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November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

Letter from the Editor: A Stain on Our Democracy

26

HONORING

#HELPMEIMAGINE © GAY CITY NEWS 2016 | NYC COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

FREE | VOLUME FIFTEEN, ISSUE TWENTY THREE | NOVEMBER 10 - 23, 2016

We are NYC’s transit workers. We safely move nearly 8 million bus and subway riders a day: 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. And with growing ridership, we will transport 150 million more riders in 2016 than just a few years ago - with the same number of workers.

These are uniquely dangerous and stressful jobs. We are physically assaulted hundreds of times each year. Spitting incidents are at all time highs. Thousands of our brother and sister transit workers, meanwhile, are injured annually by on-the-job industrial accidents.

Twelve were killed on duty since 2001.

Our contract with the MTA is expiring. We will kick off our campaign for fair raises, solid beneƓts and no givebacks with a rally on 1ov.

15th in Lower Manhattan. We are NYC’s transit workers and We Move NY.

RALLY FOR A NEW CONTRACT

NOVEMBER

15

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2 Broadway @5pm

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Transport Workers Union of America AFL-CIO Harry Lombardo, President 501 3rd St. NW - 9th Floor Washington, DC 20001 www.twu.org

2 whoMovesyou_ad_8.75x11.5.indd

1

Transport Workers Union Local 100 John Samuelsen, President 195 Montague St. Brooklyn, NY 11201 www.twulocal100.org

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc 11/1/16 3:40 PM

POLITICS

IN THE NOH

THEATER

LGBT voters out of step with nation’s direction

07

CIVIL RIGHTS The presidential election and LGBT law

08

Judy Blue Eyes, in all her candor

Conjuring a scorned queer king

34

30

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14 DAYS/ 14 NIGHTS

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40-43

DISCOVER REAL POSSIBILITIES ACROSS THE FIVE BOROUGHS. We’re right beside you helping you get the most out of life. It’s why we’re working hard to help you plan for your future. Come to one of our free AARP MoneySmarts nancial health workshops. You’ll get unbiased information to help you achieve your nancial goals. Or if you’re wondering what’s next for you, join us for a free Life Reimagined seminar where we’ll give you tools and advice to help you navigate life transitions and achieve your dreams.

Hey, if you don’t think “this is right for me” when you think AARP, then you don’t know “aarp.”

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Real Possibilities is a trademark of AARP.

GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

@aarpny

3

What is TRUVADA for PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis)?

uYou may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems

TRUVADA is a prescription medicine that can be used for PrEP to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection when used together with safer sex practices. This use is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV-1 through sex. This includes HIV-negative men who have sex with men and who are at high risk of getting infected with HIV-1 through sex, and malefemale sex partners when one partner has HIV-1 infection and the other does not.

Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to prevent getting HIV-1. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids. Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

Who should not take TRUVADA for PrEP?

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about TRUVADA for PrEP?

Before taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: uYou must be HIV-negative. You must get tested to make sure that you do not already have HIV-1 infection. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are confirmed to be HIV-negative. uMany HIV-1 tests can miss HIV-1 infection in a person who has recently become infected. If you have flu-like symptoms, you could have recently become infected with HIV-1. Tell your healthcare provider if you had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting TRUVADA for PrEP or at any time while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Symptoms of new HIV-1 infection include tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin.

While taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: uYou must continue using safer sex practices. Just taking TRUVADA for PrEP may not keep you from getting HIV-1. uYou must stay HIV-negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. uTo further help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1: • Know your HIV-1 status and the HIV-1 status of your partners.

• Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months or when your healthcare provider tells you.

• Get tested for other sexually transmitted infections. Other infections make it easier for HIV-1 to infect you.

• Get information and support to help reduce risky sexual behavior.

• Have fewer sex partners.

• Do not miss any doses of TRUVADA. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

• If you think you were exposed to HIV-1, tell your healthcare provider right away. uIf you do become HIV-1 positive, you need more medicine than TRUVADA alone to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

TRUVADA can cause serious side effects: uToo much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, nausea, vomiting, stomach-area pain, cold or blue hands and feet, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or fast or abnormal heartbeats. uSerious liver problems. Your liver may become large and tender, and you may develop fat in your liver. Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, lightcolored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach-area pain.

if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking TRUVADA for a long time. In some cases, these serious conditions have led to death.

Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions. uWorsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you also have HBV and take TRUVADA, your hepatitis may become worse if you stop taking TRUVADA. Do not stop taking TRUVADA without first talking to your healthcare provider. If your healthcare provider tells you to stop taking TRUVADA, they will need to watch you closely for several months to monitor your health.

TRUVADA is not approved for the treatment of HBV. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you already have HIV-1 infection or if you do not know your HIV-1 status. If you are HIV-1 positive, you need to take other medicines with TRUVADA to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you also take lamivudine (Epivir-HBV) or adefovir (HEPSERA).

What are the other possible side effects of TRUVADA for PrEP?

Serious side effects of TRUVADA may also include: uKidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider may do blood tests to check your kidneys before and during treatment with TRUVADA for PrEP. If you develop kidney problems, your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking TRUVADA for PrEP. uBone problems, including bone pain or bones getting soft or thin, may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones. uChanges in body fat, which can happen in people taking TRUVADA or medicines like TRUVADA. Common side effects in people taking TRUVADA for PrEP are stomacharea (abdomen) pain, headache, and decreased weight. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or do not go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking TRUVADA for PrEP?

uAll your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you

have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. uIf you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRUVADA can harm your unborn baby. If you become pregnant while taking TRUVADA for PrEP, talk to your healthcare provider to decide if you should keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Pregnancy Registry: A pregnancy registry collects information about your health and the health of your baby. There is a pregnancy registry for women who take medicines to prevent HIV-1 during pregnancy. For more information about the registry and how it works, talk to your healthcare provider. uIf you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed.

The medicines in TRUVADA can pass to your baby in breast milk. If you become HIV-1 positive, HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. uAll the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. TRUVADA may interact with other medicines. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine. uIf you take certain other medicines with TRUVADA for PrEP, your healthcare provider may need to check you more often or change your dose. These medicines include ledipasvir with sofosbuvir (HARVONI).

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about TRUVADA for PrEP including important warnings on the following page.

4

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

Have you heard about

TRUVADA for PrEP ?

TM

The once-daily prescription medicine that can help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 when used with safer sex practices.

• TRUVADA for PrEP is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV through sex.

• You must be HIV-negative before you start taking TRUVADA. Ask your doctor about your risk of getting HIV-1 infection and if TRUVADA for PrEP may be right for you.

visit start.truvada.com GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

5

IMPORTANT FACTS (tru-VAH-dah)

This is only a brief summary of important information about taking TRUVADA for PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection. This does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your medicine.

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT TRUVADA FOR PrEP

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF TRUVADA FOR PrEP

Before starting TRUVADA for PrEP to help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: • You must be HIV-1 negative. You must get tested to make sure that you do not already have HIV-1 infection. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are confirmed to be HIV-1 negative.

• Many HIV-1 tests can miss HIV-1 infection in a person who has recently become infected. Symptoms of new HIV-1 infection include flu-like symptoms, tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin. Tell your healthcare provider if you have had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting TRUVADA for PrEP.

TRUVADA can cause serious side effects, including: • Those in the “Most Important Information About TRUVADA for PrEP" section.

• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure.

• Bone problems.

• Changes in body fat.

While taking TRUVADA for PrEP to help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: • You must continue using safer sex practices. Just taking TRUVADA for PrEP may not keep you from getting HIV-1.

• You must stay HIV-1 negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. • Tell your healthcare provider if you have a flu-like illness while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. • If you think you were exposed to HIV-1, tell your healthcare provider right away.

• If you do become HIV-1 positive, you need more medicine than TRUVADA alone to treat HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

• See the “How to Further Reduce Your Risk” section for more information.

TRUVADA may cause serious side effects, including: • Buildup of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, nausea, vomiting, stomach-area pain, cold or blue hands and feet, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or fast or abnormal heartbeats.

• Severe liver problems, which in some cases can lead to death.

Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach-area pain.

• Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you have HBV and take TRUVADA, your hepatitis may become worse if you stop taking TRUVADA. Do not stop taking TRUVADA without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking TRUVADA for a long time.

ABOUT TRUVADA FOR PrEP (PRE-EXPOSURE PROPHYLAXIS) TRUVADA is a prescription medicine used with safer sex practices for PrEP to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection in adults at high risk: • HIV-1 negative men who have sex with men and who are at high risk of getting infected with HIV-1 through sex.

• Male-female sex partners when one partner has HIV-1 infection and the other does not.

To help determine your risk, talk openly with your doctor about your sexual health.

Do NOT take TRUVADA for PrEP if you: • Already have HIV-1 infection or if you do not know your HIV-1 status.

• Take lamivudine (Epivir-HBV) or adefovir (HEPSERA).

TRUVADA, the TRUVADA Logo, TRUVADA FOR PREP, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, and HEPSERA are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies.

All other marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

Version date: April 2016 © 2016 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. TVDC0050 09/16

6

Common side effects in people taking TRUVADA for PrEP include stomach-area (abdomen) pain, headache, and decreased weight.

These are not all the possible side effects of TRUVADA. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with TRUVADA for PrEP.

BEFORE TAKING TRUVADA FOR PrEP Tell your healthcare provider if you: • Have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.

• Have any other medical conditions.

• Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you become HIV-1 positive because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take: • Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

• Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with TRUVADA for PrEP.

HOW TO TAKE TRUVADA FOR PREP • Take 1 tablet once a day, every day, not just when you think you have been exposed to HIV-1.

• Do not miss any doses. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

• You must practice safer sex by using condoms and you must stay HIV-1 negative.

HOW TO FURTHER REDUCE YOUR RISK • Know your HIV-1 status and the HIV-1 status of your partners.

• Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months or when your healthcare provider tells you.

• Get tested for other sexually transmitted infections. Other infections make it easier for HIV-1 to infect you.

• Get information and support to help reduce risky sexual behavior.

• Have fewer sex partners.

• Do not share needles or personal items that can have blood or body fluids on them.

GET MORE INFORMATION • This is only a brief summary of important information about TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more, including how to prevent HIV-1 infection.

• Go to start.truvada.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5 • If you need help paying for your medicine, visit start.truvada.com for program information.

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

POLITICS

LGBT New Yorkers Out of Step With Nation’s Direction Clinton swamped Trump with queer voters across US, but women’s glass ceiling still in place

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

H

DONNA ACETO

DONNA ACETO

ours before Donald Trump stunned tens of millions of Americans by winning the White House, Miguel was sitting quietly in Hudson River Park at the end Christopher Street. The 25-year-old lives in a congregate shelter in Brooklyn and has struggled to find work. He voted for Hillary Clinton after transferring his voter registration from Manhattan.

“My main focus was voting for Hillary,” he said. “I told them I’m going to vote. I don’t want Donald Trump in office… He’s not a proper candidate. He disrespects women, he gropes them.”

Going into the November 8 election, the expectation of many Americans, including many LGBT Americans, was that Clinton would win the race. Polling data, which turned out to be

Two women console each other in the early morning hours of November 9 at Henrietta Hudson.

A patron at Henrietta Hudson on Election Night stares in disbelief at the TV monitor above her.

almost universally wrong, had her with multiple paths to reach the required 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, and Trump had a far narrower path. But a large turnout among white male voters over 45 without a college education in small cities, suburbs, or

lic during the campaign, openly boasted about sexually assaulting women and effectively cheating on his wife. Despite some party leaders refusing to back Trump, nine out of 10 Republi-

rural areas overcame Clinton’s lead among many other groups.

White evangelicals and conservatives abandoned all pretense of believing in traditional values and overwhelmingly backed a man who is in his third marriage and, in a tape that was made pub-

c

OUT OF STEP, continued on p.17

Advocacy Groups Stunned By Huge New Obstacles After eight years of LGBT-embracing Obama, grim determination to soldier on

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

R

esponding to celebrity Donald Trump winning the White House, leading LGBT groups reacted with dismay and calls to redouble efforts to advance the rights of queer people and others in America.

“Millions of people here and around the world will be shocked, disappointed, and frankly frightened by the election of Donald Trump,” Rea Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, said in a November 9 statement.

Trump, a Republican, was expected to lose the race to Democrat Hillary Clinton, but the many polls that predicted this result turned out to be very wrong. The upset stunned Democrats and progressives across the country.

Making matters worse, Republicans retained control of the US House, which was generally expected, while Democrats missed a ripe opportunity to win a majority in the Senate.

Come January 20, when Trump is inaugurated, Republicans will own the Executive and the LegGayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

islative Branches of the federal government.

Control of the Senate also means that Republicans will be able to fill an empty seat on the US Supreme Court. The nominee for that seat will likely be very conservative given the possible nominees Trump has previously mentioned.

Republicans will also fill any other open federal judicial position, and that party will have control of the federal bureaucracy.

“LGBTQ youth face losing the federal civil rights protections provided by the Obama administration, like the Title IX guidance,” Eliza Bayard, executive director of GLSEN, which champions LGBT issues in schools, said in a statement. “Any hope of passing federal LGBTQ-inclusive legislation in the next few years is gone. And our Supreme Court may well be packed with justices who will challenge our work to create LGBTQ-inclusive schools for decades to come.”

Trump began his campaign by vilifying Mexican immigrants. Over the course of months he attacked other immigrants, Muslims, women, and the disabled. A 2005 tape of him bragging about sexually assaulting women emerged

during the campaign. He insulted his rivals during the Republican primary and continued that practice during the general election, directing slurs at Clinton.

“By a slim margin, this nation has elected a demagogue who trafficked in bigotry, stoked racist hatred, and normalized misogyny,” Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in a statement. “The election of Donald Trump as president threatens basic principles of human dignity and justice.”

The groups took some solace in Pat McCrory, the Republican governor of North Carolina, losing his race to Democrat Roy Cooper, currently North Carolina’s attorney general, and in Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who currently represents the Chicago suburbs in the House, defeating Republican Mark Kirk for his Senate seat.

“In North Carolina, it appears we have defeated the hateful Governor Pat McCrory and helped elect Roy Cooper to repeal HB2,” Chad Grif-

c

NEW OBSTACLES, continued on p.17

7

CIVIL RIGHTS

The Presidential Election and LGBT Law Beyond his impact on the courts, Trump positioned to undo major Executive Branch pro-gay initiatives

BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD

T

8

DANIEL KWAK

he Trump/ Pence ticket’s victory will have profound ef fects for LGBT law, and not just on the federal level. Some shortterm effects should become apparent soon after the inauguration in January, while others may unfold for a generation or more.

Perhaps the most visible will be the impact on the Supreme Court, where the ninth seat has been vacant since Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden death last winter.

An eight-member Supreme Court can decide cases, but it takes at least five votes to make a ruling an official high court precedent.

When the court ties 4-4 on a case, the lower court ruling that was appealed is “affirmed by an equally divided Court.” In that case, since there is no majority, no written opinion will be issued and no explanation given for why the justices voted as they did.

On the current court, one justice was appointed by Republican Ronald Reagan (Anthony Kennedy), one

by Republican George H.W. Bush (Clarence Thomas), two by Democrat Bill Clinton (Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer), two by Republican George W. Bush (John Roberts, the chief justice, and Samuel Alito), and two by Democrat Barack Obama (Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan). When they divide along the political lines of the presidents who appointed them, there is no majority. They don’t always divide that way, however, and it is worth remembering that the four big gay rights victories of the past 20 years were opinions written by Kennedy.

When we lost Kennedy’s vote on the sharply divided Rehnquist Court in the case challenging the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay policy, we lost the case. (We lost some other cases during this period, but they were not by 5-4 votes — for example, the challenges to the Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade gay exclusion policy and to the Solomon Amendment, which threatened

The president-elect appears on a Times Square jumbotron in the early morning hours of November 9.

loss of federal funds to colleges and law schools that barred military recruiters because of the Defense Department’s anti-gay policies.)

As the senior judge on the court, Kennedy is a probable candidate to retire during the next four years, as is the oldest member of the court, Ginsberg.

Scalia’s death seemed to provide Obama with a brief window of opportunity to create a Democratic-appointed — and largely progressive — majority on the Supreme Court for the first time since the high-flying years of the court led

by Chief Justice Earl Warren in the 1960s. Once Richard Nixon started appointing judges, the court moved to Republican conservative dominance. Jimmy Carter never got to appoint a Supreme Court justice, but Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had several appointments each. Despite four terms of Democratic presidents since 1992, the balance has never swung back.

Obama’s opportunity was stymied by the Senate Republicans’ determination to deny him a third appointment to the court. With his

first appointment, President-Elect Donald Trump will seal in the Republican conservative majority that was diminished by Scalia’s death, and his next appointment would likely move the court as far to the right as it ever has been in the past half century. It is unlikely that Trump would encounter serious opposition from Senate Republicans were he to appoint anybody on the lists he published during the campaign, all sitting judges with established conservative voting records in the mold of the justice he said is his favorite, Scalia.

