THE FIGHT MAGAZINE ISSUE 001

ISSUE 001 FEBRUARY 2011

LARRY BUHL

HITS THE STREETS

LGBT Homeless In LOS ANGELES

ANN ROSTOW

PLEADS HER CASE Same-Sex Marriage: The Road Ahead PAULO MURILLO

COMES CLEAN

A Survival Guide to Gay Sobriety

The Fight 1

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FEBRUARY/CONTENTS

14 Hidden Toxins

COVER STORIES AND FEATURES

8 ROSTOW REPORT

Who The Heck Is Reince Priebus?

10 HOLLYWOOD’S GAY HOMELESS

Transgenders Face More Difficulties

13 HOUSE OF MAYHEM New Film On Gay City Life

10

14 NO ON H8 UPDATE

14

Hollywood’s Gay Homeless

Federal Courts On Marriage

No on H8 Update

16 WORTH FIGHTING FOR Local Gay Men On Recovery

18 GOD DOESN’T LOVE YOU

Anti-Gay Bullying: A Theological Issue

20 COMING CLEAN

Paulo Murillo On Sobriety

20

Coming Clean

26 ASKING AND TELLING

30

Transcending Politics & Culture Wars

The Arts

26

34 NAZI PERSECUTION OF GAYS The Pink Triangle Story

IN EVERY ISSUE

Asking and Telling

25 Pet Care 28 Health 30 Arts

masthead

Editor-in-Chief Stanford Altamirano Managing Editor Mark Ariel Creative Director Jason Shook Art Director Michelle Nati

on our cover

Marketing Consultants Lisa Radamaker Marylyn Camargo Tina Contis-Quinn Contributing Writers Ann Rostow Paulo Murillo Larry Buhl Rick Wilkinson Aaron Breitbart Nathan Neuman, M.D.

FOR DISPLAY ADVERTISING PLEASE CALL 323-297-4001 on our cover

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32 Profile 36 Finance 38 Calendar

Matthew was a

gay hate crime victim Tim, a former

neo-Nazi, was his victimizer Both share their amazing story of

reconciliation and forgiveness the first Sunday of every month 3:00 PM at the MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE at

“Freaks and Revelations,� a novel by Davida Wills Hurwin, is based on their story

THE FIGHT

letter from the editor

A GAY REVOLUTION RECOVERY

If you would like to offer The Fight at your location, please call 323-297-4001 PUBLISHER Third Step, Inc. Distribution Pride in Media The Fight Magazine is published monthly by Third Step, Inc. 611 South Catalina Street, Suite 307 Los Angeles CA 90005 Telephone 323-297-4001 Fax: 213-281-9648 E-mail info@thefightmag.com The Fight Magazine LEGAL CAVEATS By listing in The Fight Magazine, advertisers acknowledge that they do business in a spirit of cooperation, fairness and service, maintaining a high level of integrity and responsibility. Providers of products or services are fully and solely responsible for providing same as advertised. The Fight Magazine assumes no liability for improper or negligent business practices by advertisers.

My name is Stanford Altamirano and I’m NOT an alcoholic.

But, I am inspired by and humbled by my friends and my acquaintances who are going through the recovery process.

And that is why the main theme of the first issue of THE FIGHT is recovery.

There is a lot to learn from the various sobriety programs, regardless of whatever it is you need to recover from. Acceptance, giving yourself to a higher power, serenity.

Whether it’s drug or alcohol addiction, the economy, or a bad break-up, we have to adjust to new realities. And, as unsettling as it may seem at first, these new circumstances may offer the opportunity to create a better path, perhaps a better foundation to figure out our strengths and weaknesses.

Advertisers and their agencies assume responsibility and liability for the content of their advertisements in The Fight Magazine.

Bullying, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Gay Marriage, Sobriety – are the ongoing personal and public battles we must engage in.

These fights make us stronger.

Publisher assumes no liability for safekeeping or return of unsolicited art, manuscripts or other materials. The Fight Magazine reserves the right to edit all material for clarity, length and content. All contents © 2011 Third Step, Inc., all rights reserved.

Content may be reproduced with permission.

Recovery is about change, sometimes, it’s painful, sometimes it’s beautiful, most of the time it’s what is needed to move ahead. In our private lives, in our relationships and within our community.

The Fight Magazine assumes no liability for any claims or representations contained anywhere in this magazine, and reserves the right to cancel or refuse advertising at publishers’ discretion. www.thefightmag.com

6 The Fight

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rostow report

NOM THAT TUNE Good morning dear Fight Readers.

I’ve just had the pleasure of listening to a conversation between Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage and Reince Priebus, the new head of the Republican National Committee whose parents seemed to have turned his real name into an anagram before making a formal record.

Reince Priebus? I’m not in the habit of ridiculing people for their names of all things, but you could almost close your eyes, type 13 letters at random, and come up with something more, um, name-like.

Sghdbs Sjbciha? Pnsisk Fydnikd? (Actual test of above theory.) Perhaps that was an exaggeration.

At any rate, Reince reassured Maggie that indeed he opposed same-sex marriage rights and when pressed, explained his belief that children “are better off with a mother and a father.”

I was struck, not by the fact that the new party chair follows the party line, but by the

Ann Rostow continuing disconnect between conservative talking points and the real world. Back in December, during the Senate hearings on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, there was some discussion about “phasing in” a new policy, as if repealing the ban on openly gay service meant that gay men would suddenly be entering the military as brand new recruits, moving into the barracks with their two-toned persimmon bedrolls (right next to your bunk!) blasting Judy Garland from the communal CD player, and calling everyone “Girl!”

Likewise, much of the discussion on marriage laws seems to imply that gay men and lesbians would suddenly start forming committed relationships and families from scratch if policies were to change.

Does Reince Priebus believe that as long 8 The Fight

as marriage remains legally barred, gay couples will not exist, and will not have children? Does he believe that under current law, we are obliged to hand our children over to heterosexual families? Or does he believe that without the right to marry our partners, we ourselves will have no choice but to marry members of the opposite sex and raise children “with a mother and a father?”

Has he even thought through his nonsensical rationale? He also decried judges who use the Full Faith and Credit Clause to try and impose their social views on the rest of the nation, even though in nearly two decades of covering gay rights law I have never encountered such a ruling.

Anyway, I suppose he’s better than Michael Steele, who could double as an “unsub” on Criminal Minds.

LESBIANISM, ITALIAN STYLE There are a couple of intriguing legal developments this month, but I prefer to begin the meat of this column with some news from the Daily Mail, where we learn that Silvio Berlusconi enjoyed “staged lesbian sex shows” at “whorehouse parties,” court records show. Don’t you love court records?

The Daily Mail editors might have interceded on behalf of the lead sentence, which reads: “Women paid to have sex with Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi dressed in nurse and police uniforms and performed stripteases at parties, it was

• On openly gay soldiers & Judy Garland • On politicians & “staged lesbian sex shows” • On teaming up with her straight sisters

claimed today.”

I can’t decide which image I prefer. A bevy of barely legal models in provocative costumes, or a group of women lining up with their checkbooks begging for a little sugar from a cross-dressing 74-year-old. I’m assuming that the ludicrous libertine was the one shelling out the cash, although I like the surrealism of the second interpretation.

As for the lesbian connection, the Daily Mail reports that the ladies would “dance seductively, semi-naked, lesbian style” for the statesman’s entertainment.

Have the editors of the Daily Mail been to a women’s bar lately? Personally, I think business would pick up pretty quickly at Pattie’s Pink Palace if the sisters did something more interesting than lean on the bar, play pool and smoke cigarettes on the patio. Fully clothed I might add. Come on girls! Take a lesson in the “lesbian style” from your (presumably) straight mentors in Milan.

OUR MONEY Here’s something interesting. Did you know that lesbians earn six percent more than heterosexual women? We still earn less than men of any sexual orientation but at least we’re not on the bottom. Come on straight sisters! Let’s move up the ladder together.

