Gay City
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 !
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
PROVINCES OF
MASCULINITY
P. 15
COMPAGNIE PHILIPPE SAIRE PRESENTS “LONESOME COWBOY” AT THE JOYCE THEATER IN CHELSEA JANUARY 6-9.
Past Violent Arrests by Officer
in Newark Cruising Killing
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
E
d w a r d E s p o s i t o , t he Essex
County Sheriff’s Office detective
who shot and killed an unarmed
DeFarra Gaymon in Newark’s Branch
Brook Park last July may have been
involved in at least three 2009 public sex
arrests that also turned violent.
Following the shooting, Garden State
Equality, New Jersey’s statewide gay
lobbying group, made an open records
request to the Sheriff’s Office seeking
documents related to alleged “sexual
conduct” in Essex County parks from
2005 to mid-2010.
The office released records on 167
arrests or investigations, with 148 of
those occurring in Branch Brook Park or
South Mountain Reservation, which is
located in West Orange, Maplewood, and
Millburn. Of the 148, 130 were arrests of
men who may have been cruising for sex
or, in some cases, were observed having
sex with other men.
While information that identifies
the defendants or undercover officers
was redacted, Esposito’s name was not
blacked out in a July 22, 2009 record. In
that case, Esposito arrested a 41-year-
old man for criminal sexual contact,
resisting arrest, and aggravated assault
on a police officer in South Mountain
Reservation.
© GAY CITY NEWS 2010 • COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TM
NEWS YOUR FREE
LGBTQ
NEWSPAPER
JANUARY 5-18, 2011
VOLUME TEN, ISSUE 1
■ HUMAN RIGHTS
Human Rights
Watch Scorches
Iran Over Anti-
Gay Violence
BY DOUG IRELAND
T
he Islamic Republic of Iran’s
vicious campaign to eradicate
homosexuality and render its
homosexuals invisible has received a
major blow with a new report from the
world’s most prestigious human rights
organization, Human Rights Watch
(HRW).
The 104-page report, entitled “‘We
Are a Buried Generation’: Discrimina-
tion and Violence against Sexual Minori-
ties in Iran,” was issued December 15
by HRW, which has its headquarters in
New York and operates on an annual
budget of some $45 million with a staff
of 275 working in 40 countries.
PHILIPPE SAIRE
The report, based on 125 interviews,
notes that Iran “bans same-sex conduct
regardless of whether it is consensual
in nature. The very real threat of pros-
ecution and the serious punishment
that awaits those convicted of same-sex
crimes constitute discrimination against
IRAN P. 6
In this issue:
According to the report, the man ■ PROP 8 PUNT, FOR NOW
walked up to Esposito and “reached out
US appeals court says state
with his right hand and pulled my penis
through my pants while he stated ‘nice.’” bench governs standing
This occurred without any conversation ■3
or prompting. The man pushed Esposi- —————————————————
to and fled when the detective identified
himself, according to the official account.
■ OBAMA’S GAY DAY
When caught, the man punched Esposi- Hundreds cheer as
to in the chest. president signs repeal law
On August 18, 2009, a 48-year-old ■4
man was charged with criminal sexual
—————————————————
contact, resisting arrest, and aggravat-
ed assault on a police officer in South ■ THE YEAR IN FILM
Mountain Reservation after he “began to Steve Erickson offers his
assessment of 2010’s top 10
NEWARK P. 8 ■ 16
2 5 – 18 JAN 2011 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM

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5 - 18 JAN 2011

Legal /3
Prop 8 Heads Back to Cal. Supremes
Ninth Circuit panel punts on question of Proponents’ standing to appeal
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD Debates about standing likely seem Reinhardt, one of the three panel mem- conducted in English — passed by vot-
arcane to most people interested in the bers, explained why he had denied a ers over the opposition of leading state

T
he 9th US Circuit Court panel
considering the appeal of last
year’s ruling by now-retired Dis-
trict Judge Vaughn Walker that struck
down California Proposition 8 on the
grounds that it violates the US Consti-
tution’s 14th Amendment issued two
rulings on January 4 regarding critical
issues of standing.
In one ruling, the court referred a
question to the California Supreme
Court as to whether the Official Propo-
nents of the successful 2008 voter initia-
tive have the particularized interest nec-
essary to give them standing to appeal
Walker’s ruling or, alternatively, state
law authority to represent California in
defending a constitutional provision they
proposed and voters accepted.
In its other ruling, the panel concluded
that neither Imperial County, its Board
of Supervisors, nor its deputy clerk have
standing to appeal. That ruling affirmed
Walker’s decision at the trial stage to
deny Imperial’s motion to intervene.
outcome of this vital litigation, but in fact motion by the appellants that he recuse officials, who then refused to defend it
the issues involved are crucial. The panel himself from the case due to his wife’s in the courts — the US Supreme Court
noted that if the Proponents do not have role as the executive director of the observed that state ballot initiative pro-
standing, the effort to appeal Walker’s American Civil Liberties Union of South- ponents do not enjoy such standing in
ruling is at an end. None of the named ern California. the absence of authorization under state
law or what is known as a particular-
ized interest as individuals that would be
affected by the outcome of a lawsuit.
“It is not clear whether the governor The 9th Circuit panel pointed out the
may achieve through a refusal to thorny issue raised by this legal ques-
tion: If an initiative is passed over the
litigate what he may not do directly: opposition of state officials and then
challenged successfully in federal court,
effectively veto the initiative.” those officials would have an effective
veto over the ballot question’s passage
by refusing to appeal — unless its propo-
public officials in the case — the gover- The most pressing immediately before nents are allowed to step in.
nor, attorney general, and state officials the appeals panel is whether the Official Charles Cooper, arguing on behalf
charged with administering the marriage Proponents, who represent the Protect- of the Proponents before the panel last
laws — defended Prop 8 before Walker, Marriage.Com—Yes on 8 campaign that month, made that argument force-
and none has appealed his ruling. prevailed in the 2008 ballot fight, have fully. He also argued that the California
Both January 4 rulings were issued on standing to mount their appeal. In a Supreme Court had earlier answered the
behalf of the entire panel and not attrib- 1997 pronouncement in a lawsuit chal- question by allowing the Proponents to
uted to any single member. lenging an Arizona constitutional amend-
In a separate opinion, Judge Stephen ment requiring that all state business be 䉴 PROP 8, continued on p.27

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4/ Politics
A Last-Minute, Welcome Victory
Before an enthusiastic crowd of hundreds, Obama says DADT repeal “two centuries in the making”
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
“W
e are not a nation
that says, ‘Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell.’
We are a nation that says, ‘Out
of many, we are one.’”
Those words, coming toward
the end of President Barack
Obama’s remarks December
22 at the signing of legislation
to end a military policy adopted
in 1993 to ban open service by
gay men and lesbians, capped
his effort that morning to cast
repeal in the broad tradition of
American pluralism and the
growing recognition that civil
rights are for everyone.
“Valor and sacrifice,” he said,
“are no more limited by sexual
orientation than they are by
race or by gender or by religion
or by creed.”
The president appeared before
an exuberant, at times even rau-
cous crowd of hundreds in the
Sidney R. Yates Auditorium at
the US Department of Interior in
Washington.
As Vice President Joe Biden
introduced Obama, the audi-
ence, many of them gay and
lesbian and a good percentage
former members of the military,
stood and began a steady chant
of “Yes, we can. Yes, we can.”
The president opened with a
story about a World War II sol-
dier, Lloyd Corwin, who tumbled
“Their service has been obscured
in history. It’s been lost to
prejudices that have waned.”
40 feet into any icy ravine during
the Battle of the Bulge. Corwin
would likely have died there had
fellow soldier Andy Lee not risked
his own life during the height of
the battle to work his way down
into the ravine to save Corwin.
Forty years later, the two men
met again, and Lee told Corwin
something he had never known
–– that Lee was gay.
“And he didn’t much care,”
Obama said of Corwin’s reaction.
“Lloyd knew what mattered. He
knew what had kept him alive;
what made it possible for him
In remarks at the signing ceremony, President Barack Obama spoke of integrity, valor, and the “obscured” history of gay contributions to the Ameri-
can military.
to come home and start a family
and live the rest of his life. It was
his friend.”
Corwin’s son was in the audi-
ence for the signing.
The president looked back into
history even further, saying he
was certain that there were gay
soldiers in the Revolutionary War
Army and that for more than 200
years, “at every turn, every cross-
roads in our past, we know gay
Americans fought just as hard,
gave just as much to protect this
nation and the ideals for which it
stands.”
“There will never be a full
accounting” of those contribu-
tions, Obama said. “Their ser-
vice has been obscured in his-
tory. It’s been lost to prejudices
that have waned in our own life-
times.”
His signing of repeal legisla-
tion at the end of 2010, he said,
was “two centuries in the mak-
ing.”
Thanking the former service
members in the auditorium,
many of whom lost their careers
due to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the
president added, “None of them
should have to sacrifice their
integrity as well.”
Obama praised Defense Sec-
retary Robert Gates and Admi-
ral Michael Mullen, the chair
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for
their role in steering military
leadership toward support for
repeal. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was
a topic raised in his first meeting
as president with Gates, Mullen,
and the Joint Chiefs, he said.
The consensus achieved
among military leaders, the
president argued, vindicated the
deliberate pace the administra-
tion took toward changing the
policy, an approach that includ-
ed a nine-month special Pen-
tagon study that concluded on
November 30 –– and specifically
eschewed calls for him to end
DADT through executive order.
Less than ten days after Gen-
eral James Amos, the Marine
commandant, renewed his
criticism of moving forward on
repeal at this time –– in particu-
larly hyperbolic terms warning
of “distractions” that could land
service members in the Bethesda
Navy medical center with lost
limbs –– Obama assured skep-
5 - 18 JAN 2011
who was dogged in pushing the
House to move on repeal this
year. Murphy was defeated in his
November reelection bid.
On stage with Obama, Biden,
and congressional leaders were
two veterans who served despite
DADT.
Marine Staff Sergeant Eric
Alva was the first American ser-
vice member wounded in Iraq.
In March 2003, he stepped on a
landmine, breaking his arm and
damaging his leg so badly it had
to be amputated. He was award-
ed the Purple Heart and received
a medical discharge.
Navy Commander Zoe Dun-
ning came out at a political rally
outside of Moffett Field in Sunny-
vale, California in 1993 while a
Navy Reserves lieutenant. After a
PATSY LYNCH
two-and-a-half year legal battle,
she was allowed to remain in the
Reserves, where she was twice
promoted and awarded several
medals. When she retired in
2007, she was the longest serv-
tics of repeal, “I have spoken to ing openly lesbian or gay mem-
every one of the service chiefs ber of the US military in history.
and they are all committed to At the opening of the sign-
implementing this change swiftly ing ceremony, National Guard
and efficiently. We are not going Colonel Grethe Cammermeyer,
to be dragging our feet to get this a Vietnam veteran discharged in
done.” 1992 –– before DADT was imple-
The president also recognized mented –– after she disclosed she
the congressional leadership on was a lesbian, led the audience
hand for the signing. in the Pledge of Allegiance. Her
“I want to thank the Demo- 1994 book, “Serving in Silence,”
crats and Republicans who put later made into a film starring
conviction ahead of politics to get Glenn Close, was one of the first
this done together,” he said. On discussions of gays in the mili-
December 18, eight Republican tary to grab widespread public
senators joined 57 Democrats in attention.
voting for repeal, while earlier in Noting that in the future
the week 15 GOP representatives Americans will look back on the
voted with 235 Democrats in the DADT debate and ask, “Why was
House. it ever a controversy in the first
As individual members of place?,” Obama said he hoped
Congress were singled out, recently discharged gay and
Susan Collins –– a Maine Repub- lesbian service members will re-
lican who became cosponsor of enlist once the necessary plan-
the stand-alone repeal measure ning to formally end the policy is
immediately after the Senate complete.
refused, for the second time, to “As the first generation to serve
move forward on debating the openly in our Armed Forces, you
annual Pentagon funding bill will stand for all those who came
that included language ending before you, and you will serve
the policy –– was greeted with as role models to all who come
particular enthusiasm by the after,” the president said. “And
audience. I know that you will fulfill this
The biggest ovation, how- responsibility with integrity and
ever, went to Patrick Murphy, honor, just as you have every
a second-term Democratic rep- other mission with which you’ve
resentative from Pennsylvania been charged.”
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 5 – 18 JAN 2011 5

