what the club calls “the greatest president of our age.” Karol Markowicz, founding editor of Alarming News, discusses what she terms “liberal media bias and the smear campaign against GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain.” Women’s

GALLERY In Celebration of Erotic Art The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art hosts a benefit evening of art, entertainment, and celebration featuring an auction of drawings, paintings, and photographs by some of the finest and best known artists in the erotic genre, including Robert W. Richards. 26 Wooster St., btwn. Grand & Canal Sts. Nov. 10, 6-9 p.m. Donation is $25. Preview days are Nov. 8-10, noon to 6 p.m., and auction images can also be viewed at leslielohman.org.

Occupy Sculpture Anna Kustera Gallery presents a two-person exhibition of new sculpture — Gregory Green’s “Through the Night Softly ” and Andrew Cornell Robinson’s “Disobedience” — both of which address strategies for empowerment and examine historical efforts at engaging power. Robinson’s “Disobedience” is comprised of a universal, miniature activism “kit” staged in the window gallery as well as several peculiar ceramic trophies celebrating less-than-momentous accomplishments. Derived from his investigation of Jean Marat and Erich Fromm’s meditation “On Disobedience,” the mixed-media sculpture presents placards that are blank but nonetheless convey urgency and indignant passions. In “Through the Night Softly,” Green takes aim at the mechanics of political leadership and aesthetic interrogation. His collection of 2,552 metal tire spikes, each hand-crafted and scattered in an almost topographical mass, resembles a child’s game of jacks — though one that is functionally lethal with an ominous presence as an impenetrable barrier that dares one to cross. 520 W. 21st St. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m., through Dec. 23. For more information, visit annakustera.com.

Know Meaning: Jeffrey Hargrave & James Donaldson Artist Jeffrey Hargrave transforms racist and homophobic iconography into comic parodies, chasing viewers into corners where Matissian niggers collide, embrace and pose in bawdy scenarios that challenge you not to laugh. Still, it is hard to reconcile these warm and fuzzy feelings with the content of Hargrave’s symbology — there are so many viewpoints from which to respond to his use of the “n” images that they feel like moral traps. James Donaldson, whom Hargrave credits as his childhood mentor, is a selftaught artist who works in a variety styles that use the combination of subject and technique as the content of his stories which serve as visual gateways to his life experiences. “My paintings are conceived and created

in a free-spirited manner in order to allow the viewer to bring with him or her their own experiences and to create an environment to peruse and interpret the paintings in whatever manner befitting,” Donaldson says. The Phatory, 618 E. Ninth St., btwn. Aves. B & C, Sat. 1-8 pm., through Nov. 12 and by appointment at 212-777-7922.

FRI.NOV.11

COMMUNITY Honoring Service Once Silent

The LGBT Community Center hosts “A Celebration of Service: LGBT Veteran’s Day Reception,” honoring LGBT veterans and service members and marking the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Speakers include Josh Seefried, a first lieutenant and finance officer in the Air Force, who under the pseudonym JD Smith was the cofounder of OutServe, an organization for actively serving LGBT service members; Sue Fulton, a 1980 graduate of the US Military Academy who served in the Signal Corps in Germany as a platoon leader, staff officer, and company commander and now heads Knights Out, the organization for West Point LGBT alumni, faculty, and staff; and Denny Meyer, a son of a World War II Holocaust refugee and an activist for more than 50 years who served for ten years in both the Navy and Army Reserve and is now the national public and veterans affairs officer for American Veterans for Equal Rights and media director of Transgender American Veterans Association. 208 W. 13th St. Nov. 11, 6-8:30 p.m.

MUSIC The Songs of Barber After collaborating with pianist Marc Peloquin on a concert of Samuel Barber music in a 2010 Bargemusic concert, Melissa Fogarty recorded a CD of Barber’s songs at Drew University. Tonight, she performs from that CD in a release concert that will include lesserknown Barber gems such as “Despite and Still,” as well as work from composers Leonard Bernstein (his “I Hate Music!” cycle) and Tom Cipullo (his “Another Reason I Don’t Keep A Gun in the House” cycle). St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson at Grove St. Nov. 11, 8 p.m. Admission is free. Fogarty’s CD is available at iTunes, Amazon, and CDBaby.com.

GALLERY Froufrou Conclusions Lauren Kelley, a video artist best known for her series of short animated videos that combine claymation with her brown, plastic dolls, presents “Froufrou Conclusions,” in which she brings her wit to questions of sexuality, race, and place. Evoking the children’s television programs of her youth, Kelley stages

absurd, jittery, and sometimes endearing narratives, including her latest short-stop-animation work and a series of collages inspired by the grotesque charm of Todd Haynes’ “The Karen Carpenter Story.” Rashida Bumbray curates. The Kitchen, 512 W. 19th St. Nov. 11-Jan. 7. Tue.-Fri., noon- 6 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Admission is free.

SAT.NOV.12

THEATER In Matthew’s Memory

In 2000, Moisés Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project premiered “The Laramie Project,” a docudrama 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. Democracy Prep Charter School, 207 W. 133rd St., btwn. Seventh Ave. & Frederick Douglass Blvd. Nov. 12, 8 p.m.; Nov. 13, 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 at 4thu.org/laramie/.

CABARET Judy & Liza, Now & Forever Tommy Femia, a seven-time winner of a Manhattan Association of Cabaret and Clubs (MAC) Award, and Ricky Skye, who won a Bistro Award for “The Flip Side of Neil Sedaka,” perform the most famous mother-daughter act in history in “Judy and Liza Together Again.” The pair sing solos, duets, and just plain holler and whoop — though, in this case, not through the Loop. Ricky Ritzel appears as Mort Lindsey/ Pappy as he music directs. Don’t Tell Mama, 343 W. 46th St. Nov. 12 & 26, Dec. 10 & 17, 8:30 p.m. There is a $25 cover charge and a two-drink minimum. For reservations, call 212-757-0788.

SUN.NOV.13

FILM Green Grass, White Picket Fences & a Rush to Judgment

In “The Green,” Cheyenne Jackson plays Daniel, a gay caterer whose partner Michael, a high school teacher and would-be novelist, is accused of sexual misconduct by one of his students. Set in a suburban Connecticut town, the film, a gripping emotional journey that keeps you guessing until the very end, also stars Julia Ormond and Illeana KARL SIMONE

THU.NOV.10

THEATER Glee on a Hot Tin Roof

National Republican Club, 3 W. 51st St., Library Room. Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m. An afterparty follows at Posh, 405 W. 51st St.

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NOV 13, continued on p.42

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

| November 9, 2011

Eight Military Couples Challenge DOMA SLDN files case on constitutional grounds in federal court BY PAUL SCHINDLER

recognized family.” The couple married in New Hampshire this week. Army Reserve Captain Steve Hill, currently on duty in the Middle East and one of the plaintiffs, was the soldier whose YouTube question about DADT aired during the September Fox News/ Google Republican presidential debate spurred boos from some in the Orlando, Florida, live audience. Hill and his husband, Joshua Snyder, married in Washington, DC, in May. In the wake of DADT’s end on September 20, Hill requested that Snyder be enrolled in a spousal benefits program, but was denied. Joan Darrah, a retired Navy captain, was denied enrollment in the same program for her wife, Lynn Kennedy. SLDN is receiving the pro bono assistance of attorneys Abbe Lowell and Christopher Man of Chadbourne & Parke. The two issued a statement saying, “Securing benefits for a service member’s spouse allows the service member to do his or her job for the nation with the confidence that they’re not putting their families at risk. It takes the worry out of the equation and allows them to serve with dignity and honor.”

ight legally married gay and lesbian couples — six including a spouse in active military service and the other two each with a retired veteran — have filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Massachusetts on October 27 by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), alleges that the federal government’s denial of marriage recognition under DOMA violates the plaintiffs’ equal protection rights as well as the rights of the states, under the Tenth Amendment, to regulate marriage. The couples were married in jurisdictions — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, California, Iowa, and the District of Columbia — where same-sex marriage was legal at the time. The lawsuit also challenges federal law that forbids the military from providing the same benefits and family access to same-sex married service members and veterans as it does to heterosexual couples.

“

I worry every day that my health may take a turn for the worse, and Karen would be unable to receive the survivor’s benefits to help take care of our daughter.” “This case is about one thing, plain and simple,” said Aubrey Sarvis, an Army veteran who heads up SLDN, the leading advocacy group that pressed for the end of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy. “It’s about justice for gay and lesbian service members and their families in our armed

forces rendering the same military service, making the same sacrifices, and taking the same risks to keep our nation secure at home and abroad.” The release announcing the lawsuit noted that Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charlie Morgan of the New Hampshire National Guard, one of the plaintiffs, had to jump through hoops with elected officials and the Pentagon to enable her spouse, Karen Morgan, a special education teacher, to attend an official ceremony welcoming her back after deployment in Kuwait. Noting that she is a cancer survivor just diagnosed with a recurrence, Chief Warrant Officer Morgan said, “I worry every day that my health may take a turn for the worse, and Karen would be unable to receive the survivor’s benefits to help take care of our daughter. We are only asking for fair and equitable treatment as a

SLDN

Army Reserve Captain Steve Hill and his husband, Joshua Snyder.

Casey McLaughlin with her wife, Major Shannon McLaughlin, and their twin infants.

DONNA ACETO

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a 2009 interview with Gay City News.

Gillibrand Targets Adoption, Foster Care Barriers Farid Ali Lancheros and George Constantinou of Brooklyn, New York. Farid & George will be celebrating their upcoming nuptials in 2012 courtesy of The Courtyard Marriott La Guardia Airport with a reception that includes an hour of Elegant White Glove Reception, Four Hour Celebration, Champagne Toast, Formal Sit-Down Dinner or Buffet, Full Open Bar and Tiered Wedding Cake for 75 guests (value $6500).

Senator seeks end to bias against gay, trans, single parents BY PAUL SCHINDLER

ew York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has introduced legislation, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, aimed at ending discrimination against prospective adoptive and foster parents based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and marital status. In a press statement about the bill, which she introduced on November 1, Gillibrand, a Democrat up for reelection in 2012, pointed out that more than 400,000 children are in the foster care system nationwide, and that 107,000 children, including 6,600 in New York, await adoption. According to the senator, in 2010, nearly 28,000 youths “aged out” of the foster care system without permanent placement — a group, her statement said, that is “at high risk for poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and early

parenthood.” The federal government currently spends more than $8 billion on the nation’s child welfare system. “There is a child welfare crisis in our country,” said Jennifer Chrisler, the executive director of the Family Equality Council. “More than one-third of the children in foster care could be placed with a family right now, but state laws are eliminating loving and qualified parents simply because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. Our country cannot continue to deny these children forever families because of the flawed patchwork of state laws.” PFLAG’s executive director, Jody Huckaby, said, “As a family organization that has spent the past 40 years supporting and advocating for parents, families, and children all over the country, we know from our vast experience that it is in the best interest of every child — and,

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GILLIBRAND, continued on p.26

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in fact, the right of every child — to have the loving care and support of a family.” Gillibrand noted that New York State has no barriers to LGBT parents providing foster care or adopting children, which she said has increased the foster parent pool here by 128,000 potential parents. “New York is a leader on ensuring that any family can adopt children and sets a great example for the rest of the country,” she said. The Williams Institute at UCLA Law School reports that 65,000 adopted children in the US live with a gay or lesbian parent or couple, with two million LGBT Americans saying they have considered becoming foster or adoptive parents. In 2008, Williams found that more than 21,000 children are being raised by same-sex couples in New York. Only Florida has an outright ban on gay people adopting children, but according to the Family Equality Council, six states — Utah, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky, and North Carolina — have explicit prohibitions on a same-sex parent adopting their partner’s children. And two — Utah and Nebraska — prohibit gay and lesbian couples from becoming foster parents. That list is likely the tip of the iceberg, Gillibrand’s press release argued: “More than two dozen states remain silent on how prospective LGBT foster and adoptive parents should be treated. Their lack of non-discrimination policies for same-sex couples leave children vulnerable to agencies and case workers’ biases, resulting in children being denied the benefit of placement with qualified, loving LGBT parents.” According to Emily Hecht-McGowan, the Family Equality Council’s public policy director, Gillibrand’s measure aims to “incentivize” states to eliminate discriminatory barriers for foster and adoptive parents. States would be required to show that all of their own programs funded with federal dollars as well as any private agencies to which US funding is passed along comply with the

nondiscrimination provisions. Though some states have public policies at odds with the Gillibrand bill, none is unaccustomed to complying with requirements attached to federal dollars that go to adoption and foster care programs at the state level. These regulations, Hecht-McGowan explained, are not enforced on an all-or-nothing basis, with states risking the loss of all their adoption and foster care funding. Instead, they are required to show compliance by themselves and their grantees and are penalized only when they “routinely flout the rules.” Even then, the sanction would not likely be a complete zeroing out of federal support. Hecht-McGowan pointed out that the nondiscrimination provisions of Gillibrand’s bill are already the policies recommended by the US Department of Health and Human Services. HHS, however, currently has no statutory authority to impose these policies on state agency funding recipients. Gillibrand’s bill has not yet been endorsed by President Barack Obama, but in his National Adoption Month proclamation issued the same day as she introduced the measure in the Senate, the president wrote, “Adoptive families come in all forms. With so many children waiting for loving homes, it is important to ensure that all qualified caregivers are given the opportunity to serve as adoptive parents, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or marital status.” That language echoes similar sentiments from earlier White House proclamations. Gillibrand’s bill currently has five cosponsors in the Senate — Democrats Al Franken of Minnesota, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, and Patty Murray of Washington as well as Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders. California Democratic Representative Pete Stark had previously introduced the companion to Gillibrand’s bill in the House, where he has 80 co-sponsors. In a chamber controlled by Republicans, Florida’s Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is the only GOP representative among them.

