Q magazine | v1i43 September 20, 2018

Q inform | inspire

Heads Off with KATHY GRIFFIN

September 20, 2018

Show TIME T U N E I N TO O U R FAV O R I T E Q U E E R S O N FA L L T V

Giving Yourself an ANNUAL REVIEW New-School Vibes in LGBTQ HISTORY BOOKS How to Move On from a MESSY DRUNK TEXT

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Q News Queer Agenda Q Shots The Q

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EDITOR’S NOTE Q Q MAGAZINE THE WEEKLY PUBLICATION OF PROJECT Q ATLANTA PUBLISHERS INITIAL MEDIA, LLC MIKE FLEMING PUBLISHER & EDITOR MIKE@THEQATL.COM MATT HENNIE PUBLISHER & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MATT@THEQATL.COM RICHARD CHERSKOV PUBLISHER & GENERAL MANAGER RICHARD@THEQATL.COM ADVERTISING SALES RUSS YOUNGBLOOD SENIOR SALES REPRESENTATIVE RUSS@THEQATL.COM ART DIRECTOR JOHN NAIL JOHN@THEQATL.COM PROJECT Q ATLANTA PATRICK SAUNDERS EDITOR PSAUNDERS@THEQATL.COM CONTRIBUTORS IAN ABER LAURA BACCUS GABRIELLE CLAIBORNE JON DEAN BRAD GIBSON JAMES L. HICKS TAMEEKA L. HUNTER ERIC PAULK KYLE ROSE VINCE SHIFFLETT ALEXANDRA TYLER NATIONAL ADVERTISING RIVENDELL MEDIA SALES@RIVENDELLMEDIA.COM 212-242-6863 LOCAL ADVERTISING SALES@THEQATL.COM 404-949-7071

Screen

TIME

Downtime is a luxury best spent queer

THE LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER are giving way to a busy slate in the LGBTQATL, but for most of us, at least part of our schedule will be precious downtime, and for better or worse, a chunk of that will be screen time. With so much pulling us in multiple directions, this week’s Q helps sort some of the queer-er options.

Let’s start on your e-reader. With an infinite, downloadable library, LGBTQ history is at your fingertips now more than ever. For your education and entertainment, 10 Queer Things finds literary escapes that are anything but boring old textbooks — when you’re finished flipping through this issue of Q of course.

Now about that calendar app. Everyone is busy adding things to it, and while we probably want to get MIKE FLEMING away from it during time off, we can benefit from EDITOR & PUBLISHER an overview of how it’s shaping up. In Q Voices, Vince Shifflett talks about doing annual evaluation on our private lives, like the ones some people do on the job. He even lays out how to dive deeply into our judgments of self and others.

The screen queens everyone’s really talking about in fall are the ones on your TV. Gone is the era of white gay male stereotypes exclusively lording over the list, and here are the days when trans, lesbian, asexual and queers of color shine, too.

Between broadcast networks, cable channels and streaming services, we pick out some of the best queer characters to watch in Fall TV. Elsewhere in queer downtime, the People feature talks to Kathy Griffin about her comedy tour hitting Cobb Energy Centre on Friday. Her performance comes after what was perhaps her biggest controversy yet, and she lays bare how that plays into her latest show.

We finish you off with the latest Q Shots photos, the Queer Agenda calendar of events, and The Q advice column. See what happens when two folks receive drunk texts from people they absolutely don’t want.

Got ideas for future coverage? Want to write a Q Voices column or become a freelancer for Q? Hit me up on Facebook or Twitter @projectqatlanta, Instagram @theQatl, or by e-mail mike@theQatl.com. Of course, you can always find us too on Project Q Atlanta at theQatl.com. theQatl.com

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE VOLUME 1 ISSUE 43 SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

PEOPLE

Off with Her Head

COVER

16 13

Queer TV LGBTQ characters this fall

10 QUEER THINGS

28 Stripper Fans

Flashback

13 10

Amazing books on queer history

THE QUEER AGENDA

Schedule It

15

Pencil in this week’s queer calendar

30 Petty in Pink

FEATURES Q Voices

8

Q Shots

28

The Q

38

38

32 Gridiron Gays theQatl.com

7

Q

Q VOICES

Annual

REVIEW

Giving your personal life an evaluation just like at work can uncover what’s beneath the surface

THE STANDARD ANNUAL EVALUATION THAT TAKES place at work is a good time to look at the negative and positive.

It’s a time to look at what’s working and what is not working. It’s a time to set goals and assess performance. It’s a time for both parties to evaluate whether or not the relationship is still mutually beneficial.

I have also found it important to evaluate the different relationships in my personal life from time to time. For many of the same reasons that employment reviews work, examining and evaluating our personal relationships can be just as valuable, if not more.

