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FREE VOLUME TWELVE, ISSUE THIRTEEN JUNE 26 - JULY 09, 2013
No GENDA Vote in Senate 31 A Provocative Kid Like Jake 47 Elliot Morales Confessions Bared 28 Very Queer Petunia 36
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
ily a D e c n O
PREZISTA ^ EXPERIENCE
Discover the
ABOUT PREZISTA
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
PREZISTA® (darunavir) is a prescription medicine. It is one treatment option in the class of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) medicines known as protease inhibitors.
What is the most important information I should know about PREZISTA®?
®
PREZISTA® is always taken with and at the same time as ritonavir (Norvir ®), in combination with other HIV medicines for the treatment of HIV infection in adults. PREZISTA® should also be taken with food.
• It is important that you remain under the care of your healthcare professional during treatment with PREZISTA® PREZISTA® does not cure HIV infection or AIDS and you may continue to experience illnesses associated with HIV-1 infection, including opportunistic infections. You should remain under the care of a doctor when using PREZISTA.® Please read Important Safety Information below, and talk to your healthcare professional to learn if PREZISTA® is right for you.
Once-Daily PREZISTA® (darunavir) isn’t just an HIV treatment, it’s an HIV treatment experience as unique as you. That’s why you should ask your healthcare professional if the PREZISTA® E perience is right for you. Once-Daily PREZISTA® taken with ritonavir and in combination with other HIV medications can help lower your viral load and keep your HIV under control over the long term. In a clinical study* of almost 4 years (192 weeks), 7 out of 10 adults who had never taken HIV medications before maintained undetectable† viral loads with PREZISTA® plus ritonavir and Truvada.®
• PREZISTA® can interact with other medicines and cause serious side effects. See “Who should not take PREZISTA®?” • PREZISTA® may cause liver problems. Some people taking PREZISTA,® together with orvir ® (ritonavir), have developed liver problems which may be life-threatening. Your healthcare professional should do blood tests before and during your combination treatment with PREZISTA.® If you have chronic hepatitis B or C infection, your healthcare professional should check your blood tests more often because you have an increased chance of developing liver problems • Tell your healthcare professional if you have any of these signs and symptoms of liver problems: dark (tea-colored) urine, yellowing of your skin or whites of your eyes, pale-colored stools (bowel movements), nausea, vomiting, pain or tenderness on your right side below your ribs, or loss of appetite (continued)
Please read the Important Safety Information and Patient Information on adjacent pages. Ask your healthcare professional about the PREZISTA® Experience. And be sure to visit DiscoverPREZISTA.com for tools and helpful information to find out if the PREZISTA® Experience might be right for you. *A randomized, open-label, Phase 3 trial comparing PREZISTA®/ritonavir 800/100 mg once daily (n=343) vs Kaletra®/ritonavir 800/200 mg/day (n=346). †Undetectable was defined as a viral load of less than 50 copies per mL. Registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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• The use of other medicines active against HIV in combination with PREZISTA®/ritonavir (Norvir ®) may increase your ability to fight HIV. Your healthcare professional will work with you to find the right combination of HIV medicines
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IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION (continued)
Who should not take PREZISTA ? ®
• Before taking PREZISTA,® tell your healthcare professional if you are taking sildenafil (Viagra,® Revatio®), vardenafil (Levitra,® Staxyn®), tadalafil (Cialis,® Adcirca®), atorvastatin (Lipitor®), rosuvastatin (Crestor®), pravastatin (Pravachol®), or colchicine (Colcrys,® Col-Probenecid®). Tell your healthcare professional if you are taking estrogen-based contraceptives (birth control). PREZISTA® might reduce the effectiveness of estrogen-based contraceptives. You must take additional precautions for birth control, such as condoms This is not a complete list of medicines. Be sure to tell your healthcare professional about all the medicines you are taking or plan to take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.
— The effects of PREZISTA® on pregnant women or their unborn babies are not known. You and your healthcare professional will need to decide if taking PREZISTA® is right for you — Do not breastfeed. It is not known if PREZISTA® can be passed to your baby in your breast milk and whether it could harm your baby. Also, mothers with HIV should not breastfeed because HIV can be passed to your baby in the breast milk What are the possible side effects of PREZISTA®? • High blood sugar, diabetes or worsening of diabetes, and increased bleeding in people with hemophilia have been reported in patients taking protease inhibitor medicines, including PREZISTA® • Changes in body fat have been seen in some patients taking HIV medicines, including PREZISTA.® The cause and long-term health effects of these conditions are not known at this time • Changes in your immune system can happen when you start taking HIV medicines. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden • The most common side effects related to taking PREZISTA® include diarrhea, nausea, rash, headache, stomach pain, and vomiting. This is not a complete list of all possible side effects. If you experience these or other side effects, talk to your healthcare professional. Do not stop taking PREZISTA® or any other medicines without first talking to your healthcare professional 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 refer to the ritonavir (Norvir®) Product Information (PI and PPI) for additional information on precautionary measures. Please read accompanying Patient Information for PREZISTA® and discuss any questions you have with your doctor.
What should I tell my doctor before I take PREZISTA®? • Before taking PREZISTA,® tell your healthcare professional if you have any medical conditions, including liver problems (including hepatitis B or C), allergy to sulfa medicines, diabetes, or hemophilia
Janssen Therapeutics, Division of Janssen Products, LP © Janssen Therapeutics, Division of Janssen Products, LP 2013 05/13 K28PRZ121037C
Snap a quick pic of our logo to show your doctor and get the conversation started.
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• Do not take PREZISTA® if you are taking the following medicines: alfuzosin (Uroxatral®), dihydroergotamine (D.H.E.45,® Embolex,® Migranal®), ergonovine, ergotamine (Cafergot,® Ergomar ®), methylergonovine, cisapride (Propulsid®), pimozide (Orap®), oral midazolam, triazolam (Halcion®), the herbal supplement St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), lovastatin (Mevacor,® Altoprev,® Advicor ®), simvastatin (Zocor,® Simcor,® Vytorin®), rifampin (Rifadin,® Rifater,® Rifamate,® Rimactane®), sildenafil (Revatio®) when used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, indinavir (Crixivan®), lopinavir/ ritonavir (Kaletra®), saquinavir (Invirase®), boceprevir (Victrelis™), or telaprevir (Incivek™)
• Tell your healthcare professional if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding
28PRZDTC0288R8
• PREZISTA® may cause a severe or life-threatening skin reaction or rash. Sometimes these skin reactions and skin rashes can become severe and require treatment in a hospital. You should call your healthcare professional immediately if you develop a rash. However, stop taking PREZISTA® and ritonavir combination treatment and call your healthcare professional immediately if you develop any skin changes with these symptoms: fever, tiredness, muscle or joint pain, blisters or skin lesions, mouth sores or ulcers, red or inflamed eyes, like “pink eye.” Rash occurred more often in patients taking PREZISTA® and raltegravir together than with either drug separately, but was generally mild
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IMPORTANT PATIENT INFORMATION PREZISTA (pre-ZIS-ta) (darunavir) Oral Suspension PREZISTA (pre-ZIS-ta) (darunavir) Tablets Read this Patient Information before you start taking PREZISTA and each time you get a refill. There may be new information. This information does not take the place of talking to your healthcare provider about your medical condition or your treatment. Also read the Patient Information leaflet for NORVIR® (ritonavir). What is the most important information I should know about PREZISTA? • P REZISTA can interact with other medicines and cause serious side effects. It is important to know the medicines that should not be taken with PREZISTA. See the section “Who should not take PREZISTA?” • PREZISTA may cause liver problems. Some people taking PREZISTA in combination with NORVIR® (ritonavir) have developed liver problems which may be life-threatening. Your healthcare provider should do blood tests before and during your combination treatment with PREZISTA. If you have chronic hepatitis B or C infection, your healthcare provider should check your blood tests more often because you have an increased chance of developing liver problems. • Tell your healthcare provider if you have any of the below signs and symptoms of liver problems. • Dark (tea colored) urine • yellowing of your skin or whites of your eyes • pale colored stools (bowel movements) • nausea • vomiting • pain or tenderness on your right side below your ribs • loss of appetite PREZISTA may cause severe or life-threatening skin reactions or rash. Sometimes these skin reactions and skin rashes can become severe and require treatment in a hospital. You should call your healthcare provider immediately if you develop a rash. However, stop taking PREZISTA and ritonavir combination treatment and call your healthcare provider immediately if you develop any skin changes with symptoms below: • fever • tiredness • muscle or joint pain • blisters or skin lesions • mouth sores or ulcers • red or inflamed eyes, like “pink eye” (conjunctivitis) Rash occurred more often in people taking PREZISTA and raltegravir together than with either drug separately, but was generally mild. See “What are the possible side effects of PREZISTA?” for more information about side effects. What is PREZISTA? PREZISTA is a prescription anti-HIV medicine used with ritonavir and other antiHIV medicines to treat adults with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection. PREZISTA is a type of anti-HIV medicine called a protease inhibitor. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). When used with other HIV medicines, PREZISTA may help to reduce the amount of HIV in your blood (called “viral load”). PREZISTA may also help to increase the number of white blood cells called CD4 (T) cell which help fight off other infections. Reducing the amount of HIV and increasing the CD4 (T) cell count may improve your immune system. This may reduce your risk of death or infections that can happen when your immune system is weak (opportunistic infections). PREZISTA does not cure HIV infection or AIDS and you may continue to experience illnesses associated with HIV-1 infection, including opportunistic infections. You should remain under the care of a doctor when using PREZISTA. Avoid doing things that can spread HIV-1 infection. • Do not share needles or other injection equipment. • Do not share personal items that can have blood or body fluids on them, like toothbrushes and razor blades.
• D o not have any kind of sex without protection. Always practice safe sex by using a latex or polyurethane condom to lower the chance of sexual contact with semen, vaginal secretions, or blood. Ask your healthcare provider if you have any questions on how to prevent passing HIV to other people. Who should not take PREZISTA? Do not take PREZISTA with any of the following medicines: • alfuzosin (Uroxatral®) • dihydroergotamine (D.H.E. 45®, Embolex®, Migranal®), ergonovine, ergotamine (Cafergot®, Ergomar®) methylergonovine • c isapride • p imozide (Orap®) • oral midazolam, triazolam (Halcion®) • the herbal supplement St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) • the cholesterol lowering medicines lovastatin (Mevacor®, Altoprev®, Advicor®) or simvastatin (Zocor®, Simcor®, Vytorin®) • r ifampin (Rifadin®, Rifater®, Rifamate®, Rimactane®) • sildenafil (Revatio®) only when used for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Serious problems can happen if you take any of these medicines with PREZISTA. What should I tell my doctor before I take PREZISTA? PREZISTA may not be right for you. Before taking PREZISTA, tell your healthcare provider if you: • have liver problems, including hepatitis B or hepatitis C • are allergic to sulfa medicines • have high blood sugar (diabetes) • have hemophilia • are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. It is not known if PREZISTA will harm your unborn baby. Pregnancy Registry: You and your healthcare provider will need to decide if taking PREZISTA is right for you. If you take PREZISTA while you are pregnant, talk to your healthcare provider about how you can be included in the Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry. The purpose of the registry is follow the health of you and your baby. • are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. We do not know if PREZISTA can be passed to your baby in your breast milk and whether it could harm your baby. Also, mothers with HIV-1 should not breastfeed because HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in the breast milk. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Using PREZISTA and certain other medicines may affect each other causing serious side effects. PREZISTA may affect the way other medicines work and other medicines may affect how PREZISTA works. Especially tell your healthcare provider if you take: • other medicine to treat HIV • estrogen-based contraceptives (birth control). PREZISTA might reduce the effectiveness of estrogen-based contraceptives. You must take additional precautions for birth control such as a condom. • medicine for your heart such as bepridil, lidocaine (Xylocaine Viscous®), quinidine (Nuedexta®), amiodarone (Pacerone®, Cardarone®), digoxin (Lanoxin®), flecainide (Tambocor®), propafenone (Rythmol®) • warfarin (Coumadin®, Jantoven®) • medicine for seizures such as carbamazepine (Carbatrol®, Equetro®, Tegretol®, Epitol®), phenobarbital, phenytoin (Dilantin®, Phenytek®) • medicine for depression such as trazadone and desipramine (Norpramin®) • clarithromycin (Prevpac®, Biaxin®) • medicine for fungal infections such as ketoconazole (Nizoral®), itraconazole (Sporanox®, Onmel®), voriconazole (VFend®) • colchicine (Colcrys®, Col-Probenecid®) • rifabutin (Mycobutin®) • medicine used to treat blood pressure, a heart attack, heart failure, or to lower pressure in the eye such as metoprolol (Lopressor®, Toprol-XL®), timolol (Cosopt®, Betimol®, Timoptic®, Isatolol®, Combigan®) • midazolam administered by injection • medicine for heart disease such as felodipine (Plendil®), nifedipine (Procardia®, Adalat CC®, Afeditab CR®), nicardipine (Cardene®) • steroids such as dexamethasone, fluticasone (Advair Diskus®, Veramyst®, Flovent®, Flonase®) • bosentan (Tracleer®) • medicine to treat chronic hepatitis C such as boceprevir (VictrelisTM), telaprevir (IncivekTM)
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IMPORTANT PATIENT INFORMATION • m edicine for cholesterol such as pravastatin (Pravachol®), atorvastatin (Lipitor®), rosuvastatin (Crestor®) • medicine to prevent organ transplant failure such as cyclosporine ( engraf®, Sandimmune®, Neoral®), tacrolimus (Prograf®), sirolimus (Rapamune®) • salmeterol (Advair®, Serevent®) • medicine for narcotic withdrawal such as methadone (Methadose®, Dolophine Hydrochloride), buprenorphine (Butrans®, Buprenex®, Subutex®), buprenorphine/ naloxone (Suboxone®) • medicine to treat schizophrenia such as risperidone (Risperdal®), thioridazine • medicine to treat erectile dysfunction or pulmonary hypertension such as sildenafil (Viagra®, Revatio®), vardenafil (Levitra®, Staxyn®), tadalafil (Cialis®, Adcirca®) • medicine to treat anxiety, depression or panic disorder such as sertraline (Zoloft®), paroxetine (Paxil®, Pexeva®) • medicine to treat malaria such as artemether lumefantrine (Coartem®) This is not a complete list of medicines that you should tell your healthcare provider that you are taking. Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist if you are not sure if your medicine is one that is listed above. Know the medicines you take. Keep a list of them to show your doctor or pharmacist when you get a new medicine. Do not start any new medicines while you are taking PREZISTA without first talking with your healthcare provider. How should I take PREZISTA? • Take PREZISTA every day exactly as prescribed by your healthcare provider. • ou must take ritonavir (N RVIR®) at the same time as PREZISTA. • Do not change your dose of PREZISTA or stop treatment without talking to your healthcare provider first. • Take PREZISTA and ritonavir (N RVIR®) with food. • Swallow PREZISTA tablets whole with a drink. If you have difficulty swallowing PREZISTA tablets, PREZISTA oral suspension is also available. Your health care provider will help decide whether PREZISTA tablets or oral suspension is right for you. • PREZISTA oral suspension should be given with the supplied oral dosing syringe. Shake the suspension well before each use. See the Instructions for Use that come with PREZISTA oral suspension for information about the right way to prepare and take a dose. • If your prescribed dose of PREZISTA oral suspension is more than mL, you will need to divide the dose. Follow the instructions given to you by your healthcare provider or pharmacist about how to divide the dose. Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist if you are not sure. • If you take too much PREZISTA, call your healthcare provider or go to the nearest hospital emergency room right away. What should I do if I miss a dose? People who take PREZISTA one time a day: • If you miss a dose of PREZISTA by less than hours, take your missed dose of PREZISTA right away. Then take your next dose of PREZISTA at your regularly scheduled time. • If you miss a dose of PREZISTA by more than hours, wait and then take the next dose of PREZISTA at your regularly scheduled time. People who take PREZISTA two times a day • If you miss a dose of PREZISTA by less than hours, take your missed dose of PREZISTA right away. Then take your next dose of PREZISTA at your regularly scheduled time. • If you miss a dose of PREZISTA by more than hours, wait and then take the next dose of PREZISTA at your regularly scheduled time. If a dose of PREZISTA is skipped, do not double the next dose. Do not take more or less than your prescribed dose of PREZISTA at any one time. What are the possible side effects of PREZISTA? PREZISTA can cause side effects including: • See “What is the most important information I should know about PREZISTA?” • D iabetes and high blood sugar hyperglycemia . Some people who take protease inhibitors including PREZISTA can get high blood sugar, develop diabetes, or your diabetes can get worse. Tell your healthcare provider if you notice an increase in thirst or urinate often while taking PREZISTA. • Changes in body fat. These changes can happen in people who take antiretroviral therapy. The changes may include an increased amount of fat in the upper back and neck (“buffalo hump”), breast, and around the back, chest, and stomach area. Loss of fat from the legs, arms, and face may also happen. The exact cause and long-term health effects of these conditions are not known.
• Changes in your immune system (Immune Reconstitution Syndrome) can happen when you start taking HIV medicines. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time. Call your healthcare provider right away if you start having new symptoms after starting your HIV medicine. • Increased bleeding for hemophiliacs. Some people with hemophilia have increased bleeding with protease inhibitors including PREZISTA. The most common side effects of PREZISTA include: • diarrhea • nausea • rash • headache • abdominal pain • vomiting Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away. These are not all of the possible side effects of PREZISTA. For more information, ask your health care provider. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the DA at - - DA. How should I store PREZISTA? • Store PREZISTA oral suspension and tablets at room temperature ( 5 C) . • Do not refrigerate or freeze PREZISTA oral suspension. • eep PREZISTA away from high heat. • PREZISTA oral suspension should be stored in the original container. Keep PREZISTA and all medicines out of the reach of children. General information about PREZISTA Medicines are sometimes prescribed for purposes other than those listed in a Patient Information leaflet. Do not use PREZISTA for a condition for which it was not prescribed. Do not give PREZISTA to other people even if they have the same condition you have. It may harm them. This leaflet summarizes the most important information about PREZISTA. If you would like more information, talk to your healthcare provider. You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for information about PREZISTA that is written for health professionals. or more information, call - -5 . What are the ingredients in PREZISTA? Active ingredient: darunavir Inactive ingredients: PREZISTA Oral Suspension: hydroxypropyl cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, methylparaben sodium, citric acid monohydrate, sucralose, masking flavor, strawberry cream flavor, hydrochloric acid (for pH adjustment), purified water. PREZISTA 75 mg and 150 mg Tablets: colloidal silicon dioxide, crospovidone, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose. The film coating contains: PADR ® hite (polyethylene glycol 5 , polyvinyl alcohol-partially hydrolyzed, talc, titanium dioxide). PREZISTA 400 mg and 600 mg Tablets: colloidal silicon dioxide, crospovidone, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose. The film coating contains: PADR ® range ( D C ellow No. , polyethylene glycol 5 , polyvinyl alcohol-partially hydrolyzed, talc, titanium dioxide). PREZISTA 800 mg Tablets: colloidal silicon dioxide, crospovidone, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, hypromellose. The film coating contains: PADR ® Dark Red (iron oxide red, polyethylene glycol 5 , polyvinyl alcoholpartially hydrolyzed, talc, titanium dioxide). This Patient Information has been approved by the .S. ood and Drug Administration. Manufactured by: PREZISTA Oral Suspension PREZISTA Tablets Janssen Pharmaceutica, N.V. Janssen Ortho LLC, Beerse, Belgium urabo, PR Manufactured for: anssen Therapeutics, Division of anssen Products, LP, Titusville N 5 Revised April NORVIR® is a registered trademark of its respective owner. PREZISTA® is a registered trademark of Janssen Pharmaceuticals anssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. P
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
FILM
COVER STORY
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Edie’s victory, our progress, and the road ahead 90
What it means to be out in 2013 38 Advancing the ball in a big way 9, 10, 18
OPERA
NIGHTLIFE RELIGION
70, 78, 80
Steve-Shlomo Ashkinazy’s reverence for storytelling 12
COMMUNITY
David Daniels’ Wilde “Oscar” moment
“Gay affluence” & economic reversals
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16
HEALTH
In the rain, on the beach with Lisa Cannistraci
THEATER
82, 88
32
YOUTH
AIDS vets REACT UP, warn battle not over 20
CRIME False arrest, NYPD slurs alleged
Clementis making “upstanders” out of bullying bystanders
Show your pride
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34
46
96, 98
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POLITICS
Edie Windsor Claims Her Victory — and Ours New York widow saddled with huge tax bill changes life for hundreds of thousands of couples nternalized homophobia is a bitch,” Edie Windsor told a jam-packed news conference at Manhattan’s LGBT Community Center just two hours after the US Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Windsor was saying that for a long time during her 44-year relationship with her late spouse Thea Spyer, “I lied all the time” to a close knit group of coworkers at IBM. Internalized homophobia seemed an odd topic to be broached by a woman whom others at the same press conference called a hero and “shero” and compared to Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks, and Harvey Milk. She had also just gotten off the phone with President Barack Obama, who called her from Air Force One when the Supreme Court ruling came down. It was Windsor’s federal lawsuit that led the high court to strike down DOMA, enacted in 1996 in response to early signs that state courts in Hawaii
DONNA ACETO
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BY PAUL SCHINDLER
Edie Windsor shares a happy moment with her lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan, at a Sheridan Square rally early in the evening of June 26.
were receptive to marriage equality claims. New Yorkers Windsor and Spyer married in Toronto in 2007, and even though marriage equality was not the law in this state when Spyer died in 2009, a New York appellate court in 2008 ruled that valid same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions must be
recognized here. After Spyer’s death, Windsor faced an inheritance tax of more than $360,000 that she would have avoided if she had the marital deduction enjoyed by opposite-sex couples. Spyer lived with a multiple sclerosis diagnosis for decades before her death,
and Windsor’s pro bono attorney in the DOMA case, Roberta Kaplan, a partner at Paul, Weiss, noted that when the couple traveled to Canada for their wedding, “four best women and two best men” were needed to help assemble and disassemble Spyer’s wheelchair at airports in New York and Toronto. “That’s how much they wanted to get married,” Kaplan said. The couple traveled to Toronto as part of an effort dubbed the Civil Marriage Trail. The group was founded by New York activists Brendan Fay and Jesús Lebron after the Canadian courts ruled in 2003 that same-sex couples there had the right to marry. Civil Marriage Trail facilitated the planning for US couples wishing to travel to Canada to tie the knot. Kaplan opened the press confer ence by saying the 5-4 opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy found that the federal government was discriminating against same-sex couples “solely because they are gay. That’s what
EDIE WINSOR, continued on p.83
Rally Celebrates Supreme Court Wins, Hails Windsor DOMA challenge’s 84-year-old plaintiff the emotional heart of a victory party BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
DONNA ACETO
A
June 26 Manhattan rally was as much a salute to Edie Windsor as it was a celebration of the two victories the US Supreme Court handed the gay and lesbian community that day. “The federal government picked the wrong New Yorker to screw with,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at the rally, held outside the Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 riots that marked the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. “If you look at every great victory for civil rights, they all start with that moment when an everyday American says no.” Windsor, 84, was the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit challenging that part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that bars federal recognition of samesex marriages. Earlier in the day, the nation’s highest court struck down that section of DOMA in a 5-4 ruling. Windsor, who was the first of roughly 20 speakers at the 90-minute rally, received loud and sustained cheering
State Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, sponsor of the marriage equality law enacted in New York in 2011, and (l.) his husband, John Banta.
from the crowd of at least several hundred when she took the stage. She was praised by speaker after speaker and repeatedly jumped back on the stage to briefly address the gathering. Wind-
sor also used the occasion to endorse Quinn, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor. She sued the government after Thea Spyer, her partner of 44 years, died in
2009. Because the federal government did not recognize their two-year -old marriage, Windsor was presented with a $360,000 tax bill on Spyer’s estate, a bill that a married heterosexual would not have to pay. Roberta Kaplan, a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss, represented Windsor along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). Referring to Windsor and Kaplan, Quinn said, “Let’s make no mistake, it’s two lesbians who brought DOMA down.” Windsor told the crowd that she was “so overwhelmed with a sense of injustice and unfairness that I decided to get my money back… Because of today’s Supreme Court ruling, the federal gover nment can no longer discriminate against gay and lesbian Americans.” Sharon Kleinbaum, the rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the gay synagogue, further expanded on that theme when she spoke moments
RALLY, continued on p.83
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
LEGAL
Supreme Court Strikes Down DOMA’s Key Provision, Ducks on Prop 8 Legal same-sex marriages win federal recognition; California weddings will resume, but no broader ruling on right to marry n a pair of 5-4 rulings released on June 26, the United States Supreme Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, but that the court did not have jurisdiction to decide whether California’s Proposition 8 violates the 14th Amendment, because the initiative’s Official Proponents, who appealed District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision finding it un con s titut i o n a l , l a c k f e de r a l constitutional standing to have done so. There is a 25-day period during which the Official Proponents can seek rehearing, after which the high court’s mandate in the Prop 8 case will go to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which must then issue an order dismissing the appeal and lifting the stay on Walker’s 2010 ruling. At that point, later in July or early in August, same-sex marriages could once again become available throughout California, though the Official Proponents may yet argue that Walker’s order does not apply to anyone other than the two plaintiff couples or the two counties sued and thereby delay that outcome. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Jr., wrote for the high court in the challenge that Edith (“Edie”) Schlain Windsor, a New York widow, brought against DOMA based on a $360,000 inheritance tax imposed on her after the death of her spouse, Thea Spyer. He produced a somewhat typical Kennedy opinion that obscures the ruling’s doctrinal basis and will leave commentators and lower courts guessing as to its effect in subsequent cases. He referred to liberty protected by the US Constitution’s due process clause, federalism issues related to the traditional authority of the states to decide who can marry, and the equal protection requirements that the Court has found to be part of the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause. In some respects, his opinion evoked his 1996 opinion for the court in Romer v. Evans, which struck down a Colorado voter amendment that prohibited any nondiscrimination laws based on sexual orientation in that state. Kennedy’s argument regarding DOMA rested on the idea that any enactment whose clear purpose and effect are to treat some people adversely, creating a sort of second-class citizenship, is unconstitutional on its face, without much need for further analysis.
HRC
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BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, who as founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights launched the Prop 8 litigation, seen with one of AFER’s lead attorneys, David Boies.
At the March 27 oral arguments, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg described state marriage without federal benefits as “skim milk marriage.” Kennedy did not adopt that nomenclature, instead referring to second-class marriage. As usual with Kennedy, his opinion avoids the technical terminology of constitutional analysis many commentators use in describing what standard of judicial review applies to the case, so it is not easy to classify it among categories including “strict scrutiny,” “heightened scrutiny,” “suspect classifications,” or “rational basis.” The court, therefore, avoided settling the differences between standards applied by the trial court, which used the most deferential scrutiny in evaluating DOMA and found it lacks any defensible rational basis, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that “heightened scrutiny” should apply to sexual orientation discrimination cases, a situation in which the government must show a compelling non-discriminatory purpose for a law. The appeals panel, while upholding Windsor’s trial court win, noted that DOMA’s Section 3 would survive a less demanding, more deferential rational basis review. Kennedy’s approach in this respect was at least a small disappointment for Windsor’s counsel, Roberta Kaplan of Paul, Weiss LLP, and the LGBT Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, who had hoped that a “heightened scrutiny” ruling by the Supreme Court could be used in other cases, especially pending cases challenging state bans on same-sex marriage in other parts of the country. Claims of discrimination raised regarding laws subjected to heightened scrutiny are
more difficult to defend against. As usual when responding to a Kennedy gay rights opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent expressed relief that the court had not used heightened scrutiny to strike down the 1996 law, but he then expressed puzzlement about its basis. After summarizing and criticizing Kennedy’s analysis, Scalia wrote, “Some might conclude that this loaf could have used a while longer in the oven. But that would be wrong; it is already overcooked. The most expert care in preparation cannot redeem a bad recipe. The sum of all the court’s non-specific hand-waving is that this law is invalid (maybe on equal-protection grounds, maybe on substantivedue-process grounds, and perhaps with some amorphous federalism component playing a role) because it is motivated by a ‘bare… desire to harm’ couples in same-sex marriages.” Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan joined Kennedy’s decision and did not write separately. President Barack Obama promptly issued a statement applauding the court’s ruling and said he had directed Attorney General Eric Holder “to work with other members of my Cabinet to review all relevant federal statutes to ensure this decision, including its implications for federal benefits and obligations, is implemented swiftly and smoothly.” In a press conference to discuss the Prop 8 ruling, Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, said he had spoken to Holder “to discuss with him an expedited implementation of the DOMA ruling.” This is especially good news for binational married same-sex couples, whose marriages can now be recog-
nized as equal to those of different-sex couples, and it eliminates the need to amend the immigration reform legislation pending in Congress, something that even reform advocates who are marriage equality supporters, like New York Senator Chuck Schumer, have warned could derail that bill’s prospects. Under the president’s directive, those federal statutes that contain specialized marriage definitions for particular policy purposes should now be construed to treat lawful same-sex marriages the same as lawful differentsex marriages. However, as Scalia pointed out in his acerbic dissent, the court’s opinion is obscure on one very important question — whether lawfully mar ried same-sex couples who live, work, or travel in states that don’t recognize same-sex marriages will be recognized as married for federal purposes in such locations should the question arise. Kennedy ended his opinion with a cryptic statement, “This opinion and its holding are confined to those lawful marriages.” That sentence followed a passage criticizing DOMA because it “singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled to recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty” and has the effect of “disparag[ing] and injur[ing] those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity.” This section of Kennedy’s opinion relies on principles of federalism, under which a state may, presumably, decide not to perform or recognize same-sex marriages unless, of course Kennedy’s due process and equal protection concerns would override that state’s reservations. That’s a question he does not resolve in his opinion. There were three dissenting opinions. Scalia’s dissent was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and, in part, by Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote his own dissent as well. Justice Samuel Alito also wrote a dissent, which was joined in part by Thomas. Roberts and Scalia argued that the court did not have jurisdiction to decide the DOMA case, because the Justice Department, whose appeal was granted in this case, agreed with the rulings by the trial court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Consequently, the parties before the court were not “adverse” on the merits and so lacked a true “case or controversy” as required by the Constitution. They both suggested that it was not appro-
ANALYSIS, continued on p.11
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ANALYSIS, from p.10
priate for the government to ask the Supreme Court to affirm a lower court decision with which the government agrees. The chief justice’s dissent stressed the “federalism” aspects of Kennedy’s opinion, a focus that could lessen its significance for pending challenges to state same-sex marriage bans. Roberts pointed to the fact that Kennedy’s opinion purported to take no position on the question whether same-sex couples have a right to marry under the 14th Amendment. He said “the disclaimer is a logical and necessary consequence of the argument that the majority has chosen to adopt. The dominant theme of the majority opinion is that the federal government’s intrusion in an area ‘central to state domestic relations law applicable to its residents and citizens’ is sufficiently ‘unusual’ to set off alarm bells. I think the majority goes off course, as I have said, but it is undeniable that its judgment is based on federalism.” As such, Roberts would argue, it has no relevance to disputes over the basic question of whether same-sex couples have an underlying right to marry. Roberts did not join the part of Scalia’s colorfully worded dissent where he disagreed with Kennedy on the merits of the case. Scalia discounted Kennedy’s disclaimer that the court was not deciding whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, predicting that lower courts would rely on his opinion to strike down state restrictions on same-sex marriage. In fact, Scalia took the unusual step of demonstrating how a lower court could appropriate paragraphs from Kennedy’s opinion, change a few of the words, and produce a result requiring a state to let same-sex couples marry. Scalia’s dissents in gay rights cases are usually packed with impassioned rhetoric, and this was no exception, but this is the first time he actually shows lower courts how to accomplish the terrible results he forecasts will occur. (Ten years ago to the day, in his dissent disagreeing with Kennedy’s opinion in the Lawrence case that struck down sodomy laws nationwide, Scalia warned that opinion would open the way for gay marriage.) Alito, by contrast, argued in his dissent that the intervention of Speaker John Boehner’s so-called Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives (BLAG) — which stepped in to defend DOMA when the Justice Department announced two years ago it would no longer do so — took care of the “case or controversy” problem. He suggested there is necessarily a role for the courts to play when both the plaintiff and the government agree that a statute is unconstitutional. And he accepted BLAG’s contention
that Congress has a legitimate interest in defending such a statute to protect its legislative authority. Alito disagreed with Kennedy on the merits of the constitutional claim, asserting that whether the federal government must recognize samesex marriages was a political question not suitable for resolution by the high court. Noting that the Constitution has nothing to say about same-sex mar riage one way or the other, he argued the issue should be left to individual states to decide through their political processes.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority in the Prop 8 case, where he
argued that amendment’s Of ficial Proponents did not have standing to appeal Judge Walker’s ruling that it violated the 14th Amendment because they had no personal tangible stake in the outcome. Scalia, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan joined the court’s opinion. Kennedy wrote a dissent joined by Thomas, Alito, and Sotomayor. Pundits will undoubtedly tie themselves in knots trying to figure out why three of the Democratic appointees joined Scalia and the chief justice in the majority while Sotomayor joined Kennedy and the court’s two most conservative members, Alito and Thomas, in the dissent, especially since the four Democratic appointees were united in joining Kennedy’s decision on the merits in the Windsor case. Although the immediate results of both decisions are clear, their longerterm effects are not. The full meaning of a Supreme Court opinion cannot be determined on the day it is issued, but will depend on the responses of government officials, legislators, and lower courts, as well as private sector actors. Section 3 of DOMA is gone, but that does not necessarily mean that all the barriers to full equality in federal rights are necessarily eliminated or will all disappear overnight. The president’s prompt statement and the comments HRC’s Griffin made about his conversations with the attorney general suggest that by the time the high court issues its mandate in the Windsor case toward the end of July, there should be some guidance from the Justice Department so that all federal agencies are on the same page concerning treatment of legally married same-sex couples. It would be particularly helpful if this guidance addressed the issue of lawfully married couples who reside in states that don’t recognize same-sex marriages. The pending Respect for Marriage bill in Congress would mandate federal recognition for those marriages regardless of where the couple happens to live
ANALYSIS, continued on p.86
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RELIGION
Steve-Shlomo Ashkinazy’s Reverence For Storytelling Longtime gay activist applies “bottom up” organizing to challenge Orthodox Jewish dogma BY NATHAN RILEY
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s the 1970s turned into the ‘80s, many Jews experienced a spiritual awakening that brought them closer to the pietistic ways of their grandparents and reinvigorated the Jewish identity. Steve Ashkinazy felt the call and went to Jerusalem for a year. He retur ned in 1983, Orthodox but with a difference. He had reconciled his religion with his gayness. Others might disagree, but he knew in his heart his gay life could be pious. Reaching this conclusion was not a surprise to Ashkinazy. In fact, it was perhaps inescapable. Steve-Shlomo Ashkinazy, as he became known, wasn’t born to the m a n or b ut t o g a y l i be r a t i o n . He came of age in the aftermath of Stonewall and the organized effort to toss off a history of homophobia. “He has done a lot of front row change work,” said Miryam Kabakov, an activist who works closely with Ashkinazy. When he began classes toward a social work degree in 1973, he was the first openly gay student in his program and the first to do his fieldwork in a gay setting. He was also the first principal of the Harvey Milk High School and a founding member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the nation’s pioneer LGBT lobbying organization. Ashkinazy worked to counter anti-gay policies in the city’s foster care system and, as a founding board member at the LGBT Comm u n i t y C e n t e r, p l a y e d a c r i t i c a l role in getting the city to agree to a sale of the building it owned on West 13th Street that became the Center’s home. Many of his fellow board members were bitterly opposed to Mayor Ed Koch, whose support was necessary for the sale to go forward. Ashkinazy’s diplomatic skills helped Koch overcome initial reluctance and okay selling off the former high school. Ashkinazy brings a calm demeanor to his current project reconciling Orthodox Jews and their LGBT coreligionists. His ef forts are part of a growing movement within the Orthodox community, and while they haven’t r eached the tipping point achieved by the secular gay movement, Ashkinazy and his allies
Steve-Shlomo Ashkinazy, seen today and in 1985 with Mayor Ed Koch, has taken on the NYPD and also has a “lovely way” of making change.
