A M E R I C A’ S L A R G E S T C I R C U L AT I O N G AY A N D L E S B I A N N E W S P A P E R !
Gay City
S E R V I N G G A Y, L E S B I A N , B I A N D T R A N S G E N D E R E D N E W Y O R K • W W W . G A Y C I T Y N E W S . C O M
■ HUMAN RIGHTS
Iraqi Gay
Murders Surge;
World Finally
Takes Note
BY DOUG IRELAND
A I
s organized killings of Iraqi gays
have escalated in recent months
amid a homophobic campaign in
that nation’s media, openly gay Demo-
cratic Congressman Jared Polis of Colo-
rado has asked the US State Depart-
ment to investigate. Polis, the first non-
incumbent openly gay man ever elected
to Congress, who returned from a visit
to Iraq at the beginning of April, told Gay
City News that while in Baghdad he had
met with the chargé d’affaires, who is
overseeing the US embassy pending the
arrival of a new ambassador.
“We asked the embassy and the State
Department to investigate the reports
of killings of gay men, and turned over
to the chargé d’affaires the names and
phone numbers of all the gay Iraqi con-
tacts we had and a letter detailing our
concerns,” including allegations that
the Iraqi government is involved in the
killings, Polis told this reporter, adding,
“They seemed very willing to investi-
gate.”
If the State Department does under-
take such an investigation, that would
IRAQ P. 2
VADIM SHEPEL
WEST END GAYEST YET
22
GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON AT LAST JUNE’S LGBT PRIDE MARCH IN MANHATTAN
Paterson
Ups the Ante
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
A
iming to capitalize on the wave
of momentum created by mar-
riage equality victories in Iowa
and Vermont — which led the Empire
State Pride Agenda’s top official to say,
“I’m embarrassed for New York State”
— Governor David Paterson will intro-
duce a marriage equality bill on April 16.
The Democratic governor’s action comes
roughly 75 days ahead of the end of the
2009 legislative session, which means
his party’s leaders in the State Senate
will have to move aggressively to find the
© GAY CITY NEWS 2009 • COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TM
NEWS YOUR FREE
LGBT
NEWSPAPER
APRIL 16-29, 2009
VOL. EIGHT, ISS. 08
■ CRIME
DA, Prostitution
Arrestees Meet;
Dismissals May
Come
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
n what may be a prelude to dis-
missing charges against some men
and women who were arrested for
prostitution by officers in the Manhat-
tan South Vice Enforcement Squad, the
Manhattan district attorney’s office has
met with some of the arrestees.
“She took it seriously, she listened to
what he had to say,” said Linda Poust
Lopez, a Legal Aid supervising attorney,
referring to the assistant district attor-
ney who met with her and a male client
arrested in an East Village porn shop
last year. “I just wish they would talk to
the other defendants also.”
Under an arrangement called “queen
for a day,” defendants tell the story of
DONNA F. ACETO
their arrests to the district attorney. The
deal is that the information may not be
used against them unless later testimo-
ny departs from what they said during
the “queen for a day” session.
Gay City News is aware of roughly
In this issue:
DA P. 11
■ EDITORIAL
Marriage’s time has come
■ 12
votes for passage that Majority Leader —————————————————
Malcolm Smith of Queens continues to
■ TRIBECA UNSPOOLS
say are not there yet. The heavily Demo-
cratic Assembly passed the bill in June As ever, festival strongest
2007 by a comfortable margin of 85-61, in international films
and is expected to do the same this year.
On April 14, hours after word of Pat-
■ 16
erson’s impending announcement sur- —————————————————
faced on the New York Times’ website, ■ FLOWER POWER
Senator Thomas Duane, an out gay “Hair” still shining,
Chelsea Democrat expected to be the gleaming, streaming
measure’s lead Senate sponsor, voiced
optimism that, notwithstanding Smith’s ■ 20
—————————————————
PATERSON P. 4

2/ Human Rights
䉴 IRAQ, from p.1
reflect a significant change in
US policy by the Obama admin-
istration. In 2007, two openly
gay members of Congress, Dem-
ocrats Barney Frank of Massa-
chusetts and Tammy Baldwin
of Wisconsin, wrote a lengthy
letter to Bush Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice detailing the
anti-gay death squads’ murder
campaign and asking the US to
investigate and intervene. Their
letter, which cited extensive
reporting in Gay City News on
repression of gays in Iraq, had
no effect.
Polis, a millionaire Internet
entrepreneur and philanthro-
pist, traveled to Iraq at his own
expense before his election last
year and attempted to inves-
tigate the ongoing campaign
of “sexual cleansing” of Iraqi
homosexuals, and on his return
contributed $10,000 to the Lon-
don-based all-volunteer asso-
ciation Iraqi LGBT, which has a
network of members and corre-
spondents throughout Iraq that
has been tracking the organized
campaign of assassinations of
Iraqi gays.
Ali Hili, the coordinator of
Iraqi LGBT, who briefed Polis
by telephone for his Iraqi trip,
told Gay City News from Lon-
don that “we have been able to
confirm 63 more murders of gay
people in Iraq just since Decem-
ber,” bringing to nearly 600 the
number of cases of LGBT Iraqis
killed for their sexuality that his
group has documented since
the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sis-
tani, the spiritual leader of all
Iraqi Shiite Muslims, issued a
death-to-all-gays fatwa in 2005.
But, Hili added, “Since there are
parts of Iraq where we have no
correspondents or members, we
are convinced that the actual
number of gays killed in these
last months since December is
much higher.” At the same time,
the BBC reported last week that
according to Amnesty Inter -
national “in the last few weeks
25 boys and men are reported
to have been killed in Baghdad
because they were, or perceived
to be, gay.” In an unusual move,
Amnesty International wrote
to the Iraqi President, Nouri al-
Maliki, demanding “urgent and
concerted action” by his govern-
ment to stop the killings.
Hili told this reporter, “There
is an intensive media campaign
against homosexuals in Iraq at
Activists, including Barbara Anne Mohr, Walter Armstrong, Brendan Fay, and Jesus Lebron, protested outside the Iraqi Mission to the United
Nations on April 10, and were stymied by the NYPD in standing on the adjacent sidewalk and in delivering a letter to the door. A Mission official
eventually came outside to accept the letter, ending the stalemate.
this time which we believe is
inspired by the Ministry of the
Interior, both in the daily news-
papers and on nearly all the
television stations. Their reports
brand all gays as ‘perverts’ and
try to portray us as terrorists
who are undermining the moral
fiber of Iraqi youth.” Hili said
the current homo-hating media
campaign appears to have been
sparked as an unfortunate reac-
tion to an April 4 Reuters dis-
patch that reported: “Two gay
men were killed in Baghdad’s
Sadr City slum, a local official
said, and police said they had
found the bodies of four more
after clerics urged a crackdown
on a perceived spread of homo-
sexuality… The police source
said the bodies of four gay men
were unearthed in Sadr City on
March 25, each bearing a sign
reading ‘pervert’ in Arabic on
their chests.”
“After the Reuters dispatch,
the Iraqi media spoke about
the murders of gays for the
very first time,” Hili said, “but
unfortunately in such hate-
filled and incendiary terms that
their reports and commentaries
only encouraged further vio-
lence.” On April 8, the New York
Times published a story, head-
lined “Iraq’s Newly Open Gays
Face Scorn and Murder,” in
which it recognized for the first
time the existence of anti-gay
death squads, which Gay City
News first reported three years
ago (see this reporter’s March
23, 2006 article, “Shia Death
Squads Target Iraqi Gays,” a
link to which appears in the
online version of this story at
gaycitynews.com). “Gay men
and lesbians have long been
among the targets of both Shi-
ite and Sunni death squads” in
Iraq, the Times reported.
Unfortunately, the T imes
article omitted any mention of
the anti-gay death squads of the
Badr Corps, the military arm of
the former Supreme Council for
the Islamic Revolution in Iraq
(SCIRI), which in 2007 changed
its name to the Islamic Supreme
Council of Iraq when it entered
the coalition government as
its largest Islamist party, and
which acknowledges Sistani as
its supreme leader and spiritu-
al guide. The estimated 11,000
members of the Badr Corps
militia, which has been respon-
sible for a large majority of the
murders of gays since Sistani’s
fatwa calling for such killings,
was integrated into the Minis-
try of the Interior in 2006, and
since then its Badr anti-gay
death squads have operated in
police uniforms with complete
impunity, as Gay City News has
previously reported on many
occasions (links to these earlier
articles appear on gaycitynews.
com at the conclusion of this
article’s online version).
Iraqi LGBT activists in Iraq
have been the victims of Badr
Corps members operating in
police uniforms, including five
key gay activists arrested in a
police raid on a secret organiz-
ing meeting in 2006; no word of
them has since surfaced, and
they are presumed to have been
killed (see the link to this report-
er’s December 7-12, 2006 arti-
cle, “Iraqi Gay Activists Abduct-
ed”). There have been 17 Iraqi
LGBT activists killed since the
Ayatollah Sistani’s 2005 fatwa,
including Hili’s own brother.
Hili said the Times article
also gave a somewhat mislead-
ing impression about the degree
to which Iraqi gays are able to
be open. Iraqi LGBT had main-
tained a network of four safe
houses in Baghdad for queers
targeted by the anti-gay death
squads. But now, Hili told
Gay City News, “We have had
to close three of them out of
fear. The guys we were trying
to protect in those safe houses
became so afraid in the cur -
rent climate of vicious anti-gay
crusading by the media and the
clerics, and following the lat-
est assassinations of gays, that
they were afraid to continue liv-
ing collectively, that this made
them easy targets. So they
simply left our safe houses. We
16 - 29 APR 2009
have now only one safe house
left.” Hili also said that he had
received reports from Iraq of five
gay men, all Iraqi LGBT mem-
bers, who are in prison awaiting
execution. Hili said “We have
been told they are expecting to
be executed in two weeks.”
Hili said it is unclear on what
precise charges the gay men
will be executed. “One of our
informants who was in deten-
tion with these five guys and
then was released told me by
phone how these men told him
that their trial was a lighten-
ing-quick kangaroo court. It
was an incredibly brief trial,
and these five members of ours
weren’t able to obtain legal rep-
resentation or defend them-
selves in that kind of context.”
Hili said that according to this
account, the five members of
his group “thought they were
being accused of being a part of
a ‘terrorist organization,’ mean-
ing Iraqi LGBT,” Hili recounted.
The five were found by police in
possession of literature from his
group. Hili has spoken with both
Amnesty International and with
Human Rights Watch about the
case of his five members await-
ing execution.
Dalia Hashad of Amnesty
International told Gay City
News, “Amnesty has been
unable to get from the Iraqi gov-
ernment any confirmation that
the men are in custody or that
they are facing execution, but
from what we have heard from
individuals in Iraq, they were
sentenced to die for belong-
ing to a ‘banned group.’ We are
protesting to the Iraqi govern-
ment and are continuing to try
to investigate, but it is very dif-
ficult to get any information
about such prisoners in Iraq.”
Scott Long, director of Human
Rights Watch’s LGBT desk, told
Rex Wockner’s gay news service,
“Together with other groups,
members of Congress and con-
cerned activists, we’re doing
everything we can to investigate
and determine who’s jailed and
what their fates may be. The
Iraqi government and the US
government must both investi-
gate these charges immediate-
ly.” Long is traveling to Iraq to
pursue an HRW investigation.
Polis is also trying to ascer-
tain the status of the five impris-
oned Iraqi LGBT members, but
a statement given by a State
䉴 IRAQ, continued on p.10
16 - 29 APR 2009
Will Arrests Hurt Stonewall Tourism?
Activists question whether queer out-of-towners will find welcome from NYPD
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
C
ity Council Speaker
Christine Quinn and
New York City’s tourism
agency announced a $1.9 mil-
lion campaign on April 7 that
will invite gay and lesbian tour-
ists to the Big Apple in celebra-
tion of the 40th anniversary of
Stonewall. So welcome, bienv-
enue, wilkommen. And you’re
under arrest.
“Perhaps the city should
rename its marketing brainchild
Stonewall, Back to the Future,”
said Robert Pinter, founder of
the Coalition to Stop the Arrests
and one of at least 30 men who
was busted last year in Manhat-
tan porn shops by vice cops. “As
part of the marketing they could
direct gay visitors to adult video
stores where the vice squad
will treat them to an authentic
Stonewall-era experience of tar-
geting, intimidation, and arrest
MATTHEW IZZO
Designer/boutique owner
Matthew Izzo Boutiques
matthewizzo.com
PHILADELPHIA
ELPHIA
Crime /3
for doing absolutely nothing ille-
gal.”
Among the men arrested in
2008 were at least four out-of-
towners. One was a 53-year-
old from California, another a
19-year-old from Virginia, and
a couple, one was 37 and the
other 42, from Europe. All four
were busted in Blue Door Video
in the East Village.
After news of the arrests
broke in late 2008, Brendan
Fay, a longtime gay activist and
a coalition member, heard from
activists across the Atlantic.
“I got emails from Moscow
and from London and from
JULIENNE SCHAER/ NYC & COMPANY
Dublin and from Warsaw,” Fay
said. “All were similarly really
shocked that this was happen-
ing. For all of them, it remind-
ed them of tactics that they
assumed were history.”
The police have sent young,
George Fertitta, CEO of NYC & Company, the city’s tourism agency, was joined by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilwoman Rosie
䉴 STONEWALL, continued on p.15 Mendez on April 7 in announcing Rainbow Pilgrimage, an extensive marketing campaign aimed at gay and lesbian visitors.
We your people
are making history
every day and every night. With inspiring sights, snazzy shops
and action-packed bars, clubs and restaurants, Philadelphia is
full of fun. Isn’t it time you joined us?
7).ß!ß6)0ß7%%+%.$ß
).ß0(),!$%,0()!

Find out more and enter at
www.gophila.com/gayphilly
Official airline
'%4ß9
9/52ß( 342 !)'(4ß!.$ß9/52ß.)'(4,)&% '!9‡
()34/29ß3

4/ Politics
䉴 PATERSON, from p.1
caution, “We’re going to do
it this year. It’s going to pass
this year.” Marriage advocates,
including Duane and ESPA’s
executive director, Alan Van
Capelle, who issued the “embar-
rassed” statement last week,
acknowledge that Republicans
will be needed to pass the bill.
Over the past two weeks, Duane
has said several GOP senators
have expressed their support
to him privately and that their
numbers are “increasing.” Van
Capelle said, “There are Repub-
licans willing to vote for the bill,
but there are still discussions to
be had. There are no firm votes.”
Both Republicans and some
wavering Democrats, he noted,
are moving toward the bill out of
“personal reasons” — the influ-
ence of gay and lesbian family
members.
Senate action on a marriage
bill was blocked in 2007-8 by
the former Republican major-
ity. In last November’s election,
Democrats gained the major-
ity — though narrowly, 32-30.
Some Democrats, especially
Senator Ruben Diaz, a fiery anti-
gay Democrat and Pentecostal
minister from the Bronx, are
opposed. Diaz initially threat-
ened to deny Smith the majority
leader post specifically over the
marriage equality issue.
Smith supports the marriage
bill, but has consistently said
he would only bring it to the
floor for a vote when there were
sufficient supporters identified
to ensure victory — a nearly
unvarying practice in the Leg-
islature. On April 8, Paterson
stirred something of a Demo-
cratic firestorm by telling an
Ithaca radio station that he
thought the bill should be voted
on regardless of whether pas-
sage was assured, a suggestion
that some clearly felt was an
intrusion on legislative preroga-
NEWS BRIEFS
NY Assembly
Again Passes
Anti-Bullying Bill
For the eighth time, the State
Assembly voted overwhelmingly in
favor of the Dignity for All Students
Act. There were five dissenters.
The bill was amended to “cover the
broadest categories of students
who face harassment and discrimi-
Senator Thomas Duane addresses a celebration of the Vermont marriage victory in Union Square
Park on April 8.
tives in Albany. Both Duane
and Assemblyman Micah Kell-
ner, an out bisexual Democrat
from Manhattan, harshly criti-
cized the governor in interviews
on New York 1, Duane stating,
“Say what you will about former
Governor Spitzer, a blessing
and a curse. However, working
with him, we would have got-
ten this bill passed by now. We
absolutely would have gotten
this bill passed, and we would
have had a strategy.”
Now, Duane said, he sees
Paterson’s commitment. “Last
week, I was speaking from the
heart in response to the gover-
nor’s vague comments on the
marriage bill. Now he’s moved
into action, by introducing a
bill,” Duane said, adding, “It’s
now a larger part of his con-
sciousness. There is now more
fuel in the fur nace. I don’t
want to lose, and certainly the
governor doesn’t want a loss.”
Duane’s confidence that a vote
will be successful this year
is stronger than it was just a
week ago. On April 8, he told
a group of marriage advocates
celebrating the Vermont victory
in Union Square Park, “There’s
By ANDY HUMM
nation,” a release from Assembly-
man Daniel O’Donnell, an out gay
Upper West Side Democrat, said,
and is not limited to the stated
categories of “actual or perceived
race, color, weight, national origin,
ethnic group, religion, disability,
sexual orientation, gender, or sex.”
The bill aims to combat bully-
ing in schools but has never been
with 2,000 signed up. Insisting
that there will be a vote, accord-
ing to Van Capelle’s thinking, is
the only way to get legislators
focused and ready to get off the
dime on a controversial issue.
Still, the argument over the
governor’s suggestion will turn
out to be moot, he said: “We will
never get to point where we will
have to decide whether to have a
vote without knowing if we have
enough votes, because we will
begin debate with the votes to get
it done.”
Assemblyman Daniel
GAY CITY NEWS
O’Donnell, the out gay Upper
West Side Democrat who steered
the marriage bill to victory in his
chamber two years ago, clearly
saw the flap dividing marriage
advocates last week as a tempest
a very good chance for this year, in a teapot. “I don’t have any
because I hope my colleagues question about the governor’s
are as competitive as I am. But intentions or commitment to
definitely this session.” The dis- our civil rights,” he said. “I don’t
tinction between “this year” and think the governor deserves any
“this session” is critical. If the criticism. He has moved earlier
bill does not get done this year, than Eliot Spitzer did in 2007,”
it would slip over into an elec- when he introduced the bill the
tion year, when the full Legis- Assembly went on to approve on
lature and the governor are up April 27. O’Donnell said there
for reelection; bringing around was no absolute right or wrong
fence-sitters then might prove answer about which bills to take
an insurmountable task. to the floor and that two years
Van Capelle echoed Duane’s ago that decision was left to him
strengthened confidence. “I as lead sponsor.
am convinced that working in The Union Square Vermont
bipartisan fashion we will reach celebration, which drew roughly
the point that we will have a bill 100 on April 8, was coordinat-
that will pass by the end of the ed by Marriage Equality New
session in June,” he said. The York, a grassroots group, and
ESPA leader would not quibble the Civil Rights Front, a direct
with the governor’s suggestion action organization that grew up
that an up or down vote should out of the Proposition 8 protests
happen regardless of the pros- in New York. Representatives
pects for success, arguing, “At from those groups urged those
this moment, it is probably the in attendance to participate in
right message. I think that we ESPA’s Equality & Justice Day.
should not deprive gay and les- Ken Kidd, a 51-year-old Vil-
bian families the opportunity to lage resident who has lived in
lobby their legislators.” ESPA, New York for nearly 30 years
he said, has closed out its reg- and works for NYU, was buoyed
istration for Equality & Justice by the crowd’s enthusiasm. “I
Day, its annual Albany lobby- am so energized by the fact that
ing effort, this year on April 28, there are so many young people
taken up by the Senate, which up installation as the new Catholic Governor David Paterson, a Cath-
until this year was controlled by archbishop of New York that he olic himself, attended Dolan’s instal-
Republicans. would not be shy about speaking lation on the eve of announcing his
out against a state bill to open program bill on marriage equality.
New NY marriage to same-sex couples. Jeff Stone, secretary of the
Archbishop Will Dolan said that the teaching New York chapter of DignityUSA,
Fight Same-Sex of his Church on marriage is clear. said in a statement, “We welcome
Marriage “You could expect me to articulate [Dolan] and pray for his success-
Timothy Dolan, 59, said at a that with all the clarity ... I can ful tenure as archbishop, but we
press conference just before his muster,” he said. are disappointed that he has spo-
16 - 29 APR 2009
here,” he said. “I haven’t seen
this many young people outside
the campus in a very long time.”
Paul Munkholm, a 31-year-old
who lives in Williamsburg, said
that legislators should not shy
away from a pro-equality vote,
arguing that upstate as well as
in the city, “I think the people are
ready.” Sue Peters, a 37-year-old
who lives in Lower Manhattan,
asked if she planned to partici-
pate in Equality & Justice Day in
Albany, said, “I am definitely con-
sidering it. It’s definitely where
we need to be.”
Just as Van Capelle did in
New York, Steven Goldstein,
chair of Garden State Equal-
ity, expressed frustration with
progress on marriage equality
in his state. “New Jersey’s sep-
arate and unequal civil union
law is an abject embarrass-
ment to the nearly nine mil-
lion people who live in our pro-
gressive state,” he said. Lead-
ers of both the Senate and the
Assembly have for several years
been on record in favor of mar-
riage equality, and Democratic
Governor Jon Corzine, who
faces a tough reelection fight
this fall, has gradually evolved
into full support as well, after
initially taking the position that
civil unions should be given
the chance to work. Observers,
however, do not expect the bill
to come up for a vote prior to
the election, so Corzine’s pledge
might be fulfilled only in a lame
duck session in late Novem-
ber or December. Though the
Legislature is likely to remain
Democratic after the election,
Corzine’s prospects are far less
certain, so advocates might find
themselves pinning their hopes
on a governor willing to sign a
marriage equality bill after los-
ing an election. The governor’s
probable Republican oppo-
nent, US Attorney Christopher
J. Christie, opposes marriage
rights for same-sex couples.
ken out against marriage of gay
couples without even meeting
any of the members of New York’s
gay community. I think that if he
really knew us, he would realize
that same-sex couples, like all lov-
ing couples, want to protect their
spouses and their children with all
䉴 BRIEFS, continued on p.9
16 - 29 APR 2009
Verdict Coming on Recognition
NY high court will settle question on out-of-state unions, unless marriage law comes first
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
T
he Court of Appeals will
finally weigh in on the
question of whether New
York is obliged to recognize valid
same-sex marriages from other
jurisdictions, as an interme-
diate appellate precedent has
held since last February. On
March 31, the court agreed to
review appeals of decisions from
two other intermediate Appel-
late Division courts, in lawsuits
brought by the Arizona-based
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF),
an anti-gay litigation firm. The
cases will be argued in the fall,
MAGGIE GALLAGHER AIN’T NO
WINSTON CHURCHILL
The right-wing National Organization
for Marriage (NOM), led by Maggie Gal-
lagher, who has devoted most of her adult
life to stopping gay people from getting
legal recognition for their relationships, is
spending $1.5 million on a nationwide ad
campaign with the message that same-
sex marriage is a threat to Christians.
“I’m a California doctor who must choose
between my faith and my job,” one says.
“I’m a Massachusetts parent helplessly
watching public schools teach my son
that gay marriage is okay.” The ad cam-
paign is dubbed “The Gathering Storm,”
also the title of the first volume of Win-
ston Churchill’s Nobel Prize-winning six-
volume history of the period from 1919
through 1945.
unless a marriage equality law
is approved first.
In Godfrey v. Spano, the
Brooklyn-based 2nd Depart-
ment of the Appellate Divi-
sion affir med a ruling that
Westchester County Executive
Andrew J. Spano did not exceed
his authority or violate any
state laws or policies when he
issued a 2006 executive order
directing all the governmental
entities under his authority “to
recognize same-sex marriages
lawfully entered into outside
the State of New York in the
same manner as they currently
recognize opposite-sex mar -
It turns out that the anti-gay group
used actors, not real people, to mouth
these statements, which the Gay and Les-
bian Alliance Against Defamation calls
“distorted” and “misleading” to begin
with. The hilarious audition tapes for the
actors, probably leaked by some godless
or gay employee of the ad firm, were orig-
inally posted on YouTube by the Human
Rights Campaign, but NOM asserted its
copyright to force their removal. NOM
was even successful in having a clip of
Rachel Maddow discussing the tapes,
and briefing airing two snippets, on her
MSNBC show, taken down.
Other sources, including blog.wired.
com, meanwhile, at least for the moment,
are keeping the tapes available. Google:
riages.”
In a very brief ruling, the 2nd
Department engaged in a sleight
of hand to avoid addressing the
merits of the marriage recogni-
tion issue by giving a very lit-
eral reading to Spano’s order,
which directed that such rec-
ognition be accorded “to the
maximum extent allowed by
law.” In December, the court
ruled, “The Executive Order
can never require recognition
of such a marriage where it
would be outside the law to do
so.” The court noted without
comment ADF’s argument that
recognition of same-sex mar-
“Funny Anti–Gay-Marriage Ad Sparks
YouTube Revolt.” The NOM ad itself,
which is currently targeting TV viewers
in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey, and California, can viewed
at youtube.com/watch?v=4AzLrn5JVIo.
Maddow, not thrown off by NOM’s
censoring of her report on YouTube,
several days later mocked the acronym
that NOM rolled out for its effort to
identify Two Million Americans For Mar-
riage — 2m4m. She wondered out loud
on her show whether the NOM crowd
had any familiarity with personals ads.
That clip from “The Rachel Maddow
Show” can be viewed at youtube.com/
watch?v=r1MGtULY73Y. — Andy Humm
& Paul Schindler
riages was precluded by the
Court of Appeals’ 2006 deci-
sion finding no state constitu-
tional right to marry, and the
defendants’ counter-argument
that Spano’s order was consis-
tent with New York marriage
recognition doctrine.
The court rejected the argument that
such marriages would be
“abhorrent to New York policy.”
In February 2008, the Roch-
ester-based 4th Department of
the Appellate Division unani-
mously found that New York
must recognize valid same-sex
marriages from outside New
York, establishing the existing
statewide precedent. Though
that decision will not be under
review by the Court of Appeals,
its conclusion will be. It’s dif-
ficult to know why the Court
of Appeals would think that
the Westchester ruling is wor-
thy of further appeal, unless it
be to address the merits of the
underlying marriage recognition
debate. On the other hand, the
Court of Appeals’ review in Lewis
v. New York State Department
of Civil Service brings the mer-
its of the issue front and center,
because in that case, decided
earlier this year, the 3rd Depart-
ment followed the lead of the 4th
Department ruling that estab-
lished the existing precedent.
ADF is challenging the Civil Ser-
vice Department’s 2007 decision
to recognize legal same-sex mar-
riages by employees of the state,
and of many municipal govern-
ments under the jurisdiction of
its benefits plan.
The Albany-based 3rd
Department ruling, replicating
much of what the 4th Depart-
ment held last year, pointed
out that the Court of Appeals’
2006 marriage ruling “did not
hold that same-sex marriages
solemnized elsewhere would
not be defined as marriages
here, and it observed that
the Legislature could ratio-
nally choose to permit same-
sex couples to marry in New
York.” Consequently, it was
Legal /5
perfectly appropriate to apply
established marriage recogni-
tion doctrine to the Civil Service
situation. The 3rd Department
observed that the exceptions
to the general rule of marriage
recognition have traditionally
been narrowly construed. The
state has no statutory ban on
same-sex marriage, and the
court rejected the argument
that such marriages would be
“abhorrent to New York policy”
in light of its growing accep-
tance worldwide.
Unlike the 4th Department,
the 3rd was not unanimous,
splitting 3-2, but the minority
did not reject the majority find-
ing, instead holding that the
recognition issue need not be
decided, since the question
could be settled in the Civil
Service Department’s favor
simply by interpreting its statu-
tory authority in administering
employee benefits.
As of now, three of the four
appellate departments state-
wide have been heard from, two
ruling on the merits in favor of
recognition, one punting on
the substance, but rejecting
ADF’s challenge. Since there
is no intermediate-level appel-
late split, it is not clear why the
Court of Appeals has granted
review. Perhaps the high court’s
members who voted to grant
review agree with the appellate
rulings already made and seek
to give them a firmer statewide
status. Neither appellate ruling,
on the heavily Republican 3rd
and 4th Department benches,
had dissenters on the sub-
stance of the recognition issue,
so it seems unlikely the Court
of Appeals would take a con-
trary view, but it’s still domi-
nated by appointees of former
Republican Governor George
Pataki, including the judges
who wrote the plurality and
concurring opinions opposing
marriage equality in 2006.
 16 - 29 APR 2009

