Gay City News, Decembe 21, 2011 by Schneps Media

DEC 21, 2011-JAN 3, 2012 VOLUME TEN, ISSUE 26 FREE

One-Two Global Rights Punch Page 6 Syringe-Ex Ban Back Page 4 Belgian Gay Socialist Savior? Page 9 Pariah No More Page 20

“Hide/ Seek” brings gay all together in Brooklyn

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December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

| December 21, 2011

Our Show, Our Selves Brooklyn Museum’s “Hide/ Seek” brings gay all together in a total queer revelation 18

HOLIDAY ALE Farmer Jon Founder

Illustration by Vince Joy Kelly Taylor Brewmaster

To Parma, Via Lower Manhattan Disabled vet, Italian husband, for now, bid farewell to Salt Lake City 16

The Stakes in 2012 The US mood sour, but complacency or glib cynicism no answer 12

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December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

HEALTH

Congress Restores Needle Exchange Ban House Republicans score another victory against science BY NATHAN RILEY n its vote last week to keep the government from shutting down, Congress barred the appropriation of federal funds to support syringe exchange programs, reinstating an earlier ban that was repealed in 2009. That year, legislation sponsored by Congressman José E. Serrano, a Bronx Democrat, ended a ban on federal funding that had been supported by the previous several administrations, Republican and Democratic, dating back two decades. Serrano called the restoration of funding restrictions “a large setback on our goal of allowing life-saving syringe exchange programs to operate freely.” New York City’s experience with needle exchange demonstrates the efficacy of such efforts in reducing HIV infections. By the early 1990s, injection-drug users (IDUs) were estimated to be among the leading demographics in the city at risk for HIV infection. In 1992, the state legalized syringe exchanges, and in the years since there have been dramatic reductions in the infection rate within that community. According to the Harm Reduction Coalition, which advocates on behalf of clean needle availability, between 1990 and 2001, the rate of HIV prevalence among city IDUs declined from 54 percent to 13 percent. This drop demonstrates the starkly higher mortality faced by infected IDUs, but also shows that new infections were declining. In 2002, 49,699 or 40 percent of the HIV/ AIDS cases reported by the state department of health were tied to injecting drugs. By 2008, the total number of IDU infections had declined to 17,629. The city health department said that of 1,787 new diagnoses of HIV/ AIDS in New York, only 77, or 4.3 percent, were drug injectors. Testing showed that roughly 71 percent of those infections had occurred within the previous three months. (Unfortunately, more than 20 percent of the positive results were discovered concurrently with an AIDS diagnosis, meaning that those individuals

NEWS BRIEFS UN Issues FirstEver Report on LGBT Rights In a move unprecedented in the 66 years since the United Nations was founded, the world body issued a human rights report on the conditions facing LGBT people around the globe.

NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE

City health department data shows the trend of new HIV infections, by risk category, for men who have sex with men (MSM), heterosexuals, injection drug users (IDU), and those whose risk is unknown.

had unknowingly lived for years with a contagious infection.) In response to questions from Gay City News, city health officials said that in the past year, $1 million in tax levies were appropriated for needle exchange and that no federal dollars were spent. The state health department responded that its appropriations from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had, in the past two years, given it flexibility to apply funds toward clean syringes. It was too soon, officials said, to know if the renewed ban would hinder existing programs. Advocates for clean needles nationwide are similarly unable to say precisely what impact the cutoff in funding will have in other localities.

The return of the syringe funding ban is the latest in a serious of victories that conservative Republicans who control the House have had in turning back advances in social and health policy made during the first two years of the Obama administration. Serrano noted that Democrats were successful in blocking a similar renewal of the expired ban on the District of Columbia using its tax levies to fund syringe exchanges. Conservatives have also gotten nowhere on their hope of forcing the District to put its marriage equality law up to a voter referendum. The long hand of the Tea Party succeeded, however, in re-imposing a ban on District-financed abortions for lower

income women. In a written statement to allies on the syringe exchange issue, Serrano said, “We were only able to achieve these longoverdue policy changes because of the years of advocacy, education, organizing, and hard work that you all carried out… Like you, I feel frustrated at moving backwards. But also like you, I know that we have the power of facts, science, and experience on our side in this debate. We will have to begin to re-engage and re-start our push to educate those who don’t understand the lifesaving power of syringe exchange programs.” David Borden, a drug reform blogger, wrote, “Don’t give up and don’t think that it’s over. The ban got repealed once, and it will get repealed again.”

By PAUL SCHINDLER

In a release accompanying the December 15 report, the UN News Centre wrote, “Homophobic and transphobic violence has been recorded in every region of the world, the report finds, and ranges from murder, kidnappings, assaults, and rapes to psychological threats and arbitrary depriva-

tions of liberty.” The report came out just a week after President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a sweeping new focus on global LGBT rights as part of the administration’s foreign diplomacy efforts. The report, issued in Geneva

by the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), was a response to a June resolution from the world body’s 47-nation Human Rights Council that, for the first time, put the UN on record condemning discrimination and violence against LGBT people. The Council,

which approved the resolution on a 23-19 vote, with significant opposition from some African and Islamic countries, directed the OHCHR to carry out the global investigation. In the report, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner, called on nations to end criminal penalties

for homosexual behavior — most urgently, the use of the death penalty in some countries — make age of consent laws consistent regardless of orientation, and enact comprehensive anti-discrimination protections.

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NEWS BRIEFS, continued on p.10

| December 21, 2011

CRIME

After Five Days, Davawn Robinson Jury Still Deadlocked Second-degree murder in Edgard Mercado killing still on table BY DUNCAN OSBORNE ate in their fifth day of deliberations, a Manhattan jury once again told Judge Daniel P. FitzGerald they were deadlocked in their deliberations over second-degree murder charges against Davawn Robinson in the 2009 strangling death of Edgard Mercado, a 39-year-old gay man. After spending time on December 20 listening to read-back from Robinson’s trial testimony, the jury resumed deliberations for about 45 minutes late in the afternoon, only to return to the courtroom to inform FitzGerald that they could not come to a unanimous verdict on the highest of three charges against the defendant. As the judge told them to resume their deliberations, at least three jurors — two women and a man — began to weep. Jurors started deliberations on December 14, and by the following afternoon first signaled they had a problem. “Clarification on what to do next,” they told the judge in a note. “The jury

Edgard Mercado was killed in his East Village apartment in 2009.

Robinson’s two Legal Aid Society attorneys, told FitzGerald that the jury’s continued deadlock was forcing an “Allen charge,” a last ditch effort by a judge to press the jury for a verdict by asking those in the minority to consider why the majority of their peers did not reach the same conclusion. Apparently unwilling to signal that he was at the end of his efforts to secure a verdict, the judge said he would issue a “modified” Allen charge. The jury returned to the courtroom one last time before the end of the day to inquire what the holiday schedule would be. The prosecution’s case relied almost entirely on the testimony of Dr. Rachel A. Lange, the forensic pathologist in the city medical examiner’s office, who said that Mercado’s injuries showed he had been in a fight. “All these injuries are indicative of somebody struggling to get away from a ligature,” Lange said during December 8 testimony. Autopsy photos that were put into evidence showed large,

is deadlocked on murder-two.” FitzGerald responded that they were very early in their deliberations and could not declare themselves to be deadlocked. Their deliberations continued on December 16, 19, and 20, and will resume on December 21, after the newspaper went to press. The jury weighed second-degree murder, which has a maximum sentence of 25-years-to-life, second-degree manslaughter, which has a maximum sentence of 15 years, and criminally negligent homicide, which carries a maximum of four years. A defendant who is convicted of either of the two lesser charges would be eligible for release after serving six-sevenths of the sentence, but a second-degree murder conviction requires at least 25 years in jail. Jurors had to consider the charges in that order and could not move on to manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide without first finding Robinson not guilty of murder and then manslaughter. Before the jury returned to the courtroom after signaling their indecision on December 20, Annie Costanzo, one of

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MERCADO, continued on p.8

George Weber’s Murderer Gets Max John Katehis to spend 25 years to life in prison for ‘09 Brooklyn slay BY PAUL SCHINDLER fter a very brief statement in which he said he was “sorry” for killing George Weber and felt “regret” for the pain he caused the slain man’s family, John Katehis received the maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Convicted by a Brooklyn jury on November 15 of second-degree mur der, the 19-year-old Katehis opened his statement by saying, “As much as I’d like to, I can’t undo it.” After finishing his statement at the December 13 sentencing hearing, Katehis’ attorney, Jay Cohen, cited his client’s youth — he was 16 when he killed Weber — in asking the court for “compassion.” After that, Judge Neil J. Firetog, without any comment, handed down the maximum sentence, under which Katehis must serve at least 25 years, less the two-plus years spent in jail since his arrest, before being eligible for parole. For a moment after receiving his sentence, Katehis kept his head facing forward, but as he was about to be led from the courtroom, he turned back toward the gallery, where his father Spiro sat with several young women, and showed

MYSPACE.COM

John Katehis, in a picture posted on his MySpace page at the time of his 2009 arrest.

a grin. Weber, a 47-year-old journalist and gay man, met Katehis in March 2009, after the younger man placed an ad on Craigslist offering oral sex in return for money. The two men corresponded via email over several days, with Weber

seeking to be tied up and smothered, an act Katehis agreed to. The two met in Weber’s Carroll Gardens apartment after Katehis traveled there from his parents’ home in Queens. Katehis stabbed Weber a total of 50 times.

In her closing statement to the jury last month, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, said Katehis may have planned Weber’s murder and perhaps even tortured the victim before killing him. Though Katehis claimed Weber had given him cocaine and alcohol, which made him “jumpy,” blood tests administered within hours of the attack found no controlled substances or measurable amounts of alcohol, nor was any cocaine found in the victim’s apartment. Katehis said that after binding Weber’s feet with duct tape, the victim displayed a knife and he panicked. The two struggled over the knife, and Katehis said he accidentally stabbed Weber once in the throat. Katehis had a knife collection and was known to regularly carry knives. Katehis had not yet reached the legal age of consent, 17, when he killed Weber, and Cohen called the victim a “pedophile” repeatedly throughout the trial. Addressing the question of whether Katehis’ age was a mitigating factor, Nicolazzi, in her statement at the sentencing hearing, said the crime brought to light details of Weber’s life that were

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KATEHIS, continued on p.8

December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

HUMAN RIGHTS

Administration One-Two Punch for Global Rights Clinton BY PAUL SCHINDLER n a remarkable tandem show of support for global LGBT rights, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton marked International Human Rights Day with a comprehensive executive order to federal agencies engaged in foreign countries and a major address on the universal legitimacy of demands for equality and dignity. Clinton, in a December 6 speech to a United Nations audience in Geneva, offered a ringing endorsement of LGBT rights, acknowledged — to a degree — where the US has fallen short, challenged the notion that gay identity is a “Western phenomenon,” and warned that ignoring calls for equality involves social “costs” in terms of “disease and violence,” as well as “ideas never pursued by entrepreneurs who happen to be gay.” On the same day, the president issued an Executive Branch memorandum committing the administration to opening up the US to LGBT refugees and asylum seekers, using foreign assistance as a tool to promote human rights, and ensuring a “swift and meaningful US response to human rights abuses of LGBT persons abroad.” Despite reported State Department concerns that Clinton’s impassioned speech might lead to a walkout by representatives of Islamic and African nations with the most troubled LGBT rights records, that did not happen, even if applause was limited to others in her audience. Reaction to the speech and the Obama order was enthusiastic among US LGBT rights groups, though some cautioned that the US must proceed in a fashion that does not suggest it is trying to impose solutions on other nations. And, some activists are pointing to the December 6 initiatives to underscore the unfinished journey of the president himself on LGBT equality at home. The secretary of state’s appearance in Geneva was an unprecedented focus on LGBT rights in a global setting by a senior US official, with Clinton devoting the entirety of a nearly 3,200-word speech marking international human rights to issues facing the queer community. “Today, I want to talk about the work we have left to do to protect one group of people whose human rights are still denied in too many parts of the world today,” Clinton said at the outset of her address. “In many ways, they are an invisible minority. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed. Many are treated with contempt and violence by their fellow citizens, while authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse. They are denied opportunities to work and learn, driven from their homes and countries, and forced to suppress or deny who they are to protect themselves from harm. I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people — human beings born free and given bestowed equality and dignity — who have a right to claim that, which is now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time.” Clearly aware that many nations — both those resistant to LGBT equality demands and others at the forefront of granting full civil rights — might be wary of a lecture on this topic from the US, Clinton next conceded this nation’s performance has its own stark blemishes. “My own country’s record on human rights for gay people is far from perfect,” she said. “Until 2003, it was

still a crime in parts of our country. Many LGBT Americans have endured violence and harassment in their own lives, and for some, including many young people, bullying and exclusion are daily experiences.” Tying LGBT rights to the worldwide effort launched 60 years ago with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the secretary next confronted the day’s most contentious issue — the “question of whether homosexuality arises from a particular part of the world.” Here she took her opponents in the audience head on, with an argument that many on the Christianist right in the US take exception to. “Some seem to believe it is a Western phenomenon, and therefore people outside the West have grounds to reject it,” Clinton said. “Well, in reality, gay people are born into and belong to every society in the world… Being gay is not a Western invention; it is a human reality.” She then ticked off LGBT advances initiated by governments outside the most affluent Western countries, including South Africa, Colombia, Argentina, Nepal, Mongolia, and India. The secretary also challenged religious objections to homosexuality with a perspective she did not always embrace fully. In 2000, as a candidate for the US Senate, Clinton told this reporter that her objections to marriage equality were based in “historic, religious, and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time.” Yet in Geneva, she declared, “It bears noting that rarely are cultural and religious traditions and teachings actually in conflict with the protection of human rights. Indeed, our religion and our culture are sources of compassion and inspiration toward our fellow human beings. It was not only those who’ve justified slavery who leaned on religion, it was also those who sought to abolish it.” Clinton also framed LGBT rights in terms of the cost discrimination imposes on society. “Some worry,” she said, “that protecting the human rights of the LGBT community is a luxury that only wealthy nations can afford. But in fact, in all countries, there are costs to not protecting these rights, in both gay and straight lives lost to disease and violence, and the silencing of voices and views that would strengthen communities, in ideas never pursued by entrepreneurs who happen to be gay. Costs are incurred whenever any group is treated as lesser or the other.” Festus Mogae, the former president of Botswana, Clinton noted, said “that for as long as LGBT people are kept in the shadows, there cannot be an effective public health program to tackle HIV and AIDS.” She added, “Well, that holds true for other challenges as well.” Acknowledging that the issues she was raising “take a conversation,” the secretary argued, as well, “Progress comes from changes in laws.” Then, in a frank acknowledgement of the fractious nature of creating legal advances in the US, she said of the battle over ending the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, “The Marine Corps Commandant, who was one of the strongest voices against the repeal, says that his concerns were unfounded and that the Marines have embraced the change.” In Washington, Clinton’s speech was reinforced with a directive from the president spelling out his administration’s support for embracing immigrants seeking refuge from persecution and using foreign assistance and

US STATE DEPARTMENT

makes sweeping LGBT UN speech, Obama issues foreign policy order

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks with LGBT activists and supporters from the diplomatic corps on the day of her address to a UN gathering in Geneva.

diplomacy to promote human rights and respond, in a “swift and meaningful” way, to rights abuses around the world. The US record on asylum seekers, as this newspaper has chronicled, is mixed at best, with wide latitude given to individual Immigration Judges, who are Justice Department employees. Though applicants have recourse to a Board of Immigration Appeals and civilian appeals courts, most enter this legal labyrinth with inadequate legal counsel, and for many arrivals from brutally homophobic societies, the simple act of approaching government authorities as an out gay person is foreign. The Obama memo emphasized that Department of State, Justice, and Homeland Security staff will be trained to “effectively address the protection of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers,” a move that has the potential of improving the record of Immigration Judges in the system. The Obama focus on foreign assistance, including the appropriation of $3 million toward the establishment of a new Global Equality Fund to help “civil society organizations” on the ground in foreign nations, was the one element of the December 6 initiatives that spurred detailed critical discussion among US LGBT advocates. Jessica Stern, the acting executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) who previously served for years as an

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FOREIGN, continued on p.7

| December 21, 2011

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FOREIGN, from p.6

LGBT specialist at Human Rights Watch, argued that the administration’s efforts were “initially misinterpreted in online discussions and by the media.” The Obama memo, she noted in a written release, stated that “agencies involved with foreign aid… shall enhance their ongoing efforts to… build respect for the human rights of LGBT persons.” Stern added, “To be clear, there were no indications of tying aid to conditions or of cutting aid.” “If the US government were to limit bilateral assistance to homophobic countries, it would risk dividing LGBT rights from other human rights,” Stern told Gay City News. “The truth is that LGBT people, like straight people, need clean water and fair courts and so conditional aid would hurt everyone.” The administration’s initiatives, Stern said in her written release, “make clear that LGBT rights are not a mere afterthought but a carefully considered component of US foreign policy. Because of the distinct needs of LGBT people globally, such a nuanced approach is crucial.” In her follow-up to the newspaper, she said, “IGLHRC unequivocally welcomes these developments... The newly stated US policy is something LGBT human rights activists have called for for many years. Such a policy, however, if not enacted with sensitivity to the knowledge and needs of grassroots LGBT [non-governmental organizations] and activists could also create a serious backlash.” Most other advocacy groups were less detailed in their responses, but typically positive. Immigration Equality, which advocates on behalf of binational couples seeking to stay in the US, praised the Obama memo’s focus on asylum seekers. GLIFAA, a group for gays and lesbians working in foreign affairs agencies, welcomed the commitment Obama and Clinton voiced for integrating LGBT advocacy into the nation’s diplomatic efforts. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force declared, “History is being made,” and the Human Rights Campaign said,

“Secretary Clinton distinguished herself as a legendary champion of rights for all people.” In a written statement, Kate Clinton, the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said, “Hearing the United States secretary of state speak passionately about ending violence and discrimination against LGBT people throughout the world left me with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.” Still, the soaring rhetoric and bold promises from the Obama administration inevitably also reminded activists of the unfinished work at home, most prominently the president’s own halting “evolution” on the question of marriage equality. Three advocacy groups — GetEQUAL, Stop the Deportations, and Out4Immigration — called on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to exercise her discretion to grant temporary “humanitarian parole” to the foreign same-sex spouses and partners of American citizens. In recent months, Homeland Security initiated a process to “unclog” the 300,000-case backlog of deportation proceedings by weeding out those without criminal records or signs they pose a national security risk. Though that process has resulted in a handful of samesex partners and spouses having their deportation cases closed, the effort is grindingly slow, uneven, and for some coming too late. GetEQUAL also posted a YouTube video featuring Jesse, a New Yorker, and Max, an Argentine national, who have been together for more than a decade but are currently living in London because Max cannot get a green card to live here. “Secretary Clinton’s speech to the UN was incredible — and the Obama administration has an opportunity right now to give shape to those words by proving to the LGBT community that it values and supports our relationships,” said Robin McGehee, GetEQUAL’s director, in a written statement. “We’ve heard a lot of nice words from this administration — now it’s time to move beyond words to action, and to bring these couples home for the holidays.”