are making steady progress. He credits the success to date to the central role played by simply coming out. Rather than confronting doctrinal differences, Ashkinazy encourages people to tell their stories. He calls this approach “bottom up” organizing — creating a sense of group solidarity before appointing leaders and seeking institutional changes. Ashkinazy wears his yarmulke to gay events and is frequently approached by other Jews troubled by the hostility displayed by the Orthodox. The simple gesture of being openly religious, then, is a path to dialogue. The push to reconcile gay orientation and ties to a traditional religious community is becoming common in the United States. In 2010, Matthew Vines left Harvard after two years of study to persuade evangelicals that their anti-gay interpretation of Leviticus is mistaken. The Bible, he argues, never condemns a loving, committed homosexual relationship. Vines and Ashkinazy share the conviction that their religions are open to moral and compassionate appeals. Ashkinazy’s chosen vehicle is “the story” — public narratives told by LG BT J ew s a b out gr ow i ng up in a hostile environment. One man who participated in this storytelling recounted wearing a color ful vest for his high school graduation picture only to be told he was dressed inappropriately and ordered home by the rabbi. This humdrum summary of that episode doesn’t cap-
ture the powerful impact of watching the man retell the story years later as he recalls how carefully he dressed for graduation photo day. His story and others are best under stood when told by those who lived them. For that, visit youtube.com/ watch?v=ytzzq9rwhQA. Compelling video narratives about Orthodox gays, in fact, preceded the advent of YouTube. Ashkinazy was among those featured in Sandi Simcha Dubowski’s 2001 documentary “T rembling before G-d.” which challenged and countered dogmatic rejection of LGBT lives by having people tell their own stories. “It was successful,” Ashkinazy said of the film, “because it didn’t propose solutions but identified a problem.” In 2010, Eshelonline.org was founded to create a web-based community providing support for LGBT Jews living in Orthodox communities. Given the risks of ostracism, the Internet serves as a convenient and safe way for people to meet. Eshel also sponsors retreats, the next one taking place the weekend of August 9 in the Wisconsin Dells. The group facilitated the for mulation of a statement of principles for educators and rabbis — with more than 200 signers — that urges the embrace of Jews with same-sex orientations “as full members of the synagogue and school community.” Another recent event pointed up the power ful potential within the movement. Orthodox parents with
LGBT children, who were long isolated from others going through the same experience, met for the first time. “They felt they were in the closet,” Ashkinazy said. They couldn’t tell their rabbi for fear their children would be ejected from the congregation and had no way to meet other parents. The gathering was marked by shocks of recognition; two brothers were surprised to run into each other, unaware the other also had a gay child. Giving LGBT Orthodox Jews and their par ents a chance to forge broader bonds bodes well for change in this traditional religious community. For 40 years, Shlomo-Steve Ashkinazy has actively pushed for a city that is welcoming to its LGBT residents. “His ability to persist is an amazing gift,” said political scientist Ken Sherrill. “Most activists bur n out, and he doesn’t.” Miryam Kabakov, Eshel’s executive director, attributes Ashkinazy’s success to the fact that his work “hasn’t been about him. He is open and committed. He makes change in this lovely way.” But it would be a mistake to say Ashkinazy makes progress only by employing a soft touch. In 1982, he won a police brutality lawsuit for injuries suf fered during a demonstration against the filming of William Friedkin’s movie “Cruising.” T oday, he sits on the LGBT Advisory Board to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
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POLITICS
When Combating Homophobia Takes Backseat to Ballot Petitioning BY PAUL SCHINDLER
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June 19 article in the Washington Post about the Democratic mayoral primary contest in New York makes the case that former Congressman Anthony Weiner has stolen the media spotlight from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, long considered the frontrunner in the race. The most interesting detail in the story, however, involves Weiner’s posture toward homophobic swipes at Quinn, one of the nation’s most prominent out LGBT elected officials. According to Post reporter Jason Horowitz, when Weiner was seeking petition signatures to get his name on the September 10 Democratic primary ballot, an “elderly woman” told him, “I’m not voting for uh, what’s her name? The dyke.” At first, Weiner responded, “Okay. I just need you to sign the petition to get me on the ballot.” Then, according to Horowitz, the candidate “noticed the incredulous reaction of a reporter and added, ‘and you really shouldn’t talk that way about people.’” Apparently somewhat chastened, the
woman responded, “Oh, I’m sorry.” At that point, Weiner appeared ready to let her off the hook. “It’s okay,” the Post quoted him saying. “It’s not your fault.” Perhaps in his view, homophobes are just born that way. Weiner does not come to the mayor’s races without pro-LGBT bona fides, which makes the incident all that much more surprising. Prior to his sextingrelated resignation in 2011, he regularly marched in the LGBT Pride Parade in Manhattan, waving a large rainbow flag and using a bullhorn to make light of how appropriate his last name was for the occasion. In 2007, Weiner was one of seven Democrats in the House of Representatives who voted no on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to protest the lack of gender identity and expression protections. His advocacy of LGBT issues won him many friends in the community. Earlier this month, however, Weiner passed up another opportunity to call out homophobia when it rears its head in the campaign. At a June 4 Democratic forum before an Orthodox Jewish
DONNA ACETO
Wash Po story says Anthony Weiner let a woman off the hook in anti-lesbian slur toward Christine Quinn
Anthony Weiner, rainbow flag in hand, at the 2007 LGBT Pride Parade in Manhattan.
audience (see below), candidates were asked to comment on the city’s regulation of a form of circumcision that has the mohel suck the blood from the newly circumcised penis. One of the candidates, Erick Salgado, an Evangelical Christian from Staten Island who was active in the fight against marriage equality in New York, suggested that gay groups in San Fran-
cisco and in the Pride Parade in Manhattan are “trying to ban altogether bris milah.” Speaking afterward, Weiner made no reference to Salgado’s claims, and it was left to Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who followed Weiner in responding to the question on circumcision, to coun-
WEINER continued on p.15
Some Mayoral Candidates Mute After Right-Wing Anti-Gay Rant
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BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
peaking at a forum sponsored by Orthodox Jewish groups, two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for mayor made no comment after a minor contender in the race said the gay community was trying to ban circumcision. “We have groups marching from San Francisco and California and they are even marching here every year in the New York gay pride parade, marching over here, trying to ban altogether bris milah,” said Erick Salgado, an Evangelical Christian from Staten Island, at the June 4 forum, which was sponsored by the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition and the Council of Jewish Organizations of Flatbush. “This is unacceptable.” The question concerned religious liberty in New York City and referred to the city’s regulation of a form of circumcision that has the mohel suck the blood from the newly circumcised penis, according to a YouTube clip. That practice, which is controversial even among Orthodox Jews, has led to 13 newborns being infected with herpes in the city and two deaths among those 13. The city now requires parents who use the ritual to sign a consent form. Salgado has been endorsed by the National Organi-
zation for Marriage (NOM), an anti-same-sex marriage group. He was an organizer of a 2011 march and rally in the Bronx that opposed gay marriage. Salgado has also attacked the inclusion of monuments acknowledging non-Jewish victims of the Nazis, including gay victims, in Brooklyn’s Holocaust Memorial Park. At his last filing with the city’s Campaign Finance Board, Salgado reported raising just under $206,000 from 373 people. The other candidates have raised several million each. Salgado used a religious liberty argument that is part of the standard right-wing rhetoric. “We have to defend religious liberty in New York City,” he said. “We’re not against nobody, we just have the right to believe what we believe and live in peace in this city without being persecuted.” Bill Thompson, the former city comptroller, and Anthony Weiner, the former congressman, spoke immediately after Salgado and neither made any comment about Salgado’s views. While the reality of New York City politics is that some pro-gay candidates will seek the support of anti-gay groups and individuals, those alliances can anger queer voters and many do ask that candidates publicly reject objectionable views they articulate. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, as a woman and a lesbian, is unlikely to win many votes in the Orthodox community. Thompson has successfully
GAY CITY NEWS
De Blasio speaks up after Thompson, Weiner refrain; Quinn, Liu echo public advocate’s retort
Erick Salgado (r.), in a 2011 anti-marriage equality rally with Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage and Bronx State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr.
courted those voters in earlier campaigns. Weiner, when in Congress, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, when in the City Council, represented parts of the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.
SALGADO, continued on p.15
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WEINER, from p.14
ter the charge that the LGBT community is seeking to ban circumcision. De Blasio’s insistence on tolerance toward both the gay community and the Orthodox community, applauded by Quinn and City Comptroller John Liu, drew boos from the crowd. Asked about Weiner’s silence at that moment, his campaign spokeswoman, Barbara Morgan, said, “Anthony did not understand Reverend Salgado’s remarks. He did applaud Speaker Quinn’s response because he agreed with it.” In the wake of the Post story, two out lesbian and gay Quinn supporters, State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick and Senator Brad Hoylman, released a statement condemning Weiner and demanding an apology. “We are appalled by the account in the Washington Post of Anthony Weiner’s unacceptable response to a prospective voter’s homophobic, misogynistic slur in reference to Christine Quinn,” their statement read. “The voter’s use of the term demonstrates the challenges women candidates and lesbians in particular face, and Weiner’s failure to swiftly and firmly condemn her language demonstrates his lack of moral courage.” New York State’s LGBT rights lobby group, the Empire State Pride Agenda, which has also endorsed Quinn’s candidacy, struck back hard against Weiner, as well. “It’s unfortunate that we need to issue a public statement on this at all, but this is becoming a disturbing pattern,” Nathan Schaefer, the group’s executive, said, alluding to the earlier June candidate forum. “Anthony Weiner should know better: actually, Congressman, it’s NOT ‘okay’ to condone a homophobic slur, and it’s also not okay to sit by in silence as they are used in your presence… the city has experienced a rash of anti-LGBT hate crimes
SALGADO, from p.14
De Blasio, the city’s public advocate, countered Salgado’s comments, drawing cries of “Shame” and boos from some in the crowd. John Liu, the city’s comptroller, and Quinn applauded de Blasio when those audience reactions began. “As mayor of New York City, it would be my job to protect the rights and needs of the Orthodox community and protect the rights and needs of the LGBT community,” de Blasio said. “A mayor has to make sure that everyone is included in this city.” Following de Blasio, Liu praised the city’s diversity, mentioning the LGBT community and the Orthodox Jewish community. Quinn thanked de Blasio for his comments and referred to some recent hate crimes against the queer
recently. You are asking New Yorkers for your vote, and we hope that we will see leadership on this issue in the future, as well as an apology now. No leader should ever send a message that homophobia is ‘okay.’” After release of the Pride Agenda and Glick-Hoylman statements, the Weiner campaign issued one from the candidate saying, ”Homophobia is vile and destructive and something I have fought against for the entirety of my career, including being a vocal supporter of gay marriage since 1998 and standing up on the floor of Congress for transgender Americans. I admonished the woman amid a large crowd on a street corner and by no means believe that anything about her comment was appropriate. If the impression is that I did, I apologize because behavior like this will absolutely not be tolerated in my administration.” Quinn’s campaign declined comment on the episode, but the following day the speaker was asked about the matter in a City Hall press availability. Saying Weiner had called her, she responded, “I was grateful in the call, in the message that he clarified the interaction. I think it is incredibly important for all New Yorkers, but particularly those in public life, to make very clear that in this city, the most diverse city in the world, the city where the LGBT civil rights movement was born, that that type of language cannot be tolerated… I think that all of us need to recommit to making sure that whenever we hear language of any type that is demeaning, derogatory, racist, sexist, homophobic, anything of that nature that we speak out against it.” Asked if she does not, then, “really have a criticism of the way he handled that,” Quinn said only, “I’m grateful that he called yesterday and clarified the interaction. I’m grateful that he made the statement against that kind of language. We all need to remain committed to that.”
and Jewish communities. “We have to be a city where everyone gets to be who they are without ‘Shame’ getting screamed at them in an auditorium or without somebody walking up to them on the street and attacking them, without somebody burning a mezuzah, without somebody, quite frankly, just two weeks ago walking up to a man in my district in Greenwich Village and shooting him in the face and killing him because he was gay,” Quinn said. “Anthony did not understand Rever end Salgado’s r emarks,” wr ote Barbara Morgan, Weiner’s spokeswoman, in an email. “He did applaud Speaker Quinn’s response because he agreed with it.” The Thompson campaign promised a response, but never produced one.
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COMMUNITY
LGBT People Vulnerable Amidst Recent Economic Reversals Report challenges “myth of gay affluence,” calls out need to craft solutions BY ANDY HUMM
WILLIAMS INSTITUTE
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS/ AMHERST
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a v i d G e f f e n , Elton John, Ellen DeGeneres, and T im Gill notwithstanding, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are poorer on average than their non-LGB counterparts, a report from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law has found. That gap does not seem to have been closed by recent advances in LGBT rights — though the relationship there is not well understood — yet is has also not led most mainstream LGBT groups to add broad economic justice issues to their agendas. “As poverty rates for nearly all populations increased during the recession, lesbian, gay, and bisexual Americans remained more likely to be poor than heterosexual people,” the report said. Strikingly, while about 19 percent of opposite-sex married couples are in poverty and the figure is 20 per cent for gay male couples, 33 per cent of lesbian couples live in pover ty. And while 12 percent of children liv in g with op po si t e -s e x ma r ri e d couples are in poverty, the figure is 25 percent for kids living with male same-sex couples and 19 percent for children living with female same-sex couples. Race is a factor. African-American children of gay male couples had the highest poverty rate, 52 percent. And African-American same-sex couples had twice the poverty rate of opposite-sex married African Americans. While a causal relationship was not established by the study, the Williams Institute’s look at data fr om Califor nia, wher e ther e ar e robust civil rights protections based on sexual orientation, found that gay men are doing better than heterosexual men — with poverty rates of eight and 14 percent, respectively. Among heterosexual women, the rate of poverty is 17 percent, while it is only eight percent in lesbians. Nationwide, however, 14 percent of lesbian and eight percent of gay male couples are on food stamps versus 6.5 percent of opposite-sex married couples. The Williams study included scant data on transgender Americans to review, but earlier this year, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force issued a report on that popu-
Recent data on income and wealth disparities gathered by the US Census’ American Community Survey (ACS), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), and the Gallup polling organization.
Dr. Lee Badgett spoke at a May 31 Ford Foundation forum on a Williams Institute study she co-authored, “New Patterns of Poverty in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community.”
tion. Using something called a Gini coefficient, where a zero is perfect equality and 100 means “one rich household gets all the income for an entire country,” the US rating is now at 47.7, with all other developed countries between 20 and 35. And while the Williams report says that “poverty rates for nearly all populations increased during the recession,” inequality also rose during the same period. The rich got richer. Michael Adams, executive director of Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), spoke at the Ford forum about the special problems of LGBT older people, saying that his group’s main concern “is not a rights-based agenda, but economic and health security.” While access to marriage is a key economic concern for many gay and lesbian Americans, “older couples often choose not to marry,” Adams said, because of the way it can jeopardize benefits each member of a couple has individually. This isn’t the first Williams report showing a poverty gap disadvantaging LGB people. Badgett told Gay City that the recession that began in 2008 “had more of an impact on groups that are already vulnerable. The other issue is that the kind of equality we have at the state level is incomplete and in many states we don’t have equality. State laws may not be as effective as federal laws. And straight couples don’t have DOMA to contend with,” a law that denies federal benefits even to samesex couples legally married in their
states. What needs to be on the agenda of LGBT groups to close the gap? Most leading advocacy organizations in the community are focused on equal access to jobs, housing, public accommodations, and relationship recognition. Efforts are also made by many groups to increase funding for LGBT social services such as aid to older people and homeless youth. “ We t a l k a b o u t t h e p r o b l e m , ” Badgett said. “We’re not at the stage of talking about solutions. That’s the next stage, and these things are pretty complicated. We’re going to try to simulate what changes in minimum wage would do and what would happen if we eliminated discrimination.” Veteran gay activist Bill Dobbs faulted the LGBT movement’s focus on equality to the exclusion of other goals. “Equality under the law is great, but it is only a small vision compared to social and economic justice,” he said. “When Occupy Wall Street began and a queer caucus began, there were many people in and around it so stepped in equality that they had a hard time under standing economic justice. This is a leadership failure by Gay, Inc., which has had nothing to say about health care reform despite 400,000 gay and bi men dead of AIDS. They stand for formal legal equality in a very narrow way, but do little to get
lation, “Injustice at Every Tur n,” which highlighted disparities even more dire. Dr. Lee Badgett, a University of Massachusetts economist and public policy professor and one of the authors of the Williams Institute study, “New Patterns of Poverty in the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community,” presented the report’s findings at a May 31 forum with the Ford Foundation, “The Gay Af fluence Myth.” That myth, the report’s authors said, is one many LGBT people themselves buy into. Asked about the study and the Ford forum, Amber Hollibaugh, executive director of Queers for Economic Justice, said, “A majority of us aren’t wealthy — we’re often poor and working class. There’s a completely distorted image of us out there, so that when you have something occur like a recession it multiplies the crisis if people believe that LGBT are somehow wealthy. And LGBT groups aren’t addressing that, so it remains a myth that moves for ward.” Hollibaugh continued, “The report is important, but I was struck by the way that all the people in the room and Lee herself were concerned that it would fall off the radar screen and not be part of how the LGBT movement is prioritizing its issues.” The report comes at a time when income inequality in the United States has literally shot off the charts, at least those published by the Inter national Labor Organiza-
“GAY AFFLUENCE,” continued on p.92
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POLITICS
Prop 8 Challengers Confident Ruling is the Last Word BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
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ith the US Supreme Court holding that the Official Proponents of California’s Proposition 8 cannot challenge a federal district court decision that the 2008 ballot initiative banning gay marriage is unconstitutional, advocates are promising that gay and lesbian couples will soon be able to wed in that state. “This is a great day for our clients, who now finally can get married, and for gay and lesbian couples in California, all of whom now can get married to the people they love,” said David Boies, an attorney who represented the two couples in the case. In 2008, California’s highest court ordered the state to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Conservative groups responded by placing the ban on the ballot and voters approved it that year. Chad Griffin, the founding board chair of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), recruited Boies and Ted
Olson, two high profile attorneys, to challenge the ban in federal court in 2009. Judge Vaughn Walker, who has since retired, ruled that the ban was unconstitutional in 2010. Two governors, Arnold Schwarzenegger and later Jerry Brown, and two state attorneys general would not defend the state constitutional amendment. The Official Proponents of the ballot initiative took on that role. They lost before Walker and before a federal appeals panel in 2012. They appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled against them on June 26. “For there to be such a case or controversy, it is not enough that the party invoking the power of the court have a keen interest in the issue,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 5-4 majority. “That party must also have ‘standing,’ which requires, among other things, that it have suffered a concrete and particularized injury. Because we find that petitioners do not have standing, we have no authority to decide this case on the merits, and neither did the Ninth Circuit.” In another 5-4 ruling, the court also struck down the federal Defense of Mar-
COURTESY: SARA KRULWICH/ THE NEW YORK TIMES
No day in court for basic right to marry, but victors say no roadblock now to California weddings
David Boies and Ted Olson, lead attorneys on behalf of AFER, at a March 2010 TimesTalk forum in Manhattan.
riage Act, which barred federal recognition of same-sex marriages, on June 26. The decisions in both cases were notable for their odd alignments of liberal and conservative judges joining to form the DOMA and Prop 8 majorities. While some observers have asserted that Walker’s ruling, which stands as the final word on Prop 8, applies only to the two couples or the two county governments that denied them marriage licens-
es, Dennis Herrera, San Francisco’s city attorney, said on a conference call that Brown and California’s state registrar had sent a directive to county clerks on June 26 saying that they must issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Asked about threats by conservatives to go to court to halt the statewide imple-
PROP 8, continued on p.86
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| June 26, 2013
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Take time to recognize the good around you. N ew Yo r k L i fe s h a re s i n t h e j oy o f t h i s c e l e b ra t i o n o f p r i d e . We c e l e b ra t e yo u r p a s s i o n fo r d i v e rs i ty, e q u a l i ty a n d d i g n i ty fo r a l l p e o p l e a n d s u p p o r t yo u a s we ke e p g o o d g o i n g i n o u r co m m u n i ty . F o r m o re i n fo r m a t i o n , v i s i t n ew yo r k l i fe . co m / l g b t .
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
HEALTH
AIDS Vets REACT UP, Warn the Battle Not Over West Village gathering draws
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350 who recall common struggle, argue silence is no answer
Jim Eigo addresses the REACT UP attendees, as Gilbert Baker and Andy Velez look on.
Alger House in the village
I
BY GERARD FLYNN
n many ways, the issues are still the same,” mused Andrew Velez, one of the founding m e m b e r s o f A C T U P, a t a reunion bash held at 49 Grove in the West Village on June 22, more than 26 years after the activist group was launched. He recalled that when the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power was formed in March 1987, the exorbitant price of the drug AZT was a key rallying cry, bringing thousands of gay men and their allies to Wall Street to call for cheaper drugs and giving birth to a movement that would reach a global audience. In time, that ferment led to sweeping changes in the research and treatment of HIV/ AIDS — and other illnesses, as well. While access to healthcare and medication for HIV/ AIDS remains a significant problem, Velez noted, today, as back then, trends among young, sexually active gay and bisexual men are cause for significant concern, as well. As Velez sat and watched more than 350 activists and well-wishers party and relive old times, good and bad, he observed that the epidemic is not only not over, it may be on a path to a new crisis. He is still active in ACT UP and said a major focus of the group today “is how infection rates are so high among young men who are having sex with men,” or MSMs. Echoing a grim statistic repeated over and over by attendees at the evening’s festivities, Velez said that if current transmission rates in New York continue, close to 50 percent of young
MSMs today will be infected by the time they are 40. The parallels between 1987 and now are so troubling, he fears a “tsunami wave” of epidemic proportions coming that will be “even worse than the 1980s.” And another veteran of ACT UP noted, even as a re-emerging crisis is “sinking its claws into us, again,” many in the gay community act as if the HIV/ AIDS crisis is a relic of the past. In recalling how ACT UP revolutionized the conversation about HIV/ AIDS, Gregg Gonsalves, who now works on global health and justice issues, said too many in the gay community have forgotten the “foot soldiers” of ACT UP and the significant role they played in advancing the larger gay rights project. The group did not simply bring the issues surrounding HIV/ AIDS to public attention and change the dialogue between patients and medical and research professionals, he said, it also altered the dialogue about the LGBT community in America. “Gay America has forgotten its own foot soldiers in the war against AIDS,” he said. “We wouldn’t be having this conversation” about AIDS, he said, “if ACT UP didn’t place it in the face of modern America.” Gonsalves was highly critical of the many LGBT organizations that have focused in recent years on issues like marriage equality and gays in the military while neglecting to educate the young about the health threat that continues to face them. According to the most recent data
REACT UP, continued on p.21
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| June 26, 2013
Former State Senator Tom Duane.
because he was only 44 when he died, but also because he was one more reminder of the many who fell and who continue to die. He said their passing was somewhat akin to the trauma of the Holocaust in that the world will never know what those who died could have done with their lives had they lived. Jim Eigo, an ACT UP veteran, reminded the audience that “after 26 years, we
Activist Stephen Helmke makes clear the battle against AIDS is not over.
still have no cure for AIDS,” and solemnly noted that while 20 percent of those infected with the virus don’t know it, the figure among young people is more than twice that. It’s a statistic, he said, that brought him out of retirement as an AIDS activist, a remark that drew deafening cheers from the crowd and nostalgic chants of “ACT UP. Fight Back. Fight AIDS” — cries once commonplace from
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from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, as of December 2010, approximately 35 percent of those newly diagnosed with HIV/ AIDS are in the 20-29 age bracket. Close to 70 percent are black or Latino. Many at the 49 Grove event believe the willingness of so many today to engage in risky sexual behavior is due in part to their age; they simply did not witness the bodies on the streets back then — the activists, the men scarred by illness, or those who were both. Widespread complacency is based on the mistaken belief that HIV/ AIDS is simply a matter of taking the medication, when in fact the medication can come with many side effects and does little to erase the stigma they will have to deal with because they are positive. The thousands who could not attend, who had fallen during the epidemic, were also on the minds of many. In fact, it was the death late last year of Spencer Cox, a leading treatment activist, from AIDS-related complications that led organizers to plan what was originally billed as the ACT UP/ NY (Just Don’t Call It a Reunion) Reunion, but came to be known simply as REACT UP. Gonsalves remembered his close friend as “brilliant and sweet.” Cox’s death in December struck a symbolic chord, Velez said, not just
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REACT UP, from p.20
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ACT UP founder Larry Kramer speaks to Garry Kleinman.
Wall Street to Washington DC, where in 1992 activists from the advocacy group scattered the ashes of loved ones through the White House gate onto its lawn to protest the lack of action by the Bush administration. Less than five years after that protest, drug cocktails that represented
REACT UP, continued on p.26
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
What is STRIBILD? STRIBILD is a prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before. It combines 4 medicines into 1 pill to be taken once a day with food. STRIBILD is a complete single-tablet regimen and should not be used with other HIV-1 medicines. STRIBILD does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses you must keep taking STRIBILD. 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.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about STRIBILD? STRIBILD can cause serious side effects: • Build-up 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 (not normal) 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 (hepatomegaly) and fatty (steatosis). Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice), dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored bowel movements (stools), loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach pain. • You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking STRIBILD 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.
10043_pgiqdp_GayCityNews_Winston_lo1.indd 1-2
• Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you also have HBV and stop taking STRIBILD, your hepatitis may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking STRIBILD without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health. STRIBILD is not approved for the treatment of HBV. Who should not take STRIBILD? Do not take STRIBILD if you: • Take a medicine that contains: alfuzosin, dihydroergotamine, ergotamine, methylergonovine, cisapride, lovastatin, simvastatin, pimozide, sildenafil when used for lung problems (Revatio®), triazolam, oral midazolam, rifampin or the herb St. John’s wort. • For a list of brand names for these medicines, please see the Brief Summary on the following pages. • Take any other medicines to treat HIV-1 infection, or the medicine adefovir (Hepsera®). What are the other possible side effects of STRIBILD? Serious side effects of STRIBILD may also include: • New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do regular blood and urine tests to check your kidneys before and during treatment with STRIBILD. If you develop kidney problems, your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking STRIBILD. • Bone problems, including bone pain or bones getting soft or thin, which may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones. • Changes in body fat 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 STRIBILD. The most common side effects of STRIBILD include nausea and diarrhea. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away.
What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking STRIBILD? • All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. • All the medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. STRIBILD may affect the way other medicines work, and other medicines may affect how STRIBILD works. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. Do not start any new medicines while taking STRIBILD without first talking with your healthcare provider. • If you take hormone-based birth control (pills, patches, rings, shots, etc). • If you take antacids. Take antacids at least 2 hours before or after you take STRIBILD. • If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if STRIBILD can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking STRIBILD. • If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. Also, some medicines in STRIBILD can pass into breast milk, and it is not known if this can harm the baby. 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 Brief Summary of full Prescribing Information with important warnings on the following pages.
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| June 26, 2013
STRIBILD is a prescription medicine used as a complete single-tablet regimen to treat HIV-1 in adults who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before. STRIBILD does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.
I started my personal revolution Talk to your healthcare provider about starting treatment. STRIBILD is a complete HIV-1 treatment in 1 pill, once a day.
Ask if it’s right for you.
2/28/13 3:27 PM
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
Patient Information STRIBILDTM (STRY-bild) (elvitegravir 150 mg/cobicistat 150 mg/emtricitabine 200 mg/ tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300 mg) tablets Brie summary o ull Prescribing In ormation. For more in ormation please see t e ull Prescribing In ormation including Patient In ormation. What is STRIBILD? • STRIBILD is a prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before. ST IBILD is a complete regimen and s ould not be used wit ot er I 1 medicines. • STRIBILD does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. ou must stay on continuous I 1 t erapy to control I 1 in ection and decrease I related illnesses. • Ask your healthcare provider about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to others. Do not s are or reuse needles in ection equipment or personal items t at can ave blood or body uids on t em. Do not ave sex wit out protection. Always practice sa er sex by using a latex or polyuret ane condom to lower t e c ance o sexual contact wit semen vaginal secretions or blood.
• Do not stop ta ing ST IBILD wit out rst tal ing to your ealt care provider • I you stop ta ing ST IBILD your ealt care provider will need to c ec your ealt o ten and do blood tests regularly or several mont s to c ec your B in ection. Tell your ealt care provider about any new or unusual symptoms you may ave a ter you stop ta ing ST IBILD Who should not take STRIBILD? Do not take STRIBILD if you also take a medicine that contains: • ade ovir epsera® • al u osin ydroc loride roxatral® • cisapride Propulsid® Propulsid uic solv® • ergot containing medicines including: di ydroergotamine mesylate D. . . 45® igranal® ergotamine tartrate Ca ergot® igergot® rgostat® edi aler rgotamine® Wigraine® Wigrettes® and met ylergonovine maleate rgotrate® et ergine® • lovastatin Advicor® Altoprev®
evacor®
• oral mida olam
What is the most important information I should know about STRIBILD?
• pimo ide Orap®
STRIBILD can cause serious side effects, including: 1. Build-up of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis). Lactic acidosis can appen in some people w o ta e ST IBILD or similar nucleoside analogs medicines. Lactic acidosis is a serious medical emergency t at can lead to deat . Lactic acidosis can be ard to identi y early because t e symptoms could seem li e symptoms o ot er ealt problems. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms which could be signs of lactic acidosis: • eel very wea or tired • ave unusual not normal muscle pain • ave trouble breat ing • ave stomac pain wit nausea or vomiting • eel cold especially in your arms and legs • eel di y or lig t eaded • ave a ast or irregular eartbeat 2. Severe liver problems. Severe liver problems can appen in people w o ta e ST IBILD. In some cases t ese liver problems can lead to deat . our liver may become large epatomegaly and you may develop at in your liver steatosis . Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms of liver problems: • your s in or t e w ite part o your eyes turns yellow aundice • dar tea colored” urine • lig t colored bowel movements stools • loss o appetite or several days or longer • nausea • stomac pain You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking STRIBILD for a long time. 3. Worsening of Hepatitis B infection. I you ave epatitis B virus B in ection and ta e ST IBILD your B may get worse are up i you stop ta ing ST IBILD. A are up” is w en your B in ection suddenly returns in a worse way t an be ore. • Do not run out o ST IBILD. e ll your prescription or tal to your ealt care provider be ore your ST IBILD is all gone
• sildena l evatio® w en used or treating lung problems
10043_pgiqdp_GayCityNews_Winston_lo1.indd 3-4
• ri ampin i adin® i amate® i ater® imactane® • simvastatin Simcor® ytorin® ocor® • tria olam alcion® • t e erb St. o n s wort Do not take STRIBILD if you also take any other HIV-1 medicines, including: • Ot er medicines t at contain teno ovir Atripla® Complera® iread® Truvada® • Ot er medicines t at contain emtricitabine lamivudine or ritonavir Combivir® mtriva® pivir® or pivir B ® p icom® aletra® Norvir® Tri ivir® STRIBILD is not for use in people who are less than 18 years old. What are the possible side effects of STRIBILD? STRIBILD may cause the following serious side effects: • See “What is the most important information I should know about STRIBILD?” • New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure. our ealt care provider s ould do blood and urine tests to c ec your idneys be ore you start and w ile you are ta ing ST IBILD. our ealt care provider may tell you to stop ta ing ST IBILD i you develop new or worse idney problems. • Bone problems can appen in some people w o ta e ST IBILD. Bone problems include bone pain so tening or t inning w ic may lead to ractures . our ealt care provider may need to do tests to c ec your bones. • Changes in body fat can appen in people w o ta e I 1 medicine. T ese c anges may include increased amount o at in t e upper bac and nec bu alo ump” breast and around t e middle o your body trun . Loss o at rom t e legs arms and ace may also appen. T e exact cause and long term ealt e ects o t ese conditions are not nown. • Changes in your immune system Immune econstitution Syndrome can appen w en you start ta ing I 1 medicines. our immune system may get stronger and begin to g t in ections t at ave been idden in your body or a long time. Tell your ealt care provider rig t away i you start aving any new symptoms a ter starting your I 1 medicine.
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| June 26, 2013
The most common side effects of STRIBILD include: • Nausea • Diarr ea Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away. • T ese are not all t e possible side e ects o ST IBILD. For more in ormation as your ealt care provider. • Call your ealt care provider or medical advice about side e ects. ou may report side e ects to FDA at 1 800 FDA 1088. What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking STRIBILD? Tell your healthcare provider about all your medical conditions, including: • I you ave or ad any idney bone or liver problems including epatitis B in ection • I you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not nown i ST IBILD can arm your unborn baby. Tell your ealt care provider i you become pregnant w ile ta ing ST IBILD. T ere is a pregnancy registry or women w o ta e antiviral medicines during pregnancy. T e purpose o t is registry is to collect in ormation about t e ealt o you and your baby. Tal wit your ealt care provider about ow you can ta e part in t is registry. • I you are breast eeding nursing or plan to breast eed. Do not breast eed i you ta e ST IBILD. ou s ould not breast eed i you ave I 1 because o t e ris o passing I 1 to your baby. Two o t e medicines in ST IBILD can pass to your baby in your breast mil . It is not nown i t e ot er medicines in ST IBILD can pass into your breast mil . Tal wit your ealt care provider about t e best way to eed your baby. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements: • ST IBILD may a ect t e way ot er medicines wor and ot er medicines may a ect ow ST IBILD wor s. • Be sure to tell your ealt care provider i you ta e any o t e ollowing medicines: ormone based birt control pills patc es rings s ots etc Antacid medicines t at contains aluminum magnesium ydroxide or calcium carbonate. Ta e antacids at least 2 ours be ore or a ter you ta e ST IBILD edicines to treat depression organ transplant re ection or ig blood pressure amiodarone Cordarone® Pacerone® atorvastatin Lipitor® Caduet® bepridil ydroc loric ascor® Bepadin® bosentan Tracleer® buspirone carbama epine Carbatrol® pitol® quetro® Tegreto® clarit romycin Biaxin® Prevpac® clona epam lonopin® clora epate Gen xene® Tranxene® colc icine Colcrys® medicines t at contain dexamet asone dia epam alium®
digoxin Lanoxin® disopyramide Norpace® esta olam et osuximide arontin® ecainide Tambocor® ura epam uticasone Flovent® Flonase® Flovent® Dis us Flovent® FA eramyst® itracona ole Sporanox® etocona ole Ni oral® lidocaine ylocaine® mexiletine oxcarba epine Trileptal® perp ena ine p enobarbital Luminal® p enytoin Dilantin® P enyte ® propa enone yt mol® quinidine Neudexta® ri abutin ycobutin® ri apentine Pri tin® risperidone isperdal® isperdal Consta® salmeterol Serevent® or salmeterol w en ta en in combination wit uticasone Advair Dis us® Advair FA® sildena l iagra® tadala l Cialis® or vardena l Levitra® Staxyn® or t e treatment o erectile dys unction D . I you get di y or aint low blood pressure ave vision c anges or ave an erection t at last longer t an 4 ours call your ealt care provider or get medical elp rig t away. tadala l Adcirca® or t e treatment o pulmonary arterial ypertension telit romycin ete ® t iorida ine voricona ole end® war arin Coumadin® antoven® olpidem Ambien® dlular® Interme o® olpimist® Know the medicines you take. eep a list o all your medicines and s ow it to your ealt care provider and p armacist w en you get a new medicine. Do not start any new medicines w ile you are ta ing ST IBILD wit out rst tal ing wit your ealt care provider. Keep STRIBILD and all medicines out of reach of children. T is Brie Summary summari es t e most important in ormation about ST IBILD. I you would li e more in ormation tal wit your ealt care provider. ou can also as your ealt care provider or p armacist or in ormation about ST IBILD t at is written or ealt pro essionals or call 1 800 445 3235 or go to www.ST IBILD.com. Issued: August 2012
CO PL A T I A GIL AD t e GIL AD Logo GSI PS A ST IBILD t e ST IBILD Logo T ADA and I AD are trademar s o Gilead Sciences Inc. or its related companies. AT IPLA is a trademar o Bristol yers Squibb Gilead Sciences LLC. All ot er mar s re erenced erein are t e property o t eir respective owners. 2013 Gilead Sciences Inc. All rig ts reserved. C14559 02/13
2/28/13 3:27 PM
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
HEALTH
City Buys More Meningitis Vaccine, But Effort Faulted in Med Journal Health department obtained 8,000 doses in 2013, falls well short of goal to reach 30,000 to 100,000 gay men BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
W
hile New York City’s health department purchased nearly 8,000 meningitis vaccine doses in 2013 in addition to the 4,000 doses it bought last year, the city’s supply is still well short of the number needed to meet the department’s goal of vaccinating 30,000 to 100,000 gay and bisexual men. The health department spent just under $535,700 to buy 7,875 doses in two batches in May and June, according to records Gay City News obtained under the state Freedom of Information Law. In 2012, the agency spent $272,000 to buy 4,000 doses. At that time, the health department said it wanted to vaccinate 10,000 men who have sex with men (MSM). It has since increased the vaccination target. To date, more than 11,000 people have been vaccinated, though that is likely an undercount as there is no legal requirement to report adult meningitis
vaccinations to health authorities. The vaccination campaign was launched in September after the agency reported 12 meningitis cases among gay and bisexual men, with four deaths, since 2010. There was one case in 2010, three in 2011, and eight in 2012. The total caseload rose
upstate New York, but spent significant time in the city. The health department’s vaccination campaign has relied on the doses it buys and administers or distributes for free to private agencies, such as the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and Gay Men’s Health Crisis, but also on private doctors and clinics buying their own vaccine and administering it. That has resulted in a slow response. A June 17 report on the outbreak in the Annals of Internal Medicine noted that private doctors might not purchase vaccine because it is expensive and insurance companies might reimburse only part of the cost. The state Department of Financial Services wrote to insurers in April telling them that state law requires them to pay for the vaccine. Half of the 22 men were AfricanAmerican and 55 percent were HIVpositive, according to the report. The average age was 34. The report noted that “vaccine coverage may be suboptimal because of challenges in reaching the populations most at risk, particularly African-American MSM who may not self-identify as gay or be engaged in medical care.” Health departments in other jurisdictions, “including Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, San Francisco, San Diego, and Toronto, have recommended that MSM traveling to NYC be vaccinated,” the report noted. Two other North American cities responded “rapidly,” the report said, and halted comparable meningitis outbreaks among gay and bisexual men. Toronto reported six cases with two deaths in 2001. Health officials there administered 3,850 vaccine doses at over 50 locations in less than a month and saw no new cases. Chicago had a six-case outbreak in 2003 and administered 14,267 doses at six sites in six days. There were no new cases in Chicago. A senior city health department staf fer, Dr. Don Weiss, was a co-author on the report and other senior department staff were acknowledged in the r eport. The health department did not respond to an email seeking comment. On June 21, the State Senate passed legislation sponsored by Brad Hoylman, an openly gay freshman state senator who represents a district that runs from West 72nd Street to Greenwich Village, that would allow pharmacists to administer the meningitis vaccine. Daniel O’Donnell, an out gay Upper West Side assemblyman, sponsored the legislation in that chamber, where it also passed. Gover nor Andr ew Cuomo is expected to sign it. The city's health committees, Dr. Thomas Farley, praised the measure in a written release.
against HIV/ AIDS and stigma, there is still a lot to be done. “Sadly,” he said, “not enough has changed.” There are still, he noted, 33 states that punish people for exposing another person to HIV, while in Albany attitudes are much the same as they were when he was first elected to the Senate in 1998. Today, Duane said, many of his former colleagues don’t even like to talk in legislative chambers about “the dirty word” — sex — and that’s a problem when it comes to educating the young. In the current epidemiological climate, he argued, Albany’s attitude not only promotes apathy but also adds to the ignorance surrounding the disease. More than 26 years after ACT UP first took its angry voice to places like Wall Street, Duane said, “silence equals stigma and silence equals a lack of education. So silence still equals death.”