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| November 9, 2011

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

David Boies, Andrew Cuomo Headline ESPA Dinner New York’s LGBT lobby celebrates marriage victory and two decades

he Empire Pride Agenda could scarcely have hoped for a better one-two punch of speakers to offer up at its 20th anniversary Manhattan fall dinner on October 27. David Boies, one half of the all-star litigation team currently leading the charge in federal court against the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, delivered the keynote address. Attendees, however, might just as easily remember the evening for the appearance of a more familiar face who has done several victory laps in the LGBT community since the enactment of marriage equality in New York in late June — Governor Andrew Cuomo. As was the case when he marched in the LGBT Pride March two days after signing the marriage law, Cuomo made a buoyant appearance at the Pride Agenda dinner. Lauding the advocates with whom he worked to win the successful June 24 State Senate vote, the governor said, “You affirmed people’s sense of government and capacity of government. You affirmed people’s belief in humanity — that people will do the right thing under the right circumstances. That people are accepting and people are nonjudgmental. And if you appeal to people with facts, they will actually rise to their better selves. You did that. And you did it at a time when people desperately needed affirmation.”

Cuomo acknowledged that the sense of victory — and likely the political benefits for him — extended well beyond the gay community. “They inhaled it and they absorbed it because they needed it because there’s negative everywhere,” he said of New Yorkers generally. “There’s anxiety, there’s fear, there’s frustration that nothing is working and trust is lost, and people are unhappy. And here was a beautiful moment, where that was all gone, and people did the right thing… This wasn’t a victory for the gay community. It was a victory for society. And this message is going to resonate all across this nation. Now part of it is the power of New York, because this is New York. And when New York does something, everyone else notices it.” In the same triumphal tone, Cuomo recounted a story about his youngest daughter, Michaela, telling him that her grandfather, former Governor Mario Cuomo, had given his son “a gift” with his “reputation [as] the voice of social justice” in his opposition to the death penalty and advocacy of a woman’s right to choose. “I am the daughter of Andrew Cuomo,” the current governor recalled her telling him, “the man who signed marriage equality into law, and that is a gift you gave me.” Cuomo’s appearance at the dinner provided a hint about a potentially emerging political story that could have resonance locally over the next two years. When

䉴

ESPA, continued on p.38

BOB KRASNER

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

Laura Linney and Alan Cumming emceed the Pride Agenda’s 20th anniversary Manhattan dinner.

SONYMA celebrates the legalization of same sex marriage in New York State.

To help you with your dream of homeownership, please call:

1-800-382-Home (4663) or visit

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| November 9, 2011

BUSINESS

19 Corporations Respond to NYS Pressure DiNapoli persuades 10 on anti-bias; shareholders snag 9 more BY PAUL SCHINDLER even new Fortune 1000 corporations added policies barring discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity in response to outreach during the past year from the New York State Comptroller’s Office. An additional three incorporated employment protections more narrowly tailored to its gay and lesbian employees. According to information released this week by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office, more than 130 corporations were contacted. Among 12 major targets that initially offered no response or a negative answer to those efforts, nine have since come around after shareholder filings aimed at reversing their resistance. Five of the nine put in place protections based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. The other four implemented sexual orientation nondiscrimination policies only. The roughly $146 billion Common Retirement Fund that covers pension obligations for retired state employees as well as those of numerous of municipalities across New York is managed by the Comptroller’s Office, making it one of the largest institutional investors in the US. Dating back to the 1990s, the office has used its market power to press for employment fairness policies — first for gay and lesbian employees and, in recent years, for transgender workers as well. DiNapoli, since taking office in 2007, has continued that push. Both the state and city comptrollers have made significant headway over the past two decades, first through outreach and, when that falls short, by leading shareholder resolution efforts. In a written statement commenting on the new policies implemented in the wake of his office’s most recent efforts, DiNapoli said, “I commend these companies for taking this important step toward promoting a workplace environment that ensures that employment decisions are based on individual qualifications, merit, and ability, and not on prejudice.” Companies that instituted comprehensive sexual orientation and gender identity workplace protections in response to letters from DiNapoli include PolyOne Corporation, Sanderson Farms, Total System Services,

䉴

DRUGS, from p.13

Tom Ammiano, a Democratic state assemblyman from San Francisco, has made opposition to the drug war a signature issue. He has introduced legislation to legalize marijuana, but warned activists that relying on voter initiatives to advance their issues leaves the movement at the mercy of lobbying by police, sheriffs, and district attorneys, who, in California, have a powerful presence in the state capital. An Ammiano aide bluntly told a panel that the state’s marijuana dispensaries take in

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has continued his office’s tradition of pressing for pro-LGBT workplace fairness.

Inc., Beckman Coulter, Plains Exploration & Production Company, Valmont, and Nextel Corporation. Those who responded with sexual orientation policies only are Pool Corporation, Packaging Corporation, of America, and Cameron Corporation. Of the nine companies that came around once a shareholder effort was launched, Amphenol, LifePoint Hospitals, Werner Enterprises, Catalyst Health Solutions, and CF Industries Holdings added sexual orientation and gender identity policies. Protections for gay and lesbian employees were put in place at Quanta Services, Danaher, Roper Industries, and Noble Energy. According to the Comptroller’s Office, shareholder activists are in “ongoing dialogue” with Universal Health Services regarding changes to its policies. Shareholder resolutions were voted on at ExxonMobil, where a 20 percent favorable level was reached, and at American Financial Group, where just over a quarter of the shares were voted for a policy change.

millions, but have no lobbyist in Sacramento to counter the ingrained opposition to California’s liberal medical marijuana policy. Legislators might well not be hearing any pro-reform message. It was noteworthy, however, that Gavin Newsom, Califor nia’s lieutenant governor, also addressed the conference. Chris Norby, a Republican member of the California Assembly who supported medical marijuana while still mayor of Fullerton, slyly pointed out to the predominantly Democratic gathering that the only presidential candi-

date running on a drug reform platform is a Republican — Ron Paul. A new generation of young leaders was visible at the conference. Aaron Houston, executive director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, discussed his “privileged position” in the war of drug. After staying up three days without food and drinking little water, he confronted his abuse of Adderall. His binge, he told the gathering, was comparable to that of a meth weekend, but he was in less legal jeopardy because of his prescription access to

Though both votes fell well below the majority required, such support levels are considered unusually high for resolutions not sponsored by boards of directors, and companies often act to take an issue off the table before shareholder activists gain this degree of momentum. The shareholder effort aimed at ExxonMobil has been a multi-year push — one adamantly resisted by that company’s board. The Corporate Equality Index compiled annually by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) rates the nation’s largest companies according to an array of LGBT workplace fairness indicators, including nondiscrimination policies, domestic partnership parity for gay and lesbian couples, transgender-appropriate health care coverage, responsible marketplace and community behavior, and support for LGBT employee groups. The Comptroller’s Office and other leading institutional investors pressing for workplace progress have worked with HRC in lobbying corporate America, but Eric Sumberg noted that under federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, matters such as employee benefits are considered “ordinary business” delegated to management and not subject to shareholder action. “However, the Fund has argued that when you are discussing discrimination, that discussion also encompasses the allocation of benefits,” Sumberg said in an email message. “A number of companies have interpreted policies aimed at eradicating discrimination based on sexual orientation as encompassing equal distribution of employee benefits.” HRC’s index showed that the number of major companies scoring a perfect 100 percent increased from 305 to 337 during the past year. As with other activists pressing for nondiscriminatory policies in corporate America, DiNapoli argued that they are in the best interests of corporations — and by extension, their shareholders, including the State Common Retirement Fund. “Numerous studies have shown that it is good business practice for companies to promote diversity in the workplace,” he said in announcing the corporations that recently changed their policies. “Companies that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity draw from the widest pool of talent possible, and that’s a benefit for employees and employers alike.”

a pharmaceutical. Nearly all Americans use drugs — including alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine — but only some are treated as criminals. One-percenters clearly play their part in the Drug Policy Alliance’s efforts. George Soros, the financier, is its leading financial backer, and Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines, addressed the conference via Skype. Branson, a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, reviewed the findings of the group’s June report, which concluded that the drug war was a failure that causes

enor mous har ms to public health and safety. Ira Glasser, the Alliance’s intellectual father, challenged the conference by asking when reformers will put an end to the drug war. The “arc of history,” he said in a stirring speech, never reaches its endpoint. The abolitionist ended slavery, but then segregation had to be stopped. After passage of the civil rights laws, social justice activists couldn’t rest. Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs, and 40 years later reformers are mobilizing against the New Jim Crow.

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

BOOKS

Youth, Puritanism, and Reactionary Politics

Amy Schalet challenges cultural freeze on teen sexuality BY DOUG IRELAND f sex, as the playwright and cartoonist Jules Feiffer has observed, is still America’s dirty little secret decades after the so-called “sexual revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s, there is no topic on which a cultural consensus of omerta reigns more stiflingly than that of the sexuality of “children,” as anyone under the age of consent is wrongly labeled. In practice, this has meant that real sex education of America’s school-age youth has been effectively driven from the arena of public policy, to the benefit of the horrendously failed abstinence-only-until-marriage approach that has been federally funded for a quarter of a century. The consequences of this ostrich-like sexual silence are seen in skyrocketing pregnancies among adolescent girls and in metastasizing HIV-infection rates among the young, which increase by at least 13 percent a year, according to the latest available statistics reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (with many new youth infections remaining undiagnosed). The idea that children and teens were sexual beings made significant headway in the 1970s, at least among progressives, but since then there has been a tsunamilike backlash against this common-sense concept, led not only by the culture warriors of the American right and the religious fundamentalists, but by the sexual protectionism of a wide swath of feminists. As the fearless sexual journalist Judith Levine has said, “The right won, but the mainstream let it. Comprehensive sex educators had the upper hand in the 1970s, but starting in the 1980s, they allowed their enemies to seize more and more territory, until the right controlled the law, the language, and the cultural consensus.” Levine knew whereof she spoke — witness the violent, censorious reaction to her seminal 2002 book, “Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex.” The hysterical condemnation of this important work, although published by the eminently respectable University of Minnesota Press with an introduction by former US Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders (herself purged from government by a spineless Bill Clinton for daring to suggest masturbation as a healthy alternative to HIVrisky behaviors), Levine’s book was targeted by an irrational, Comstockian crusade led by the likes of Joe Scarborough and Fox News for having suggested that “Sex is not ipso facto harmful to minors” and questioning laws on statutory rape and the age of consent. In fact, as Levine argued, “America’s drive to protect kids from sex is protecting them from nothing. Instead, often it is harming them.” The Thunders Mouth Press paperback reprint of Levine’s smart book, still in print, includes a harrowing account by the author of the national firestorm of controversy her book sparked — including its condemnation by the Minnesota State Legislature led by its then-speaker (and later governor), Tim Pawlenty, accompanied by threats to the funding of the state university that published it. The crushing of the modest advances made by serious sex education four decades ago has been particularly nefarious for queer youth. In its latest annual survey, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network found that over the previous year, 85 percent of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 20 percent reported physical assaults, and nearly 75 percent heard slurs like “faggot” or “dyke.” Gutsy gay kids, however, increasingly are assert-