On October 28, the high court agreed to review the Fourth Cir cuit’s decision from last spring holding that the district court in Virginia should defer to a US Department of Education’s interpretation requiring schools receiving federal funding to allow transgender students to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity (see page 12). The DOE heavily based that interpretation — of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 — on the Equal Employment Opportunity Com-

mission (EEOC) decisions on similar issues under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which have applied prohibitions on sex discrimination to gender identity and sexual orientation claims .

The appeal will most likely be argued this winter, perhaps in February or March. If heard by an eight-member court, it may receive a tie vote affirming the Fourth Circuit, but creating no precedent nationwide. But if Trump’s first appointee is seated by then and participates, a decision on the merits may well reverse the Fourth Circuit, along the lines of a dissenting opinion written by one of the circuit panel judges in that case. Depending how it is written, such an opinion could affect not only student rights but also employee rights throughout the economy, by speaking affirmatively or negatively about the EEOC’s recent decisions.

New leadership at the Department of Education and Justice Department might even try to affect the issue raised in the Fourth Circuit case by rescinding the letter they jointly sent to school districts around the nation in May advising them about what Title IX requires concerning transgender students. Since it was not adopted as a formal regulation, it could be unilaterally rescinded. Although that would not render the pending case moot, because it was brought by a private party, it would affect several other pending lawsuits that specifically challenge the policies announced in that letter, effectively making them moot.

Those federal departments might also discontinue pending investigations. All over the country, school boards reacted to the Obama administration letter by debating policy changes, and many locals districts adopted polices in response.

Those might end up being rescinded if the letter is withdrawn.

Even if the high court were to dispose of the Virginia “bathroom” case without setting a precedent, similar cases are in the pipeline and

c

LGBT LAW, continued on p.20

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

POLITICS

Dem Bid to Recapture State Senate Falters

Two tight Long Island races offer only shot at reshuffling Albany leadership

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

I

State Senator Brad Hoylman.

When prospects for Democrats flipping a number of Senate seats appeared strong during the campaign, there was widespread hope that the IDC, prodded by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s role in the effort, would rejoin the party regulars.

DONNA ACETO

Mel Wymore, the executive director of TransPAC.

Even if Democrats gain 32 seats not counting Felder by winning both Long Island races, it’s unclear whether Klein is prepared to move his faction back into cooperation with other Democrats. He might find he has a stronger hand with the current Republican majority leader, John Flanagan of Long Island, who would lose his post without the IDC’s help.

A spokesperson for the IDC did not respond to Gay City News’ request for comment.

Mike Murphy, a spokesperson for Stewart-Cousins’ office, remained upbeat the day after the election about the Democrats’ prospects for winning both of the two close Long Island contests and then finding common ground with the IDC. “After the votes are counted we expect there to be a majority of Democrats in Chamber and as

c

SENATE, continued on p.22

DONNA ACETO

GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

DONNA ACETO

n a year when New York Democrats hoped that with Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket they might finally achieve a goal that has largely eluded them in the past half-century — control of the State Senate — that effort appears to have fallen short.

With clear results in 61 of the 63 Senate races, Republicans have 30 wins, Democrats 31, while two Long Island races are as yet too close to call. If those two contests produce one Democratic winner and one GOP victor — as the unofficial returns suggest — Democrats would have a 32-31 edge, but Brooklyn’s Simcha Felder, who represents a socially conservative Orthodox Jewish constituency, has caucused with the GOP for his entire four years in the Senate, so Republican control would in all likelihood continue.

For LGBT political advocates, the Democrats’ failure to gain control of the Senate is a bitter pill, with Republicans having bottled up a number of key agenda items, most prominently the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), a transgender civil rights measure.

Two new LGBT political action committees have emerged in the wake of the last year’s demise of the Empire State Pride Agenda, and both focused their initial efforts on flipping the Senate. TransPAC, a group dedicated to achieving “full and equal rights” for the transgender community, distributed more than $85,000 in 11 State Senate races, while Equality NY PAC, a newer group that aims to represent the broader LGBT community on a host of issues — with transgender civil rights at the top of the list — made donations totaling $10,000 in nine Senate races and two Assembly races. Those donations helped three victorious Democratic incumbents — Long Island’s Todd Kaminsky, who was aiming for a full term after winning a special election for a vacant seat earlier this year, George Latimer from Westchester, and Manhattan’s Brad Hoylman, the Senate’s only out LGBT member.

Jim Gaughran, who benefited from a TransPAC donation, currently trails Long Island Republican incumbent Carl Marcellino by just under 2,500 votes out of more than 135,000 cast.

Elsewhere on Long Island, challenger John E. Brooks is clinging to a 33-vote lead over incumbent Michael Venditto. Brooks was not supported in his bid by either TransPAC or Equality NY. Even if both of those tight races end in Democratic victories when the results are certified, the Senate Democrats face the challenge of wooing the Independent Democratic Conference— a rump faction that now numbers seven and is led by the

Bronx’s Jeff Klein — to return to the fold and give Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Westchester the power to preside over the Senate.

The IDC has leveraged its position with the Republicans to give its members more influence than they could have hoped for as minority senators, but the conference, though supportive of LGBT issues, has failed to deliver on issues like GENDA, a ban on sexual orientation and gender identity “conversion therapy” for minors, or eliminating the state’s ban on gestational surrogacy contracts, which the GOP refuses to take up.

When prospects for Democrats flipping a number of Senate seats appeared strong during the campaign, there was widespread hope that the IDC, prodded by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s role in the effort, would rejoin the party regulars. If the Republicans win 31 or 32 seats outright and have the support of Brooklyn’s Felder as well, what the IDC does becomes irrelevant.

Matthew McMorrow, a leader in the effort to launch Equality NY PAC.

9

FAMILY

Sale of Tom Doyle’s West Village Home Blocked Gay man wins right to make case his partner of 56 years was his spouse

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

I

Tom Doyle in the living room of the apartment he shared with William Cornwell from 1961 until Cornwell’s death two years ago.

DONNA ACETO

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DONNA ACETO

n a promising first step for a gay man fighting to hold onto the West Village home he shared with his late partner for 53 years, a Manhattan Surrogate Court judge has blocked sale of the property by the dead man’s nieces and nephews and ordered them to show cause why Tom Doyle, as their uncle’s “surviving spouse,” should not be declared “the sole heir” to the property.

In a November 1 ruling, Judge Nora Anderson issued a temporary restraining order against four nieces and nephews of William Cornwell selling the townhouse at 69 Horatio Street he purchased in 1979 and where he lived in a garden apartment with Doyle beginning in 1961.

Anderson’s show cause order gave the four until November 18 “or as soon thereafter as counsel may be heard.”

Cornwell and Doyle began their relationship in 1958, and Cornwell had purchased wedding rings for the couple after New York legalized same-sex marriage in 2011. According to Doyle, however, Cornwell’s declining health prevented the men from making the trip to the city Marriage Bureau on Worth Street prior to Cornwell’s death in 2014.

Cornwell had left the property to Doyle in his will, but that will had only one witness, while New York law requires two. Arthur Z. Schwartz, one of Doyle’s attorneys, told Gay City News that he believes there is no way to challenge what he sees as an ironclad requirement for the will.

Judge Anderson had previously appointed Sheila McNichols, the daughter of Cornwell’s sister Elsie, and James Michael Cornwell, the son of his brother Harry, as co-administrators of Cornwell’s estate and authorized them and James Michael Cor nwell’s sister and brother, Carole Ann DeMaio and Vint James Cornwell, to put the property up for sale. After entering into a contract with a prospective buyer for more than $7 million,

The wedding rings Bill Cornwell bought for himself and Tom Doyle.

Cornwell had left the property to Doyle in his will, but that will had only one witness, while New York law requires two.

the nieces and nephews offered to allow Doyle, who is 85, to stay in his home for five years and to pay him a $250,000 cut from the proceeds of the building he and Cornwell managed for the past 37 years and lived in for 55 years.

Schwartz and his co-counsel, Jamie L. Wolf, filed suit claiming that time Cornwell and Doyle spent vacationing in New Hope, Pennsylvania, over the years qualified them as common law spouses in that state. Though New York State does not have a legal category of common law spouse (and nor does Pennsylvania since 2005), if the couple qualified for that status in the years prior to 2005, New York State would, under existing precedent, recognize such a marriage.

One wrinkle in the argument, of course, is that it requires the retroactive application of last year’s US Supreme Court marriage equality

ruling to the years when Doyle and Cornwell vacationed in New Hope, a point on which there are no clear legal guidelines.

When Sheila McNichols originally learned that she and her cousins were eligible to inherit the townhouse, she offered to yield her share to Doyle in return for his leaving the property to her in his will. McNichols, however, failed to convince her cousins to go along with that plan, and so the four of them proceeded to put the townhouse on the market.

The New York T imes quoted DeMaio as speculating that perhaps her uncle and Doyle were just “friends” or “great companions” – who shared a one-bedroom apartment for 53 years. DeMaio told Gay City News that the Times mischaracterized her comments, but she declined to elaborate. Sheila McNichols also declined comment.

James Michael Cornwell and Vint James Cornwell could not be reached for comment. In an affidavit filed in this case, Doyle wrote that James Michael McNichols responded to news of William Cornwell’s death by saying, “Now I get a windfall from my rich uncle.”

Schwartz told Gay City News, via email, “The entry of a Temporary Restraining Order by the Surrogate is a great step forward, since it indicates that at least, based on our papers, she believes that we have made a plausible legal case that Tom Doyle and Bill Cornwell were married, and should be treated as such for purposes of inheritance. This is the first step in litigation which will go on for a while, and will probably end up in the NY Court of Appeals, but the blocking of the sale of the house gives Tom Doyle some well deserved piece of mind.”

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

POLITICS

LGBT New Yorkers Will Now Be Counted by City Data Equity Act also requires surveying for ethnic subgroups to better identify specific community needs

more urgent care centers than ever.

GAY CITY NEWS

Transgender activist Bryan John Ellicott of Staten Island is flanked by Councilmembers Margaret Chin and Daniel Dromm in celebrating the enactment of three Data Equity measures, including one requiring surveying clients of city services on sexual orientation and gender identity.

BY ANDY HUMM

U

nder three new laws, New York City is now obligating its agencies and contractors to collect much more specific data on those who use their services, including whether they are LGBT. “Now we count,” said out gay City Councilmember Daniel Dromm of Queens, author of Intro 552-A that requires a range of agencies — including the Department of Education — to survey clients and students age 14 and over anonymously and voluntarily on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

“We pay our fair share of taxes, we deserve our fair share of services,” said Dromm. “It is also about providing culturally sensitive services.”

Dromm, who represents Jackson Heights, the most diverse district in the city, also sponsored Intro 251-A that requires collection of data on the top 30 ethnicities and languages in the city.

Councilmember Margaret Chin of Lower Manhattan took that a step further as prime sponsor of Intro 551-A, requiring service proGayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

viders to allow people to indicate if they have a “multiracial ancestry or ethnic origin” as opposed to fitting themselves into one box. The Council also passed Chin’s Resolution 472 calling on the state and federal governments to “accommodate multiracial identification.”

Just prior to Mayor Bill de Blasio signing the bills, Dromm and Chin were joined at a City Hall press conference by a veritable rainbow coalition of LGBT and ethnic services providers from PFLAG and the Asexual Visibility and Education Network to the Indo-Caribbean Alliance and the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families.

And all the groups were down with LGBT inclusion.

Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said, “With more detailed data, including demographic information regarding ethnic origin with separate categories for 22 Asian-Pacific groups, as well as options to indicate multiracial ancestry and one’s sexual orientation and gender identity, our city can understand how better to support New York’s diverse communities.”

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DATA, continued on p.29

SIGN ME UP!

SERVING NEW YORKERS FOR OVER 30 YEARS MKT 16.189a

11

CIVIL RIGHTS

Supreme Court Takes Up School Bathroom Issue Transgender high schooler Gavin Grimm’s effort to use boys’ facilities could establish key precedent

BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD

I

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ACLU.ORG

n a case that could have significant implications for how the courts view gender identity discrimination — and perhaps sexual orientation, as well — the Supreme Court, on October 28, announced it will review the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Gloucester County School Board v.

G.G., which upheld the Department of Education’s requirement that a Virginia school district let a transgender teenage boy use the boys’ restroom facilities.

The April 19 ruling by the Fourth Circuit overturned a 2015 district court ruling that found that the DOE overstepped its authority in its interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972.

The Gloucester case has been closely watched

by LGBT lawyers and legal commentators because it provides the high court with a vehicle to examine the broader question of whether federal laws prohibiting discrimination “because of sex,” most passed decades ago, can now be construed to forbid gender identity discrimination and, maybe, also sexual orientation discrimination, despite the obvious fact that legislators in 1960s and 1970s had no such intent when enacting those statutes.

Framed a different way, the question is one repeatedly raised by the late Justice Antonin Scalia: Are we governed by the intentions of our legislators or should the courts rely instead on reasonable interpretations of the actual text of the law? Scalia, who was an ardent foe of using “legislative history” as a method of statutory interpretation, decisively argued that courts should focus on the language of the statute, not viewed in isolation but rather in the context of the overall law, including any specific declaration of congressional purpose contained in it.

On that point, ironically, this justice who was notoriously hostile to gay rights claims won unanimous concurrence by his colleagues in a significant 1998 ruling that laid the groundwork for advances in LGBT rights. In Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., the court held that a man employed in an all-male workplace could maintain an action for hostile environment sexual harassment under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Right Act, even though it was unlikely that Congress at that time was thinking about samesex harassment when it included “sex” as a forbidden grounds for workplace discrimination.

Relying on the statutory text, Scalia wrote that Joseph Oncale, who was sodomized with a bar of soap and threatened with rape, would have a valid Title VII claim if he could prove that he was harassed “because of sex” as specified by

the 1964 law. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has prominently quoted from Scalia’s Oncale opinion in its federal employment rulings in the last several years holding that discrimination because of gender identity and sexual orientation is “necessarily” discrimination “because of sex,” even though the 1964 Congress would not have thought so.

Though the claims of Gavin Grimm, the transgender plaintiff in the Gloucester case, do not directly involve Title VII, federal courts have generally followed Title VII precedents when they interpret the sex discrimination ban in Title IX, as the Fourth Circuit explained in this case.

Gavin Grimm, a transgender Virginia high school student whose effort to use an appropriate bathroom at his Virginia high school is going to the US Supreme Court.

The controversy arose when fellow students and their parents objected to Grimm using the boys’ restrooms during fall term of his sophomore year, in 2014. The high school’s principal had given Grimm permission to use the boys’ restrooms after learning of his transition and his discomfort with continuing to use the girls’ restrooms, since he was dressing, grooming, and — most significantly — strongly identifying as male.

Responding to the complaints, the Gloucester County School Board established a policy under which students were required to use the restroom consistent with their “biological sex” as identified on their birth certificate or to use a private gender-neutral restroom, of which there were a few in the high school. Grimm enlisted the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia to sue the school board, and the case was assigned to District Judge Robert G. Doumar, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Grimm’s complaint relied on Title IX as well as

the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

In ruling on Grimm’s motion for preliminary injunction, Doumar found that he could not sustain a Title IX claim because its regulations expressly allow schools to maintain separate restroom facilities for boys and girls based on “sex,” so it was not unlawful for Grimm’s school to require him to use restrooms consistent with his “sex” which, in the school board’s view, was female.

The district judge rejected the ACLU’s claim that he should defer to the DOE interpretation of the “bathroom regulation,” articulated in a letter the department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) sent in January 2015 as a “party in interest” in response to Grimm’s request for its assistance.

The OCR took the position, consistent with recent developments in sex discrimination law, that Grimm should be treated as a boy because it was undisputed that this is his gender identity and so under the regulation he was entitled to use the boy’s restroom — though he could also request as an accommodation to have access to a private gender-neutral facility.

To Doumar, the regulation’s text was clear and unambiguous, so the OCR’s attempt to interpret the regulation in favor of Grimm’s claim was not entitled to deference from the court. To accord that interpretation deference, he wrote, would allow the OCR to “create a de facto new regulation.” If the OCR wanted to change the regulation, the judge found, it should go through the time-consuming procedures set out in the Administrative Procedure Act, which would be subject to review in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In his opinion, Doumar referred to Grimm as a “natal female,” unwilling to credit the idea that for Title IX purposes he should be treated as a boy. The case, the judge concluded, presented the simple question whether the school board had to let a girl use the boy’s restroom, and under the “clear” regulation the answer was “no.”

Doumar dismissed Grimm’s Title IX claim, and reserved judgment on his Equal Protection claim.