6/ Politics
Vermont Is the First
Overriding guv’s veto, Legislature brings marriage equality through a vote
BY PAUL SCHINDLER so recognizing that this is an issue that
is intensely personal, with strongly held

I
n an historic vote that hinged on
three members of the House of Rep-
resentatives and was not sealed until
three hours before the question went to
the floor, the full Vermont Legislature,
on April 7, adopted a civil marriage
equality law over the veto of Republican
Governor James Douglas. A coalition of
94 Democrats, Progressives, and Inde-
pendents were joined by six Republi-
cans, including the minority leader, Patti
Komline of Dorset, in delivering the 100
votes needed in the 150-member House.
The final override vote was 100-49. Less
than an hour before the House voted,
the heavily Democratic Senate approved
the override, 23-5.
The evening before, the Legislature
had given final approval to the marriage
law — with the number of yes votes in
the House inching up by one, from a
preliminary vote the week before, to 96
beliefs and convictions on both sides.”
Then, arguing that the more important
goal is federal recognition of same-sex
unions, whether in marriage or civil
unions, he wrote, “Our civil union law
serves Vermont well and I would support
congressional action to extend those
benefits at the federal level to states that
recognize same-sex unions. But I believe
that marriage should remain between a
man and a woman.”
According to Marty Rouse, nation-
al field director for the Human Rights
Campaign (HRC), the Washington-
based LGBT lobby, who was on the
ground in Montpelier, the final votes
needed to secure the override were not
nailed down until 8 a.m., about three
hours before the vote. The task facing
advocates was to retain support from
the six Republicans, who faced pres-
sure to uphold the actions of the GOP

GAY CITY NEWS

— and sent it to Douglas. Minutes later,
the governor returned a veto message to
the Legislature, which read, in part, “I do
governor, while winning over three
Democrats. The House speaker, Demo-
crat Shap Smith, who typically does not
At an April 8 marriage equality rally in Union Square, Heath Tucker of the Civil Rights Front, a direct action organization
that grew up in New York in the wake of Proposition 8 protests, points out that the Empire State has fallen behind.

Monday, April 20th 2009, 8pm
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street
Purchase tickets at symphonyspace.org
or call 212.864.5400
www.aliforneycenter.org/beauty
Contestants
Tony James (Mr. Lion King), Anthony
Hollock (Mr. Hair), Adam Fleming
(Mr. Wicked), James Brown III (Mr. Little
Mermaid), David Larsen (Mr. Billy Elliot)
Photos by Curtis Brown Photography.Com
NEW
vote, was able to cast the 100th vote
in support of the override. The Barre-
Montpelier Times Argus reported that
capitol observers had characterized
the override question as a leadership
test for Smith, who assumed the House
speakership in January. According to
Rouse, the willingness to stand with
Smith was among the selling points
made to Democrats targeted during the
override effort, but he emphasized that
the issue was largely a matter of con-
science on both sides of the aisle.
“Today we have overridden the gov-
ernor’s veto,” Senate President Pro Tem
Peter Shumlin said in a written state-
ment released by HRC. “I have never felt
more proud of Vermont as we become
the first state in the country to enact
marriage equality, not as the result of a
court order, but because it is the right
thing to do.” HRC president Joe Solmo-
nese, in the same release, stated, “This
historic vote in the Vermont Legislature
reminds us of the incredible progress
being made toward equality.”
Rouse said the marriage equality law
resulted from a nine-year “Vermont
family discussion.” In late 1999, the
State Supreme Court ordered the Leg-
islature to confer all the rights of civil
marriage on same-sex couples, wheth-
about complying, which finally result-
ed in a civil union bill, the first in the
nation, going to then-Governor How-
ard Dean, who signed it. “In the years
since then,” Rouse said, “legislators got
to know their constituents, including
their gay and lesbian constituents and
families who had gay or lesbian mem-
bers. This was a conversation that took
place over kitchen tables across the
state over the years.”
Rouse singled out the leadership of
Beth Robinson, who heads Vermont
Freedom to Marry, saying she was
“tenacious in traveling the state” to
rally support for the bill. That group got
an assist from MassEquality, the coali-
tion of organizations that mobilized
after the 2003 Massachusetts high
court ruling in favor of gay marriage,
to defend it against any effort at voter
repeal through a referendum. Rouse
headed MassEquality during the most
critical years of that struggle.
As the House voted Tuesday morn-
ing, tensions ran high despite advo-
cates’ optimism that they had the
votes. Rouse noted that three of the
critical votes — those of Democrat Jeff
Young of St. Albans City and Republi-
cans Richard Westman of Cambridge
and Kurt Wright of Burlington. — came

Philip Marie
er by opening up marriage or through at the end of the roll call.
other means. Despite the court order, “That’s your headline,” he said. “Two
a contentious legislative battle ensued W’s and a Y.”
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
■ POLITICS
Politics Favorable
in Iowa
With strong support from top legislators,
marriage ruling has cover
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
L
ess than two hours after the Iowa
Supreme Court, on April 3, ruled
unanimously that the state’s ban
on marriage by same-sex couples violat-
ed their equal rights protections, the two
leaders of the Legislature, both Demo-
crats — Senate Majority Leader Mike
Gronstal of Council Bluffs and House
Speaker Pat Murphy of Dubuque —
issued a joint statement effusively prais-
ing the decision.
“Thanks to today’s decision, Iowa con-
tinues to be a leader in guaranteeing all
of our citizens’ equal rights,” the state-
ment read. “The court has ruled today
that when two Iowans promise to share
their lives together, state law will respect
that commitment, regardless of whether
the couple is gay or straight. When all is
said and done, we believe the only last-
ing question about today’s events will be
why it took us so long.”
Opponents of same-sex marriage
equality, including some Republican law-
makers, immediately called on the Legis-
lature to begin the process of putting a
constitutional amendment before voters
to overturn the high court ruling, but
such a measure could not go before vot-
ers until at least 2011, were it approved
by two successive legislative sessions, in
majority votes of the full membership of
each chamber.
Gronstal and Murphy quickly made
clear they would block that effort. The
Democrats hold a 56-44 majority in the
House of Representatives and a 32-18
margin in the Senate. In a telephone
interview with Gay City News the day of
the ruling, Gronstal said, “I am not going
to call up a constitutional amendment.
I’m the guy who gets to decide, and there
will not be a vote as long as I am the
majority leader.” He recalled that when
a constitutional amendment barring
marriage equality was considered five
years ago, with a Republican majority in
the Senate, a united Democratic minor-
ity was joined by four GOP legislators to
beat it back.
On April 6, three days after the court
ruling, Gronstal held to his prom-
ise, turning back an effort to have an
amendment measure taken up in the
Senate. He recounted a conversation
his daughter had on her job, in which
she told some older co-workers express-
ing anger about the Supreme Court rul-
16 – 29 APR 2009 7
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He then recounted his experience going
home to his wife of 37 years the night of
the ruling: “I hugged my wife. I felt like This study is being conducted by the Boston University School of Pub-
our love was just a little more meaningful lic Health and is funded by the American Cancer Society
last Friday night because thousands of
other Iowa citizens could hug each other
and have the state recognize their love for
each other.” A YouTube clip of Gronstal’s Join our healthy survivor study!
speech had received just under 100,000
hits as of April 14.
On April 9, Murphy ruled that a
One time telephone interview.
motion to have the House consider a
measure calling for an amendment
was out of order, and hours later, on a CALL OR EMAIL
straight party line vote, the chamber
turned down a procedural motion to
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a political choice they have not made
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also bring up other issues, which might
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not be to the liking of conservatives and
Republicans in a state currently skewing
Democratic. When Connecticut voters
had a similar opportunity to call a consti-
tutional convention — open to them only
every 20 years — last November, shortly
after the marriage equality ruling there,
they decisively turned it back, with little
public debate.
Café Grill
Iowa’s Democratic governor, Chet
Culver, is opposed to marriage equality
for gay and lesbian couples, but, unlike
the legislative leaders, waited more than
At the entrance of walk path
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ment for same-sex couples seeking a
marriage license.
Despite the friendly reception from
legislative leaders and the muted reac-
tion from the governor, emotions have
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run high in Iowa since the ruling. A
photo posted on the Des Moines Register Order Online: www.seamlessweb.com
website the day of the ruling showed an
anti-gay protester, outside the Supreme 63 Tillery Street, Corner of Adams Street
Court, holding a sign reading, “Same sex
718-596-5178 www.celestediner.com
䉴 IOWA, continued on p.8

8/ Legal
Iowa Court Unanimous
Building on California, Connecticut, pioneering Midwest opinion sweeping
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
I
n a sweeping unanimous
decision, the seven-member
Iowa Supreme Court ruled
on April 3 that the state law lim-
iting marriage to different-sex
couples violates the equal pro-
tection guarantee of the State
Constitution. Additionally, the
court held that only equal mar-
riage rights, not some paral-
lel structure like civil unions,
could satisfy the constitutional
equality requirement. The rul-
ing in Varnum v. Brien, which
affirmed an August 2007 Polk
County trial court decision, is a
triumph for Lambda Legal, the
leading national LGBT public
interest law firm that conceived
and organized the litigation in
collaboration with Iowa LGBT
rights groups, and cooperating
attorney Dennis W. Johnson of
Des Moines. Johnson was mas-
terful in arguing the case to the
court this past December.
This is the first time that a
state supreme court has unani-
mously concluded that same-
sex couples have an equal right
with different-sex couples to
marry as a matter of state con-
stitutional law. Prior victories —
and defeats — have come from
closely divided courts. Since
the Polk County Recorder was
the defendant in this case, it
was that county’s attorney, not
the Iowa attorney general, who
argued the state’s position.
The beautifully and clearly
written opinion by Justice Mark
Cady stands as a strong rebuke
to the bizarre plurality opin-
ion produced by Judge Robert
Smith of the New York Court
of Appeals in the 2006 ruling
in Hernandez v. Robles, which
rejected the right of same-sex
couples to marry here. Cady’s
䉴 IOWA, from p.7
animals don’t mate. God Bless.
Culver man up.” The Regis-
ter reported that out gay Des
Moines Senator Matt McCoy
had received telephone death
threats.
“Today’s victory was made
possible through the support of
the LGBT community and our
opinion also built on the impor-
tant 2008 opinions from Califor-
nia Chief Justice Ronald George
and Connecticut Justice Rich-
ard N. Palmer.
The court decided to treat
this as an equal protection
case concerning a statute that
discriminates based on sexual
orientation. The plaintiffs had
challenged on both gender and
sexual orientation discrimi-
nation grounds, and the trial
judge had seen this as a gen-
der discrimination case, but the
court decided to cut through the
semantics and get to the heart
of the matter: the challenged
law, enacted in the recent surge
of state Defense of Marriage
Acts, was intended to exclude
gay people from marrying. “How
can a state premised on the
constitutional principle of equal
protection justify exclusion of a
class of Iowans from civil mar-
riage?,” Cady wrote.
The threshold questions
in equal protection cases are
whether the plaintiffs, excluded
from some right, are similarly
situated with those who are
included, and, if so, whether
the state can justify that. The
state’s burden is heightened if
the court decides that the clas-
sification that the law estab-
lishes — in this case, sexual ori-
entation — is “suspect” in some
way, triggering more demanding
judicial review. The court decid-
ed that same-sex couples seek-
ing to marry are similarly situ-
ated to different-sex couples.
“Plaintiffs are in committed and
loving relationships, many rais-
ing families, just like hetero-
sexual couples,” wrote Cady.
“Moreover, official recognition
of their status provides an insti-
tutional basis for defining their
fundamental relational rights
allies who have worked tireless-
ly for equality over the years,”
said Brad Clark, the director of
the One Iowa Campaign, which
led marriage equality efforts in
the state, shortly after the rul-
ing was announced. “This rul-
ing is huge.” Camilla Taylor,
senior staff attorney at Lambda
Legal and the lead architect in
the successful marriage law-
and responsibilities, just as it
does for heterosexual couples.
Society benefits, for example,
from providing same-sex cou-
ples a stable framework within
which to raise their children
and the power to make health
care and end-of-life decisions for
loved ones, just as it does when
that framework is provided
for opposite-sex couples.” The
only distinction, Cady asserted,
was sexual orientation, which
does not mean the plaintiff
couples are not similarly situ-
ated, because that would lead
to a “circular approach,” under
which “all distinctions would
evade equal protection review.”
The court also rejected the
county’s fatuous argument
that the law did not discrimi-
nate against gay people because
they are free to marry different-
sex partners. “Viewed in the
complete context of marriage,
including intimacy, civil mar-
riage with a person of the oppo-
site sex is as unappealing to a
gay or lesbian person as a civil
marriage with a person of the
same sex is to a heterosexual.
Thus, the right of a gay or les-
bian person under the marriage
statute to enter into a civil mar-
riage only with a person of the
opposite sex is no right at all.”
The Iowa court followed the
path blazed in California and
Connecticut, finding that a
heightened level of judicial scru-
tiny for sexual orientation dis-
crimination claims is warrant-
ed. This is a critical conclusion
because it throws the burden of
justification on the state. With-
out heightened scrutiny, a law
is presumed constitutional, and
the burden falls on the plaintiff
to demonstrate its total irratio-
nality. In a heightened scru-
tiny case, the state must show
suit, said, “Today’s victory is
a testament to the strength of
love, hope, and courage — our
clients have shown an abun-
dance of all three for many
years, and now at long last they
will be able to marry.”
The Supreme Court’s rul-
ing affirmed a Des Moines trial
court ruling from August 2007,
and will take effect on April 27.
that the statute substantially
advances an important state
interest.
The court framed the ques-
tion before it as “whether the
state has ‘exceedingly persua-
sive’ reasons for denying civil
marriage to same-sex couples,
not whether state-sanctioned,
heterosexual marriage is con-
stitutional... whether exclud-
ing gay and lesbian people from
civil marriage is substantially
related to any important gov-
ernmental objective.” This rea-
soning is a direct rejection of
the methodology used by state
courts that have embraced the
“channeling procreation” theo-
ry as a justification for provid-
ing marriage only to different-
sex couples — especially the
absurd contention by the Court
of Appeals’ Smith here in New
York that because same-sex
couples can only have children
through “intentional actions”
(such as donor insemination,
surrogacy, or adoption), there
is no need to dangle the benefits
of marriage in front of them in
order to “channel” their procre-
ative activities. Different-sex
couples, in contrast, according
to Smith’s argument, often bear
children with no planning, and
so need to be steered toward a
stable family structure.
Cady quickly demolished
the county’s argument that
maintaining or preserving tra-
ditional marriage could qualify
as the necessary justification.
“A specific tradition sought to
be maintained cannot be an
important governmental objec-
tive for equal protection pur-
poses,” he wrote, “when the
tradition is nothing more than
the historical classification cur-
䉴 IOWA COURT, continued on p.9
In praising the marriage qual-
ity victory, Gronstal and Mur-
phy likened the ruling to Iowa
Supreme Court decisions that
abolished slavery, in 1839;
that barred racially segregated
schools, in 1868; that ended
racial discrimination in public
accommodations, in 1873; and
that admitted women to the
practice of law, in 1869.”
16 - 29 APR 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
THU.APR.16
READING
Rhythm & Rhymes
In the latest installment of “Drunken!
Careening! Writers!,” host Kathleen
Warnock presents “Poetry in Motion!”
— featuring Guillermo Castro, an
Argentine-born New Yorker whose work
appears in the Brooklyn Rail, the Belle-
vue Literary Review, La Fove, Bloom, and
Barrow Street, among others, and the
anthologies “This Full Green Hour,” “My
Diva,” and “ Saints of Hysteria”; Ron
Drummond, a founding editor of Barrow
Street, whose “Why I Kick at Night” was
a Portlandia Press Chapbook Competi-
tion winner; and Gloria, a Brooklyn-born
poet, visual artist, and member of the
music group Kanipchen-Fit. KGB Bar, 85
E. Fourth St., btwn. Bowery & Sec-
ond Ave., 7 p.m. Free.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
MUSIC
Making It Sing
OUTMusic, the organization pro-
moting the work of out LGBT artists,
presents the latest in its seminar series
with singer/ songwriter Dan Manjovi
leading “Homegrown: The Art and Busi-
ness of the Independent and Out Singer/
Songwriter/Performer.” LGBT Commu-
nity Center, 208 W. 13th St., 7-9 p.m.
Admission is $10. More information at
danmajovi.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
Sweet Baby Jane
Baby Jane Dexter presents a new
show based on her just-released CD,
“If,” with music director Ross Patterson,
bassist Boots Maleson, and directed by
Elissa Patterson. Metropolitan Room
at Gotham, 34 W. 22nd St. Apr. 16-18,
23-25, 30 & May 1-2, 7:30 p.m. Cover
charge is $25, plus a two-drink minimum.
Reservations at 212-206 0440.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
GETAWAYS
Find Your Place in
the Sun
Center Share-a-Thon, presented
by Out Professionals, is a way to find
housemates to fill your summer home,
or find a full-, half-, or quarter-share in
a place you’ll enjoy. Admission is $40
if you’re looking for housemates; $15 if
you’re look to buy a share, or if you’re
a housemate with a share offeror who
䉴 APR 16, continued on p.10
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 16 – 29 APR 2009 9