ing their right to a same-sex orientation at ever-younger ages — even in the Bible Belt. As the By Amy Schalet website of the New University of Chicago Press, 312 pp. Orleans T imesCloth, $85; Paper, $29; E-Book from $7 Picayune remarked http://tinyurl.com/d92f4to just last month in a sharp-eyed and comprehensive article entitled “Gay People Are Coming Out Younger,” a local lesbian girl interviewed by the newspaper “almost seems like a late bloomer for coming out at 14.” Eleven states have age of consent laws pegged at 18; another nine at 17; and the remainder at 16. So-called “Romeo and Juliet” laws, in some venues, allow leeway for those slightly over the age of consent having sex with those not yet that old (though sometimes criminal charges are left to prosecutorial discretion), but there are instances of youths only a year or so older than their partner being charged with a sexual offense — and even cases of minors arrested for sex with another minor. In this context, it’s courageous of Amy Schalet, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus, to offer up her fascinating and wise new book, “Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex,” just published by the University of Chicago Press, a comparative look at attitudes toward adolescent sexuality in the US and the Netherlands. The title comes from the fact that, as Schalet reports, “the vast majority of American parents oppose a [sexual] sleepover for high-school aged teenagers” with their child’s boyfriend or girlfriend, while “most Dutch parents permit it or consider doing so.” Based on a blending of meticulous scholarly research and extensive interviews with both Dutch and American parents and teenagers — mostly tenth-graders — Schalet’s book, although not as deliberately incendiary as Levine’s a decade earlier, nonetheless amounts to a ringing rationale for the sexual autonomy of adolescents. Nearly five decades of rational and humanist sex education in the Netherlands have produced generations of parents who consider adolescent sexuality as “gewoon,” a unique Dutch word meaning not only “normal” but “acceptable and right.” Schalet writes, “Dutch sex education curricula encourage teenagers to talk in a positive way about sexuality, including such topics as masturbation, homosexuality, and pleasure. These topics are integrated into a broader discussion of the emotional, relational, and larger societal forces that shape experiences of sexuality.” One Dutch sex-ed textbook explains, “Your own experiences with sex start with yourself… Thus, you can have sex with yourself, but also with others. You make love because you and the other person enjoy it.” Another Dutch textbook addresses same-sex experiences in a chapter entitled, “With whom would you like to wake up?” And a third sex-ed text affirms that “making love

NOT UNDER MY ROOF: PARENTS, TEENS, AND THE CULTURE OF SEX

takes patience. Your whole body is full of places that want to be caressed, rubbed, licked, and bitten softly.” Schalet points out, “By allowing sleepovers at home, the Dutch parents provide young people both the opportunity and the incentive to experience sexuality as part of life that can be discussed, rationally planned, and experienced in harmony with, rather than in opposition to, the social fabric of the household.” Where Americans “dramatize” adolescent sexuality in ways such that girls are taught to be “good” (asexual before marriage) and boys are expected to be “bad” (predatory and studly), the Dutch “normalize” adolescent sexuality, which is “viewed as a continuum of feelings and behaviors, which are accepted as part of adolescent development and relationships.” Because of comprehensive sexual and emotional education, “youth are expected to possess an internal barometer with which they can pace their own sexual progression, within the context of trusting and loving relationships.” While Dutch parents “have the responsibility to educate about contraception, the cultural mandates dictate that, in order to stay connected to their children and their relationships, they are wise to accept that… sexual progression may include intercourse… even if this means that parents must self-regulate their own feelings of resistance.” There’s a great deal more in “Not Under My Roof” that could make it a richly rewarding guidebook for American par ents, whether their kids are gay or not—particularly if read in tandem with Sarah Schulman’s essential “Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences. (“It Has To Be Said,” my review of that brilliant book, is linked in the online version of this article at gayciytnews.com.) Unfortunately, Schalet’s book is unlikey to find a wide audience. She too often lapses into stilted “academese” that will be off-putting to the average reader, and she has another annoying tic — frequently using and repeating uniquely Dutch words from the sexual and emotional lexicons that are defined only once, requiring a feat of memory to retain their meanings. And while it would be nice to think that Schalet’s work signals the beginnings of a shift in national attitudes, that’s also unlikely. Consider the sad fate of “Skins,” the short-lived MTV drama about teenage sexuality, canceled earlier this year after just one season as a consequence of a rabid, right-wing campaign that tried to have the network prosecuted for “child pornography” and accused it of “promoting homosexuality” in its realistic portrayal of same-sex orientation among adolescents. Reactionary culture warriors forced a raft of corporate sponsors to withdraw from it, including Yumi Brands (Taco Bell), Mars, Inc. (Wrigley), General Motors, Doctor’s Associates (Subway), Foot Locker, H and R Block, Schick, L’Oréal, Recket Benckiser (Clearasil), and Kraft. The gutless pseudo-hipsters at MTV even labeled the program “TV-MA” rated, meaning it was unsuitable for viewers under 17. An honest national discussion about our children’s right to their sexuality is just not in the cards any time soon.

The idea that children and teens were sexual beings made significant headway in the 1970s, but since then there has been a tsunami-like backlash.

| November 9, 2011

ä&#x2030;´

OWS, from p.10

fight back against social and economic injustice. For some, this isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a possibility, so we have a donate button on our website listing occupations around the country in need of support. Our website has helped raise hundreds of thousands for the New York General Assembly, but to preserve our autonomy as a collective, we accept no funding from them. If folks want to help us directly, they can go to our donation page at www.wepay.com/ donate/ows. As unpaid full-time activists, we rely on the generosity of others to have our basic needs met so we can continue doing the work weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing. We also need downtown meeting and office space, and

could really use some temporary housing. Running a major website from Liberty Square was next to impossible, and going from couch to couch each night is exhausting. We know if we were more rested, we could get even more done. Q: How can people interested in speaking with you, helping, or coming down to participate reach you? A: As soon as we leave here weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll set up an email address â&#x20AC;&#x201D; lgbt@occupywallst. org. We get busy so if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hear from us, keep trying. We want everyone to understand that we are not leading anything and speak only for ourselves. We believe all of us know the solutions already. We just have to work together to make it happen.

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ä&#x2030;´

MALETTA, from p.12

1991, but did not come to fruition until the here! and Logo networks emerged more than a decade later. John Glines, the pioneering producer of gay theater who was the first Tony awardee to mention a gay partner in an acceptance speech when he won for â&#x20AC;&#x153;Torch Song Trilogy,â&#x20AC;? wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I never saw Lou wear anything but black leather, but he was a real white hat. He was enormously supportive of every show I ever produced, for which I will always be grateful.â&#x20AC;? Michael Rogers, the DC gay blogger and activist and subject of the documentary â&#x20AC;&#x153;Outrage,â&#x20AC;? wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lou was a real pioneer, one of the communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unsung heroes who was breaking new ground decades ago. Lou helped begin a movement that has resulted in more pro-gay depictions in media and showed a community how to harness media for its own benefit.â&#x20AC;? Louis P. Maletta was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, on the December 14, 1936 and grew up in Ridgewood, Queens. He served in the Army and, before coming out, married a woman and had a daughter, with whom he remained close. His own mother died just three years ago. Maletta videotaped his programs at first out of his apartment on West 15th Street, which he shared with Luke Valenti, his domestic partner of 37 years who survives him. The two also shared a cabin in the woods in upstate Saugerties, where Maletta died. Sybil Bruncheon wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lou said Luke made him laugh more than anyone on Earth and that it was the secret to a long marriage!â&#x20AC;? Maletta later had studios in Manhattan buildings that doubled as sex clubs late at night. There was nothing quite like bringing a candidate for public office in for an interview with an erotic mural looking down at them from off-stage and lubricant residue still on the chairs. But no one walked out and many sought the

chance to be on the shows, including Ed Koch and David Dinkins when they ran against each other for mayor in 1989. One man who frequented his sex parties said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;There would be porn on one screen and Lou watching a documentary on the Renaissance on the other. He had an unbelievable breadth of knowledge and was as comfortable in chaps as at the opera.â&#x20AC;? Bruncheon, who did numerous shows and club events with Maletta from 1984 until 1993, wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;He was an incredibly learned and sophisticated man under all the leather and paraphernalia â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and he revealed his classiness only when it suited him.â&#x20AC;? Gay journalist David France, producer and director of the upcoming AIDS documentary â&#x20AC;&#x153;How to Survive a Plague,â&#x20AC;? related this story: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lou, returning from the Amsterdam International AIDS Conference in rubber shorts and a fish-net tank top, with knee-high leather boots, was asked by the man next to him if he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel uncomfortable traveling in such a get-up. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;My boots are filled with marijuana,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; he said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;and nobody would DARE frisk me, dressed like this.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? Mark Berridge, who now produces movie trailers, got his start in TV at Gay Cable Network in 1994. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He really walked the talk,â&#x20AC;? he said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and he was totally unapologetic about who he was.â&#x20AC;? Luke Valenti, the love of Louâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life, said Malettaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal was â&#x20AC;&#x153;to foster a sense of brotherhood in the gay community, working together to make progress. He was very patient in an age where there is no patience.â&#x20AC;? Malettaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vast Gay Cable Network archives were acquired in 2009 by NYUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fales Library in a deal brokered by Allen Zwickler, brother of the late filmmaker Phil Zwickler who was a frequent correspondent for GCN before his death in 1991. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more than 6,000 hours of film about civil rights and human rights,â&#x20AC;? Zwickler told Gay City News then. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is so incredible that it had to be preserved.â&#x20AC;?

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November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

FILM

At Least He Was Gay Eastwood, Black, DiCaprio trio tussles over Hoover’s legacy BY STEVE ERICKSON Edgar” is the most sympathetic freak show you’re likely to see this year. It’s also contradictory to the point of incoherence. One suspects that its makers — director Clint Eastwood, openly gay screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, and star Leonardo DiCaprio — have clashing political agendas. Eastwood is a conservative libertarian who opts for dim lighting and slow pacing whenever he wants to convince the spectator he has something profound to say. The political views of Black, who’s best known for writing “Milk,” are surely more liberal than Eastwood’s. The same is probably true of DiCaprio, who criticizes J. Edgar Hoover’s attitude toward the civil rights movement in the film’s press kit, although his desire to win an Oscar may motivate his performance in “J. Edgar” more than his politics. The result is a film that alternates between condemning and romanticizing Hoover. “J. Edgar” begins in the mid-1970s as the elderly Hoover (DiCaprio) dictates his memoirs to a younger man. He recalls his battles against communist and anarchist radicals in the early 1920s. He then fought against gangsters, all the while glorifying himself and taking credit for actions he didn’t actually accomplish. He gained two important allies, secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts) and assistant Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), who also became his lover. The film recalls Hoover’s activities

KEITH BERNSTEIN

Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer as J. Edgar Hoover and his assistant and lover Clyde Tolson.

in the ‘20s and ‘30s in flashback, while much of it is also set in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when the elderly Hoover established a surveillance state and tried to libel Martin Luther King. Larry Cohen, director of the excellent 1977 B-movie biopic “The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover,” insists that Hoover was heterosexual. Obviously, Black disagrees. “J. Edgar” depicts Hoover as incredibly awkward around women. His idea of a date is an exercise in library science. When several actresses J. EDGAR Directed by Clint Eastwood flirt with Hoover Warner Bros. at a restaurant, Opens Nov. 9 citywide Eastwood keeps cutting away from the women to Tolson, whose company Hoover obviously prefers. The film’s depiction of Hoover and Tol-

son’s relationship is never very explicit — hand-holding and one kiss after a fight is about as hot as it gets — but it’s rather sweet. Eastwood seems to find something redemptive in Hoover’s love for Tolson. At the same time, he and Black apparently buy into old-fashioned psychoanalytic theories about an absent father and smothering mother causing gayness, since that’s the exact dynamic of Hoover’s family. “J. Edgar” also alludes to the improbable rumors about Hoover’s crossdressing — after his mother’s death, he tries on her clothes. We’re not far from Norman Bates territory at this point. Until now, DiCaprio has been an actor with extremely limited range. While he’s 36, he’s rarely been convincing as a man with that much life experience. (Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” has been the sole exception.) There’s something terminally boyish about him. “J. Edgar” does

him no favors by burying him in latex makeup for half its running time. Nevertheless, Eastwood gets DiCaprio to exude an air of masculine authoritarianism I never thought him capable of projecting. It’s impressive work, but the strain is at points palpable. In particular, DiCaprio tries too hard to mimic Hoover’s voice. Hammer’s far more relaxed performance is equally noteworthy. He suggests a playful, even slightly campy quality to Tolson. Watts is wasted in a mostly decorative part. “J. Edgar” sees American history through Hoover’s eyes, although it often throws in a word or two from a supporting character to contradict him. At one point, Tolson gives a speech pointing out all the lies and exaggerations in Hoover’s memoir. Hoover’s biography should be enough proof that the man was undeniably evil, yet the film hedges its bets. Compared with the politicians who came after him, Eastwood seems to suggest, Hoover’s racism and lawbreaking were small potatoes. “J. Edgar” points out the roots of the mentality behind the Patriot Act and the regime of warrantless wiretapping under which we’re currently living. But it also suggests that because Hoover found a love that lasted until the end of his life, there was something positive about him. “J. Edgar” turns liberal bona fides — an affirmative gay love story — to conservative ends. In an odd way, that may be a sign of progress. If the film were made 35 years ago, it would likely have either erased Hoover’s gayness or portrayed it as another addition to his long list of negative qualities.