When Grimm appealed to the Fourth Cir cuit, Doumar was reversed in a 2-1 opinion this past April 19. Where Doumar saw clarity in the regulation, the Fourth Circuit majority saw ambiguity. Though Title IX clearly called for separate facilities for boys and girls, it said nothing directly about which restrooms transgender students could use. Unlike Doumar, the majority was unwilling to accept the school board’s argu-

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SUPREME COURT, continued on p.13

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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SUPREME COURT, from p.12

ment that a person’s sex is definitely established by their birth certificate, taking took note of the developing case law in other circuits and in many district courts accepting the proposition that sex discrimination laws are concerned not just with genetic or “biological” sex but rather with the range of factors and characteristics that go into gender, including gender identity and expression.

Many federal courts, including several on the appellate level, now accept the proposition that gender identity and sex are inextricably related, that gender dysphoria and transgender identity are real phenomena that deeply affect the identity of people, and that transgender people are entitled to be treated consistent with their gender identity.

Given the ambiguity it identified, the Fourth Circuit relied on Auer v. Robbins, a 1997 Supreme Court ruling that an agency’s interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation should be given controlling weight by the court unless that interpretation is “plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation or statute.” A reasonable agency interpretation of an ambiguous regulation, then, should be given deference by the court. The majority sent the matter back to Doumar for reconsideration and stressed the urgency of the matter.

Doumar responded quickly, granting Grimm the preliminary injunction he sought on June 23.

Seeking a stay of that injunction, the school board was unsuccessful with both Doumar and the Fourth Circuit, but won a stay from the Supreme Court on August 3 in a 5-3 vote, before Grimm was able to start his senior year.

One among the five-court majority, Justice Stephen Breyer, took the unusual step of explaining his decision to vote with the court’s four-member conservative faction, saying it was an “accommodation.”

In retrospect, it seems likely Breyer understood the four conservatives would provide the votes necessary to hear the case on appeal and was voting to maintain the status quo pending final resolution at the Supreme Court.

After the school board filed its petition for high court review, more than a dozen amicus briefs GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

in support or opposition were quickly filed, as well, including briefs from a number of states and members of Congress. Media interest in this case will undoubtedly remain very high.

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider two questions raised in the school board petition: whether the 1997 Auer precedent is appropriately applied in a case the school board described as “an unpublished agency letter that, among other things, does not carry the force of law and was adopted in the context of the very dispute in which deference is sought,” and whether the DOE’s interpretation of Title IX and the bathroom regulation should be “given effect.”

Unlike Doumar, the majority was unwilling to accept the school board’s argument that a person’s sex is definitely established by their birth certificate, taking took note of the developing case law in other circuits and in many district courts.

The court could go down several different paths in resolving these questions. It might agree with the school board that no deference is due to an agency position formulated in response to a particular case and expressed in an unpublished agency letter — though the Fourth Circuit noted that the DOE published online an OCR statement setting forth the same view a month before its letter in the Grimm case.

The court making this finding would send the case back to the Fourth Circuit for its reconsideration of whether the Title IX claim was properly dismissed by Doumar at the outset in the absence of any requirement to defer to the DOE interpretation.

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SUPREME COURT, continued on p.23

13

YOU MATTER AND SO DOES YOUR HEALTH

That’s why starting and staying on HIV-1 treatment is so important.

What is DESCOVY ? ®

DESCOVY is a prescription medicine that is used together with other HIV-1 medicines to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years and older. DESCOVY is not for use to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection. DESCOVY combines 2 medicines into 1 pill taken once a day. Because DESCOVY by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1, it must be used together with other HIV-1 medicines.

DESCOVY does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses, you must keep taking DESCOVY. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids. Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

What are the other possible side effects of DESCOVY? Serious side effects of DESCOVY may also include: • •

•

•

Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking HIV-1 medicines.

Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking DESCOVY. Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your health-care provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. Your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking DESCOVY if you develop new or worse kidney problems.

Bone problems, such as bone pain, softening, or thinning, which may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

The most common side effect of DESCOVY is nausea.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away.

DESCOVY may cause serious side effects:

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking DESCOVY?

What is the most important information I should know about DESCOVY? •

•

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Buildup of an acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include feeling very weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

Serious liver problems. The liver may become large and fatty. Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turning yellow (jaundice); dark “tea-colored” urine; light-colored bowel movements (stools); loss of appetite; nausea; and/or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area.

You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking DESCOVY for a long time. In some cases, lactic acidosis and serious liver problems have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions.

Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. DESCOVY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking DESCOVY, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking DESCOVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health.

•

•

•

•

All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection.

All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other medicines may affect how DESCOVY works. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. Ask your healthcare provider if it is safe to take DESCOVY with all of your other medicines.

If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if DESCOVY can harm your unborn baby.

Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking DESCOVY. If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed.

Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/ medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about DESCOVY, including important warnings, on the following page.

Ask your healthcare provider if an HIV-1 treatment that contains DESCOVY® is right for you.

14

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

15

IMPORTANT FACTS (des-KOH-vee)

This is only a brief summary of important information about DESCOVY® and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DESCOVY

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF DESCOVY

DESCOVY may cause serious side effects, including:

DESCOVY can cause serious side effects, including:

• Buildup of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: feeling very weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• Those in the “Most Important Information About DESCOVY” section.

• Changes in body fat.

• Changes in your immune system.

• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure.

• Bone problems.

• Severe liver problems, which in some cases can lead to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice); dark “tea-colored” urine; loss of appetite; light-colored bowel movements (stools); nausea; and/or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area.

• Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. DESCOVY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking DESCOVY. Do not stop taking DESCOVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking DESCOVY or a similar medicine for a long time.

ABOUT DESCOVY • DESCOVY is a prescription medicine that is used together with other HIV-1 medicines to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years of age and older. DESCOVY is not for use to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

• DESCOVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. Ask your healthcare provider about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to others.

The most common side effect of DESCOVY is nausea.

These are not all the possible side effects of DESCOVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking DESCOVY. Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with DESCOVY.

BEFORE TAKING DESCOVY Tell your healthcare provider if you: • Have or had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.

• Have any other medical condition.

• Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed.

Do not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take: • Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-thecounter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

• Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with DESCOVY.

GET MORE INFORMATION HOW TO TAKE DESCOVY • DESCOVY is a one pill, once a day HIV-1 medicine that is taken with other HIV-1 medicines.

• Take DESCOVY with or without food.

• This is only a brief summary of important information about DESCOVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.

• Go to DESCOVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5 • If you need help paying for your medicine, visit DESCOVY.com for program information.

DESCOVY, the DESCOVY Logo, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, and LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. All other marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. © 2016 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. GILC0265 10/16

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November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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OUT OF STEP, from p.7

NEW OBSTACLES, from p.7

fin, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT rights group, said in a statement.

HB2 overturned local laws in that state that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and requires transgender people to use public toilets that are consistent with the gender on their birth certificates, which could often mean that they end up having to use the wrong toilet.

HRC originally endorsed Kirk, an endorsement that drew heated criticism from the community grassroots and Democratic Party stalwarts, but rescinded the endorsement after Kirk made racist remarks about Duckworth’s family.

The groups also vowed that they would not stop working and fighting.

“When our movement gets knocked down, we GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

Patrons at Henrietta Hudson offer middle-finger salutes to the news of Trump’s emerging Election Night victory.

were too close to call, and some states that Clinton was expected to win were going to Trump.

Two patrons of Gym Sportsbar, Corey, 45, and James, 34, were standing outside the Chelsea bar waiting for a ride. The crowd inside had been cheering Clinton’s incremental gains in some states, but the overall picture was worrisome.

“It’s just tense,” Corey said and then added for reassurance, “You realize there’s actually more people to go out and vote.”

A f e w h o u r s e a r l i e r, K e v i n had expressed consternation at T rump’s popularity. His campaign was first marked by insults and petty remarks directed at his rivals during the Republican primary. He continued in that vein during the general election, directing his vitriol at Clinton. Trump

get back up, dust off, and push forward,” Jerame Davis, executive director of Pride at Work, a constituency group of organized labor, said in a statement. “We don’t sulk. We organize, organize, organize.”

T rump’s conduct during the campaign should motivate to community to rise up and fight back, the groups said.

“His remarks over the course of the campaign, including his sexist, racist, and xenophobic comments as well as his mocking of people with disabilities and his dehumanization of Muslims, leave many of us deeply disturbed,” Carey said. “Make no mistake about it, this will also give us a roadmap for fair-minded, moral, compassionate people to come together like never before and fight. It will take longer, it will be harder, but rest assured that united and working in partnership with people of good conscience, we will get there.”

GAY CITY NEWS

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cans voted for Trump.

While Trump voters were generally wealthier, they had a gloomier view of America’s future and thought the country was headed in the wrong direction. Clinton won voters with household incomes below $49,999, according to exit poll data compiled by Edison Research.

Clinton also won the LGBT vote 78 percent to Trump’s 14 percent.

In prior presidential elections, the Republican candidate has typically won about 20 to 25 percent of the LGBT vote.

Clinton faced more than one challenge. After eight years with one party in the White House, some Americans vote reflexively against the candidate from the party that held the presidency for the prior two terms. Voters who wanted some unspecified change backed Trump by 83 percent to Clinton’s 14 percent. And what was little discussed during the campaign were those Americans who simply won’t vote for a woman.

“I think the misogyny is endemic, except for gay men,” said Roberta Degnore, 60, as she stood outside Henrietta Hudson, a West Village bar, several hours before the election results were known.

In 2008, after eight years of war and the wrecked economy produced by Republican George W. Bush, many Americans were excited to elect Barack Obama, first a little-known state senator from Illinois and then the nation’s first Afri-

can-American president, who ran on a message of hope and change.

“I was in LA for that,” Degnore said. “You could hear the cheering in the streets when he won.”

Degnore was not alone in that view. Kevin, 53, who was enjoying a cigarette outside the Hangar on Christopher Street, agreed that the atmosphere was different in 2016 than in 2008, though he had gotten up early in the morning to stand in line to vote 15 minutes before his Manhattan polling place opened at 6 a.m.

“I think Barack has been her biggest fan in this whole process, but there’s not the same enthusiasm to elect her as there was to elect Barack,” he said about two hours before the first polls closed and the vote count began.

The excitement did seem reduced at the prospect of electing America’s first female president, though it may be that any decline was largely among men.

“I’m excited about this,” Degnore said. “It’s revolutionary, this is a big fucking deal. Women died for this…

The right has dampened it, they have derogated it.”

Clinton won among women 54 percent to Trump’s 42 percent and lost among men 41 percent to Trump’s 53 percent, according to exit poll data.

Though Clinton would not concede the election until the early morning hours of November 9, it was apparent by 10 p.m. on Election Day that the hoped-for Clinton win was not quickly materializing.

Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida

Miguel, a 25-year-old Brooklyn resident sitting in Hudson River Park on Election Night, said the president-elect was “not a proper candidate.”

offered few if any substantive promises on policy.

“As an educated man, I’m perplexed by the acceptance of Donald Trump’s message,” Kevin said.

“ Make no mistake about it, this will also give us a roadmap for fair-minded, moral, compassionate people to come together like never before and fight.”

17

CENTER HONORS WOMEN OF IMPACT

Artist Mickalene Thomas, the Community Impact honoree.

BMI senior vice president Alison Smith, winner of the Corporate Impact Award.

Glennda Testone, the Center’s executive director.

PHOTO ESSAY BY DONNA ACETO In a splashy celebration at Capitale on the Bowery November 5, the LGBT Community Center held its 19th annual Women’s Event honoring community members making a difference.

The evening recognized contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas with the Center’s Community Impact Award, Alison Smith, a senior vice president at BMI with its Corporate Impact Award, and actress Debi Mazar (“Younger,” “Entourage”) with its Ally Award.

Glennda Testone (center) with event co-chairs Claire Shanley, Lisa Linsky, Sarah Carson, and Kerry-Ann Cook.

18

Actress Debi Mazar, Ally Award winner, with fashion designer Patricia Field, who presented Mazar with her award.

Jewelry designer Alexis Bittar, a Center board member.

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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19

c

LGBT LAW, from p.8

20

up to the discretion of environmental regulators whether to go after violators. The Justice Department has a Civil Rights Division, which has been very active under the Obama administration after years of passivity during the George W. Bush years. Given the hostility of Trump and Republican legislators to regulation, a slowdown in regulatory enforcement is a likely consequence of this week’s election, even if they don’t move to repeal the major regulatory statutes.

But Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and a compliant president may yield repeals as well, including the number one target of Congress, the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, which Trump campaigned to repeal.

One area likely to see immediate change is immigration policy.

Changing the law is not so easy, because the US is bound under international law by various treaties on top of our statutory law.

However, Trump’s attitude toward treaties expressed during the campaign was to renegotiate or even ignore the ones he does not like, and his hostility to immigration and refugee law was a centerpiece of his candidacy. Because Congress could not agree on immigration reform, Obama issued executive orders and policy directives, some of which have been challenged and even stalled in the courts, to achieve reform goals. Much of this could be countermanded by Trump without having to go to Congress.

The State Department, meanwhile, plays a crucial role in documenting human rights conditions around the world through its “country reports” issued annually, which are then relied upon, especially by immigration judges deciding asylum and refugee cases.

Under the Bush administration, the treatment of LGBT concerns was spotty and relatively unengaged.

After Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, a new attitude permeated the department on LGBT issues, resulting in stronger reporting in the country reports and LGBT rights advocacy by ambassadors in foreign postings, as well as the addition of special ambassadors to address LGBT issues. These developments, which have been continued by Secretary John Kerry, may not survive a change of administration.

EEOC

likely to come up to the court over the next few years. There are other lawsuits challenging the DOE’s s interpretation of Title IX, and there are appeals pending in several federal circuits considering whether the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s Title VII ban on sex discrimination in employment includes sexual orientation discrimination claims or gender identity discrimination claims.

The court as altered by Trump appointments may be less receptive to such claims than a court completed through Hillary Clinton appointments.

The Supreme Court is only the most visible place for Trump to make an impact, however. Much of the progress on LGBT rights at the federal level during the Obama administration came from executive orders, formal directives issued unilaterally by the president to set internal policy for the Executive Branch. Obama expanded on executive orders left by Bill Clinton (and left untouched by George W. Bush) dealing with sexual orientation discrimination, extending them to gender identity discrimination and applying them for the first time to government contractors.

The problem with executive orders is that a president is free to rescind or amend prior executive orders on the same unilateral basis as they are issued.

Over the summer, news reports indicated that the Trump transition team was readying a list of Obama administration executive orders for Trump to revoke as soon as he takes office. Many such orders and other informal presidential directives may be on the chopping block, including measures on immigration policy and labor policy, and, most likely, LGBT discrimination measures.

Executive branch agencies are also empowered to issue regulations and adopt guidelines for carrying out the requirements of federal statutes. A new administration can take steps to repeal or amend such policies, action which does not require approval by Congress.

In the case of formal regulations, however, agencies must follow regulations specified by the Administrative Procedure Act, which can take several months or, sometimes, years, but an administration with a regulatory “to do” and “to repeal”

list can probably decimate the Code of Federal Regulations within one term of determined effort.

Presidents don’t appoint only Supreme Court justices. They appoint judges to the federal courts of appeals, which decide thousands of cases each year, and to the federal district (trial) courts, which decide hundreds of thousands of cases each year. (By contrast, the Supreme Court disposes of only about 60 cases each year.) These lower federal courts play an important role in constitutional and statutory interpretation, and also decide thousands of cases that involve state law disputes between parties from different states.

Obama’s lower court appointments have transformed several of the circuit courts of appeals, turning formerly conservative benches in a much more progressive direction, and adding more people of color, women, and openly lesbian and gay judges than any prior president. Many of his appointees issued crucial decisions on marriage equality during the period leading to the Obergefell ruling in June 2015, and are now writing key decisions on discrimination. Just days before the election, a district judge appointed by Obama issued a ruling in a case brought by the EEOC on behalf of a gay victim of employment discrimination.

However, because the Senate has drastically slowed the confirmation of Obama’s appointments since Republicans took control in 2010 — virtually grinding the process to a halt over the last few years — there are many vacancies on the federal bench, which could be quickly filled

by Trump and an eager Republican Senate with conservative judges, many of whom may be less likely to issue similarly favorable rulings.

Presidents also appoint the cabinet, of course, and key sub-cabinet officers throughout the Executive Branch. These are the people who make policy decisions for their departments and agencies about the interpretation and enforcement of federal statutes. Without amending existing statutes or regulations, they can decide whether to “clamp down” or “ease up” on enforcement, resulting in virtual deregulation of activities a past administration worked to regulate.

For example, we have a Clean Air Act and a Clean Water Act, but it is

Chai Feldblum, an out lesbian EEOC commissioner appointed by President Obama, has done much to advance the agency’s proactive posture on LGBT nondiscrimination policy.

The president also appoints the directors, commissioners, and general legal counsels of the “independent” administrative agencies, such as the EEOC, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and the Federal Reserve Board. These appointments are for statutorily-defined terms, usually staggered so a president has one appointment to each agency per year.