NEWS BRIEFS By PAUL SCHINDLER

Raunch Carrier
Commander Is
Out
Navy Captain Owen Honors has
been relieved of his command of
the USS Enterprise in the wake of
revelations that he produced and
showed crew members explicit
— many news outlets have used
the term “raunchy” — videos that
included profanity, simulated mas-
turbation, anti-gay slurs, and one
scene each of two women sailors
and two men sailors caught fon-
dling each other in a shower.
“While Captain Honors’ per-
formance as commanding officer
of the USS Enterprise has been
without incident, his profound
lack of good judgment and profes-
sionalism while previously serving
as executive officer on Enterprise
calls into question his character
and completely undermines his
credibility to serve effectively in
command,” Admiral John C. Har-
vey Jr., commander of US Fleet
Forces Command, said in a written
statement.
The videos, three of which
were posted on the website of the
Virginian-Pilot on New Year’s Day,
were produced in 2006 and 2007,
while the aircraft carrier was locat-
ed in the Middle East in support of
US military operations. CNN’s Bar-
bara Starr reported that Honors,
who was then second in command
as executive officer on the Enter-
prise, piped the videos through the
carrier’s broadcast system to the
crew of roughly 6,000 during what
was dubbed “XO Movie Night.”
Honors was recently promoted
to commander of the Enterprise,
considered a plum assignment in
a naval fleet that contains only 11
aircraft carriers.
The Navy’s initial response on
December 31 to Virginian-Pilot
reports of the videos exhibited a
surprisingly tone-deafness, a state-
ment insisting that they were “not
created with the intent to offend
anyone. The videos were intended
to be humorous skits focusing the
crew’s attention on specific issues
such as port visits, traffic safety,
water conservation, ship cleanli-
ness, etc.”
According to CNN’s Starr, that
statement was made prior to the
Navy’s review of the videos.
In a follow-up statement issued
on January 1, the Navy said, “Pro-
duction of videos, like the ones
produced four to five years ago
on USS Enterprise and now being
written about in the Virginian-Pilot,
were not acceptable then and
are still not acceptable in today’s
Navy. The Navy does not endorse
CAPTAIN OWEN HONORS EFFECTIVELY RELIEVED HIMSELF.
or condone these kinds of actions.
US Fleet Forces Command has
initiated an investigation into the
circumstances surrounding the
production of these videos; how-
ever, it would be inappropriate to
comment any further on the specif-
ics of the investigation.”
What remains unclear is
how videos that featured Honors
among its primary narrator-stars
was broadcast to so many sailors
could have escaped notice of more
senior officers. In fact, throughout
the videos Honors and his side-
kicks repeatedly riff on the claim
that neither “the captain nor the
admiral” knows anything about
them and therefore should not be
held accountable for their content
“in any judicial setting.”
If Honors’ superiors knew of
the videos, the Navy will have to
wrestle with the question of how
he won his promotion. Admiral Har-
vey has undertaken an investiga-
tion into that question, a probe that
is expected to examine whether
Rear Admiral Lawrence Rice, who
captained the ship in 2007, and
his superior officer, Rear Admiral
Raymond A. Spicer, who has since
retired, were aware of the videos.
In the opening of one of the
videos, a sailor sitting with Honors
warns a second sailor that “bleed-
ing hearts and you, fag boy,” are
likely to be offended by what will
be shown. He later says he wants
to turn to a topic “foreign to you,
gay boy — chicks.” In identical
scenes, Honors, in a bathrobe
and wearing a shower cap, hap-
pens upon two women and later
two men, massaging each others’
chests in a shower stall. In another
scene, a sailor is awoken by his
walkie-talkie as another sailor in
bed with him rolls over, throwing
his arm over him.
One particularly distasteful clip
shows a toilet desperately in need
of cleaning.
As news of the Enterprise
scandal emerged, Aubrey Sarvis,
an Army veteran who heads up the
Servicemembers Legal Defense
Network, a leader in the fight to
end the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell policy, issued a written state-
ment saying, “Captain Owen Hon-
ors was acting more like the presi-
dent of a frat house rather than the
executive officer of the USS Enter-
prise. We call upon the Navy to
investigate this matter thoroughly.
It is very important that the most
senior leadership make it abso-
lutely clear that this kind of bad
behavior and poor judgment is not
only unacceptable, but that there is
no place in the Navy for those who
engage in this sort of frat house
behavior in the workplace.”
Scalia Both an
Originalist and
an Original
“There He Goes Again,” is the
title of a January 5 editorial in
the New York Times, comment-
ing on assertions Supreme Court
Justice Antonin Scalia made this
week about the inapplicability of
the 14th Amendment to the rights
of women and gay and lesbian
Americans.
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Drawing on the concept of
originalism — a conservative legal
doctrine that holds that constitu-
tional meaning is locked in place
at the time of enactment — Scalia
told California Lawyer magazine
that the 14th Amendment, adopt-
ed in the years immediately after
the Civil War to extend federal
recognition to the rights of African-
Americans, cannot be applied to
civil rights claims made by women,
gays, and other groups in society
who suffer discrimination.
In an eye-opening response to
the magazine’s question about the
equal protection guarantees of the
14th Amendment, Scalia, the most
stridently outspoken conservative
on the high court, said, “You do
not need the Constitution to reflect
the wishes of the current society.
Certainly the Constitution does not
require discrimination on the basis
of sex. The only issue is whether it
prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever
thought that that’s what it meant.
Nobody ever voted for that.
“If the current society wants to
outlaw discrimination by sex, hey,
we have things called legislatures,
and they enact things called laws.
You don’t need a Constitution to
keep things up-to-date. All you
need is a legislature and a ballot
box. You don’t like the death pen-
alty anymore, that’s fine. You want
a right to abortion? There’s noth-
ing in the Constitution about that.
But that doesn’t mean you cannot
prohibit it. Persuade your fellow
citizens it’s a good idea and pass
a law. That’s what democracy is
all about. It’s not about nine super-
annuated judges who have been
there too long, imposing these
demands on society.”
In its editorial, the Times noted
that “a slew of [Supreme Court]
rulings since 1971, often with con-
servative justices in the majority”
took exception to Scalia’s narrow
view of the Constitution’s equal
protection guarantee. have, they are no limitation on the
The Washington Post noted current society at all,” he said.
that, in 1996, Scalia was the sole The justice is clearly uncomfort-
dissenter in a case that struck able with the lack of constraints on
down state funding of all-male society today.
education at Virginia Military Insti- “I occasionally watch movies
tute. He wrote, “The people may or television shows in which the
decide to change the one tradition, F-word is used constantly, not by
like the other, through democratic the criminal class but by suppos-
processes; but the assertion that edly elegant, well-educated, well-
either tradition has been uncon- to-do people,” he told the Califor-
stitutional through the centuries is nia Lawyer. “The society I move
not law, but politics smuggled into in doesn’t behave that way. Who
law.” imagines this? Maybe here in Cali-
Last fall, US District Judge fornia. I don’t know, you guys really
Vaughn Walker, in a ruling striking talk this way?”
down California’s Proposition 8, Even before the controversy
found that the voter amendment over his magazine interview has
violated the 14th Amendment crested, Scalia has become envel-
rights of gay and lesbian couples. oped in a second flap over his
In the California Lawyer inter- decision to speak before the Tea
view, Scalia betrayed not only a Party Caucus of the US House of
fidelity to rigid judicial originalism, Representatives on January 24.
but also a clear fear of what might The Los Angeles Times is reporting
ensue in its absence. that he has accepted an invitation
“If you give to those many pro- from ultra-conservative Republican
visions of the Constitution that are Representative Michele Bachman
necessarily broad — such as due of Minnesota to appear.
process of law, cruel and unusual Jonathan Turley, a law profes-
punishments, equal protection sor at George Washington Univer-
of the laws — if you give them sity, told the LA Times that Scalia
an evolving meaning so that they exercised “exceedingly poor judg-
have whatever meaning the cur-
rent society thinks they ought to 䉴 BRIEFS, continued on p.10
ANTONIN SCALIA — YOU BE THE JUDGE.
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6/ Human Rights
䉴 IRAN, from p.1
members of Iran’s LGBT minor-
ity whose consensual sexual
practices are criminalized under
any and all circumstances.
“For example, Iranian law
prohibits sodomy, defined to
include both consensual and
coerced sexual intercourse
between two men. The punish-
ment for same-sex intercourse
between two men (lavat) is death
and for sexual relations between
two women (mosaheqeh) is 100
lashes for the first three offens-
es and the death penalty for
the fourth. Evidence indicates
that the punishment has been
enforced — the threat of execu-
tion is real for Iran’s vulnerable
LGBT community.”
Iran is one of only seven
countries worldwide that retains
the death penalty for consen-
sual same-sex acts (the others
are Mauritania, Saudi Arabia,
Yemen, Sudan, and some parts
of Somalia and Nigeria).
Many supposedly gay-friend-
ly governments, like the UK and
Sweden, as well as some immi-
gration judges in the US, have
refused asylum demands from
queer Iranians on the grounds
that they would be in no danger
if they are “discreet” on being
returned to Iran. But the report
finds that danger of official per-
secution, including torture and
imprisonment, is so dire for
Iranian same-sexers that HRW
demands other governments”
prohibit refoulement [forcible
return] (actual or threatened) of
LGBT refugees or asylum seek-
ers to Iran based on the notion
that there is no systematic per-
secution of sexual minorities in
Iran, or that LGBT persons can
live comfortably in Iran as long
as they conceal their sexual ori-
entation or identity.”
The report finds that torture
and other forms of coercion are
regularly used by the govern-
ment to extract so-called “con-
fessions” — not only to sexual
crimes, but to other crimes as
well — from those suspected of
engaging in same-sex conduct.
The HRW report underscores
how “Iran’s sexual minorities
are also affected by criminal
laws that do not specifically
address same-sex conduct,
but are applied to individuals
who do not conform to socially
acceptable norms on gender
and morality. In fact, sexual
minorities targeted by security
This picture, from the 2005 Mashad hangings of Ayaz Marhoni, 18, and Mahmoud Asgari, who
was either 16 or 17, ignited a fierce battle over the persecution and murder of gay men in Iran.
forces in both public and pri-
vate spaces often face charges
related to offenses against pub-
lic morals or chastity instead of
sexual crimes.”Same-sexers are
“disproportionately” charged
with such crimes, according to
the report.
Morover, HRW “uncovered
evidence suggesting that pros-
ecutors will charge human
rights defenders working on
issues affecting sexual minori-
ties, or anyone seen by the
government as publicizing or
promoting LGBT culture, with
violating national security laws.
These crimes may include ‘pro-
paganda against the regime,’
‘disturbing the public order,”
‘participation in an illegal gath-
ering,’ and ‘propaganda against
the system.’ These individuals
may also be subject to two other
hadd crimes (crimes against
God): moharebeh , or ‘enmity
against God,’ and efsad-e fel arz,
or ‘sowing corruption on earth.’
Both these crimes are punish-
able by death.”
Publication of the HRW
report on persecution of Iranian
queers had been promised by
the organization’s former direc-
tor of LGBT affairs, Scott Long,
as long as four years ago, dur-
ing his five-year long campaign
of attacks on the UK’s iconic gay
and human rights activist, Peter
Tatchell, who had spearheaded
global protests against the 2005
execution of two presumably
gay Iranian teenagers on con-
cocted charges of “rape.”
But in July of last year, HRW
ISNA
made a stunning public apology
to Tatchell for attacks heaped on
him by Long, mostly over Iran.
Long made numerous public
statements about Tatchell that
were “inappropriate... dispar-
aging... inaccurate... condem-
natory... intemperate personal
attacks,” HRW acknowledged.
The HRW apology included an
admission from Long that he’d
made false statements about
Iran is one of only seven
countries worldwide that
retains the death penalty for
consensual same-sex acts.
Tatchell, and shortly after it was
issued Long resigned from HRW.
(For a full account of this epi-
sode, see this reporter’s July 14,
2010 article, “An Overdue Apol-
ogy,” a link to which appears in
the online version of this story
at gaycitynews.com).
Now, Tatchell has hailed
HRW for its new report on Iran.
He told Gay City News by email
that he considered it “a vindica-
tion of Iranian LGBT campaign-
ers, and all of us around the
world, who have criticised the
frequent unfair trials of Iranians
accused of sodomy. It also cor-
roborates our anxiety that some
people executed for homosexu-
ality may not have been gay and
that some of those executed for
rape may have been engaged in
consenting same-sex relations.”
Indeed the new HRW report
specifically states, “Because tri-
als on moral charges in Iran are
usually held in camera” — that
is, outside of the public eye —
it is difficult to determine what
proportion of those charged and
executed for same-sex conduct
are LGBT and in what propor-
tion the alleged offense was con-
sensual. Because of the lack of
transparency, Human Rights
Watch said, it cannot be ruled
out that Iran is sentencing sex-
ual minorities who engage in
consensual same-sex relations
to death under the guise that
they have committed forcible
sodomy or rape.
The report also documents
“serious abuses, including due-
process violations that occurred
during the prosecution of sexual
minorities charged with crimes.
Those charged with engaging in
consensual same-sex offenses
stand little chance of receiving
a fair trial. Judges ignore penal
code evidentiary guidelines in
sodomy cases and often rely
instead on confessions extract-
ed through physical torture and
extreme psychological pres-
sure.”
Referring back to the position
he consistently took in his long-
running battle with Long, Tatch-
ell said, “According to HRW, our
doubts and skepticism are justi-
fied. The report offers an implicit
rebuke to apologists for the Teh-
ran dictatorship who uncriti-
cally accepted official Iranian
court and media reports that
young men executed for sodomy
were invariably kidnappers and
rapists. It offers strong evidence
of the widespread, systematic
persecution of LGBT Iranians.
Congratulations to HRW for
this comprehensive, ground-
breaking research in defense of
our LGBT brothers and sisters
in Iran.”
Others, while also welcoming
the report, offered criticism of
its carefully modulated tone and
of certain omissions.
Dan Littauer, executive edi-
5 - 18 JAN 2011
tor of the London-based grass-
roots media and advocacy site
GayMiddleEast.com, which
has correspondents in most
Arab and Middle Eastern coun-
tries, told Gay City News, “The
HRW report is welcomed, much
needed, and ground-breaking.
It is unprecedented in its scope
and importance, highlighting
the plight of LGBT Iranians. It
explored well the social and legal
situation for LGBT Iranians.”
However, Littauer added,
“Much more attention should
have been paid to the immense
amount of the so-called honor
killings of LGBT Iranians, an
issue that was hardly covered
by the report. From our sourc-
es, it seems that the majority
of abuse, harm, and death is
derived from such practices,
while the state-sanctioned vio-
lence is only the tip of the ice-
berg.”
Explaining the context out of
which such murders arise, Lit-
tauer said, “Even if no honor
killings occur, many LGBT peo-
ple remain virtually imprisoned
by their families. Even if they
manage to leave their family
and live independently (usually
only gay men have that option),
they always are under threat of
being discovered and need to
hide, lie, and be constantly on
their guard. In order to escape
such difficulties, some gay men
marry women and lead a diffi-
cult life ridden with guilt, which
also leads many to suicide.
“For lesbians the situation
is even more complicated, as
they are completely forced to be
dependent on male authority, be
it of their father or forced-choice
husband. Many LGBT people in
Iran are thus killed by their own
families or driven to suicide; life
remains intolerable for those
who try and survive.”
Finally, Littauer questioned
the language HRW employed in
its reporting on sex-reassign-
ment surgery, which he said is
forced on some gay men and
lesbians to avoid persecution.
“The gender reassignment
operations ‘offered’ by the Irani-
an authorities may be a choice
to some who genuinely want
gender reassignment, but to
most this is a horrible choice —
either one undergoes the opera-
tion (against his/ her will) or
face state violence or attempt
at exile,” Littauer said. “Such a
䉴 IRAN, continued on p.7
5 - 18 JAN 2011

䉴 IRAN, from p.6
choice is no ‘choice’ at all — rather it is
a mere extension of the violent hetero-
sexist ideology of forcing sexual orien-
tation into the binary advocated by Ira-
nian authorities’ rigid version of Shari’a
law.”
Or, as the title of a documentary by
France 2 public television on Iranians
forced into sex-change surgery put it,
“Change Sex or Die.”
Human Rights /7
more difficult to research and docu-
ment.”
Noted Iranian scholar-in-exile Pro-
fessor Janet Afary, a former president
of the International Society of Iranian
Scholars who teaches Iranian his-
tory and gender studies at the Univer-
sity of California, Santa Barbara, also
acknowledged the overly cautious tone
of the HRW report. Afary — whose most
recent book, the 2007 “Sexual Politics in
Modern Iran” (see this reporter’s Febru-

Many LGBT people in Iran are killed by

their own families or driven to suicide.

Littauer also underscored how “fur-
ther research and documentation is
also urgently needed on how the Basiji
[the parapolice which enforce moral-
ity laws and operate under the orders
of the state security apparatus] and
Sepha [Iran’s Revolutionary Guard
Corps, which has direct ties to Iran’s
Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khame-
nei] entrap, blackmail, sexually molest,
and exploit Iran’s sexual minorities. In
effect, the Iranian state is now making
citizens and militias be the hand of law
and do its dirty work, and this is much
ary 20, 2009 review, “Iran’s Hidden His-
tory,” linked online at gaycitynews.com)
documents the 1,000-year recorded his-
tory of homosexuality in that country —
told Gay City News that the HRW report
“reminded me of an academic paper,
with a lot of qualifiers.”
But, Afary noted, “all in all, for an
official published document, it’s still
one of the best I’ve seen.” She said
the HRW report “will have an impact
on diaspora Iranians,” among whom
homophobia is nearly as widespread as
it is in Iran, even among the educated.
The Human Rights Watch report is a stinging indictment of the repression and attempted eradication of the Iranian LGBT
community under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“There have been half a dozen new
books on human rights in Iran, and not
one even mentions persecution of gays
or gay rights. We need more reports
like HRW’s and need to publicize them
among diaspora Iranians,” Afary said.
The complete text of the HRW report
“‘We Are a Buried Generation’: Discrimi-
nation and Violence against Sexual
Minorities in Iran,” is available online
at hrw.org/en/node/94977/section/1.
The website Gay Middle East is at
gaymiddleeast.com. Doug Ireland can
be reached through his blog, DIRELAND,
at http://direland.typepad.com/.

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8/ Civil Rights
䉴 NEWARK, from p.1
rub his penis through his pants
with his right hand while he sat
on a log and groaned,” without
prompting, in front of an under-
cover officer. At his arrest, that
man allegedly fought with police
and was sprayed in the eyes
with pepper spray.
The following day, August 19,
also in South Mountain Reser-
vation, a 39-year-old man faced
the same charges as well as
obstruction after he “walked up
from behind me and pinched my
left buttocks and then reached
around and grabbed my geni-
tals and penis while he made
a groaning sound,” the report
said. No conversation preceded
that action. He fled when the
undercover announced himself
and then allegedly fought with
police. He was sprayed “in the
face” with pepper spray.
While names were redact-
ed in the August 18 and 19
reports, a portion of the text is
identical to that in the July 22
report. Other reports that were
written at about the same time
used different text, suggesting
that individual officers have
their own standard report lan-
guage.
The signatures in the three
reports are only partially
obscured and are similar to
each other. Additionally, the
signatures are similar to Espos-
ito’s signature on the 2009
mortgage for his New Jersey
home.
Gay City News found anoth-
er 16 reports from 2009 and
2010 that matched the July 22
report text and signature. Resist-
ing arrest was charged in two of
those cases, along with criminal
sexual contact.
The reports may accurately
portray the three arrests. Two
of the three men listed “wife” as
their “nearest relative” in docu-
ments, so if they fought, they
may have done so to avoid mak-
ing explanations about the arrest
to a spouse. One listed Hondu-
ras as his place of birth while
another listed Colombia. Assum-
ing those two fought, it may have
been to avoid immigration issues
that could result from an arrest.
In fact, one of those two men was
deported following his arrest.
Gaymon, 48, was married with
four children, the chief executive
of an Atlanta bank, and in New-
ark to attend his high school
reunion. According to a state-
Incident reports and partially obscured officer signatures from July and August 2009 and
(at bottom) Detective Edward Esposito’s signature on a March 2009 mortgage document.
ment from the Essex County
prosecutor, Esposito was search-
ing for his handcuffs when Gay-
mon, who “was engaged in a sex
act at the time,” approached him.
Gaymon fled when Esposito tried
to arrest him. After the chase,
Esposito stated, Gaymon threat-
ened to kill him and lunged for
him. Esposito then shot Gay-
mon.
The circumstances described
in these arrest reports are sus-
pect. A persistent theme in the
130 reports is that plainclothes
officers were walking through
a park when a man, without
any prompting, exposed himself
or grabbed the officer’s crotch.
Those reports do not include
complaints from citizens claim-
ing they encountered such
unwanted attention. To believe
the reports, one would have to
accept that nearly every time a
man exposed himself or groped
another male in these two parks,
that man just happened to do it
in front of or to a police officer.
That is unlikely at best.
The likely explanation is that
plainclothes officers, such as
Esposito, were inviting men to
expose themselves or touch the
officers, and then arresting the
men when they did. That trick,
which would make the exposure
or groping legal under New Jer-
sey law, might make the men
angry enough to fight back.
5 - 18 JAN 2011
Alternatively, they might believe
that a man who seconds earlier
had urged them to engage in an
intimate act was not a police offi-
cer, but rather an individual who
posed a threat of violence.
There is a darker explana-
tion, and that is that Esposito
is a police officer with a propen-
sity for violence who harbors
and acts on anti-gay views. It is
possible that after fighting with
at least three other men rough-
ly one year earlier, he had had
enough and shot Gaymon.
In an email, the Essex County
prosecutor wrote, “We cannot
comment specifically on the
case involving Mr. Gaymon. It is
still under investigation and will
soon be presented to the grand
jury. As far as the cases you ref-
erence, all three were presented
to a grand jury. All three men
were indicted by a grand jury.
In two of the cases, the defen-
dants admitted assaulting the
officer and were allowed to enter
Pretrial Intervention, a program
where the charges are dropped
if the defendant meets certain
requirements. In the third case,
the indictment was dismissed
because the defendant was
deported.”
That office would not confirm
Esposito’s role in these arrests.
Steven Goldstein, chair of
Garden State Equality, said the
2009 arrests called for more
scrutiny of Esposito.
“These violent arrests certain-
ly raise the question of whether
Officer Esposito was the pro-
foundly decent police officer
that authorities said he was,
and the people of Essex County
are entitled to know more about
his history through objective
eyes,” Goldstein said. “These
three arrests should certainly
be examined in the context of
whether Officer Esposito acted
appropriately in Mr. Gaymon’s
death.”
William K. Dobbs, an attor-
ney and longtime gay activist,
agreed.
“It’s crucial to have really thor-
ough investigation because there
is only one account so far of this
incident which ended in a kill-
ing,” Dobbs said. “One hopes
that those doing the investigation
look very carefully at everything
including Esposito’s record.
These previous arrests should
be scrutinized very closely in
trying to answer the question
how did DeFarra Gaymon walk
into a park and end up dead.”
5 - 18 JAN 2011
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
THU.JAN.6 T
GALLERY
The Bronx is Up and
the Battery’s Down
Environmentalist, artist, and author
Michael DeJong hosts the opening
reception of his new photography show,
“Manhattan: River to River.” George
Billis Gallery, 521 W. 26th St., B1,
Jan. 6, 6-8 p.m. Exhibit runs Tue.-Sat.,
10 a.m.- 6 p.m., through Feb. 5. More
information at georgebillis.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ church reverberated with the
PERFORMANCE
Well Under the
Radar
The Under The Radar Festival 2011,
produced by the Public Theater and pre-
sented at Dixon Place, includes three per-
formance pieces. In “Lost Lounge,” Peggy
Shaw and Lois Weaver offer a tribute to
last holdouts — both the people and the
places people gather to face or fend off
encroaching cultural extinction. Recreating
their favorite lounge acts like Louis Prima
and Keely Smith, Mike Nichols and Elaine
May, Shaw and Weaver rescue some old
haunts of the newly gentrified Bowery Cor-
ridor and resurrect some old entertainers
who, except for an occasional outing on
YouTube, might otherwise fade into a black
and white memory. (Jan. 8 & 15, 11 p.m.;
Jan. 9 & 16, 2 p.m.). In “Your Brother.
Remember?,” Zachary Oberzan splices
and dices home videos, Hollywood film
footage, and live performance to recall his
days as a kid in Maine with older brother
Gator loved making parodies of films, most
notably Jean-Claude Van Damme’s “Kick-
boxer” and the notorious cult film “Faces
of Death.” (Jan. 6 & 15, 7:30 p.m.; Jan
7-10 & 13-14, 9 p.m.; Jan. 16, 4:30 p.m.)
In “Vice Versa,” John Bull is a decent guy
and rugbyman who suddenly discovers a
strange looking gash growing behind his
knee. Seeking help from his doctor Alan
Margoulis and his charming secretary,
Bull enters an absurd and sensual journey
with his strange new appendage. Freely
adapted from Cock and Bull by Will Self,
the enfant terrible of British literature,
“Vice Versa,” which features Sophie Cat-
tani, Antoine Oppenheim, and François
Sabourin, is a surreal and comedic look at
the confusions of the sexes, its ambiguities
and pitfalls. (Jan. 6, 5 p.m.; Jan. 7-10 &
13-14, 7 p.m.; Jan. 15, 4 p.m.) Dixon
Place is at 161A Christie Pl., btwn.
Rivington & Delancey Sts. Tickets for
all shows are $15 at undertheradar.org.
䉴 JAN 6, continued on p.12
Ending Violence Against Queer and Transgender Sex Workers
o mourn the victims of
murder, incarceration,
and intimate partner vio-
lence in their midst, this past
December 17, sex workers, cli-
ents, and allies filled New York
City’s Metropolitan Community
Church and marked the Inter-
national Day to End Violence
Against Sex Workers. The Day
was honored by more than 27
cities this year, from Nairobi to
Hong Kong. Here in New York,
the high-ceiling room of the
names of the dead.
The list of the dead grows
yearly. In 2008, Duanna John-
son, a transgender female,
was beaten by Memphis police
while she was in custody. Once
released, three men shot her to
death as she worked a street
corner. In 2009, Jorge Steven
López Mercado of Puerto Rico
was dismembered and decapi-
tated after being picked during
a stroll in an area known to be
frequented by transgender sex
workers. This July, the alleged
murderer of Paulina Ibarra
was finally taken into custody.
The walls of Ibarra’s apart-
ment were said to be drenched
in blood as a result of multiple
stab wounds.
The names are familiar to us
all, but Johnson, López Mer-
cado, and Ibarra are only a
handful of the scores of queer
and transgender sex workers
— or those thought to be sex
workers — killed in the past
few years. The three share a
great deal besides the brutality
of their murders. They share
facts that situate their killings
in a pattern of who gets killed
in America, and for what. They
were gender non-conforming or
perceived as such. They were
people of color, and, whether
by choice or circumstance,
they traded sex for money or
found themselves in a place
where people go looking for sex
workers.
On the Day to End Vio-
lence, our thoughts naturally
gravitate to serial killings, and
rightly so. This violence is not
new to the queer and transgen-
der community. Who among
us could forget Jeffrey Dah-
mer? The majority of Dahmer’s
‘No Humans Involved’:
BY WILL ROCKWELL
victims were hustlers lured by
promises of cash in exchange
for nude photographs. One of
the 17 boys killed was named
Jeremiah. He had a hole drilled
through his skull so that
hydrochloric acid and boiling
water could be injected with a
syringe.
The gruesome nature of
Dahmer’s crimes is perhaps
unprecedented, but Dahmer
is no exception. The world
has committed to memory the
name of John Wayne Gacy,
Jr., who strangled and buried
33 boys underneath his Chi-
cago home, many of them hus-
tlers. Likewise, the perpetrator
of the Atlanta Child Murders
murdered at least 28 boys, all
African-American. The thought
of these young people facing
death alone, in the cold arms
of heartless killers, should fill
every queer and transgender
person with the same rage
we wore proudly in the recent
headlines decrying the epidem-
ic of teen suicides.
Add to these lost boys the
scores of transgender women
who also traded sex, such as
Johnson and Ibarra, who were
targeted for cold-blooded mur-
der. Consider the many non-
trans women, whether straight
or queer, who slept with men
for money, and who are now
dead in riverbeds and high-
way ditches, strangled by Gary
Ridgway or fed to Robert Pick-
ton’s pigs.
The crimes are almost too
bloody to conceive, the names
too numerous. To cope, sex
workers started the Day to End
Violence, and on this day, we
break the names down to faces
and piece together the para-
phernalia of the trade — con-
dom wrappers, laced boots,
acrylic nails — into a story of
the last days of those lost. It is
in this way that we stand wit-
ness and gather the strength to
fight back.
In mourning those we have
lost to murder, we must also
remember those who remain.
The Day to End Violence is as
much about our own stories as
it is about those who have been
murdered. In my own case, I
was a male hustler for more
Perspective /9
than four years, and before
that I traded sex informally for
food, shelter, and security. I
left home at 15 to escape abuse
and managed to take part in
several causes championed
by the “gay movement” — like
HIV treatment access and end-
ing queer homelessness. Yet, I
have never seen a “community”
effort to combat the criminal-
They share facts situating their
killings in a pattern of who gets
killed in America, and for what —
they were gender non-conforming,
they were people of color, and
they traded sex for money
or were thought to do so.
ization, police brutality, and
social benefits exclusion waged
against queer and transgender
sex workers.
The omission should not
be taken lightly. Long before
I was scraping my knees for
$50-per-blow-and-gos, there
have been queer and transgen-
der people who traded sex. It
was sex workers who threw the
first heels at the police outside
Stonewall. We have been denied
the same jobs and social ben-
efits, hounded by the same vice
squad, locked up in the same
prisons, and lain side-to-side
in the same hospital beds due
to lack of access to AIDS treat-
ment.
“No humans involved” is
what the police say to refer to
many sex workers, queer and
transgender folk, and people of
color alike. The enemy sees our
common cause, but why don’t
we? For many of us those iden-
tities come together entirely.
It is on these bases that queer
and transgender people must
recognize a common cause in
decriminalizing “prostitution.”
With decriminalization, sex
workers may report crimes to
the police, qualify for benefits
and healthcare, and improve
the conditions of our work.
The thought has its corol-
lary in the observation that
violence against sex workers is
also institutional. Politicians
push quality-of-life policing and
close our workplaces, resulting
in fines and incarceration for
minor conduct. The police use
vague and far-reaching laws to
harass us and cycle us through
the system. Killers lurk in
the dark, taking advantage of
our isolation. And the media
greases its distribution with the
yearly bloodlettings of “’Jack
the Ripper’” headlines, where
“Hooker Murdered!” is just a
placeholder, signifying nothing.
We are not considered moth-
ers, sons, brothers, cousins, or
even neighbors to the public,
just bodies to be murdered and
moved, whether to prison or as
dismembered body parts in the
trunk of a car.
We gather on the Day to End
Violence to protest precisely
this dehumanization.
Like other queer and trans-
gender people, we are casti-
gated for our “lifestyle choices,”
but while many of us choose
this work fully, the fact is that
as a result of racial and sexu-
al occupational discrimina-
tion, lack of a living wage or
affordable housing options,
homophobia, and transphobia,
many of us have been driven
into the limited choice of sex
work. The only lifeline for many
is to trick. Studies show that it
is precisely this lack of alterna-
tives and isolation that fuels
vulnerability to violence, and
this isolation, from our families,
friends, and intimate partners,
is the product of stigma.
In a recent Daily News piece,
incarcerated Long Island serial
䉴 ENDING VIOLENCE, continued on p.26
 5 - 18 JAN 2011