䉴 BRIEFS, from p.4 read his rights. Taped calls to his Appeals. Stark’s statement said
girlfriend where he said that “gay that her department has hired Premier Sponsors
the legal rights and responsibilities things need to die” will be allowed hundreds of people. “It is therefore

of marriage.
“We also remind Archbishop
Dolan that the issue currently
before the Legislature in New York
and many other states is not mar-
riage within the Catholic Church,
but civil marriage in the eyes of
the state. Churches will always
be able to determine who to marry
and who not to marry.”
Trial Begins in
Colorado Slaying
of Angie Zapata
Allen Andrade, 32, is on trial for
first degree murder as a hate crime
in Greely, Colorado, for the July kill-
ing of Angie Zapata, 18, a transgen-
dered woman prosecutors say was
beaten to death with a fire extin-
guisher by him. Andrade, who met
Zapata through a mobile networking
site and spent the night with her,
told investigators that he thought he
killed “it,” as he referred to her, after
two blows, but resumed the beat-
ing when Zapata tried to get up, the
Associated Press reported. The first
39 minutes of Andrade’s confession
were thrown out by the trial judge,
who determined he had not been
into the trial.
Martha Stark,
Bloomberg
Finance
Commish, Under
Investigation
New York City Finance Com-
missioner Martha Stark, an out
lesbian, is being investigated by
the Conflicts of Interest Board
(COIB) for dating a former subor-
dinate, Dara Ottley-Brown, and
hiring Ottley-Brown’s ex-husband
as a graphic artist, the couple’s
daughter as an intern, and several
Stark relations who quit March 18
after the New York Post reported
that Stark was “moonlighting” as
a director of a real-estate company
for a more than $134,000 over two
years, a position she has since
resigned.
Stark, 48, told the Post in a
statement, “I have never used my
position to obtain any advantage
for an relative or personal relation,
and I have not had a personal rela-
tion with a subordinate.” Ottley-
Brown is now a commissioner on
the City Board of Standards and
AIDS
not surprising or significant that a
small handful… would have had
some connection to me.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
described as “stern” by the New
York Times, said this week, “Given
that Martha Stark runs an incred-
ibly vital city agency, we’re asking
the COIB and the DOI (Department
Grand Sponsors WALK
of Investigation) to do this work as
quickly as possible.” Stark’s lawyer
NEW YORK
is Rudy Giuliani’s former deputy
mayor Randy Mastro, who said in
a statement, “These allegations of
a personal relationship with some-
MAY 17, 2009
one who was a subordinate of hers
are demonstrably false.
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䉴 BRIEFS, continued on p.10

䉴 IOWA COURT, from p.8
rently expressed in the statute being
challenged. When a certain tradition is
used as both the governmental objec-
tive and the classification to further that
objective, the equal protection analysis is
transformed into the circular question of
whether the classification accomplishes
the governmental objective, which objec-
tive is to maintain the classification.”
Tellingly, Cady observed, “If a simple
showing that discrimination is tradition-
al satisfies equal protection, previous
successful equal protection challenges
of invidious racial and gender classifica-
tions would have failed.”
The court also rejected the argument
that the existing exclusion somehow
advances the best interest of children,
which the county argued is achieved
by having them raised in traditional,
different-sex marital households. Cady
pointed to the court record and the inde-
pendent research it conducted showing
that all the professional opinion on child-
rearing supports the plaintiffs in arguing
that same-sex couples are as capable as
different-sex couples in raising children.
He noted that barring same-sex mar-
Benefiting
The county also argued that the ban
on same-sex marriage is intended to pro-
mote stability in opposite-sex relation-
ships, but the court could not see how
excluding same-sex couples from marry-
ing advances this interest. and other tri-state area
On the question of religious objections AIDS service organizations.
to marriage equality, the court noted
that Polk County had not raised this
issue: “The County’s silence reflects, we
believe, its understanding this reason Thanks to
cannot, under our Iowa Constitution, be
used to justify a ban on same-sex mar-
riage,” Cady specifically denied that the
court’s decision would abridge the right
of anyone in Iowa to the free exercise of
religion, noting denominations are free
to marry only those couples they wish.
“We are firmly convinced the exclusion
of gay and lesbian people from the insti-
tution of civil marriage does not substan-
tially further any important governmen-
tal objective,” wrote Cady, summing up
the court’s holding. “The legislature has
excluded a historically disfavored class
of persons from a supremely important Created and produced by MZA Events.
civil institution without a constitution- AIDS Walk Founder/Producer: Craig R. Miller.
© MZA Events, 2009
ally sufficient justification.” Iowa’s court
was not ready to embrace the halfway
measures suggested by the New Jersey

Tough times won’t

riage still allows different-sex couples
patently unfit to raise children to marry,
while denying marriage to same-sex cou-
ples capable of parenting well. The chil-
dren of same-sex couples are not helped
by barring the marriage of their parents,
and neither are the children of different-
sex couples, Cody concluded.
and Vermont Supreme Courts, which led
to the enactment of civil union laws in
those states. “A new distinction based on
sexual orientation,” Cody wrote, “would
be equally suspect and difficult to square
with the fundamental principles of equal
protection embodied in our constitu-
tion.”
break our stride.

10/ Youth
FIERCE Presses Open Space
LGBT youth advocacy group wants to open up Hudson River Park board
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
F
IERCE, the Fabulous
Independent Educated
Radicals For Community
Empowerment, which has long
battled on behalf of LGBT youth
who find refuge on the West
Village waterfront, delivered a
strong message — backed up by
a new report — to Manhattan
Community Board 2 Waterfront
Committee on April 13. They
want to reform the Hudson
River Park Trust to make sure
that public open space takes
precedence over commercial
development in the five-mile-
long riverfront park.
Desiree Marshall, lead orga-
nizer of FIERCE, presented a
white paper from the group,
which calls for the Trust to
include on its board of directors
two members chosen by the
community, in addition to the
current make-up of appointees
from the governor, the mayor,
and Manhattan borough presi-
dent. The mayor and governor
each make five appointments
to the board, with the borough
president naming three “com-
munity” members. The FIERCE
䉴 IRAQ, from p.2
Department spokesman to
Edge.boston.com, a gay news
website, raises concerns that
the US may not yet be taking
the charges seriously, despite
the congressman’s recent visit.
The site quoted John Flem-
ing, public affairs officer for the
State Department’s Bureau of
Near Eastern Affairs, as pooh-
poohing the notion that the
five gay men facing execution
䉴 BRIEFS, from p.9
in Washington by MSNBC host
Rachel Maddow as “a man who
has had very many adventures in
life, every one of which I know
about has turned out to be remark-
ably successful.” Strub, who is
living with HIV, called the group
he will lead “a shining example of
the cable and telecommunications
industries’ commitment to the
communities they serve.
16 - 29 APR 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
proposal would increase the the chances for big commercial $57.5 million in infrastructure 䉴 APR 16, from p.8
board’s size to 15, and make development on the pier,” Mar- work needed to stabilize Pier 40.
community representation shall said, adding the Trust “is “Most of New York’s stimulus paid the $40 fee. Register in advance at
equal to each of the two other going behind closed doors to money goes to the Department gaycenter.org. LGBT Community Cen-
blocs on the board. FIERCE change the act, and we want to of Transportation and the Envi- ter, 208 W. 13th St., 6-9 p.m.
also seeks to increase the influ- make sure if the act is changed, ronmental Protection Fund,” ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
ence on the Trust of the Hudson the process is transparent and Pietrantone said. “There is no
River Park Advisory Council. beneficial to the community.” program that the park is eligible NIGHTLIFE
The group made a specific FIERCE also wants to make for; we are not a road, we are Daddy Moves to
demand for a 24-hour drop-in sure that the Trust lives up not a bridge, we are not a water- Thursdays
center for LGBT and question- to the spirit of the require- treatment plant, so the park Robert Valin, the creator of Truck Stop
ing youth somewhere on or near ment that 50 percent of Pier can’t get stimulus money unless and the upcoming Urban Bear Weekend,
Pier 45 — at Christopher Street. 40 be reserved as public open DOT says, ‘We don’t need that presents Daddy, a new weekly party that
“We need Community Board space. The definition of open money for a bridge; it should go pays homage to a gritty New York past
2 to pass a resolution, and we space could include walkways to the park.’” and the men who are looking for it hard,
need elected officials to open and areas in front of commer- FIERCE based its recom- rough, and dirty. This weekly swine-fest
up the Hudson River Park Act cial attractions, Marshall said. mendations on ones made more promises to get dark and raunchy with
to make these changes,” Mar- “It’s more like 30 percent of the than a year ago by the Pier 40 more testosterone than you can shake
shall said. She noted that the pier is public open space,” she Working Group, which includes your stick at. This week DJ Chauncey
Trust was calling for changes explained. “We need a better community board members, D rules. HK, 405 W. 39th St., 9 p.m.
to state law that would extend definition of open space.” representatives of elected offi- Admission is $5.
the potential commercial lease The group also called for fed- cials, and other stakeholders ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
on the 14-acre Pier 40 at West eral economic stimulus money in the future of the 14-acre,
Houston Street from 30 to 49 to be devoted to the Hudson two-story pier on the Lower
years. Last year, the T rust
rejected a proposal by the Relat-
ed Companies to redevelop Pier
River Park. However, A. J.
Pietrantone, executive director
of Friends of Hudson River Park,
West Side waterfront. Arthur
Schwartz, the Waterfront Com-
mittee chair who also heads COMEDY
FRI.APR.17
40 commercially with Cirque de told the committee that get- the Pier 40 Working Group, This Time for
Soleil because Related required ting federal stimulus money for said later that the committee Laughs
a 49-year lease instead of the the park was an extreme long was drafting a resolution on Activist, actress, author, and come-
30-year lease mandated by the shot. The Friends, a civic group the FIERCE recommendations, dian Janeane Garofalo takes the stage
Hudson River Park Act. “There that advocates for the park, which will be submitted to the in New York for five shows this weekend
should be no extension to met with the Trust and state May full board meeting of Com- at Comix, 353 W. 14th St. Apr. 17-18, 8
49-year leases. It would increase officials recently and identified munity Board 2. & 10:30 p.m.; Apr. 19, 7:30 p.m. Tickets
are $36 ($32 on Apr. 19) at comixny.com,
or $41 ($37 on Apr. 19) at the door. There
were being targeted for belong- recent media reports this month facing gay Iraqis and act deci- is a two-item minimum.
ing to Iraqi LGBT, saying that by such diverse sources as the sively to save those threatened ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
homosexuality “is immaterial Times, Reuters, CNN, and the with death.
to Iraqis.” Fleming, according British dailies The Independent PERFORMANCE
to Edge, stated, “Frankly, there and The Guardian, confirming Iraqi LGBT is desperately in Glitter and Be Gay
are other issues they are con- Gay City News’ three years of need of contributions to finance Longtime cabaret favorite Barbara
cerned about like basic surviv- reporting. its work in Iraq. Donations may Cook presents “Here’s To Life,” selec-
al, getting food and water. It’s This State Department staff- be made on credit cards through tions from the worlds of theater, swing,
a luxury for the average Iraqi er’s statement suggests rather PayPal on the group’s web site pop, and jazz, including “What A Wonder-
to worry about homosexual- strongly the urgent need to keep at http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot. ful World,” “Written In The Stars,” “I Want
ity.” This statement by Fleming, up the pressure on the Obama com/. Doug Ireland can be To Be Happy,” and numbers from her new-
who served a year in Iraq under administration and Secretary reached through his blog, DIRE- est CD, “Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder.”
the Bush administration, is, of State Hillary Clinton to thor- LAND, at http://direland.type- Lee Musiker heads an all-star quintet in
of course, contradicted by the oughly investigate the dangers pad.com/direland/. accompaniment. Feinstein’s at Loews
Regency, 540 Park Ave. at 61st St. Apr.
17 & 24, May 1, 8 p.m.; Apr. 18 & 25,
LGBT Protest The protestors will have a non- rhetoric of the Vatican, which ACLU to May 2, 8 & 10:30 p.m.; April 19, 21-23,
of Vatican in violence training on April 21 at labels gay people “objectively Tennessee: 28-30, 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $88-$110 at
New York April 8 p.m. at the Church of St. Paul’s disordered” and “intrinsically Stop the feinsteinsattheregency.com.
22-23 and St. Andrews’s United Meth- evil,” as “a daily threat to Ameri- Censorship ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
SoulForce, the LGBT group odist at 263 West 86th Street; it can LGBTQ people.” SoulForce The American Civil Liberties
founded by the Rev. Mel White to is required for those who intend wrote the papal nuncio (ambas- Union reported that as many as Defying Gravity
fight anti-gay bigotry, especially to engage in nonviolent civil sador) six months ago “asking 107 public school districts in Ten- Elizabeth Streb and her Action Fac-
in religion, is planning to vigil at disobedience. On both days at 9 him to sign the UN’s Declara- nessee are “illegally preventing tion take a closer look at the ordinary,
the Office of the Ambassador of a.m., they will meet at the Mar- tion on Sexual Orientation and students from accessing online inanimate things around us in “Streb:
the Vatican to the United Nations ble Collegiate Church at 1 West Gender Identity” and to ask the information” on LGBT subjects. In Catapult,” the company’s spring season.
on April 22 (10 a.m. – 4 p.m.) 29th Street, before proceeding pope to cease his anti-gay pro- a letter to several of the districts, David van Tieghem’s sinuous, evocative
and 23 (10 a.m. –noon) at 25 to the ambassador’s office. nouncements, but has received
East 39th Street in Manhattan. White calls the anti-gay no response. 䉴 BRIEFS, continued on p.15 䉴 APR 17, continued on p.15
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
䉴 DA, from p.1
a half dozen defendants who were
busted for prostitution by vice cops
and have met with the district attor -
ney. Besides Lopez, other attorneys
either declined to comment or did not
respond to calls seeking comment. All
of these defendants have pleaded not
guilty to the charges against them.
While at least 30 men were bust-
ed in at least six Manhattan por n
shops last year, the district attorney
appears to be limiting inquiries to
those arrested by one undercover offi-
cer who made many of the arrests and
was identified by badge number 3371
in court records. Most of the 30 men
pleaded guilty to lesser charges, typi-
cally disorderly conduct, and received
light sentences.
The vice cops who busted the 30
men are also known to have made
prostitution busts in spas, private
apartments, and on the street in the
West Village and in Midtown. The
district attorney does not currently
appear to be looking at those busts.
“I’m disappointed that they are not
expanding their investigation to all of
the male prostitution arrests made by
these undercovers,” Lopez said. “They
are only looking at the porn shops.”
In a March 6 meeting with activists
and elected officials, Robert Morgen-
thau, the Manhattan district attorney,
promised to investigate the arrests,
which are widely seen as false arrests
in the gay community.
The typical scenario described by
men who have been arrested is that
an undercover officer first aggressive-
ly flirted with them and got an agree-
ment for a consensual sex encounter
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outside the porn shop. Later, as the
men were leaving the shop or had left Metropolitan Community Church of New York
Social Spiritual
the shop and were on the street, the
officer then said he would pay for the Homeless
Youth
sex, with that offer sometimes coming Services
Service
A church of lesbian,
and Sylvia Rivera
Home
right before the arrest was made. Food Pantry
gay, bisexual
and transgender
Gr egory B. Ledonne and Annie people. Open to all.
M. Siegel are two of the three assis-
tant district attorneys working on the
prostitution cases and the investiga-
Advocating
tion. Their work is supervised by Gary Marriage Equality and
Galperin, deputy chief of the T rial Transgender Rights
Division in the district attor ney’s The Reverend Pat Bumgardner, Pastor
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the district attorney may be preparing 212-629-7440 website: www.mccny.org email: info@mccny.org
only to dismiss the charges against
the few defendants who pleaded not
guilty. The district attorney declined
comment.
“We don’t comment on open investi-
gations,” said Alicia Maxey-Greene, a
spokeswoman for Morgenthau.
Robert Pinter was busted in Blue
Door, an East Village porn shop, by
an of ficer identified by the badge
number 31107. He first exposed what
the vice cops were doing in late 2008
and was among those who met with
Morgenthau on March 6.
“There a lot of unanswered ques-
tions regarding the extent of the inves-
tigation,” Pinter said. “If this is the
beginning, it looks promising. If this is
the extent of it, it’s not promising.”
The police department’s internal
affairs unit is investigating Pinter’s
?
arrest.
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12/ Editorial
■ LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER
JOHN W. SUTTER
JWSutter@communitymediallc.com
Marriage’s Time Has Come
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER BY PAUL SCHINDLER
TROY MASTERS

T
troy@gaycitynews.com
he national conversation would urge a Senate vote, wheth- didn’t disavow marriage equality. again — under somebody else’s
that evolved in the weeks er or not majority support is there The problem is that we are now leadership, mind you — also saw
EDITOR IN-CHIEF & CO-FOUNDER
PAUL SCHINDLER
and months after Proposi- yet. “Why can’t people just debate more than three months into the fit to pile on, apparently in defer-
editor@gaycitynews.com tion 8 passed in California — as the bill, vote on it, and it goes up legislative session, with only two ence to the majority leader of the
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Americans began to think about or down?,” Paterson said. and half left before adjournment other chamber. Whatever. It may
Duncan Osborne and discuss the fact that voters The governor’s must-do, can- for the year. Where is the sense be good to be king, but it’s no fun
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS there had actually taken an exist- do language stands in sharp con- of urgency, the appreciation for being a governor stuck at 19 per-
Christopher Byrne (Theater), Susie Day, ing right away from their fellow trast to a statement put out last momentum, the message to his cent in the polls.
Doug Ireland (International), Brian McCormick citizens — was the kindling. The week by a spokesman for the new fellow senators that the cham- Fortunately, as the governor
(Dance), Dean P. Wrzeszcz
extraordinary events in Iowa and Senate majority leader: “Senator ber is going to get the job done in prepares to announce the reintro-
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Betsy Andrews, Seth J. Bookey,
Vermont — where one’s Supreme [Malcolm] Smith has consistently 2009? duction of a marriage equality bill
Anthony M.Brown, Kelly Jean Cogswell, Court ruled unanimously for the affirmed his support for marriage And 2009 is critical in the over- on April 16, cooler heads are pre-
Dean Daderko, Tate Dougherty, Andres Duque, equal rights of gay and lesbian equality and will continue to sup- all political calculus of marriage vailing. Duane now says Paterson
Michael Ehrhardt, Steve Erickson, Nick Feitel,
Jim Fouratt, Joe Fyfe, Deborah Garwood, couples, and the other’s Legisla- port it. However, at the present equality in New York. 2010 is an has added “fuel” to “the furnace.”
Erasmo Guerra, Emily Harney, Andrey Henkin, ture stood up with a two-thirds time, he does not believe there election year; if marriage equal- Like Alan Van Capelle, execu-
Frank Holiday, Andy Humm, James Jorden, Brendan majority vote to overcome a gov- are sufficient votes in the Senate ity is too heavy a lift this year, tive director of the Empire State
Keane, David Kennerley, Gary M. Kramer, Arthur S.
Leonard, Rachael Liberman, ernor’s opposition — set the mar- to pass the marriage equality bill, expecting it to get done next year Pride Agenda, which is mount-
Michael T. Luongo, Lawrence D. Mass, riage equality issue fully ablaze. which was passed by the Assem- is willful ignorance of reality. ing a mammoth lobbying effort in
Winnie McCroy, Eileen McDermott,
Gregory Montreuil, Ioannis Mookas, Carrie Moyer,
What tens of millions of dollars bly last year. The majority leader The elections next year will test Albany on April 28, Duane is voic-
Stephen Mueller, Christopher Murray, spent defending gay marriage has said in the past that it will a politically weak governor and ing confidence that the Senate
David Noh, Wayne Northcross, Lori Ortiz, before the November election pass as soon as the votes can be a razor-thin Senate Democratic will pass the bill before the end of
Pauline Park, Sheila Pepe, John Reed,
Nathan Riley, Andrew Robinson, Gerard Robinson, were unable to do, the backlash secured.” majority. Losing either could put June. Both agree that Republican
Chris Schmidt, Sarah D. Schulman, after its demise — coupled with That’s essentially the same off the goal of passing a marriage votes will be needed — given the
Jason Victor Serinus, Linda Shapiro, dazzling victories in two largely message Smith intoned in bill for another four years. narrow Democratic majority and
David Shengold, Gus Solomons Jr., David Spiher,
Drew B. Straub, Stefen Styrsky, Jerry Tallmer, rural states with populations November after Democrats, Paterson’s presumptuousness the hostility of some in the major-
Stefanos Tsigrimanis, Kathleen Warnock, each just a fraction of Califor- with substantial financial sup- in suggesting how the Legislature ity caucus — and that GOP will-
Benjamin Weinthal, Lee Ann Westover,
James Withers, Kai Wright, Susan Yung
nia’s — managed to achieve. port from the LGBT community, should handle his marriage bill ingness is there.
Carpe diem is the appropriate finally regained the Senate major- apparently offended many in the As Gay City News goes to press
ART DIRECTOR
Mark Hasselberger
watchword now in New York. And ity after 40 years in the wilder- people’s branch of government. on April 15, the line-up at the gov-
with all due respect for the pre- ness. The same spin he offered Tom Duane, a longtime friend ernor’s press conference the fol-
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Jamie Paakkonen rogatives of the Democratic cau- in early January, when he finally of the governor’s who will carry lowing day announcing introduc-
cus that runs the State Senate, claimed the leadership post he the marriage bill in the Senate, tion of the legislation is unknown.
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING
FRANCESCO REGINI which unlike the Assembly has had won two months before — waxed nostalgic for Eliot Spitzer What would be reassuring is to
francesco@gaycitynews.com never approved the bill, Governor after a protracted tussle with in front of a New York 1 News have Malcolm Smith on hand,
David Paterson succinctly cap- three rebellious Democrats, one camera. Assemblyman Micah enthusiastic and with a fresher
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
tured that spirit when he told an of whom threatened to withhold Kellner, whose chamber has prognostication than we’ve been
COLIN GREGORY
colin@gaycitynews.com Ithaca radio station last week he his vote from Smith’s bid if he already passed the bill and will hearing for five months now.
ALLISON GREAKER
allison@gaycitynews.com
JASON SHERWOOD
■ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
jsherwood@gaycitynews.com