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December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

LEGAL

ExpressJet Anti-Gay Workplace Verdict Upheld Maine high court says gay supervisor denied promotions owed $500,000 BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD he Maine Supreme Judicial Court, that state’s highest bench, in a December 6 ruling, affirmed a half-million dollar damages award to Edward Russell, who persuaded a jury he suffered employment discrimination based on his sexual orientation, which is a violation of the state’s Human Rights Act. After four years with Continental Airlines, Russell joined ExpressJet as a supervisor in 2002, when that carrier began service in Portland. Russell was out on the job at both airlines, and ExpressJet’s initial general manager in Portland was also gay. In late 2003, Russell learned that three women had filed a discrimination complaint against the company, alleging that ExpressJet only hired gay men for management positions. Soon after that, the Portland general manager left, and Russell provisionally took on his duties with the help of another supervi-

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sor. According to testimony offered at the trial, Russell “essentially ran the station and did an excellent job.” However, on two occasions, the company’s regional director responded to Russell’s request to be officially named Portland general manager by saying it was “not going happen.” The second time, the regional director said the airline had just gotten out of “a boiling pot of water,” which Russell took to be a reference to the women’s complaint. Russell helped train the new general manager in Portland, who called Russell his “right hand man,” saying he did a “fantastic job.” A new regional director, however, told the Portland general manager he would be better off if he fired Russell. The general manager declined to do so, but when he left on medical leave, Russell filled in on that job for several stints. When he renewed his request to be named general manager, Russell was told there was an ExpressJet policy of not promoting station staff to the general manager position, although it was not in

MERCADO, from p.5

livid bruises that encircled Mercado’s neck, as well as scrapes and bruises on his cheek and jaw, above one eye, and behind one ear. While Leila Kermani, one of two assistant district attorneys prosecuting the case, said Robinson may have killed Mercado as part of a robbery and noted that Robinson stole Mercado’s lap top computer and cell phone, the prosecution never established definitively what motivated Robinson. The prosecution is not required to prove motive, but jurors can consider it, or its absence, in their deliberations. The prosecution charged that Robinson, who is 24 and also gay, intended to kill Mercado. The defense argued that Robinson never had the legally required intent to convict him of murder. The defendant first

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KATEHIS, from p.5

“to some disturbing. But that was his business... There was nothing showing he lured” Katehis to his Brooklyn home. Katehis, she continued, “sought that meeting out himself, whether he was 16 or had turned that corner to 17.” The maximum sentence was appropriate, the prosecutor argued, not only due to “the viciousness of the crime” — “There was nothing credible to show that Mr. Weber did anything to spur that,” she stated — but also because of “the type of person” Katehis is. The murder, she said, was either “something he planned” or else reflected “rage within him” that had nothing

writing. In late 2006, Russell tried to speak with the company’s human resources department about what he viewed as the unfair promotion practices, but received no response. Meanwhile, a new general manager in Portland told another employee in Russell’s presence that the operation needed to “clean house” and that “homosexuals” are “an abomination in God’s eyes.” After more unsuccessful attempts at promotions in Portland and elsewhere, Russell resigned in April 2007 and filed this discrimination claim. A jury found in Russell’s favor and awarded total damages of $1.047 million, which the trial judge reduced to the statutory limit of $500,000, and ExpressJet appealed. ExpressJet argued that Russell never formally applied for promotion and thus had never been formally rejected, but the court invoked the Supreme Court’s “futility exception” from 1977 that found despite an employee’s “unwillingness to engage in a futile gesture, he is as much

told police and prosecutors in written and videotaped statements that he acted in self-defense when he strangled Mercado in the older man’s Avenue C apartment. When Robinson testified, he said the death was an accident that occurred during an erotic asphyxiation session. Robinson told jurors that he and Mercado met at a West Village gay bar. The younger man said he purchased cocaine on Mercado’s behalf and they then traveled to Mercado’s East Village apartment where they used the cocaine and drank wine. At the apartment, Robinson said, Mercado showed him how to use the rope, which was part of a uniform the older man wore in a Brazilian dance class. Police found no sex toys, pornography, or bondage equipment in Mercado’s apartment. Robinson stood behind Mercado, he said, holding the rope that was

to do with Weber. Picking up on a point Weber’s brother-in-law, Jason Hannas, made in a victim’s impact statement, Nicolazzi said that if he had not murdered Weber, Katehis would likely have killed someone else. “We can’t count on him ever being another type of person,” the prosecutor said. Cohen, in pleading for a sentence less than the maximum for his client, did not repeat any of the attacks he made on the victim’s character during the trial, but instead faulted Craigslist, which he said facilitated the two men’s meeting. After the hearing, he said, “They get out of this unscathed. I mean, I’m not trying to minimize this kid’s responsi-

a victim of discrimination as is he who goes through the motions of submitting an application.” Justice Andrew Mead noted that in the absence of “widespread or pervasive discrimination by an employer,” the futility exception is “a narrow one,” but found in Russell’s case the evidence was clear. “The record contains sufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding that the statements and actions of ExpressJet’s management made it futile for Russell to apply for the general manager position,” he wrote. The high court also rejected ExpressJet’s argument that the jury’s verdict, which included emotional distress damages, was excessive, pointing out that the record contained evidence Russell sought treatment for “stress, anxiety, and depression,” and that “his symptoms persisted when he returned to work and he had to stop seeking treatment because it was difficult for him to afford therapy and medication.” The ruling on appeal was a clean sweep for Russell.

wrapped around Mercado’s neck and hands. At one point, he dropped the rope. “When I let go, he slumped over to the side,” Robinson said during his December 12 testimony. “At first, I was thinking he must be really messed up... I turned him over and I seen his face and I realized he was dead.” In what he said was a panic, Robinson called 911 and spent 22 minutes telling the operator that he had killed a man in self-defense and was afraid that another man was coming to the apartment to kill him. He used the names Ted and Tony to identify that second man in various statements. “I just made up a self-defense story,” Robinson told the jury. “I just was lying. I’m just throwing everything out there.” — Additional reporting by Troy Masters

bility, but if Craigslist didn’t exist, they wouldn’t have met this way.” Spiro Katehis, who after the verdict had said, “The way Nicolazzi was putting it, she was making it like he was a murderer,” left the courtroom after his son was sentenced with his faced smeared with tears and declining comment. Nicolazzi read a short letter from Weber’s parents, in which they addressed their son’s killer by his first name, saying, “John, we believe you should get the maximum sentence of life in prison for your brutal crime.” Hannas spoke of watching his fatherin-law, who had lost one son in childhood, at Weber’s burial, walking “a path he never thought he’d have to take

again.” Hannas said that the four children he and Weber’s sister, Karen, are raising keep asking, “Why did that man kill Uncle George,” and added, “John, only you can answer that.” Recalling that Katehis’ first trial, in 2010, ended in a hung jury, with 11 jurors voting to convict him and one holding out for acquittal, Hannas said of the guilty verdict at the second trial, “My first thought was thankfulness, that this jury got it right. But I had no feeling of victory. There are no winners here. Everybody loses.” Ending his statement in sorrow rather than anger, Hannas said, “I have no hatred… I am one who has been forgiven much, so I forgive you.”

| December 21, 2011

INTERNATIONAL

Can a Gay Socialist Save Belgium? Elio Di Rupo tapped for herculean task of healing Flemish-Walloon rift BY DOUG IRELAND hen Elio Di Rupo was named Belgium’s prime minister on December 5, it was an historic first because he became the first openly gay head of government in a European Union nation. The fact that Di Rupo — invited to become prime minister by King Albert II — was able to form a government at all was remarkable given the unprecedented 18-month crisis that had left the constitutional monarchy without a government and the country on the verge of breaking up. This protracted face-off reflected just how deep the divisions are between Belgium’s Dutch-speaking Flemish majority of 60 percent, concentrated in the wealthier north of the country, and the French-speaking Walloons, far more economically disadvantaged, who control the kingdom’s southern portion. Di Rupo’s homosexuality — the 60-year-old politician first publically declared he was gay in 1996 — caused not a ripple in the Belgian media. “There was nothing, absolutely nothing, about Di Rupo’s homosexuality in the media here, although in other European countries this historic first was commented upon,” one of the most respected foreign correspondents in Belgium, Jean Quatremer, told Gay City News by telephone from Brussels. “Belgium is a Catholic country, but even the more conservative Flemish are fairly tolerant about people’s private lives, and Di Rupo’s been out of the closet for so long everybody knows he’s gay,” said Quatremer, the correspondent of the Parisian daily Libération and the author of three books on European Union affairs — Brussels is the headquarters of the EU — as well as of a wellregarded insider’s blog, “Les Coulisses de Bruxelles” (http://bruxelles.blogs.liberation.fr/). “Di Rupo will show up at sporting events or concerts or the like with his boyfriend,” Quatremer said, “but nobody even bothers to notice if it’s the same one or a new one — there’s been absolutely nothing in the Belgian press about his companion. There might be if he wasn’t honest about who he is, but he’s not a hypocrite like Dominique Strauss-Kahn, so nobody cares.” Zirlaene Berger, the executive director of Arc-en-Ciel Wallonie, the federation of LGBT organizations in the francophone part of Belgium (“arc-en-ciel” means “rainbow” in French), confirmed Quatremer’s perspective, telling this reporter, “There was absolutely no negative comment in the press here or attacks by his

NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION

Elio Di Rupo, seen here in his trademark bow tie, has an easy charm and a compelling personal story of determination.

opponents” about Di Rupo’s homosexuality, “which went almost completely unmentioned.” She pointed out, “We’ve had same-sex marriage here since 2003, gays and lesbians are included in anti-discrimination laws, and there are four other openly gay members of Parliament besides Di Rupo, as well as a number of openly gay mayors, city councilors, and the like.” Berger explained, “Our gay pride marches have received municipal subsidies since they first began 16 years ago. It’s symbolic that at the first pride march in Brussels, there were about 2,000 people, but this year we had more than 50,000, including a lot of straight people.” That’s a large turnout in a country of only some ten million residents. Though Brussels has a gay commercial neighborhood called Kolenmarkt, nobody knows how large its gay community is. Belgium does not gather statistics on sexual orientation, according to gay activist Radouane Bouhlal, director of the Movement Against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia (MRAX). Bouhlal estimated, however, that anywhere from ten to 18 percent of the city’s population is homosexual. To be sure, Belgium is not free of homophobia. “To be homosexual in Brussels [a largely French-speaking enclave of Flanders] is to be confronted with violence constantly,” wrote Brussels Secretary of State for Equality Bruno De Lille on his website earlier this year. De Lille is openly gay and in a relationship, yet he wrote that he cannot hold his partner’s hand in public without attracting insults, looks of disgust, and, at times, even physical

violence. In the face of such abuse, nearly onethird of all victims suffer psychological traumas, according to the Brusselsbased Centre pour l’égalité des chances et la lutte contre le racisme, an organization that fights discrimination. There were 59 incidents of anti-gay violence officially reported to police last year, but many such attacks go unreported. A nasty debate over who was responsible for this recent wave of anti-gay violence was opened earlier this year when a right-wing politician, openly gay Flemish Minister of Education Pascal Smet, blamed the gay bashing on recent immigrants from Muslim countries. Nearly a million of Belgium’s recent immigrants are non-Europeans. Said, a young gay Belgian-Moroccan who directs the country’s intercultural queer organization, Merhaba, took exception to that perspective, telling the e-newsletter Expats, “Homophobia existed in Belgium before immigrants arrived.” According to Said, who identified himself with only one name, “You can’t fight homophobia with Islamophobia. You fight it through education and raising awareness. You also need to fight against gender stereotypes and sexism, heterosexism, and heteronormativity that form the basis of homophobia.” Said conceded, in the light of recent attacks on gays, that there are problems with attitudes toward homosexuality within immigrant communities. At the same time, he volleys back against those singling out immigrants for blame, especially when no effort is made to situate their behavior in a broader socio-economic context.

Belgium’s younger generation shows signs it does not fully accept homosexuality either. A 2009 study of 4,000 students carried out by universities in Antwerp and Hasselt, for instance, found that nearly ten percent of Flemish youth think that sex between people of the same gender is wrong and 20 percent wouldn’t want to be seen with a gay person. In this context, the lack of any public fuss over Di Rupo’s open gayness may be attributable in part to his remarkable rags-to-riches personal story. “My life is a fairy tale — you could not make it up,” he told his biographer, Francis Van de Woestyne, in a book published earlier this year, “Elio Di Rupo: Une Vie, Une Vision,” excerpts of which were published in the weekly Paris-Match. Di Rupo was the last of seven children born to impoverished Italian immigrants from Abruzzi who traveled to Belgium looking for work. He was born and raised in a ramshackle, tar-brushed hut in the small Walloon village of Morlanwelz. But at the time of his coalminer father’s death in a traffic accident when Di Rupo was only a year old, his illiterate mother was too poor to support her numerous brood alone and placed his brothers and sisters in an orphanage, keeping only the baby future prime minister. Even so, “I cannot say I had an unhappy childhood,” Di Rupo recalled. “With nothing, she gave us happiness. On celebration days, she would buy sandwiches that she cut in two.” The Flemish press took note of the personal drive evident in the new prime minister’s Horatio Algeresque life: “If Elio Di Rupo dares to dream of a whole Belgium the way he dared to dream when he was 15 of having a better and freer life, then we’re not going to be in such bad shape,” wrote Wouter Verschelden, editorialist of the daily De Morgen. Di Rupo earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Mons, the Belgian city where he was elected mayor in 2000. But it was as a student activist that he found his true calling, when at 15 he was bitten by the political bug and joined the Wallon Socialist Party. As a student, “I was pretty much ‘peace and love,’ with long hair, flowered shirts, the whole bit,” he told biographer Van de Woestyne, but even though he was anti-establishment, his charm and brilliance, combined with a patient openness to others, led to his rapid rise. He was elected to the Mons City Council in 1982 — where he founded an International Festival of Films of Love that is still going strong — and then won a seat in

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BELGIUM, continued on p.14

December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

LEGAL

Anti-Gay Counseling Grad Student Loses US appeals court says public university can mandate diversity “remediation” BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s refusal to grant a preliminary injunction relieving a school counseling master’s degree candidate at a Georgia public university from having to participate in a “remediation” program on LGBTQ issues prior to enrolling in a clinical practicum in which she would carry out one-on-one counseling with actual public school youth. In a case that is another culture wars milestone, a unanimous panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, on December 16, ruled against Jennifer Keeton, who was expelled after refusing to comply with a mandate Augusta State University placed on her after faculty concluded she was likely to impose her religiously-motivated anti-gay views on counseling clients, in violation of the profession’s ethical standards. Augusta State’s Counselor Education Program relies on standards established by the American Counseling Association (ACA), which require nondiscrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, among other categories, and bar professional counselors from imposing their individual beliefs on those seeking their services. In statements at the school, Keeton said she believes sexual orientation is a “personal choice for which individuals are accountable, not inevitable deterministic forces; that gender is fixed and binary (i.e., male or female), not a social

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NEWS BRIEFS, from p.4

According to the UN, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen still have provisions authorizing capital punishment for homosexual conduct. Despite the outspoken positions staked out by Obama and Clinton the week before, the US currently has no federal LGBT civil rights protections. The only pending proposals in Congress, in fact, would merely bar workplace discrimination and end the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government’s affirmative discrimination against equal marriage rights. The UN report noted that “violence against LGBT persons tends to be especially vicious compared to other bias-motivated crimes,” often including “a high degree of cruelty and

construct or personal choice subject to individual change; and that homosexuality is a ‘lifestyle,’ not a ‘state of being.’” She stated sexual orientation can be changed, and that if she were counseling a student concerned about their sexuality, she would recommend conversion therapy. Professional psychological and counseling associations have condemned such therapy as harmful to clients. Concerned about her willingness and ability to abide by professional standards, the faculty required her to attend workshops providing diversity sensitivity training toward the LGBTQ population, to read peer -reviewed articles in professional journals about “improving counseling effectiveness with the LGBTQ population,” to increase her exposure and interaction with that population by, for example, attending the local Gay Pride Parade, to familiarize herself with an LGBT counseling competency association, and to submit a “two-page reflection” to her faculty advisor every month summarizing what she was learning from the remediation program. After initially agreeing to the program, Keeton changed her mind and filed the lawsuit, seeking a court order that she be allowed to continue her studies, including the one-on-one counseling, and earn her degree without undergoing the remediation. Keeton argued that the faculty’s requirement would violate her First Amendment rights of free speech and free exercise of religion. When she

brutality.” Many crimes go unreported because of official hostility toward queer people by law enforcement and government officials. Bluntly taking on nations that claim an indigenous rejection of homosexuality, Charles Radcliffe, the chief of OHCHR’s global issues section, said, “No religious belief or prevailing cultural values can justify stripping people of their basic rights.” At the same time, Radcliffe stressed advocacy should aim “to persuade rather than lecture.” “I think we have seen the balance of opinion amongst states really shifting significantly in recent years,” he told UN Radio. “Some 30 countries have decriminalized homosexuality in the last two decades or so.” The UN report also pressed We s t e r n n a t i o n s t o f o l l o w

through on their professed advocacy for equal rights. The release noted that Pillay “calls on countries to ensure that no one fleeing persecution because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is returned to a territory where their life or freedom is at threat.” In recent years, activists have repeatedly faulted leading democracies for their indifference to specific asylum claims. The UN Human Rights Council will discuss the new report in March.