10/ Perspective
■ LETTER TO THE EDITOR
PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER er-in-law. December 10, 2010 to challenging him, Onora-
JOHN W. SUTTER A GAY MAN’S SAD He was so happy to have To the Editor: to opted for retirement, an
JWSutter@communitymediallc.com DEPARTURE finished his course, he gave a Regarding your article announcement he made just
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER speech about how happy he “GOP Wins State Senate a month after his vote on
TROY MASTERS
troy@gaycitynews.com
January 3, 2011 was and about how he liked Bragging Rights” (by Paul marriage.
To the Editor: the instructors and how we had Schindler, Dec. 8-21), this In future articles on this
EDITOR IN-CHIEF & CO-FOUNDER
PAUL SCHINDLER
Regarding “A Rude Shock at taught him other things, bits piece, as well as several oth- topic, it would be gr eat if
editor@gaycitynews.com Christmas” (by Paul Schindler, and pieces about the industry. ers I’ve read in the past, did Onorato was included among
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dec. 22-Jan. 4), the news hit There were several salons that not include the full story of those senators who are no
Duncan Osborne me as not only rude but also were needing assistants, and state senators who lost their longer in office due to their
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS shocking. The Peruvian man we kept on giving him the leads seats due to their no vote on no on marriage vote.
Christopher Byrne (Theater), Susie Day, that has been deported was a and numbers, but never once marriage. Hiram Monserrate Kristen Plylar-Moore
Doug Ireland (International), Brian McCormick pupil of mine at Carsten-Aveda did he state there was a bit of a and Frank Padavan were not Western Queens for Marriage
(Dance), Dean P. Wrzeszcz
Institute, where I teach cos- dilemma. the only Queens senators Equality
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Betsy Andrews, Seth J. Bookey,
metology. That is where I met We had not heard from Jair, who lost their seat. George
Anthony M.Brown, Kelly Jean Cogswell, Jair Izquierdo, who was one of and that was somewhat strange, Onorato did, too.
Dean Daderko, Tate Dougherty, Andres Duque, my most talented and smart, but we figured he would get It’s true that he did not
Michael Ehrhardt, Steve Erickson, Nick Feitel,
Jim Fouratt, Joe Fyfe, Deborah Garwood, witty students. He was always back to us. But to my amaze- seek reelection and was WRITE US!
Erasmo Guerra, Emily Harney, Andrey Henkin, requested, he has such talent. ment, there he was in Gay City therefore not “officially” Address letters to the editor,
Frank Holiday, Andy Humm, James Jorden, Brendan And he would always throw in a News with the saddest news of defeated by a more progres- of no more than 250 words, to:
Keane, David Kennerley, Gary M. Kramer, Arthur S.
Leonard, Rachael Liberman, free consult about the make-up, the year. When I took the paper sive candidate. But make no Editor@gaycitynews.com;
Michael T. Luongo, Lawrence D. Mass, for this was his forte. in to the rest of the instructors, mistake — Onorato chose Or fax them to 646-452-
Winnie McCroy, Eileen McDermott,
Gregory Montreuil, Ioannis Mookas, Carrie Moyer,
There are times that we get there was a silence in the room. not to run because he had a 2501;
Stephen Mueller, Christopher Murray, fashion shows, which need stu- They were all shocked. good chance of losing. After Or mail them to 145 Sixth
David Noh, Wayne Northcross, Lori Ortiz, dents to do the hair and make- I went to Mass yesterday and tremendous pressure from Ave., 1st fl., New York 10013.
Pauline Park, Sheila Pepe, John Reed,
Nathan Riley, Andrew Robinson, Gerard Robinson, up, and we would send Jair. offered it in Jair’s name. I hope activists for a year with large Please include your phone
Chris Schmidt, Sarah D. Schulman, He was with us for about six and wish for the best for him. rallies, numerous petitions, number, for confirmation pur-
Jason Victor Serinus, Linda Shapiro, months or a bit more. He fin- The lack of sensitivity that this flyering at train stations, poses only. The editors reserve
David Shengold, Gus Solomons Jr., David Spiher,
Drew B. Straub, Stefen Styrsky, Jerry Tallmer, ished his course, and we nor- gover nment has makes me protests outside of his office the right to edit all letters due to
Stefanos Tsigrimanis, Kathleen Warnock, mally have a graduation cer- ashamed to say I am American. for two straight weeks, and space constraints.
Benjamin Weinthal, Lee Ann Westover,
James Withers, Kai Wright, Susan Yung
emony. On that day, he brought Mr. B a viable candidate (Jeremi-
over his husband... and moth- Manhattan ah Frei-Pearson) committed
ART DIRECTOR
Mark Hasselberger
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Jamie Paakkonen 䉴 BRIEFS, from p.5 of bullying incidents and sui- “Right now there may be homeless LGBT youth and the was a flight risk.
cides involving gay and les- some of you out there who feel City Council chair on Youth Ser- In addition to his duties
SENIOR VP OF ADVERTISING/MARKETING
FRANCESCO REGINI ment” in agreeing to a gather- bian youth,” New York Mayor there’s no hope or that you’re vices, Brooklyn’s Lew Fidler, for as a pastor, the suspect was
francesco@gaycitynews.com ing that “suggests an alliance Michael Bloomberg has joined not wanted,” the mayor said. proposed mid-year budget cuts also a foster parent and a day
between the conservative mem- an ever-growing roster of pub- “New York City wants you. to shelter and drop-in center care provider, the newspaper
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
bers of the court and the conser- lic officials who have lent their New York has always been the services. Wrangling between reported.
COLIN GREGORY
colin@gaycitynews.com vative members of Congress.” voices to a YouTube campaign place where anyone can go and the Council and the mayor over The incidents under inves-
Even the chief ethics officer titled “It Gets Better.” be who they are supposed to those cuts is ongoing. tigation are alleged to have
ALLISON GREAKER
allison@gaycitynews.com in former President George W. The campaign was launched be regardless of ethnicity, reli- occurred between 2004 and
JASON SHERWOOD
Bush’s administration, Univer- this past fall at the behest of gion, gender, or sexual identity. Those Darned 2007. In 2008, Citrus Heights
jsherwood@gaycitynews.com sity of Minnesota law professor gay activist and sex advice col- We need you.” Heterosexuals, police investigated an initial
MICHAEL SLAGLE Richard Painter, gave Scalia a umnist Dan Savage, who was And then in a nod to the Part 417 complaint, but concluded they
michael@gaycitynews.com thumbs-down on the Bachmann responding to a sharp spike in possibilities of life outside The Sacramento Bee on had not found evidence suf-
JULIO TUMBACO gathering. reporting about suicides among the Big Apple unusual for any December 30 reported the ficient to make an arrest. A
julio@gaycitynews.com “I don’t think it is appropriate LGBT youth — which culmi- mayor of New York, Bloomberg arrest three weeks earlier of police spokesman said that
for justices to meet with mem- nated with a late September added, “And so do lots of other 48-year-old Tom Gene Dan- an additional witness against
Please call (212) 229-1890 for
advertising rates and availability. bers of Congress, particularly tragedy in which a gay Rutgers places around the country and iels, pastor of the Rio Linda Daniels came forward in recent
in this highly partisan environ- University freshman, Tyler Cle- the world.” Baptist Church in California, months.
BUSINESS MANAGER / CONTROLLER
VERA MUSA ment,” he said. “Michele Bach- menti, leapt to his death from “The struggle for equal- on one charge of lewd or The same year Daniels was
vera@gaycitynews.com mann wants the healthcare law the George Washington Bridge ity will always be ongoing,” lascivious acts with a child being investigated for child
NATIONAL DISPLAY ADVERTISING to be struck down by the courts. after his roommate allegedly Bloomberg said in concluding under 14 and a second charge molestation, he was a public
Rivendell Media / 212.242.6863 This is not about a particular streamed live video of him in a his minute-six seconds video. of multiple sexual assaults on supporter of the Proposition
Web master ethics rule, but rather about romantic encounter with anoth- “But we’ve come so far in the a child. 8 campaign, donating at least
Arturo Jimenez
Arturo@gaycitynews.com common sense. This creates er man in his dorm room. last 20 years. And the next 20? The Citrus Heights police $230 to ProtectMarriage.com,
Gay City News, The Newspaper Serving Gay and Lesbian NYC, is
the appearance of partiality and Since that time, high pro- They will be so much better. announced the December 9 the website of the group spear-
publishedby Community Media, LLC. Send all inquiries to: Gay City News, undermines the credibility of file leaders such as President You’ll see for yourself as long arrest last week, explaining heading that campaign.
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contents (c) 2010 Gay City News. Bachmann responded to the State Hillary Clinton have made life can be hard and painful. mation on the case pending of Daniels’ arrest, his church
fuss by saying that both Demo- “It Gets Better” videos, as have But life can also be wonderful. completion of its investigation. board is signaling its support
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All rights reserved.
Referring to a recent “string January 4. attack from advocates for on the argument that Daniels statement.
5 - 18 JAN 2011
■ SNIDE LINES
T
he moment President
Barack Obama signed
the repeal of Don’t Ask
Don’t Tell, this reporter flew to
the Persian Gulf to get the real
story. I asked several gay and
lesbian service people how they
got there, and what they feel
about their newly won rights.
PRIVATE CLYDE, AFGHANI-
STAN: First, I came out as a gay
man. Then I became a Marxist.
Then I joined the Proletarian
Demonstrationists Party. But I
noticed they hated gay people.
So I hooked up with the Revo-
lutionary Queer Dating Ser -
vice. Then I got into animal
rights. But all I really ever did
in any of those civilian groups
was to hang out with a bunch
of dysfunctional leftists and
never get any dates.
So then, I was reading
this article on Private Brad-
ley Manning being held in
solitary confinement because
they say he released all
these classified documents
about the Iraq and Afghani-
stan wars, along with a video
showing an Apache helicop-
ter attacking unarmed civil-
ians. I asked myself how the
Army was able to attract a kid
like Manning, who apparently
cares more about the truth
than his own well-being.
Then I realized this pivotal
thing: unlike the Left, the US
■ A DYKE ABROAD
T
he lead story in Le Monde
and El País on January 1
was the inauguration of
Dilma Rousseff as president of
Brazil. Apparently power can be
handed over in one of the big-
gest, most dynamic countries in
the world, with the new leader
remarkably a woman. Neverthe-
less, the New York Times has no
choice but to feature the latest
college bowl game.
That’s pretty much par for the
national course. I wonder about
this sometimes. All the time,
actually. How little vision there
seems to be. Since the outside
world intruded ten years ago on
September 11, and despite the
Asking, Telling, Enlisting
military really knows how to
recruit! It also dawned on me
that the countries that make
the most wars produce the
most liberated gay people.
Breakthrough!
So I enlisted in the Army
and started this cutting-edge
political movement: Homo-
Imperialism. Its acronym is
HI, which I feel is a friendly
and outgoing statement. And
with the repeal of Don’t Ask
Don’t Tell, it’s getting even
friendlier. No surprise, my
social life has never been bet-
ter.
I am over here to make
the world safe for gay lib.
You want one of our “Nuke
the Islamo-Homophobes”
T-shirts? A button? We Homo-
Imperialists feel that our lib-
erated example can make all
the difference to Third-World
queers. When our Afghan
brothers and sisters see us
all suited up with our flame-
throwers and rocket launch-
ers, spitting and peeing into
the sand like bona fide het-
erosexuals, they may begin to
see how empowering it is to
embrace a gay identity.
Right now, there are
approximately 94,000 U.S.
troops in Afghanistan. Let’s
assume that 10 percent of
these tr oops ar e gay. Our
group meets every Tuesday
night at 9:30 in my tent. If we
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
we seem to be more insular than
ever, less inclined to see how we
fit into the universe we’re grudg-
ingly part of. Like little children,
we squeeze our eyes shut and
persuade ourselves everything
else is gone.
For a moment, I considered
insisting we see the world using
some kind of mechanical meta-
phor with gears and cogs and
things representing different
countries, and inside the coun-
tries different classes and races,
the wheels within wheels, all
interconnected and driving each
other, but it seems too neat.
Too clear. Better imagery from
BY SUSIE DAY
work this movement right, I may
never be lonely again.
MAJOR BETTY, AFGHANI-
STAN: There I am, see? In this
photo, I’m in my combat gear,
popping out of the cockpit of my
Rockwell B-1 Lancer with my
ten-month-old daughter Amber
Jean in my arms. It was in our
hometown paper the day I left
for my tour of duty. Isn’t she
cute?
To tell you the truth, I’m not sure
why I’m here. Oil? Empire?
Falafel? You got me.
My ex-husband says I look
like one of them Ninja Turtles.
Screw him — not literally, a
course. You can’t be soft and
nurturing all the time. That’s
why I’m a lesbian. In fact, if
the US of A is going to bud-
get $119.4 billion to keep us
in Afghanistan for the year
2011, then I say screw soft
and nurturing, too.
LGBT movement-types
point to me when the anti-
war college kids criticize them
for encouraging gays to become
out-and-proud killing machines.
They say the Army is about the
only way gay people like me
from poor backgrounds can get
Queer Issues
BY KELLY JEAN COGSWELL
the natural world, where the
wind can carry pollen to fertilize
plants hundreds and thousands
of miles away. Or blow pollution
and acid rain. The best you can
do is watch the trends — and
batten down the hatches when
a storm roars in. Like now. With
the Birthers, Tea Partiers, and
simmering poor.
In this regard, us queers are
not much smarter than the rest
of the country. We shut our eyes
and define our issues as nar-
rowly and separately as possi-
ble. As if the question of homos
in the military, for instance, has
nothing whatsoever to do with
immigrant rights. We even miss
Perspective /11
an economic leg up. Right on!
I’m over here for Amber Jean, so
she can grow up free and demo-
cratic and have all the advan-
tages. Not like these kids here.
Did you know that in 2009,
1,050 Afghan kids died in sui-
cide attacks, roadside bombs,
air strikes, and various cross-
fire incidents? We’re here to
change that and make it more
like America, where you have a
God-given right to love your kids
and go to the mall to buy them
lots of useless crap without get-
ting shot.
Someday, I want to be able
to give my little Amber her first
iPhone. I want to see her grow
up with straight teeth and go
to a good school. But she can’t
do that with terrorists popping
out of the woodwork like we got
here.
So I figure if our military
spends $119.4 billion to stay
in this hellhole one more year,
and if hundreds of these kids
keep getting killed, pretty soon
those crazy Muslims are going
to wake up to the fact that
democracy is the only way to
the irony that the same legisla-
ture that overturned Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell on December 18 also
nixed the Dream Act that would
have allowed kids without
papers to take steps to become
citizens like enrolling in college
or joining the military.
There are tens of thousands
of Americans who were brought
to the US as children, have
grown up here, gone to school,
rotted their brains with TV and
the Internet, listened to our
music, spoken the language,
worn the same clothes as the
other kids in their school, and
yet have zero rights. Many didn’t
even realize they weren’t citizens
go. Then we can all afford to
be soft and nurturing.
PRIVATE FIRST-CLASS
WALTER, IRAQ: To tell you
the truth, I’m not sure why I’m
here. Oil? Empire? Falafel? You
got me.
Funny — there used to be so
much homophobic resistance
from the military brass about
putting us gays into the military.
Like they were worried that we’d
come on to the straight dudes in
the shower and fuck up the war.
But a lot of that attitude
changed once it became irrefut-
able that we were stuck in some
“quagmire” and had no chance
of winning anything, and how,
because of this disastrous war
effort, the US was crumbling,
socially, economically, politi-
cally.
Did anybody notice that was
when they repealed Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell?
So here we are, ever so gay, in
the Persian Gulf. Most danger-
ous place in the world. All you
can see for miles is queer troops
— nary a hetero in the bunch.
Yep, looks like the same folks
who repealed DADT wanted us
to show our gratitude by putting
our lives on the front lines...
Oh well. Small enough price
to pay for equality, I guess.
Whatever — as long as some-
body, somewhere, takes me
seriously.
until they’ve needed a birth cer-
tificate to apply for a passport
or driver’s license. They only
thought they were Americans.
That sudden excluding shock
is not so different, really, than
expecting to be able to go to the
prom, find an apartment, find
a job, get married like every-
one else, then having the door
slammed in your face because
your partner is the same gender
as you. You’re not really one of
us. Not a full citizen. Not even a
full adult, a full human.
The growing “us” and “them”
mentality should have the
䉴 QUEER ISSUES, continued on p.26

