N E W Y O R K ’ S O N LY & A M E R I C A’ S L A R G E S T C I R C U L AT I O N G AY A N D L E S B I A N N E W S P A P E R !
Gay City
S E R V I N G G A Y, L E S B I A N , B I A N D T R A N S G E N D E R E D N E W Y O R K • W W W . G A Y C I T Y N E W S . C O M
■ CRIME
Psych Defense
in ’08 Kevin
Pravia Murder
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
J W
eromie Cancel, the accused killer
of Kevin Pravia, will argue that he
suffered from a “cognitive disor-
der” and “neuropsychiatric abnormali-
ties” when he strangled the 19-year-old
gay man to death on August 30 last year.
In a July 13 letter to Rena K. Uviller, the
judge who is trying the murder case,
Cancel’s attorney wrote that the “psychi-
atric evidence is to be presented in con-
nection with the affirmative defense of
lack of criminal responsibility by reason
of mental disease or defect and in con-
nection with the affirmative defense of
extreme emotional disturbance.”
Cancel faces one count of felony mur-
der, meaning he allegedly killed Pravia
in the course of committing another
felony. If successful, the lack of criminal
responsibility could excuse him entirely,
though he would likely be held in an
institution until he is found to be cured
of his condition. If a jury believes the
extreme emotional disturbance defense,
the charge against Cancel would be
reduced to first-degree manslaughter.
The maximum sentence on felony mur-
der is 25-to-life, and the maximum on
PRAVIA P. 12
VESTAL McINTYRE
14
TOM DUANE DELIVERS THUNDERING MORAL CHALLENGE TO HIS SENATE COLLEAUGES
Duane’s Impassioned
Plea Scores
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
T
oward the end of its regular 2009
session, marked by dysfunction
and a delay on key LGBT rights
goals including marriage equality and
transgender rights — at least until an
anticipated September special session
— the New York State Senate was called
to account morally on at least one criti-
cal matter in the wee hours of the morn-
ing on July 17. That effort proved suc-
cessful, and action on the measure now
awaits Assembly action.
In the final hours before the Senate
adjourned, probably for the bulk of the
© GAY CITY NEWS 2009 • COMMUNITY MEDIA, LLC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TM
NEWS YOUR FREE
WEEKLY
NEWSPAPER
JULY 23-AUGUST 5, 2009
VOLUME EIGHT, ISSUE 15
■ POLITICS
September Next
Stop in Marriage
Equality Fight
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
ith Democratic control of the
New York State Senate once
again secured, the Legisla-
ture’s upper chamber went back to work
two weeks ago, but finished up its busi-
ness within eight days, adjourning in the
early morning hours of July 17 without
turning its attention to some of the year’s
most highly contested questions –– issues
ranging from mayoral control of schools to
marriage equality and transgender rights.
What remains unclear is how the rules
reform agreed to as the Senate raced to
adjournment will affect prospects for a
marriage equality vote yet this year, or
even in advance of the 2010 elections.
Senator Thomas K. Duane, the out
gay Chelsea Democrat who is the lead
sponsor on Governor David Paterson’s
marriage equality bill –– as well as the
helmsman on other key LGBT initia-
DONNA ACETO
tives such as a transgender civil rights
bill and a school anti-bullying measure
–– put out a statement immediately after
the July 9 restoration of Democratic con-
trol, saying, “As disappointing as it is to
admit, it is clear that this week is not
MARRIAGE P. 5
In this issue:
■ SILENCING GAYS
summer, Thomas K. Duane, an out gay
Chelsea Democrat who is the Health Lithuania cracks down
with “No Promo Homo” law
Committee chair and also the Legisla-
ture’s only openly HIV-positive member, ■2
delivered an impassioned, and at many —————————————————
points angry, 22-minute speech (a link
to which appears in the online version of
■ DA CONTEST STAKES
this article at gaycitynews.com) on behalf Race to succeed Morgenthau
of his bill that would cap rents paid by enters final two months
clients of the city’s HIV/ AIDS Services ■6
Administration (HASA) at 30 percent —————————————————
of their income. Under current state
law, the Office of Temporary and Dis- ■ ED WHITE MEMORIES
ability Assistance mandates that HASA Acclaimed novelist looks
clients receiving public income support back to ’60s, ’70s New York
DUANE P. 4 ■ 18

2/ Human Rights
Lithuania Goes Harshly Anti-Gay
Draconian crackdown on public discussions of homosexuality likely; Poland may follow suit
BY DOUG IRELAND
T
he Lithuanian Par-
liament on July 14
gave final approv-
al to the most sweeping
“No Promo Homo” law in
Europe, a move hailed by
conservative Polish parlia-
mentarians, who imme-
diately announced they
would attempt to pass
a similar law. Entitled
“Law on the Protection of
Minors Against the Det-
rimental Effect of Public
Information,” the measure
bans public dissemination
of information contribut-
ing to the “propagation
of homosexual, bisexual,
and polygamous rela-
tions” that might be avail-
able to minors. This ban
encompasses mass media,
books, and the Internet,
and among the govern-
114 Christopher St.
Btw Bleecker & Hudson St.
212-741-9641
Happy Hour Monday - Friday 2 - 8
2nd Tuesday of the Month is Fireflag/EMS Night
6 -1am 50/50 Raffle / BE A R NITE Every Thursday
EVERYONE DESERVES A SMILE!
Introductory
($380 value)
$99 Offer
UÊՏÊiÝ>“ˆ˜>̈œ˜
UÊ*iÀˆœ`œ˜Ì>Ê
Ý>“ˆ˜>̈œ˜
UÊ"À>Ê
>˜ViÀÊ-VÀii˜ˆ˜}
UÊ
ment agencies charged a very necessary one,
with enforcement are the especially now when we
Lithuanian Radio and face a more and more
Television Commission; obvious expansion of
the Lithuanian Ethics gay activist circles,” said
Commission of Journal- Gorski, a member of the
ists and Publishers; the largest Polish parliamen-
government’s Informa- tary opposition party,
tion Society Develop- Law and Justice — led
ment Committee, which by the ultra-homopho-
supervises the Internet; bic Kaczynski twins, the
and police authorities country’s president Lech
under the Ministry of the and his brother Jaro-
Interior. slaw, the former prime
In Poland, MP Artur m i n i s t e r. G o r k i a l s o
Gorski, deputy head noted, “If you look at the
of the parliamentary Polish Parliament and
commission on Polish- see the ruling Civic Plat-
Lithuanian cooperation, form Party and the major
told the Catholic Pol- opposition Law and Jus-
ish daily Nasz Dziennik tice are both claiming
that he intends to copy to be right-wing, there
the Lithuanian law and should be no trouble in
introduce it for passage passing such a law.”
by the Polish Parliament. MP Leszek Deptu’a
“This is a very interesting from the Peasant’s Party,
initiative and no doubt a partner in Poland’s rul-
ing parliamentary coali-
tion, said, “This law is
needed also in Poland,”
adding, “We should pro-
tect kids and youth from
homosexuality and from
promoting this idea.”
The new Lithuanian
law will provide a power-
ful legal weapon against
attempts to have Gay
© Pride demonstrations
or any media coverage
A Village Landmark
Serving The Community
of them. In the nation’s
For Over 35 Years capital of Vilnius, after
years of repression by
the city’s former mayor,
Juozas Imbrasas, who
was thrown out of office
in February, Vilius Nav-
ickas, his replacement,
has offered no change of
course, banning a sched-
uled Gay Pride march in
the center city this year.
“These heavily
homophobia-driven laws
codify discrimination
based on sexual orien-
tation, deny freedom of
expression, and inhibit ister Fredrik Reinfeldt,
LGBT persons’ rights who currently occupies
Michael Cashman (right, face hidden), an openly gay British member of the
European Parliament, and Dirk De Meirleir (center), executive director of the
International Gay and Lesbian Association-Europe, speak with a representative
of the Lithuanian Mission (left) in Brussels who came out to speak to demon-
strators protesting the new law.
about what might tran-
spire at next year’s Baltic
Pride, due to be staged
in Vilnius from May 7 to
9. The new law will take
effect two months prior
to that.
The draconian “No
Promo Homo” legislation
was originally passed
last month, but vetoed
b y P r e s i d e n t Va l d a s
Adamkus, who has since
left office. When the bill
went back to Parliament,
Adamkus’ veto was over-
ridden 87 to 6, and its
anti-gay provisions were
strengthened. Because
of the veto override, the
new president, Dalia
Grybauskaite, who ran
as an independent but
was elected with sup-
port from the large Con-
servative Party, was
obliged to sign it within
three days. However, on
her first foreign trip, to
Stockholm, as she held
a joint press conference
with Swedish Prime Min-
sound generations unaf-
fected by the rotten cul-
propose changes to the
law to make it compat-
ible with basic human
rights,” she said, accord-
ing to a press conference
summary released by
the office of the EU pres-
idency.
Reinfeldt, the head of
Sweden’s Moderate Party
and leader of a center -
right government, said
he was opposed to such
laws. “On a personal
level, throughout my 20
years in politics, I have
clearly shown where I
stand on such issues,”
he said. “I agree with
Dalia Grybauskaite that
it is important that a law
such as this does not
in any way contravene
human rights.”
The right-wing Lithu-
anian MP who sponsored
the law, Petras Grazulis,
hailed passage of his bill,
saying, “We have finally
taken a step which will
help Lithuania raise
healthy and mentally
European Union, held as
news came of the Lithu-
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
overturned in 1993.
Condemnations of
Lithuania’s “No Promo
Homo” law from all over
Europe were swift in
coming. Dainius Radzev-
icius, who chairs the
Lithuanian Journalists
Union, told the Asso-
ciated Press, “This is
absurd. I cannot even
imagine how they will
implement this law.”
Dirk De Meirleir, execu-
tive director of the Euro-
pean Region of the Inter-
national Lesbian and
Gay Association, said
passage of the new law
was “a shocking and
absurd development
in one of the European
Union member states.
Just a few days ago even
the Russian Federation’s
Parliament rejected simi-
lar proposals.”
Amnesty Interna-
tional’s Kim Manning-
Cooper warned that the
law “could be used to
prohibit any legitimate
discussion of homosexu-
ality, impede the work of
human rights defenders,
and further the stigma-
tization of and prejudice
against lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgen-
der people in Lithuania,”
according to the BBC.
“This is a very bad day
for LGBT rights in Lithu-
ania, and by adopting
this deeply homophobic
legislation, the Lithu-
anian authorities have
taken a huge step back-
wards.” Manning-Cooper
called the law “a clear
infringement of freedom
of expression and non-
discrimination rights”
and said it “should be
repealed immediately.”
At a Parliamentary
Assembly meeting of the
i>˜ˆ˜}Ê*iÀvœÀ“i`ÊLÞÊi˜ÌˆÃÌ to education, informa- the rotating presidency ture that is now over - anian law’s passage, 35
UÊ
œ“«iÌiÊ-iÌʜvÊ8‡À>Þà tion, and every day life,” of the European Union, whelming them.” Grazu- members from 18 dif-
­ˆvʘiViÃÃ>ÀÞ®ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ Lithuanian Gay League Grybauskaite expressed lis has also introduced ferent nations signed a
248 W. 23RD ST. (Btwn.7TH & 8TH AVE) chair Vladimir Simonko regret at having to sign a bill to recriminalize declaration saying that
said, adding that there the law. “But I will make homosexuality, earlier
646-290-5576 was fear and even panic use of the right I have to prohibitions having been 䉴 LITHUANIA, continued on p.3
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
EAST HAMPTON INSPECTOR SILENCES PRIDE AGENDA TEA DANCE
Citing a violation of a noise law, an
East Hampton ordinance inspector ordered
that the dance music at a July 11 Empire
State Pride Agenda (ESPA) fundraiser be
turned off and issued a summons that
could cost the group as much as $1,000.
“It was a wonderful event,” said Will Trin-
kle, the ESPA board member who hosted
the event with his partner, Juan Granados,
at his Long Island home. “It was a shame
we had to turn the music off, we had less
than an hour to go.”
The Hamptons Tea Dance is one of
five major ESPA fundraisers, and this
year’s dance drew an estimated 1,400 to
the four-hour event that began at 4 p.m.
ESPA had a permit from the East Hampton
town board for the “mass gathering,” as
the town defines such a party, and it had
a permit for amplified music. “I believe
they were authorized to have a party for X
amount of people,” said Todd Sarris, chief
of the East Hampton police department.
“I believe they were allowed to have
music.”
At some point after 7 p.m., an ordi-
nance inspector, not the police depart-
ment, appeared on the scene and
demanded that the music be shut off. “I
said we have a permit,” Trinkle told Gay
City News. “He said actually having a per-
mit holds you to a higher standard.”
23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009
William McGintee, the town super-
visor, said that permit holders have to
comply with all town laws, though typi-
cally noisy events with permits are asked
to reduce the volume. “Generally, what
we did is just told them to quiet down,”
McGintee said. “I don’t know why Mr.
Rodriguez told them to turn the music off.”
The inspector, Scott Rodriguez, was
hired by the town in 2007 and he did
not respond to a call seeking comment.
Rodriguez wrote a summons that cited
ordinance 185-5(d), which was repealed
in 2003. Rodriguez presumably meant
185-1(5)(d), which was enacted in 2007.
The preamble to the 2007 law states that
it is intended to address the noise from
restaurants, bars, and other businesses,
though the text of the law itself does not
distinguish between noise from business-
es and private homes.
Rodriguez was accompanied by at
least two other inspectors, Trinkle said,
and they were “very courteous, very nice.”
The inspectors appeared to be responding
to complaints from one neighbor who was
also present. Trinkle said the man did not
complain to him about the volume of the
music, but the type of music being played.
“I just don’t like your music,” Trinkle
reported the man saying. “To me, that’s
what he said.”
3
While police and inspectors do carry
decibel meters, the 2007 law does not
require them to measure noise levels
to determine if they are “excessive or
unreasonable,” as the law defines it. The
inspector can use his or her “unaided
hearing faculties... based on his or her
training or experience” to decide if the
volume exceeds “the decibel limitations
set forth in” the law.
Attendees at the fundraiser included
Governor David Paterson and US Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand. “I said to him the gov-
ernor is here, could you give us ten more
minutes and he said no,” Trinkle said. —
Duncan Osborne

䉴 LITHUANIA, from p.2
it “will serve only to perpetuate dis-
crimination and intolerance and deny
young lesbian, gay, and bisexual per-
sons access to infor mation which
they need in order to live in accor -
dance with their sexual orientation.”
The group called on the Lithuanian
Parliament “to eliminate all discrimi-
natory references to homosexual and
bisexual relationships in this law.”
The European Union’s Conference
of International Non-Governmental
Organizations passed a resolution
denouncing the new law and saying it
was “gravely concerned at a growing
climate of intimidation and discrimi-
nation in Lithuania against lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender peo-
ple.”
At the Eur opean Parliament in
Strasbourg, the Parliamentary Inter-
group on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender Rights also attacked the
new law and called on the EuroParlia-
ment’s new president, Jerzy Buzek, to
express concern that the law violates
the EU Treaty. The likelihood of Buzek
doing so, however, is slim, since he is a
member of Poland’s homophobic Law
and Justice Party. The Intergroup’s
chair, the UK’s openly gay Michael
Cashman, speaking for its members,
said in a press release, “This new law
contradicts the values of the European
Union where minority rights are and
should remain respected. It is the duty
of the president of the European Par-
liament to ensure that all minorities
are treated equally.”
The law could also threaten educa-
tion about HIV and AIDS, critics noted.
“What were the lawmakers thinking
when they passed this homophobic
law?” said Boris Dittrich, advocacy
director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
and Transgender Program at Human
Rights Watch, adding, “Depriving
young people of information they need
to decide about their lives and protect
their health is a regressive and dan-
gerous move, and amounts to censor-
ship.”
And the Inter national Gay and
Lesbian Human Rights Commission
wrote to the Lithuanian Parliament,
arguing that the “No Promo Homo”
law “codifies discrimination based on
sexual orientation, while also denying
freedom of expression and inhibiting
children’s rights to education, infor -
mation, health, and life under interna-
tional and European law.”
 23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009

4/ Politics
䉴 DUANE, from p.1
be allowed to keep only $330
above what their rent is pegged
at — which means a mere $11
a day to cover all their other
expenses. Advocates, includ-
ing Housing Works, Gay Men’s
Health Crisis (GMHC), and the
New York City AIDS Housing
Network (NYCAHN), along with
Duane and his Assembly col-
league Deborah Glick, the out
lesbian West Village Democrat
who sponsors the bill in her
chamber, have been fighting to
overturn this draconian income
restriction put in place by the
former Pataki administration in
2006. Housing Works has been
in court since then arguing that
housing funded through the
federal Section 8 program and
the Housing Opportunities for
People with AIDS (HOPWA) leg-
islation must have a 30-percent
cap.
Duane’s comments came at
the beginning of floor debate
on his bill, at roughly 3 a.m.,
and r eflected his concer n
that the Senate was about to
kill the measure. “I also won-
der whether there’s anyone in
this chamber that thinks that
they can scare me or get me to
back down on anything that I
believe in,” Duane said early in
his remarks. “I wonder wheth-
er there’s anyone that thinks
whether I care whether I’m a
senator or not. I don’t. I only
care that I get to say what is
important to me and to people
that I represent… I don’t think
you know what I’m doing here.
I’m here to save lives.”
Then, looking back at the epi-
demic’s early days, he recalled,
“Let me take you back. The
early ’80s. Visiting friends in the
hospital. They’d go in. They’d
go in one night. In the morning
they’d be dead…. That went on
for months and then for years.
Dead. Dead. You think that if
you got sick and your friends
were dying, that I would sit
there and do nothing? No. But
that’s what happened. That’s
what happened.” Turning his
attention back to the present
and the possibility that his col-
leagues might refuse to act,
Duane added, “You think you
can scare me? You think you
can make me back off? Noth-
ing scares me…. Scared? That
was scared. People thrown out
of their homes. People evicted
from their apartments. Families
didn’t want to know who their
kids were. ‘Oh, his lips were on
that glass, don’t touch it. Steril-
ize that plate.’”
The stigma and discrimina-
tion continue, argued Duane,
pointing to the recent “hysteri-
cal” reaction in a Queens neigh-
borhood when a group home
for people living with AIDS was
proposed. And HASA clients,
he said, are “the only people
in New York who have to pay
more than 30 percent of their
income in rent.” Duane closed
his comments by mocking his
colleagues for what he clearly
saw as their indifference to the
issue. “You think it’s funny,” he
said. “We’ll kill Duane’s bill. No,
you’re not killin’ my bill, you’re
killing people… Yeah, I’m nice.
I gotta sense of humor, but I’m
not here so you’ll like me, I’m
here to save my life, and I’m
here to save the lives of other
people ’cause they don’t have
anyone sittin’ here. Have a
good time. Have a big laugh.
Go ahead, do it tonight, but
I’m coming back and you can’t
stop me.”
Duane’s dramatic cri de coeur
had its desired effect. After a
debate that lasted just over 45
minutes, the Senate passed
the rent cap measure by a 52-1
vote. The Assembly has not yet
acted on the legislation, but
Glick said of the Senate action,
“I’m very excited by its pas-
sage. The Senate passage gives
us impetus for the bill in the
Assembly.” Her chamber, she
said, had not previously acted,
in part, because of its estima-
tion that Senate passage was
unlikely. She also said that
the Assembly was respond-
ing to “the gover nor’s very
strong statement” that legisla-
tion should be revenue-neu-
tral. Though establishing the
30-percent cap will save the
state money in the long term,
Glick said, the upfront costs of
doing so would probably cost
“a couple of million dollars.”
She insisted that the issue
should not be “a matter of dol-
lars and cents, but rather one
of common sense and common
decency.”
“The rent cap bill is a top pri-
ority of people living with HIV/
AIDS in New York City, includ-
ing GMHC’s 15,000 clients,”
Sean Cahill, the group’s man-
aging director of public poli-
cy, research, and community
health, said in a written state-
ment. “This bill will allow people
to stay in their homes and bet-
ter afford to live in our expen-
sive city. More stable housing
will make it easier for people to
maintain HIV treatment adher-
ence and stay healthy.” Sean
Barry, executive director of
NYCAHN, in an email message
to Gay City News, wrote, “Tom
really did an amazing job get-
ting this bill through at around
4 a.m. this morning with all but
one senator voting yes after his
impassioned advocacy from the
floor. This is a major and some-
what unexpected move forward
at this point.”
In its last night in session,
the Senate also gave approval to
two other measures sponsored
by Duane — a bill requiring
the state Department of Health
to review policies and practices
regarding HIV, AIDS, and hep-
atitis C in correctional facili-
ties and the Family Healthcare
Decision Act (FHCDA), which
would enable family members,
including domestic partners,
and others close to incapaci-
tated patients to make medical
decisions on their behalf in the
absence of a healthcare proxy or
specific oral or written instruc-
tions. Both measures are spon-
sored in the Assembly by Rich-
ard Gottfried, a Chelsea Demo-
crat who chairs the Health Com-
mittee. The prison oversight bill
has already passed the Assem-
bly, which has not yet acted on
the FHCDA. “The healthcare
decision bill will provide incre-
mental equity to lesbian and gay
couples, including many people
living with HIV/AIDS,” GMHC’s
Cahill said.