Four Months Late and At Least a Few Pennies Short Brooklynites Matt Katz and Aaron Lafrenz got married at Borough Hall on July 24, the first day they could legally do so in

was subsequently expelled, she also claimed unconstitutional retaliation. The trial court found she had not met the burden of showing she was likely to succeed on the merits. Therefore, it concluded, she did not deserve an injunction against the school’s actions. Writing for the appeals panel, Circuit Judge Rosemary Barkett wrote that that the record did not support the claim the school was discriminating against her anti-gay views or trying to force her to change her views of homosexuality or to express beliefs with which she disagrees. Instead, she found, the school was insisting she comply with its curriculum, designed to maintain its ACA accreditation. The issue is not what a counselor believes, the court stated, it was what they say to a student being counseled. “The evidence shows that the remediation plan was imposed because she expressed an intent to impose her personal religious views on her clients, in violation of the ACA Code of Ethics,” Barkett wrote. While conceding that this places a “burden” on Keeton, the court was unwilling to conclude such a burden was unreasonable in the context of a professional training program. Barkett drew an analogy to a 1988 Supreme Court ruling that rejected a First Amendment challenge to administrators’ censorship of a high school student newspaper, finding that both cases involved a “school-sponsored expressive activity” within the curriculum, which means the school gets to

New York State. On December 8, they received a letter on White House stationary in which President Barack Obama extended his congratulations on behalf of Michelle and himself. Avoiding any direct mention of the fact that the two men had legally married, the president wrote, “Your union marks the beginning of a lifelong partnership as you share in the joys of your life together.” After Katz posted the letter on his Facebook page, the couple’s story was picked up by buzzfeed. com. Katz told the website, “I’m not sure why the letter got sent to us.” So, if you get married any time soon, keep your eye on the mailbox and let us know if the president upgrades “union” to “marriage.” We’ll then know what a fully evolved guy he is.

control what is said within that activity. “Keeton does not have a constitutional right to disregard the limits ASU has established for its clinical practicum and set her own standards for counseling clients in the clinical practicum,” Barkett wrote. A law school, she argued, would “no doubt... be permitted to require a student who expressed an intent to indiscriminately disclose her client’s secrets or violate another of the state’s bar rules to take extra ethics classes before letting the student participate in a school-run clinic in which the student would be representing actual clients.” Keeton’s right to free exercise of her religion was not infringed, the courts concluded, since the requirement that students comply with the ACA Code of Ethics was “neutral and generally applicable” and “is rationally related to ASU’s legitimate interest in offering an accredited counseling program.” While this is not an ultimate ruling on the merits, the decision sends a strong message to the district judge that is unlikely to be misinterpreted. The list of amicus curiae briefs filed in the case indicates its significance in the culture wars being waged over public education’s handling of sexuality. Among those supporting the ASU faculty were PFLAG, the Georgia Safe Schools Coalition, and the American Civil Liberties Union. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the National Association of Scholars filed briefs in support of Keeton.

Getting Ugly With Lysol Change.org, an online organizer for social change, has mobilized thousands in support of James White, a 26-year-old Michigan resident who claims he was subjected to systematic abuse at his job — including being sprayed with Lysol and prohibited from touching doorknobs — and then fired after he tested positive for HIV. White alleges that after his employer, Great Expressions Dental Center, leaked news of his diagnosis to coworkers, he became subject to the abuse. He also says that while in the hospital on an HIV-related illness, the company called him and told him not to return to work. According to change.org, the Detroit office of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Com-

mission found that there was “reasonable cause” to believe White was discriminated against because of his HIV-status. That finding could be helpful in the civil litigation White plans against the company. The website’s efforts on White’s behalf, which call for an apology from the company and reparations, were organized by James Harris, a fourth-year student at the University of Oklahoma who directs an HIV/ AIDS action group on campus. “It’s absolutely tragic and shocking that 30 years after HIV was first discovered, we’re still seeing vile acts of discrimination toward those who are HIV-positive,” said Harris. “Nobody should have to experience the type of discrimination and harassment

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NEWS BRIEFS, continued on p.14

| December 21, 2011

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The Stakes in 2012 BY PAUL SCHINDLER We are entering a new presidential election year, and the mood in the country is sour. Among progressives, it has over and over been repeated that we are disappointed. For those who invested high hopes in the transformative power of Barack Obama’s election, really, how could it be otherwise? The unemployment rate r emains stubbornly close to nine percent, that figure does not take account of some portion of the workforce that has stopped looking, and the uncertain debt crisis in Europe looms ominous on the global economic front. Most of the benefits of a compromised health care reform law have not yet kicked in, while the Tea Party continues to make repeal a top priority. And the simple imperative of requiring the wealthiest Americans to contribute a more equitable share to our common good — an idea that polls show overwhelming support for — remains unrealized. In the LGBT community, the failure to pass even modest federal civil rights protections — covering employment nondiscrimination only — means Barney Frank will leave Congress after 32 years, 25 of them as an openly gay representative, without seeing that basic milestone reached. And as marriage equality advances, leading Democrats nationwide — including Governor Andrew Cuomo, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez — step up to join the battle, while the president continues to speak only of his “evolution” on the issue. But make no mistake, there is no palatable alternative to Obama’s reelection, and that goal will be difficult to ensure if key constituencies — including the LGBT community — choose to hang back or unduly focus on what has not yet been accomplished. Among the Republican presidential contenders with a shot

at winning the nomination, Mitt Romney is the least odious — but the bar is very, very, very low. In last week’s debate in Des Moines, confronted with his gay rights advocacy in the US Senate race he ran against Ted Kennedy in 1994, the former Massachusetts governor declared that he does not support discrimination against gay people. But that’s a long way from his saying he would press for the languishing Employment NonDiscrimination Act (ENDA). Even Rick Santorum, the extremist ex-Pennsylvania senator who likened gay sex to bestiality when the Supreme Court decriminalized sodomy, piped up that he did not discriminate in his former Washington office. Romney fought a ferocious effort to roll back equal marriage rights when he was governor, first proposing they be replaced by access to civil unions and later abandoning even that halfmeasure. Today, like his GOP opponents in the presidential race, Romney panders to the Christianist right in his party by demanding a federal constitutional amendment to extinguish the hard-won progress we’ve made in six states and the District of Columbia. Newt Gingrich, the reckless former House speaker, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars last year to the successful effort to recall three Iowa Supreme Court justices who affirmed marriage equality there. This past weekend, he spun out of control, warning he would ignore judicial rulings he disagreed with and support enlisting federal marshals to drag judges before Congress. Ron Paul, a libertarian whom Marriage Equality USA says supports repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), nonetheless has voiced no endorsement of any sort of partner recognition. In any event, even in a far right-wing field, he distinguishes himself with his unsuitability for the presidency. Any measured review of the Obama record cannot ignore substantial advances for the LGBT community. The obvious ones are the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the enactment of comprehensive hate crimes

legislation, the elimination of the ban on entry into the US by HIV-positive foreigners, and the Justice Department’s decision to stop defending DOMA based on its conclusion that it is unconstitutional. Other progress — less often cited — involves the administration’s use of its executive authority to incrementally level the playing field for our community. Any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement — virtually every single one in the nation — must grant same-sex partners visitation rights as though they were legally family members. Efforts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development have taken aim at discrimination in federally financed or insured residential units. The State Department has moved to strengthen protections for same-sex couples in which one member serves abroad. Homeland Security is reassessing its deportation efforts in ways likely to benefit many binational same-sex couples struggling to stay in the US. And just this month, the president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outlined a sweeping effort at

appreciated and we “understand and dread all of the Republican alternatives” — but rather in motivating other constituencies, including young voters and independents, both of whom strongly support the issue and are disenchanted on other fronts. I share Socarides’ overall perspective — it’s the right thing for Obama to do, and on balance it is a net political plus — but want to caution against undue expectations of how the president should move forward and what his doing so would mean. Many pundits were angered when he appeared at a Manhattan gay fundraiser on the eve of the marriage equality vote in Albany and didn’t take a stand. With the vote hanging that night on winning one or two additional GOP senators, however, the president injecting himself into the debate would not have helped. And, should we have a president who supports our full equality, it would have enormous symbolic force, but would not immediately alter the enormous tasks ahead of us in the courts, among both Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the state houses, and at the ballot box. Meanwhile, there are plenty of other issues in Washington and before the president that we can put our shoulder to the wheel on with some hope of progress. Homeland Security needs to move more quickly and explicitly to remove the threat of deportation facing immigrant samesex partners and spouses of Americans. AIDS must once again be a priority of ours, we must be vigilant in pressing for sufficient federal dollars to forestall shortfalls in AIDS Drug Assistance Programs that in the past several years have hit too many of our states, and advocates must push back against the restoration of the federal funding ban for syringe exchanges. On behalf of the youngest and most vulnerable in our community, we should build on nascent but promising efforts to protect students from bullying and provide woefully needed resources to house the homeless in safe and appropriate settings. 2012 is no time to let down our guard or be lulled into either complacency or glib cynicism.

Should the president support our full equality, it would have enormous symbolic force, but would not immediately alter the enormous tasks ahead of us. promoting LGBT rights abroad and opening up opportunities for asylum here. The president’s refusal, to date, to voice support for equal marriage rights consistently grabs an enormous share of the chatter among grassroots activists and LGBT journalists and bloggers. In a post on the newyorker.com, Richard Socarides, an LGBT White House advisor in the Clinton White House, warning that Obama does not want to end up on the “wrong” side of history, argued that embracing marriage equality equals “smart politics.” Interestingly, he does not see the payoff primarily in terms of gay support — what Obama has achieved will be

| December 21, 2011

PERSPECTIVE

Election Pitfall: Hating on Hillbillies BY KELLY JEAN COGSWELL ll I want for Christmas is for our presidential candidates to be struck dumb for a week or two, maybe even through the Republican primary votes in Iowa and New Hampshire. Imagine Newt and Mitt, Ron and Michele, their mouths opening and closing like fish. Getting all red-faced and frustrated when nothing comes out. And while I’m at it, let’s silence the pundits, too. And the screeching partisans indulging in bitterness and fury, sneering and hate. It’s not that democracies don’t need debate. We surely do. We don’t even have to be particularly civil. I mourn the loss of Christopher Hitchens, who was himself a champion sneerer. The difference was that his scorn was always just the icing on a passionately reasoned argument, footnoting obser vations from sources ranging from Greek historians to comic strips. Most Americans, though, have grown to believe the sneer

is the argument, and that personal insults about hairstyles and lifestyles and places of worship and of origin have the same weight as logic and reason. It dooms us when we try to solve complicated problems like the economy or foreign policy, education or healthcare, and deepens ordinary divisions like region, ethnicity, and class. A couple weeks ago, New York’s condescending, arrogant, Muslim-baiting Republican Representative Peter King indulged in casual slurs, describing Newt Gingrich as condescending and arrogant with “a Southern, antiunion attitude that appeals to the mentality of hillbillies at revival meetings.” A few days later, when news broke about a church in a small Kentucky town that banned an interracial couple from attending, many of the comments could be summed up as saying, “That’s terrible, but what can you expect in a barbaric place like that?” Because the American South, including Kentucky and Newt’s Georgia, of course, has a lock on bigotry. It gave me flashbacks to Elec-

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AN OVERLY HARSH ASSESMENT December 8, 2011 To the Editor: I was extremely pleased to see Gay City News foregrounding the critical issue of funding for LGBTQ organizations (“How Do We Move the 97 Percent?,” by Paul Schindler, Dec. 7-20). Funders for LGBTQ Issues was among the 40 organizations participating in the Movement Advancement Project report. As part of our work, we track LGBTQ grant-making. Our findings on US foundations mirror MAP’s on individual donors: giving from both these sources declined from 2008 to 2009. However, our 2010 data — to be released this month in our “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Grantmaking by US Foundations” — shows a modest gain in foundation support to LGBTQ organizations and communities in 2010.

tion 2000. That was the year Al Gore went around trying not to use four syllable words, while George W. Bush grinned and drawled and tipped his cowboy hat, and good old Ralph Nader talked about globalization and the working class, while Naderites sneered at comparatively unimportant issues like racism and homophobia. When the votes were tallied (or not), all the bulletin boards, letters to the editor pages, and other platforms for rants were

such idiots?” “Those Bubbas... those hillbillies... voting against their own interests.” Sometimes they even mentioned Kentucky by name. People that knew me. And knew where I was from. Though perhaps they thought it had worn off, me being up in New York so long. An East Village dyke. Pundits explained it was a kind of delusion, poor Americans voting for the rich, charming, down-to-earth Bush because they wanted to believe they could one day be like him — and that pulling the Republican lever might give them a share in his good fortune. That may have been partly true. But it was strange no one said the obvious. That maybe they — we — just didn’t want to vote for stuck-up Gore or sneering Greens that talked about class and poverty but clearly despised us, knowing nothing about our lives or culture beyond the TV stereotypes that exist in shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies,” which have been reincarnated in “Hillbilly Handfishin’,” “Redneck Riviera,” and “American Hoggers.” These shows laugh at us, not with us. Pretend places like Atlanta or Louisville don’t exist, and nobody there is struggling

Most Americans have grown to believe the sneer is the argument. almost exclusively full of politically correct, blue state types ignoring how Nader split the vote and spilling out their vitriolic hate for “poor white trash” in the red states. “How stupid could they be pulling the lever for a rich Republican sure to cut their benefits?” “How could they be

Other key findings include a four-percent increase in foundation dollars going to LGBTQ people of color communities (though these communities still received only 14 percent of total LGBTQ grant dollars), and a 17 percent increase in those going to local LGBTQ organizations in 2010. A more disappointing finding is the five percent decrease in foundation dollars going to support transgender issues. As an organization whose mission includes the promotion of equity and the advancement of racial, economic, and gender justice, we must take issue with Gay City News’ characterization of “97 percent of the LGBT community as disengaged from any financial support for the advocacy efforts that serve them.” Without question, among this 97 percent are LGBTQ individuals who are indeed giving to advocacy efforts that serve them — organizations working on issues of immigrant justice, anti-racism, economic equity, etc. (many of which are LGBTQ-inclusive in their agendas). As we seek to mobilize desperately needed resources for our communities,

let us be sure to recognize all the ways our community gives. Karen Zelermyer President & CEO Funders for LGBTQ Issues New York City

GIFT HORSE IN A GLASS HALF FULL December 8, 2011 To the Editor: I am not one to look the gift horse in the mouth, however, I am not one of those who’re out there giving Mrs. Clinton a standing ovation either, as many are now, for her recent speech at the UN for LGBT rights (see related story, page 6). Not that I do not celebrate the content, but where was she when she was our US senator and we wanted gay marriage? And where was she when she ran as the senator from New York to be the US president? Not in favor of marriage equality! I feel Hillary is just a politician playing the right cards when it suits her for her

for progressive change. Ignore social complexities. How a man like my uncle might still use the word “colored,” but was more comfortable with his black coworkers at the factory than with his university-educated children. Maybe his black co-workers weren’t equally comfortable with him, but they weren’t at war. In the imagination of this country, the South isn’t just more conservative and religious, it’s the sole repository of inbred idiots and genuine allconsuming bigotry, as if racism or homophobia in Cincinnati or LA doesn’t really count. As if there’s no interstate trafficking in stupidity and hate. And poor people are even more stupid and degenerate if they speak with a twang. What is this but an attempt to feel superior, for certain regions to feel absolved of our difficult history? It doesn’t matter that for every James Byrd Jr., there’s an Abner Louima. In ’92, New York City tried to get schools to accept the Rainbow Curriculum teaching school kids that everybody in the city was worthy of respect. But whites hated it because it validated people of color. Blacks and Latinos and whites hated it because it included queers. Ah, the United Hates of America. Can’t we put a lid on it? Just for the holidays?

own good to win the vote! I am not fooled! And neither should any of us be. If Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama — who also plays that same card game — feel so strongly about LGBT rights, then federal marriage equality and immigration equality should not be something we still need to pray for. How ironic is it that Mr. Clinton (who got caught diddling in the Oval Office... with someone not his wife — remember?) signed DOMA and doomed us into being second-class citizens, but now feels regret for that action? Shame on them all, and in time, yes, pardons for all. But that is not stopping our loved binational spouses from being deported. Reverend Glenn Kawalek Manhattan Write Us! Please address letters to the editor of 250 words or less to Editor@GayCityNews.com or mail them to 515 Canal Street, Suite 1C, New York, NY 10013. We reserve the edit any letter for space or legal considerations.