I Enjoy Being a Boy Sciamma crafts study of young Laure who passes as Michaël BY GARY M. KRAMER ut French filmmaker Céline Sciamma scored a hit in 2007 with her drama “Water Lilies” about female teenagers exploring their sexuality. Sciamma explores a different aspect of young female sexuality in her new film, “Tomboy,” a character study of a tenyear-old girl who spends a lot of time passing as a boy. The film opens with Laure (Zoé Héran) standing up in a car with the sunroof open as her father drives, enjoying the breeze and her freedom. He soon has her sit in his lap so she can “drive.” Laure’s close relationship with her fam-

ily becomes increasingly evident as they settle into their new home in a new neighborhood. Laure carefully cultivates an androgynous appearance with a butch haircut and by wearing boy’s clothes. Laure reinvents herself as Michaël in meeting a neighborhood TOMBOY girl named Lisa Directed by Céline (Jeanne Disson), Sciamma who introduces In French, with English “him” to the local subtitles boys. Lisa is the Rocket Releasing only girl in the Opens Nov. 16 group and she’s Film Forum intrigued by the 209 W. Houston St. handsome newfilmforum.org comer. She tells

Michaël she likes him because he is “not like the others” and lets him win a game to impress the other boys. As the group of boys play soccer, Michaël stands on the sidelines with Lisa and observes them shirtless and spitting. Later, at home, Laure emulates their behavior, taking off her shirt, posing in the mirror, and spitting into the sink. The next day, at another soccer game, Michaël removes his shirt and executes the moves rehearsed the evening before. Episodes like this effectively demonstrate how Laure consciously develops a gender identity as Michaël. The reactions of others to how Michaël presents himself are what make the film so

engaging. Laure’s mother (Sophie Cattani), unaware of her daughter’s double life, is pleased that Laure has become friends with Lisa — she usually hangs out with the boys. When Lisa puts make-up on Michaël, Laure doesn’t get around to washing it off before her mothers sees it and wins a compliment she wasn’t trying for. Going swimming with the other kids, Laure uses Play-Doh to craft a penis to keep up appearances. Viewers will find themselves drawn into the action and sympathetic to Laure’s perspective through the natural approach Sciamma brings to filming

䉴

TOMBOY, continued on p.33

| November 9, 2011

THEATER

Look Back In Anger Sometimes family ties are so tight they can hurt BY DAVID KENNERLEY

OTHER DESERT CITIES ast spring during awards time, Jon Robin Baitz’s “Other Desert Cities” popped up atop many critics’ best play lists. The psychodrama, about a distraught daughter who writes a memoir exposing a foul secret that threatens to tear her family apart, was hailed by the New York Times as “the most richly enjoyable new play in many a season.” Directed by Joe Mantello, who recently co-starred in “The Normal Heart,” the five-member ensemble boasted such heavy hitters as Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin, and Elizabeth Marvel. But when the Tony nominations came out, the work was absent because — oh, right — the production was staged at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, an Off Broadway venue. Not surprisingly, the play was nominated for multiple Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards, and won the 2011 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off Broadway Play. Now, the production has alighted on Broadway at the Booth Theatre. And while the creative team remains intact, there are two crucial recastings. The pivotal role of the damaged, truth-seeking daughter, Brooke Wyeth, originated by Marvel, is taken over by Rachel Griffiths in her daring Broadway debut. Linda Lavin, who played the spent alcoholic Aunt Silda, moved on to a meatier role in

Booth Theatre 222 W. 45th St. Tue. at 7 p.m.; Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m. Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m. $56.50-$126.50; telecharge.com Or 212-239-6200

Judith Light and Rachel Griffiths in Jon Robin Baitz’s “Other Desert Cities,” directed by Joe Mantello.

another dysfunctional family drama, “The Lyons,” where she has received raves. She is replaced by the equally talented Judith Light, who helped keep “Lombardi” in the game last season. With these changes, does it still fly? I am happy to report that “Other Desert Cities” not only flies, it soars. Griffiths is so spot-on that it seems as if Baitz, who created the ABC dramedy “Brothers & Sisters” in which she costarred, might have written the role just for her. Her portrayal of a depressive, willful daughter bent on taking control of her destiny despite the dire fallout for Polly and Lyman, her WASPy Republican parents (they were pals with the Reagans), is rivet-

ing. A bitter bundle of neuroses, Brooke is on the brink of going back into a mental institution, yet Griffiths makes her likable. Brooke is so furiously detached from her parents she can’t bear to call them Mom and Dad — she uses their first names. A left-leaning longtime resident of New York, this is her first visit home to Southern California in several years. For her part, Light imbues Aunt Silda with a tragic air of depletion that is at once repulsive and endearing. Now that liquor is banished from her life, the only thing that keeps her going is the promise that Polly and L yman will finally get their comeuppance once Brooke’s truth is told. But is it the real truth?

The returning members of the ensemble — Channing (as the controlling Polly), Stacy Keach (as the stoic Lyman), and Thomas Sadoski (as Brooke’s younger brother, Trip, a reality show producer) — deliver flawless, affecting performances. The bulk of the action takes place in the Wyeths’ Palm Springs home on Christmas Eve 2004. This failed family belongs in an arid desert, that’s for sure. John Lee Beatty has designed what might be the most exquisite set of the season, capturing the hard sterility of the Wyeth family in the expansive, midcentury modern desert house, rich in textures of sandstone and glass and awash in a riot of beiges and tans. Even the matching Christmas tree is artificial; it could have been purchased at Neiman-Marcus with the ornaments already attached. The only warmth emanates from a stylish, Danish flying-saucer fireplace that has a real flame, though keeping it stoked seems to be a bother. The soft, moody lighting, by Kenneth Posner, perfectly evokes the transition from day to night. The unseen pool out-

TOMBOY, from p.32

scenes like this. Laure’s obvious eagerness to pass as a boy makes her actions credible and compelling. The dramatic tension in “Tomboy,” of course, comes from the possibility that Laure’s secret will be discovered. A scene where Michaël needs to pee — and goes into the woods for privacy — proves embarrassing for him. When Laure’s sister Jeanne (Malonn Lévana) becomes aware of the secret, she is forced to play along with her “brother” — at least until an incident with one of the other kids threatens to expose the sisters. The dynamic between Laure and Jeanne lends another layer to the gender politics in “Tomboy.” Scenes of the girls physically fighting and also sharing a bed illustrate their close bond and love

ROCKET RELEASING

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JOAN MARCUS

Jeanne Disson and Zoé Héran in Céline Sciamma’s “Tomboy.”

for each other. In a pair of nice scenes with the sisters alone together, Laure poses for Jeanne’s drawing and plays music for her to dance to. When Jeanne is with the other children, she tells them how her brother protects her. In the film’s final reel, Laure must

confront the truth of her identity in scenes that pack potent emotion. As she waits for Lisa to return home to confess the truth to her friend, her anxiety is palpable. Sciamma wisely celebrates her central character, who at a very early age

side is suggested by a reflection of water onto the double-height ceiling of the dining room. An inspired detail. The central point of dramatic tension — will Brooke go through with her plans to publish the tell-all about the tragic loss of her radical older brother, Henry, and her parents’ potentially scandalous role in it? — is superbly realized. Days later, I am still wondering what I’d do if I were in her shoes. Naturally, “Other Desert Cities” has got deeper issues on its mind than will she or won’t she. It’s about self-preservation at any cost, honoring (or dishonoring) thy mother and father, the hypocrisy of political correctness, and the multiple sides of truth and its consequences. It probes the divide between parents and children, East coast and West, liberals and conservatives, and even money and happiness. Although some of Baitz’s plays (“Three Hotels,” “The Substance of Fire”) were critical hits Off Broadway, this is his first original work produced on Broadway. He also adapted “Hedda Gabler,” which was staged on Broadway in 2001 starring Kate Burton. Look for the gorgeously articulated “Other Desert Cities” to be a contender at the Tonys this spring. The original online version of this review mistakenly identified which staging of “Hedda Gabler” Jon Robin Baitz adapted.

strives to live her life in ways that make her happy and comfortable despite all the stresses entailed. Her mother’s willingness to accept her masculine look and behavior — up to a point, at least — is refreshing, though the mother’s attempts to get Laure to wear a dress lead to one of their few real conflicts. At the heart of “Tomboy” is Héran’s fearless performance as the title character. She is completely convincing as Michaël, getting a young boy’s mannerisms down cold. Laure’s relationship with Lisa and her attraction toward her friend speak volumes about who this fascinating youth is. “Tomboy” is a superb film that will resonate with anyone who grew up drawn to the possibility of being a different gender or bonded closely with those who were.

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

THEATER

You Go, Girl! Strong women at center of two Off-Broadway productions BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE

Jesse Eisenberg and Camille Mana in Eisenberg’s “Asuncion.”

details that make comedy work. Do we really need an LSD trip to get characters to tell the truth? That’s really the last refuge of a stuck playwright. Worse, Eisenberg doesn’t even end the play — it just stops. It’s never a good sign that the audience knows to clap only when the actors appear for the curtain call. The rare pleasures of this production are the performances by Justin Bartha as Vinny and Camille Mana as Asuncion. They both have charisma and energy that overcome the weak script. Remy Auberjonois as Stuart is fine in a one-dimensional part. Eisenberg as Edgar gives a manic version of his “Social Network” performance. He shows courage in writing himself a thoroughly unappealing character and offers some glimmers of comic timing but can’t overcome his flat line readings and inability to connect with other actors. Director Kip Fagan’s ability to keep all this moving at a good clip provides some relief, but not nearly enough. side from John Cheever, no writer knew the mid-20th century WASP like A.R. Gurney. The 1970 play “Children” brings the two together in Gurney’s adaptation of Cheever’s story about a family facing crisis. Like most of Cheever, the story has a deceptive gentleness, and the tensions and passions that

stir beneath the surface enliven the storytelling. After the death of a family’s patriarch, his wife considers remarrying, but if she does the ancestral home will go to her three children. One of them wants to sell out, but that would be a hardship for all of them. From this simple plot, Gurney spins a tale about morality, choices, and the costs and traps they entail. A home on Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket — we’re not sure which — provides the metaphor, but the drama is far more universal.