OK, it wasn’t that interesting. I suspect part of the pay gap is a female disinclination to insist on high salaries and raises.

The best salary I ever got was for my first job in France, which I negotiated when the dollar was way out of balance with the French Franc. By my calculations (in dollars) I was being offered a paltry salary, so I demanded more, plus bonuses and other perks. But I had no idea that I was actually insisting on far more than the job (or I) was worth, and had I known, I would never have had the nerve to be so obnoxious. I ended up with a lot more money and a reputation of being a tough negotiator. And you know what? Men do this routinely, and women, as a rule, don’t.

But I bet that lesbians do it six percent more often than straight women.

GOOD DAY FOR GAY DADS Something really nice happened this morning. Martin Gill formally adopted the two boys he has raised with his partner for the last six years. The foster dad successfully brought an end to Florida’s gay adoption ban after a lengthy ACLU suit that ended last year. Among other things, GLBT reporters are pleased that we no longer have to keep track of two major lawsuits with plaintiffs named “Gill.” (The other Gill case is GLAD’s DOMA challenge.)

And speaking of gay dads, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard arguments last month in New Orleans in the case of gay parents who are trying to get a revised birth certificate for their adopted son.

The fathers, who now live in San Diego, have been trying to get an accurate certificate since they adopted the boy as an infant in April 2006. By “accurate,” they mean a birth certificate that lists both adoptive fathers as parents rather than just one, which is all Louisiana has agreed to put on the paperwork. Amazingly, the intransigent bureaucrats in the Crawfish State have forced the men through two and now three federal courts, where they have won with the help of Lambda Legal.

They will certainly win before the full Fifth Circuit, because there is no coherent interpretation of federal law that allows a state to refuse to recognize a legal adoption from another state. Recognizing a marriage is unfortunately open to question. But an adoption is final and permanent, period.

And once granted, it carries the full panoply of parental rights, including the right to a revised birth certificate, no ifs ands or buts.

So there!

Contact Ann Rostow at arostow@aol.com The Fight 9

HOLLYWOOD’S GAY HOMELESS On the streets, hiding in plain sight, L.A.’s LGBT homeless face additional hurdles to getting on their feet

10 The Fight

When Keith Russell, 35, lost his job at Kaiser Permanente, he figured he would get another job easily. But he didn’t. He moved in with his ill mother, nursed her back to health, and figured he would be able to stay around for a while looking for another job.

But when his straight younger brother moved in the tension and homophobia were unbearable for Keith, who is gay.

“After my mother recovered I moved out and lived place to place for three months or so, with my grandmother and friends,” he says. “But you can’t do that for very long because people don’t want you on their sofa every night.” Some nights he found himself sleeping in parks, or back yards, or on the beach. He witnessed acts of gang violence and saw another homeless man nearly get raped.

Los Angeles has always been a magnet for people making a new start. For many that means the phone number of a pal, just enough cash to get settled (and a little help from mom and dad).

For others, Los Angeles is not the gateway to big dreams, but rather a refuge from antigay bigotry and families who have tossed them out for being gay, lesbian, or transgender. If you’ve spent any time walking the streets of Hollywood or West Hollywood, you’ve seen them even if you haven’t recognized them.

Charity organizations meant to serve homeless youth are faith-based, and many of these institutions oppose gay rights all together REJECTED BY THEIR FAMILIES At a time in life when many gays and lesbians with supportive parents, money in their pockets and caring, stable friends are concerned with finishing high school or college and starting their careers, others are considering how they’re going to survive until the weekend.

Although LGBT youth only make up about 5% to 10% of the U.S. population, up to 40% of homeless youth may be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress. Five percent say they are transgender.

Studies have shown that vast majority of LGBT homeless youth have been rejected by their families because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. As Adam Amir writes for change. org, these youth are at considerable risk because they are more likely to be victims of sexual assault and are far more likely to suffer from drug abuse and mental illness. “LGBT homeless youth suffer far more: they are 3.4 times more likely to abuse illicit drugs, 3.4 times more likely to have unprotected sex, and 8.4 times more likely to attempt suicide. Although 33 percent of homeless teens have been sexually assaulted, an appalling 58 percent of LGBT homeless teens experienced sexual abuse. What’s often not mentioned is that charity organizations meant to serve homeless youth are faith-based, and many of these institutions oppose gay rights all together.”

NO PLACE TO GO Minors find refuge in the foster care system. But that system sometimes offers just as many road bocks for LGBTs. There is no dedicated housing for LGBT foster youth, and these youth are difficult to place due to prejudice, say county officials. Experts say the vast majority of LGBT foster youth who are forced to leave foster placements are pushed out due to hostility related

to their sexual orientation or gender identity. In another study, 70% reported physical violence and 100% reported harassment in group homes. Even if staff members at an agency are LGBTfriendly, other clients may be hostile.

One dedicated shelter for LGBT fosters, Glass Youth and Family Services, (GLASS) closed its doors in early 2009, a victim of rising costs, falling donations, government cutbacks, and management mistakes.

Even if homeless youth do find a niche in the foster system, they have to leave it once they turn eighteen. Without jobs, strong life skills and family connections, they often have no place to go.

The Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership is a network of agencies that provide services for young people on the streets, but among them there are only about 200 beds available, and they are almost always full. And there is only one agency in the Partnership, The Jeff Griffith Youth Center, part of L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, catering to LGBT youth.

During the last fiscal year, more than 1,000 homeless youth turned to the Youth Center for help, up from about 900 the year before. The Youth Center is open daily and offers three meals a day, a place to shower and get clean clothes, a GED program, a youth employment program and other valuable services to help youth get off the streets. Youth who are in crisis may find a shortterm home in the Center’s Emergency Overnight Bed program, while others may reside in our Transitional Living Program, which gives them a place to stay for up to 18 months, while they work or go to school and save money.

If not for the efforts of the Center, even more youth would be on the streets, using crystal meth not just for recreation but to be able to stay awake at night and protect themselves and their belongings, according to Simon Costello, associate director of the Center’s Children, Youth & Family Services department. “Some youth survive through prostitution, or survival sex, not as a way to make money but for a meal and/or a place to stay,” Costello tells The Fight.

More young people have simply slid off the bottom rung of the economic ladder.

Typically they’ve lost their low-wage job, in turn they’ve fallen behind on their rent, and finally they’ve been evicted DONATIONS HAVE DECLINED The Jeff Griffith Youth Center offers help for those struggling with addiction, although the program is voluntary. Youth have to want to show up and participate.

Government and foundation grants, private donations and revenue from special events all help make the Center’s work for the LGBT community possible. Private donations have declined during the recession, but in general, government funding has remained surprisingly stable, and the grant the Center received recently for developing a model for foster youth services was the largest federal grant ever awarded to an LGBT organization.

The LA Gay and Lesbian Center recently received a historic $13.3 million federal grant to create a new model for providing services to LGBT youth in the foster and probation systems. This program could ultimately be replicated nationwide, according Curt Shepard, director of the Center’s Children, Youth & Family Services department at the Center.

It takes an increasing amount of money just to keep up with the need, Shepard says, because the recession has made matters The Fight 11

worse. “We are seeing more young people who have simply slid off the bottom rung of the economic ladder. Typically they’ve lost their low-wage job, in turn they’ve fallen behind on their rent, and finally they’ve been evicted-and that’s when they end up on the doorstep of our drop-in center. Additionally, the crisis in the California state budget means that the safety net for youth emerging from the foster care system has become nearly non-existent. So, without having learned basic life skills, with spotty and/or incomplete educations, and with no job prospects, they, too, end up on the streets and on our doorstep. Nearly 50% of the more than 1,000 youth who came to our drop-in center last year were former foster youth.”