NEWS BRIEFS By PAUL SCHINDLER

Rally Called to
Protest Queens
Trans Attacks
Three weeks after Leslie Mora,
a 30-year-old transgendered
woman, was assaulted in Jackson
Heights, a second Queens trans
woman, 22-year-old Carmella
Etienne, was hit with rocks and
bottles by two men on July 8 at
the corner of 116th Avenue and
199th Street in St. Albans. Accord-
ing to New York 1 News, Nathan-
iel Mims, 25, of the Bronx and
Rasheed Thomas, 22, of Queens
were arraigned July 10 on charges
of assault as a hate crime, which
carries a maximum prison sentence
of 15 years. The two are being held
on $5,000 bail and were due back
in court on July 23, as Gay City
News was going to press.
Etienne told police, who
nabbed the suspects at the scene
of the crime, that the two men
shouted anti-gay slurs at her and
threatened to kill her. They alleg-
edly laughed off Etienne’s warning
that she would call the police, say-
ing, “The police don’t care about
you, they won’t do anything to us.”
Queens District Attorney Richard
Brown issued a statement on the
crime, saying, “Everyone should
understand that these cases,
whether they involve ancestry,
gender, age, or sexual orientation,
will all be very vigorously pros-
ecuted because of the effect that
they have not only on individuals
involved, but on the community
generally.”
As reported in the previous
issue of Gay City News, Brown’s
office is under pressure from the
Transgender Legal Defense and
Education Fund and other advo-
cates to add hate crimes enhance-
ments to charges against the two
suspects arrested in connection
with the assault on Mora, who
was called “maricon” and “puto,”
two Spanish equivalents of “fag-
got,” as she was brutally attacked.
In response to a query from the
newspaper, the DA’s office stated,
in an email message, “The District
Attorney’s Office has met again
with the complaining witness and
are presently awaiting additional
documents in this case. Once we
have all the facts, we will make
the appropriate legal decision.”
The attacks of the two trans
women in Queens came as police
were investigating six violent
assaults on Manhattan’s Upper
East Side — including a June
27 attack on Joseph Holladay, a
36-year-old gay man from Bos-
ton — they suspect many have
been carried out by the same gang
of four to six young white men.
The NYPD said that three of the
assaults are being investigated as
possible anti-gay hate crimes.
Activists Melissa Sklarz and
Brendan Fay have called a rally for
Sunday, July 26 at 2 p.m. at 37th
Avenue and 78th Street in Jackson
Heights to express the communi-
ty’s refusal to “be silent when two
transwomen are brutally attacked
on the streets of Queens.” For
more information on the planned
action, email melis0213@aol.com
or Brendan@stpatsforall.com.
Conviction in
Syracuse Trans
Woman’s Murder
The Transgender Legal Defense
& Education Fund (TLDEF) has
praised a 12-member jury that took
just six hours to convict 20-year-
old Dwight DeLee in the slaying
of Lateisha Green, a 22-year-old
African-American transgendered
woman, who was shot to death on
November 14, 2008 in Syracuse.
On July 17, DeLee was found guilty
of manslaughter in the first degree
as a hate crime and criminal pos-
session of a weapon. The Associ-
ated Press reported that several
witnesses heard DeLee call Green
a “faggot” before shooting her
with a .22-caliber rifle as she sat in
a parked car outside a house party.
DeLee faced possible conviction on
second-degree murder as a hate
crime, but the jury instead found
him guilty of first-degree man-
slaughter. He will be sentenced on
August 18.
According to TLDEF, this is the
first conviction in New York State
for a hate crime murder of a trans-
gendered person, and only the sec-
ond in the nation. New York State
does not include protections based
on gender identity and expression
in its hate crime statute, passed in
2000, but DeLee’s use of the word
“faggot” allowed prosecutors to
argue that Green was the victim
of anti-gay bias, a charge DeLee’s
attorney denied throughout the
trial.
“Despite this legal victory,
transgender New Yorkers still
face a serious risk of violence and
discrimination,” TLDEF’s executive
director Michael Silverman said
in a written statement. “ We call
upon the New York State Senate
and the United States Senate to
pass transgender-inclusive legis-
lation that will protect everyone
regardless of gender identity and
gender expression.” TLDEF credit-
ed the role played by the Rainbow
Alliance of Central New York, the
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation, and the Empire State
Pride Agenda in keeping pressure
on authorities to vigorously pros-
ecute the killing as a hate crime.
The federal hate crimes bill
that has been approved by the
House and Senate, and now goes
to a joint conference committee
to iron out differences in the two
versions, does include protections
based on gender identity.
After the verdict was
announced, Green’s family issued
a statement reading in part, “And
it took this one mere bullet to end
Teish’s life because she happened
to be a transgender woman. We
have spent months waiting for this
day to come.”
F-22s May Be
Out of Hate
Crimes, Death
Penalty May Be
In
Folding the Matthew Shepard
Hate Crimes Prevention Act into
a Senate appropriations measure
for the Department of Defense
䉴 BRIEFS, continued on p.16
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
PERFORMANCE
THU.JUL.23
Nudity & Pies
Sealboy and the Blondes 3 present
an encore presentation of wild, mixed-up
performance art, with a burlesque caval-
cade of love and ridiculousness. Brit host
Mat Fraser, accompanied by DJ Go Goat-
Boy, introduces Dirty Martini, Tigger!,
Julie Atlas Muz, Bambi the Mermaid,
and Little Brooklyn. Once again, the sec-
ond act will conclude with an all-nude
pie fight with a mutant! Meanwhile,
a piano will gently be destroyed as Our
Lady J plays Chopin’s “Nocturne in C
Minor.” Will the evening prove to be high
art or the trashiest you’ll ever encoun-
ter? Come see. The Slipper Room, 167
Orchard St. at Stanton St., 10 p.m.
Admission is $5.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ and it will pass.” In the immedi-
COMMUNITY
FRI.JUL.24
Our Birthdays, Our
Stories
SAGE women gather to hear the life
stories of women whose birthdays fall
within the current month, and then cel-
ebrate. If you would like to share your
story during your birthday month, call
Amy at 212-206-3737. LGBT Commu-
nity Center, 208 W. 13th St., 7:30 p.m.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ get that done.” Paterson’s ability
PERFORMANCE
Best of the
Summer Harvest
The seventh annual Fresh Fruit
Festival is a veritable smorgasbord of
theater, performance, poetry, comedy,
spoken word, music, dance, visual arts,
and some talents that defy categoriza-
tion, presented in venues across the city.
Performers of all racial and many ethnic
backgrounds, sexualities, and gender ori-
entation fill the stages — and it is partic-
ularly noteworthy that lesbian and trans-
gendered artists are better represented
here than is the norm at other queer
cultural festivals. The offerings, which
run through Jul. 27, are too numerous
and varied to list in full detail. For that,
visit freshfruitfestival.com/calendar.
htm. But among the highlights are Bar-
bara Kahn’s “Co-Op,” about a homeless
woman who long lived on the Lower East
Side selling the bits and pieces of her life
on the street to a newly-gentrified com-
䉴 JUL 24, continued on p.6
䉴 MARRIAGE, from p.1
the right moment for same-sex
marriage legislation. Senators
need some time and distance
to regroup after this month’s
partisan-charged and explosive
atmosphere.” That statement
hastened to add, however, that
the Senate would “be called back
to Albany” in “the weeks and
months ahead,” at which time
he would “fight for and demand,
with bipartisan support, that
bills important to the LGBT com-
munity come to the floor for a
vote — and pass.”
In a telephone interview with
Gay City News the same evening,
Duane said he expected action
not only on marriage equality,
but also on the Gender Expres-
sion Non-Discrimination Act
(GENDA) and the Dignity for All
Students Act (DASA), all already
approved by the Assembly. The
marriage bill, he said confident-
ly, “will get to the floor this year
ate term, Duane explained, only
time-sensitive issues that must
be acted on quickly –– such as
the one-half cent increase in New
York City’s sales tax approved
in a late-night July 9 session ––
would be taken up by the Senate.
“I have spoken to the governor
several times in the past week,
and he has re-emphasized his
interest in moving marriage this
year,” Duane said. “We are going
to strategize on how to move
marriage this year, and we will
to influence the Senate agenda,
Duane said, would come in part
from his ability to call the cham-
ber into extraordinary session,
as he had done repeatedly dur-
ing the partisan deadlock that
began June 8.
Duane’s reliance on the gov-
ernor’s leadership for moving
his LGBT measures got backing
from Paterson’s office in a July
10 response to Gay City News,
at least on the issue of marriage
equality. Marissa Shorenstein, a
spokeswoman for the governor,
asked about his plans for call-
ing the Senate back to Albany
later this year, wrote via email,
“Governor Paterson believes that
marriage equality is an impor-
tant civil rights issue and will
be working with Senate leaders
to move the process forward.
The governor will likely call a
special session later in the year
to close the current fiscal year
budget gap. At that time, he will
also work with legislative lead-
ers to include additional issues
that were not addressed in reg-
ular session — such as unem-
ployment insurance, marriage
equality, and ethics reform.”
That session is widely expected
to be called in September. In an
extraordinary session called by
the governor, legislators can only
act on measures he includes on
the agenda.
The Empire State Pride Agen-
da, the state’s LGBT rights lobby,
on July 10 issued a written state-
ment backing Duane’s insistence
Duane has for several months
said he had commitments from a
sufficient number to win approval
of marriage equality.
that critical matters of concern to
the community get action soon,
but later indicated its agreement
that a “cooling off” period was
appropriate before trying to move
the marriage legislation.
“We expect that our equal-
ity will remain at the top of the
chamber’s agenda,” ESPA’s
executive director, Alan Van
Capelle, said in the July 10
statement. “Senators from both
sides of the aisle have repeatedly
said this past month that reform
and doing the people’s business
were central to the events that
transpired. Our equality is the
people’s business; reform means
scheduling votes on our issues
so senators can vote their con-
science.” On July 15, in an email
message to its supporters, Van
Capelle endorsed the governor’s
plan to aim for September con-
sideration of marriage equality,
and added, “We agree with what
has been said publicly by a num-
ber of senators that a ‘cooling off’
period is needed after the intense
fighting that occurred among
senators during the month-long
impasse. Passing this legisla-
tion will require votes from both
Republicans and Democrats. It
is clear to us that we wouldn’t
want marriage equality to be
among the first bills they take
up because passing it requires
senators to work together, and
right now this is difficult as there
are still many hurt feelings and
bruised egos.”
Despite the fact that rules
reforms were approved by the
Senate, it may be that the pre-
carious political balance in that
chamber makes progress on
marriage equality and other
LGBT goals difficult without
the governor playing an active
role. Manhattan Senators Eric
Schneider man and Daniel
Squadron, both strong marriage
equality boosters, were among
those reformers demanding
rules changes most insistently.
The two proposed that a simple
majority of all senators be suffi-
cient to bring a bill to the floor for
a vote. In the end, they got some
but not all of what they sought.
Once a bill comes out of commit-
tee, 32 of the Senate’s 62 mem-
bers can petition to get floor con-
sideration of a bill. However, if a
measure remains stalled in com-
mittee, 38 senators, or just over
60 percent, are needed to move
the measure to the floor for a
vote. Schneiderman, in a written
statement, nonetheless praised
the reform steps taken, saying
they will “forever change the way
the State Senate conducts busi-
ness.”
Duane has for several months
said he had commitments from a
sufficient number of senators to
win approval of marriage equal-
ity legislation, so given favorable
committee action, he could pre-
sumably force a vote on the floor.
But the Democratic leadership’s
commitment to cooperating
has been a matter of consider-
able speculation dating back to
last fall, when the first threats
of defection — that by June 8
led Queens Democratic Senator
Malcolm Smith to lose his grip
on the chamber — came from
a group that included the Rev-
erend Ruben Diaz, a stridently
anti-gay Bronx Pentecostal
minister who said he could not
support any leader who would
allow a marriage equality vote.
Smith put down that initial chal-
lenge by New Year’s Day, but
Diaz was a highly visible player
during the chaotic last few days
leading up his Bronx colleague
Pedro Espada’s rejoining the
Democratic fold –– and he was
right out front as a new leader-
ship team was announced at a
Politics /5
July 9 press conference attended
by only 12 of the 32 Democrats.
Several prominent Manhattan
progressives who are among
the strongest marriage equal-
ity advocates, including Duane,
Schneiderman, Squadron, and
Liz Krueger, were absent.
Duane cautioned against read-
ing anything into who did and
did not attend the Democratic
victory lap at the Capitol. Asked
whether the possibility that Diaz
may have played a role in forging
the new Democratic conference
agreement caused him concern,
Duane reiterated that he was
looking to Paterson’s leadership
in making certain that marriage
equality, transgender rights, and
anti-bullying get votes this year.
His most recent meeting with
the governor on those matters,
he said, may have been going
on as Smith, Espada, Diaz, and
nine other of his colleagues stood
before the press.
Harlem Democratic Senator
Bill Perkins, a staunch marriage
equality ally, was among those
who did attend the July 9 press
conference, and he is convinced
that reform will prove helpful not
only on marriage equality, but
also on other progressive issues
such as the debate over vacancy
decontrol under the city’s rent
stabilization law. Asked spe-
cifically about the fact that Diaz
is a marriage equality foe and
Espada has been viewed as an
ally of landlord interests, Per-
kins, discussing how the Demo-
cratic majority was cobbled back
together, said, “There was no dis-
cussion that I’ve heard about that
this is what we are doing and this
is not what we’re doing.” Perkins
also emphasized, “The leadership
has for some time made a com-
mitment on gay marriage and the
majority of members are support-
ive, notwithstanding the opposi-
tion of some.”
Schneiderman said he did not
believe Diaz had won any con-
cessions in recent days guaran-
teeing no vote on marriage. He
warned, however, that the bipar-
tisan comity that might have
allowed for cooperation on issues
like marriage equality prior to
June 8 was severely frayed in the
month that followed. How Demo-
crats and Republicans can begin
to work together again and how
Diaz’s implacable opposition to
marriage equality can be neutral-
ized remain to be seen. August
looks to be a busy months for
state senators, even if they are

6/ Politics
The Incumbent’s Pick For DA
Vance wears Morgenthau’s mantle proudly, but offers restructured office
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
“I
have an ear for inno-
cence,” Cyrus Vance,
Jr., said as he dis-
cussed what distinguished him
from his two Democratic rivals
in the September 15 primary
for Manhattan district attor -
ney. “My ear for innocence isn’t
derivative of somebody else tell-
ing me about a case they had.
My ear for innocence and my
ear for innocence as a head
prosecutor will be because I
have represented people who I
knew were improperly charged
and it was my responsibility to
try to convince the DA or the
prosecutor that the charges
or the investigation should be
stopped.” And then the 54-year-
old Yale/ Georgetown Law
graduate, son of a former US
secretary of state, and favorite
of Robert Morgenthau, the nine-
term incumbent, added, “I think
it gives you a sense of fairness
in your application of power.”
Morgenthau, for whom all
three of the Democratic candi-
dates worked as assistant dis-
trict attorneys — remarkably,
each more than 20 years ago —
said of his preferred candidate,
in Vance’s telling, “Cy Vance is
by far the best qualified. Good
lawyer and fair.” Vance returned
the esteem, in a May interview
with Gay City News. “Bob Mor-
genthau has been a remarkable
DA and I feel very proud that he
views my candidacy favorably,”
he said, as he emphasized what
he views as the “core” respon-
sibility of the district attorney
— management of a 500-mem-
ber trial lawyer staff, what he
described as the largest in a city
full of major law firms. “I am the
only lawyer” in the race, Vance
said, “who has been a trial law-
yer all my life.”
As Vance talked about his
career as a trial lawyer, he was
careful to emphasize the social
good that can result from that
pursuit. In 2005, a class action
lawsuit alleging gender discrim-
ination against Boeing in which
he and his law firm represent-
ed Pacific Northwest female
employees of that company
ended in a court-supervised
settlement totaling $72 million.
His clients, he explained, were
“many thousands of underpaid,
underpromoted women” who
won “a very fair settlement” that
also led to institutional chang-
es at Boeing. That courtroom
victory was mentioned in the
Vance campaign press release
announcing Gloria Steinem’s
endorsement of his candidacy.
Vance’s ability to be part of
the Boeing lawsuit, however, is
tied to what might be his great-
est liability in this year’s race —
the fact that he lived in Seattle
from 1988 until 2004, unlike
his opponents, Leslie Crocker
Snyder, a former State Supreme
The prostitution arrests, he argued,
are “almost a classic case”
of how reorganizing the office
along geographic lines would
improve the system.
Court and Court of Claims
judge, and attorney and gun
control advocate Richard Aborn,
both of whom are life-long New
Yorkers. Crocker-Snyder waged
a bitter contest with Morgen-
thau in 2005, and the incum-
bent’s anointing of Vance as his
hoped-for successor has allowed
her to suggest that he earned
this advantage not by his work
on the ground but rather by
his club ties, as it were. “Leslie
accuses me of being from the
old boys’ network and I never
thought of David Dinkins and
Betsy Gotbaum as being from
the old boys’ network,” Vance
said of endorsements he had
recently picked up from the for-
mer mayor and the current city
public advocate.
Vance is not shy about tak-
ing Crocker-Snyder on in turn
— particularly on the issue of
the death penalty, which she
supported as recently as the
2005 race against Morgen-
thau. Both he and Aborn took
aim at her on this point at an
April debate sponsored by the
Stonewall Democrats of New
York City and moderated by this
reporter. “Those of us who have
been working in the criminal
justice system as judges, pros-
ecutors, and defense attorneys
have known for years and years
and years the risks of wrong-
ful convictions,” Vance told Gay
City News. “I’m saying that the
timing of her change in between
her 2005 election loss and a
2009 election — it’s relevant to
look at her change of position in
the context of the timing of the
elections… I think it’s relevant
to understand where people
stood on the death penalty to
begin with, just as a basic phi-
losophy.”
Vance’s ties to Morgenthau
could create a different sort of
problem for him in the LGBT
community, angry over recent
prosecutions of gay men bust-
ed on prostitution charges by
undercover cops in Manhattan
porn shops. With many of the
men apprehended a good deal
older than the undercovers they
supposedly tried to sell sexual
favors to, these are widely seen
as false arrests, a perception the
NYPD and the DA have been at a
loss to challenge; Morgenthau’s
office is investigating and now
seems to be allowing the clock
to run out on the permissible
period to prosecute the charges.
Vance, like the other two candi-
dates, has made clear he sees
the prosecutions as symptom-
atic of a systemic problem in the
DA’s office, the sort that can be
prevented, he said, if the office
is reorganized so that teams of
lawyers are responsible for spe-
cific geographic zones within the
borough.
“Once you see five or six of
these come in in a three-week
period or a two-week period, the
DAs are going to know that we
are having arrests of 54-year-
old men like Cy Vance who’ve
never been arrested for prosti-
tution, have no prior criminal
record, and the cops are say-
ing that Cy is soliciting a young
undercover,” Vance explained.
“These cases would be flagged
because we would be keep-
ing our ear to the ground and
understand what’s going on in
the arrests… I would say to the
cop, ‘Okay, next time I want
you to wear a wire.’ They don’t
have to do it, but if I’m not sat-
isfied with the response, I pick
up the phone and call the ser-
geant, or call all the patrol com-
mander and say, ‘Look I’ve got
three cases here, Commander,
and I’m having trouble believ-
ing that Cy at 54 is beginning
to turn tricks, so Commander if
you want me to prosecute these
cases, I need evidence and I
need evidence on a wire.’”
The prostitution arrests, he
argued, are “almost a classic
case” of how reorganizing the
office along geographic lines
would improve the system. “We
could have nipped this in the
bud,” Vance said.
While emphasizing the impor-
tance of managing attorneys,
Vance also spoke extensively
about the importance of com-
munity outreach and crime
prevention approaches. Mor-
genthau’s creation of a commu-
nity affairs bureau, which the
candidate said may have been
the first such effort anywhere
in the nation, was “a signature
achievement.” With the number
of lawyers up from 400 when he
served as an ADA in the ’80s to
500 today, and with crime down
significantly in the interven-
ing years, the question “right
now,” Vance said, is: “What
are the aggressive, thought-
ful, performance-based steps
we can make to effect crime
reduction.” This is where the job
becomes less about managing
trial lawyers. That task must
be supplemented, he said, by
“a robust group of non-lawyer
community affairs folks who
are out in the communities,”
also organized along geographic
lines. A small, probably central-
ized, bias crimes unit, reflecting
Vance’s belief in the importance
of taking on hate-motivated vio-
lence, would also be part of the
picture.
“My door would be open, and
I think that we’ve seen ways in
which the DA can be closer to
the community without sacrific-
ing efficacy,” Vance said.
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 JUL 24, from p.5
munity (Jul. 24, 7:30 p.m.; Jul. 25, 2:30
p.m.); “Return to Tennessee,” DJ Sharp’s
one-man show about Tennessee Wil-
liams (Jul 24, 9:30 p.m.); Lucile Scott’s
“V-Love,” the intertwined stories of six
post-modern women using dialogue,
song, dance, spoken word, beatbox-
ing, and burlesque (Jul. 23, 8:30 p.m.;
Jul. 25, 9:30 p.m.; Jul. 26, 12:30 p.m.);
Christopher J. Anderson’s dance piece
“Fever!,” which combines the surrealism
of fantasy with the magic of the mind
in a performance voyage that explores
styles, scenarios, gay love, fetishes, and
sensual fantasy (Jul. 25, 4 p.m.; Jul. 26,
3 p.m.); “The Fresh Fruit Poetry Slam,”
curated by Janice “Cookie” Pemberton
(Jul. 25, 7 p.m.); and “Passion, Lesbian
Visions 2009,” curated by Heidi Russell,
featuring an international array of self-
defined lesbian artists telling us what
ignites their passion (on exhibition,
through Jul. 25, noon – 6 p.m.).
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
NIGHTLIFE
Circle in the Square
Xs and Os, and Lady Clover Honey,
too. What could be a better way to duck
in out of the heat on a sultry Friday night
in da city? It’s Center Bingo, and Lady has
cash with your name on it. The jackpot is
$500. LGBT Community Center, 208
W. 13th St., 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 at
gaycenter.org or $15 at the door. Tables
of ten are available for $100.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
NIGHTLIFE
SAT.JUL.25
Classics
Dance 208 presents “Summer Garage
Classics,” celebrating the iconic ’70s
& ’80s dance club Paradise Garage and
the birthday of its star DJ, Larry Levan.
LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th
St., 8 p.m.-1 a.m. Tickets are $8 online
at gaycenter.org, $10 at the door, with
special $6 admission for anyone with an
original Garage member ID.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
PERFORMANCE
It’s Hot Out There
This summer marks the 18th Annual
Dixon Place HOT! Festival, a pioneer-
ing assemblage of queer performance
and culture, running through Aug. 8,
that bills itself as the oldest continually
䉴 JUL 25, continued on p.8
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009

Politics /7
An Advocate Aims to Lead
Aborn offers holistic approach to criminal justice in bid to be Manhattan DA
BY PAUL SCHINDLER he served as president of the Citizens the NYPD, brought him in to help the depth about finding ways to strengthen
Crime Commission of New York, a non- department comply with a detailed federal the office’s ability to promote crime pre-