Evaluation is essential for asking the hard questions and for taking a look at where we are on this journey of life. What is your relationship with yourself, your job, friends, co-workers and God like? Are they healthy relationships? If not, what needs to be done to move in a healthy positive direction?

WHAT’S BENEATH THE SURFACE? When evaluating ourselves and others, I like to go deep and ask, “What’s beneath the surface?”

When we see something with our physical eye, we are only seeing the surface. My mother used to say, “You can’t look at a book and tell what’s under the cover.”

I’ve often asked myself, what’s beneath the surface of the ocean?

What’s beneath the surface of the ground I’m standing on? What’s beneath the surface of my thoughts? What’s beneath the surface of every human I encounter daily?

If we could see beneath the surface, we may see things differently. If we could see beneath the surface of the physical shell of another person, perhaps we wouldn’t be so quick to judge them. What’s beneath the surface of the homeless person I see on the street? What’s their story? What is really beneath the surface of the comedian who is making others laugh?

Are they themselves laughing beneath the surface?

I have even learned the value in pausing to ask myself Relationship with Self: Do I nurture and take care VINCE what is beneath the surface of my thoughts. Where of myself? Do I love myself? I sometimes fall into SHIFFLETT did the thought originate? What does it mean? Exblaming and berating myself for things in my past. amining my thoughts has allowed me to decide which ones to give This is not healthy and has caused me some pain and suffering. I validity. Thousands of thoughts pass through our minds daily, but our continue to work on my relationship with self and have found it to be the most important relationship of all. thoughts are not necessarily our reality. I put most of them in File 13 Relationship with Job: Am I growing in my professional career? Am (the trash bin).

I still passionate about what I do? Do I dread going to work, or do I look forward to it? Am I burned out with my current job?

Fear is an obstacle that keeps many of us from making necessary changes for growth. Leaving our comfort zone can be challenging, but I have learned to step out in faith knowing that greater things lie ahead. The Universe always has my back.

Relationship with Others: I have found it helpful to look at my relationship with each individual in my life, including friends, co-workers, family and significant others. Are those relationships encouraging growth and positivity, or are they bringing a lot of negative energy into my space? Am I moving forward or backward as a result of those relationships? What am I contributing to each individual relationship? It’s a two-way street.

Relationship with God (Spirit): When I neglect my spiritual practice, I end up feeling lost, sad and void. Connection to the spirit is vital for optimal health. Different people connect to God in different ways. One must choose the way that feeds their individual spirit.

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What’s beneath what others see when they look at you? What’s beneath your surface? Is it hurt, pain, bitterness, anger? Or is it love, acceptance, allowing, and peace? Is what others see on the surface a true reflection of what is beneath your surface?

These are all great questions that I have pondered for myself. I have found it necessary to go deeper than the surface. It’s my desire to practice love with no judgment towards all fellow beings, because I have no idea what is beneath their surface.

I love the old saying, “Never judge another until you’ve actually walked a mile in their shoes.” We all go through stuff. Being mindful of what others may be going through beneath the surface is an essential element of kindness.

In a world where there seemingly is so much hate, judgment, and division, let your light of love shine deep beneath the surface in an effort to brighten the way for others.

Vince Shifflett is a critical care nurse and writer living in Atlanta.

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Q

10 QUEER THINGS

LGBTQ histories that are anything but boring old text books

Home

SCHOOLING

Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance A.B. Christa Schwarz

Transgender Warriors Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman Leslie Feinberg

Different Daughters A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement Marcia M. Gallo

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The Lavender Scare The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government David K. Johnson

Bisexuality & The Eroticism of Everyday Life Marjorie Garber Women in Pants Manly Maidens, Cowgirls, and Other Renegades Catherine Smith and Cynthia Greig

Hidden From History Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian Past Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey

Q ueer: A Graphic History Dr. Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele

Q ueer Brown Voices Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism Uriel Quesada, Letitia Gomez, and Salvador Vidal Ortiz, editors

Unspeakable The Rise of the Gay & Lesbian Press in America Rodger Streitmatter theQatl.com

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‘Head’

TRIP

Kathy Griffin has ‘giant pot of tea’ to spill on Trump in Atlanta

By Patrick Saunders

W

hen Kathy Griffin calls from her Bel Air mansion, it takes her less than 30 seconds to bring up the incident — that incident.

“The photo that almost took me down ended up being the photo that took me around the world dammit,” she explained in an interview with Project Q Atlanta.

In May 2017, the comedian posted a video of herself holding a mask that looked like the severed, bloody head of President Donald Trump. The backlash was immediate. She became national news, and those in the entertainment industry — many of them good friends — turned on her. All of the venues on her remaining scheduled tour dates canceled the shows.