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December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

BELGIUM, from p.9

Parliament just five years later. Di Rupo was his party’s top vote-getter at the time of his election as a senator in 1991, and he went on to serve in a series of ministerial posts in the Wallonie governments — including as minister of education, audiovisual affairs, and public employment— and in 1994 became deputy prime minister and economics minister in the first federal coalition government between the Socialists and the Catholic Christian Democrats. He was also architect of a coalition government that made him minister-president — or governor, in US parlance — of Wallonie in 1999. During the 1990s, the Socialists were rocked by a series of corruption scandals that left Di Rupo untouched. Thanks to his image as the party’s “Mr. Clean,” his undeniable oratorical skills, his winning personality, and his deft networking ability throughout his political career, he was elected president of the Socialist Party — one of the most powerful in Europe — in 1999, winning a whopping 71 percent of the vote against three other candidates. As an anti-establishment reformer, Di Rupo got rid of party hacks touched by financial scandals and opened the party hierarchy to younger members, “feminized” the Socialists by recruiting women for many key posts, and crafted a “participatory democracy” that encouraged ideas for a “new socialist project” from the bottom up, which he then synthesized in a best-selling book. The formerly arteriosclerotic Socialist Party had a new kind of leader. Di Rupo’s coming out came in 1996, while he was the federal government’s deputy prime minister, came at a moment when Belgium was in the grip of anti-pedophile hysteria provoked by serial killer

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NEWS BRIEFS, from p.10

that James White suffered. This is too atrocious a crime not to evoke public outrage.” The dental office is part of a national chain that operates 150 locations in seven states.

Even Huntsman Likes DOMA John Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, often comes across as the most reasonable one in the room during Republican presidential debates. A supporter of civil unions, his low poll numbers are typically attributed to his relatively moderate posture in facing a conservative GOP primary electorate and his less-thanelectrifying personal style. In its 2012 Election scorecard, Marriage Equality USA has long recorded Huntsman as not supporting repeal of the Defense of

Marc Dutroux, who was eventually convicted of the rape and murder of six girls between the ages of eight and 15 and said to be the mastermind of a child abuse ring. The long-running case — which included Dutroux’s escape from police custody — was widely viewed as having been bungled by a corrupt police force and judiciary. A famous White March of 600,000 Belgians took to the streets of Brussels to protest police incompetence in the Dutroux affair. In this overheated climate, right-wing enemies of Di Rupo and of the Socialists generally tapped a network of police agents to coerce a young gay man, at that time wanted for theft from a male lover, into accusing the deputy prime minister, who had not yet come out, of having “abused” him when he was still a minor. The young man claimed videocassettes would show the two having sex. Two separate judicial investigations proved these accusations were pure fantasy, the videos never existed, and the young hustler in question eventually recanted, explaining police had blackmailed him into making the false charges. On the day he was cleared, Di Rupo was pursued by a crowd of broadcast and print journalists in full feeding frenzy. He recalled the day for his biographer, the critical moment coming when one journalist exclaimed, “Yet they say you’re a homosexual!” “I turned around and shot back: ‘Yes. So what?’ I will never forget that moment,” Di Rupo told Van de Woestyne. “For several seconds there was silence... People were so surprised by my reply they stopped jostling each other. You could have heard a pin drop. But it was a sincere, truthful reply.” The unexpected honesty of Di Rupo’s answer — he was the first significant political figure in Belgium to come out in

Marriage Act, a goal that President Barack Obama has endorsed. According to the Washington Blade, Huntsman has now made his first detailed comment on DOMA. In a December 8 appearance at the National Press Club in DC, the presidential hopeful told the newspaper he believes the 1996 law “serves a useful purpose.” “It allows states to make their own decisions, to make their own way, and the Defense of Marriage Act, I think, is a safeguard for those states to make that decision,” Huntsman told the Blade. Most legal observers, however, agree that under prevailing legal precedents, states enjoyed the authority to deny recognition to out-of-state marriages if they wished prior to DOMA. The significant impact of the ’96 law was in affirmatively denying federal recognition to legal same-sex

marriages in any of the states. Advocates pressing for DOMA repeal are largely focused on winning federal rights and benefits for couples legally married in the six states plus the District of Columbia that currently provide for that. Should DOMA be repealed, leading LGBT legal advocates agree that securing marriage equality nationwide would require either a state-by-state effort or a US Supreme Court ruling that denying equal marriage rights violated the US Constitution. Huntsman’s rationale seems to suggest that he believes that absent DOMA, the Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, which governs interstate recognition of “public acts, records, and judicial proceedings,” would be an easy route to universal marriage rights for the gay and lesbian community. Few LGBT advocates believe

public — impressed the nation favorably, and just three years later he won election as Socialist Party president. Di Rupo never allowed the difficulties of the 1996 controversy over his sexuality to impede his commitment to homosexual equality. As party president, he led a campaign for legal reform, integrating gay rights pledges into the party platform. “We like Di Rupo not just because he’s gay, but because all of the progressive advances we’ve won from government — from gay marriage to homoparental adoption to anti-discrimination laws — we owe to him and the Socialists,” Arcen-Ciel Wallonie’s Berger told Gay City News. Di Rupo is something of a dandy — he is known for his trademark floppy red bow ties and favors dark pin-striped suits — but he now faces the greatest challenge of his career: saving Belgium from disintegration into two linguistically distinct entities. If his sexuality occasioned barely a word in the press, there has been much criticism over the fact that he speaks Dutch imperfectly. His principal political opponent, Bart De Wever, the ultraconservative demagogic leader of the Flemish separatist party, the NVA, whom polls show to be the most popular politician in Flanders, recently said, “My Nigerian cleaning woman, who’s only been in our country two years, speaks better Dutch than Elio!” Last year, Di Rupo explained that it’s not that he hasn’t made an effort to speak better Dutch. An auto accident in which the airbag exploded while the windows were closed ruptured an eardrum. “My ear no longer hears as well certain sounds, especially sharp ones,” he explained, “and while today I wear a hearing aid to try to limit the problem, I still have a problem with the melody of

the matter is that simple. In other words, Huntsman doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about or chooses to play dumb for what have so far been meager political points.

Gingrich, Surprised He Might Win, Signs NOM Pledge Newt Gingrich, no stranger to anti-gay politics, has suddenly reengaged in the war on marriage equality. Last year, the former House speaker donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the successful effort to recall three of the Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled unanimously in 2009 that gay and lesbian couples there have a constitutional right to marry. For much of 2011, however,

certain sounds, notably in Dutch.” There are only two and a half years left until the next parliamentary elections, which does not give Di Rupo much time to unify the country. In fact, it was only under the pressure of ratings agencies like Standard and Poor’s — which in November reduced Belgium’s rating from AA+ to AA — that the six parties in Di Rupo’s fragile coalition were forced into an agreement. Di Rupo had to pay a high price to form a government. There are not many new faces — 13 of his 19 ministers served in the last center-right coalition government — and the new Socialist prime minister was obliged to give all the ministries dealing with economic matters to the conservatives. Moreover, the 180-page government program hammered out in weeks of late-night negotiations includes commitments to drastically revise downward Belgium’s generous retirement pension policy and sharply cut back on its unique guarantee of unemployment insurance for life . As Quatremer noted, “The very first thing a Belgian student does is sign up for unemployment benefits... This nolonger-affordable welfare state means the Belgians are among the highesttaxed Europeans, paying an average 50 percent of their salaries in taxes.” The austerity budget plan Di Rupo was forced to adopt to forge his governing coalition with a raft of conservative parties is bound to sharply drive down his current popularity in opinion polls. Can a gay, socialist son of Italian immigrants save Belgium? It could prove a tall order. “If the separatists of the NVA win the municipal elections next October,” journalist Quatremer predicted, “his government could well fall and the country be permanently split in two.”

candidate Gingrich has been on an extended book tour, regaling audiences, many of them outside of key primary states, with his pompous utterances. As a sort of last man standing, however, he now finds himself toward the front of the GOP presidential pack — and pandering is urgently needed. On December 15, Gingrich stepped to, signing the National Organization for Marriage’s “Marriage Pledge” apparently required of serious Republican candidates. The pledge, one of a flurry of discretion-surrendering promises the GOP field is rushing to make, commits the candidates to vigorously support the Defense of Marriage Act, push for a federal constitutional amendment outlawing marriage by same-sex couples and for repeal of Washington, DC’s equal marriage statute, appoint judges opposed to

equality, and establish a commission to look into alleged incidents of harassment against NOM supporters. In addition to Gingrich, NOM has hooked former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Texas Governor Rick Perry, and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Gingrich has also signed on to a marriage vow from a Christianist right group, the Family Leader, which warns that homosexuality is a choice that threatens public health. In an extraordinary appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” this past Sunday, Gingrich vowed to ignore court rulings that he disagrees with and said he would consider allowing federal marshals to drag judges into Congress to answer for rulings the majority party found unacceptable.

| December 21, 2011

December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

To Parma, Via Lower Manhattan Disabled Coast Guard vet, Italian husband, for now, bid farewell to Salt Lake City BY PAUL SCHINDLER ’m not an expatriate,” Benjamin Anderson insisted as he and his husband-to-be, Mattia Lumaca, waited in the Manhattan City Clerk’s Office December 7 for an officiant to perform their wedding ceremony. “I’m 100percent American. I am a patriot. I love my country and I love my husband, and I don’t want to give up either.” It was a bittersweet moment in an afternoon that mixed tears of sadness with exuberant joy. Anderson, a 13-year veteran of the Coast Guard, and Lumaca, an Italian citizen, were due to celebrate their wedding that evening with a dim sum meal and tickets to “The Addams Family,” then spend two more days in New York before heading off to Italy — in exile from America, at least for now. With Anderson on full disability — following service-related chemical exposure more than two decades ago and a catastrophic surgical mishap in 2006 — and Lumaca’s US student visa expiring, their immediate future is fraught with obstacles and uncertainty. Anderson, 55, and Lumaca, 41, met online about five years ago. In February of 2007, Lumaca visited Anderson at his Salt Lake City home on a tourist visa, and “One week was long enough” to know what their relationship would mean to them, the younger man recalled. On December 7 of that year, Lumaca returned to Salt Lake City, armed with a student visa to study English and a ring for Anderson. Four years to the day later, the couple exchanged wedding rings at the municipal chapel in the Clerk’s Office, in a ceremony witnessed by Cinzia Araldi, Lumaca’s best friend from his Italian hometown near Parma. “My whole life, I’ve waited for this guy here,” Anderson said, his eyes welling

GAY CITY NEWS

“I

Benjamin Anderson beams as his new husband Mattia Lumaca places the ring on his finger at the Manhattan City Clerk’s wedding chapel.

up. That life has thrown its share of curve balls at him. Anderson’s mother, who died when he was 13, was ill much of the time, and he spent his childhood after age seven in foster homes away from his roots in Utah. When he aged out of the foster system at 18, he was living in California but returned to Salt Lake City, where he got the message that an openly gay life was not in the cards. “I had the idea that I’d quit being gay and get married,” he said. “I married a woman who knew I was gay. I wasn’t dishonest.” As the result of that marriage, Anderson now has a 33-year-old son, whom he and Lumaca are leaving behind in Utah. Though he married — the first time — young, he wasn’t yet ready to settle down in Salt Lake City. At 19, he fulfilled a desire he’d had since he was ten years

old — to join the Coast Guard to “save lives and be a hero.” During his time in the Coast Guard — from 1976 until 1989 — Anderson re-upped twice and reached the rank of yeoman, serving in an administrative post. A desk job didn’t insulate him from danger, however. After exposure to toxic chemicals, “I started getting sicker all the time and my heart weakened.” He left the service under “medical retirement.” A year before the couple met, Anderson experienced a second medical trauma while undergoing treatment to remove a cyst from his thyroid. His vocal chords were cut during surgery and he went into a coma. Ten days later, he woke up on life support. Since then, he has suffered four heart attacks and now also contends with diabetes and glaucoma. “My health has grown gradually worse in the past year,” Anderson said. “I need a heart transplant, but right now I am too sick to have that done.” In their four years together, Lumaca has become the main source of care for Anderson, who uses a rolling walker with a seat and fatigues easily. However, since Lumaca has no right to work in the US, the couple has struggled to get by largely on Anderson’s modest disability benefits. With Lumaca’s student visa about to expire, even that option began to fade. “Some told us, ‘Oh, you can go offstatus,’” Anderson said. “But we won’t do that. We’re not illegal people.” According to Immigration Equality, the advocacy group helping the couple, there are roughly 36,000 binational same-sex couples in the US, all of whom, in one

way or other, must cope with a legal system that does not treat gay and lesbian couples the same way it would an American citizen seeking to win permanent residency for their different-sex spouse. The past year has offered at least some of those couples hope. In February, the Obama administration announced it would no longer go to court to argue that the federal Defense of Marriage Act — the principal hurdle facing binational couples who can now marry in six states and the District of Columbia — is constitutional. In the past few months, the Department of Homeland Security has put in place new procedures for weeding out pending deportations that don’t involve individuals with criminal records or posing a national security risk. Several gay and lesbian couples — including one in New York and another in New Jersey — have benefited from this new administration approach by having the deportation cases hanging over their heads closed. But, in an effort to “unclog” what Homeland Security officials say is a 300,000-case backload, progress is slow and uneven. According to Lavi Soloway, the immigration rights attorney who won reprieve for the New York and New Jersey couples, though government officials have said LGBT family ties will be acknowledged in their review of outstanding cases, that issue has not been explicitly addressed in written guidelines. Lumaca was not the subject of deportation efforts, but the couple’s time had run out. “It will be challenging, but it’s the only solution,” Lumaca said of their departure for Italy. Though he had a career as a land surveyor and contractor back in Parma, the couple will likely not stay there. They need to find a home somewhere in the European Union where their marriage will be recognized and Anderson will have easy access to a US military facility where he can receive comprehensive medical care. When they earlier visited Lumaca’s mother in Parma, the closest US base was a three-hour drive and it did not have full-service care. Despite their apprehensions, the couple was clearly energized for their upcoming travel, though melancholy was never far from their minds. Outfitted in pink suspenders and New York-bought shoes for the wedding, Anderson’s voice broke as he said, “This is the choice I’ve been given. My country or my love.” Then in a quiet, more sober tone, he added, “So, you know, what do you do? I’m just hoping my country will bring me home. Bring us home. Bring me and my husband home. We need America and we think America needs us.”

| December 21, 2011

December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com DEMUTH MUSEUM/ LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA

GALLERY

Us, In All Our Glory BY DAVID NOH

HIDE/ SEEK: DIFFERENCE AND DESIRE IN AMERICAN PORTRAITURE

f you really want to feel some pure, unadulterated gay pride, by all means get yourself to the Brooklyn Museum to see “Hide/ Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” The first major museum exhibit to focus on queer identity in this nation’s portraiture, it is, in a word, magnificent — a celebration of us in all of our ecstatic variety and genius. As you stroll through the beneficently laden galleries, you realize that this is not only a breathtaking artistic compendium, but also a veritable gay cultural history of the past century and more. Curated by Jonathan D. Katz, who heads the visual studies doctoral program at SUNY Buffalo, and David C. Ward, an historian at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, where it was originally shown last fall, the exhibit has been reconstituted in its move to New York, some pieces having been replaced by others. Some changes were due to expired loan agreements with

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

Brooklyn Museum 200 Eastern Parkway, near Grand Army Plaza Through Feb. 12 Wed., Fri.-Sun., 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Thu., 11 a.m.–10 p.m. $12; $8 for students & seniors brooklynmuseum.org

Alice Neel’s “Frank O’Hara,” 1960, oil on canvas, 33 3/4 x 16 x 1 in.

museums and other sources but, in such cases, Katz and Ward assured me, every effort was made to complement, and even improve upon, the original selections. While in DC, certain leading Republican congressmen, in tandem with the ultra-right Catholic League, demanded the excision of David Wojnarowicz’s AIDS-inspired 1987 video, “Fire in My Belly,” with its “offensive” images of homosexual intimacy and ants crawling across a crucifix — pressure to which the Smithsonian yielded without a fight. Happily, the video is now back in the show, with additional audio added from a 1998 ACT UP demonstration, something the curators justifiably crow about. At the press preview, Katz said, “I’m not going to broadly address the controversy. I just wanted to make an offer that if I could be of any service to the bishop of New York in terms of teaching him the iconographic tradition of his faith, I’d be happy to do so.” Other videos included here, which add such rich media range to the exhibit, are Andy Warhol’s 1960s “Screen Tests,” featuring the nubile young likes of Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Malanga, and Baby Jane Holzer, as well as James Bidgood’s 1971 “Pink Narcissus,” which reveal this artist’s influence on such modern imagists as David LaChapelle and Pierre et Gilles. Throughout the show, as well, audio recordings of queeridentified musicians Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey (from the gay jazz reissue “AC/ DC

Detail of Charles Demuth’s “Dancing Sailors,” 1917, watercolor over graphite on paper, 8 x 10 in.