STEPHEN KUNKEN

nesses. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, which moved into the Cherry Lane for this production, is clearly trying to capitalize on the celebrity Eisenberg earned from his Oscar-nominated and affectless portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network. Unfortunately, his would-be comedy is characterized by contorted plotting and weak structure that ultimately undermine a supposedly earnest attempt at social criticism. For any comedy to work, there needs to be a modicum of plausibility, even when situations are over-the-top. Edgar is a would-be journalist, postgrad slacker living with Vinny, a former college teachASUNCION ing assistant Rattlestick Theater of his that at the Cherry Lane he idolizes, 38 Commerce St., btwn. in a dumpy Barrow & Bedford Sts. apartment Through Nov. 27 in upstate Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m. Sat at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m. Binghamton. Edgar’s older, $75; ovationtix.com financially Or 212-352-3101 successful brother, Stuart, arrives and announces he’s married to a Filipino woman named Asuncion whom for reasons he can’t divulge must stay with Edgar and Vinny. In an irrational mental leap, Edgar immediately decides his brother bought Asuncion and is keeping her as a sex slave. Hoping to make his name as a journalist, he sets about to expose this nightmare, while Vinny and Asuncion discover they like to party together. Fearful of further “oppressing” Asuncion, however, Edgar cannot bring himself to ask her any direct questions and so flounders in his mission. When the truth of Asuncion’s situation emerges, he becomes even more disengaged from those around him. To give Eisenberg the benefit of the doubt, he may be trying to make a comment about how modern media culture blows stories out of proportion based on emotion rather than facts. The idea is hardly original but could prove engaging if presented in a novel way. But Eisenberg’s play is unfocused, even sketchy, so Edgar comes across not as tragically mistaken, but rather simply nuts. Why can’t Asuncion stay at a hotel? Why does Vinny put up with Edgar as a roommate who sleeps on a beanbag chair? The answers could provide the

SANDRA COUDERT

he momentary relief one gets laughing at one-liners in Jesse Eisenberg’s new play “Asuncion” are insufficient to compensate for its fatal weak-

TACT, the Actors Company Theatre, is giving the play its first major revival since 1974, and under the direction of Scott Alan Evans it’s a fluid, finely nuanced, and wonderfully observed snapshot of a family at risk. Set designer Brett J. Banakis has created an evocative summer cottage deck where the action takes place. Gurney crafts the play so that only four of the characters ever appear — siblings Randy and Barbara, Mother, and Randy’s wife Jane. Through them we see the history of the family, its current tensions, and most importantly the challenges created by the arrival of black sheep brother Pokey and his family. The unaccustomed upheaval brought on by their actions —everything from serving children Coke with meals to wearing nonpreppy clothes and threatening to force the sale of the house, all unseen — has a nearly seismic impact on everyone. The cast is uniformly excellent. Richard Thieriot and Margaret Nichols as Randy and Barbara are completely believable as siblings, down to the subtle ways they push each other’s buttons. Lynn Wright is charmCHILDREN ing as Jane, TACT at the Beckett Theatre prodded by 410 W. 42nd St. Pokey’s wife Through Nov. 20 to rethink Tue.-Thu. at 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m. her life. DarSat., Sun. at 2 p.m. rie Lawrence $56.25; telecharge.com as Mother is Or 212-239-6200 superb, giving a rich and detailed performance. This is a warm production of a play without a lot of bells and whistles, but don’t let that fool you. It’s intensely human and the stakes are high, and that’s what makes it so appealing as theater.

Darrie Lawrence and Margaret Nichols in A. R. Gurney’s “Children.”

| November 9, 2011

OPERA

Elizabethan Echoes Shakespearean comedy and Tudor drama at the opera BY DAVID SHENGOLD udos to Lesley Koenig, Opera Boston’s new general director, for scheduling the nerviest season in North America — “Beatrice et Benedict,” “The Midsummer Marriage, “and Bellini’s “I Capuleti ed i Montecchi.” Fortunately, the company’s audience craves and appreciates novelty. Berlioz’s odd Shakespearean comedy, in a spirited bilingual production by David Kneuss (designed by Robert Perdziola in post-World War II garb), received a warm welcome October 21. The beauties of the women’s music in this score are breathtaking, and Gil Rose led a performance alert to both comic caprice and yearning lyricism. The piece has a distinguished Boston history — Kneuss semi-staged it for the Symphony, under Ozawa, in 1984 with Frederica von Stade and Gwendolyn Killebrew alternating opposite Stuart Burrows and Jon Garrison. Four years later, Garrison returned to confront Boston Lyric Opera’s mettlesome Beatrice, Lorraine Hunt. At the Broadway-scaled Cutler Majestic Theatre, vocal honors went — as they often do in this work — to Hero (the graceful Heather Buck) and Ursule (strikingly timbred Kelley O’Connor). Both leads made company debuts. Julie Boulianne’s winsome Beatrice offered native sung French and some charm; after one act of bothersome tremolo, she exhibited more pleasing sound and dynamic variety in her solo scene. Sean Panikkar gave Benedict height and youth and little more. He lacked Gallic float, Gallic vowels, and rhythmic phrasing. A penetrating, cutting sound, his tenor seems more destined for Narraboth (which he sings), perhaps Froh and Erik. Veteran baritone Robert Honeysucker brought distinction to Don Pedro.

CLIVE GRAINGER

he next night I was privileged to hear the excellent Boston Baroque tackle “Die Schoepfung” (“The Creation”) at New England Conservatory’s intimate Jordan Hall. Martin Pearlman’s highly disciplined, sonorous forces were preparing to record Haydn’s masterly oratorio for Glasgow-based Linn Records (its first American contract). Haydn’s incredibly rich and forwardlooking score — written when he was 65 — stands high on my list of Great Vocal Music Everyone Should Know But Doesn’t — alongside “Guillaume Tell,” “L’enfance du Christ,” “Simon Boccanegra,” and Rachmaninoff’s “Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.” With its mix

ising young soprano Angela Meade assumed the title role in the Met’s “Anna Bolena” staging — designed around the very different looks and persona of Anna Netrebko — for three performances. Heard October 24, Meade commanded great respect for a genuinely beautifully vocalized performance, with lovely pianissimi, clean attacks, consistent sound, and mastery of technical demands that Netrebko could not meet— like the finale’s ascending trills. Meade sang with some feeling, particularly in the two slow movements of the final scene. What she as yet lacks is a vital star presence either vocally or physically. Her performance was intelligently brought off but not quite lived-in as was the wounded, angry queen of Netrebko, a real stage animal, whose voice — whatever its remaining technical shortcomings — has an individual “print.” Neither soprano quite supplied the requisite “parola scenica” — the expressive match of words to vocal lines that divas like Callas, Scotto, Sills, and Miricioiu used to bring this music fully alive — but if you combined Netrebko and Meade’s strengths, you might have today’s ideal Bolena. Meanwhile, Meade deserves praise and encouragement, and her singing provides some extraordinary beauty. As before, the most fully satisfying member of the Met’s cast was mezzo Tamara Mumford as the page Smeton.

Heather Buck and Kelley O’Connor in Opera Boston’s production of “Beatrice et Benedict.”

of playfulness and profundity, Haydn’s astonishingly moving yet entertaining late work seems the prime link between “The Magic Flute” and Beethoven’s “Fidelio” and Ninth Symphony. The harmonic germ of “Tristan und Isolde” can be heard in its opening pages, which depict the pre-Creation chaos by means of melancholy phrases unresolved by cadences. Springwater-toned Amanda Forsythe — who looked to be about eight-and-ahalf months pregnant and understandably ventured a few extra breaths in long runs — sang with gorgeous ease and purity of tone plus terrific trills. The wonderful bass-baritone Kevin Deas (one of America’s most inexplicably undervalued singers) offered superb vocalism, alert to musical and verbal nuance and with a full, subtly deployed range of dynamics rare in his voice category. Tenor Keith Jameson also brought charm and shine to Uriel’s somewhat lesser opportunities. (With a little polish of German, he should prove an outstanding Bach Evangelist.) All three soloists showed excellent musicianship. The chorus sang with precision and art. The few passing blemishes (baroque hornists have a hard life) should vanish in studio conditions. The forthcom-

ing CDs should be well worth investigating. Why can’t New York sustain an organization devoted to Historically Informed Practice on the order of Boston Baroque?

David Shengold (shengold@yahoo.com) writes about opera for many venues.

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November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

IN THE NOH

Two Beauties Charlotte’s eternal “Look”; Melissa loves Michel BY DAVID NOH efore her, there was the unforgettable Louise Brooks in the 1920s, Garbo and Dietrich in the 1930s, and then Lauren Bacall, who was even known as “The Look” in the 1940s. But ever since “Georgy Girl” (1966), Charlotte Rampling, with her strikingly malevolent beauty and brutally uncompromising choice in film roles, has been the undisputed owner of that title, which is also the name of a new documentary about her that just opened (Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, 1886 Broadway at W. 62nd St., lincolnplazacinema. com; Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St., cinemavillage.com). In person, she was anything but the fearsome, daunting presence her screen persona would suggest. When I met her at the Soho Grand, whip-thin, attired casually chic style à la étudient Francais, she was every bit the warm, witty woman she is in her mesmerizingly smart biographical film. “I’m glad you liked it,” she said, “because we don’t really know what it’s going to be like for people seeing this film. Maybe it was a pity because too much was said, and one’s mysterious mystique has gone out the window.” I told her that she remained evasive about little except her own relationship history, like her “engagement” (since 1998) to French businessman JeanNoël Tassez. She replied, “Yeah, it was a decision on my part. It is hard to keep a relationship alive. More and more people just crash in and out of relationships, so you have to try and ask, ‘Is it really worth changing all the time? [Sighs.] It doesn’t make sense, all these young people in their 20s with babies and things, jumping out and jumping in.” When I expressed admiration for her commitment to playing strong, often unlikable women, she said, “Probably ‘Georgy Girl’ started that because that woman was so disliked when the film came out. People were like, ‘Ohmigod, this character is so horrible, selfish, and does

KINO LORBER/ LES FILMS D’ICI

Charlotte Rampling with photographer Juergen Teller in Angelina Maccarone’s “Charlotte Rampling: The Look.”

everything for her own gratification.’ “But in the 1960s, women did want to lead their lives. We didn’t want babies. And she really was set in her way, so in-your -face that it was just staggering. Even if it was the ‘60s with doors opening, things changing, and people getting much braver, that role was staggering in her assuming what she wanted, completely pre-feminist. “I thought that these women were fascinating to play, the ones who really make it happen, as far as I was concerned. I always needed to find my way into cinema, which became the noncommercial way because commercial roles didn’t suit me. They weren’t edgy, fascinating, or psychologically attuned enough, too much about entertainment, which I have nothing against, but it didn’t seem to suit me. I’ve been on a certain sort of life quest and realize that with ‘The Look,’ what I was seeking without knowing was to show that I’ve actually joined the two, myself as a person with the people that I play. It has to be harmonious, with the same sense of morality and intellectual input from the role to the person and vice versa, an alchemic kind of meeting. “The actr esses I always really watched a lot were Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, a bit of Katharine Hepburn, because I thought the spirit of those women was so modern, authen-

tic, and so brave. “The Look” is one of the sexiest docs ever made, as well, largely because of its chapter dealing with Rampling’s 2004 collaboration for Marc Jacobs with photographer Juergen Teller in “Louis XV,” a book jawdropping in its combined eroticism and tenderness: “That was Juergen, and why I’m such a friend of his, because we both have that combination. I can be very erotic but also very normal as a person, and he’s the same, completely sweet with these incredible ideas. That’s how we were able to make these pictures. His wife was there, too, photographing away, this girl he’s just now married, and we sort of became family. “We probably did have a glass of champagne or two beforehand, but the thing is, I’m very available once I like somebody, and I’m ready to do lots of stuff providing it’s not kinky or nasty. As you say, there’s a kind of joy and sweetness in it, although pretty outrageous, like that shot on the piano with his bum out. [Laughs.]. You think, ‘What is this?’” Asked about her impeccable, timeless style sense that has inspired designers like Jacobs and a host of others for decades, she replied, “I got that from my parents. My mum and dad were very elegant. I just put anything on that doesn’t look awful, so that’s very lucky. Of the designers, Yohji Yamamoto is my favorite — lots of others,

