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Gays at Methodist confab
Preparing for the big one
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No sex in Lawrence, book claims by Matthew S. Bajko
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he author of a new critically-acclaimed book that examines what really happened during an arrest of two Texas men that led to the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the nation’s sodomy laws claims that the pair not only were platonic friends but also that they were not engaged in sex when they were arTim Rummelhoff/University rested. of Minnesota Law School Based on years of research into the Dale Carpenter case, legal documents, and interviews with key figures, University of Minnesota law professor Dale Carpenter lays out the reasoning for his controversial conclusion in Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas (Norton). The most compelling evidence comes from the two gay men at the heart of the case, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner, who both spoke to Carpenter before they died. It came as a shock, for like most people who followed the case, he believed sheriff ’s deputies had caught the pair having anal intercourse inside Lawrence’s Houston-area apartment. “I had not had that impression at all. I came to that conclusion reluctantly,” Carpenter, a former conservative columnist for the Bay Area Reporter, said in a phone interview this week. “I did think people would be somewhat surprised, but I have lived with the case and book for so long now I am constantly astonished at how surprised people are.” Much of what occurred the night of September 17, 1998, it turns out, was based on a string of fabrications, writes Carpenter. A jealous drunk boyfriend of Garner’s phoned 911 with a false report of “a crazy black guy with a gun” at the apartment complex where Lawrence lived. Upon entering the apartment, two of the four responding sheriff ’s deputies claimed they saw Lawrence, an older white man, anally penetrating Garner, a black man years his junior. The men were then arrested, brought to the county jail, and charged with violating Texas’ homosexual conduct law. LGBT rights lawyers had been waiting for just such a set of circumstances in order to contest the constitutionality of the anti-gay law. They convinced the men to plead “no contest,” essentially agreeing to the charges laid against them by the sheriff deputies, and then shielded them from having to talk to the press. Not only were reporters mistaken into thinking that gay sex was at the heart of the case so were the subsequent jurists who heard the litigation. Carpenter notes that the brief Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court used words such as “intimate,” “intimacy,” and “relationship,” further confusing the matter. “Here, the advocates distanced themselves from the actual circumstance in which the police and the defendants played out their drama in September 1998,” he writes. Even in the court’s majority 5-4 opinion Justice Anthony M. Kennedy referred to the See page 12 >>
Vol. 42 • No. 16 • April 19-25, 2012
Food trucks to replace Pink Sat. stage by Seth Hemmelgarn
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n an effort to alter the tone of the event, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will replace the main stage at this year’s Pink Saturday with food trucks. The move may disappoint people drawn to the annual street party by the large sound system, which last year occupied a spot near Castro and Market streets. Concerns about safety at the event have grown in recent years, and organizers are indicating they want a more mellow celebration. This year’s Pink Saturday begins at 5 p.m. on June 23. Donation gates will close at 11, and the music will end at 11:15. The suggested donation will be $5. The event, which takes place every year on the night before San Francisco’s LGBT Pride Parade, draws tens of thousands of people. Thousands of dollars are granted to charities after the party. Sister Selma Soul, Pink Saturday event chair, talked to members of the city’s Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation about the food trucks at the panel’s Thursday, April 12 meeting. “We wanted to help diversify the tone of the event,” she said before the board’s eight voting members who were present unanimously See page 6 >>
Jane Philomen Cleland
Pink Saturday’s main stage, seen at last year’s street party, will be replaced with food trucks this year in an effort to create a more mellow event, say the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Protest may hit Castro over Corpus Christi doc A by David Duran
new production of Corpus Christi, Terrence McNally’s controversial play that depicts Jesus as a gay man in 1950s Texas, has some Catholics in an uproar ahead of the premiere of a documentary about the work that will screen at the Castro Theatre next weekend. A protest outside the April 29 event at the Castro could materialize, said officials with 108 Productions, which has staged its touring version of the play since 2006, although there is no indication yet of any organized response. “Surprisingly, now it seems our biggest group of protesters in our six-year history may show up in San Francisco, a city where we assumed we would be most protected from such attacks,” said Nic Arnzen, the play’s director and film’s co-director/producer. “Luckily, we have found the city rallying around us as individuals and organizations come forward to stand in solidarity with us and our quest to spread the message of love and equality.” An online petition, based on a series of previous anti-Corpus Christi petitions by the right-wing Catholic site America Needs Fatima, has drawn over 7,000 signatures to date. The petition denounces 108 Productions’ version of the play – along with the documentary Corpus Christi: Playing with Redemption – as “unspeakable blasphemy” and “prejudicial outrage.” It also calls on the Castro Theatre to “immediately cancel the showing of this movie and play, and to offer a public apology to Our Lord Jesus Christ and to all God fearing Americans.” The controversy has both made sense to and confused Arnzen. He can understand someone being outraged if they had limited information about the play and film but, on the other hand, is confused that people would come to conclusions without seeking more information. “Nearly every person railing against the play and film has not seen or read it,” said Arnzen. “The bottom line is they are upset that we would imagine Jesus as a gay man. As if being
Dustin Franz
A scene from 108 Productions’ Corpus Christi, “You are Healed, Philip,” features David Pevsner, left, as Philip and James Brandon as Joshua, with the cast in the background.
gay was a sin, which of course hits the heart of the matter.” James Brandon, who has played the lead role of Joshua since the production’s inception six years ago and is now a co-producer of the play and film, describes the message of the play in one word, “love.” “No matter what gender, sexual identity, what color the skin, where you’re from, we can all understand the capacity to love one another,” Brandon said. He believes that everyone can learn to live together in this world and actually embrace each other’s diversities as gifts rather than faults. The play has been described as blasphemous and a direct attack on religion by religious groups for years, but Brandon believes it’s actually the complete opposite and considers the
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play a “piece of art.” “If a piece of art challenges your beliefs, makes you actually feel something deep within, what a beautiful thing to explore,” he said. “That’s the gift of art – you have an expressive outlet that allows you to go within and delve deeper into your own beliefs.” He added that the most frustrating part is how anti-gay religious groups can claim to have an informed opinion without being informed about what the play is truly about. Representatives from the office of the Archdiocese of San Francisco declined to speak to the Bay Area Reporter. The Castro Theatre did not respond to an email message seeking comment. However, Cathy Renna, who is helping with See page 13 >>