“I
think our backgrounds are mas-
sively different, massively different,
and I think that our backgrounds
would define what we would do in the
office.” That’s how attorney Richard Aborn
handicapped the playing field in the three-
candidate September 15 Democratic prima-
ry contest for Manhattan district attorney.
Aborn, who early in his career worked as an
assistant district attorney under the incum-
bent, Robert Morgenthau, and has been
a practicing trial attorney at other points,
nonetheless noted that his two opponents
— Cyrus Vance, Jr., and Leslie Crocker-
Snyder, a former judge — both “tout their
long record in the courtroom.” In contrast,
in a July 2 interview with Gay City News
and indeed throughout his professional life,
Aborn, 56, focused much of his attention on
broader-based efforts to combat criminal
violence, including his high-profile work at
getting illegal guns off the streets.
From 1992 to 1996, he was the presi-
dent of Handgun Control, Inc., the orga-
nization where Jim and Sarah Brady did
their advocacy work in the years after Jim
survived the injuries sustained during the
1981 assassination attempt on President
Ronald Reagan. In his role at Handgun
Control, now the Brady Campaign to Pre-
vent Gun Violence, Aborn said, he was the
chief strategist behind passage of the Brady
Bill, the national assault weapons ban,
and the ban on large volume clips, three
signature achievements during the Clinton
administration. “These were very impor-
tant public safety tools to try and reduce
illegal gun trafficking,” he said. “And I also
managed a good part of the national gun
control movement. I know what it’s like to
go out there and assemble a coalition to
pass a piece of criminal justice legislation.”
Aborn’s work on criminal justice mat-
ters extends beyond the confines of gun
policy. Prior to beginning his race for DA,
profit group that advocates for a broad
range of progressive criminal justice goals
— sentencing reform, reducing jail over-
crowding, creating alternatives to incar-
ceration, improving juvenile justice, and
establishing community courts, among
them. In 1999, city Public Advocate Mark
Green named him to investigate disciplin-
ary procedures within the NYPD in the
wake of the fatal shooting of an unarmed
African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, in the
vestibule of a Bronx apartment house. The
resulting report, Aborn said, influenced the
thinking of the Civilian Complaint Review
Board when it made its recommendations
to the department about enhancing inter-
nal discipline. The CCRB, Aborn empha-
sized, “could be more effective; it needs an
adequate budget to carry out the investiga-
tions it needs to carry out and it needs to
have the power to prosecute its own cases.”
Despite the role he’s played in investigat-
ing the police and advocating that greater
resources go to its watchdog, Aborn said
he has no concerns that as DA he would
find himself in an unduly adversarial rela-
tionship with the NYPD.
“You can’t always worry about offending
people if you’re going to be DA,” he said.
“The trick is to make sure that people
always understand that when you stand
up and advocate for something, you’re
doing it because you believe it’s the right
thing to do and you’re doing it on a fac-
tual basis. I investigated the NYPD during
Diallo, was called in to do it. I tried to do it
in an open and transparent way, so that
even if the police department didn’t like
the outcome, they at least trusted how I
got there.” In fact, Aborn has also served
as a consultant to major police forces
around the world, including Scotland
Yard and the Los Angeles Police Depart-
ment. In 2001, LA Police Commissioner
William Bratton, who earlier headed up
court consent decree aimed at addressing
allegations of serious corruption. Bratton
is supporting Aborn’s run for DA.
Aborn is also a leading advocate for the
application of new computer technology in
fighting crime, an approach he said could
prove particularly useful in preventing a
repeat of the recent prosecution of numer-
ous gay men on dubious charges of pros-
titution that grew out of undercover NYPD
operations in Manhattan porn shops.
“There is software available,” he said, “that
would help us pick up patterns, based on
characteristics of crimes. If you had the
right software, you could pick up these
porn busts as a pattern you wouldn’t oth-
erwise see, as anomalies. But if you have
software combing through the data, you
can pick that up.” The technology, he said,
would also have helped identify a pattern of
as many as six Upper East Side assaults,
perhaps by the same group of young white
men, at least some of them motivated by
anti-gay animus, that began on May 31,
but were not identified as similar by the
NYPD until the end of June.
In his approach to tackling these sorts of
problems, Aborn specifically distinguished
himself from Vance, who advocates for the
DA’s office being reorganized along geo-
graphic lines. “His approach assumes that
all crime is local,” Aborn said of Vance.
“Some is regional. Sex-slave trafficking.
Gun trafficking. These arrests in the porn
shops, which took place in different neigh-
borhoods. The local-based approach will
not pick these up, but software will.”
Aborn also challenged Vance’s notion
of the job of DA as managing lawyers. “Cy
says the DA’s office is the largest trial law
firm in the city,” he said. “Yet only two per-
cent of cases ever go to court.” Aborn, who
has been endorsed by 16 elected officials
in Manhattan — from Congress, the Leg-
islature, and the City Council — talked in
vention. In talking about non-violent drug
offenses, mental health issues plaguing
communities, and the challenges facing
youth generally, he said, “I want to reject
the harsh model that seeks jail first and
embrace the more progressive and effec-
tive model that seeks intervention first.”
Regarding his potential as Manhattan DA,
he said, “We have an incredible opportu-
nity when Morgenthau leaves to build on
that office in a way to continue his very
strong push against violent crime, but also
to change the way we think about non-
violent crime,” and then, again pointing to
the potential benefits of successful social
and psychological interventions, he added,
“I am interested in breaking up the path-
ways to violence. I want to put up as many
roadblocks as possible. I want to work with
kids as we’ve never done before.” Aborn
also talked about the importance of inter-
vening with crime victims, noting that vic-
tims of domestic violence, especially males,
often go on to become offenders. “The vic-
tims who are not offenders should get help
first,” he said.
In contrasting himself with Crocker-Sny-
der, Aborn, like Vance, is most critical of her
longtime support, now disavowed, for the
death penalty. “I find it troublesome,” he
said. “Leslie says, and I’m using her words,
that she found out in 2007 that wrongful
convictions were a significant problem, and
therefore after 2007 she was totally against
the death penalty. Well, the reality is that
the bar and the judiciary have been deeply
troubled by the issue of wrongful convic-
tions for the greater part of two decades.”
On this point, he turned back to his exper-
tise as a social change advocate and agent.
“I have never wavered on the death penal-
ty,” he said. “I have always been against it
and I have pledged repeatedly that if any-
one tries to bring it back, I will build and
lead a coalition to try and stop it.”

Metropolitan Community Church of New York

Homeless
Youth
ServicesSocial Spiritual Like to Party with TINA ?
Service
A church of lesbian,
and Sylvia Rivera

Home
gay, bisexual
Food Pantry and transgender The Substance Use Research Center
at Columbia University
people. Open to all.

seeks medically healthy Meth users between the ages of 21 and 45

Advocating to participate in a 10-session study evaluating stimulant effects.
Marriage Equality and
Transgender Rights
You can earn up to $1,004.
The Reverend Pat Bumgardner, Pastor
Weekly Sunday Services: 9 am (Traditional), 11 am (Celebration)
3 pm (Mandarin) and 7 pm (Praise & Worship) For more information, please call: (212) 543-6013 or (212) 543-6545
11 am features ASL interpreter (1st, 2nd and 3rd Sunday of each month) ALL PERSONAL AND IDENTIFYING INFORMATION WILL BE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL
446 West 36th St. bet. 9th & 10th Ave. NY, NY 10018
212-629-7440 website: www.mccny.org email: info@mccny.org

8/ Legal
Ocean Grove Still A Fed Case
US court won’t hear civil union issue; it will examine broader religious claims
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
I
n a long-simmering battle
over the rights of two lesbian
couples to use the boardwalk
pavilion in Ocean Grove, New
Jersey, for their civil union cer-
emonies, a unanimous panel of
the US Court of Appeals for the
3rd Circuit ruled in an unpub-
lished July 15 decision that Dis-
trict Court Judge Joel A. Pisano
was correct in denying federal
jurisdiction in response to the
Ocean Grove Camp Meeting
Association’s efforts to forestall
an investigation by the state.
However, the court also found
that broader questions — which
could ultimately impact the les-
bian couples’ claims — must still
be heard by Pisano.
The Ocean Grove Associa-
tion is a Christian ministry dat-
ing from the 19th century that
purchased a large area along the
Jersey shore to establish its own
religious colony. The Association
still owns the land that the unin-
corporated Neptune Township
community of Ocean Grove is
situated upon, and performs the
functions of a local government,
although the community is no
longer solely made up of Asso-
ciation members. The property
includes a seaside boardwalk
that has a pavilion used by the
Association for religious activi-
ties, but also rented out to com-
munity residents for other types
Oregon Lesbian Co-Mom Win
Consenting to ex-partner’s donor insemination creates parental standing
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD
T
he O r e g o n C o u r t o f
Appeals has ruled
that the state’s donor
insemination law must be
interpreted to allow the former
lesbian partner of a woman
who conceived two children
during their relationship to
seek a legal determination of
her parental rights. Failure to
do so, the court ruled in a July
15 opinion written by Judge
Ellen F. Rosenblum, would
produce an unconstitutional
result.
of events, including weddings by
different sex-couples.
Two lesbian couples sought
to hold civil union ceremonies
in the pavilion, but were turned
down on the ground that “the
requested use was inconsistent
with the Association’s religious
There will be a federal
determination whether the Ocean
Grove Association, as owner of a
municipality, is bound to comply
with the Law Against Discrimination.
beliefs,” according to Judge
Michael Chagares’ opinion for
the court of appeals. The cou-
ples — Harriet Bernstein and
Luisa Paster, and Janice Moore
and Emily Sonnessa — filed
complaints with the New Jersey
Division on Civil Rights, which
enforces the state’s Law Against
Discrimination that includes
sexual orientation protections
in places of public accommoda-
tion. The case raises plenty of
meaty legal issues — includ-
ing whether the pavilion is a
place of public accommodation
or exempt as a religious facility,
and whether the Association’s
rights to free exercise of religion
guaranteed by the US Constitu-
tion can prevail, especially when
According to the court opin-
ion, Sondra Lee Shineovich
and Sarah Elizabeth Kemp,
in a relationship for ten years,
decided to have a child, with
Kemp becoming pregnant
through artificial insemina-
tion in 2003. Shortly before
the child was born, the women
took advantage of a brief win-
dow during which Oregon’s
Multnomah County, following
San Francisco Mayor Gavin
Newsom’s lead, issued mar -
riage licenses, though the
validity of their union was
later rejected by the Oregon
it had been a long-time recipient
of tax benefits premised on the
boardwalk being open to pub-
lic use. In fact, as this case has
proceeded, New Jersey authori-
ties withdrew these tax benefits
saying the Association violated
the requirement of making the
facility publicly available without
discrimination.
But that’s not what the July
15 ruling is about. Once the
couples filed their complaints,
the Association rushed into fed-
eral court with a lawsuit claim-
ing that its First Amendment
free exercise rights were being
violated. They sought an injunc-
tion blocking a state investiga-
tion until the federal court could
rule on its claim. Judge Pisano
dismissed the suit, citing a 1971
US Supreme Court ruling that
laid out the grounds for federal
courts to abstain from cases in
which state judicial proceedings
are underway. Pisano concluded
that the Ocean Grove Associa-
tion could raise its constitution-
courts. They shared respon-
sibilities for raising the child,
and decided that Kemp would
be inseminated again in 2006.
Before their second child was
born, the women separated,
and Kemp denied Shineovich
“regular contact” with the
children, so Shineovich went
to court.
Shineovich’s claim relied
on two Oregon statutes, one
holding that when a woman
becomes pregnant while mar-
ried to a man neither impotent
nor sterile, the husband will
be “conclusively presumed”
al claims in the New Jersey Divi-
sion on Civil Rights investigation
process. The Court of Appeals
agreed on that point.
However, the Association’s fed-
eral complaint went further than
that, asking as well for the court
to determine its free exercise
rights regarding all of its Ocean
Grove property. After all, in the
future same-sex couples might
ask to hold civil union or wed-
ding ceremonies in other places
within the community, including
the chapel or parts of the board-
walk outside the pavilion. The
Court of Appeals agreed with the
Association that Pisano’s deci-
sion to abstain from the case
was only appropriate regarding
the pavilion space being con-
tested through the state Division
on Civil Rights. The district court
must continue to hear the Asso-
ciation’s claims regarding the
rest of its Ocean Grove property,
it found.
So, it is possible that there will
be a federal district court deter-
mination, after all, about wheth-
er the Ocean Grove Association,
as owner of a municipality, is
bound to comply with the New
Jersey Law Against Discrimina-
tion. That ruling could, in turn,
affect the ultimate outcome of
the two lesbian couples’ claims
regarding use of the pavilion,
despite Pisano’s decision, now
upheld, to abstain from looking
specifically at that case.
to be the child’s legal father.
The second law provides that
when a husband consents to
his wife becoming pregnant
through donor insemination,
he will have the same paren-
tal rights as if the couple had
conceived the child them-
selves. Shineovich argued
that she and Kemp were mar-
ried at the time of their first
child’s birth and that on both
occasions she consented to
the inseminations with the
intent of being one of the legal
䉴 OREGON, continued on p.12
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 JUL 25, from p.6
running festival of its kind in the world.
The festival hub is the brand new
Dixon Place theater complex, with
a 120-seat lab theater and an intimate
performance café, at 161 Chrystie
St., btwn. Rivington & Delancey
Sts. The centerpiece of the festival is
the world premiere of Penny Arcade’s
work-in-progress “Old Queen,” a look
back to her own teenage experiences
in the early ’60s, when older homosex-
ual men were venerated figures in the
gay bars of Hartford, Providence, Bos-
ton, and Provincetown (Jul. 23 & 24,
8 p.m.; Jul. 25, 10 p.m.). The festival
also features the East Coast premiere
of San Francisco’s highly regarded
Sean Dorsey Dance, doing four perfor-
mances of Dorsey’s “Uncovered: the
Diary Project,” with a prologue written
and performed specifically for the New
York production by Kate Bornstein (Jul.
30-Aug. 1, 8 p.m.; Aug. 2, 3 p.m.). One
other highlight is “The Mattachine Proj-
ect,” created by Stephen Brackett, Dan
Fishback, Andy Horwitz, Ken Nielsen,
and Christin Meador, a devised theater
piece exploring the origins of modern
homosexuality and gay liberation by
focusing on the much-overlooked his-
tory of Harry Hay and the inception of
the pioneering homophile organization
from 1948-1953 (Jul. 28, 7 p.m.) For
complete details, tickets prices, and
reservations, visit hotfestival.org.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
AT THE BEACH
Stepping Up & Out
Susan Morabito provides the music.
41 Two-Mile Hollow in East Hamp-
ton provides the picture-perfect set-
ting. And the LGBT Community Center
offers the reason to feel real good
about yourself even as you are feeling
real good. Join the fun at Dancing on
the Beach 9 to benefit the Center, 4-8
p.m. Tickets are $85 at gaycenter.org or
(in limited numbers) $125 at the door.
Higher levels of support are, as always,
welcome. It’s a recession — if you’re
feeling no pain, remember the work of
our community is.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
GALLERY
Women Look At
Women
“The Female Gaze” is a group exhi-
bition of women artists depicting the
female form. With this premise, the
䉴 JUL 25, continued on p.12
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009 9

Experience the Harbor.

Tours daily from South Street Seaport

New York Water Taxi

Sunset Cruise
The breathtaking NYC skyline
at sunset. Experience a 90-minute
cruise enjoying the Statue of Liberty,
the Brooklyn Bridge and lower
Manhattan at dusk.

Statue of Liberty
Night Tour
Create memories that
last a lifetime. Get up close
and personal with the
Lady in the Harbor on this
one-of-a-kindnight tour.

Circle Line Downtown

Thursday Happy Hour
on the Harbor
Live DJ, drink specials, and giveaways.

Friday DJ
Sunset Cruise
Some of today’s hottest DJs spin.

Saturday
Night
Dance Cruise
With rotating theme
music nights.

Make your reservations now online at

HarberExperience.com or call 866-982-2542.

OUR OFFICIAL TRAVEL

| www.harborexperience.com | 866.984.6998 & TOURISM PARTNER
 23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009

10/ Perspective
■ ALBANY RECAP
PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER
JOHN W. SUTTER
JWSutter@communitymediallc.com
Duane’s Speech and the Legislature’s Future
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER BY NATHAN RILEY
TROY MASTERS