too — but Yohji is my master. We’ve done things together and I know him well. He’s not doing so much now, but he’s had a great inning, and Marc, absolutely, is so good.” On working with director Luchino Visconti: “He was my first master. After ‘Georgy Girl,’ I wanted to leave England and try roles elsewhere. I worked in Italy with Gianfranco Mingozzi, and Visconti saw that film and cast me in ‘The Damned,’ and I knew that was the direction I wanted to go in. I was bowled over by Italy, their appreciation of beauty. I’d never been brought up in a house which was very favorable to beauty — English, Protestant, nothing to do with feelings, and all that side of me was opened to this operatic vision of life through Visconti. He was very hands-on in every detail and certainly directed his muse, Helmut Berger, training him and making him into his thing.” About director Lars von Trier (“Melancholia”), Rampling said, “I played his mother, I might say, wearing her silly hippie dress at the wedding and hating everything. That tells you about him — the mother from Hell who ruined his life. Maybe not ruined, but certainly made him into something of a basket case.” When I told her that “Heading South” (2005), in which her character pays Haitian boys for sex, was my favorite among her films, Rampling said, “You’re right, it’s an important picture,

but it was difficult to make, with uncomfortable relations like that. I had real trouble with this woman, didn’t like the idea of women having to do that, for some reason. Some women do seem to want that, but maybe because of the way I am, my characters have to be related to me, otherwise it’s not interesting. But this character I couldn’t get close to, didn’t want to and didn’t like her, probably the only one of all I’ve played. “You don’t have to like your character, and if you say I was good, probably it’s almost because of that. I wasn’t rejecting her, I don’t know what it was, but that kind of tension can often bring other things to life.” About “Basic Instinct 2,” Rampling said, “I do little bits and pieces of commercial work when they come up and are amusing. I thought this was going to be a really fun film, but it didn’t turn out that way because I thought [Sharon Stone] didn’t seem to enjoy playing it, as I thought she would. Maybe there was too much pressure on her, and I think she got scared.” Asked about her role in director Todd Solondz’s 2009 “Life During Wartime,” she replied, “You’re absolutely right when you say that was like me doing a take-off on myself. I had problems getting there and doing it, but I said. ‘I’ve got to play this woman,’ while everyone said, ‘But why? She’s appalling!’ So tragic, but fantastic. It was almost too much, she couldn’t go any further [claps delightedly], and that horrible long hair! “Todd asked, ‘Do you mind having long hair?,’ and they chucked it on me, and I thought, ‘Oh, God.’ Hilarious! She’s so deadpan — you could actually mimic that scene, which they’ve probably done already on the Internet.” elissa Errico’s new CD “The Legrand Affair” (Ghostlight Recor ds) is a spectacularly lush tribute to composer Michel Legrand, the

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IN THE NOH, continued on p.40

| November 9, 2011

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38 䉴

ESPA, from p.28

the governor appeared last month at a New York T imes panel about the gay marriage law, he was joined by a Republican state senator as well as City Council Speaker Christine, but neither of the two Democratic legislative sponsors of the measure. Quinn was also at his side at the Pride Agenda dinner, giving the introduction. Cuomo opened his remarks by saying, “First, to Speaker Quinn, I figured out right away the strategy for success was just do whatever Christine told me to do. Chris is really extraordinary... She’s not just a great person, she’s a great leader, and the best is yet to be for Christine Quinn.” The speaker had already offered exceptional praise for the governor. “You know, there aren’t a lot of things in life that you can actually say, if it wasn’t for one particular person, it wouldn’t have happened. Very few things are kind of that black and white. And look, a lot went into marriage, everyone in this room deserves a huge amount of credit… But then one particular person elected made all the difference in the world… Rarely do you see somebody like Governor Cuomo who comes into office and says, ‘Don’t wait, we’re going to do it in the first year.’” David Boies opened his remarks by acknowledging that the LGBT commu-

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

nity has won some remarkable legislative victories in the recent past, with gay marriage’s victory in New York and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which was signed by President Barack Obama late last year and took effect on September 20. He noted, however, the sobering reality that most gay people across the nation recognize — that there are many barriers to equality that “cannot change legislatively in a reasonable time frame.” Those hurdles are what make litigation in the courts so critical, Boies argued. “There is a reason there is a Constitution, and there’s a reason there’s a bill of rights.” In a lawsuit brought by two plaintiff California same-sex couples and funded by the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), Boies has worked on the Prop 8 challenge since 2009. With cocounsel Theodore Olson, against whom he represented Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case that settled that year’s election, Boies won a district court victory against the 2008 anti-gay voter initiative in August 2010. A potential appeal of that verdict by the right-wing advocates who initiated the Prop 8 referendum is currently being considered by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Boies encapsulated the key arguments he and Olson made on behalf of

AFER and the plaintiffs in three cardinal points — that a ban on marriage by same-sex couples hurts some Americans; that it helped no one; and that the nation’s courts view the right to marry as fundamental. In political campaigns and legislative fights, he said, opponents of gay marriage can obfuscate these issues, but “the witness stand is a lonely place to lie” — especially, he could have added, when those testifying for the other side are facing crossexamination from the likes of Boies and Olson. When AFER announced its intention to challenge Prop 8 in court in 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown chose not to defend the ballot measure. The referendum’s sponsors were given the right to intervene in its defense at the trial level. Their ability to defend Prop 8 in an appeal of AFER’s victory, however, poses a different set of legal questions, which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has not yet resolved. In September, the California Supreme Court heard arguments on an advisory question the federal appellate court had posed — whether the referendum’s sponsors have standing under state law to pursue such an appeal in the absence of the governor and attorney general participating. An advisory ruling from the California court is not bind-

ing on the Ninth Circuit but will likely be influential in its determination as to whether the appeal can go forward. Boies noted the likelihood that should an appeal of AFER’s 2010 victory not be allowed to move forward, gay marriage will resume in California but with no wider application of the equal protection and due process rights identified in District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling. “A Prop 8 win may apply only to California,” he told the Pride Agenda audience. Then signaling his commitment to keep at the cause of marriage equality, he added, “We may need to bring another lawsuit in another place.” ESPA’s dinner marked two decades since the state’s LGBT lobby first gathered for a fall gala in Manhattan. The Pride Agenda came into being in 1990, after the merger of the Albany-based New York State Gay and Lesbian Lobby and New York City’s Friends and Advocates for Individual Rights, or FAIRPAC. Masters of ceremony for the evening were out gay stage and screen actor and singer Alan Cumming and actor Laura Linney, who first came to wide notice as Mary Ann Singleton in the television adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City” and now stars as a woman living with cancer on Showtime’s “The Big C.”

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DANCE

The Preposterous Fact of Getting Old Elegy on aging from William Forsythe, who’s still here BY GUS SOLOMONS JR illiam Forsythe turned 60 in 2009. In celebration, perhaps, he created “I don’t believe in outer space,” which he calls “a series of preposterous takes on the theme of giving up.” It made its New York debut at BAM October 26-29. The 70-minute piece — equal parts performance art, theater, and dance — has elements of vaudeville, monolog, game play, and philosophy. However preposterous, the antics of this more lighthearted than usual Forsythe fare are captivating enough to make you watch, while coercing you to find your own interpretation. The curtain rises — ever so slowly — on the stage strewn with black wads that resemble cushy stones. Actually, they’re balls of mushed up tape that’s used to anchor dance floors and then usually discarded. A man lies amidst the litter with a fat mailing tube in his mouth, through which he occasionally mutters. Two men tussle, upstage center, and a slight, angular woman (Dana Caspersen, Forsythe’s wife) babbles stage directions and plays both characters in a zany, twoway conversation between a prim lady and her male guest, to whom she offers tea. Another man (Amancio González), lurking in the background, occasionally speaks in Spanish, at times carrying a placard-sized Jack of Spades and at other moments wearing a blindfold. As the other dancers invade the space,

䉴

IN THE NOH, from p.36

perfect, swooningly romantic thing to play over glasses of duPape with that special someone. The singing actress will celebrate its release with a performance at Joe’s Pub on November 19 (7 p.m., inside the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., btwn. E. Fourth St. and Astor Pl.; $25, plus a $12 table minimum, at joespub.com.). Errico, whose soprano has never sounded so brilliantly plangent, told me, “It was recorded with the Brussels Philharmonic, a 100-piece orchestra. I met Michel with my gay boyfriend, Malcolm Gets, when we did Legrand’s musical ‘Amour.’ Michel wrote all these orchestrations for me, but the album is really a duet with me and the genius ‘Windmills of His Mind.’ “We actually sing a duet on

JULIETA CERVANTES

With his 2009 “I don’t believe in outer space,” William Forsythe again demonstrates to audiences his wonderfully unexpected evolution.

they’re doing fragments of dance phrases and hurling the tape wads around like kids at recess. One woman keeps screaming every time she picks one up until she puts it down. Oafishly and unsuccessfully, a man tries to juggle them or stack them on his head, only to have them topple down around him. One of the men from the upstage duet, who is black, stuffs two of the wads into the back of his pants to look like distended buttocks — a joke on a racial stereotype, intended or not. At the left side of the otherwise blackdraped stage stands the remnant of a

it, ‘Once Upon a Summertime,’ which was his first hit as a teenager. Blossom Dearie heard it on radio in Paris and she called Johnny Mercer, who wrote the English lyrics. Legrand has no boundaries, mental or otherwise, and, here, sings a vocalise and manages to expose every part of this 100-piece orchestra. The CD was just full of this magical stuff.” Errico hasn’t been visible on Broadway for too long a time now. A shame, since she is that ultimate rarity, a musical leading lady whose exquisite looks match her voice — just try and think of one. “I just celebrated 40, with a husband [Patrick McEnroe] I’ve known since childhood and little daughters, a certain age when the rush of show business got to me,” she said. “I didn’t give up, but stopped feeling

wall that’s been split in two. People come and go through the gap, and, occasionally, bright lights glare and loud rock music blasts from the opening. A guy in a hoodie plays at ping-pong, holding both paddles, while his partner, with none, imitates the sound of the ball in play with vocal clicking. The “Secretary of Internet Affairs” in a black shroud sidles across the stage, speaking in a stern administrative twaddle about our technological age. Two women, facing each other, laugh loudly and advance toward the woman between them, who dances feverishly. An Asian

like everything had to be done today. I can’t compete with the rhythm of all that and all these new faces, and don’t have a big company behind me, pushing.” She has been busy, however, performing all over the place, like a concert version of “Camelot” with Jeremy Irons. “We inquired about film rights, and discovered they were presently owned by Maggie Gyllenhaal!,” she said. Most recently, Errico sang at the big Friends In Deed benefit — embellished by one of Stephen Sondheim’s famed treasure hunts — at the Museum of Natural History, “where I replaced an indisposed Bar bara Cook with two-and-ahalf-hours’ notice. I sang three Sondheim songs, did my alluring, smarty-pants Melissa elegance, and then told the audience the story of my day, with the kids, no baby sitter, hus-

woman does a kind of hip-hop rant, while behind her sits someone gesturing, with the picture of a woman’s head on a piece of fabric replacing her own. Caspersen declaims a series of existential possibilities punctuated by the phrase “as if by chance” as a randomly repeating motif, and the others riotously lip-sync her words. She converses once again with a houseguest, but this time “his” voice has turned evil. A lumpy, eyeless creature discourses on the question “What is the matter with matter?” Gradually, the pace slows and the stage grows sparse. There’s a poignant duet between an older and a younger man, which implies the diminishment of physical vigor — Forsythe’s elegy on his own fading corporeal prowess? The elder man (González) lip-syncs Caspersen’s inventory of things to be “no more.” It is a touching finish. But it’s hardly a credible one from the pioneering Forsythe, who keeps evolving in wonderfully unexpected ways. “Nobody ever participated in the big conversation by saying the same thing over and over again,” he has asserted. Forsythe’s collaborators deserve great credit for helping to realize so articulately his arcane vision. Thom Willems, who has long worked with him, wrote the music, and Niels Lanz did sound design. Dietrich Krüger provided the graphics, Dorothee Merg was the costume designer, theatrically effective lighting was created by Tanja Rühl and Ulf Naumann, and the dramaturge was Freya VassRhee.