12/ Perspective
■ THE YEAR IN GAY
A Surprisingly Good 2010
T
he LGBT community cer-
tainly had its ups and
downs in 2010, but with
some surprising court victories
and a last-minute Capitol Hill
victory before the Democrats
relinquished control of the US
House of Representatives, the
year offered reason for opti-
mism.
Perhaps most heartening
was our ability to embarrass
homophobes who have trouble
accepting queers as citizens
with rights.
James Inhofe, a Republican
US senator from Oklahoma,
and Rick Warren, an evangeli-
cal pastor of a California mega-
church, had their reputations
permanently damaged by their
membership in “The Family,”
a secretive group of evangeli-
cals that, among many activi-
ties, offers religious members of
Congress cut-rate Washington
housing and more than a dollop
of fanaticism.
Rachel Maddow, the popular
out lesbian anchor on MSNBC,
and Jeff Sharlet, an investiga-
tive journalist, reported that
the Family sponsored a prayer
breakfast in Uganda where that
nation’s proposed “kill the gays”
legislation — which would make
homosexual acts and unre-
ported knowledge of such acts
punishable by the death pen-
alty — was floated. Reporting
throughout the year zeroed in
specifically on Inhofe’s and War-
ren’s links to radically anti-gay
leaders in Uganda. In the ensu-
ing public outcry, both Warren
and Inhofe found it necessary to
publicly disavow the bill.
In the waning days of the
year, musicians Raz-B and
Chris Brown, while engaging in
a Twitter flame war that includ-
ed numerous homophobic vol-
leys between them, were pre-
vailed on — probably by their PR
advisors mindful of online cam-
paigns bringing the ugliness to
light — to publicly declare they
are not anti-gay.
In Texas, 2010 began with
Annise Parker taking office as
mayor of Houston, and she
remains a ray of sunshine in a
very Republican state. Jack Val-
inski, who moderates “Queer
Voices” on the Pacifica Radio
station in Houston, said of
BY NATHAN RILEY
Parker, “She sets a tone.” She
has held citywide elective offices
for 13 years, showing that the
nation’s fourth largest city pre-
fers competence over lingering
resistance based on an individ-
ual’s sexual orientation. Parker
gets praised for her visibility,
and everybody knows her chil-
dren have two moms.
To be clear, in a state where
Republicans hold every state-
wide office, don’t expect Park-
er’s positive reviews to spawn
pro-LGBT legislation in Austin
any time soon. Still, the mayor
The biggest disappointment of
2010 was undoubtedly the slow
death of the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act.
is one of many signs that the
LGBT community is asserting
its place at the table in that part
of the country. The “It Gets Bet-
ter” campaign, in which Ameri-
cans famous and obscure have
made videos urging LGBT youth
to hang in there even in the face
of adversity, has produced a
big impact. In Fort Worth, Joel
Burns, an out gay member
of the City Council, tearfully
described his pain and isolation
growing up.
The “It Gets Better” cam-
paign, launched by gay activist
and sex columnist Dan Savage
in response to news of a spate of
youth suicides in 2010, marks
an historic embrace of LGBT
well-being by the larger society.
Those making YouTube vid-
eos included not only President
Barack Obama and Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, but also
young people, gay and straight
alike. The project enables stu-
dents to help each other, rather
then reinforcing stigma that
leads too many LGBT young
people to believe that by coming
out or having no choice but to
be out will make them a pariah.
The campaign dovetails nicely
with the growth in gay-straight
alliances that create safe spac-
es in high schools and middle
schools across the county.
In Texas, the suicide of Asher
Brown in Houston in response
anti-gay bullying left school
officials muttering, “We didn’t
know” about what everybody
else at the school saw and
knew.
It wasn’t only education offi-
cials who were placed on the
defensive. The public response
to a brutal police raid on a Fort
Worth gay bar and to El Paso
police officers forgetting that city
has a gay rights law when they
told a group of gays to leave a
restaurant also demonstrated
LGBT Texans’ growing accep-
tance as part of the larger com-
munity. Texas law enforcement
officers probably had trouble
sharing laughs with their bud-
dies about busting fairies while
facing disciplinary action.
In Mississippi, Constance
McMillen wanted to take her
girl friend to the prom, but her
school district flouted the law
and canceled the affair. The
district had to pay $35,000 for
ignoring her civil rights, and
McMillen became a sought-after
new voice in the national debate
on LGBT equality.
The Smithsonian was acutely
embarrassed after it removed
a video made by the late David
Wojnarowicz — mourning the
death from AIDS of artist and
close friend Peter Hujar — from
an exhibition at the National
Portrait Gallery. The video was
part of the critically acclaimed
“Hide/Seek” show that was
the first staging of a collection
of gay-inspired art by a major
museum. The move, coming
amidst outcry from Republi-
cans and the militantly anti-gay
Catholic League over the use of
a crucifix in the video, was wide-
ly denounced in the art world
as craven. James T. Bartlett, a
commissioner on the Smithso-
nian’s advisory board, resigned
in protest.
Only the repeal of Don’t Ask
Don’t Tell (DADT) — coming in
the last days of Congress’ lame
duck session, can compete with
the anti-suicide movement for
its positive effect on the lives of
LGBT community. Aaron Bel-
kin, a leader in the struggle for
repeal as director of the Univer-
sity of California, Santa Barba-
ra’s Palm Center research insti-
tute, said that repeal “ushers in
a new era in which the largest
employer in the United States
treats gays and lesbians like
human beings.”
Outside of ending DADT,
the biggest government action
this past year came in the fed-
eral courts. For years, the LGBT
community has battled the anti-
gay military policy as well as the
federal Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA) as two odious example
of the US government asserting
an affirmative obligation to dis-
criminate against the gay com-
munity. In cases brought by the
Log Cabin Republicans against
DADT, by the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts and gay and
lesbian couples married there
against DOMA, and by the City
of San Francisco and couples
denied the right to marry in
California against Proposition
8, federal district court judges
sided with the LGBT commu-
nity.
The DADT victory may well
prove moot if the military and
the president move expeditious-
ly to certify that the armed forc-
es are fully prepared to let the
old policy die, but the principles
articulated there are important
nonetheless. As the DOMA and
Prop 8 cases wend there way up
the federal court system, pro-
found game changers could be
in the offing.
The biggest disappointment of
2010 was undoubtedly the slow
death of the Employment Non-
Discrimination Act in Congress,
a measure that could not even
advance in the House, where
the institutional barrier of the
filibuster that slows down leg-
islation in the Senate does not
exist. ENDA’s primary boost-
ers in the House argued that
the inclusion of protections for
transgender Americans opened
up the possibility of Republi-
䉴 YEAR IN GAY, continued on p.27
5 - 18 JAN 2011
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 JAN 6, from p.9
Take on a Chance
on Mummenschanz
The internationally renowned Swiss
performance troupe Mummenschanz,
which for four decades has captivated
audiences worldwide with its ground-
breaking visuals and transformative, non-
verbal theater that makes inventive use
of forms, shadow and light, and creative
manipulation of sculptural, expressive
masks, appears in a limited engagement
at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Per-
forming Arts, 566 LaGuardia Pl. at
Washington Sq. S. Jan. 5-6, 8 p.m.;
Jan. 7, 7 & 10 p.m.; Jan. 8, 7 p.m. Tick-
ets are $45-$75 at skirballcenter.nyu.edu.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
COMEDY
Their Time of
Month
Mel and El, hoping to fulfill your New
Year’s Resolutions to have more joy in
your life, save money, lose weight, plan
an evening of crazy-ass songs and crazy-
ass, bloody funny tales, while offering
you the chance to regale them with
predictions for this brand new decade.
Comix, 353 W. 14th St. Jan. 6, 7:30
p.m. Admission is $10, cash, at the door.
No food or drink minimum, but maybe
a Diet Coke will help with the weight
thing. Reservations at comixny.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
CULTURE
Okay, So the Times
Covers the Arts,
Too
In its annual riot of culture vulture
riches, the New York Times presents its
tenth January Arts & Leisure Weekend,
with a seemingly endless menu of bold
name guests. Rufus Wainwright and his
sister Martha appear, as do “Brokeback
Mountain” author Annie Proulx, actors
and directors Kevin Spacey and Robert
Redford, film, theater, and opera direc-
tor Julie Taymor, and lyricist Tim Rice.
Times arts writer Patrick Healy inter-
views Green Day vocalist and guitarist
Billie Joe Armstrong and “American
Idiot” director and co-writer Michael
Mayer. Daniel Wakin interviews James
Levine, music director of the Metropoli-
tan Opera and of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. Charles McGrath interviews
HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” co-creator
Terence Winter along with actors Steve
Buscemi and Paz de la Huerta. And Gail
Collins of the Times editorial page inter-
䉴 JAN 6, continued on p.19
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 5 – 18 JAN 2011 13

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12 nu H
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Fro rday R OP
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Sa IT O
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TWELVE THIRTY PRODUCTIONS, LLC

TWELVE THIRTY PRODUCTIONS, LLC

Screenwriter/ director Jeff Lipsky and actor Jonathan Groff were happily on the same page regarding the character YOU ALREADY BELONG HERE.
Jeff in “Twelve Thirty.”
YOU JUST NEED TO JOIN.
■ FILM AT THE YMCA, YOU’LL GAIN INNER STRENGTH
AS WELL AS OUTER STRENGTH.

Just the
Robinsons’ Affair
Jonathan Groff does Benjamin Braddock
at least one better
BY GARY M. KRAMER
JOIN NOW AND PAY NO JOINER’S FEE.
TWELVE THIRTY
Directed by Jeff Lipsky
VISIT YOUR LOCAL Y, TEXT* YMCA3 TO 30241 OR VISIT

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Thirty,” written and directed by Jeff Opens Jan. 14 YMCANYC.ORG TO GET A PASS TO “TRY THE Y FOR FREE.”
Lipsky, out gay actor Jonathan Groff Angelika Film Center
18 W. Houston St. at Mercer St.
plays Jeff, a young man bewitched by
angelikafilmcenter.com
MANHATTAN
Mel (Portia Reiners) since high school. Chinatown (212) 912-2460 Vanderbilt (212) 912-2500
After a lengthy and talky flirtation, they
have sex, but in the same week, Jeff well control and protectiveness. Lipsky
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seduces Mel’s sister, Maura (Mamie coaxes an impressive performance out of McBurney (212) 912-2300
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Vivien’s husband, Martin (Reed Bir- tive about every line. He and I were com- Bedford-Stuyvesant (212) 912-2280 North Brooklyn (212) 912-2230
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transpired between this outsider and one trouble playing straight convincingly, the
of the family members. question naturally came up in discuss- QUEENS
In a recent phone interview, Lipsky, ing “Twelve Thirty.” Cross Island (718) 479-0505 Long Island City (718) 392-7932
who is straight, said “Twelve Thirty” Lipsky’s response was adamant and Flushing (718) 961-6880 Ridgewood (212) 912-2180
was inspired by two other films –– a definitive. Jamaica (718) 739-6600
1990 Russian comedy-drama entitled “I’d not heard of Groff before casting,”
“Adam’s Rib” about three generations of he said. “I saw ‘Spring Awakening’ after
women living under the same roof, and he left the cast. ‘Taking Woodstock’ was
STATEN ISLAND
the 1967 American classic “The Gradu- released after we cast ‘Twelve Thirty.’ Broadway (718) 981-4933 South Shore (718) 227-3200
ate.” He changed the three generations of Then ‘Glee’ came along. I didn’t know
“Adam’s Rib” to two and made the “Mrs. of his fandom gathering critical mass. BRONX (718) 792-9736
Robinson” character — Vivien –– the When I met and auditioned him, called
pursued rather than the pursuer. His him back, cast the film, and directed
conceit works well, with the balance of him, I had no idea he was gay. If he came
power between Jeff and the women he out before the movie, I can’t say if I would FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL
romances always shifting and uneasy. cast him or not. But I can’t imagine (212) 630-YMCA OR VISIT YMCANYC.ORG
Lipsky said that while his film’s pro- another actor, straight or gay, who could
tagonist shares his name Jeff, the loss of be more believable or plausible.”
virginity scene is the only autobiographi- Lipsky also insisted that a line in the
cal element in the film. The writer/ direc- film where Jeff tells Maura he is not gay *Message and data rates may apply.
tor has created a multi-layered fiction
that explores issues of truth and trust, as 䉴 TWELVE THRITY, continued on p.20
14 5 – 18 JAN 2011
"The ambiguity of the JAN 6 – 9
warrior, that's what
Philippe Saire and his Tickets
start at
dancers convey so well." $10!
-Alexandre Demidoff
Le Temps
Jake Silbermann (r.) as Jonathan Harker with Michel Altieri in the title role in the new Off-Broadway production of
“Dracula,” at the Little Shubert Theatre on West 42nd Street.
■ THEATER
Just Jake
“First gay kiss” heartthrob jumps
from soap to Off Broadway
175 8th Ave at 19th St JoyceCharge 212-242-0800 JOYCE.ORG
BY DAVID KENNERLEY
W
hen Jake Silbermann joined
the cast of “As the World
Turns” more than three years
ago, he had no clue he was about to
make history. That’s because his charac-
ter, a hunky teen named Noah, ditched
his girlfriend to be in the arms of his true
love. And that love was none other than
Luke (played by Van Hansis), a major
character who was openly gay and okay
with it.
On August 17, 2007, “World” was
shaken when the boys shared a kiss.
And not just a quick smooch, but a full-
on, extreme close-up wet one lasting sev-
eral seconds. After more than half a cen-
tury on the air, this was a huge deal for
“ATWT” and for America — the first ever
dude-on-dude kiss on daytime TV.
“Nuke,” as the couple became known,
was an instant phenomenon. Fans
cheered. Ratings surged. At the time,
the scene was one of YouTube’s most
watched clips. The duo was consistent-
ly voted favorite couple in Soap Opera
Digest’s polls.
Not everyone was thrilled. Conserva-
tives launched an attack against the
soap and Proctor & Gamble, who owned
the show. Not long after, intimacy dwin-
dled and the story line dragged. Had P&G
balked? According to the “liplock clock”
on AfterElton.com, Logo TV’s entertain-
ment website, it took an excruciating
211 days for a second kiss, after viewers
voiced their outrage over the drought.
A flurry of kisses followed, and the
super-couple even had sex — sort of.
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
CAROL ROSEGG
“ATWT” eventually won two GLAAD
media awards.
Alas, not even Nuke could attract
enough viewers to keep “World” turning.
Last September, CBS put the ailing show
out to pasture, and Silbermann was out
of a job.
But not for long. The 27-year old
native New Yorker, who currently calls
the East Village home, had already been
dabbling in small film projects, and then
landed the role of Jonathan Harker in a
reboot of “Dracula,” opening January 5
at the Little Shubert Theatre. The sexy
European stage and screen idol Michel
Altieri makes his New York debut as
Count Dracula.
The production, directed by Paul Alex-
ander, recently caused a stir when “Amer-
ican Beauty” star Thora Birch, set to play
the role of Harker’s fiancé, Lucy, was
replaced by her understudy, Emily Bridg-
es, just days before previews began. Also
in the cast: George Hearn (Tony Award
winner for “La Cage Aux Folles”), Timothy
Jerome (“Tarzan”),and John Buffalo Mail-
er (“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”).
I caught up with Silbermann to chat
about his first foray onto a New York
stage and his former role as half of day-
time TV’s hottest couple.
DAVID KENNERLEY: How does it feel
to have a major role in an Off-Broadway
play?
JAKE SILBERMANN: Fantastic. I
put that positive energy out there, and
it came back at the right time. I audi-
䉴 JUST JAKE, continued on p.21
5 - 18 JAN 2011
My Enemy, My Brother
Philippe Saire explores the provinces of masculinity
BY BRIAN MCCORMICK
T
he myth of the lonesome cowboy
looms large in the male imagi-
nation, immortalized in song by
Elvis Presley and Pat Woods, in Warhol’s
depraved and boring improv western,
and even in comic realms via Murakami
in Asia and De Bevere’s “Lucky Luke” in
Europe. While each offers commentary on
the same archetype, they also probe dif-
ferent attributes of the paternal — typical-
ly in opposition to or as a protestation of
the feminine, or set against its own insu-
lated machismo.
Post-“Brokeback Mountain,” these
explorations have become more intellec-
tual and placed more explicitly in social
context. Examining the present state of
masculinity is precisely what Swiss chore-
ographer Philipp Saire is concerned with
in his hour-long dance work “Lonesome
Cowboy,” which will be presented for his
company’s Joyce Theater debut.
Performed on a mutable gravel sur-
face, six male dancers display the ordered
routines of soldiers, the aggressive and
Dance /15
COMPAGNIE PHILIPPE SAIRE
“Lonesome Cowboy”
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
Jan. 6-8 at 8 p.m.; Jan. 8 at 2 p.m.
Jan. 9 at 2 & 7:30 p.m.
$10 and up; joyce.org
Or 212-242-0800
cooperative dynamic tensions of contact
sportsmen, and the animalistic tenden-
cies of socio-biological man. Barracks
mates. Sports opponents. Brothers.
This “Lonesome Cowboy” is devoted
to exploring the individuality, solidarity,
and confrontation that shape masculine
identity. These themes are universal to
the male, but it’s important to note that
a queer reading of this work — shirtless
men in kilts aside –– reveals a heterosexu-
al encoding on display. While there’s ten-
derness, the whole affair is masked with a
PHILIPPE SAIRE
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell cover.
In an interview with Gay City News,
Saire spoke about the process of cre-
Images and behaviors that express a range particular to maleness all but guarantee a success when Compagnie Philippe
䉴 LONESOME COWBOY, continued on p.23 Saire’s “Lonesome Cowboy” plays at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea January 6 through 9.
 5 - 18 JAN 2011

16/ Film
Is Seeing Believing?
Some of 2010’s best captured what we’ve lost; others, what never was
BY STEVE ERICKSON clunky synthesis of fiction and docu-
mentary also powered some of the year’s

W
hen a top 10 list gets made, a best films. Many people think that “Exit
lot usually gets left out. Many Through the Gift Shop,” directed (with
critics restrict their lists to much use of other people’s material) by
films that played for at least a week in the mysterious British artist Banksy,
New York. Due to the delays in foreign is a hoax. Clio Barnard’s “The Arbor,”
film releases in the US, half the films on which played Tribeca in April and will
my list were actually made in 2009 or be released next spring at Film Forum,
earlier, while I’ve left off several that will places the words of real interview sub-
be released here in 2011. jects into the mouths of actors, reinvent-
As critic/ filmmaker Dan Sallitt wrote, ing the British tradition of kitchen-sink
“It’s comforting to think that the critical realism in the process.
community sorts through the world’s Vincenzo Natali’s “Splice” was one
art and brings the really good stuff to of the year’s queerest films, in every
international attention, but that process sense of the word. Few people noticed

IFC FILMS
looks more authoritative than it is.” — though academic blogger and film
One particularly striking example theorist Steven Shaviro wrote about it at
of the lag between creation and Ameri- Few narrative films have pushed so hard at the boundaries of the medium and tried to express the ineffable as Gaspar length — but I think it’s bound for cult
can viewing was Jean Eustache’s Noé’s “Enter the Void.” fandom. A Canadian-French co-pro-
1971 “Numéro Zéro, which received its duction designed to pass as a Hollywood
New York premiere at Anthology Film grandmother, it showcases Eustache’s destined to premiere here in 39 years. extravaganza, it bombed in the US, pos-
Archives only in November of this past ability to make fascinating cinema out Casey Affleck’s “I’m Still Here” doesn’t sibly because it’s as much about “weird
year. To be fair, the director himself dis- of little more than conversation. It also seem to have been taken seriously by sex and snow shoes,” to lift the name of
liked the film. During his lifetime, it was addresses the crushing impact of 20th anyone — possibly including its director one book on Canadian cinema, as any
shown only in an edited version. century French history. I wonder if there and cast. I would never make any great Guy Maddin film.
A starkly minimalist interview with his are any films this good being made now, claims for its vision of stardom as hell. Offering a bisexual, transgender half-
However, the emotions behind its rejec- human mutant named Dren, brilliantly
tion of celebrity ring true, even if they’re played by Delphine Chaneac and a ton
badly expressed. The film was revealed of CGI, as an anti-hero, it’s not exact-
as a fraud a few days into its release, but ly LGBT -positive. Like some of David
close attention to the end credits (as well Cronenberg’s work, it often seems radi-
as Joaquin Phoenix’s purported willing- cal and conservative simultaneously. Yet
ness to have himself filmed doing lines it’s not quite homo- or transphobic. Dren
of coke and having sex with prostitutes) commits some awful acts but emerges
makes that obvious. more sympathetic than his human par-
In a different form, its somewhat ents, a pair of arrested-adolescent sci-
entists with inflated senses of their own
coolness who have no business raising
a child of any kind, much less creating
medical history.
My top picks and those just out of the
running follow:
The path to your first home. 1. ENTER THE VOID (Gaspar Noé):
“Enter the Void” isn’t without its flaws,
The State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) particularly its acting and screenwriting,
offers first-time homebuyers: but I’m comfortable calling this French
‡¬RU\HDUIL[HGLQWHUHVWUDWHVWKDWDUHW\SLFDOO\ film about the aftermath of a police kill-
ing of a young American drug dealer in
EHORZPDUNHW
Tokyo a masterpiece. Few narrative films
‡¬)LQDQFLQJXSWR have pushed so hard at the boundar-
‡¬)OH[LEOHXQGHUZULWLQJJXLGHOLQHV ies of the medium and tried to express
‡¬'RZQSD\PHQWDVVLVWDQFHKLJKHURIRURIWKHORDQ the ineffable. Like “Splice,” I suspect it’s
DPRXQWRUXSWR
PRODUCERS DISTRIBUTION AGENCY

another cult film in the making.