For example, the NLRB, which enforces statutes governing the relationship between workers, unions, and companies affecting interstate commerce, has five members. The NLRB decides appeals from decisions by administrative law judges, and its rulings can be appealed to the federal appeals courts. It also issues procedural regulations, and its regional directors, appointed by the Board, may seek injunctions from district courts to enforce board policies and oversees union representation elections and investigates charges of statutory violations. The president also appoints the Board’s chief legal officer, who oversees much of the agency’s investigative and enforcement activity. No more than three of the Board’s members can belong to the same political party. That means if the board is fully staffed, a new president may take a year or two to achieve a majority from his or her party. However, because of the Senate’s refusal to confirm Obama nominees, there are already two vacancies on the NLRB, and one more will open up in 2017. The Supreme Court has ruled that the NLRB can’t decide cases without a quorum of three confirmed Board members.

c

LGBT LAW, continued on p.21

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR/ INDIANA

Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, surrounded by anti-gay clergy, signing Indiana’s anti-gay religious exemptions law last year.

c

LGBT LAW, from p.20

Trump could immediately alter the political complexion of the agency, which tends to swing between being pro-union or antiunion depending on the politics of appointing presidents, by filling the two vacancies and promptly filling the third later next year. This can have enormous significance for workplace rights. It is noteworthy that just days ago the NLRB found that a Trump hotel violated federal law in its refusal to negotiate with a union. (I began teaching Labor Relations Law at New York Law School in the fall of 1982, just as President Ronald Reagan’s appointments to the NLRB came into full power. They overruled so many Board precedents in a matter of months that I had to prepare a thick supplement to the textbook, which although relatively new was already seriously out of date.)

Perhaps the most consequential of these independent agencies for LGBT legal rights these days is the EEOC. An openly lesbian commissioner appointed and reappointed by Obama, Chai Feldblum, has taken the lead in persuading the agency to rule that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination violate the Civil Rights Act’s ban on sex discrimination, and those rulings have begun to earn deference from federal courts as well as other agencies enforcing federal statutes. The EEOC’s interpretive rulings have been the main source of progress on anti-LGBT discrimination in private sector and state and local government employment during the Obama years, and it is unlikely that a Republican Congress would pass or Trump would sign the Equality Act, which would make such rules explicit. The loss of Feldblum’s voice when her GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

current term ends on July 1, 2018 — as well as the appointment of less progressive commissioners to fill the seats that will open in subsequent years — will likely drastically affect enforcement priorities and interpretations at the EEOC, and have a ripple effect through the Civil Rights Offices in other Executive Branch agencies.

Some gay Republicans have argued that Trump was the most pro-gay candidate his party has ever nominated, and even suggested he was more pro-gay than Hillary Clinton, who only came around to endorsing marriage equality after Obama had “evolved” on the issue prior to the 2012 re-election campaign. Despite that specious claim, Trump has, in fact, voiced the GOP party line that these issues should be left to states and local governments to decide, that last year’s marriage equality decision should be reversed, and that federal law should emphasize the right of religious people to refuse to do business with gay people if it offends their beliefs.

Trump’s running mate, Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, was among the nation’s most anti-gay governors in Indiana, gleefully signing into law a “religious freedom” act that could be used by businesses to defend discrimination against gay customers and employees at a ceremony surrounded by anti-gay clergy, and fighting tooth and nail to prevent recognition of same-sex marriages and to amend the State Constitution to ban them. Since Trump is expected to delegate major responsibility for domestic policy to Pence, it seems unlikely at best that the federal government will be a force for gay rights in their administration the way it became during Barack Obama’s eight years in office.

21

HALLOWEEN WEEKEND WEST VILLAGE ANTI-GAY ATTACK

c

SENATE, from p.9

always we expect all Democrats to work together,” he said in a emailed statement.

Hoylman, who has consistently stressed the need for Democratic control of the Senate to advance LGBT legislative priorities, also sounded a note of cautious optimism in what he clearly saw as otherwise a very bad day for Democrats and the LGBT community.

Noting the Brooks and Gaughran races, he said, “The good news is that even though Trump carried Suffolk County by eight points, Democrats made inroads there.”

Hoylman said legal challenges are likely in both races, delaying certification of the winners. Should both Democrats prevail, he said he would be hopeful about the possibility of bringing the IDC back into the fold, especially given the challenges New York State will face

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NYPD DCPI

Police are seeking seven individuals in connection with an anti-gay attack at the Jane Hotel in the West Village in the early morning hours on October 30.

According to an NYPD release, a 36-year-old man was inside an elevator at the hotel, located at 113 Jane Street, along with numerous other individuals, when one of them made an antigay remark to the man, after which another of them punched him, and a third then kicked him in the face.

The man suffered a laceration to his forehead and was taken to Mt. Sinai for his injury.

The group, which police said included five men and two women, all in their 20s, fled in an unknown direction.

In a video released by police, the group of suspects are in Halloween costumes but their faces are visible.

Anyone with information about the case can contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or in Spanish at 1-888-57-PISTA. Tips can also be submitted at nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting to 274637(CRIMES), and then entering TIP577.

As of November 9, the police would say only that the investigation is ongoing.

Out gay City Councilmember Corey Johnson, who represents the area, described the incident as “shocking and deeply offensive to all New Yorkers” in a neighborhood “known around the country as a place where people can live openly.” — Paul Schindler

Video of the suspects in the October 30 assault at the Jane Hotel, which can be viewed at gaycitynews. nyc/west-village-anti-gay-attack-halloween-weekend.

with the presidency, both houses of Congress, and control of the Supreme Court all in Republican hands. Hoylman would not even dismiss the possibility that should Democrats end up with only 32 seats in total that they could prevail on Felder to return to their ranks as well.

Emphasizing that he has not been in any discussions about that possibility, Hoylman said, “Of course one assumes he’ll continue to caucus with the Republicans. But given what’s happened in Washington that might alter the way he looks at it. I’m not taking any possibility off the table.”

“Of course, we are disappointed,” TransPAC executive director Mel Wymore said in an email message.

“New York State missed an opportunity to show leadership when the rights of so many are under attack.

At the same time, T ransPAC received tremendous support in this first year out, and that’s a powerful sign of hope. To paraphrase Secretary Clinton, our work was never about one person or even one election. Our work is about securing equal rights for the transgender community. We will carry on.”

Matt McMorrow, one of the leaders who helped launch Equality NY, noted the two tight Long Island races and said, in an email message, “If Brooks ultimately wins, we would strongly encourage the IDC and Simcha Felder to rejoin the mainline Democrats to give the Democrats the majority. Of course, if history is a guide, it is unlikely all eight would agree to do that. What’s unfortunate is that if ever there were an opportunity to change the composition of the State Senate,

“Last night’s election results were a disaster for the LGBTQI community. There’s no way to sugarcoat it.”

it was this year. Sadly, should the GOP prevail with or without the IDC, we can expect the more conservative Republican senators to continue blocking votes on many progressive pieces of legislation.”

McMorrow also looked more broadly at the national scene and wrote, “Last night’s election results were a disaster for the LGBTQI community. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Donald Trump, with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, will have carte blanche to undo much of the gains our community has made over the past eight years, including by reshaping the Supreme Court in a way that may think differently about the marriage equality rulings, among other things.”

The US Senate Democrats’ ability to filibuster anti-gay legislation in Congress, he said, is the only available protection against such reversals. The results of November 8, McMorrow added, underscores “the need for our community to remain vigilant, engaged, and organized against those forces that are hellbent on blocking and rolling back the progress we have fought so hard to achieve.”

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

c

SUPREME COURT, from p.13

Or, the high court could tackle the substantive issue and decide whether interpreting Title IX to extend to gender identity discrimination claims is a viable interpretation, in light of its seminal 1989 ruling in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins that an employer’s use of sex stereotypes in denying an employee’s promotion was evidence of intentional discrimination based on “sex.” It was that ruling that eventually led federal courts to conclude that because transgender people generally do not conform to sex stereotypes concerning their “biological” sex at birth, discrimination against them is a form of “sex discrimination” in violation of federal laws including the Fair Credit Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The EEOC also relied on Price Waterhouse in reaching its 2012 conclusion that transgender plaintiffs could assert discrimination claims under Title VII. The Sixth and 11th Circuit Courts of Appeals have similarly looked to that 1989 case in finding that claims of gender identity discrimination asserted by public employees should be treated the same as sex discrimination claims under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Were the Supreme Court to rule by majority vote that laws banning discrimination “because of sex” also “necessarily” cover discrimination because of gender identity, rather than issuing a narrower ruling focusing solely on Title IX, one could plausibly argue that the pending Equality Act need not

include the category of “gender identity” in order to establish a federal policy against gender identity discrimination under all sex discrimination laws. The Supreme Court, however, has generally preferred to decide statutory interpretation cases on narrow grounds.

This case will most likely be argued early in 2017, and it may not be decided until the end of the Court’s term in June. Thus, it is possible that Grimm could win but never personally benefit as a student at Gloucester County’s high school, since he should complete his students there next spring.

The Supreme Court has not granted as many petitions as usual so far this fall, leading to speculation that it is trying to avoid granting review in cases where the justices might be predictably split evenly on the outcome and so not be able to render a decision establishing a precedent. If the Senate Republicans stand firm on their position that President Barack Obama’s nominee for the vacant seat, US Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland, will not be considered for confirmation, it is possible that the Court will have only eight justices when the Gloucester case is argued.

A tie vote by the court would leave in place the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Grimm’s favor, but it would not establish any precedent beyond there. And there is also the possibility that Grimm’s graduation from high school will be found to have mooted the case.

Since the case was brought by him rather than the DOE or the Justice Department, Grimm’s standing remains an issue throughout consideration of this case.

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23

A SCARIER HALLOWEEN THAN USUAL

PHOTO ESSAY BY DONNA ACETO This year, with Halloween coming just eight days before the presidential election — and three days after FBI director James Comey’s bizarre announcement that he was looking into thousands of additional emails possibly involving Democrat Hillary Clinton — the mood was more frightening than normal.

The prospect that Donald Trump — puppet or not — could actually become president was a looming specter over the festivities in the annual Greenwich Village Parade.

And that’s not even taking account of those horrid clowns!

24

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

THEA SPYER CENTER DEDICATED AT CALLEN-LORDE

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taxes and other survivor benefits.

“On the day she died, she was scheduled to see two patients,” Windsor said.

Wendy Stark, executive director of Callen-Lorde, said that this mental health center, opened two years ago, is one of five of the agency’s locations and already has a waiting list for appointments, a situation she called “unacceptable.”

State Assemblymember Dick Gottfried, chair of the Health Committee, said, “We need more community health centers” to meet the demand.

Jim Obergefell, the named plaintiff in the Supreme Court case in 2015 that ended state bans on same-sex marriage, traveled from Washington to be with Windsor.

“Edie invited me and there was no way I would miss it,” he said. Commenting on the threat to the balance of the Supreme Court — as well as to his victory — in this week’s election, Obergefell said, “I’m very much concerned. I try to hold on to what our attorneys at the Supreme Court said — that they tend not to take away rights they’ve granted.”

In September, Windsor married Judith Kasen, who joined her at the ceremony. — Andy Humm

DONNA ACETO

Wendy Stark and Edie Windsor cut the ribbon to dedicate Callen-Lorde’s Thea Spyer Center, which will provide mental health services to the LGBT community at 230 West 17th Street, with longtime marriage equality activist Brendan Fay (l.) and Assemblymember Dick Gottfried looking on.

GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

Open House: Thursday, November 17, 6:00 - 8:00pm 146 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011 Tel: 212.242.7802

Jim Obergefell, the 2105 Supreme Court marriage equality victor, with Callen-Lorde’s Wendy Stark, Glennda Testone, executive director of the LGBT Community Center, Edie Windsor, and her spouse, Judith Kasen.

Edie Windsor’s name was immortalized as the named plaintiff in the 2013 US Supreme Court decision that won federal recognition for married same-sex couples. On November 3, her late spouse’s name was given a place of honor as the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center dedicated its building at 230 West 17th Street as the Thea Spyer Center, providing mental health services to the LGBT community.

Thea Spyer was a “celebrated clinical psychologist,” Windsor said at the dedication ceremony, serving at the Veteran’s Administration, as director of the Psychiatric Clinic at the International Center for the Disabled, and as clinical consultant in rehabilitation at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Westchester.

Spyer was wheelchair-bound toward the end of her life, but traveled to Canada in 2007 with the assistance of Marriage Equality NY and the Civil Marriage Trail to wed Windsor.

The marriage was recognized in New York as of the following year even though the state did not perform such marriages itself until 2011.

When Spyer died in 2009, Windsor sued the federal government to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act and be treated as Spyer’s surviving spouse and save $363,000 in inheritance

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FOUNDING MEMBER

26

FOUNDING MEMBER

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

A

s Tuesday evening’s slowly unfolding nightmare began to move into higher gear, my friend Analisa in Chicago posted on Facebook, “Are men really that afraid of women?”

And it suddenly hit me. Over the past several years — indeed, through eight years of the right wing’s fanatical hatred of President Barack Obama and then in repeated instances of young black men dying capriciously, or worse, at the hands of law enforcement — white America has been schooled in just how little it appreciates the lived experiences of African Americans in our midst.

And now, I wonder: have I ever understood what it means to be a woman in our society? Parts of the country thought to be hostile to our current president because of their discomfort with the idea of a black man leading America proved even more hostile to a leadership claim by a woman, despite her dazzling command of policy, her tirelessness and refusal to step back from a challenge, and her commitment to issues of fairness so critical in the lives of everyday Americans.

Misogyny — whether on the part of men who fear their patriarchal privilege is slipping away or even in some women who have internalized the cultural norms that once ruled a very different society than what many of us hope we are living in — is one word we have to take away from this election.

The other word is demagoguery, and that one is perhaps even more frightening.

Donald Trump bullied his way to the White House. It has become virtual cant to rehearse the many ways he did so, but to avoid repeating the list risks a forgetting… a forgetting that could normalize a man who brings an aberrant range of ethical values to the most powerful position in the world.

He slurred Mexican immigrants as “rapists,” and then impugned the professional impartiality of a sitting federal judge because his parents came to the US from Mexico.

He has stigmatized Muslim-Amer-

icans, going so far as to wage an ugly Twitter war with the valiant parents of a young Muslim-American military hero who died so his fellow soldiers would live.

He questioned the valor, as well, of John McCain, who spent seven years in a prisoner-of-war camp. “I like the people who weren’t captured,” said the reality TV star, who described his battle to avoid STDs as a young man as “scary, like Viet Nam.” He imitated a disabled reporter to the approving roar of a campaign crowd.

In his so-called outr each to African Americans, he regularly described their neighborhoods as “hell,” their advances in society virtually non-existent.

He insults women’s appearance routinely and was caught on tape talking about his celebrity giving him license to sexually assault unsuspecting women — describing his carte blanche in terms eerily echoed by numerous women who have accused him of just such behavior.

In a debate against Hillary Clinton, he threatened to unleash a special prosecutor on her so that she would be locked up.

And, when faced by polls (wrongly, it turns out) suggesting he would lose, he claimed the whole business was “rigged” — especially in places like Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis (notice any pattern here?) — and refused to say whether he would accept an adverse verdict from the voters.

All of these examples are textbook bullying and demagoguery, and the final several in the list betray a hostility to democratic norms and an affinity with authoritarian impulses that should chill any sound-thinking American.

We cannot nor malize Donald Trump because we cannot normalize authoritarian demagoguery. In a riveting essay in Vox this week, Ezra Klein recalled that when Ben Franklin left Independence Hall at the end of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, a local woman in Philadelphia eagerly asked him whether the nation was to have “a republic or a monarchy.”

To which Franklin replied, “A republic. If you can keep it.”

DONNA ACETO

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A Stain on Our Democracy

There is no hyperbole in quoting this wisest of American Founders at this moment in history.

All of us in the LGBT community should be mindful of how much our cause has been set back this week — not only by Republican control of the presidency and the Congress, but also by the consequent control of the federal judiciary and the rule-making authority of federal agencies. It has been the courts and the Obama administration’s aggressive efforts to advance equality through myriad regulatory means that have proved so decisive for us in the past eight years.

For now — and in the case of the courts, for perhaps many years to come — that tipping of the scales of justice on our behalf is lost to us.

But what the LGBT community has lost is but a fraction of what this nation has lost. Over the next four years, the very idea of the American experiment is at stake, as is the stability of the world, which relies on the US, for all its sometimes egregious sins on the world stage, taking some measure of responsibility for contributing to a more fair global system.

Donald Trump enters the presidency laughably unprepared, his world view is unformed and often internally inconsistent, and his political friends in this process are among the most odious reactionary forces in America.

We have no principled choice but to be prepared to stand firm in resistance and remain true to the nation we all want to call home.

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

PERSPECTIVE: A Dyke Abroad

When Trump is King

BY KELLY COGSWELL

W

e could have done it. Had the first female president of the US. And one of the smartest, most prepared executives ever, but never underestimate misogyny. Never underestimate the vast selling power of hate and fear, and a sensationalist, ratings-grabbing media that insisted on covering Trump as if he was a candidate like any other. Not a crook, a predator, a thug, a sleazebag racist openly endorsed by the KKK, and helped into office by a Russian dictator, a cowed FBI director, and the likes of Julian Assange who’s not a radical truth-teller, just a resentful, but powerful little fuck in some embassy basement.