band out of town. My brotherin-law is John McEnroe, who lives across the street from the Museum, and, rather than quickly change into my gown after my sound check in the public bathroom with guests coming in, I went to his place. “He’s in shorts, his kids are screaming, ‘What are you doing in the bathroom,’ and his rock star wife, Patty Smyth, tells me, ‘Your hair looks like shit.’ With Spanx, the dress, when I tore off the price tag, mercifully fit, and there’s Patty, doing my shoes, and John walks in, saying, ‘Whatever. Who the fuck is Barbara Cook?’” Errico’s career has gone through some lows, since the indifferently received show “High Society” (1998), and she admitted, “I’m an Aries, but one who tempers herself and makes sure no one gets hurt. I’ll never

stand on somebody’s back to get ahead, and I can tell you stories where I’ve been given those opportunities and I do pat myself on the back. I may not have gotten certain big roles but I know I acted honorably, because it meant betraying a friend or somebody wanted me and not my co-star for a Broadway transfer.” Errico took the “High Society” failure very hard, and, when it ended — after Errico’s husband called her agent, Sam Cohn, telling him, “We have to close this show for her safety,” which she admitted to me for the first time — she went to Los Angeles: “I cut my hair, wanting to look like Isabella Rossellini, which was how I dealt with my sadness, and the first person who cast me was Kelsey Grammer

䉴

IN THE NOH, continued on p.41

| November 9, 2011

ä&#x2030;´

IN THE NOH, from p.40

for his TV series â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Neurotic Tendencies.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; It was about an NYU student who hails a cab at the same time as this older man and they get in together and fall in love. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That was how he met his [now divorced] wife, Camille, who was co-producer on that show, which turned out to be the marriage from Hellâ&#x20AC;Ś They were obsessed with me, but the second day of work I got fired. They said my charm wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t translating from the audition and recast me, but I heard that nobody could have made it funny.â&#x20AC;? Errico has not had the same rotten luck with everyone. Sarah Jessica Parker adored her Irish Rep production of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Finianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rainbow,â&#x20AC;? wanted her child to grow up hearing its music, and, when told that making the CD would be beyond the showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s budget, promptly wrote a sizeable check to cover the difference. Alec Baldwin has been another big supporter: â&#x20AC;&#x153;He always said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I woulda dated you in a minute, blah blah, but I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t remember him ever asking. Years ago, I had a big love affair with my director of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;My Fair Lady,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Howard Davies, who was 27 years older than me, and I love him dearly, but Alec said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We all wanted to kill Howard!â&#x20AC;&#x2122; I think I have to remind Alec that there was also somebody around at the time for him named Kim. [Laughs.] â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I did that Hollywood exile, I

asked him if I should get a big manager and he said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The stupider, the better, and if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going there, be prepared to tile your bathroom and then retile it. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re gonna be so bored.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Last March, the Roundabout had a tribute for him and I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen him in eight years, but he picked me to be one of six divas â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Bernadette Peters, Jane Krakowski, etc. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to sing for him. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I recreated my â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;One Touch of Venusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and sang â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Himâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; directly to him, like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Happy Birthday, Mr. President.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; I was testing my post-Mommy inner diva, and it was alive that lovely night. My agent emailed me to say how well I did, which was good as Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m always afraid theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re gonna fire me for not making them more money. Alec grabbed me and said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;You know how good you are? When you sing, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no one in the room!â&#x20AC;&#x2122; I got a little sad afterwards â&#x20AC;&#x201D; part of me doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what to do with that. Like what? â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Great Alec, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s go get meâ&#x20AC;Ś!â&#x20AC;&#x2122; That doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t jazz me and makes me feel like hiding in a box. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But, last summer, he asked me to do this play with him at Guild Hall in Easthampton, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Gift of the Gorgon,â&#x20AC;? by Peter Shaffer, a really tough, wild role unlike anything Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever done, and that was glorious.â&#x20AC;? Contact David Noh at Inthenoh@aol. com and check out his new blog at http:// nohway.wordpress.com.

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week after the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center allowed a group that opposes Israeli government policies toward Palestinians to rent space for three meetings there, the Center abruptly pulled that approval on and announced an â&#x20AC;&#x153;indefinite June 2 moratoriumâ&#x20AC;? on renting to groups that â&#x20AC;&#x153;organize around the Israeli-Palestinia n conflict.â&#x20AC;? In a statement posted on its website, the Center wrote that it â&#x20AC;&#x153;has been to divert significant resources forced primary purpose of providing from its programming and services to instead navigating between opposing positions involving the Middle East conflict.â&#x20AC;? On May 25, the Center allowed the now banned group, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, to rent space, and QAIA met at the West 13th Street building for the first time on May 26. The Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s June 2 statement said that QAIA â&#x20AC;&#x153;conformed to the Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s application guidelines and signed its non-discrimi-

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BY PAUL SCHINDLER who , an attorney aula Ettelbrick uncompr omisingly brought an e to policy and feminist perspectiv in leadership advocacy organisocial justice a dozen top LGBT October roles at half of on the morning zations, died past year. cancer for the earlier. 7, after battling days five 56 just by her She had turned who is survived NBC Ettelbrick â&#x20AC;&#x201C;â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Haggerty, an partner Marianne children, Adam, 14, two producer, and her earlier born during and Julia, 12, attorney with civil rights diagrelationship â&#x20AC;&#x201C;â&#x20AC;&#x201C; was first Suzanne Goldberg l cancer in 2010 nosed with peritonea her life at final weeks of of hosand spent the n with the aid home in Manhatta and friends. family pice care and by her brother, She is also survivedher sister, Linda Jr., Robert Ettelbrick Jean Root, and two aunt, Anderes, her

7 6 Days To Go X June 20 Deadline on Marriage Equality State Senate in sessio n only six more days before adjournment

BY PAUL SCHINDLER That is all for the good, since the gay organized and lesbian community and focused, and not ith six days to go in the going off is going to need on State tangents.â&#x20AC;? Senate legislative calendar every bit of unity, determination, savvy, That individual hastened to add there before the June 20 scheduled and perhaps a measure of luck if the job is â&#x20AC;&#x153;a full-court press is to get done. adjournment, leading coming out of the New York marhighest levels on the With 32 votes needed riage advocates and their second floor,â&#x20AC;? the for passage in location ace-in-the-hole the of the governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s executive Senate, where Republicans Albany ally, Andrew Cuomo, offichold a es in the State are push- narrow 32-30 Capitol. ing forward with what majority, the tally of pubeveryone Echoing what other insists is an unprecedented involved lic supporters of the bill stands advocates have at ly unified been saying for months, A source with direct knowledge26. front â&#x20AC;&#x201C;â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one they say has Mark Solomon, of the Freedom to Marryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s held firm since effort being waged from Cuomoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the earliest days of the national campaign new governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s said office director, last week told Gay City News, the feeling there is that administration. â&#x20AC;&#x153;the path to successâ&#x20AC;? involves everybody â&#x20AC;&#x153;staying MARRIAGE

a nephews. career that spanned In an advocacy Ettelbrick worked attorquarter of a century, first as a staff at Lambda Legal,

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were a Foley Square The people filling a sense of energy â&#x20AC;&#x153;Arab announc ed mix. There was in a youthful spirit, a massive bannerSummer, American colorful ed. enthusiasm and ages represent on sev- and Spring, European BY MICHAEL LUONGO of the divergent chilgrassroots uprisings of people spite were even parents with small as to Fall,â&#x20AC;? tying ts on the part still be too big , There hands as well eral continen by economic he banks might who were holding against them and outraged statements were . In the dren, fail, but the protests not to notice. frustrated Many political social inequities prominent too big trig- signs. political, and have become crowd, but most outpourings waved by the evidence on Octo- Arab world, the pop r wealthy one in the many was in that n , which That much y, when declaratio â&#x20AC;&#x201D; warm Wednesda filled gered violent repression. While there has was the the 99 percent have robbed ber 5, a bright, ers. ineffective demonstrators the percent cases proved young, and homeown out protestors by the several thousand by Lower ed against s turned violence surround notably workers, Foley Square, and state been Department, majority of protestor there was a along The massive federal though New York Police Manhattanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and body slams way in everyday attire, was a march Their purpose of lefty Che Guevarait in no of pepper spraying courthouses. the private patch lly with hundreds of arrests,used in coun- decent sprinkling to Zuccotti Park, outfits. deadly force public that symbolica s have worthy parallels the P. 3 land open to the Wall Street where thousand WALL STREET Zero with the tries like Syria, links Ground killed. Financial District. fountain, been central On Foley Squareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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14 DAYS 14 NIGHTS 䉴

NOV. 13, from p.21

Douglas and was winner of the Best Feature Film Award at the Connecticut International Film Festival. Chillfest, Jersey City’s queer film series, screens “The Green” on Nov. 13, 4:15 p.m. at LITM Bar & Restaurant, 140 Newark Ave., half a block from the Grove Street PATH station. Admission is $10. LITM has a full restaurant and bar menu.

PERFORMANCE James Franco Searches for Tennessee Williams Actor James Franco and video artist and photographer Laurel Nakadate present “Three Performances in Search of Tennessee,” a three-part project involving a séance and karaoke-style auditions loosely based on Tennessee Williams’ famous 1944 play “The Glass Menagerie.” In part one, Nakadate and Franco lead a séance with an invited group of guests to communicate with Tennessee Williams through a Ouija board. The group will pass his message on to the audience members, who will follow the spirit’s instructions. In part two, female actresses will audition for the part of Laura in “The Glass Menagerie,” with the lines running along the bottom of a life-size video-projection of Franco playing the “Gentleman Caller.” In part three, male actors will audition for the role of Tom, all delivering the same monologue from the play. During the auditions, Nakadate and Franco intervene mid-scene as directors as the actors attempt to inhabit the roles. The afternoon is part of the Performa 11 visual art performance biennial presented at Abrons Art Center and streamed live on Paddle8.com. 466 Grand St. at Pitt St. Nov. 13, noon-2 p.m. Tickets are $30; $24 for students & seniors at support.henrystreet.org.

Gilbert & Sullivan Duke It Out The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players continues its season with a single performance of “The Grand Duke,” also known as “The Statutory Duel,” which involves a tangled plot in which an acting troupe engages in a conspiracy to overthrow the miserly and mean-spirited grand duke of a small German duchy. Albert Bergeret is NYGASP’s artistic and musical director. Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2535 Broadway at 95th St. Nov. 13, 5 p.m. Tickets are $67-$87, with an $8 discount for seniors and half-price for children under 13, at nygasp. org or 212-864-5400. Discounted series tickets are available at 212-769-1000. NYGASP presents “The Pirates of Penzance” on Dec. 28, 3 p.m., Dec. 29, 7 p.m., Dec. 30-31, 8 p.m., Dec. 31-Jan. 1, 3 p.m.; “Patience” on Mar. 11, 5 p.m.; and “Iolanthe” on May 19, 3 & 8 p.m., May 20, 3 p.m.

COMEDY Hilarious Helen Hong Host Brad Loekle welcomes hot and hilarious ladies to warm up a chilly autumn evening at his weekly “Electroshock Therapy Comedy Hour.” Helen Hong headlines a show that also includes Jessie Geller and Adrienne Iapalucci. Therapy Bar, 348 W. 52nd St. Nov. 13, 10 p.m. No cover charge, and $7 cosmos all night long.

TUE.NOV.15

GALLERY Jonathan David Katz in the Village, “Hide/ Seek” in Brooklyn

Historian Jonathan David Katz discusses “Hide/ Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” which he co-curated, and the controversy over the censoring of that exhibit last December at the National Portrait Galley in Washington. A groundbreaking exhibit in presenting gay and lesbian portraiture in historical art and culture, the show includes works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Andrew Wyeth, Thomas Eakins, Romaine Brooks, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Catherine Opie, and Robert Mapplethorpe. After just the first rumblings of protest, the National Portrait Gallery removed a video from the late David Wojnarowicz, “A Fire in My Belly.” Attend Katz’s talk at the LGBT Community Center to find out why. 208 W. 13th St. Nov. 15, 7 p.m. Suggested donation is $10. The Brooklyn Museum, which showed backbone more than a decade ago in facing down the censorious instincts of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, opens Hide/ Seek on November 18 for a run through Jan. 12. 200 Eastern Parkway at Washington Ave., near Grand Army Plaza. Wed., Fri-Sun., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thu. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Admission is $12; $8 for students & seniors.