DALE KANZLER SCHINDLER TAKES concedes that LGBT and AIDS issues have filling that wish in our home state, due to students in their classrooms how to use
dale@gaycitynews.com A DIVE not been her priority and are not now, and the Bloomberg appeal. condoms. He is a big donor to the anti-gay
JASON SPARKS her political alliance with Bloomberg serves You do mention the million dollar contri- Boy Scouts of America. The likely reelec-
jsparks@gaycitynews.com April 13, 2009 only to emphasize that dereliction. butions Bloomberg gave in an unsuccessful tion of Bloomberg will slow LGBT rights
FERN WALLACH To the Editor: You write Bloomberg “disappointed” effort to prop up the anti-gay Republican and a whole range of progressive initiatives
wallach@communitymediallc.com I can understand the Gay City News sell- many of us when he appealed Justice majority in the State Senate. He is the larg- in New York for another four years. The
Please call (212) 229-1890 for ing its entire back page to wealthy Mayor Doris Ling Cohan’s 2005 order to him to est individual donor in US history to the least Gay City News could do while taking
advertising rates and availability.
Bloomberg in these hard times, but that start issuing marriage licenses to same- Republican Party, which proudly proclaims his advertising is not to pump him up with
ACCOUNTING does not entitle him to a fawning headline sex couples. Disappointed? I have been an opposition to gay rights in its national plat- misleading headlines and to reach out to his
DAVID JAFFE
david@gaycitynews.com like “Bloomberg: Move Marriage Now” (by activist in our movement since the early form. The material harm done to our rights opponents — Comptroller Bill Thompson,
NATIONAL DISPLAY ADVERTISING Paul Schindler, Apr. 2-15) on what is a non- 1970s. We were outraged! None of the by his bankrolling of our opposition should Councilman Tony Avella, and Congressman
Rivendell Media / 212.242.6863 story about someone whose major contribu- Democrats running that year — Freddy disqualify him from receiving positive press Anthony Weiner — for comment on his
Web master tion to the movement for same-sex marriage Ferrer, Anthony Weiner, or Gifford Miller from Gay City News. ridiculous claims to be for us.
Arturo Jimenez has been to block it. The casual reader of — would have appealed if they were in Bloomberg still has not expressed any Jay Kallio
Arturo@gaycitynews.com
Gay City News, The Newspaper Serving Gay and Lesbian NYC, is pub-
your paper would think that Bloomberg is on office. They would have let thousands of concern over the false arrests of gay men Chelsea
lishedby Community Media, LLC. Send all inquiries to: Gay City News,
145 Sixth Ave., First Fl., NYC 10013 Phone: 646.452.2500 Written our side, and should be credited as a prime lesbian and gay couples from all over the for prostitution by his police department
permission of the publisher must be obtained before any of the contents
of this paper, in part or whole, can be reproduced or redistributed. All mover for marriage equality. Your front-page world legally marry, making it much more over several years, well documented by your
contents (c) 2009 Gay City News. story on Andrea Batista Schlesinger’s sellout difficult for the Court of Appeals to rule newspaper. WRITE US!
Gay City News is a registered trademark
of Community Media, LLC. by joining his campaign (“Progressive Cred against our constitutional right to marry The Bloomberg record on LGBT issues Address letters to the editor, of no
John W. Sutter, President & the Mayor,” by Paul Schindler, Apr. 2-15) the next year. My partner, Eleanor Cooper, is terrible. He marches in the ant-gay St. more than 250 words, to:
Fax: 646.452.2501;
E-mail: JWSutter@communitymediallc.com would lead people to believe he has some. and myself would have been one of them. Patrick’s Day Parade every year. He vetoed Editor@gaycitynews.com.
Subscriptions: Her lack of awareness of Bloomberg’s mani- She was confined to a nursing home and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s legis- Please include your phone number, for
26 issues, $90.00 fest failures on LGBT rights over the last unable to travel out of state to Massachu- lation to require city contractors to provide confirmation purposes only. The editors
(c)2009 Gay City News. seven years should disqualify her as a cover setts for her last dying wish to be married. domestic partner benefits. He refuses to reserve the right to edit all letters due to
All rights reserved.
story for an LGBT paper. She essentially She died last December without ever ful- allow AIDS educators to teach public school space constraints.
16 - 29 APR 2009
■ A GOVERNOR AT RISK
Q
uinnipiac released a
poll last week showing
that 60 percent of New
York voters disapprove of the job
that Governor David Paterson
has done in office. The gover-
nor is a strong supporter of our
community, and he deserves
our loyalty during this low point
in his term.
Analysts believe that his high
disapproval rating is primarily
due to the many hard choices
the governor is making to bal-
ance New York’s budget. These
choices have opened him up to
attacks from many tradition-
ally progressive groups, such
as labor unions, and solidified
opposition from conservatives
who are angry about the econ-
omy and tax increases on the
wealthy and hostile to liberal
policies like repeal of the Rock-
efeller drug laws and advanc-
ing LGBT rights.
This week, instead of pan-
dering to anti-gay factions with
the Democratic Party, the gov-
ernor announced that he will
reintroduce legislation to grant
equal marriage rights to same-
sex couples; he continues to
stand up for our community
even when his low approval
rating is partially due to his
support for us. Unfortunately,
■ A DYKE ABROAD
T
here was a lesbian con-
ference this weekend in
Toulouse, France. The
theme: lesbians and the weapon
of laughter. Somebody thought
it would be a good idea to have
the Lesbian Avengers, and I
appeared with Ana Simo on a
panel of activists including a
Paris feminist group, La Barbe,
and Madrid’s Toxic Lesbians.
We showed video snippets of
Avengers taking over Fifth Ave-
nue to protest the murders of
Hattie Mae Cohen and Brian
Mock, the vast Dyke March
in DC in ‘93, and fire-eaters in
front of the White House (thanks
to “Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire,
Too,” editors Janet Baus and
Su Friedrich). We even showed
Avengers giving schoolchildren
balloons that said, “Ask about
The Case for David Paterson
many in our community are
quick to jump on the anti-Pat-
erson band wagon and help
make the case against him. I
recently listened as a very well
informed LGBT leader attacked
the governor. In its essence,
his point was that “any Demo-
crat that challenges Patterson
will be LGBT-friendly, so in the
end it really doesn’t matter.”
David Paterson is not your
typical LGBT -friendly politi-
cian; his support is loud, far-
reaching, and genuine. He has
fought for us on every issue —
HIV, hate crimes, job protec-
tion, school safety, transgen-
der rights, and marriage equal-
ity. He stood with us when it
wasn’t politically expedient and
sometimes when it was risky to
his career. When he was a state
senator from Harlem, he spoke
up for our rights even when
some influential religious and
community leaders stood on
the other side. When members
of his own Democratic caucus
stood against him, he insisted
that hate crimes protections
not be enacted without includ-
ing gay and lesbian New York-
ers, and he stood with us and
ensured that the Sexual Orien-
tation Non-Discrimination Act,
SONDA, granting employment
An Ode to “The L Word”
lesbian lives.”
Everyone was generally
happy with the documentary
images, but you could tell a
minority was irritated at our
activist message — the Aveng-
ers were a response to the invis-
ibility and irrelevance that are
still a big problem today. A few
actually seemed pissed off at the
idea that I missed the Avengers.
One lesbian described a demo
in her city, implying lesbians
weren’t that invisible. Another
woman seemed to come out
against activism, “Shouldn’t
we stop and think about our
goals first? Do we really want
to spend our time changing the
existing structure of society?
Maybe we should focus our
efforts on developing an entirely
new one.”
BY ZAHEER MUSTAFA
protections, was passed.
In his early days as gover -
nor, he signed an Executive
Order that directed state agen-
cies to recognize same-sex mar-
riages performed in jurisdic-
He continues to stand up for
our community even when his low
approval rating is partially due
to his support for us.
tions where marriage equality
is a reality. And recently, when
three renegade Democratic sen-
ators threatened to switch par-
ties and used marriage equal-
ity as bargaining chip, Paterson
stood on the side of resisting
their threats.
In my former life working for
the Democratic Party, I encoun-
tered many politicians who pre-
sented themselves as allied with
our community, yet threw us
under the bus, even when it was
not required. The current gover-
nor supports us, while shaming
those who adhere to that brand
of politics. Of all the arguments
for supporting David Paterson,
the one that matters the most
is that David Paterson can see
BY KELLY JEAN COGSWELL
I wondered what it would
take to wake them up, and cre-
ate a longing for more than the
useful, but hermetically sealed,
conference that had welcomed
me. Laughter certainly wasn’t
enough. Maybe a small explo-
sion.
Another New Yorker was
the answer. In her presenta-
tion about “The L Word” and
her film “Go Fish,” dyke writer
and director Rose Troche man-
aged to incite finger-pointing,
threats, and a near fist-fight,
at least in the back of the room
where I was. Is “The L Word” a
sell-out or not? Is something
better than nothing? Would you
really sleep with Shane? Is “Go
Fish” truly an embarrassment?
These questions cut to the
quick, roused tempers as only
Perspective /13
past sexual orientation. While
engaged in Democratic poli-
tics, I was always wary of intro-
ducing my dates to politicians
because that tended to steer the
conversation to my sexuality,
what they assumed was the life-
style connected to my sexuality,
and those issues I might care
about because of my sexuality.
For me, these types of conversa-
tions represent a certain closed
mindedness about LGBT people
that permeates even the most
progressive political circles.
I had the privilege of meeting
the governor on several occa-
sions, the most memorable
being at a house-warming party
for a couple in Harlem. When
I introduced my date to then-
Senator Paterson, the conver-
sation didn’t head in the usual
direction. Instead of assuming
what was important to us, he
asked questions. He did not
make my sexuality the focus of
television can. It comes right
into your home, establishes an
intimacy as you watch those
characters you identify with, or
just as intimately hate.
The surprise for me was such
an avowed adoration for “Go
Fish.” It was filmed in the first
years of the Avengers, and came
out in ‘94 at our height. And
like the Avengers, it stemmed
from a desire for lesbian visibil-
ity. After working with Queer
Nation and ACT UP on issues
all about men, Rose and Gui-
nevere Turner were feeling the
need to do a project by, for, and
about dykes.
When Rose went online
recently to get a sense of the
film, she said the overwhelm-
ing response was pure embar-
rassment. She said she herself
his interest in me, and in that
way presented himself to me as
a new kind of politician.
Paterson is beyond LGBT -
friendly; he represents the new
face of LGBT support, and his
attitude is changing the politi-
cal culture regarding how gay
people are treated. In the midst
of unpopularity, when every
political operative says stay
away from unpopular issues,
he is pushing marriage harder
than any other governor. His
message is simple — our lives,
our rights, and our relation-
ships should not be used to
gain points in the polls. In the
end, he is not just another pro-
gressive Democrat. His suc-
cess does matter to us. We
need leaders who look at us
like human beings and see
our rights as basic. And, when
such leaders are under attack,
we need to step up and support
them. We can help bring a great
leader down, or we can work to
shift the tide. I urge the latter.
Zaheer Mustafa, a graduate of
the University at Albany in New
York, has worked for the Nas-
sau County Democratic Commit-
tee and on behalf of immigration
reform and HIV prevention in
people of color communities.
was embarrassed by some of
the filmmaking — it was her
first attempt, after all. But the
embarrassment in lesbian view-
ers was about how they looked
on film. “The characters are too
real, too ugly, too butch.” Lesbi-
ans nowadays, Rose said, much
prefer to be represented by “The
L Word,” even if it gets criticized,
too, this time for being too slick,
the girls too femme, too pretty.
Still, she got letters from young
girls saying it saved their lives.
She went to a season-opening
once and saw a line of Shane
wannabees curving around the
block. The show, she said, made
them feel pretty and desirable.
Which is where the mutter-
ing started. “Not me. I much
䉴 L WORD, continued on p.14
14 16 – 29 APR 2009 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM

EQUALITY RETURNS TO PHILADELPHIA

Asserting that “2009 is our
1963,” Malcolm Lazin, execu-
tive director of Equality Forum, an
annual weeklong gathering in Phil-
adelphia with more than four dozen
panels, artistic events, and parties
celebrating LGBT civil rights, said
the high point this year will be a
National Equality Rally at Inde-
pendence Hall on Sunday, May
3. Noting that the work involved
in bringing millions to Washing-
ton, DC, for another march there
is daunting, especially given the
demands on the ground facing
LGBT groups nationwide, Lazin
said the tens of thousands who
annually attend the Equality Forum
are a ready-made army of activists
primed to deliver a message to the
nation. Filling the area surrounding
the Liberty Bell and Independence
Hall, just recently reopened after
a major face-lift, with 40,000 will
be a dramatic statement of com-
munity solidarity as the fight for
directors of national LGBT organi-
zations, four out gay mayors, and
movement leaders and elected
officials from around the world.
Each year, the event has one
international focus — this year,
on the challenges facing the Rus-
sian LGBT community. On April
30, a panel exploring this topic
will include Alexandra Sotnikova,
producer of “My Happy Family,”
a documentary about lesbian par-
enting in Russia, Michael Guest,
the former out gay US ambassa-
dor to Romania, and Volker Beck, a
member of the German Bundestag
and one of Europe’s leading LGBT
advocates. On May 2, Sotnikova
will host a screening of her film,
and on May 3, Beck will partici-
pate in a moderated conversation.
Among the panels are ones
exploring the transgender commu-
nity, families, youth, race, health,
religion and faith, and history. On
April 28, Rabbi Linda Holtzman

EQUALTIY FORUM

marriage equality and other LGBT
community goals enters a decisive
post-Prop 8, but also post-Bush,
post-Iowa, post-Vermont phase, he
argued.
“It is an iconic location,” Lazin
said, noting that pre-Stonewall,
pioneering gay and lesbian activists
met there on July 4 from 1965 until
1969 in the first open demonstra-
tions for gay civil equality.
The Independence Hall rally
comes at the end of a weeklong
program that begins on April 27.
The evening before the rally, Equal-
ity Forum holds its International
Equality Dinner at the prestigious
National Constitution Hall. Penn-
sylvania Governor Edward Rendell
is the dinner’s honorary chair, and
the group will give its 14th annual
International Role Model Award to
San Francisco Mayor Gavin News-
om, who since 2004 has been
the most visible elected official
nationwide at the forefront of the
marriage equality movement. The
EQUALTIY FORUM
of Philadelphia’s Mishkan Sha-
lom congregation will facilitate a
conversation with Bishop Gene
Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese The Independence National Historical Park includes a marker for the early gay Equality Forum flags brighten up Center City Philadelphia in late April and
of New Hampshire. Through May rights demonstrations held there in the 1960s. early May.
14, the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery
at the University of the Arts hosts
the premiere retrospective of the
work of the late Richard Amsel, a
leading Hollywood illustrator who
made marketing sketches for films
including “Raiders of the Lost Ark,”
“Hello Dolly!,” and “The Sting,”
and drew indelible TV Guide por-
traits of Lucille Ball, Elvis Presley,
and Johnny Carson, among others.
Parties are planned every evening
from April 29 through May 3. And
on May 3, the annual National Sun-
dayOUT! Street Festival will run all
day on Market Street between Sec-
ond and Fifth Streets downtown.
Most of the week’s events are
free, though the National Consti-
tution Hall dinner on May 2 has a
$200 ticket, and some of the par-
ties have modest cover charges. For

following afternoon, Newsom will
appear again at Constitution Hall
in a moderated conversation.
Equality Forum boasts the
participation of ten executive
MICHAEL T. LUONGO
complete information, visit equali-
tyforum.com. Details on the May 3
rally at Independence Hall can be
found at nationalequalityrally.org.
— Paul Schindler The scene at last year’s SundayOUT! street festival.

䉴 L WORD, from p.13
prefer “Go Fish.” That’s what
represents me. Don’t they ever
go to work?” They would rath-
er be invisible than have an
image they didn’t like. It’s a TV
show, for chrissake, I want-
ed to scream. I suppose they
also thought Hattie McDan-
iel should have passed up the
Mammy role in 1940, leaving
Halle Berry to be born fully
formed from the head of Zeus.
Martin Luther King should
have skipped the lunch coun-
ter demonstrations in 1960
and demanded the White
H o u s e . I n 2 0 0 0 , Ve r m o n t
queers should’ve turned down
civil unions and held out for
marriage.
I’m glad Rose wasn’t apolo-
getic about it. The lesbian writ-
ers and producers knew going
in they’d have to make compro-
mises if they wanted to get the
first lesbian TV show on the
air. To make money, they had
to be provocative. “Sex was a
mandate.” They fought certain
battles with the producers, but
“when a lesbian project goes
through a male filter you get games. We need to be every-
‘The L Word,’” Rose said mat- where. Not as special cases, or
ter-of-factly. in disproportionate numbers,
I should confess I’ve barely but as ourselves. Right now, we
watched the show. What I do could disappear, slaughtered all
know is that we have to be out at once, and the joke is nobody
there. In the street, in politics, would notice we’d gone.
and in the shared imagina-
tions of our cultures. We need Check out Kelly Sans Culotte
movies, books, TV shows, soap at http://kellyatlarge.blogspot.
operas, melodramas, tennis com/.
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 16 – 29 APR 2009 15

NEWS BRIEFS By ANDY HUMM

14 DAYS 䉴 BRIEFS, from p.10 that his plaid shirt-and-jeans

film uniform became a staple of
Hail, Columbia
down by Cardinal Josef Ratzinger
in 1986, that homosexuality is an
this year was the first time that
the First Family has invited them

14 NIGHTS
䉴 APR 17, from p.10
soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment
to STREB’s ongoing romantic adventure
with gravity. SLAM, the Streb Lab for
Action Mechanics, 51 N. First St.,
btwn. Kent & Wythe Aves., Williams-
burg. Fri., Sat., 7 p.m.; Sat., Sun., 3 p.m.
through May 17. Tickets are $20; $10 for
children at streb.org or 212-352-3101.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ Michal Grzes, a right-wing
the group is demanding that they
unblock the filter, which screens
out things such as LGBT youth
groups and scholarships as well as
all the major LGBT organizations
in the country. The filtering soft-
ware from Educational Networks
of America allows access to so-
called “ex-gay” sites promoting a
“cure” for homosexuality.
Polish Pol v.
Pink Pachyderm
city councilman in Poznam,
Poland, is furious that his zoo’s
the clone look that swept gay
male neighborhoods in the late
‘70s. Wrangler was 62. The son
of “Bonanza” producer Robert
Stillman and a veteran dancer
from Busby Berkeley musicals,
Ruth Clark Stillman, Wran-
gler earned a degree in theater
from Northwestern University.
Wrangler’s life was the subject of a
documentary film directed by Jef-
frey Schwarz, “Wrangler: Anatomy
of an Icon,” recently honored as
the Best Alternative Release by the
Gay Video News Awards. The film
was distributed by TLA Video. In a
The big news was from Iowa
and Vermont last week, but in
the District of Columbia, the City
Council unanimously voted to
recognize legal same-sex mar-
riages from elsewhere. And the
Columbia, Missouri, City Council
voted unanimously to create a
domestic partnership registry for
both gay couples and non-gay
couples who choose not to marry.
Gay US
Ambassador to
India
Peter Burleigh, an out gay
“objective disorder” and “an intrin-
sic moral evil.” The cardinal is now
Blair’s pope, Benedict XVI.
“There is a huge generational
difference here,” Blair said of the
official stand on gays. “And there’s
probably some fear amongst
religious leaders that if you con-
cede ground on an issue like this,
because attitudes and thinking
evolve over time, where does that
end?” Blair also said, “I think on
some of these issues, if you went
and asked the congregation, I
think you’d find that their faith is
not to be found in those types of
to participate and has allocated
tickets for them in an effort to
diversify the event. Jennifer Chris-
ler of the Family Equality Council,
which has organized LGBT fami-
lies to line up for tickets in the
past, told the Associated Press
that the Obama administration
“reached out to us as an organiza-
tion” this year and upwards of a
hundred families headed by LGBT
folks are expected to participate.
Say it Ain’t So,
Mary
Mary Tyler Moore has been a