‡1RSRLQWV
‡1RILQDQFLQJDGGRQV 2. SWEETGRASS (Ilisa Barbash and
Lucien Castaing-Taylor): Bridging the
gap between Clint Eastwood and Fred-
erick Wiseman, “Sweetgrass” is the latest
For more information, call elegy for the vanished West. The directors
offer up natural beauty alongside a look
1-800-382-HOME (4663) Amateur filmmaker Thierry Guetta, a French boutique
at the cost of maintaining that wonder,
or visit www.nyshcr.org
owner in Los Angeles, is at the center of Banksy’s “Exit
Through the Gift Shop,” a rare critique of the art world
from a smart insider. 䉴 TOP 10 FILM, continued on p.17
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 5 – 18 JAN 2011 17

Angry at the World

In a young, non-professional actor, Florin Serban expresses the seething anger of Romanian culture
BY GARY M. KRAMER IF I WANT TO WHISTLE, I WHISTLE
Directed by Florin Serban

S
et in a Romanian juvenile re- Film Movement
education center, “If I Want to Opens Jan. 5
Whistle, I Whistle,” is a gripping Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St.
character study. Silviu (George Pis- filmforum.org
tereanu) has been imprisoned for four
years. Two weeks away from release,
the warden (Mihai Constantin) agrees His demand that the warden allow him
to overlook a recent transgression if to take Ana, to whom he is attracted,
Silviu stays out of trouble. It’s unclear out for coffee may strain credulity, but
if the warden believes Silviu has been is a marker of his social awkwardness.
rehabilitated during his incarceration, “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle” is all
or if he just wants his difficult charge about control — both the taking and
released so there will be fewer prob- relinquishing of power, and the title,
lems for him and his staff. never actually uttered in the film, sig-
One gets a sense that the lean, nals this from the top. Surely Serban
good-looking Silviu is a troublemak- intends his story as a parable for the
er right away. His intense gaze, as he frustrations and resentments of Roma-
stares at other prisoners washing up nian life, but even without an explicitly

as if waiting for them to make a move,
is unnerving. He threatens another
inmate by surprising him in bed in the
middle of the night and threatening to
gouge out his eyes.
Silviu provokes other inmates — one
night, he begs one relentlessly to bor-
row a phone — but he is provoked as
well. A tense confrontation has Silviu
repeatedly slapped by another prisoner
as he is paralyzed by the knowledge
that any retaliation would jeopardize
his impending release.
Watching Pistereanu — who sports
the brooding good looks of a young
Colin Farrell — seethe in this scene
shows the non-professional actor’s
ferocity. He makes the depth of his
rage, festering beneath his poker-faced
expression, palpable. His performance
is so magnetic viewers will not be able
take their eyes off him.
George Pistereanu is mesmerizing in his portrayal of a dangerously angry juvenile deliquent.
One reason Pistereanu is so mes-
merizing is because director Florin
Serban films “If I Want to Whistle, I
Whistle” in a realistic style typical of
recent Romanian New Wave films. He
employs handheld camera work and
jump-cut editing to create an intimacy
and immediacy that propels the story.
There is not much action in the first
half of the film, but the drama eventu-
ally sneaks up on viewers. The camara-
derie, game-playing, and roughhousing
we see in the dormitories only slowly
reveal the underlying power structure
and struggles among the inmates.
The source of Silviu’s anger becomes
apparent early on. His mother (Clara
FILM MOVEMENT
political dimension, the film makes its
point. Serban deftly and repeatedly
demonstrates Silviu’s shifting fortunes
in the prison. Pleased with a minor
personal victory, he steals a soccer ball
Voda) plans to take Silviu’s younger from his fellow inmates in a liberating
brother — whom he raised for years moment that, like many of his suc-
in her absence — to Italy with her. The cesses, will prove short-lived.
shouting match between Silviu and her Silviu tries hard to be good, but
during her visit to the detention center when he acts out in ways that jeopar-
is harsh, helping explain what other- dize his release, audiences lose some
wise might have seemed a simplistic of their sympathy for him. That shift
cause for his bad behavior. in attitude toward him may be the
Desperate to resolve his unhappy point, but watching him take control
family situation, Silviu pleads with remains fascinating. By this point in
the warden for early release, and is “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle,” view-
denied. He bides his time before taking ers find themselves so invested in Sil-
action against his jailors, but when he viu’s character — in no small part due
explodes, it is frightening. He punches to Pistereanu’s remarkable perfor -
a teacher and then seriously injures a mance — that he remains compelling
guard, before taking Ana (Ada Cond- and heartbreaking even when making
eescu), a comely field worker, hostage. terrible mistakes.

䉴 TOP TEN FILM, from p.16 indulges its male protagonist’s

stalker fantasies up to a point
expressed most disturbingly in and ultimately takes aim at the
a profane cell phone rant about deadly consequences of male
a flock of sheep. vanity.

3. EXIT THROUGH THE 5. TOY STORY 3 (Lee Unk-

GIFT SHOP (Banksy): Docu-
mentary, fiction, or somewhere
in between, “Exit Through the
Gift Shop” looks at the way a
street-level, politically charged
culture –– in this case, graffiti
art –– becomes co-opted. Igno-
rant accusations that modern
art is a fraud come a dime a
dozen; “Exit Through the Gift
rich): Leave it to a children’s
film to evoke the pathos of aging
and growing apart from one’s
friends.
6. WHITE MATERIAL (Claire
Denis): Returning to her birth-
place in Africa, Claire Denis
provides another look at the
fading days of French colonial-
SENATOR ENTERTAINMENT

Shop” is a rare critique of the art ism. “White Material” works as

world from a smart insider.
4. WILD GRASS (Alain
Resnais): A formalist’s delight,
“Wild Grass” has been accused
of sexism. However, it only
an allegory about its decadence,
yet its characters’ pathology
also seems individual enough to
be real.
Delphine Chaneac, aided by tons of CGI, is brilliant as Dren, the bisexual, transgender half-human mutant protagonist of one of the year’s queerest
䉴 TOP 10 FILM, continued on p.18 films, Vincenzo Natali’s “Splice.”

18/ Film
Bearing Silent Witness
Elia Suleiman plays himself, speechless, adding compassion to his plight as a Palestinian
BY STEVE ERICKSON
Statelessness is a horrible
condition to live with, so one
hesitates to call it a gift to an
artist. Nevertheless, the alien-
ation of being a Palestinian
informs all three of Elia Sulei-
man’s features. I can’t imagine
what his work would be like
without it.
Suleiman’s films bring to
mind the debate among some
film critics in the late 1960s and
early ’70s about the differences
between making political films
and making films politically.
At Cahiers du Cinema maga-
zine, some criticized the likes of
Gillo Pontecorvo’s “The Battle
of Algiers” and Costa-Gavras’
“Z” for trying to express radi-
cal content in conventional film
language, praising the films of
Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Ma-
rie Straub for raising questions
about film form instead.
Suleiman’s work doesn’t
just speak about Palestinians’
disconnection from the politi-
cal process. They incorporate it
into their structure. This alien-
ation marks “The Time That
Remains” in several ways, as
well as Suleiman’s two previ-
ous features, 1996’s “Chronicle
of a Disappearance” and 2002’s
“Divine Intervention.” It makes
its presence felt in two main
forms –– no camera movement
and no speech from Suleiman,
who plays himself.
“The Time That Remains”
begins with Elia taking a cab
with a talkative driver. The
film then flashes back to 1948,
where his father Fuad (Saleh
Bakri) is a metal worker whose
lathe has been used to make
guns for Arab militias. Living
in Nazareth, he’s arrested and
䉴 TOP 10 FILM, from p.17
7. CARLOS (Olivier Assayas):
In his closest approximation of
a straightforward genre film yet,
Assayas films idealism cur -
dling into cynicism and oppor-
tunism in the epic story of an
international terrorist. In this
five-hour mini-series, made
for French TV but distribut-
ed theatrically in the US, he
THE TIME THAT REMAINS
Directed by Elia Suleiman
In Arabic & Hebrew,
with English subtitles
IFC Films
Opens Jan. 7, IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at W. Third St.
ifccenter.com
subjected to mock execution.
Eventually, he’s freed.
The initial Arab rebellion
against the founding of Israel
fades away. One man shoots
himself in protest, but later on,
another’s threats of pouring
kerosene on himself and set-
ting himself on fire are played
for laughs. Fuad raises a family
and Elia grows up, becoming a
ghostly witness.
Suleiman’s entire oeuvre can
be seen as an attempt to fig-
ure out how to film the damage
done to the Palestinian psyche.
He’s received his share of criti-
cism along the way. Made
with a small amount of Israeli
money (among co-production
funds from many other sourc-
es, including the US), “Chron-
icle of a Disappearance” was
called defeatist, largely for its
final scene, which showed his
mother falling asleep as Israeli
TV signed off for the night.
“Divine Intervention” went
to the other extreme, indulg-
ing violent anti-Israeli fanta-
sies. In one, Suleiman throws
a peach pit out the window,
where it turns into a bomb and
blows up a tank. In another,
a female ninja takes revenge
on an Israeli army troupe in
a scene seemingly inspired
by “The Matrix.” I don’t think
such images were intended to
be taken literally, but many
people did.
“The Time That Remains”
manages to find both positive
and negative examples of his
pet theme, globalization.
8. THE FATHER OF MY
CHILDREN (Mia Hansen-
Løve): If “Sweetgrass” implic-
itly laments the decline of the
Western, “The Father of My
Children” mour ns the pos-
sible death of the European
art film and the producers
Elia Suleiman’s wordless appearance as he plays himself speaks to his alienation as a stateless man in “The Time that Remains.”
is notable for its lack of anger
and apparent acceptance of
the Israeli occupation. After
1948 passes, the Suleiman
family seems to go on living
their lives, even as they suffer
occasional humiliations from
the Israeli police and army. At
one point, Fuad is arrested for
possessing a box of bulgur, an
ingredient in tabouli the police
mistake for gunpowder. He’s
harassed for fishing at night
several times.
Both as a child and an adult,
Elia engages in small acts of
resistance. At school, he’s rep-
rimanded several times for call-
ing America a colonialist and
imperialist country. Later on,
he climbs over the West Bank’s
separation wall. The film shows
a Ramallah dance club ignoring
an Israeli curfew. But the kind
of organized resistance shown
in the film’s early scenes is
who made it work, even as its
existence –– and that of the
other French films on this list
–– proves that the cinema’s
still full of possibilities.
9. SPLICE
10. UN LAC (Philippe
Grandrieux): Made in 2008,
“Un lac” played once at the
Film Society of Lincoln Cen-
missing. No new intifada seems
to be brewing.
Especially in its second half,
“The Time That Remains” is
gentler than “Divine Interven-
tion,” closer to the whimsy
of “Chronicle of a Disappear-
ance.” Suleiman has often
been compared to Buster
Keaton and Jacques Tati, and
it’s difficult to imagine his films
with another actor in his place.
As a screen presence, Sulei-
man exploits his own vulnera-
bility and seeming fragility. It’s
hard to believe that the waif-
like figure on-screen had the
guts to make a film like “Divine
Intervention.” Suleiman also
acts like a dandy; somehow, he
seems to rise above the conflicts
he films, perhaps because he
avoids talking about them.
As a director, he uses repeti-
tion brilliantly. “Chronicle of a
Disappearance,” whose first
ter’s “Film Comment Selects”
series last February and has
n o U S d i s t r i b u t o r. G r a n -
drieux’s first two films com-
bined seductive experimenta-
tion –– a dense soundtrack,
extremes of light and dark-
ness –– with an off-putting
fascination with sexual vio-
lence and a sense of moral-
ity out of a bad slasher film.
Without compromising, “Un
5 - 18 JAN 2011
IFC FILMS
half recalled Jim Jarmusch’s
“Stranger Than Paradise,”
showed just how much mile-
age he could get out of stitching
together images of the same for-
lorn Nazareth locations.
Suleiman has not had an
easy time making films. In the
15 years since “Chronicle of
a Disappearance,” he’s only
made two more features, and
“The Time That Remains” has
taken almost two years to get an
American release.
His most ambitious film, it
crams autobiographical mate-
rial into a form that brings
together the past and present.
It offers no clear political pro-
gram or solution to the Israe-
li-Palestinian conflict, except
the suggestion that a sense of
humor is always helpful. Still, it
shows compassion and a gentle
irony in a place where few might
expect it.
lac” is far more approachable.
RUNNERS-UP: “Animal
Kingdom” (David Michod);
“Boxing Gym” (Frederick
Wiseman); “Car mel” (Amos
Gitai); “Lourdes” (Jessica
Hausner); “Polytechnique”
(Denis Villeneuve); “Red Rid-
ing: 1980” (James Marsh);
“Shutter Island” (Martin
Scorsese).
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
14 DAYS Lorna and Adam
14 NIGHTS Judy’s middle child; ‘Rent’ boys reunite
䉴 JAN 6, from p.12
views Katie Couric. For complete infor-
mation, including schedule and ticket
purchase, visit nytimes.whsites.net/
artsandleisureweekend. All events take
place at the TimesCenter, 242 W. 41st
St., Jan. 6-9.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ are also her children.
BENEFIT
FRI.JAN.7
Stamps of Many
Countries
Visual AIDS, the country’s premiere
non-profit organization uniting visual art-
ists and HIV prevention and awareness
hold its largest benefit, “Postcards From
the Edge, ” an exciting and affordable —
only $85 for each of 1,500 postcard-sized
works —way to purchase original work
by established and emerging artists from
around the world. Participating artists
this year include Yoko Ono, Lawrence
Weiner, Christian Marclay, Paul Henry
Ramirez, Lynda Beglis, Carrie Moyer,
and Mickalene Thomas. CRG Gallery,
548 W. 22nd St., Jan. 7-9. The Preview
Cocktail Party, with a raffle and silent
auction, takes place Jan. 7, 6-8 p.m.
Many artists who have donated work
will be in attendance, as will their galler-
ists and celebrity art patrons. Attendees
will also be greeted by the bejeweled
and dazzling members of the Imperial
Court of New York, outfitted in full drag
outfits and attitude. Admission is $85 at
visualAIDS.org. Weekend hours are 10
a.m.-6 p.m. on Jan. 8 and noon-4 p.m.
on Jan. 9. Suggested admission on Sat.
& Sun. is $5.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ know any different. I under -
PERFORMANCE
The Skinny Behind
Porn
Tré Xavier’s “The Industry,” is a five-
poem performance piece made up of
behind-the-scenes stories of five differ-
ent porn actor characters. These stories
are based on a combination of tales
from Xavier’s own life in the industry,
tales told to him from other actors he
has met along the way, as well as gay
porn news stories. Using his one voice to
speak for many, the no-name characters
Xavier creates range from someone who
trades in his stable relationship so he
can seek porn-stardom to a white porn
actor wanting a scene-partner of color,
but repeatedly being paired with a white
one. Through these characters, Xavier
confronts many stigmas associated with
䉴 JAN 7, continued on p.20
■ IN THE NOH
BY DAVID NOH
J
udy Garland’s legacy is,
of course, incalculable,
and not only are there
her films and music that keep
her so resonantly alive, there
Judy’s middle child, longtime
gay activist Lorna Luft, keeps
her torch burning with her Fein-
stein’s at the Regency appear-
ance (540 Park Ave. at 61st
St., through Jan. 9, 8:30 p.m.;
feinsteinsattheregency. com),
“Songs My Mother Taught Me:
the Judy Garland Songbook.”
Luft told me, “This is a show
I’ve been doing for almost ten
years, all around the world. I’m
really proud of it, but it took me
a long time to feel comfortable
with all this material. I don’t
believe that you really get to
know your parents until you’re
in your 40s. Before that, you’re
making your footsteps, having
kids, and figuring out your life
and career. In your 40s, you’re
able to look back and say,
‘What’s it all about, where did
it all start, and how do I tell my
kids?’ That’s what happened to
me; I’d never sung these songs
until then because it was too
hard for me.
“What’s it like to be constant-
ly reminded of my mother, every
time I turn the TV or radio or see
her image in a card shop? She
was everyone’s icon and legend
but she was my Mom: I don’ t
stand and respect this unend-
ing fascination with her, but it’s
not the same for me. I knew the
human being in the white bath-
robe in the kitchen who tucked
me into bed and we’d talk. That
inescapability from her is some-
thing I took a long time to feel
comfortable with. There are very
few of us who really understand
this — Lisa Marie Presley, Lucie
and Desi Arnaz, the Sinatra
kids, Michael Jackson’s. But it’s
weird, ok? It’s something we’ve
just had to adjust to because
they’re not here to guide us.”
Garland once praised Lorna,
saying that she had more tal-
ent than anyone in the family,
with her rich, warm, and mel-
lifluous voice: “Every time that’s
brought up, I’m very grateful.
I still work on my voice with a
5 – 18 JAN 2011
heard the songs, almost like
therapy, and made me look
at them in a way I hadn’t for a
long, long time. He’s a brilliant
director, but tough. Oh my God,
my mother would have loved
working with him. He’s another
Mort Lindsay!”
Luft sang with Rufus Wain-
wright at his 2006 recreation of
Garland’s immortal 1961 Car-
negie Hall concert: “When he
Garland once praised Lorna, saying
that she had more talent than
anyone in the family.
contacted me about doing this
big tribute, I didn’t really know
him, but when we met, his pas-
sion was so infectious. He said,
‘I have to make people never for-
get.’ There was never any foot-
STILETTO ENTERTAINMENT
age of her concert, there’s no
DVD, and right after he did that,
my Mom’s Carnegie Hall CD
spiked through the roof because
there are two generations who
don’t know that record.
“I was there in 1961, and
With the tough love support of Barry Manilow, what was extraordinary was
Lorna Luft has put together a tribute show, that I’d never seen adults act
“Songs My Mother Taught Me: the Judy Gar- like that, standing on chairs,
land Songbook.” screaming, and reaching out to
her. The Beatles hadn’t come
coach and am fascinated by along yet, and it was really inter-
singers, like Renee Fleming, and esting to me, because it was for
the opera world. To me, that’s my Mom. Before the concert,
the real deal. I sent Renee my she was not exactly nervous,
CD of this show, and she wrote but like how a horse gets excit-
me, saying that my ‘Man That ed before a race — that’s how
Got Away’ was brilliant. I almost she would get. She and Mort
made wallpaper out of that. As Lindsay had rehearsed it and
I’ve said to her, ‘You open your knew exactly what they were
mouth and that noise comes doing. It was one of those nights
out. How do you do that?’ And everybody was anticipating, and
she says, ‘I look at you and Mort just said to me, a couple of
think the same thing.’” months ago, that the stars just
Close friend Barry Manilow lined up and everything came
worked on the CD: “We met in off perfectly.”
1972, and what he did for my A sadder milestone was Gar-
CD was extraordinary. I had land’s New York funeral in 1969,
done the show for so long I nat- the same week as the Stone-
urally had gone into an auto- wall Uprising: “There’s a whole
matic pilot situation. When we group of people who say that
began, I started to sing, and he my Mom’s passing away had
said, ‘I don’t believe one word nothing to do with Stonewall
out of you.’ He made me go all and then others who say that
the way back to the first time I was a key element. I have no
19
opinion about it because I, too,
am getting an education about
it all, just listening to those who
were there. I was a 16-year-old
who had just lost a parent, and
didn’t know anything about it.
“As for the funeral itself, and
all the crowds, I don’t really
remember any of that. I’ve seen
the footage, but it was a sort of
out-of-body experience for me.
The body sort of protects you
from tragedy with a defense
mechanism that allows you to
put one foot in front of the other.
It was incredibly painful for me,
as it is for anyone who loses a
parent, whatever the age; it’s a
life-altering experience which
never gets better, just different.”
Recalling her father, Sid
Luft, she said, “We had a very
interesting relationship, very
close growing up, but then we
became estranged when I wrote
my book [“Me and My Shad-
ows”] because he wanted to do
his, and said, ‘I can’t believe
you’re gonna beat me to this!’ I
said, ‘Hello? She was my mother
and your ex-wife. If you want to,
go ahead.’ But he never did, and
we became estranged because
I discovered that it wasn’t as
painful for me to really look into
who my parents really were. My
father resented that, because
he thought of my Mom more as
property, and certainly it was
his livelihood, something that
was very sad and disturbing to
me. But, at the end of his life,
we made amends and he said,
‘You wrote a fantastic book and
made a brilliant mini-series
from it,’ and that made me feel
good.”
Luft had this to say about
“Judy Speaks,” a bootleg CD
from private tapes of a dis-
traught Garland railing against
her father, which certain vicious
䉴 IN THE NOH, continued on p.22