Blues”) can be heard, lending an agreeable layer of aural raunch. There’s even an advertisement for Smith’s wonderfully out anthem, “Prove It On Me Blues,” with the lyrics: “I went out last night with a crowd of my friends/ They must’ve been women ‘cause I don’t like no men.” Beginning with Thomas Eakins’ saintly 1891 photograph of Walt Whitman, the show delivers a multitude of famous artists, like James Baldwin, in Beauford Delaney’s 1963 vision of him with piercingly allseeing eyes; Marcel Duchamp, in Florine Stettheimer’s ghostly 1925 oil; Frank O’Hara, who is featured in Larry Rivers’ monumental, very hot 1954 nude pose, as well as in Alice Neel’s 1960 portrait, which captures his famous avian profile; and Langston Hughes, whose handsomeness is captured in Carl Van Vechten’s 1932 photo. A definite boon here is the discovery of lesser-known names, like Carl Van Vechten (18801964), the white writer/ photographer who recorded the glory that was the Harlem Renaissance through his invaluable pictures and sometimes controversial writing (especially his incendiary 1926 book, “Nigger Heaven”). Although married, he was, as they used to say, as gay as pink ink, and when he donated his papers to Yale with the stipulation that certain of them not be opened until 25 years after his death, a fabulous cache of scrapbooks, containing homosexual ephemera and erotica, was just waiting to be discovered. My personal favorite in the show is a spectacular 1936 portrait of him by Romaine Brooks (1874-1970), a lesbian, who, Katz told me, “slyly hid images of the black men Van Vechten so loved in the background, as you can see. We were particularly lucky to get this portrait from Yale, which has never been publicly shown before — a difficult process, but worth it.” Brooks’ equestrienne selfportrait is also present, in all of

its timeless dyke chic; her mode of dress, like that of her circle, was meant to send a queer signal to the so-inclined in a more repressed age, and she had a 50-year relationship with “the Amazon,” Natalie Barney, a notorious writer/ saloniste whose endless promiscuity she put up with. An enchanting watercolor of sailors dancing together by Charles Demuth (1883-1935) only proves plus ça change, plus c’est ca même chose. Demuth, an intimate of Marsden Hartley, frequented Manhattan’s Lafayette Baths, and his self-portrait, not included in the show, featuring him surrounded by frolicsome nude men, was probably set there.

ted suicide in 1932, Hartley really swung into action with this return to poetic abstraction. Crane jumped off a ship carrying him back from Mexico at noon — the eight bells you see here — and the rest of it is a wonderful tribute to Crane’s poetic work, particularly his masterwork, ‘The Bridge,’ which is suggested here by these shapes.” The glorious hedonism of D e m u t h ’ s aquarelle — a n exuberance that makes our lives, for all their travails, so damned much fun — is a spiritedly affirming leitmotif running throughout. It’s present in George Bellows’ joyous 1917 lithograph, “The Shower-Bath,” which presents every conceiv-

FREDERICK R. WEISMAN ART MUSEUM/ UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Brooklyn Museum’s “Hide/ Seek”: a total queer revelation

Marsden Hartley’s“Eight Bells Folly: Memorial to Hart Crane,” 1933, oil on canvas, 30 5/8 x 39 3/8 in.

Demuth’s Hartley connection is typical of the endless, intriguing cross-connections recurring in the exhibit, which only add another contextual layer, and Hartley’s “Eight Bells’ Folly: Memorial to Hart Crane” has glowing pride of place on a wall. Ward broke it down beautifully: “Hartley and Crane had a difficult, ambivalent relationship, for Hartley was always criticizing Crane’s lack of discipline for going off on benders and coming home with Norwegian sailors, and then writing about that. But when Crane commit-

able male physical type in one of those now completely defunct Manhattan steam baths that were once such vital bonding ground. John Singer Sargent’s proudly flaunting “Nude Male Standing” shows a decidedly different side to the “Madame X” painter, demonstrating he didn’t need velvets and brocade to make a sexy point. A particular coup are works by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, which, for the first time, bespeak their inti-

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HIDE/ SEEK, continued on p.23

| December 21, 2011

KEN HOWARD/ METROPOLITAN OPERA

OPERA

Jonas Kaufmann as the title character in Gounod’s “Faust.”

All Jonas, All the Time Kaufman is suddenly everywhere in New York, versatile as ever BY ELI JACOBSON or a 30-year period that ended in 2007, the Metropolitan Opera was the house of the two tenors — Domingo and Pavarotti. The septuagenarian Domingo retains his place but has relinquished his old repertory. However, the next Pavarotti was needed long before the great Italian tenor left this earth. The emergence of a new crop of exciting tenors has been manna from heaven for opera fans in New York and beyond. None is more strikingly versatile than the 42-year-old German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who stubbornly resists typecasting and redefines himself from role to role. This season, Kaufmann has unveiled two new roles for New York audiences — the title role of Gounod’s “Faust” and as Maurizio in Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur.” He also debuted as a recitalist at the Metropolitan Opera, where he will also repeat his successful Siegmund in “Die Walküre” this coming spring. This season, Kaufmann ranges from French opera to hot-blooded Italian verismo, heroic Wagner, and the intimacy of lieder. Domingo at his height never covered so much territory in one season. Kaufmann’s voice is an intriguing, somewhat artificial construction — openthroated with a covered round tone. The resulting timbre is darkly baritonal, full of vibrancy if somewhat lacking in variety. Some of the lower notes can take on a burred, guttural quality that is unattractive. However, with dexterity, Kaufmann can shift gears and float the tone in a lighter, headier placement like the Mozart tenor he used to be. The two contrasting vocal modes don’t seem to be part of the same voice. The brassy baritonal sound seems incongruous given his boyishly

romantic appearance. On October 30, just weeks after surgery to remove a node from his chest, Kaufmann presented his first New York recital at the Met, choosing a wide-ranging program including Liszt, Mahler, Duparc, and Strauss songs. It was an ambitious calling-card recital, displaying intellectual rigor but lacking emotional connection. The Liszt songs were variable in musical content, leaving an equivocal impression, and Kaufmann’s covered tone and unidiomatic diction took the fragile mystery out of the Duparc songs. The Mahler “Rückert Lieder” benefited from the darker colors of a mezzo or baritone, sounding like a triumphant Lohengrin in the anguished high climaxes of “Um Mitternacht.” The set of six Strauss lieder revealed the tenor in congenial territory, communicating freely through the material to the audience. As an encore, Kaufmann drove the audience wild with a lusty “Dein is mein Ganzes Herz” from Lehár’s “The Land of Smiles.” Helmut Deutsch was a sophisticated, alert accompanist. pera Orchestra of New York presented Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur” in concert on November 8, reuniting the leads of the recent Covent Garden production — Kaufmann and Angela Gheorghiu. “Adriana” is the type of opera that singers love and critics hate. Audiences love it too, when the performers have the larger-than-life voices and personalities necessary to put the piece over. The glamorous Gheorghiu and Kaufmann don’t own the opera by birthright like the Italian divas and divos of the last century but presented a sleekly elegant international simulacrum of the verismo

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JONAS, continued on p.26

December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

FILM

A Familiar Arc Freshly Drawn Adepero Oduye lends realness to coming out tale in “Pariah” cans in the streets and messes up her room. These scenes effectively convey the highhe coming out and strung emotions of a confused coming-of age story teenager grappling with her gets a welcome new desires. voice in Dee Rees’ Alike’s relationship with Bina very fine feature (Aasha Davis), a fellow stu“Pariah,” based on her 2007 dent whom Audrey wants her film short of the same name. to befriend, provides poignant The emotional center of irony. The two teens initially protagonist Alike (Adepero seem to have little in common, Oduye) is clear from the outset. but in time they bond over This African-American youth music. Their friendship develexpends enor mous energy ops into a romance that helps changing clothes to alternately Alike express her true self — hide and become “Lee,” her AG cautiously at first and then (aggressive) butch identity. The completely. emotional struggle that entails “Pariah,” which justly won is palpable in every minute of a prize for cinematography at “Pariah” — such is the film’s Sundance earlier this year, urgency. adeptly employs visual cues to Alike is out to her best friend, Adepero Oduye’s performance transforms “Pariah” from a familiar coming out tale into a memorable celebration of adversity overcome. chart Alike’s journey. The hazy Laura (Pernell Walker), a butch high school dropout, but to their daughter, but after threat- ing, shattering moment. Lead- more obviously loving relation- sources of light that predomialmost no one else. Alike’s reli- ening a man who disparaged ing up to that, Alike bickers with ship with Arthur. The two share nate in the early scenes become gious mother, Audrey (Kim her for her masculine appear- her mother about everything a particularly vivid scene in the sharper as the film progresses, Wayans), suspects her daugh- ance, he doesn’t seem eager to from her curfew to Audrey’s kitchen, as they both under- as Alike herself finds clarity. well-intentioned but ill-advised stand what they are talking Rees composes her shots with ter is a lesbian, lamenting, “I’m take on any more. The family dynamics in “Pari- efforts to clothe her daughter in about without saying just what a keen eye. At times, the directired of tomboy.” Audrey asks needs to be expressed. Like tor frames Alike in silhouette, husband Arthur (Charles Par- ah” build to the expected con- pink blouses. As “Daddy’s girl,” Alike has a much of the film, this is shot in in scenes that recall the work of nell) to broach the topic with frontation, which proves a seara kitchen-sink style that adds Kara Walker, an African-Ameriemotional resonance to this can artist who explores gender, sexuality, and identity. realistically rendered film. Rees carefully explore these Under Rees’ direction, Oduye GMK: How did you approach how Alike reveals hermakes Alike ingratiating from themes while giving her charself to people? the start. She is a smart student acters moments to reveal themAO: I relate to that idea of stepping back and and good writer who pens poems selves. Alike has many scenes observing and checking out the scene — see how about butterflies suffocating in where she privately smiles people are. Figure that out and then determine proudly — playtheir cocoons — what you can reveal to certain people. I feel that ing basketball an apt if obvious Adepero Oduye makes an indelible impression as Alike is very much, like, observing someone, somePARIAH Directed by Dee Rees with her father metaphor for Alike in “Pariah.” Gay City News spoke to the 31-year- thing and then, based on what she figures out, that Focus Features and during her own feelings. old actor, nominated for an Independent Spirit Award that person’s OK. Opens Dec. 28 her budding In school, she for her performance, about how she developed her Landmark Sunshine Cinema romance with keeps to herself, character. GMK: You use your expressions — smiles especial143 E. Houston St., btwn. First & Second Aves. Bina — and her often trying to ly — and body language very well to communicate landmarktheatres.com glow is infecremain invisible GARY M. KRAMER: You’re playing a teenager in what Alike is feeling. How did you develop that? Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center tious. as she listens in “Pariah.” What were you like as a teenager? AO: I don’t know! I just do it. It’s instinctive. You 144 W. 65th St. “Pariah” sucon the banter of ADEPERO ODUYE: Figuring it all out — like most don’t have to do so much to be in an open, vulnerfilmlinc.com ceeds in large other girls. of us were all doing. It got to a point where I knew able state. It’s that things with Alike, the moments, Her lack of self-confidence measure because of Oduye’s where my strengths are. I was not used to express- are so heavy and overwhelming. The times I can becomes clear when she seeks impressive turn in the leading ing myself. Everything was kind of kept inside. I just smile and be…. I just express myself in all sitout a late night bus or a high role. She brings moving authenslowly discovered things that allowed me to out- uations fully. When I’m excited or happy or when school bathroom to transform ticity to the joy and heartbreak wardly express myself — so singing and then a bit I’m super-awkward, I just allow myself. I don’t stop her appearance. Alike’s poetry of Alike’s transformation. myself, I just go. of writing/ spoken word, then a bit of acting. Kim Wayans, however, is a bit teacher suggests she “go deepI did a lot of gospel choir in high school. I had a er,” and this advice extends to one-note as Audrey, a woman teacher who asked us to write poems. He encour- GMK: Speaking of awkward, what can you say who means well, but comes identity as well as her writing. aged us to get up on stage and speak our poetry. It about the scene where you sport a strap-on? Although Alike is anxious to across as a bit of a monster. came from me. It was the most personal thing — I AO: As the actor, I didn’t feel awkward about it at explore her sexuality, she is also That said, a lunch scene late could get stuff out that was going on — not feeling all. I should feel weird or embarrassed for walkafraid. In one early comic scene, in the film between mother and beautiful or not fitting in or odd man out. ing on set for eight hours with a strap-on on, but I she asks Laura to help her get a daughter is riveting. wasn’t, and I think because I wasn’t, when I had to Rees may be treading familstrap-on to aid in her seduction be I could be. GMK: Did you write Alike’s poetry? of a girl she is crushed on at a iar territory with “Pariah,” That dichotomy of not being embarrassed at AO: Dee [Rees, the writer/ director] sent me a noteclub. In a later potent moment, but Alike’s articulation of her book, and said to start writing as Alike. I wrote a all and this is a story I’m telling. Teenagers figure Alike experiences heartbreak desires and frustrations never it out, and making crazy ass mistakes is part of it. whole bunch of stuff in that book. and, in a rage, turns over trash- comes across as cliché. You have no idea what the heck you’re doing! BY GARY M. KRAMER

FOCUS FILMS

SIMPLY ALLOWING HERSELF

| December 21, 2011

FILM

Film Too Heavily Accented In Cinemascope, with John Williams score, Spielberg’s “War Horse” unbridled to a fault BY STEVE ERICKSON teven Spielberg’s work tends to oscillate between brutality and sentimentality, sometimes within the same film. The best scene in “War Horse” manages to combine these qualities without seeming contradictory or hypocritical. After dashing through the battlefields of World War I, a horse has gotten snagged in a barbed wire fence. Struggling to get free, the horse only succeeds in wrapping the wire around himself further, like a razor-edged blan- Jeremy Irvine with the title horse, through whose eyes we see the First World War, in “War Horse.” ket. An English soldier notices and attempts to free the horse, a task made easier when one of even PETA would endorse. It’s the horse, whom he names his German counterparts hands a shame the intelligence of this Joey, and succeeds in getting scene is missing from the rest of him to plough their fields. him a wire cutter. Ted, however, is succumbThis scene succeeds on “War Horse.” Adapted from Michael Mor- ing to alcoholism brought on the palpable sense of agony and empathy it creates — the purgo’s novel, which was also by guilt over his conduct during horse’s pain is no mere special turned into a long-running the Boer War as well as by pain effect to applaud. It simultane- play, “War Horse” begins on in his leg, and decides to sell the eve of World Joey to the British army. Once ously invites War I. When Ted war begins, chaos ensues and identification WAR HORSE Narracott (Peter Joey winds up seeing his way across species Directed by Steven Spielberg Touchstone Pictures/ Dreamworks Mullan) buys a through Europe under a variety and national Opens Dec. 25, citywide horse he can’t of successive owners. boundaries. The Spielberg seems to be workafford at an auccruelty Spielberg engendered in the first half tion, his wife Rosie (Emily Wat- ing from a long list of influenchour of “Saving Private Ryan” son) is upset. Their son Albert es. I’d be amazed if Morpurgo’s is put to use in pursuing a goal (Jeremy Irvine) wants to train original idea for an animal pro-

TOUCHSTONE PICTURES/ DREAMWORKS

tagonist owed nothing to Robert Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar,” which follows a donkey around the meaner portions of rural France. Like Bresson’s film, “War Horse” attempts to view humanity through an animal’s eyes. Spielberg’s direction, however, couldn’t be further from Bresson’s asceticism and reliance on sound design over beautiful images. Spielberg films rural England in picture-postcard long shot vistas so kitschy they look like David Lean parodies. Much of Spielberg’s style seems dictated by the fact that he’s adapting a book that inspired a play, and therefore, he must be as “cinematic” as possible. Shooting in Cinemascope, he frequently fills every inch of the frame with people. Some of his use of widescreen is creative, as when he plays with foreground/ background juxtapositions. Still, the film is hampered by its need to signal the importance of every key scene. When Albert teaches Joey to plough, the camera swoons in a tracking shot through the mud, accompanied by John Williams’ loud orchestral score. Throughout, Williams’ music is bombastic and over-utilized.

Inadvertently, Spielberg’s direction winds up signaling his lack of real engagement with his material. Here, one of his signatures is shooting from a remove so distant it suggests the eye of God. He must have kept the shoot’s helicopter pilots and crane operators busy. He doesn’t seem to have anything to say about war not already expressed in “Saving Private Ryan.” “War Horse” contains two lengthy battle scenes, clearly designed as set pieces. The second one plays like a sanitized, PG-13 reprise of the opening “Private Ryan” scenes. A decade ago, “A.I.” and “Minority Report” suggested that Spielberg was finally reaching maturity, but his subsequent work didn’t bear that promise out. “War Horse” is being released simultaneously with Spielberg’s 3D animated film “The Adventures of Tintin,” which I wasn’t able to preview. “War Horse” is top-heavy with ambition, little of which really pays off. Perhaps “Tintin” will show a retur n to the unpretentious Spielberg of “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” who knew how to tell a good story without begging for Oscars.