T
troy@gaycitynews.com
om Duane, the out gay New York State legislative ses- Dead! You think if you got sick and you will see moral leader-
Democratic state sena- sion, hundreds of bills pass and your friends were dying that ship in action.
EDITOR IN-CHIEF & CO-FOUNDER
PAUL SCHINDLER
tor from Chelsea, gave an every day. Tom is the chair of I would sit there and do noth- More of these speeches can
editor@gaycitynews.com impassioned speech in Albany the Senate Health Commit- ing? No. But that’s what hap- occur. The Senate last week
ASSOCIATE EDITOR that had an unusual effect on tee, and on July 15 and16 pened. That’s what happened. changed its rules and shifted
Duncan Osborne his colleagues — it changed five health-related bills were Every cold. Every virus. Every control of the agenda from
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS their minds. A bill ending an presented; two passed, two temperature. I thought I’d be closed-door caucuses to full
Christopher Byrne (Theater), Susie Day, invidious discrimination against failed. Duane rose to speak dead, and so did so many peo- public debates on the cham-
Doug Ireland (International), Brian McCormick the most financially stricken on the last measure, dealing ple that I knew. Dead! You think ber’s floor. Individual senators
(Dance), Dean P. Wrzeszcz
people living with AIDS actually with rental levels for the state’s you scare me? You think you can seek a vote on their bill
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Betsy Andrews, Seth J. Bookey,
passed when it seemed doomed public assistance clients who can make be back off? Nothing and if a majority drawn from
Anthony M.Brown, Kelly Jean Cogswell, to defeat. have AIDS. The rent charged to scares me.” Here was one of his both parties say, “Yes we want
Dean Daderko, Tate Dougherty, Andres Duque, Everybody in the capital people served by different sorts major themes. AIDS tested his a vote,” it goes to the floor. In
Michael Ehrhardt, Steve Erickson, Nick Feitel, recognized that Tom spoke of welfare falls under the 30- courage, and no member of the the past, these decisions were
Jim Fouratt, Joe Fyfe, Deborah Garwood,
with unusual fervor and cre- percent cap, the state making Senate from either party would made in private, by the major-
Erasmo Guerra, Emily Harney, Andrey Henkin,
Frank Holiday, Andy Humm, James Jorden, Brendan ated an extraordinary moment. up the difference. Mothers with get him to back down on his ity party, often by its leadership
Keane, David Kennerley, Gary M. Kramer, Arthur S. Daily News political blogger Liz dependent children have that commitment to those “people alone. Tom persuaded his col-
Leonard, Rachael Liberman, Benjamin posted a YouTube cap. Tenants in public housing who don’t have a voice.” leagues to change their thinking
Michael T. Luongo, Lawrence D. Mass, video; so did Marty Rouse of pay no more than the 30-per- The indifference and fear that and their plans, and I imagine
Winnie McCroy, Eileen McDermott,
Gregory Montreuil, Ioannis Mookas, Carrie Moyer,
the Washington-based Human cent. Everybody has that cap, PWAs encountered in the early he will not be the last orator to
Stephen Mueller, Christopher Murray, Rights Campaign — and then except for individuals affected ’80s goes on. Tom described make such an impression.
David Noh, Wayne Northcross, Lori Ortiz, virtually every gay and political by HIV illness. Tom’s legislation, his struggle to get the prisons, In a telephone interview,
Pauline Park, Sheila Pepe, John Reed, blogger mentioned it. Duane’s S2664, would extend these pro- which are filled with PWAs, to Duane stressed that every new
Nathan Riley, Andrew Robinson, Gerard Robinson,
defiantly powerful, at times tections to PWAs. do lab tests that will indicate law helpful to the LGBT com-
Chris Schmidt, Sarah D. Schulman,
Jason Victor Serinus, Linda Shapiro, mocking blend of courage and It is grotesque that New York, which medicines they should munity has passed with bipar-
David Shengold, Gus Solomons Jr., David Spiher, anger is riveting. (The 22-min- the state with the nation’s larg- take. Or the fear and resistance tisan support. Republicans
Drew B. Straub, Stefen Styrsky, Jerry Tallmer, ute speech in its entirety est number of AIDS cases, in Queens to creating housing get elected with the support of
Stefanos Tsigrimanis, Kathleen Warnock, appears in the online version would discriminate against this for persons who are infected; moderates, independents, and
Benjamin Weinthal, Lee Ann Westover,
James Withers, Kai Wright, Susan Yung
of this column at gaycitynews. population on something as that example left Tom shaking Democrats, and that trend has
com.) He reminded us that the fundamental as housing costs. his head in disbelief, saying “in grown more potent in recent
ART DIRECTOR
Mark Hasselberger
nation was paralyzed with fear But that is the current law; Queens — where I grew up.” He years. The voters expect them to
and acted out fear-based hos- nobody receiving income sup- mocked those who would be so be fair and even-handed in their
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Jamie Paakkonen tility during the early days of port because of an AIDS-related cheap and hardened as to deny treatment of people, including
the AIDS epidemic; his evoca- illness is protected by a rent a destitute person protection gays. With this speech, Tom
SENIOR VP OF ADVERTISING/MARKETING
FRANCESCO REGINI tion of that past provoked a cap. What Tom did — and it is from high rents and instead persuaded everyone but Kemp
francesco@gaycitynews.com palpable sense of shame that remarkably rare — was force compel them to live on the $11 Hannon, a Long Island Republi-
engulfed the State Senate his colleagues to confront the a day permitted under current can who used to chair the Sen-
ADVERTISING MANAGERS
chamber. When he finished, moral dimensions of a failure law. “You try it — socks, under- ate Health Committee. His bill
COLIN GREGORY
colin@gaycitynews.com the bill creating a 30-percent in state law and policy. Recall- wear, tooth paste, tooth brush, passed 52 to 1; another of his
limit on rents as a percentage ing the early years of the AIDS a subway ride to visit to your bills had earlier gone down by
ALLISON GREAKER
allison@gaycitynews.com of income for those living with epidemic, he cried out, “Some- mother.” He listed everyday one vote. Tom’s speech showed
JASON SHERWOOD
AIDS who receive public assis- one gets sick in the afternoon. items that quickly decimate that how the Senate might work as
jsherwood@gaycitynews.com tance was supported by every They’d be dead the next day. budget. the rules changes take effect. It
DANI ZUPANOVICH senator except one. Dead! And that went on for Tom deserves to be remem- could be a harbinger of a more
dani@gaycitynews.com In the closing hours of the months, and then years. Dead! bered for this speech. Watch it responsive Legislature.
Please call (212) 229-1890 for
advertising rates and availability. ■ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR >> editor@gaycitynews.com
ACCOUNTING
DAVID JAFFE
david@gaycitynews.com
PALM CENTER VIEW Don’t Ask” (Jul. 9-22), on the matter. he writes, “it is not clear that the presi- has never argued this is not legal, only that
NATIONAL DISPLAY ADVERTISING
ON DON’T ASK Every day, on average, one or two ser- dent has the legal authority to do that, and it prefers Congress to act first. Yet, partly
Rivendell Media / 212.242.6863 POLICY vice members are kicked out for being gay, it may be that such a move would have as a result of pressure created by the exec-
Web master and the remaining estimated 65,000 gay political blowback which could cripple the utive option, we are now seeing greater
Arturo Jimenez July 13, 2009 troops are forced to serve under unique effort to repeal that policy.” action by the president and secretary of
Arturo@gaycitynews.com
To the Editor: burdens, often in hostile terrain, isolated The Palm Center — and other groups Defense toward halting the discharges.
Gay City News, The Newspaper Serving Gay and Lesbian NYC, is
publishedby Community Media, LLC. Send all inquiries to: Gay City News, Over the last few months, several of and hamstrung by this policy. The execu- that have joined us in calling for executive In Osborne’s article, Dixon Osburn, for-
145 Sixth Ave., First Fl., NYC 10013 Phone: 646.452.2500 Written
permission of the publisher must be obtained before any of the contents the most active participants in the dialogue tive action outlined by the Palm Center is action, including Servicemembers Legal mer director of SLDN, compares executive
of this paper, in part or whole, can be reproduced or redistributed. All
contents (c) 2009 Gay City News. over gays in the military have had a polite the only way to promptly stop investiga- Defense Network (SLDN), Human Rights action by President Obama to the deeply
disagreement over the most effective way tions and discharges of gay troops and Campaign, Center for American Progress, unpopular “unilateral executive” action of
Gay City News is a registered trademark
of Community Media, LLC. to lift the ban on openly gay service. But thus the only way to address the immedi- and dozens of lawmakers — do not argue President Bush. This comparison is unin-
John W. Sutter, President
Fax: 646.452.2501;
that dialogue has sometimes prompted ate needs of both our gay service members the executive order would “end” the policy; formed, at best: The president’s stop-loss
E-mail: JWSutter@communitymediallc.com confusion and misinformation. As two and our national security. instead, it would be the first of a two-step authority is granted to him by Congress,
of the six co-authors of the Palm Center But executive action is only the first process that would halt discharges and and can hardly be called “unilateral execu-
Subscriptions:
26 issues, $90.00 study that began the debate over execu- step. According to Osborne, many gay help pave the way for legislative repeal, tive” action; President Obama would
(c)2009 Gay City News. tive action toward ending gay discharges, advocates believe that “Obama can end in part by providing stark evidence to Con- merely be executing the law.
All rights reserved. we appreciate the opportunity to comment the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy gress that openly gay service works. In so
on Duncan Osborne’s story, “Views Split on simply by issuing an executive order.” Yet, far declining this option, the White House 䉴 LETTERS, continued on p.13
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
■ SNIDE LINES
Obama and the New Gay Civility
R
ecently gay rights groups became
seriously miffed when our new
president’s own Justice Depart-
ment released a legal brief upholding
the Defense of Marriage Act by likening
same-sex marriage to pedophilia and
incest. “What about our civil rights?,”
we huffed. This is a president, after all,
whose life was profoundly shaped and
guided by the civil rights movement.
He once wrote, as he began his politi-
cal ascent, that he “favor[ed] same-sex
marriages, and would fight efforts to
prohibit such marriages.”
So we bought the “Hope” and
“Change” presidential campaign, craft-
ed, as it was, by nostalgic movers and
shakers to subliminally evoke the civil
rights movement. Gay rights groups
and their liberal allies invested mil-
lions. And, just after the election, we
were rewarded by a vast sense of power
and uplift — sort of like being swept
skyward in a magnificent, cosmic col-
lision between Martin Luther King and
the Nike Swoosh.
It is thanks to our newly acquired
state of stupefied achievement that
most gay people have not behaved
rudely in the wake of presidential
slights like the DOMA brief. Left with
a gnawing sense of abandonment, we
comfort ourselves with thoughts of
Michelle Obama’s arms, and leave the
expression of “outrage” to profession-
al gay activists. We refrain from “sit-
■ A DYKE ABROAD
Racism, Commies, and the Moonwalk
F
rench TV’s been full of nostalgic
documentaries celebrating the
40th anniversary of Neil Arm-
strong’s trip to the moon. It was hailed
not only as a superpower’s scientific
advance, but a human achievement
belonging to us all, a first step toward
a glorious future in which we would all
hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” while
circling the campfire on our jetpacks. All
things considered, we didn’t get very far.
There’s no man on Mars. No real space
program. And as for our crappy life here
on earth, every day brings a new flash-
back to the messy irrational hatreds of
the Cold War era.
Like in segregated cities in the ’50s,
60 black and Latino kids were booted
from Philadelphia’s Valley Swim Club in
late June even though their day camp
had paid more than $1,900 to join the
“open membership” pool. The reason?
“[C]oncer n that a lot of kids would
change the complexion ... and the atmo-
sphere of the club.” Some kids reported
BY SUSIE DAY
ins,” “picketing,” or “protests.” Such
behavior, you see, is an embarrassing
reminder of ridiculous, bygone endeav-
ors, such as the… uh… civil rights
movement.
Now that times have changed, what
we need is a Code of Conduct to reflect
our political maturity. To wit:
DON’T: throw gin bottles at the TV
and scream, “WHY CAN’T I FILE A
JOINT TAX RETURN?” while viewing
our president’s speeches. Apart from
annoying married heterosexuals in the
room, this is totally passé, and inter-
feres with our president’s First Amend-
ment right to donate your individual tax
dollars to Goldman Sachs.
DO: dress in clothes that tastefully
conform to the sex role accorded you
at birth. This means, ladies: no jock-
straps; gents: no hoopskirts. Red rib-
bon and rainbow flag pins should be
neatly pinned to lapels, not through
nipples. When in doubt as to your
costume, consult your local genita-
lia. Persons of the gyno persuasion
should wear a slimming dress or smart,
“Rachel Maddow” slacks, while those of
the you-know-what persuasion should
don a dark suit with pants reaching
well below the knee. Telling the world
you want to marry someone of the
same sex is one thing, but you’ll look
like a REAL pervert if the world can’t
tell which sex that is.
DON’T: tease the radical “queers.”
BY KELLY JEAN COGSWELL
that the pool attendants had been rather
less euphemistic, saying “they did not
allow minorities in the club and needed
the children to leave immediately.” At
least one white parent loudly freaked,
“Uh, what are all these black kids doing
here?... I’m scared they might do some-
thing to my child.”
The Young Republican conference in
July was an equally retro celebration of
misogyny and racism. The group chose
self-described “true conservative” Audra
Shay as chairman, over Rachel “must be
a dyke” Hoff, who was slammed as much
for wearing pants as for supporting civil
unions. The skirt-clad winner Shay was
elected despite, or because of, blatantly
racist Facebook comments, LOL’ing in
response to the statement we “need to
take this country back from all of these
mad coons” and responding to an effigy
of Sarah Palin with, “What no Obama in
a noose?... I am wondering if the guys
with the Palin noose would care if we had
a bunch of homosexuals in a noose.”
These people enjoy making themselves
unhappy and want to pull you into their
negative vortex with their silly march-
ing and chanting. Remember how they
followed President Reagan around in
the 1980s, chanting, “Racist-Sexist-
Anti-Gay-Ronald-Reagan-Go-Away”?
For pity’s sake, if they really wanted
Reagan to “Go Away,” they wouldn’t
have gone to a place where they knew
he would be, would they? Given their
illogic and volatility, it is best not to
point and laugh while they protest, as
their little faces get red and they have
seizures and pass out, then are carried
off by cops, who do God knows what
with them, thus hastening their inevita-
ble, dinosaur-like extinction. On second
thought: go ahead and tease them.
NEVER: question our president about
issues that are not specifically gay-relat-
ed. After all, what do you know about
US foreign policy? Maybe Afghanistan
likes being bombed! Remember, if it’s
not your problem, it doesn’t really exist.
Vive our difference!
DO: jump to your feet and cheer like a
Hun witnessing a human sacrifice when
our president begins a speech with rote
chumminess like, “Michelle and I …” In
fact, cheer after anything our president
says that is not blatantly against gay
rights. Nothing impresses a president
like adoration, which will remind him
not to send us to camps and legally hold
us under “prolonged detention.” (Note
One sign of progress, though, is that
40 years after we put a man on the
moon, there are now enough Republi-
cans of color in power to add their own
garbage to America’s racist cesspool.
One of the biggest supporters of the vio-
The nefarious black man, Harvard Professor
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was arrested for
getting pissed off that cops questioned his
right to enter his own home.
lently bigoted Audra Shay was apparent-
ly Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a
South-Asian American periodically tout-
ed as the Republican answer to Obama.
Michael Steele, the African American
head of the GOP, was on hand to tell the
Young Republican crowd he planned to
attract more people of color to the party
by offering up fried chicken and potato
Perspective /11
to movement: send president wee note,
thanking him for not holding us under
prolonged detention.)
DON’T: perform the gaucherie of
attempting to start a third political
party. This is the height of ingratitude,
and has been done to death. Homo-
sexuals have the potential to be just
as sleazy and compromising as any
heterosexual in the Democratic Party
— let’s use it! Besides, insiders say
the DOMA brief isn’t as bad as it could
have been, and other insiders who are
close to anonymous sources assure us
the president has our best interests at
heart.
DO: go online! A life devoted to email
and blogging makes you feel you’re
changing the world, when in reality,
your existence becomes more solitary
and interiorized than ever! It’s fun
to have a gay website — you may get
thousands of “hits” — but you’ll never
get beaten up! LOL! And, IMO, with no
meetings to go to, pesky human inter-
action can be cut to a minimum. :)
DON’T: stop taking pride in your
identity! Now that gay rights are indefi-
nitely postponed, maybe you can work
on “coming out” as a mammal.
DO: forgive our president for break-
ing promises and spurning us and our
friends. After all, politics is politics, and
he does what he does in order to sur-
vive. And so do we, honey. So do we.
:P :P :P
salad. Not support for small business-
es in poor minority neighborhoods, or
efforts to repeal drug laws responsible
for dumping young black men in jail.
Fried chicken and potato salad.
Republican attacks on Supreme Court
nominee Sonia Sotomayor were almost
as sophisticated, largely boiling down to
“temperament” and “personality,” code
for “I don’t trust you because you’re a
woman, a spic, a woman, a spic.” Demo-
crats aren’t immune from idiocy. In New
York, State Senator Ruben Diaz, usually
䉴 A DYKE ABROAD, continued on p.13

12/ Crime
䉴 PRAVIA, from p.1
the manslaughter charge is up
to 25 years in prison, with the
requirement that the offender
serve six-sevenths of the sen-
tence before becoming eligible
for release.
Cancel’s attorney, Michael
Alperstein, wrote that the psy-
chiatric evidence may be used
“in connection with any other
defense not specified in the stat-
ute, including the inability of
the defendant to form a specific
intent.” Alperstein added, “The
defendant is presently undergo-
ing neuropsychological testing
in order to more fully assess Mr.
Cancel’s condition. He reserves
the right to make timely amend-
ment to this notice when further
information is obtained.”
Alperstein forwarded three
studies to Gay City News that
were authored by Dr. Dorothy O.
Lewis, a professor at Yale Univer-
sity who has studied aggressive
or homicidal young offenders
and found high rates of often-
undiagnosed psychiatric disor-
ders as well as evidence of brain
damage and other deficits that
may have contributed to their
criminal behavior.
In hearings, Alperstein has
said that his client has a long
history of psychiatric problems,
䉴 OREGON, from p.8
parents. It would violate her
right to equal protection of the
laws, she maintained, to treat
her any differently from a hus-
band in these circumstances.
The trial court rejected
her arguments and granted
Kemp’s motion to dismiss.
The appeals court, while also
resisting Shineovich’s claim
regarding the relevance of
marital status, accepted her
argument about having con-
sented to Kemp’s insemina-
tions. The presumptive father
statute was intended for situ-
ations in which a husband is
physically capable of partici-
pating in a child’s conception,
which Shineovich clearly was
not. The insemination law, on
the other hand, seemed on
point in this situation, since
there is no pretense in that
statute that the legal father
had any physical role in con-
ception. Its statutory goal is to
recognize the intended family
grouping and ensure that the
Jeromie Cancel, 23, last September as he was
taken into custody in the murder of 19-year-
old Kevin Pravia.
including at least one suicide
attempt.
“Since he was ten years old,
my client has been in numer-
ous psychiatric institutions,”
Alperstein said at a July 7 hear-
ing. Alperstein has noted hospi-
talizations at the Bellevue Hos-
pital Center in Manhattan, the
Brookdale University Hospital
and Medical Center in Brooklyn,
and one unnamed institution in
Queens. When he subpoenaed
his client’s records from the
resulting child has two legal
parents at birth. Given these
policy goals, there is no good
reason to deny similar stand-
ing and status to a same-sex
partner, and refusal to do so
raises constitutional issues.
The appeals court had to
reckon with Oregon’s 2004
constitutional amendment
banning same-sex marriage.
That amendment was nar -
rowly written to apply only
to marriage itself, not more
broadly to the rights and ben-
efits of marriage that have
been barred in other states.
As the Califor nia Supreme
Court recently found in
upholding the constitutional-
ity of Proposition 8, the Ore-
gon court held that its state
gay marriage amendment
did not undermine the equal
protection rights of same-sex
couples to the same rights
and benefits — except for the
name “marriage” — as differ-
ent-sex couples under state
law. This finding is consistent
with Oregon’s recently enact-
city’s Department of Education,
Alperstein received 350 pages
of documents reflecting his cli-
ent’s time in special education
classes.
In his ten statements to
police, including videotaped and
written confessions, Cancel can
“I murdered someone in Manhattan.
If you don’t believe me, it’s in the
newspaper. The kid’s name is Kevin.”
be seen as either monstrous or
not all there.
He was arrested on Septem-
ber 2 in Queens for allegedly
burglarizing his father’s home.
In the course of admitting to
that crime, he announced to
police that he killed Pravia. “I
see you have no murders in this
precinct,” he told a police officer
in the 104th Precinct in Queens.
“I murdered someone in Man-
hattan. If you don’t believe me,
it’s in the newspaper. The kid’s
name is Kevin.”
Cancel and Pravia met in
Union Square, where the
19-year -old bought cocaine
from the now 23-year-old Can-
cel. They walked to Pravia’s
West 15th Street apartment to
ed Domestic Partnership Act
that extends almost full mar-
riage rights under state law to
same-sex couples.
Referring to Shineovich’s
standing to claim parental
rights, Judge Rosenblum
wrote, “We can see no jus-
tification for denying that
privilege on the basis of sex-
ual orientation, particularly
given that same-sex couples
may become legal coparents
by other means — namely,
adoption. There appears
to be no reason for permit-
ting heterosexual couples to
bypass adoption proceedings
by conceiving a child through
mutually consensual artificial
insemination, but not permit-
ting same-sex couples to do
so.”
Striking down the artifi-
cial insemination statute was
wisely viewed by the court as
disruptive to the lives of many
Oregon families, so it instead
chose to construe the stat-
ute to sidestep the constitu-
tional problem by extending
use the drug. When Pravia, who
was drunk, passed out, Cancel
began to rob him, the defendant
said. He explained the killing by
saying, “I was bored, so I decid-
ed to go back into the apartment
and kill him.”
In his statements to police,
Cancel allegedly gave details
of the crime that only the killer
would know and pointed police
to other evidence that support-
ed his confession. These admis-
sions reached a point where
Cancel appeared to grow tired
of making them. Late in the day
on September 2, Cancel said to
a detective, “Why do I have to
do this? I killed him. I strangled
him. I’ve been telling you this all
day.”
In his final statement, as he
was being taken in front of news
crews for a perp walk, he said,
“Are those cameras for me?
Can you handcuff me in front
so I can throw gang signs? I
don’t have any remorse. I’d do it
again.”
its reach to this situation.
The case has been sent back
to the trial court so there can
be fact-finding to determine if
Kemp was in fact inseminated
with Shineovich’s consent and
with the couple’s joint inten-
tion to raise the children as
co-parents. If Shineovich pre-
vails on that score, the court
will next determine whether
the children’s best interests
are served by a custody and
visitation award.
Beyond this ruling’s sig-
nificance on the question of
parental rights, it also sug-
gests that any effort to chal-
lenge the constitutionality
of the Domestic Partnership
Act is likely to fail, given the
court’s equal protection find-
ing.
Oregon attorney Mark
Johnson represented Shin-
eovich, who also had amicus
briefs filed on her behalf by
the American Civil Liberties
Union and Basic Rights Ore-
gon. Murphy McGrew repre-
sented Kemp.
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 JUL 25, from p.8
show presents a collection of works which
reclaim the traditional domination of the
“male gaze” and reorient the significance
of the female figure to allow for more var-
ied interpretations. A variety of mediums
will be shown —sculpture, photography,
video, painting, and installation — and
several different women artists are rep-
resented, including Berenice Abbott,
Ghada Amer, Diane Arbus, Vanessa
Beecroft, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bour-
geois, Julia Margaret Cameron, Victoria
Civera, Rineke Dijkstra, Marlene Dumas,
Anh Duong, Judith Eisler, Tracey Emin,
Ellen Gallagher, Nan Goldin, Katy Gran-
nan, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Chantal
Joffe, Maria Lassnig, Zoe Leonard, Sally
Mann, Marilyn Minter, Joan Mitchell,
Alice Neel, Collier Schorr, Joan Sem-
mel, Cindy Sherman, Mickalene Thomas,
Kara Walker, Hannah van Bart, Hellen
van Meene, and Lisa Yuskavage. Cheim
& Read, 547 W. 25th St. Tue.-Sat., 10
a.m.-6 p.m. through Sep. 19. 212-242-
7727 or cheimread.com.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
The Subjective Eye
The Leslie/ Lohman Gay Art Founda-
tion recommends “As We See It 2009,”
the fifth annual NYC Photo Club exhibition,
featuring stunning imagery, from erotic to
political, from pop art to politically incorrect,
from travel to portraiture, and everything in
between. LGBT Community Center, 208
W. 13th St. Through Sep. 3. To preview
the exhibition, visit nycphotoclub.com. All
sale proceeds benefit the Center.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
SPORTS
A Critical Part of
the Team
Cheer New York is the city’s premiere
LGBT pep squad, raises money to support
community charities, and will be making
the journey to the 2010 Gay Games in
Cologne next year. If you are interested
in joining the team, there is an orien-
tation, registration, and practice
clinic today, 1-4 p.m., followed by a
mandatory tryout on Jul. 29, 6:30-10
p.m. Auditions will include group cheers,
jumps, and stunts, followed by 60-sec-
ond showcases of your individual talents
— including dancing, tumbling, flexibil-
ity, personality, fundraising — followed
by a mini-interview. For complete infor-
mation, visit cheeryny.org, and email
info@ cheerny.org for exact location
in Midtown Manhattan.
䉴 14 DAYS, continued on p.16
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
䉴 A DYKE ABROAD, from p.11
celebrated for his outrageous homopho-
bia, brought his own racism to the table
when he sneered at state Republicans as
“los republicanos blanquitos” — “little
Republican whiteys” — in a Spanish-
language interview.
Meanwhile, in Akron, Ohio, a group
of black teenagers celebrated Indepen-
dence Day by attacking a white family
after a fireworks show, yelling, “This is
our world!” and “This is a black world!”
䉴 LETTERS, from p.10
As for political blowback, Dixon Osburn warns
that the Palm Center is “asking Obama to do what
Clinton was asked to do,” which is take action with-
out support from the military or Congress. This is,
in fact, what President Truman did successfully in
desegregating the military, and what Clinton failed
to do. If Clinton had issued an executive order from
day one, we arguably wouldn’t be in this mess. And
today, there is far more support from both the Penta-
gon and Congress, as well as service members and
the general public, for lifting the ban than in Clin-
ton’s day. What’s needed is leadership. There will
be political costs to lifting the ban, but there is no
evidence that executive action will cost more than
Congressional action. It is disappointing to hear
allies using the same political scare tactics as our
opponents.
Finally, precisely because executive action will
not end the gay ban, but only begin to end it, Con-
;gZZYdbIgV^cEgdYjXi^dchegZhZcih
OFX! QM BZ! GF TU JWBM
i]ViBViiZg#
EaVnh^c9ZkZadebZci
CZleda^i^XVai]ZVigZ#
I]gZZWaVX`fjZZgh$]ZgdZh#
6heZXigjbd[]jbVchigj\\aZVcYXjaijgZ#
PQFOJOH!BVHVTU!6ui!
TPVUI!PYGPSE!TQBDF
GPSU!HSFFOF-!CSPPLMZO
*''0mmm$\h[[ZecjhW_dfheZkYj_edi$eh]%Óh[
23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009
The uninsured construction worker
father ended up in critical care for five
days, with stacks of hospital bills and
questions about buying a gun.
Which would be easy enough in
Missouri where a car-dealer is giving
away free AK47s with his trucks. In an
interview with an astounded journalist
from the BBC, he explained that pretty
much all Americans like guns, except
for Commies, of course. When asked
just what semiautomatic weapons were
good for, he said you could have a lot of
gress will not get a pass on taking action. While
Duncan Osborne reports as fact that “Democrats do
not have the votes to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,”
no one knows if that’s true until it comes to a vote.
In any event, since the grounds for stop-loss will
not last forever, there will be continued pressure on
Congress to fully scrap the ban. Once gays are serv-
ing openly, it will be operationally impossible to put
the toothpaste back in the tube — what would we
do, command all troops to forget that they now know
who’s gay? Of course, it’s up to all of us to keep that
pressure on Washington. This begins with reporting
fairly and discussing honestly what the options for
action really are.
Nathaniel Frank
Senior Research Fellow
Palm Center
Diane H. Mazur, Professor of Law
University of Florida and Affiliated Scholar
Palm Center
BV_dg[jcYZgh^cXajYZ
fun shooting stuff up, but that AK47s
were especially useful in case of “home
defense.”
They could have used a few last week
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a
white neighbor called the police because
a black man was struggling with the
front door of a house in an appar -
ent break-in attempt. Eventually, the
nefarious black man, Harvard Profes-
sor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was arrested
for getting pissed off that the cops came
and questioned his right to enter his
THE ’72 SUPREME COURT
ON MARRIAGE EQUALITY
June 20, 2009
To the Editor:
In 1971, I was a member of Jack Baker’s gay liberation
group that fought for gay marriage. Given this perspective,
I believe Arthur S. Leonard missed some false claims made
in Obama’s Department of Justice legal brief that cited the
1972 Baker v. Nelson US Supreme Court case. (“Obama
Administration Versus Candidate Obama,” posted online,
Jun.18). First, the brief falsely claims that “… in Baker v.
Nelson… the Minnesota Supreme Court had rejected the
contention that a State statute limiting marriage to one
man and one woman violated federal due process and
equal protection principles.” In fact, Minnesota law did
not specify the sex of marriage partners when Baker chal-
lenged the law. The Minnesota high court only construed
that marriage was limited to a man and a woman. Second,
the US Supreme Court justices unanimously passed up
their chance to second the Minnesota Supreme Court by
13
own home. Instead of complaining, call-
ing the policeman a racist for only doing
his job, and irresponsibly provoking the
situation by asking for his badge num-
ber, I suppose the distinguished Profes-
sor Gates should have saved the cops
the trouble and shot himself for intrud-
ing on the peace of mind of his lily-white
neighbors.
That’s post-race America in a nutshell.
Forty years after the moonwalk, skin’s
still a disease too many of us are mad
with.
voting to “affirm” its decision against gay marriage. The
Baker case only affirmed that marriage laws are a matter
of state and not federal law. Jack Baker still contends his
marriage is valid until declared otherwise by the court of
last resort.
Thomas Kraemer
Corvallis, Oregon
Arthur S. Leonard responds:
The Supreme Court ruled without hearing argument
that the appeal did not present a “substantial constitu-
tional question” and denied review. Ever since then,
lower courts have cited Baker v. Nelson for the proposi-
tion that the Supreme Court held that the denial of mar-
riage to same-sex couples does not violate the Consti-
tution. I and many feel this is an archaic citation, as the
court did not issue an opinion to explain its ruling and
constitutional law on gay issues has developed substan-
tially over the intervening decades. But I don’t think the
DOJ makes a “false claim” regarding the precedential
holding of Baker v. Nelson.