BENEFIT
SAT.APR.18
Building
Community on
Long Island
The Long Island Gay and Lesbian Ser-
vices Network, which provides a home
in Bay Shore to LIGALY, Long Island Gay
and Lesbian Youth, the Long Island GLBT
Community Center, and SAGE Long Island,
Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders,
presents an Equality Awards Gala, cele-
brating “Homegrown Heroes,” individuals
with local roots who have made a differ-
ence. Stuart Milk will accept a posthu-
mous award on behalf of his uncle Harvey
Milk, who graduated from Bay Shore High
School. Other awardees include Richard
Burns, chief operating officer of the Arcus
Foundation, who just left New York’s LGBT
Community Center after 22 years as execu-
tive director and grew up in Huntington;
and Beatrice Alda and Jennifer Brooke,
co-founders of Forever Films, and produc-
ers of the film “Out Late.” The East Wind,
Wading River, cocktails at 7 p.m.; din-
ner, dancing, and awards at 8:30. Tick-
ets begin at $175 at liglbtnetwork.org.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ there are freedoms here that are
THEATER
It’s Like the Middle
Ages
Stone Soup Theatre Arts presents the
first New York revival of “The Living,”
Anthony Clarvoe’s early 1990s play about
the bubonic plague in medieval London.
Written in response to the outbreak of
AIDS, “The Living” follows a commu-
nity left by their government to survive
as best they can. Richmond Shepard
Theatre, 309 E. 26th St. Apr. 18, 8 p.m.;
Apr. 22-23 & 30, 7 p.m.; Apr. 25 & May
2, 2 & 8 p.m. Tickets are $18 at stone-
soupkitchen.org.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ as false arrests by the gay com-
GALLERY
The Thing Itself
Artist Michael St. John, opening his
second solo exhibition, “That’s Just the
䉴 APR 18, continued on p.18
new elephant, Ninio, is gay, Reu-
ters reported. “We didn’t pay 37
million zlotys [about $11 million]
for the largest elephant house in
Europe to have a gay elephant
live there.” He wants an elephant
that will reproduce. The zoo’s
director told the news service
that Ninio may be too young at
ten to decide whether he prefers
males or females, as his age of
sexual maturity will be 14.
World’s Most
Awesome
Wrangler Dead
Jack Wrangler, a ground-
breaking 1970s porn star who
was born John Robert Stillman
in 1946 in Beverly Hills, died on
April 7 of complications from
emphysema. Gay playwright and
poet Robert Patrick described
Wrangler’s screen persona as
based on the Marlboro Man of
‘60s advertising fame and noted
䉴 STONEWALL, from p.3
undercover officers into porn
shops where they aggressive-
ly flirt with men and get them
to agree to a consensual sex
encounter outside the shop. As
they leave the shop or once out-
side the shop, only then do the
officers say they want to pay
the other man for the sex. In
some cases, the money is men-
tioned right before the men are
arrested.
The few men who have spo-
ken with Gay City News said
they never agreed to accept any
cash, and the arrests are seen
munity.
“I think it gave them pause
about being visitors or tourists
in New York,” Fay said of the
activists who wrote him. “It just
contradicted their perception of
New York as a place where civil
release, TLA wrote, “With pierc-
ing blue eyes, unruly blond hair,
a chiseled physique, and cocky
foreign affairs officer, has been
named to the top diplomatic post
in India until a permanent ambas-
entrenched attitudes.” He also
said that Pope Benedict XVI stands
for “many fantastic things.”
gay favorite for decades. Maybe
less so after her interview in
Parade magazine on March 22,
swagger, Jack Wrangler was the sador is selected. According to brought to our attention by gay
king of ‘70s gay porn. Forging a gay GayPolitics.com, he has a “deep Men in Uniform journalist Rex Wockner. “I do
sexual revolution, he wasn’t the expertise in South Asian affairs” OK in Dutch watch a lot of Fox News,” she
typical object of homoerotic desire and came out within the State Pride said. “I like Charles Krauthammer
but an intelligent, full-bodied, self- Department once they stopped Dutch soldiers now have and Bill O’Reilly... If McCain had
confident male.” treating gay people as security leave to march in uniform in the asked me to campaign for him, I
Wrangler was openly gay, but risks in 1990. “He kept his private Amsterdam LGBT Pride Parade, would have.” In fairness, the Log
in 1976 surprised many by mar- life to himself, however, when he a privilege denied to them until Cabin Republicans, a gay group,
rying Margaret Whiting, a singer was assigned to foreign countries now, at the urging of Parliament. endorsed McCain, too.
who was 24 years his senior and where homophobic attitudes pre- Radio Netherlands reported that
had her greatest fame in the 1940s vailed in the culture,” the site said. the Defense Ministry “empha- Wanda Sykes to
and ‘50s. Whiting survives Wran- sized that it in no way partici- Late Night
gler. Patrick attributed the relation- Blair v. pates” in the event and that “it And in fairness to Fox, the net-
ship between Wrangler and Whit- Ratzinger does not believe Gay Pride con- work has just signed a deal with
ing to the fact that they both grew Tony Blair only joined the anti- tributes to a positive image of out lesbian comedian and actor
up “Beverley Hills brats.” Marilyn gay Catholic Church two years homosexuals.” Wanda Sykes to host a late-night
Monroe was among Wrangler’s ago, but he has already joined the TV show. The New York Times
baby-sitters when he was a child, ranks of Cafeteria Catholics who Obamas on a reported that is expected to start
according to Patrick. Wrangler pick and choose which church Roll with Gay this fall “and include panel discus-
made more than 80 adult films, but teachings to believe. The former Families sions about current events.” Sykes
in his years with Whiting produced UK prime minister told Attitude, a While LGBT families weren’t came out publicly at a rally in Las
and directed many musical theater gay magazine, that he disagreed participating in their first White Vegas last November protesting
stage shows. — Paul Schindler with the Vatican’s position, laid House Easter Egg Roll on April 13, the passage of California’s Prop 8.
liberties are honored and that nity service and small fines, “We know that unsuspecting
but they did not complete their visitors could find themselves
not to be enjoyed elsewhere.” sentences. Arrest warrants were arrested,” Fay said. “As far as
Altogether, police have busted issued for all three last year. The we know, the policy remains in
at least 50 men in at least eight 19-year-old could be arrested place. There are no indications
porn shops dating back to 2004. any time he interacts with law that this policy is over, is his-
The city cited the prostitution enforcement anywhere in the tory.”
arrests in nuisance abatement country and they check his In a statement, Quinn said
lawsuits it brought against criminal history. The warrants her office was watching the
seven of those shops since would not automatically bar the police.
2005, with five of those suits two European men from obtain- “When news of these trou-
coming in 2008 and 2009. The ing a visa to visit the US, but bling arrests of gay men in video
arrests are not simply an incon- they could be refused a visa. If stores came to my attention, I
venience. All four of the out-of- they obtain a visa or if they are organized a meeting in my office
towners pleaded guilty to disor- from a country that is part of of LGBT advocates, the Mayor’s
derly conduct. The Californian the visa-waiver program, they office, and the NYPD to ensure
received a one-year conditional would likely be refused entry that these operations no longer
discharge, meaning the case will and arrested when they pass continue,” Quinn said. “At this
be closed if he is not arrested for through US customs. meeting, the NYPD said they are
one year. His criminal records At a February 11 meeting with taking a step back from these
will eventually be sealed though coalition members and elected operations and conducting an
the information about him in officials, Brian Conroy, deputy internal review. I am monitoring
the Blue Door nuisance abate- chief of the police department’s the situation closely to ensure
ment lawsuit will remain public. vice enforcement division, said that the rights of LGBT people
The other three were sen- only that police had paused in — local residents and visitors
tenced to two days of commu- their arrest efforts. alike — are protected.”
16 16 – 29 APR 2009
■ FILM
Leaner in Lean Times
Talk to Tribeca Film Fest returns, again strongest on international turf
a banker BY STEVE ERICKSON
N
o doubt in par -
who
tial response to
the recession, the
2009 Tribeca Film Fes-
tival offers a slimmed-
understands down program of 85 fea-
tures. It’s one sign that
the festival can listen
your to criticism — in each
of the past few years,
its slate of fered more
needs. than 200 films, includ-
ing many bad American
indies unlikely to draw
an audience beyond
their cast and crew. Its
international program-
ming benefits from the
fact that Tribeca begins a
80 Eighth Ave. couple months after the
at 14th St. Berlin Film Festival; by
the fall, many festivals
101 West 14th St. already consider Ber -
lin’s offerings too old to
at Sixth Ave.
bother programming. On
the other hand, its selec-
800 Sixth Ave. tion of American films is
at 27th St. hampered by its desire
for premieres and the
354 Sixth Ave. fact that Sundance and
at Washington Pl. Austin’s SXSW festival
are more likely to host
769 Broadway
at 9th St.
207 Varick St.
at Houston St.
885 Eighth Ave.
at 53rd St.
Ask about a Plus account,
with a world of benefits
designed to help you
live in financial balance.
Call 1 866 837-2340 or visit
us.hsbc.com/balance today.
Deposit products offered by HSBC Bank USA, N.A.
Member FDIC. ©2009 HSBC Bank USA, N.A. Asghan Farhadi’s “About Elly,” about the disappearance of a middle class Iranian woman on vacation at the Caspian Sea,
distills Hitchockian suspense out of insistent moral probing.
Adult film star Sasha Grey is alternately sweet and cold as high-class prostitute Christine in Steven Soderbergh’s “The
Girlfriend Experience.
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
Various venues downtown
Apr. 22-May 3
Tribecafilm.com
promising indies. This
year, its LGBT -oriented
programming includes
Kirby Dick’s “Outrage”
(Apr. 24, 9 p.m,; Apr.
26, 3:30 p.m.; Apr. 28,
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
MAGNOLIA PICS
5 p.m.; May 1, 8 p.m.), (see Andy Humm’s take
a look at closeted gay on the Crisp film, seen
Republicans, and Rich- at the London Lesbian
ard Laxton’s “An Eng- & Gay Film Festival, on
lishman in New York” page 22).
(Apr. 27, 9:30 p.m.; Apr. Steven Soderbergh’s
29, 1:30 p.m.; May 2, “The Girlfriend Experi-
6:45 p.m. ),which stars ence” (Apr. 28, 9 p.m.;
John Hurt as Quentin Apr. 29, 8 p.m.; May 2,
Crisp in his 70s. Unfor- 5:30 p.m.) shows the
tunately, neither film advantages of digital
was available for preview filmmaking — its abil-
ity to easily make a
quick reflection of the
moment’s concerns. Set
last October, just before
the election, it paints
a portrait of high-class
prostitute Christine (adult
film star Sasha Grey,
who seems alternately
sweet and cold). Ironi-
cally, Soderbergh has
made a low-budget film
about rich people. “The
Girlfriend Experience”
resembles a Bret Eas-
ton Ellis novel stripped
of satirical intentions
and sensational sex and
violence, but with all its
brand-name references
intact. Unlike most films
about sex workers, it’s
more interested in reflect-
ing their lives than pass-
ing judgment on them.
(It’s surprisingly chaste.)
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
All the same, Christine’s
world is a privileged one,
whose very existence is a
product of a leisure class
䉴 TRIBECA, continued on p.17
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 16 – 29 APR 2009 17

䉴 TRIBECA, from p.16 Hou Hsiao-hsien, but it

of rich men. The film is
permeated with the anxi-
ety that it could all crash
down. While it depicts
people on the opposite
end of the economic spec-
trum, this is as much a
document of the reces-
sion as Kelly Reichardt’s
“Wendy and Lucy.”
As a visual stylist,
South Korean director
Lee Yoon-ki is a casual
virtuoso. It’s appar -
ent from the Steadicam
Cinemascope shots
that kick off “My Dear
Enemy” (Apr. 28, 7:30
p.m.; Apr 30, 9:45 p.m.;
brings a fresh sensibil-
ity to its storytelling as
well.
Asghan Farhadi’s
“About Elly” (Apr 26,
7:15 p.m.; Apr 27, 11
p.m.; Apr 29, 1:15 p.m.;
May 2, 3:15 p.m.) is
The
the first Iranian film to
make a splash on the
Western festival circuit
since Bahman Gho-
Math
badi’s “Half Moon,”
which played T ribeca
two years ago, and
of
Jafar Panahi’s “Offside.”
Refreshingly, it offers a
New York
view of the country dif-
ferent from most Iranian
art cinema. It concen-

May 01, 5:45 p.m.) that
the film is going to be
something special. It
puts these skills to use
living.
trates on urban middle
class adults and plays
more like a thriller than
neo-realism. A group of

“About Elly” distills

Hitchockian suspense out of
insistent moral probing.

in service of a narrative friends, mostly in their

that plays like a sitcom
pilot — confronted at
the racetrack by his ex-
girlfriend Hee-su (Jeon
De-yeon), Byong-woon
(Ha Jung-woo) spends
the day looking up other
for mer lovers in order
30s, takes a weekend
vacation to the Caspian
choices
Sea. The first half hour
plays like the prelude to
a horror film — nothing
sinister happens, but a
mood of dread builds.
Then Elly, a nursery TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

to pay back the $3,500 school teacher along

he owes her. The plot
is simple, but “My Dear
Enemy” never quite
turns into the conven-
tional romantic comedy
it keeps suggesting that
it might be. The jazzy
score suggests Woody
Allen, but the sour tone
is closer to “Curb Your
Enthusiasm” or early
Albert Brooks. Neither
lead character is all that
sympathetic: Byong-
woon is an overgrown
man-child who dreams
big plans that will prob-
ably never come to pass,
while Hee-su keeps
her feelings bottled up
behind an icy facade.
The two lead actors have
a kind of anti-chemistry
together that suggests
past sexual tension. “My
Dear Enemy” borrows
from the kind of Asian
art cinema associated
with Hong Sang-soo and
for the trip, vanishes,
although it’s unclear
to her friends whether
she’s drowned or gone
back to Tehran. The rest
of the film examines the
consequences of her dis-
appearance and the net-
work of lies it leads to. At
times, “About Elly” feels
like a string of acting-
school exercises, but it
distills Hitchockian sus-
pense out of insistent
moral probing. That’s no
mean feat.
The impression Brazil-
ian director Jose Padil-
ha’s documentaries give
of a socially conscious,
liberal director is chal-
lenged by the contro-
versy over his narrative
debut, “Elite Squad,”
which played T ribeca
last year. A huge hit in
Brazil, it won the Berlin
Film Festival’s top prize,
only to be accused of
Jose Padilha’s Garapa recalls classic ’60s cinema vérité, examining malnutri-
tion among Brazil’s underclass.
glorifying torture and
police brutality. How-
ever, Padilha’s follow-
up “Garapa” (Apr. 25, 8
pm.; Apr. 28, 6:15 p.m.;
Apr. 29, 3 p.m.; May 2,
6:30 p.m.) recalls clas-
sic ’60s cinema vérité.
Padilha’s first documen-
tary, “Bus 174,” was as
stylized as most narra-
tive films, but “Garapa”
is deliberately raw, shot
on grainy black-and-
white 16mm stock. It
examines malnutrition
among Brazil’s under -
class. Padilha offers up
a deliberately repugnant
vision of nude children
laying in dirt and flies
hovering around food.
Lacking a toilet, one
judgments
family shits into plastic
bags. Initially, he leaves
himself out of the pic-
tur e, but his voice is
heard more and more,
until he admits buy-
Talk to bankers who
ing medicine for one of value your differences as
his subjects. In theory, much as your finances.
Padilha’s willingness to
acknowledge the class Call 1 866 837-2340 or visit
difference between him- us.hsbc.com/balance today.
self and the people he
films is laudable, but it
could be taken a great
d e a l f u r t h e r. N e v e r -
theless, “Garapa” is a
searing tour of Hell —
a vision of the hunger
that could be prevented,
the end titles proclaim,
if the world decided to
spend a mere $30 bil- Deposit products offered by HSBC Bank USA, N.A.
Member FDIC. ©2009 HSBC Bank USA, N.A.
lion.

18/ Dance
Glittering Prize
Ivy Baldwin Dance glows at Dance Theater Workshop
BY BRIAN MCCORMICK
L
ong live the bear! In “Bear
Crown,” presented at
Dance Theater Workshop
March 18-21, Ivy Baldwin and
her collaborators, Justin Jones
(music), Chloe Z Brown (light-
ing), and Mendel Rabinovitch
(set), created a fantastic and
whimsical world made acces-
sible by stimulating the pineal
gland of audience members
through their three-pronged
sensory approach.
The hour-long dream begins
with a long prologue of low
volume and dramatic Tchai-
kovsky, all with the curtain
closed. This overture serves to
cleanse the mind’s palette, to
slow the brain waves, and to
set the mental, perceptual stage
for the surreal dream to follow.
Long lighting changes, har -
monious sonic ambience, and
movement phrases that take
time to accumulate all served
the same purpose in this exqui-
site piece dominated by the set
— a golden three-tiered semi-
circular platform placed against
the back wall of Dance Theater
Workshop’s raw stage. Glim-
mers off the surface of the grand
terrace — both cake and ziggu-
rat — created a sculptural glow
that extended its aura to the
outer edges of the open space in
diffused rays of silver, gold, and
copper. Gorgeous symmetrical
shafts of light shining down the
back wall framed the set, and
gave the space a classical, for-
mal feeling.
The splendid cast — Katie
Workum, Anna Carapetyan,
Lawrence Cassella, Mindy Nel-
son, and Baldwin — dressed by
Alice Ritter in semi-formal navy
blues, silver-grays, and some
yellow, all with bits of elegant
fur trim, flex their muscles,
twist their torsos, nod their
fists. Their interactions are car-
toonish, but never infantile;
they are whimsical, absurd,
and delightful. They inhabit this
world according to their rules,
circling the stage, using the
whole space, walking, skipping,
gesturing, and talking.
Even text — about beauti-
ful bear crowns from the bear
crown store — is delivered in a
Ivy Baldwin and Lawrence Cassella engage in a non-violent but competitive duet about who loves the other more.
design that fits the overall work,
accumulating and mutating
into a structural play of the ele-
ments. Baldwin and Cassella
descend from this text into a
non-violent but competitive
duet about who loves the other
more, pushing and pinching
at each other, as the other cast
members drift toward the back,
onto the set piece, kicking their
hands as they make shooting
noises in one and two syllables.
“Bear Crown” is pitch-perfect
throughout. Toward the ending,
the pace slows ever so slight-
ly, even as the sequences are
shorter. The troupe finally skips
into place toward downstage
left, where they end, on bended
knees, lifting their upper bod-
ies toward the fading light. I
was half expecting before it was
over that maybe Jeff Larson
would emerge from within the
set — pop out of the cake as it
were — and reprise his role as
the Dancing Bear from Kar -
inne Keithley’s “Tenderenda.”
That was another time, another
place, and another piece, but
“Bear Crown” transported me to
that same wonderful, imagina-
tive world.
T
here’s a tendency in
much of the experimen-
tal dance and perfor -
mance scene toward the medi-
tative — or the boring, as others
put it. Some ideas don’t work
as full evening-length shows
no matter how many great col-
laborators you have working
with you. Others, personal and
accomplished, are too enigmat-
ic. Then there are the brilliant
convergences, where everything
comes together.
Palissimo’s “Weddings &
Beheadings,” presented March
11-15 by the 92nd Street Y
Harkness Dance Festival at the
Ailey Theater, had great ele-
ments, including the cast and
the design — especially the pro-
jections by Robert Flyn. The
basic idea of the work crystallized
in a violent blindfolded solo with
a piñata, followed immediately by
a male duet with repeated acts of
lying down together. The piece
ended after an hour of costume
changes, with the naked cast of
four ghosted by projections of
themselves — and then went on
for another half hour.
Jeremy Nelson and Luis Lara
Malvacias, closing out the Hark-
ness Dance Festival the follow-
ing week with “Sooner Than
You Think,” presented a mar-
velous and curious portrait of
their lives involved in the same
spaces — without ever touching
or noticing each other, but inev-
itably dancing together before
it was all over. The division of
STEVEN SCHREIBER
space was achieved with the use
of a simple but multi-functional
and shape-shifting set — four
walls with built-in shelves and
glossy painted veneers. Videos
by Malvacias and David Tirosh
appeared on various surfaces.
At times, they were beautiful
— projected on the floor in rect-
angles of tinted static while the
two rolled back and forth like
opposing ping pong paddles; at
other points, overbearing, para-
graphs of text better delivered
by narration.
Ivo Bol’s electronic music
provided the thread for the
55-minute work. There’s a lot of
walking around, first by Nelson,
then by Lara Malvacias, appear-
ing and disappearing, leaving
traces of video behind them, like
an electronic shadow. Ultimate-
ly, a chorus of helpers emerges
from the concealed space, and
the space itself opens up.
Both men showcase their
individual styles separately —
the piece is almost structured
like a ballet in that regard. As a
meditation on the lives of these
particular artists, it’s complete-
ly valid. As a work asserting it
embodies the idea that “spaces
and places and all the rest is
fiction,” it’s considerably more
puzzling, given all of the facts
about these artists and the way
they work.
16 - 29 APR 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 APR 18, from p.15
Way It Is,” has invited six artists — Alex
McQuilkin, Josh Smith, Nate Lowman,
Thomas McDonell, Caroline Polachek,
and Sebastian Errazuriz — to include
works in his show. His motive is to chal-
lenge the solipsistic quality of the solo
exhibition and stress the social aspect of
art-making. Drawing reference to Andy
Warhol’s commemoration of the day’s
events, William Eggleston’s tributes to
the discarded, and Robert Rauschen-
berg’s involvement with the world, St.
John’s work arrives reminiscent of the
Wallace Stevens poem, “it’s not about
the thing, but it is the thing itself.” Mar-
velli Gallery, 526 W, 26th St, second
fl., Tue.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m., through
May 9.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
COMEDY
SUN.APR.19
Homos & Asians &
Jews, Oh My!
At this week’s installment of Brad
Loekle’s “Electro Shock Therapy Com-
edy Hour,” headliner Allison Castillo is
joined by Adam Strauss (a homolarious
comedian from LA); Danny Siegel (the
gayest straight comedian in town); and
Ali Wong. Therapy Bar, 348 W. 52nd
St., 10 p.m. No cover charge, $6 cosmos
all night.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
NIGHTLIFE
Get Mounted
Muscle bears, leather daddies, furry
pigs, and a hot tub make for a potent
combination at Truck Stop, the hairiest
April Tea Dance of all. Music by Gustavo.
Penthouse at the Park, Tenth Ave. at
17th St., 6 p.m. Admission is $5. For more
information, visit truckstopparty.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
FITNESS
MON.APR.20
Get Fit, Get Ripped,
Get Hard
Fleet Week is almost here, Pride is
just around the corner, and Fire Island
awaits. What to do to get in shape?
Miranda Fitness Concepts wants to
recruit you for Gay Men’s Boot Camp, a
four-week outdoor program that meets
at the Christopher Street Pier week-
䉴 APR 20, continued on p.20
16 - 29 APR 2009
Wonder Boys
Goode with a Twist; Petronio dances up a storm
BY BRIAN MCCORMICK
B
ay Area choreographer and
national gay treasure Joe Goode
returns to New York City and
the Joyce Theater — hurray! — with
“Wonderboy,” an extraordinary new
collaboration with acclaimed puppe-
teer Basil Twist, also a Bay Area native.
Goode and his talented dance theater
group integrate Twist’s exquisite cre-
ation into their unique fusion of social
text, song, and dance. Featuring origi-
nal music by Carla Kihlstedt and Mat-
thias Bossi, “Wonderboy” is a tale of a
peculiar hero isolated by his gift of sen-
sitivity.
To complement the universal
humanism in the 40-minute New York
premiere, the company will also per-
form excerpts of Goode’s “Maverick
Strain” from 1996. A semi-campy send-
up of macho western iconographies
using Arthur Miller’s script from “The
Misfits,” “Maverick” features Goode’s
familiar lexicon of humor with a fabu-
lous gay sensibility.
A
nniversaries are generally not
news, but in these dire times it’s
worth noting that as choreogra-
pher Stephen Petronio celebrates his
25th season — and appears for the first
time on the cover of Dance Magazine
— he’s still going strong organization-
ally as well as artistically. “We compete
with some of the best companies in the
world on the best stages,” Petronio told
Gay City News at a recent rehearsal for
the new dance. “They work 40 hours a
week; we do it in 16.” Successful tour-
ing has been the main engine that’s
kept the revenue stream flowing. The
balance between earned and contribut-
ed income is shifting, but the company
is still fiscally strong.
Since forming his company in 1984,
Petronio has become established as a
leading choreographer of his generation,
celebrated for his craft, his aesthetic,
and his creative collaborations with
some of the greatest minds in contem-
porary fashion, music, and visual arts.
He has created over 35 works for his
company and has toured to more than
26 countries. When he began, he said, “I
wanted to develop a language. That was
unpopular in the ’80s, but that’s what I
wanted to do. No matter what, I’ve devel-
oped a distinct vocabulary.”
Highly technical, aggressive, stylish,
athletic, and charged with sexuality,
Petronio’s choreography surges with
power, but his movement sequenc-
es do not flow in the directions you’d
Dance /19
JOE GOODE PERFORMANCE GROUP
“Wonderboy”
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
Apr. 23-26
Apr. 23-25 at 8 p.m.;
Apr. 26 at 2 & 7:30 p.m.
$19-39; joyce.org Or 212-242-0800
STEPHEN PETRONIO COMPANY
“I Drink the Air Before Me”
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
Apr. 28-29 at 7:30 p.m.;
Apr. 30-May 2 at 8 p.m.
May 3 a 2 & 7:30 p.m.
$19-49; joyce.org Or 212-242-0800
expect them to, creating sometimes
wild changes exploding out of a par -
ticular momentum and into something
else entirely. It is this combination
SARAH SILVER
of action-packed movement with the
unpredictability of where things will go,
plus the speed factor, of course, that
makes Petronio’s vision so distinct. Barrington Hinds, seen in Stephen Petronio’s “I Drink The Air Before Me,” which gets its world premiere featuring a live
Within the individual body, too, a simi- commissioned score by Nico Muhly.
lar juxtaposition is often seen — perfect
lines radiating out from a tilting, twist-
ing, springing axis.
That unique, unmistakable lexi-
Visit www.SeatsForASong.org
con is resplendent in the master’s new between April 11–22 for a sneak peek and to purchase tickets for as little as $11!
evening-length work for twelve danc-
ers, “I Drink the Air Before Me,” which
includes an original score for acoustic
instruments, electronics, and voice by SUSAN
Graham
contemporary classical composer Nico
Muhly. The composer will perform the
music live with his chamber ensemble
and the Young People’s Chorus of New
York City under the direction of Fran-
cisco Núñez. The costumes are by
men’s fashion designer Adam Kimmel.
Renowned artist Cindy Sherman will Sings N E D R O R E M
create a visual persona for Petronio,
and Ken Tabachnick, the company’s
long-time collaborator, will design the
lighting. Monday, May 11
Inspired by stor m cycles, atmo-
spheric and internal, and the power
at 8:00 PM
C H A M B E R O R C H E S T R A
S T E R N A U D I T O R I U M AT C A R N E G I E H A L L
of extreme weather in all its awesome
transience, the work unfolds in a series
American composer and songwriter Susan Graham, a premiere interpreter of
of encounters layered thick with move-
Ned Rorem enhances his legacy, with Rorem’s works. The evening also features
ment that fills the spaces between the the creation of 11 Songs for Susan. This three other geniuses of orchestral color
notes of the music. The ever-changing premiere collection includes both new and with uniquely Orpheus performances
atmospheric environment serves as the old works, orchestrated by Rorem for the of Haydn’s Symphony No. 26 in D inor,
turbulent and unpredictable model for first time. The piece was commissioned Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte,
building shifting fields of motion and by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra to be and Stravinsky’s Danses concertantes.
sound. A stellar cast of 12 that includes debuted by the glorious mezzo-soprano
Michael Badger, Julian De Leon, Dava-
lois Fearon, Barrington Hinds, Jona- LEARN MORE AND SAVE BIG,
than Jaffe, Mandy Kirschner, Tara
BY VISITING WWW.SEATSFORASONG.ORG
Lorenzen, Shila Tirabassi, Amanda
Wells, Petronio, and two guests will FROM APRIL 11–22 | 212.896.1704
perform the work.

