Advocate 1068 Aug-Sept 2013 Preview

timothy greenfield-sanders, portraits of a community

SINCE 1967

August / SEPTEMBER 2013

ISSUE 1068

Janet Mock

Twiggy Garcon

Wade Davis

Wanda Sykes

PROMOTION

DISCOVER THE BEST OF GAY EUROPE. INSIDE & OUT. AMSTERDAM 2013 marks the reopening of the national art museum, the Rijksmuseum, following an incredible restoration.

With that comes the return of one of the world’s most celebrated art works, Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, making 2013 a great year to visit.

ANTWERP Gearing up to host the 2013 World Outgames this summer, Antwerp is prepared to receive gay athletes from around the world competing in 30+ sports.

Already home to a thriving gay scene, Antwerp is a terrific gay capital to visit this year.

COPENHAGEN Denmark was the first in the world to legalize samesex unions in 1989 and the church started welcoming same-sex marriages in 2012, and thus you are equally welcome at the specifically LGBT spaces and mainstream venues alike.

GERMANY With its active cultural scene, the stunning Bavarian Alps as a backdrop, and loads of historic castles nearby, Munich is a huge draw — especially during its infamous beer-soaked Oktoberfest, which includes very popular gay-specific events.

STOCKHOLM Stockholm delivers an especially warm welcome to LGBT travelers. Birthplace of ABBA and two-time host of Europride, Stockholm is proud of it’s marriage equality policy. Snap back some Aquavit and get ready to celebrate in Scandinavia!

ZURICH With an out lesbian mayor since 2009 (Social Democrat Corinne Mauch), “open and tolerant” is the name of the game in Zurich. The scene centers mainly (but not only) on the eastern side of River Limmat, in the Niederdorf area, where you’ll find the city’s newer bars, restaurants, and parties.

OUTTRAVELER.COM/GAYEUROPE

AMSTERDAM

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COPENHAGEN

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FIND CITY GUIDES, LGBT-CENTERED ITINERARIES, EVENT CALENDARS, AND TRAVEL TIPS FOR AMSTERDAM, ANTWERP, COPENHAGEN, GERMANY, STOCKHOLM, AND ZURICH AT OUTTRAVELER.COM/GAYEUROPE.

ZONDON BLACK LADY BUNNY COOPER DAVIS DEGENERES GARCON Contents HARRIS KRAMER MOCK NIXON ORMAN QUINN SHEARS SYKES VALDEZ PRESENTS

ZONDON BLACK LADY BUNNY COOPER DAVIS DEGENERES GARCON HARRIS

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BY TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS KRAMER MOCK NIXON ORMAN HARRIS QUINN SHEARS SYKES VALDEZ ZONDON BLACK LADY BUNNY COOPER DEGENERES GARCON PREMIERES THURSDAY JUNE DAVIS 27, 9:30PM HARRIS KRAMER MOCK NIXON ORMAN QUINN SHEARS SYKES VALDEZ ZONDON BLACK LADY BUNNY COOPER DAVIS DEGENERES GARCON HARRIS DEGENERES MOCK NIXON HARRIS ORMAN QUINN SHEARS SYKES VALDEZ

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Saint Jóhanna

Black, Gay, and American

Iceland’s outgoing lesbian Prime Minister, leaves behind a mixed legacy, and many broken barriers. 13

May for Marriage After a month that saw huge victories, we run the numbers of LGBTs with access to marriage equality. 14

The Conservative Hangup From the Supreme Court steps: The far right’s obsession with sex is curious. It’s also tanking their credibility. 16

Awe & Shocked A Michelle Shocked fan finally gets a long sought-after inteview with the firebrand punk-folk singer. 18

It’s still a complicated, fraught, and potentially deadly experience. How do black, LGBT Americans find sanctuary in gay spaces, in black spaces?

By Darnell L. Moore Plus: Don Lemon, Laverne Cox, Aaron Walton, Doug Spearman, and Janora McDuffie’s essays on the black LGBT experience in America. 48

You Just Said Yes, Now What?

Your indespensible wedding planning timeline for everything that happens after you say “I Do.”