The report noted that “vaccine coverage may be suboptimal because of challenges in reaching the populations most at risk, particularly African-American MSM.” to 22 by February of this year, with seven deaths. There have been no new cases since February. The state health department reported a 23rd case in a man who lived in
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REACT UP, from p.21
a profound treatment breakthrough in the fight against HIV/ AIDS also marked what Velez called a “watershed moment” in the movement. The arrival of protease inhibitors saw membership fall, though he said infighting as well as racial divisions were also important factors in the decline of a group that once had hundreds of thousands of dollars bequeathed to it via insurance policies on those who died of AIDS-related causes. John Voelcker, another early ACT UP member, said that it was burnout that brought about his exit, though he was quick to add that the advocacy group taught him everything he needed to know about activism. Echoing Velez’s comments, former State Senator Tom Duane agreed that while much has changed in the fight
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| June 26, 2013
LEGAL
Supreme Court Nixes Requirement for Anti-Prostitution Pledge First Amendment flaw found in condition 2003 overseas AIDS funding law imposes ing from organizations that espouse views with which it disagrees, but it is quite another thing for Congress to use its funding to require recipients to express the government’s views on those policies. So long as a recipient refrains from advocating for the policies condemned by Congress, the recipient’s continued receipt of the funds would be protected, the majority concluded. The chief justice acknowledged that the line between permissible and imper-
“
It requires them to pledge allegiance to the Government’s policy of eradicating prostitution [which] violates the First Amendment.”
missible speech-based conditions “is hardly clear,” but asserted that the requirement in this case clearly crosses the line. “By demanding that funding recipients adopt — as their own — the Government’s view on an issue of public concern, the condition by its very nature affects ‘protected conduct outside the scope of the federally funded program,’” wrote Roberts, quoting an earlier ruling that upheld certain speech restrictions on recipients of federal family planning money. In that case, Rust v. Sullivan, the court upheld Congress’ requirement that recipients of such funding not use the money in any program where abortion is a mechanism for family planning or abortion counseling or any referral to abortion providers is given. There, the court majority’s rationale was that Congress has a right to decide which speech it will fund, consistent with its public policy determinations. The AIDS funding statute, however, requires funding recipients to affirmatively adopt as their own the policy dictated by Congress. A L L Y OU R FAVORITES “By requiring recipiH AN D D I PP E D D A ILY ents to profess a specific , ST RK RE belief,” wrote Roberts, “the YO ET (BE Policy Requirement goes NEW TWEE AVE.) N H T 6 7 T H & beyond defining the limits
Healthy Gay & Pr ppy
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The government appealed, noting that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the requirement in a different case. Justice Roberts acknowledged that “as a general matter, if a party objects to a condition on the receipt of federal funding, its recourse is to decline the funds,” even where the objection is that the “condition may affect the recipient’s exercise of its First Amendment rights.” The court majority, however, saw this case as different. At issue, it found, was not whether the government was required to fund speech it disagrees with, but whether it could use funding as a tool to compel speech on the part of its recipients. Writing in dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Clarence Thomas, argued that because Congress aimed to discourage prostitution as part of its strategy against HIV, limiting federal funding to those organizations in accord with the government’s policy preference about prostitution was a reasonable method of selecting recipients for support. Roberts responded that “the relevant distinction that has emerged from our cases is between conditions that define the limits of the government spending program — those that specify the activities Congress wants to subsidize — and conditions that seek to leverage funding to regulate speech outside the contours of the program itself.” Another way of putting that is that Congress can decide to withhold fund-
of the federally funded program to defining the recipient.” The government’s argument that recipients remain free to establish separate affiliated organizations — nonrecipients of federal funds — that could advocate for legalizing prostitution was also rejected by Roberts. “When we have noted the importance of affiliates in this context,” Roberts wrote, “it has been because they allow an organization bounded by a funding condition to exercise its First Amendment rights outside the scope of the federal program. Affiliates cannot serve that purpose when the condition is that a funding recipient espouse a specific belief as its own. If the affiliate is distinct from the recipient, the arrangement does not afford a means for the recipient to express its beliefs. If the affiliate is more clearly identified with the recipient, the recipient can express those beliefs only at the price of evident hypocrisy.” The government had also argued that without a requirement that recipients of funding condemn prostitution, they would be free to apply funds received from elsewhere to counter Congress’ policy goals by advocating for decriminalization of prostitution. Roberts rejected that, noting there was no evidence that the plaintiffs have any intention of articulating any position on whether prostitution should be legal. The chief justice observed that “the Policy Requirement goes beyond preventing recipients from using private funds in a way that would undermine the federal program. It requires them to pledge allegiance to the Government’s policy of eradicating prostitution.” Such a requirement “violates the First Amendment and cannot be sustained.”
NY 10 014
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he Supreme Court, on June 20, ruled that a federal statute that conditions government funding to non-profits doing overseas HIV prevention work on their articulating an explicit policy opposing prostitution violates the First Amendment. Writing for the 6-2 majority, Chief Justice John R. Roberts, Jr., quoted from the high court’s famous 1943 Flag Salute case, which stated, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.” Both Alliance for Open Society International and Pathfinder International received US government funds to support their HIV prevention work in East Africa and Asia. A provision of the 2003 United States Leadership Against HIV/ AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act, which appropriates billions of dollars, provides that none of its funds “may be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking” or be provided to any organization “that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.” Neither Alliance nor Pathfinder promotes or advocates legalization of prostitution, but both organizations believe that adopting a policy “explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking” would create difficulties in their work with some governments and other nonprofits in Africa and Asia. In fact, Congress itself acknowledged this difficulty while crafting the 2003 law, exempting key international players — including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Health Organization, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and all United Nations agencies — from the requirement that they explicitly disavow prostitution. Many organizations that fight AIDS actively advocate the decriminalization of prostitution as a means of enlisting sex workers in the effort to promote safe sex. The active engagement of prostitutes in prevention efforts is widely viewed as critical to success in the battle against HIV transmission in many parts of the world. Mindful of that, Alliance and Pathfinder argued that it was improper for Congress to force them to
stake out an anti-prostitution posture as a condition of their continued funding. The two groups brought suit in the US District Court in New York and won a temporary injunction against suspension of their existing grants while the free speech issue was litigated. Ultimately, both the district court here and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with them that the policy requirement was unconstitutional.
AH a
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
CRIME
Elliot Morales Repeatedly Told NYPD He Killed Mark Carson Statements disclosed in Manhattan district attorney’s June 18 indictment BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
DONNA ACETO
T
he accused killer of Mark Carson made multiple statements to police following the May 18 fatal shooting in which he admitted to killing the 32-year-old gay man. “He thought he was tough and I shot him,” Elliot Morales told police moments after he shot Carson at Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street in the West Village. “It’s the last thing he’ll remember.” Morales’ indictment charges him with second-degree murder as a hate crime, five counts of criminal possession of a weapon, menacing a police officer, and menacing. It was released on June 18, accompanied by a voluntary disclosure form that details some of the roughly 20 statements he made. After police apprehended him near West Third and MacDougal Streets, Morales repeatedly expressed concern that he had shot a police officer.
An impromptu memorial sprung up within days at the site of Mark Carson’s murder on Eighth Street just off Sixth Avenue. Mark Carson in a photo handout distributed by the NYPD.
He also said he shot Carson. “I killed him, he was trying to act tough so I shot him,” Morales said. “Guy thought he was tough in front
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of his bitch so I shot him. Diagnosis is dead doctor.” According to the criminal complaint filed when Morales was arrested, the 33-year -old first said to Carson and a friend, “Look at you faggots, you look like gay wrestlers.” Minutes later, Morales asked Car son, “Are you with him?,” and when Carson answered, “Yes,” Morales shot Carson in the head with a pistol. In longer statements given later on May 18 that were in the voluntary disclosure form, Morales described a troubled home life and upbringing. “My family life is fucked up which is why I drink,” he said. “I am not gay, I don’t have a problem with gay people, I have lots of gays in my life. I don’t use drugs or take any medication. I rarely come to the city or hang out in the Village.” Morales told police his sister “is a crackhead” and that he never knew his father. His mother is a diabetic with high blood pressure and “other issues,” he said. “I always hurt her and make bad decisions in life and make her cry,” Morales said. “She will die after this. Did someone die? Did a child die? My mom will die. Life is funny. Some people are pre-determined to be good and some are bad. We are who we are already. I always make bad decisions. I always do things the hard way. Some people go around road blocks, some go through. I always go through.” Other items in the voluntary disclosure form suggest that police have at least four witnesses who identified
Morales and that he may have given a videotaped statement. The Carson killing is the second violent felony that Morales has been charged with. In 1998, Morales and two other men, John Kehinde, then 17, and Daniel Olivencia, then 18, beat, bound, and robbed three young women in an East Village apartment. Morales wielded a machete in that attack. Morales and Olivencia choked the women, with Morales saying, “I’m going to put her to sleep,” according to court records in the case. They also hit the women with a metal pipe. Charged with attempted mur der, multiple robbery and burglary counts, and assault, Morales pleaded guilty to robbery in 1999 and was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison. He served 10 years. “This young man’s tragic death serves as a reminder of the discrimination that many of our family members, coworkers, and friends still face,” Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, said in a written statement. “This defendant is charged with targeting and gunning down Mark Carson o n t h e s t r e e t s o f G r e e n w i c h Vi l lage because of his sexual orientation. Mr. Carson was murdered as he walked through a neighborhood that has long been a center of the gay rights movement and home to many LGBT New Yorkers, as well as a destination for LGBT visitors from around the globe.”
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| June 26, 2013
FRESHMEN PRIDE IN QUEENS
DeAr guys who like guys And GALS who like gAls, life, liberty And the pursuit of hAppiness begAn with Me. Democrats Daniel Dromm of Jackson Heights and Jimmy Van Bramer of Sunnyside, who are both finishing up their first four-year terms on the Council — and running for reelection — marked LGBT Pride in recent events. On June 2, Dromm, pictured at right with out gay Manhattan State Senator Brad Hoylman (r.) and Manhattan Councilman Dan Garodnick, held a $50 a head fundraiser at Cavalier Restaurant on 37th Avenue in advance of the borough’s Pride Parade and Festival. Honorary hosts for the event included City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, former State Senator Tom Duane, and Randi Weingarten, the out lesbian president of the United Federation of Teachers. Congressman Joseph Crowley, a Queens Democrat, was the breakfast’s featured speaker. A week later, Van Bramer hosted his third
18+
P.S. Get your history strAight And your nightlife gAy. annual LGBT Pride Brunch at Riverview Restaurant in Long Island City. Van Bramer, seen at top in the center, with husband Dan Hendrick, welcomed more than 300 guests from across the 26th District, as well as elected officials including Quinn.
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
CRIME
Gay Men Claim NYPD Violence, Anti-Gay Slur, False Arrest in Brooklyn Elected officials, advocates rally around three snared in Bedford-Stuyvesant’s 79th precinct incident BY PAUL SCHINDLER
GAY CITY NEWS
A
t a June 11 press conference outside One Police Plaza downtown, members of the City Council, LGBT advocates, and supporters of police reform joined three gay men as they recounted allegations that NYPD of ficers recently assaulted and falsely arr ested one of them outside the 79th precinct in BedfordStuyvesant. According to 24-year -old Ben Collins, one of the three, the men, heading home at about 4 a.m. on June 2 to the Brooklyn apartment they share, were walking along Lexington Avenue near the 79th precinct at Tompkins Avenue when an officer “falsely accused” Josh Williams, 26, of publicly urinating. When the three men responded to the officer’s command that they walk over to him in the precinct parking lot, Collins said, the officer, joined by others, “thrashed” Williams and then “slammed him” against a squad car.
Ben Collins, Antonio Maenza, Josh Williams, Councilman Daniel Dromm, and FIERCE’s John Blasco (with AVP’s Sharon Stapel with her back to the camera) at the June 11 press conference.
After handcuffing him, the officers pepper -sprayed Williams, according to Collins.
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Collins also said that when they asked for a name and badge number from the one officer who remained after the others had led Williams away toward the precinct, that officer called him a “faggot.” The New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), which organized the press conference, posted a video that a third man, 24-year -old Antonio Maenza, made of roughly three minutes of the incident. The video begins with officers surrounding Williams, who is on the ground, secur ing his wrists before leading him away. Another officer is warning Collins and Maenza, “Get outta here, or you’re going to get arrested, too, fucking asshole… You wanna go with him, you stupid fuck?” By about the 2:30 point in the video, Williams has been led away and the one officer who remains in the parking lot is engaged in a shouting match with Collins and Maenza over their demand that he identify himself. The exchange is loud and heated, with the men calling the officer a “fat fucking pig” several times. At approximately 2:49 in the tape, as the officer is walking away from Collins and Maenza, he can faintly be heard saying something, which the men allege was “Fuck you, you fucking faggot.” After multiple reviews of the tape, Gay City News cannot definitively confirm that quote, though the final two faint wor ds could be “fucking faggot.” Immediately afterward, Collins is heard shouting back at the officer, “What
did you say to me, motherfucker, you wanna call me a faggot?” The video clip ended just seconds later, and Collins said that after that officers chased Maenza and him down and took them into custody. According to Collins, when the men asked why they were being arrested, the officers responded that “they will find something to charge us with.” According to Cynthia H. ContiCook, an attorney with the Brooklyn law firm of Stoll, Glickman & Bellina who represents the men, Williams was charged with public urination and resisting arrest. Collins and Maenza were charged with obstruction of governmental administration. Williams, she said, suffered lacerations to his wrists and spent approximately seven hours in a hospital during which time police restrained both his wrists and his ankles. Calling on police to drop all charges against the men, Conti-Cook said, “Last weekend my clients lear ned what residents in the 79th precinct — a n d a l l o v e r N e w Yo r k C i t y — already knew. That they are just as likely to experience violence, threats, and verbal abuse from the police as anyone else on the street. That police often act as is there is no oversight or accountability because there is so seldom any oversight or accountability.” Conti-Cook’s clients did not take any questions at the press confer ence, and in a very brief statement, Williams said, “We did absolutely nothing wrong.” Shelby Chestnut, a community organizer and public advocacy staffer at AVP, noted the group, in its survey of clients last year, found that 40 percent of those who interacted with the NYPD reported police misconduct, and that the problem had worsened from the year before. City Councilman Daniel Dromm, who is gay and represents Jackson Heights, termed the police’s action at the 79th precinct “a crime” and charged that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly is aware that the abuse Williams, Collins, and Maenza experienced “is the reality” of the LGBT community’s relationship to the NYPD. “Even I have been disrespected by the New York City Police Department, even after showing my credentials as a New York City Council member,” said Dromm, who explained he was at the press conference represent-
FALSE ARREST, continued on p.92
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| June 26, 2013
No State Senate Vote on Transgender Rights
POLITICS
Legislature adjourns and Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act is still not law BY PAUL SCHINDLER
M
ore than a decade into the effort to approve a transgender civil rights law in New York State, the 2013 legislative session looked like it could be the charm. Polling touted by the Empire State Pride Agenda, the LGBT community’s Albany lobby group, showed 78 percent of respondents support the measure, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, or GENDA, which has repeatedly won Assembly passage but never gotten a Senate vote. Backed by a broad coalition made up of labor, civil rights, and women’s organizations and almost 600 faith leaders — what one Albany insider described as the sort of group “needed to get anything progressive done” in the Legislature — EPSA earlier this year launched a media drive worth more than $300,000 targeting specific state senators. And a long roster of top municipal police chiefs, capped at the 11th hour with an endorsement from New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, pushed back hard against a frequent,
but wholly unsubstantiated charge that providing anti-discrimination protections to the transgender community could compromise the safety of women in bathrooms and locker rooms. Noting that the city enacted a transgender rights law 11 years ago, Kelly wrote, “I am not aware of any increase in crimes attributable” to its passage. In a June 18 press release announcing Kelly’s endorsement for the legislation, ESPA cited “clear momentum” toward success in the Senate. Yet, when the Legislature adjourned in the early morning hours of June 22, the Senate had once again failed to take up the measure. “We believe we had a bipartisan majority of the Senate to pass the legislation and send it to the governor for his signature,” Nathan M. Schaefer, ESPA’s executive director, said in a written message posted on the group’s website. “We were defeated by the adamant refusal of the Senate leadership to bring the measure to the floor for an up-or-down vote.” One insider with knowledge of the GENDA push said advocates were confident they had the support of 31 of 33 Democrats — everyone except Ruben
Diaz, Sr., of the Bronx and Simcha Felder of Brooklyn — and three or four of the 32 Republicans. The Democrats, however, do not control the Senate. Felder, a freshman, caucuses with the Republicans, and another four Democrats, compromising a rump faction known as the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), negotiated a power sharing agreement with the GOP that kept Long Island Republican Dean Skelos as the Senate’s most powerful member, despite his party having lost its outright majority in last year’s election. It has always been unclear if Skelos was willing to ask the full GOP conference to do on GENDA what it did two years ago on marriage equality — allow a floor vote even with most of its members opposed. The bill’s supporters have looked to the IDC — all of whom have endorsed GENDA — to help them push the measure, but one advocate, who insisted on anonymity, told Gay City News that when they pressed Diane Savino, an IDC member from Staten Island, on the issue at a recent gathering, she responded, “You’ll have to speak to the governor.” Governor Andrew Cuomo has long
been on record in support of GENDA, but never made the bill a public priority in his legislative agenda. Some transgender rights advocates, mindful of the high profile role the governor played in the success of marriage equality in 2011, have been frustrated by his inaction. But even progressive goals dear to Cuomo’s heart — such as his women’s equality act and campaign finance reform — failed to gain traction in the Senate in the session’s final weeks. “No piece of progressive legislation got that consideration this time around,” one Albany observer said, comparing what Skelos was willing to do on marriage equality to what he asked of his conference on bills at the end of this year’s session. The offices of Cuomo, Skelos, Savino, and IDC leader Jeffrey Klein, who represents portions of the Bronx and Westchester, have consistently declined to respond to Gay City News’ requests for comment on the prospects for moving GENDA. ESPA’s Schaefer did not hesitate to fault the IDC, whose members he said
GENDA, continued on p.77
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
COMMUNITY
A Rainy Night and a Day at the Beach In lesbian nightlife, community activism, and big, ol’ parties, Lisa Cannistraci’s been at it a long time BY WINNIE McCROY
T
he way Lisa Cannistraci tells it, if not for a rainstor m back in the mid-‘80s at a moment she happened to be on Hudson Street, her West Village bar Henrietta Hudson would never have been. She was working as a bartender at a Wall Street establishment at the time, and one evening, after a successful shift, was in the Village when a sudden downpour for ced her to seek shelter in what was then called the Cubbyhole. She ordered a Remy neat and a black coffee, and the manager noticed. Cannistraci agreed to take on a couple of shifts, even though they were slow ones. “Cubbyhole was the only lesbian bar in town, and back then you had to go to a lesbian bar to be safe,” she recently recalled. “I had never wanted to own a bar, but Henrietta Hudson was a calling. It was not a desire or preconceived notion.” She quickly racked up money and created a loyal following. Owner Elaine Romagnoli noticed that, too, and moved her to Thursday and Friday night shifts. Cannistraci left her Wall Street gig and worked at Cubby until the bar was shuttered a few years later. When Romagnoli opened up Crazy Nanny’s on Seventh Avenue, she moved over with her and next tended bar at Kelly’s Village Tavern. The customers followed Cannistraci each step of the way. In that pre-Facebook era, she used to take down the names and numbers of the women she served to create a client list. She also got to know Minnie Rivera, a lesbian nightlife and networking pioneer who owned bars including Garbo, Network, and Pandora’s Box. “She saw something in me,” Cannistraci said, recalling one particular evening. “They were supposed to go to the airport, but I was engaging. They hung out with me instead, and it stuck in her mind.” Soon after that, Rivera approached her about re-opening a bar at the old Cubbyhole locale. They went to dinner, and the rest is history. On Halloween night, 1991, Cannistraci and Rivera opened up Henrietta Hudson at the corner of Morton Street. “I feel like I have been at 438 Hudson Street since March 1985, with maybe a year br eak out of that,” Cannistraci told me. “This is my
Lisa Cannistraci at home in her West Village bar and going toe-to-toe with an anti-gay protester outside the Supreme Court this past March.
28th year here. If it didn’t rain, I would never have walked in… and Henrietta’s definitely would not have been here.” Unlike some bar owners, who operate in Manhattan and reside in the suburbs, Cannistraci lives near where she works —directly above it, in fact. She’s a longtime businesswoman, but also considers herself an activist and someone willing to put her money behind the causes she believes in. She traces her activist roots back to the 1992 boycott against Colorado for its adoption of a referendum prohibiting anti-discrimination ordinances protecting gays.
ported the boycott, but then pulled out, noting that the state’s tourist areas hardest hit were generally liberal communities that had not voted for the referendum. The tennis star said as much when she stopped by Cannistraci’s bar in 1992; she sent Navratilova packing. Cannistraci’s activism has also engaged issues closer to home. Since 2002, she has served on Manhattan’s Community Board 2, focusi n g o n L G B T, y o u t h , a n d e l d e r l y issues on the Social Services Committee and on neighborhood concerns generally as part of the Parks and Waterfront Committee. State Senator Brad Hoylman, a for mer CB2 chair, called Cannistraci “an indefatigable member of the West Village… She's been a longtime active member of the community board, where her insight on small business issues and commitment to LGBT causes have been invaluable.” Hoylman cited, in particular, the assistance she’s provided to Stormé DeLarverie, who is 92 and traces her activism at least as far back as the opening night of the Stonewall Riots. DeLarverie lived in the Chel-
The tennis star said as much when she stopped by Cannistraci’s bar in 1992; she sent Navratilova packing. “If you lived in Colorado, you couldn’t boycott it or you’d get fired,” she said. “So we did it, and it worked. There was $90 million in lost revenues at ski resorts in just a few weeks.” Martina Navratilova initially sup-
sea Hotel for many years, but when she developed cognitive problems, Cannistraci stepped up to secure legal guardianship and make sure she found a home setting where appropriate care was available. DeLarverie now resides in an assisted living residence in Brooklyn. Hoylman ter med the assistance Cannistraci gave the iconic activist “just one example of Lisa's humanity and commitment to those who've helped pave the way for the rest of us.” Cannistraci has also been active in the fight for equal marriage rights, both in New York and nationally. Serving as a board vice president of Marriage Equality USA (ME/ USA), she traveled to Washington with Edie Windsor when Windsor’s challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act was argued before the Supreme Court on March 27. “She is really an amazing board member,” said Cathy Marino-Thomas, the boar d co-pr esident. “She joined us two or three years ago, and always more than exceeds her fundraising responsibilities.” When Marriage Equality New York merged with ME/ USA after enactment of the state’s equal marriage law in 2011, Cannistraci’s “business sense was very valuable to us,” Marino-Thomas said. “She helped put together meaningful budget-
HENRIETTA HUDSON, continued on p.74
| June 26, 2013
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
COMMUNITY
Making “Upstanders” Out of Bullying Bystanders BY ANDY HUMM
L
ess than three years after the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers freshman who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after being humiliated by his roommate who videocast him kissing another man, his parents and brother have created a foundation in his name working to end bullying in schools by fostering climates of mutual respect. Jane and Joseph Clementi were joined by their son James, himself now a gay activist, and Steven Guy, the Tyler Clementi Foundation’s executive director, for a June 20 discussion moderated by out gay New York T imes op-ed columnist Frank Bruni and hosted by the newspaper’s GLBT & Allies Network. The prelude to the panel was a string quartet playing the mour nful theme from “Schindler’s List,” but the Clementis were not there to relive the horror of losing Tyler at 18
but rather to talk about creating a positive future for LGBT youth and their families. “We want to turn bystanders into upstanders,” said Joseph, speaking about how the response to bullying has to focus on much more than helping the bullied and punishing bullies. Those who witness cruelty and worse need to speak up and stop it, he said, or at least reach out immediately to those who are bullied and let them know they are respected. “We want to create an infrastructure of support,” he said. Joseph said Rutgers students exchanged 148 texts and tweets about the violation of Tyler’s privacy in its immediate wake. “There was not one person who lifted a finger to help” Tyler, he said. “That was what he was looking at before he left” to kill himself, Jane said. James, who is Tyler’s older brother, said that “in 70 percent of bullying, there is a third-party observer
DONNA ACETO
Tyler Clementi’s family explains the work of the foundation they created in his name
Jane and James Clementi at the City Council’s June 10 Pride celebration at Cooper Union.
witnessing it. They are responsible and have an obligation to end it.” He added, “Tyler was being laughed at. No one said anything to
him. He never heard he was supported in his environment — which
TYLER CLEMENTI, continued on p.74
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| June 26, 2013
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
FILM
Very Queer Flowers A family’s dysfunction at love dominates Ash Christian’s black comedy BY GARY M. KRAMER
O
ut director Ash Christian’s dark, but at times sweet, comedy “Petunia” chronicles the romantic and sexual dysfunction that plagues members of the title clan. Parents Felicia (Christine Lahti) and Percy (David Rasche) are discussing divorce. Their son Michael (Eddie Kay Thomas) marries Vivian (Thora Birch), who we soon learn is pregnant, possibly by Michael’s sex-addicted brother, Adrian (Jimmy Heck).
And then there is Charlie (Tobias Segal), the Petunia family’s gay son who is practicing abstinence — until he meets George (Michael Urie) and falls in love. The guys’ romance is char ming, but it too hits a major snag. Christian’s film may feature unhappy characters, but viewers will become engaged in their h e a r t f e l t s t o r i e s . T h e d i r e c t o r, who was also co-writer of the screenplay with Theresa Bennett, spoke with Gay City News about his eccentric characters’ struggles to find love and happiness amidst the challenges of sex, family, and their own tendencies toward over sharing. G A RY M . K R A M E R : W h a t w a s your inspiration for cr eating the Petunia family? How much of it was based on your family members or experiences? ASH CHRISTIAN: The film started with Charlie and George. We created the family based on quirky characters from my own family and some out of mid-air based on people I know in New York. I am an only child, raised by a single mom in Texas. I have a crazy aunt who inspired the Felicia quirks — facial work and psychoanalyzing everything her children do and putting way more emphasis on
WOLFE RELEASING
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WOLFE RELEASING
PETUNIA
Out gay filmmaker Ash Christian directed and co-wrote “Petunia.”
Tobias Segal and Michael Urie in “Petunia.”
things than is there. But I had to convert everything from a crazy Southern family to a crazy New York one because I moved here eight years ago.
in the film. What is the most inappropriate thing that you’ve experienced? AC: Oh God! [Laughs]. I’m trying to think… I guess it all goes back to… I’m trying not to over share myself… My first sexual experience when I was in a boys choir. I still laugh to this day at the awkwardness of my life experience and sexuality.
GMK: The characters all seem to be in denial — about what they want, who they love, and even how they feel. Why did that become the basis for comedy? AC: I think real life is funny, and people being neurotic and selfabsorbed makes me laugh. These qualities actually make you love the Petunias, because they are so far gone. GMK: There are several broad comic bits about Felicia considering plastic surgery while her children do drastic things like jump out windows. Why did have your characters behave in such outlandish ways? AC: I think it’s all funny. I find people fixing their faces to be sort of ridiculous. But I get why people do it. It’s all to get attention. With celebrities like Amanda Bynes, people are doing crazy things. Felicia is in everyone’s lives a little bit, but not enough to care, so the family acts out to make her pay attention. GMK: There is also some over sharing between characters
GMK: Let’s talk about the film’s h u m o r. U s u a l l y , j o k e s a r e t o l d quickly, but in “Petunia,” you stretch them out and let them build. Why do you take that approach to comedy? AC: I love the awkward long beats. I am inspired by Todd Solondz, who plays things out in films like “ We l c o m e t o t h e D o l l h o u s e ” a n d “Happiness,” which are filled with awkward family moments. That was the comedic tone I was going for. I like real people living real lives and letting things play out as they make giant mistakes. I do character outlines for everyone, and then we have the movie because I’ve fallen in love with them and want to see them through. GMK: Much of “Petunia” suggests you have contempt for marriage. Is that true? AC: Personally, I’m entirely single and have been forever. Someday I hope to get married, but in my world
marriages never succeed, they only fail. Oddly enough, I’m a romantic with ideals. I’m not against marriage. I think the characters of Percy and Felicia are right for each other and there is love there, but they have had a rough few years. GMK: You depict the queer couple as the sweetest and most nor mal people in the film, but then throw in a curveball. Why? AC: I’ve never seen it done in a gay movie — though I don’t consider this a gay film, and it may have been done and I’ve not seen it. But I didn’t want to make George like every other gay character out there. It’s fun to see that. GMK: Sex is often a solution to the Petunia family’s happiness. Do you think sex heals? AC: I’d like to think so! [Laughs.] That’s where we went with it. It’s a sexual film about family, and though that’s an odd place to go, sex saves Charlie and a marriage and we wanted to play on that. GMK: There is also talk of karma in the film — many of the characters get what, or who, they deserve. Do you believe in karma? AC: Absolutely! I’m a huge believer in trying to do the right thing so it comes back. Though that’s selfish in a way.
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| June 26, 2013
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
FILM
What It Means to Be Out in 2013
Sam McConnell, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders bring together 16 whose stories weave part of the tapestry — one of the places where homophobia is very alive and well — and we found Wade Davis. We knew we wanted someone to speak about the transgender experience, so we found Janet Mock. We wanted the history of the AIDS years and an activist, and we couldn’t imagine the film without Larry Kramer.
BY GARY M. KRAMER
GARY M. KRAMER: How did you get involved in the project? S A M M c C O N N E L L : I had been involved somewhat in “The Black List.” My [creative] partner Lukas Hauser was the editor of that film, which came out around the time of Obama’s election.
GRAHAM WILLOUGHBY
D
ebuting on HBO on June 27 and available on demand the following day, “The Out List” is an hour -long documentary featuring 16 LGBT individuals, each directly addressing the camera for a few minutes to talk about issues important to the queer community. From Lady Bunny’s smart speech about drag queens and self-expression to Larry Kramer’s passionate description of how his anger fueled ACT UP, there is diversity in both topics and talking heads. It is easy to be inspired by testimony of resilience from folks like Dustin Lance Black and Jake Shears and from the way Ellen DeGeneres, Cynthia Nixon, and Suze Orman discuss the importance of equal marriage rights. But the best vignettes come from the least well-known subjects, who provide very thoughtful reflections about being queer in America. Latina lesbian Lupe Valdez, a sheriff in Texas, talks about being validated in her conservative community, while Twiggy Pucci Garçon describes the surrogate family he found in the New York ball community. Gay City News spoke to Sam McConnell, the film’s of f-camera interviewer, via Skype from Los Angeles, about creating “The Out List.”
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Janet Mock, and Sam McConnell from “The Out List.”
And with that election came Proposition 8. There was a march on Washington about LGBT equality, and that was the first time I heard about the wider call for equality in all 50 states. That got me excited. I wanted to see what I could do to be part of this conversation. I approached Timothy [GreenfieldSanders, the director] to do a film in the style of “The Black List” to look at LGBT equality. “The Black List” looked back at how people overcame racism and discrimination. Here we have an opportunity to talk with people in a movement while it is unfolding — a civil rights movement of its time. GMK: What input did you have in forming the criteria for the interview subjects? SM: We wanted a mix of people who are known and unknown, not just
a collection of famous, successful gay people. There are gay people who became successful while being in the closet for most of their lives. We wanted people who were out and not just for their own sake, but that they had a responsibility to a greater community and the betterment of future generations. GMK: The monologues address coming out, validation, resilience, and marriage equality. How did the topics for discussion arise? SM: We came up with a long list of topics we felt were important to cover, and then we started coming up with interesting subjects. So we knew we wanted someone to talk about being a parent, so Neil Patrick Harris was great for that. We knew we wanted someone to speak about being in the sports world
GMK: Who or what surprised you in the stories you heard? SM: Wazina Zondon. Everyone in the film is very brave for speaking their truth, but Wazina in particular shows a real courage for speaking her truth given the attitudes and real ramifications for being out and Muslim. GMK: Who did you identify with from “The Out List”? SM: [Sighs]. I think I identified a little bit with all of them. Maybe Dustin Lance Black, because he had a Mormon upbringing and is a filmmaker and a young gay person. He talked about watching stories — seeing “The 400 Blows” — and what that did to him in opening his eyes to stories about real people and their lives. I remember seeing “My Own Private Idaho,” and that blew my mind and my imagination. It made me want to do something like that as a filmmaker. Jake Shears and I are friends, and he expressed something about being an outsider — that it does a lot of harm, but it enables the creation of a special family, a connection with others who feel different. As gay culture normalizes and becomes mainstream, there is a little bit of a loss of that specialness. That resonated with me as well.
THE OUT LIST, continued on p.67
Guns and Roses Cathryne Czubek sets her sights on women with weapons BY GARY M. KRAMER
W
hat is it about the image of women with guns that is so alluring? That’s the question that Cathryne Czubek’s enlightening documentary “A Girl & A Gun” asks. As the dozen-plus females with fir ear ms interviewed in this film attest, girls and guns can be a rare, exotic breed. Even erotic — just look at the way bikini-clad girls sporting
A GIRL & A GUN Directed by Cathryne Czubek First Run Features Opens Jul. 5 Quad Cinema 34 W. 13th St. quadcinema.com
weapons jiggle. They can demonstrate empowerment and break gender stereotypes. But women with guns can also be protective — whether providing personal safety or service in
the military. The construct of female identity vis-à-vis guns is the focus here, and Czubek provides a series of intriguing bullet points that examine how women behave with weapons. Vi e w e r s m e e t R o b i n , a t a i c h i instructor who goes shopping for a gun. She likens it to shoe shopping and looks for something lightweight and inexpensive. As she negotiates with a gun dealer, they show obvious rapport — even as he acknowledges that it’s dif fer ent dealing with a
woman buyer, he is respectful toward her. Robin later explains — while cleaning her gun, her rings and bright red fingernail polish visible — that she was prompted to buy a weapon when a 6’3” ex-boyfriend gave her reason to worry about her security. She bemoans the fact that she could not buy a taser but can own a gun once she completes a 30-day waiting period. Her observation that shooting
GUNS & ROSES, continued on p.68
| June 26, 2013
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
OPERA
“Oscar” Moment Santa Fe Opera, star countertenor David Daniels ready new opera about Wilde BY DAVID SHENGOLD
F
rom the start we’ve all been very clear that this is not about Oscar as a g a y m a r t y r. I t ’ s a b o u t Oscar being a great man — honest and brave — to whom awful things were done because he was gay. That’s a difference we’re all clear on.”
OSCAR
ROBERT RECKER
I was speaking by phone with David Daniels, America’s reigning c o u n t e r t e n o r, a b o u t h i s l a t e s t project — the creation of the role of Oscar Wilde in an opera composed by Theodore Morrison to John Cox’s libretto due at the enchanting high desert home of Santa Fe Opera for five per for mances from July 27 to August 17. Daniels was relaxing during a rare month of f after his last Met show of “Giulio Cesare” on May 11. He’s very proud that he went on for every performance of the testing Handel production despite less than ideal circumstances — a persistent endof-busy-season bug that many in the opera world seemed to experience this spring, plus, sadly, the death of his mother just before “Cesare” opened. “I came right back from the funeral to do the HD showing,” he recalled. Daniels’ parents were both singing teachers who installed professionalism — the show must go on. His month of “relaxation” did encompass moving his longtime partner, Scott Walters, back home to Atlanta after his completing graduate work in choral conducting at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (where Daniels studied and where he met Morrison, who teaches there). Helming the manly moving van was involved, probably a nice break from practicing Handelian cadenzas. At the “Cesare” HD showing, hosted by Renée Fleming, Daniels mentioned on camera that his partner had complained that after five years of living together he had still never met the superstar soprano. He “introduced” them right then and there, with Walters sitting in a movie
COURTESY: SANTA FE OPERA
The Santa Fe Opera Jul. 27, 8:30 p.m. Jul. 31, Aug. 9, 12 & 17, 8 p.m. $32-$285; santafeopera.org
Countertenor David Daniels is preparing for the title role in the premiere of Theodore Morrison's “Oscar” at the Santa Fe Opera in July.