20/ Theater
Flower Power
Hair” still shining, gleaming, streaming — with no visible split ends
BY DAVID KENNERLEY
I
n his giddy review of the
Broadway premiere of “Hair”
back in 1968, the late, great
critic Clive Barnes, then writing
for the New York Times, gushed,
“The show is the first Broadway
musical in some time to have the
authentic voice of today rather
than the day before yesterday.”
That voice, enhanced by
an array of illegal mind-bend-
ing drugs, spoke of a turbu-
lent nation grappling with the
despised Vietnam War, the gen-
eration gap, race discrimination,
oppressive authority, and, natu-
rally, the long-haired hippies who
rebelled against it. Unabashed
profanity, full nudity, homosexu-
ality, polyamory, and a racially
diverse cast found their way onto
a major stage for the first time.
All to a seductive, joyously sub-
versive pop-rock score.
Which raises the inevitable
question, “Do we really care to
hear that voice from the past
today?”
Well, it seems that Diane Pau-
lus, director of the new “Hair”
revival that last summer had a
brief, triumphant run at the Dela-
corte Theater in Central Park,
ignored that question. Instead,
the creative team chose to tap
into the show’s exuberant energy,
focusing on the 30 soulful songs
(by Gerome Ragni, James Rado,
and Galt MacDermot), many now
classics, the lively choreography
(by Karole Armitage), and the far-
out, fringy costumes (by Michael
McDonald).
Oh yeah, I can’t forget the
freaky hair, gloriously conjured
by wigmeister Gerard Kelly.
What they’ve come up with is
a mind-blowing spectacular that
Blood Sports on 45th Street
“God of Carnage,” “Reasons to be Pretty” offer up marvelous mayhem
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
W
hat is that old adage?
There are only three
or four different sto-
ries that are told over and over?
Something like that. Anyway, the
pleasure of a familiar story again
Gavin Creel as Claude and Will Swenson as Berger with the cast of “Hair.”
simply wants to remind us, even
if just for two hours and 25 min-
utes, what it’s like to shuck our
sorrows and inhibitions and be
free. Or, as one of the flower chil-
dren says, “It’s time we rediscov-
er sensation.” Somehow, Paulus
managed to dust off the cobwebs
without the need for a gimmicky
overhaul.
The flower power is now stron-
ger than ever.
As for the book, well, there
really isn’t one. There’s a vague
story line of a guy named Claude
who gets drafted and has to
choose between doing his duty
and burning his draft card. But
this “American Tribal Love-Rock
Musical” doesn’t need a plot --
the chaotic patchwork of musical
numbers and vibrant characters
is engaging enough.
The stage literally throbs with
jumping, writhing young bodies
belting out the joys of “Hashish,”
“Sodomy,” “Going Down,” “Hare
Krishna,” “Black Boys,” “White
Boys,” and “Lett[ing] the Sun-
shine In” (to name just a few of
is always in the telling. In her new
play “God of Carnage,” Yasmina
Reza breaks no new thematic
ground in her examination of
two contemporary couples whose
outward sophistication barely
covers more animalistic tenden-
cies, but, as noted, the telling
JOAN MARCUS
the song titles).
The orchestra — I mean the
band — is planted onstage in
full view, just above the wacky
Army truck, rocking and rolling.
They’re in costume, too.
This “Hair” is so big that even
the expansive stage at the Al
Hirshfeld Theatre can’t con-
tain it. Cast members regularly
prance down the aisles, cavort-
ing with the audience. At one
point, a “Tribe” member handed
me a stack of electric orange fly-
ers to pass along my row. They
announced a “Love-in for Peace”
and advised, “Bring your own
pot!” And yes, it’s true — at the
end of the show you can dance
onstage and let your own freak
flag fly, if you wish.
Once during the evening, I
could’ve sworn I caught a few
whiffs of marijuana, but it must
have been the prop doobies they
puffed onstage in the drugged
out “Be-in” orgy scene. The ter-
rific cast is having a blast. They
want to share the love with the
audience; I know it sounds
is all. This is a deliciously venal
romp of epic proportions that
will leave you laughing, nodding
in recognition and wondering
just how far you would have to
be pushed to abandon your own
civilized veneer. This is, without a
doubt, some of the most fun I’ve
HAIR
Al Hirschfeld Theatre
302 W. 45th St.
Tue. at 7 p.m.; Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m.;
Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 2 & 7:30 p.m.
$37-$122; Telecharge.com
Or 212-239-6200
corny, but we actually feel it,
and, in kind, return it.
Standouts include Will Swen-
son as the hyperkinetic leader,
Berger, Caissie Levy as the fiery
radical Sheila, and Andrew Kober
as both the father and Margaret
Mead (don’t ask).
There’s more spirit, sponta-
neity, generosity, and humanity
in this 40-year old show than in
all the other current Broadway
musicals combined. The loose
structure allows plenty of room
for ad-libbing, which helps keep
it fresh. This spirit is carried
through even in the Playbill bios.
Eschewing the usual litany of
puffed-up credits, cast members
reveal their astrological signs and
offer up insights about peace,
love, and understanding.
Sample snippet from another
powerful performer: “Gavin Creel
(Claude) is a total Aries and has a
groovy rescue dog named Wally.
[He] has no patience for people
who perpetuate inequality in the
guise of ‘religious belief,’ and is
grateful for HGTV.” The openly
gay actor, who was profiled in
David Noh’s column in the last
issue of Gay City News, admits
that coming out recently wasn’t
easy, but staying true to himself
has energized his career.
As I see it, this brave, bouncy,
ultra-conditioned “Hair” is not
ashamed that its roots are show-
ing. And the world is better for it,
no matter what the age, Aquari-
us or otherwise.
had in the theater this year. From
the delicious script, brilliantly
translated by Christopher Hamp-
ton and directed with breakneck
hilarity by Matthew Warchus, to
the stellar cast — Jeff Daniels,
䉴 CARNAGE, continued on p.21
16 - 29 APR 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 APR 20, from p.18
days at 6 a.m. for an hour of fitness
instruction, nutritional counseling and
motivational training — just for gay men.
The registration fee is $359 for three days
a week and $529 for all five days for the
four weeks. The next camp runs Apr.
20-May 15. For complete information and
to enlist, visit gaymensbootcamp.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
WED.APR.22
MUSIC
Friendship In Song
In the final concert in its New Hori-
zons series, the 92nd Street Y presents
“Elliott Carter & Heinz Holliger: A Musi-
cal Friendship.” The concert celebrates
Carter’s 100th birthday by taking a unique
approach that focuses on the long-time
friendship and musical relationship
between Carter and oboist/composer
Heinz Holliger, who himself is turning 70
and rarely performs in the US. There is a
pre-concert performance at 6:30 p.m.
of works by Carter, Holliger, Ruth Craw-
ford Seeger, and Stefan Wolpe — includ-
ing Holliger’s “Emily Dickinson Song (To
Elliott with Love)” for soprano and harp
— followed by the 8 p.m. program of
five Carter chamber works along with
several Mozart pieces. Lexington Ave.
at 92nd St. Tickets are $38-$48; $25 for
those 35 and younger at 92y.org.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
DANCE
THU.APR.23
Love, Hate, Desire,
Existence
Tapping into the deep-rooted seeds
of our individuality, New York choreogra-
pher Daniel Charon Charon, a member of
Doug Varone and Dancers since 1999 and
before that with the Limón Dance Com-
pany for three years, offers fresh perspec-
tives in how we love, hate, desire, and
exist inside a community, with two world
premieres. Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer
St., btwn. Houston & Prince Sts. Apr.
23-25, 8 p.m., Apr. 26, 3 p.m. Tickets are
$18 at joyce.org or 212-352-3101.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
Adventures at
Barnard
For the fourth year running, Dance
Theater Workshop partners with Bar-
䉴 APR 23, continued on p.22
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 16 – 29 APR 2009 21

䉴 CARNAGE, from p.20 LINCOLN

FROM THE DIRECTORS OF HALF NELSON PLAZA CINEMAS
BROADWAY BETWEEN
62ND & 63RD STREET Clie
Hope Davis, James Gandolfini, and Marcia FOR INFO & ADVANCE
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unrestrained belly laugh. AND BEAUTIFUL. A WISE AMC THEATRES

Mo

The story surrounds two Brooklyn AND LOVELY FILM.” EMPIRE 25

42ND STREET Las
couples who meet because the son of Alan – A.O. Scott (BETWEEN 7TH
& 8TH AVENUE) Pub
398-3939

JOAN MARCUS
and Annette Raleigh (Daniels and Davis) CLEARVIEW CINEMAS Dat
has hit the son of Michael and Veronica “PRACTICALLY DEFINES FIRST & 62ND
CINEMAS Typ
Novak (Gandolfini and Harden) with a
stick. They are assembled in the Novaks’ Marcia Gay Harden (foreground) with James Gandolfini,
INDEPENDENT CINEMA .” 62ND STREET
BETWEEN 1ST &
Siz
– Peter Travers YORK AVENUE
777-FILM #957
home as the curtain rises, hammering out Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels in “God of Carnage.” CITY CINEMAS
the words of a statement between the two SUNDANCE TORONTO ANGELIKA
FILM FESTIVAL FILM FESTIVAL FILM CENTER
of them. The exact purpose of the state- GOD OF CARNAGE CORNER OF HOUSTON
&MERCER STREET
ment is unknown, but here’s where Reza Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ANNA BODEN & RYAN FLECK 1-800-FANDANGO #2707
WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM
starts to work her magic. Though the play 242 W. 45th St. VIEW THE TRAILER AT
WWW.SUGAR-THEMOVIE.COM
quickly dissolves into physical and emo- Tue. at 7 p.m.; Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m.;
tional mayhem, Reza takes pointed shots Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m.
at the state of contemporary parenting — $66.50-$116.50; Telecharge.com Or 212-239-6200 MUSIC HALLS, ROMANCE, AND ACCIDENTAL HEROES AGAINST
where everything is studied and childhood
REASONS TO BE PRETTY
THE RISING TIDE OF HISTORY. THIS IS PARIS, 1936. Client:
is presumed to be a minefield that must
“A MARVELOUS MOVIE!”
Lyceum Theatre Job #:
be negotiated — the compromises of mar-
riage, the lack of communication in an age 149 W. 45th St.
when we’re all electronically connected at
Tue. at 7 p.m.; Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m.; -Jeffrey Lyons, NBC REEL TALK Movie:
Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m. Last Rev:
every moment, and the sheer solipsism our
$31.50-$111.50; Telecharge.com Or 212-239-6200
culture enables. Publication
Reza’s script — and Hampton’s trans- Date To Ru
lation — is full of fast-paced comic banter FROM THE DIRECTOR OF “ THE CHORUS” Type:

N
as well as silliness surrounding a fruit tart eil LaBute’s “Reasons to be Pret-
dessert called a “clafouti,” which may or ty” has moved to Broadway, and A FILM BY original soundtrack
WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM Size [s]:
may not disagree with Annette. It is this it’s likely that it will be there CHRISTOPHE BARRATIER available at
LAST DAY THURS 4/16:
dyspeptic moment that Davis — in one of for a while. This is the story of the dis- REGAL CINEMAS
the most surprising, hilarious, and beauti- solution of the four-year relationship 4 WEST 58TH STREET UNION SQUARE 14
688-3800 13TH STREET & BROADWAY
fully executed stage effects I have ever seen between Greg, a late-20s factory worker WWW.THEPARISTHEATRE.COM 777-FILM #777
— touches of the descent into low comedy. who spends the third shift carting fro-
We are suddenly transported to a contem- zen foods in a nondescript plant, and
VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.PARIS36MOVIE.COM
porary version of the Marx Brothers, or his girlfriend Steph, a hairdresser. As

“GO SEE ‘EVERY LITTLE STEP’!

the Three Stooges (with a little bit of “My
Man Godfrey” thrown in), as we watch the
rich make fools of themselves, just as our
grandparents did during the Depression.
The four characters execute the com-
edy with flawless timing and absolute
commitment. Daniels’ Alan, a high-pow-
ered lawyer, slowly becomes unraveled,
the lights go up, the two are locked in
a battle royal because Steph’s friend, Made in
and Greg’s co-worker, Carly reported
to her that she overheard Greg tell her THRILLING, MOVING AND EMOTIONALLY RICH!
husband Kent, also a plant worker, that AN ARTFUL DRAMA OF WINNING, LOSING, AND WORKING
Greg called Steph “ugly.” None of Greg’s
protestations that he said she was “reg-
ONE’S BUTT OFF FOR THE LOVE OF THE STAGE.”
-Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
ular,” favorably comparing her to an

while Davis’ Annette, dressed in expen-
sive clothes right down to her fabulous
Christian Louboutin shoes, presents
herself as being in “wealth management”
and is marvelously put together… until
she self-destructs. Gandolfini as a man
who’s made his wealth selling plumbing
fittings is a more traditional hen-pecked
husband, but his comedy is beautifully
done. Harden stands out as the cultured
and artistic wife who has read everything
ever printed about parenting but can’t
acknowledge her son may be a rotten brat.
Among the four, there isn’t a moment that
isn’t sensational, and, as alliances shift
and the sparks and cell phones fly, one is
aware of just how finely tuned successful
comedy has to be. There hasn’t been this
level of farce so well done since the origi-
nal “Noises Off.”
The wonderful sets and costumes by
Mark Thompson add perfectly to the set-
ting. The entire back wall is like a desert
“EXCELLENT!
appealingly sexualized girl at the plant,
hold any water with Steph, who walks
out. With this, we are off into familiar
LaBute territory where communication
between the sexes is virtually impos-
I WAS THOROUGHLY CHARMED!”
- Ty Burr, THE BOSTON GLOBE
sible.
Yet here, the playwright veers off into
new territory. Steph is not Greg’s victim,
but her own. She is a cruel and angry THE JOURNEY OF ‘A CHORUS LINE’
woman, neurotic about her appearance
and deaf to Greg’s attempts to apologize
and achieve healing. Steph is LaBute’s
first female bad guy, and the juxtapo-
sition of her blind and selfish behavior
and Greg’s struggle to grow up is blunt.
The relationship between Carly and
Kent is more traditional LaBute, with a
selfish and amoral man serving his own
needs at the expense of a woman who,
for a time, puts up with it.
In the transfer, LaBute has tightened
the script so that it’s even more power-
EVERY LITTLE STEP
ful. Greg Sadowsi reprises his excel- PRODUCED & DIRECTED BY FOR GROUP SALES, CONTACT: WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM

plan — straight out of Animal Planet. lent performance as Greg, and Piper
JAMES D. STERN & ADAM DEL DEO everylittlestep.group@gmail.com

Move this show to the top of your must-

see list. Perhaps it’s schadenfreude, but it’s
Perabo is back as Carly. They are joined
by Marin Ireland as Steph and Steven
STARTS FRIDAY, LINCOLN PLAZA CINEMAS CITY CINEMAS
B’WAY BETWEEN 62ND & 63RD ST. ANGELIKA FILM CENTER
CLEARVIEW CINEMAS
CHELSEA CINEMAS