LGBT ADULTS: THE CYCLE CONTINUES Without strong guidance, the issues facing LGBT homeless youth can persist, creating a vicious circle throughout their adult lives: while engaging in survival mechanisms, they’re unable to build a lasting, supportive social network. Without a social network, they’re less likely to gain skills. Lacking skills, they can’t get jobs. Lacking jobs, they survive any way they can. `

The crisis in the California state budget means that the safety net for youth emerging from the foster care system has become nearly non-existent There are even fewer services available for adult LGBT homeless than for youth. In fact there are no dedicated shelters or agencies to support LGBT homeless adults. Only People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), which is for homeless adults of all orientations, has support services for LGBT homeless.

“Our mental health, medical and substance abuse services are

Keith Russell. Photo by Jason Shook.

12 The Fight

not LGBT specific, but the clinicians are all trained to accommodate gay and lesbian sexuality and gender identity issues in a way most shelters cannot,” John Chaplow, Senior Case Manager and Training Coordinator, tells The Fight. PATH clients have their own rooms, if they are available, and there are on site facilities for men, women, transgender and HIV positive clients. The waiting list for rooms is typically three weeks, and clients can stay up to six months while the staff at PATH works with them to stabilize them, help them get off drugs, if needed, and find a permanent home. In many cases there’s a lot of work to be done in those six weeks, when one considers the uphill climb facing many clients.

TRANSGENDER ADULTS FACE MORE DIFFICULTIES Chaplow says transgender adults face some of the biggest struggles in getting on their feet. “The discrimination against them is worse (than for gays and lesbians). Our transgender clients are in various stages in their transition and most mainstream (homeless) services can’t accommodate their needs. Shelters want to house them where their legal gender is. If you are a woman who looks like a man, that’s a problem.” Once on their feet, transgender adults will continue to face discrimination and the threat of homelessness.

“Employment is hard, especially for trans women. If she loses her job it’s harder to find another.” After being homeless for three months Keith Russell heard about PATH from a mutual friend. In the three weeks he’s been living on site, he’s obtained SSI and has some leads on subsidized housing. Fortunately, Keith doesn’t have to contend with substance abuse issues or mental illness which complicates the lives of so many LGBT homeless. PATH, he says offers a chance to get a start on a new career, or at least a job, without having to worry about where he will live for a while.

“I know I can’t stay here but everyone at PATH has been so sensitive about my sexuality that I feel at home here.”- Larry Buhl

HOUSE OF MAYHEM A raw, unflinching look at a part of gay city life often ignored and rarely explored

The upcoming independent film, HOUSE OF MAYHEM, written by David Pumo, is based on his award winning play that recently had its fourth New York run.

HOUSE OF MAYHEM is a sexy, street-smart comedy set in New York City about an alternative family with its own set of values. It’s a raw, unflinching look at a part of gay city life often ignored and rarely explored. When fashion photographer, Felony Mayhem, comes face to face with the street kid who mugged him a few days before, he plots his outrageous revenge. But Felony soon discovers that his attacker, Dennis, is a vulnerable teenager who was thrown out by his god-fearing mother for being gay.

When he decides to take the boy into their Brooklyn home, despite the objections of his blue-collar husband, Bobo, and child-hating best friend, drag diva Charlotte... It’s mayhem!

“HOUSE OF MAYHEM actually started out as a twenty-minute short play I wrote for a festival in the West Village,” explains screenwriter David Pumo. “It got a great response. So many people who saw it said they wanted to see more about these characters and their lives.

No one else was telling stories about queer kids who get bullied and abused, and the families they sometimes form.”

The screenplay, reveals Pumo, is based on personal experience.

“For six years I ran a legal and social services project through the Urban Justice Center in New York. My project served mostly homeless LGBT teenagers. Kids who run away because they are constantly abused mentally And physically in their homes, their neighborhoods. They stop going to school because they get picked on and beaten, and nobody stops it. I personally knew many kids who were literally thrown out on the street by their parents, their step parents, their grandparents for being gay or trans.

Then they get into the foster care system, and they find the same problems there. The harassment, the physical violence is non stop, and the system is completely ill-equipped to deal with these kids. The day-to-day workers aren’t trained about this issue, or have their own prejudices, or just aren’t paid enough to give a damn. So queer kids runaway from foster care, or bounce from home to home, one worse than the next. They survive by committing street crimes or prostituting... Some of these kids I’m still close to. They’re grown up now. I wanted to tell their story, but in a positive way. These kids are not tragic to me at all. They are completely inspiring.” –Mark Ariel To learn more about the film - and about how you can help to raise funds to make the film, please visit www.houseofmayhem-movie.com The Fight 13

No On H8 Update: weigh to courts .

Federal this year to the in on marriage heading ases c Four headlines

14 The Fight

With Don’t Ask Don’t Tell almost out of the way, and a Republican majority in Congress, it’s safe to say that the main hope for gay rights progress in 2011 lies in the courts.

And the case that is likely to make the most progress this year is the lawsuit filed by the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) against section three of the Defense of Marriage Act. On March 1, GLAD will file its brief in that case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The Obama Justice Department, which filed its first brief on January 13, will have a chance to reply to GLAD later this spring. Then it’s on to oral arguments and an eventual decision at some point in the second half of this year.

But what about the Prop 8 case, you ask? That case, which pits gay marriage activists against the state of California, used to be at the front of the line. After our side won the case in trial court last summer, the lawsuit went up to the federal appellate court, where oral arguments were held before a Ninth Circuit panel back in December of last year.

But as you probably know, the Ninth Circuit has redirected the entire parade into a potentially lengthy detour through the California Supreme Court. Although this is a federal lawsuit, challenging Prop 8 under the U.S. Constitution, the appellate panel wants to know whether or not the proponents of Prop 8 would have standing under state law to appeal the defeat of their beloved initiative given that the Governor and the Attorney General have washed their hands of the whole business.

By implication, the three-judge panel believes that if initiative proponents have standing under state law, their standing should be acknowledged under federal law as well. Since the California Supreme Court is the main authority on state law, the justices have been asked to consider this question.

Let’s all agree to skip over the tedious discussion of who has standing to sue in federal court under Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Suffice it to say that the case against Prop 8, which used to be on a “fast track,” is now bogged down in the mud thanks to this irritating procedural issue.

Meanwhile, GLAD’s attack on DOMA’s section three continues its slow but steady march towards what we hope could become one of the greatest federal appellate court victories in gay rights history--- not a difficult bar to surpass considering we’ve had very few of these to begin with.

DOMA has basically two sections. After section one (the title of the Act) section

two allows each state to define marriage for itself, and section three proclaims that only a marriage of a man and a woman is recognized under federal law. It is this last section that GLAD contests, asking the court how the federal government can treat the legal marriages of gay couples in Massachusetts differently than it treats the legal marriages of straight couples in the Bay State.

Think about it. The suit doesn’t ask for marriage rights per se. Nor does it ask the court to order any other state to change its laws. Instead, it makes a simple case for equal protection, one that requires the government at the very least to come up with a legitimate interest in maintaining this discrimination.

Recognizing legal marriages restores both the “status quo” and “uniformity” in federal law, which currently picks and chooses which marriages it likes and which it rejects, abandoning both history and consistency in the process

In its brief last January, the government explained that Congress had a legitimate interest in maintaining “the status quo” and “uniformity” during a period of time when marriage laws are in flux. They also threw in some blather about how the states are the laboratories of democracy where new ideas are tested, and how the federal government is within its rights to allow these experiments to continue without interference.

District Court Judge Joseph Tauro wasn’t buying these excuses, and one hopes the First Circuit will be equally dismissive. The federal government has always recognized state marriage laws, and until it passed the Defense of Marriage Act, Congress had never imposed a federal definition on the rest of the country.

Recognizing legal marriages from Massachusetts or Vermont does not interfere with state policies in Texas or Utah. Indeed, recognizing legal marriages restores both the “status quo” and “uniformity” in federal law, which currently picks and chooses which marriages it likes and which it rejects, abandoning both history and consistency in the process.