20/ Theater
Rebirth and Renewal
Wakka Wakka tells sweet story, while “Haunted” blessed only by its company
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
K
ir Jan Waage and Gwen-
dolyn Warnock’s “Baby
Universe: A Puppet
Odyssey,” is both a sweet story
and a cautionary tale. Set in
the future, it tells of the efforts
to save a dying Earth by creat-
ing and raising new universes
that humans can then inhabit.
However, the Sun, which has
now become a Red Giant and is
about to consume the current
solar system before burning
out, is not having it and seeks to
stop the one thriving Baby Uni-
verse, number 7001, from get-
ting away.
The storytelling is reminis-
cent of Shel Silverstein in that
it uses gentle, somewhat juve-
nile imagery and language
to make a larger point about
important, grown-up issues.
As with Silverstein, the focus
is on the story, and the politics
are implicit rather than harped
upon.
What makes this so charm-
ing is the puppet work, one of
the hallmarks of the non-profit
group Wakka Wakka, which
is behind this show. From a
robotic Stephen Hawking who
greets you in the lobby to the
wonderfully imaginative hand
and full-body puppets in the
show, the 75-minute piece has
a big heart that’s infectious
as the Baby Universe grows
(expands, actually) and realizes
that his function is not to follow
his own lights (stars, actually),
but to be of service. It’s a sweet
story, and one that’s needed in
today’s world.
䉴 TWELVE THRITY, from p.13
was in the original script, and
not added to address Groff’s off-
screen sexuality. The comment
was motivated, instead, by Mau-
ra’s concerns about her father’s
bisexuality.
The filmmaker then cited an
early scene –– shot in close-up
to emphasize its intimacy –– in
which Jeff and Mel are sitting
in a car. On the brink of losing
his virginity to Mel, Jeff’s desire
for her is palpable, Lipsky said.
In fact, “Twelve Thirty” is full of
BABY UNIVERSE:
A PUPPET ODYSSEY
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Ave.,
btwn. 24th & 25th Sts.
Through Jan. 9
Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m.;
Sun. at 2 & 7 p.m.
$20, $30 theatermania.com
Or 212-352-3101
Waage, who created the pup-
pets, has a unique sensibil-
ity that doesn’t shy away from
showing the construction of the
puppets, barely masking the
people behind them. It gives the
show a warmth and accessibil-
ity that’s unique and filled with
artistry — and a clear aesthetic
vision. Particularly wonderful
are the interpretations of the
planets, such as the Moon, who
is the henchman of the Sun and
tries to capture and contain the
Baby Universe.
The Baby Universe’s mother,
whose costume looks some-
thing like a cross between the
Virgin Mary’s and a nurse’s, is
especially sweet, and never so
much as when dealing with her
tantrum-prone offspring. The
puppet work by the five-mem-
ber ensemble, including Waage
and Warnock, is always sensi-
tive and evocative, drawing one
deftly into this simple love story.
E
dna O’Brien’s “Haunt-
ed,” which had its US
premiere through Janu-
ary 2 at the Brits Off-Broadway
festival, is heavily overwritten
and clunky in its construction.
Fusty is the word that most
aptly describes it. Freighted with
such sexual tension, especially
in the third act, when Vivien
hold’s Jeff’s penis, and contem-
plates what — and if — more will
occur between them.
Elsewhere, however, Lipsky is
coyly vague in telling the story.
One key sex scene is shot almost
entirely in darkness, with just
the actors’ voices relating the
action. Part of the pleasure of
“Twelve Thirty” is puzzling out
what exactly is true. The writer/
director defends this ambiguous
approach to storytelling, saying,
“I don’t like to tie things up in a
Baby Universe’s mother, as she deals with her tantrum-prone offspring, offers particularly sweet
moments in Kir Jan Waage and Gwendolyn Warnock’s puppet tale.
heavy-handed Shakespeare
allusions, long, florid speeches,
and storytelling that borders
on the ponderous, it is an ama-
teurish work, which is surpris-
ing because O’Brien has a long
history of successful plays and
novels. “Haunted” seems dated
and overly mannered, like plays
from the early part of the 20th
century.
Fortunately, three wonderful
performances by Beth Cooke,
Niall Buggy, and Brenda Blethyn
managed to breathe life into the
play and make it an engaging, if
not satisfying, evening.
Whatever the shortfalls in
the writing, the story is intrigu-
ing. Mr. Berry, retired while his
wife still works, has created the
fantasy that she is dead and
begins to sell off her clothes. He
is bewitched by Hazel, a young
woman who arrives to look at
the clothing, and he plays up
the story of his widowerhood to
win her sympathies.
The very much alive Mrs.
Berry, meanwhile, when not
winning their bread, is trying
desperately to figure out her
husband’s recent estrangement
nice neat bow, so why should
something seem simplistic on
the front end, either?”
The film’s characters are
equally complex. Lipsky
described Jeff as “a complete
innocent who has been experi-
encing all these desires… then
crosses a line and becomes tes-
tosterone out of control,” but
some viewers will see him as
utterly duplicitous. Others, in
contrast, may feel he’s being
manipulated.
Perhaps the most interesting
character is Martin. Lipsky has
5 - 18 JAN 2011
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 JAN 7, from p.19
the porn industry, including meaningless
sex, drugs, and self-degradation, as well
as controversies like racism, gay-for-pay,
and HIV hypocrisy. Xavier takes audience
questions between poems. LGBT Com-
munity Center, 208 W. 13th St. Jan.
JIM BALDASSARE
7, 8 p.m. The suggested donation is $5.
The evening is presented by Men of All
Colors Together/ New York.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
DANCE
from her. Apparently, they were An Evening of
once quite the couple, and Mrs. Shared Visions
Berry is still in love. Gotham Arts Exchange presents a
The couple’s history is haunt- shared evening of dance works by the
ed by a child who died. Mr. DASH Ensemble, Helios Dance Theater,
Berry, with a history of extra- Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and Corbin-
marital dalliances, becomes Dances. The DASH Ensemble will present
more and more careless in his excerpts the duet “Sundowning,” a term
attentions toward Hazel, until that refers to a state of confusion at the
everything comes out in the end of the day and into the night, often
open and things fall apart seem- leading to a state of increased agitation,
ingly for good. activity, and even borderline demented
Beth Cooke does a good job behavior, often among the elderly; and
as Hazel, but she is really a foil “Just Go on with Your Life...,” a piece
to the interactions between Mr. for five dancers created through a series
and Mrs. Berry. As Mr. Berry, of in-depth interviews of graphic and
Niall Buggy does a wonderful visual artists about their artistic pro-
job overcoming the writing and cesses. Helios Dance Theater presents
portraying a rapidly aging man excerpts from “Beautiful Monsters,”
trying to reclaim his youthful which explores the boundaries between
sexuality and spirit. the physical body and the imagination in
Brenda Blethyn is absolutely a romance that defies human limitations
marvelous as Mrs. Berry. She and examines the deep desires of child-
handles the breakdown and hood, romance, and magic through move-
disappointment of her charac- ment, music, and imagery. Camille A.
ter, her stoicism as well as her Brown present excerpts from four dances
heartbreak, alternating between — “City of Rain,” “The Evolution of a
girlish flirtation and outraged Secured Feminine, performed by. Brown;
middle-aged ferocity. She is an “Been There, Done That,” a Brown duet
actress completely in control of with Juel D. Lane; and “The Groove to
the stage and her role, and it is Nobody’s Business,” which imagines
the highlight and saving grace the meeting of strangers on a subway.
of the evening — and the play. CorbinDances presents an excerpt from
“Shady,” a celebration of humanity and
sexuality that will receive its World
a real fondness for this father Premiere at the Joyce Theater in June.
figure, and said he would love to Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W.
explore Martin’s story with Rob- 19th St. Jan. 7-8, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are
ert — his happy, well-adjusted, $15 at dtw.org or 212-924-0077.
but never seen partner — in ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
another film. Creating this minor
character was particularly chal-
lenging, he explained.
“I’ve met many people in my
life who are Martin,” Lipsky said. BRUNCH
SUN.JAN.9
“But I am a heterosexual man, Klezmer Over Easy
so when I write a bi character, I Hailed as “one of the finest American
want to make sure I don’t make klezmer bands” by Songlines Maga-
any mistakes or undercut the zine, Metropolitan Klezmer performs an
䉴 TWELVE THIRTY, continued on p.21 䉴 JAN 9, continued on p.22
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
䉴 JUST JAKE, from p.14
tioned for the role a year ago. I love the
Dracula story — I think it was one of the
first plays I did back in camp when I was
a little kid. I’m thrilled about the cast. I
couldn’t be happier.
DK: How close is this “Dracula” to the
Bram Stoker novel?
JS: The book takes place in the late
19th century, while the play is set in
1914 in an estate on the outskirts of
London, like the original Broadway pro-
duction. While this version stays true to
the original spirit of the book, it is not a
museum piece, but a fresh interpreta-
tion. The director took certain liberties.
DK: Did you research past vampire
portrayals?
JS: I love the genre and have seen tons
of vampire movies. Each one treats them
a little differently. In some, when you are
bitten, you’re turned into a mindless,
bloodthirsty beast. Others, like “Inter-
view with a Vampire,” feature a soul-
searching, sensitive vampire.
DK: What’s your take on the surge
of vampires in pop culture hits such as
“Twilight” and “True Blood?”
JS: In the novel, the character of Drac-
ula was not sexy; he was more of a mon-
ster. He illustrated xenophobia, the fear
of the other, in this case a fear of Eastern
Europeans and their strange ways. Each
version has sexed up the character a lit-
tle bit, and that’s what makes them such
a unique threat. They’re “the devil in a
Sunday hat,” to borrow a phrase from
one of my favorite shows, “True Blood.”
DK: Now that it’s been over three years
since the gay kiss felt round the world,
was it really such a big deal?
JS: What I can’t believe is that it was
such a big deal, and that it took until
2007 to show such a kiss. And I’m
shocked that in this day and age that
[gay] storylines are not more prevalent.
As far as I know, there’s no similar sto-
ryline like ours. It’s kind of sad.
DK: How does it feel to be part of day-
time TV history. Do you think Nuke will
be forgotten?
JS: I’m very proud and flattered to
䉴 TWELVE THIRTY, from p.20
character — that he’s as empathetic and
believable and as important as any other
character in the film.”
Martin has only three scenes in “Twelve
Thirty,” but each one is vivid and criti-
cal to the storyline. His confrontation
with Jeff is one of Lipsky’s favorites. “It
unnerves audiences,” he said gleefully.
“It’s a big shocker.”
Complexities are a big part of what
make the film so noteworthy and refresh-
ing. There is so much there — in the bold
5 – 18 JAN 2011
have been part of that storyline. I can’t
say if it will be forgotten, but it won’t be
anytime soon. People still tell me how
much Noah has meant to them, that the
characters gave them courage to come
out. That’s way more than I ever could
have hoped from any acting job, to help
make lives happier. The writers and
producers who decided to tell the story
deserve a lot of credit.
DK: Did you lock lips only with Luke
or were there other dudes?
JS: For Noah, I think he only kissed
Luke. But after the boys drifted apart,
Luke began seeing another guy. [Pause.]
Um, at least I think my character only
kissed Luke. And if I did kiss another
guy, he certainly did not hold the same
place in my heart.
DK: You and Van had one sex scene,
but the action was off screen. Given
that the straight couples on soaps are
routinely shown in bed together, did
that piss you off, or were you secretly
relieved?
JS: [Laughs.] I think that many sex
scenes in soaps are borderline gra-
tuitous, for the sake of showing a lit-
tle skin. I’m not trying to sound like a
prude. In a dramatic narrative, there’s
certainly a place for those storylines.
But In Luke and Noah’s case, there were
many different ways to tell the story.
They were both virgins, and that’s a
big event. They showed the two of them
afterwards, fresh from a shower, refer-
ring to what happened. Some people
were upset that they didn’t show the sex.
DK: Do you feel the post-sex scene
was a fair enough depiction?
JS: No, I don’t. There was probably a
happy medium somewhere in between
that they could have shown.
DK: Surfing the blogosphere, I see that
“ATWT” fans are rabidly obsessive. How
did you handle their reaction, to both the
kiss and your evolving relationship?
JS: The fans have always been sup-
portive and enthusiastic. Early on, I
attended an annual fan luncheon. We
hadn’t aired yet, so no one should have
known who I was. Yet several people
had my headshots all ready to sign. I
was stunned — how did you get those
storytelling, the characters’ behavior, and
the actors’ daring performances — that
“Twelve Thirty” practically demands a
second look for audiences to take in and
believe what they have seen.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center will
host a Jeff Lipsky double feature on Jan.
10 at 6:15 p.m.. A screening of Lipsky’s
2006 film “Flannel Pajamas” will precede
a preview of “Twelve Thirty.” Both films
will be followed by a Q&A with Lipsky and
select cast members. Visit filmlinc.com for
full details and tickets.
21
and why do you want my autograph? It stand, it’s a natural question. But it’s
taught me that the fans are devoted. Do odd to me.
they love my character and the storyline
or do they love me? As time went on, I DK: After “Dracula,” what’s next?
learned it was both. JS: It’s a mystery to me. I’ve got a
number of projects I’d love to pursue.
DK: Do you feel that playing an iconic I’m workshopping a short film called
gay has helped or hindered your career? “Stuffer” to be expanded into a feature-
JS: It’s still strange for me to think length movie. Keeping busy is my motto.
that Noah is iconic. I can only answer Even if it’s not a major TV show or play, I
in the positive. I had such a wonder- always need to be working on something.
ful experience playing Noah, and I will
always think back on him fondly. It was DK: Thanks for taking the time to
three awesome years of my life and has speak with me.
only helped my career. JS: To be honest, at first when I heard
you were going to ask about Luke and
DK: Your Wikipedia bio describes you Noah, part of me wasn’t sure I wanted
as “identifying as straight.” To avoid dis- to talk about it. I did so many interviews
heartening your gay fan base, did you before, it’s old news. But I rethought it,
ever feel the need to be a closeted hetero- and realized, for anyone who doesn’t
sexual? know the storyline, all of the episodes are
JS: No, I never thought that. In the posted on YouTube. So if the story can
beginning it was annoying when the first help anyone, I’m always up for talking
question everybody asked was, “Oh, are about it.
you gay?” Literally everyone, no excep-
tion. No offense to anyone, but I was sur- Nuke’s first kiss can be found at you-
prised. I mean, on the one hand I under- tube.com/watch?v=0LTkKQimFs4.
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22 5 – 18 JAN 2011 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM

䉴 IN THE NOH, from p.19

queens adore playing to get into

a questionable “party” mood:
14 DAYS
“That was pretty vile. I know
where that came from and how
it was obtained by people. These
conversations were meant to be
14 NIGHTS
䉴 JAN 9, from p.20
private and were made public,
and I’ve heard parts of them, exhilarating range of musical treasures
but it all has a big ‘ick’ factor with agility and depth. Eight exceptional
for me. I wonder if these peo- New York musicians combine the best of
ple would play it if I was in the downtown, classical, and world music
room, or my sister or brother or scenes to create inspired neo-traditional
my children? They’re all exploit- interpretations and compositions around
ing someone who had a part a panoply of eclectic Yiddish repertoire
of her life that was tragic. She — rollicking dance, ethereal trance,
wasn’t, but she had tragedies in imaginatively-arranged Yiddish swing
her life, as we all do. But, again, and tango, plus genre-expanding origi-
people like to watch car crashes nals such as original klezmer cumbia.