David C. Woolard’s design for an Oscar Wilde costume.
theater back home. “A lot of people complimented me for getting that out there, but I didn’t really do that as a statement,” Daniels said. “I was just being who I am! The same with ‘Oscar’ — I’m proud as a gay man to be doing it, but that’s not why I’m doing it. I’m doing it because I think it’s a strong piece of opera and an important character and story to get out there.” Still, however casually he approached self-outing years ago in the New Yorker, Daniels was one of the very first major male classical singers to do it. Not many more have f o l l o w ed — though tw o or thr ee countertenors have been careful to out themselves as being straight! As such, he has been very touched to get mail and email from young men (particularly in isolated Souther n communities) saying how glad they were to read about his story and how he’s found success. Whether or not they knew anything about Handel or Britten, just reading about an openly gay person leading a rewarding professional and personal life opened up new possibilities for them. “Oscar” concentrates on Wilde’s trial and period of punishment in Reading Gaol — where he did what he could to alleviate the persecutions heaped on his fellow prisoners. Lord Alfred (“Bosie”) Douglas, the ungrateful beauty whose
homophobic father’s countersuit for “gross indecency” allowed Her Majesty’s Gover nment to destroy t h e d e f i a n t Wi l d e — i s d e p i c t e d only in reminiscence by a dancer. The narrative is shaped by a figure Wilde really did meet historically — the godfather of American gay literature and Brooklyn hipness, Walt Whitman. “It was just brilliant of John Cox to bring in Whitman, such a very different type of gay man,” Daniels said. Composer Morrison wrote a wellreviewed 1992 symphony for chorus, tenor, and baritone entitled “War and Reconciliation” using Whitman texts. Wilde’s lonely — if still, reportedly, aphorism-cracking — death in a Paris hotel room is not portrayed onstage. Instead, Whitman leads him to Immortality. “The final line is just fantastic — so simply stated — I just love it. And, no, I’m not gonna tell you!” Daniels deadpanned. The countertenor credited the composer and librettist with the idea of this work, but he signed on to the project as soon as Morrison brought the idea to him. “I workshopped both acts of it with piano and percussion, so I’m very familiar with everything except the final orchestration, which I can’t wait to hear,” he said.
Being part of the process allowed him to consult with Morrison about tessitura — how high a character’s vocal line is placed — and dynamics. “Theo’s a singer himself and a damn good composer of vocal music, so he understands singers’ needs and abilities,” Daniels said. “It’s in places Brittenesque — but, speaking as someone who likes music theater, unlike a lot of other current operas it is not a music theater idiom, but definitely opera.” Daniels created and has often performed a song cycle by Morrison — “Chamber Music,” based on texts by James Joyce — and has had music written for him by Jonathan Dove, though illness kept him from premiering it. But “Oscar” represents the first time he will be creating an operatic role from the ground up. From his high-level Santa Fe colleagues in “Oscar,” Daniels is expecting good working partnerships. “I know Bill Burden — who plays Frank Harris [another writer, one of Wilde’s staunchest defenders] — very well, though oddly we’ve never actually sung together,” he said. “Another of Oscar’s loyal friends, Ada Leverson, will be Heidi Stober, with whom I’ve worked a lot [including for Santa Fe’s 2008 “Radamisto”] — she’s great.” Last summer at Santa Fe he got to know Evan Rogister, the up-andcoming conductor who was leading another gay-themed opera, Karel Szymanowski’s “King Roger,” and was impressed by his work . The same is true, by Daniels’ reckoning, for busy dir ector Kevin Newbury and Met stalwart baritone Dwayne Croft, who plays Whitman. The production, with Daniels very much still in place, will travel to Opera Philadelphia in a future season. But the excitement of creation awaits in lovely Santa Fe, surely among the most beautiful operatic venues in the world and a locale with myriad other reasons to be there. The company has many great singers on tap — Joyce di Donato, Lawrence Brownlee, Susan Graham, Michael Fabiano, Lisette Oropesa, and Zachary Nelson, just for starters. But the big responsibility — embodying a gay hero redrawn in new artistic terms — awaits David Daniels. David Shengold (shengold@yahoo. com) writes about opera for many venues.
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| June 26, 2013
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
OPERA
Changes of Pace Gotham Chamber Opera premieres “La hija de Rappaccini”; Philharmonic presents “Il Prigioniero” BY ELI JACOBSON
RICHARD TERMINE
O
n J un e 17, a bea u ti ful early summer evening, Neal Goren and the Gotham Chamber Opera presented the New York professional stage premiere of Daniel Catán’s 1988 Spanish-language adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” — “La hija de Rappaccini.” Gotham continued its tradition of site-specific performances by staging the tale of a deadly garden of delights al fresco in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s Cherry Esplanade. The late Mexican composer (who died suddenly in 2011) was commissioned to do a new work for the company but was too busy to fulfill his contract. Music director Goren had been seduced by the voluptuous, decadent late-Romantic charms of “La Hija de Rappaccini” at a student performance at the Manhattan School of Music. He decided instead to give the world premiere of a reduced chamber orchestration by Catán, and the composer’s widow, Andrea Puente Catán, played the harp in an ensemble
Daniel Montenegro and Elaine Alvarez in the New York premiere of Daniel Catán’s adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter.”
that included two pianos and percussion as well. The opera was staged by Rebecca Taichman on two platforms in front of an arbor of trees with flowering plants in the distance. One platform represented the student Giovanni’s bedroom that overlooks Rappaccini’s garden, where he first sees and becomes obsessed with the
Paws in Chelsea
mysterious Beatriz. The other platform represented the garden dominated by a single flowering tree, which Beatriz describes as “her brother.” Three flower maidens (shades of Wagner’s “Parsifal” and Strauss’ trio of nymphs in “Ariadne auf Naxos”) were dressed in floral couture. Warbling vocal obbligato wafted from one platform to another, enticing
Giovanni to his fate. Catán’s musical language owed a lot to Debussy, Ravel, and Puccini as well as Obradors, Granados, and Monsalvatge. Vocal lines are lyrical and sensuous, and Giovanni’s aria that ended Act I — “Beatriz, puerta del mundo” — elicited an enthusiastic ovation. As Giovanni, Daniel Montenegro’s honeyed tenor provided pleasure all night, and his graceful youthful stage presence and expressive eyes were perfect for the naïve young student drawn into a sinister web. Elaine Alvarez as Beatriz fields a smoky voluptuous soprano perfect for Catán’s musical idiom, but passing intonation problems plagued her and her tone was not always free. Brian Downen’s urgent tenor and stalwart presence suited Professor Baglioni. Baritone Eric Dubin was a sonorous, stoic Dr. Rappaccini, with a solid upper register. Jessica Grigg’s tangy mezzo lent suggestive character to the intrusive landlady Isabela. The singers and musicians were miked
RAPPACCINI, continued on p.44
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| June 26, 2013
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Emergency Medical Care
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Kupcakes with a K
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PARTY PLANNERS 2 To Tango
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REAL ESTATE SERVICES Accurate Building Inspectors
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RECEPTION SITES & CATERERS Alger House
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reBar Brooklyn Gastropub
147 Front St. in Brooklyn, (718) 766–9110. rebarnyc.com This DUMBO gastropub located on the mezzanine of a 19th century tea factory offers seasonal New American fare, 135 beers, an organic wine list, and an extensive scotch selection.
Sheraton Tribeca New York Hotel
370 Canal St. in New York, (212) 966–3400, www.sheratontribeca.com Let the Sheraton Tribeca help you celebrate your same-sex wedding. The sleek, modern hotel works with various New York City wedding venues in the area.
Tio Pepe
168 W. Fourth St. in New York, (212) 242–9338, www.tiopepenyc.com At Tio Pepe you have a choice of atmosphere. The skylight dining room supplies a touch of romance while the enclosed sidewalk cafe provides a room with a view of Greenwich Village.
Top of the Garden
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(212) 627–8838, www.AlgerHouse.com Alger House is a great venue for smaller weddings and corporate events (30 to 106 guests). The very private reception hall has high ceilings, custom lighting, and nearby transportation.
The Vanderbilt at South Beach
Brooklyn Museum
Villa Vosilla
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Circle Line
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Columbia’s Faculty House
64 Morningside Dr. in New York, (212) 854–1200, facultyhouse.columbia.edu A smart and stylish choice for your unique New York City wedding, the prized University landmark has classic, flexible spaces with a surprising, modern twist.
Fort William Henry Resort
48 Canada St. in Lake George, (518) 668–3081, www.fortwilliamhenry.com The gay-friendly hotel is located on 18 acres that span the entire southern shore of Lake George. It assures that your wedding will be one spectacular memory — for you, your wedding party, and guests.
Grand Oaks Country Club
200 Huguenot Ave. in Staten Island, (718) 356–2771, www.grandoaksnyc.com Formerly the South Shore Country Club, this new
300 Father Capodanno Blvd. in Staten Island, (718) 447–0800, www.vanderbiltsouthbeach.com Boasting both a luxurious banquet hall, as well as magnificent outdoor oceanfront space, 6302 Main St. in Tannersville, (518) 589–5060, www.villavosilla.com Villa Vosilla is located in the middle of the Catskill Mountains. The hotel can customize your wedding with a cocktail party and gourmet cuisine prepared by a culinary chef from Italy.
World Yacht
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
OPERA
Palmetto Puccini Rare operas soar at Spoleto USA
B
eautiful, historic Charleston, South Carolina, has hosted the Spoleto Festival USA since 1977. Classical and jazz concerts compete with dance and theater events in all styles, and in recent years two opera productions in different venues have become standard. The festival is rarely conservative in its offerings, but only after seeing both successful evenings did one understand the pairing of recondite works. Musically, they shared only the admirable choral preparation of departing longtime Westminister Choir leader Joseph Flummerfelt, the last link to the festival’s Italian origins under composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The intimate Dock Street Theatre, reconstructed in the 1930s on the site of North America’s earliest operatic theater (1736), housed the American bow of Toshio Hosokawa’s “Matsukaze” — premiered at Brussels’ Theatre Monnaie in 2011 — in Chen Shi-Zheng’s superb staging. Every aspect of the physical production — costumes, video, lighting, and a semi-figurative set — meshed hauntingly to evoke the Noh-based ghost story. John Kennedy led his precise orchestral forces — blending Western and Eastern sonics, with lots of percussion and high flutes — thrillingly. Odd to offer a Japanese opera with Korean and American soloists for an American audience in German, but Hannah Duebgen’s libretto is very evocative and Hosokawa set it with great skill. Gary Simpson fielded a strong baritone but little expressiveness — musical, facial, or textual — as the story’s central figure. Perhaps he was directed to emulate Zen self-absorption, but it read as passivity. What did the
RAPPACCINI, from p.42
but the sound design was clear, free of distortion, and unobtrusive. Goren led his miniature forces with clarity and a surprising richness of instrumental texture. Catán’s perfumed harmonies mixed with the gentle dusk of a mild evening created a different kind of operatic enchantment.
W h e n t h e N e w Yo r k Philharmonic announced that their annual operatic presentation, performed in early
June, would be a 12-tone work, I wasn’t enthusiastic. Luigi Dallapiccola wrote his expressionistic one-act opera “Il Prigioniero” (“The Prisoner”) immediately
Monk learn from his ghostly encounter? If nothing, what’s the story’s point? The first words from Thomas Meglioranza’s Fisher man showed by comparison what was lacking in Simpson’s performance. This acclaimed “new music baritone” is a complete musician and singing actor. The two long-dead sisters, grieving for their joint beloved, drew brilliant and wrenching physical and vocal performances in intricately linked music from Juilliard’s Pureum Jo (a ravishing timbre even at the extreme top) and Jihee Kim (more at home in German). These are names to watch. This outstanding show will be on view at the Lincoln Center Festival July 18-20 at John Jay College’s Gerald W. L ynch Theater (lincolncenterfestival. com).
Ghosts and the memory o f a b a n d o n m e n t linked
T h e B r i s t o l O l d Vi c ’s “ M i d s u m m e r N i g h t ’s D r e a m ,” co-designed and
JULIA LYNN
BY DAVID SHENGOLD
Pureum Jo and Jihee Kim in Toshio Hosokawa’s “Matsukaze” at the Spoleto Festival USA.
“Matsukaze” thematically to the key work of the following day’s double-bill of verismo rarities at the larger-pitted Art Deco Sottile Theatre at the College of Charleston — Puccini’s first produced opera, “Le Villi.” Its last major American hearing was a 2006 Carnegie concert starring Aprile Millo. Stefano Vizioli’s smart direction styled the Black Forest as a 1950s flower -wallpapered hall, which became a white, padded-celled madhouse when the vengeful Willis appeared, giving their frenzied all to Pierluigi Vanelli’s exciting choreography. Jennifer Rowley’s huge, elemental soprano pr oved impr essive. Levi Hernandez sang with gorgeous line and focus. Dinyar Vania fared acceptably, but less elegantly, in Rodolfo’s strenuous duties. The curtain raiser was Giordano’s 1910 “bozzetto lirico” (“lyric sketch”), just over 30 minutes. While well
orchestrated, it’s only fitfully of melodic interest. The dramatic arc — jolly nuns are visited by a woman seeking to see her child who, in their care, has just died, though the nuns don’t tell her that — is curious and unsatisfying: “Suor Angelica” without the revelation, suicide, or miracle! Vizioli’s 1950s milieu (basketball hoop, sunglasses) for a clearly 19th century story here did not aid credibility. Rowley was exceptionally strong dramatically and vocally as the unhappy mother, and Ann McMahon Quintero showed an excellent, even mezzo. Veteran dramatic soprano Linda Roark-Strummer affirmed her professionalism as the Mother S u p e r i o r. M a u r i z i o B a r b a c i n i ’ s conducting lent both works sound pacing and aptly blended orchestral color. A worthwhile excursion.
after World War II. Set during the 16th century Eighty Years’ War, its exploration of the psychological effects of imprisonment is timeless. The libretto, by the composer, tells the story of a tortured prisoner whose cell door is left open by a seemingly sympathetic jailer, who convinced him the Flemish rebels are winning. The prisoner wanders through an underground passage dreaming of liberty but at the last moment is met by the Inquisitor (sung by the same singer as the jailer), who condemns him to be burnt at the stake. The final and cruelest torture is false hope. Dallapiccola originally wrote the 50-minute opera for the Italian radio, and it works very well in a concert context.
Dallapiccola’s compositional technique may be Austrian in origin but his vocal writing and dramatic sensibility are thoroughly Italian. The vocal writing is declamatory but sits well on the voice, projects the text expressively, and is integrated into the orchestral texture. I heard a bracing mixture of Prokofiev, Berg, Debussy, and Italian verismo in this score. The serialist and 12-tone techniques are employed for lyrical atmospheric effects. The orchestral colors range widely over the spectrum from bleak fragmented chords and darkly thundering tuttis to offstage religious chorales in Latin that are both ethereal and oppressive. Alan Gilbert elicited a brilliant palette of orchestral timbres over a huge dynamic spectrum, though
executed with the Handspring Puppet Company that did the miraculous, redeeming visuals for the terriblyscripted “War Horse,” promised much yet disappointed, save for a very few seconds of the kind of imagery that gets festivals to book touring productions. Tom Morris’ direction gave textual clarity — and plot comprehensibility and character delineation beyond shtick — very low priority. The young lovers, in particular, often spoke indistinctly, without commanding the verse. The rude mechanicals — doubling as visually striking but repetitive-gestured fairies — went over the top so early that their “Pyramus and Thisbe,” distended despite considerable cuts and just not funny, formed no climax. The only successful touch was having the otherwise overbroad, attitudinizing Nick Bottom suddenly declaim Pyramus’ death speech with real conviction, catching the onstage and offstage audience up short. But when the approximate Flute/ Thisbe attempted the same gambit, the magic dried up. By far the strongest, best-spoken performance came from Saskia Portway, a sexy and commanding Hippolyta/ Titania. Much more fun: at the event-rich Fringe Festival — dubbed “Piccolo Spoleto” — a wonderfully resourceful trio of gifted actors (Greg Tavares, Timmy Finch, and Steven Shields) had a field day with “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” at the established improv troupe Theater 99 . David Shengold (shengold@yahoo.com) writes about opera for many venues.
he occasionally neglected to tamp down the volume so the singers could be heard. The Philharmonic played with total dramatic commitment. Soprano Patricia Racette brought anguished intensity to the Mother’s nightmare monologue. Gerald Finley, always a committed artist, sang the title character with dramatic authority and many vocal colors. Tenor Peter Hoare sang the Jailer/ Inquisitor with an initially dulcet tone that turned poisonous in the last scene. Dallapiccola’s opera was preceded by violinist Lisa Batiashvili in an astonishing reading of Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No. 1 in D.” Batiashvili brought a wide range of colors from her instrument as if it were an orchestra within an orchestra.
| June 26, 2013
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
THEATER
Show Your Pride Theater you should see — or try to see — during this year’s Pride Weekend BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
Ruthie Ann Miles in David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s “Here Lies Love.”
Jonny Orsini and Nathan Lane in Douglas Carter Beane’s “The Nance.”
date as Chauncey Miles in the title role. The Nance is a flamboyantly gay stock character popular in vaudeville, but Chauncey is gay offstage as well — and that brings complications in New York in 1937. Douglas Carter Be ane ’s s c ript is at t ime s wildly comic and heartbreaking, and Lane’s exceptional work is complemented by a strong cast, especially Jonny Orsini as Chauncey’s love interest. Availability: Spotty. Regular ticket prices are $37-$132, and there are online discounts available through Broadwayoffers.com and regularly, as well, at the TKTS booth.
HERE LIES LOVE
NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812
Kazino W. 13th St. at Washington St. This show is a chunk of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” turned into a pop opera by the brilliant composer Dave Malloy. Unfolding around you as you have dinner in a Meatpacking District tent/ supper club dubbed Kazino, the clarity of storytelling and extraordinary
KINKY BOOTS MATTHEW MURPHY
Public Theater 425 Lafayette St., btwn. E. Fourth St. & Astor Pl. David Byrne and Fatboy Slim have written an incredible musical about the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos. Yes, it’s a little bit “Evita-Goes-tothe-Philipines,” but the vibrant score, mosh pit staging — you stand for the full 90 minutes — and electric performances by a consistently superlative cast make this a completely thrilling experience. Availability: Spotty. It’s general admission ($95.50 at publictheater. org), with the exception of a handful of seats above the action that h a v e p a r t i a l v i e w . Yo u ’ l l h a v e t o check bags, even purses, and wear comfortable shoes.
JOAN MARCUS
JOAN MARCUS
Y
ou’re in New York to celebrate Pride — or you have friends visiting for Pride — and you want to see a show. Obviously, I support that. But if you haven’t planned ahead, getting tickets can be a challenge, particularly for the most popular shows. We couldn’t find tickets for “Matilda” available at any price over Pride Weekend, even going through ticket brokers. On the other hand, this is the first year since “The Book of Mormon” opened that it had availability during the same period — though you’ll pay about $750 for a pair in the orchestra. “Wicked” is also available, though the best seats there will run you just over $400 a pair. Still, considering that partial view tickets will set you back $300, the premium route might be the way to go. You’ll find spotty tickets for “Once,” but mostly at the premium prices as well. So, what can you get tickets to? Here are the shows I’m currently sending my friends to see. Availability is based on performances from June 26 through July 2, and bear in mind the playing field can change .
Tony-winner Billy Porter in Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper’s “Kinky Boots.”
singing swirl you into the story and the world of the early 19th century. And the dinner’s not bad, either. Availability: Excellent. The $125 ($175 premium) ticket includes a meal and a shot of vodka. Ovationtix. com. Full bar available.
RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN’S CINDERELLA
Broadway Theater 1681 Broadway at 53rd St. If you’ve got kids or you’re feeling a little kid-like yourself, this is the one to see. Douglas Carter Beane has updated the book, but the music is as lush and romantic as you may remember — if you’re
one of those people who grew up cheri shing Lesl ie Ann Warr en in the TV version. The knockout cast includes Victoria Clark, Laura Osnes, Santino Fontana, Harriet Harris, and Ann Harada. This is a big, sparkly Broadway musical that’s completely irresistible. Availability: Limited. Regular ticket prices are $45-$137, and there are online discounts available through Broadwayoffers.com. It’s also regularly been up at the TKTS booth.
THE NANCE
Lyceum Theatre 149 W. 45th St. Nathan Lane gives one of his most beautifully nuanced performances to
Al Hirschfeld Theatre 302 W. 45th St. This bold and brassy Tony-winning best musical has a fantastic score by Cyndi Lauper, a clever, if slightly predictable, book by Harvey Fierstein, and the best costumes on Broadway right now from Gregg Barnes. The story of a country shoe factory saved by making high heels for drag queens may seem far fetched, but it’s a lovely, human story that will leave you walking on air (heels or not). Sensational performances by Tony-winner Billy Porter and Stark Sands in the leading roles as well as a fantastic ensemble of drag queens make this the completely irresistible fun. Availability: Very limited. Regular ticket prices are $57-137. However, we found only a few extreme side orchestra seats at the higher price. What center orchestra seats that
SHOW YOUR PRIDE, continued on p.58
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| June 26, 2013
THEATER
Destiny’s Child
ERIN BAIANO
Timely drama about young boy obsessed with Cinderella offers no easy answers
Carla Gugino and Caroline Aaron in “A Kid Like Jake,” at Lincoln Center through July 14.
BY DAVID KENNERLEY
G
ender identity in childr en is a hot-button topic these days. J u s t l a s t y e a r, t h e American Psychiatric Association finally r emoved gender identity disorder from its list of mental illnesses (with emotional
A KID LIKE JAKE LCT3 Claire Tow Theater 150 W. 65th St. Through Jul. 14 Mon.,Wed.-Sun. at 7 p.m.; Sat., Sun. at 2 p.m. $20 at telecharge.com
distress caused by gender identity ambiguities now ter med “gender dysphoria”). More and more, news reports are cropping up about gender -variant children and the prickly challenges they pose to parents and schools — from choosing the proper clothing, name, and pronoun, to figuring out which bathroom they will be able to use. One of the rare dramas to take on this ripped-from-the-headlines
issue, “A Kid Like Jake,” is a sensitive, daring ef fort by Daniel Pearle that explores obsessive, well-meaning par ents navigating this minefield. The piece centers on a young married couple, Alex and Greg, in the throes of navigating a different minefield — the utterly absurd process of applying to elite private schools in New York City for their four -year old son, Jake. Their insistently gifted son increasingly prefers to dress up as Cinderella instead of GI Joe. Alex, by the way, is a woman, and I suspect Pearle purposefully chose the gender -neutral name as a n o d to the p otenti al fl ui d i ty of gender. In one sense, the play is not about Jake at all, but the reaction — and overreaction — by the people in his life. Alex pr efers to downplay Jake’s opposite-gender behavior, thinking it might just be a phase. Judy, the wise, middleaged advisor at his preschool who is ushering them through the application process, feels it’s best to be upfront about Jake’s “special” inclinations. Gr eg, who
JAKE, continued on p.67
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
DANCE
A Creative Crowd-Sourcing Marathon User-generated content performance installation from Yanira Castro and crew BY BRIAN McCORMICK
Y
YANIRA CASTRO/ A CANARY TORSI “The People To Come” The Invisible Dog Art Center 51 Bergen St., btwn. Smith & Court Sts. Brooklyn Jun 25—29, 6-10 p.m. $10; information at 347-560-3641 thepeopletocome.org
Her latest project, “The People to Come,” is a participatory performance installation. This multilayered project encompasses an interactive website, a physical archive at the Invisible Dog Art Center, and a live performance where dancers and musicians create new work in front of the audience. Yanira Castro’s first collaboration with Invisible Dog was in 2010 with
NAT MAY
anira Castro’s dancemaking enterprise, a canary torsi, creates siteadaptable, installationbased performance projects. Her work invites audiences to participate in live performances that extend into other media platforms. Ranging from formal movement and immersive audio installations to fictional Twitter feeds and interactive websites, Castro’s dances explore the relationship between spectator and event, providing opportunities for the audience to dramatically impact the performance.
Blue Man Group’s Peter Musante.
her sensually interactive “Wilderness.” Invisible Dog, which opened in 2009, was a relatively new venue, and this partner -presentation with Dance Theater Workshop was its first performance production that lasted longer than one night — two weeks to be exact. “It was a big moment for them,” said Castro. “It was a big moment for us.” It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Last summer, Castro was invited to perform at a special Invisible Dog event. The solo she performed was “never meant to be seen live. It exists in the
archive on video.” Those involved loved it so much it became the scaffolding for the new work, which is “a piece about process.” In addition to working with ballettrained Simon Courchel from Invisible Dog and longtime dancer-collaborators Luke Miller, Darrin Wright, and Peter Schmitz, whom she describes as “having so much history in his body,” Castro sought out someone who was “not like us but who wouldn’t be afraid to be physical.” Enter Blue Man Group performer Peter Musante. “He has no dance background,” Castro said, but clearly no fear of
physicality. The performers learned the solo “only as a skeleton to be used in the process,” explained Castro. “The original solo was 19 minutes, so everything is structured on that time signature.” Ten solos in all are conducted over the space of the four-hour performance. “The environment for the piece is very open,” the choreographer said. “Without giving too much away, there are two stages and various ways you can position yourself.” The space includes benches and cushions, but not enough for everyone. There will be a lot going on. “It begins quietly,” Castro described, “with someone gathering material from the archive and someone rehearsing. As an audience member, there are lots of options — interacting with a dancer in the archive, watching the rehearsal area, the performance area, seeing both at the same time, following one performer, or trying to sit far back and take it all in.” The archive will be open from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. the day of each performance, which allows audience members to work with the archivist in creating and sharing images, videos, and text that will be interpretively integrated into the performances. Student groups are also coming in to contribute to the process, and material can be submitted online at thepeopletocome.org.
YANIRA CASTRO, continued on p.62
Hoofing Whiz-Bang Savion Glover having a damned good time at the Joyce BY GUS SOLOMONS JR.
L
ast year, tap dancer Savion Glover received a Bessie Award — the dance and performance equivalent of a Tony or an Oscar — for music composition. He defines himself as a hoofer, and his preoccupation is with the sounds he’s making. That’s how devoted he is to the acoustic aspect of his tapping. In the past, in fact, he’d often turn his back on the audience and face his musicians, as if he were just another member of the band. In his new show “STePz,” at the Joyce thr ough July 6, he’s mor e presentational. He and his terrific crew are clearly performing for us. Occasionally, Glover even breaks into
SAVION GLOVER “STePz” Joyce Theater 175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St. Through Jul. 6 Tue.-Wed., Sun. at 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat. at 8 p.m. Sat., Sun. at 2 p.m. (no show on Jul. 4) $10-$59; joyce.org Or 212-242-0800
a full grin, because he’s having such a good time. It’s hard to believe he’s been at it for three decades; he still looks like a skinny teenager. Glover clearly has nerve connections
in his feet that normal mortals must not have. In one solo, he stands in a twofoot square of light at one corner of the amplified platform they dance on. He’s virtually motionless, but you gradually become aware of a soft ratchet-like sound, like a snare drum, that slowly increases in volume. You realize that it’s his right toe tapping the floor at unbelievable speed. For minutes, the toe tremble continues, as his body makes slight balance shifts. It’s a tap step that others do, but Glover takes it to extremes of endurance and control that turn it into a summer rainfall, a rumbling, far-off locomotive — not just a show of skill but poetic metaphor. The show has all the entertainment elements of a good old-fashioned tap
dance recital but also the artistry that Glover uniquely brings to the form. For instance, he and guest artist Marshall Davis, Jr. skitter up and down in perfect unison on two three-stair pyramids at opposite sides of the stage. They’re connected by the beat of Lalo Schifrin’s unforgettable “Mission Impossible” theme song. It’s a stunt that Bill “Bojangles” Robinson immortalized in the movies and lots of vaudeville tappers adopted. Glover gives it new life. In the opening number, Glover, Marshall, and “3 Controversial Women” (Ayodele Casel, Sarah Savelli, and Robyn Watson) tap long phrases in perfect unison to John Coltrane’s “Miles Mode.”
SAVION GLOVER, continued on p.62
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| June 26, 2013
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New York University gratefully acknowledges the many LGBT scholars, students, and administrators whose leadership has helped define our community’s proudest achievements. Edith Windsor, an NYU Courant Institute alumna, received NYU’s Presidential Medal this year for her role in bringing a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act before the Supreme Court.
Doctoral student Michael J. McCutcheon won the NYU Steinhardt Graduate Student Organization’s 6th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratorical Event for his speech “Speak Out, Speak Up!” on joining the fight for equal rights.
David Boies, one of the chief litigators challenging Proposition 8 before the Supreme Court, was asked to deliver NYU’s 2013 commencement address. Boies is also an NYU Law alumnus.
NYU Stern’s Out Class, one of the nation’s largest top-tier MBA LGBT student groups, is celebrating its 20th year of operation.
Pride in Practice, a student group at the NYU Silver School of Social Work, was one of four winners of the school’s first Social Justice and Diversity Grant Challenge.
NYULGBTQ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Student Center Our LGBTQ Student Center is a nationally lauded, award-winning organization committed to creating a welcoming environment for individuals to develop their understanding of LGBTQ issues, gender, sexuality, and intersectional identities.
Pray the Gay Away by Bernadette Barton (Morehead State University), was a finalist for the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Studies. It was published by NYU Press, part of their rich catalogue of academic works exploring LGBT issues.
Through their academic and and civic engagement, these individuals and organizations, along with countless other LGBT community members and allies, continue to advocate for equality in New York City and beyond.
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
FAMILY PRIDE All eggs are not the same.
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
FILM
The Hostage Back Home Pirates wreak havoc on the sterile confines of a Danish boardroom BY STEVE ERICKSON
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A HIJACKING Directed by Tobias Lindholm Magnolia Pictures In Danish with English subtitles Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. filmforum.org
While heading for harbor, the cargo ship MV Rozen is attacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. Chef Mikkel (Pilou Asbæk) and engineer Jan (Roland Møller) are taken hostage, along with the rest of the crew. The Somalis want an outrageous amount of money. Speaking through a translator/ spokesman whose exact relationship to the pirate crew remains a bit mysterious, they negotiate with Peter (Søren Malling), the shipping company CEO. At first, the Somalis ask for 15
MAGNOLIA PICTURES
anish director T obias Lindholm’s “A Hijacking” is a thriller that breaks most of the genre’s rules. There’s lots of talk and almost no action. Only one act of violence takes place and it happens offscreen. The film starts off with one character, a chef onboard a ship off the coast of India, but proves to be more interested in the CEO of the company that owns that ship, a seemingly blander figure. In fact, its first ten minutes seem intended for CNBC junkies. But like Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight,” “A Hijacking” comes to show the power of talk. Roland Møller and Pilou Asbæk in Tobias Lindholm’s “A Hijacking.”
million dollars, while Peter is only willing to offer $250,000. Threats of violence to the crew hang in the air, but boredom and running out of food — the crew turn to fishing and killing goats — seem like bigger threats as the days mount and no deal is reached. The scenes onboard the ship are captured with a minimum of visual f u s s . L i nd hol m seem i ngl y w ants t o s h o w t h e s q u a l o r o f l i f e sans adequate sanitation without dwelling on scatology. A handheld camera contributes to an air of naturalism. Back at home in Denmark, the film’s style could better be described as corporate realism. White is the do m i nant col or, em a nati ng fr om artificial lighting — the CEO seems to
get as little sunshine as the hostages on whose behalf he’s negotiating — and the paint on the walls. In their own way, the corporate headquarters look remarkably glum and airless. Cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Jønck comes up with a remarkable array of the same ashen tones as Peter’s hair. Asbæk and Malling acted alongside each other in the Danish TV series “Borgen,” for which Lindholm worked as a writer, but they have no screen time together here. In fact, “A Hijacking” works at keeping the worlds of Denmark and the Indian Ocean rigorously separate. They’re connected only by phone and fax, and even those communications are
fraught with tension and confusion. Somali translator Omar usually takes over the phone calls, preventing direct communication between Peter and Mikkel. Without doing so overtly, “A Hijacking” has plenty to say about the risks our overreliance on electronic communication carry. The Somalis are presented as a group of scary men with guns, but I’m sure that’s exactly how they’d seem to Jan and Mikkel. Once or twice, their humane side shines through, as they allow the Danes moments of pleasure. But they’re also shown to be capable of startling violence. If you’re looking for a sociological dissertation on the roots of Somali piracy in poverty and a failed state, this isn’t the film for you. It’s honest about being far more interested in its Danish characters. “A Hijacking” is remarkable as much for what it avoids doing as for what it accomplishes. The pirates’ storming of the Rozen is never shown. More time is given to Peter than Mikkel. The film doesn’t exactly present the CEO as an action hero, but it shows him growing progressively more obsessed and strained over the hostage crisis. The relatively austere nature of “A Hijacking” contributes to its convincing quality — and I suspect it’s easier to fake the tension onboard a ship under siege than that of a boardroom. The film’s final scene implies that Peter is as much a prisoner as Mikkel. Lindholm’s commitment to realism extends to casting real hijackingnegotiation expert Gary Skjoldmose Porter as Connor, who aids Peter. “A Hijacking” may be a relatively low-key film, but it slowly overwhelms you.
A Stranger in Bed Tragedy unmasks the alienation of an Israeli-born Palestinian surgeon
I
BY STEVE ERICKSON
sraeli filmmakers have not hesitated to explore their country’s misadventures in Lebanon, Ari Folman’s animated semi-documentary “Waltz With Bashir” being the most distinguished example. Arab filmmakers generally haven’t had the same freedom to explore what Israel means for their people. Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri has smashed a major taboo by filming the first half of “The Attack” in Tel Aviv.
THE ATTACK Directed by Ziad Doueiri Cohen Media Group In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles Angelika Film Center 18 W. Houston St. at Mercer St. angelikafilmcenter.com City Cinemas 1, 2, 3 1001 Third Ave. at 59th St. moviefone.com
(The second half takes place in the West Bank.) In fact, he actually broke
a 1955 law banning cooperation with Israel and the film has been banned in Lebanon. Prosecution is unlikely, but Doueiri has endured harsh criticism from Hezbollah and even conservative elements in the Lebanese film industry, who blocked the film from being that nation’s contender for the Academy Awards on the grounds that it’s “too Israeli.” “The Attack” is concer ned with relations between Arabs and Israeli Jews. In that, there’s nothing new about it. It’s also about the differences between Arabs from Tel Aviv and
Arabs from the West Bank, and it depicts relations between them as only a bit less tortured than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After all the sectarian strife in Iraq and Syria, perhaps Westerners are finally realizing that the Arab world is not a monolith. “The Attack” is one of the few films t hat driv e t his po int ho me . This achievement may stem from the fact that its director is an outsider to both Israel and Palestine, which gives him a
THE ATTACK, continued on p.53
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THE ATTACK, from p.52
dash of critical distance. Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman) is an Israeli-born Palestinian surgeon. At the start of “The Attack,” he receives a prize for his excellent work. Called to speak, he notes he’s the first Arab ever to get such an honor and jokes that there’s something Jewish about every Arab and Arab in every Jew. The ugliness that his job sometimes forces him to confront is brought to the surface when a suicide bombing in a restaurant leaves 19 people dead. To make matters worse, the bomber appears to be his wife, who had no overt history of extremism. Arrested, he’s treated horribly by Israeli cops, while he refuses to believe his wife could be guilty. Freed after a few days, he travels to the West Bank to visit relatives and a mysterious sheik who apparently inspired her radicalization. In terms of style, Michael Mann’s “The Insider” is the film “The Attack” most reminds me of. Doueiri shares Mann’s tendency to fill the widescreen frame with giant close-ups of heads. Paradoxically, Doueiri often uses the Cinemascope frame to simply show two people talking, yet the size of the frame lends these images an epic grandeur. The film’s lighting is often rather dim. The look of the film’s two
COHEN MEDIA GROUP
Ali Suliman in Ziad Doueiri’s “The Attack.”
halves is distinct. Tel Aviv resembles a modern Western city, complete with billboards for “The Voice.” Nablus looks like a dingy slum, and Doueiri’s depiction of it hews closer to neorealism. “The Attack” was adapted from a 2005 novel by Algerian author Yasmina Khadra. Of ficially, it’s a Lebanese-Fr ench-Qatari-Belgian production. Cross-national
productions like this can often lead to watered-down sensibilities, but Doueiri has a sharp eye for subtle prejudice and everyday life as a minority. On the sur face, Amin’s life is a success story. He has plenty of Jewish friends. However, on the operating table, a man who appears to be in danger of bleeding to death refuses his help, obviously because Amin’s an Arab. In jail, it doesn’t take
long for the Israeli cops’ suspicions to come out. “The Attack” shows the flaws of the “model minority” concept. Without stating it explicitly, it suggests Amin has to be a brilliant surgeon in order to have a comfortable life at all. If thing had gone differently, he could have been living on the West Bank and plotting violence. Obviously, suicide bombing isn’t a problem in the US, but it would be easy to transpose the basic story here and make Amin a successful African-American with a relative who commits a horrible crime, bringing out the same prejudices (if not the same nationalist yearnings.) I haven’t read Khadra’s novel, but the film’s narrative reminds me of J.G. Ballard’s “Cocaine Nights,” in which a man investigates a seemingly inexplicable crime committed by his brother. In his last few novels, Ballard used the tropes of the mystery genre to create hyper -capitalist dystopias. The dystopia “The Attack” takes us to is genuine, and Doueiri isn’t inventing anything when he shows Palestinians raging against the occupation of their land and arguing it justifies violence. Perhaps the film’s greatest strength is that it manages to integrate a love story, played out in flashbacks, with real politics. In the end, it suggests that intimacy may be more elusive than a Middle East peace plan.