What I really want to know is, what are we going to do about it? What are the Democrats?

When Florida Republicans stole the vote in 2000 (later verified by the New York Times), none of the white Senate Dems protested during the roll call, and Gore was like, “Gee shucks, what’s a guy gonna do?” Then the whole party rolled over as George W. conned the country about weapons of mass destruction, and followed him into a war that most of them now, including Hillary Clinton, acknowledge was a huge mistake.

So there you go. Afghanistan was succeeded

by Iraq. And environmental treaties gutted or put aside and almost every international agreement suspended for oil profiteering, with Bush aided and abetted by a mainstream media that didn’t dare, for instance, use the word torture to describe what resulted. Why? Because his administration was so vindictive that rags like the Times were afraid their journalists would be

excluded from a press conference or something.

Then, the impact was mostly abroad. Domestically Bush made nice, never once called Latinos rapists, and had in his cabinet black and brown people like Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and torture apologist Alberto Gonzales.

Trump is not even gonna play that. Not with a Republican Congress at his back. We’re gonna see wackjob Giuliani redux, a Gingrich thrilled that Trump has promised to deport immigrants, destroy the Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade, roll back marriage equality, among other monstrous things. On the global level, Trump scorns not just specific agreements but the whole idea of international cooperation on trade, on defense. If somebody annoys you, just nuke ‘em, though handsomely reward your extreme right pals like Putin and France’s Marine Le Pen. So what I want to know is, are the Democrats and the media gonna roll over again, kiss goodbye the rule of law, accept dirty and missing votes, suppression of speech, of assembly, a politicized judiciary just so they can keep access? Make money? There’s no question that all the Republicans who turned their backs on Trump last week are gonna kiss his ass today.

But will the Democrats and the media bipartisan and cooperate this country to death? Are they gonna throw the entire world under that very big fucking bus?

I really do need to know. My household’s kinda vulnerable you see. Two queer females.

One dependent on Obamacare. Another an immigrant. I wish I’d done more. But I’ve been paralyzed with a kind of sick fear. This country can be so ugly. The only moment I felt vaguely hopeful was last Saturday, when I went to Clin-

ton’s campaign headquarters downtown to get tickets to her election night rally and saw the enthusiastic mix of races and ages bent over their phones, sending texts to get out the vote under a distant banner acknowledging Orlando.

Everybody looked so calm and happy it made me a little teary. When I saw a woman take her two young daughters to pose in front of some Hillary signs, I nearly sobbed. I wonder if they’re going to find some way to keep participating now that my fellow Americans have voted, not just for Trump, but against Hillary, against the last eight years of LGBT progress, against new black and Native American activism, and against women, women, everywhere.

Some of us will get lost in fear or embrace an ugly cynicism because many of us imagined as I did growing up that our system of democracy was somehow as fixed and invulnerable as a statue of blindfolded Justice in which her scale never wavered. And when I began to understand misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, and that nothing was fixed or guaranteed, the whole thing did seem rigged, like lies.

I felt ashamed and guilty, and ready to keep the whole country at arm’s length as if I could avoid contamination.

We can’t. We shouldn’t. The truth is that we are not the best country in the world, nor are we the worse. Not yet. We have done great things, and horrible things. What redeems us are the people here who understand that words like liberty, equality, justice are not facts, but aspirations, which require unending vigilance and the kind of hard work Clinton, anyway, was known for. It is time to recommit ourselves to the fight.

Kelly Cogswell is the author of “Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger,” from the University of Minnesota Press.

PERSPECTIVE: The Long View

Drug Reform A Rare Election Day Bright Spot

BY NATHAN RILEY

D

rug prohibition took it on the chin as voters supported tax-andregulate referendums in four states that would allow adults to shop for pot.

While pot was liberated, Georgia passed a tax on adult establishments that creates a fund for sexually exploited children — encouraging a narrative where adult sexual activity is tied to child molestation and then provides funds for evanGayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

gelical groups to offer a “safe harbor” for these “exploited” youngsters. It is a program that could ensnare LGBT youth.

But in a surprise, an ill-advised effort by Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to require that adult performers use condoms in their performances was defeated. Major newspapers and the Democratic Party opposed the measure, which failed with 54.2 percent voting “No.” The Arizona Republic reported that its state’s legalization refer-

endum failed, though final results could take days. Its medical marijuana law remains in effect.

Massachusetts and Nevada also voted to legalize pot, and in Maine legalization has the edge, but a final tally is not complete.

In Montana, an effort by the Legislature to restrict medical marijuana patients to just three per doctor was overturned by referendum. Florida, in its second attempt, reached the constitutional threshold of a 60-percent vote to establish medical marijuana.

Arkansas and North Dakota voters also adopted medical marijuana programs.

Georgia’s Amendment 2 allows the State Legislature to impose additional penalties in a court case in which a person is found guilty “of keeping a place of prostitution, pimping, pandering, pandering by compulsion, solicitation of sodomy, masturbation for hire, trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, or sexual exploitation of children.”

It is not clear from this language what the phrase “solicitation of sodomy” means, and it’s disturbing that the phrase is not directly related to either the nonconsensual or commercial sex Georgia already criminalizes.

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LONG VIEW, continued on p.28

27

PERSPECTIVE: Snide Lines

The Mad Activist: Streetwise In Her Dauntless Chapeau

BY SUSIE DAY

H

ey, lady — you got a problem with my hat? I mean, look. I was just walking down the street, minding my own business on my way to the A train, and you — an ordinary, middle-aged white lady in a blue plaid housedress — stop to glare at my hat. How friendly is that?

This is a good hat, lady, a cool hat. My girlfriend got it for me. Yeah, my girlfriend, see? She got me this tough, proletarian newsboy’s cap.

Says to the world, “I may be cute, yet I remain a dyke.” You got a problem with that? You don’t like that I am wearing a lesbian hat?

Oh, I see I’m scaring your little pug dog. Yap, yap, yap — so what? Maybe little puggie, here, is afraid I’ll sweep you into my arms and rain ardent kisses upon your upturned, horrified face. What do you say, puggie?

I’m sure you are aware that homosexuality is not a disease, lady. We queers may be going to hell, but we’re going there with a certificate of mental health from the American Psychiatric Association, for what that may be worth. Plus, I have very good personal hygiene. There’s nothing wrong with me, other than the fact that you don’t like my hat.

It’s too “mannish,” isn’t it, lady? Too “unfem-

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LONG VIEW, from p.27

The Georgia Legislature may also impose assessments on adult entertainment establishments.

Revenue from these penalties, fees, and assessments — including those on the criminal activity described above — would be allocated to the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund.

The big prize was California pot legalization, where a carefully crafted referendum won handily with 55.7 percent of the vote. In one stroke, nearly 40 million persons will live in a state with legal marijuana.

The pot revolution is proceeding with stunning speed. During President Barack Obama’s reelection in 2012, two states — Washington and Colorado — adopted legalization. In 2014, Oregon and Alaska legalized, and Washington, DC, allowed personal possession in the home.

Washington State has proceeded

28

inine”? My hat subtly tells you that, if my girlfriend and I were to get married, I would be the groom. That the night before, there would be a lesbo stag party with whips and spike heels and hairy, tattooed bulldykes throwing their babes over Harley-Davidsons — and everybody would be wearing these hats. Isn’t that what you think, lady — OH SHUT UP, little puggie.

All I’m doing is wearing this hat, lady. Big, big so-what deal. But I can see it bugs you. You hate my hat. I mean, hat hatred is a terrible thing.

So many hats suffer needlessly. Compared to indiscriminate US drone strikes, my hat, for you, is real pain. I’m trying to empathize, here, lady. How’m I doing?

It’s hard being a lady in a blue plaid housedress, with no hat and a yappy dog, isn’t it?

There are no blue plaid Pride Marches for your kind, no special bookstores, no blue-plaidpug-dog issues to defend on “The O’Reilly Factor.” You face ever-increasing food prices, your health care won’t pay for your mammograms, and you carry, deep within your subconscious, the chronic awareness that the Indian Point nuclear power plant supplying our city’s electricity could, any day, send out radioactive plumes that would kill us all within a week. Yet you, for some reason, decide to fixate your existential malaise on my hat.

slowly since the 2012 referendum, but Colorado has eliminated marijuana arrests and enjoyed accelerating tax revenues that jumped from $76 million to $135 million between 2014 and 2015, according ARCView Research, a consulting firm for businesses interested in this new market.

ARC hails the growth possibilities of the legal market, while opponents of the legalization trend, especially Smart Approaches to Marijuana, believe it will create new corporate giants that will entice children into the habit just as big tobacco devised both advertising campaigns for the young and public relations campaigns disputing the link between cancer and smoking. SAM favors light penalties short of jail, a system not too different from the New York City’s approach of issuing tickets for pot possession.

The drafters of the California referendum, using funds provided

by Facebook billionaire Sean Park-

I suppose, because you are relatively powerless, I enjoy venting at you. I should be grateful that you are not a gang of white frat jocks who would do more than merely sneer at my hat.

And I admit that, while I have nothing against your housedress, I do see you as a stereotype.

It’s hard for me not to think of you as “one of them.” Because I am so sick of all the snide little glances “you people” give off when I pass.

But I have a large soul. I can forgive. I forgive you, lady. My hat gives me this power.

So, if you have a problem with my hat, if my choice of chapeau oppresses you, please tell me.

Go for it, lady. Share. It will bring peace.

Our time on this planet is limited and shortens, even as you glare. And yet, would your life improve if I actually took off my demented Sapphic headgear? I think not. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?

I can’t explain it, but your life, would, in fact, be somehow diminished if I removed this hat.

And so I shall wear my hat — for you, lady. I shall wear my hat as I walk past you and your yappy dog.

For you, I shall wear this hat as I ride the A train downtown to a demonstration in support of the activists at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Yes, I shall wear it in the wind and the rain and in paddy wagons and on sunny days at the beach. And someday, lady, someday — I shall maybe even wear this hat and wear this hat and wear this hat… at the Revolution.

Susie Day is the author of “Snidelines: Talking Trash to Power,” published by Abingdon Square Publishing.

er and expertise from groups like the Drug Policy Alliance, consulted experts, constituent groups — especially those representing the African-American and Latino communities most often jailed for drug law violations — growers (who have mixed feelings because they will now be taxed and regulated), and the many groups supporting legal pot.

The referendum takes an existing institution, the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, that had earned the confidence of many stakeholders and renames it the Bureau of Marijuana Control, giving it the responsibility for regulating and licensing marijuana businesses. The University of California System will be responsible for studying the impact of the new law, and funds have been earmarked to assess the impact on driver and pedestrian safety and other health issues.

For young people under 18, pot possession could lead to manda-

tory drug education classes — but no incarceration — while dealers working outside the legal framework could face local jail time of up to six months or a $500 fine.

For adults, using marijuana will be legal provided they go to licensed stores.

Another provision of the referendum provides that the 6,000 prisoners serving time for marijuana offenses can seek release through a resentencing. Tax revenues generated by marijuana sales will help children with funds for after-school programs, job placement, and mental health treatment and drug prevention education.

Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor who hopes to succeed Jerry Brown in the 2018 election, bet his career on this referendum by vigorously supporting it. The State Democratic Party backed it, with Republicans making up the opposition.

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LONG VIEW, continued on p.29

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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DATA, from p.11

“Residents who are not counted are essentially made invisible,” said Lena Alhusseini, executive director of the Arab American Family Support Center, “and their needs kept silent.” She said that “Arabic is currently the fourth most widely spoken language among English language learners” in our schools, but that Arab Americans are “erased from the US Census, classified as ‘White’ and at times ‘Black’ or ‘Asian.’” Given the discrimination they face these days, “now is the time to recognize these communities in all data collection,” she said.

T ransgender activist Bryan John Ellicott said, “Some of our Staten Island elected officials like to say there aren’t a lot of LGBT people in their districts. Now we’ll be able to say, ‘Yes you do, and here’s where they live.’”

The LGBT measure requires surveys to include “questions regarding sexual orientation, including homosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or asexual status (and an option to write in a response) and

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LONG VIEW, from p.28

Provisions for releasing marijuana offenders and for job training won strong support among communities hurt by the racist impact of the war on drugs. Legal pot and its taxes offer a way to break the school-to-prison pipeline, where the first offense for smoking pot is often the gateway to stiffer sentences on young people because they have “a record.”

The big benefit of legal pot to advocates is ending the har m caused by drug arrests. It creates a new relationship between police and public; the smell or sight of pot will no longer justify a search or an arrest.

Attorney Lauren Mendelsohn of Students for a Sensible Drug assessed the impact of the referendum’s victory by saying, “Legal marijuana products are not considered contraband or subject to seizure by law enforcement. This is huge.”

The referendums are evidence of the gap between political leaders and the public. State legislatures and elected officials have recoiled from drastic changes in drug laws GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

gender identity, including transgender, cisgender, intersex status, or other” — again with an option to write in something else.

The new laws require this data collection by the Departments of Social Services, Homeless Services, Health and Mental Hygiene, Aging, Youth and Community Development, and Education and the Administration for Children’s Services, “and any other agencies designated by the mayor that directly or by contract collect demographic information.” They also require mandatory training for those collecting the data and a manual on “how to invite persons served by such agencies to complete the surveys.” The data will not be connected to the individual. In 18 months, the data has to be made public on the web.

“It’s about recognizing how people define themselves,” said Drew Tagliabue, executive director of PFLAG NYC. “It’s just a beginning,” said Dromm, but clearly a breakthrough in the cause of capturing the true and complex diversity of New Yorkers.

even as polls showed that public attitudes have shifted since the Clinton presidency in the 1990s. This trend toward acceptance of pot tracks the growing comfort with LGBT folks, who found an important victory on an otherwise mostly barren election day with the defeat of North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who sparked outrage over the “bathroom” bill that takes aim at the rights of transgender people to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. The backlash against that legislation gave Democrat Roy Cooper a narrow victory, while Hillary Clinton fell short in North Carolina.

“Marijuana refor m won big across America on Election Day — indeed it’s safe to say that no other reform was approved by so many citizens on so many ballots this year,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “But the prospect of Donald Trump as our next president concerns me deeply. His most likely appointees to senior law enforcement positions — Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie — are no friends of marijuana reform, nor is his vice president.”

In celebration of more than 31 years of service comes God's Love We Deliver Cookbook: Nourishing Stories and Recipes from Notable Friends, packed with family recipes and personal anecdotes from 75 supporters of God’s Love We Deliver.

Contributors to the organization’s first-ever cookbook include Isabella Rossellini, Ina Garten, Danny Meyer, Michael Kors, Mario Batali, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and many, many others. All proceeds from this initiative go directly to support the mission of God's Love We Deliver.

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THEATER

Conjuring A Scorned Queer King Marlowe’s polarizing “Edward II” gets a fabulous musical makeover

BY DAVID KENNERLEY

C

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EDWARD II, continued on p.33

MICHAEL KUSHNER PHOTOGRAPHY

hristopher Marlowe’s gutsy 1593 historical tragedy “Edward II,” which traces the spectacular demise of the English monarch following his scandalous love affairs with other men, is laced with intrigue, treachery, power grabs, murder, and man-on-man sex.

And who better to give this complex, ancient tale a much-needed makeover than Erik Ransom, the mastermind behind such brash queer extravaganzas as “Grindr The Opera” and “Coming: A Rock Musical of Biblical Proportions.” This insanely talented dynamo doesn’t just write the book, music, and lyrics for his shows — he stars in them as well.

The astoundingly ambitious “More Than All the World,” directed by Rachel Klein (who also choreographed), boasts a huge cast of 18 and an onstage orchestra of 10, skillfully led by Andy Peterson. Quite rare for an Off-Off-Broadway production.

The score, a pleasing pastiche of styles ranging from Medieval to contemporary pop, is terrific. As the show unfolded, other notable crowd-pleasers sprang to mind, like “Rent,” “The Rocky Horror Show,” and — dare I say it? — “Hamilton.”

Ransom has expertly distilled a vast amount of material, roughly spanning 30 years, into a cogent, absorbing narrative. It’s the dawn of the Erik Ransom and Michael Thomas Pugliese in Ransom’s musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Edward II,” “More Than All the World,” at Theater for the New City through November 19.

Horror Is the New Fleck Tone NEA Four artist travels “Blacktop Highway” back to his live theater roots

BY SCOTT STIFFLER

H

alloween may be over, but that’s no reason to pass up the opportunity to grip your ticket and enter the creepy old house at Dixon Place that John Fleck has stocked to the hilt with death, dread, grief, greed, sex, secrets, and lye (and, also, lies).

“I like to scare and shock people,” said Fleck, the defunded-circa-1990 “NEA Four” performance artist and, later, busy TV actor, whose new multi-character solo show, “Blacktop Highway,” lingers on the palate like a sweet confec-

30

tion laced with something bitter, possibly toxic, that you can’t quite put your finger on.