Well, it sounds good to us anyway.

Two more federal marriage cases are teed up for action this year. In one, which is running in tandem with GLAD’s lawsuit, the state of Massachusetts itself argues that section three of DOMA tramples on its authority under the Spending Clause and the Tenth Amendment. In another, operating under the radar in California’s northern district, a married federal employee is fighting for spousal benefits.

Keep an eye on this one, because it has an interesting twist. Karen Golinski, a lawyer who works for the Ninth Circuit, was not challenging the Defense of Marriage Act when she asked for spousal benefits for her wife, Amy. Indeed, Alex Kozinski, the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit, acting in an administrative capacity, twice ordered the federal Office of Personnel Management to pay the benefits based simply on the Ninth Circuit’s own anti-discrimination laws. When the Office flatly refused, however, they cited the Defense of Marriage Act. Golinski sued them in federal court, basically asking a judge to enforce Kozinski’s earlier orders. After oral arguments in December 2010, we are waiting for a ruling out of Judge Jeffrey White’s courtroom in San Francisco.

If Judge White strikes the Defense of Marriage Act, we will see yet another marriage case head to the Ninth Circuit for review. But if Judge White rules only that DOMA does not preclude spousal benefits, the Obama administration will find itself between a rock and a hard place.

Appealing such a decision would bring the wrath of the GLBT community down in torrents. Obama’s Justice Department insists it has a duty to Congress to defend federal laws in court. Well, maybe, maybe not. But Obama also claims to oppose the Defense of Marriage Act on principle.

In theory therefore, he and his Justice Department should welcome a ruling that allows them to offer spousal benefits to at least some federal workers without violating DOMA. If he doesn’t appeal such a ruling, on the other hand, the government would have to pay spousal benefits to some, if not eventually all, legally married federal employees. That would be a hell of a victory in itself, and a big blow to DOMA to boot. One way or another, we’re going to see some major headlines coming out of the federal courts this year.

Heady optimists among us look forward to the news, while careful pessimists steel themselves for setbacks. Personally, I think some of those headlines will be worth framing.- Ann Rostow The Fight 15

WORTH FIGHTING FOR SOBRIETY

Everyone has his or her own reason to get up in the morning. We asked

a few men from Los Angeles, with various lengths of sobriety, to speak about why they feel recovery is worth the good fight

JONATHAN CHANG

6 Months Sober Recovery has been a rebirth for me. I was dying inside. I am much more of a human being than I have been in years and I’m learning a lot about myself. I had a false sense of security. I thought drugs made people love me. That wasn’t true. Now I do not need that kind of validation, but people are very supportive. Once I was done with the drama, things started to get easier. And I found that I could still have fun. I still throw parties, and I’ve been among people who drink, but I realize that I don’t have to do that. I don’t have to wake up from a blackout. I want to enjoy life and remember it.

DAVID MINICUCCI

1 Year Sober The fight for recovery has made my life so much better. I was smoker, a stoner and always hangover. I was completely miserable and alone. Now I have amazing friends and we actually have real things to talk about other than what clubs we’re going to hit and how high we’re going to get. In my first year of sobriety I am running marathons. I am of service and raising money for organizations that mean something to me. I feel like my life has just begun.

KEVIN CHASE

11 Years Sober I think my life is worth fighting for and recovery is the way I do life. One of the hardest things about my addiction was being so in bondage of drugs and alcohol that I could not show up for anybody, including myself. I couldn’t keep a promise. One of the things that I like about my life today is that I show up for my siblings, nieces, nephews and friends. Recovery gives me the means to do that in a big way. It has been the foundation of all my relationships. Showing up gives my life meaning and purpose.

16 The Fight

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The Fight 17

GOD DOESN’T LOVE YOU

Why anti-gay bullying is a theological issue.

Excerpts from Baptist minister Cody J. Sanders’ op-ed, first published at religiondispatches.org 18 The Fight

When I heard about the death of 15-year-old Billy Lucas early in September last year (a 15-year-old freshman at Greensburg High School in Indiana, who hung himself after enduring bullying torment from his peers), I was terribly saddened. It is a tragedy when a young person completes suicide in the aftermath of daily torment and harassment. After this, I sat in stunned silence in front of my computer screen as news stories continued to appear about the suicides of 13-yearold Asher Brown, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, 13-year-old Seth Walsh, and 19-year-old Raymond Chase. Today, it is very clear to me that profound sadness and stunned silence is no longer a suitable, appropriate, or adequate response.

My sadness began to change into something different with each successive news story about another gay teen hanging himself, shooting himself, or jumping off a bridge. As I saw the faces of these young victims and imagined the family and friends left to cope with the chaos created by their suicides, my lamentation began to morph into an indignant fury.

My indignation grew as I shifted my gaze from the individual acts of suicide to the contexts in which these suicides are set. Suicide happens for numerous reasons. Some seek relief from enduring physical and psychological pain that seems infinitely unrelenting and others after severe bouts of depression. These teens, however, were not seeking relief from some persistent, internal state of depression or physical illness. The pain they faced had an external source: the cruel, unremitting, merciless pounding of daily humiliation, taunting, harassment, and violence.

And all of this pain visited upon these young lives because of one thing they had in common: they were not heterosexual.

These suicides are not acts of “escape,” or a “cop-out” from facing life. When LGBT people resort to suicide, they are responding to far more than the pain of a few individual insults or humiliating occurrences. When LGBT people commit suicide it is an extreme act of resistance to an oppressive and unjust reality in which every LGBT person is always and everywhere at risk of becoming the target of violence solely because of sexual orientation or gender identity. They are acts of resistance to a perceived reality in which a lifetime of violence and abuse seems utterly unavoidable.

The landscape upon which LGBT teen suicide is set calls for far more than our sympathy and sadness. There are times in which it is important to be guided to action by our anger. This is one of those times.

Our response to bullying is a response to violence. Beyond the inflicting of individual pain, violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people has effects far beyond the individual target. This is what Iris Marion Young, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, terms “systematic violence” in her famous “Five Faces of Oppression.” It is a violence of instrumentality-violence with the effect of keeping an entire group subjugated and in a state of oppression.

While a majority of LGBT people may avoid ever becoming the victim of a violence, none will be able to avoid the psychic terror that is visited upon LGBT people with each reminder that this world is one in which people are maimed and killed because of their sexual and gender identities. It is this psychic terror that makes life so difficult for many LGBT people. It is this psychic terror that does the heavy lifting of instrumental, systematic violence. It intends to silence and to destroy from within.

Anti-gay bullying is a theological issue because it has a theological base. I find it difficult to believe that even those among us with a vibrant imagination can muster the creative energy to picture a reality in which anti-gay violence and bullying exist without the anti-gay religious messages that support them.

These messages come in many forms, degrees of virulence, and volumes of expression. The most insidious forms, however, are not those from groups like Westboro Baptist Church. Most people quickly dismiss this fanaticism as the red-faced ranting of a fringe religious leader and his small band of followers.

More difficult to address are the myriad ways in which everyday churches that do a lot of good in the world also perpetuate theologies that undergird and legitimate instrumental

The landscape upon which LGBT teen suicide is set calls for far more than our sympathy and sadness. There are times in which it is important to be guided to action by our anger. This is one of those times violence. The simplistic, black and white lines that are drawn between conceptions of good and evil make it all-too-easy to apply these dualisms to groups of people.

When theologies leave no room for ambiguity, mystery and uncertainty, it becomes very easy to identify an “us” (good, heterosexual) versus a “them” (evil, gay).

Additionally, hierarchical conceptions of value and worth are implicit in many of our theological notions. Needless to say, value and worth are not distributed equally in these hierarchies.

God is at the top, (white, heterosexual) men come soon after and all those less valued by the culture (women, children, LGBT people, the poor, racial minorities, etc.) fall somewhere down below. And it all makes perfect sense if you support it with a few appropriately (mis)quoted verses from the Bible.