APRIL 17 TH !
FOR INFO & ADVANCE TICKETS, CORNER OF HOUSTON 23RD ST. BET. 7TH
CALL 212-757-2280 OR VISIT & MERCER ST. & 8TH AVE.
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damn funny, and laughing this hard is a Pasquale as Kent. It’s a strong ensemble
tonic in these times. in a wonderful and harrowing play. VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.EVERYLITTLESTEPFILM.COM
22
■ THEATER
West End Never Gayer
Gielgud, Marlowe, and Bennett among those on the boards
BY ANDY HUMM
T
he Lesbian & Gay Film
Festival in London was
just getting underway
at the end of my two weeks
there March 29, but the big-
gest LGBT arts events turned
out to be much of what’s in the
West End. At least based on the
17 shows I took in — from one
about Sir John Gielgud’s loo
arrest in 1953 to a rare reviv-
al of Marlowe’s “Dido, Queen
of Carthage” that opens with
dirty old god Jupiter pawing at
twinkie Ganymede — and that’s
without being able to get tickets
to the new musical of “Priscilla,
Queen of the Desert” nor seeing
the hit revival of “La Cage Aux
Folles.” The preponderance of
LGBT themes and talent behind
these productions in the world’s
theater capital is a tribute to
how far we’ve come from the
days when gay subject matter
was banned and homosexual
playwrights stuck to heterosex-
ual characters.
The most gay-specific play
was by Nicholas de Jongh, the-
ater critic for the Evening Stan-
dard, who is braving the opinion
of his fellow critics with “Plague
Over England” at the Duch-
ess. It stars Michael Best, who
worked with Gielgud, chan-
Sacha Dhawan as Mushi in “England People Very Nice.”
Leon Ockenden and Sam Heughan in “Plague Over England.”
neling the thespian, then just-
knighted, as he gets swept up in
a crackdown on homosexuality
and ends up on the front pages
for looking the wrong way at a
cute undercover cop in a public
toilet.
We know Gielgud went on to
an Oscar and illustrious later
career, but de Jongh shows us
how close he came to being fin-
ished. He is consoled by Dame
Sybil Thorndike (splendid Celia
Imrie), with whom he is about to
16 – 29 APR 2009
open in a play. “Take my hand,”
she says. “They wouldn’t dare
boo me.” The ovation they his-
torically received is a thrilling
theatrical moment, marking an
early blow against gay shame.
De Jongh blends Gielgud’s
crisis with an affair between a
rich young man and a working
class one (Sam Heughan and
Leon Ockenden, respectively),
adding sex appeal and a deeper
portrait of gay life in the 1950s.
The anti-gay pronouncements
JOHAN PERSSON
TRISTAM KENTON
of the establishment, from
police to judges, provoke some
laughter, but all I could think
about were the continuing false
arrests of gay men in New York
today and how sexual shame
thrives. (To May 2)
Out gay Alan Bennett wasn’t
when he wrote “Enjoy” in 1980
about a grotesque, old lower
middle-class couple (the always
fine Allison Steadman and
David Troughton) oblivious to
their daughter being a hooker
and their rejected son having
become their daughter. What
may have once been zany now
plays rather sour. Bennett has
been funny since his “Beyond
the Fringe” days in 1960, but
I much prefer his later work —
from “Talking Heads” to “The
History Boys” — when he opens
his heart as well. (To May 16 at
Gielgud)
“Spring Awakening,” dead in
New York (though a film is in the
works), has risen at the Novello,
attracting a young audience to
an old house in the wildly inven-
tive rock riff on a banned 19th
century German play of teen
angst. There’s nothing like one’s
first time with this show, but it
is as fresh as ever, led by Aneu-
rin Barnard as Melchior and
Charlotte Wakefield as Wendla.
The “Totally Fucked” number
has taken on a whole new mean-
ing for more than just teens as
䉴 WEST END, continued on p.23
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 APR 23, from p.20
nard College on “The Barnard Project”
– a showcase of performances choreo-
graphed by Dance Theater Workshop
artists with Barnard College dance
students. For both the students and the
artists-in-residence, this program is not
only a semester-long class, but also a
valuable resource for creative growth
and experimentation. In four perfor-
mances this weekend, these creative
residencies take shape in four premieres
by choreographers Nora Chipaumire,
Nicholas Leichter, Susan Rethorst, and
Morgan Thorson, the current artists-in-
residence. Dance Theater Workshop,
Bessie Schönberg Theater, 219 W.
19th St. Apr. 23-25, 7:30 p.m.; Apr. 26,
2 p.m. Tickets are $20 at dancetheater-
workshop.org or 212-924-0077.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
MUSIC
Jackie Is Just
Speedin’ Away
Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Trio
appears for two evenings at Blender
Theater at Gramercy, 127 E. 23rd St.,
btwn. Park & Lexington Aves., Apr.
23 & 24, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 at liv-
enation.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
50 Years and
a Special
Commission
The New York Choral Society pres-
ents its 50th anniversary concert with
a program of Vaughan Williams’ “Dona
Nobis Pacem,” a prayer for peace written
between the two World Wars, Rossini’s
“Stabat Materm,” a choral masterpiece
perfectly suited to a large chorus, and a
world premiere, Stephen Paulus’s “Whit-
man’s New York,” specially commis-
sioned for this concert. Carnegie Hall,
Seventh Ave. at 57th St., 8 p.m. Tickets
are $25-$75 at nychoral.org.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
DANCE
SAT.APR.25
A Lively Sampler
Twelve choreographers, including
Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, David Parker,
and Nicole Wolcott, have been asked to
deliver pieces on the theme “Blues in the
Night.” Find out what these artists have
in mind: Color? Music? Mood? Other
dance companies participating include
Aimee Rials, Gregory Dolbashian, John-
Mark Owen, Laura Peterson, Nelly van
䉴 APR 25, continued on p.26
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
䉴 WEST END, from p.22
the world crumbles around us. The gay
lovers (Harry McEntire and Jamie Blake-
ly) are as sweet as ever, and Bill T. Jones’
choreography rocks. (Novello Theatre in
an open run)
The National Theatre provided two of
my most memorable theater experienc-
es, both at the Lyttleton, including Lee
(“Billy Elliot”) Hall’s “The Pitmen Paint-
ers,” which closed April 14. The absorb-
ing stage version of the film “Burnt by
the Sun,” by Pete Flannery and helmed
by Howard Davies, associate director at
the National, feels like a Chekhovian ver-
sion of 1936 Soviet life until the second
act introduces Reds of a different color.
Ciarán Hinds, the devil in “The Sea-
farer” on Broadway, embodies a more
complex evil here as a prominent general
who has made his country home amidst
faded aristocrats. His adversary, played
by Rory Kinnear, starts out silly, then
makes a surprising bid for “hardest man
in the world.” (To May 9)
Christopher Marlowe’s first play,
“Dido,” is rarely produced, but James
MacDonald’s production at the Nation-
al’s Cottesloe should get it back in cir-
culation. It’s all about how love and lust
make us crazy and so must result from
the gods messing with us. Anastasia Hille
as Dido and Mark Bonnar as a Celtic
Aeneas propel us through their mad
affair. (To June 9)
“Madame de Sade” has an arrestingly
stylish set, gorgeous costumes, Dame
Judi Dench, and is a Donmar produc-
tion. What’s not to like? The non-play is
by Yukio Mishima, famous for the homo-
eroticism in his work and ritually disem-
boweling himself in 1970. The able efforts
of the all-woman cast, each declaiming
their views on the infamous and unseen
Marquis, does not good theater make. (To
May 23 at Wyndham’s)
The Donmar has an infinitely more suc-
cessful revival at its Warehouse with Athol
Fugard’s “Dimetos,” led by Jonathan
Pryce in the title role as a great engineer
who has retreated from professional life
in the city to the country with his devot-
ed wife and young niece. It goes from an
engaging debate about what constitutes
a civilized and creative life to a shattering
tragedy resulting from guilty desire. (To
May 9)
On the strengths of rave reviews, we
went to Kevin Spacey’s Old Vic for a
revival of Brian Friel’s “Dancing at Lugh-
nasa,” so affecting on Broadway in 1991.
This production in the round lost some
of the stillness, especially of the narrator,
necessary to convey the thwartedness
of Irish small-town sisters in the 1930s
and the delight at the breakout act-one
dance. (To May 9)
The National’s “England People Very
Nice” arrived in controversy over its ste-
reotyping of waves of immigrants to the
London neighborhood of Bethnal Green
— “frogs,” then “micks,” then “yids,” then
“Pakis,” as they are called in the play. I
16 – 29 APR 2009 23
JOHAN PERSSON
Anastasia Hille in the title role in “Dido, Queen of
Charthage.”
hoped it would at least provoke if not
enlighten, but it was more like children’s
theater with curse words.
It was orchestrated energetically by
Nick Hytner, the out gay artistic direc-
tor of the National, but suffered an
ill-conceived script by Richard Bean.
Sacha Dawan, who had a thankless part
in “History Boys” as a student with few
lines, acts up a storm in the lead here,
along with the rest of the fine cast, each
in multiple roles. (To June 30)
My friend, Jim Kirby, who was with
me through most of these shows, saw
two just before I arrived that he recom-
mends — Ian McDiarmid’s dramatiza-
tion of “Be Near Me,” Andrew O’Hagan’s
novel about a priest, played by McDi-
armid, who crosses a line and kisses a
15-year old boy, and “Duet for One” at
the Almeida, which transfers with Juliet
Stephenson and Henry Goodman to the
Vaudeville May 7-August 9.
Jim and I also advanced our cultural
and gay credentials with visits to the
fabulous gardens at Kew and George IV’s
over-the-top Royal Pavilion at Brighton.
Speaking of historic sites, “The Mouse-
trap” premiered in 1952, a year before I
did. But I’ve not deigned to see this tour-
ist trap in more than a score of visits to
the West End. I succumbed on a whim
on my last night in town and stared
down from the heavens (last row, $20) in
wonder at Agatha Christie’s durable con-
traption.
We are asked at the curtain to keep the
secret of who did it, but I will reveal that
one of the guests at Monkswell Manor
plays very gay, though not stereotypically
Sponsors: The Phoenix, Provincetown Banner,
so. With so many variations of “Law and
HBO, Bacardi, Crown & Anchor, Art House,
Order” and “CSI” on the tube every night, Mass. Cultural Council, Visitors Service Bureau
it is not hard to understand its enduring
,'/%+/.%=@CD■NNN%GKFNE=@CD=<JK%FI>
䉴 WEST END, continued on p.28
24
GAY CHRISTOPHER STREET
DUGOUT
185 Christopher St., New York, NY 10014
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
212-242-9113
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236 East 58th Street (Between 2nd and 3rd)
212-754-4649
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16 – 29 APR 2009
■ FILM
Dreams From
On Christopher
My Father
BY GARY M. KRAMER
“I
n a Dream,” a remarkable docu-
mentary about the Philadelphia
artist/muralist Isaiah Zagar,
belongs in the company of “Capturing
the Friedmans” and “Tarnation,” two
other excellent real-life “home movies.”
Although this film does not have the crim-
inal pathology elements of “Friedmans” or
the sexual tensions of “Tarnation,” film-
maker Jeremiah Zagar’s portrait of his
father battling demons past and present
offers its own astonishing originality.
76 Much of the film is shot in the Zagar
home and studio — spaces in which every
Christopher St. wall is covered with fabulous murals
at 7th Ave made with broken mirrors, lettered tiles,
and other shards shaped into represen-
tational faces and objects, all vibrantly
colored. Considerable time is dedicat-
ed to showing Isaiah mixing, breaking,
washing, and creating his work. Several
animated episodes portray the playful,
fantastic, dream-like world the Zagars
inhabit.
Isaiah’s murals are more than designs;
they chronicle, literally mirror the lives
of the family. They provide the Zagars a
running commentary on their “nesting.”
As Isaiah asserts, “I impregnate my work
with my life.” As a portfolio of his art,
“In a Dream” is superb. A slow-motion
tracking shot through rooms in his stu-
dio is as impressive and illuminating as a
sped-up sequence showing him creating
a mural.
A Village Landmark
Serving The Community Jeremiah, the family’s younger son,
For Over 30 Years
takes on the project — and it is quite a
project — of making the film, in part, he
says, because his mother Julia tells him,
“Film your father. It’s important.” Her
words have a prescient quality about
them, and in the film’s second act, they
truly resonate.
©
The first half of “In a Dream” has Jere-
miah interviewing his dad, who discuss-
es his life candidly. Isaiah admits, “I am
exposing myself to you because it’s what
you want — and yes, it’s what I want
to, to understand.” Revealing a suicide
attempt at 29, he talks about polishing
brass and cleaning mirrors while insti-
tutionalized. The work gave him “suste-
nance,” he says, putting him on the path
to creating the murals that comprise his
life’s work. Isaiah soon drops another
bombshell, about a man who took him
fishing as a child and played with Isa-
World Famous iah’s penis. Yet he essentially shrugs this
Gentlemen Piano Bar off, saying, “[My] life is filled with events,
which all become stories.” The image
Live Music Nightly of Isaiah that emerges during the first
half of “In a Dream” is that of an eccen-
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
INTERNATIONAL FILM CIRCUIT
Isaiah Zagar surrounded by his work.
IN A DREAM
Directed by Jeremiah Zagar
International Film Circuit
Cinema Village
22 E. 12th St.; cinemavillage.com
tric hippie artist. As Julia describes her
husband as a sensualist “pushing the
envelope of sexuality” in his work, pho-
tos flash of him kissing men. His work
frequently features penises, along with
breasts and vaginas, and one can’t help
but wonder whether these playful images
represent Zagar’s effort to cope with his
childhood abuse.
The film’s second part shifts away from
Isaiah, onto the family. Zeke, Isaiah’s older
son, returns home after splitting from his
wife, and soon enters a rehab facility.
On the day Julia and Isaiah go to collect
Zeke, Isaiah reveals that after 43 years of
marriage, he is having an affair. These two
threads — addiction and adultery — test
the family, and Jeremiah artfully captures
the anguish they cause, especially Isaiah’s
pain and rage as his family disintegrates.
These are captivating moments that recall
the instability Isaiah describes from ear-
lier in his life.
“In a Dream” is a kind of family ther-
apy, and that strengthens it. Jeremiah’s
closeness to his subjects enables them
to open up because they trust him —
and he never seems biased. Jeremiah
obviously loves his mother, cares about
his brother, and has a form of hero-
worship toward his father — even if that
dissipates as he learns more about him.
Lovingly made, and featuring a haunting
score that draws viewers into the beauti-
ful images, “In a Dream” is a heartrend-
ing portrait of a flawed but fascinating
artist, father, and husband. This film is
not to be missed.
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
■ FILM
No Mystery Here
Screen adaptation of Michael Chabon’s best-
seller disappoints
BY GARY M. KRAMER
T
he screen adaptation of Michael
Chabon’s bestseller “The Mys-
teries of Pittsburgh,” about the
summer Art Bechstein comes of age,
deletes the novel’s gay character, Arthur,
completely from the story. The film com-
presses another major character from
the book — Phlox, Art’s on-again, off-
again girlfriend, becomes his manager
at a bookstore — and the film moves two
supporting characters, Cleveland and
Jane, into major roles. But not follow-
ing the letter of the book is the least of
screenwriter/director Rawson Marshall
Thurber’s problems. This wrongheaded
adaptation barely follows the spirit of the
novel. Legions of fans will be justly frus-
“The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” is singularly
dispassionate in treating affairs of the heart.
trated, while those unfamiliar with Cha-
bon’s novel will simply be perplexed.
For a very literary book, one that rev-
eled in its author’s superb command of
language, Thurber’s screenplay employs
a cheap voice-over narration that fails to
add any dimension to what’s happening
on screen. Art (Jon Foster) is spending
his first summer after graduation work-
ing in a discount bookstore and studying
for his Series 7 financial industry exam.
He has a detached relationship with
his disapproving gangster father (Nick
Nolte, miscast or wasted, or both), who
dines with him, amidst tense exchanges,
once a month. Art is also having a torrid
affair with his boss Phlox (Mena Suvari),
who seduces him in the stockroom.
Their sexual dalliances on the job are
portrayed, but the conceit underlying
their relationship seems phony. When
a needy Phlox confronts him about his
life away from her, she comes across as
unhinged. Her menace underlined by an
unbecoming haircut, she seems scary,
but is she in fact meant to be funny? The
film’s wildly uneven tone makes this one
of its mysteries.
Art’s more significant romantic entan-
glement involves Jane (Sienna Miller)
and Cleveland (Peter Sarsgaard). Art is
attracted to Jane, but respects that she
is Cleveland’s girlfriend. After catching
Cleveland getting a blowjob from another
guy in a nightclub men’s room, however,
Art becomes drawn to him. The two men
end up in bed together, but again without
16 – 29 APR 2009 25
MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH
Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber
Peace Arch Entertainment
Citywide; moviefone.com
sufficient motivation having been estab-
lished.
“The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,” all about
love and lust, is singularly dispassionate
in treating affairs of the heart. Art may be
a blank, a vanilla preppy — it’s 1983 —
but it doesn’t help that Foster plays him
with a perpetually pained and quizzical
expression on his face, seemingly unable
to believe he is going through the situ-
ations he experiences. This is true when
Phlox shows up to cause as he dines with
his father and Jane, when Jane seduces
him, and again when Cleveland does. An
expression does not a performance make.
Cleveland is meant to be larger than life,
and the usually reliable Sarsgaard shouts
every line of dialogue, but to no avail. He
is a desperately indebted gambler; unfor-
COMMUNITY BUSINESS
SECTION
tunately, Sarsgaard’s performance is des-
perate, too. The only upside is that the
sexual tension between Cleveland and
Art is more palpable than that between
Jane and Art. Instead of seducing Jane,
Art repeatedly saves her, as when she
passes out from drinking early in their
friendship. (For balance in their triangle, FRENCH In the comfort of your
home or office, alone or
Cleveland frequently rescues Art.) By the
time Art and Jane finally do get together,
Support CONVERSATION with a friend, in person
or via web cam.
Experienced Native Teacher
Thurber has zapped their relationship of
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seems a victim of poor planning and bad
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lucgeorges@nyc.rr.com
completely off, its characters consistent-
French Classes and
ly behaving counterintuitively. When
Cleveland blows up at Art, who spied For Translations by Luc Georges.
on him and Jane having sex, it is more
awkward for its histrionics than its dra-
advertising
matic purpose. Around the film’s mid-
point, Art tells Cleveland how dysfunc-
details
tional things are with his boss Phlox. “I contact: Can you
could quit, but I want to see how bad
spin a rifle?
it’s going to get,” he says. For anyone
who read the novel, this line signals the Jason@ COLORGUARD
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moment to walk out of “The Mysteries 646-452-2505 TRYOUTS want to learn?
of Pittsburgh,” but gluttons for punish-
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see how bad this film really gets. There Contact Scott Redhead at Enguard@aol.com / www.enguardnyc.org
is no mystery.

26/ Opera
Alagna Steps Up
With playful, boyish élan, ten tackles “Cavalleria,” “Pagliacci”
BY ELI JACOBSON
M
any tenors sing both
“Cavalleria Rusticana”
and “I Pagliacci,” but
only a handful have taken on both
operas in a verismo double bill
on the same evening. Peter Gelb
has recently asked several ten-
ors to perform this feat, includ-
ing Salvatore Licitra in 2007
and this season, Roberto Alagna
and Jose Cura. Alagna had per-
formed Canio several times, but
Turiddu in “Cavalleria” was a
role debut for him. He has never
been a paragon of vocal control —
his high notes can turn raw and
sharp when pushed —but he is a
performer who inhabits his roles
with emotional generosity and
commitment. In the verismo rep-
ertory, minor vocal and musical
flaws can be forgiven as long as
the music is dispatched with the
right style, energy, and italianita.
Alagna, who is of Sicilian descent,
though French born, has the
emotions and accents in his
blood, and this was a very prom-
ising pair of local debuts, which,
if repeated, will only grow in sus-
tained force and command.
His Turiddu, seen March 19,
began as a typically arrogant
small-town lothario with the req-
uisite tight pants and cock-of-
the-walk strut. But as Turiddu’s
selfish actions began to bring
Opera Marches On
Weill’s”Firebrand,” Carnegie’s “Honor,” new in “Trovatore”
BY DAVID SHENGOLD
C
ollegiate Chorale pulled
off a fine coup March
12 in giving New York
show people a satisfying look
at 1945’s Broadway operetta
“The Firebrand of Florence” in
the newly renovated Alice Tully
— before an industry-heavy
audience if ever there were
one. Given the talents involved
— Kurt Weill, music, and Ira
Gershwin, lyrics — the scanty
five-week run when this work
debuted poses a puzzle. It seems
the original cast underwhelmed
and the book sucked eggs; here,
we had summary narration by
is more the young romantic juve-
nile lead, which works well for the
callow stud Turiddu. He worked
cannily against type playing the
cuckolded Canio as a man with
a split personality, entering with
half of his clown make-up on like
an operatic Two-Face. Boyish,
athletic, and playful one moment,
but with a fixed smile and gleam
in his eye that signaled imminent
danger, this Canio in a flash could
MARTY SOHL/ METROPOLITAN OPERA
turn violent with a hair-trigger
temper beyond his control. Like
his Turiddu, he could be brutal to
his women but at the same time
heartbroken and vulnerable in
loss, sobbing brokenly at the end
of “Vesti la Giubba.” In the end,
Roberto Alagna (r.) as Canio in “I Pagliacci,” his Canio seemed a victim of his
one part of a verismo tenor double-header. own demons and was both fright-
ening and pitiable — an angry lost
on tragic consequences, Alagna boy turned into a doomed broken
showed a moving insecurity and man. Canio is a bit lower in range
remorse underneath the bra- than Turiddu; Alagna paced him-
vado, with a premonition of and self well, ending the evening with
even longing for death. Some fresh tone and adequate power.
too open and sharp high notes The cast surrounding Alagna
and one off-key phrase in the
“Mamma, quel vino e generoso”
can be overlooked, as the major-
was mixed in quality and not
altogether impressive. As San-
tuzza, Meier reminded me of Mar-
ity of his singing had an incisive lene Dietrich failing to convince as
lyricism and dramatic pulse. Ala- a Spanish peasant in Sternberg’s
gna works very well with women “The Devil is a Woman” — the ele-
onstage, playing the perfect Latin ments of earthiness and sponta-
mama’s boy to Jane Bunnell’s neity were entirely lacking. Her
Mamma Lucia while being off- tone started out hollow and cold
handedly dismissive of Waltraud and started to fray early, with
Meier’s Santuzza. Alagna’s type high notes ducked and vibrato
Roger Rees, far wittier and more
effective than the usual such
a fuller baritone sound than
Nathan Gunn can provide; so
talk-through. Ted Sperling’s do the Broadway roles he’s con-
crackerjack reading with City sidering that were crafted for
Opera’s strong forces provided Alfred Drake and John Raittt.
much pleasure. To me, the work But he’s highly idiomatic in
shone brightest for Ira Gersh- this repertoire in timbre and
win’s ingenious contributions; phrasing. Need one add that he
Weill was a peerless chameleon, looked dashing, despite unflat-
absorbing the lessons of Kern tering Fabio hair — seemingly
and Romberg very quickly, but a particular hazard for straight
despite some structural inno- baritones. He partnered his two
vations, we heard little of great leading ladies considerately and
inherent melodic interest. The well.
number sounding most like Anna Christy sparkled as
“real” Weill is Act Two’s “You Cellini’s model/girlfriend/what-
Have to Do What You Do Do.” ever, and Victoria Clark gave yet
Cellini’s part, intended for another incandescent, nuanced
Lawrence Tibbett, ideally needs performance as the forthright,
widening, but luckily the role
ended before her voice totally gave
out. She canceled the next perfor-
mance, so Indisposition could be
the culprit. Alberto Mastroma-
rino debuted not only with his
scheduled Tonio, but also replac-
ing a colleague as Alfio in “Caval-
leria.” A big bear of a man with a
roomy dramatic baritone voice,
he showed a troubling tendency
to phrase note to note and lacked
the native Italian gift of linking
word to tone with fluency. Nuc-
cia Focile’s Nedda was properly
girlish to complement her boyish
Canio, but seemed small-scale
and tentative rather than sensual
and commanding. Christopher
Maltman’s Silvio was slender and
dashing, but his dryish Anglo-
Saxon baritone is better suited to
German and French repertoire.
His tone lacks the warm sensual
juice Mariusz Kwiecien brought
to the role a few seasons ago to
almost definitive effect.
Young debutant conductor
Pietro Rizzo revealed lovely lay-
ers of shimmering detail but
also slow and distended tempos
this cast really didn’t need. The
Zeffirelli productions, almost 40
years old, looked fresh as paint,
with the “Pagliacci” as usual
proving surefire theater while
the “Cavalleria” rose and fell on
the variable quality of the per-
formers.
lusty Duchess. Terrence Mann,
his top compromised, bordered
on unbearably hammy as the
Duke. Krysty Swann (Emilia)
looked glamorous and sang
well, but needs to learn to work
a mic; the brilliant David Pittu
delivered in a gallery of support-
ing roles. A rousing evening.
T
hroughout March,
Jessye Norman curated
“Honor,” a rich, ambi-
tious series of concerts, discus-
sion panels, and other events
in Carnegie Hall and other ven-
ues devoted to the legacy of the
䉴 OPERA, continued on p.27
16 - 29 APR 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 APR 25, from p.22
Bommel/Noa Dance, Nicholas Andre
Dance, Rebecca Lazier, and Sydney Sky-
better. Symphony Space, 2537 Broad-
way at 95th St., 8:30 p.m. Tickets are
$20; $15 for Symphony Space members
at symphonyspace.org or 212-864-5400.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
COMMUNITY
In Memory
The Reverend Canon Victoria Sirota,
the canon pastor of the Cathedral of
St. John the Divine, celebrates and
preaches at a Eucharist of Remembrance
for all who have died of AIDS and HIV-
related illness. The names of loved ones
who have died can be entered into the
Book of Remembrance and also named
in the prayers. The Cathedral’s St.
Martins Chapel, 112th St. & Amster-
dam Ave. (#1 train to 110th & Broad-
way), 12:15 p.m. For more information,
email nam1985@ymail.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
COMEDY
SUN.APR.26
All the Single
Ladies
In tonight’s “Electro Shock Therapy
Comedy Hour,” Brad Loekle invites some
of his favorite sassy single comedians
to tear the roof off the place. Headliner
Helen Hong (Live at Gotham) is joined
by Leah Dubie (Dykes on Mics); Chelsea
Peretti (TruTV’s “The Smoking Gun”), and
Scott Ryan (HereTV’s “Hot Gay Comics”).
Therapy Bar, 348 W. 52nd St., 10 p.m.
No cover charge, $6 cosmos all night.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
MON.APR. 27
COMMUNITY
Mentoring Youth
Live Out Loud, which presents after-
school programs to connect LGBT youth
to outstanding leaders and role models
in their community, hosts its eight annu-
al fundraiser. Since its inception, the
organization has brought more than 300
LGBT role models to metropolitan area
high schools and universities, involving
renowned panelists from every walk
of life — spiritual leaders to fashion
designers, corporate powerhouses to
grass-roots activists. Tonight, four high
school seniors, who have demonstrated
䉴 APR 27, continued on p.28
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 16 – 29 APR 2009 27

ERIN BAIANO
Nathan Gunn as Benvenuto Cellini in “The Firebrand of Florence.”