Nominally the story of an upscale stranger with car trouble who stumbles upon a taxidermy-filled estate occupied by brother Frank, sister Jane, and a caged creature of dubious parentage, “Blacktop” unfolds as the manic, humorously self-aware live presentation of a screenplay whose constant revisions serve to amp up the drama — and, at times, appeal to the vanity of its writer/ performer (“a man in his mid to late 50s” becomes “a non-smoking very attractive man in his early to mid-30s, his lush

head of hair blowing in the wind from an open car window; a man steering his own course.”).

Grim and goofy, disarming and disturbing, it’s informed as much by familiar Hollywood set pieces and plot twists as Fleck’s knack for hurling kitschy, misty, emotionally complex satire at interpersonal relations, religion, and the raw power of repressed sexual energy.

But wait, why gothic horror as the vehicle? It’s hardly an obvious choice for the man whose autobiographical and absurdist theatrical endeavors include “Nothin’ Beats Pussy,” “Psycho Opera,” and “I got the He-Be-She-Be’s.” To be fair,

though Fleck has made his mark in the sci-fi genre, having appeared in “Babylon 5” and several incarnations of the “Star Trek” franchise.

“I always loved horror,” Fleck insisted. “I had this thing about ‘The Werewolf’ — I liked to pretend I was ‘The Werewolf,’ and I remember, as a kid, we’d play ‘Godzilla’ in the driveway.”

It’s interesting to note, then, that a destructive monster looms large throughout “Blacktop Highway,” as does a gravel-filled, 50-foot stretch of driveway that leads from the titular strip of slickened road to the house where doom awaits.

“I kind of grew up in a somewhat dysfunctional family,” Fleck explained, “so you act out things to get it out of your psyche when you can’t share it in the family.”

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FLECK, continued on p.38

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

The Long View FILM

Intimate two-hander has exes in middle age looking back at failed romance 15 years before

BY GARY M. KRAMER

I

BREAKING GLASS PICTURES

n writer/ director Tim Kirkman’s poignant romantic drama “Lazy Eye,” Dean (Lucas Near -Verbrugghe) is an LA-based graphic designer newly contending with a visual impairment formally known as amblyopia. One day, out of the blue, he gets an email from Alex (Aaron Costa Ganis), his ex from 15 years ago in New York. After some email exchanges, the pair arrange to meet in Dean’s Joshua Tree get-away for sex, true confessions, and a possible second chance at their relationship.

The film, basically a two-hander, pivots on the dynamics between the attractive leads as they reflect on memories, reveal secrets and lies, and come to terms with both their maturity and their loneliness.

What will catch the eyes and hearts of viewers are Near-Verbrugghe’s sensitive performance — he makes Dean’s despair palpable — and Costa Ganis’ seductive turn as Dean’s ex.

In a recent phone interview, Kirkman spoke about “Lazy Eye.”

Aaron Costa Ganis and Lucas Near-Verbrugghe in Tim Kirkman’s “Lazy Eye.”

done what I was supposed to, I’d see the whole world differently now.”

This mirrors the film’s theme about change. Can you talk about that?

TK: Yes, I thought that had I done my eye exercises, I could have corrected the whole problem. I wish I had. It’s about regret, and the choices you make in your life.

GARY M. KRAMER: Your film is about seeing things clearly, be they relationships or objects, like a bottle of coconut water Dean examines in a store. What prompted you to write “Lazy Eye?” TIM KIRKMAN: Around the time I turned 40, my eyes started to change. I have amblyopia, and out of the blue an ex contacted me. It was at a disruptive moment in my life, so I thought about the choices I made in my life. It’s a luxury to look at your life and be self-reflective.

But it’s so common that I wanted to write about it. Eyes changing had a metaphorical significance, but it’s also about the way you see the world shifting. You reflect on being a younger person and letting go of that and embracing who you are in middle age.

GMK: “Lazy Eye” uses the environments of the couple’s early days in New York, Dean’s life in LA, and their weekend in Joshua Tree to inform the characters. Can you discuss how you created each setting?

TK: The desert is isolated, but it’s also romantic. I thought it was a great place for a romantic tryst. I moved from New York to Los Angeles and that’s an ongoing conversation I have with friends from both coasts. In Los Angeles, there is a comfort and ease of life I never found in New York. It takes a tough person to live in New York: you battle the elements, other people, and the sidewalks. The humanity of it is more intense, and there’s more of it in a more compact place. The flashbacks to New York give a sense of the romance of the city — a life that’s gritty and full of romance and hope when you’re young. I was capturing the memories I have of that.

These guys are haunted by these memories; they can’t help but think about the other. They have to deal with it to move forward.

GMK: Yes, I love when Dean admits about his lazy eye, “If I’d

GMK: I’m curious why you chose to tell the film from Dean’s

GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

point of view, since he is the one being pursued?

TK: I wanted to tell a story about someone whose comfortable life gets disrupted. Dean may have been Googling Alex and looking for him, but he’s not the initiator. Alex is more elusive and mysterious.

Aaron [Costa Ganis] and I talked about this a lot — he’s going to be as tight-lipped as Dean is. What I love about working on these characters is that they are 100 percent honest. Every question they ask one another — Is this true? — they answer “yes” or “no.” They are more about withholding info, rather than lying. They are making sins of omission.

GMK: On that same note, what prompted you to tell the story with flashbacks and triggers? The scene of the characters in their 20s in New York, which is shown late in the film, is so romantic.

TK: Looking back on your 20s, you try to rationalize and intellectualize things. I’m a grownup now. That’s why Dean is not accusatory when they reunite.

But his emotions can be triggered by something like a smell. I like the idea of revisiting one day.

This night in New York was sexually charged. I wanted to address the car nality of that moment, which is a magnet in the film. The longing for that kind of freedom when you approach middle age is really appealing. They are thinking back to the moment they first

met. That would be foremost in their memories.

GMK: Can you talk about the visual approach you took to the film?

TK: The first 30 minutes is almost a silent film. You are watching Dean be by himself. It’s all about isolation and loneliness. The visuals are all still, but once Alex arrives, the camera is handheld.

There’s more tension. There is an unsettled feeling even during the dinner scene. I tried to capture that tension.

GMK: Okay, true confession time: Was there ever one that got away for you?

TK: Yes, and it’s fictionalized. We all have those people and they may not be lovers, but teachers, or family members. But you will be one of either of those people — the one who looks for someone or the one who is pursued — because we’re more connected than ever before.

We have to figure out ways of dealing with it. The way I dealt with it is that I made a movie.

LAZY EYE Directed by Tim Kirkman Breaking Glass Pictures Opens Nov. 11 Cinema Village 22 E. 12th St. cinemavillage.com

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THEATER

Games People Play Two revivals lack the fire of the originals LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES

BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE

S

ad to say, the erotic entanglements in the turgid revival of Christopher Hampton’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” are far more ennuyeuses — tedious — than dangerous. That’s a shame because this play about two self-involved aristocrats who feed their own passions by destroying other people through sex has so much potential. Indeed, anyone who remembers the electrifying 1987 production will find the Donmar Warehouse production now at the Booth drained of the deliciously evil, cynical machinations that make this play so dark yet also delightful.

Director Josie Rourke, with brilliant assistance from Tom Scutt (costumes and set) and Mark Henderson (lighting), created a stunning world of love among the ruins. (A drawing room in decay as the backdrop is a little too obviously conceptual, but it is nonetheless gorgeous.)

Yet all the visual riches are a poor excuse for the lack of depth in the direction and performances. This is a play about two people — La Marquise de Merteuil and her lover and partner in crime Le Vicomte de Valmont — who, out of a desire to spice up their on-again/ off-again affair, revel in destroying others. In the years before the French Revolution, their decadent game takes deadly aim at a hypocritical social structure that denies the essence of humanity that can be expressed through sex. Their success demonstrates that sanctioned concepts such as purity and fidelity are merely imposed upon our animal natures, and with the proper provocation and permission they not only crumble but are shown up as the true debasing forces in life.

What gives this play its frisson of evil is that

32

JOAN MARCUS

JOAN MARCUS

Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber in Josie Rourke’s revival of Christopher Hampton’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.”

Rachel Weisz and Corey Stoll in David Leveaux’s revival of David Hare’s “Plenty.”

while Merteuil and Valmont spin through these games with sociopathic glee, their victims are destroyed not because they are physically violated but rather because they cannot reconcile their awakened passions to social roles they have long nurtured. Valmont’s victims, the virginal Émilie and the religious Madame de Tourvel, essentially go mad in the process.

It’s potentially so much fun.

That’s why it’s surprising that Rourke’s production is so dull. How she managed to rob this play of its sexual tension is the only question that resonates after the final curtain. Part of it is casting. Janet McTeer plays Merteuil, and her highly stylized performance is mannered and shallow. Moments that would call for real emotion are accomplished through vocal tricks (dropping her voice an octave) that seem false, rather than organic or believable characterization. Liev Schreiber as Valmont seems to be in a different play entirely. He tends toward the more naturalistic, which only amplifies the flaws in McTeer’s interpretation. Valmont doesn’t require subtext; he needs to be simply a blatant and craven egoist. There is, as well, zero sexual chemistry between the two stars, and the tension that would create is what should drive the piece.

The rest of the cast seems to have been left to their own devices, and while the supporting characters exist primarily to drive the plot rather than as real people, even by that standard they are unremarkable and one-dimensional. It doesn’t help that both Émilie (Katrina Cunningham) and Madame de Tourvel (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) come across as unbelievable, even ridiculous, each in her own way, once they’ve been had by Valmont.

This is a play about sex, and that’s where this production fails. The photo on the cover of the

Booth Theatre 22 West 45th Street Through Jan. 22 Tue., Thu. at 7 p.m.

Wed., Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m.

Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m.

Sun. at 3 p.m. $42-$149 telecharge.com or 212-239-6200 Two hrs., 50 mins., with intermission

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Playbill has more passion than anything seen on stage. Throughout, the sex is mechanical and passionless where it should be shocking and, yes, dangerous. Rourke has robbed the play of its essential conflict — the unbridled human passion that thrums beneath a contrived social order — and rendered it, in La Marquise de Merteuil’s most stinging denunciation, commonplace.

In the same way that Rourke missed the point with “Les Liaisons,” taking the bitterness and bite out of that play, so too has David Leveaux drained the juice from another revival — of David Hare’s magnificent “Plenty.”

The story of Susan Traherne, a woman who fought for the French Resistance in World War II and found life afterwards desperately mundane and enraging, is one of my favorite plays.

(The parallels to the Marquise de Meurteil and even Hedda Gabler are inescapable.) Lyrical language and visceral conflict collide in a drama that is as emotionally harrowing as it is artistically crafted. The play’s structure takes us back and forth over time and place and should carry the audience on an emotional roller coaster ending at the very moment that Susan’s life is transformed forever and, though she doesn’t yet know it, her tragedy cast.

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PLENTY DANGEROUS, continued on p.38

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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EDWARD II, from p.30

14th century, and King Edward I (Tony Perry) tries to groom his son Edward (Ransom) for the throne by partnering him with a war strategist named Piers Gaveston (Michael Thomas Pugliese). But his sensitive son, more poet than politician, learns more than just military moves from the dashing young man. He falls deeply in love with Gaveston, beginning a rocky affair that would last for over a decade.

When Edward assumes the throne, he bestows on his lover the prestigious title of Earl of Cornwall.

A gaggle of nobles, including the Earl of Lancaster (Hugh Hysell) and the Countess of Sandwich (a deliciously sinister Katherine Pecevich), become outraged and do everything in their power to destroy Gaveston.

They are not sure what is worse — that their king is a shameless sodomite or that he has appointed a commoner to such an influential court position.

Naturally, Edward’s wife, Queen Isabella (Grace Stockdale), struggles with this peculiar arrangement. With no small amount of effort, she produces a much-needed son, the future King Edward III. After being banished twice, Gaveston is finally murdered. A distraught Edward finds comfort in the arms of another favorite, Hugh Despenser (John Jeffords), who upsets the royal court even more.

With the fate of the cr own secured with an heir, Isabella plots to depose Despenser and her husband, who becomes locked in a dungeon and brutally slain. Thankfully, they chose to depict death by dagger instead of the red-hot iron poker that some historians believe was used to impale the king.

Not that Ransom is only concerned with compressing historical facts. He’s crafted a highly theatrical piece, elevated by Klein’s ingenious staging, which connects on an emotional level as well, thanks in part to a few strong performances.

If all this weren’t ambitious enough, Ransom has added a clever framing device, whereby the epic tale is narrated by Marlowe (also played by Ransom), as told to a male prostitute (Jeffords). Not only does this add a layer of psychological complexity, but it injects a dose of fantasy that amps up the drama and forgives any lapses in logic.

GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

MORE THAN ALL THE WORLD Lil Rascal Productions Theater for the New City 155 First Avenue, btwn. Ninth & 10th Sts. Through Nov. 19 Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m. $18; morethanalltheworld.com Two hrs., 45 mins., with intermission

There is some real heat generated between Edward and Gaveston.

The fact that model-handsome Pugliese wears attire that reveals a luscious, impossibly ripped torso surely adds to the appeal.

Ransom does a nice job of delineating the impetuous, foppish Edward and the even-keeled Marlowe, even with no costume or prop changes. His Edward convinces us why he must rule with his heart rather than his brain.

Duty before desire? Not for this reluctant monarch.

Stockdale is a knockout as Queen Isabella, easily navigating an assortment of conflicting personas — neglected wife, sexual adventurer, power-hungry royal, and malicious she-wolf.

No less impr essive ar e the neo-Medieval costumes, credited to Klein but surely influenced by Ransom himself.They’re a glorious mix of black leather, vinyl, neoprene, lace, fishnet, and feathers, accented with metal studs. Think Patricia Field if she were to run amok at the Leather Man on Christopher Street.

As expected at an early stage of such a formidable endeavor, there were technical glitches, rough transitions, and unnecessary repetitions.

The sex scenes, consisting mostly of bodies writhing under sheets, come off more comically than they should.

The running time of two hours and 45 minutes (including intermission) could be trimmed.

But what shines through is the acute desire to illuminate a lesser -known chapter in queer history. Many themes still ring true today: conflicts of class, demonizing minorities, homophobia, and staying true to yourself in the face of bigotry.

This unpolished yet insightful “More Than All the World” pulses with a raw, urgent intensity that is undeniable. Not bad for a work based on historical events from 700 years ago.

Keep your home, family & finances above water

33

Collins, In Her All Candor Judy Blue Eyes’ timeless talent and her vision of what keeps us around

BY DAVID NOH

A

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SHERVIN LAINEZ

s reassuring, endlessly rewarding, and lovely a New York presence as the Statue of Liberty herself — whom she somewhat resembles today in her classic profile — Judy Collins is returning to the Café Carlyle to bewitch us with her ever-uncanny voice, which seems to possess all the vast plains and mountains of this great, if crumbling country of ours.

Her new show will feature a bold first step for her that she described in an interview with Gay City News.

“Of course I sing some of my hits and some from my new CD, ‘Silver Skies Blue,’ my new CD I did with Ari Hest, who will be performing with me. Ari and I have written all the songs together. It’s very exciting, a first for me. I have written songs in the past but never a whole album, a big step. I met Ari a few years ago, and he wrote the lead song for my duets album I recorded with Willie Nelson, Jackson Browne, Jeff Bridges, and Jimmy Buffet. We decided to work together and spent a year writing songs, and here we are. You know, I have to keep myself excited and interested, and these are great songs, all important.

“Ari really impresses me. I wouldn’t have done this work without him. He’s a career musician and wonderful singer, been around for about 15 years. He had a contract with Columbia and did a couple of albums for Sony. I’m very picky and wouldn’t go near someone if I didn’t think they were cooking on all burners. I just think he’s dazzling and his work is first-class.”

I told Collins that, as I grew up, her voice was a beautiful, inescapable presence in my life and, miraculously, its silvery, crystalline timbre and elemental force seem unchanged decades later. Collins laughingly replied, “Well, it’s good luck, good health, a lot of good training, and, I think, just in general a fortunate combination of a number of things. I was a classical pianist, playing Mozart, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff as a young person before I found folk music. Then,

Judy Collins with songwriting and performance collaborator Ari Hest.

when I started singing in concerts and touring, I started to lose my voice. In 1965, I was lucky enough to find a great teacher named Les Margulies, a genius, whom I worked with for 32 years. He knew what he was doing — not a lot do — and I was lucky.”

If nothing else, Collins will always be known as the artist who gave Stephen Sondheim his first and only real pop hit, with her recording of “Send in the Clowns.”

“Yes! And I just made a new Sondheim special for PBS with orchestra, which will come out during the November-December pledge drive, as well as a record, with just piano, of 10 of those songs, coming out in February. I finally accomplished a dream I had for 25 years of doing that. I hope to do the same for these songs that I did for ‘Send in the Clowns,’ so people will hear them in a different way and make a huge difference in their lives.