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
The
one
for me
Patient model. Pill shown is not actual size.
What is COMPLERA? COMPLERA is a prescription HIV medicine that is used as a complete regimen to treat HIV-1 in adults who have never taken HIV medicines before and who have an amount of HIV in their blood (this is called “viral load”) that is no more than 100,000 copies/mL. COMPLERA contains 3 medicines – rilpivirine, emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. It is not known if COMPLERA is safe and effective in children under the age of 18 years. ®
COMPLERA® does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses you must keep taking COMPLERA. Avoid doing things that can spread 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, do not share personal items that may contain bodily fluids. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information you should know about COMPLERA? COMPLERA® can cause serious side effects: • Build-up 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 (not normal) 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 (hepatomegaly) and fatty (steatosis). Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice), dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored bowel movements (stools), loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach pain. • You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking COMPLERA 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. • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you also have HBV and stop taking COMPLERA, your hepatitis may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking COMPLERA without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health. COMPLERA is not approved for the treatment of HBV.
Ad page 1
Who should not take COMPLERA? Do not take COMPLERA if you have ever taken other anti-HIV medicines. COMPLERA may change the effect of other medicines and may cause serious side effects. Your healthcare provider may change your other medicines or change their doses. Do not take COMPLERA if you also take these medicines: • anti-seizure medicines: carbamazepine (Carbatrol, Equetro, Tegretol, Tegretol-XR, Teril, Epitol); oxcarbazepine (Trileptal), phenobarbital (Luminal), phenytoin (Dilantin, Dilantin-125, Phenytek) • anti-tuberculosis medicines: rifabutin (Mycobutin), rifampin (Rifater, Rifamate, Rimactane, Rifadin) and rifapentine (Priftin) • proton pump inhibitors for stomach or intestinal problems: esomeprazole (Nexium, Vimovo), lansoprazole (Prevacid), dexlansoprazole (Dexilant), omeprazole (Prilosec), pantoprazole sodium (Protonix), rabeprazole (Aciphex) • more than 1 dose of the steroid medicine dexamethasone or dexamethasone sodium phosphate • St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) If you are taking COMPLERA you should not take other HIV medicines or other medicines containing tenofovir (Viread, Truvada, Stribild or Atripla); other medicines containing emtricitabine or lamivudine (Emtriva, Combivir, Epivir, Epivir-HBV, Epzicom, Trizivir, Atripla, Stribild or Truvada); rilpivirine (Edurant) or adefovir (Hepsera). In addition, tell your healthcare provider if you are taking the following medications because they may interfere with how COMPLERA works and may cause side effects: • certain antacid medicines containing aluminum, magnesium hydroxide, or calcium carbonate (examples: Rolaids, TUMS). These medicines must be taken at least 2 hours before or 4 hours after COMPLERA. • medicines to block stomach acid including cimetidine (Tagamet), famotidine (Pepcid), nizatidine (Axid), or ranitidine HCL (Zantac). These medicines must be taken at least 12 hours before or 4 hours after COMPLERA. • any of these medicines: clarithromycin (Biaxin); erythromycin (E-Mycin, Eryc, Ery-Tab, PCE, Pediazole, Ilosone), fluconazole (Diflucan), itraconazole (Sporanox), ketoconazole (Nizoral) methadone (Dolophine); posaconazole (Noxifil), telithromycin (Ketek) or voriconazole (Vfend). • medicines that are eliminated by the kidneys like acyclovir (Zovirax), cidofovir (Vistide), ganciclovir (Cytovene IV, Vitrasert), valacyclovir (Valtrex) and valganciclovir (Valcyte).
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COMPLERA.
A complete HIV treatment in only 1 pill a day. COMPLERA is for adults who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before and have no more than 100,000 copies/mL of virus in their blood.
Ask your healthcare provider if it’s the one for you.
These are not all the medicines that may cause problems if you take COMPLERA. Tell your healthcare provider about all prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, or herbal supplements you are taking or plan to take.
The most common side effects reported with COMPLERA are trouble sleeping (insomnia), abnormal dreams, headache, dizziness, diarrhea, nausea, rash, tiredness, and depression. Some side effects also reported include vomiting, stomach pain or discomfort, skin discoloration (small spots or freckles) and pain.
Before taking COMPLERA, tell your healthcare provider if you: liver problems, including hepatitis B or C virus infection, or have abnormal liver tests • Have kidney problems • Have ever had a mental health problem • Have bone problems • Are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. It is not known if COMPLERA can harm your unborn child • Are breastfeeding: Women with HIV should not breastfeed because they can pass HIV through their milk to the baby. Also, COMPLERA may pass through breast milk and could cause harm to the baby
This is not a complete list of side effects. Tell your healthcare provider or pharmacist if you notice any side effects while taking COMPLERA, and call your healthcare provider for medical advice about side effects.
• Have
COMPLERA can cause additional serious side effects: • New or worsening kidney problems, including kidney failure. If you have had kidney problems, or take other medicines that may cause kidney problems, your healthcare provider may need to do regular blood tests. • Depression or mood changes. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms: feeling sad or hopeless, feeling anxious or restless, have thoughts of hurting yourself (suicide) or have tried to hurt yourself. • Changes in liver enzymes: People who have had hepatitis B or C, or who have had changes in their liver function tests in the past may have an increased risk for liver problems while taking COMPLERA. Some people without prior liver disease may also be at risk. Your healthcare provider may need to check your liver enzymes before and during treatment with COMPLERA. • Bone problems can happen in some people who take COMPLERA. Bone problems include bone pain, softening or thinning (which may lead to fractures). Your healthcare provider may need to do additional tests to check your bones. • Changes in body fat can happen in people taking HIV medicine. • Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time. Tell your healthcare provider if you start having new symptoms after starting COMPLERA.
Ad page 2
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit http://www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088. Additional Information about taking COMPLERA:
• Always take COMPLERA exactly as your healthcare provider tells you to take it. • Take COMPLERA with a meal. Taking COMPLERA with a meal is important to help
get the right amount of medicine in your body. (A protein drink does not replace a meal).
Stay under the care of your healthcare provider during treatment with COMPLERA and see your healthcare provider regularly. Please see Brief Summary of full Prescribing Information with important warnings on the following pages.
Learn more at www.COMPLERA.com
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Brief Summary of full Prescribing Information
•
COMPLERA® (kom-PLEH-rah) (emtricitabine, rilpivirine, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) tablets Brief summary of full Prescribing Information. For more information, please see the full Prescribing Information including Patient Information. What is COMPLERA? •
COMPLERA is a prescription HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) medicine that is used to treat HIV-1 in adults – who have never taken HIV medicines before, and – who have an amount of HIV in their blood (this is called ‘viral load’) that is no more than 100,000 copies/mL. Your healthcare provider will measure your viral load.
(HIV is the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome)). •
COMPLERA contains 3 medicines – rilpivirine, emtricitabine, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate – combined in one tablet. It is a complete regimen to treat HIV-1 infection and should not be used with other HIV medicines.
•
It is not known if COMPLERA is safe and effective in children under the age of 18 years old.
•
COMPLERA does not cure HIV infection or AIDS. You must stay on continuous therapy to control HIV infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses.
•
Ask your healthcare provider if you have any questions about how to prevent passing HIV to other people. Do not share or re-use needles or other injection equipment, and do not share personal items that can have blood or body fluids on them, like toothbrushes and razor blades. Always practice safer sex by using a latex or polyurethane condom to lower the chance of sexual contact with semen, vaginal fluids or blood.
Who should not take COMPLERA? Do not take COMPLERA if: • your HIV infection has been previously treated with HIV medicines. •
you are taking any of the following medicines: – anti-seizure medicines: carbamazepine (Carbatrol, Equetro, Tegretol, Tegretol-XR, Teril, Epitol); oxcarbazepine (Trileptal); phenobarbital (Luminal); phenytoin (Dilantin, Dilantin-125, Phenytek) – anti-tuberculosis (anti-TB) medicines: rifabutin (Mycobutin); rifampin (Rifater, Rifamate, Rimactane, Rifadin); rifapentine (Priftin) – proton pump inhibitor (PPI) medicine for certain stomach or intestinal problems: esomeprazole (Nexium, Vimovo); lansoprazole (Prevacid); dexlansoprazole (Dexilant); omeprazole (Prilosec, Zegerid); pantoprazole sodium (Protonix); rabeprazole (Aciphex) – more than 1 dose of the steroid medicine dexamethasone or dexamethasone sodium phosphate – St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum)
•
If you take COMPLERA, you should not take: – Other medicines that contain tenofovir (Atripla, Stribild, Truvada, Viread)
What is the most important information I should know about COMPLERA? COMPLERA can cause serious side effects, including: • Build-up of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis). Lactic acidosis can happen in some people who take COMPLERA or similar (nucleoside analogs) medicines. Lactic acidosis is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Lactic acidosis can be hard to identify early, because the symptoms could seem like symptoms of other health problems. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms which could be signs of lactic acidosis: – feel very weak or tired – have unusual (not normal) muscle pain – have trouble breathing – have stomach pain with nausea (feeling sick to your stomach) or vomiting – feel cold, especially in your arms and legs
– Other medicines that contain emtricitabine or lamivudine (Combivir, Emtriva, Epivir or Epivir-HBV, Epzicom, Trizivir, Atripla, Truvada, Stribild) – rilpivirine (Edurant) – adefovir (Hepsera) What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking COMPLERA? Before you take COMPLERA, tell your healthcare provider if you: • have or had liver problems, including hepatitis B or C virus infection, kidney problems, mental health problem or bone problems •
– feel dizzy or lightheaded Severe liver problems. Severe liver problems can happen in people who take COMPLERA. In some cases, these liver problems can lead to death. Your liver may become large (hepatomegaly) and you may develop fat in your liver (steatosis). Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms of liver problems:
•
– your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice) – dark “tea-colored” urine – light-colored bowel movements (stools)
are breast-feeding or plan to breast-feed. You should not breastfeed if you have HIV because of the risk of passing HIV to your baby. Do not breastfeed if you are taking COMPLERA. At least two of the medicines contained in COMPLERA can be passed to your baby in your breast milk. We do not know whether this could harm your baby. Talk to your healthcare provider about the best way to feed your baby.
– loss of appetite for several days or longer
Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.
– nausea
•
– stomach pain •
are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if COMPLERA can harm your unborn child. Pregnancy Registry. There is a pregnancy registry for women who take antiviral medicines during pregnancy. The purpose of this registry is to collect information about the health of you and your baby. Talk to your healthcare provider about how you can take part in this registry.
– have a fast or irregular heartbeat •
Worsening of Hepatitis B infection. If you have hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and take COMPLERA, your HBV may get worse (flare-up) if you stop taking COMPLERA. A “flare-up” is when your HBV infection suddenly returns in a worse way than before. COMPLERA is not approved for the treatment of HBV, so you must discuss your HBV with your healthcare provider. – Do not let your COMPLERA run out. Refill your prescription or talk to your healthcare provider before your COMPLERA is all gone. – Do not stop taking COMPLERA without first talking to your healthcare provider. – If you stop taking COMPLERA, your healthcare provider will need to check your health often and do blood tests regularly to check your HBV infection. Tell your healthcare provider about any new or unusual symptoms you may have after you stop taking COMPLERA.
You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking COMPLERA for a long time.
BS page 1
COMPLERA may affect the way other medicines work, and other medicines may affect how COMPLERA works, and may cause serious side effects. If you take certain medicines with COMPLERA, the amount of COMPLERA in your body may be too low and it may not work to help control your HIV infection. The HIV virus in your body may become resistant to COMPLERA or other HIV medicines that are like it.
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| June 26, 2013
Especially tell your healthcare provider if you take: • an antacid medicine that contains aluminum, magnesium hydroxide, or calcium carbonate. If you take an antacid during treatment with COMPLERA, take the antacid at least 2 hours before or at least 4 hours after you take COMPLERA. •
•
a medicine to block the acid in your stomach, including cimetidine (Tagamet), famotidine (Pepcid), nizatidine (Axid), or ranitidine hydrochloride (Zantac). If you take one of these medicines during treatment with COMPLERA, take the acid blocker at least 12 hours before or at least 4 hours after you take COMPLERA. any of these medicines (if taken by mouth or injection): – clarithromycin (Biaxin) – erythromycin (E-Mycin, Eryc, Ery-Tab, PCE, Pediazole, Ilosone) – fluconazole (Diflucan)
•
trouble sleeping (insomnia)
•
abnormal dreams
•
headache
•
dizziness
•
diarrhea
•
nausea
•
rash
•
tiredness
•
depression
Additional common side effects include: •
– itraconazole (Sporanox)
vomiting
•
– ketoconazole (Nizoral)
stomach pain or discomfort
•
– methadone (Dolophine)
skin discoloration (small spots or freckles)
•
pain
– posaconazole (Noxafil)
Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.
– telithromycin (Ketek) – voriconazole (Vfend) •
The most common side effects of COMPLERA include:
medicines that are eliminated by the kidney, including acyclovir (Zovirax), cidofovir (Vistide), ganciclovir (Cytovene IV, Vitrasert), valacyclovir (Valtrex), and valganciclovir (Valcyte)
These are not all the possible side effects of COMPLERA. For more information, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 (1-800-332-1088).
What are the possible side effects of COMPLERA?
How should I take COMPLERA?
COMPLERA can cause serious side effects, including: • See “What is the most important information I should know about COMPLERA?”
•
Stay under the care of your healthcare provider during treatment with COMPLERA.
•
Take COMPLERA exactly as your healthcare provider tells you to take it.
•
Always take COMPLERA with a meal. Taking COMPLERA with a meal is important to help get the right amount of medicine in your body. A protein drink does not replace a meal.
•
Do not change your dose or stop taking COMPLERA without first talking with your healthcare provider. See your healthcare provider regularly while taking COMPLERA.
•
If you miss a dose of COMPLERA within 12 hours of the time you usually take it, take your dose of COMPLERA with a meal as soon as possible. Then, take your next dose of COMPLERA at the regularly scheduled time. If you miss a dose of COMPLERA by more than 12 hours of the time you usually take it, wait and then take the next dose of COMPLERA at the regularly scheduled time.
•
Do not take more than your prescribed dose to make up for a missed dose.
•
•
New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure, can happen in some people who take COMPLERA. Your healthcare provider should do blood tests to check your kidneys before starting treatment with COMPLERA. If you have had kidney problems in the past or need to take another medicine that can cause kidney problems, your healthcare provider may need to do blood tests to check your kidneys during your treatment with COMPLERA. Depression or mood changes. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms: – feeling sad or hopeless – feeling anxious or restless – have thoughts of hurting yourself (suicide) or have tried to hurt yourself
•
Change in liver enzymes. People with a history of hepatitis B or C virus infection or who have certain liver enzyme changes may have an increased risk of developing new or worsening liver problems during treatment with COMPLERA. Liver problems can also happen during treatment with COMPLERA in people without a history of liver disease. Your healthcare provider may need to do tests to check your liver enzymes before and during treatment with COMPLERA.
•
Bone problems can happen in some people who take COMPLERA. Bone problems include bone pain, softening or thinning (which may lead to fractures). Your healthcare provider may need to do additional tests to check your bones.
•
Changes in body fat can happen in people taking HIV medicine. These changes may include increased amount of fat in the upper back and neck (“buffalo hump”), breast, and around the main part of your body (trunk). Loss of fat from the legs, arms and face may also happen. The cause and long term health effect of these conditions are not known.
•
Changes in your immune system (Immune Reconstitution Syndrome) can happen when you start taking HIV medicines. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time. Tell your healthcare provider if you start having new symptoms after starting your HIV medicine.
BS page 2
This Brief Summary summarizes the most important information about COMPLERA. If you would like more information, talk with your healthcare provider. You can also ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for information about COMPLERA that is written for health professionals, or call 1-800-445-3235 or go to www.COMPLERA.com Issued: January 2013
COMPLERA, the COMPLERA Logo, EMTRIVA, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, GSI, HEPSERA, STRIBILD, TRUVADA, VIREAD, and VISTIDE are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. ATRIPLA is a trademark of Bristol-Myers Squibb & Gilead Sciences, LLC. All other marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. ©2013 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. CPAC0022 03/13
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CAROL ROSEGG
CAROLYN MALONEY NOBODY’S CONGRESSWOMAN BUT YOURS • Proud to Support Marriage Equality • Proud to Have Co-Sponsored the Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” • Proud Author of the Family & Medical Leave Inclusion Act Covering LGBT Families • Proud to Introduce New York’s First-Ever Legislation to Recognize Same-Sex Couples • Proud Co-Sponsor of the Employment NonDiscrimination Protecting LGBT Americans • Proud to Co-Sponsor the City’s Landmark 1986 Civil Rights Bill • Proud to Stand with New York City’s LGBT Community!
HAPPY PRIDE! Paid for by Maloney for Congress
Billy Magnussen in Christopher Durang’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.”
SHOW YOUR PRIDE, from p.46
are available are $299 through telecharge.com and even higher through brokers. We’ve occasionally found some performances at TKTS, so you never know. Your best bet is to order now for next year — this will still be playing.
VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE
John Golden Theatre 252 W. 45th St. Christopher Durang’s new comedy took the Drama Desk and Tony Awards for best play. This Chekhovinfused contemporary family comedy is as literate as it is hilarious. David Hyde Pierce plays Vanya, who lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his sister, Sonia, played by Kristine Nielsen. When movie star Masha arrives with boy-toy Spike in tow, hilarity and family breakdown ensue. If you don’t know Chekhov when you walk into this play, you’ll know some of his key themes when you leave. Sigour ney Weaver is very good as Masha, and Billy Magnussen as Spike is a treat. Availability: Limited. Regular ticket prices are $60-$130. However, we found only a few extreme side orchestra seats at the higher price. The few center orchestra seats available are $199 through telecharge.com. No discounted tickets were available during this weekend, though the show has been up from time to time at TKTS.
THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES
Samuel J. Friedman Theater 261 W. 47th St. This is my favorite new play of the season: a sensitive look at family dynamics, what we know, what we don’t, and how even in the most
intimate of groupings there are unknowable divisions — chasms, really — between people. Richard Greenberg’s incisive script, L ynne Meadow’s sensitive direction, and stellar per formances by Jessica Hecht, Jeremy Shamos, and Judith Light (Tony and Drama Desk winner) are not to be missed. Availability: Fair. Regular ticket prices are $67-$120. However, we found discounted extreme side orchestra seats, which are not bad given the intimacy of the piece and t h e t h e a t e r. We a l s o f o u n d f u l l price orchestra seats available at all performances.
ANN
Vivian Beaumont Theater 150 W. 56th St. Holland Taylor is divine in this onewoman show about the late Texas G o v e r n o r A n n R i c h a r d s . T a y l o r, who also wrote the piece, captures the spirit and the substance of this political powerhouse. Availability: Limited. Regular ticket prices are $75-$125. Limited numbers of full-price tickets were available at all performances. However, we also found discounted seats at every performance at Broadwayoffers.com. The show has been up regularly at the TKTS booth, as well.
PIPPIN
Music Box Theatre 239 W. 45th St. Diane Paulus’ reimagining of this classic musical integrates circus, magic, and homage to Bob Fosse in a totally over -the-top extravaganza. It easily won the Best Revival Tony. At the same time, Paulus has found the humanity under the glitz
SHOW YOUR PRIDE, continued on p.59
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Celebrating Pride and Ever Moving Forward
SHOW YOUR PRIDE, from p.58
THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL
Stephen Sondheim Theatre 12 W. 43rd St. Cicely Tyson (Tony for Best Actress in a Play) leads an all-star cast that includes Vanessa Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Condola Rashad in a rich and poetic staging of the nowclassic Horton Foote play about ties to family and home in a changing and often unsettling world. Michael Wilson’s sensitive direction finds
Assemblymember
Deborah J. Glick First openly LGBT Assemblymember - proud to serve since 1991. 853 Broadway, Suite 1518, New York, NY10003 Tel: 212-674-5153 / Fax: 212-674-5530 glickd@assembly.state.ny.us SUCRAM NAOJ
and delivers what is ultimately a quietly moving meditation on growing up. Along the way, incredible per for mances by Andr ea Martin, Patina Miller (Tony for Best Actress in a Musical), and Matthew James Thomas make this beloved show contemporary and packed to the rafters with razzle-dazzle. This one is worth breaking the bank for. Availability: Limited. Regular ticket prices are $59-$142. However, we found only extreme side orchestra seats at the higher price. There are premium seats at all performances, but be prepared to shell out between $202 and $277.50 apiece for these seats. As with “Kinky Boots,” though, we’ve found the odd performance up at the TKTS Booth.
Jessica Hecht and Judith Light in Richard Greenberg’s "The Assembled Parties."
the lyricism and love that bind these characters — even when it’s hard for them to be a family. Availability: Limited. Regular ticket prices are $37-$142. However, we found scattered orchestra seats at most performances. There are also premium seats, which run $227-$252 apiece, at all performances. The show has also been on the boards at the TKTS booth for some performances, including weekends in recent weeks.
Walootan ataynahu hukman waAAilman wanajjaynahu mina alqaryati allatee kanat taAAmalu alkhabaitha innahum kanoo
Assembly Member Dick Gottfried
Wishes You a Safe & Happy PRIDE
Dick Gottfried’s Community Office: 242 West 27th St., ground floor Ph: 212-807-7900, E-mail: gottfrr@assembly.state.ny.us
GAMING THE BOARDS If you simply must see a particular show, you can probably get tickets one way or another. Ticket brokers will charge a hefty fee — and we’ve found that sometimes their seats were no better than premium seats or side orchestra we located on our own. Brokers, though, are the best bet on very short notice. For almost every show we checked out for Pride Weekend, the mezzanine seats sold out first, and what you’ll typically find still available are orchestra seats. When visiting the box office or looking online (telecharge.com for most Broadway shows), be aware that prices can change by performance and virtually all shows designate large portions of the center orchestra and front mezzanine as premium seats, which can add significantly to the price. Some shows have lotteries that will get you in the door for under $50, but you have to fit into their schedule — and be there when the lottery is called. Standing room is sometimes available for shows that are sold out. For lotteries or standing room, head to the theater and find out their policies. You can also search online by the name of the show coupled with the word “lottery.” Of course, the old, reliable TKTS Booth on 47th and Broadway sells discounted tickets for day-of performances, and while that’s always hit-or-miss, even some hot new shows like “Pippin” have had 30 percent discounts for side orchestra in recent weeks. Other shows are discounted as much as 50 percent, and if you’re going to see a play rather than a musical, they have a “Play only” window that will speed your wait. TKTS also has a very handy app you can download to see what’s up before you head out to get in line. Or you can visit sites like Theatermania.com and click on “check for discounts.” You’ll pay a convenience fee, which can be $7.50 or more a ticket, but that’s often worth it versus waiting in line. And you can always go to the box office right before show time. I’ve often had great luck showing up less than an hour before curtain and scoring a single ticket — sometimes even an unused house seat. You’ll pay full price, but if you’re willing to take singles — even if you’re with other people — you can increase your chances of getting good seats. Off-Broadway, too, has some gems, and if you have never had the experience of Shakespeare in the Park, that’s worth a day of lounging in Central Park to get free tickets and a quintessential New York experience. Currently on is “The Comedy of Errors,” a 90-minute romp starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson of “Modern Family.” Go to PublicTheater.org for full information on getting the free seats. A list like this can never be comprehensive. I haven’t mentioned long runs like “Newsies,” “Mamma Mia,” or “Phantom,” many of which can be hard to get but are often up at TKTS on weeknights. So, whether or not you are able to score your must-have tickets this Pride Season, you ought to be able to have a theater experience in New York this summer that will prove memorable. — Christopher Byrne
PUBLIC NOTICE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, PURSUANT TO LAW, that the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs will hold a Public Hearing on Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at 66 John Street, 11th floor, on a petition from SULLIVAN RESTAURANT LLC to continue to, maintain, and operate an unenclosed sidewalk café at 1316751 in the Borough of Manhattan for a term of two years. REQUESTS FOR COPIES OF THE PROPOSED REVOCABLE CONSENT AGREEMENT MAY BE ADDRESSED TO: DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS: FOIL OFFICER, 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004. GCN: 06/26/2013
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
BOOKS
Rediscovering Pat Barker British author’s reimagining of queer life in the Great War offers unmatched insights BY DOUG IRELAND
P
ride Week should be not simply a celebration of our collective identity in the present, but also a moment for r emembering — for, as William Faulkner rightly observed, “The past is never dead, it is not even past.” But for too long, our queer past was hidden from view. Reclaiming that past is an important part of our ongoing struggle for liberation.
REGENERATION THE EYE IN THE DOOR THE GHOST ROAD
In the hands of a gr eat writer, reimagining our queer past can be not simply a necessity, but a pleasure — and in the gay literary canon, among my most prized discoveries has been the work of the English writer Pat Barker. Like Mary Renault and Penelope Gilliatt, Barker is one of those remarkable heterosexual women whom the Brits seem to produce with some regularity who can write about male homosexual love, sex, and desire and be pitch-perfect. Yet Barker’s “Regeneration” trilogy of historical novels, published over a four -year period two decades ago, is not as widely known as it deserves to be, for it is landmark queer literature that every sentient same-sexer owes it to themselves to add to their bookshelves. The three novels — “Regeneration,’ “The Eye in the Door,” and “The Ghost Road” — are set in the Great War, as the Brits are wont to call World War I, and give us an extraordinarily rich, truthful portrait of what it was like to be queer in England in those years, when the tragic persecution and imprisonment of Oscar Wilde were still everyday threats hanging over male homosexual life and the laws that sent him to Reading Gaol still in force — as they remained until 1967. These meticulously researched novels have as their axis the work of William H.R. Rivers, the psychoanalyst who pioneered the treatment of soldiers suffering from what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that left them with a variety of life-
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destroying physical and psychological symptoms. Barker peoples her novels with both real historical personages and fictional ones. In the for mer category, we have Rivers himself, while among his patients are the war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfr ed Owen, both queer, and celebrated homosexual friends of theirs, including Robbie R o s s , Wi l d e ’ s m o s t l o y a l f r i e n d , sometime lover, and literary executor, the novelist Robert Graves, and the writer L ytton Strachey. A central character of “The Eye in the Door” is the fictional Billy Prior, intensely bisexual, whose psychological, affectional, sexual, and political life stands in contrast with Sassoon’s pure homosexuality and Rivers’ tepid asexuality. I n “ T h e E y e i n t h e D o o r, ” w e also become acquainted with the
repugnant anti-homosexual crusade of Member of Parliament and writer Noel Pemberton Billing, another real-life figure who propagated a widely-accepted conspiracy theory in which Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany possessed a Black Book with the names of 47,000 “perverts” wellplaced in British society and politics. In Pemberton Billing’s mad theory, the Germans planned to “exterminate the manhood of Britain” by luring men into homosexual acts and “"propagating evils which all decent men thought had perished in Sodom and Lesbia,” as he wrote. Pemberton Billings also targeted the wives of leading political figures w ho m he a ccus ed o f le s bianis m, including the wife of Prime Minister H.H. Asquith. When he leveled the s a m e c h a rg e a g a i n s t t h e a c t r e s s Maud Allan, who had appeared in
a private production of Wilde’s play “Salome” organized by Robbie Ross, she sued for libel. The r esultant trial became a popular media sensation and contributed mightily to the anti-homosexual hysteria of the time. Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde’s great love “Bosie,” was well on his way to self-loathing and testified on behalf of Pemberton Billings! When the MP prevailed in a court decision against the actress, this seeming judicial confirmation of Pemberton Billings’ deranged fantasy only intensified the anti-gay feeling in the country. Barker’s novel recreates better than any historian has done the impact of Pemberton Billings’ anti-gay ravings and the climate of near -frenzy they created in the anti-German public toward unashamed queers like Sassoon and Ross and on those who, like Wilfred Owen, were more ambivalent about their same-sex orientation. Her expert blending of real events and the fictional breathes verisimilitude into this forgotten chapter of gay history. In “The Ghost Road,” Barker focuses on Rivers’ therapeutic work with the fictional Prior, an of ficer from the working classes (in contrast with the upper-class Sassoon in “The Eye in the Door”). The novel recounts Prior’s promiscuous adventures with both sexes. Rivers’ official task was to get his psychologically damaged patients back into condition to return to the front. I’ve always found one of those patients, Sassoon, and his real-life struggles quite appealing. Although he had volunteered for military service at the outbreak of the war and distinguished himself by what Robert Graves later described as acts of “suicidal bravery,” for which he received the highest military decorations, at the end of a spell of convalescent leave Sassoon declined to return to duty. Instead, encouraged by pacifist friends like Bertrand Russell and Lady Ottoline Morrell, in 19l7 he sent a letter to his commanding officer entitled “Finished With the War: A Soldier’s Declaration.” Forwarded to the press and r e ad o ut in Parliame nt by a sympathetic MP, the letter was seen by some as treasonous. “I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military
PAT BARKER, continued on p.69
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| June 26, 2013
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
Luke Miller’s interpretation of a portrait provided by an audience member.
YANIRA CASTRO, from p.48
Ten submissions will be used by the performers to make each of the solos. “For example,” explained Castro, “three portraits, five patterns, and two tasks.” Likewise, the score is a chance composition made from as few as one to as many as four out of 100 crowdsourced, pre-recorded 37-second movements layered over each other plus the contributions of up to two live musicians on top of that, who are obliged to respond to the recorded score. The dancers make all the choices about what material to use, including
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costumes, the guidelines for which Castro broadly defined to them as “layers of blue.” “Structured as the piece is,” she added, “ I have no control over it. It’s really shaped by the dancers and the audience — not just by their contributions, but by how they attend to it.” Which is what makes this approach to broad collaboration work so well. Audience members may never know if the dancers have used their contribution but still see it in places it isn’t. Everyone is invited to make something together — and inspired to believe their contribution matters.
SAVION GLOVER, from p.48
Trane’s saxophone is in just the right register to accompany the tapping without obscuring the crystal clear rhythms of 10 gifted dancing feet. Between the ensemble passages, solos illustrate individually each dancer’s deft footwork. Later in Act One, the music goes from Charlie Parker’s “Dexterity” to Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Shasta.” Glover’s skillful rhythmic counterpoint amplifies whatever style of music he chooses, and the irregular time signatures and odd phrasings of the Russian contemporary piece are no impediment to his sophisticated rhythmic flow. After intermission, the women take to the stairs, ala Hollywood movie musicals — a three-stair unit, upstage center. Benny Goodman’s “Bugle Call Rag” recalls the girl groups of the ‘40s, the Andrews or Boswell Sisters, entertaining the troops in World War II. How can they be so casual and yet so rhythmically crisp? Although they’re physically very diverse, the women are connected by flawless unison, and every time they slip in a quick little one-twothree canon, it catches your breath. Drew DeCorleto’s lighting design is simple but as precise as the dancing, drawing patches on the floor where the dancers are and changing the texture of the rear brick wall with the mood. Glover’s solo version of the Sammy Davis, Jr. perennial “Mr. Bojangles” dissolves all the cliché we’ve brought
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to that number over the years. His forthright, upright simplicity and understatement make it fresh as the first time. Glover doesn’t slam the floor with his taps — he caresses it, massages it, tickles it in a surprising array of different textures. With metal against wood, Glove elicits a range of emotions similar to Yo-Yo Ma on his cello, Eric Ohlsson on his oboe, or Jonathan Watts on piano. And after the feel-good finale, Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke,” they take a simple bow, and the curtain falls in midovation. It’s as if they’re still having a tapping party onstage, out of our sight, as we float joyously into the night.
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
IN THE NOH
Law of My Land My first school reunion; Hawaii’s gay pioneer BY DAVID NOH
W
ith my father’s recent death in Hawaii, the past year has been filled with rites of passage, and I recently took part in another one there, by going to my first Punahou School reunion. I attended Barack Obama’s alma mater from the sixth grade on, and for me this event was a biggie, something I’d sworn I’d never do, not knowing if, like that iconic ‘90s reunion film, I’d nervously be Romy, Michele… or maybe just Cumming. You know what? It was fantastic — bonding with old friends as well as for mer students I’d never said a word to back then, with almost everyone mercifully freed from snotty high school cliques and cocoons of insecurity and fear. Punahou Reunion Week is an intense flurry of events that takes place every five years. At the all-important presentation of class gifts, I had a happy hugfest with fellow alumnus Joy Abbott, widow of
Honolulu gay pioneer Jack Law on the deck of his bar, Hula’s, overlooking Diamond Head.
Broadway eminence George Abbott. I thought our class’ donation of $63,000 was pretty impressive, but the class of 1963 rather handily outshined us with a whopping $1.3 million. “What is
this?” I thought. “Broadway Cares?” I was particularly grateful for the pre-reunion get-togethers — nice, cozy lead-ins to the bigger events with their daunting full-on nostalgia assaults.
Facebook was on fire with hilarious reminiscences and barbed but goodhumored communiqués firing on all sides, oiling the way to renewed intimacy. A huge mahalo (thank you) goes out to Chickie Guillaume, whom we deemed our class saint for her beautiful organizational skills and painlessly graceful coercion tactics, without which I never would have showed up for anything. We h a d a r i o t o u s t i m e a t o u r former hangout, Eggs ‘n Things, and the centerpiece cocktail party at the Outrigger Canoe Club had nearly the intensity of an epic film, filled as it was with so many, many shared memories and renewed and brand new friendships. The traditional spreading of the ashes of recently departed classmates from a canoe into the waters of Waikiki lent solemn beauty to the occasion. I had a spectacular re-meet with Mavis Nikaido, my date for the ninth grade dance, as sweet and lovely as ever. When I pulled into the parking lot
IN THE NOH, continued on p.65
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IN THE NOH, from p.64
of Mariana’s exquisitely preserved vintage tiki bar for the luau after party, I was delighted to see three familiar classmates happily toking pot, just like they used to, as if nothing whatsoever had changed. Memories rushed back of our fabulously insane bus ride to graduation ceremonies, in which our class — deemed the most impossible by the faculty — fortified with champagne bottles, Kona Gold, and God knows what else, literally floated into commencement. The reunion festivities culminated with a picnic at Bonnie Judd’s gorgeous 1920 estate in Kaneohe, a veritable Garden of Eden of gorgeous flora and fauna, everyone’s dream of Old Hawaii lifestyle, with Carla Rayacich singing Kui Lee’s haunting “Days of My Youth” and Kimo Conant Eagle giving us male hula to make your heart stop.
It can safely be said that there simply would be no gay life in Hawaii without Jack Law. T h e o w n e r o f t h e
legendary Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand, soon to celebrate its 40th anniversary, he is also the founder of Honolulu’s gay Rainbow Film Festival and the Life Foundation, Hawaii’s AIDS organization. How well I remember my first visit to Hula’s in its original magical location beneath a spreading, twinkly-lit banyan tree in Waikiki. “Hawaii has a real gay bar at last,” I thought — and what a bar, with its lovely old plantation ambiance, terrific music, and no less than the handsome Dayton Ka’ne, star of Dino De La ur e n tiis’ 1979 “ H u r r i c a n e , ” as doorman. Many ravishing, intoxicating, and intoxicated nights followed, filled with laughter, danceinduced sweat, and new boyfriends, for romance was always truly in the air there. I’ve known Jack for a long time, but it was a pleasure to really sit down and chat over lunch at the beautiful Contemporary Museum on Tantalus Mountain, with its sweeping views of the city and Diamond Head, where he told me, “I came to Hawaii in 1966 from the suburbs of Detroit. I had met two fellows, one of whom said, ‘The tuition at the University of Hawaii is inexpensive and we could fly there for half-price student discount standby.’ My very authoritarian dad said, ‘You’re not going there,’ but of course he had nothing to say about it because he didn’t have any money anyway. So I ended up on the corner of Lewers and Kalakaua in the middle of Waikiki. It was real hippie dippy time here and three years before we hit our one millionth tourist mark — a simpler time during the Vietnam War when
Hawaii was the R&R center for soldiers coming from there. A very interesting time. “I lived across the street from a quasi-gay bar called the Embers, which many years later I took over and renamed Malias Cantina. I was, like, straight but had my fantasies and knew what gave me an erection, but I was frightened like hell because coming from a small suburban town in 1966 I had had no role models, only tragic movie figures like Sal Mineo, so I fought it tooth and nail. I even had a girlfriend in Michigan I was going to marry, but then I met a TWA pilot who picked me up in the Perry Boys Smorgy coffee shop. He was a very dashing World War II pilot who took me to his hotel room whenever he was in town and we had wild sex, and I sure liked it but was always guilty. “He introduced me to Tommy L e h m an of the L ehm an Br other s over lunch at the Kahala Hilton, who said, ‘You’re a nice guy and I want you to meet a friend of mine who lives just down the street who will take care of you.’ So he took me to the Diamond Head beach home of Bob Magoon. This lower middle class Detroit kid had only been here six months, barely knew how to use a knife and fork, and I am exposed to this Yale grad, very urbane, who had written songs for a Broadway show [“13 Daughters”] with this glamorous house. He swept me off my feet and we were boyfriends for a long time, but Bob was so promiscuous it couldn’t last. But we have remained friends and I am going to his family ranch and winery, Guenoc, in California for his 91st birthday. “He had Magoon Estates and was a member of a kamaaina [local] family, minor landowners on Oahu and the other islands. I got my real estate license and became assistant treasurer/ secretary and basically signed all the lease documents, because my name is short. [Laughs.] When this certain piece of property his family owned became available, he said, ‘Let’s open up a gay bar!’ “I said, ‘We don’t know anything about the bar business,’ and he said, ‘How hard can it be?’ The greatest and the worst thing about Bob — he would always manifest it but never think about the details. I was the detail guy. We opened Hula’s in 1974 and people ask if we were the first gay bar, but there was the Stuffed Tomato, the Gay 90s, and a lot of tiny places. Also the Clouds, which became the Blowhole, and Yappy’s, where all the transvestites would hang [and where this writer’s father once drunkenly played the piano]. “There was a thriving gay community in Waikiki at that time,
IN THE NOH, continued on p.72
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FILM
Painting Disco with a Political Brush Jamie Kastner’s documentary revives vivid moments, but stumbles in its message BY GARY M. KRAMER
THE SECRET DISCO REVOLUTION Directed by Jamie Kastner Screen Media/ Focus World Opens Jun. 28 Quad Cinema 34 W. 13th St. quadcinema.com
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here is more to disco music than meets the eye posits an energetic new documentary from Jamie Kastner, “The Secret Disco Revolution.” The director argues that the music was a form of protest — not unlike what folk songs were during the Civil Rights era or the Woodstock Festival was at the height of opposition to the war in Viet Nam. Revolution in the ‘70s meant the fight against sexism, racism, and homophobia — and disco was a liberating influence in the lives of women, African Americans, and gays as they stepped forward to exert greater influence on society.