and people in public life crash-
ing and burning and reality TV
shows. I don’t wanna see that.
Thank God I have a clicker,
which everyone has a right to
have in America!”
Luft’s book sparked rumors
of a rift it caused between her
and sister Liza Minnelli: “Again,
I love the fact that all this stuff
goes out there! We have both
made a conscious decision not
to talk about our relationship
because whatever we have said,
nobody wants to hear that we
Anthony Rapp (r.) and Adam Pascal, who co-starred in “Rent,” reunite for an evening at Town Hall on January 10.
buy into the drama.”
Luft’s favorite Garland song?
“There are so many, but there’s
one, ‘Through the Years,’ which
was one of her favorite songs,
that I duet with her in my show.
It’s such a great lyric and was
not one of her most infamous
songs, but one she really loved.”
came out in 2000, songs I’ve
written since then, this Radio-
head song ‘Creep,’ which they
don’t perform in concert any-
more, a ‘Hedwig and the Angry
Inch’ song, because I got to play
that a few years ago. Then Adam
and I will sing “Rent” songs,
stripped down and totally differ-
ent.”
KENNAN BROWN
Today, the band plays the brunch scene
at City Winery, 155 Varick St. at Van-
dam St., 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Seating begins
at 10 a.m. There is a door charge of $10,
though children under 13 enter free.
you’re gay and kind of like the ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
idea of otherness and queer-
ness, and celebrate it. FILM
“My coming out? Part of what The Cloudy
happened was in 1992 when I Caribbean
was cast as a replacement for The Chillfest Second Sunday Series,
John Cameron Mitchell in ‘Des- the Jersey City gathering that offers
tiny of Me,’ so I got to be around LGBT-themed films to cap the weekend,
[playwright] Larry Kramer, and presents “Children of God,” Kareem
that was very galvanizing in the Mortimer’s story of virulent homopho-

really like each other. So we now
say nothing because if you keep
it personal between the two of
you, it’s special. Once you put it
out there, everybody starts talk-
ing, so let’s just not do that.”
Of all Garland’s films, “A Star
is Born” has a special appeal for
“The younger generations profoundly
don’t care if you’re gay and kind
of like the idea of otherness
and queerness.”
Luft “because of her extraordi-
nary performance and it is so
well written by Moss Hart. It
was like Carnegie Hall, when
all this talent and the stars
lined up, and then you had this
idiot, Jack Warner, who decides
to take a pair of scissors to it.”
Asked about that certain mys-
terious collector who swears
he has all the cut footage from
the film intact, Luft sighed, “Oh
yeah, okay, sure! I know this
guy, and you sort of wannna
say, ‘Okay, if you’re gonna run
around and say you have this,
either you’re going to share it
with the class or the class is
gonna leave, ’cause we’re all sort
of done with it.’ I’m not going to
“R
ent” co-stars Antho-
ny Rapp and Adam
Pascal are reteam-
ing for a Town Hall concert on
January 10 (123 W. 43rd St.;
8 p.m.; the-townhall-nyc.org),
presented by Feinstein’s at
Loew’s Regency, and I fought
my way through the security at
the Regency Hotel (there for a
visiting Israeli dignitary) to hear
Rapp rap about it.
“Adam and I have been
friends for all these years,” he
said, “and doing our own music,
but it was really his idea. It was
something I’d thought about,
but I don’t want to impose
myself on other people, so I’m
glad he did it. Our sets are very
different, yet complementary.
His is more stripped down and
atmospheric with that incredible
voice of his, then I do one that is
straight-ahead rock band stuff,
and then we do stuff together.
“I do some original stuff from
my album. ‘Look Around,’ which
Rapp just retur ned from
Seoul, South Korea, where he
performed his one-man show,
“Without You,” a sell-out at last
year’s NYMF festival: “Adam
and I were on tour with ‘Rent’
there last year, and our pro-
ducer brought me back for four
weeks. I was so conscious on
my first night that Seoul is still
pretty closeted, and there’s con-
tent in my show where I talk
about coming out to my Mom.
There’s very little open conver-
sation about that, so it meant a
lot to me to do that there. I had a
signing after every performance
and a lot of people didn’t speak
much English, but I got letters,
like one from a young man say-
ing how the ‘Rent’ DVD helped
him come to terms with his sex-
uality and inspired him to work
for equality in South Korea. So,
just being in touch with that
ripple effect was really powerful.
“Musical theater is really
exploding in South Korea, but
they still haven’t quite devel-
oped the infrastructure for it.
But audiences are really eager,
so they’re throwing everything
at the wall to see what sticks.
My show was 90 percent young
women, not gay men, but then
that’s the case in America, too.
I don’t know why that is, but I
do believe that the younger gen-
erations profoundly don’t care if
early ’90s, which was still going
pretty crazy around AIDS. There
was no way not to be out for me.
I understand that people strug-
gle with it, with their families,
and there are certainly celebri-
ties who are closeted, which will
probably always be the case.
But I wish they would accept it
because with all these kids right
now the stakes are higher all
the time. How much money do
you need? Are you really afraid
of ruining your career, which it
probably won’t, anyway? You
could make a huge difference,
especially celebrities of color.
“I’ve never had any backlash
from it, at least never to my face.
If there somehow has been, I’ve
worked enough, so it’s balanced
out. Maybe conversations have
happened in closed rooms, but I
don’t know or care, and it’s only
brought good things to my life.”
“Rent” remains special to
Rapp and, although composer
Jonathan Larsen’s untimely
death was a tragedy, he told
me, “Dan Weiss, one of ‘Rent’s’
original band members, told me
this story in Korea that Jona-
than’s last night on earth was
our dress rehearsal, and, after-
wards, the audience clamored
around him.
“The New York Times’ Antho-
䉴 IN THE NOH, continued on p.23
bia shadowing a young biracial couple
in the sunny Caribbean. Set against
the backdrop of a nation grappling with
violent homophobic crime and offering
a scathing examination of the underly-
ing hatred for gays rampant in Carib-
bean societies, Bahamian Mortimer’s
debut narrative feature tells the stories
of three very different individuals —
Lena, the conservative, deeply religious
wife of a secretly gay firebrand pastor;
Romeo, a handsome young black man
hiding his sexuality from his close-knit
and loving family; and Jonny, the con-
flicted and creatively-blocked white
artist in search of himself. LITM Bar
& Restaurant, 140 Newark Ave., a
half block from the Grove St. PATH
station., 4 p.m. LITM offers a full bar
and dinner menu. Admission for the
screening is $7 in advance at chillfest.
org or $10 at the door.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
COMEDY
Get Jewsy
TruTV’s Brad Loekle gets in touch
with his inner Israelite in an evening
of killer Jewish humor. Headliner
Ophira Eisenberg (Comedy Central) is
joined by Adam Lehman (Here! TV’s
“Hot Gay Comics”) and Erica Was-
ser. Therapy Bar, 348 W. 52nd St.,
10 p.m. There’s no cover charge, and
cosmos are $7 as long as you can
count out the money.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
䉴 14 DAYS, continued on p.24
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
■ DANCE
Art Battles HIV
Prize-winning stories to inspire an Ailey dance
BY LORI ORTIZ
I
n a new twist on creative collabora-
tion, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS),
maker of Reyataz, a drug used in
combination therapy to treat HIV, is part-
nering with Alvin Ailey Dance Theater
(AADT). BMS is, at this point, the major
donor for the development of a new work
inspired by photos and essays created
by or about people living with HIV.
Speaking by phone, BMS’ Cristi Bar-
nett said, “We’ve had an ongoing commit-
ment to increasing public awareness.”
The company started the Reyataz
“Fight HIV Your Way” contest in 2006,
calling for essays and photos and dis-
playing the winning entries in a travel-
ing exhibit.
“This year, we wanted to get more peo-
ple involved and aware, and that’s when
we contacted Ailey,” Barnett explained.
The goal is to inspire people to con-
tinue the fight against AIDS. The drug
giant recognized the power of dance ––
and of the Ailey company, in particular
–– to create a positive image.
The cause could not be closer to
AADT’s heart. Founder Alvin Ailey died
䉴 IN THE NOH, from p.22
ny Tommasini was there to cover it
because it was the 100th anniversary of
‘La Boheme,’ but he was so blown away
he asked Jonathan to sit for an on-the-
spot interview. At some point Dan asked
Jonathan how he was doing and Jona-
than said, ‘I feel like I’m the luckiest man
alive.’ So I’m comforted knowing that he
felt that and had no idea of what was to
come. It remains unbelievable to me.”
“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”
followed “Rent,” in which Rapp was wit-
ness to the star being born that was
Kristin Chenoweth, whom he said every-
one thought was great in the rehearsal
room, “but when we opened in Chicago,
the audience went bananas for every-
thing Kristin did, and then Ben Brant-
䉴 LONESOME COWBOY, from p.15
ation, which was inspired by a reflection
on French author and feminist Élisabeth
Badinter’s “XY, de l’identité masculine,”
first published in 1992.
“It’s not new,” the choreographer
responded when asked about the text,
“but all the others on masculine identity
reference this one.”
“The male condition,” he argued, “is
always defined in opposition to the femi-
nine. The fact that we all come from the
5 – 18 JAN 2011
of AIDS at the age of 58 — a fact he
wanted hidden. Afterward, the company
carefully complied and, even five years
later, the official cause was explained
as “a rare blood disease” or “a rare liver
disease.”
Ailey died on December 1, 1989,
and former company star Judith Jami-
son stepped in to lead as artistic direc-
tor for more than two decades. Exactly
21 years after the founder’s passing,
on World AIDS Day 2010, Jamison
announced the Reyataz contest, kicking
off the company’s City Center engage-
ment — and her final season.
Robert Battle, the choreographer
who founded the much smaller modern
dance troupe Battleworks, is taking over.
The contest collaboration fell into his lap.
It was his first decision as Ailey artistic
director designate, and he saw it as an
opportunity.
“I think it is a good start, to try and
raise awareness with something that
is profound — and what is more pro-
found than a work of art,” he said in his
light-filled office overlooking downtown
Manhattan and the still emptyish space
where the World Trade Center was. “We
ley wrote like five paragraphs about
her in the Times. So what happened for
her was what happened for all of us in
‘Rent,’ but this time only for her. We were
very happy for her, but she was in this
crazy position, because Brantley had
also maligned the show — this amazing
moment in her life in this panned show
she loved with all these people we loved.
“Of course, we didn’t hate her, were
happy for her, but sad that the show
didn’t get the life it deserved. Brantley
wrote something like the audience felt
there was a black hole in the room, and I
know the night he was there the audience
was going nuts for it. It’s so strange.”
Critics! They’re like awards: “I’ve been
reported as having been Tony-nominat-
ed for ‘Rent,’ which I wasn’t. I even knew
mother creates the condition that I am
not in this world, but in another world.”
As the song goes, “Got nothing against
women/ But I wave them all goodbye.”
Saire explained, “It was a choice to
remove women from the definition of mas-
culinity, or what might be considered fem-
inine qualities, for instance nurturing.”
He then added, “It was a question to
think about this. It is in the background
of everything, but there is no allusion to
the feminine, except the kilts, which are
also the ultimate in manliness.”
know about the power of negative imagi-
nation but what about the power of what
positive imagination can do? I see this as
a real opportunity to say something.”
“Revelations,” the story of African-
American perseverance told in dances
set to spirituals and blues, opened the
teenage Battle’s eyes when the Ailey
company performed it in South Beach,
near his Florida home town. “The fact
that somebody made a dance and liber-
ated people, in a way. I know that it did
that for me and millions of others — to
see something of themselves on stage.”
Imagine how radical it was at its
1960 premiere years before.
“It took me a long time to get from
there to here,” Battle acknowledged.
Sylvia Waters saw his 2001 “Hunt”
and commissioned it for Ailey. Since
then, he has made 11 eleven dances for
AADT. He will not choreograph the new
dance about HIV himself. He could not
yet name his choice but said it may not
be an obvious one.
“That’s interesting to me, to chal-
lenge what we know about something,”
Battle said.
It will be interesting to see his owner-
someone who was on the Tony commit-
tee that year who told me, ‘I just want
you to know that there were voters in
that room who literally couldn’t remem-
ber which one was Adam and which was
you. They were confused! [My brother]
Adam [Rapp] was nominated for a Pulit-
zer, but that was the year they decided to
give no award, and that’s almost worse.
It’s fine, nice to get recognition, and it’s
beautiful that Jonathan Larsen will
always be known as a Pulitzer Prize win-
ner, but at the same time, if he wasn’t, it
wouldn’t mean the show isn’t as amaz-
ing as it is.”
Rapp has a boyfriend, Michael
Quadrino: “He’s a figure skater, which
is a crazy, brutal, competitive world that
I have so much respect for, but no envy
To choreograph the work, which pre-
miered in 2009, the company explored
many different approaches.
“I was not so sure to do so much on
sports,” Saire said. “We did a lot of impro-
visation. I did not want to do a diction-
ary of different sports. Instead, we tried
many situations. Sometimes we worked
with words thematic of provocation. We
did heavy working on clichés of masculin-
ity, and from this decided some things to
build and develop.”
The piece is divided into various chap-
23
ship of the project and of Ailey’s future.
Jamison, announcing the contest
on Ailey’s opening night, said AADT “is
proud to be paying homage to the thou-
sands of individuals fighting HIV their
way and looks forward to unveiling this
original collaboration next year.”
Anyone with a personal story to
share is invited to enter at fightHIVy-
ourway.com or by mail by February
28, “even if you don’t have HIV,” said
Barnett. Although the contest aims to
increase awareness, according to the
website, winning contestants can later
opt out of releasing identifying informa-
tion. The first prize is a three-day trip
for two to New York, with hotel, a gener-
ous spending stipend, and tickets to the
Ailey show. Fifteen second-place winners
get pairs of show tickets.
So far, the confirmed judges are Jami-
son, Broadway Dreamgirl Sheryl Lee
Ralph, and POZ magazine editor Regan
Hofmann. They were chosen based on
their previous efforts in HIV advocacy
and with helping to alleviate the stigma.
Last year, Jaqueline of North Carolina
won first place. Entries were shown in
Union Square, San Francisco.
of. There’s so much hard work, degra-
dation, and struggle for so little reward.
It’s worse than being a dancer because
skating is such a tiny, tiny window of
opportunity. Michael’s brother, an actor,
had read my book, and Michael had
just broken his ankle and was devas-
tated and low. Danny thought my book
might help him, and Michael read it and
wrote a really nice email about how my
book helped his experience. I wrote him
back and we started a correspondence,
became friends, and a few months into
it, something more. More unlikely and
kind of wonderful.”
Contact David Noh at Inthenoh@aol.
com and check out his new blog at http://
nohway.wordpress.com/.
ters, with blackouts in between the sec-
tions. Military themes, team athletics, and
other group activities predominate. But a
final duet, a wrestling match, distills the
message down to an irreducible, recogniz-
able sign.
Despite racial differences between the
two performers, there is no colonial or
post-colonial message embedded in the
linguistics of this culminating dance. Men
are quite the same all over, the message
seems to convey, culture notwithstand-
ing.

24/ Opera
December Divas
An operatic roundup from the Hudson to the Delaware
BY DAVID SHENGOLD
D
ecember 1 found the
gazillionth performance
of the 1981 Zeffirelli
“La Boheme” beset by scenery
wagon woes, making the con-
cise opera last almost as long as
“Parsifal.” Also complicit was the
(nominal) conductor, Roberto
Rizzi Brignoli. Every year the
company secures the services of
some European conductors of
imperceptible gifts –– Heaven for-
fend any women be hired, or any
of the talented assistant conduc-
tors be deployed!
I can’t remember any Met
“Boheme” more orchestrally
lame than what Rizzi Brignoli
provided, bobbling on episodi-
cally with no sense of cohesive
flow and occasional imminent
train wrecks averted by the
orchestra’s experience in this
score. Can’t the Met do better
than this? Same thought on the
debutant Schaunard, Dimitris
Tilakos, a worn, grainy, non-re-
fulgent baritone. Surely there are
better Schaunards at Juilliard.
The three leads made the eve-
ning memorable. Krassimira
Stoyanova and Joseph Calleja
are well-matched –– not flashy
posturers, but prepared, stylish,
and sensitive musicians with
world-class instruments. They
share a concern for dynamic
subtlety and well-knit line that
almost sounds old-fashioned
in its rarity. Though slim and
touching, the Bulgarian soprano
–– a major star in Vienna and a
detailed actress –– doesn’t fit
the house’s current demand for
dewy telebabeness and has been
shamefully underutilized. Calleja
makes his points with innate
charm; his tight vibrato carries
his pitch-sure tenor out into the
house.
In her first in-house lead, Ellie
Dehn had a wonderful evening
as a clearly articulated, clean-
voiced Musetta, adorable but
not outlandish. Can we hear
this fine Mozartean singing her
specialty? Fabio Capitanucci
(Marcello), if unsensational,
showed a healthy italianate
baritone and some spirit. Bass
Guenther Groissboeck showed
basic stageworthiness and
vocal caliber, even if his Col-
every now and again, but the all-
important middle voice is warm
and full and most of the high
attacks were dead-on and thrill-
ing. She acted it beautifully. The
audience acclaim for a soprano
hitherto unknown in New York
was deservedly vociferous;
many in Nicola Luisotti’s excel-
lent orchestra stayed to applaud
her –– a rare compliment.
KEN HOWARD/ METROPOLITAN OPERA
I
happily made the acquain-
tance December 11 of Sym-
phony in C, a highly impres-
sive “training orchestra” under
Philadelphia Orchestra assis-
tant conductor Rossen Milanov
With Magdalena Kozena, Stephane Degout serving Camden with outreach
contributed to a fetching, sonorous title two- programs and a concert series
some in the Met production of “Pelleas et in a handsome, acoustically
Melisande,” seen December 17. strong hall on that often over-
looked city’s Rutgers campus.
line emerged oddly straight- In its fifth year, Symphony in C
toned. draws young musicians from all
over the region, often accompa-
D
espite Jonathan Mill- nied by rising soloists.
er’s stuffily Edwardian, On this baroque-themed con-
distraction-filled pro- cert’s evidence, Milanov has
duction, “Pelleas et Melisande” achieved remarkable results in
(December 17) proved as strong
an event as the Met has pro-
duced this season. Simon Rat-
fostering both smooth ensemble
and stylistic awareness. A crisply
played Vivaldi string concerto
tle made a long overdue debut preceded Paul Moravec’s highly
leading Debussy’s nonpareil successful 2008 “Brandenburg
score with fine control, trans- Gate,” at once an homage to
parent clarity, dramatic pacing, Bach (using the chromatic motif
and a beautiful palette of color. playing on the German note
Let’s have Rattle back speedily. values dictated by the letters of
The universally fine cast of his surname famously favored
nuanced singing actors fea- by Bach himself) and a medita-
tured a fetching, sonorous title tion on the Berlin Wall’s fall. Two
twosome (Stephane Degout and headlong, rushing sections sur-
Magdalena Kozena), Gerald Fin- round (with no pause) a lovely,
ley –– he of the superior textual mysterious ruminative core. The
projection –– in another aston- orchestra played this fine, dis-
ishing star turn as Golaud, the tinctive work superbly; special
regal, ultra-Gallic Genevieve kudos to flautist Megan Emigh.
of Felicity Palmer, and Willard The Pergolesi “Stabat Mater”
White’s weathered, noble Arkel. (1736) was perhaps the most
A great Met evening! influential piece of classical
vocal music of its century, as
D
ecember 22 proved “Guillaume Tell” and “Tristan”
another such, as Por- were to be in the following one.
tuguese soprano Elisa- Again, the players achieved
bete Matos climbed expertly admirable ensemble and polish.
into the tall saddle of Minnie Countertenor Anthony Roth
in “Fanciulla del West” –– an Costanzo, who has soared at
incredibly tough role that she NYCO and the Philharmonic,
met with dramatic accomplish- excelled in his first encounter
ment, enthusiastic passion, and with a work that should become
an old-fashioned italianate voice a staple for him. His ability to
with thrust and lots of different shape and color long musical
tone colors. phrases with both feeling and
There are some rough spots technical aplomb is remarkable.
Sarah Moulton sang credit-
able decorations, including the
startlingly avian trills of the
“Cujus animam,” but her bright,
stopped-down soprano encoun-
tered some pitch difficulties,
and the text’s gravitas –– con-
sistent even when the music
“sounds happy” –– seemingly
eluded her.
But Symphony in C showed
itself an ensemble well worth
following.
T
he Philharmonic’s “Mes-
siah” December 16
proved a joyous, fast-
moving affair under Bernard
Labadie; the New York Choral
Artists rocked.
Labadie brought along two
fellow countrywomen in out-
rageously tacky gowns (it’s
not as if Quebec lacks for gay
advice!) but with delightfully
–– in the contralto Marie-Nicole
Lemieux’s case, almost vehe-
mently –– dramatic approaches
to what is after all a shared nar-
rative of wonders and sorrow,
plus excellent, fluent style and
attractive, individual timbres.
The overhyped Danielle de Niese
might learn much about Han-
delian style –– and focused, even
tone –– from listening to Karina
Gauvin.
Andrew Foster -Williams
made the bass music penetrat-
ing, vibrant, and clean of divi-
sion. Bravo!
While Tilman Lichdi (a good
Bach evangelist, but this music
lies higher) was aspirating col-
oratura, distorting English
vowel sounds and approximat-
ing the consonants “l” and “r” in
“Ev’ry Valley,” I made a list of 13
qualified North American tenors
whom the Phil’s ever-xenophil-
iac casting people might have
hired instead –– in alphabetical
order, Frederic Antoun, Law-
rence Brownlee, William Bur-
den, Richard Clement, Richard
Croft, William Ferguson, Antho-
ny Dean Griffey, Keith Jame-
son , Lawrence Jones, Matthew
Polenzani, Nicholas Phan, Bruce
Sledge, Kurt Streit, Kenneth
Tarver, and John Tessier.
David Shengold (shengold@
yahoo.com) writes about opera
for many venues.
5 - 18 JAN 2011
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 14 DAYS, from p.22
MON.JAN.10
PERFORMANCE
Boys Will Be Boys
“Boys Night Out: An Evening With…
Michael John LaChiusa” is the Transport
Group’s intimate evening of talk and song
celebrating the male roles from the musi-
cal songbook of five-time Tony nominated
composer LaChiusa. His work includes
“Little Fish,” “Marie Christine,” “See
What I Wanna See,” “Hello Again,” and
“The Wild Party.” The evening also fea-
tures the New York debut of songs from
two upcoming world-premiere musicals,
“Giant” and “Queen of the Mist.” Mary
Testa hosts a lineup that includes Bobby
Steggert, Malcolm Gets, Chad Kimball,
Marc Kudisch, Steven Pasquale, Andrew
Samonsky, Titus Burgess, Chuck Cooper,
and Alexander Gemignani. Mainstage
Theater at Playwrights Horizons, 416
W. 42nd St., 7 p.m. Tickets are $55 – $125
at transportgroup.org or 212-564-0333.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
GALLERY
TUE.JAN.11
Transcendent
Photography
In a window gallery exhibition titled
“Home Sweet Homo,” the Leslie/ Lohm-
an Gay Art Foundation will feature eight
new larger than life-size photographic
prints highlighting human beings of
transgender experience photographed
by Amos Mac and Katie Koti. One of the
works on display will be Mac’s 40 in. x
30 in. 2010 digital photo of Justin Bond.
An interview with Mac is featured in the
latest issue of Leslie/ Lohman’s quarter
publication The Archive. Leslie/ Lohm-
an’s ongoing window gallery series is
curated by Cora Lambert and brings the
work of LGBTQ artists to a public domain
to tackle issues of sex, gender, iden-
tity, and pop culture. Leslie/ Lohman
is located at 26 Wooster St., btwn.
Canal & Grand Sts. Opening recep-
tion is Jan. 11, 6-8 p.m. “Home Sweet
Homo” is on exhibit through Mar. 12.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
COMEDY
When Reno Talks…
“Money Talks” is an ongoing per-
formance series by Reno, who has long
been bullish (in the sense of “...in a
䉴 JAN 11, continued on p.26
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 5 – 18 JAN 2011 25