“I had been nosy about Sondheim in 1973, when a friend brought me the cast album of ‘A Little Night

Music.’ When I heard ‘Clowns,’ I just flipped out — ohmigod, I have to do this song! I was lucky because my record company, Elektra, was poised to do good work. I had certainly built my relationship with them, having huge hits with ‘Both Sides Now,’ ‘Some Day Soon,’ ‘Amazing Grace,’ and ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes.’ They were poised, with the album I was working on, to make the best out of it and they certainly did. I was with Elektra for 25 years and then went back and recorded more, which I still do, and I still get a check from them every six months. Fifty-five years. Amazing! I still see Sondheim in town, and I’m always so glad to know him. He appreciates what I do, which is very nice. ” “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” was memorably featured on the soundtrack of the film “The Subject Was Roses,” lending an extra layer to Patricia Neal’s poignant Oscar-nominated performance.

“Yeah, it’s a wonderful song, which Sandy Denny wrote, and I

was lucky to find it when I did. The director, Ulu Grosbard, called me just after I recorded it in 1968. He said, ‘I’m making this movie, and I’m downstairs editing it, while my kids are upstairs, playing your album. I keep listening to the song “Albatross,” and it fits right into the scene where Patricia takes this bus ride out to Montauk and I’d like to use it. What else are you doing?’

“I told him about ‘Who Knows,’ and played it for him. He said, ‘I’d like to add a few things to it, make it more upbeat at the end,’ so we rerecorded it for him, which people usually don’t do, but we had a little time.”

The other songwriter inextricably linked with Collins is Joni Mitchell, whose “Both Sides Now,” was a seminal 1960s anthem.

“I was so lucky, because it was 1967 and, again, I was prepar ing an album. I had already discovered Leonard Cohen [with ‘Suzanne’] and helped to make him famous, for which he’s

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IN THE NOH, continued on p.35

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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IN THE NOH, from p.34

always been grateful and helpful.

I had heard her name, and her song ‘The Circle Game,’ and one night, at 3 a.m., I got a call from my friend, Al Kooper. He put Joni on the phone and made her sing ‘Both Sides Now,’ and I said, ‘I’ll be right over,’ and that’s how that happened. She’s a wonderful artist, and what a writer!”

As if the ageless beauty of her voice weren’t enough, Collins is even more physically striking today than in her youth, with a superb personal style sense, not to mention her gorgeous mane of silver hair and laser-blue eagle eyes.

“You have to keep it simple, learn to stay healthy, exercise. I have to be an athlete to do this, 130 shows a year all over the place. I have to be up for it at all times. “ The Collins candor is also impressive, whether it’s her delightfully revealing patter in her stage shows (“I love to talk and tell my stories”) or her admirably public sharing of experiences with alcoholism, depression, and suicide [her son, Clark, took his own life in

1992, at age 33]. These topics, once kept so hush-hush, seem to affect everyone these days, on some level.

“I’ve always been an activist.

These were the secret things we couldn’t talk about and now we have to. I had tried for a number of years to write about suicide, then finally found a publisher, a great guy who was running an imprint at Penguin.

“I found a place to write a book about suicide, and then one on creativity, and then one on surviving tragedy. I’d intended it to be for suicide survivors but they convinced me that it was really about survival in general, which I actually still don’t believe. I think suicide is very different, but it was okay. I don’t mind losing a few.

“The world is a very difficult place to live in, and art and music and writing and painting are the things that we do so we can stay on the planet. I truly believe that, otherwise I think people would leave in droves.

One of my favorite stories about 9/11 is about my friend, Emily Rafferty, who was president of the Metropolitan Museum until

a few months ago, when she retired. Giuliani — you wouldn’t believe he had this much sense — called her on 9/12 and said, ‘Everything is closed. You have to open the museum!’

“There were no cellphones or email, so it was a lot of calling land lines and running over to people’s houses, but she did it. They got hold of everybody in this sort of handmade event, and the museum opened the next day and thousands of people came. Because they needed to see art and be reassured that people for centuries, ever since time began, have been going through terrible things and survived. Artists tell us that there’s more than what’s going on and what we’re seeing. That’s the only thing I give Giuliani credit for. He was a helluva prosecutor I must say, but he lost his mind along the way. A sad, sad man. A dangerous, sad man.”

Although many of her contemporaries are holed up in California, Collins has always been the staunchest of New Yorkers, always lending a special glow to the many cultural events she attends in private life.

I got a call from my friend, Al Kooper. He put Joni on the phone and made her sing ‘Both Sides Now,’ and I said, ‘I’ll be right over,’ and that’s how that happened.

“Oh, I love New York! I get to come home and, like last night, go to a lecture at the New York Historical Society where my friend Harold Holzer talked about Abraham Lincoln. He’s a wonderful scholar. A lot of my friends are writers and historians. It’s funny how that worked out.

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IN THE NOH, continued on p.41

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GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

35

OPERA

Rossini’s Revolution Won’t Be Televised Pierre Audi’s “Guillaume Tell” production, the Met’s first in French, oddly inert

BY ELI JACOBSON

A

36

MARTY SOHL/ METROPOLITAN OPERA

t its premiere at the Paris Opéra in 1829, Gioachino Rossini’s “Guillaume Tell” (“William Tell”) created a revolution that influenced Verdi, Donizetti, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, and Wagner, changing the course of opera in the 19th century. It was the final opera of Rossini’s career — he retired at age 37.

“Tell” has always been an opera more talked about or read about than seen or heard. The Metropolitan Opera hasn’t presented it since 1931, when it was given as “Guglielmo Tell” in a bowdlerized Italian translation. Last month, the Met presented it for the first time in the original French.

Alas, the production by Pierre Audi (a co-production with the Dutch National Opera) is a bewildering, lifeless exercise in stylization without style or point. George Tsypin’s cavernous set resembles the valley of a glacier filled with paper maché rocks, deer suspended upside down from the ceiling, and a boat frame/ wooden bridge structure spanning the upper part of the stage. Forty-foot-high fluorescent light bulbs represent trees.

The costumes by Andrea Schmidt-Futterer feature a mélange of styles and periods. The Swiss are costumed all in white because they are good, the Austrian occupiers all in black because they are bad. Tell is dressed as old Moses in “The Ten Commandments,” the other men in the de rigueur long 19th century overcoats. The conflicted Hapsburg princess Mathilde models a smart 1890s black hunting outfit but changes to white as her love for Arnold compels her to support the oppressed Swiss people.

The voices get lost in the open set, which also fails to provide a dramatic environment for the singers to relate to each other. The chorus is grouped into artificial serried rows moving in unison. The solo singers are placed into these awkward tableaux without much motivation or direction. Good actors like Gerald Finley overcome the staging with strong characterizations; less assured stage animals like Bryan

Gerald Finley and Bryan Hymel in Pierre Audi’s production of “Guillaume Tell” at the Met.

Hymel look awkward or lost. We are in opera nowhereland, and we don’t want to be there.

Essential moments in the drama are not represented onstage, including the act of civil disobedience that compels Tell to shoot an apple from his son’s head. In the libretto, the Austrian tyrant Gesler orders the Swiss populace to bow before his hat propped up on a pole in the town square, an order Tell defies. This scene is replaced by Audi with an S&M folk ballet choreographed by Kim Brandstrup.

Two Austrian dominatrix danseuses in black bustier gowns and red alpine hats brandishing riding crops torment the Swiss villagers with forced step dancing; this was booed opening night. The evening would have benefited from internal cuts in the long choral sections and moving the second intermission forward after Act II and presenting Acts III and IV together.

Audi debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2010 with a disastrous

production of Verdi’s “Attila” featuring an equally unsightly, awkward nowhereland set and depersonalizing direction. Only Peter Gelb knows why Audi was rehired to ruin another wonderful opera, but now it is understandable why “Tell” wasn’t selected to be filmed for HD. In the title role, Gerald Finley provides a dramatic center to each scene, restoring theatrical conflict and emotional connection with the audience that the director has abandoned. Finley’s sonorous bass-baritone reaches depths of emotion with his aria “Sois immobile.” As Mathilde, Marina Rebeka’s jewel-toned soprano has a brightly forward projection that suits the French style but can tire the ear. Her entrance aria “Sombre forêt” lacked creamy floated tones.

When Mathilde turns passionate and defiant in Act III, her focused soprano hit the mark, especially in the duet “Pour notre amour, plus d'espérance.” Lovely to look at and committed onstage, the Latvian

soprano was clearly an audience favorite at the final bows.

The relentless high range and heroic demands of the role of Arnold ushered in a new era of dramatic tenors singing high C’s from the chest. Difficulties in casting the tenor lead also kept “Tell” off the stage due to the rarity of voices than can handle Arnold’s music.

The Met found two such tenors with contrasting strengths. Bryan Hymel’s burly tenor is muscular and sturdy but not ideally romantic in color — there is a wooden quality to the middle range and a narrow metallic drive to the high register. One admires the stamina and security on high while wishing for more bel canto grace and elegance. In his one performance on November 2, the less stentorian John Osborn revealed the benefits of his experience singing more lyric bel canto repertoire. Osborn arched and caressed lyrical phrases and explored softer head tones but mastered the heroic demands of Act IV — even holding the final high C of “Amis, amis, secondez mon vengeance” longer than Hymel did.

Unconvincingly costumed as the boy Jemmy, Janai Brugger unfurled a soprano voice of silky radiance to the top line of the ensembles. It is regrettable that the Act IV trio with Jemmy, Edwige, and Mathilde was omitted — it provides a needed moment of calm and exquisite harmonies for three female voices.

K w a n g c h u l Yo u n s o u n d e d unsteady as Melchthal, but strong supporting turns by Maria Zifchak as Edwige, Marco Spotti as Furst, and John Relyea as Gesler rounded out the cast.

Fabio Luisi’s elegant, shapely conducting stressed musical proportion and beauty over dramatic excitement. The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and chorus covered themselves in glory all night.

But they were all working in a dramatic void. Rossini and the Met deserve better.

In an online special at gaycitynews.nyc, Eli Jacobson reviews the Met production of Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri.”

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

FILM

Subterranean Homesick Blues Documentarian Adam Irving explores the life of New Yorker self-destructively obsessed with the subways ‡O UC Suit HI GA e 10 L 5, B LERY: ro o klyn 170 Til la , NY 112 ry St ., 01

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Rob Redding is quickly becoming known all over the art world for his Smear Paintings and is continuing his growing career with his “Black on White” Show in NYC this November.

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Darius McCollum is currently in jail awaiting sentence.

BY STEVE ERICKSON

D

arius McCollum, the man at the center of Adam Irving’s documentary “Off the Rails,” is a complex character. Obsessed with the MTA’s subway and buses, he knows the system better than many actual transit employees.

The MTA turned him down for a job when he was 17; had they hired him, the course of his life probably would’ve been much happier. Instead, he spends his days prowling the subway, looking for opportunities to don his MTA uniform and hijack a train or bus.

His intent is benign — he’s never hurt anyone — and he’s always delivered passengers to their destination safely. Nevertheless, this compulsion has led to 19 years in jail. Darius is in prison right now, awaiting sentencing on his latest crime.

Darius’ case raises larger issues about mental health and the way prison is so often used to treat it.

He was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, which accounts for his high intelligence, his inability to connect with people (while he was once married, his ex-wife Nelly Rodriguez seems to be the only woman with whom he’s had a serious adult relationship), and his tendency to focus narrowly and relentlessly on things. If I can GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

play armchair psychiatrist, he also seems to have a whopping case of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

While his obsessions are potentially harmful, they haven’t played out that way so far in more than 30 years of unauthorized subway conducting and bus driving. His crimes have been victimless, yet he’s served more jail time than some killers or rapists.

Irving tells Darius’ story mostly through his subject’s own words (in interviews filmed against a dark background, possibly in jail), interviews with lawyers, social workers, and psychiatrists who’ve worked with him, re-enactments, and cuts to “Superman” cartoons. (There’s also a bit of original animation.)

The “Superman” references aren’t intended to be taken literally, but to convey Darius’ inner life. Composers Duncan Thum and Steve Gernes’ pulsing electronic score recalls some of the first synthesizer -driven movie soundtracks

by Wendy Carlos, Brian Eno, and Tangerine Dream.

Director John Crowley is on board to direct a narrative version of Darius’ story, with Julia Roberts set to play his lawyer. I’m not sure who will play Darius, but I’d like to suggest Michael K. Williams, who played Omar on “The Wire,” given Williams’ recent frankness about

c

SUBWAY, continued on p.41

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FLECK, from p.30

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RAFAEL HERNANDEZ

Don’t project too much onto that.

An undercurrent of autobiography is standard issue in any creative endeavor — but here, Fleck combines what may or may not be his own secret shames with a movie junkie’s fondness for tropes and an anthropologist’s fascination with the crave/ recoil response when confronted with facts that are probably fiction. Lest you think you’re being lectured to (apart from the point where there’s an actual lecture), Fleck heaps upon this foundation thick layers of sight gags, physical comedy, puppetry, virtuoso vocal and facial contortions, and video projections that turn the black box theater into a cinema where the watcher becomes the watched (the screenplay direction “Cut to the attractive man’s POV” is this show’s breakout drinking game phrase).

“Here’s the thing,” Fleck confessed, “it’s not the greatest horror story. It’s based on old clichéd scenarios. The deconstruction is what interests me” — and not just in reference to the spook house genre he both respects and subverts.

“Observation affects behavior,” says Fleck, in the guise of the smug “Blacktop” professor -type who interrupts the action to name-drop the late French philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s 1981 “Simulacra and Simulation” treatise, insisting that from this moment on, our man Fleck is “very aware that he is being watched” and, in our own awareness of that fact, audience members become “the überwatchers.”

“We live in a hyper -real world where there’s no longer a difference between reality and the appearance of reality,” said Fleck of the show’s Baudrillard-inspired,

A live feed of John Fleck’s face on the monitor, from a performance of “Blacktop Highway” at REDCAT in Los Angeles.

ever-peeling layers of revelations and shifting perspectives. “People want to know, ‘Is this all fiction?’ But in a way, I could look at all these characters that came out of my psyche as a mirror aspect of myself; this quest for the pretty face, and me being an aging gay man; the quest to stay young instead of accepting the reality of wanting to change that.”

This is just one of the deep insecurities we’re prodded/ tempted/ encouraged to project onto Fleck, who at one point turns to the audience and quips, “I’m too old to get a job in Hollywood, so I made my own [movie] and play all the parts.”

Fleck admitted his bitter little Norma Desmond/ Baby Jane routine is “somewhat exaggerated, as we in the theater tend to do,” although work on the small screen has dried up since a long stretch of steady work in episodic and procedural dramas: Check out his IMDb profile for a multitude of unsavory characters, including “Gravedigger,” “CEO,” and, yes, “Wolf.”

But Fleck isn’t disavowing or dissing the dues paid through such

PLENTY DANGEROUS, from p.32

In the original Broadway production, that moment was gasp-inducing and cinematic, leaving one shaken, as did all of Kate Nelligan’s performance. It was the kind of moment that nearly three decades later remains sharp in one’s memory. Sadly, the moment’s power is missing from the current production, which, while intermittently compelling with Rachel Weisz in the role, is more bland than galvanizing.

The problem rests with Leveaux’s direction.

It’s as if he doesn’t understand the underlying disillusionment and the resulting rage that moti-

38

steady work. After all, he noted, “I squirreled away enough bucks when I was working in that medium, and now I’m at a point in my life [where] I don’t need to hustle for the TV jobs and am instead focusing on my performance art and theater. I did a feature film with Margaret Cho called ‘Alaska Is a Drag.’ I just finished acting in a David Greenspan play in LA called ‘Go Back to Where You Are,’ and I’m planning on doing a Pinter play in the spring. I want to be ‘live.’”

This renewed dedication to theater, it turns out, is steeped in irony. Fleck credits the creation of “Blacktop” to an Internet project that never saw the light of day.

“I have this old crone in me,” he said regarding what would become the character of long-suffering sister Jane “that I got in touch with when I did [Lady Enid in Charles Ludlam’s] ‘The Mystery of Irma Vep,’ so it just kind of evolved. I originally thought about this piece as a web series. I was gonna call it ‘The Door.’ This old woman would answer the door, and there’s a big secret inside.”

vate Susan. She is not conventionally crazy, but is beyond the reach of consolation. Her tragedy is that she has lost her identity and the world she fought for has disappointed her. Susan will never be well, though she may at times be under control, but Leveaux just lets her be garden-variety nuts and unravel over the course of the evening. The result is more pathetic than tragic, which doesn’t fully serve the play.

Weisz looks beautiful in Jess Goldstein’s consistently stunning costumes on Mike Britton’s ingenious revolving set, and her outbursts can be harrowing, but she’s never really threatening or frightening, making it too easy to dis-

Readers are strongly advised to enter the doors of Dixon Place, and discover that secret for themselves.