She retreated to her Bel Air home, not leaving for the first month or two after that. That’s where she found material for her act, courtesy of her neighbors Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

“Friends [including Anderson Cooper] are abandoning me left and right, and I just open up the window and see Kim Kardashian driving little North West around in our little gated community in a Rolls Royce golf cart that her insane mother Kris gave her,” Griffin said.

She started from there, and a new act was born. The Laugh Your Head Off World Tour swings through Atlanta on Sept. 21.

Fans in attendance will hear all about what she called a “historic, once-in-a-lifetime story to tell.”

“I spill such a giant pot of tea that people should wear raincoats in the first few rows,” she said.

She’s not sparing anyone, least of all the adult Trump children, who she has umm … creative nicknames for.

“I’m not giving Feckless or Melania a break, not one bit,” she said.

PEOPLE Q “Not to mention the older sons, Eddie Munster and Date Rape.”

Griffin dives into what it’s like to be under a federal investigation and being put on the No-Fly List.

“Being detained at every airport wasn’t fun,” she said. “That’s a diarrhea-inducing situation. So, if you’ve had too many carbs, just get yourself on the Interpol list.”

‘GOD LOVE THE LGBTS’ The decision to “lean into it” and embrace the absurdity happened to be a good fit for her comedy style — brutally honest about herself and others.

“So, I really made the decision to absolutely maximize the story, meaning instead of saying, ‘Well, you know, maybe I shouldn’t scare the audience with how the death threats came in or all the times the FBI had to call me saying that there was a new credible threat,’” she said. “I thought, well let’s go through some of these death threats onstage and read one.”

She credits one particularly loyal segment of her fanbase for providing material for her show.

“God love the LGBTs. The Washington Blade — the longest-running LGBT paper in D.C. — invited me to their table at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and that was fantastic.”

She had run-ins with numerous figures, including White House cabinet members.

“I got into so many fights it was in The Washington Post,” she said.

She added that it was LGBTQ people who gave her a glimmer of hope in the wake of the controversy “when I was still just trying to put one foot in front of the other.” It came courtesy of the very same vehicle that helped her get into the mess in the first place — Twitter.

“God love the gays on Fire Island. Somebody had randomly done a parade — you know how the gays are at Fire Island! If there’s an empty dock, somebody’s getting a blowjob under it and somebody’s doing drag on top of it,” she said.

The video was of a group of drag queens dressed in blue dresses similar to the one Griffin wore during the infamous photo shoot, and they were holding bloody Trump heads.

“You could just hear five other random gays going, “Yaaaaaaas! Yaaas honey!”

Kathy Griff in plays Cobb Energy Centre on Sept. 21. $2 from every ticket sold on Kathy Griff in’s U.S. tour will go to The Trevor Project and their mission to help prevent LGBTQ youth suicide. Read her full interview at theQatll.com. theQatl.com

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FRIDAY, SEPT. 21

September 20 - September 26 THURSDAY, SEPT. 20 MAAP My Point

“Living your best life” is on the agenda during this event sponsored by the LGBTQ business group Metro Atlanta Association of Professionals @ Altitude Apartments, 6 p.m. maapatl.org Dusty Rose

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shirtless dancing queens @ District Atlanta, 7 p.m. GaBoyEvents.com Find even more LGBTQ events in the Queer Agenda each Thursday at theQatl.com.

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Q

FALL TV

NEW AND FAVORITE QUEER CHARACTERS CONTINUE TO EXPAND MAINSTREAM TV THIS FALL

By Mike Fleming

I

t’s been a long haul since Billy Crystal’s “Jodie Dallas” on Soap pushed boundaries beyond wink-wink-nudge-nudge portrayals of queers on primetime TV in the 1970s.

Until the 1990s, most were relegated to white gay male character actors in comedic roles that may not even mention their sexual orientation per se (think “Uncle Arthur” on Bewitched and “Monroe” on Too Close for Comfort).

These days, we have the relative luxury to count LGBTQ representation on more than our fingers and toes. We can now look for degrees of better representation and inclusion, not just in multiple roles across genres, but in the openly queer actors hired to play them with increasing regularity.

The 2018 fall season offers scores of queers in minor roles, walk-ons and cameos, as well as a relatively rich roster of leading, key or main characters. The following pages feature just a few of our favorites. 

Show Sources: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Autostraddle

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Jamal LYON (JUSSIE SMOLLETT) Empire, Fox One of, if not the first, characters on network TV to represent black gay issues, much less be played by an out actor, returns as the reigning CEO on the popular nighttime soap about a music mogul family.