Subtly Out of Tehran Asghar Farhadi’s film offers hope Iranian cinema can find world audience BY STEVE ERICKSON ith “A Separation,” Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has managed something increasingly difficult and unusual — pleasing audiences both at home and in the West. Released at a time when the Iranian government has moved from merely censoring films to arresting actors and directors, it won the Audience Award at Iran’s Fajr Film Festival, went on to box office and critical success there, and became the Iranian film industry’s official selection for our Academy Awards. It received its Western premiere at the Berlin Film Festi-

HABIB MADJIDI/ SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

W Leila Hatami and Peyman Moadi in Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation.”

val, where it won the top prize and took two other awards as well. Recently, it’s won several awards from American critics’ groups, even though its distributor decided not to release it until 2011 is almost over. A cynic might find something calculating in all this success and acclaim. I think there’s something different at work in “A Separation.” Whether by luck or design, the artistry of this film coincides with the demands of the mullahs. Farhadi’s script proceeds by hiding certain key moments from the audience. It pivots around an act of violence that remains unseen, though the incident reverberates through the entire film. It’s mild enough

that Farhadi probably could have gotten away with showing it; after all, he shows a brief fight between his two lead male characters. However, there are other areas where Farhadi clearly avoided getting into sensitive matters too deeply. “A Separation” implies that the middleclass couple who open the film may be atheists simply by contrasting their avoidance of religious expression with the example of a poorer woman that goes to work for them and her husband, who constantly express their Islamic devotion. The film may have dodged a bullet by showing the better-off

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SEPARATION, continued on p.25

December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

THEATER

Winds of Change Michael Mayer brings new clarity to “Clear Day”; “Cherry Orchard” sadly chopped down BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE

Europe at the dawn of the 20th century. It is a play of scope and subtlety, constantly blurring the line between farce and tragedy, which was a critical element of Chekhov’s worldview. The new production of “The Cherry Orchard” at the Classic Stage Company uses a radically shortened new translation by John Christopher Jones, which collapses the play’s original four acts into two and clips an hour or more from the running time of other productions I’ve seen. It also changes the play in material ways — not always for the better. Jones undermines its social and historical context, virtually eliminating many of the lesser characters who represent the inevitably advancing world. Though the focus shifts decisively to Ranevskaya, the force of her folly and blindness is blunted. Those not intimate with the

unchanged form the original. John Turturro is Lopakhin, a former servant who has risen to be a successful businessman — a popular trope of 19th century literature, used, for example, by Dickens in “Bleak House” — and can save the home but change its nature. Turturro is both aggressive and shy, mindful of his former place as well as his current power, but what’s lacking is his obvious love for Ranevskaya, which is pivotal to his later tragedy. There are also fine perfor mances by Josh Hamilton as Trofimov, a former tutor; Daniel Davis as Gaev, Ranevskaya’s equally deluded brother; and Juliet Rylance as Varya, Ranevskaya’s adopted daughter. Still, for all their engaging work, their truncated roles render them confusing, limiting their chance to enhance the play’s scale and clarity.

t is no accident or mere caprice that prompted Michael Mayer to place his engaging new revival and revision of “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever” in 1974. One year earlier, the American Psychiatric Association had removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses, causing a storm of controversy that would last until its permanent removal in 1986. Mayer and new book writer Peter Parnell have made the central character not Daisy Gamble, but rather David David Turner and Drew Gehling are early ‘70s boyfriends in the revival of “On A Clear Day You Gamble, a young gay man who Can See Forever.” under hypnosis by psychiatrist While this is clearly not a new Mark Bruckner reveals a past is when David sings to a pot of life as jazz singer Melinda Wells, buttercups, “Come give at least musical, Mayer has approached with whom Bruckner falls in a/ Preview of Easter.” Silly, yes, it with the boldness and darlove. Significantly, David visits but it’s also irresistibly charming that characterized both his “American Idiot” and “Spring Dr. Bruckner not to cure his ing. And charm is what makes Awakening.” It’s a tribute to his homosexuality but to find a way to stop smoking. In the course this production work. Harry vision that the show holds up of the sessions, Bruckner cross- Connick, Jr. as Dr. Bruckner is, in an engaging, touching, and es the line by getting personally of course, a wonderful singer, heartfelt way. but he also involved with his ON A CLEAR DAY YOU inhabits the patient, but since hile the paralc h a r a c t e r, this is a musical lels certainly CAN SEE FOREVER St. James Theatre finding the comedy, the outar en’t exact, 246 W. 44th St. darkness and come is ultimately the current Tue.-Sat. at 8 p.m. conflict that rosy and all is formortgage criSat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. 3 p.m. m a k e h i m sis — driven perhaps as much given. $54-$157; telecharge.com sympathetic. by individual wishful thinking In fact, Bruckner Or 212-239-6200 Jessie Muel- and speculation as by predatory suffers no professional consequence; the story ler as Melinda is stunning, with bank practices — lends timeliis presented in hindsight as the a voice of great versatility and ness to Chekhov’s classic play psychiatrist presents David’s substance. David Turner is sim- “The Cherry Orchard.” case (he is termed “patient D”) ply splendid as David, a slight Madame Ranevskaya cannot man with a huge and nuanced pay the mortgage and is going Dianne Wiest is heartbreaking as Madame Ranevskaya in a troubled adaptation of Chekhov’s to a gathering of colleagues. “Clear Day” has always been voice and the acting chops to to lose her beloved family home “The Cherry Orchard.” a show with a challenged book make the character’s progres- and its famous cherry orchard. Director Andrei Belgrader’s and a lovely score, and in revis- sion compelling. One of the Her inability to accept this fact script may be satisfied by the ing the book, Parnell has solved principal pleasures of this pro- and her refusal to consider story of an out of touch woman focus on romance among the some problems at the expense duction is the absolutely flaw- offers that would save her prop- spinning increasingly out of characters rather than the of being heavy on exposition in less technique the three leads erty, even though it would be control, but those who know it larger world surrounding them the first act. However, that pays bring to their singing. transformed, provide the cen- will likely feel shortchanged and is painfully obvious at the end In supporting roles, Sarah tral tension of the w o n d e r w h y , when the former serf Firs is left off in the second act, which is than to behind in the house and dies. touching and affecting as both Stiles and Drew Gehling are play. THE CHERRY ORCHARD other create a more Chekov’s famous stage direcDavid and Dr. Bruckner find the great as David’s best friend Chekhov had Classic Stage Company and long-suffering boyfriend, l a r g e r t h e m e s palatable run- tion calls for “a far-off sound like healing they need. 136 E. 13th St. ning time for a a string snapping” followed by And then, of course, there’s respectively, and the small but at work as well. Tue. at 7 p.m.; Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m. contemporary stillness and then sounds of an that score. It’s certainly dated busy ensemble is consistently Cherry orchards Sat.-Sun. at 3 p.m. $70-$125; ovationtix.com audience, this axe on the orchard. Belgrader by today’s standards, but it’s outstanding. take years to bear Or 212-352-3101 Catherine Zuber’s clothing fruit, and cher play should be has eliminated this, and so robs melodic and charming, and the audience of a defining and so altered. — with new orchestrations by perfectly captures 1974 in some ries, like olives, Still, there are pleasures to climactic moment, to say nothDoug Besterman and outstand- of its more extreme expres- are among the oldest cultivated ing musical direction by Law- sions, which may be shocking crops in history, so the orchard be had. Dianne Wiest is heart- ing of ignoring Chekhov’s view rence Yurman — wonderful to or humiliating to today’s eyes, is a symbol of an ancien régime breaking as Ranevskaya, play- that the world goes on regardhear, especially the new setting depending on your age. Chris- being shaken to its roots by ing her as a woman trapped in less of our petty dramas. It’s a of “She Wasn’t You.” Alan Jay tine Jones’ set capitalizes on the modernity, particularly the her delusions and powerless perfect example of what’s missLerner’s lyrics remain inventive- op-art movement of the time and socio-economic upheaval that to change them. Ranevskaya’s ing from this worthy, though ly rich and comic. One favorite is both minimal and effective. upended Russia and most of central tragedy, thankfully, is unfortunately misguided, effort. PAUL KOLNIK

CAROL ROSEGG

| December 21, 2011

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HIDE/ SEEK, from p.18

KATIA PERLSTEIN, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM/ KEITH HARING FOUNDATION

mate relationship. Katz said these “two defining figures in post-War American art, who made their greatest work when they were together, are never talked about in this way. This Johns painting, ‘In Memory of My Feelings,’ takes its title from a Frank O’Hara poem and is Johns’ most eloquent memorial to the end of their relationship. One of the first paintings they made together was the iconic American flag, which appears here, but gray and reversed, and this is also a two-

Keith Haring’s “Unfinished Painting,” 1989, acrylic on canvas, 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in.

sided pictorial allegory. You see this fork and spoon wrapped together, a metaphor for ‘spooning,’ and, on the other side of the painting, they are separate, representing the loss suffered and inability to speak about it at the time. It’s Johns as ventriloquist.” Tragedy, perforce, marks a number of the works, and no image is more haunting than Keith Haring’s 1989 “Unfinished Painting,” with its trademark calligraphy covering but one corner of the canvas, the paint dripping down so eminently suggestive of life’s delicate transience. The AIDS era is fully documented in pieces like Peter Hujar’s 1981 etiolated portrait of Wojnarowicz, Robert Mapplethorpe’s grimly staring self-portrait as well as his take on Roy Cohn, and Jerome Caja’s inversion of Goya’s painting of Saturn devouring his son, ”Charles Devouring Himself,” which uses nail pol-

ish mixed with the cremated ashes of his friend, who committed suicide. An artist I was wholly unfamiliar with, Jess (Collins, 1923-2004), was responsible for some of the most piquant images, particularly his marvelously naughty “Lord Pervert,” c.1956, which definitively shows what happens when you get us queens angry, by taking down Whittaker Chambers, the closeted Time magazine writer who named names, including Alger Hiss, before the Committee on UnAmerican Activities in 1948. Jess took a Lord Calvert “Men of Distinction” liquor advertisement and hilariously collaged it, using Chambers’ face, surrounded by derisive graffiti and pasted gibes, and gay references like a butterfly poised on his highball. “You would probably have heard of him if you knew California artists, as Jess made the mistake of not living in New York,” Katz explained. “He was the lover of the poet Robert Duncan and loved to play these delicious, bawdy erotic games. I love what he did here with the slogan ‘It’s always better to get a big one!’” You’ll probably need return visits to the exhibit to take in its full, wide-ranging, eclectic wonder. Cecil Beaton’s Gertrude and Alice B. are here; Peter Hujar’s 1975 portrait of Susan Sontag shows her at her most relaxed and leonine; Annie Leibovitz has Ellen Degeneres hilariously cupping her breasts on Kauai; Andrew Wyeth’s “The Clearing” revels in young, blonde maleness; Mapplethorpe’s famous 1979 leather couple shows the flip side of gay masculinity; Joseph Leyendecker’s 1914 Arrow Collar couple remains the elegant apotheosis of male domesticity; and there is Paul Cadmus’ fabulous wish-fulfillment of a world in his 1947 “What I Believe,” with its cameos of E.M. Forster, Jared and Margaret French, and the artist himself to endlessly ponder. For all the impressive, high-flown, intellectual theorizing about the show bandied about at the press preview, as things were winding down, my favorite comment came from Ward, who, with complete justification, happily said to Katz, “We did a fucking great job!”

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December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

IN THE NOH

Hugh’s Jack All about Yves, Clouzot compendium, shows to catch before it’s too late BY DAVID NOH roadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS’ Gypsy of the Year competition (December 6) was a sensational success, breaking previous records by taking in nearly $4.9 million. The unquestioned star of the day was Hugh Jackman, whose one-man show, running for only three weeks, alone raised a jaw-dropping $857,740. Much of this cash has come from Jackman’s nightly auctioning off of his sweaty wardrobe. The man himself was present at the competition, towering over co-presenters Daniel Radcliffe and Bernadette Peters, and giving full impressive physical proof why theatergoers are happily forking over hundreds of dollars per seat just to see him in the flesh, nasal voice notwithstanding. Performance-wise, little Brigid Harrington, who plays one of the children in “Mary Poppins,” got the biggest applause. In that show’s contribution to the competition, kids played adult roles, and Harrington, wearing a gray-streaked wig and pearls, hilariously impersonated Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” It was touching to see original cast members from “Grease” — including Barry Bostwick, Adrienne Barbeau, and Walter Bobbie — reunited for the opening number. I also cracked up over “Mamma Mia”’s new slogans to advertise this indefatigably long-running cash cow, including “‘Mamma Mia’ — When tickets to ‘Perfect Crime’ are unavailable.” Christine Pedi was a riot, with her spoton, sibilant Liza impersonation, alongside Amy Griffin, portraying, as “Liza” hysterically called her, Lady Ga-gà. Gaga had to explain to Liza that “LuGBuT,” as she kept saying it, was really the LGBT community. “Oh!” “Liza” exclaimed. “Thoshe are all my friendsh! And I’m glad shomebody else is finally doing shomething for them. I married half of them!”

to mention hypnotically indelible shots of gorgeous Romy Schneider on water skis.

nother favorite gay diva, Kristine W. — whose talent Lady Bunny extols in her unmissably obscene show at La Esquelita — made her cabaret debut at the Metropolitan Room on December 8, benefiting Miracle House, which provides housing to patients and caregivers visiting New York for treatment. Despite that night’s pissing rain, the place was excitingly packed with a hot fresh crowd of A-List boyz, all come to worship this enduring club muse, who rewarded them with a sizzling set, amped by her gloriously soulful voice, formidable saxophone chops, and welcome campy humor. “Hey there, in the audience, I rec-

redictions for an early close already surround “Bonnie and Clyde,” but I truly hope that’s not true. I saw it on December 10 and — critics be damned — found it rather wonderful. Yes, the greatly reviled composer Frank Wildhorn’s “Wonderland” was pretty awful, but here, with a largely countrylaced score, he hits many a right, and even graceful, note. People were actually humming the tunes during intermission — how often does that happen with new musicals these days? — and, even better, wiping tears away, as I did, at the tragically mounting events of its second act and heartbreaking finale. I thought the musical improved on the undeniably groundbreaking 1967 film, which, for all its innovative, shape-shifting violence and the glamour of Beatty and Dunaway — the most gorgeous screen couple of their time — was a pretty cursory treatment of these lawbreakers’ fraught lives. Jeremy Jordan (Clyde) is a born star, looking like an erotic Cocteau drawing come to life, with a marvelously natural stage assurance and charisma, while Laura Osnes, unmemorable in “Grease” and “Anything Goes,” beautifully makes Bonnie a fully realized, poignant, and feisty character. The critics who said they had no chemistry probably wouldn’t recognize true romance if it slapped them upside, and such show-destructing heresy will only further the practice, much-decried by these same pundits, of hiring mediocre movie/ TV “names” for future shows, instead of blazingly talented unknowns like these. Melissa Van der Schyff, as Blanche, takes the role Estelle Parsons won an Oscar for doing so cartoonishly and sensitively humanizes her, with a wry Bible Belt humor and voice that evokes Dolly Parton’s in its sweet purity. Claybourne Elder seemed nearly inept in Tennessee Williams’ “One Arm” earlier this year, but, as Buck Barrow, is pitch-perfect, funny, and moving. Another must-see is the Pearl Theatre’s “Richard III,” at City Center through December 24 (pearltheatre.org). Without the splashy star names or hipper status of, say, BAM or Classic Stage Company, the Pearl consistently does the classics with often far more real conviction and perception, and their latest effort triumphantly delivers Shakespeare’s not-easy historical epic with intelligence, speed, and emotive illumination.

MICHAEL PORTANTIERE/ FOLLOWSPOTPHOTO.COM

P Hugh Jackman towered over co-presenters Daniel Radcliffe and Bernadette Peters at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ Gypsy of the Year competition.

ognize those nipples!” was her greeting, and, later, “You boys stop it over there in that dark corner. This ain’t the Roxy!” Backed by a dynamite band, including certain cabaret veterans on drum and bass, who proved they could get down to disco as well as to Sondheim, she killed, doing her familiar anthems, especially a tasty, sinuous makeover of “Feel What You Want.” Check out her wonderful jazzy CD, “Straight Up With a Twist” (kristinew.com), perfect fun for any holiday party. arlier that evening, I enjoyed Jean Brassard’s Yves Montand tribute show, “The Kid From Paris,” at the Triad. I first saw Brassard do this in 2005, and am overjoyed to report that the show, and his talents, have only gotten richer through the years. His mellifluous baritone sounds more like Montand than ever and, like his inspiration, he is a formidable showman, delighting a crowd that included Robert Cuccioli, Karen Akers, and Steve Ross. Brassard’s rendition of “Sanguine” (“Blood Orange”), by Henri Crolla and France’s great poet Jacques Prévert, oozed sensuality on translated lyrics. Brassard, who is gay, made the words ring sizzlingly true, proving how formidable an actor he is, just as he does in J.C. Khoury’s delightfully funny, just-released indie film, “The Pill” (Quad Cinema, 34 W. 13th St.; quadcinema.com), where he hilariously plays the obnoxious French father of its wacky heroine. As for Yves Montand — aaah! Where are the real men like him these days,

I wondered, after seeing him in HenriGeorges Clouzot’s suspenseful masterwork “The Wages of Fear” at Film Forum (209 W. Houston St.; filmforum.com). Here was a devastatingly sexy guy who could not only act and sing beautifully, but was a committed liberal political activist his entire life, married the fabulous Simone Signoret, had a hot affair with Marilyn, and could probably fix your car, as well. And praise be to Clouzot! I can’t think of a better holiday treat than MoMA’s current retrospective (11 W. 53rd St.; $8-$12 at moma.org) of this impor tant auteur who dealt in suspense and the darkest side of human nature. His “Manon” (1949) was a fascinating retelling of the L’Abbé Prévost classic, set postWorld War II, that featured the fabulously handsome Michel Auclair and began with its bad girl heroine (pie-faced Cécile Aubry) nearly getting her head shaved by angry villagers for her dalliances with Nazi boyfriends. Coming up: “La Vérité” (1960; Dec. 21, 7:15 p.m.), featuring Brigitte Bardot’s greatest dramatic performance, which she hated doing but later appreciated, as an amoral, self-destructive accused murderess; “La Prisonnière” (1968; Dec. 22, 7 p.m., Dec. 23, 4:30 p.m.), about an SM-obsessed gallerist, filmed during the height of Op and Pop Art; “La mystère Picasso” (1956; Dec. 22, 4:30 p.m., Dec. 26, 7:30 p.m.), one great artist’s collaboration with another, as Picasso’s process is documented; and “L’Enfer,” Clouzot’s reconstructed film maudit (2010; Dec. 23, 7:15 p.m., Dec. 24, 2 p.m.), with its mesmerizing account of a filmmaker at his literal wit’s end, not