With dualistic conceptions of good and evil and hierarchical notions of value and worth, it becomes easy to know who it is okay to hate or to bully or, seemingly more benignly, to ignore.

And no institutions have done more to create and perpetuate the public disapproval of gay and lesbian people than churches.

If anti-gay bullying has, at any level, an embodied undercurrent of tacit theological legitimation, then we simply cannot circumvent our responsibility to provide a clear, decisive, theological response. Aside from its theological base, antigay bullying is a theological issue because it calls for acts of solidarity on behalf of the vulnerable and justice on behalf of the oppressed.

But this imperative to respond reminds us that the most dangerous form of theological message comes in the subtlest of forms: silence.

Cody J. Sanders is a Baptist minister and Ph.D. student in Pastoral Theology and Counseling at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, TX.

The Fight 19

COMING CLEAN

Paulo Murillo on meth sex, drug deals in back alleys and how getting sober is a lot like coming out of the closet

My name is Paulo and I am a recovering alcoholic/addict. It’s a cringe-inducing introduction that took some getting used to, but I can’t deny the mountain of undeniable evidence that kicked my ass and then kick-started my bumpy road to recovery.

The bumps on the road were my own creation. I can’t remember when I took my first drink, or my first puff of weed, but I do remember my first hit of coke. I swore I was cute when I dipped into a baggy inside a bathroom stall of some Weho dance club in the crazy summer of 1995. The drugs were glamorous and fun back then. I was not out to destroy myself.

The DJ made me do it; I wanted to dance my ass off all night long. Of course, the coke led to more drinking that summer; and more drinking led to crystal meth. Special K, G, E and other letters in the alphabet soon followed, but meth was my drug of choice because I had the energy to dance for days. Of course meth brought me to my knees, making it impossible to dance. It was all about meth sex, drug deals in back alleys and crawling out of gutters for yours truly. My life became one big cliché. Then cut to me dialing 911 eleven years into it after a drug-induced panic attack, which I swore was a heart attack or a stroke. Shortly after

20 The Fight

The Fight 21

I found myself at the footsteps of The Van Ness Recovery House desperate for help and hurting pretty badly.

I was done. January 10, 2007 is my clean and sober “birthday.” That’s four years of continuous sobriety for yours truly. I couldn’t get more than four days towards the end, so four years is huge deal for me.

Getting sober was a lot like coming out of the closet. I was powerless over being gay and I became powerless over drugs and alcohol. The feelings of despair, loneliness, denial, self-hatred, fear and unbearable shame were the same. I had to surrender and accept the fact that there was nothing to be ashamed of. I was not alone. I had to accept my addiction the same way I accepted my homosexuality.

It took complete, total and utter surrender. Only then can a new life begin. They call it taking the first step.

The data is limited, if not outdated when it comes to homos in recovery, but here goes: estimates are that substance abuse affects the lives of 20% to 30% of homosexuals. 35% of lesbians had a history of excessive drinking, compared to only 5% of heterosexual women.

30% of lesbians and gay men are addicted to drugs, according to Soulforce a political organization that advocates against the oppression of LGBT people by religious institutions. It’s a lot of drunken gays. Though homosexuality doesn’t cause alcohol or drug abuse, “As a minority group, gays, lesbians and bisexuals are victims of systematic and ongoing oppression,” says Soulforce. “It can lead to feelings of alienation, low selfesteem, self-destructive behaviors, and substance abuse.”

Gays may be prone to drinking, but we’re also getting clean and sober in big numbers. It’s hard to determine how many actually stay. The way someone broke it down for me was simple: Look at the guy to your right and the guy to your left. Only one of the three is going to make it.

Early sobriety is interesting.

You walk into the rooms of gay recovery feeling kicked to the curb. The isolation from doing drugs comes with strong feelings of disconnection. The hunger for attention and affection is painful. You identify as a newcomer and they applaud you. Smiling faces reach out, introduce themselves and hug you. Men ask you for your name and phone number.

For the most part, they don’t want to screw you, so it’s confusing, realizing that a simple hello means simply that: “hello.” The clapping and the “you can do it too” bumper sticker slogans were grating in the beginning.

They made me angry. I distorted the faces all around me by picturing them drunk---”Eeewww!” But they opened their arms to me anyway. They said they would love me, until I learned to love myself. I kept coming back.

And then one day their love didn’t make my skin crawl.

Bar mentality has been stitched into the fabric of the gay experience. And the thread does not end in the rooms of gay recovery. Some sober gays never outgrow the need for gossip, drama, attention and the race for popularity at the bottom of the barrel. Grown men behave like silly girls 22 The Fight

in recovery, same as they do at the bars. We get some cliquey queens. They are the who’s who of who cares grasping for the homecoming crown at a Straightjacket Prom. The views on hierarchy in the recovery community mostly depend on your insecurities. Good looks are a plus; and if you did porn, even better. But sober time tends to determine the chain in command, because ten years looks and feels a lot better than ten days.

Remember that we addict/alcoholics are sick people trying to get well, not bad people trying to be good.

I had my heart broken in recovery and I swore I would never date in the sober rooms again. Looking for love in a roomful of sick people can make a hot bed for the mentally insane, but it’s nice to have a common ground. About finding a boyfriend in the sober rooms, they say the odds are good - but the goods are odd.

The line between romance and fellowship can be blurry.

A friendly cup of coffee for one can be a romantic date for another. I’ve been on many romantic dates and didn’t even know it, but sober couples do exist. I recently started dating someone. He’s sober. We’re both odd. And I think I love him.

I was powerless over being gay and I became powerless over drugs and alcohol. The feelings of despair, loneliness, denial, self-hatred, fear and unbearable shame were the same Judgments aside, if you stick around long enough, you’ll witness dull eyes come to life and light up all around you. I’ve met some great people in sobriety. We sobers speak what some call the language of the heart. We talk about the wreckage of our past, doing the work and keeping our side of the street clean. We make gratitude lists, try to stay in the moment, and not have expectations. We learn to let go of resentments, anger, and we make amends wherever possible. We are of service and try to help another alcoholic stay sober. We strive for progress, not perfection. We suit up, show up, and stay clean and sober one day at a time. And of course we ask God for the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Do I regret some of the things I did in my addiction?

I still make mistakes in sobriety, but I try not to dwell on morbid reflection. It took what it took to get me where I am today and I swear I love the life I live, so no regrets.

I’m just a good guy who did a lot of bad things to get by. I’m happy to be clean and sober and grateful for the people, sober and non-sober, who helped me trudge the road to happy destiny.- Paulo Murillo

10 THINGS YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SOBRIETY BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK (1) What is the 13th step? Having sex with someone newly sober, who wouldn’t normally give you the time of day. (2) What is a dirty cake? Celebrating continuous sobriety after sucking on a cocktail or tripping and falling into a baggie of cocaine. (3) What’s a carpet farmer? It is tweaker who combs his carpet for tiny particles of meth.

(4) What do sober people do for fun? They stand in a circle and stare at each other. (5) What’s the difference between a sober birthday and a sober anniversary? The West coast celebrates birthdays. The East coast celebrates anniversaries. The East thinks we’re dumb in the West.

(6) Is sober sex any good? Sober sex can suck at first.

You basically start from scratch, but practice can make you an awesome lay. (7) Can sober people date non-sober people? Sober people can date whomever they want.

(8) Do people switch from one addiction to another? Yes. I’m currently addicted to dark chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s. (9)Can you have an occasional glass of wine like normal people? Nope. There’s no such thing as an occasional glass of wine. (10) When is a good time to get clean and sober? If you start licking the mirror and you keep checking your panties after a blackout, it’s seriously time to quit. For more on Paulo Murillo, read his blog at paulomurillo.com

SoberGayDating.com For Gay Adults in Recovery Seeking Love and Friendship

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Dr. Pat’s specialties include: • Alcohol and Drug Abuse (works in conjunction with your recovery program) • Depression • Anxiety • Loneliness • Men who have difficulty in forming or sustaining intimate relationships • People Living With - or have partners with - HIV/AIDS, or other life threatening illnesses.