TIME theQatl.com

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Q

FALL TV, Continued

Colonel Kayla PRICE (LISAGAY HAMILTON) The First, Hulu An ensemble cast led by Sean Penn includes this queer astronaut of color who champions science in a straight white man’s disastrous space race to Mars.

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Ian GALLAGHER (CAMERON MONAGHAN) Shameless, Showtime

From a teen coming out to an openly gay young adult in a tough Irish-American clan, what makes this character special is his battle with bipolar disorder.

theQatl.com

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FALL TV, Continued

Todd Chavez (AARON PAUL) Bojack Horseman, Netflix Billed as the first openly asexual character on mainstream TV, Todd is a fully realized, complex animated character who directly addresses his sexuality and the importance of labels.

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FALL TV, Continued

theQatl.com

Nia Nal ‘DREAMER’ (NICOLE MAINES) Supergirl, CW This trans actress plays TV’s first transgender superhero. She joins Kara Danvers’ lesbian sister Alex as a queer character on the show — as well as characters on sibling shows Black Lightning’s lesbian of color Anissa Pierce aka ‘Thunder’ (Nafessa Williams) and The Flash’s married gay Mister Terrific (Echo Kellum) and Citizen Cold (Wentworth Miller). As of this writing, The Flash has promised a new queer character in the fall season but hasn’t specified who that is.

theQatl.com

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Q

FALL TV, Continued

Will TRUMAN and Jack McFARLAND (ERIC McCORMACK and SEAN HAYES) Will & Grace, NBC

See ALSO

Cam & Mitchell (ERIC STONESTREET and JESSE TYLER FERGUSON) Modern Family, 10th and final season, ABC

Kat SANDOVAL (SARA RAMIREZ) Madame Secretary, CBS

Mark HEALY (AMES McNAMARA)

The Conners, ABC

Mateo LIWANAG (NICO SANTOS) Superstore, NBC

Basically Everyone But Archie Riverdale, CW 26

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Anissa Pierce THUNDER (NAFESSA WILLIAMS) Black Lightning, CW

Q

Q SHOTS

PRIDE UNDERWEAR AUCTION AT SWINGING RICHARDS

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Q

THEQ?!

Drunk texts

& DEALBREAKERS

One minute, you’re growing apart from an old friend, another somebody else’s fiancé hits on you

Q

There’s this guy in my circle of gays who I’ve known for several years.

He’s recently asked his boyfriend to marry him, and we’re all planning on attending their wedding this fall. Now he’s sexting me.

Yes, really.

First, I got a dick pic. Then I got a series of texts while he was obviously drunk saying he couldn’t stop thinking about me, did I want to come over and do him, etc. It was embarrassing as hell in the moment, but the long-lasting implications are even worse. We were in a large group right after the text, and I can’t tell if he was ignoring it or doesn’t even remember it because he was so wasted.

This is not one of my closer friends in the group, but he’s definitely someone I’ll see every time I go out. Should I confront him? Say something to the fiancé? Say something to our mutual friends who know him better? I’m at a loss.

Dear Yoko: I get the attraction to the intrigue and drama of this situation, but based on the facts you provided, almost none of this is your problem to handle, and certainly not by dragging more people into what is admittedly a juicy story.

It’s on him if he really does have secret feelings for you. It’s also his problem if he made a bad mistake while drunk. Even if he is, as you wonder, dealing with something that he can’t face sober, it’s still his issue. In none of these scenarios are you in a position to do anything about it.

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If he’s actually getting ready to marry a guy while in love with someone else, that’ll ultimately be the fiance’s problem, too, but there isn’t a single thing you can do to make it better.

If you’re close enough, send a noncommittal message like, “Weird text last night. You OK?” If not and he never mentions it, you’ve got a great reason to develop compassionate, selective amnesia. Continue as if it didn’t happen. The text could mean nothing but a case of cold feet.

If he doesn’t remember, great. If he does, he’s probably way more embarrassed than you are. If he persists, and since it’s his issue, again go to him and no one else. Tell him directly to stop in no uncertain terms.

Q

My first friend after we both came out — 20 years ago — has been rubbing me the wrong way for a while now, butshe finally sent me a text so immature, petty and just plain offensive that I’m done with her for good.

I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to fix it. I just want her out of my life, but I can’t exactly contact her and say, “Nice knowing you.”

Dear Done: Actually, you can do that. Just because it seems awkward, there’s nothing wrong with saying that the comments were so awful that you want to end the friendship.

Word of warning: Do be sure, because the chance of taking it back is slim. I’ll trust you that it’s egregious and irreconcilable, if you’ll trust me that the upstanding thing to do is lay all your cards on the table.

The Q is for entertainment purposes and not professional counseling.

Send your burning Qs to mike@theqatl.com.

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