14/ Books
Still Waters Run Deep
Sprawling novel extracts magic from the mundane
BY DAVID KENNERLEY
“L
ake Overturn,” the generous
debut novel by Vestal McIn-
tyre, is an extraordinarily
rendered narrative about ordinary peo-
ple. Set in Eula, Idaho, a quasi-fictional
desert town on the edge of a big lake,
the work traces the lives of more than
a dozen characters who are swimming
against the crosscurrents of family,
class, race, organized religion, peer pres-
sure, and thwarted sexuality.
The book’s title refers to an actual
1986 incident in Cameroon, where a
giant bubble of carbon dioxide rose from
the bottom of Lake Nyos and killed 1,700
villagers. The plucky-but-geeky Enrique,
a young teen who gets off reading mus-
cle mags, explores this phenomenon in
a science fair project, suggesting that a
similar tragedy could befall Eula.
Despite their humble, white-trash
roots, McIntyre has crafted poignantly
vivid characterizations where humanity
shines. The critics are purring, calling the
novel “engrossing,” “deliriously ambro-
sial,” and “richly imagined and fully
realized.” The New York Times recently
named the work an “Editor’s Choice,” as
it did his collection of short stories, “You
Are Not the One,” a couple of years ago.
If your typical summer page-turner feels
like ocean surf crashing, the experience
of reading “Lake Overturn” is akin to
gentle wavelets lapping at your toes ––
soothing, expansive, transporting.
The youngest of seven siblings (four
turned out to be gay) in a Southern
Baptist household in Nampa, Idaho,
McIntyre won a highly coveted National
new half the
country price
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and
a Lambda Literary Award in 2006. For
many years, he lived in New York, serv-
ing steak frites at the famed, lamented
bistro, Florent, and last year decamped
to London to live with his British hus-
band, Tristan.
I recently spoke with the 37-year-old
author about his new novel, his Flo-
rent days, becoming an ex-pat, and the
murky politics of same-sex marriage.
DAVID KENNERLEY: In the last few
weeks, I spied guys reading “Lake Over-
turn” on the Fire Island Pines beach and
the Christopher Street pier. Somebody
even approached me while I was reading
1
50% discount on International Banking Center Services for opening HSBC accounts in qualifying countries outside of the United States.
Deposit products in the U.S. offered by HSBC Bank USA, N.A. Member FDIC. ©2009 HSBC Bank USA, N.A.
LAKE OVERTURN
By Vestal McIntyre
HarperCollins
$24.99; 448 pages
the book and said that his 80-year-old
mother loved it.
VESTAL MCINTYRE: Are you kid-
ding? Holy shit, I wish I were there. When
my first book came out, I was hoping and
praying that one day I would randomly
see someone reading it on the subway,
but it never happened. I have personally
sold copies of my book, however. I have
a crappy job at this chain store —Lon-
don’s answer to Barnes and Noble. The
managers are really nice and stock it at
the front counter. Sometimes when I’m
at the register, customers pick the book
up and when they realize I’m the author,
they buy it.
DK: Who then, would you say, is your
target audience?
VM: When I’m writing, I resist think-
ing of a specific audience. Usually, the
first person to read my work is my older
sister, my toughest critic. So I ask myself,
“Would Beeb think this is funny or would
she roll her eyes?” But that doesn’t mean
I’m targeting lesbians in their late 40s.
DK: On the surface, a wispily plotted
story set in Podunk, Idaho doesn’t exact-
ly scream “Read me!” Was it a tough sell
to get it published?
VM: Not at all. I had a savvy, recep-
tive group of editors to send it out to, and
luckily I got offers right away. It’s funny
you ask, because I come up against that
Save half off the cost of opening
an international HSBC account
Negin N.
Brooklyn, NY
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
problem a lot. I have to talk about the
book and get people excited about it: “It’s
about these folks stuck in a small town
in Idaho, and there’s this trailer park.”
When I was writing, I never considered
how that might sound. There’s no hook.
DK: You’ve woven together several
story threads involving a slew of char-
acters. There’s Lina, a single mom of
Mexican descent who lives in a trail-
er park and cleans people’s houses;
Enrique, her gay-leaning 13-year-old
son; Connie, a lovelorn, conflicted reli-
gious zealot; Chuck, a Mormon los-
ing his wife to cancer; and Wanda, a
drug addict/ babysitter who yearns to
become a surrogate mother. And many
more. How did you keep all those story
lines straight?
VM: At a certain point the timeline
got all out of shape and the story was a
tangled mess. So I turned one wall into
a big chart with color-coded notecards
with scenes I had written and had yet to
write. It helped me sort out what could
happen when.
DK: Instead of mocking Connie’s
devout religious fervor, you treat her with
respect. Was that difficult?
VM: It would be difficult for me — and
I don’t want to sound too sappy — not to
treat her with respect, since I’m devot-
ing so much of the novel to her. Her con-
cerns with living a good life and pleas-
ing God were my concerns when I was
little. I was intensely religious, worried I
was going to Hell. I had long negotiations
䉴 LAKE OVERTURN, continued on p.16
outside the U.S.1 with a
PLUS BANKING relationship.
Call 866 960-1366,
visit your local branch,
or learn more
at us.hsbc.com/plusnow.
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009

Film /15
Not Enough Body
Monika Treut’s romantic thriller falls short on both counts
BY GARY M. KRAMER GHOSTED
Directed by Monika Treut

M
onika Treut’s intrigu-
ing film “Ghosted,”
about a lesbian video
artist coping with the loss of
her lover, intertwines issues of
sexuality, nationality, and iden-
tity with decidedly mixed results.
Despite a promising conceit —
how love is most deeply felt when
it is gone — this multicultural
romance shaded by a mystery is
surprisingly un-engaging.
Ai-Ling (Han-Ru Ke) leaves
Taiwan for Germany to see her
businessman uncle, Chen Fu
(Jack Kao). She’s searching for
information about her late father,
and thinks Chen Fu may hold
the key to her identity. Attend-
ing a movie one night she meets
First Run Features
Opens Jul. 31
Quad Cinema
34 W. 13th St., quadcinema.com
wary of Mei Li, perhaps because
she reminds her of Ai-Ling. Even-
tually she agrees to talk with the
intrepid journalist, and in time
they make their way into bed.
Will this affair help Sophie drive
the “ghost” of Ai-Ling from her
past? Or will Sophie be haunted
by the tragedy of Ai-Ling’s death;
will her dead lover “avenge what
has been done to her” from
beyond the grave? Viewers may
not feel much at stake in the
answers.

FIRST RUN FEATURES

Sophie (Inga Busch), a video artist
who becomes her lover. Although
Sophie texts Ai-Ling that she has
put a spell on her, audiences may
not feel the intensity of their too-
cool romance. The affair ends
suddenly when Ai-Ling is mur-
dered. While Sophie says she
doesn’t blame herself for Ai-Ling’s
demise, as the film unfolds, there
are hints that Ai-Ling’s feelings of
jealousy and betrayal prompted
her death.
Five months later, Sophie is in
Taiwan, unveiling a video exhibit
featuring her late lover. Mei Li
(Ting Ting Hu) approaches the
artist with interest in doing a
newspaper interview. Sophie is
Part of the problem is that the
film’s casual style fails to suf-
ficiently allow for the dramatic
tensions to surface or perco-
late. Sophie’s loss of Ai-Ling is
not made palpable, probably
because what we see of their
relationship lacks emotional
pull. Like Sophie, audiences
barely get to know Ai-Ling before
she is killed; much of her screen
time is shown in flashbacks.
That problem is compounded by
the fact that the circumstances
of Ai-Ling’s death are revealed
too late in the story. As with Ai-
Ling, Sophie’s relationship with
Mei Li is short on excitement,
the two women never mak-
Ting Ting Hu as Mei Li and Inga Busch as Sophie in Monika Treut’s “Ghosted.”
ing the connection that would
make their relationship believ-
able. Their bonding may parallel
Sophie’s romance with Ai-Ling,
but it feels more like a contrived
plot device.
The film’s thrill episodes also
fail to pack a punch. There is
little inherent drama about Mei
Li becoming unnerved by a pair
of strangers, or having a “night-
mare.” Perhaps the biggest kick
in this aloof film is when Mei Li
reveals she has a hidden agenda.
But much of “Ghosted” is simply
too detached. Ai-Ling’s search
for knowledge about her father
doesn’t amount to much in
terms of us getting to know her,
even when his identity — not
terribly unexpected — becomes
known.
Treut may be focused more on
mood than narrative in “Ghost-
ed.” The filmmaker captures her
characters’ unease by having
these women communicate in
broken English because no one
can speak the other’s language.
Surprisingly, the culture-clash
elements in the film are restrict-
ed mostly to minor exchanges,
such as Sophie expressing
surprise that Al-Ling’s mother
calls her everyday.
Sophie, Ai-Ling, and Mei Li
are not unlikable women; they
䉴 GHOSTED, continued on p.25

Grow your money steadily with

great rates on a Premium Money
Market savings account,1 and
special bonus rates on CDs.2
Pascal P.
New York, NY
Call 866 960-1366,
from Paris, France
visit your local branch,
or learn more
at us.hsbc.com/plusnow.
saving stressing

1
Opening and maintaining a Premium Money Market Plus Savings Account is dependent on having a relationship checking account product.
2
If available, applies to initial term of qualifying new HSBC CDs under $100,000.
Deposit products in the U.S. offered by HSBC Bank USA, N.A. Member FDIC. ©2009 HSBC Bank USA, N.A.
16
䉴 LAKE OVERTURN, from p.14
directly with God, bargaining, “If
I do this, will you help me with
this?” I couldn’t make fun of her.
Although I’d be happy to skewer
Christians in another book.
DK: Although barely a teen-
ager, Enrique is pretty sure he’s
attracted to boys. Did you draw
from your own experience?
VM: Yeah. I went to a tiny
fundamentalist Christian junior
high school where I was targeted
as the school fag. It got so tortu-
ous, my parents let me switch to
public school, which was bigger
and more comfortable for people
on the fringe. A lot of stuff, like
[Enrique’s] navigations of junior
high society and negotiations
with bullies, came from my life.
He’s a little more ruthless and
gets into harder situations than
I got into — what I could have
been if I were bolder.
DK: What was it like having
gay brothers and sisters?
VM: When we were little, our
house was so gay. We weren’t
allowed to talk about gay stuff
at all, since my mother was so
strict. However, we’d divide
into teams, dress up, and have
weird, campy dance contests,
performing elaborate routines to
Dolly Parton songs. It was basi-
cally one big drag show. Our
parents loved it.
DK: Now you’re living in Lon-
don. Why do you think Ameri-
cans have such a problem with
gays getting hitched compared
䉴 BRIEFS, from p.4
and then trying to stuff it with
tough-on-crime, but soft-on-guns
amendments has complicated
the drive to get this long-delayed
measure finally enacted. Earlier
this year, the House of Represen-
tatives passed the hate crimes
measure — which will for the
first time include federal protec-
tions based on sexual orienta-
tion and gender identity — as
a stand-alone bill, but when the
Senate took it up it was added
to a Defense Department bill as
a means of blocking a filibuster
against its enactment. President
Barack Obama threatened to
veto the DoD bill unless it elimi-
nated $1.75 billion in funding
for F-22 fighter planes, deemed
unnecessary by the Pentagon but
favored by senators representing
states where Lockheed Martin,
the chief contractor, has a pres-
ence. Obama won that battle on
23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
nically the bill is in the hands
of Congress right now. Obama
supported it as a senator;
there’s no question he would
14 DAYS
sign it. The task is to get more
senators behind it. It could still
happen.
14 NIGHTS
䉴 14 DAYS, from p.12
DK: You worked at my favor-
ite restaurant, Florent, for a
decade. Did the experience
inform your writing in any way?
VM: It was great for my FILM
SUN.JUL.26
career. Everyone who worked Chill Fest
there had a creative streak, This summer, Jersey City’s Chill
and Florent [Morellet] encour- Fest offers up four evenings of sex, hor-
aged us. Other writers and my ror, and sci-fi queer cinema. Tonight,
agent would visit me there — it the series continues with “Hellbent,” a
was my office. I was able to go classic slasher movie with a clever, gay
away to write for stretches, twist. Automata Chino, 99 Greene St.
HARPERCOLLINS
sometimes months, and come at York St., Jersey City, one block
back and still have a job. When from the Exchange Pl. PATH station,
my first book came out, Florent 6:30 p.m. for cocktails and social-
Vestal McIntyre’s poignantly transporting new novel has won him the same sort of acclaim that kept a stack downstairs. When izing, 7 p.m. screening. Screenings
greeted his earlier short story collection. he was having dinner with a lit- later this summer include: “Wrangler:
erary influential, he’d grab one Anatomy of an Icon,” Jeffrey Schwarz’s
to the Brits? I don’t want it to be called mar- and say [French accent], “Zees documentary about 1970s porn superstar
VM: It’s complicated. The riage because that seems like an is Vestal, he’s a great writer. You Jack Wrangler, who died earlier this year
easy answer is that America is imitation of a straight convention. simply must read hees book.” (Aug. 9); and Dino De Laurentis’ 1980
overrun by religious conserva- I am tempted to diss America but “Flash Gordon,” with inspiration directly
tives, while [Great Britain] is the I love it too, and I miss it. I want to DK: The restaurant’s demise from the comic strip and movie serials of
most secular society I can think move back and bring Tristan, as seems ripe for a novel — a pop- the 1930s in a colorful rainbow of camp
of. Political questions are dealt soon as they let us. ular, unpretentious, artsy gas- delights, with bleach blond Sam J. Jones
with more intellectually here, tro hub, presided over by a gra- as quarterback hero Gordon and Melody
unclouded by passion. People DK: I read your letter to ciously eccentric gay maverick, Anderson as his love interest, Dale Arden
don’t get moralistic or religious Obama published in the Advo- falls victim to a greedy landlord, (Aug. 23). Admission is $10. You must
about it. It’s a simple matter of cate encouraging the passage who in turn gets crunched by be 21. Complete information at myspace.
civil rights. of the Uniting American Fami- the economic slide and strug- com/chillfestjerseycity.
lies Act, the bill allowing Ameri- gles to find a tenant for the ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
DK: Do you think it’s a ques- cans to sponsor their same-sex space. Ever been tempted to
tion of semantics? The “M” word foreign partners so they can write about that? COMEDY
scares many Americans. live here. What’s your take on VM: No. But last time I was You Can’t Do That
VM: I don’t know why people Obama’s inaction on this issue? in New York, I saw Florent furi- on TV
are so fixated on that word. I’m VM: Obama has a huge influ- ously writing some sort of man- They may be stars from the boob
happy with the term civil partner. ence on how it will go, but tech- uscript. tube, but they’ll offer up plenty of new
material live in Hell’s Kitchen tonight.
Host Brad Loekle (TruTV’s “The Smoking
July 21, but must still prevail in the Human Rights Campaign Clinton went so far as to run ads with gay leaders on the eve of her Gun”) welcomes headliner Jodie Was-
stripping out the money from the criticized Sessions’ death penalty on small Christian radio stations 2006 Senate reelection and said serman (Comedy Central), along with
House version of the bill, which amendment and called for con- in targeted states bragging about she would not oppose efforts by Adam Lehman & Michael Brill (Here!TV’s
will likely be amended to include ference committee negotiators having done so. Eliot Spitzer, then widely expect- “Hot Gay Comics”) and Kate McKinnon
the hate crimes provisions in a to eliminate it when they work Last week, the former presi- ed to win his race for governor, (Logo’s “Big Gay Sketch Show”). “The
House-Senate conference com- to conform the House and Sen- dent, a year after his wife gave to legalize gay marriage in New Electro Shock Therapy Comedy Hour,”
mittee later this summer. ate versions of the measure. On up her presidential aspirations, York. Therapy Bar, 348 W. 52nd St., 10 p.m.
Stymied in blocking Sen- July 22, the Senate beat back an signaled he has changed his mind President Clinton’s state- No cover charge; $6 cosmos all night.
ate action on hate crimes, some amendment from South Dakota on the issue. The Nation maga- ment puts him in the same camp ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
Republicans are larding the DoD Republican Senator John Thune zine on July 14 reported that as New York’s senior senator,
bill with pet conservative crime to allow concealed weapons to when asked if he supports equal Charles Schumer, who earlier NIGHTLIFE
and guns goals. Alabama Sena- be carried across state lines. marriage rights, Clinton said, this year announced his support Sail Away
tor Jeff Sessions, who just last “Yeah… I personally support for marriage equality, 13 years Will Clark hosts his sixth and, he says,
week led the charge against Bill Clinton people doing what they want to after voting for DOMA. raunchiest Bad Boys on the Hudson Sea
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Says Yes to Gay do. I think it’s wrong for someone Tea aboard the Queen of Hearts tonight.
Sotomayor in the Judiciary Com- Marriage to stop someone else from doing Episcopalians Entertainers include go-go idol Mike
mittee, managed to add amend- During the heat of his reelec- that.” Then, in an endorsement of Open Arms to Dreyden, Torez, New York Mr. Leather
ments to the bill that among tion bid in 1996, President Bill the six states that currently allow Gays 2009 Jase Woodruff, Duke Rivers of Tom
other things would broaden the Clinton signed the Defense of gay and lesbian couples to marry, In its triennial General Con- of Finland parties fame, and Jonny Mack,
reach of the federal death penal- Marriage Act (DOMA), barring he added, “I think all these states vention ending July 17, the North who you may have seen at Woof parties,
ty, though Massachusetts Demo- federal recognition of marriages that do it should do it.” American Episcopal Church made plus Porno Bingo Bitch Amanda Take-
cratic Senator Edward Kennedy by same-sex couples and giving The Nation noted that the two significant advances in wel- hometomother and DJ Philip Kimball.
won approval of a competing states the green light to do the former president in May had told coming its LGBT congregants East of Eighth restaurant provides the
amendment that would impose same. In the final days of the an audience in Toronto that his — first by ending a three-year buffet dinner. The evening benefits Team
some additional restrictions on ’96 campaign, sensing the pos- views on marriage equality were moratorium on the consecration Eagle, cyclists from the New York Eagle
carrying it out. Both the National sibility of a clean 50-state sweep “evolving,” the same word used
Gay and Lesbian Task Force and against former Senator Bob Dole, by his wife Hillary when she met 䉴 BRIEFS, continued on p.26 䉴 JUL 26, continued on p.20
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009 17

GET OUT IN AC!