• Widowers who are dealing with the death of their partner Dr. Pat offers gay-affirmative counseling. This means that instead of viewing homosexuality, bisexuality, and other variations in sexual orientation as problems, your sexual identity is supported.

SoberGayDating.com is a Safe, Discreet Place for Gay Adults Living Clean and Sober Lifestyles to Find Others of Same for Friendship, Love and Support.

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310.859.5880 The Fight 23

You Can Manifest Health, Clarity And Balance In The New Year Jin Shin Jyutsu brings balance to the body’s energies, which promotes optimal health and well-being, and facilitates our own profound healing capacity

By Lydee Scudder Each season of the year has its own special energy. Winter is the time of darkness. It is a time for looking within to find inner nurturing and renewal.

What better time to give yourself the gift of inner balance with the ancient Art of Jin Shin Jyutsu?

At the deepest level of your being you are energy. This energy flows through your body in many pathways. Jin Shin Jyutsu provides you with a means to balance this energy through the hands of a knowledgeable practitioner, or through your own hands, using self-help applications.

My name is Lydee Scudder and I am a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner and self-help instructor. I have been practicing this amazing and profound art for almost 20 years. I live in beautiful Mountain Center, east of Los Angeles. I work from my home. I will travel to work with a group you might put together of friends or colleagues.

One of the things I have noticed over the years is that individuals who receive regular treatments or do their selfhelp daily, experience an increased sense of inner peace and self-awareness. Maybe you would like to host a weekly or monthly self-help workshop at your home or business.

Contact me 323-683-3906 or lydee@lydee.com and we will talk about how I can best serve you and your group.

For more information about Jin Shin Jyutsu visit www.jsjinc.net. For information about me and my work visit www.lydee.com

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24 The Fight

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The Fight 25

ASKING & TELLING

26 The Fight

I really didn’t think the day would come. After the disaster of the last election, after the military ban repeal was left off the list of priorities for the lame duck session, after the ban was put back on the agenda and then defeated in the Senate for the second time, well it didn’t look good.

Until it did. At long last, the lame duck Congress repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell with votes to spare, sending a Christmas present not just to gay soldiers, but to the rest of us as well.

In hindsight, it does seem as President Obama’s tedious yearlong commission was a necessary factor in repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. And although he could have set that in motion a year earlier, the delay seems less important in the warmth of victory. And surely, the relentless pressure from a range of gay activist groups had a major role to play in winning what is by far the most important Congressional gay rights vote in history.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell will not officially end until the President and military leaders attest that the repeal will not harm military readiness. We then have to wait two more months. And even then, it’s not clear that gay discrimination will be outlawed in the military, only that a soldier or sailor’s sexual orientation

Few of us serve in the military and many of us oppose armed interventions in all but the most clear-cut conflicts.

But all of us are nonetheless patriots

The core group of men and women who risk their lives for American ideals personify an iconic valor that transcends politics and culture wars

will no longer be grounds for dismissal. Still, for all practical purposes, the military ban is history.

On December 22, Obama signed the repeal into law in front of an adoring crowd and a stage full of leading supporters.

His soaring rhetoric was reminiscent of the campaign. And although Obama himself was probably not the key figure in ending the military ban, he deserves the credit now, just as he deserved the criticism we showered upon his administration over the last two sluggish years. (Sources actually credit House majority leader Steny Hoyer for pulling the fat out of the fire by pushing a stand-alone repeal bill.)

Unlike the hate crimes bill, or the (permanently stalled) Employment Nondiscrimination Act, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is a fundamental advance for our movement.

Few of us serve in the military and many of us oppose armed interventions in all but the most clear-cut conflicts. But all of us are nonetheless patriots. The core group of men and women who risk their lives for American ideals personify an iconic valor that transcends politics and culture wars. Hence the ban on gay soldiers was never about shower facilities. It was about keeping gay men and lesbians out of that venerable category.

Indeed the entire opposition to gay rights is about drawing a line in the sand with a few routine rules or benefits on one side, and the profound symbols of social respect on the other.

We can have hospital visitation, but not marriage. We can be soldiers, but not heroes. This, therefore, marks the first time that the political engines of the nation have moved us over that line.

- Ann Rostow

The Fight 27

health

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Liposuction is used to remove excess fat and liposculpture is used to sculpt the body by selective removal of fatty pockets. Liposuction may be able to give you your desired body figure without much scarring and with minimal down time.

When the abdominal muscles are bulging and when there is much loose skin then a tummy tuck (an abdominoplasty) is performed to remove the excess skin and to tighten the abdominal muscles.

The upper part of the abdomen and the sides should be liposuctioned before or during the abdominoplasty to remove the excess fat from these areas and contour the body.

Stretch marks that are on the lower part of the abdomen can be removed with this procedure.

If your main concern is loose skin and you would like to improve the appearance of the skin without surgery, then the Titan may be the answer for you. The Titan is a new lasertype of treatment that has no down time and is very safe. It can be used on any part of the body and on any skin color to tighten the skin.

Only through a physical examination and simple blood test for the hormone levels by your physician and consultation on the treatment options for you can you determine which treatments are best for you.

Dr. Nathan Newman is world renowned for his advanced cosmetic surgery procedures.

He is the innovator of the Stem Cell Lift(tm), cutting-edge cosmetic surgery - without the cutting. To learn more about this revolutionary procedure, and other cosmetic surgery options, call Dr. Newman at 310-273-3344.

IN PURSUIT OF THE WASHBOARD STOMACH 28 The Fight

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While our menu focuses on many Italian dishes, we serve food items that suit differing tastes as well. Our menu runs the gamut from our famous Goat Cheese and Mushroom Lasagna to the everpopular Adam’s Baby Green Salad and everything in-between.

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www.zachscafe.com The Fight 29

arts

Friday / February 4 A VISION TO BE SEEN

By Rick Wilkinson

Opening Reception Feb. 4, 8-11 pm.

Exhibit runs till Feb. 27. La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd.

Thursday / February 3 WEIRD SCIENCE PERFORMANCE ART

Los Angeles. Tel: 323.666.7667. For more info: www.laluzdejesus.com

7-10 pm, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA,

La Luz de Jesus Gallery presents artist Myron Conan Dyal’s and composer Jennifer Logan’s collaboration, ‘Charon’s Pantheon’. Myron has spiritual visions connected to Temporal Lobe Epilepsy that act as catalysts for the vast oeuvre of his work that spans nearly three decades and includes over 6,000 drawings, paintings, and sculptures. While developing the concepts for this show, composer and friend Jennifer developed an aural counterpart for Myron’s creations.

250 South Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Tel: 213.626.6222. For more info: www.moca.org/party/scientists/ MOCA’s Engagement Party presents artworks in the form of dynamic social events and performances by L.A. based artist collectives and collaborators. In their second presentation, in a 3 part series, The League of Imaginary Scientists (A nonexclusive society for creative scientists, mechanically-inclined artists, absurdist inventors and self-proclaimed quacks) unveil their latest and greatest make believe invention, ‘The Automatoggler.’ Their unconventional experiments just may save humanity from our machines, or not.

Myron Conan Dyal and Jennifer Logan at La Luz de Jesus Gallery

Performance Art at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

‘Poster Peepshow: The Art of the Pin Up’ opens at Nucleus Gallery

Richard McMains painting will be among many works of art at The Tool Shed Bar

Thursday / February 3

Saturday / February 5

BRING A STUD HOME

GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!

Opening Night Reception Thursday, Feb. 3, 6-8 pm.

Opening reception 7-11 pm.