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26
■ LEGAL
Sperm Donor Owes Support 14 NIGHTS
Nearly seven years after child’s birth, gay man who insisted on paternity dunned
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
T
he Ohio Court of Appeals
has ruled that a gay man
who donated sperm to
a lesbian couple so they could
conceive a child and subse-
quently sought a declaration of
paternity was obligated to pay
for support of the child.
The court held that the fail-
ure of the man, Robert Curtis,
to appeal the original paternity
determination (which, after all,
he sought) barred his attempt
six years later to resist a child
support order.
According to Judge Carla
Moore’s December 8 opinion,
domestic partners Laura Prince
and Vicki Griffin asked Curtis,
who is gay and was a friend at
the time, to donate sperm so
they could conceive a child.
After initially resisting, he
agreed, and a child conceived
with his sperm, identified in
court records as M.P., was born
to Prince in July 2002. Curtis,
Prince, and Griffin had signed
䉴 ENDING VIOLENCE, from p.9
killer Joel Rifkin laughed aloud
at the interviewer’s inquiry as to
why sex workers were targeted
by him and the “Seaside Slay-
er.” His response was simple,
“No family,” he said, “no one
is looking.” The unprecedent-
ed and global turnout at the
recent Day to End Violence
puts a lie to Rifkin’s claim.
As Audacia Ray, one of the
䉴 QUEER ISSUES, from p.11
LGBT community on high alert,
and not just because there are
queer immigrants who are going
to get screwed by this xenopho-
bic wave like their hetero peers.
Hate and fear have a way of
persisting, and expanding like
wind-caught spores. That is
why we, as out queers, should
join the fight against anti-
immigrant bills. Half a dozen
states are planning not only
to block paths to citizenship,
but strip away current rights
of undocumented immigrants,
including schooling, health
care, and even automatic citi-
a written agreement provid-
ing that his name would not
appear on the birth certificate
and he would not be designated
as the father, but that he could
babysit the child from time to
time.
Shortly after the child’s
birth, however, Curtis insti-
tuted an administrative pro-
ceeding before the Summit
County Child Support Enforce-
ment Agency to determine his
paternity. On November 27,
2002, an administrative pater-
nity determination that he was
the father was issued. Sev-
eral months later, the agency
ordered Curtis to provide child
support of $282.56 per month,
but he successfully appealed to
a trial court, which found that
Prince had waived such sup-
port. That court’s records show
Curtis sought an order for par-
enting time with M.P., but that
he was told he would have to
file a separate motion on that
question. He never did so.
Curtis subsequently moved
event’s organizers, said, “Our
families are made by blood,
by choice, and by love. The
idea that no one cares when
we go missing comes from
people who don’t care. We
care.”
As a male hustler, some-
one who proudly straddles
the line between our commu-
nities, I invite you to stand
witness, too, as our commu-
nities first did at Compton’s
zenship for children born in
this country — guaranteed by
the Fourteenth Amendment.
Most of the legislation is
based on measures pioneered
in Arizona, even though many
of them were struck down by
courts. In Oklahoma, where
they’re calling their efforts
“Arizona plus,” they are even
including provisions that
would allow cops to seize any
vehicles and property that
transported or “harbored”
undocumented immigrants.
Which means somebody could
work, pay taxes, buy a car or
house, and have it stolen out
from under them. Laws don’t
5 – 18 JAN 2011
14 DAYS
from Ohio to Florida, where
he currently resides. Prince,
meanwhile, evidently changed
her mind about needing child
support for M.P., as the Sum-
mit County agency filed an
administrative action seeking
child support on her behalf in
December 2008. A magistrate
who heard the case in April
2009, with both Curtis and
Prince appearing without attor-
neys, rejected Curtis’ argument
that as a sperm donor for alter-
native insemination, he should
not be held liable for child sup-
port. He was ordered to pay
$533.22 a month.
Curtis, at this point, decided
he needed a lawyer, with whose
help he went to a trial court,
which sustained his objec-
tion to the support order. The
Summit County child agency
appealed.
The court of appeals agreed
with the agency’s argument
that the trial court abused its
discretion in its finding that
Prince and Curtis had engaged
Cafeteria in San Francisco
and Stonewall. Our enemies
are too great for sex workers
to defeat alone. I urge you not
to allow the mainstream of
the movement to desert us in
hopes of future “respectabil-
ity.” Queer and transgender
people will never be respect-
able in the eyes of America, no
matter how much property we
own or how normal-seeming
our demeanor. Our dignity
apply. An attitude that can be
habit-forming.
Do you really think that legis-
lators — or cops for that matter
— who perceive every brown-
skinned person as probably
outside the law are really going
to care if a fag gets beaten up
in front of a bar or in a school-
yard? Or if a dyke gets raped or
loses her job? If a tranny gets
killed? When the circle of peo-
ple acceptable to the law gets
smaller and smaller, do you
really think they’ll let us in?
As long as we persist in see-
ing LGBT rights as a separate
entity, a potted plant, that we
can keep separate from the
in “artificial insemination,”
given the official determina-
tion of Curtis’ paternity. Judge
Moore pointed out that an
administrative determination
not appealed stands as a final
judgment on the merits. His
appeal of the 2003 child sup-
port order, in contrast, was
never judicially decided, since
Prince had then waived her
right to support.
“Any challenge regarding
artificial insemination should
have been raised at that time,”
wrote Moore. Having failed to
do that in 2003 precluded him,
six years later, from mount-
ing that defense against a child
support claim.
The Ohio court’s order that
he pay child support is enforce-
able in Florida.
Summit County prosecuting
attorneys Sherri Bevan Walsh
and Lisa M. Vitale represented
the child support agency and
Prince, with private attorney
Sarah Gabinet representing
Curtis on the appeal.
and “respectability” shouldn’t
be measured by some external
standard. True respectability
is measured by our commit-
ment to a concept of liberty
that includes all people.
Visit the site of the Sex Work-
ers Outreach Project (SWOP-NYC)
at swop-nyc.org to find out more
about the Day to End Violence.
To contact Will Rockwell, write
will@spreadmagazine.org.
rest of the ecosystem, we may
make limited progress, but not
real change. We need an entire
society that values human
rights and liberation. Sure,
queers have to keep working
on queer issues. But it’s time
we do it with our eyes open.
Paying attention. Remember-
ing the whole that we’re only
one part of.
For baby dykes, activists, and
anybody who’s ever wanted to
save the world, visit the Lesbian
Avenger Documentary Project at
lesbianavengers.com. Check out
Kelly Sans Culotte at http://kel-
lyatlarge.blogspot.com/.
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
䉴 JAN 11, from p.24
china shop”). She’s got Wall Street in
her bull’s eye as she continues develop-
ing her latest stage presentation. In
each performance, she brings a finance
professional onstage with her; she has
appeared with several Nobel Prize-win-
ning economists as well as a former
chief financial officer of the world’s
second largest bank. Check out where
tonight’s performance takes her — and
you. Dixon Place is at 161A Christie
Pl., btwn. Rivington & Delancey
Sts. Jan. 11, 7:30 p. m. Tickets are
$20; $15 for students and seniors at
dixonplace.org.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
COMEDY
WED.JAN.12
Everything’s
Coming Up Rozzi
In his latest comedy series, “That
Sank Show,” Hell’s Kitchen’s fave
stripping gypsy (or is that strapping?),
Adam Sank, welcomes Giulia Rozzi,
co-host of UCB Theater’s hilarious
and titillating “Stripped Stories,”
Hilary Schwartz (“Nice Jewish Girls
Gone Bad”), and Calvin Cato (the
North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival).
The evening also offers the chance
to win free drinks in Sank’s weekly
trivia contest, “Are You Smarter Than
a Homo?” Bar-Tini Ultra Lounge,
642 Tenth Ave., btwn. 45th & 46th
Sts., 9 p.m. There’s no cover and no
drink minimum. We can’t say whether
there’s any drink maximum.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
NIGHTLIFE
SAT.JAN.15
Bears in the
Age of Reagan
Dance:208’s annual ’80s party
features DJ Josh Sparber making
his Center debut, spinning a mix of
disco, new wave, and funk. Expect
to hear all your faves from Janet and
Donna to Prince and Michael, from
Siouxsie and Debbie to Kylie and
Chryssie. And, of course, Madonna.
Don’t forget your headbands and
legwarmers. Tonight is Bear Club
night, so your membership gets you
in for $6. Otherwise, admission is
$10. LGBT Community Center, 208
W. 13th St., 9 p.m.-1 a.m.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
䉴 14 DAYS, continued on p.27
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 14 DAYS, from p.26
COMMUNITY
SUN. JAN 16
Women Having a
Cold Blast
The LQ Club — with its ample
dance floor and plenty of extra room
for socializing —has proved to be
a very popular venue for the SAGE
Women’s Dances, so the crowd will
gather there once again for the annual
Winter Blast. DJ NancyB provides
the music of all ages, from romantic
oldies to hip-hop, reggae, rock, and
dance — for women of all ages and
backgrounds. The dance raffle sports
generous prizes. The LQ Club is
located at 511 Lexington Ave. at
48th St., 3:30-8:30 p.m. Admission is
$20 at sageusa.com/womensdance,
212-741-2247, or in room 2007 at
the LGBT Community Center, 208
W. 13th St.; $25 at the door. Discount
garage parking is available near the
club. All proceeds benefit SAGE, Ser-
vices & Advocacy for GLBT Elders.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ 8 in these proceedings, it is not
MON.JAN.17
COMMUNITY
Remembering Dr.
King
BAM plays host to “Come Share the
Dream,” the 25th annual Brooklyn Trib-
ute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Walter
Mosley, the acclaimed novelist (“Devil
in a Blue Dress”) and social commen-
tator, delivers the keynote address in
a program that includes inspirational
performances by the Persuasions and
the Reverend Timothy Wright Memo-
rial Choir of the Grace Tabernacle
Christian Center. The event’s master
of ceremonies will be Deputy Borough
President Yvonne J. Graham, and there
will be remarks by Borough President
Marty Markowitz, Medgar Evers Col-
lege president Dr. William Pollard,
BAM president Karen Brooks Hopkins,
and BAM executive producer Joseph
V. Melillo. BAM Howard Gilman
Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave. at
Ashland Pl, 10:30 a.m. Following the
tribute, BAM Rose Cinemas presents a
free screening of “Neshoba: the Price
of Freedom,” an award-winning docu-
mentary about events and attitudes in
Neshoba County, Mississippi, 40 years
after three civil rights workers were
murdered there in 1964.
䉴 PROP 8, from p.3
appear and defend Prop 8 in the
state litigation filed immediately
upon its passage, questioning
whether it had been properly
enacted under the California
Constitution. In that litigation
as well, the governor and attor-
ney general declined to defend
the initiative. In fact, Attorney
General Jerry Brown, who is
now governor, actually stepped
up to question its constitution-
ality.
Even as it focused on this
concern, however, the appeals
panel apparently rejected Coo-
per’s argument that California
law already answers the stand-
ing question.
“In the absence of controlling
authority from the highest court
of California on these important
questions of an initiative pro-
ponent’s rights and interests in
the particular circumstances
before us,” the panel wrote, “we
believe we are compelled to seek
such an authoritative statement
of California law.”
The panel did seem sympa-
thetic to the position the Pro-
ponents articulated, writing,
“Although the Governor has
chosen not to defend Proposition
clear whether he may, consistent
with the California Constitution,
achieve through a refusal to liti-
gate what he may not do directly:
effectively veto the initiative by
refusing to defend it or appeal
a judgment invalidating it, if no
one else — including the initia-
tive’s proponents — is qualified
to do so.”
In the opinion concerning
Imperial County, the court
noted that Judge Walker denied
the motion to intervene on the
grounds that neither the Coun-
ty nor its Board of Supervisors
“had any interest in the admin-
istration of the state marriage
laws,” and that the deputy clerk
and other local officials involved
䉴 YEAR IN GAY, from p.12
cans adding poison pill amend-
ments effectively killing the bill
during floor debate.
Obama, with the opportuni-
ty to sign repeal of Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell just days before
Christmas, surely ended the
year in a stronger position
with LGBT voters than could
have been predicted at the
time of the midterm Demo-
cratic losses in November. The
gays in the military issue got
5 – 18 JAN 2011
in administering the state mar-
riage law function under the
direction of the State Registrar
and “have no discretion to dis-
regard a legal directive from
the existing state defendants.”
None, in other words, has “a
significant protectable interest
of its own to justify interven-
tion.”
The 9th Circuit panel first
addressed the standing of the
deputy clerk, Isabel Vargas, and
The appeals panel rejected Cooper’s
argument that California law already
answers the standing question.
rejected standing on a narrower
ground than Walker applied.
The panel, simply noting that
Vargas was an appointee of the
county clerk, wrote, “whatever
‘significant protectable interest’
may exist in those duties and
powers is an interest belong-
ing to the principal, not the
deputy.” The panel left open
the possibility that a different
analysis would be undertaken
if the county clerk had stepped
forward to appeal the trial court
ruling.
The panel was, however, dis-
missive of the claims to stand-
ing by the county and its Board
of Supervisors, observing that
marriage is a state law ques-
tion, not an issue of local law,
and that these local govern-
ment intervenors failed to pres-
ent evidence they had any tan-
gible stake in the outcome of
the case.
Although the federal appeals
panel referred the question of
the Proponents’ standing to the
California Supreme Court, that
bench is under no obligation to
accept it or to respond to it in
the formulation it was present-
ed. The state high court could
the better of Bill Clinton; the
current president, in contrast,
delivered on his 2008 prom-
ise to end the policy. Prior to
the DADT victory, Obama had
only the 2009 hate crimes
law and a string of executive
department initiatives to his
credit. The president’s execu-
tive orders and other admin-
istrative actions wer e not
insignificant; they ended the
ban on HIV-positive travel-
ers entering the US; opened
up same-sex partner visita-
also ask both parties to prepare
briefs on the standing issue,
something that could stretch
out for months.
One would hope that with
constitutional rights at stake,
the California court would move
expeditiously, whatever direc-
tion it takes.
As a longtime legal observ-
er and analyst, I have no feel
for how this issue should be
answered as a matter of Califor-
nia law, but, as a purely politi-
cal matter, I have sympathy
for the argument that some-
body needs to have standing to
appeal. A majority of the voters
approved Proposition 8, and
it appears unseemly that the
votes of millions should be cast
aside by a single federal district
judge without any possibil-
ity of appellate review. A basic
proposition of American juris-
prudence is that a losing party
at trial has a right to at least
one appeal of their case.
It is altogether possible
that the California Supreme
Court will take the position
that in default of an appeal by
the named defendants, Pro-
ponents should be allowed to
appeal as representative of the
voters who approved their ini-
tiative.
Regarding his decision
not to recuse himself, Judge
Reinhardt explained that the
circuit’s administration auto-
matically refrains from assign-
ing him to panels in cases
where the ACLU of Southern
California is a party or rep-
resenting a party. The ACLU
filed no briefs in the appellate
tion rights at nearly all Ameri-
can hospitals; eliminated the
requirement that transgen-
der passport holders produce
evidence of sex reassignment
to change the gender indi-
cated; and extended some
partnership benefits to federal
employees in same-sex rela-
tionship.
Most LGBT Americans,
h o w e v e r, r e m a i n e d d u b i -
ous that all that added up to
“change we can believe in.”
As Obama looks to re-ener-
27
portion of this case, and mere-
ly signed on to an amicus brief
at the trial level before Judge
Walker. At the only meet-
ing the group had with the
plaintiffs, it, along with other
leading LGBT rights organi-
zations, urged them not to
file the case. When the newly
formed American Foundation
for Equal Rights announced
the litigation in 2009, most
establishment gay groups felt
it was not yet time to raise the
marriage issue in the federal
judiciary, as opposed to state
courts around the county.
Reinhardt did not see the
necessity to recuse from a case
just because his wife heads an
organization that has a pub-
lic position on the issue at
stake. The circuit’s conflict of
interest rules speak in terms
of an actual “interest” in a
case, which is usually taken
to mean a personal, tangible
interest, not just an opinion,
even if publicly expressed.
“My wife’s views, public or
private, as to any issues that
may come before this court,
constitutional or otherwise,
are of no consequence,” he
wrote. “She is a strong, inde-
pendent woman who has
long fought for the principle,
among others, that women
should be evaluated on their
own merits and not judged in
any way by the deeds or posi-
tion in life of their husbands
(and vice versa). I share that
view and, in my opinion, it
reflects the status of the law
generally, as well as the law of
recusal, regardless of whether
the spouse or the judge is the
male or the female.”
Reinhardt pointed out that
the ACLU of Southern Califor-
nia has taken positions on a host
of issues that have come before
the 9th Circuit; he has recused
himself only where his wife’s
group is a party or represents a
party in the case.
gizing his base for 2012, while
Republicans work assidu-
ously to frustrate his efforts
in the House, the question will
be whether his record to date,
even including the DADT vic-
tory, will be enough to moti-
vate significant gay turnout
for his reelection. Time will
tell if the president decides
that his professed “evolving”
view on marriage equality will
have to fully mature in time to
stir the crowds for one more
victory.
28 5 – 18 JAN 2011 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM

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