CYNDI LAUPER & ROSIE O’DONNELL · 8/7/09

PET SHOP BOYS

9/6/09
MELISSA ETHERIDGE · 8/28/09

GET OUT
IN AC
STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFO ON AC’S WEEKEND OUT IN SEPTEMBER 09

w w w. H a r r a h s . c o m / g e t o u t i n a c

18/ Books
Got to Be Room For Stories
Edmund White recalls the ’60s & ’70s, champions fiction
BY MICHAEL EHRHARDT
I
f the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s
represented the golden age
of Broadway, the ‘60s and
‘70s marked the seismic shift
in New York’s gay culture —
despite or more likely because of
the fact that the Big Apple had
become rotten at its core, with a
financially bankrupt infrastruc-
ture, rampant street crime, pub-
lic services at a nadir, and the
mafia run-gay bars blatantly in
cahoots with corrupt members
of the NYPD. It was this dicey
environment that supplied the
irritants necessary for change,
especially when prompted by
wider influences such as the
sexual revolution, the fight for
black civil rights, and anti-Viet-
nam War demonstrations, all
reflected in the city’s arts scene.
This tumult would in time fuel
the spirit of queer activism that
flared into the Stonewall Riots.
In 1963, Julian Beck and
Judith Malina’s Off-Off Broad-
way Living Theatre on 14th
Street shocked audiences by
producing the anti-establish-
mentarian “The Brig,” depict-
ing the dehumanizing environ-
ment which ten convicts are
subjected to during one day in a
US Marine prison; in the Spring
of ’64, gay African-American
author James Baldwin’s “Blues
for Mister Charlie,” dedicated to
the memory of civil rights mar-
tyr Medgar Evers, opened on
Broadway; in December 1965,
Peter Brook’s landmark produc-
tion of German playwright Peter
Weiss’ “Marat/ Sade,” about
despotism, repression, and rev-
olution, opened at the Martin
Beck Theatre, going on to win
the Tonys for Best Play and Best
Director. The climax of the play
had asylum inmates rebelling,
wrecking havoc on the authori-
ties, and spilling into the audi-
ence, a Brechtian trope echoed
in April 1968 when “Hair: The
American T ribal Love-Rock
Musical,” a product of the hippie
counter-culture, jolted Broad-
way with its rebellious stance,
nudity, and mocking of Ameri-
can jinogism.
Mart Crowley’s Off-Broadway
play “The Boys in the Band”
also came out in 1968, a year
CITY BOY: MY LIFE IN NEW YORK
DURING THE 1960S AND ’70S
By Edmund White
Bloomsbury
$26; 304 pages
before Stonewall. “Boys…”
was released as a film in 1970,
directed by William Friedkin,
who went on to direct the con-
troversial “Cruising” in 1980.
In a tragic coda to the film’s
history, five actors in “Boys…”
— Kenneth Nelson, Leonard
Frey, Keith Prentice, Fred-
erick Combs, and Robert La
Tourneaux, would die from
AIDS-related illnesses.
In a 2004 interview for the
Inter national Association
of Physicians in AIDS Care
(IAPAC), author Edmund White,
a founder of Gay Men’s Health
Crisis, proposed: “Somebody
should write a book about the
’70s — straight and gay — but
it would turn out to be mainly a
gay story. I feel that was one of
the high points in human cul-
ture. There were all these great
people — Jasper Johns in paint-
ing, John Ashbery in poetry,
Balanchine’s last years in ballet,
many great novelists — there
was a tremendous amount of
activity and a New York aesthet-
ic that was very powerful.”
White has tackled that prop-
osition in his new and neces-
sary memoir, “City Boy: My Life
in New York During the 1960s
and ’70s,” chronicling Gotham’s
cultural highs and lows dur-
ing those two heady and iconic
decades, during which rents
were easily affordable, jobs
readily available, boho culture,
with its tradition of “honorable
poverty,” blossomed, and the
arts flourished as never before.
White’s fans will find themselves
in familiar territory covered in
his epochal semi-autobiograph-
ical novel, “The Farewell Sym-
phony” (1997), but the author
has scraped away the literary
veneer to give a straightforward
rendering of personalities and
events of the period; fictional
disguises are discarded and the
underlying factual pentimenti
revealed. And — Lord — the
names drop! He never comes
off as boastful — “…that’s what
New Yorkiness is, primarily,
In “City Boy,” Edmund White has scraped away the literary veneer to give a straightforward ren-
dering of personalities and events in New York’s gay life in the 1960s and ’70s.
the recognition of a thousand
names and faces” — instead
fleshing out our notion of how
vital a period the ’60s and ’70s
were, and, by tacit comparison,
just how depressingly devoid of
such interesting personalities
the new century has been.
White also views New York
culture of the period from a
West Coast vantage point (San
Francisco) and a European
perspective, with accounts of
sojourns in Rome, Venice, and
Paris: “When I moved to Rome
in 1970, I suggested to an Ital-
ian friend that we switch sides
of the street to avoid confront-
ing three teenagers coming
towards us. ‘Why?,’ she asked,
astonished. In New York, we
paid the cabdriver to wait at the
curb ’til we were safely inside,
past the locked front door. We
were always aware of everyone
within our immediate vicinity.
You never lost yourself in con-
versation on the street, but had
to be alert at all times. We made
sure we had twenty dollars with
us every time so that a robber
wouldn’t shoot us in frustra-
tion.”
Since White is a born racon-
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
through the fifties in the Mid-
west when everything that was
happening — the repression of
homosexuality, for instance,
the demonization of the Left, the
giggly, soporific ordinariness of
adolescence, the stone deafness
to the social injustice — seemed
not only unobjectionable but
also nonexistent.” White match-
es his talent for journalism with
brilliant imagistic prose: “The
great triumph of the sixties was
to dramatize just how arbitrary
and constructed the seeming
normality of the fifties had been.
We rose up from our maple-
wood twin beds and fell onto the
great squishy, heated water bed
of the sixties.”
SOPHIE BASSOULS/ EDMUNDWHITE.COM
White’s book also captures
the stoned, communal, Whit-
manesque camaraderie among
gay men in the 1970s, well
before the trend toward assimi-
lation into more conventional
suburban or “straight” models:
“Back then… these questions
of fidelity and couplehood didn’t
come up and we wouldn’t exact-
ly have known how to respond
teur, his gimlet-eyed anecdotes to them. Introducing the
about celebrities of the era are issue now slightly falsifies the
as tangy as blood orange sor- quiet, natural way in which we
bet served after lobster Thermi- assumed everyone would have
dor. Who cares if we occasion- multiple sex partners, that jeal-
ally stray from Manhattan to ousy was definitely not cool, and
Key West and San Francisco, that new people could be regu-
or to Venice — to drop in on lar fuck buddies or part-time
the superannuated, pixilated lovers, that one molecule could
Peggy Guggenheim’s palazzo on always annex a new atom.”
the Grand Canal, hang out at White depicts the ’70s art
Harry’s Bar, or spy the elderly scene and scenesters as well,
Ezra Pound out on a stroll with including a pungent profile of
his stalwart companion Olga bad boy photographer Robert
Rudge. Mapplethorpe: “He certainly
Perhaps the most devout afi- wasn’t afraid of being consid-
cionados of cities are those who ered gay — on the contrary.
come to them from well beyond He was interested in leather,
their borders; hailing from the S&M, scat, pain, blood — all the
“Leave It To Beaver” environ- things that most gay men are
ment of Cincinnati, White rev- careful to exclude in their list
eled in the intellectual ozone of desired activities when they
and garrulous open-minded- write a personal ad (or now an
ness of Gotham’s denizens, online profile)... Mapplethorpe,
while his unleashed id made a like the good Catholic boy he
beeline to the hedonism prac- was, believed in the devil. When
ticed on the piers and parked he would have sex, he would
trucks of Sodom on the Hud- whisper in his lover’s ear, ‘Do it
son: “In retrospect, we could for Satan’… I never understood
see that the 1950s had been a Mapplethorpe’s sexuality. He
reactionary period in America would explain it to me and keep
of Eisenhower blandness, of correcting with a little smile the
virulent anti-communism, of
the Feminine Mystique. Lived 䉴 CITY BOY, continued on p.19
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009 19

䉴 CITY BOY, from p.18
wrong conclusion I’d jumped to. He’d
say, ‘No, it has nothing to do with fan-
tasy’. Or, he’d say, ‘No, it’s not a matter
of role-playing. Nothing could be realer
than what I like. That’s why I like it — it’s
real’.”
When White and Mapplethorpe collab-
orated for an article on Truman Capote
for the semi-gay glossy magazine After
Dark, they visited the writer in his United
Nations Plaza home and found him high
on cocaine. He told White, “You’ll proba-
bly write some good books… But remem-
ber, it’s a horrible life.” Mapplethorpe
insisted on taking a photo of White and
Capote together, commenting cagily:
“You’ll be happy someday that I did so.”
White’s anecdotes embrace person-
alities from the New York theater —Larry
Kert, Mart Crowley, Robert Wilson, Ger-
ome Ragni –– and the world of books,
including Susan Sontag, James Merrill,
Harold Brodkey, William Burroughs, and
Fran Lebowitz, who “became a sort of
court jester — no, that’s mean, perhaps
‘funny companion’ — to different rich gay
or bisexual men such as Malcolm Forbes
and Barry Diller and David Geffen.”
White is ultimately elegiac: “I suppose
that finally New York is a Broadway the-
atre where one play after another, decade
after decade, occupies the stage and the
dressing rooms — then clears out… The
actors are forgotten, the plays are just
battered scripts showing coffee stains
and missing pages. Nothing lasts in New
York. The life that is lived there, however,
is as intense as life gets.”
MICHAEL EHRHARDT: In a 2004
interview for the IAPAC, you proposed
that somebody should write a book on
the 1970s, which was an epochal period
in New York gay culture. Did you have
your book already gestating at that time?
EDMUND WHITE: Well, actually I
wanted it to just be about the ’70s, but
then I gradually slid back into the ’60s.
I soon felt I had to acknowledge the
’60s as a lead-up to the ’70s, with the
Stonewall movement, to make it more
comprehensive. But, originally I really
wanted to concentrate on the ’70s and
then I wanted to end it with the advent
of AIDS. I guess I had thought of doing
a book like “City Boy” over the past ––
I mean, in a way, if you write autobio-
graphical fiction, the way I wrote “The
Farewell Symphony” and “The Married
Man,” you’re lucky, because you can
also re-do it as a memoir. “City Boy” is
actually more gossipy than anything I’ve
ever written.
ME: You drop the fictional disguises
and name names, as it were. You were
somehow right in the swim of ’70s cul-
ture, high and low. Today New York
City celebrities are just cheesy reality
show stars like Donald Trump, but back
then…!
EW: There really aren’t that many per-
sonalities who are interesting today.
ME: It was more of a village commu-
nity then…
EW: That’s right. I mean it was more
communal and social because it was
cheap to live in Manhattan, and people
didn’t have to work too hard to pay the
rent.
ME: Of course, the downside was high
crime, when you had to carry mugger
money…
EW: Oh, yeah. Gay guys carried
whistles so they wouldn’t get bashed.
On the Upper West Side, you had Nee-
dle Park, which was terribly danger-
ous. Even here [in Chelsea] in the ‘70s
when [author and literary critic] David
Kalstone lived on this block, there were
Puerto Rican gangs sitting on the stoops,
people throwing bottles out of windows,
boom boxes blaring, and you tended to
feel waves of hostility.
ME: Now the Upper West Side has
been mallified, gentrified, Needle Park
is now Verdi Square. Now, the area’s
full of beauty spas, nail salons, and
Victoria’s Secret. Back in the ’70s,
there was the infamous Continental
Baths.
EW: I used to go to the Continental,
but I forgot to put that in. I should have.
I mean, I went there and heard Bette
Midler, and I found her actually irritat-
ing, because everybody stopped having
sex to listen to her. All I wanted to do
is have sex. If you’re a sex addict, you
don’t want a pop singer horning in on
your scene.
ME: Well there was always the St.
Marks, downtown.
䉴 CITY BOY, continued on p.23

FREE CONCERT
on GOVERNORS ISLAND
PRESENTED BY TRINITY WALL STREET

Judy Collins
SUNDAY, JULY 26 · 2PM
FREE ADMISSION AND FERRY SERVICE
Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter, and folk legend
Judy Collins performs on Governors Island. Folks on the Island
is made possible by Trinity Wall Street, presenting music for
the community.

HOW TO GET THERE Heart of Chelsea Animal Hospital is a place of healing, warmth and goodwill. Our
Free ferry service starting at 10am from Slip 7, the Battery
staff is dedicated to attending to the best interest of both the patient and client.
Maritime Building on South Street between Whitehall and
Broad Streets, adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry.
Combining Western conventional medicine and Eastern holistic traditions, we
strive to fulfill our mission of providing the most comprehensive veterinary care.
FOR INFORMATION AND DIRECTIONS, * Mention that you saw us in The Villager, Chelsea Now, or Gay City News to receive $25.00 off your first visit!
VISIT FOLKSONTHEISLAND.COM
Call for an appointment today - 212.924.6116
IN COLLABORATION WITH
7ESTTH3TREETs.EW9ORK.9
www.heartofchelsea.com
-ONDAY
&RIDAYAM
PMs3ATURDAYAM
PMs3UNDAY#LOSED

20/ Theater
Sour Notes
Only the songs work in “Tin Pan Alley Rag”; stars can’t make “Mother”
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
T
he classic Hollywood bio-
pic is back, this time on
stage, with the debut of
a new play with music, “The Tin
Pan Alley Rag” by Mark Saltz-
man. The play imagines a meet-
ing between Scott Joplin and
Irving Berlin. Joplin, near the
end of his career and life, is try-
ing to get his opera “Treemon-
isha” published by Berlin’s com-
pany. Berlin, early in his career
but with many successes already
under his belt, is looking for the
solid hit that will sell sheet music
and make him even richer.
Through a shared history of lost
brides and their music, the two
men embark on a dialogue about
art versus commerce as flash-
back scenes weave in and out on
the imaginative set by Beowulf
Boritt.
For all the cleverness of the
conceit and the structure, how-
ever, I couldn’t help but feel I was
watching a fairly average show
biz bio—along the lines of “Till
the Clouds Roll By,” the story of
Jerome Kern from 1946. Espe-
cially at the beginning of the
second act, Saltzman peppers
his play with easy emotion and
gets bogged down in following a
chronological sequence of events
in Berlin’s and Joplin’s lives.
But then you get to the music.
As with so many of these jukebox
musicals, the music is far supe-
rior to the book that’s been cob-
bled around it. It was fascinat-
ing to watch the development of
Berlin’s Klezmer-inspired, seat-
of-the-pants composition and
the classically inspired ragtime
of Joplin evolving into something
on an operatic scale, though
I could have lived without the
music lesson in Act Two.
The show ends with an
excerpt from “Treemonisha”
that’s been heard throughout
the play, as Berlin looks on. In
fact, the “Treemonisha” pro-
duction that finally surfaced in
1976 was largely the result of the
mania for Joplin that followed
the 1973 soundtrack for the
Paul Newman-Robert Redford
smash hit film “The Sting.” The
curtain falls to a medley of Berlin
numbers, summing up the more
than 1,200 songs he wrote in his
JOAN MARCUS
Michael Boatman as Scott Joplin and Michael Therriault as Irving Berlin in Mark Saltzman’s
“The Tin Pan Alley Rag.”
part. Even when the scenes
clunk, these two really shine.
The rest of the company is
very strong with great voices, all
doubling and tripling in parts.
In particular, Mark Ledbetter
is terrific as Mooney Mulligan,
the vaudeville star who “broke”
many of Berlin’s songs. Rosena
M. Hill is wonderful as Monisha
and others. But for Idara Vic-
tor, this is a breakthrough role
as Treemonisha. Lovely, poised,
and with a magnificent voice, her
ALISON CARTWRIGHT
performance is consistently pow-
erful.
The show is pleasant enough
and never boring, but without
Holland Cotter in the title role of Lisa Eber- the music, it would have nothing
sole’s “Mother.” to make it noteworthy.
T
life. That’s sweet — how can one he impressive star power
not have an emotional response of veterans Holland Tay-
to Berlin’s music? It formed a lor and Buck Henry in the
significant part of the country’s
soundtrack in the first half of
the 20th century. The audience,
tiny theater at the Wild Project
can’t compensate for Lisa Eber-
sole’s messy, unfocused, and
of course, leaves on a high note, undeveloped writing in her new
but it’s hard to shake the notion play, “Mother.” The long and
that we’ve been manipulated. baffling one-act play is osten-
Still, if the show isn’t perfect, sibly about a family — mother,
the cast comes close. Michael father, adult brother and sister
Therriault gives a splendid per- —spending the week between
formance as Berlin. Even when Christmas and New Year’s at a
the script lacks subtlety, he finds resort in West Virginia and gath-
nuance and depth, and he’s ering for dinner. There are sibling
both charming and believable, squabbles, tensions between the
no mean feat. Michael Boatman parents, and all the rest of the
is very strong as Joplin. He, too, predictable family dynamics. At
is given some over-the-top chal- first, it’s straightforward if unin-
lenges, but manages to keep spired, but then in what seems
them human-sized, for the most like a blatant Albee rip-off veers
THE TIN PAN ALLEY RAG
Roundabout at the Laura Pels
Theater
111 W. 46th St.
Tue.-Sat. at 7:30 p.m.;
Wed., Sat., Sun. at 2 p.m.
$75-$85; 212-719-1300
MOTHER
The Wild Project
195 E. Third St. at Ave. B
Mon., Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m.
Through Aug. 1
$25; 212-352-0255
into quasi-absurdist territory
with the apparent kidnapping of
daughter Kate by an unseen and
unexplained family, the Wilsons.
This sends the father, Joseph,
and son, Jackie, off in pursuit,
leaving the mother, Kitty, alone
to drink and surreptitiously take
drugs.
Ebersole, however, fails to
follow through completely on
this idea, which comes off as
a mere gimmick to keep the
characters coming and going.
The play ends with the fam-
ily back together, the bicker-
ing giving way to concern and
love as we learn that Kitty has
a brain tumor. Doing all this in
75 minutes means there’s only
the most superficial character
development; at the end, we’re
left feeling that we’ve learned
nothing about families that
hasn’t been said infinitely bet-
ter and with more originality by
other playwrights.
Taylor has some good
moments as Kitty. Henry does
all right with the little he’s
given, but the conventional
father role is so hackneyed that
it requires scant effort. Eber-
sole herself tackles the role of
Kate, but without anything but
the most surface of line readings.
Haskell King is the best as Jack-
ie, but he skates by on charisma
as he’s got no part to sink his
teeth into. Keith Randolph Smith
is wasted as Chester, a waiter at
the club, as is David Rosenblatt,
another waiter.
Andrew Grosso’s direction
is as uninspired as the script,
though he does move people
around cleverly. Still, the impres-
sion sticks that this is a high
profile vanity production, and,
sadly, the efforts are in vain.
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 JUL 26, from p.16
riding in the September Braking the Cycle
ride from Boston to New York that raises
funds for the LGBT Community Center.
Pier 40, Hudson River at Houston
St., boat boards beginning at 6 p.m.,
leaves at 7:30 sharp, and returns at
10 p.m. Tickets are $22 at seatea.com or
$27 at the dock, if available.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
MON.JUL.27
CABARET
The Beauty, the
Splendor, the
Wonder
Gavin Creel, the Tony-nominated star
of “Hair” (Claude), returns to Joe’s Pub
for his first concert in eight months, per-
forming acoustic versions of songs from
his CD “Goodtimenation” and his upcom-
ing second CD “Quiet.” Creel appears with
his songwriting partner Robbie Roth. 425
Lafayette St., below Cooper Sq., inside
the Public Theater, 9:30 p.m. Tickets are
$25 at joespub.com or 212-967-7555. Res-
ervations required to guarantee a table,
which has a food/ drink minimum.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
Straight From
“The Corny Collins
Show”
Carly Jibson won critical praise for her
national touring turn as Tracy in “Hairspray”
and also attracted notice in “Crybaby.”
Tonight she headlines Scott Nevins’ “Cur-
tain Call,” offering up a set full of Broad-
way’s newest, hottest hits. Splash Bar, 50
W. 17th St., 11:30 p.m. Admission is free
until 10, $5 after that. You must be 21.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
NIGHTLIFE
WED.JUL.29
Xs & Os For AIDS
Braking the Cycle (brakingthecycle.org)
raises funds for the HIV/ AIDS services at
the LGBT Community Center. Tonight, Will
Clark’s Porno Bingo presents the first of four
nights devoted to raising money to support
the September Boston to New York bike
ride, this evening through rider Terry Chris-
topher. Hottie Corey Corey makes his Bingo
debut, joined by Bingo Bitch Amanda Take-
hometomother and Logo TV crooner Josh
Zuckerman. Pieces, 8 Christopher St. at
Sixth Ave., 8-10 p.m.
䉴 14 DAYS, continued on p.22
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009

Film /21
The Language of War
Politicians’ words are parsed, their intentions hidden
BY STEVE ERICKSON IN THE LOOP future media appearances, but
Directed by Armando Iannucci the damage is done. Rumors

A
s a political satire,
Armando Iannucci’s “In
the Loop” is deeply divid-
ed in its attention to its two main
characters. Its nominal hero is
Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), a
politician who becomes tongue-
tied whenever a microphone is
thrust in front of him. While not
a stupid man, Simon is a deeply
inarticulate one, uncomfortable
with the public spotlight. He’s a
IFC Films arise about an American war
Opens Jul. 24 committee. The liberal assistant
IFC Center secretary for Diplomacy (Mimi
323 Sixth Ave. at W. Third St. Kennedy) makes an alliance with
ifccenter.com General George Miller (James
Gandolfini), hoping to storm the
voiced by one character. Despite committee’s meeting — or at
one’s better instincts, it’s hard least find out its real name. Her
not to find Malcolm the more assistant, Liza (Anna Chlumsky),
appealing of the two characters. has written an anti-war position
Capaldi lends charisma to an paper, which threatens to turn
unlikable character. While he into an explosive leak.

NICOLA DOVE/ IFC FILMS

disastrously ineffective states-
man, the kind who makes the
opposition look better.
Peter Capaldi, who plays
Simon’s boss, Malcolm Tucker,
gets billing over Hollander in the
credits. This may be a byproduct
of contractual arcana, but it also
testifies to the fact that Malcolm
makes far more of an impres-
sion than Simon. If Simon is a
nebbish, Malcolm is a preen-
ing alpha male, in a description
may be better intentioned than
Malcolm, Simon lives up to every
stereotype about wishy-washy
liberals. The script gives Malcolm
an unfair advantage — the gift of
gab.
The British minister for Inter-
national Development, Simon
turns a radio interview into a
controversial bungle. In the
midst of boring queries about
disease prevention in the Third
World, he’s suddenly asked
Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker, a senior British government official, and James Gandolfini as
American General George Miller.
about the likelihood of war in
the Middle East. To spin doc-
tor Malcolm’s chagrin, Simon
goes off message and says that
war is “unforeseeable.” (The film
“In the Loop” is a film about
language. Its cinematography
aims for the mockumentary
look of “The Office” — though it
makes no pretense of captur-
ing reality — and it looks nearly
identical to Iannucci’s TV show
“The Thick of It,” broadcast
never mentions which country is briefly on BBC America and
about to be invaded, but it was available on YouTube. “In the
obviously inspired by the run- Loop” is dominated by its script,
up to the Iraq War.) In a fury,
Malcolm cancels all of Simon’s 䉴 IN THE LOOP, continued on p.25

JOIN THE WATER TAXI

WEDDING BEACH
PARTY!
SOU
U T H S T RE E T SE APORT
N O R T H S I D E O F P I E R 1 7

A DOUBLE-WEDDING GIVEAWAY CONTEST!