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IN THE NOH, continued on p.25

| December 21, 2011 giances among the characters and sympathy among spectators. None of the characters emerges couple affirming their faith in its climax, even if it also suggests that their spiri- unscathed. The courtroom scene that tual impulses are primitive and supersti- kicks off the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s drama puts us in the shoes of the judge by having Simin and tious. After an opening scene of passports Nader face the camera directly, talking being xeroxed, â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Separationâ&#x20AC;? heads to into it. No country is more demonized by the divorce court. Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Moadi) are separating American media than Iran. Yet Iranian because she wants to emigrate while cinema â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at least what is distributed he chooses to stay to care for his ailing here â&#x20AC;&#x201D; paints a different picture of Iranifather, who suffers from Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. an life than the news, with its persistent After her request apparently fails, Simin focus on whether that nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going to returns to her parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; house, while the develop a nuclear bomb. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not to say that â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Separationâ&#x20AC;? coupleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daughter decides to stay with sidesteps acknowledging deep strains of Nader and her grandfather. Nader hires a housekeeper to help conservatism and misogyny in Iranian take care of his father, but that leads culture. In front of the judge, Simin talks to a disastrous chain of events. After about not wanting to raise a daughter in tying her patient to his oxygen bottle Iran, while the housekeeper is so devout she calls an Islamic and leaving him alone in hotline to ask if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sinthe apartment, the old A SEPARATION ful to change the soiled man falls out of bed and Directed by Asghar Farhadi pants of a senile old man. injures himself. After an Sony Pictures Classics After a period when Iraensuing argument, the In Farsi with English subtitles Opens Dec. 30 nian cinema was almost housekeeper accuses Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. trendy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; highlighted by Nader of hitting her and filmforum.org the 1997 Cannes Palme knocking her down a Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Or going to Abbas Kiarflight of stairs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Separationâ&#x20AC;? proves engaging in ostamiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Taste of Cherryâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it fell out part due to its combination of fresh- of fashion, but it has recently regained ness and familiarity. Its story could be some of its artistic strength. That recovtake place in Manhattan or Los Angeles, ery, however, is tentative. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Separationâ&#x20AC;? is the first of three Irawith a Latina, rather than a poor Muslim, housekeeper. At the conclusion of nian films that will open in New York in an awkward September New York Times as many months. The Iranian governinterview, Farhadi said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like for it mentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heavy hand threatens to crush to be considered a depiction of a totally this rebirth. After Jafar Panahi was foreign other.â&#x20AC;? In fact, his script seems sentenced to a six-year jail term and a influenced by playwrights like Ibsen and 20-year ban from filmmaking (currently being appealed) on charges of threatenChekhov. That said, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing theatri- ing national security through propagancal about the film. Farhadiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s camera is da, his â&#x20AC;&#x153;This Is Not A Film,â&#x20AC;? which plays highly mobile, and he often favors quick the Film Forum in February, may be his cuts. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Separationâ&#x20AC;? is far from being final cinematic statement. Farhadi seems to have reached a an action movie, but it suggests that he could make a good one. He uses shallow workable middle ground. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hope he focus to suggest shifting patterns of alle- can keep it up.

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SEPARATION, from p.21

IN THE NOH, from p.24

The excellence of Sean McNall, one of our cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finest actors, as Richard was unsurprising, but I found Dan Kremerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s John of Gaunt one of the finest interpretations of the Bard Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever seen, superbly declaiming that deathless ode to England, with which our president recently came a cropper trying to deliver it to an â&#x20AC;&#x153;unamusedâ&#x20AC;? Queen Elizabeth. inally, holiday films worth plunking down 12 bucks for (or whatever itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s up to now): Dee Reesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; breathlessly good, cinema history-making â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pariahâ&#x20AC;? (see Gary M. Kramerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s review and interview on page 20) about all those crazy gals who make Christopher Street life so interesting for residents like me; David Fincherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sleekly entertaining â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,â&#x20AC;? in which Rooney

Mara is as perfectly cast as Vivien Leigh was as Scarlett Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hara; â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fanny, Annie & Danny,â&#x20AC;? the perfect dark holiday family saga for Scrooges like moi; James Westbyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rid of Me,â&#x20AC;? even darker and sicker, and quite terrific, and Madonnaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;W.E.,â&#x20AC;? a chic, ultimate chick flick exploration of the Windsor legend, with an exquisite Andrea Riseborough portrayal of the duchess. Musts to avoid: the nauseatingly cutesy-poo â&#x20AC;&#x153;We Bought a Zooâ&#x20AC;?; irritatingly pretentious â&#x20AC;&#x153;We Need to Talk About Kevinâ&#x20AC;?; and â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Iron Lady,â&#x20AC;? which is more obsequious Anglophile groveling from the Weinstein Co. Do we really need to glorify a right-wing monster like Maggie Thatcher? Yeah, sure, and Reagan was a great president, too. Contact David Noh at Inthenoh@aol. com and check out his new blog at http:// nohway.wordpress.com/.

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December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

THEATER

Bar Codes Meditation on the ever-shifting roles of dive joints in gay society BY DAVID KENNERLEY s you enter the tiny Paradise Factory Theatre to see “Accidentally, Like a Martyr,” you may think, for a brief moment, that you’ve made a wrong turn and ended up in a gay dive bar. That’s because the performance space has been transformed into a convincing facsimile of a decrepit watering hole, complete with moldy disco music. And those shadowy male figures conversing and sipping drinks? They’re actors. If you are reminded of the Boiler Room, the longtime East Village favorite just a block away, it’s no accident. That’s one of the unassuming old-school haunts that inspired Grant James Varjas, a member of the Tectonic Theater Company, to write the play. The multi-talented Varjas, who also directs and appears in the drama, is fascinated by the myriad roles that such pubs have played in the gay community — meeting place, safe haven, pickup joint, drug den, therapist couch, and even surrogate home for marginalized guys who don’t fit in with their biological families. He also recognizes that these functions are in flux, with each generation staking different claims. Bubbling beneath the surface is a toxic question that’s never overtly spoken: In the face of competition from the ultra-hip, pricey lounges and newfangled, high-tech modes of meeting, is it nearly last call for the good ol’ no-frills gay bar? The awkwardly titled “Accidentally, Like a Martyr,” which takes place in an unnamed bar on Manhattan’s Lower East Side on December 22, alternating between 2007 and 2011, explores this idea by contrasting characters of various

ACCIDENTALLY, LIKE A MARTYR Paradise Factory Theatre Through Jan. 8 64 E. Fourth St., btwn. Bowery & Second Ave. Mon. at 7 p.m.; Thu.-Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m. $18; theatermania.com Or 212-352-3101

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AHRON R. FOSTER

Chuck Blasius, Cameron Pow, Grant James Varjas, and Keith McDermott in Varjas’ “Accidentally, Like a Martyr.”

stripes, focusing on the loves and losses of men “of a certain age.” Naturally, setting the action around Christmastime ramps up the pathos. At first, we think Edmund (Chuck Blasius), the 50-something author who specializes in gay fiction — based on Edmund White, perhaps? — represents the old guard. When Jeffrey (Brett Douglas), a bartender in his mid-30s who calls everyone “Sweetie,” wishes they had a DJ like the new cocktail lounge around the corner, Edmund shudders, preferring the jukebox stocked with disco classics. But the real granddaddy is 61-year old Charles (Keith McDermott), a belligerent coot whose drink of choice is a Grasshopper. There’s also Brendan (Varjas), the unlucky-in-love druggie who makes way too many trips to the bathroom. Conflicts arise when a newcomer named Mark (Cameron Pow) enters looking for a guy he met online, disrupting the catty camaraderie among the regulars. Later, we discover he has a tragic

JONAS, from p.19

style. Having cancelled three seasons of Met contracts, Gheorghiu seemed determined to prove that she is still a diva to contend with. Initially overly soubrettish in manner while fussing self-consciously with dynamics, Gheorghiu relaxed into an uncharacteristically generous, extroverted performance with surprising chesty declamation and loud high notes. Kaufmann’s tone lacked Italian sunshine but showed a swaggering command of vocal effects, including stunning diminuendos. Ambrogio Maestri’s warmly idiomatic Michonnet reminded me of the late Giuseppe Taddei. Anita Rachvelishvili tore into the Principessa’s music like a feral cat, but her chesty pomegranate tones too often fell below pitch in the upper range. Maestro Alberto Veronesi conducted Cilea’s score like a flamboyant Technicolor movie soundtrack, which worked just fine. The evening proved a high-level performance of a guilty-pleasure opera.

connection to the bar. It’s amusing to witness the changes over four years. The beloved jukebox is replaced by a gizmo that accesses tunes from the Internet. Edmund has renounced his desperate, drunken ways. The unhinged Brendan is headed in the other direction — he lost his job and is in danger of losing his friends. Special mention goes to Clifton Chadick for his evocative set design of the aging and ageless dive. The fading but still vibrant collage of magazine images on the wall chronicles gay history. Amongst the beefcake shots, rainbow flags, Human Rights Campaign equality signs, and Tom of Finland hunks are icons like Oscar Wilde and Marilyn Monroe. You’ve got to admire Varjas (“33 To Nothing”) for tackling such a tricky subject while wearing three hats. His gritty coke-fiend portrayal is disturbingly spoton, and he elicits fine performances from much of the cast. As the aging denizens

ounod’s “Faust” also has attracted its share of critical opprobrium. Goethe’s philosophy makes great literature but is not suitable for operatic adaptation. Gounod’s librettists wisely concentrated on Faust’s ill-fated tragic romance with the peasant maiden Marguerite. The original “Faust” legend projected late medieval anxieties about emerging science onto the mythical alchemist and free-thinker Faust, who trades his soul for knowledge and power not available through religion. In the 20th century, new technology created military might that could destroy cities and eventually the earth itself. Des McAnuff’s production — which originated at the English National Opera last year — resets the story in the 20th century as the last anguished fantasies of an aged nuclear scientist. Initially, the two-level scaffolding suggests a 1950s nuclear laboratory, but when Mephisto restores Faust’s youth we are transported back to the World War I period. The concept worked well for the Faust myth but seemed beside the point in Gounod’s

with no other family to call their own, Blasius and McDermott (who played opposite Richard Burton in the original Broadway production of “Equus”) are superb. McDermott has some of the sharpest lines, and he makes them sting: “We, as gay men, after reaching a certain age, are completely erased from the culture. Neutered, at best; rendered completely invisible, at worst. And by our own kind.” Edmund, no spring chicken himself, can’t resist labeling his colleague a “BOMAB” (bitter old man at bar). While “Accidentally, Like a Martyr” delivers a number of affecting moments, there are some false notes and missed opportunities. Mark’s embarrassment about meeting a guy online seems positively quaint. The fact that he actually goes to hook up at a bar without getting the guy’s name, cell number, or face pic is simply too ludicrous to let slide. I kept hoping that those “tank-top clad, Cosmopolitan-swilling teenyboppers” they refer to would wander in by mistake so we could see some real fireworks. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe the current trend of guys in bars pecking away on their cell phones, obsessed with the murky promise of “next” and ignoring the “now,” is a subject ripe for commentary. In a contemporary work that examines the ever-changing ways gay men relate to one other, the failure to mention texting or social networking apps like Grindr or Scruff feels a tad out of touch.

reductive, romantic opera. And, unattractive design and misguided staging concepts left the audience cold. Luckily, the Met fielded top-class musical forces. Kaufmann’s Faust had welcome reserves of power but could modulate for a softer lyrical approach, including a decent high C in his aria. René Pape’s Mephisto lacked Gallic elegance but was not short of wit — he remains a physical and vocal star presence. Marina Poplavskaya’s Marguerite (replacing Gheorghiu) was again visually riveting and vocally uneven. The lean cool sound was apt for French opera. As the vocal line ascended and became more dramatic, Poplavskaya lost vocal control, falling into toneless yelps and shrieks. Michèle Losier made a promising debut as Siebel. Russell Braun, despite good diction, seemed vocally shallow and dramatically recessive as Valentin. Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s incisive conducting took any Victorian stodginess out of the score, painting a vivid, dramatic musical canvas. Once again the Met’s musical values surmounted a misguided production.

| December 21, 2011

In Clifford Streit’s “HIM,” hunky actor Nick Cooper has just landed his breakthrough film role and the offers from Hollywood’s A-list are pouring in. The only problem: Nick is gay and his viper of an agent wants to keep him in the closet. Nick is happy to play along in spite of the vocal opposition of his boyfriend. But all hell breaks loose when a Latina bombshell is brought in to play Nick’s girlfriend. Jon Fleming (“Dante’s Cove,” “Will & Grace”) stars. Cherry Lane Studio Theatre, 38 Commerce St., just W. of Seventh Ave. Wed.Sat., 7 p.m.; Sun., 2 & 7 p.m., except Dec. 24, 25 & 31, through Jan. 6. Tickets are $18 at cherrylanetheatre.org or 212-352-3101. For more information, visit himtheplay.com.

CABARET Holler and Hoop! Scott Siegel hosts a new weekly musical revue, “The Broadway Hootenanny,” with a rotating cast of special guests. Those on the line-up include Alan Campbell, Nancy Anderson, Daisy Eagan, Kevin Earley, Willy Falk, Terri White, Brad Oscar, Lauren Kennedy, Patrick Page, Christina Bianco, Carole J. Bufford, and Scott Coulter. The musical director is Jesse Kissel. Feinstein’s At Loews Regency, 540 Park Ave. at 61st St. Every Thu., 11 p.m., except for the first week of the month. Admission is $15-$25, with a one-drink minimum. Reservations at feinsteinsatloewsregency.com or 212-339-4095

PERFORMANCE The Safest Part of Your Trip is Over Pam Ann, the original queen of the skies — who has toured with Cher and crewed private jets for Elton John— is back in New York — and this time, she means business in her comedy show “Getem Bitch.” The alter ego of Australian comedienne Caroline Reid, she aims to knock the plastic smiles off the imposter hostesses on TV’s “Pan Am” in her raucous new production. So shut the f**k up, sit the f**k down, lock your seats in the upright position, and prepare for the ride of your life. Joe’s Pub, inside the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., btwn. E. Fourth St. & Astor Pl. Dec. 22, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Dec. 23, 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 at joespub.com. For table reservations, with a food/ drink minimum, call 212-967-7555.

FRI.DEC.23

COMEDY Toying With the Classics

With “Oy Vey in a Manger,” the Kinsey Sicks reinterpret holiday classics — with “God Bless Ye Femmy Lesbians,” “Satan Baby,” and “I’m Dreaming of a Betty White Christmas,” along with hilarious Jewish satiric fare like “Don’t Be Happy, Worry,” a Chanukah spa classic “I Had a Little Facial,” and, of course, the

hits and holiday classics. 540 Park Ave. at 61st St. Through Dec. 30, Tue-Wed., 8:30 p.m.; Thu.-Sat., 8 & 10:30 p.m. The cover charge is $60, with no food or drink minimum. Reservations at feinsteinsatloewsregency.com or 212-339-4095.

SAT.DEC.24

NIGHTLIFE Beats Chinese Food and a Movie

HEDDALETTUCE.COM

THU.DEC.22

THEATER Hunky HIM Not With HER

requisite Yiddish production number, “Papirossen.” The music is backdrop for the story of Rachel, Winnie, Trixie, and Trampolina trying to sell off their manger — yes, that manger— before it’s foreclosed on. Crises arise, secrets are revealed, Jewish-Gentile tensions surface, and mayhem ensues. Highline Ballroom, 431 W. 16th St. Dec. 23, 8 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. Admission is $30 at highlineballroom.com; $35 at the door. There is a $10 minimum for table service, and a full dinner menu is available.

Lettuce Rejoice In Hedda Lettuce’s hands, “Sleigh Ride” turns into a gay man’s quest for sex on Grindr, and “Do You Hear What I Hear” becomes “Do You Think That He’s Queer,” the saga of a fag hag desperately seeking a sexual relationship with a gay man. Plus, Hedda offers a holiday homage to the recently departed Amy Winehouse. Too soon perhaps? You decide. Metropolitan Room, Dec. 23 & 28, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 at metropolitanroom.com, and there’s a two-drink minimum.

CABARET Bad & Blue Baby Jane “Still Bad, Still Blue” is Baby Jane Dexter’s 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. Dec. 23, 9:30 p.m. The cover charge is $25, with a two-drink minimum. For reservations, call 212-2060440.

Feinstein’s Cookin’ In celebration of the 2011 Kennedy Center Honor that Barbara Cook is due to receive, Feinstein’s at Loews Regency will roll back its prices for her appearances through the end of December to prices when the club opened in 1999. Cook, a Broadway ingénue who went on to a remarkable cabaret career, appears with Great American Songbook guardian Michael Feinstein. Their show will feature Berlin, Ellington, Rodgers & Hart, and more recent Broadway

“Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad” returns for its ninth Xmas Eve celebration of comedy, music, art, film, and burlesque. The program includes appearances by Jena Friedman (“Late Night With David Letterman” writer), Rena Zager (Comedy Central), Hilary Schwartz (Sirius Radio), and Minnie Tonka and films by Freidman, Broad City (Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson) and others. The Goddess Perlman hosts. Soho Gallery for Digital Art, 138 Sullivan St., btwn. Prince & Houston Sts. Dec. 24, 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 at brownpapertickets.com; $25 at the door. Admission includes a beer, wine & nosh reception. Proceeds

benefit the Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad Project (NiceJewishGirlsGoneBad.com), an initiative to support and develop projects by women who go their own way, do their own thing and break a stereotype or two along the way.

A Very Jewish Christmas Oh holy hilarity! Jon Fisch, who opened for Jerry Seinfeld at the Gotham Comedy Club in 2009, returns tonight as the Christmas Eve headliner. Barry Weintraub and Rachel Feinstein round out the evening of very funny Jewish comics. 208 W. 23rd St. Dec. 24, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 at gothamcomedyclub.com, and there’s a two-drink minimum.

TUE.DEC.27

CABARET No Lady Here. ¡Ninguna!