Expo runs till Feb. 14, Artist Meet & Greet Saturday, Feb. 12, 3-6 pm.

The Tool Shed Bar, 600 E. Sunny Dunes Rd.

Exhibition runs till Feb. 28.

Palm Springs. Tel: 760.320.3299. For more info: www.toolshed-ps.com

www.gallerynucleus.com

Get hot and bothered for a good cause! The Palm Springs Tool Shed Bar is hosting ‘The Ninth Annual Erotic Art Expo and Silent Auction’, featuring the drool worthy eye-candy of local and regional artists. Proceeds will benefit Free and Confidential HIV Testing at Desert AIDS Project.

30 The Fight

Gallery Nucleus, 210 East Main St. Alhambra.

Tel: 626.458.7477. For more info:

Nucleus Gallery presents ‘Poster Peepshow: The Art Of The Pin Up’._ Ogle original girlie girl artwork by contemporary artists who pay homage to pin up masters. Over the past decade it has become impossible to ignore the popularity to recapture the nostalgia of pin up glamour. Mingle with special guests, Lenora Claire and Julie Newmar!

Saturday / February 5

Saturday / February 12

WORLDS TO PONDER

A NEON NIGHT ON THE TOWN

Opening reception Feb. 5, 7 – 10pm. Exhibition runs till Feb. 26. Thinkspace Gallery, 6009 Washington Blvd.

Sat., Feb. 12, 6:30-10pm. $65 per person.

Culver City. Tel: 310.558.3375. For more info:

Tel: 213.489.9918. For more info:

www.thinkspacegallery.com Thinkspace Gallery presents a whimsical two-person show: Kelly Vivanco’s ‘Springs To Mind’ and Anthony Clarkson’s ‘A Time To Forget’. In Kelly Vivanco’s first major L.A. solo exhibition; you’ll discover intrepid heroines, voyagers and dreamers roaming a world of forest streams, stairwells, tree houses and enchanted pools. The art of Anthony Clarkson is like a portal into child-like innocence, mixed with troubled spirits, broken hearts and a sense of emptiness.

Museum of Neon Art, 136 W. 4th St., Los Angeles. www.neonmona.org Calling all neon lovers: The Museum of Neon Art invites you aboard a very special ‘Sweetheart Neon Cruise’ for Valentine’s Day Weekend! Ride a British double-decker open-top bus and enjoy a romantic evening under the stars and neon signs of L.A. An expert guide will enlighten you about L.A.’s architectural and neon sign history. If you miss this one, Neon Cruises will take place every Saturday from June through November.

Join The Museum of Neon Art for a ‘Sweetheart Neon Cruise’ on Valentine’s Day Weekend.

‘Cushion Tree’ by Kelly Vivanco at Thinkspace gallery.

Scott Yeskel (shown) and Glenn Ness at Sue Greenwood Fine Art

Victor Castillo’s ‘Whip It Good’ on display, along with Mel Kadel’s intricate work, at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery

Saturday / February 5

Thursday / February 17

GAZE, SMOOZE AND BE MERRY

CAPTURING EVERYDAY L.A.

Opening reception Feb. 5, 8 – 11pm. Exhibition runs till March 5. Merry Karnowsky Gallery, 170 S. La Brea Ave.

Opening reception Feb. 17. Exhibit runs till March 31. Sue Greenwood Fine Art, 330 North Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach. Tel: 949.494.0669. For more info:

Los Angeles. Tel: 323.933.4408. For more info:

suegreenwoodfineart.com

www.mkgallery.com Merry Karnowsky Gallery presents a two-person show: Victor Castillo’s ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ and Mel Kadel’s ‘Arms Out’. The work of Victor Castillo strikes like a swift blow to the stomach and stirs the innards of a popular iconography fed by comics, illustration and television. Mel Kadel works using ancient papers, tiny pens, Q-tips and glue. To truly appreciate her work, see it up close.

Sue Greenwood Fine Art in Laguna Beach presents a twoperson show. Scott Yeskel paints his love/hate affair with Southern California- Traffic snarls, boxy apartments, food trucks, air stream trailers and occasional car crashes often act as his muse. Glenn Ness paints cityscapes that explore very complex multiple perspectives and light sources from scenes we walk through every day, but often don’t notice. Both celebrate the everydayness of being present in the moment.

The Fight 31

profile

now Do You K

? a i j e M r e i Eric Jav

Eric Javier Mejia is a 23 year old, Los Angeles film director with an upcoming short film “White Wedding,” co-written with Colleen Banet.

What is your film’s plot? Catherine is a morbidly obese 22 year old. Once a victim of bullying herself, she takes to eating and immersing herself in a world of wedding magazines and romance movies. It takes Ali, her 13-year old African-American neighbor, the victim of brutal bullying for being “different,” to make her grand delusion come crashing down. Were you bullied? Yes. As a victim of violent physical and verbal bullying, it is definitely a subject I am haunted to tell. As a Latino man, being brought up in a Catholic school for 12 years, the influence is plastered all over my work. When you grow up with Nun’s telling you, “You’re gay! You deserved it!” after another boy smashes your head into a rusted nail on the playground, and having my priest, who made sexual advances at me, tell me, “You’re a sinner for being born gay,” I walked away from the Church with a bad taste in my mouth. What has your family’s response been? My father, who was once very strange on the topic of my orientation, has come forward to help me make this film come to life. I think he’s finally realized that it isn’t about my orientation; it’s about being a human being.

You can view Eric’s work at www.youtube.com/noirvisionstudios. His website launches on Feb.14 at ericjaviermejia.com. - (Rick Wilkinson) 32 The Fight

FOCUSING ON SOLUTIONS Robert Buhrow, LMFT, on establishing goals and finding appropriate solutions Robert Buhrow, a state licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, specializes in working with people suffering from anxiety, traumas (such as PTSD), addictions, and couples relational issues.

"I use a Solution Focus approach, meaning that it is very pragmatic. You are the expert in regards to understanding the issues and what you are dealing with.

After you have given me a brief history of your current problems and some family history, we discuss your goals in coming to therapy. Once the goals are established, we begin to seek appropriate solutions to accomplish them, " Buhrow explains.

Additionally, Buhrow specializes in Cognitive Cranial feedback; which is particularly beneficial in treating for anxiety, ADHD, and Depression.

Buhrow also offer Interventions and intensive day treatment with 24 hour emergency access for families with a substance abuser."

For more info contact Robert Buhrow at 213-910-7440, or visit his website: www.

HealingTodayInside.com

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defending DUIs, Misdemeanors, and Felonies in Adult, Juvenile and DMV arenas.

ROSANNE FAUL ATTORNEY AT LAW WWW.DEFENDINGYOU.NET 19800 MacAr thur Blvd Ste 300, Ir vine, CA 92612

(949)275-6377

The Fight 33

Courtesy of Simon Weisenthal Center Library and Archives, Los Angeles, CA

The Nazi Persecution of Gays Tens of thousands of gays were imprisoned in concentration camps simply because they were gay

34 The Fight

Though focused primarily against the Jews, Hitler’s racial and social fanaticism engulfed millions of other victims throughout Europe. One of those groups to undergo persecution was Germany’s gay community. While the number of gays murdered by the Nazis was less than other victim groups, a study of the gay community under the Third Reich affords us a special insight into the Nazis’ unique view of gays as opposed to other target groups.

Long before the Nazi ascent to power in 1933, Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code classified homosexuality as an “unnatural form of licentiousness,” and punished offenders caught in the act with prison. The Penal Code of 1871 undoubtedly viewed homosexuality through the lenses of previous generation, ie. the teachings of the churches and societal prejudices against those who were different. Though the Nazis condemned homosexuality as well, their sensitivities had little in common with those of previous generations. While raised a Catholic, Hitler, as well as many others perched at the top of the Nazi hierarchy, detested Christianity, both for its Jewish roots and the perceived weakness of character it instilled in German youth. Nazi Germany declared homosexuality to be a sexual perversion because its emphasis was apparently on the pleasure derived from sex, rather than procreation. Because gays did not replenish the German population, it followed that they acted malevolently toward the nation. In time of war with its casualties on the battlefield, this was tantamount to treason against the Volk. One is quick to understand, therefore, why a program of persecution of gays outside the Reich was not a matter of any concern. Nazi Germany cared little whether Poles, Frenchmen or Greeks, reproduced.