EAT IT THURSDAYS
Starting June 12, Gay City News readers may enter to win: RAW Victor Franco Presents*

• round-trip tickets to Key West HAPPY FRIDAYS

Melting Pot Global
• 5-day 4-night honeymoon HOUR 6pm-2am*
• wedding bands $.50 Raw Bar & $3 off all SATURDAYS
beer, wine and cocktails. Nicky Siano & More
Two lucky couples will be drawn on Valentine’s Day,
February 14, 2010. Visit GayCityNews.com to participate!
Wed - Fri 4pm to 6pm
SUNDAYS
WEDNESDAYS Brunch 11am-4pm Pulse
SPONSORS: Salsa with DJ Eddie 87 Twilight Beach Party
Batiz 6pm - 2am* 4pm-2am
• American Airlines * FREE BEFORE 8PM
• Diamonds International
• Island House food. fun. sand.
• Kleinfeld Manhattan HarborExperience.com
• Pearl’s Rainbow Key West 866.982.2542
SOUTH STREET SEAPORT
ADVERTISERS: Please contact
JSherwood@GayCityNews.com or OUR OFFICIAL TRAVEL
646-452-2471. & TOURISM PARTNER

22/ Opera
Some Enchanted Evening
Szot’s Broadway chops complemented by opera from Oropesa, Shrader
BY ELI JACOBSON
T
he Metropolitan Opera
suspended its free sum-
mer per for mances of
complete operas in concert
two years ago after 40 seasons
delighting audiences in Man-
hattan, the outer boroughs,
and New Jersey. The casting
had culled from house stal-
warts, cover singers, and the
occasional promising newcomer
getting a trial shot. Sometimes
a starry lineup would emerge
–– a 1981 “Tosca” with Scotto,
Domingo, and Milnes or a 1988
“L’Elisir D’Amore” with Pavarotti
and Battle. Other instances of
starry casting emerged only in
retrospect. In 1991, at Waterloo
Village, New Jersey, I heard a
young and then unknown Deb-
orah Voigt sing Amelia in “Un
Ballo in Maschera,” prior to her
Met stage debut.
Peter Gelb has experimented
with various alternative sum-
mer programs; last year’s event
was an Alagna/ Gheorghiu
duo concert in Brooklyn with
orchestra. This year, the idea
was to present artists from the
Met’s Lindemann Young Artist
Development Program in piano-
accompanied opera recitals. The
opening event on July 13 was
presented under the aegis of
the Summerstage concert series
in Central Park and headlined
by the handsome, charismatic,
and openly gay baritone Paulo
Szot, Tony award-winning star
of Lincoln Center’s “South Pacif-
ic” revival. He was supported by
the fast-rising lyric coloratura
soprano Lisette Oropesa and the
handsome 2007 Metropolitan
Opera National Council Grand
Finals competition winner tenor
Alek Shrader, with Vlad Iftinca
providing piano accompaniment.
Szot, in his first-ever Met
appearance, was given star sta-
tus. With charming modesty,
he opened and closed each half
of the concert with a sort of
“Paulo Szot and Friends” eve-
ning, mixing operatic chestnuts
with a sprinkling of Broadway
showtunes. Szot had not been
unknown to the Met adminis-
tration prior to his Broadway
fame –– he was considered good
enough to cover Mozart’s Don
Giovanni and Figaro but was
given no stage performances.
Broadway fame and wide media
exposure clearly has changed
his status –– Gelb is hungering
for charismatic and photogenic
new stars to attract a wider pub-
lic. Szot will make his Metropoli-
tan Opera stage debut next sea-
son as Kovalyov in the new pro-
duction of Shostakovich’s “The
Nose,” followed by a new produc-
tion of Massenet’s “Manon” in a
future season.
As it turned out, the artist with
the most Metropolitan Opera
stage experience emerged as
the vocal and artistic star of the
evening –– the Louisiana-born
Oropesa. Displaying crystalline
tone with a plaintive girlish tim-
bre reminiscent of Erna Berger
or Rita Streich, Oropesa chose
technically demanding pieces.
Konstanze’s cruelly exposed
and rangy “Ach, ich liebte” from
Mozart’s “Seraglio” and Gilda’s
“Caro Nome” from “Rigoletto”
were delivered with push-button
control of dynamics, easy high
notes, perfect trills, and deep
emotional commitment. In the
second half, she was tempera-
mental but alluring in “Musetta’s
Waltz” from “La Boheme,” and
showed perfect English diction in
“I Could Have Danced All Night”
from “My Fair Lady.” Oropesa
heated up the perfect summer
night with her encore “De Espa-
ña Vengo” from the zarzuela “El
Niño Judio.”
Shrader came in second, sing-
ing bravura bel canto pieces
associated with virtuoso tenorial
charmers like Juan Diego Flo-
rez. His tone is brightly focused
but slightly monochromatic due
to some fixed tension around the
jaw and upper lip. High notes are
easily reached and held but lack
the bloom and softer dynam-
ics that might give charm to his
line in the duet “Tornami a dir
che m’ami” from “Don Pasquale.”
(The unvaryingly loud bright tone
may be partially attributed to the
close miking which flattered no
one.) Shrader did bat out those
nine high C’s in the showstopper
“A mes amis” from “La Fille du
Regiment” with staggering poise
and confidence, and was unfazed
by the coloratura intricacies
of Mozart’s “Il Mio Tesoro” and
The jury is out on handsome, openly gay Paulo Szot’s operatic reach, but his charm in Broadway
romantic repertoire is unmatched.
Rossini’s “Cessa di piu resistere.”
Only when singing “Maria” from
“West Side Story” did he relax,
allowing piano high notes and
softer colors to emerge.
In third place, Szot sang
pleasantly but without a major
operatic sound on par with his
colleagues or other baritone
singers on the Met or even the
NYCO roster (Stephen Powell
and Grant Youngblood come to
mind). His renditions of Esca-
millo’s “Toreador Song” and the
two Don Giovanni arias were
unmemorably phrased and
lacked resonance at the bottom
of the range. Szot did better with
his rendition of Belcore’s “Come
Paride Vezzoso” from “Elisir,”
which showed attractive legato
and fluid mobility of tone. Bet-
ter still was his contribution to
the “Pearl Fishers” duet with
Shrader. Seemingly, Szot’s tal-
ents would be best suited to
roles like Mozart’s Count Alma-
viva and the lighter Italian and
French repertory –– though even
there he would be outclassed by
Mariusz Kwiecien.
In the second half, he closed
out the scheduled program with
intimately seductive performanc-
es of “Some Enchanted Evening”
23 JUL - 5 AUG 2009
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 14 DAYS, from p.20
GALLERY
THU.JUL.30
Selling Ass
Photographer Patrick Rinn launches
Gleo Gallery in Chelsea with a solo
debut exhibition, “Men For Sale:
Unmasked, Unclothed, Unpaid.” The new
3,000-square foot space will showcase
30 conceptual photographs of sexually
evocative male forms, curated from near-
ly 50,000 images the artist has made over
the past eight years. Glebo Gallery, 526
W. 26th St., #316. Jul. 30, 6-9 p.m.; Jul.
31-Aug. 1, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Free. For more
information, call 917-405-1455.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
FILM
Two Very Queer
METROPOLITAN OPERA
Months End
For Gay Pride Month and beyond,
92YTribeca has been presenting “Queer/
Art/ Film,” a series of all things hybrid
and poly-sexual, curated by Butt Maga-
zine contributing editor Adam Baran and
filmmaker Ira Sachs. Some of the most
from “South Pacific” and “If Ever exciting, innovative (and homosexual)
I Could Leave You” from “Cam- artists from the dance, performance,
elot.” Suddenly his voice had film, visual, and literary arts have dis-
many more colors and better cussed their favorite films, in rare prints,
expressive range, and he seemed on the big screen. How does film create
to connect directly with the audi- a link from one queer generation to the
ence. I couldn’t think of another next, from Marlon Riggs to Chantal Aker-
baritone I would rather hear in man? Find out. The series concludes
that material, which I can’t say with Akerman’s “Je Tu Il Elle” on Jul 30,
about his operatic repertory. 8 p.m. 92Ytribeca, 200 Hudson St. at
Szot then strutted his stuff in the Canal St. Tickets are $12 at 92y.org.
final encore, cutting mariachi ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
moves in “Besame Mucho” with
an endearing, self-spoofing Latin
machismo. The audience went
wild. I would love to see Szot in
a Broadway concert with orches- JAZZ
SAT.AUG.1
tra featuring a few semi-classical Musical Sojourn
traditional songs and operetta Rome Neal’s “Banana Puddin’ Jazz”
numbers thrown in; I think he presents the Valerie Capers trio, with
has a real future in this reperto- Capers on piano, John Robinson on bass,
ry and there is a huge audience and Rudy Lawless on drums. Capers was
hungering for it. As an opera born in the Bronx and received her early
star, I will postpone judgment schooling at the New York Institute for
until I see him on the Met stage the Education of the Blind, going on to
in “The Nose” and “Manon.” obtain a bachelor’s and master’s degree
from Juilliard. Her most noted extended
The free summer series contin- compositions are “Sing About Love,” the
ues on July 24, 31, and August critically acclaimed Christmas cantata
7 and 14 in parks across the produced by George Wein at Carnegie
city with less starry but equally Hall; “Sojourner,” an operatorio based on
promising young singers. See the life of Sojourner Truth, performed and
metoperafamily.org/metop- staged by the Opera Ebony Company of
era/news/features/detail.
aspx?id=8590 for full details. 䉴 AUG 1, continued on p.24
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009 23

䉴 CITY BOY, from p.19
EW: Yes, which my friend, Norm Rath-
weg redesigned and made chic. Before
that, it was seedy and dirty, run by an
Armenian, with a masseur in the base-
ment reputed to be the cannibalistic
one that Tennessee Williams based his
story “Desire and the Black Masseur”
on. Norm also designed the Chelsea
Gym and the Saint.
ME: Considering your sexual exploits
during that era, it’s hard to imagine you
could hold down a job at Time-Life and
at McGraw-Hill and have time to write
plays and novels. Were you on amphet-
amines or something?
EW: That was in the sixties. I had
put on some weight — I was always
yoyo-ing with my weight — so I went to
a doctor who prescribed speed, and you
could lose 50 pounds in a month. Of
course, I was young and my heart was
good, and so what if you didn’t sleep for
a week!
ME: But obviously you had the
ambition to follow through. A lot of peo-
ple would have hit a wall with writer’s
block.
EW: I could never afford that. I was
trained as a journalist, too. And with
that training you have to write to dead-
line; you can’t afford to be word proud,
because people are always editing you.
But, I’ve always been very productive,
and yet, I’m one of the most disorga-
nized persons on earth, completely
distractible. Yet, I’ve written 22 books,
and in the last 12 years I’ve written a
book a year, and I don’t use the com-
puter very much. I’m writing my new
novel by longhand, so it’s not like I use
the computer very much. Anyway, I’ve
always been broke, so I write partly for
money.
ME: At least you’re in that great posi-
tion as a world-class writer, so that you
have more chances when giving a pro-
posal for a book. Right?
EW: Well, you’d be surprised. For
“City Boy,” my regular editor at Harper-
Collins rejected it. And now I want to do
a sequel to it, about Paris in the 1980s,
which is actually the most sumptuous
period that I know of, when I worked
for Vogue for eight years, at the height
of the fashion period.
ME: It seems it was a lot smaller
world among artists and writers then.
More collegial?
EW: Oh, yes, it was. Fran Lebowitz
once said that everybody who reads
Interview magazine and was inter -
viewed knows each other. They all
knew Andy [Warhol]. That was true
back then.
ME: You tell of the nearly suicidal
angst you suffered getting your first
book, “Forgetting Elena,” published.
And then you followed up with “Noc-
turnes for the King of Naples.” It’s
amazing that you persevered with writ-
ing those novels, when you weren’t sure
if you had a snowball’s chance in Hell
of getting published.
EW: Well, “Noctur nes” came out
in ’78, the same year a lot of gay nov-
els came out, like Andrew Holleran’s
“Dancer from the Dance,” Armistead
Maupin’s “Tales of the City,” and Larry
Kramer’s “Faggots.” That was almost
ten years after Stonewall, but it took
that long for people to gear up to pub-
lishing gay fiction.
ME: Do you feel that gay lit has been
pretty much been subsumed into other
media, particularly TV, with Logo TV,
series such as “Queer as Folk,” “The
L-Word,” and a whole cosmos of indie
films constantly churned out, like
“Boys Shorts.”
EW: That’s true, to some extent. But
there’s always got to be room for sto-
ries, and in fact, TV and movies canni-
balize fiction, and if not directly, then Gay,
fiction will break new ground, which
will be processed by the other media. Str8,
I believe that fiction remains the most Bi,
ambitious account of how we live now, Curious?
and because it includes subjectivity,
which movies and TV can’t, unless you
have voiceovers, but those never work
out. I mean, most of us live inside our
heads, and we’re constantly evaluating
the situations around us, and we act,
but not that much.
If you consider that many movies are
about people with guns, while I don’t
think I’ve seen more than two guns
in my lifetime, most movies are about
something that doesn’t really happen
to ordinary people; and what does hap-
pen to ordinary people, which is living
in your head and processing your own
experience, does happen in fiction. So,
if you’re interested in reality, and how
to understand it, fiction’s the place to
go. [Laughing] That’s my commercial
for fiction.
Contact Michael Ehrhardt at
Menyc3@aol.com.