The raunchy, demented drag diva of Wigstock fame, Lady Bunny presents her first full-length one wo-man show in almost a decade. Fast-paced and action-packed 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. Gay City News’ David Noh writes, “There surely have been drag queens more beautiful and more vocally expressive, but none has ever made me laugh as hard and consistently over the years as Lady Bunny.” For mature audiences who enjoy irreverent humor! La Nueva Escuelita, 301 W. 39th St. Every Tue., 8 p.m. Admission is — oddly — $14.98 at tinyurl.com/3jzfrk9. The show is followed by an hour of two-for-one drinks.

GALLERY Creating A Queer Museum The New York State Board of Regents has chartered the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian

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DEC. 27, continued on p.28

28 DEC. 27, from p.27

Art as the world’s first museum dedicated to exhibiting and preserving LGBTQ art and artists. In a new exhibition celebrating Leslie-Lohman’s expanded mission, it will show representative selections by such notable artists as Wilhelm Von Gloeden, Robert Mapplethorpe, JEB (Joan E. Biren), Keith Haring, Peter Hujar, Andy Warhol, Catherine Opie, Minor White, and Tee A. Corrine. The exhibition also includes new donations of work by Sherwin Carlquist, an American botanist and photographer who has published 12 books and more than 275 scientific papers but whose passion is the photography of male nudes in natural landscapes; Amos Badertscher, a self-taught Baltimore photographer, who is a poetic chronicler of that city’s fast disappearing trade/ sex worker subculture; and Marion Pinto, a native New Yorker who had the first one-woman show ever mounted at the Leslie-Lohman Gallery in 1975 entitled “Man As A Sex Object.” Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, 26 Wooster St., btwn. Grand & Canal Sts. Through Jan. 28, noon-6 p.m., Tue.-Sat., except holidays.

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. Tue.-Fri., noon- 6 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m., through Jan. 7. Admission is free.

WED.DEC.28

NIGHTLIFE Bernhard’s Back

Sandra Bernhard and her band the Jezebels present a four-night series featuring the comedian’s hilarious diatribes on the state of modern culture, a classic rock attitude that burns smart, and a raucous youthful energy that never says die. Joe’s Pub, inside the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St, btwn. E. Fourth St. & Astor Pl. Dec. 28-30, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. Dec. 31, 9 & 11 p.m. Tickets are $50, Dec. 28-30; $100, Dec. 31, 9 p.m.; $150, Dec. 31, 11 p.m. at joespub.com. For table reservations, with a food/ drink minimum, call 212-967-7555.

Cheap Men Going to Pieces Looking back on 350 evenings of adult fun, “P*rno Bingo” recalls occupying Wall Street, running from the non-Hurricane, watching part of Fire Island burn down, and worrying where Pieces would move when its lease ends. End the year right tonight with six rounds of Jackpot Bingo that might leave you with some cash on New Year’s Eve. Guests include author Justin Luke and singer Derek Bishop, Chris Padilla DJs, and Will Clark hosts. As ever, cheap drinks and even cheaper men. Pieces Bar, 8 Christopher Street, near Sixth Ave. Dec. 28, 8-10 p.m.

MUSIC Pirates Off the Cornwall Coast! The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players continues its season with “The Pirates of Penzance,” or “The Slave of Duty,” which centers on the dilemma of young Frederic, who, as a child, was mistakenly apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday. Helping Frederic to deal with this unusual predicament are the brash Pirate King, Ruth, the pirate maid-of-all-work, romantic Mabel, and the delightfully stuffy Major-General Stanley. On the rocky coast of Cornwall, a band of tenderhearted pirates celebrate the coming of age of their apprentice. Albert Bergeret is NYGASP’s artistic and musical director. Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2535 Broadway at 95th St. Dec. 28, 3 p.m., Dec. 29, 7 p.m., Dec. 30-31, 8 p.m., Dec. 31-Jan. 1, 3 p.m. The Dec. 31 matinee includes a pre-show musical introduction for children at 1:45 p.m. The Dec. 31 evening performance includes a champagne toast. Tickets are $67-$87 ($10 premium for the Dec. 31 evening performance), with an $8 discount for seniors and half-price for children under 13, at nygasp.org or 212-864-5400. The NYGASP season continues with “Patience” on Mar. 11, 5 p.m.; and “Iolanthe” on May 19, 3 & 8 p.m., May 20, 3 p.m.

GALLERY “Hide/ Seek” in Brooklyn “Hide/ Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” stirred controversy last fall when it premiered at the National Portrait Galley in Washington. After the first rumblings of right-wing criticism over a brief segment in “A Fire in My Belly” in which the late David Wojnarowicz showed ants crawling on a crucifix, the museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution, removed it. 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. The show comes to New York in its original entirety at the Brooklyn Museum, which showed backbone more than a decade ago in facing down the censorious instincts of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. See David Noh’s feature on the exhibit on page 18. 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., through Jan. 12. Admission is $12; $8 for students & seniors. SANDRABERNHARD.COM

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December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

THU.DEC.29

PERFORMANCE For La Mama

A tribute to La MaMa founder Ellen Stewart, who opened an East Village storefront theater performance space in 1961 and died at 91 in January of this year, “The La MaMa Cantata” is a theater music piece that charts her arrival in New York, from Louisiana via Chicago, and her early career as a fashion designer for Saks Fifth Avenue. It also considers and celebrates the wild improbability of a woman of color opening a theater “dedicated to the playwright and all aspects of the theater” — and thus creating the off-off-Broadway movement. Actor soloists and a large chorus will draw on quotes from Stewart and as well as stories about her and the many, many characters she encountered in her remarkable journey. La MaMa Ellen Stewart Theatre, 74A E. Fourth St., btwn. Second Ave. & Bowery. Dec. 29-30, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25; $20 for students & seniors at lamama.org.

SAT.DEC.31

NIGHTLIFE Nardicio Masked, Dancers Not

At Daniel Nardicio’s third annual New Year’s Eve Masked Ball, P*rn Pups Jake Steel and Ben Andrews host and promise an all-nude midnight champagne toast. Enjoy complimentary champagne and vodka all night as you enjoy six totally-starkers dancers and consider your own clothing options. Playgirl Mansion, 30 Lexington Ave., btwn. 23rd & 24th Sts., penthouse. Dec. 31, 10 p.m. Admission is $80 at tinyurl. com/7b4bx52. Doors will be closed midnight-2 a.m. unless you’ve bought tickets in advance. $150 prize for the best mask.

In the Heart of Times Square — Inside! Carolines on Broadway welcomes Drew Fraser, who hosts two New Year’s Eve Spectacular comedy shows. Comics include Vince August, Michael Che, Russ Meneve, and Mike Vecchione. 1626 Broadway, btwn. 49th & 50th Sts. Dec. 31, 8 & 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 for the early show and $80 for the late show at carolines.com or 212-757-4100. Both shows have a two-drink minimum and offer an a la carte menu. Post-midnight, there will be a DJ, dancing, and party favors.

Cheaper Laughs in Chelsea Headliner Steve Byrne is joined by Angelo Lozada for two New Year’s Eve shows at Gotham Comedy Club, 208 W. 23rd St. Dec. 31, 8 & 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 for the early show; $60 for the late show at gothamcomedyclub. com. Both shows have a two-drink minimum. VIP admission to the late show at $120 includes an open bar from 10:30 p.m.12:30 a.m. and a midnight champagne toast. Check out the website for private table reservations.

Electronic AfterParty Nero, London’s electronic music act of Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray, are the special after-hours guests at Webster Hall’s New Year’s Eve Ball, which promises fire displays, aerial acts, and the world’s biggest balloon drop at midnight. General admission, at $99, includes a champagne toast at midnight and admission to the Nero performance at 3:30 a.m. Silver admission, at $150, includes an open bar from 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Tickets at websterhall.com/nye. 12 E. 11th St., btwn Third & Fourth Ave. Dec. 31, 8 p.m.-9 a.m. Continental breakfast served in the morning.

SUN.JAN.1

COMMUNITY Poetpalooza

The Poetry Project hosts the 38th annual New Year’s Day Marathon Benefit Reading, an event Eileen Myles described as “living proof that every year the Poetry Project is a new community in process. The avant garde, the queers, the beats, the others, the riff raff, the radicals… it’s the apres es New Year’s party you never want to miss. You just want to see what happens this year.” This year’s reading welcomes 140 poets and performers including Myles, Jonas Mekas, Suzanne Vega, Robert Ashley, Anselm Berrigan, Bob Hershon, Janet Hamill, Secret Orchestra, Stephanie Gray, Taylor Mead, Brendan Lorber, Christopher Stackhouse, Church of Betty, Judith Malina, Miguel Gutierrez, Nick Hallett, Penny Arcade, Wayne Koestenbaum, Arlo Quint, and many, many, many more. Saint Mark’s Church, 131 E. Tenth St. at Second Ave. Jan. 1, 3 p.m. Admission is $20; $10 for students & seniors.

MON.JAN.2

PERFORMANCE Only Tiny Tchim Is Missing

“Jackie Hoffman’s A Chanukah Charol” is the funny lady’s new holiday-themed, pseudo-autobiographical, one-woman show that she said is inspired by “Patrick Stewart’s A Christmas Carol,” which played to packed houses two decades ago. The kvetching comedienne — whom the Village Voice has hailed for her mix of “Carol Burnett’s rubber face, Sarah Silverman’s outrage, Ethel Merman’s vocal throttle, and Gladys Kravitz’s worldview — is forced to examine her life when visited by the Ghosts of Chanukah Past, Present, and Future — and even Yiddish theater great Molly Picon! What Hoffman learns is that in her quest for fame she has become a darkly desperate diva who would give Scrooge a run for his money. Michael Schiralli will direct. New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St. Jan. 2, 7:30 p.m. Tickets $35-$55 at telecharge.com or 212-239-6200.

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14 DAYS | 14 NIGHTS, continued on p.30

| December 21, 2011

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December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

14 DAYS | 14 NIGHTS, from p.28

COMEDY Jackie Oh!

WED.JAN.4

She’s a curmudgeon — and a killer comic actress. In “Homo Comicus,” Jackie Hoffman joins a gaggle of great gay and gay-friendly comics and entertainers, including Bianca Del Rio, Jackie Monahan, and Nashville-based Peter Depp for an evening of LOLGBT hilarity. Bob Montgomery hosts. Gotham Comedy Club, 208 W. 23rd St. Jan. 4, 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $20, with a two drink minimum at.gothamcomedyclub. com or 212-367-9000.

THEATER Funny Money Writer Michael Yates Crowley performs his show, “Righteous Money,” about a foul-mouthed closeted gay billionaire who goes a cropper live on television. What starts as a promo for his new book,

8 p.m.) Patrick Healy speaks with Alan Rickman, who starred as Professor Severus Snape in the “Harry Potter” films and is currently appearing on Broadway in “Seminar,” in which Gay City News’ David Kennerley says “he is a delight to behold.” (Jan. 7, 10 a.m.) The celebrated modernist composer and musician Philip Glass appears Jan. 7, 2 p.m. And, Erik Piepenburg interviews creative designer, bon vivant, and author of “Gay Men Don’t Get Fat,” Simon Doonon. (Jan. 8, noon) Tickets are $30 at artsandleisureweekend.com, which has the full line-up of events.

FRI.JAN.6

COMEDY A Funny Christian

Comedian Christian Finnegan has appeared on Keith Olbermann’s show, is a cast member of TBS’ “Are We There Yet?,” and was an original cast member of VH1’s “Best Week Ever,” where he offered keen insight into the workings of popular culture and the ubiquity of celebrity genitalia. He appears for two nights at the Gotham Comedy Club, 208 W. 23rd St. Jan. 6, 8:30 & 10:30 p.m.; Jan. 7, 8, 10 & 11:45 p.m. Tickets are $25 at gothamcomedyclub.com, and there’s a two-drink minimum.

Music Charts, performs some of his best-known hits, including “Adam & Steve”; at 5:30 p.m., Chris Columbus’ 2005 film “Rent,” based on the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning musical about bohemians in New York City’s East Village struggling with life, love, and AIDS, will be presented in a singalong version, emceed by legendary drag performer Peppermint; at 6 p.m., Brooklyn-based Ariel Aparicio, an award-winning Cuban-American pop-rock musician, performs songs from his latest album; at 6 p.m., as part of “The Brown Bear,” a migrating, site-specific salon series, Brooklynbased artists A.K. Burns and Katherine Hubbard engage in conversation with visitors while providing free hair cuts, fades, and chops within a new three-channel video installation; at 6 p.m., artist Lyle Ashton Harris discusses works by himself and others in the “Hide/ Seek,” taking up issues of identity, family, gender, masculinity, and race; at 7 p.m., folk rock singer-songwriter Melissa Ferrick performs selections

“Buy The Recession,” takes a downward spiral as the host comes out, loses his mind, and tries to justify his wealth to an increasingly angry public. It is a hilarious and bitter allegory about the collapse of the US economy that asks: How much money can you handle? Michael Rau directs the show, which began at East to Edinburgh at 59E59, has since toured Berlin, Dublin, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and is now back in New York for performances at two venues. 3LD Art & Technology Center, 80 Greenwich St. at Rector St. Jan. 4-7, 8 p.m. The Red Room, 85 E. Fourth St., btwn. Second & Third Aves. Jan. 13-14, 20-21, 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 at righteousmoney.tv or 212-352-3101; $15 at the door. The 3LD performances also include on the bill “Gerechtes Geld,” a radically adapted German version of the play as interpreted by the company Schlosstheater Moers. Patrick Dollas and Matthias Hesse perform under the direction of Ulrich Greb.

THU.JAN.5

CULTURE The Times Does Arts & Leisure

For the 11th year, the New York Times hosts its early January Arts & Leisure Weekend featuring TimesTalks interviews between the newspaper’s journalists and celebrated guests from film, media, music, television and theater. Highlights this year are: Dave Itzkoff’s talk with Emmy-winner and Grammy-nominee David Cross, who talks about the IFC series he created “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret,” in which he stars as an American suddenly promoted to be the chief marketing executive of an energy drink in the UK, a post he is woefully unqualified for. (Jan. 5,

house music; at 9 p.m., Charles Rice-Gonzalez, executive director of BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, reads from “Chulito,” his novel about a gay Hispanic teenager growing up in the Bronx; and from 9-10 p.m., 3 Teens Kill 4, an experimental punk band whose members were collaborators with the late “Hide/ Seek” artist David Wojnarowicz perform. 200 Eastern Parkway at Washington Ave., near Grand Army Plaza. Jan. 7, 5-11 p.m. A cash bar serves beer and wine throughout the evening, and the Museum Café offers sandwiches and salads.

SUN.JAN.8

THEATER Freddie Mercury in Dublin

SAT.JAN.7

COMMUNITY Queerer and Queerer in Brooklyn

The Target First Saturday program at the Brooklyn Museum offers free admission to a special day of arts and entertainment each month. In conjunction with the “Hide/ Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” exhibit (see David Noh’s review on page 18), the museum this month celebrates LGBTQ community in art, music, film, and literature. Highlights include: at 5 p.m., Caribbean artist Nhojj, the first openly gay indie artist to reach #1 on the MTV

from her latest album, “Still Right Here”; at 7 p.m., “Hide/ Seek” curator Jonathan D. Katz speaks about the exhibit; from 8-10 p.m., DJ Tikka Masala, resident DJ of two of Brooklyn’s hottest queer dance parties, That’s My Jam and Fresh Fridays, spins hip-hop and

Anthony Rapp (“Rent”), Dee Roscioli (“Wicked”), and James Kautz (“Amoralists”) star in the US premiere of “Dedalus Lounge,” written by Irish playwright Gary Duggan. Danny (Rapp), Delphine (Roscioli), and Daragh (Kautz) are trying to survive in Dublin, where their usual haunt is the Dedalus Lounge, the city’s best bar. Danny’s trying to get a Queen tribute band off the ground, Delphine’s struggling with a high profile affair and the fact that her granny’s dying, and Daragh, well, he can be seen in all places dark and dangerous. A jet-black Christmas tale of desperation, casual sex, bereavement, shoplifting, bisexuality, rampant disloyalty, copious drinking, and Freddie Mercury impersonations. The Royal Family Productions’ Chris Henry directs, and there is original music by Rapp and Daniel A. Weiss. Interart Theatre Annex, 500 W. 52nd St., second fl. Jan. 8, 5 & 8 p.m.; Jan. 10-12, 23 & 30, 7 p.m.; Jan. 13-14, 19-21, 26-28, 8 p.m.; Jan. 15, 22 & 29, 6 p.m. Tickets are $18 at brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006.

| December 21, 2011

The Empire State Pride Agenda thanks SEIU Local 32BJ for being such strong partners in the ﬁght for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality and justice by: • Protecting employees on the basis of sexual orientation • Incorporating the New York City human rights law protecting gender identity and expression into its local contract

• Offering domestic partner health beneﬁts in its local contract • Supporting the Lavender Is Purple LGBT and Ally Committee in the union

• Ofﬁcially supporting and putting resources into the campaigns for marriage equality, the Dignity for All Students Act and a statewide transgender non-discrimination law

On December 31, 32BJ’s New York City contract expires for the 22,000 workers who keep more than 1,500 commercial buildings safe, clean and running smoothly. If you work in an office building in New York City, take a minute to wish your building service workers a Happy New Year and thank them for their support and for everything they do. You can find out about 32BJ’s efforts to secure a new contract for its workers at www.seiu32bj.org.

Pride in Our Union is a program of the Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation. For more information and to get involved, contact us at: EMPIRE STATE PRIDE AGENDA tel: 212.627.0305

16 West 22nd Street, 2nd Floor

union@prideagenda.org

New York, NY 10010

www.prideagenda.org

December 21, 2011 | www.gaycitynews.com

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