Jamie Kastner’s "masterminds" in his new documentary, “The Secret Disco Revolution.”
Kastner’s film articulates this thesis as he probes beyond the “vapid veneer” of disco and the spell it cast. Whatever the merits of that argument, the film suffers from a tacky framing device in which three silent “masterminds” — a woman, an African-American man, and a (presumably) gay man dressed in
glittery, shimmering silver costumes — essentially act out what he sees as the “manifesto” animating the disco pop culture sensation. The results are silly scenes of the trio “mixing the recipe” while an irritating arch narrator provides voice-over explanation. This approach detracts from a film
that will otherwise be interesting for anyone who holds onto warm and fuzzy feelings about the polyester decade. Little is new in this film — “Saturday Night Fever” catapulted disco to its mainstream heights, and Studio 54 was the nightclub for celebrities and cocaine — but Kastner is on to something in the film’s celebration of an era that gave birth to the Village People. “The Secret Disco Revolution” argues that the group’s members, with hits like “Y.M.C.A.,” “Macho Man,” and “In the Navy,” were a subversive queer act — “Ambassadors of gay macho” with a message of empowerment — in an era when the predominate image of gay men remained one of effeminacy. Kastner, however, gets no help in making this case in interviews with the Village People themselves, who object to his perspective. Challenging the notion that their songs were full of double entendres, they suggested they were nothing more than a party band out to have a good time. Their demeanor comes across as refreshing, even
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DISCO, continued on p.73
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| June 26, 2013
THE OUT LIST, from p.38
GMK: I like Jake Shears’ speech very much, but I also felt that what you just said was echoed very eloquently in Twiggy Pucci Garcon’s comments in “The Out List.” SM: There are so many subcultures within the gay world, but Twiggy does a wonderful job talking about one of them
JAKE, from p.47
is a clinical psychologist trained in handling aberrational behavior, has a heck of a time trying to maintain composure. Jake, it should be noted, never actually appears on stage, though his p r e se n ce is a c u t e l y pa l pa bl e every minute — not just from the incessant, often heated discussions about him, but from the toys and drawings that festoon his parents’ comfortable mid-century moder n apartment. The boy is nothing but a blank canvas on to which all project their own wishes, biases, and anxieties. Not just Jake’s parents, peers, and educators, but audience members as well. As Jake’s behavior becomes
GMK: So what would you say if you were being interviewed? SM: I think for me I would talk about a real defining moment in coming to terms with my identity. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, a place where there was
a lot of hatred and misunderstanding about homosexuality. I wasn’t Mormon but it was a very conservative area. A neighboring high school wanted to form a Gay-Straight-Alliance, and the school freaked out and banned all groups. But I had two out teachers — a French teacher and a history teacher — and because I had them as examples, I got to see what it looked like to be
successful and have a career and be in a committed relationship and stand up for yourself. Utah is not a kind place, but they would go to protests and not be ashamed about bringing their partner to events. They gave me hope that I would have a happy and fulfilled life. Because I had those examples in those formative years, I was able to move to New York when I was 18 and accept who I was.
more aggressive and prospects for scoring a coveted school less likely, the situation threatens to upend Alex and Greg’s marriage. Maybe Greg should have made an effort to toss a softball with his son once in a while. Perhaps Alex should not have bought Jake seven dif ferent Cinderella DVDs. A rough pregnancy complicates things even further. The provocative work lays bare a myriad of dicey questions. Is such behavior creative idiosyncrasy or a clue to serious gender confusion? Is it best to thwart these tendencies and steer the child to “normal” behavior or to embrace them? But by embracing them early on, might they reinforce the behavior and help push the child in an unnatural direction? There are no easy answers, and
that’s part of the drama’s appeal. As directed by Evan Cabnet, the production, loaded with debate and minutiae, grows talky and feels somewhat static. Another creative team might have leavened the heavy subject matter with dollops of humor (there’s plenty of material ripe for that), but there’s nothing remotely funny about this “Jake.” The skillful per for mances go a l ong w ay tow a r d smo o t hing o v e r any rough patches. Carla Gugino is spot-on as Alex, the distraught, stay-at-home mom trying manically to find the best school for her son, and she delivers the role with an i n t e n s e v o l a t i l i t y . We t r u l y f e e l her pain when she pretends that Jake’s gender -variant play is no big deal. Peter Grosz is well cast as the
ef fete, inef fectual dad who seems paralyzed at the prospect of having a transgender child. The raspy voiced Caroline Aaron turns out a layered portrayal as the assertive Judy, adeptly transitioning from amicable counselor to hard-ass as she discloses the sad reality of Jake’s prospects. The role of a nurse in Alex’s OB/GYN office is played with tender restraint by Michelle Beck. Earlier this year, Pearle and “A Kid Like Jake” won the prestigious 2013 Laurents/ Hatcher Foundation Award, in honor of the late, great Arthur Laurents and his life partner, Tom Hatcher. T ickets to all plays at the new LCT3 stage at Lincoln Center cost just $20. Surely one of the better bargains in theater this season.
— the ballroom scene. It’s special and has its own dynamics and creates its own family.
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com GUNS & ROSES, from p.38
— but not zapping — her ex might be legal puts the ongoing gun debate into perspective. Another vignette features Violet Blue. A San Francisco blogger whose life was threatened, she boasts about keeping a loaded weapon by her bed. The theme of personal security is reinforced. Two heartbreaking interviews probe that issue more starkly. In one, Sarah, a young Oklahoma widow with a baby, describes shooting an intruder. The homicide was justified, but it still haunts her. We see her carrying her baby in one hand and her gun in the other as she walks around her property in fear. It is a disturbing image, but also a reality check about what some women in our society experience. Karen, a 34 year -old woman in a Louisiana correctional facility, recalls shooting her girlfriend during an argument. She regrets her action every single day. The impact of gun violence is made especially clear in the story Stephanie Alexander tells about her daughter, Aieshia, surviving a driveby shooting. The incident provoked Stephanie to become a victim’s rights activist. A meeting she attends in Washington, DC, with other mothers of gun violence victims gets at the emotional impact it has on surviving family members. The women recount being told they have to seek “closure” for their suffering or — worse — “It is a shame you lost a child, but I still love my gun.” One of the most complex portraits in the film features a nurse wrapping up a gun for her eight-year-old son’s Christmas present. She acknowledges that growing up she was a tomboy who always had guns in her life. But she then breaks down crying as she reveals that her brother died of a gunshot wound as a teenager while joking around in the woods with friends. “A Girl & A Gun” raises paradoxes like this about America’s gun culture, even if it does not delve deeply into the irony involved. Czubek also showcases women whose relationships to guns are far less freighted. Peggy takes her son out shooting but considers a gun to be a tool much in the same way, say, a food processor is. She delights as she explodes a half-gallon container of water and acknowledges that shooting pr ovides a “release” for her. Margit, a New Yorker, goes to the gun range to shoot for pleasure — impressing her brothers — but steadfastly refuses to keep a gun in her apartment, lest her teenage sons or their friends discover it. The interviews in “A Girl & A Gun” are uniformly fascinating, and Czubek
FIRST RUN FEATURES
Violet Blue with her gun in her San Francisco apartment.
succeeds admirably in providing a diversity of voices, experiences, and opinions. She never seems to judge the women she profiles, which is one of the film’s key strengths. One of the film’s most ef fective sequences shows a series of ads demonstrating the way in which women are targeted for gun sales. These ads prey upon women’s fears, suggesting that owning a gun is a necessity. A woman at a Las Vegas gun show demonstrating the pocket in a hunting outfit for keeping lipstick at the ready for a photo with her kill may put a sunny face on gun ownership, but many of the images and slogans used in the ads are far more menacing. Czubek also provides a brief history of women and guns, from Annie Oakley to criminals like Ma Barker and Bonnie Parker, to more recent images out of Hollywood. That last group of representations — from “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Terminator,” and even “The Simpsons,” among many — project sexuality and power. But those strengths need not come at the expense of femininity — as one woman who likens her gun collection to Barbies and another who says she prefers her guns in the Barbie-pink color remind us. The only major flaw in “A Girl & A Gun” is its abrupt ending. Sure, women and guns engender complex and ambivalent feelings, but given the wealth of interesting ground the film covers, that feels like a cop-out. This film provides considerable food for thought, so at the least it should spark a continued conversation after audiences leave the theater.
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| June 26, 2013 PAT BARKER, from p.60
authority,” Sassoon wrote in condemning the war government’s motives. “I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defense and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest.” He threw his war medals into the River Mersey. But rather than court-martial S a s s o o n , t h e Wa r M i n i s t r y s e n t him for treatment for “shell shock” to Rivers’ war hospital at Craiglockhart. After Rivers’ treatment, Sassoon decided to return to the front because he could not abandon the men who had been under his command. He was almost immediately wounded by friendly fire, when he was shot in the head after being mistaken for a German. Sassoon survived and went on to a prolific career as a novelist and memoirist. Some years ago, I read his three volumes of memoirs, the much acclaimed “The Old Century,” “The Weald of Youth,” and “Siegfried’s Journey.” Sassoon’s mordant, ironic war poetry, in which he satirized the bloody, useless, vainglorious war in which he’d distinguished himself in combat, is admirable. But nothing so became Sassoon’s war conduct as his abandoning participation in that terrible conflict, and under Parker’s oh-sotalented pen he lives again for us in all his courageous inner conflicts. It is no exaggeration to say that Sassoon is a queer hero for the ages. Certainly Barker’s “Regeneration” Trilogy — the final volume of which won the Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, in 1995 — gives us an insight into the social lives and networks of homosexuals among the educated classes in the early 20th century. But it also constitutes a body of anti-war writing that brings home to us the horrific torture and slaughter that World War I’s trench warfare, under command of generals throwing away their soldiers’ lives with 19th century tactics, inflicted on millions. It was a simply appalling war, and one whose effects are with us still today. “Regeneration” was made into a 1997 film by Gillies MacKinnon (released in the US under the title “Behind the Lines”) and starring James Wily as Sassoon and Jonathan Pryce as Rivers. The film lacks the sweep and power of Barker’s wise and enriching novels, and also downplays the homosexuality in the story. Pat Barker’s own life has a Dickensian quality to it. Born in 1943, she grew up as the illegitimate child of a working
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY/ LONDON
Siegfried Sassoon in a 1920 photograph by Bassano.
class family who were “as poor as church mice,” as she has said, but as an avid reader from a very young age won a series of scholarships, eventually taking a history degree at the London School of Economics. Barker began to write fiction in her 20s, but her first three novels went unpublished, and, she has said, “deserved to be.” But she flowered in “Union Street,” her first published novel, one about working class life, which won her the patronage of Angela Carter, a feminist considered one of Britain’s foremost post-World War II novelists. (“Union Street” was made into the 1989 Hollywood film “Stanley & Iris” starring Robert De Nero and Jane Fonda, but Barker has said the movie bears little relationship to her novel.) Barker turned to historical fiction because, she has said, "I think there is a lot to be said for writing about history, because you can sometimes deal with contemporary dilemmas in a way people are more open to because it is presented in this unfamiliar guise, they don't automatically know what they think about it, whereas if you are writing about a contemporary issue on the nose, sometimes all you do is activate people's pr ejudices. I think the historical novel can be a backdoor into the present which is very valuable." That is certainly the case with Barker’s “Regeneration” trilogy, which must rank as great queer literature, filled with wisdom and lessons for us today. Thankfully, all three volumes of it are still in print and easily available in paperback. I cannot urge you too strongly to read them.
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MICHAEL LUONGO
June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
Quiche” returns for three performances Gay Pride Weekend. Snapple Theater Center’s Anne L. Bernstein Theater, 210 W. 50th St. Jun. 27, 8 p.m.; Jun. 28-29, 10:30 p.m. Starting Jul. 19, the show will have performances on Fri.-Sat., 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $25-$60 at ticketmaster.com or SnappleTheater.com.
MICHAEL LUONGO
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JUNE 30: Manhattan's LGBT Pride Parade.
Set in the late ‘90s on the Lower East Side, “Lesbian Love Octagon,” a comedy about dyke drama, follows the journey of Sue, a less than butch dyke with a broken heart, as she tries to cope with losing her girlfriend to her ex-girlfriend. Her friends — a bevy of ex-girlfriends and exgirlfriends’ ex-girlfriends — rush to her aid, and they unleash a torrent of lust and betrayal that convinces Sue that happiness lies in polyamory, pomade, and online personals. Kim Kressel wrote the book; Will Larche, the music; and they both wrote lyrics. The Kraine Theater, 85 E. Fourth St., btwn. Bowery & Second Ave. Jun. 27-29, 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 at smarttix.com.
Looking for a Friend
THU.JUN.27
FILM Rufus, Martha Sing Tribute to Their Mom
In a tribute to their late mother, folksinger Kate McGarrigle, Rufus and Martha Wainwright appeared in a May 2011 Town Hall concert with her sisters Anna and Jane McGarrigle, Jimmy Fallon, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, Teddy Thompson, and novelist Michael Ondaatje. Lian Lunson’s film of that concert, “Sing Me the Songs that Say I Love You” runs at the Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. through Jul. 9. Tickets, show times at filmforum.org.
PERFORMANCE Queer Mash-Up at BAM With “Everybooty” at BAM Fisher’s Fishman Space, Hillman Studio, and rooftop Stutz Garden, curators Spank, Hey Queen!, and Earl Dax welcome local artists from the contemporary cultural scene for a radical mash-up in celebration of LGBTQ Pride. Performances in the Fishman Space include Asian-American duo Slanty Eyed Mama; the dance, theater, and acrobatic troupe LAVA; female-tofemale drag performer Sequinette; gender-bending rap group House of Ladosha; pop group AVAN LAVA; Italian disco/ metal duo Hard Ton; and visual performance artist Lee Souljah. The Hillman Studio showcases readings hosted by Max Steele’s “Fag City,” performance artists Penny Arcade, Machine Dazzle, and Erin Markey, and Bushwick’s Horrorchata. Video installations will be presented through-
out the building by Dirty Looks and Big Art Group, with a visual art installation by Jeffrey Owen Ralston. DJs Average Jo, Kim Ann Foxman, and Sean B spin throughout the night in the Fishman Space. 321 Ashland Pl., btwn. Lafayette Ave. & Hanson Pl. Jun. 27, 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 at bam. org/everybooty or $25 at the door.
CABARET Uptown Express to Times Square Uptown Express, a Bistro Award-winning and seventime MAC Award-nominated male vocal pop quintet, presents “I’ve Got a Feeling,” a new show that combines classics from the Association, Manhattan Transfer, and the Four Aces with work from newer artists including John Legend and the Black Eyed Peas. Laurie Beechman Theatre, downstairs at the West Bank Café, 407 W. 42nd St. Jun. 27, 7 p.m. The show has a $20 cover charge, with a $15 food & drink minimum. Reservations at 212-695-6909.
THEATER 1956. 1 Quiche. 5 Lesbians. Do the Math. Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood have concocted a warped comedy worthy of Charles Busch. The year is 1956. The event is the annual quiche breakfast held by the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein. When communists threaten their idyllic town, hilarity ensues. After extended runs at last year's New York International Fringe Festival Encore Series and Off Broadway’s SoHo Playhouse, “5 Lesbians Eating a
The Grace Theatre Workshop presents "Busco Amigo," Lucio Fernandez’s bilingual play about a man in search of a friend within the confines of the loneliness found in city living. An avant-garde theater piece, told through dialogue, pantomime, dance, and music, this is a tale of dreams missed, hopes lost, and an individual's search for a sense of belonging in a world seemingly gray and cold. Peter DuBo directs; Megan Fernandez is the choreographer. Producers’ Club, 358 W. 44th St. Jun. 27-29, 8 p.m.; Jun. 30, 4 p.m. Tickets are $25 at smarttix.com or 212-868-4444.
COMMUNITY Elastic City Walks Elastic City, a Brooklyn-based non-profit arts organization that commissions emerging and established artists to create participatory walks throughout New York and beyond. “Spread” by Juan Betancurth, Todd Shalom, and Niegel Smith, examines the question: What do you want to spread? Butter? Jam? Legs? Rumors? On this walk, participants investigate the language and actions of spreading. The group will spread itself like a virus, disseminating secrets and offering desires to each other and passersby. All are welcome. Spread the word. This walk holds 12 people and is presented in partnership with Visual AIDS, which utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV-positive artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over. The 90-minute walk begins at 33rd St. & Broadway. Jul. 27-28, 7 p.m. Sign up at elastic-city. org/walks/spread. A $10 donation is suggested.
FRI.JUN.28
PRIDE Trans Day of Action
TransJustice, a political group for trans and gender-
nonconforming people of color, hosts the ninth annual NYC Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice. It’s a day to celebrate the resiliency of trans communities and to raise awareness of the many pressing issues that remain ahead. Christopher St. Pier, West St. at the Hudson River. Jun. 28, 2-5. For more information, email Elliott at efukui@alp.org or call 212463-0342, ext. 13.
The Rally LGBT Pride Weekend kicks off with the annual rally, commemorating the gathering of 500 “Gay Power” protesters who turned up in Washington Square Park a month after the June 1969 Stonewall Riots for a candlelight march to Sheridan Square. Pam Ann and Vicci Martinez perform. Hudson River Park Pier 26, West St., crossing at Laight St., Tribeca. Jun, 28, 7-10 p.m. Complete details at nycpride.org.
Drag Begins at Tompkins Square This year’s Drag March begins once again in Tompkins Square Park, at the Eight St. entrance. Folks gather there at 7 p.m., Jun. 28, for the march to the Stonewall Inn on Christopher St. at Gay St. The organizers — who say they were motivated to organize this event 20 years ago when those who planned the Stonewall 25 commemoration in Manhattan “asked that drag and leather folk leave their wardrobes at home” — urge everyone to turn out, clutch your pearls and put on your marching pumps, “and make Manhattan a place worth being in again.” For more information, visit the Drag March NYC 2013Facebook page.
CABARET iHeart OUTmusic The LGBTQ Academy of Recording Arts (LARA), which produces the annual OUTmusic Awards, presents the Love Equality Benefit Concert featuring artists, comedians, and allies in an intimate evening that promises unforgettable performances. Comedians Nicky Sunshine and Tom Ragu host the evening, which includes performances by Jason Walker, Sir Ari Gold, Deepa Soul, Athena Reich, Cheryl & Javonne, Dimitri Minucci, Virago, and Miss Angelina Lady Rapper. Richard DeFonzo, as Joan Rivers, provides Red Carpet commentary. Stage 72, 158 W. 72nd St. Jun. 28, 9:30 p.m. Admission is $15 at brownpapertickets.com/ event/396797, $20 at the door; plus a two-drink minimum.
PERFORMANCE Tim Miller and His Kind Acclaimed solo performer Tim Miller, joined tonight by collaborators from a week-long performance workshop he is finishing up at Manhattan’s New Museum, will take the site of the museum as a platform for navigating the gap between self-representation and the viewer’s gaze while seeking ways to confront the audience with a renewed self-awareness of their power to subjugate the meaning of any and all performative gestures. 235 Bowery, btwn. Prince &Stanton Sts. Jun. 28, 7-9 p.m. Tickets are $17 at newmuseum.org.
FRI.JUN.28, continued on p.78
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| June 26, 2013
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but it was very closeted, go in the side door and all that stuff. I was bound and determined to do this and it was the beginning of the sexual revolution, with a lot of people from San Francisco and Russian River here who were very liberated and were the core of our beginnings. I learned a lot from them, and we just took off. It was the times and I don’t know how much credit I can take. I just kept the wheels
helluva time finding a new space. But find it he did, on the second floor of the Waikiki Grand Hotel, with an open-air terrace overlooking the beach, Diamond Head, and the Honolulu Zoo. “People get nostalgic saying the old Hula’s was ‘my first gay bar’ and ‘I met my boyfriend there,’ but that was then and this is now and not too many bars – gay or straight — have as beautiful a view or such a wonderful location,” Law said. “It can rain like hell and we stay dry, and I own it! Nobody’s gonna kick me out unless I can’t make my mortgage payments.” L a w c a n ’ t imagine what his life would have been like without Magoon: “A magic carpet ride! I was at his house for dinner once with Doris Duke, her girlfriend/ adopted daughter Chandi Heffner, Jim Nabors, and Rudolf Nureyev and his boyfriend. The cook called Bob to the phone and he returned and said, ‘Imelda wants us to come over for coffee!’ Nureyev said, ‘This will be watched by the CIA, I don’t want to go,’ and neither did I, but then I said to myself, ‘Are you crazy? Of course you’ll go!’ “We drove to the Marcos’ rented house — with closed gates that had plywood over them so you couldn’t see inside. Some very unsavory Filipino guys opened them and we went up a long driveway that had five chapels with the Virgin Mary and candles burning going up to the house. Imelda and Ferdinand came out and they were having a huge fucking Filipino party! We thought it was going to be just us, but they totally ignored their entire party for us. “He was sitting in a chair in front of a huge hand-stitched seal of the Philippines, which must have made the embroiderers go blind, next to the presidential flag and a Red Skelton clown painting. So Fellini! Imelda was very interested in using Doris’ private plane, and Doris had already loaned her a lot of money. They brought the coffee and I realized that the cloth napkins had Malac añang Palac e embroidered on them. I stuffed one down my pants and still have it! What they hell, they stole it! And, yes, she did sing.”
How well I remember my first visit to Hula’s in its original magical location beneath a spreading, twinkly-lit banyan tree in Waikiki. “Hawaii has a real gay bar at last...”
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going so it could happen.” Hula’s also became renowned for its wonderful videos, which wer e the work of Adam Baran, a pioneering veejay who came to Law from mainland videobars like San Francisco’s Midnight Sun and Private Eyes in New York. “I bought him an analogue video mixer,” Law recalled, “so he could sit in a room and take old movies and whatever he could get off the air and make videos, which he’d cut to the beat of the music so we’d have stuff to play. Baran’s death from AIDS while still in his 20s was the impetus for Law creating the Adam Baron Honolulu Gay Film/ Video Festival, now known as the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival, in 1989. A half dozen years earlier, Law had launched the Life Foundation, Hawaii’s first AIDS organization. “When they first came to me about the foundation, my first reaction was, ‘This has nothing to do with Hawaii — it’s a mainland problem,’” he recalled. Everyone was in denial, but then I thought, ‘If something happened to me or my friends, I would never forgive myself for not helping out, and the first meeting of our board was around my dining room table. People started dying left and right, a funeral every month. People have no idea how horrible it was. It was exhausting to be on the board and we did everything. I did the books.” The original Hula’s, to the sorrow of many, had to move from its original location when the land was sold to put up a Niketown, and Law had a
Contact David Noh at Inthenoh@ aol.com, follow him on Facebook and Twitter @in_the_noh, and check out his blog at http://nohway. wordpress.com.
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| June 26, 2013
PRIDE
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Joining Cher will be multi-platinum-selling recording artist and equality advocate Deborah Cox, who recently starred on Broadway in the revival of “Jekyll & Hyde.” Dance on the Pier: Dance 27 will be held on Sunday, June 30, from 3-10 p.m. at Pier 26, at West Street and N. Moore Street. You must cross West Street at Laight Street. To purchase tickets, which begin at $75, visit showclix.com/event/3752803 — Troy Masters
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after the disco craze ended. Kastner also includes interviews with Michael Musto, who talks about what New York City was like in the early 70s — “skanky,” and not in a good way — and what the real feel of Studio 54 was like. Musto puts a fine point on what others express in the film — that the ‘70s were a crazy time when anything goes and everything went. The film chr onicles the end of disco and the whole “disco sucks” movement that ultimately led to punk, but surprisingly it makes no acknowledgement of ‘70s queer/ glam performers like David Bowie and Elton John. And it misses the chance to show how disco was gay America’s last hurrah of exuberant free love before the onset of AIDS. Instead, Kastner is more interested in pressing each of his subjects, including Harry Wayne Casey — KC of KC and the Sunshine Band — about whether their music was a form of protest. Despite hearing a resounding “No” across the board, he continues dancing to his own tune. In a film about a musical genre that needs to regain respect, Kastner has trouble winning respect for his underlying perspective. “The Secret Disco Revolution” is not going to change minds about what precisely it is that disco represented, but it certainly provides an affectionate trip down memory lane for its fans — secret or otherwise. The songs featured in the film are as wonderful as the archival footage and interviews. If only the film’s message and approach had been more successful.
EL DESEO PRESENTS
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candid, though they do undermine the filmmaker’s thesis. The interviews are the strongest elements in the film. Singers from Thelma Houston and Gloria Gaynor to Maxine Nightingale and Evelyn “Champagne” King offer testimony about their hard-fought efforts to cross over in an industry where radio stations often refused to play their hit records or relegated them to the R&B charts. The fact that lengthy disco songs like Donna Summer’s anthem “Love to Love You Baby” forced stations to alter their format — and squeezed on-air ad space — seems far more “revolutionary” than all the talk about Summer’s hit being a sex song, complete with female orgasms. Still, the way disco frankly embraced sexuality was significant, and Kastner is right to point out that singers like Barry White, in performing songs focused on their giving pleasure to their women, made themselves pioneers of sorts. And “The Secret Disco Revolution” is compelling in tracing how American music and its impact on society evolved. Connections are made linking Aretha Franklin to Little Kim with a disco through-line, and the film makes a case for the Hustle being a contemporary spin on the Lindy Hop. So, love it or hate it, the disco fad is significant as a cultural development. That point is underscored nicely when Martha Wash, of the Weather Girls, praises the gay community for making her song “It’s Raining Men” a queer anthem and showcasing her at pride parades years
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COURTESY: HERITAGE OF PRIDE
The pantheon of iconic stars who have performed at New York’s post-Pride Parade Dance on the Pier make for a damned impressive woman’s world — Whitney Houston, Liza Minnelli, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Hudson, Katy Perry, and Cyndi Lauper… to name just a few. Now comes Cher, the eternal. A pop music queen in the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s, she’s retired more times than a drag queen and has made just as many comebacks. And here she comes again. To the long list of legendary mega hits like “I Got You Babe,” “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves,” “Dark Lady,” “Believe,” and “If I Could Turn Back Time,” Chaz Bono’s mom hopes to add “Woman’s World,” the featured dance tune on her 26th studio album, “Closer to the Truth,” set for release on September 24. LGBT Pride 2013 revelers will likely experience one of the most remarkable Pier Dance performances to date. With expectations already high that Pride 2013 could be an over-the-top celebration of some form of victory on marriage equality at the Supreme Court, adding Cher to the mix is, well, simply explosive. Fireworks at 10.
EL DESEO PRESENTA
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TYLER CLEMENTI, from p.34
could have changed the outcome of his decision.” The foundation’s cause was not one the Clementis came to easily, but after being thrust into an international spotlight in the wake of Tyler’s suicide and the ensuing trial of Dharun Ravi (whose name was not mentioned at the forum), they had a choice between retreating and standing up. They chose the latter. “It’s out of character for me,” Joseph said. “I can do this [kind of public event], but I prefer not to.” He may have “met a lot of great people” through his work with the foundation, but, “of course, I’d rather have Tyler here,” he said. T h u s f a r, J a n e e x p l a i n e d , t h e foundation has been “going to the low-hanging fruit — people who have been coming to us. As we branch out there may be conflict. I don’t like conflict.” Wearing a necklace with a cross, Jane talked about one major conflict she has confronted — the one with her evangelical church. “They did support us through a difficult time,” she said, and even though the family did not hear “fire and brimstone from the pulpit,” whenever homosexuality was mentioned it was not positively “and that’s not good for gay or straight people to hear — not even for 30 seconds. They still feel that homosexuality is a sin. I do not feel that.” The family has left that church and is seeking another, but Jane said, “God never left me.” James said he stopped going to the chur ch in his “sophomor e or
HENRIETTA HUDSON, from p.32
ing, brings high-profile sponsorship to events, and buys her own tickets personally — she has really been the board member everyone dreams of.” Cannistraci and Marino-Thomas canvassed door -to-door last fall in the successful drive to protect the new marriage equality law in Maryland against a referendum effort to overturn it. Noting the way she has opened Henrietta’s doors to fundraisers for community groups like ME/ USA, the Empire State Pride Agend a , a n d t h e N e w Yo r k C i t y A n t i Vi o l e n c e P r o j e c t , H o y l m a n s a i d , “She is incredibly generous to the neighborhood with her space. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been at Henrietta Hudson’s for
June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com junior year of high school” before he understood himself as gay. The youth group there, he said, “really focused on sexual immorality — and same-sex attractions were seen as the worst.” James also expressed concer n about the anti-gay messages fostered by the nation’s civic sphere, citing the 38 states that ban samesex marriage. Bruni asked if Jane’s action in leaving her church changed anyone’s attitude. “I might have challenged their thinking,” she said, “but there was no change. There was also no hostility.” Asked what schools can do to help their gay students, James responded, “You can’t wait until a student is in crisis. They need to know where to turn” from the first day of school. “They need to know that schools are safe spaces,” he added. N e w Yo r k S t a t e h a s a s c h o o l anti-bullying law and city schools observe a Respect for All Week to foster mutual support, but few work comprehensively to create climates of respect on a day-in, day-out basis — though there are exceptions. The Clementis ar e particularly focused on higher education, which they feel has been neglected as antibullying programs grow in primary and secondary schools. “Rutgers is working on best practices,” Jane said, including having more housing options and inquiring on housing applications, “Are you LGBT -friendly?” The family worked with US Senator Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, up until his recent death on a federal Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act. The
measure has not yet gotten through Congress — and has drawn some criticism that it compromises First Amendment rights — but will be brought up again in 2014. Beyond the narrative of Tyler’s humiliation, I asked if the family could shed any more light on Tyler’s suicide. Jane said she is familiar with depression and did not perceive him as a depressive. Joseph spoke of Tyler’s penchant for “not asking for help” and being determined to “solve his problems on his own.” He conceded, however, that ultimately, “we
a community or political event.” (She invites charities to contact her at info@henriettahudson.com if they are trying to put a fundraiser together.) Cannistraci’s immediate preoccupation, however, is an event schedu l e d for Satur d a y eveni ng, J une 29, the eve of the big Pride Parade in Manhattan. She is planning for the 2,500 women expected to flock to the Beekman Beach Club at the South Street Seaport after the Dyke March for Siren — The NYC Pride Beach Party. “It’s a very inter national crowd, and I’m creating a great space for the world of lesbians to hang out,” Cannistraci said. “It’s big enough, it’s beautiful, magical, and the best party of the year. You can enjoy the beach or lounge on inflatable couch-
es, and you have a view of the river and three gorgeous bridges.” Party producer Sir Sabrina Haley said she and Cannistraci worked together on many parties and political events over the years before joining forces on Siren. “ We e n d e d u p s p e n d i n g s o m e downtime during the summer at her beach house, and she mentioned she wanted me to get on boar d,” Haley said. “She offered me the chance to become a partner to throw this big, awesome party, and that’s how Siren happened!” She explained that the party’s unique location was a big draw in her mind. “It’s great because you want to be outside on Pride,” Haley said. “Here, you can dance under the tent side but you can also can sit on the
have no way to know.” Throughout the forum, the Clementis demonstrated how keenly they have grasped and how well they are able to convey the problem of antigay prejudice and bullying. Engaging bystanders and making kindness “cool” will be key concepts in their campaign. Tur ning their passion into concrete progress on things like legislation and institutional policies faces many hurdles. But their personal witness, wrought from bitter tragedy, is the biggest asset they bring to the fight.
TYLER CLEMENTI’S DEATH AND THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE In March 2012, Dharun Ravi was convicted of all 15 counts he was indicted for related to his webcam spying on Tyler Clementi. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, three years probation, and 300 hours of community service, given a $10,000 fine, and required to receive counseling on cyberbullying and sexual orientation issues. Ravi served his sentence and is appealing the conviction. Prosecutors are appealing the lightness of the sentence. Those appeals are not expected to be heard until the middle of next year. N e w Yo r k g a y a c t i v i s t B i l l Dobbs, who attended the trial but not the Times forum, wrote in an
email, “Ravi’s wrongdoing was callous,” but he is critical of “how crime victims and their survivors are allowed far too much influence on the criminal justice system and [of] the wrong-headedness of hate crimes laws.” Despite the help they got as survivors, Jane Clementi said the trial was “a frustrating time — it was like being trapped in re-runs of ‘Law and Order’ and I couldn’t wake up.” Her husband, Joseph, said he was “basically satisfied with the way it was adjudicated,” but was surprised at the way sentencing was handled. “Judges give suspended sentences all the time, though,” he added. — Andy Humm
beach under the bridges.” Haley has secured DJs Roxy Cottontail, a former party promoter who mixes up dance, electro, hip-hop, and reggae, and Heather McAlpin, a house music aficionado, to spin while guests dance the night away on the venue’s expansive dance floor. Haley praised the two women as “musically, very ahead of the game.” Siren — The NYC Pride Beach Party will be held June 29 from 9 p.m.-4 a.m. at the Beekman Beach Club at the South Street Seaport. T ickets are $25 at boxofficetickets. com/siren, or $30 at the door. For more infor mation, visit the party’s Facebook page. A portion of the evening’s proceeds will benefit Marriage Equality USA.