Even in Germany, the persecution of gays was selective. If one assumes that5% of any general population is gay, the Nazis would have had to deal with at least three million homosexuals, not to mention their friends and relatives. Furthermore, there were more than a few gays within the Nazi ranks, including Ernst Roehm, founder of the Brownshirts, or Stormtroopers. Roehm had been a long-time member of Hitler’s inner circle. It just so happened that others

close to Hitler, including his number two man, Hermann Goering, SS leader Heinrich Himmler, and propaganda minister Josef Goebbels, resented Roehm’s standing and sought his death. Although he initially resisted calls for his liquidation, Hitler was finally persuaded that Roehm and the several million Brownshirts he led posed the threat of a coup. Loathe to admit self-interest however, Nazi officials, had to offer the public a different reason for the arrest and execution of Roehm and other Stormtroop leaders. Germany’s old homosexual laws provided a convenient pretext. Roehm and his officers were charged with corrupting the nation with their homosexual conduct. The use of Germany’s old gay laws to bring down perceived troublemakers would become a welcome convenience for the Gestapo.

Nevertheless, tens of thousands of gays were imprisoned in concentration camps simply because they were gay and did not conform to Nazi views of normal, healthy behavior. No precise figure is available for those who perished, although the number has been estimated at 10,000. And while we would like to think that society has moved away from the prejudices that helped pave the way to Nazi murder mills, that would be wishful thinking. - Aaron Breitbart*

* Aaron Breitbart is the Senior Researcher at the Simon Wiesenthal Center

The Fight 35

finance

SHOW ME THE MONEY

Even in states that recognize gay marriage same-sex couples still do not benefit from the same financial perks as married heterosexual couples. What you need to know to get the most out of your finances

36 The Fight

Despite recognition by some states, same-sex couples still face a number of hurdles that advisers must keep in mind when creating financial estate plans.

Currently, five states recognize same-sex marriages and a number of others offer some degree of legal recognition of samesex domestic partnerships.

However, there is no such recognition on a federal level, which means same-sex couples do not get the marital deductions on taxes. They also cannot make large gifts or pass on assets to each other without paying taxes.

“If Bill Gates died tomorrow, his wife would inherit $50 billion tax free,” said Kyle Young, a Short Hills, New Jersey-based adviser with Wells Fargo & Co. “For our wealthy (same-sex) clients, anything they pass on to their partners over $5 million is hit with a 35 percent estate tax.”

While gay marriage has realized greater acceptance in many parts of the United States, the laws of many states still do not offer the same benefits traditionally enjoyed in unions of men and women.

Traditional married couples do not have to pay estate or gift taxes when transferring assets between spouses. Same-sex couples are subject to these federal taxes, even in states that recognize same-sex marriage.

If one partner has more assets, he can transfer some assets to his partner each year, said Young, whose team specializes in advising same-sex couples.

Each year, individuals can make gifts up to $13,000 to any number of people. That can even up the two partners’ estates and hopefully avoid a big estate tax bill when the richer partner dies, said Young.

If estate tax cannot be avoided, Young recommends that the wealthier partner should set up an irrevocable life insurance trust to cover the cost of the taxes.

Advisers noted it is better to establish a trust than to take out a life insurance policy, the proceeds of which are tallied when estate taxes are calculated. Under a trust, the trustee owns the policy and distributes the proceeds directly to the surviving partner.

Beyond estate-tax challenges, same-sex couples are more likely to face challenges to their wills, usually from family members who do not approve of their lifestyle, said Jill Hollander, an adviser at Corte Madera, California-based Financial Connections Group.

Hollander, who also specializes in advising same-sex couples, always asks clients whether their families are supportive of their relationship.

“It can really influence how you structure the estate if you know that there’s someone in the background who might try to take advantage of the situation,” Hollander said.

Hollander often recommends that clients establish a living revocable trust, along with a will, to protect their assets.

A client can transfer assets into the trust and also act as the trustee, meaning they have full ownership and control of their assets and can change or cancel the trust at any time.

The client can then name their partner as a successor trustee who can distribute the assets as the client wishes.

A trust, unlike a traditional will, keeps assets out of the probate process and is more difficult for other family members to contest.

It is also keeps details of the estate private; a will becomes public information during probate.

Hollander also recommends that couples draw up power-ofattorney documents giving partners control over their finances and medical issues should they become incapacitated or die. If not, the courts usually let family members make those decisions.

- Helen Kearney The Fight 37

calendar

LOS ANGELES GAY & LESBIAN CENTER Adventure & Adult Education At The Center 1625 Schrader Boulevard, Los Angeles Register Online For These Events At www.lagaycenter.org/learningcurve Or Call: 323 - 860 - 7300

GET CENTERED

LIFE DRAWING The Beautiful Human Body Figure drawing class is perfect for anyone interested in developing their artistic talents. This fun and accelerated class offers the perfect setting for beginners and experienced artists alike.

4-WEEK COURSE Tuesdays, February 22 - March 15, 7-9:30 p.m. Enrollment Fee: $79.(Enrollment closes at 5 p.m. on 2/21).

WRITING FOR THE STAGE An Intensive Playwriting Workshop Creative tools and exercises will teach you the craft of playwriting. Discussion of each participant’s work-in-progress will help you learn structure, character development, dramatic intention, conflict, motive, climax and resolution. Perfect for writers of all experience levels.

6-WEEK COURSE Saturdays, March 5 - April 9, 1-4 p.m. Enrollment Fee: $99 (Registration closes at 5 p.m. on 3/4).

I DO, DON’T I? Domestic Partnerships in California Learn the facts and myths so that you can make an informed choice when you say, “I do.”

CLASS Wednesday, February 16, 7-8:30 p.m.

Enrollment Fee: $20. (Enrollment closes at 5 p.m. on 2/15).

GETTING THE LOVE YOU WANT How to Build a Lasting Relationship Whether you are looking for a relationship or trying to strengthen the one you have, this powerful workshop can help improve your chances for building a successful relationship.

Perfect for singles or couples. More information online.

4-WEEK COURSE Saturday, February 19, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Enrollment Fee: $25 (Registration closes at 5 p.m. on 2/18) 38 The Fight

Saturday Morning Meditation Class Every Saturday, 10-11 a.m. $10 (at the door only). $9 Seniors/Students (ID required).

MAN TALK & SWIFT DATING FOR MEN Men’s Dating Workshop and Event Learn how to attract guys who really want a relationship, deal with stubborn intimacy issues, separate fantasy from reality and figure out why you keep attracting the wrong men. After the workshop, put what you’ve learned into practice in a round of Swift Dating where you will date every man in the room... swiftly.

Saturday, February 5, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Enrollment Fee Options: Workshop Only: $20, Swift Dating Only: $20 Workshop & Swift Dating Combo: $29 (Enrollment closes 5 p.m. the day before each class begins)

THE RIGHT SIDE OF 40 A Man’s Guide To Increasing Happiness At Mid-Life This class will show you how to increase your happiness and selfconfidence as you reach and go beyond your 40s. Men of all ages are welcome.

Saturday, February 26 Noon-1:30 p.m.

Men’s Only Workshop.

Enrollment Fee: $25.

(Enrollment closes at 5 p.m. on 2/25).

Photo cakes

Centerpiece cakes

Fantasy cakes

Campy cakes

Anniversary cakes

Wedding cakes

Gourmet cupcakes

Theme cakes

The Fight 39

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