By Daniel W.K. Lee 4o

If the Shoe Fits

Androgymous models and designers of menswear for women aren’t toying with androgyny. They’re serious.

By Diane Anderson-Minshall 6o

t r av e l

Autumn on The Continent

Going solo in European cultural capitals: Amsterdam, Antwerp, Zurich, Hamburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen.

By Michelle Garcia and Bryan van Gorder 26

spectator

Photography The Zelig of photography, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders on his new project, HBO’s The Out List. 66

Film Joss Whedon directs Much Ado About Nothing. 70

TV Orange Is the New Black: Best ever lesbian TV show? 74

Also

Books: The New Queer Memoirs 76

I Advocate: Jeffrey Self 80

A List: Elizabeth Banks The star of The Hunger Games on whether Effie Trinket is a drag queen. 72

on the cover Portraits of Janet Mock, Twiggy Garçon, Wade Davis, and Wanda Sykes by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

clockwise from left: courtesy subject; timothy greenfield-sanders; courtesy amsterdam tourism; photos.com

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He’s all we ever wanted.

Let’s make sure he has it all.

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Accredited Domestic Partnership Advisor� and ADPA� are service marks of the College for Financial Planning®. � ���� Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC, Member SIPC. All rights reserved. ����-����� ECG-������

a d v o c a t e

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Stand Out! Queer Comedy Search Think you’ve got the chops?

Submit your stand-up videos to enter our national search contest, a partnership with comic Adam Guerino. Advocate.com readers will view and vote on favorites and the winner will compete against other comedians, live on stage in Chicago to be named the best up and coming voice in queer comedy!

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Whether the high court rules in favor of equality, there may yet be a need for state-by-state action. For a ranking of the 38 remaining states most and least likely to enact marriage equality, visit Advocate.com.

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Editor’s Letter

in Atlantic City, wander the French Quarter in New Orleans, rock the Strip in Las Vegas and explore countless other exciting cities. Because wherever your exploits take you, we’ve got a casino nearby that loves you for being you.

XOXO – Total Rewards.

be yourself it’s a good bet

Must be of legal age to gamble in a casino. Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700. ©2013, Caesars License Company, LLC.

I

BRADFORD ROGNE

Mingle on the Boardwalk

n late may I sat down for cussion we were having was all too lunch in West Hollywood often the kind he has only with other with actor-f ilmmaker black gay people.

The following week, a close friend, Doug Spearman, an actor known to gay audiences half of an interracial gay couple for his role as professor from Los Angeles now living in New Chance Counter on the Orleans, told me he was ready to leave groundbreaking series the South. He was tired, he said, of Noah’s Arc. He’s engag- explaining to gays, both black and ing and charming, and by the end of white, how he could be married to a that first in-person meeting I felt I’d white man.

Oh, the letters I’d get if I equated known him for much longer than I being black to being gay—I won’t. But actually had.

We discussed this issue’s cover the sensation of being an outsider package—the nature of being black is a familiar one to many of us, and and LGBT in America in 2013, why that outsider perspective should be gay so often means white to African- the basis for common ground, even Americans, the various dimensions if our individual experiences vary of privilege and passing, and why drastically.

The gut sensation of being an dialogues about racial identity happens in tiny, insular corners of our outsider—the one so many of us balkanized LGBT communities. As a feel who are gender nonconformlead character on the first regular TV ing; out, loud, and proud; or closeted series featuring all black, all gay char- and isolated—is a useful, instructive acters, Spearman has been talking feeling. Part of having moral imagiabout race issues in an LGBT context nations must include taking that feeland gay issues in a black context for a ing and using it to imagine what it’s number of years. Now he’s the direc- like to be in someone else’s shoes—in tor of a new comedic thriller film, this instance, someone of a different Hot Guys with Guns, with a multira- racial or ethic identity. What would it cial cast. The mere fact of including take to widen our notion of common an interracial gay couple at the center ground? of the action was confusing to some; Spearman wondered aloud whether black– and minority-focused LGBT film festivals would think of his film as a black film. And he said the dis- Matthew Breen, editor in chief