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
CRIME
Assembly Approves Bill Barring Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution BY GERARD FLYNN & PAUL SCHINDLER
N
ew York City has the nation’s largest HIV/ AIDS population, and no responsible public health official would ever advise against carrying condoms. But that’s exactly the decision made by some in the LGBT community as well as the sex industry. They are leaving them behind for fear that if police find condoms in their possession they could face prostitution charges, because of a state law that allows prosecutors to use prophylactics as evidence in court. Those hoping to remove that disincentive to safe sex practices, however, amped up their visibility in recent weeks — most dramatically when the State Assembly, on the final day of the regular session, approved a bill sponsored by Queens Democratic Assemblywoman Barbara Clark that would bar prosecutors from using such evidence. “Today’s action by the New York State Assembly brings us one step closer to making history as the first state in the country to enact legislation that prohib-
its police and prosecutors from confiscating and introducing condoms as evidence of intent to engage in prostitutionrelated offenses,” said Andrea Ritchie, a member of the No Condoms as Evidence Coalition, which includes more than 70 organizations, in a June 21 release. The bill has not yet been taken up by the State Senate, where it is sponsored by Brooklyn Democrat Velmanette Montgomery, and with the Legislature having ended its regular 2013 session, action there is unlikely until at least 2014. Opponents of the existing statute, including several district attorneys or their representatives and members of the New York City Council, rallied for change at a June 6 City Hall press conference, demanding passage of the Clark-Montgomery bill. Council members and state legislators, as well as representatives of legal, human rights, and gay groups, told the rally that discouraging members of the LGBT community and sex workers from carrying condoms promotes the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, an ironic, even “schizophrenic” twist since the city runs a campaign
DONNA ACETO
Advocates, Council members, some law enforcement officials step up pressure; no Senate action
Advocates pressed the State Legislature to bar the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution at a June 6 City Hall rally.
promoting condom use to prevent the spread of STDs and to stop unwanted pregnancies. Existing law, advocates said, particularly targets members of the transgender community. Johanna Vasquez, who is transgender, told the crowd of roughly 40 about being stopped by police several years ago as she walked along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. Despite pleading her innocence, the discovery of a single condom in her posses-
sion landed her in jail for a year, she said, due in part to her immigration status. A H u m a n R i g h t s Wa t c h r e p o r t released last July documented in alarming language how sex workers and others, particularly transgender women, face arrest for possession of condoms. The arrests involve “degrading treatment and abuse at the hands of the police,” the report asserted. “For immigrants, arrest for prostitution offenses can mean detention and removal from the United States.” Socheatta Meng, legislative counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the pending legislation a matter of good public health policy and common sense and said it would encourage all New Yorkers, especially individuals stopped repeatedly by the police, to use condoms. Jim Vogel, a Senate aide to Montgomery, voiced optimism the measure would eventually triumph, despite the fact that since 1999, it has repeatedly “died in committee,” according to the Senate website. That record isn’t deterring some
CONDOMS, continued on p.77
Let Freedom Ring
G AYC I T Y N E WS .CO M FRANCESCO@GAYCITYNEWS.COM 646-452-2496
77
| June 26, 2013
GENDA, from p.31
his group met with, for failing the transgender community. “When they announced that they were breaking away from the Democrats, they said they were committed to getting progressive legislation done,” he said. “We were profoundly disappointed that the bill did not get an up or down vote.” Schaefer noted that even with endorsements from leading law enforcement officials, GENDA advocates were willing to go one step further on the socalled “bathroom issue” with compromise language that essentially stated that anything currently a crime would remain a crime. That concession was made without bargaining away any of the public accommodations protections
CONDOMS, from p.76
members of the City Council — including Stephen Levin of Brooklyn, Jessica Lappin of Manhttan, and Jimmy Van Bramer and Daniel Dromm of Queens — who are pushing for a resolution in support of the bill. The law needs to change, Levin said, so “we can treat everyone fairly and with dignity.” Some prosecutors, including Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes,
that transgender civil rights measures in some other jurisdictions have sacrificed, he said. Asked what it would take to bring the measure across the finish line, Schaefer implicitly returned the conversation to a critique of the IDC’s failure, saying, “We need a leadership configuration that can bring the bill to a vote.” And he rejected the notion that Cuomo bore any responsibility for the Senate’s inaction. Saying that advocates met “daily with the administration at the highest levels” and that “throughout the process it was very well known that the governor supported the bill,” he said, “This was really an issue of the Legislature.” Melissa Sklarz, a transgender rights activist who has worked on GENDA for the past decade, said Savino offered her
feedback that advocates needed to put “more voices and more faces” in front of the Senate, an assessment Sklarz rejected. As the final hours of the session wound down, Sklarz said, Savino was “too busy” to meet with her, but fellow IDC member David Carlucci of Rockland County told her “he could not understand” why GENDA wasn’t getting a vote. Schaefer argued that — given GENDA’s strong polling and the progress made this year on educating senators — if Senate leadership were willing to step up, there is no reason GENDA could not win approval next year, despite the customary assumption that tough votes are best avoided during an election year. Sklarz was less upbeat on that score, noting that for the Conservative Party, GENDA is a litmus issue that could
spawn primary challenges to Republicans who vote yes. She said that factor made it difficult to get traction on the bill last year, a problem that might recur in 2014. Several weeks ago, the bill’s lead sponsor, Brooklyn/ Manhattan Democratic Senator Daniel Squadron, told Gay City News, “Let me be clear, the GOP and IDC control the floor.” After the Legislature left Albany, he said, "It is incredibly disappointing that the Senate leadership again refused to bring GENDA to a vote... We've worked to address the concerns raised by senators, yet the bill was still killed in a back room… The Senate leadership's failure to bring GENDA to a vote demonstrates a fear of forcing senators to stand up for or against basic civil rights."
have taken action to stop the use of condoms as evidence in criminal and civil trials. His Nassau County counterpart, Kathleen Rice, told the press conference about her office’s comprehensive policy banning the use of condoms as evidence in any prostitution-related cases, including trafficking cases. (Her office’s recent publication of pictures of more than 100 men arrested for soliciting sex, in a campaign dubbed “Operation Flush the Johns,” however, has raised eyebrows
among civil liberties advocates.) Not all local district attorneys share the position taken by Hynes and Rice. Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown released a statement to Gay City News asserting that though prostitution cases rarely go to trial in that borough, “condom evidence can be very useful in other prostitution-related offenses, such as closing down brothels and holding pimps and sex traffickers accountable.” Council Speaker Christine Quinn,
though not present at the June 6 press conference, wants the law changed. “No person anywhere should have to refrain from carrying condoms for fear of arrest or prosecution,” she said in a written statement. “Condoms are life-saving devices and should not be used as evidence.” Condom use, she continued, “should be encouraged — never discouraged. Although we have made advances in the fight against HIV/ AIDS, the disease continues its devastating toll on our communities.”
78
MICHAEL LUONGO
June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
FRI.JUN.28, from p.70
Turning Waters into Wines Borrowing a page from the rapid-fire comic and monologue greats, legendary filmmaker John Waters presents a one-man show chronicling an oeuvre that has traversed “Mondo Trasho,” “Pink Flamingos,” “Female Trouble,” “Hairspray,” “Serial Mom,” and “A Dirty Shame” — but never left Baltimore! City Winery, 155 Varick St. at Vandam St. Jun. 28-29, 8 p.m. The cover charge is $45-$60 at citywinery.com. On each evening, the show is preceded at 6 p.m. by a private meet & greet dinner with Waters in the private cellar dining room, featuring a three-course meal paired with three wines created on premises in Manhattan’s only functioning winery. The $170 charge for the dinner includes admission to the 8 p.m. show.
FILM Doing the Continental Documentary filmmaker Malcolm Ingram (“Small Town Gay Bar,” “Bear Nation”) goes back to the sexually charged New York of 1968, when the Continental Baths opened in the basement of the Ansonia Building on Broadway and Amsterdam Ave. Advertised as a venue “for sophisticated men only,” it became famous not only for its sexual free-for-all, but also its status as a cultural beacon to the hip, beautiful, and infamous. It became a crucial training ground in the careers of Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Patti LaBelle, Peter Allen, and many others. In making “Continental,” Ingram had assistance from its owner and proprietor, Steve Ostrow, allowing him an inside look at this cultural keystone in the sexual revolution and the emergence of gay America. Presented as part of BAMcinemaFest, Peter Jay Sharp Building, BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Pl., Fort Greene. Jun. 28, 6:45 p.m. Tickets are $14 at bam.org.
couples newly commissioned texts from contemporary artists and writers with archival objects drawn from the Downtown Collection at NYU’s Fales Library. Curator Andrew Blackley has organized text contributions from Julie Ault, Dodie Bellamy, Gregg Bordowitz, Nancy Brooks Brody, Elijah Burgher, Kathe Burkhart, Sean Carrillo, Peter Cramer, Matthias Herrmann, Jim Hubbard, Doug Ischar, William E. Jones, John Keene, Kevin Killian, Nathanaël, John Neff, Uzi Parnes, Mary Patten, Nina Sobell, Ela Troyano, Ultra-red, Jack Waters, Joe Westmoreland, and Danh Vo. Fales Library, 70 Washington Sq. So., btwn. LaGuardia & University Pls., third fl. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5:45 p.m., through Jul. 27. For more information, email info@visualaids.org or visit visualaids.org.
What’s Good for the Goose… In “The Catalog,” works first published by Bend Over Magazine in 2011, Danish-born Goodyn Green, who now works in Berlin, presents an exhibition of nudes of queer women inspired by poses seen in gay male magazines. Strange Loop Gallery, 27 Orchard St., btwn. Canal & Hester Sts. Through Jun. 30, noon-6 p.m. More information at strangeloopgallery.com.
AT THE BEACH Well Packaged Fun Michael Musto, late of the Village Voice, has called it "phenomenal," and tonight New Orleans partyboy Andy Evans plays guest host. The event is Daniel Nardicio's Dworld Underwear Party at the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove. Jun. 28, 11 p.m. The heated pool opens at 2 a.m. for a late night skinny dip. Admission is $15. There are special 2, 3 & 3:30 a.m. water taxis back to the Pines and Undergear Underwear giveaways and massages from the guys from MMX.
SAT.JUN.29
PRIDE Dykes in Charge
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$35-$35 at brownpapertickets.com/event/367359 or 800-838-3006.
sidelines and give dykes center stage. First organized by the Lesbian Avengers in 1993, the Dyke March brings out an estimated 20,000 participants every year, one day before the Pride March. Gather at Bryant Park, 42nd St. at Sixth Ave., Jun. 29, 5 p.m. The march heads down Fifth to Washington Sq, Pk., where you may decide to cool off in the fountains before heading out for your evening. If you wish to participate as a marshal, visit the New York City Dyke March Facebook page.
PERFORMANCE Bawdy Heads Off on Hiatus Jesse Luttrell’s “Bawdy,” New York’s biggest little vaudeville, brings together cabaret, drag, and comedy performers of all classifications and orders in a celebration of adult variety paying homage to vaudeville, burlesque, and the hit television variety shows of the 1950s and ‘60s. Tonight’s show, the last prior to a summer hiatus, welcomes Justin Valentine, Didi Panache & Lady Winifred, and “So You Think You Can Drag" finalist Nomi Sas. Stage 72, 158 W. 72nd St. Jun. 29, 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $19-$29 at brownpapertickets.com/ event/346861.
Wild Women on the River Rapture on the River, NYC Pride’s official women’s event, celebrates its 10th anniversary with a spectacular Tribeca dance on the Hudson River. DJ Dimples, a Miami favorite, gets the party started, followed by headliner DJ Whitney Day, who will bring down the house. Pier 26, West St. at N. Moore, with crossing at Laight St. Jun. 29, 3-10 p.m. Tickets begin at $25 at showclix.com/ event/3751629; $1,500 will get you and nine friends a private pier cabana and Skyy bottle service.
SUN.JUN.30
Up on the Roof! NYC Pride, producer of the weekends events in Manhattan, presents a March Eve VIP rooftop party. With a plush interior and a retractable terrace roof, there is no way that anything will rain on this parade. DJs Serving Ovahness, Marco Da Silva, and Frankie Knuckles, spinning together for the first time, promise to burn up the dance floors. Hudson Terrace, 621 W. 46th St. Jun. 29, 2 p.m.-10 p.m. Tickets begin at $59 at showclix.com/ event/3752808.
Exploring Our Herstory The Lesbian Herstory Archives hosts a tour and open house. If you’ve always meant to visit and haven’t gotten around to it, here is your chance. 484 14th St., btwn. Eighth Ave. & Prospect Pk. W., Park Slope. Jun., noon-4 p.m. More information at lesbianherstoryarchives.org.
MICHAEL LUONGO
COMEDY Pounding Out those Jokes
PRIDE The Main Event
A quarter century ago, Paula Poundstone, a high school drop-out, rode Greyhound buses to hit as many open mic nights around the country. Now, this out lesbian is acknowledged as one of America’s great humorists and is a regular panelist on NPR’s popular “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” The Ice Palace, Main Walk, Cherry Grove, Fire Island. Jun. 29, 8 p.m. Tickets are
Visual AIDS, a group that utilizes art to fight the epidemic by provoking dialogue, supporting those who are HIV-positive, and preserving a legacy, presents “Not only this, but ‘New language beckons us,'” which
DONNA ACETO
GALLERY Putting New Words to Life-Altering Experiences
The world’s biggest Pride celebration, Manhattan’s LGBT Pride Parade began in 1970, one year after the Stonewall Riots, and has been an annual show of visibility, demonstration for civil rights, part of the fight against AIDS, and big old party ever since. This year’s grand marshals are Edith Windsor, whose challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, is before the Supreme Court; entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, and Earl Fowlkes, president of the Center for Black Equity, which has worked to organize black pride events for the past 14 years. The march begins at 36th St. & Fifth Ave. at noon sharp (line up at 11 a.m.) and travels down Fifth Ave. to the West Village, where it ends at Christopher & Greenwich Sts. A reviewing stand of judges will bestow awards for Best Use of Theme, Best Marching Contingent, Best Decorated Vehicle, Best Musical Contingent, and Most Original. For complete information, visit the NYC Pride Facebook page or nycpride.org.
SUN.JUN.30, continued on p.80
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DONNA ACETO
PARK SLOPE CELEBRATES LGBT PRIDE
DONNA ACETO DONNA ACETO
DONNA ACETO
DONNA ACETO
DONNA ACETO
The 17th annual celebration of LGBT Pride in Brooklyn included a 5k run in Prospect Park on the morning of June 8, followed by a street festival on Park Slopeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fifth Avenue and an evening parade through the neighborhood. The parade included grassroots activists like those from Queer Rising and the Lesbian Herstory Archives, plenty of young people like a dancer affiliated with the Ali Forney Project and a group of spectators with attitude, and some Brooklyn-grown politicians, including former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is running for mayor, and City Councilwoman Letitia James, who is seeking the job of city public advocate.
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finds solace in his relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, and Ernesto evades his life at home with his ex-boyfriend by spending time in the hospital with an ailing past love (Aug. 2, 10 p.m.; Aug. 4, 2 p.m.); and “The Wedding Banquet,” Ang Lee’s celebrated comedy about a gay New Yorker who stages a marriage of convenience with a young woman in need of a green card to satisfy his traditional Taiwanese family (Aug. 3, 9 p.m.). The ShowRoom Cinema, 707 Cookman Ave. at Bond St., Downtown Asbury Park. Tickets are $10 at theshowroomap.com.
SUN.JUN.30, from p.78
It’s All About the Deckchairs — and the Ice
LYNNEJORDAN.COM
Pride {Poolside} is the newest event of NYC Pride’s package of festivities, this is one courtesy of Hed Kandi, known for its fab parties and house music. Sip cocktails while sitting on the sundeck of Hotel Americano, 518 W. 27th St. Jun. 30, noon-6 p.m. Tickets begin at $35 at showclix.com/event/3751627. For complete information, visit the NYC Pride Facebook page or nycpride.org.
The Street Festival PrideFest, now in its 20th year, is NYC Pride’s LGBT street fair, combining vendors, entertainers, and fun. Stop by to listen to a few tunes, grab a bite to eat, or score some Pride gear. Hudson St., btwn. Abingdon Sq. & W. 14th St. Jun. 30, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information, visit the NYC Pride Facebook page or nycpride.org.
Last Dance The cap-off to Pride Weekend is the Dance on the Pier, now in its 27th year. As NYC Pride announced on June 18, the headliner for this year’s dance is none other than Cher, who will be previewing her new CD — “Closer to the Truth,” her 26th, out in September. Deborah Cox, who starred in the recent revival of “Jekyll and Hyde,” also performs. DJs include Dave Audé, Oscar G, and Luis Perez. Pier 26, West St. at N. Moore St. (cross West St. at Laight St.). Jun. 30, 3-10 p.m. Tickets began at $75 at showclix.com/event/3752803. For more information, visit the NYC Pride Facebook page or nycpride.org. The dance is followed by a spectacular farewell to Pride fireworks over the Hudson River.
THEATER An Italian Funeral — And Another Wedding Staten Island native Anthony Wilkinson (“Boys Just Wanna Have Fun,” “My Big Gay Italian Wedding,” both Off-Broadway) presents his latest show, “My Big Gay Italian Funeral.” This sequel to “Wedding” kills off the father, introduces a longestranged gay brother, and crams everything imaginable into a big Italian wake. Emmy-winner Sonia Blangiardo directs. St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 W. 46th St. Sun., 7 p.m. , running through Aug. (The revival of “Wedding” runs Sat., 8 p.m.) Tickets are $69.50 at telecharge.com or 212-239-6200.
TUE.JUL.2
CABARET Windy City Blues
Backed by an extraordinary musical ensemble, the Shivers, Lynne Jordan, a Chicago songstress whom Eric Clapton has hailed as “great,” performs a musical tribute to the late — and, yes, great —Nina Simone. City Winery, 155 Varick St. at Vandam St. Jul. 2, 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 at citywinery.com.
WED.JUL.3
THEATER Unbroken, But Breaking You Up
Set in 1970 Galveston, Texas, James Wesley’s “Unbroken Circle” tells the story of a family brought together for the first time in years on the day of its patriarch's funeral. As the day turns into night, the man's impact on his family unfolds in unexpected and surprising ways. At turns hilarious and disturbing, “Unbroken Circle” explores how abuse and family secrets affect every person in each generation differently. The play stars Stacey Bone-Gleason, Lori Hammel, Suzanna Hay, Anika Larsen, Eve Plumb, James Wesley, and Juli Wesley, and is directed by Jason St. Little. St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 W. 46th St. Wed., 2:30 & p.m., through Jul. 31. Tickets are $36.50-$59.50 at telecharge.com.
FRI.JUL.5
FILM Chillfest Heads to Asbury Park
Customarily presented in Jersey City, the LGBT film series Chillfest heads to the beach for the summer — specifically to Asbury Park. The summer schedule includes Ashton Christian’s “Petunia,” about a young gay man clinging to the idea that celibacy is the best way to go through life while standing at the center of a family that has a storied history of avoiding real feelings (Jul. 5, 10 p.m.; Jul. 7, 2 p.m.); Curtis Hansen’s “Wonderboys,” a campus farce in which Robert Downey, Jr., has a brilliant turn as a rambunctious gay book editor (Jul. 6, 9 p.m.); Thom Fitzgerald’s “Cloudburst,” a foul-mouthed lesbian road movie starring Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis (Jul.19, 10 p.m.; Jul.21, 4 p.m.); Mike Nichols’ “Silkwood,” the true story of a poisoned nuclear materials plant worker who dies in a mysterious car accident while trying to expose the scandal, which features Cher as the lesbian buddy of heroine Karen Silkwood, played by Meryl Streep (Jul. 20, 9 p.m.); Yen Tan’s “Pitstop,” a story about small-town America in which Gabe, a man recovering from an ill-fated affair with a married man,
SAT.JUL.6
CABARET One Child Born
CLASSICAL Philharmonic Prospects The New York Philharmonic, as part of its summer parks program, visits Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, for an evening of Dvorák’s “Cello Concerto” and Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 5.” Albert Gilbert conducts, and Carter Brey is the featured cellist. Long Meadow ball fields, near Prospect Park W. & Ninth St., Park Slope. Jul. 10, 8 p.m. Admission is free, but make sure to bring a blanket. Fireworks follow after the concert.
THU.JUL.11
The late Laura Nyro, a Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famer, was a singer/ songwriter revered by her peers who wrote such hits as “Stoned Cold Picnic,” “And When I Die,” “Stoney End,” “Save the Country,” “Eli’s Coming,” and “Wedding Bell Blues.” Kate Ferber, a singer, musician, and actor, digs into Nyro's disarming song catalogue in an original 75-minute tour de force written by Ferber and Louis Greenstein and directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt. Ferber sings the bisexual artist’s songs and, in between each, portrays 10 people touched by her life and work. Joe’s Pub, inside the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., btwn. Fourth St. & Astor Pl. Jul. 6, 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 at joespub.com or 212-867-7555.
FLOANNE.COM
BENEFIT Mentoring Our Youth Live Out Loud, which works to inspire and empower LGBT youth by connecting them with successful LGBT professionals in their community, hosts its fifth annual LGBT Pride fundraiser in the Hamptons. The evening includes cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, a silent auction focused on interior design and fine art, fine East Hampton dining, and dancing all night long. The venue is the waterfront home of Bruce T. Sloane, 21 North Bay Lane, East Hampton. Jul. 6, from 6 p.m. Tickets begin at $195 at liveoutloud.info.
WED.JUL.10
CABARET Flight of the Little Sparrow French singer and actress Floanne recounts the story of Edith Piaf, the Little Sparrow whose husky, mournful voice was a cultural phenom in the 1940s and ‘50s. Floanne will embody the legend by interpreting Piaf’s melodies from her pint of view as a child. Joe’s Pub, inside the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., btwn. Fourth St. & Astor Pl. Jul. 11, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 at joespub.com or 212-867-7555.
SAT.JUL.13
CABARET Nalbone Scores a Duplex
BENEFIT Pride Agenda Does the Hamptons
Singer and model Gregory Nalbone heats up an already hot July stage at the Duplex, bringing his assured vocals, signature style, and sexy edge to an impressive range of standards, ballads, and pop — from Gershwin to Jagger and beyond. Debbi Burdett directs, and David Schaefer is on piano. 61 Christopher St. at Seventh Ave. S., in Sheridan Sq. Jul. 10 & 31, 9:30 p.m.; Jul 17 & 24, 7 p.m. The cover charge is $15 at the duplex.com or 212-255-5438, with a two-drink minimum.
The Empire State Pride Agenda’s Hamptons Tea Dance is an afternoon of dancing and fun — including lots of fun for the little ones — that annually attracts hundreds of supporters of New York’s statewide LGBT lobby organization. This year’s event honors the memory of ESPA board member M.J. Vineburgh. DJ Lady Bunny keeps the beat going. ArtHamptons, the Ark Project, 60 Millstone Road near Scuttle Hole Rd., Water Mill. Jul. 13, 4-8 p.m. Tickets are $150 at prideagenda.org.
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POLITICIANS CELEBRATE PRIDE & THEIR LGBT SUPPORT
Are you a gay-owned business or professional?
DONNA ACETO
The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce LGBT-2-B Committee
If it’s June, there’s a good chance you’ve received a Pride celebration invitation or email notice from one or more elected officials. On June 10 at the Great Hall at Cooper Union, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and her out lesbian and gay colleagues — Rosie Mendez, Daniel Dromm, and Jimmy Van Bramer — hosted their annual salute to Pride, honoring Tony Award-winning playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein (seen here with Quinn), former State Senator Tom Duane, Katherine Tabares, an immigration activist from Make the Road NY, Hudson Taylor, founder and executive director of Athlete Ally, a group that support LGBTs in sports, Madeline Mardiks, a city middle school student who collected nearly 250 books for the Council’s LGBT Book Drive, Gay Men’s Health Crisis CEO Marjorie Hill, and singer and actor Tituss Burgess. Two days later at the LGBT Community Center, City Comptroller John Liu held his annual Pride event, honoring Aires M. Liao, co-founder of Q-WAVE, the Asian Pride Project, and an executive board member at the National Queer Asian and Pacific Islander Alliance, Charles Ober, a co-founder of the Queens Pride House, Janet Weinberg (seen here with the comptroller), the chief operating officer at Gay Men’s Health
Salute to Gay Pride Find out how the Chamber supports LGBT owned businesses and professionals through its Business Accelerator Program, professional networking, member benefits, business advocacy and other programs.
LGBT Professional Networking July 23, 2013 • 6 -8 PM Crisis, and Jim Smith, a member of the steering committee at the Staten Island LGBT Community Center and an online blogger at the Staten Island Advance. Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate and, like Liu and Quinn, a candidate for mayor, proved he too has good friends in the LGBT community. At a May 12 campaign event at the Cutting Room, he and his wife Chirlane McCray are seen with Alan Cumming and Cynthia Nixon.
Sign Up To Toot Your Own Horn & Promote Your Business Make New Contacts • Raffle Of Great Prizes Free Appetizers • Drink Specials Hosted by Heartland Brewery Times Square location, 127 W. 43rd St. • 646.366.0235 RSVP to events@manhattancc.org
www.gaycitynews.com
www.manhattancclgbt.org
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212 473 7875 • manhattancclgbt.org
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wire walkers, sword swallowers, physical comedy, Kung Fu juggling, clown bands, trained rats, stripping clowns, living cartoons, a heavy metal magician, a cougar contortionist, and a cowboy from the Bronx. Mainstage; $10.
Tuesday, July 2 7:30 p.m.
The 22nd annual HOT! Festival holds its OPENING NIGHT PARTY. Get friendly with all the HOT! artists, enjoy frosty $5 cocktail specials, and catch sneak previews of upcoming HOT! Shows. Cocktail lounge; free admission..
DIXON PLACE
7:30 p.m. In “HAIL TO THE V,” Liliana Velasquez and Chewy May lead an eclectic group of musicians, performance artists, and stand-up comedians all tired of the negative, degrading view in comedy of women and the vagina, a place we all came out of. This is not a lesbian show. It’s a show about life, tragedy, and laughter. Cocktail lounge; free admission..
In an evening hosted by Bindlestiff Family Cirkus cofounder Keith Nelson, “THE BINDLESTIFF OPEN STAGE VARIETY SHOW” celebrates works in progress, emerging artists, and professionals trying something new. It’s a nonstop variety show experience with aerial artists,
Saturday, July 6 7:30 p.m.
M. Lamar's “SURVEILLANCE, PUNISHMENT, AND THE BLACK PSYCHE” is a plantation fantasy exploring surveillance from the point of view of a black man condemned to death for the murder of his male overseer with whom he has fallen in love. In this new music theater piece for countertenor and piano, Lamar plunges the deepest darkest depths of interracial desire. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
The HOT! Festival is Dixon Place’s 22nd annual celebration of queer culture in New York City. Dixon Place’s mainstage and cocktail lounge — at 161A Chrystie Street, between Rivington and Delancey Streets on the Lower East Side — are the venues for all performances. A festival highlight this year is Lea DeLaria and Maggie Cassella’s “Loudest Show on Earth” (see page 88), staged July 12-13, 19-20, and 26-17. A summary of all performances through July 20 appears below For performances through August 3, pick up the July 10 issue of Gay City News.
DICK MITCHELL
7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 5 7:30 p.m.
In Dandy Darkly's “GORY HOLE!,” a peasant girl learns the true meaning of “fashion victim!” A rural Georgia town hides its most shameful secrets! A zombie plague decimates disco-era dandies! Original musical compositions by Adam Tendler and Jeffrey Marsh. Cocktail lounge; free admission..
Tuesday, July 9 7:30 p.m.
“COMMUNITAS,” a new literary series at Dixon Place, captures the times we are in and moving toward — continuing the tradition of a downtown art space where so many parts of the worlds of art and culture and New York City converge. Frank J. Miles curates. Cocktail lounge; $6.
Monday, July 8 7:30 p.m.
Brad Bradley’s “B SQUARED” is a light evening of silly songs, poignant melodies with friends, and queer stories that will make you giggle and smile. Its goes beyond the surface, but honestly not much. Cocktail lounge; free admission..
ROMO
In “A NIGHT OUT WITH…,” Xavier "Momma" Rice and a posthumous Bea Arthur (Fil Vocasek) arrive at the theater, each prepared for their one-person show. Mamma, a black queen from the wrong side of Kansas and the right side of fabulous, has a night of storytelling and songs prepared, while Arthur, back from the dead, is here to share her wisdom about things on both sides of the grave. It’s soon apparent these two frenemies must combine forces and insights to right some wrongs, sing some songs, show some skin, and skewer perceptions of homo, hero, and history. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
7 p.m.
Melissa Li and Kit Yan’s “INTERSTATE” is a new concert musical following the drama of a queer Asian-American band on their first crosscountry tour. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
In a split bill, Jack Shamblin presents “FUCK MIA,” in which gender-queer performer Mia Kunter either becomes a reality TV star or runs away with her Pakistani anarchist lover. Both offers occur through video chat, with urgent pressure and big sacrifices. Shamblin creates a scathing 75-minute comedy using actual texts from online heterosexual lovers of his alter ego Mia Kunter and themes from the anarchist book “WORK,” published by Crimethinc. Choreographer Robert Maynard’s “THE BEAUTIFULS” is a blatant admission of self-love as a way to express the innate egotism present in all performance. Robert has the audacity to ask you to come and watch him dance, sing, and show off to some of his favorite songs. Accompanied by dancer Jean McLocklin (whom Robert bossed around in every rehearsal), the two twirl and twirl in the chaos and unbridled joy of being talented, gorgeous, young, and utterly fabulous. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
7:30 p.m.
Monday, July 1
7:30 p.m.
In a split bill, Li Cata presents “INTERSUBJECTIVITY,” a study of the fragmentation of form and identity. It tears apart and patches together elements of contemporary dance, queer performance art, and circus to convey the alien ways queers reach out to the world. Megan Gendell and Laura Feldman present “COMMAS ALONG THE WATER,” three short circus pieces that explore the nature of meetings, connections, and departures. Cocktail lounge; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
10 p.m.
Wednesday, July 3
Lea DeLaria joins Maggie Cassella in "Loudest Show on Earth," beginning July 12.
7:30 p.m.
Croft Vaughn is PENELOPE LABRADOODLE ROCKEFELLER, a feral raconteur, ersatz chanteuse, and inner beauty consultant who rose to fame on the International Country Western Line Dance Circuit. There, she discovers a magical superpower that comes with great responsibility — her white male privilege! Cocktail lounge; free admission..
Wednesday, July 10 7:30 p.m.
“THE MAD LOVER IN ME IS THE CRAZY ARTIST IN YOU” is based on the real-life adventures of two eccentric expatriates who find love in New York City and transform their private lives into a public exhibit of mischief and art. Filip Noterdaeme and Daniel Isengart star, with appearances by Penny Arcade, Phoebe Legere, and Flotilla DeBarge Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
7:30 p.m. Jason Black and Jill Pangallo are the lively hosts of their very own, very special, monthly talk show, “CRAFT FOR YOUR LIFE,” in the Dixon Place Lounge. In addition to imparting crafting joy and wisdom, J & J feature some of the most talented, entertaining, and good looking
HOT FEST, continued on p.88
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| June 26, 2013 EDIE WINSOR, from p.9
DOMA always was, a statute whose sole purpose was to denigrate gay and lesbian people.” The 1996 law, she said, imposed numerous hardships on couples legally married in their home states — “the unfair burden of the inheritance tax, the loss of Social Security benefits, the lack of leave from their jobs for a spouse’s illness, and the lack of proper notification when a soldier falls in the line of duty.” Kaplan’s co-counsel on the case, James Esseks, who heads up the LGBT & AIDS Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, described Windsor’s victory as a “watershed moment” — the fall of “the last federal law that requires discrimination against gay and lesbian people.” US law had previously outlawed the hiring of homosexuals, their hiring by businesses with government contracts, the entry of gay and lesbian people into the US, and military service by openly gay soldiers. The DOMA case, he said, was a “capstone to decades” of efforts. “We dumped DOMA,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the
New York Civil Liberties Union, which worked with its affiliate, the ACLU, and Kaplan. “It was certifiably a failed marriage law.” Windsor, who received rock star treatment from many admirers who flocked to the Center for the press event, was exultant over the ruling, saying, “We won everything we asked for and hoped for.” Acknowledging that many people have asked her, “Why are you suing the United States of America over a tax bill,” she next said, “Thea and I loved each other for more than 40 years.” When a reporter asked her what love is, Windsor at first said there are many types of loves, then alluded to the excitement of her sexual relationship with Spyer, admitting that her late wife always insisted they “keep it hot.” Barely missing a beat, Windsor then quoted at some length a W.H. Auden poem about romantic love. Insisting that the two-and-a-half years of DOMA litigation she endured were “joyous, just joyous,” Windsor said, “If I had to survive Thea, what a glorious way to do it. And she would be so pleased.”
VIEWS, VOWS &
TREAT YOUR GUESTS – AND YOURSELVES – LIKE
RALLY, from p.9
later. “Right now, I have to say, as a rabbi, I am kvelling,” Kleinbaum said. “Not only were these two New York lesbians, these were two New York Jewish lesbians.” Also on June 26, the court held in a different 5-4 ruling that the proponents of Proposition 8, a 2008 California ballot initiative that banned gay marriage in that state, did not have standing to defend the initiative in federal court. That ruling effectively left in place a 2010 decision from a lower court striking down the measure. Advocates predicted that gay and lesbian couples would soon be marrying in California. While the Prop 8 decision was mentioned at the West Village rally, the focus was on Windsor and DOMA. Some speakers discussed the court’s June 25 decision that eliminated an important section of the federal Voting Rights Act. “In life and in politics, there are good days and there are bad days,” said Congressman Jerry Nadler, who represents Manhattan’s West Side. “Yesterday was depressing, today is elating.” Donna Lieber man, the NYCLU’s executive director, took up that charge as well. “Our bad marriage law is now officially dead,” Lieberman said. “Today’s a great day, but we have to remember we lost the Voting Rights Act yesterday and we have to fight to restore it.”
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The rally was organized by some 70 organizations and many had large visible contingents. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay lobby, had volunteers distributing HRC flags and posters that the crowd waved when they cheered, creating a sea of equal signs. GLAAD, the anti-defamation group, had volunteers wearing glaad.org T-shirts and red, white, and blue hats as they circulated with clipboards seeking new volunteers. Anthony Weiner, who is also a candidate for the Democratic nod for mayor, had campaign volunteers circulating with large Weiner for Mayor signs prior to the rally’s start. The rally closed with the Stonewall Chorale singing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”
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A diverse, curious, inclusive community of faithâ&#x20AC;Ś at the crossroads of the world
Welcome home! !!"#$$%&!'(&)*+,-!"#./01)!02!34!0$! !"562+7%!%/#602+(.-!8%99(')*+,!:!(#2&%06*!$+.+)2&+%)! !";+7%&)%!,&(<&0$)!8(&!=+/)-!2%%.)!0./!,0&%.2) ! #e#%er c()rc( o+ ,res%./erian 3e4co#e and /(e 6o7enan/ 8e/9or: o+ ,res%./erians; 4eaders in crea/ing a +)44. inc4)si7e 6()rc( +or /(e =>?@ co##)ni/.
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CHRIST CHURCH 520 PARK AVENUE @ 60TH STREET We seek to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves.
Welcome Neighbors! www.christchurchnyc.org
GIVE YOUR CHILDREN MORE THAN A GREAT EDUCATION GIVE THEM A PURPOSE
ST. LUKE'S SCHOOL EXELLENCE. ETHICS. EDUCATION. www.stlukeschool.org
Open House: WED. Oct. 9 4:00 Pm
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| June 26, 2013
Episcopalians for www.etf1928.org Traditional Faith
Episcopalians who value diversity and inclusiveness value the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
This liturgy speaks to us all in words that are beautiful, ancient, and true.
Ask your parish priest to use it this Sunday.
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“Welcome to church... come as you are... and bring your family.”
283 Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215 718-768-0528 www.stjme.org
A “Reconciling-in Christ” church. We honor and perform same sex unions. A member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Metropolitan New York Synod.
The Church of the Transfiguration Little Church Around the Corner
The Right Rev’d. Andrew St. John, Rector 1 East 29th Street Btwn Madison & Fifth Ave. 212-684-6770 Sundays 8:30 AM, 11:00 AM, 6:00 PM www.littlechurch.org Inclusive Congregation SUPPORTS GAY PRIDE
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or be visiting, and the administration had stated support for that legislation. It is unlikely that Congress, politically fractured at present, would take any action were the administration to adopt this rule administratively. Kennedy pointed out in his opinion that studies have identified more than 1,000 federal statutory or regulatory provisions for which marital status is relevant. Most of those provisions contain no express definition of marriage, while some include or refer to descriptive language relevant to the particular policy of the statute or regulation. Presumably, after the Windsor ruling goes into effect, any such provision that would not on its face include same-sex marriages would have to be interpreted consistently with the Supreme Court’s ruling to meet constitutional muster. The court’s ruling on the Proposition 8 case is not a ruling on the merits of whether the California amendment is unconstitutional. Neither Roberts’ majority opinion nor Kennedy’s dissent takes any position on the merits of the equal protection theory adopted by the Ninth Circuit or the more sweeping equal protection and due process theories endorsed by Judge Walker in the trial court.
Thea Spyer and Eddie Windsor celebrated their 2007 Toronto marriage with other same-sex couples at New York’s City Hall in June 2008.
There are likely legal skirmishes yet to come in California. The original defendants in the lawsuit were the County Clerk’s Offices in Alameda and Los Angeles Counties, so they would clearly be bound by Walker’s Order. Whether clerks in other counties would be bound or would be subject to direction from state officials to comply is an unsettled question. Decisive action by Governor Jerry Brown may avert any chaos threatened by lawsuits contesting the scope of Walker’s ruling. Determined opponents of same-sex marriage, however, signaled immediately that they will do everything they can to try to block its implementation statewide.
PHOTO BY PLATON
FINAL VERSION, (SENT HI-RES PDF, 6-12-13, 3:00PM)
ANALYSIS, from p.11
GARRY RISSMAN/ GRCC
FINAL WEEKS!
PROP 8, from p.18
mentation of marriage, Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., an attorney who worked on the case, said, “They have no standing, they can’t go into court.” Speaking of Kamala Harris, California’s attorney general, and Brown, Boutrous said, “Their view is this applies statewide and that’s determinative.” Boies said that a “renegade clerk” might refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, but he added, “There will be a quick remedy for that.” While there will be a short delay as the Supreme Court’s decision is sent to the lower courts, gay groups will move “as fast as we possibly can,” Griffin said. “Marriage is starting very, very soon in the great state of California,” said Griffin, who is now the president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest gay lobby. AFER began the case with bold predictions about its impact. In a 2011 conference call with reporters, Griffin said the group’s “goal is marriage equality” and “federal recognition of that in all 50 states.” In 2009, the New York Times paraphrased Olson saying that he hoped the suit “will lead to a Supreme Court decision with the potential to reshape the legal and social landscape along the lines of cases like Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade: the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide.”
While the June 26 decision is a victory, it is one that fell well short of AFER’s stated goal. On the conference call, activists and attorneys were vague about plans for future lawsuits. In 2009, Griffin was praised as a risktaker and a visionary while legal groups that had track records of winning marriage cases in state courts were seen as merely guarding their turf as they openly expressed doubts about going into federal court. While they believed AFER would win in the lower courts, they feared the US Supreme Court would uphold marriage bans. Neither the rosy predictions nor the dark visions were realized in the Prop 8 decision. Griffin and the groups fought publicly during the litigation’s earliest days. Asked for comment via email, HRC issued a 500-word history titled “The Perry Legacy.” The title is a reference to Kris Perry. She and Sandy Stier are one of the two couples. “Bottom line, the marriage movement will continue and we won’t rest until we have marriage in all 50 states,” Fred Sainz, an HRC spokesman, wrote. “Perry is an amazing building block to that day.” On August 1, when Minnesota’s marriage law takes effect, 12 states and the District of Columbia will allow same-sex couples to wed. California will bring the total to 13. Thirty-five states explicitly ban such unions either by statute, state constitutional amendment, or both.
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| June 26, 2013
TORONTO. OUR PRIDE IS EVERYWHERE.
WorldPride 2014 Toronto, where your pride will know no boundaries. Feel welcome. Everywhere. On June 20-29, 2014, a Pride like no other will meet a city like no other. Discover world-class culture, shopping, theatre, food and nightlife, while celebrating the best Pride party ever. Visit WP14TO.com for a chance to win a trip to Toronto for WorldPride.
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
7:30 p.m.