CABARET No Lady Here. ¡Ninguna! The raunchy, demented drag diva of Wigstock fame, Lady Bunny presents her first full-length one woman show in almost a decade. Fast-paced and actionpacked with glitzy costumes and Bunny’s trademark gravity-defying bouffant wig, “That Ain’t No Lady,” is a cabaret designed for a nightclub crowd — no lengthy monologues or sappy show tunes here. For mature audiences who enjoy irreverent humor! La Nueva Escuelita, 301 W. 39th St. Every Tue. through Nov., 8 p.m. Admission is — oddly — $14.98 at tinyurl. com/3jzfrk9. The show is followed by an hour of twofor-one drinks.

Velma & Lilith at Feinstein’s

DANCE Jasperse’s “Canyon”

Double-Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth (as Velma in “Chicago” and Nickie in “Sweet Charity”), who also snagged two Emmys and lots of laughs as Lilith on “Cheers” and “Frasier” and an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in “Dash and Lily,” takes to the cabaret stage at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency. Her new show includes songs by Stephen Sondheim, Edith Piaf, Tom Waits, Irving Berlin, and Kander & Ebb. Musical director Scott Cady joins her on piano. 540 Park Ave. at 61st St. Tue.-Thu., 8:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 8 & 10 p.m., Nov. 15-26. The cover charge ranges from $60-$95, with a $40 food & drink minimum. For reservations, visit feinsteinsatloewsregency.com or call 212-339-4095.

Choreographer John Jasperse returns to the Next Wave Festival with the New York premiere of his latest work, “Canyon,” an evening-length piece featuring the live performance of an original score by Hahn Rowe, and created in collaboration with performers Lindsay Clark, Erin Cornell, Kennis Hawkins, Burr Johnson, and James McGinn. Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St. at Ashland Pl. Nov. 16-19, 7:30 p.m. Tickets begin at $20 at bam.org. On Nov. 17, Mary-Jane Rubenstein, author of “Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe,” hosts a post-show talk with Jasperse and his collaborators.

BENEFIT Fashion for Action

WED.NOV.16

FAMILY Tackling Parenting Challenges External & Inside

LGBTQ parents experience much more than their fair share of parental anxiety — not only due to prejudice from society about their visibility but also because that prejudice strikes unconscious chords of agreement in so many in our community. A big part of that agreement is acceptance of the idea of essential gender — that women and men are fundamentally different from one another. David Schwartz, Ph.D. — a psychoanalyst in private practice who serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health and of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society — leads a workshop designed to explore and help with some of the anxieties that Q parents experience negotiating the world of gender. Schwartz will underline the myths of gender, the problems that people have encountered because of them, and offer a way of thinking about gender that may help. The Institute for Human Identity, 322 Eight Ave. at 26th St., Suite 802. Nov. 16, 7 p.m. The workshop is free, but you must register at ihicenter@juno.com or 212243-2830.

ACTIVISM Support an AIDS Memorial Park The Queer History Alliance, led by Paul Kelterborn and Christopher Tepper, is advocating for an AIDS Memorial Park and Teaching Center as part of the redevelopment of the site currently occupied by the now-bankrupt St. Vincent’s Hospital. St. Vincent’s housed one of the largest and most important AIDS wards and is often referred to as the “ground zero” of the epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s. Its redevelopment offers a unique opportunity to memorialize the more than 100,000 New Yorkers who died of AIDS, and to honor the many caregivers and activists who helped change the trajectory of the epidemic. The Alliance presents their proposal to Community Board 2 tonight. Be on hand to show your support. Little Red School House, 196 Bleecker St. at Sixth Ave., auditorium. Nov. 16, 6:30 p.m. For more details, visit queerhistoryalliace.org.

Designers Thom Browne and Rachel Roy are joined by actor Patricia Clarkson in chairing Housing Works’ annual Fashion for Action benefit, where guests can shop 150 brands and participate in a silent auction while enjoying cocktails and hors d’eouvres at the opening night reception. Tickets are $150 at housingworks.org. Altman Building, 135 W. 18th St. Nov. 16, 6 p.m. A free public designer sale continues Nov. 17-19, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. All funds raised will benefit Housing Works’ efforts to fight AIDS and homelessness among those living with the virus.

NIGHTLIFE Comic Book Heroes Will Clark’s P*rno Bingo kicks off the holiday season a nice big package — courtesy of XXX stud Antonio Biaggi. Comic book creator Ivan Velez, Jr., is also on hand to discuss his book “Tales from the Closet” and also how comic books can play an important role in helping at-risk youth. The evening benefits the Bronx Community Pride Center, which provides critical social services, cultural sensitivity trainings, community education, and a gathering place for all LGBTQ residents of the Bronx and northern Manhattan. DJ Chris Padilla spins. Pieces, 8 Christopher St. near Sixth Ave. Nov. 16, 8-10 p.m.

THU.NOV.17

MUSIC A Queer Canon

In an encore performance, the New York Festival of Song presents “Manning The Canon: Songs of Gay Life,” which artistic director Steven Blier explains “explores two centuries of gay composers and gaythemed songs, and presents a wide variety of characters: experienced guys on the prowl for a good time; sensitive men grappling with their sexuality; hypermales and drag queens; ecstatic lovers, and those just awakening to their erotic nature. The composers come from seven countries and span 190 years, but they have one thing in common: they are all masters of words and music, and present a vital and engaging portrait of our gay heritage.” The performance includes music by Berg, Bernstein, Blitzstein, Bolcom,

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NOV. 17, continued on p.43

| November 9, 2011

14 DAYS 14 NIGHTS 䉴

CABARET Cheyenne is a Mad Man!

NOV. 17, from p.42

Britten, Coleman, de Blasio, de Falla, Griffes, Porter, Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Thalken, and Wallowitch. Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th St. Nov. 17, 8 p.m. Tickets are $40-$55; $15 for students and $25 in advance for “pot luck” seating at nyfos.org. A meet-the-artists wine reception follows the performance.

COMEDY Somomites Unite!

COMMUNITY Queering India

COMEDY Dirty Laundry

FRI.NOV.18

IN a night of naked, x-rated comedy by some of New York’s top (and bottom) gay comics, all the performers promise to be lewd, crude… and completely nude. Your temperature will heat up as soon as host Adam Sank, best known for his appearances on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” and Sirius-XM OutQ — not to mention his million-dollar kisser — takes the stage. Headlining will be Sank’s successor as host Therapy Bar’s “Electro Shock Comedy Hour,” and the line up also includes chocolate studhorse Chad Stringfellow and nubile newcomer Jason Barker. Comedy has never been so sexy. Playgirl Mansion, 30 Lexington Ave., btwn 23rd and 24th Sts., fifth fl. Nov. 18, 9 p.m.; doors open at 8:30. Tickets are $30, with a two-drink minimum, at tinyurl.com/cd9b9ll.

SAT.NOV.19

The Rubin Museum of Art and OUTmedia present “Out in the Himalayas,” a series exploring issues faced by LGBT people in the South Asian region and the diaspora. On Nov. 2, 7 p.m., author and cultural critic Camille Paglia discusses sexual identities in Bollywood film with Indian film specialist Priyadarshini Shanker. ($15) On Nov. 9, 7 p.m., “Unbounded Sensuality: The Letters of Amrita Sher-Gil” is a performance of the bisexual Indian artist’s letters by Rita Wolf (“My Beautiful Laundrette,” “Homebody Kabul”), with commentary by Dr. Judith Brown of Indiana University. ($15) On. Nov. 19, 3 p.m., Professor Ruth Vanita, author of “Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in India,” openly gay Indian-American comedian Vidur Kapur, and filmmaker Ishita Srivastava, director of “Desigirls!” hold a panel discussion on gender, sexuality, national identity, and their intersections. ($12) 150 W. 17th St. For more information, visit rmanyc.org or call 212-620-5000, ext. 344.

CHRISTIAN COULSON

“The Meeting*,” the monthly gathering of the International Order of Sodomites, is a gay romp through politics (sexual and otherwise), social news, music, comedy skits, and other important life-changing information. Justin Sayre and “The Meeting*” were nominated for a 2011 MAC Award for Best Male Comedy Performance. Singer Colleen McHugh, the 2011 Bistro Outstanding Entertainer Award winner, will be tonight’s special guest, and the evening’s theme honors the comedic legacy of “Absolutely Fabulous.” The Duplex, 61 Christopher St. at Seventh Ave. S. in Sheridan Sq. Nov. 17, 9:30 p.m. The cover chare is $10, and there’s a two-drink minimum. For reservations, visit theduplex.com.

Cheyenne Jackson, the out gay musical theater star who has appeared in “Finian’s Rainbow” and “Xanadu” on stage and also on “30 Rock,” “Glee,” and “Ugly Betty” on TV, takes audiences back to the “Mad Men” in a cool, swinging program that includes “Feeling Good,” “Luck Be a Lady,” “Angel Eyes,” and “Bésame Mucho,” with arrangements created by David Carbonara, the TV series’ official composer. Steven Reineke conducts the New York Pops in accompaniment. Carnegie Hall, 57th St. at Seventh Ave. Nov. 18, 8 p.m. Tickets are $37 to $10 at 212-247-7800 or carnegiehall.org.

SUN.NOV.20 COMEDY Bawdy, Brilliant Broads Brad Loekle hosts “The Electroshock Therapy Comedy Hour” with a line-up of hilarious ladies, including headliner Allison Castillo, Erika Wasser, and Rose Surnow. Therapy Bar, 348 W. 52nd St. Nov. 20, 10 p.m. There is no cover charge, and cosmos are $7 as long as you can see straight.

COMMUNITY Transgender Americans Who Ought Not Be Forgotten The LGBT Community Center honors Transgender Day of Remembrance — an occasion to commemorate those lost to the mindless violence directed folks who dare express their gender in ways unfamiliar or uncomfortable to mainstream culture — with an evening of candlelit prayer, inspirational speakers, community voices, snacks, educational information, and community resources. 208 W. 13th St. Nov. 18, 7-9:30 p.m. For more information about the evening, contact Cristina at cherrera@gaycenter.org or 646-556-9293.

FILM Trans-International Cinemarosa, Queens’ only queer film series, presents “Trans-Interna-

tional: Crossing the Gender Divide,” a program of work in which filmmakers challenge geographical boundaries in search of stories about transgender people, their lives, and their experiences. Sebastiano d’Ayala Valva’s “Angel” is the story of a former boxer from Ecuador who now works as a prostitute in Paris. Openly queer and living between genders, Angel faces frequent harassment, which he gracefully defuses and transforms into acceptance. Angel’s riveting story explores the intersections between migration, poverty, perseverance, sexuality and gender. Kathy Huang’s “Tales of the Waria” explores a community of transwomen called the “Waria” — Wanita (Woman) plus Pria (Man) — long been an accepted part of the cultural fabric in the Makassar region of Indonesia. Because physical transition is frowned upon in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, however, these women are forced to walk between worlds — which they do with their heads held high. The Queens Museum of Art, Flushing Meadows Corona Park (#7 train to Willets Point/ Citi Field; walk across the park toward the Unisphere. Nov. 20, 3-5 p.m. A $5 donation is suggested.

WED.NOV.23

NIGHTLIFE Only New Year’s Eve is Bigger

On the second busiest night of the clubland year, DN presents “Garden of Earthly Delights,” an evening bumped up a notch with totally naked go go boys, complimentary Jungle Juice and Vodka shots, and a live porn star show at 1 a.m. Clothing is optional at this fun-packed night. Playgirl Mansion, 30 Lexington Ave., btwn. 23rd & 24th Sts. Nov. 23, 10 p.m.-4 a.m. Tickets are $30 at tinyurl.com/7nbctex; $40 at the door.

FRI.NOV.25

CABARET Bad & Blue Baby Jane

“Still Bad, Still Blue” is Baby Jane Dexter’s a powerful, inspiring, and light-hearted potpourri of unique songs and arrangements to which she offers her haunting spin. The show features an eclectic roster of songs from Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields, Abbey Lincoln, Clyde Otis, Bessie Smith, Irma Thomas, Stephen Sondheim, and many more. Metropolitan Room, 34 W. 22 St. Nov. 25-26, Dec. 3, 7 p.m.; Dec. 9, 16, 23, 9:30 p.m. The cover charge is $245, with a two-drink minimum. For reservations, call 212-206-0440.

November 9, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

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