Spiritual in all types of African-American bass Kevin Maynor channeling legato

music and culture. On March 20, Car-
negie witnessed a moving, resonant tra-
versal of pacifist gay composer Michael
Tippett’s “A Child of Our Time.” Tippett’s
oratorio, inspired by the events leading
soft singing in the Paul Robeson standby
“Joe Hill” and an extraordinarily moving
“There is a Balm in Gilead.” Surely no
one left unhappy.

to Kristallnacht and by the start of the
Second World War, uses Spirituals as
chorales to punctuate and comment on
the ongoing story. Tippett’s later libretti
got impossibly fussy, but this one, with
its concern for the poor and oppressed in
occupied nations, seemed all too timely.
The music owes debts to Handel and
19th century oratorio traditions but has
a spare dignity of its own. Craig Jessop
led the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in good
form, joined by four high school choirs
from around the country in an impres-
sive ensemble. Among the fine soloists,
Angela Brown stood out for beauty of
tone, Russell Thomas for crisp diction,
and Morris Robinson for sheer thunder-
ous vocal resonance.
The historic Apollo rocked two nights
later in a tribute to diverse musical styles
originating from the Spiritual. Best were
Sweet Honey in the Rock’s incredibly ver-
satile and soulful vocalism and the old-
style, gut-pounding gospel of the indomi-
table Shirley Caesar. Norman herself
joined in a rousing celebratory close to a
roof-raising evening.
Finally, back to Carnegie the following
night for “Honor: the Voice,” a conclud-
ing celebration of classical and theatrical
songs alongside traditional Spiritual set-
tings. There were some remarkable con-
tributions — Harolyn Blackwell, centered
and shining, in “Somewhere”; classy
Nicole Cabell sensuously voicing Ger-
shwin’s Bess; Gregg Baker, committed,
moving, and sonorous in Mendelssohn
(“Lord God of Abraham”) and the rousing
“Witness.” Best of all was under-utilized
T
o track some Met cast changes —
as planned, Luciana d’Intino took
on her first Met Azucena in March
16’s “Trovatore”; her presence through-
out the run provides a rock-solid reason
to attend. She’s the genuine-article Ital-
ian dramatic mezzo, a breed often pro-
nounced extinct in the post-Cossotto/
Baglioni/Berini era. D’Intino was in
mighty voice and highly expressive form.
Some might object to some of her lavish
deployment of chest; some will revel in it Gay,
as in fresh water at an oasis.
American tenor Philip Webb had Str8,
jumped into the previous show at inter- Bi,
mission to make his company debut as Curious?
Manrico, subbing for Marcelo Alvarez.
Reports were very favorable, perhaps
because, coming in when he did, he
began with the elegant “Ah si ben mio,”
the best part of his performance at this
full traversal. In the first half, his voice
tended to get lost in ensembles, but
Webb proved a qualified cover, musi-
cal and with clean line. He should have
been granted the dignity of a curtain
announcement; only some programs
had substitution slips, so many doubt-
less thought they were hearing Alvarez.
The general manager seems only to want
to make such announcements himself
for glamorous stars; surely, whoever is
on duty at the house should make one
in these circumstances. It’s only fair to
the replacement artists and to the pub-
lic, who like the drama of rooting for an
underdog.
David Shengold (shengold@yahoo.com)
writes about opera for many venues.

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28/ Film
A Cinema of Empathy
Offering no easy answers, Eran Riklis puts on others’ skins
BY STEVE ERICKSON
E
mpathy is no small
matter, but in cinema,
it’s often a rare qual-
ity. Israeli director Eran Riklis’
“Lemon Tree,” made last year,
arrives in America shortly after
the election of a right-wing coali-
tion government in his coun-
try. Pessimism that Israel and
Palestine will ever find a path
to peace seems more justified
than ever. As if anticipating this
climate, Riklis has created a
Palestinian heroine with whom
he clearly identifies. He’s made
an imaginative leap of the kind
that most American directors
of films about the Vietnam War
were incapable.
To be honest, Riklis’ achieve-
ment is far from easy. Did
Michael Cimino, Stanley
Kubrick, and Francis Ford Cop-
pola know enough about Viet-
namese culture to accurately
represent it? Can one count on
wealthy white men to tell the
stories of Asians in the middle
of a war ravaging their country?
Even a film as critical of Israeli
behavior as Ari Folman’s “Waltz
With Bashir” sticks to Israeli
subjectivity when telling the
story of the country’s involve-
ment in Lebanon’s civil war. For
that matter, Asian-made films
about the Vietnam War and its
aftermath, like Ann Hui’s “Boat
People” and John Woo’s “Bullet
in the Head,” reflect Hong Kong
residents’ anxieties about main-
land Chinese communism as
much as the reality of the war.
A film like Steve McQueen’s
recently released “Hunger” is an
anomaly. “Lemon Tree” doesn’t
match its level of accomplish-
ment, but it still strikes a small
blow for a humane cinema.
Middle-aged Palestinian
widow Salma (Hiam Abbass)
䉴 WEST END, from p.23
appeal. (Running to ∞)
At the London Lesbian & Gay
Film Festival, I joined a sold-
out crowd for the much antici-
pated “Englishman in New
York,” with John Hurt repris-
ing his 1975 career-making role
of Quentin Crisp in Jack Gold’s
Hiam Abbass as Salma and Ali Suliman as Ziad in Eran Riklis’ “Lemon Tree.”
LEMON TREE
Directed by Eran Riklis
In Arabic and Hebrew,
with English subtitles
IFC Films
Opens Apr. 17
Lincoln Plaza,
1886 Broadway at W. 63rd St.
lincolnplazacinema.com
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave.
at Waverly Pl.
ifccenter.com
lives in the West Bank, where
she tends a large grove of lemon
trees. Her house rests on the
border of Israel and the occu-
pied territory. The Israeli min-
ister of defense (Doron Tavory)
moves next to her. For secu-
rity reasons, he wants to con-
fiscate her land and tear down
the lemon trees. Outraged, she
hires Ziad (Ali Suliman), a young
Palestinian lawyer, and takes
the case to the Israeli Supreme
Court. Meanwhile, the min-
ister’s wife, Mira (Rona Lipaz-
Michael), becomes intrigued by
her neighbor and sympathetic
to her plight. Eventually, the
superbly inventive “Naked Civil
Servant.” It starts off zippily
enough, blending Crispisms with
biographical drama, but Richard
Laxton — who was determined
not to do a sequel to “Servant”
— doesn’t come up with much of
a concept for this film of Crisp’s
controversial later life beyond
straightforward biopic.
dle-aged acquaintance chastises
her when she dares to let Ziad
stay overnight. The only wholly
unsympathetic character in
the film, the acquaintance may
as well be called “the voice of
patriarchy” in the credits. Cre-
ating an Arab heroine isn’t the
only leap of empathy made by
Riklis; he’s also a man depict-
ing a woman navigating her way
through a man’s world.
It would be easy to take the
story of “Lemon Tree” and make
a populist crowd-pleaser. Rik-
EITAN RIKLIS/ IFC FILMS
lis hasn’t done so, although he
flirts with it. At one point, Ziad
says, “Happy endings only hap-
pen in American movies.” If the
characters of “Lemon T ree”
could find justice or a resolu-
tion to their problems easily,
lemon tree skirmish becomes the dilemmas of the whole Mid-
an international cause celebre. dle East could be solved. Clear-
Sparks fly between Salma ly, they’re too complicated to be
and Ziad. There’s clearly a great solved with a rousing speech
deal of sexual tension between from a wise lawyer or judge.
them, leading to several “Lemon Tree” suggests that
impromptu kisses. All the same, an essential loneliness and
she respects the roles reserved alienation is one of the key
for women in Palestinian cul- products of the Israeli-Pales-
ture. Although not overtly reli- tinian conflict, as is a diaspora
gious, she usually wears a head
scarf when she goes out. She
only enters the all-male space
that sends children from both
cultures off to America. Salma’s
son Nasser works in Washing-
of the neighborhood café when ton, while the defense minis-
desperation strikes; as she ter’s daughter studies there. In
does, the hookah smoke clears interviews, Riklis insists that
as all eyes are focused on her. he hasn’t made a political film.
She hasn’t dated another man On the surface, this seems
since her husband’s death, but ludicrous until one realizes
her desires haven’t gone away. that an “apolitical” film allows
In a culture where the Onion’s for emotional responses that
headline “Actress dies of old aren’t supposed to be part of
age at 32” rings all too true, it’s formal political discussion. Has
refreshing to see a 45-year-old any politician ever criticized his
woman — one who looks her enemies for making his people
age, without plastic surgery or lonely? I don’t think so, but this
extreme dieting — as the object is the cost of war suggested by
of a younger man’s desire.
However, Salma ultimately
capitulates to the restrictions
“Lemon Tree.” A workable, bit-
tersweet compromise is the
best its characters can hope to
placed on her sexuality. A mid- achieve.
Hurt is game, but wasted on highlights that have now left
this treacly project. And Cynthia the London stage, such as Joe
Nixon, much as I love her, is Orton’s classic “Entertaining
wildly miscast as Penny Arcade, Mr. Sloane” and great Royal
who should have played herself. Shakespeare Company produc-
tion of “The Tempest” with out
For a peak at what’s com- gay Sir Antony Sher as a for-
ing up — including Helen Mir- midable Prospero, see the web
ren in “Phedre” and Jude Law version of this story at gayci-
in “Hamlet” — and several tynews.com.
16 - 29 APR 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 APR 27, from p.26
outstanding leadership in the LGBT
community and who themselves have
a strong capacity to “live out loud” will
be granted $2,500 college scholarships.
The Chelsea Art Museum, 556 W.
22nd St. at 11th Ave., 6-9 p.m. Tickets
begin at $85 at liveoutloud.info/gala.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
CABARET
SUN.MAY.3
G’day Mate
Emerging from the cabaret circuit
Down Under, Kim Smith, a 2009 Bistro
Award-winner MAC Award-nominee,
charts a dark and whimsical path
through the arrivals and departures
of a neo-Weimar musical misfit in his
award-winning cabaret, “Johnny Come
Lately.” Ji Young Lee accompanies
on piano. Karen Kohler produces and
directs. Don’t Tell Mama, 343 W. 46th
St., 3 p.m. The cover charge is $12, with
a two-drink minimum, cash only. Reser-
vations at 212-757-0788.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
MUSIC
MON.MAY.4
Songs of the 49th
Parallel
Queer North America’s torch & twang
sweetheart, k.d. lang, makes a special
one-night appearance on Staten Island,
at a venue just two blocks from the
Ferry Terminal. St. George Theatre,
35 Hyatt St., 7:30 p.m. Valet parking is
available for those traveling by car. Tick-
ets are $50-$85 at ticketmaster.com or
718-442-2900.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
MUSIC
TUE.MAY.5
Sunshine, Lollipops
& Rainbows
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Tena-
fly, New Jersey, out lesbian Lesley Gore
was discovered by music legend Quincy
Jones and recorded “It’s My Party” when
she was just 16 years old. In the years
that followed, she helped create the
soundtrack of the 1960s with more than
two dozen chart hits. The most commer-
cially successful solo artist of the Girl
䉴 MAY 5, continued on p.30
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30 16 – 29 APR 2009 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM

■ IN THE NOH

Kissed by Lenny & Rudy 14 DAYS

John Gruen’s fabulous life, Valentina’s fabulous clothes 14 NIGHTS
䉴 MAY 5, from p.28
BY DAVID NOH “Married very young, I had
a hell of a difficult life, even Group era, Gore paved the way for future

A
real Renaissance man,
John Gruen has been
a journalist, author,
celebrity interviewer, photogra-
pher, and most recently play-
wright, with his “Double Fea-
ture,” playing through April 19,
at the Medicine Show Theater.
His compelling recent book,
“Callas Kissed Me… and Lenny
Too!: A Critic’s Memoir,” is a
must read for anyone interested
in the arts, especially that heady
post-WWII time in New York.
I met him in his beautifully
Old World digs on the Upper
West Side, and he told me, “I’ve
been around for a long time,
though I had these so- called generations of independent female
grand jobs on the Tribune, writ- vocalists from Pat Benatar to Madonna
ing for Vogue. They paid very and Gwen Stefani. After years of suc-
little, which has not changed, cess as a platinum-selling pop singer,
but I was given the opportunity Gore attended Sarah Lawrence Col-
to meet all these fabulous peo- lege and eventually began writing her
ple. I was not one of those critics own music. She earned an Academy
who say, as many of them do, Award nomination for co-writing “Out
‘I’m not going to be their best Here On My Own” for the film “Fame.”
friend.’ When I met Bernstein or This week, she performs seven shows
Nureyev, I did want to be their at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency,
best friend and did something 540 Park Ave. at 61st St. May 5-7,
about it, kind of rash, but it’s 8:30 p.m.; May 8-9, 8 & 10:30 p.m.
a two-way street. Many celeb- All shows have a $60 cover, with $75
rities shied off, but these two premium seats and a $40 food/ bever-
megastars were kind of attract- age minimum. For reservations, visit
ed to me: I was very thin and feinsteinsatloewsregency.com or call
cute and interesting and had 212-339-4095.

PAINTED BY ALICE NEEL

a wonderful life in which I was
able to satisfy a lot of my needs
and longings. The reason for that
is that I’m a very lucky person
being married to [painter] Jane
Wilson in that she understood
that when she married a boy of
19, he was not fully formed, and
she understood that I had to go
out and learn some things and
experiment around. I did what
I had to do and she was there,
and no questions, which is the
best possible thing. ‘Guess what
I did last night?’ It doesn’t serve
any purpose except to hurt
people. I never called ours an
‘open marriage,’ don’t put labels
on it. I know I’m married and I
love Jane very much and she
adores me, I hope. When she
was young, she was unthink-
ably beautiful and still a won-
derful looking woman, and the
fact is we did lead something of
a magical life.”
Gruen had intimate friend-
ships with Rudolf Nureyev and
Leonard Bernstein, but in the
book his discretion comes into
an accent and was working for ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
a big newspaper. No matter how
big the star, they still want to be
written up, they still want to be
loved.
“I was given the great oppor- John Gruen, his wife Jane Wilson, and there daughter Julia in 1970. BENEFIT
TUE.MAY.12
tunity of writing about them, Cielo Latino
except they were not happy being owned by Jews!” about Miriam Hopkins?’ ‘No, The Latino Commission on AIDS,
when I did not praise them. Gruen pioneered the inter- I’m going to ask you about Joan which serves New York’s diverse His-
I would not compromise if I viewing of celebrities in a pub- Crawford!’” panic communities, hosts the nation’s
saw that Nureyev was danc- lic audience format, and one Gruen saw Vivien Leigh go largest Latino HIV fundraiser. The eve-
ing too much and not looking of his most memorable experi- mad on the stage while she ning, which includes a cocktail recep-
very good, which I’d tell him to ences was with Bette Davis: “I was appearing on Broadway in tion, silent auction, dinner, awards
his face. I wasn’t going to turn got drunk with her the first time “Tovarich”: “Her co-star, Jean- presentation, and dancing, will be
around and say that I saw the we met for an interview. She Pierre Aumont, came out on emceed by actor Wilmer Valderrama
greatest performance when gave me so much liquor, never this balcony set and we noticed and Dayana Mendoza, Miss Universe
he knows perfectly well that it stopped pouring Scotch at the something wasn’t quite right. 2008, and will include live entertain-
wasn’t, especially toward the Plaza. She was tremendously Vivien came out and brought ment by Latin Grammy Award-winning
end. He was furious and called funny but I had to go review a with her a whole sheaf of pri- guitarist Hernan Romero and Jorge Vil-
me all kinds of names, I was just concert that same night. She vate letters from her dressing lamizar, the former lead singer of the
a ‘cunt.’ And then, all the anti- said, ‘Come on in and sit down! room which she started to open Grammy Award-winning band Bacilos.
Semitic stuff about the press Whaddayawanna know? Oh, on stage. He had to cue her and Other guests include Rosie Perez, Lupi
shit! I’ve had such a day — so- cue her some more, and she Ontiveros, and Jaslene Gonzales from
and-so was so rude to me. Have suddenly realized what she was “America’s Next Top Model.” Honor-
some more to drink, come on!’ I doing and snapped out of it. ees include Dr. Angela Diaz, director
had to go to the concert at eight That was so sad. of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health
and had planned to eat some- “She was the most beauti- Center, and, posthumously, Pedro
thing, but I wasn’t going to leave ful woman in the world and Zamora. Cipriani’s Wall Street, 55
my lifelong crush. I said, ‘I really was still so beautiful when I Wall St., 6 p.m. cocktails, 7 p.m.
must go,’ and then called my interviewed her later. We talk- dinner. Tickets begin at $600 at lati-
MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK/ GIFT OF CHARLES BASKERVILLE

play: “It was interesting, but
what one does in bed more
or less is a very private to-do.
Sometimes it’s very beauti-
ful and sometimes not so, and
you have to consider the whole
gestalt of it. Not just what you’re
doing in that moment, but who
you and they are, what kind of
life, background, culture you
both have. All of life enters into
our actions and we have to
respond accordingly. We can’t
just barge into it, although
sometimes that’s nice, too. I had
to be discreet.
wife, who came to my rescue:
‘Jane, I’m so drunk! You gotta
come and listen to the concert
and tell me what’s going on’ —
and the good one came, and we
went to the concert.
“When I interviewed Bette at
the New School, oh my God! The
place was jammed, and after I
made my introduction about
how she taught me as a child
how to talk, move and certainly
smoke, she strode on and peo-
The designer Valentina, aka Mrs. George
Schlee, in 1938; oil on board by Charles Bask-
ple went mad. She said, ‘Now
you’re not going to ask me nasty
erville. questions, like what do I think
ed about her youth and Larry noaids.org.
[Olivier], the love of her life, and ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
how difficult it became between
them, so tempestuous and
imponderable. They couldn’t
manage it, but it was thrilling,
very honest. One of the things I
always tried for was to get them
to really talk with real questions,
not frou-frou. It’s a conversa-
tion and then they reveal them-
selves. Sometimes it’s easier to
unburden yourself to a stranger
than someone you know well, as gaycity
䉴 IN THE NOH, continued on p.31 news.com 䉴 JUMP, continued on p.30
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 16 – 29 APR 2009 31

䉴 IN THE NOH, from p.30 the American theater, Katharine Cornell,
as well as pieces from the private ward-
I’m sure you know.” robes of Katharine Hepburn and Garbo.
Gruen wrote the biography of Keith Valentina (1899-1989) was a Russian
Haring and was hired as a consultant on émigré who became the most celebrated
“Radiant Baby,” the musical the Public American couturiere of her day, due in
Theater made of it in 2003: “Our daugh- large part to her famous clientele — Lynn
ter, Julia, is the executive director of the Fontanne, Norma Shearer, Helen Hayes,
Keith Haring Foundation, but the guy Judith Anderson, Gladys Swarthout,
who wrote the book of the play was not Rosalind Russell. She and Garbo shared
good, missing some salient things. We much — similar elegantly angular looks,
long for them to finally part with them for
this purpose and also to hand the charge
of the book over to Kohle. Nobody else
in the world could do quite this type of
meticulous work on this topic. The mate-
rial was all there — it was just a matter
of disseminating and translating it from
Russian. This exhibit is an ancillary but
very important part of the topic because it
gives it dimension.
“I have difficulty declaring anyone as

COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF VALENTINA SCHLEE

had the great George C. Wolfe, a mar-
velous director, but he would not let me
say one word. He was unbearable and so
rude to me. I tried to be so nice, wanting
it to succeed. The end result was that he
kind of lost interest, didn’t listen to any-
thing I had to say. He couldn’t care less.
I felt like an idiot and was very angry,
too. I must say there was so much ener-
gy from the cast and all that wonderful
visual stuff with the paintings going back
and forth. It ran for a couple of months
and was supposed to be transferred to
Broadway, but Mr. Brantley in the Times
gave it a very bad review, so that was the
end of that. That was very painful, but
there have been a couple of school pro-
ductions of it.”
the same East 50s apartment building,
and a man, George Schlee, Valentina’s
husband and business partner, who
became Garbo’s most frequent escort
in life. A ménage à trois was rumored to
exist for years, but when Schlee died, the
women’s friendship did as well. Elevator
operators were instructed to never have
the two share a car, and they died a year
apart. I attended Valentina’s funeral, an
Valentina with her husband, George Schlee, in the mid- awesome Russian Orthodox affair, with
1940s; albumen silver print. incense and priests chanting a litany of
forgiveness for her sins, with the designer
ite designer, for the timeless, utterly clas- looking like a medieval sculpture, as she
sic look she perfected in the 1930s-40s, always did in life, in her open casket.
with its roots in sculptural draping and Kohle Yohannon has written a mes-
ethnic influences, as well as her dazzling merizingly detailed, sumptuously illus-
stage costumes, which inevitably received trated book, with the same title as the
critical plaudits at a time when costumes exhibition, and I was walked through it
the best, but Valentina was certainly the
most humanistic in terms of clothing that
is responsive to the body, worked attitu-
dinally as a part of the individual wearer.
You cannot be dominated by your clothes,
they have to be one with you, and with
Valentina, you first see the individual
walking in at a level of perfection and
then, in conversation, you might look at
the sleeve and what in the world is that
tuck that allows you to move your arms
that way.”
At the show’s opening, I met that other
champion of sartorial classicism, Mary
McFadden (Yohannon’s former wife), who
told me she knew Valentina: “I went to
their famous parties. I also knew Garbo,
when I worked for Christian Dior.” “Was
she beautiful? I asked. “No, not at the

D
on’t miss the exhibit “Valentina:
American Couture and the Cult
of Celebrity” at the Museum of
the City of New York (1220 Fifth Avenue
at West 103rd Street through May 17;
mcny.org). She is, hands-down, my favor-
were rarely even mentioned in reviews. by museum curator Phyllis Magidson, time, and all she wanted was men’s
You’ll see the magnificent toreador who told me, “These were all her own clothes.”
ensemble she devised for Rosa Ponselle’s archives. We acquired some material right
legendary Carmen, dresses for Lily Pons after she died, and then when the fam- Contact David Noh at Inthenoh@aol.
in “Coq d’Or” and Mary Martin in “Lute ily decided to do a book, it all stayed with com and check out his new blog at http://
Song,” a bunch of designs for first lady of them. That was in 1990 — it’s taken this nohway.wordpress.com.

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