HOT FEST, from p.82
guests from around the tri-state area. Grab a drink at the bar and join them! Cocktail lounge, free admission..
Thursday, July 11 7:30 p.m.
A glorious queendom rules once more in “THE DRAG EXPLOSION,” a photographic slideshow presentation of New York City's momentous drag scene from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. The photos were shot by longtime drag performer and writer Linda Simpson who spent the era smack dab in the middle of the action. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
7:30 p.m. Ben Rosenbaum’s “SPACE DISPLACEMENT” is a solo performance piece about reconciling the reality of the physical with the possibilities of the mental. Through conversational monologues that blend autobiographical drama, stand-up, and a life lived vicariously through a gutterpunk, Rosenbaum sets out to understand what it means to be a body and a mind, too. Cocktail lounge, free admission..
“PLASTICLAND” is Kym Bernazky's one-woman experimental movement theater piece, which brings the audience on a journey to the doldrums of the Pacific Ocean where they encounter a giant plastic trash heap — roughly the size of Texas. The plastic behemoth takes control of the theater, and the audience and performer must join together to escape its clutches. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
BEN ARONS
In Brandon Kyle Goodman's “LATRELL LIVE TONIGHT: A REAL BOY!,” host Latrell Lavene Lebron Luscious Lacrosse Latavier Lactaid Jackson – “The Prophet of Truth” – serves up candid talk on everything juicy, absurd, and stooopid in politics and pop culture. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
Friday, July 12 7:30 p.m. In “ST. FORTUNE PRESENTS: IMPROVISENSATIONAL!,” a collective of actors, writers, composers, musicians, directors, and improvisers make use of improvised projections including live audience tweets, visual cues from guest artist Gavin Price, improvised music, and maybe some wacky costuming in an attempt to balance out improvisation as somewhere between hi-brow and lo-brow. Cocktail lounge, free admission..
G.J. Dowding’s “(MISS)TER SILHOUETTE MAN” is a fantastical queer journey seeking the figure perched beyond the silk smokescreen. A poetry and prose-driven performance piece laden with music and movement, (Miss)ter Silhouette Man follows a queer boy on a curious journey orbiting around identity and community. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
"THE LOUDEST SHOW ON EARTH" Fridays, July 12, 19 & 26 Saturdays, July 13, 20 & 27 10 p.m.
“THE LOUDEST SHOW ON EARTH” is an exploration of the queer urban existence as seen through the eyes of two of the queerest urbanites ever — Lea DeLaria and Maggie Cassella. Rageful. Angry. Musical. Funny. And did we mention loud? Many F-bombs will be dropped. Bring the kids! Mainstage; $15-$25.
Saturday, July 13 7:30 p.m.
10 p.m.
Tuesday, July 16
7:30 p.m.
In a split bill, Alex Rodabaugh presents “IT HAUNTS ME,” which explores the relationship between choreographer and dancer as a dominant/ submissive structure, intertwining his own experience of dom/ sub queer relationships. Sasha Kargaltsev’s “MCJOB” addresses the reality that people regard being older as being ugly, and everyone wants to be perfect. Eli Tamondong’s “MAY DECEMBER” is a 10-minute solo dance piece that examines a coming of age story of a young man and his intergenerational encounters. Armed with a bedsheet, a pillow, and a flashlight, the protagonist faces his inner and outer demons. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
7:30 p.m. Andie Glik’s “HOLE DIARIES” is a reactionary piece pointed at the failures of “The Vagina Monologues.” It’s an honest compilation of monologues written by and about all sorts of queer and feminist bodies, rebelling against movements of feminism and body liberation that are deep-seeded in what defines a gendered body. Cocktail lounge, free admission..
Monday, July 15
7:30 p.m. GARRIN BENFIELD adapts his quirky pop melodies to improvisational explorations into new territory each night. Familiar songs are often twisted and contorted into gorgeous new creations that leave audiences breathless. Cocktail lounge, free admission.
Wednesday, July 17 7:30 p.m.
In a split bill, Ana K. Whaley presents “METAPHYSICALLY ILL,” a dance piece that wrestles with a host of troubling feelings: No Good at dancing. Don’t want to be a professional. Do want to get paid. Don’t want the pressure of being creative. Will steal ideas. Don’t want it to be about me. Self expression happens just by doing things on stage. Don’t want to have to be sexy. Do want to feel sexy. Dominic BRADLEY’S “DEFIANCE” DEALS with the role of psychosis (or altered states of consciousness) in facilitating deep healing. The piece posits that these states are part of a spiritual path; the information that emerges from such states is highly specific and thus personally valuable; if interpreted and applied correctly, the information is also medicinal; and people should take their own medicine. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
7:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 18
In “The Traveling Millies Reunion Tour,” the weird aunts of country music, who created a firestorm of country-bluegrass insanity in the ‘90s, tearing up Dixon Place, P.S.122, La Mama, WOW, and other Lower East Side venues, are back, reuniting to fan the flames a bit more. Cocktail lounge; free admission..
In “SEXY 'N' SASSY/ BOLD 'N' BRASSY!,” D’yan Forest will sing you to ecstasy while strummin’ away on her ukulele. Her engaging presence can't be beat. D’yan’s jokes and unrelenting humor will astound you. She feasts on all the world, leaves
7:30 p.m.
no rock unturned, no holds barred. Let yourself be tantalized. Cocktail lounge; free admission.
7:30 p.m. In Kestryl Cael Lowery and Emily Millay Haddad’s “LEZ MIZ,” Valjean, Cosette, and Marius navigate a polyamory battlefield in a queer leather rendition of Victor Hugo’s classic. It’s amazing how much an old French novel can have in common with 21st century dyke drama. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
10 p.m. Octavio Campos’s “THE PIG SHOW” is a subversive cabaret performance with song, dance, and storytelling — and also a celebration of freedom, through the eyes of a Gay Pig stuck in a twisted story about the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion. This interactive socio-political work looks at religion, LGBT issues, and Cuban culture all blended together with humor and social experiments. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
Friday, July 19 7:30 p.m.
In Kate Goldstein’s “LATE CAPITALISM CABARET,” queer artist Sally Bowles and the MCs are facing displacement in a rapidly gentrifying New York neighborhood. When queer blogger Cliff Bradshaw moves to town, she and Sally join the coalition of dancers and neighborhood residents organizing to save the Kit Kat Club. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
Saturday, July 20 7:30 p.m.
London’s Sh!t Theatre's JOB SEEKERS ANONYMOUS 2013 is a unique and humorous exploration of the (un)employment situations in London and New York in which Sh!t Theatre examine their own unemployment and the surrounding political climate. They survey audience members and the show is re-written every time in response, so no performance is quite the same! Expect gender politics, ambition, the economic crises, personality flaws, the welfare state — and lots of song, satire, stories, and silliness. Mainstage; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students & seniors.
7:30 p.m. Paul Ricciardi’s “ANGRY AND OTHER STORIES” is a collection of three monologues, each revealing stories of awkward (and funny) personal discovery. A man discovers the joy of being angry; a 16-year-old responds to a gay personals ad; and a little boy announces he's becoming a nurse. Cocktail lounge; free admission.
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June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR PUBLISHER JENNIFER GOODSTEIN
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Edie’s Victory, Our Progress, and the Road Ahead BY PAUL SCHINDLER
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It was in the late winter of 2004 when I met Edie Windsor and the woman she would marry several years later in Toronto, Thea Spyer. A couple of weeks before, Gavin Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, declared that city had the authority to marry same-sex couples. Relying on a legal argument that nothing in New York State law forbade marriage by gay and lesbian couples, activists planned a demonstration outside the City Clerk’s Office, then across the street from City Hall, demanding that same-sex marriage licenses be issued here as well. When a crowd got together at the LGBT Community Center a few evenings before the demo to strategize and make signs, Edie and Thea were among them — certainly the oldest couple on hand. The demonstration had no immediate effect on the right to marry here in New York, and Newsom’s experiment in San Francisco was soon halted. The following year, marriage equality advocates won a trial court victory in Manhattan, but that was quickly appealed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. We lost at the Court of Appeals in the summer of 2006. When I met Edie and Thea, they were well into their 70s and Thea had suf fered for decades from multiple sclerosis. By 2007, she was quite ill, and with marriage equality available only in Massachusetts — and there still only for instate couples — the two women feared they would not see the day they could wed. With the help of the New York grassroots activist group Civil Marriage Trail — and six friends who helped handle Thea’s wheelchair at the airport — the couple traveled to Toronto to marry. The following year, a
state appellate court here ruled that marriages like Edie and Thea’s deserved recognition in New York. Thea died in 2009, but even though the women enjoyed two years of married life among their more than four decades together, the federal government judged them to be legal strangers. Edie received an inheritance tax bill of more than $360,000. Edie, who is now 84, has spent more than two years litigating DOMA, an endurance test she described as “joyous, just joyous.” I have run into her at more fundraisers, political events, and community gatherings in the past several years than I can count. She is energetic, passionate, opinionated, irreverent, and articulate — in short, a consummate New Yorker. It should be a point of pride for all LGBT New Yorkers that we have Edie and that it was she who won this smashing victory on behalf of gay and lesbian couples across the nation. As each successive victory at the Supreme Court has done, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s finding — that DOMA “is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity” — advances our ability to mount successful legal claims for full equality. As Arthur S. Leonard points out on page 10, Kennedy did not take the bigger step we hoped he might and find that claims of sexual orientation discrimination must be subjected to “heightened scrutiny” by the courts. Such a decision would have accelerated dramatically the vital work of clearing away the underbrush of homophobic marriage restrictions still in place in roughly three-dozen states. His opinion appears, at first blush, to finesse that pressing legal question. Similarly, the court’s decision to deny standing to those
appealing a lower court decision striking down Prop 8 put off for the moment the effort to litigate the fundamental question of whether same-sex couples have a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Those caveats aside, June 26, 2013 is every bit as good a day as June 26, 2003, when the high court struck down the nation’s remaining sodomy laws. Today added two very significant victories and did nothing to foreclose continued efforts to press for marriage rights, both in state courts around the country and before the federal judiciary. The sweep of our victories, in fact, should humble us, given the continued adversity that remains on other fronts. Five days befor e the news came down from the Supreme Court, the update out of Albany was depressingly familiar. The State Senate finished up its regular 2013 session without allowing a vote on a basic transgender civil rights law, the Gender Expression NonDiscrimination Act, which has now won approval in the Assembly six times. The Senate leadership — a partnership between the minority Republicans and four Democrats who bolted their party to form the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) — bears primary responsibility for the failure to get the job done on GENDA. There is little doubt the bill would pass if given a vote. The IDC’s members, all of whom support the civil rights measure, justified their betrayal of party on the argument they could marry progressive action to a Senate leadership regime not mired in the dysfunction that plagued the Democrats when they last led the chamber in 2009 and 2010. On issues from women’s equality to campaign finance refor m to GENDA, the IDC failed miserably. As I wrote in our last issue, Gover nor Andrew Cuomo also missed an
opportunity to show the sort of leadership on GENDA that he so brilliantly exhibited on marriage equality two years ago. The transgender community is a small portion of the overall LGBT population — and so the political dividends from action may seem modest — but it is also a marginalized and vulnerable community in dire need of basic legal protections. Getting the job done cannot wait for another election cycle. Next year, if not earlier, must be the deadline on delivering on the promise of equality for transgender New Yorkers. Also overdue are basic employment protections for LGBT Americans nationwide. More than half the states provide no protections against private sector workplace bias, based on either sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. The federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), pale a remedy as it is compared to efforts decades ago to enact sweeping civil rights law protections, remains a hostage to Republican intransigence in the House of Representatives. Many advocates assumed President Barack Obama, once he got past his reelection fight, would issue a long-sought executive order barring employment discrimination by businesses with federal contracts. Eight months after the election, there is no sign the president is ready to move. Given the clear signal from the high court today as to where the nation is moving on LGBT rights, the president should seize the initiative with an executive order. The time is now. Finally, this Pride Weekend as we celebrate hard-fought wins, we should be mindful that the very same Supreme Court whose marriage decisions we rejoice in stripped the federal Voting Rights Act of its teeth in a decision that imperils decades of progress on equal access to the ballot and to representation. LGBT people of color are among the millions whose basic right to vote is now at risk. And we should never forget that the political forces who are trying to curb the rights of African Americans, Latinos, and other ethnic communities are no friends to LGBT communities of whatever color.
91
| June 26, 2013
PERSPECTIVE
Celebrating Activists
I
BY KELLY JEAN COGSWELL
t was almost funny. One minute President Barack Obama enthusing in his Pride Month proclamation about "those who organized, agitated, and advocated for change." The next, Ellen Sturtz getting slammed for disrupting a fundraiser featuring First Lady Michelle Obama, who didn't exactly embrace the activist. Plenty in the LGBT community were suitably horrified. The moment was badly chosen, we wer e told. It wasn't nice. It wasn't polite. It wasn’t…. As if poor Miz Obama was some kind of shrinking violet, not a very public face of the administration, herself an important cog in the Democratic fundraising machine, while queers — including those of color — wait and wait and wait for change. I bring it up now because it's typical of our community. We celebrate Stonewall but resent activists, maybe because we don't understand their role in moving things forward. Our lobbyists take too much credit. Also, we're wary of anybody who may want us to do more than write checks. Like leave our homes and mobilize around stalled issues such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and other federal protections (which the
White House could advocate for right now with a directive barring bias on the part of federal contractors — the whole reason Ellen Sturtz and GetEQUAL made a scene). Even positive results in courts and legislatures require ongoing involvement by activists. How many laws are there against bullying? How many actually get enforced? That’s up to us, watching from the sidelines. Even DOMA won’t be truly overturned unless bigmouthed watchdog troublemakers are there making sure all the controversial questions, like those affecting immigration benefits, don’t get buried beneath red tape and paperwork. We can’t count on Obama. Like most politicians, he'll do the bare minimum unless we'r e out ther e making a stink at every possible opportunity. The guy only “evolved” on the homo question because we were there kicking and screaming. I remember how after he had the queer votes in the bag in the 2008 primary, he campaigned with the same gayhating preachers as George W. Bush. And after he won the election, he tried to curry favor among right-wing legislators and voters by blabbing about a big tent and bringing the anti-gay zealot Rick Warren on board. He probably would have continued in that vein if we hadn’t mobilized
every trick in the book — financial influence, quiet whispers, and plenty of embarrassing public howls. And we can't stop now. Both because there are lots of pressing issues and because, despite what Martin Luther King asserted, history does not move toward progress in an inevitable arc. In this country alone, we've seen abortion rights eroded at an astronomical pace. Plenty of cities and states have rolled back ordinances pr otecting LGBT rights and have actually passed anti-gay legislation legalizing discrimination against us. Probably I've written this before, but it's worth saying again during Pride Month. Party as much as you want. Eat Bar-B-Q. Hook up with that cutie across the room. But take a couple minutes to think about what Stonewall launched and how precarious our gains are if we get complaisant. You don't necessarily have to take to the streets, but everyone should be involved in some way. Come out — to everyone. Speak up when you hear a homophobic joke. Anything. Anti-gay violence and bullying are still awful. Most queer images are stereotypes of gay white men, the rest of us invisible. Our own community ignores our most urgent issues, including employment bias and poverty, affecting far more of us than
In Grid We Trust BY SUSIE DAY
D
ear Peace Blog — Fuck you to hell. I thought I was giving peace a chance when I spent all those years writing in you. About the dreams and schemes of a brave little peace activist standing up against state repression! I wrote with a sense of hope — hope that society was making progress toward a more equal and just tomorrow. Then KERBLAM! I read in the Guardian that the National Security Agency has been carrying out massive domestic surveillance, collect-
ing the phone records of Verizon’s 100,000,000 customers, one of whom includes ME: “For the first time under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk — regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.” Two days later, Edward Snowden revealed to reporter Glenn Greenwald a gi-normous US cyber-spy campaign involving nine Internet companies like Facebook, Google, Skype, Apple, a n d Yo u T u b e . G r e e n w a l d n e a t l y summarized how the NSA can grab and store whatever personal data it wants: “There are no checks. This is
how the world communicates, and the NSA is monitoring it at all times.” O Blog of Peace! Why didn’t you fi ght b ack ? W hy d id yo u jus t lie there, close your eyes, and think of Homeland Security? Even as I type, here in the ersatz bohemia of this Eighth Avenue Starbucks, historic moments from years of protest are being sucked into a cyber-vortex with the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data that, according to the New York T imes, pour daily into the NSA’s vaults. Soon all our heroic strivings against war, imperialism, racism, homophobia — and government eavesdropping — will be trapped inside that onemillion-square-foot storage barn the
marriage. Every month there's a new study showing families led by LGBT Americans are worse off financially than those headed by straights (even if other studies show we take better care of our kids). The latest, published by the Williams Institute of the UCLA Law School, shows that even two white gay men are poorer than their counterparts. It's simply harder for LGBT people to find good jobs, and even tougher for us to keep them. We don't start on equal footing, facing an uphill battle for a decent education thanks to bullying in schools and additional problems at home and in our communities. The most vulnerable among us are households headed by two AfricanAmerican dykes. They have the triple whammy of misogyny squared by racism and then by lesbophobia. What about them? They are barely visible in our community, much less in the world at large. Like their problems. For them, jobs are a queer issue, just as poverty and hunger are. And their effects accumulate in ways as horrible and lingering as violence. For all our sakes, we need to acknowledge that change is not a done deal and that it never comes as a reward to those who sit smiling nicely with their hands politely in their laps. Let's think beyond Stonewall and try to support activists working today. Follow Kelly Cogswell on Twitter @ kellyatlarge.
government is building in the Utah mountains. Worse: According to the Gallup website, most Americans “tend to disapprove” of being monitored, yet “find it acceptable in order to fight terrorism.” I feel like Dorothy, my ruby slippers tap-tapping in ter r o r d o w n t h e Ye l l o w P u k e R o a d . The T in Man, Scarecrow, and Lion have morphed into zombies and are staggering after me, hungry for my brains. I’m screaming, Peace Blog. Screaming: Shouldn’t somebody somewhere pay attention to that man behind the curtain? Dear Peace Blog — I’m glad Starbucks kicked us out. Fucking neoliberal baristas. Capitalists just don’t understand how screaming while typing improves your
PEACE BLOG, continued on p.92
92
“GAY AFFLUENCE,” from p.16
people to understand that there are bigger things to be had — social and economic justice or even liberation.” Hollibaugh said issues of economic class are at play in the failure of a broader vision. “If the most visible part of community is relatively well-resourced — not struggling — and they build the advocacy agenda, then homelessness, health insurance, and housing become secondary issues,” she said. “It’s not like the Task Force or Pride Agenda hasn't done something specific [around economic justice], but it has to be consistently imbedded in all the work you do. Until LGBTQ groups start saying that capitalism is the problem, not the solution, economic justice is unlikely to be a priority issue.” New York’s leading LGBT advocacy lobby, the Empire State Pride Agenda, pointed to both its top goal in Albany and its overall mission state-
FALSE ARREST, from p.30
ing two of the three other lesbian and gay members of the Council — the Lower East Side’s Rosie Mendez and Jimmy Van Bramer of Sunnyside. John Blasco, the lead organizer at FIERCE, an advocacy group made up of LGBT youth of color, questioned a central tenet of the response to the recent wave of vio-
PEACE BLOG, from p.91
politics. I’m happier here in this bar; it’s more of “The People.” Those saltof-the-earth, surveillance-complacent knuckleheads. I’m sorry I was abusive to you, Peace Blog. It’s just that it hurts to find out the NSA has been reading you and now knows what an idiot I am. Or do I flatter myself that the NSA is at all interested in or threatened by my obsessive scribbling for radical change? I can just see some government hacktivist rolling his (or her!) eyes in derisive condescension at the pathetic grandiosity with which I am even now typing in you. Let’s get drunk. WHOA Peace Blog — I must’ve stared for two hours at that dead wor m at the bottom of that tequila bottle. At first, I couldn’t believe what Wormy was telling me to do: that I had to go buy an iPad. But I did. And I feel so much better! You look so pretty on this iPad, Peace Blog! See how your “pages”
June 26, 2013 | www.gaycitynews.com
ment when asked about the breadth of its efforts. “Our statewide legislative prior ity, the Gender Expr ession NonDiscrimination Act (GENDA), would help address some of these problems by making it illegal to fire someone or throw them out of their home just for being transgender,” said George Simpson, an ESPA spokesman, in an email message. “Likewise, our advocacy for better funding for LGBT health and human services primarily impacts members of our community who are at an economic disadvantage, such as seniors and homeless youth. Marriage, too, offers protections and economic security that are even more critical for people with limited resources. It’s important to show the true face of the community, because this myth of an affluent minority does a disservice to our movement.” While Simpson was unable to provide specific examples of ESPA getting behind basic economic justice
issues such as the minimum wage, healthcare refor m, or progressive taxation — despite the support that group and other top LGBT organizations get from unions and others that do prioritize these issues — he pointed to the mission statement spelled out on its website that pledges support of "common struggles for equality and justice" with allies in "other marginalized groups," including a commitment to "break down barriers based on class and economic status." ESPA has been involved in the coalition working for the Women’s Equality Act in Albany, and has led a wide range of groups pressing for greater funding of runaway and homeless youth needs. The Human Rights Campaign, the leading gay lobby group in Washington, did not return a call and email asking about its involvement in economic justice beyond an LGBT“-specific agenda. Asked her view of the path for -
ward, Hollibaugh said, “The places I am looking are places that have onthe-ground constituencies that are already impacted, like SAGE or in the labor movement, that will help move the queer piece — rather than GLAAD or the Victory Fund.” SAGE’s Adams emphasized the importance of coalition in addressing the full breadth of issues affecting LGBT communities. "There is no question that if we want to address disproportionate pove rty among L GBT pe ople, including LGBT older adults, it will be incumbent upon LGBT organizations to step out to advocate on issues that have not been seen as LGBT -specific issues,” he wrote in an email message. “For example, for LGBT older adults it’s very important that SAGE and other organizations actively support the defense of Social Security and Medicare, which are under increasing assault. That’s what coalition is all about.”
l e n c e a i m e d a t q u e e r N e w Yo r k ers — the assignment of additional police in neighborhoods frequented by community members. “What makes anyone think more police would make us feel safe?,” Blasco asked. “For most of us, that creates fear.” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, an out lesbian who prevailed on the NYPD to increase its visibility
in LGBT neighborhoods, he said, has to do more to consult with community members. Others on hand for the press conference included Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams, who is spearheading the drive for a package of police refor m measures, Robert Pinter, who launched the Campaign to Stop the False Arrests after he was falsely convicted of prostitution at a
Manhattan video store in 2008, and representatives of Streetwise and Safe, CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, and the Safe OUTside the System Collective of the Audre Lorde Project. NY 1 News reported that Kelly said he had reviewed the video and the incident was under review by both Internal Affairs and the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
“flip,” just like the pages of that $5.95 paper diary I tossed out in 1992 when I bought my first computer? I mean, if Marshall McLuhan was right and the medium really is the message, who cares what I write — as long as nifty media like this let
have been listening to me; (b) I have absolutely no control over anything. But it’s OK! I shall surrender myself to my higher power. The NSA. I have gone to the mountaintop and returned with this glowing iPad of Truth. I now declare the National Security Agency to be One with the millennia-old Judeo-Christian deity commonly known as God. God has domain names, IP addresses, and a terrible, swift carbon footprint. Henceforth, I shall write “God” and “NSA” inter changeably; I shall worship them as One. It just makes sense, Peace Blog, in that they both do so much monitoring. But that’s good, since they want to save us from the malware of terrorism. I feel blessed, Peace Blog. Blessed that the NSA watches over me,
unworthy wretch though I be. It’s all part of God’s plan that I must accept. Because, like any good person, I have nothing to hide. And because everything God does is legal. It’s like I’m downloading and installing a fr ee update of moral s o f t w a r e f o r We s t e r n C u l t u r e . There’s only One Commandment: Thou Shalt Stay Logged On. Yes, much like theologian Paul Tillich’s belief that “sin is separation,” with the NSA, the only real transgression is being off the Grid. Privacy, schmivacy, Peace Blog. Who cares if the NSA knows I’m standing in line at the needle exchange? If I’m a documented American, I’m free! So I forgive you, Peace Blog. Because, like that worm in the tequila bottle, ultimately we’re all going to end up transpar ent, inert, and just lying there. I know I am. Why? Because I’m afraid to fight the power? No. Because I have a new iPad. And as long as there’s another electronic miracle to buy on credit, my life will be an open book.
Now I see that: (a) largely because people have been listening to me, (b) I have absolutely no control over anything. me write on them! See, all my life, Peace Blog, I’ve been addicted to the idea that: (a) if people would only listen to me; (b) I could stop injustice. So untrue. Now I see that: (a) largely because people
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whom are characters in the play. Also Wednesday, July 10 at 9 p.m.; Thursday, July 11 at 9 p.m.
FRESH FRUIT FRESH FRUIT IS 11 YEARS OLD AND STILL FRESH The Fresh Fruit Festival, now in its 11th year celebrating LGBTQ arts and culture, was born out of the collaboration of All Out Arts, a nonprofit founded in 1991 to bring together the diverse artistic, organizational, political, and financial resources of the community in order to fight intolerance, and New Village Productions, established in 1989, which produced 10 short play festivals in conjunction with the Vineyard Theater and the 1994 Gay Games.
This year, the Fresh Fruit Festival’s theater and dance productions will be staged at: The Wild Project 195 E. Third Street, between Avenues A and B Tickets are $18 per performance and are available at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/527. The festival’s spoken word and film events are held at: Nuyorican Poets Café 236 E. Third Street, between Avenues B and C For information on ticket prices and purchase, visit freshfruitfestival.com
THEATER AND DANCE AT THE WILD PROJECT
Broadway vet Tom Rocco presents “MY BIG, FAT, PROP 8 WEDDING,” a cabaret of songs (some familiar, some lesser-known) and light-hearted anecdotes about this Broadway vet’s unconventional path to wedded bliss. But by the end of his show you’ll likely ask yourself: “Is it really all that unconventional?”
David Koteles’ “AFTER THE CHAIRS” remixes Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist masterpiece “The Chairs” and completely transforms it for modern gay life, telling the story of two men, Marc and Richard, alone in a quiet hospital room waiting for what happens next. Directed by Jason Jacobs. Also, Saturday, July 13 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, July 14 at 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 11 7 p.m.
Written in 29 days, in the 29th year of Marcus Yi’s life, on the 2nd day of the 9th month in 2012, “29X/Y” is a collage theater piece that brings together an intersection of 29 slices of life. Confessional monologues from a bathhouse, fag hag haters, dysfunctional ex-lovers, dancing Republicans, eccentric want ads, and Super Mario fetishists all make an appearance to help you understand the meaning of “29x/y.” Also, Friday, July 12 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, July 13 at 2 p.m.
Alvin Rangel’s “Tango Vesre,” a New York premiere, is an examination of male tango partnerships from historic, performance, and choreographic perspectives; Okwae Miller presents the world premiere of “The Truth Within,” which explores a fear, a life, an experience, and a personal struggle with the acceptance of homosexuality as reality; McKenna Birmingham’s “Titty Condoms” is a parody of the personal battle between estrogen and testosterone; and Barry Webster presents the world premiere of “Unbroken,” a window into the battles couples often find themselves in.
Sunday, July 14 9 p.m.
9 p.m.
7 p.m.
9 p.m.
7 p.m.
Friday, July 12
Monday, July 8 In Patrick Thomas McCarthy’s “SEXTORTION,” directed by Christopher Caines, one lonely, outcast boy’s desperate desire for “something warm, something human, something now” drives him to hatch a scheme that draws his entire high school and its surrounding Middle American community into a harrowing vortex. Posing as a girl on a social media site, he first entices his classmates to send him compromising photos and videos, then “sextorts” them into upping the ante of each physical encounter with the threat of exposure. “sExtOrtiOn” digs deep beneath the superficial and sensationalistic treatments in national media accounts to explore the roots of adolescents’ fluid sexual identity, experimentation, and recklessness, and the consequences of bullying, pack behavior, and hidden violence. Also Tuesday, July 9 at 9 p.m., and Sunday, July 14 at 2 p.m..
Wednesday, July 10
10 p.m. Award-winning British comedian Rosie Wilby, in her US debut, presents “THE SCIENCE OF SEX,” in which she endeavors to answer: What makes us gay or straight? What turns us on? What are pheromones? Why are we attracted to one person and not another? What happens chemically in the brain when we fall in love? What is the scientific origin of kissing? Do aphrodisiacs work?
Tuesday, July 9 7 p.m.
“THE FILE ON J. EDGAR HOOVER,” is a revival of Steve Gold’s dark comedy based on the life of the longtime FBI director and his “associate” Clyde Tolson. The story, directed by Mark Stone, also delves into his dealings with the Kennedy brothers and Richard Nixon, all of
Brian C. Petti’s “THE LOVE SONG OF SIDNEY J. STEIN” follows the relationship of titular Sidney, a 45-year-old former prostitute who works at a New York City half-way house, and Dennis, a 17-year-old streetwalker. Sidney, snide, funny, and guarded, tries to set Dennis straight despite Dennis’ immaturity and indoctrination into the street life. Also, Saturday, July 13 at 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, July 14 at 7 p.m..
Saturday, July 13 9 p.m.
IN “ALL OUT DANCE 2013,” Ferdinand De Jesus presents the New York premiere of “Butchqueen,” an ode to the LGBTQ ballroom community; Jason Torres Hancock presents the New York premiere of “Centered,” a ritual to liberate disease from social stigma and irreverent taboo through the effeminate, loving male; Michael Clark’s “Cerebral Purgation” explores a random series of events that are unexplainably pre-determined to recreate life; Robert Mark Burke presents the world premiere of “Knock,” a duet inspired by feminine relationships to the Industrial Revolution; Diane Tomasi presents “Pretty Little,” a parody on society’s expectations for women;
“F*CK MY LIFE (FML)” tells the riveting backstory and failure of Oakland-based performance artist, lecturer, and ecdysiast Xandra Ibarra’s burlesque persona La Chica Boom. Using evocative sound montage, critical political imagery, and fast paced physical theatrics, “FML” chronicles Ibarra’s early ambition to use burlesque “spictacles” to undermine her audience’s Mexiphobic gaze. With astute direction from Evan Johnson, Ibarra, who hails from the El Paso/Juarez border, reveals not only her tasseled pasties, as is traditional in burlesque, but also her incompatible relationship with her interracial audience and the emotional toll that her perverse-cum-filled-minstrel-spectacles have exacted over the past 10 years of her burlesque life.
Monday, July 15 7 p.m.
Joe Hutcheson’s “MISS MAGNOLIA BEAUMONT GOES TO PROVINCETOWN,” which won a FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award in 2010, tells the story of Civil War-era Southern debutante Miss
FRESH FRUIT, continued on p.98
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ing officers during “The Surge” in Iraq. Everyone is vulnerable to the mounting pressure, especially gay officers during this time when Don’t Ask, Don’t’ Tell was still in place. Also, Saturday, July 20 at 7 p.m.
Dwight and his friends. This tragic story, in which child abuse is uncovered, proves that blood is thicker than water, but love is stronger yet. Also, Saturday, July 20 at 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, July 21 at 2 p.m.
9 p.m.
Wednesday, July 17 9 p.m.
Magnolia Beatrice Devareux Beaumont, who chokes to death on a pork rib only to find herself suddenly inhabiting the body of a 30-something gay New Yorker (whom she refers to as Master Joseph) on his way to Provincetown for a birthday vacation. But before Miss Beaumont can quietly get used to Master Joseph’s cosmopolitan gay lifestyle, an offensive painting suddenly jolts her into his awareness. After the initial shock and a few disagreements, the two spend the rest of their trip discussing the deeper meanings of life.
9 p.m. Marie Incontrera’s “AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EARTH” is a modern-day lesbian punk opera about love in an oppressive nation and how one girl learns to break the rules in order to find happiness. Aurora is forced to face who she truly is when she meets Layla, an outand-proud “riot grrrl” with a bold and brazen demeanor. Their subsequent struggle with a George Orwellian law enforcer, appropriately named The Man, proves to be both terrifying and hilariously futile, as the two women attempt to follow their hearts at great risk.
Rachel Graf Evans “STRANGER ODDS” is a queer little rom-com about a group of young hopefuls trying to find their ways through life and love with friendship, first dates, and midnight milkshakes — and about the Venn diagrams of whom we are lucky enough to know. Also, Thursday, July 18 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, July 20 at noon
7 p.m.
“THIS IS A PLAY ABOUT BEING GAY” is an experimental gay-identity politics play with dance written and directed by Teddy Nicholas. The play attempts to honestly and engagingly explore the ways in which gay males identify and function in our modern society. Also, Wednesday, July 17 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, July 21 at 12 p.m..
Brigham Mosley’s “MO[U]RNIN’. AFTER.” is a journey to the ancestors and back to the homeland through magic, musicals, and time travel… dream ballets included. Created under the Tim Miller Mentorship, a sixmonth development process to create new queer work, made possible by grants from the National Performance Network, Performance Space 122, and Fourth Arts Block, “Mo[u]rnin’. After.” is the full-length continuation of “Oh Whatta Beautiful Mo[u]rnin’,” which premiered at PS122 in June of 2011.
9 p.m. Based on actual events that took place in 2007, John G.Young’s “RECRUITING 101” looks at the soul-crushing pressures put on a small group of recruit-
Thursday, July 18
10:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 20 1 p.m.
Friday, July 19 7 p.m.
Nneoma Nkuku’s “DWIGHT” follows a group of friends centered on Dwight Amphiaraus Fillmore III, who looks like the All-American dream, kicked down the closet door at a young age, listens to house music, dances merengue, is fluent in Spanglish, throws himself on the line to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, and is equipped with quick answers and a hint of condescension. Bosh is a student of Dwight’s in a primary school who is a pants-only kind of girl, very outspoken when it comes to civil rights, but happy to hang out with
7 p.m.
The festival’s ANNUAL POETRY SLAM features London Bridgez’s “She,” Nicole Goodwin’s “How to Live Underground,” and Larry Patterson’s “Somewhere.”
Richard Oswald’s 1919 German film “DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS,” co-written with famed sexologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, was the first sympathetic portrayal of homosexuals in cinema history. Conrad Veidt portrays a successful violinist whose life is ruined when he is blackmailed by a man who discovers his homosexuality. The film closes with an appeal to repeal Germany’s anti-gay Paragraph 175, which Hitler used decades later to justify sending gay men to concentration camps.
9 p.m.
10:30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 16
In “BRIDAL SHOWER,” when Mark gets an invitation to the very public wedding of his ex-boyfriend to an up-and-coming right-wing Republican Latino politician, he decides the best way to make his presence known is to go in full drag. “SOLO YO CULPABLE?” is a drama en español that takes us into the souls of two women whose humanity is leased to loneliness. Also, Saturday, July 20 at 10:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 18 Celebrating the art of signifying, Duriel E. Harris’ “THINGIFICATION,” a one-woman show that combines poetry, performance, music, and dance, shows how true expression elevates, educates, and entertains like no stereotype can. “THE FIRST SNUFF FILM I EVER SAW WAS IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA” is New Orleans playwright Louie Crowder’s look at a war veteran’s struggle to re-enter his boyfriend’s life and their community of boat people at an intimate Charleston marina. The play examines issues of gay equality, survival, love lost, and love found in the shadows of a snuff film on a yacht in this Southern Gothic Closet. Also, Saturday, July 20 at 2 p.m.
FILM AND SPOKEN WORD AT NUYORICAN POETS CAFÉ
3 p.m.
Eduardo Leanez and Patrick E. Horrigan’s “YOU ARE CONFUSED,” directed by Rosalie Purvis and starring Eduardo Leanez, is a coming-of-age story full of surprises. Yoel is a hyperactive kid with a passion for boy bands, soap operas, fashion shows, action heroes, and Olympic athletes. But his greatest role model, and his toughest critic, is his mother. Fiercely devoted to her son, she is also blind to his gifts and his burgeoning sexuality.
Saturday, July 20 9 p.m. Douglas E. Huston’s one-act comedy “SAINT KRISTIE” is an existential comedy about Religion, Politics, Good, Evil, and Women — definitely women. At its center is Kristie, a young woman with a lot to learn about how heaven works — and what her place there is. Mark Jason Williams’ “THE OTHER DAY” is an authentic, funny, and powerful drama that follows the loving yet tumultuous romance of the emotionally-guarded Mark and free-spirited Santo as they embark on a journey through love, insecurities, addiction, betrayal, loss, and redemption. Also, Sunday, July 21 at 4:30 p.m.
Daniel Armando’s film “WHAT IT WAS” is the story of an old flame being reignited and a new desire awakened when a Hollywood actress returns to New York, where she is forced to face her sexual past, confront her present identity, and admit her true love. Ryan Balas’ “ELENORE MAKES LOVE” is the story of a photographer meeting a sexy model in an upscale hotel suite. The two women may have a past that is more present than we think. Admission is $10.
Sunday, July 21 Noon
The festival’s ALL OUT READING SERIES features a free reading from Raoul D. Luna’s “My Last, Best Spouse…or How Lance Loud Saved My Life,” a comedic monologue memoir play about the impact of musician/ reality show icon Lance Loud on a Latino military brat in the early ‘70s
2 p.m. The festival’s ALL OUT READING SERIES continues with a free reading from Brian LaPerche’s “Naked,” the story of gay Adrian and bi Bret who are a perfectly balanced couple… until they meet Claire at a bar and their relationship and sexual identities are thrown into chaos.
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