BIG FUN! SMALL BUCKS! /ÀÞʈÌÊÀiiÊUÊ

>Ê˜œÜ
Sun. $3.50 Screwdrivers & our famous Bloody Mary’s,
Neighborhood
Fusion!
$2.50 Miller Lite Drafts & Bud Bottles
Mon. $4 Mojito’s all flavors Tues. $2 Margarita’s
CHEAP-EEZ COCKTAILS (except Fri. & Sat.) - Coors & Pabst Cans $3,
646-731-6658
Rootbeer Floats $3, Sloe Gin Fizz $2, Tom Collins $3,
“One of the 63 best bars
in NYC” — Time Out, 2009 Whiskey Sours $3, Rum Lime Ricky $3
281 W 12th St @ 4th St. NYC 212-243-9041 1800GayLive.com MC 7003 Ent only 18+ *Limited Free Trial Photography by Kevin E. McPherson
24
■ IN THE NOH
The Wild West
Dessay’s “Traviata,” the beauty of Taos, gay scenes in the Rockies
BY DAVID NOH
I
t’s all about staycations, so
when I heard that Natalie
Dessay was singing her very
first “Traviata” at the Santa Fe
Opera on July 2, I was there in
a heartbeat. The opera house
itself was as impressive as I’d
imagined, set atop a view-com-
manding hill, and Dessay deliv-
ered one of the most thrillingly
acted and sung Violettas I have
ever seen. “She’s the greatest
actress in opera today,” I said at
the after-party and, of course,
some aficionado had to top that
by declaring, “She’s the great-
est actress –– period.” The first
act was particularly electrify-
ing, with director Laurent Pelly
incorporating wild “Moulin
Rouge”-type shenanigans with
shrieking whores, and Dessay
being borne aloft by the cho-
rus. Saimir Pirgu –– the hand-
somest Alfredo ever –– and Des-
say’s husband Laurent Naouri,
as Germont, lent strong voices
and support.
Dessay told me, “I’ve waited
20 years to sing this role. I didn’t
have the right voice for it before
–– I still don’t have it, but after
this I think it will be too late, so
I didn’t have the choice. I make
the role my own, but I actually
think Traviata needs a bigger
voice. Since Maria Callas, we
are used to hearing bigger voic-
es. Before her, I know numbers
of high coloratura sopranos did
it with less voice, but, since her,
it is difficult for a high voice.”
Dessay’s Violetta is initially
a bawdy grande cocotte, whose
love for Alfredo totally trans-
forms her, but she says this
interpretation is really not her
own: “Actually it’s not mine,
but the approach of Laurent
Pelly. I don’t have any per -
sonal approach –– that’s why
I like this production so much,
because it’s so original and it
was designed for me by some-
one who knows me very well.
So I say that I give the director
the material, and he’s the cos-
tume designer, in a way, who
does what he wants with me. I
first met Pelly in 1997 for Offen-
bach’s ‘Orpheus in the Under-
world,’ and it was a revelation, a
very funny production.”
Dessay had to negotiate a
set filled with different levels of
gray boxes during her “Sempre
libera” aria, often jumping from
one to another in mid-note:
“Laurent created this because
he knows me, that I like to
make it more exciting than
usual. I’m not afraid of also
playing with my body a lot and
welcome this challenge.”
In the second act, Dessay
controversially wore men’s
clothes: “The idea is that I wear
the clothes of Alfredo, because
we are in total fusion, one per-
son, our love is so complete.
And also, she’s not the courte-
san anymore. She’s now a little
country girl leading a simple
life with her lover; the past is
behind her and she doesn’t
want to have anything to do
with it anymore.”
Dessay talked about perform-
ing with her husband, Naouri:
“That’s great because he’s a
wonderful singer and actor.
We have a trust onstage –– you
know he will always be with you
and reacts, and he’s very care-
ful. We know each other very
well and love acting together,
so maybe it’s easier than with
someone you don’t know.”
Dessay recounted her upcom-
ing schedule, which left both of
us breathless: “Next season at
the Met I’m doing ‘Hamlet,’ in
a production I first did in 1996
in Geneva. It’s a very beautiful
production and I’m very happy
to meet again Simon Keenlyside
as Hamlet –– it’s a wonderful
role for him. It will be my last
Ophelia, my farewell to the role.
You know, when I say farewell,
it’s interesting because it means
that a new role is coming.
The view of the Taos Pueblo from Mabel Dodge Luhan’s bedroom.
23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009
David Noh and Natalie Dessay, moments after her triumphant Violetta for Santa Fe Opera.
“I have two big projects: ‘Giu-
lio Cesare” with Pelly at Paris
Opera, and ‘I Puritani’ at the
Met in 2014. Then a new ‘Travi-
ata’ in 2011 at Aix en Provence,
‘La Sonnambula’ in Paris, and
Musetta in ‘La Boheme’ this fall
in Vienna –– my first and I think
last Puccini. ‘Tales of Hoffman’
with Pelly in Barcelona and San
Francisco in 2013, and ‘Manon’
with Pelly in Paris, La Scala, and
Toulouse –– voila!
Dessay’s flourishing career
is particularly gratifying after
the serious vocal trouble she’s
endured in the past: “That was
horrible and the rehab was long
and difficult. It took me twice
eight months, and then two or
three years to recover my confi-
dence. So for four or five years,
things were really difficult. But
it was a very interesting journey
and it changed my perspective
and way of doing my job. And
now I’m loving my job. It was
probably necessary.
“I worked a lot on my tech-
nique with new people and
lear ned how to use and be
conscious of my head voice. I
learned how to warm it differ-
ently and maybe how to be kind
with my voice and myself. That
means hard work but in a kind
way, not like a battle all the
time, but more as a pleasure
and a joy. I used to say that I
came onstage as a warrior; now
I’m entering as a kid of five years
old on the playground. It’s very
different –– pleasure and con-
centration.”
A few years ago, Dessay told
me that she wanted to stop
singing and do other things,
and when I reminded her of
this, she said, “I always find a
way to do different things, like
straight theater or shows. I just
did a show staged by Pelly in
Toulouse with songs by Michel
Legrand, and I had a big joy
doing that even though I know
that my normal voice is not that
interesting. I’m not Barbra Stre-
isand or Judy Garland I know,
but I can make it interesting for
everybody. I loved singing ‘What
Are You Doing the Rest of Your
Life?,’ ‘The Summer Knows,’
‘Yentl.’ I was lucky enough to
meet Legrand and really like
him as a person. I went to his
country house, two hours from
Paris, and he played for me. I
was able to choose from among
䉴 WILD WEST, continued on p.25
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 AUG 1, from p.22
New York; and “Song of the Seasons,” a
song cycle for voice, piano and cello com-
missioned by the Smithsonian Institute.
Nuyorican Poets Café, 236 E. Third
St., btwn. Aves. B & C, 9 p.m. Admis-
sion is $15. The trio’s set is followed by a
jam session and open mic. Reservations
are recommended at 212-465-3167 or
romekyn@earthlink.net.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
NIGHTLIFE
SUN.AUG.2
Singing Cops
The Gay Officers Action League and
the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus join
together this evening for a Sea Tea cruise
on the Queen of Hearts, featuring chan-
teuse Flotilla DeBarge and DJ Randy Bet-
tis. Pier 40, Hudson River at Houston
St., boat boards beginning at 6 p.m.,
leaves at 7:30 sharp, and returns at
10 p.m. Tickets are $22 at seatea.com or
$27 at the dock, if available.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
COMEDY
Gurls’ Night
Both lady and lady-like comedians
are on the ticket tonight at Brad Loekle’s
“Electro Shock Therapy Comedy Hour.”
Loekle welcomes tremendously Asian
headliner Ali Wong, Mehran (a veteran
of the LA Laugh Factory); Scott Ryan
(Here! TV’s “Hot Gay Comics”); and Lori
Sommer (a Gotham Comedy Club regu-
lar). Therapy Bar, 348 W. 52nd St., 10
p.m. No cover charge and $6 cosmos
all night.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
THEATER
WED.AUG.5
Black Queer
Protagonists
Freedom Train Productions, founded in
2006 under the artistic direction of Andre
Lancaster, presents “Fire! New Play Fes-
tival 2009,” three weeks of political the-
ater by emerging playwrights featuring
black queer protagonists. In Derek Lee
McPhatter’s “Bring the Beat Back” (Aug.
5 & 6), the beat is your last best hope for
salvation. In Ayanna Maia’s “Woman to
Woman” (Aug. 12 & 13) black women
loving black women is a revolutionary
act. And in Patricia Ione Lloyd’s “Dirty
Little Black Girls” (Aug. 19 & 20), rebel
nannies put their Park Slope employers
䉴 AUG 5, continued on p.25
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
14 DAYS
14 NIGHTS
䉴 AUG 5, from p.25
on notice. All staged readers are at
7:30 p.m., with a StoryCorps inter-
view with the playwright preceding
each reading at 7. 138 S. Oxford St.,
btwn. Hanson Pl. & Atlantic Ave.,
Fort Greene, Brooklyn. For complete
information, visit freedomtrainproduc-
tions.org/fire.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ was doing the costumes for “The
COMEDY
A Can’t-Miss Crew
Homo Comicus, New York’s long-
running series of gay and gay-friendly
laughmeisters, presents Jackie Hoff-
man (Broadway’s “Hairspray” and
“Xanadu” and the films “Kissing Jes-
sica Stein” and John Waters’ “A Dirty
Shame”); author Bob Smith (the first
out gay comic on Jay Leno’s show);the
guitar-wielding Shayna Ferm; Joanne
Filan; Jackie Monahan (Logo’s “One
Night Stand-Up”); bad boy Bob Mont-
gomery; and boy wonder Greg Walloch.
Gotham Comedy Club, 208 W. 23rd
St., 8:30 p.m. There’s a $15 cover and
a two-drink minimum. For reservations,
call 212-367-9000.
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ off an extended tantrum on
COMMUNITY
FRI.AUG.7
A Black LGBT
Celebration
Pride In the City is a celebration for
the lives and culture of black lesbian,
gay, transgendered, bisexual, and same
gender-loving individuals, this year
hosted by National AIDS Education &
Services for Minorities, Inc., a non-profit
community-based organization that
began its work in Atlanta in 1990. This
year’s events include: an opening red
carpet reception at Langston, 1073
Atlantic Ave. at Franklin Ave., Aug. 7,
7-11 p.m.; the official Pride in the City
Party, Secrets, 525 W. 29th St., Aug. 7,
11 p.m.-4 a.m.; Family Day in the Park,
Prospect Park near Bartel-Pritchard
Circle, Prospect Park W. at 15th St.,
Park Slope, Aug. 8, 1-7:30 p.m.; and the
annual surf party at Jacob Riis Beach,
at Gateway National Recreation
Area, Rockaway, Queens, Aug. 9. The
Family Day in the Park includes lunch, DJ,
dancing, poets, book readings, vendors,
and rapid HIV tests. For complete infor-
mation, visit naesmonline.org/.
gaycity
news.com
䉴 WILD WEST, from p.24
50 wonderful songs!”
“Elixir of Love” was presented
on July 4, in a charming World
War II-set production, directed
by Stephen Lawless. As fire-
works exploded in the night sky,
we thrilled to tenor Dimitri Pit-
tas, who was born to play this
part and has made it completely
his own, with his adorable stage
presence and ardent voice.
T
he biggest diva in Santa
Fe, however, had to be
designer Tom Ford, who
Letter,” an operatic adaptation
of the Maugham piece by Paul
Moravec and Terry Teachout.
Juicy tales abounded about him
like the communiqué he sent to
the management when he saw
the size of some of the singers
he was to outfit: “I am a design-
er, not a tentmaker,” to which
management replied, “This is an
opera house, not a catwalk.” To
placate him, six of the comeliest,
young male chorus members
were first dispatched to him for
their fittings and, when one of
them saw the sarong he had to
wear, as a Malaysian plantation
worker, he commented, “Very
Marc Jacobs,” thereby setting
Ford’s part to the effect of “No
such thing! Sarongs were in the
Milan men’s shows going back
to the ’80s, etc, etc.”
One Korean singer was told
that, in the scene which took
䉴 IN THE LOOP, from p.21
on which four writers collabo-
rated. In addition to their work,
there’s a credit for “additional
dialogue.” The actors also did a
great deal of improvisation. In
its flaunting of profanity — all of
it eloquent and extremely well-
written — as a badge of edgi-
ness, it couldn’t feel more tied
to the present, but in the way
its characters flirt and, far more
often, shred each other to pieces
with language alone, it evokes
the great screwball comedies of
Preston Sturges.
A friend observed that “In
䉴 GHOSTED, from p.15
are just uninteresting and
the performances by the trio
of actresses are equally soul-
less. Inga Busch, who looks a
bit like Sandra Bernhard, has
a formidable screen presence,
23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009
place in a private colonial club,
he would have to stand in the
back, as it was strictly “Whites
Only” in those days. (But it’s
okay to put brown-face on blonde
boys and have them play Malay-
sian plantation workers…?)
A holiday weekend is maybe
not the optimum time to visit
Santa Fe, which was such a
tourist trap that Georgia O’Keefe
must be spinning in her grave. I
don’t really trust any town like
this, filled with gay people, that
–– like Venice –– cannot boast a
single gay bar. We did manage
to find one (with limited hours),
in of all places, RainbowVision,
the first gay retirement commu-
nity in the country, an attractive
layout of adobe condos with a
lovely restaurant, appropriately
called Garbo’s. And I was given
a delightful brunch by design-
ing couple Gordon Micunis and
Jay Kobrin in their spectacular
hacienda, which is filled with
amazing art and has hosted
major Democratic fundraisers.
W
e then took a road trip
through Taos, which
was mellower, less
developed, and more expres-
sive of its hippie roots. There,
we basked in the splendor of the
B&B at Mabel Dodge Luhan’s
former home (once owned by
Dennis Hopper), saw D.H. Law-
rence’s poetic mountaintop
gravesite and erotic drawings in
the Hotel La Fonda, and went
to the exquisite Millicent Rogers
Museum. Rogers, the Standard
the Loop” accurately captures
a media climate in which poli-
ticians’ most trivial comments
are parsed for gems of wisdom
and significance. Simon sees his
off-the-cuff remark “on the road
to peace, Britain must climb the
mountain of conflict” turned
into a readymade slogan, used
to justify war and even incor-
porated into artwork. In Ameri-
ca’s current climate, Iannucci’s
resolute cynicism about politics
may feel slightly out of date,
although it’s an attitude that’s
in no danger of disappearing
any time soon. If the Obama
administration has been some-
but she never brings her charac-
ter to life. It’s hard to appreciate
what her lovers see in her. Both
Han-Ru Ke and Ting Ting Hu
are attractive and engaging, in
ways that suggest there is more
going on with their characters
that perhaps there is. This may
D.H. Lawrence’s grave, north of Taos, New
Mexico.
Oil heiress who was one of the
chicest women alive, became
enamored of Southwestern art
when she first was brought to
Taos by costume designer Adri-
an and his wife, Janet Gaynor,
after a disastrous love affair with
Clark Gable. She lived there,
collected art, designed jewelry,
and campaigned for Indian
rights before her death, from an
enlarged heart, at 50, in 1952.
In the Colorado Rocky Moun-
tains, I realized once more that
God is truly a gay man. Who else
could indefatigably create such
exhausting amounts of visual
beauty, with Mother Nature as
his stylist? Denver had a won-
derfully active gay scene, what
with that bear utopia, Wrangler
Bar (which leads the state in total
beer consumption), naughty
pleasures to be had at the Den-
what disappointing so far, espe-
cially to the LGBT community,
it did succeed in making “hope”
and “change” resonate. Briefly,
it made idealism hip.
By contrast, “In the Loop” is
more fascinated by figures like
Karl Rove than Barack Obama.
This doubtlessly stems at least
partly from the sense of stasis
currently plaguing the Brit-
ish political scene. Iannucci
describes this impasse very
well, but his film also succumbs
to it. Entertaining as it is, it feels
driven toward pessimism, if not
defeatism.
At its sharpest, “In the
be their way of adding depth that
doesn’t otherwise exist to their
underwritten parts. But their
efforts only go so far. “Ghosted”
treats its issues superficially,
never quite providing viewers
with clues to the mysteries being
solved.
25
ver Swim Club, and, for those
who desire, JR’s, which like its
namesakes in DC and Dallas,
is basic ground zero for snotty
yupsters. We took a tour of the
Unsinkable Molly Brown’s house
–– an immersion in Victoriana
–– and learned that, far from the
rube she’s been portrayed as by
Thelma Ritter, Debbie Reynolds,
and Kathy Bates in those Titanic
movies, she could actually speak
five languages, enabling her to
help fellow passengers who were
foreign seek financial assistance
after the disaster.
Denver also boasts a wonder-
ful magazine, Modern Drunkard
(drunkard.com), the funniest,
most stylish rag I’ve read in an
age, which celebrates the sim-
ple joys of getting hammered.
It’s merely more proof that New
York does not hold the monopo-
ly on hipness. With the Internet
and all that tweet-face-space-
pod technology, the entire coun-
try is just as up on their anime-
vintage-foodie-alterna obses-
sions as we are, and seemingly a
lot pleasanter and more relaxed
about it all. The feeling was rein-
forced in Albuquerque, with its
troves of flea market finds, great
coffee hangouts, gay bar cen-
tral Sidewinders, and Frontiers,
a restaurant whose eminently
local feel demands to be experi-
enced.
Contact David Noh at Inthe-
noh@aol.com and check out his
new blog at http://nohway.
wordpress.com/.
Loop” captures the pernicious
abstraction language can lend
to the ugly business of war.
General Miller is the only char-
acter with a direct connection
to the battlefield, and even he
admits it’s been 15 years since
he saw combat. Earlier this
year, the Canadian film “Ponty-
pool” offered the scenario of a
virus triggered by the English
language, particularly its clichés
about love. Without the same
philosophical backbone, “In
the Loop” too suggests that lan-
guage can be a malevolent con-
tagion. One laughs and cringes
at it simultaneously.
Treut shot “Ghosted” on digi-
tal video, and though the film
does have some striking imag-
ery, too much of it lacks a coher-
ent style. The visuals often are
no more gripping than the thin
plot. “Ghosted,” disappointingly,
is a wisp of a film.
26
䉴 BRIEFS, from p.16
of gay bishops and then by allow-
ing, though not requiring, individual
churches to bless lesbian and gay
unions. The Convention approved
a commission for establishing such
rites.
The Episcopal Church in 2006
had put off any further consecrations
of gay bishops in the face of fiery
opposition to the elevation of New
Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson
by conservative forces within the
worldwide Anglican Communion,
particularly in Africa, but also in the
US. Some conservative bishops here
established a rump Anglican Church
in North America to challenge the
dominant Episcopal Church, and
several African leaders had broken
altogether from the Anglican Com-
munion headed by Rowan Williams,
the archbishop of Canterbury. Wil-
liams, once viewed as a gay rights
champion, had pressured the Ameri-
can Church to desist from elevating
gay bishops, and Robinson was
excluded from a recent gathering of
bishops called by Williams in Can-
terbury.
Bishop Nicholas T. Wright of
Durham, England, considered an
influential voice in the worldwide
Anglican Church, reacted harshly to
the Episcopal actions of last week,
Buying a home?
Give us a call.
The State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA)
can help you become a first-time homebuyer.
SONYMA mortgages offer:
• 30- or 40-year fixed interest rates that are typically
below market;
• Financing up to 97%;
• Flexible underwriting guidelines;
• Closing cost assistance (up to higher of $3,000 or 3%
of the loan amount);
• No points;
• No financing add ons.
For more information, call
1-800-382-HOME (4663)
or visit www.nyhomes.org
writing in Newsweek, “In the slow-
moving train crash of international
Anglicanism, a decision taken in
California has finally brought a large
coach off the rails altogether.” The
move to resume consecration of gay
and lesbian bishops in the US, he
wrote, “marks a clear break with the
rest of the Anglican Communion.”
Bush v. Gore
Foe Press
Forward on Gay
Marriage
In a high profile op-ed in the Wall
Street Journal, attorney David Boies,
who represented Al Gore before the
US Supreme Court in the disputed
2000 election case, explained why he
and his Bush v. Gore opponent, Ted
Olson, are mounting a federal legal
challenge to California’s Proposition
8. “The argument in favor of Proposi-
tion 8 ultimately comes down to no
more than the tautological assertion
that a marriage is between a man
and a woman,” Bois wrote. “But a
slogan is not a substitute for constitu-
tional analysis. Law is about justice,
not bumper stickers.”
Bois opened by saying, “This is
not a Republican or Democratic issue,
not a liberal or conservative issue, but
an issue of enforcing our Constitu-
tion’s guarantee of equal protection
and due process to all citizens. He
23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009
noted, “The Supreme Court has
repeatedly held that the right to marry
the person you love is so fundamental
that states cannot abridge it.”
Coming down squarely in the
debate over whether being gay is a
choice or innate, Bois wrote, “The
sexual orientation of gays and les-
bians is as much a God-given char-
acteristic as the color of their skin or
the sexual orientation of their straight
brothers and sisters. It is also a con-
dition that, like race, has historically
been subject to abusive and often
violent discrimination. It is precisely
where a minority’s basic human rights
are abridged that our Constitution’s
promise of due process and equal
protection is most vital.”
Gay litigation groups initially
voiced opposition to the Bois-Olson
effort, based on their longstanding
view that the current federal judiciary
would not be receptive to the sorts
of claims they are making, and that
more progress can be made at the
state level, where there are now six
victories in hand. However, on July
8 —reflecting the views voiced this
week in the Huffington Post by Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania Law Professor
Tobias Wolff that the “die has been
cast. Now, it is time for an all-hands-
on-deck approach to this important
effort — Lambda Legal, the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union, and the
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
National Center for Lesbian Rights
filed a motion to intervene in the Bois-
Olson lawsuit.
So far, the American Foundation
for Equal Rights, the group the two
attorneys represent, has been cool
to the efforts by the mainline gay
litigation groups to intervene. Chad
Griffin, the group’s chair, immediately
responded to their motion in a letter
to them, writing, “Given our willing-
ness to collaborate with you, and your
efforts to undercut this case, we were
surprised and disappointed when
we became aware of your desire to
intervene. You have unrelentingly and
unequivocally acted to undermine
this case even before it was filed…
Your strident criticism of our suit has
been constant.” AFER will oppose the
Lambda-ACLU-NCLR motion.
Dallas-Fort
Worth Bar
Update
Recent raids on two gay bars in
the Dallas-Forth Worth metropolitan
area have both authorities and the
owners of one of the clubs acknowl-
edging responsibility. In an exclusive
July 15 interview with the Dallas
Voice, Alan Steen, the administra-
tor of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage
Commission, said there were “clear
violations” of his agency’s policies in
a June 28 early morning raid on Fort
Worth’s Rainbow Lounge that left
a 26-year-old patron, Chad Gibson,
with a serious head injury, amidst
charges of police brutality from a
galvanized LGBT community there.
The unidentified TABC supervisor
with direct oversight of the enforce-
ment action has announced his
retirement, Steen told the newspa-
per. “I have good policy in place, I
have good training in place, and I
have good supervision in place to
ensure that things like this don’t
happen,” said Steen, as he formally
apologized for the incident.
The Voice reported that an
overflow crowd attended the July
14 evening meeting of the Fort
Worth City Council to express their
outrage over the Rainbow Lounge
raid. Council members assured the
LGBT community that it would thor-
oughly investigate the incident, but
said that would take time and that
patience would be required.
Meanwhile, in nearby Dallas,
the grand re-opening of the 16-year-
old Eagle bar in a new location on
July 10 was marred by a raid, also
by agents from the TABC as well as
city police. The three co-owners of
the bar, which the Voice said caters
to Dallas’ leather, Levi, and bear
enthusiasts, took full responsibility
for the incident, acknowledging that
they had failed to file the necessary
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM
change of address for the Eagle’s
liquor license. They pledged to re-
open as soon as possible.
Mormon
Temple Kiss-Ins
Continue
For the second straight Sunday,
roughly 100 gay folks and their allies
turned out on July 19 for a mass gay,
lesbian, and straight kiss-in outside
the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake
City to protest the July 9 arrest of
two gay men for kissing on a plaza
owned by the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints. The July 19
protest spawned a shouting match
between the kissers and some near-
by Mormons, the Associated Press
reported. There were no arrests,
despite the fact that the action took
place near the spot where Matt
Aune and his partner, Derek Jones,
say they had shared a modest kiss
prior to being arrested. Mormon
Church officials contend that the
men engaged in lewd behavior.
According to the police report on
the July 9 incident, the gay couple
sat down on the plaza to share a kiss
and were approached by Church
security guards who told them to
leave because their conduct was
“unwanted.” When police arrived,
the two men were handcuffed and
Aune was pinned to the ground.
WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM 23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009 27

GCN CLASSIFIEDS/NIGHTLIFE
DEADLINE WEDNESDAY 5:00PM MAIL 145 SIXTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10013 TEL 646-452-2485 FAX 212.229.2790

APARTMENT RENTALS HELP WANTED MOVING AND STORAGE

FRENCH RIVIERA. Charming town-
house, authentic village Gorges du Loup,
France, near Nice, Cannes, Grasse.

 
Breathtaking views, 2 bdrm, 2 bath The Alliance (Gay/Straight Alliance
$1250/wk. Available year round, turn key of the NYS JusticeSystem), a
furnished. 941-363-0925 support group for LGBT court
employees, encourages applicants
for an open test for the Court
2I¿FHU7KH$OOLDQFHZLOOEH
Apartment WANTED RUJDQL]LQJVWXG\JURXSVIRUWKHWHVW

to BUY or RENT For application information, go to

Large Studio in
Lower Manhattan,
UWS or Hells Kitchen.
Please e-mail me
details/photos to:
mykonos55@yahoo.com
VACATION RENTALS
Rooms for men. Open all year.
www.oceanhouseatlanticcity.com
or 609-345-8203 for brochure
Central, daily or weekly rates.
REAL ESTATE
Private Beach, gated commnty, North
Shore LI, 3700sq ft, 4bedrm 4 bth,
formal dining, decking, 2.5 car gar, on
1.2 acre, walk to water,
deeded beach rts, best value for sq ftg,
location and acreage. $529,754
Call Lifetime R.E. 631-265-3700
ADULT
DANIEL
FULL BODY MASSAGE
NUDE, SENSUAL &
MUCH MORE
ZZZQ\FRXUWVJRYFRXUWRI¿FHUUHFUXLW
)RULQIRUPDWLRQRQWKH$OOLDQFHJRWR
ZZZ/*%7LQWKH1<6WDWH&RXUWVFRP
RUHPDLOWR
0DUF6LPRQ/HYLQH#\DKRRFRP
MOVING AND STORAGE
IDEAL MOVING & STORAGE, INC.
The only gay owned & operated
mover in New York. Ideal is the
GAY RIGHTS PSYCHOTHERAPY
Joseph P. Bessette
community favorite local mover. Having RelationshipIssues?
We are fully licensed & insured, Gay Rights Activist & Leader PLEASE CALL:
leading the industry with a 96% Free Phone Consultations Joseph LoGiudice, LMSW
Call 613-854-9700 Psychotherapist
referral rate. Reliable, dependable
917.558.4456
& personalized service. Open 24/7.
(212) 777-5507 or 718-728-5318.
www.idealmoving.com See our display
ad under Moving & Storage.
TRAVEL
PROVENCE,south of France.”The
Painter’s Brush” art tour.Don’t miss
this rare opportunity to see Picasso
chateau plus Picasso-Cezanne exhibit;
fully escorted exclusive excursion Aix en
Provence. Sept 13-20, 2009, excellent
accomodations,private art lectures,
renowned vineyard, visits with local
celebrities. Les Baux de Provence,
Artists & Writers
St Remy, Picasso-Cezanne-Van Gogh-
Renoir. Fantastique! Residencies
www.frenchtraveler.com
800-251-3464
ADULT
www.vermontstudiocenter.org

HOTEL CALLS
WELCOME!
You Saw It...
IN $300 / OUT $400
Cash / Credit Card You Read It...
Times Sq. Loc. 24/7

212-302-8217 And so did thousands

BODYWORK of our Readers.
HOT BODYWORK Swedish, Deep Tis-
sue, sensual nude bodywork. Done by
To advertise call 646-452-2496
Brazilian masseur. (917) 435-4418.
www.rentboy.com/fzaneti GayCityNews.com
28 23 JUL – 5 AUG 2009 WWW.GAYCITYNEWS.COM

K_\J_fnj
PflCfm\ ;Xek\Ëj:fm\
J\Xjfe*XmX`cXYc\efn

8i\
NXkZ__\i\feI:E
M`[\fFE;<D8E;
JkXikn`k_
 0,
I:EJ`^eXkli\
;`^`kXcKM
"
+( Xdfek_!

› Fm\i(0'Z_Xee\cj
› +,?;Z_Xee\cj`eZcl[\[
› )#,''"_flijf]=I<<M`[\fFE;<D8E;
› )'Z_Xee\cjf]J_fnk`d\žXe[K_\Dfm`\:_Xee\cž
› ;`^`kXcZfem\ik\i`eZcl[\[
Jl^XiIlj_
Yc\efn
J\Xjfe)XmX`cX
8cjfXmX`cXYc\feI:E1

:Xcc/--%.0'%*-..
M`j`kiZe%Zfd&^XpZ`kpe\nj
?XYcXdfj<jgXŒfcs*'$;XpJXk`j]XZk`fe>lXiXek\\

F]]\imXc`[]fie\nZljkfd\ijfecpXe[\og`i\jAlcp*(#)''0%F]]\iefkXmX`cXYc\`eXccXi\Xj%!+(%0,Xdfek_`jXgifdfk`feXciXk\Xe[`jmXc`[]fi()dfek_j]ifd`ejkXccXk`fe[Xk\2k_\i\X]k\i#i\^lcXii\kX`ciXk\Xggc`\j%IXk\`eZcl[\jk_\dfek_cpj\im`Z\Z_Xi^\]fiI:EJ`^eXkli\;`^`kXcKM#n`k_J_fnk`d\Xe[KD:gif^iXdd`e^#
gcljfe\[`^`kXcZfem\ik\i2X[[$fejefk`eZcl[\[%@ek_\\m\ekf]XZ_Xe^\`ek_\i\kX`ciXk\]fiXepj\im`Z\j#I:Ei\j\im\jk_\i`^_kkfdf[`]pk_\X]fi\d\ek`fe\[dfek_cpgifdfk`feXciXk\`egifgfik`fekfjX`[Z_Xe^\%@]Zljkfd\ij\im`Z\j\c\Zk`fejZ_Xe^\n_\k_\imfclekXi`cpfi[l\kfefe$gXpd\ek i\dX`e`e^j\im`Z\Z_Xi^\j
i\m\ikkfI:EjkXe[Xi[`e[`m`[lXcj\im`Z\dfek_cpZ_Xi^\j%8ccjXc\jjlYa\ZkkfZi\[`kZ_\Zb%8cciXk\jjlYa\ZkkfXggc`ZXYc\kXo\j#]iXeZ_`j\]\\jXe[fk_\i^fm\ied\ek$`dgfj\[Z_Xi^\jXe[]\\jXe[Xi\efk`eZcl[\[`ek_\gi`Z\%:_\ZbpfliI:EI\j`[\ek`XcJXc\jFi[\i=fid]fiX[[`k`feXck\idjXe[Zfe[`k`fejficf^fekfiZe%
Zfd%EfjlYjk`klk`fej%;`^`kXcKM18[`^`kXcZfem\ik\i`ji\hl`i\[Xe[XZZflekdljkY\`e^ff[jkXe[`e^%8[[`k`feXcjkXe[Xi[Zfem\ik\ijXmX`cXYc\Xk,%0,Xdfek_%?;Z_Xee\cZflek`eZcl[\jgi\d`ldXe[GXp$G\i$M`\nZ_Xee\cj%?;gif^iXdd`e^i\hl`i\jXe?;k\c\m`j`feXe[Xe?;Zfem\ik\i%?;Zfem\ik\ijXmX`cXYc\Xk/%0,
g\idfek_%JXk`j]XZk`fe>lXiXek\\1I:En`cci\]le[fiZi\[`kk_\dfek_cpi\Zlii`e^j\im`Z\Z_Xi^\fecp2Zljkfd\in`ccY\i\jgfej`Yc\]fi`ejkXccXk`feZ_Xi^\j#ljX^\]\\jjlZ_XjGXp$G\i$M`\n#kfcc Xe[Xggc`ZXYc\i\Zlii`e^Z_Xi^\j%I\]le[jfiZi\[`kjXi\Zfek`e^\eklgfeZfdgc\k\[`jZfee\Zk]ifdXe\c`^`Yc\I:EYle[c\[
j\im`Z\gXZbX^\n`k_`e*'[Xpj]ifd[Xk\f]`ejkXccXe[i\klief]XccI:E$fne\[Xe[gifm`[\[\hl`gd\ek`ejXk`j]XZkfipnfib`e^Zfe[`k`fe%EfkXccj\im`Z\jXmX`cXYc\`eXccXi\Xj%Ÿ)''0I:EE\nPfib:fddle`ZXk`fej#CC:%8ccI`^_kjI\j\im\[%-,0''-'0