Your time will be duly rewarded, promised the man whose downtown theater credits date back to the early ’80s and include the “Blacktop” host venue as well as PS122 and La MaMa. “I think the power of live theater,” Fleck insisted, will trump the experience of sitting at home “just looking at a screen. I want something to make me feel like I’m a fucking human being, not a robotized media head.”

Let’s hope that message reaches the masses — or at least the guy who recently asked Fleck what he was up to next.

“I said I was going to New York City to do my solo show,” Fleck recalled, “and he asked, ‘Why?’ and I said, ‘Well, that’s what I am. I’m a performance artist/ theater person.’

And he said no one he knows ‘goes to live theater anymore.’ And I said, ‘Well, if that’s the case, then this an act of defiance and rebellion on my part.’ I truly feel theater, at its core, is about reminding us of our shared humanity — and it has to be ‘live.’”

Randee T rabitz directs, with video design by Heather Fipps, costume design by Christina Wright, puppet design by Christine Papalexis, and original lighting design by Anne Militello.

JOHN FLECK “Blacktop Highway” Dixon Place 161A Chrystie St., btwn. Rivington & Delancey Sts. Nov. 11-12, 18-19 at 7:30 p.m. $18, $15 for students & seniors dixonplace.org or 212-219-0736

miss Susan. The other members of the company include Corey Stoll as Susan’s husband, in an often tender if confusing performance. We never really understand why he stays with her for so many years. The reliable Byron Jennings is excellent as Sir Leonard Darwin, the consummate foil to Susan, having chosen a life in the diplomatic corps, which represents the very antithesis of Susan’s recklessness.

What should be Susan’s lifelong existential crisis has been reduced to neurotic solipsism.

Her story should be hot and theatrical. Sadly, this “Plenty” never turns up the heat. It barely even turns it on.

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

ADVERTORIAL

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Leading the list of the top distractions behind the wheel are mobile phones.

Phones now do more than just place calls, and drivers often cannot pull away from their phones, even when driving. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, studies have shown that driving performance is lowered and the level of distraction is higher for drivers who are heavily engaged in cell

phone conversations. The use of a hands-free device does not lower distraction levels. The percentage of vehicle crashes and nearcrashes attributed to dialing is nearly identical to the number associated with talking or listening.

daydreaming

Many people will admit to daydreaming behind the wheel or looking at a person or object outside of the car for too long. Per-

GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

haps they’re checking out a house in a new neighborhood or thought they saw someone they knew on the street corner. It can be easy to veer into the direction your eyes are focused, causing an accident. In addition to trying to stay focused on the road, some drivers prefer the help of lane departure warning systems.

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Those who haven’t quite mastered walking and

chewing gum at the same time may want to avoid eating while driving. The majority of foods require a person’s hands to be taken off of the wheel and their eyes to be diverted from the road. Reaching in the back seat to share some French fries with the kids is also distracting.

Try to eat meals before getting in the car. For those who must snack while en route, take a moment to pull over at

a rest area and spend 10 minutes snacking there before resuming the trip.

reading

Glancing at an advertisement, updating a Facebook status or reading a book are all activities that should be avoided when driving. Even pouring over a traffic map or consulting the digital display of a GPS system can be distracting.

39

FRI.NOV.11 NIGHTLIFE Matchmaking By BGSQD

BOOKS Not Just Another Pretty Face

SAT.NOV.12 FILM The Flourishing World of Documentaries

Fire Island Artist Residency presents an evening of performance with Tyler Ashley, Matthew deLeon, and Donald C. Shorter Jr., whose work is on display in “Coney Island Babies,” the current exhibition on display at Bureau of General Services — Queer Division, at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., rm. 210.

Nov 12, 6-8 p.m. Suggested donation of $5 benefits BGSQD.

SUN.NOV.13 THEATER All Groan Up Growing up, most of us set benchmarks that signify the transition from child to adult. Double digits, Bar Mitzvahs, Quinceñeras, graduations, jobs, leases... the list goes on!

Steven Ferezy calls Bunk! Bunk! Bunk! We are all just li’l kids with checkbooks and bills! Ferezy presents “#Adult,” co-written and directed by Robbie Rozelle, with musical direction by Bryson Baumgartel. It’s an evening of song and storytelling that captures Ferezy’s journey as an #Adult. Duplex Cabaret Theatre, 61 Christopher St. at Seventh Ave. S. in Sheridan Sq. Nov. 13, 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 at theduplex.com, $20 at the door, and there’s a two-drink minimum.

MON.NOV.14 BENEFIT Push Back Against the Bullying The Tyler Clementi Foundation and the Clementi family host the fifth annual Upstander Legacy Celebration honoring Workplace Options, the world’s leading provider of integrated employee well-being services, and teen filmmakers from Mythic Bridge, one of the winners of AT&T’s Cyberbullying Film Invitational at the All American High School Film Festival. ABC News correspondent Gio Benitez, who has publicly discussed his experiences being bullied as a youth, hosts the evening, and Bridget Barkan performs her single “Danger Heart.” The event raises funds for the Foundation’s programs to end bullying online and offline. Guests will enjoy wines and cocktails provided

by Kim Crawford Wines and SVEDKA Vodka. Prince George Ballroom, 15 E. 27th St. Nov. 14, 6:30-9 p.m.

Tickets are $225 at tylerclementi.org.

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JOESPUB.COM

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Coney, By Way of Fire Island

THEDUPLEX.COM

This year’s DOC NYC includes several hundred feature-length and documentary shorts. Highlights of particular interest to LGBT viewers include: “Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures,” Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s film that doesn’t hold back in confronting the personal complexities or public provocations of Robert Mapplethorpe, who emerged from the vibrant 1970s New York art scene and died of AIDS in 1989. Mapplethorpe’s photography spanned explicit gay sadomasochistic sex, but also stunning pictures of flowers. (Cinepolis Chelsea, 260 W. 23rd St., Nov. 12, 10:15 p.m.) Carrie Lozano and Charlotte Lagarde’s “The Ballad of Fred Hersch” looks at the out gay, out HIV-positive jazz pianist whose fourdecade career of international acclaim was almost cut short eight years ago by a health crisis. The film follows him as he transforms his darkest hours into an innovative multimedia jazz theater experience.

(Cinepolis Chelsea, 260 W. 23rd St., Nov. 12, 7:45 p.m.) Eddie Rosenstein’s “The Freedom to Marry” follows marriage equality architect Evan Wolfson as he and key allies, including Mary Bonauto of the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, kept up the fight and reviewed how far they had come while the clock ticked down to the June 2015 victory at the Supreme Court. (Cinepolis Chelsea, 260 W. 23rd St., Nov. 12, 5:30 p.m.; IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at W. Third St.,

GALLERY

DOCNYC.NET

The New Anthology “Not Just Another Pretty Face” pairs stories and poems with photos of go-go dancers. This may seem a risky premise: what is there new to say about go-go boys? But the photographs in this anthology take the dancer from the dance, place him in a new context, and invite us to explore the charged intersection of expectation and reality.

These are not mere icons, but stories waiting to be told. Bluestockings, 172 Allen St., btwn. Stanton & Rivington Sts. Nov. 11, 7-9:30 p.m. More information at http://bluestockings.com/events/calendar.

DOCNYC.NET

Matchers is a unique single gay men’s alternative to the bars and the apps. A room full of roughly 35 (putatively) eligible guys sit in a circle and engage in their own talk show. Current events topics (tonight should be interesting!) are discussed with a moderator guiding the conversation, making sure each gets to provide his two cents or so. Each bachelor wears a number — not name — tag and has paper and a pen to take notes, plus a printout for him to enter the codes of those he’d like to meet. After 90 minutes or so, the group breaks for a half-hour of social banter. The guys leave their printout with the moderator and the following day receive notice of those guys who reciprocated their match requests.

Bureau of General Services — Queer Division, at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St. Nov. 11, 7-9:30 p.m. If you like, RSVP at facebook. com/events/1124706817578008, but it’s not required.

Admission is free. More information at matchers4men. blogspot.com.

Nov. 14, 2:45 p.m.) “The Guys Next Door” is Amy Geller and Allie Humenuk’s film about a married woman with three children who is the surrogate mother for her married gay friends’ children. (SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St., Nov. 13, noon.) Julie Sokolow’s “Woman on Fire” is a portrait of courage under fire celebrating New York City’s first out transgender firefighter, Brooke Guinan, for whom fighting fires runs in her blood — both her father and grandfather having served in the FDNY. But as a transgender woman, her path to service has not been without obstacles. (Cinepolis Chelsea, 260 W. 23rd St., Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m.; IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at W. Third St., Nov. 17, 3 p.m.) “The Joneses” is director Moby Longinotto's film about Jheri Jones, a lively 74-year-old transgender divorcée who works hard to keep her family together in a trailer park home in the Mississippi Bible Belt. (Cinepolis Chelsea, 260 W. 23rd St., Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m.) Tickets are $18 per screening, $16 for seniors & children at docnyc.net.

14 DAYS , continued on p.43

November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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IN THE NOH, from p.35

“I recorded in California but never lived there, except from 1943 to '49, as a child. I go there for business and concerts, so I certainly am there on a regular basis. I had a very good experience doing ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes.” It was a good time to be in LA.” I’ll say. It was the late 1960s, and Collins was one of the gorgeous, free-floating muses and queens of the scene, the lady of rocker Stephen Stills, who wrote “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” for her.

“That was really something. I know, it’s very touching, that song.

When he played it for the first time, we both cried. And I said, ‘Well, it’s not going to work. I’m not coming back. But it sure is beautiful!’”

So, who does Judy Collins listen to?

“Hugh Prestwood just put out a new CD, ‘I Used to Be the Real Me,’ which I love. He wrote ‘Hard Times for Lovers,’ which I record-

JUDY COLINS With Guest Ari Hest Café Carlyle 35 E. 76th St. Nov. 10-12 , 17-19 at 8:45 p.m.

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ed. Yes [laughs], the ‘naked’ album [because of her revealing cover]!

He’s had a lot of big country hits recorded by other people, but isn’t actually well known as an artist.

And, of course, I listen to the new albums by my peers to see what they’re doing. I heard Leonard’s new CD, which is amazing, and I always try to keep up with the new artists and find out what they’re doing. And the old classics, like Joni’s work.”

I Get It At Home... Do You? To get Gay City News mailed directly to your home,

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Yes, I want the GAY CITY NEWS mailed to my home for only $95/ year Name_____________________________________________________________

Darius McCollum in a mug shot from his younger days.

Mailing Address_________________________________________________________

SUBWAY, from p.37

his struggle with addiction. While that film may turn out well, there’s something absurd about making a Hollywood version of a life story that’s mostly brought torment and misery to the people who’ve participated in it. Movies about con artists tend to romanticize them.

“Off the Rails” suggests their shortterm pleasure is rooted in real pathology and leads to long-term struggles.

I have to admit, though, that there’s something fascinating about Darius’ story, as much as it may be driven by mental illness, and Crowley isn’t the first person GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

OFF THE RAILS Directed by Adam Irving Gemini Pictures Opens Nov. 18 Metrograph 7 Ludlow St., btwn. Canal & Hester Sts. metrograph.com

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to see fictional potential in it. Irving also interviews the playwright of “Boy Steals Train,” which is based on his life as well. There’s triumph amidst the pathos here, and it’s frustrating to try and figure out how Darius’ life could have been filled with more of those victories.

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November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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14 DAYS, from p.40

TUE.NOV.15 COMEDY The Queen of the Bronx

Queering the Art History Canon Hunter O’Hanian, the former executive director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art who now heads up the College Art Association, moderates “Queering Institutions: Collecting, Preserving, and Presenting,” a panel discussion also featuring Nelson Santos from Visual AIDS, Flavia Rando from the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and Jim Saslow from Leslie-Lohman. Queer lives have been historically marginalized by the mainstream, and the cultural and artistic work of queer artists and activists has been forsaken by the cannon of art history. In the absence of representation, queer institutions have led the charge to collect, preserve, and re-present queer art, history, and culture. Fashion Institute of Technology, Haft Auditorium, 227 W. 27th St. Nov. 16, 6-8 p.m. For more information, contact jerry@leslielohman.org.

THU.NOV.17 THEATER A Gay Teen’s Forced Alienation Frank J. Avella's play “Consent” examines the types of bullying many gay teens face, both obvious and subtle. In a play reading, directed by Brian Patterson, Mackian Bauman, Ian Campbell Dunn, Alice Barrett Mitchell, Remington E. Moses, and Ian Whitt explore the story of Seth, a 16-year-old boy coming to terms with his sexuality who is bullied at school. He crushes on the main bully’s brother, who, much to Seth's delight, returns his feelings, while Seth’s absent mom has returned to battle his current guardian, his high school baseball coach who seems a bit too attached to the boy. All the while, Seth becomes more and more alienated and dejected. Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, 26 Wooster St., btwn.

Grand & Canal Sts. Nov. 17, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

RSVP to consenttheplay2016@gmail.com or 973-715-2356. Admission is free, and a reception follows the play.

GayCityNews.nyc | November 10 - 23, 2016

GALLERY

7-9:30 p.m., rm. 210. Suggested donation of $10 will benefit the Bureau. You can RSVP at facebook.com/events/1074780055974531.

SAT.NOV.19 THEATER Good With Patti; Money, Not So Much Ben Rimalower performs his two OffBroadway solo plays, “Patti Issues,” about his obsession with diva Patti LuPone and his relationship with his troubled gay father, and “Bad With Money,” about how an addiction to spending beyond his means has driven him to extreme lengths all his life, in a double repertory bill. The Duplex Cabaret Theatre, 61 Christopher St. at Seventh Ave. S. in Sheridan Square. “Patti” plays Nov. 19, 9 p.m.; Dec. 19, 7 p.m.; “Money” plays Nov. 19, 11 p.m.; Dec. 19, 9 p.m. Tickets are $25 per show; $37.50 for the double bill at theduplex. com. Admission is $30 per show at the door.

There is a two-drink minimum.

PERFORMANCE Birthday Stories “TELL” is an evening of storytelling from the mouths and minds of queers in New York.

In honor of the Bureau of General Services — Queer Division’s fourth anniversary, the evening’s theme is “birthdays.” Writer, actor, storyteller, and dancer Drae Campbell hosts Bronx poet and musician Skye Cabrera, adult entertainment performer Michael Bret Cohen, Miss Crimson Kitty, who is taking drag culture by storm one perfected lip-synch at a time, and Brooklyn musician and songwriter D o r a Va r g a s . BGSQD, at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St. Nov. 19,

WED.NOV.23 COMMUNITY

It’s Kind of a Big Deal Queer|Art|Mentorship has partnered with Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art for its third annual weekend featuring the work of its 2015-2016 Fellows.

Rodrigo Bellott, Monstah Black, Caroline Wells Chandler, Erin Greenwell, Doron Langberg, Jacob Matkov, Mylo Mendez, Eva Peskin, Hugh Ryan, Justine Williams, and Brendan WilliamsChilds present exhibitions, screenings, and performances. Leslie-Lohman’s Prince Street Project Space, 127-B Prince St. at Wooster St. Nov. 19-20, noon-6 p.m. Opening reception is Nov. 18, 6-8 p.m., and a special screening, reading, and performance take place Nov. 19, 6-8 p.m. More information at leslielohman.org/exhibitions/future.html.

KEVIN YATAROLA

GALLERY

FRI.NOV.18

BGSQD.COM

WED.NOV.16

DUSTIN MARK

Playwright/ actor Joe Gulla (pictured, bottom, p. 40), who won the 2016 Downtown Urban Arts Festival’s Audience Award, tackles the issue of growing up as a gay Italian boy… in the Bronx! Smart, fun, funny, and poignant, “The Bronx Queen” reveals why some people are destined to be nervous (ship) wrecks, while others cling to the greatest life preserver of all: art! Dramamine is not included in the ticket price. Joe’s Pub, inside the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., btwn. E. Fourth St. & Astor Pl. Nov. 15, 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 at joespub.com.

SUN.NOV.20 PERFORMANCE Clock Is Ticking on Justin Sayre’s Meeting* The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre — the monthly gathering of the International Order of Sodomites, the centuries-old organization which sets the mythic Gay Agenda but plans on concluding its long run with this season’s end next May — tonight pays tribute to Angela Lansbury. Joe’s Pub, inside the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., btwn. E. Fourth St. & Astor Pl. Nov. 20, 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 at joespub.com.

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The Divinity of Queerness Bluestockings hosts “The Divinity of Queerness,” a discussion about how being queer and/ or transgender informs our spirituality. Queer ancestors across time and cultures are honored through learning about who they were and how they were viewed in their respective societies — as shamans, healers, mystics, and more. This a workshot incorporates reflection, lecture, discussion, and embodiment through breathing, movement and visualization. We all need lots of that right now. 172 Allen St., btwn. Stanton & Rivington Sts. Nov. 23, 7-9:30 p.m. More information at http://bluestockings.com/ events/calendar.

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November 10 - 23, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc