Gay City News November 8, 2012

FREE VOLUME ELEVEN, ISSUE TWENTY THREE NOVEMBER 7 - 20, 2012

Sandy's Direct Hits 12 Other Opera Capitals 28 Mr. Maloney Goes to Washington 33 GENDA in 2013? 11

ELECTION

2012

“KEEP

Photo courtesy of Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

REACHING, KEEP FIGHTING”

Four-State Marriage Equality Sweep!

Election Coverage, pages 14-19, 32-33

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November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

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| November 7, 2012

CRIME

IN THE NOH

Keep Reaching, Keep Fighting

Beloved Queens Gay Leader Attacked, Dies

Haute Hepburn

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THEATER

FILM

Knocked Down, But Still Kicking

Brooklyn Hipster Life Mash-Up

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Illustration by Michael Shirey

Back from the Abyss Four-State Sweep on Marriage Equality 38

14-19

philamuseum.org

Through January 21, 2013

Dancing Around The Bride is made possible by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative. Additional support is generously provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Glenstone, The Presser Foundation, the Dedalus Foundation, Dr. Sankey V. Williams and Constance H. Williams, Dina and Jerry Wind, John Wind, Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, Christie’s, Mary S. and Anthony B. Creamer, Jaimie and David Field, Lawrence Luhring and Roland Augustine, SEDA Italy, Mari and Peter Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Levine, and other generous individuals. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Support for the accompanying publication is generously provided by Larry Gagosian. Special thanks to The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Dina and Jerry Wind, and John J. Medveckis for their support of the festival Cage: Beyond Silence. Yamaha Disklavier Pianos courtesy of Jacobs Music Company and Yamaha Corporation of America. In-kind support for the exhibition is provided courtesy of Pilar Corrias, London, and the Leo Katz Collection, Bogotá, Colombia.

Dancer Carolyn Brown in Walkaround Time (1968). Choreography by Merce Cunningham and stage set and costumes by Jasper Johns.

Photograph © 1972 by James Klosty

| November 7, 2012

CRIME

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Beloved Gay Leader Savagely Attacked in Sunnyside Dies City offers $22,000 reward for information in murder of Lou Rispoli, 62

BY ANDY HUMM

GAY CITY NEWS

OFFICE OF CITY COUNCILMAN JIMMY VAN BRAMER

L

ou Rispoli, described by friends as the heart and soul of the gay community in Sunnyside, Queens, where he lived for more than 30 years, was attacked by two men with whom he was seen walking at 2 a.m. on October 20 outside 41-00 43rd Avenue.

He was hit in the head with a blunt object with such force that neighbors who heard the assault but did not see it thought he had been shot.

Rispoli was removed from life support, and on October 26, the office of City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer announced the victim had died. That statement also announced a $22,000 reward –– offered by the mayor’s office and the NYPD –– for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Rispoli’s death.

Anyone with information about the attack is urged to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS, submit tips at nypdcrimestoppers.com, or text those tips to 274637 (CRIMES), then enter TIP577.

The day before, Van Bramer, fighting back tears, said at a press conference in his office, “He will not survive, and this will be a homicide.” At that moment, Rispoli lay in a hospice at Elmhurst Hospital.

Van Bramer, who is gay and represents Sunnyside, said the assault on Rispoli, whom he knew as a friend and someone who worked on his 2009 campaign, “is a tragedy for our neighborhood and our city.”

The victim was 62 years old.

The one eyewitness who has come forward has not been able to provide much of a description of the two assailants other than that they were likely in their 20s. A

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and Mark Horn at an October 25 press conference about the attack on Lou Rispoli.

Police are asking anyone with information about the brutal October 20 killing of Lou Rispoli to call 1-800-577-TIPS.

third man, who stood lookout by a car that the group, including Rispoli, may have emerged from prior to the assault, was tall. The car has variously been described as an SUV or a white two-door.

It is not yet known whether this was an anti-gay bias attack.

Police released a photo of the victim in the hopes that anyone who may have information about the attack will call the NYPD TIPS hotline. But police are not yet giving out any details about the crime, saying only that “the investigation is ongoing.”

Rumors were flying around the community about the nature of the crime, according to a local reporter, but nothing has been substantiated beyond the testimony of the lone witness, who apparently did not have a good view of the attackers.

There were no surveillance cameras outside the building where the attack took place, but Van Bramer said police are

checking cameras in the area in an effort to track Rispoli’s movements and those of his assailants.

Mark Horn, Rispoli’s good friend for decades, read a statement on behalf of the victim’s husband, family, and community of friends, many of whom gathered for Van Bramer’s press conference.

Describing Rispoli as “loving and generous,” Horn said, “He touched so many so deeply. That he was struck down so violently leaves us all speechless with grief.”

Horn told Gay City News that even before there was God’s Love We Deliver, Rispoli was cooking meals and delivering them to people with AIDS in the neighborhood. Rispoli’s involvement in LGBT rights went back to the Gay Academic Union in the 1970s. He was also secretary to the legendary out gay composer Virgil Thomson for many years. His family has requested privacy and that his spouse’s

name not be used in the press.

Horn said that at holidays, Rispoli opened his home to gay and non-gay friends who did not have family and served sumptuous meals.

Rispoli and his husband married on their 31st anniversary in August 2011, having met on the subway in 1980. The couple raised two daughters together.

Eric Lehman and his partner Gerry Oxford came to the press conference for their friend of ten years.

“He was a force of nature,” Lehman said, “with a very big personality.”

Rispoli seemed to have been a beloved figure among Sunnyside residents, gay and straight alike. His ill-fated midnight walk was not thought of as unusual since he often had trouble sleeping and roamed the neighborhood and its latenight shops. But there is no good information on why he took this particular walk and whether or not he knew his assailants or had had previous trouble with them.

Van Bramer said, “He was not robbed to our knowledge.”

Recalling the day he met Rispoli at a house party for his 2009 Council run, Van Bramer said, “He said he was thrilled that an openly gay person was running.

He was a great volunteer and became a friend to us.”

The councilman added, “Lou was a proud gay man. He fought for full equality for our community. But I don’t know if he was attacked because he was a gay man.

This is a good and safe neighborhood where gay men and lesbians can walk the streets and be who they are.”

Horn said, “He was a pillar of the gay community and he was a pillar of this community [of Sunnyside]. Lou was not afraid. He went where he wanted when he wanted.”

LESBIAN AVENGERS REUNITE AT 20 In October 1992, a group of about 60 lesbians, with a marching band in tow, arrived at a public school in Queens and began handing out balloons inscribed with the words, “Ask about lesbian lives.”

The action — which created shivers in some queer activist circles since, as participant Kelly Jean Cogswell recalled, “we weren’t supposed to touch kids” — came as the city was in an uproar over the proposed Rainbow Curriculum, an extensive diversity effort that generated overheated opposition largely due to a handful of pages devoted to gay and lesbian people. The balloon hand-out was the first demo staged by the Lesbian Avengers, a group that grew up earlier that year in response to antiqueer thunder on the right, particularly the infamous Culture War speech Pat Buchanan made at that summer’s Republican Convention.

In time, 60 or more Lesbian Avengers chapters popped up around the world, 20,000 dykes marched in Washington in an action separate from the April 1993 LGBT march the same weekend, and Su Friedrich and Janet Baus created the documentary film “Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire, Too,” chronicling the group’s success at creating striking visual ways to advance its mission of visibility.

On October 13, veterans of the Avengers gathered at Dixon Place to recall the teeming East Village

dyke art and activist ferment that gave rise to the group. Cogswell, who edited the Gully online magazine from 2000 to 2006 and is a Gay City News contributor, recalled that members of the group “didn’t see ourselves as happening to be queer. It was intrinsic. How could it not affect you?”

Filmmaker Friedrich said that graphic art — and particularly the work of Dyke Action Machine, the artistic duo of Carrie Moyer and Sue Schaffner — helped animate the Avengers’ spirit and message.

Writer Gail M. Dottin recalled that welcoming as the East Village was, it was also a world apart from the African-American LGBT community in which she lived in Brooklyn.

Alina Troyano, a Cuban-American actress whose stage name is Carmelita Tropicana, said her interest in the Avengers came from her commitment “to bring a different take on lesbian life and feminism to the table.” And, Eve Sicular, a founder of Metropolitan Klezmer and Isle of Klezbos, remembered that as a drummer, she was always welcome at Lesbian Avenger actions. “I didn’t have to go to many meetings or get pulled by the different factions,” she said. “Everyone wanted me there.”

To learn more the Lesbian Avengers, watch a videostream of the October 13 event, or find out how you can help preserve the group’s history, visit lesbianavengers.com. — Paul Schindler

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November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

CRIME

Expert Says Renato Seabra Sane During Gruesome Slaying Psychologist testifies defendant legally responsible in 2011 Carlos Castro killing

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

A

prosecution expert in the trial of Renato Seabra, the accused killer of Carlos Castro, told jurors that the now 23-year -old Seabra was legally sane when he strangled, beat, and castrated the Portuguese TV personality in a Manhattan hotel room in 2011.

“I believe Mr. Seabra understood the nature and the consequences of his actions at the time of the murder and he knew it was wrong,” said Dr. William Barr, the director of a neuropsychology unit at the NYU Langone Medical Center, on October 25.

Seabra faces a single count of second-degree murder that alleges he intended to kill the 65-year-old Castro.

The defense says Seabra was legally insane when he killed the older man and cannot be held responsible under the law.

With both sides agreeing that Seabra killed Castro, the jury will decide if Seabra is guilty of intentional murder or if he is not guilty by reason of insanity. If convicted of

the former, Seabra could get a maximum sentence of 25-years-to-life in prison.

One defense expert, psychologist Jeffrey Singer, testified that Seabra had bipolar disorder and was in the throes of a psychotic episode during the killing. In the defense recounting, Seabra’s bipolar disorder onset rapidly, perhaps 72 to less than 24 hours before the killing. His attorneys’ description of his disorder’s prodrome — the symptoms that appear before the diagnosis is made — would have been atypical, Barr said.

“To develop symptoms of a manic episode in such a short time, a few days, is exceedingly rare,” he said. “I saw no convincing evidence before January 7 that Mr. Seabra was entering a prodromal state.”

Barr said the average prodromal state lasts for two years and the first signs of mania typically appear 20 weeks before a diagnosis, according to studies he reviewed. Any psychosis, Barr said, came in response to the gruesome killing, after the fact.

“If there is psychosis… it’s far more likely the result of having committed a murder,” said Barr when his testimony

continued on October 26.

Seabra killed Castro in an hour-long attack on January 7 of last year that left blood throughout the hotel room they shared. After the castration, Seabra said he placed Castro’s testicles on his wrists as part of a ritual he was acting out. He then showered, dressed in a suit, and wandered the streets of Midtown Manhattan touching people to cure them, Seabra told the experts. His accounts have varied.

In one interview, Barr had finished and left the room only to be called back after Seabra conferred with David Touger, one of Seabra’s defense attorneys.

Seabra told him that homosexuality was the demon he believed he was exorcising by castrating the older man.

In another instance, Seabra first said he did nothing with Castro’s testicles after he removed them and only said he put them on his wrists after Barr prompted him two more times. Seabra told Singer that he drank Castro’s blood, something that even the defense expert did not believe.

“One thing I noticed in looking at all the accounts of the murder, the weird-

ness seems to increase over time,” Barr said. “It’s getting stranger and stranger every time.”

Barr did not conclude that Seabra was faking his illness, as the prosecution contends, but he did not rule it out.

He conducted five psychological tests on Seabra and interviewed him three times for a total of six hours.

“In terms of Mr. Seabra’s responses, they were all within normal limits,” Barr said of the testing, though Seabra scored higher on measures for hostility, manipulativeness, and anger.

“You see this a lot in people who are violent offenders,” Barr said.

The prosecution’s story is that Seabra became enraged when Castro ended their relationship, and Seabra’s hopedfor modeling career, and announced they were returning early to Portugal.

Barr saw “extreme anger, rage” in the crime scene evidence and the continued beating, or “overkill,” as it has been called during the trial. The castration was a further attack.

“It’s essentially a way to humiliate

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SEABRA, continued on p.11

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| November 7, 2012

POLITICS

GENDA Hearing Looks to 2013 Senator Daniel Squadron, Assemblyman Dick Gottfried host forum on transgender civil rights measure

A

t an October 24 hearing on the proposed New York State Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), Causten Wollerman, a field organizer with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, put the finest point on the issue, saying, “This bill will save lives.”

The measure, stalled by inaction in the State Senate for the past decade, would amend New York human rights law to extend the nondiscrimination protections –– in employment, housing, public accommodations, and access to credit –– enjoyed since 2002 by the gay and lesbian community to transgender and other gender-nonconforming New Yorkers. It would also amend the state hate crimes law to add enhanced penalties for crimes motivated by perceived or actual gender identity and expression.

The hearing, held in a State Senate hearing room at 250 Broadway downtown and chaired by Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblyman Dick Gottfried, Manhattan Democrats who are the measure’s lead sponsors, drew roughly a dozen and a half witnesses, who echoed Wollerman’s assessment of the need for GENDA, pushed back against concerns raised by its opponents, and described it as a tool for improving law enforcement.

Wollerman, citing statistics from New York compiled in connection with the Task Force’s nationwide study of discrimination against the transgender community, stated that roughly threequarters of its sample in this state had experienced harassment on the job, 20 percent had been fired, almost one in five reported being homeless, and the incidence of living below the poverty line was

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five times the level for the general public.

Noah Lewis, an attorney at the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, testified that four in ten members of the transgender community have attempted suicide at least once in their lives, as compared to1.6 percent for the population as a whole.

Christopher Argyros, the transgender rights organizer at the Empire State Pride Agenda, noted that two out of every three transgender New Yorkers have been homeless at one time or another and that nearly 30 percent have been the victims of serious physical or sexual assault.

But Argyros also testified to the “patchwork” nature of transgender civil rights protections. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have GENDA-type laws, as do the cities of Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, New York, and Rochester and Westchester, Suffolk, and Tompkins Counties. Nearly 60 percent of New Yorkers live in localities with transgender rights laws –– meaning more than 40 percent do not. A resident of Suffolk County who works in nearby Nassau County, he noted, would have protections against housing discrimination but not against mistreatment on the job.

Nearly 80 percent of New Yorkers support the concept of GENDA, Argyros said, and 43 percent of Fortune 500 companies, many headquartered in Manhattan, have policies barring discrimination against their gender-nonconforming employees.

Opponents of transgender civil rights measures often throw up the charge that their protections could lead to crimes in which an offender dresses in clothing typical of the opposite gender in order to claim legitimate access to private facilities such as bathrooms and

SEABRA, from p.10

your victim,” Barr said. “I believe that’s what happened in this case.”

The trial’s tensions were evident during Barr’s cross examination by Rubin M. Sinins, Seabra’s other attorney, who repeatedly posed a hypothetical question in which Seabra was assumed to have satisfied all the requirements of an insanity defense. Sinins asked if Barr would then conclude that Seabra was insane at the time of the killing. Barr declined to answer that question, saying the hypothetical situation posed was not his conclusion.

With his voice rising and showing either real or feigned incredulity at each answer, Sinins repeated the question and began to draw repeated and angry objections from Maxine Rosenthal, the prosecutor in the case. The judge, Daniel P. FitzGerald, overruled her, saying she could take up the matter on her re-direct questioning of Barr. As Rosenthal continued to object, FitzGerald first told her to “sit down,” then said, “Over-

GAY CITY NEWS

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

The Pride Agenda’s Christopher Argyros testifies at an October 24 state legislative hearing on GENDA.

locker rooms. Not a single witness knew of any such instance. James Sheppard, the chief of police in Rochester, and Steven Krokoff, his counterpart in Albany, testified that local protections there have enhanced public safety and law enforcement.

Suzanne Perry, a League of Women Voters official who said she is a Republican, also responded to the oft-voiced charge that GENDA and similar measures would threaten the safety and privacy of women in facilities like restrooms, saying, “Those who fabricate these fears believe that women like me will respond to that. But they recognize them as ploys.” In a later comment to Gay City News, Perry added, “And the ones making those statements are always men.”

Melissa Sklarz, a longtime political activist who is president of the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, spoke in very personal terms about her journey toward self-acceptance as a transgender woman. After “years of denial and selfdestructive behavior,” including substance abuse, she first went to the LGBT Community Center’s Gender Identity

ruled, overruled, overruled, overruled.”

Barr appeared to score some points of his own. In the middle of the case, the prosecution belatedly produced more than 1,000 pages of Seabra’s medical records from his time in Bellevue Hospital. Neither side has seen any of Seabra’s medical records from Portugal, so when Sinins asked Barr if he had reviewed all of Seabra’s medical records in his evaluation, Barr answered, “No.” Thinking Barr was referring to the Bellevue Hospital records that came in late, Sinins marched to the defense table, picked up the 1,117 pages from Bellevue, and placed them on the witness stand in front of Barr. Sinins asked, with apparent shock, if Barr had not reviewed those records. His voice even and quiet, Barr said he had reviewed those records, but he had not seen Seabra’s medical records from Portugal.

An apparently embarrassed Sinins explained, as he returned to a podium the attorneys use when questioning witnesses, that he had assumed that Barr was referring to the Bellevue records.

Project in her mid-30s. Feeling relieved, she confided in two friends at work –– only to lose her job two months later.

She was unemployed for the next three years, and it was a full decade before she was again making the income she had before her firing.

“I urge the Senate to allow a conscience vote on GENDA,” Sklarz said.

In June 2010, the Senate Judiciary Committee tabled the bill, when advocates failed to win majority support, with one Democrat joining all the Republicans in blocking its consideration on the floor. With Republicans currently in charge of the Senate, a floor vote would not happen unless the majority caucus were to take the unusual step –– as it did last year with marriage equality –– of allowing consideration of a bill that most GOP members oppose.

As Gay City News goes to press, control of the State Senate is in doubt (see page 33). If Democrats come out on top, there could be greater momentum for GENDA, though three of the key LGBT advances in New York –– gay marriage, the gay rights law, and the hate crimes statute –– were enacted when Republicans controlled the Senate.

Out gay Chelsea Democratic Senator Tom Duane, the former lead sponsor on GENDA who is retiring at the end of the year, told the Squadron-Gottfried hearing, “One of my greatest regrets in the Senate a decade ago is that I was unsuccessful at getting transgender inclusion in the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act.” Duane even held out hope that should Governor Andrew Cuomo call the Legislature back into lame duck session before January 1, “maybe I’ll get a chance to vote for this historic bill.”

The trial, interrupted for more than a week by Hurricane Sandy, will continue on November 8.

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November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

HURRICANE SANDY

Flood Zone Map Fails AIDS Residence Yards from highest risk area, Bailey-Holt House’s residents imperiled by rushing waters

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

GAY CITY NEWS

GAY CITY NEWS

W

hen Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the evacuation of all New Yorkers living in the city’s floodprone areas on October 28, residents and staff at the Bailey-Holt House had to make a decision. Sitting at the west end of Christopher Street, the AIDS residence has a door that is roughly ten yards from Zone A, the city’s “highest risk” flood zone.

“If we had been in Zone A, it would have been a really clear decision,” said Gina Quattrochi, the chief executive officer of Bailey House, the non-profit that runs the residence that is home to 44 clients. “The fact that we were in Zone B and had never experienced anything like this, we gave the people who live here a choice about whether to stay like everyone else in the Village... The response I got from the people who live there is, ‘This is my home, I’m not leaving.’”

The next day, high tide and Hur ricane Sandy combined to create a storm surge that came over the Hudson River piers and flooded near by buildings, including Bailey-Holt House.

The city’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) produced a map that divides the city into three zones –– A, B, and C –– with areas in Zone A having the “highest risk” of flooding, Zone B areas having a “moderate” risk, and Zone C areas being “unlikely” to experience flooding.

In the West Village, Zone A’s eastern border is the east side of West Street from one block north of West Houston up to 20th Street. That border is roughly 40 yards from the Hudson River. While the West Village, except for the piers, is in Zone B, a few build-

An emergency exit from Bailey-Holt House boarded up after the AIDS residence was flooded by rising Hudson River waters caused by Hurricane Sandy.

A vacate order placed on a building on West Street around the corner from Bailey-Holt House.

ings, such as the residence, are on West Street a few yards or even a few feet from the border.

Those buildings are at the same elevation as the street so if West Street floods, as the city clearly believed it was going to, those buildings will flood as well. And that is exactly what happened on October 29.

The residence director had left for the day, but came back when the flooding began. She had to wade through waist-deep water to get into the building. The water burst through an emergency exit flooding the ground floor administrative offices. It poured into and filled the basement.

“The river came rushing through,” Quattrochi said. “She and some of the staff had to get down to get some of the important stuff up.”

The power had already been cut so the 37 clients who were still in the residence and the half-dozen staff mem-

bers were left without a functioning elevator and no working kitchen. On November 1, when Gay City News visited, the few remaining residents were being moved out of the seven-story building.

Staf f at Bailey-Holt House took some residents who need regular dialysis treatment to nearby hospitals and others to shelters or facilities where they could continue to receive other required medical help.

Conservatively, Quattrochi estimated the cost of the damage at $350,000 to $500,000.

“First of all, everything has to be dried out,” she said. “We’re going to have to gut the and rebuild the offices... We may have to replace both boilers in the basement.”

While the residence, which opened in 1986, has insurance, the first report is that it does not cover flood damage.

“A lot of these policies don’t even cover flooding anymore,” Quattrochi said. “I think their initial statement was we’re not covered for flood insurance, but they’re going to get an adjuster in.”

A building that sits next door to Bailey-Holt House has been unattended since it is part of an estate that has been in litigation for years. It may have a flooded basement that is leaking into the residence’s basement.

“Some water is still seeping into the basement,” Quattrochi said. “We suspect that the building that abuts us on the south is flooded... It’s been abandoned for 15 years.”

On November 1, the city’s Department of Buildings had already placed vacate orders on some buildings on West Street and some nearby businesses were pumping out their flooded basements and drying out their soaked inventory and records.

The Bailey-Holt House residents may be back soon –– though not immediately.

“We’re telling clients certainly not until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest,” Quattrochi said. “We’re not going to let anyone in until we have a professional sign-off on the safety of the building.”

Quattrochi said that in retrospect, people might ask, “Why didn’t you vacate on Sunday or Monday?” She explained the residents wanted to stay in their homes just like many other West Village residents and they relied on the city’s map showing that they were outside of Zone A. “Clearly, it’s problematic,” Quattrochi said of the Zone A border on the map. “We’ve seen now that it’s problematic.”

The City Hall press office and OEM did not respond to emails and a call seeking comment.

STORM SURGE DESTROYS ALI FORNEY DROP-IN CENTER A drop-in center run by the Ali Forney Center (AFC), which provides housing and s o c i a l s e r v i c e s t o h o m e l e s s L G B T Q y o u t h a c r o s s N e w Yo r k C i t y, w a s a c a s u a l t y o f Hurricane Sandy.

The 1,200 square-foot facility, located on the block of West 22nd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues just east of the Hudson River, took on as much as four feet of water, destroying telephones, computers, a refrigerator, food, and supplies.”

On November 2, AFC’s executive director, Carl Siciliano, was able to inspect the damage, and alerted supporters of the organization, “Our worst fears were realized; everything was destroyed and the space is uninhabitable.”

Siciliano explained, “This space was dedicated to our most vulnerable kids, the thousands stranded on the streets without shelter, and was a place where they received food, showers, clothing, medical care, HIV testing and treatment, and mental health and sub-

stance abuse services. Basically a lifeline for LGBT kids whose lives are in danger.”

Beyond these services, AFC houses 20 youths in four transitional living sites in Manhattan and Brooklyn and provides emergency beds for up to six months to 50 youths at four additional sites in Brooklyn and Queens.

The LGBT Community Services Center is providing space to Ali Forney on a temporary basis to keep its drop-in services running, and more help is on the way. According to the Los Angeles Times, a blog post about the flood on the Joe My God blog led actress Pam Grier to tweet a link, which generated donations of $100,000 to AFC. Actress Ally Sheedy and celebrity photographer Mike Ruiz are hosting a November 11 fundraiser for the group at Industry Bar, 355 West 52nd Street. Admission to the 4-7 p.m. event is $20 at the door.

AFC board member Bill Shea and his husband Frank Selvaggi have offered a matching donation of up to $50,000. — Paul Schindler

| November 7, 2012

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ELECTION 2012

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

Four-State Sweep on Marriage Equality!

Maryland, Maine, Washington, and Minnesota break a very tired referendum mold

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

O

n 32 consecutive occasions since the 1990s, voters in states across the country have appr oved ballot measures — either statutes or constitutional amendments — barring gay and lesbian couples from the right to marry.

That streak was broken — decisively — on Election Night 2012. Voters in Maine acted affirmatively to enact marriage rights for same-sex couples. In Maryland and Washington State, efforts to overturn mar riage equality laws approved earlier this year were rejected. And in Minnesota, anti-gay forces were unable to muster the 50 percent of total votes cast to amend the State Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

"Our huge, happy, and historic off wi irrewave wa ve o wins ns last las astt night nigh ni ghtt signaled sign si gnal aled al e iirre ed rre rr e freedom futable momentum for the fre eedom to marry, with voters courts, m arrry, w ith it h vo vote ters rs jjoining oini oi ning ng c ou urt rts s, llegegeg islatures, and president is sla latu ture tu res s, a nd tthe he rreelected eele ee lect le cted ct ed p resi re sid dentt de

of the United States in moving the country toward the right side of history," said Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry. "The anti-gay opposition kept moving the goalposts and had as their last talking point that we could not win a popular vote on the freedom to marry.”

Wolfson has worked on the mar riage equality issue for the past two decades, and while at Lambda Legal was involved in the first serious gay marriage litigation — in the Hawaii state courts. Freedom to Marry invested roughly $7 million in the ballot fights in the four states this year.

The Human Rights Campaign, the Washington-based LGBT lobby group, invested more than $6 million in the marriage effort this year and said it recruited several thousand volunteers across the four ballot states. Speaking about the victory in Washington, the last of the four races to be called, HRC president Chad Griffin said, “This victory to ry rounds r ou oun nds nd n s out ou t a landslide land la ndsl slid ide e sweep swee sw eep p of all four marriage marriag m ge ballot measures this November…

Nove No vemb mbe er… This er e Th is win w in is i s a sure su re sign s ig gn that th att momentum m om m en entu tum tu m is on o n our ou r side, side si de,, and an d

MARYLAND

MAINE

By a margin of nearly four percent, vvoters oterss approved the marriage equality law signed ned bbyy Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley eearlier arlieer this year and later “referred” to voters aafter fter anti-gay forces mobilized in opposition..

The measure was approved in Baltimore, moree, its suburbs, and the nearby suburbs of Washington, DC, but rejected in most other ther counties –– in western Maryland and oonn the state’s eastern shore. Marriage equality uality polled best (at nearly 66 percent) in afflflfluent uentt Montgomery County, adjacent to DC, in neighboring Howard County, and in Baltimore timorre City, where it polled at just under 57 percent. ercentt.

The measure’s success in Baltimore and nd Pri Prince incce George County near Washington, both hheavily eaviily African-American areas, suggests that tthe he la law’s aw’ss advocates succeeded in addressing concerns ncernns in the black community that opponentss of California’s Proposition 8 in 2008 fell short hort oon. n.

Defense of the marriage equality law w was as led by Marylanders for Marriage Equality, ty, founded by O’Malley, HRC, Equality Maryland, ryland, 1199 Service Employees International U Union, nionn, the NAACP of Baltimore, and the state’ss cha chapter apteer of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Josh Levin, who led the campaign, ssaid, aid, “This victory would not have been possible sible without the unparalleled leadership of G Governor overrnoor O’Malley, resolve of the LGBT caucus inn the Legislature, and the full-court press by the een Human Rights Campaign, which has been ar here day in and day out for more than a yea year working for full equality.”

The group raised $6 million.

In 2009, anti-gay forces succeeded in having the marriage equality law enacted that year put before the voters in November.

After a hard-fought contest, in which some polls showed gay advocates leading, the bill was repealed 53-47 percent. On Tuesday, the marriage equality issue was turned on its head, with the 2009 voter repeal effectively overturned, with an estimated 54-46 percent margin. Seven of the state’s 16 counties approved equal marriage rights, with an eighth county essentially tied. Two-thirds of the voters in Cumberland County, home to Portland, the state’s largest city, voted yes, but the issue polled well in coastal counties from the New Hampshire border northeast to Ellsworth.

The pro-equality Mainers United for Marriage was a coalition that claimed 200 partners, including HRC and Freedom to Marry, and thousands of volunteers.

In a written statement, its campaign manager, Matt McTighe said, “Three years ago, Maine made history as the first state to pass marriage through a state legislature and have it signed into law by the governor.

Maine made history again this year when we became the first state to bring a citizen’s initiative to voters in support of the freedom to marry.” He added, “Tonight, here in Maine, we proved that voters can change their hearts and minds if we tell our stories and give our fellow citizens a personal connection to the countless families whose lives are impacted by this debate.”

with the growing majority of Americans supporting marriage equality, more states will soon join Washington in protecting all families.”

For the National Organization for Marriage, the leading group fighting equal marriage rights and other partnership recognition measures for same-sex couples, the four defeats were bitter medicine. In the wake of pro-equality rulings by state courts in Massachusetts and elsewhere, activists affiliated with NOM argued that the definition of marriage should not be left to unelected judges. When New York and other states moved to enact gay marriage through the legislative process, they similarly cried foul.

Now, the NOM agenda has been rejected by voters in four states from coast to coast and in the heartland as well. The group moved quickly to disqualify even those referees.

In a written statement, Brian S. Brown, NOM’s president, after voicing disappointment that “our endorsed endo dors r e candidate for president, Mitt Romney” lost, said, “Even though significantly outth h marriage m performed p r form pe m e the GOP ticket in each of these Democratic th thes h e s e very ve ery liberal, very Dem mocratt ic states, s ates st attes,, we w also als lso o came came up up just just short sho hort rt of of the th he finish fini fi nish sh h line. lin ine e. But But make mak ake e no mistake: mis isttak take::

we are disappointed, but we are not defeated! We are fighting for a true and just cause — God's institution of marriage… We knew long ago that we faced a dif ficult political landscape with the four marriage battles occurring in four of the deepest-blue states in America. As our opponents built a huge financial advantage, the odds became even steeper.”

Freedom to Marry and HRC noted other positive signs for marriage equality in Tuesday’s results. In Iowa, right-wing forces failed in their effort to oust Justice David Wiggins, who joined the unanimous 2009 State Supreme Court gay marriage ruling.

Two years ago, three other justices had been removed by voters. Democrats in Iowa also retained control of the State Senate, where Major ity Leader Mike Gronstal has been an unshakable firewall against efforts to put an anti-marriage amendment on the ballot.

New Hampshire, where an effort to repeal that state’s 2009 marriage equality law failed earlier this year, elected a pro-marriage equality Democrat, Maggie Hassan, to succeed Democratic G ynch, who Governor John L ynch h , wh ho signed sign si gned ed that t ha hatt law. law la w . Hassan H as assa san n defeated defe de feat ated ed a Republican who opposed Repu Re pub blica blic an w a ho iis s op ppo p se sed d to tthat hatt la ha law. w.

WASHINGTON W ASH

MINNESOTA

Byy a nnearly identical margin as in B Marylan Maryland, voters in Washington Statee ap approved pprroved a gay marriage law signed earlierr tthis his year by Democratic Governor Christine ristinne Gr Gregoire. reggoire Only six of the state’s 39 counties ountiiess ap approved pprroved the law, but they were all inn thee po populous opuulous northwestern area surrounding ding Seattle.

Se eatttle. Seattle’s King County and Jefferson fferssonn Co County ounty tto its west both gave the measure asuree m more orre tha than 63 percent of their votes.

W ash Washington United for Marriage, a co coalition oalition effort like Maryland’s that included ncluddedd HR HRC RC and Freedom to Marry, raised more ore tthan hann $12 million, the most of any state te w where heere m marriage was contested this year.

AAccording ccoordin to the Seattle Times, that total w was ass mor more than five times what anti-gay gay fforces orces ra raised. WUFM noted that its money oneyy ca came ame fro from 27,000 donors, 80 percent nt of from Washington State. The group tthem hem m fro oup ssaid aidd the campaign knocked on 100,000 000 doors do oorrs in the final week before Election on Da Day ay and made 200,000 phone calls on No November oveemb 5 and 6.

“We made history in so many ways,” “W We m s,” ssaid aid Zach Zac Silk, WUFM’s campaign manager. nageer.

“Our volunteers were engaged, fired up, “O Ourr volu an and nd deliv delivered. There has never been a ball ballot lot ca campaign ampaig in Washington that had this kindd off bbreath reaath aand depth, from field to fundraising. ising.

The state of Minnesota already has a law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, but in 2012, years after Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, as a state legislator, got the ball rolling, anti-gay activists managed to get the issue on the ballot as a constitutional amendment. That effort was defeated 51-48 percent on Election Day. Ten of the state’s 87 counties voted to defeat the marriage ban, seven of them in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, as well as areas in and around Duluth and Rochester. More than 60 percent of residents in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, and Ramsey County, which includes St. Paul, voted no.

“This campaign has changed the course of politics in our state forever,” said Richard Carlbom, who led the effort for Minnesotans United for All Families, a coalition effort like that built in the other three ballot states. “Over the course of the last year and a half, we’ve sparked an honest, statewide conversation about why marriage matters and who should have the freedom to participate in it.

Today, Minnesotans voted in favor of love, freedom, and fairness — because that’s what this state is about.”

15

| November 7, 2012

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16

ELECTION 2012

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

Back from the Abyss US rejects Romney’s reactionary appeal, vote underscores imperative for LGBT organizing, coalition-building ANALYSIS BY DOUG IRELAND

MICHAEL SHIREY

T

his election has saved the soul of American democracy from one of the greatest threats it has experienced since the anti-Communist hysteria of McCarthyism and the d o m e s t i c C o l d Wa r i n t h e 1950s. America teetered on the brink in Tuesday’s election, stared into an abyss of reaction, and took a half-step back.

Despite his solid Elector al College victory, the nar rowness of Barack Obama’s oh-so slim popular vote majority shows how close we came to disaster. White America r ejected the first black president, who got only 40 percent of its votes.

But this election reminded us all that the United States is no longer a majority white country — and this is a lesson the institutional gay movement, which has for so long slighted the needs and concerns of people of color, urgently needs to learn.

We wer e saved fr om the worst by non-white voters, who awarded Obama 80 per cent of their votes.

And if there was one single group we have to thank for Obama’s victory, it is Latino voters, among whom Obama over -performed by comparison to 2008 — this year they gave him seven out of ten of their votes. The attractive young mayor of San Antonio, Julián Castr o — who was the Democratic National Convention’s keynote speaker — symbolizes the new political reality.

One of the most impor tant lessons I lear ned as a lad from Bayard Rustin, the great black civil rights organizer who was also queer, was — as I often heard him say — that all successful political coalitions are based on mutual self-interest. The institutional gay movement must now embrace this lesson and recognize that justice and human rights are indivisible. It must cease its

Re-election will embolden Barack Obama only if his voters demand that.

narrow, single-issue focus and unequivocally link arms with America’s new nonwhite majority on the issues that brought them to the polls, including immigration and economic justice for the left-outs.

The institutional gay movement’s agenda has for far too long been driven by fund-raising and skewed almost exclusively toward the white middle class by decisions made in secr et, closed-door meetings by its wealthy gay funders. This must now cease.

The most heartening victory of the night was that of Tammy Baldwin, who shat-

ter ed the lavender ceiling and won her Senate campaign in Wisconsin by her full-throated alignment with economic populism and the working classes. The electoral power of this brand of populism was underscored by the r e-election of Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, an unapologetic labor Democrat, who survived a vicious $31 million campaign against him funded by cor porate America. And economic populism also allowed consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren to become the first female senator from Massachusetts and take back the late Teddy Kenne-

dy’s old seat from Republican incumbent Scott Brown.

It’s time for the access-oriented politics of the Human Rights Campaign’s gaycrats and their ilk to stop sucking up to corporate America and devote their money and resources to organize, organize, organize.

Despite the fact that Republicans retained control of the House, organizing prowess and economic populism allowed openly gay first-term Congressman David Cicilline to handily survive the ugliest campaign in Rhode Island’s recent history and the tons of corporate money thrown against

him, just as it assured that Baldwin’s vacated seat in the House was won by Mark Pocan, an out gay state repr esentative. Those ef forts also added openly gay Sean Patrick Maloney to Congress from New York’s 18th dist r i c t — i n We s t c h e s t e r , Dutchess, Orange, and Putnam Counties — where he won a close upset victory against Republican incumbent Nan Hayworth. California elected Congress’ first out gay person of color, Mark Takano, in a contest for an open seat in the 41st district.

These victories, together with the comfortable reelection of Colorado’s excellent openly gay Congressman Jared Polis, whose victory was never in doubt, means that queers now have at least five House members (with one race still to be decided) to speak for them, one more than in the previous Congress — and all of whom won their seats after, not before, coming out.

But make no mistake: the political center of gravity in Congress took troubling steps further to the right this year. The chief of the Senate’s Republicans, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, is today sitting in his gilded closet and staring at the mirror on its door to tell himself that, for the second election cycle in a row, he has failed to become majority leader thanks to the extremism of the Tea Party and its homophobic Christers, That crowd won primary after primary in both houses of Congress and dragged their party even further to the right, costing the GOP Senate seats they should have won in Indiana and Missouri and helping to further tarnish the Republican brand with their war on a woman’s right to control her own body.

But McConnell’s dyspeptic, no-compromise Election Night statement after the results rolled in showed

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OBAMA, continued on p.17

| November 7, 2012

ELECTION 2012

17

Three of Out Four Gays Backed Obama Amidst more muted tone than 2008, LGBT voters still saw a clear choice

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE

S

tanding outside of Pieces, a gay bar near the intersection of Christopher Street and Greenwich Avenue, David, 47, and his friend Chris, 56, were smoking and chatting on election night. The two Obama supporters were anticipating a long night.

“I think everybody’s expecting it to be so close,” David said after noting he would soon be leaving the bar for home and dinner. Chris said he would also head home and would likely fall asleep watching the returns. Neither man expected to know the election results before morning.

“I was very proud of Obama’s record of achievement,” Chris said, adding that he waited in line for two hours to vote for the Democratic president. “I thought he was dealt a very bad hand by Bush II... I thought he did quite well given the contentious legislature he is dealing with.”

They could have stayed at Pieces for three more hours and watched the returns come in because by 11:15 on November 6, Barack Obama had effectively won a second term as president of the United States.

䉴

OBAMA, from p.16

how terrified he himself is of a primary challenge from the Tea Party — he’s already hired extremist Senator Rand Paul’s political team to help him try to avoid one in 2014 — and of a challenge to his leader ship by hard-right Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the undisputed chief of the reactionaries in the Senate. DeMint’s corporate-funded PAC helped scare the living daylights out of notorious arch-conservatives like Orrin Hatch and drive them even further to the far right.

As to Mitt Romney, a finger-in-thewind political panderer to the forces of darkness in the primaries who led one of the most base, racist, and hate-mongering Republican general election campaigns ever, one may paraphrase Shakespeare and say that nothing so became his political life like his leaving of it. But the carefully calibrated graciousness of his concession speech will not erase the memory of him as a man who consistently appealed to the worst in America, including winks and nods to the obscene, nativist birther movement

The Obama campaign built a coalition of African Americans, Latinos, Asians, women, younger voters, and some white voters to win well over the 270 electoral votes needed to take the White House. Five per cent of the estimated 117 million 2012 voters were gay, lesbian, or bisexual and 76 percent of those voters backed Obama over Republican Mitt Romney.

In contrast to 2008, when gay New Yorkers packed bars and clubs, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and T ransgender Community Center, and other venues to watch election results, the city was muted. Still recovering from Hurricane Sandy and expecting another storm on November 7, the streets were quiet, though voters did stand in line for hours. There was some partying.

“There were people actually blowi n g h o r n s l i k e i t w a s N e w Ye a r ’ s Eve,” said Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, a gay political club. “There were people screaming in the streets and being joyous just like New Year’s.”

For some, the hurricane and the election went hand in hand.

“It made the voting incredibly rel-

evant and critically relevant,” said Carlos Menchaca, a co-president of the Lambda Independent Democrats, a Brooklyn gay political club. Menchaca was in Red Hook, a Brooklyn neighborhood that was flooded by Hurricane Sandy, helping with recovery efforts.

“It really shifted toward the f u t u r e , ” h e s a i d . “ We ’ r e n o t j u s t talking about partisan bullshit. We were talking about rebuilding communities and then we were doing that with the vote.”

There was dancing in the streets in Chicago and San Francisco on Election Night. But some voters may have confronted the reality of the past four years and the limits of what any president can do with a wrecked economy.

After winning the White House in 2008, Obama warned Americans that recovering would not be quick or easy.

“The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep,” Obama said on Election Night four years ago. “We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.”

At the Gym Sportsbar in Chelsea, at least one gay New Yorker was not feeling that.

“Obama hasn’t delivered,” said Luis, 31, as he stood on Eighth Avenue smoking with two friends. “I was disappointed.”

Luis did not vote, but if he had, he would have voted for Romney though with some ambivalence.

“I didn’t feel like either candidate was appropriate,” Luis said. “In this election, the middle class does not have a voice.”

One of his friends, John, 26, burst out of the bar clearly annoyed with the crowd inside that was over whelmingly made up of Democratic partisans. With CNN blaring from several TVs around the bar, those inside cheered every time the news station announced another bit of good news for any Democratic candidate.

John voted for Romney. Like Luis, he was a little drunk. He complained about the Americans who were not working.

“I’m so tired of working my ass off for people who don’t want to work,” he said. “Literally, we’r e feeding them... It’s not fair.”

and his embrace of its new leader, the stomach-turning Donald Trump.

Obama won only because Romney — a gazillionaire vulture capitalist whose only knowledge of foreign policy was the tax dodges available in the Cayman Islands and the fortune-building opportunities pr esented by his own outsourcing of jobs to China and other low-wage countries — was a stereotype of rapacious economic elitism.

What will Obama do in his second term, now that he can no longer seek re-election? His spineless first term, with its betrayal of so many of his campaign promises, handed economic policy over to the very same creatures of Wall Street who, in the Clinton administration, orchestrated the repeal of Glass-Steagall and thus caused the economic crisis from which we have still not recovered. In his first four years, Obama failed to lift a finger to pass ENDA — the single most important piece of gay rights legislation ever — when the Democrats still controlled both Houses of Congress, temporized on the Defense of Marriage Act, and was furious when Joe Biden’s big mouth forced

him to take a public position in favor of gay marriage he didn’t want to take for fear of jeopardizing his second term. His preference would have been to rely on throwing a few jobs to same-sexers and thereby cover his ass with the big gay donors who filled his campaign coffers.

Only if the institutional gay movement insists on holding Obama accountable in his second ter m, backs it up with a renewed commitment to organizing and activism — for which black-tie dinners are no substitute — and joins in a progressive coalition with labor and people of color will we find ourselves moving forward. AIDS has disappeared from the gay movement’s agenda, and it’s time we put it back — including an insistence that Obama replace the politically supine bureaucrats from AIDS Inc. on the President’s Advisory Committee on HIV and AIDS with HIV-positive activists who’ll take on the tough issues, like the horrific criminalization of HIV transmission that is ruining so many lives.

M o r e o v e r, a g o o d m e a s u r e o f whether Obama will show some cojones in his second ter m will be

whether he takes the vote to legalize personal marijuana use in Washington and Colorado and the victory for medical marijuana in Massachusetts as a sign that it’s time to end the failed, expensive War on Drugs and stop threatening doctors and vendors of medipot with prosecution, as Obama’s attor ney general and his Drug Enforcement Agency have done — to the detriment of the HIV-positive and people with kidney failure and a host of other maladies.

And the gay movement simply must expand its agenda to include the kind of transformative economic and social justice issues for all who demand the same sort of future for people of color that gay people wish for themselves. Only a retur n to an activist, organizingbased strategy within a pr ogr essive coalition can build on the mar riage equality victories this week in Maryland, Maine and, likely, Washington and take advantage of the generational change on sexual orientation of which those victories are a harbinger. Will the institutional gay movement do so? Only if you insist upon it!

18

ELECTION 2012

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

US Senate Dem Advantage Grows With 55 - 45 edge next year, Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin is first out LGBT member

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

T

he current Senate has 53 Democrats and 47 Republicans, and that configuration l i k e l y g r e w t o a 55-45 advantage in Tuesday’s election.

Though continued control of the House by the GOP is likely to stymie LGBT progress on Capitol Hill — at least under current political calculations — Harry Reid’s control of the Senate is all that stands in the way of a united Congress opposed to major gay initiatives.

This year, 33 seats wer e up for grabs — 23 seats held by Democrats and ten by Republicans.

Democrats held on to 22 of those seats, with 16 incumbents winning reelection. Six Democratic Senate newcomers — Representatives Chris Murphy in Connecticut, Mazie Keiko Hirono in Hawaii, Martin Heinrich in New Mexico, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, and Tammy Baldwin in Wi s c o n s i n a n d f o r m e r G o v e r n o r T im Kaine in Virginia — held onto Democratic seats.

Baldwin, originally elected to the House in 1998 fr om the Madison area as Congress’ first out lesbian, will be the first openly LGBT senator as well.

Two Democrats won seats previously held by Republicans — with Congressman Joe Donnelly captur ing the seat held by Richard Lugar, who was defeated in the GOP primary, and Elizabeth Warren defeating incumbent Scott Brown.

Independent Angus King, a for mer Maine governor widely expected to caucus with the Democrats, won the open seat vacated by Republican Olympia Snowe.

Seven of the ten Republicans seats were defended, with five incumbents winning, Representative Jef f Flake holding on to Jon Kyl’s seat, and Texas Solicitor General Rafael “Ted” Cruz winning the seat being vacated by the GOP’s Kay Bailey Hutchison.

In addition, one Republican won a seat previously held by a Democrat, with State Legislator Debra Fischer capturing the seat vacated by retir ing Senator Ben Nelson in Nebraska.

If Maine’s King caucuses with the Democrats, their current 53-47 majority will grow by two.

SENATE RESULTS DEMOCRATIC HOLDS INCUMBENTS: California — Diane Feinstein Delaware — Tom Carper Florida — Bill Nelson Maryland — Ben Cardin Michigan — Debbie Stabenow Minnesota — Amy Klobuchar Missouri — Claire McCaskill Montana — Jon Tester New Jersey — Robert Menendez New York — Kirsten Gillibrand Ohio — Sherrod Brown Pennsylvania — Robert Casey Rhode Island — Sheldon Whitehouse Vermont — Bernie Sanders Washington — Maria Cantwell West Virginia — Joe Manchin SENATE NEWCOMERS: Connecticut — Rep. Chris Murphy holds Joe Lieberman seat Hawaii — Rep. Mazie Keiko Hirono holds Daniel Akaka seat North Dakota — Heidi Heitkamp holds Kent Conrad seat New Mexico — Rep. Martin Heinrich holds Jeff Bingaman seat Virginia — Former Gov. Tim Kaine holds Jim Webb seat Wisconsin — Rep. Tammy Baldwin holds Herb Kohl seat

REPUBLICAN TO DEMOCRATIC FLIPS Indiana — Rep. Joe Donnelly wins the seat held by Richard Lugar, defeated in GOP primary Massachusetts — Elizabeth Warren beats incumbent Scott Brown

REPUBLICAN TO INDEPENDENT FLIP Maine — Former Gov. Angus King wins seat vacated by GOP’s Olympia Snowe

REPUBLICAN HOLDS INCUMBENTS: Mississippi — Roger Wicker Nevada — Incumbent Dean Heller Tennessee — Bob Corker Utah — Orrin Hatch Wyoming — John Barrasso SENATE NEWCOMERS: Arizona — Rep. Jeff Flake holds Jon Kyl seat Texas — State Solicitor General Rafael “Ted” Cruz holds Kay Bailey Hutchison seat

DEMOCRATIC TO REPUBLICAN FLIPS Nebraska — State Legislator Debra Fischer wins seat vacated by incumbent Ben Nelson

| November 7, 2012

19

ELECTION 2012

CONGRESSGAINS

LGBT Gains in Congress Tammy Baldwin moves to Senate, House caucus grows to at least 5

THE SENATE

BY PAUL SCHINDLER WISCONSIN Tammy Baldwin XX%

T

THE US HOUSE

Wisconsin Senator-Elect Tammy Baldwin is the first openly LGBT member of that chamber.

tor Kyrsten Sinema holds a narrow lead in a new district created since the 2010 census.

In Massachusetts, Republican Richard Tisei, a former state senator who was the GOP’s 2010 candidate for lieutenant governor, lost his race against Democrat John Tierney, an eight-term incumbent.

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RHODE ISLAND 1 David Cicilline 53%

COLORADO 2 Jared Polis 56%

MASSACHUSETTS 6 Richard Tisei 47%

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CALIFORNIA 41 Mark Takano 56%

WISCONSIN 2 Mark Pocan 61% TAMMYBALDWIN.COM

he current Congress has a record four openly gay or lesbian House members, all of them Democrats, but that tally will grow next year.

With the r etir ement of veteran Massachusetts lawmaker Bar ney Frank and the decision by Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin to seek that state’s open Senate seat, only Rhode Island’s David Cicilline and Colorado’s Jared Polis stood for reelection.

Both of those incumbents won, and Baldwin becomes the first out LGBT senator.

In addition, LGBT Democratic congr essional candidates scor ed victories in New York, where Sean Patrick Maloney defeated freshman Representative Nan Hayworth; in Wisconsin, where State Representative Mark Pocan won the seat Baldwin gave up; and in California, where Mark Takano, a schoolteacher, won a bid for an open seat. In Arizona, openly bisexual State Sena-

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GOP RETAINS CONTROL OF US HOUSE John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, has spent $1.5 million in public monies to defend against lawsuits challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act since early last year, when the Obama administration announced it would no longer do so. With the Democrats having fallen short of the 25-seat net gain needed to regain control of the House, Boehner may well look to spend considerably more money as DOMA heads to a likely Supreme Court showdown in the court term ending next June. With two federal appeals courts having struck down the 1996 law on constitutional grounds, the high court has little option but to take up the issue.

NEW CONGRESS IN 2013-2014

CURRENT CONGRESS, 2011-2012

233 Republicans (9 undecided)

241 Republicans

193 Democrats

191 Democrats

20

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

THEATER

Looming Large A morose, 600-pound gay recluse knocked down but still kicking

BY DAVID KENNERLEY ear the name Shuler Hensley and chances are you think of his comic titular tur n in “Young Frankenstein” on Broadway. Fans may remember he copped the Best Featured Actor Tony for playing the grimy hermit, Jud Fry, in “Oklahoma!” a decade ago.

H

THE WHALE

Now, in “The Whale,” the former opera singer plays an entirely different kind of monster — a profusely sweaty, 600-pound recluse named Charlie who makes a living teaching an online essay-writing class. His crabby nurse, Liz (Cassie Beck), his only friend in the world, brings him fried chicken and

JOAN MARCUS

Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theater 416 W. 42nd St. Through Feb. 9 Tue.-Sat. at 7:30 p.m.

Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 2 & 7 p.m. $60; ticketcentral.com

Shuler Hensley and Cory Michael Smith in Samuel D. Hunter’s “The Whale,” directed by Davis McCallum.

meatball subs and monitors signs of imminent heart failure. Spending all day and night on the sagging couch, Charlie can barely stand. He needs a

walker just to lumber off to the bathroom. Starved for human affection after the tragic passing of his partner, he’s literally eating himself to death.

To say Hensley’s poignant portrayal is astonishing would be an understatement. With the aid of prosthetics (a fat suit), he fully inhabits the role with devastating precision. With his bulging, watery eyes, persistent wheezing, and masses of quivering flesh, we want to look away but simply cannot.

“The Whale,” written by Samuel D. Hunter (“A Bright New Boise”), is set in present-day Idaho — Mormon country — and is ripe with a dizzying array of plot twists and revelations both richly engrossing and affecting. The dicey dynamics of faith, family, homophobia, altruism, and self-actualization… these are just a few of the themes tackled in this bold, two-hour, intermissionless work.

Charlie’s pathetic routine is thrown into turmoil by several surprise visitors. The first is Elder Thomas (por trayed with finesse by Cory Michael Smith, fresh from his acclaimed turn in “Cock”), who says he’s on a mission from the Mormon Church to con-

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WHALE, continued on p.21

A Woman Scorned Spellbinding revival gets everything right, except one key element

BY DAVID KENNERLEY he 1995 production of “The Heiress” took Broadway by storm, nabbing top Tony Awards for best play revival, actress, featured actress, and director, and it cleaned up at the Drama Desk Awards as well.

T

THE HEIRESS

The intense period drama, about a fraught young woman torn between a domineering father and a slippery suitor, established Cherry Jones, in the titular role, as a formidable force in New York theater. I recall being blown away by the second act.

Indeed, the new production at the Walter Kerr Theatre has some mighty

JOAN MARCUS

Walter Kerr Theatre 219 W. 48th St. Through Feb. 10 Tue.-Sat. at 8 p.m.

Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. $50-$135; telecharge.com Judith Ivey, Dan Stevens, David Strathairn, and Jessica Chastain in the revival of “The Heiress,” directed by Moisés Kaufman. |

big shoes to fill. And while it employs some heavy hitters — Moisés Kaufman (director), David Strathairn (the tyrannical father), Judith Ivey (the meddlesome aunt), and Derek McLane (scenic design) — it also takes some questionable risks.

The heiress, Catherine, is played by Broadway neophyte Jessica Chastain, known for her work in film (“The Help,” “Tree of Life”). Playing opposite her as the suitor, Mr. Townsend, is the charming Dan Stevens, another newcomer to the Great White Way, known for the

British television imports “Downton Abbey” and “The Line of Beauty.”

Only one of these casting risks fully pays off.

The story, written by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, using the Henry James novel “Washington Square” as source material, is both intriguing and durable. The well-to-do, socially prominent Dr. Sloper lives with his mousey daughter, in her late 20s, in a handsome house at one of the most exclusive addresses in 1850s New York, 16 Washington Square.

When a young man of little means or prospects suddenly asks for Catherine’s hand in marriage, the doctor brands him a fortune hunter. For upon the doctor’s death, she would receive $30,000 per year (that’s roughly a million dollars in today’s currency). During the course of the two-and-a-halfhour drama, betrayals abound.

The excellent Straithairn portrays the overprotective Dr. Sloper as a tyrant with a soft side. Even when he’s snapping at Catherine, we understand

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SCORNED, continued on p.21

21

| November 7, 2012

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WHALE, from p.20

vert despair into hope. Having caught Charlie at a particularly intense moment watching gay por n, Elder Thomas proves to have a few dirty secrets of his own.

Then there’s the sullen, snippy 17-year old Ellie (Reyna de Courcy, who overplays the angry young brat role), Charlie’s estranged daughter who hates him and the rest of the world. Later, his shrill, alcohol-dependent wife (Tasha Lawrence) makes an unwelcome appearance. She’s hardly seen him since he ran out on her to live with a man years ago.

Under the savvy direction of Davis McCallum, “The Whale” isn’t afraid to dig deep into the muck, both physically and emotionally.

Mimi Lien’s set of a dilapidated abode, bordering on “Hoarders” territory, is meticulously littered with the detritus of Charlie’s sorry semblance of a life — an old computer monitor (he uses a laptop now), shelves piled with books, forlorn knick-knacks, and tumbleweed-like clumps of dust on the carpet. Is that a case of Velveeta in the kitchen?

Charlie has even fashioned a handy little caddy to hold his television remote control, using cardboard and duct tape. Charlie’s enormous clothes

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SCORNED, from p.20

his frustration and believe he truly has her b best att he heart. h estt iinterests nter nt eres ests ts a hear artt “You are good for nothing unless you are clever,” Dr. Sloper says, annoyed that his daughter gets hopelessly tongue-tied at social gatherings.

Tragically, Catherine inherited none of the attractive qualities that her mother, who died in childbirth years before, possessed in spades. Dr. Sloper describes his daughter as “an entirely mediocre and defenseless creature with not a shred of poise.”

Ivey, a ten-time Broadway veteran, is marvelous as the aunt who alternates allegiances between her niece and the young wastrel. She regards him as the son she never had.

Stevens proves that his television appeal transfers easily to the stage.

His eager Mr. Townsend has us convinced that he’s in it for love, not just the money. He conveys only a whiff of duplicity, which keeps us guessing to the end.

The weak link is Chastain. As the plain, painfully awkward homebody who succumbs to the wiles of the dashing Mr. Townsend, she occasionally registers as, well, painfully awkward in the role. Her clunky curtsy when greeting guests becomes a punchline rather than a poignant emblem of her lack of confidence and grace. Some moments

seem permanently stained with oil and perspiration. You can practically smell the rancid pizza boxes.

If you think “The Whale” refers to the morbidly obese Charlie, you’re only partially correct — Hunter has carefully woven in two iconic liter ary whale references that add dimension to the work. One is the biblical story of Jonah, who defied God and was imprisoned in the belly of a whale until he repented.

The other is “Moby-Dick,” the Herman Melville epic (originally titled “The Whale”) of the deluded, futile pursuit of the gr eat unknowable that leads to inevitable doom. As the taught drama unfolds, we see how much Charlie has in common with both of these tales.

What’s more, scene changes are punctuated by the sound of churning ocean waves, in complete darkness.

Just as Elder Thomas believes that God has a plan that He is relentlessly revising, Charlie instructs his students to constantly hone their essays.

That is, until he changes tacks and urges them to ditch the rules and simply write from the gut, grammar be damned.

When Charlie decides to break a few rules himself and grab one last chance at redemption, the results are at once hopeful and heart-wrenching.

she appears to enter into a momentary trance, as if possessed by a demon.

Under the assured direction of Kaufman Ka f ma man n (“33 (“ 33 Variations,” Var aria iati tion ons s ” “I Am A My M Own Wife”), “The Heiress” starts off as a drawing room comedy of manners that becomes a simmering pot of avarice and resentment, only to boil over in a climax meant to rattle the soul.

And yet, given Chastain’s shaky turn, the sting is not as potent as it should be.

Perhaps the biggest star of the production is McLane’s gorgeous drawing room set, with its tastefully elegant carved wooden beams, burgundy wallpaper, Duncan Phyfe settees (dictated in the script), and suspended crystal chandelier. Upon seeing the splendor, it’s clear why Mr. Townsend might lust after Catherine’s fortune.

Enor mous arched windows look out onto the Square, and the carefully modulated daylight (by David Lander) effectively indicates the passage of time. Albert Wolsky designed the sophisticated costumes.

For history-minded theatergoers, “The Heiress” offers another level of appeal. If you go to Washington Square, the neighborhood where Henry James was born, you’ll find a cherished row of mid 19th-century Greek revival townhouses on the north side that one could easily imagine as the residence of the Sloper family.

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November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

FASHION

Haute Hepburn Great actress, great fashionista

BY DAVID NOH long with so much else — that voice, that manner, that talent — Katharine Hepburn, the most enduring screen actress of the last century, was known for her tailored, mannish look. That no-nonsense, scrubbed American demeanor, her hair piled up a la concierge (as she called it), invariably attired in slacks (usually beige twill), a white button-down shirt, the most sensible of shoes, with maybe a red sweater tied about her shoulders as her one adornment.

However, looking over her immense screen and stage career, it becomes apparent that she was sartorially far more varied than this familiar image.

Indeed, alongside Dietrich and that other Hepbur n, Audr ey, she was probably the most elegantly dressed actress of her time. In her youth, with her perfect model’s figure — long neck, broad shoulders, 20-inch waist, hipless, with flawless legs — she could wear anything and often did, from her first, startlingly stark film appearance in “A Bill of Divorcement” (1932), floating down a staircase in an angelic white organza gown by Josette De Lima.

She made a lot of memorable descending-stair entrances like that — in an outrageous silver mesh moth costume by Walter Plunkett for “Christopher Strong”; hoopskirted by Plunkett as Jo in her signature “Little Women”; in the demode (but exquisite) organdy frock in “Alice Adams,” which stamped her as a wallflower; in Muriel King’s fabulously smart rich girl wardrobe in “Stage Door,” and, later, coming down in an elevator as the evil Violet Venable, dressed in blinding white by Oliver Messel, in “Suddenly, Last Summer.”

For me, her most beautiful gown was her simplest — an unadorned sheath of black cr epe with a slit back, decorated by only a pink chiffon scarf pinned with a brooch and three strands of Paul Flato diamonds around her neck. She wore this in her most endlessly enjoyable film, “Holiday” (1938), coming downstairs to greet her guests in the most memorable New Year’s scene ever shot. It was designed by Robert Kalloch, a great designer who committed suicide and gets scant mention in the otherwise quite marvelous exhibit “Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen,” at Lincoln Center’s Library for the Performing Arts

CLARENCE SINCLAIR BULL/ KENT STATE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM/ GIFT OF CHRISTOPHER P. SULLIVAN, M.D.

A

Walter Plunkett’s off-the-shoulder, black jersey evening gown for Katharine Hepburn (seen with David Wayne, Spencer Tracy, and Eve March) in “Adam’s Rib” (1949).

Although Hepburn’s personal effects were successfully auctioned off at Sotheby’s after her death, she wonderfully left her professional costumes, including some 700 pieces, to the Kent State University Museum, which organized this exhibit. I was given a personal tour by curators Jean Druesedow, the museum director, and Barbara Cohen-Stratyner — who both also contributed to the accompanying book. “Katharine Hepburn: Rebel Chic” (Skira/ Rizzoli) — and we reveled in Kate-chism.

The actress had a habit of acquiring certain pieces from her productions, and it was fascinating to see what she kept and did not. They hung in a special closet in her Turtle Bay brownstone for years, pristinely preserved, their condition and colors miraculously fresh.

What clearly emerges is the unmistakable truth that Hepburn possessed flawless taste, with a sure eye for quality fabric, hue, and line that never wavered through some seven decades.

For anyone obsessed with costumes, the exhibit is like the Holy Grail itself.

Who knew that we’d ever actually

see the texture-rich gypsy dress that Plunkett — the acknowledged master of Hollywood period design who did “Gone with the Wind” as well as 12 Hepburn films — made for James M. Barrie‘s “The Little Minister”? And that it would be brown — because that photographed as a rich red?

The great Russian couturiere Valentina had a celebrated stage collaboration with Hepburn, starting with 1939’s “The Philadelphia Story” (which Adrian copied for the movie version), and you see the master pieces they dreamed up together, especially a dazzlingly constructed, multi-hued, wrapped, and tied “Without Love” evening gown. The delicate mauve chiffon of the famous “Calla Lily” dress from “Stage Door” is remarkably intact, and such was Druesedow’s research that she delved into old movie magazines to discover the exact shade of purple with which to perfectly recreate the suede belt that had somehow gotten lost over the years.

There are some gaps in the show.

Full confession: a longtime costume collector myself, I volunteered an origi-

nal Edith Head sketch I own from Hepburn’s Oscar -nominated “The Rainmaker,” which was politely refused, and I wish more evidence of Hollywood’s most enduring designer’s work with the star were here, rather than a battered “Rooster Cogburn” hat.

Druesedow and Cohen-Stratyner both confessed to never having seen “Break of Hearts” (1935), which may be considered a minor Hepburn dramatically, but style-wise is vital as it is the most high-fashion film she ever made, due to the sleek concoctions Bernard Newman, head designer for Bergdorf Goodman, poured her into.

At a panel the night before, CohenStratyner rather shocked the audience of hard-core Kate-philes when she confessed to never having liked Hepburn as an actress and mistakenly stated that she had broken her RKO contract to appear on Broadway in her famous disaster, “The Lake.”

That benighted Jed Harris-directed production is represented by a Howard Greer wedding gown, superbly Deco-architectural in silhouette.

There was some nattering about why Hepburn had kept this dress — a discussion consisting of shaky and presumptuous psychological readings that perhaps it was a reminder or a lesson to herself about professional decision-making. Maybe it was just a gorgeous, very special creation made by a designer, who, although forgotten today, was considered the very top of the heap from the 1920s to the ‘50s. Greer also designed the ultra-chic “Bringing Up Baby” for Hepbur n; the soignée lame gown from that 1938 film was featured in a recent Metropolitan Museum film costume display.

Hepburn’s famous cross-dressing film, “Sylvia Scarlett,” stumped the curators when it came to identifying who made her men’s suits for the occasion. It was not, as was guessed, Muriel King, Hepbur n’s cr edited designer on the film, but rather Eddie Schmidt, Hollywood’s foremost tailor, who nattily outfitted everyone from Gable to that other pants-loving diva, Dietrich.

An audiotape of a 1970s interview between Hepburn and Playbill’s Louis Botto is an enlightening accompaniment to the exhibit in a number of ways — bearing in mind a less than fully knowledgeable interviewer and the memory of someone recalling events from more than three previous decades. She says she bought

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HEPBURN, continued on p.23

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| November 7, 2012 HEPBURN, from p.22

her clothes from Hattie Carnegie for “Alice Adams” (a sweet straw boater, with some of that story’s famous violets still clinging to it, is on display), and that the eminent Mainbocher was originally considered to do “Adam’s Rib.” But when his salary demands proved too astronomical, she brought in the reliable Plunkett, who, though not noted for modern clothes, did a wonder ful job. Indeed, an off-theshoulder, black jersey evening gown is a masterpiece of draping, as mar velously complex and figure-flattering as any Charles James creation.

Hepburn sadly cannot recall Kalloch’s name (though she loved “Holiday”) and has rather a blind spot regarding the great Irene — another suicide and perhaps the best, most unsung of Hollywood designers — saying that she was “all right“ but lacked the simplicity of Valentina. One has only to look at “Undercurrent,” “Without Love,” and “State of the Union” to see that Irene was a bit more than that, for Hepburn never looked more elegant than in these films, totally high-style and yet totally herself.

“Fashion” seemed to fall away more and more as Hepburn aged and, after her impressive haute couture dalliance with Pierre Balmain for “The Millionairess,” her clothes became ever simpler and cleaner in line. Not for her any of the aging New Look experimentation that made such as Joan Crawford (still clinging to her shoulder pads, with a bouffant skirt), Bette Davis, and Claudette Colbert look so downright dowdy.

Her personal style became even more tailored and burnished as well, for one who had once happily indulged in shopping sprees at Elizabeth Hawes, Schiaparelli, and Valentina. Where once her early advocacy of blue jeans and mannish Lobb shoes seemed bizarre, she herself took note of the fact that the “world caught up to me.” What had been her personal uniform became everybody’s. She took to buying many of the same thing if she liked it well enough — no more dresses, though Druesedow insists that her lingerie is “a knockout” — and Kent State is in happy possession of a plethora of those aforementioned beige slacks.

A sturdy, indestructible-looking row of Lobb brown walking shoes simply defines “dyke chic” for all time.

After 1960, Hepburn’s costumes become ever more robe-like, caftany things familiar from the likes of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “The Lion in Winter,” and all those dreary movies and TV things she made when she probably should have retired. There are a lot of these ageappropriate, grande dame schmattas on display here. She had a memo-

Muriel King’s gown for Katharine Hepburn in “Stage Door” (1937).

KENT STATE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM/ GIFT OF CHRISTOPHER P. SULLIVAN, M.D.

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A publicity self-portrait of Katharine Hepburn as Coco Chanel in “Coco,” with costumes by Cecil Beaton, which ran ten months at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in 1969 and ’70.

rable dust-up with Cecil Beaton when they worked together on “Coco” (1969). His account of this time is remarkable in his naked vituperation toward her in his unexpurgated diaries. While it is true that she was BFF with mentor and director George Cukor with whom Beaton had just clashed during “My Fair Lady,” the fact that she rejected his designs and purchased two actual Chanels that she wore onstage says all you need to know about their mutual enmity.

An altogether happier, far more rewarding artistic experience is represented by the remarkable three costumes assembled from Hepburn’s crowning achievement, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” Just seeing them, glowing in a corner, cannily trimmed in evocatively Eugene O’Neill-ish thick Irish lace by the brilliant Harris sisters (who called themselves Motley) gives you a chill, as you recall her Mary Tyrone, a performance so toweringly great and definitive that — as with Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando in “A Streetcar Named Desire” — you wonder that anyone still dares to attempt it.

24

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

THEATER

Breaking It Down Fantasies yield to harsh or heartwarming realities in “Virginia Woolf” and “Wild with Happy”

BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE 've heard more than one person musing about whether we “needed” a new revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” given that the stunning production with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin was still relatively fresh in our memory. After seeing Pam MacKinnon’s new staging, my answer is a resounding yes.

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Unlike that recent production or the classic movie that pits the conflict between George and Martha as a battle royale, MacKinnon makes their relationship far less explosive — and considerably more harrowing. It's a tribute to the enduring power of Edward Albee's play that a new reading of it can be so powerful and so enlightening while taking nothing away from previous productions.

The play unfolds over one long, alcohol-soaked evening in the early 1960s as George, a professor at a small New Eng-

MICHAEL BROSILOW

WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF

Carrie Coon, Tracy Letts, Amy Morton, and Madison Dirks in Pam MacKinnon’s new staging of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

land college, goes at it with his wife Martha, daughter of the college president.

Caught in the crossfire are Nick, a rising young professor, and Honey, his mousy wife, who come to George and Martha’s house late at night after a faculty party.

The lacerating barbs and violent resentments that make up George and Martha’s daily dialogue devolves into a takeno-prisoners confrontation with Nick and Honey where, however ugly, the truth is at stake.

Yet, what makes this play so fascinating is the underlying theme –– a recurring one of Albee's –– that our survival, or

at least our ability to cope, is dependent on the lies we tell ourselves and in which we must enroll others to keep existential angst at bay.

What makes MacKinnon’s production so mesmerizing is that beneath the venom and the vitriol, it’s clear George and Martha love and need one another.

Each is an intellectual heavyweight, but neither is emotionally mature. They attack one another at the same time they cling to one another and share falsehoods to shield themselves from devastation they can’t handle. They are caught in a trap of their own making and, hor-

rific as it is to Nick and Honey, they seem unwilling to get out. Over the course of the evening, Nick is forced to confront the lies on which he’s structured his life, while Honey retreats into alcohol and denial. MacKinnon has balanced the focus among the four characters, to the extent possible, and the result is a provocative and deliciously unsettling masterpiece.

The company is superlative as well.

Tracy Letts and Amy Morton as George and Martha work flawlessly together.

Each performance is complex and riveting. We laugh at them and we ache for them because the hollowness and frustration — and the rage they inspire — are on vivid display, even as the suppressed need and love for one another lend them a quiet desperation and sustained tension that resonate through the evening.

Madison Dirks as Nick gives the most complete performance I’ve ever seen of this role. While Nick’s brashness and cocksureness wither under George’s attack late in the play, Dirks shows that Nick, beneath a fragile veneer, remains fully capable of the fight. Carrie Coon as Honey provides an incisive portrayal of a woman reduced to a term of endearment, whose course toward alcoholism and despair is only too plain.

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VIRGINIA WOOLF, continued on p.25

FILM

Planet Imperiled, Tea Party Response Barry Levinson's "The Bay" documents the erosion of the Earth and of trust he found-footage hor ror movie can be traced back to Ruggero Deodato’s “Cannibal Holocaust.” The tale of a team of Italian filmmakers who disappeared in Africa, its violence was so believable that some initially believed it to be a snuff film.

Unfortunately, the film relies on genu-

T

THE BAY Directed by Barry Levinson Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions IFC Center 323 Sixth Ave. at W. Third St. ifccenter.com

ine cruelty to animals for much of its shock value. Its baton was passed on to “The Blair Witch Project,” which became a surprise blockbuster in 1999.

Just when the craze seemed to be over, “Paranormal Activity” and the Spanish film “[Rec]” revived it. “The Blair Witch Project” used offscreen space and spooky sounds brilliantly, while “Paranormal Activity” was genuinely artless. Still, it proved popular enough to become a franchise whose fourth installment was recently released. “Paranormal Activity” director Oren Peli is one of the producers of Barry Levinson’s “The Bay,” in whichever the “Diner” director goes slumming in the found-footage field and remakes “Jaws” for more paranoid times.

“The Bay” is set on July 4, 2009 in

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

BY STEVE ERICKSON

Authorities — medical and law enforcement — fail a Maryland community in Barry Levinson’s found-footage horror film, “The Bay.”

Claridge, Maryland, although it has a present-day framing device. The entire film supposedly consists of found-footage, mostly shot by ordinary people.

Due to runoff from nuclear and chemical plants, as well as chicken feces, crustacean parasites mutated to the point where they have killed off large numbers of fish and became a threat to people. On July 4th, holiday festivities get underway, but people quickly break out in boils and lesions. The Claridge hospital is swamped, and patients soon die. A young TV reporter (Kether Donohue) captures the whole day’s events and later preserves it for posterity.

“The Bay” was shot on more than 20 different kinds of cameras. It uses

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THE BAY, continued on p.25

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| November 7, 2012

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VIRGINIA WOOLF, from p.24

Put this outstanding production on your must-see list for this fall.

Death does strange things to people. Do what we can to keep it at arm’s length, avoid it, or pretend we’re not affected, when it comes to you it does a number on you. Perhaps not with the level of absurdity that Colman Domingo mines in his outstanding new play “Wild With Happy,” but beneath the antic hilarity and over-the-top characters he has created, there is a sober message about life. Death teaches us that life is finite and we should seize joy where we can.

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The play tells the story of Gil, a jaded New Yorker played by Domingo, and how he reacts to the death of his mother, Adelaide. Racked with guilt for a relationship unresolved and just wanting the death part over, he has his mother’s body cremated. This causes untold consternation in his Aunt Glo, who has specific ideas about how death should be integrated into life. His best friend Mo, who is transgender, tries to shake Gil out of his head head and and d finally finall lly get gett him him to to be be real, reall, while whi hille a hunky funeral director wants to show him that sex can be more than just a way to avoid the feelings of the moment.

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THE BAY, from p.24

every imaginable form of communications technology — Skype, TV footage, security cameras, cameras mounted in police cars, cell phones, and text messages. The film seems like it’s building toward a major point about technology, but it never quite gets there. Its content merely to represent the pervasive presence of cameras and communications devices in our lives.

“The Bay” introduces itself as a film put together by one of its characters for a Wikileaks-inspired website. However, it’s far too slickly edited to be convincing as found footage organized by the government — or even a student filmmaker. At certain moments, Levinson uses montage sequences to make sure everyone gets the point he’s trying to make.

One also has to wonder who added the musical score. Still, the film makes the most out of its gimmick. Only in a genre film could one get away with using such low-quality cameras, as the narrative justifies their use, although “Cloverfield” and “Chronicle” have combined consumer-grade video with elaborate special effects.

Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s “The Host” also drew from “Jaws," but

The play unfolds in a series of fastpaced scenes that sweep the audience up into the energy. From Aunt Glo’s upbraiding of Gil while she cleans out Adelaide’s closet –– at one point, she pauses over a pair of shoes and says, “Adelaide would have wanted me to have these” –– to Mo’s shanghaiing Gil on a road trip, Gil tries desperately to hang on to the image of life that he’s crafted for himself, only to find that reality gets in the way.

The play ends in Disneyworld, where Adelaide was “wild with happy,” even as she knew she was dying. It’s finally there that Gil can pause a moment and let the enormity of his loss sink in, which is what Aunt Glo wanted from the beginning. Amid the comedy, the absurdity, and the Disney fantasy, Gil finds the reality he needs to heal. It’s a brilliant conceit and a poignant commentary on anyone who thinks for a moment they’re really in control.

Domingo gives a sensational and subtle per for mance as Gil. Korey Jackson is sweet and heartwarming as Terry, the funeral director. Maurice McRae is outstanding — and outsized — as Mo. Sharon Washington, who plays both Adelaide (in flashback sequences) and Aunt Glo, gives a high wattage performance that is as grounded and honest as it is huge in scale. Under the direction of Robert O’Hara, we come to love these characters a bit ters and and d are, perhaps, perhaps, h bit chastened ch hast sten ened ed about our own missed opportunities at finding the wild happiness we all long for.

added an antiauthoritarian attitude.

It centered on a family and seemed suspicious of almost everyone outside that intimate circle, particularly the US government. “The Bay” ups that anger even further. In the film’s press kit, Levinson stresses the story’s grounding in environmental reality and urges the audience to think of it as a cautionary tale.

As a political film, however, its ecological message is drowned out by the sense that it’s foolish to rely on cops, doctors, the mayor, or anyone associated with the government. “The Bay” repeatedly shows authority figures as self-destructive idiots.

The film would have more impact if it didn’t feel so secondhand. Its introduction shows apparently real news footage of ecological disasters. The following 80 minutes combine Spielberg with George Romero’s zombie extravaganzas. The most interesting thing about it is the way it tells a story in a style that constantly tries to impress us with its realism but seems thoroughly artificial, from the special effects to the use of music. Levinson undercuts his political goals and ultimately shows that a shaky camcorder is no guarantee of truth.

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November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

FILM

No Exit From Brooklyn Rick Alverson mashes up hipster life, crosses the line at high speed with “The Comedy” lightly overweight, nearly naked white guys wrestle homoerotically in slow motion in the opening moments of director and cowriter Rick Alverson’s brilliant and pitchblack film “The Comedy.” This early scene sets the playful, provocative tone for this often squirm-inducing character study about Swanson (Tim Heidecker), a wealthy, aimless Brooklyn hipster man-child.

S

THE COMEDY Directed by Rick Alverson Tribeca Films Opens Nov. 16 BAM Cinématek 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Pl. bam.org/BAMcinematek

Swanson cannot — or will not — articulate his pain or real feelings about his dying father and his aimless life. He provokes his father’s male nurse by talking about prolapsed anuses. He and his friends make overt sexual advances to

each other and others in efforts to diffuse their anxieties, discomfort, and general malaise. These moments, which include Swanson trying to chat up girls by claiming he sides with Hitler or endorses slavery, are perversely fascinating.

Alverson generates considerable dark humor and dramatic tension showing just how far Swanson goes. Gay City News spoke with the talented filmmaker about “The Comedy” and learned just how uncomfortable things could get.

GARY M. KRAMER: You skillfully wrote and directed a fantastic and fantastically offensive film. What prompted you to make “The Comedy”?

RICK ALVERSON: I was interested in dealing with the gray areas between stereotypes and compartmentalized understanding of individuals, types, and situations — the clichés we feel so safely immersed in. I became increasingly interested in flirting with elements that were more ostentatious, titillating, and referential than some of the tropes that people use to get their entertainment. I had interest in desensitization and taking a look at that.

Ultimately, it comes from the exhaustion I

TRIBECA FILMS

BY GARY M. KRAMER

Tim Heidecker is a privileged slacker and hipster in Rick Alverson's “The Comedy.”

felt from the way that films are predominantly placating, self-affirming, and neat.

GMK: The humor is pitch-black. You establish the line and then speed across it. What is the most offensive thing you think you wrote and Tim said?

RA: The way I work is to write a 20-page script — and I defend them as scripts, because they have the mood, the

textures of the scenes, strict blocking, etc.

— but I don’t work with scripted dialogue.

The uncertain way people communicate and the effort of communication is lost in that rigid form. I’m interested in where things get muddy and uncertain. The casting is also incredibly important.

As far as some of the offensive nature, I knew what I was getting into with Tim [Heidecker] and Eric [Wareheim]. They shared an interest in discomfort in their comedy, as I did with my drama. My suggestions were happily dispensed with. I wanted it to be in their voices. Sometimes there would be a phrase like the bit about the prolapsed anus, but it’s Tim’s voice.

GMK: What offends or offended you making the film?

RA: That’s tough. I am too inside it to be objectively offended. I have a sense of people’s limits, but I judge the offense by the rules of society, less so than my own.

We talked about things divorced from our physical behavior — pushing the envelope of social cruelty. People are offended by this, but not when they see a film with a half-dozen beheadings.

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THE COMEDY, continued on p.36

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| November 7, 2012

FILM

27

The Three Faces of Anne Hong Sang-soo’s triptych of variations on a woman’s identity may prove his American breakthrough

BY STEVE ERICKSON outh Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s “In Another Country” is the third of his films to open in New York this year. To some, that might suggest huge commercial success on his part. On the contrary, no Hong film has played more than two weeks in a theatrical run here. The immediate predecessors of “In Another Country,” “Oki’s Movie” and “The Day He Arrives,” both closed in a week. If you’re planning to see “In Another Country,” don’t wait.

S

Directed by Hong Sang-soo In English and Korean with English subtitles Kino Lorber Opens Nov. 9 Lincoln Plaza 1886 Broadway at 63rd St. lincolnplazacinema.com

Hong has benefited from the attention given to Korean cinema as a whole. Averaging a film a year, he’s slowly built a large body of work. Korean films like Kim Ki-duk’s “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring”

KINO LORBER

IN ANOTHER COUNTRY

Yoon Jun-sang and Isabelle Huppert in Hong Sang-soo’s “In Another Country.”

and Bong Joon-ho’s “The Host” were big arthouse hits, while Korean directors like Park Chan-wook and Kim Jee-woon are about to make their Hollywood debuts.

Kim Ki-duk’s “Pieta” recently won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, although it must be noted that many critics thought it was awful –– Cinema Scope

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magazine mocked the film by running 13 snarky negative reviews on its website.

The vogue for Korean films has created a climate where even a film as uncommercial as the documentary “Planet of Snail,” about a deaf and blind poet, could get a brief New York run.

At the start of “In Another Country,” a young female film student and her mother head to the seaside town of Mohang to escape the pressures of debt. The student starts working on three scripts for short films. Each of the shorts is dramatized by Hong, lasting about half an hour. They all roughly share the same cast of characters, most notably a French woman named Anne (Isabelle Huppert).

Anne changes identity and profession from film to film. In the first one, she’s a filmmaker who seems modeled on Claire Denis. The second Anne is having a secret affair with a Korean man, and the third one is a divorced woman whose husband abandoned her for a Korean woman. Anne always stays at the same hotel and meets a lifeguard on a rather desolate stretch of beach.

The odd thing about Hong’s lack of commercial success in the US is that his films aren’t arcane or inac-

䉴

IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, continued on p.36

28

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

OPERA

The Two Other Capitals San Francisco and Chicago’s fall vocal seasons

BY DAVID SHENGOLD here are many impor tant operatic strongholds in North America, with varying emphases and strengths. Yet the two leading contenders outside of New York remain what they were 50 years ago — Chicago and San Francisco. Fortunately for LGBT audiences, both are queer destination cities with much else to recommend them. Both offered several outstanding evenings to a late October visitor.

On October 12, the San Francisco Symphony audience didn't seem to realize they were witnessing the local debut of one of the world's great conductors, Vladimir Jurowski. He offered an intriguing all-Russian program played with dynamic aplomb — though young Khatia Buniatishvili, dressed for Odette/ Odile, banged through the Rachmaninoff “Second” with brio but little depth.

The concert's vocal portion was the North American première of Atovmyan's arrangement of Prokofiev's mighty film score for “Ivan the Terrible.” It packed a genuine wallop, with Elena Zaremba, still able in the chest register, and Andrei Breus, rough but idiomatic in the Oprichnik's song with chorus, which is one of the weirdest, most homoerotic scenes in Eisenstein's masterwork. Ragnar Bohlin's chorus was superb.

The opera company offered three appetizing choices that weekend, and I noticed several visiting New Yorkers in the audience. Bellini's “Capuleti” (October 19), quite cogently and propulsively conducted by Riccardo Frizza, delivered in the most important way — the two leads, Joyce diDonato and Nicole Cabell, offered lovely, expertly vocalized performances of great feeling. Cabell's Giulietta was made to literally climb the walls and sing on a sink by Vincent Boussard's rather hideous production — not full-out Eurotrash but clothed by Christian Lacroix (!) in Dickensian solemnity and squalor, with choristers moving like “Walking Dead” extras and female extras parading in drag-like bordello wear. Yet Cabell provided real beauty of tone and line. A lyric soprano can master this bel canto part.

Fully steeped in bel canto phrasing and decoration, diDonato gave lessons in restraint and emotion in Romeo's quieter music — a tomb scene for the ages.

The warrior's big cabaletta stretches a singer more, but diDonato masterfully deployed vocal color and rhythmic accent to achieve a martial effect.

Ao Li voiced a stylish Lorenzo, but

CORY WEAVER

T

ROBERT KUSEL

Joyce DiDonato and Nicole Cabell in San Francisco Opera’s production of Bellini's “Capuleti.”

Christine Goerke’s triumphant turn as Elektra at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Saimir Pirgu (Tebaldo) was distressingly off-form and Eric Owens' considerable gifts seemed wasted on Capulet. Met audiences have never heard “Capuleti”; I'm just saying.

The next night brought a very fine “Lohengrin” — a generally reasonable Hungarian Uprising Update by Daniel Slater previously seen in Houston.

Music director Nicola Luisotti, new to Wagner, supplied the virtues of transparency and line, though the ethereal “Prelude” emerged so distended as to threaten unraveling strings and the wonderful second act seemed endless.

Wagnerian opening nights rarely feature great brass playing; this was no exception. One sensed that orchestral matters would improve with repetition.

Brandon Jovanovich — always a handsome and intelligent stage actor

— made a substantive role debut in the lead, pacing himself with care and giving full weight to the words. Rather like Wieslaw Ochman, who sang Wagner's Erik at SFO, Jovanovich seemed to employ two techniques — a lovely, croony but seemingly always supported head voice for the entry and many quieter passages as well as a louder, more incisive, and somewhat harder delivery for more martial utterances. In the latter mode, high notes were captured and released almost immediately. It worked, yielding a commendable, involving portrayal, but one wonders a bit how many “Lohengrin” runs he'd be wise to schedule.

Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund, debuting locally, made a satisfying if not particularly distinctive Elsa. Her lyric sound is clean if somewhat wan in color, but she was always stylish, steady, and

audible — an honorable, moving exponent of a great role that these days is often cast purely for looks.

After being audibly ill for SFO”s June “Magic Flute,” Kristinn Sigmundsson (King) clearly proved himself back in form; the Icelandic bass has a little passing rust every now and again at register extremes, but is still one of the world's leading Germanic basses. Brian Mulligan (Herald) sounded excellent, acting with apt pomposity.

In previous SFO “Lohengrin” stagings, the “baddies” cleaned up — Eva Randova/ Sergei Leiferkus (1989) and Elizabeth Connell / Tom Fox (1996) left impressions unmatched by Petra Lang's Ortrud and Gerd Grochowski's Telramund. Way too bright in voice, working hard at the top, Lang made rather perfunctory textual contact (in her native language!) and emerged merely serviceable — despite the inevitable queenly ovations Ortrud always garners. Grochowski sounded one size too small for his role, furnishing a virtual imitation of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's barky, verbally hammy recorded account. Withal, I wished I could have heard this “Lohengrin” again.

The same goes for seeing Leonard Foglia's extraordinarily accomplished production of Jake Heggie's 2010 “Moby-Dick” again (October 21); fortunately, it was taped for telecasting. Heggie's score, well led by Patrick Summers, does not exactly surprise — a large debt is owed to the Britten estate in particular — but it does please and hold the interest in terms of orchestration and vocal writing. The crowd scenes work particularly well. Until one overlong Act Two scene between Ahab and Starbuck, the pacing is quite taut, thanks in part to a well-judged libretto by Gene Scheer — by light years stronger than those of previous Heggie operas.

The entire ensemble was anchored not by the fanatic Ahab (Jay Hunter Morris, with fantastic diction and aptly out-there theatrics compensating for a tenor of uneven, if sometimes trenchant, production and quality) or the very appealingly vocalized Greenhorn/ Ishmael of Stephen Costello (much more animated than usual), but by the beautifully sung and acted Starbuck of Morgan Smith. The Leipzig-based American baritone looks ripe for a major career.

Jonathan Lemalu brought dignified stature to Queequeg, despite resolutely ordinary vocal material. Lyric-coloratura soprano Talise Trevigne proved affecting and delightful vocally as Pip, the cabin boy.

䉴

OPERA, continued on p.37

29

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November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

IN THE NOH

Sandy: The Show Must Go On! Adopting actor, divas doing it Below, Anna again

BY DAVID NOH andy might have brought New York City to its knees, but nothing but nothing stops a show queen like me from sniffing out a good story. Ebullient triple threat actor Eddie Korbich recently enthused to me about appearing in the soon-to-open “A Christmas Story”: “It’s an iconic role in an iconic piece, the whole ho ho ho drunken Santa Claus, and I m so excited to be doing this. We just started staging it yesterday, and evidently I’m on this big piece that’s going to resemble a huge sleigh with a sliding board I go down with a bunch of elves. It’s a magical piece.

“I watch the film so much every year. I grew up with ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and ‘The Little Drummer Boy,’ and it came out after I was out of college, involved with getting my own life started, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I revisited it a few years later and totally got everything, especially Melinda Dillon, who I’d only known from ‘Close Encounters of

S

Eddie Korbich is set to play a drunken Santa in “A Christmas Story.”

Mary Testa, with her huge belting voice and dynamic presence, proved herself something of a very political, intellectual Ethel Merman. the Third Kind’ and discovered later that she was the original Honey in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.’ Then I started quoting lines from it, and it became a part of my life. I understudy the Darren McGavin part of the old man, and when I mentioned that to my daughter, she said, ‘Don’t say that. That’s a mean thing to say.’ But that’s how he’s referred to in the play. I said, ‘I’m sorry, honey.’ She’s ten, in all her ten gloriousness.”

Korbich’s mention of his daughter led to a story that is a classic case of turning life’s lemons into lemonade.

It all started when he was cast in the noted Broadway flop, “Seussical.”

“I never had to audition for that, a wonderful actor’s validation. They said, ‘We want you as the Onceler and you have a big number called ‘The Lorax.’ During our tryout in Boston, they said, ‘We don‘t think the number‘s working. We’re gonna chop it down from 12 to five minutes.’”

The number was eventually cut entirely, and Korbich finally got the call he was dreading: “We are not going to do it, and you are welcome to leave the show because the reason you were hired is no longer here.”

He recalled, “I told them, ‘I put my heart and soul in this for a year. Can I at least open it and make the cast album?‘ It was November and we agreed that I would stay through the first of the year.

“Then, Rosie O’Donnell came in to play the Cat in the Hat, and the stage manager said, ‘We’ve been so busy putting her into the show, we haven’t had time to audition your replacement. Can you give us another week?’

[Cast members] Mary Ann Lamb and darling, sweet Ann Harada also accosted me in the most loving way, saying, ‘Why don’t you stay for the whole time with Rosie, and go out on this big high?’ Because it was an

At 54 Below, Sherie Rene Scott’s “Piece of Meat” was a whimsically diverting account of her highly varied obsessions.

extraordinary moment when her fans came, flooding the front of the stage with cameras, and I got to be a part of that.

“I found her unapproachable and was not going to encroach on her world. But one day, she was sitting at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on the stairwell, waiting for her next entrance, and I was making a costume change, and she said, ‘How you doin’, doll? I got up the courage to say, ‘Hi. Can I ask you a question?’ and I saw her prepare herself. ‘My lover and I have been looking to adopt a child and were just wondering if you could give us any advice.’ She said, ‘My adoption lawyer is coming in two days, and I will introduce her to you.’ And there you go.

“Through her participation, we got our daughter,

Alex, and when she was born we got a huge box from her from Baby Gap — three years’ worth of clothes, hundreds of everything from onesies almost up to age three. So, the most challenging part of my professional life — losing a number in the show — became the most magnificent part of my personal life.”

Korbich grew up a 100 percent Ukrainian Roman Catholic altar boy: “I was an adopted kid myself, born in DC and then taken to Shamoken, Pennsylvania. I went through all the crap that goes along with Catholicism and being gay and am still going through it, trying to figure it out. I don’t care if anyone says they’re a lapsed Catholic. You will always be Catholic. I can say all the prayers in English and Ukrainian and love the culture, but I cannot agree with the mandates handed down because now I’m living my life. But I’m still very spiritual, every single day. I was 31 in 1992, and saw all the hardcore AIDS activism by Larry Kramer and others, and thought I was a coward because I didn’t get involved, wasn’t willing to go to jail. I was doing ‘The Gift of the Magi’ and fell in love that summer with two completely unattainable men already in relationships. I was in my little Queens apartment one day and it struck me, ‘Dear God, are you trying to tell me I’m gay?,’ and the weight of the world fell off my shoulders.”

Two days later, a friend of Korbich’s asked him to see him make his New York stage debut at the Promenade Theater: “I went and, seriously, the first person came onstage as the narrator, and I thought, ‘Wow, he’s cute.’

Cut to the chase: I called him the next day and asked for a date, and we saw each other every day until he had to go away to a job, and this November, will be 20 years together. His name is Andy Leach and, ironically, that show was his last as an actor. He went into directing and teaching and is magical at it. I was in Florida, doing a show, and we would take our daughter to Gymboree there. We got a phone call at home one day from her Gymboree teacher, crying and saying, ‘I just want you to know, I’ve been a Republican all my life, but I just voted Democratic for the very first time because I met you and I’ve seen what love you have for this family. I thought, ‘We don t have to do anything but be a strong family because by our existence we are activists.’”

Two Broadway divas recently offered wildly contrasting shows at 54 Below. Sherie Rene Scott’s “Piece of Meat” (October 19) delivered a whimsically diverting account of her highly varied obsessions, ranging from her lapsed vegetarianism to personal icons like the Dalai Lama and Paul McCartney.

Through it all, her smoking musical chops and ineffable timing (part Lisa Kudrow, part Jean Arthur, but all her) blazed through, and it was great to hear her renditions of such California classics as Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want” and Linda Ronstadt’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” which took me directly back to my pot-perfumed, Sangria-sipping USC days, cutting classes from being hung over after late nights at the Troubadour and such.

Mary Testa (October 21), with her huge belting voice and dynamic presence, proved herself something of a very political, intellectual Ethel Merman.

Accompanied by Michael Starobin, hers was an ambitiously challenging show, with few nods to the Great American Songbook, apart from “Life Is Just 䉴

IN THE NOH, continued on p.34

31

| November 7, 2012

MASSAGE THERAPY

by BRITISH BARBIE

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32

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Keep Reaching, Keep Fighting

PUBLISHER JENNIFER GOODSTEIN

Jennifer@communitymediallc.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER TROY MASTERS

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BY PAUL SCHINDLER

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F

our years ago, Barack Obama, a first-term US senator from Illinois, was the candidate of “hope and change.”

In his young administration, handed an economy that was bleeding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month, change came haltingly and on some issues not at all. The word hope became a cudgel with which his fiercest opponents mockingly beat him about the head — and a stale word for many other voters, a good number of them young, firsttime election participants, who were disappointed and even cynical about what they viewed as squandered promise.

In his reelection victory speech, the reelected president addressed the issue of raised expectations.

“I have never been more hopeful about America,” he said during the speech’s impassioned conclusion. “And I ask you to sustain that hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. I'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight. I have always believed that hat hope ho ope is is that h stubborn thing g inside ins nsiide us that insists, despite all ll tthe he evidence to the

Notes From My Big Gay Hurricane

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NAACP on issues from marriage equality to stop and frisk policing demonstrates the progress that is possible.

I disagree with Ireland, however, in my assessment of Obama’s leadership. I don’t believe his first term was “spineless.” His success on healthcare reform delivered on a Democratic Party promise first articulated

by Harry Truman more than 60 years ago. Ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the president also made imaginative use of executive authority to spur change not possible by working with either a Tea Party-intimidated GOP House leadership or, prior to 2011, with a filibusteremboldened Senate Republican minority. And, however reluctantly Obama made his dramatic endorsement of marriage equality in May, the fact is that it was an astonishingly powerful moment in the relationship between our community and the wider American public.

None of that is to say that I doubt for one moment Ireland’s central point — that we will only continue to advance by intensifying the pressure on our friends, whether in the White House, the administration generally, Congress, or at the state and local government level.

Washington remains politically divided and GOP leaders in Washington likely still fear the wrath and reaction of their Tea Party faction. But flirting with that element

PERSPECTIVE C TIVE

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contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.”

Obama’s reelection and other good news that came out of Tuesday’s voting — particularly our success on four marriage equality ballot questions and in electing the first out lesbian to the US Senate — offer a sound basis for renewed hope. We can all move beyond November 6 fortified in our “courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.”

Elsewhere in this issue, Doug Ireland writes about the burning urgency of the LGBT community recommitting to a progressive politics of coalition and grassroots organizing. I could not agree more — and our ability to build majorities in favor of marriage equality in four states demonstrates the payoff in moving beyond our comfortable cultural silos to engage the larger and more diverse body politic.

African-American and Latino voters were the firewall that guaranteed the president’s reelection — and, thereby, the opportunity for our community to continue to advance our goals. Since the Proposition 8 disappointment of 2008, LGBT Americans have learned the importance of dialogue with people of color communities on issues we care about. Our coming together with Latino leadership on common concerns over immigration and with the

in their party is, more clearly than ever, a dead end politically. Rightwing extremists have led Republicans to forsake four easy Senate pick-ups in 2010 and 2012 — this year thanks to two white men hideously out of touch with the rights of women to make their own medical decisions with dignity.

The four marriage ballot questions, meanwhile, show how quickly gay rights have moved from a GOP wedge advantage to an albatross for that party.

After four years in which Republicans obstructed, obstructed, and obstructed in the dream of making Obama a oneterm president, he now has the capital to demand that they get serious about governance and compromise. Given that threequarters of our community voted to reelect the president and that we have been substantial contributors to his campaign coffers, we have the right — in fact, the responsibility — to demand we be part of the Democratic push to bring the GOP to heel.

We need to be measured, of course, in our expectations about House Speaker John Boehner — who has, to date, squandered $1.5 million in public monies to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act in court.

But his view of the world and of the culture Americans inhabit is on the run, and it is time for us to push back hard. Discrimination is harder and harder for anyone to justify in America, and if the GOP continues to block even our most basic demands — such as protection from discrimination in the workplace — we need to make it our business busines ess s to force them to explain that over and over and over again.

BY KELLY JEAN COGSWELL

I

kept reminding myself t o b e g r a t e f u l . We had gas to cook with, and a dry building, running water. I was freaked out anyway. No light, no phone, no Internet, no heat, no pharmacies. The hospitals were evacuated one by one, and my girlfriend was just getting

better after being really sick. In an emergency, I'd have to walk three or four blocks to a pay phone or the little cell hotspot in front of Russ & Daughters, one of the few places open.

During the day, anyway.

At night, we had to cope with the dark. In the city, the absence of light is somehow obscene. It's a sign of abandonment or poverty that reminded us of the bad

old days when the neighborhood was all burnt-out buildings and drugs and illegal clubs.

Even in daytime, you had to use a flashlight to get upstairs and get the key in the lock. At night, you'd light a couple of candles. For a moment, the flame would be so beautiful. But then the dark would win out, limiting the sphere of each candle to a small, ineffective round.

Shapes and colors dissolved. I felt like I'd been slipped a tab of surfacacid. There were no hard rd s urfa ur fac ces except the ones you cracked your knees on.

We sat on the couch and listened to the news on the spare radio our upstairs neighbor lent us. I'd rage whenever the broadcaster said, "Check our website for more information." If I could access the Internet, you fucker, I'd have power and connectivity, and wouldn't need the goddam info. Or the radio, for that matter.

When we got tired of living

䉴

COGSWELL, continued on p.34

| November 7, 2012

33

ELECTION 2012

Sean Patrick Maloney Breaks Through Upstate Democratic attorney unseats freshman Tea Party Republican to become New York’s first gay congressman

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

SEANMALONEY.COM

W

ith his election to the US House of Representatives from the 18th district in the H u d s o n Va l l e y , S e a n P a t r i c k Maloney made history as the first o u t g a y o r l e s b i a n N e w Yo r k e r elected to Congress.

Maloney, a 46-year -old attorney who served for three years on the White House staff during the Clinton administration and was first deputy secretary for Governors Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson fr om 2007 to 2009, defeated freshman Representative Nan Hayworth by a margin of roughly four percent.

In his victory speech to supporters on November 6, Maloney said, “Tonight, the Hudson Valley voted for change.” He added, “We entered this campaign as Democrats and Republicans, but we must end it now as Americans. I am not going to Congress to be the Democrat in Congress. I am going to Congress to be your representative in Congress, for everybody in the Hudson Valley.”

Wi t h t h a t c o n c i l i a t o r y , b i p a r tisan gestur e, Maloney moved to put a bitter, hard-fought campaign behind him — one in which he repeatedly invoked the incumbent’s ties to the Tea Party movement that swept her into office two years ago and her support for the Paul R yan GOP House budget that would, he said, “break the promise of Medicare, end the guarantee of Medicare.”

For her part, Hayworth questioned how strong Maloney’s ties were to the former president — who

Congressman-Elect Sean Patrick Maloney, with his partner Randy Florke, at his victory celebration.

campaigned for him and whom the victor thanked on Election Night — saying her opponent was not a “Clinton Democrat,” but rather a “Pelosi Democrat.”

But Hayworth clearly understood her vulnerability on the Tea Party question this year in a district that includes portions of Dutchess and We s t c h e s t e r C o u n t i e s a n d a l l o f Putnam and Orange Counties. The 52-year -old Westchester ophthalmologist offered frequent praise for both Clinton and Governor Andrew Cuomo, but she would not join Maloney on two popular environmental issues — the closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant or an outright ban on hydrofracking.

And, asked about her Tea Party support at an October 15 debate,

STATE SENATE CONTROL UNCERTAIN As Gay City News goes to press, control of the New York State Senate, which currently has a 33-29 Republican majority, remains in doubt, with several races not yet definitively called. However, Republican Stephen Saland, one of four GOP senators who supported marriage equality in 2011, has apparently been defeated by Democrat Terry Gipson. Saland, a 22-year Hudson Valley incumbent, barely survived a primary challenge from Neil Di Carlo over the marriage issue, and Di Carlo cut into Saland’s support in the general election by running on the Conservative Party

line. Roy McDonald, another Republican marriage supporter, from Rensselaer and Saratoga Counties, lost his primary reelection, also due to his marriage vote. A third GOP equality supporter, Jim Alesi from the Rochester area, bowed out of his reelection bid in the face of a likely primary challenge from a state assemblyman opposed to gay marriage. Among the four Republicans who voted for the state’s gay marriage law, then, only Buffalo area incumbent Mark Grisanti will return to Albany in January.

Visit gaycitynews.com for an update on the battle for Senate control. — Paul Schindler

she responded, “I was proud to have the support of people with my view of the constitutionally-defined role of the federal government…

STILL GIVING. Beloved philanthropist Brooke Astor set up a permanent fund with The New York Community Trust.

Today, The Trust continues to carry out her philanthropy, and always will.

What are your plans?

Brooke Astor 1902-2007

Consider setting up your own permanent fund today.

Visit stillgiving.org or contact Jane Wilton (212) 686-2563

We have a federal government that reaches too far into our lives and too far into our pockets.”

Hayworth, who has a gay son, was one of the original sponsors in the House of the Tax Parity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act, which would end the tax imposed on employer -provided domestic partner health benefits that are exempt if given to a dif ferent-sex spouse. Still, she never endorsed marriage equality, merely voicing her “respect” for the fact that states deter mine marriage eligibility and that New York had made its choice.

M i n d f u l t h a t N e w Yo r k ’ s L G B T community was not only enthusiastic about electing its first member to Congress but also about having r epr esentation unambiguous in pressing for its full participation in society, Maloney, in a November 7 note to supporters, wrote, “I’m headed to Congress fired up and ready to help make this country a place where the words ‘equality’ and ‘opportunity’ carry serious weight.”

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November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

䉴

IN THE NOH, from p.30

a Bowl of Cherries” and a searing “If I Loved You” (surprisingly paired with Bjork’s “Unravel”). There was a lot of electronic musical enhancement, rare in cabaret rooms, but things got very basic during William Finn’s “Change, in which we were all asked to shake plastic containers filled with pennies that had been provided at each table. Finn, in the audience, beamed approvingly.

Watching the latest “Anna Karenina,” I was struck by how rarely this truly great woman character has been portrayed well on screen — despite all the famous actresses who have attempted it. Jacqueline Bisset, Sophie Marceau, Vivien Leigh, and Garbo all had a whack at her, with less than transcendent results.

Leigh’s 1948 version was sumptuously Cecil Beaton-designed, but, although seemingly perfectly cast, she lacked a necessary all-consuming passion, somehow too sensible throughout to really be convincing. Garbo — another supposedly perfect choice — made a silent and sound version, with the first, directed by Edmund Goulding, decidedly better. Her 1935 Adrian-

䉴

COGSWELL, from p.32

in a black and white movie, we'd go to sleep, shedding clothes that were invisible until morning. There was a lamp by the bed. After a couple of days, it started to seemed quaint. We should have stuffed it in the closet, along with our computers and cell phones, the refrigerator that we used as a cupboard in case the mice invaded from downstairs.

We'd entered a different century, maybe earlier, maybe later depending on your dystopian point of view. Or we'd shifted sideways to a part of the world where electricity is a whim if it exists at all. You certainly don't have jobs dependent on it. Or mass transit. You also don't build homes so near the shore. Especially not with the same old vulnerable designs you'd have inland. Or even uptown.

If we looked out the windows in back, there was a strange rosy dawn on the northern horizon. It was the illuminated city we weren't a part of any more. People that went up above 39th Street would come back saying how weird it was there. Life continuing like we didn't exist at all. We looked for metaphors of border crossings, inequality. Passing from East to West Berlin. From Mexico to the United States. North Korea to the South.

Halloween, I had to get my girlfriend to the lab uptown and to our heroic doctor who actually kept office hours. The buses were too packed to get on. No taxis stopped. We had to go back home.

I was prepared to walk all the way up to 40th to call around for help, but a neighbor told me about that Russ &

gowned Anna seemed as heavy as the barge toted upstream by that famed Volga boatmen.

The current interpretation features Joe Wright’s overly fancy and stylized, sub-Baz Luhrman direction. Wright tiresomely stages it like a play, its artificiality a constant distraction from any emotional or dramatic involvement.

Keira Knightley, way too thin emotionally, can be exquisite at moments, but she desperately needs to learn the value of repose, as she is usually far too busy in the face and forever fluttering about the elaborate sets like a hummingbird in heat.

She’s not helped by the fact that her lover Vronsky is played by Aaron TaylorJohnson, who is far more beautiful than she. With his looks buried here, Jude Law, who once might have made the perfect Vronsky, gives the most interesting performance, as Anna s cuckolded husband. I was reminded how often actors playing this role — Basil Rathbone, Ralph Richardson — have stolen the show, making it more the story of Karenin than Karenina.

Contact David Noh at inthenoh@aol. com and check out his blog at www. nohway.wordpress.com.

Daughters hotspot and I used the last of my charge to call my friend Adriana who drove all the way in from Queens, waiting two hours on the 59th Street Bridge to ferry us uptown where the little kids were all dressed up going door to door.

As dusk set in, the lights came up just like always. Bizarre.

I was back uptown Thursday, waiting 45 minutes for a bus that had space.

And after checking email and recharging the phone at the public library in Midtown (thank you NYPL), I grabbed a slice and overheard a guy proclaiming his refugee status and showing off his growing beard. When I asked where he lived, he looked around shiftily and said, "39th Street," and when I made a loud raspberry noise, slurping spittle everywhere, he declared, "But on the south side. And we don't have water."

He turned his back on me and kept regaling his listener about all his difficulties being a whole block away from power. The guy went on to talk about how he'd gotten on a bike and zipped downtown to have a look at the darkness: "It was really incredible." Probably by now he's been to Red Hook or Coney Island, savoring the misery. I didn't kill the two of them.

On the way back home, the buses were too full to get on and I had to walk the 40 blocks back downtown with the light fading. After dark, I lit the flashlight at every black intersection, signaling my existence to indifferent cars and more biking tourists, who kept shouting, "I can't see a thing.

I can't see a thing."

35

| November 7, 2012

THANK YOU FOR HELPING US WEATHER THE STORM Thank you to the hundreds of God’s Love volunteers who worked tirelessly last week to ensure that people affected by the storm had access to nutritious food.

Despite significant obstacles, last week we delivered 8,000 meals to people displaced by Sandy and 2,300 emergency meal kits called “Sandy Bags” to our clients.

The God’s Love volunteers – simply the best!

The board and staff at God’s Love thank our incredible community for helping us weather the storm. We cannot do what we do without you!

If you would like to make a donation to help us restock our shelves, please visit us today at

glwd.org/donate

36

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

䉴

IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, from p.27

cessible. Hell, they’ve frequently been compared to Woody Allen’s work! The director has created his own universe.

Some of his early defenders jumped off the bandwagon when it became apparent that Hong was repeating himself to a great extent. On the other hand, if one accepts that his films repeat certain structures and themes, they can become all the more fascinating.

On a narrative level, they almost always involve filmmaking, binge drinking, and male misbehavior. Hong once made a film called “Woman Is the Future of Man,” prompting one woman at the New York Film Festival’s Q&A session to comment, “If woman is the future of man, men are screwed.” That said, he does seem to be making an effort to represent a female point of view in his past few films.

Hong’s films started out with a doubled structure. Some observers suggested this was an oblique reference to the divided nature of the Korean peninsula. However, he has grown past that into even more complex structures. “In Another Country” is never difficult to follow, but it relies on repetition of certain key images. In her various incarnations, Anne asks the lifeguard for directions to a lighthouse. She sees him swimming in chilly water. “In Another Country” comes to resemble a piece of music, with Hong improvising a solo over a basic set of chords and melody.

䉴

THE COMEDY, from p.26

GMK: What is one of the most daring things you’ve done or what is the most demeaning?

RA: I am a pretty quiet person who keeps to myself. I’m unlike the guys in the movie. But I am interested in irreverence.

I have a macabre sense of humor.

GMK: Are you showing and discussing provocative things to take the sting out of a taboo?

RA: To me, a lot of the film is about language and having an individual feel creatively empowered by their interactions with others and the world at large. And that’s where these loaded, ironic, sarcastic, and profane conversations come from –– a deep desire to be personally and idiosyncratically engaged in conversation. Rather than bland Victorian protocol that haunts us in an asinine way. It’s very much about the desire to animate others and one’s self.

GMK: The film deals with issues of class. Does privilege give Swanson the right to provoke?

RA: It’s very much about class and an inquisitive portrait of a progressively idle society. The middle class is much more idle than it has ever been. Looking at this disconnect between the modern personality and its sense of literal meaning and utility. To some degree it could be that

In ter ms of visual style, Hong’s recent films have been marked by the use of the zoom lens. His utilization of this device to direct the spectator’s attention is sometimes shockingly blunt. He uses it with an obsessive concentration that most directors abandoned after the early ‘70s, when it was briefly fashionable and best deployed by Roberto Rossellini (in his made-for-TV films) and Robert Altman.

Much of “In Another Country” takes place in exteriors, and Hong’s direction seems torn between the desire to repeat images and narrative motifs and a spontaneous openness to the pleasures of a bright summer day –– even if the lifeguard does keep complaining about the water temperature.

“In Another Country” is a delightful comedy that shows Huppert’s ability to play characters who aren’t obsessive neurotics or dangerously sexually frustrated, as in films like Denis’ “White Material” or Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher.”

In the context of Hong’s oeuvre, the film may suffer in some eyes from its very straightforward and lighthearted tone, but these qualities might also make it his American breakthrough.

It’s about time Hong found an audience beyond the international festival circuit, where he’s long been welcome.

Korean cinema isn’t going to stay hip forever, but one senses Hong will keep plugging away until old age.

he’s got an aggressive, romantic infatuation with the working class and his engagement with them. He’s not able to understand the relationship between his body and the world.

GMK: Do you think the man-child and Brooklyn hipsters are passé?

RA: I confound and contradict a lot of those hipster things. The clichés are dealt with. When they are emblazoned on the screen, they are uncertain and muddied.

There are contradictions to hipsters.

GMK: The film’s visual approach is almost in the style of a nature documentary. Why did you choose that format for telling this story?

RA: [Laughs] That’s a great compliment! Cameras can be removed and objective. So many films claim ownership over that. My purpose is to be a viewer and listener and a witness to it, to some degree to control this. I encouraged my DP [director of photography] to think like an animal and not think of narrative, but of movements and bodies and their interaction. I think formally that people should be objectified by the camera.

The medium shouldn’t be didactic. We should look and listen.

Rick Alverson and Tim Heidecker will do a post-screening Q&A November 16-17 following the 6:50 p.m. shows.

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| November 7, 2012

䉴

OPERA, from p.28

The breathtaking, innovative multimedia production was all the things the Met “Ring” is claimed to be and isn't.

Sets (Robert Brill), projections (Elaine J. McCarthy), and lighting (Don Holder) deserve acclaim, and Ian Robertson's chorus earned their cheers.

The next evening, Lyric Opera of Chicago's phenomenal Art Deco auditorium hosted Christine Goerke's triumphant Elektra, a relatively new impersonation, but — now that Deborah Polaski has retired the demanding marathon role — surely the top choice worldwide. Goerke's still-growing dramatic soprano dominated Andrew Davis' surging orchestra — no mean feat — remaining attractive virtually throughout. David McVicar's elemental, blood-drenched staging —which needed less distraction from supers and comprimarios — concentrated usefully and movingly on the Atreus family interrelations.

In that framework, Goerke offered a generous, deeply conflicted Elektra, listening and responding to every word uttered around her. In future outings — soon, please, at Lincoln Center — she might reel back a notch on little added giggles. To quote RimskyKorsakov, “Operatic singers are in the habit of introducing ejaculations, spoken words, etc., into the music, thereby hoping to produce dramatic, comic, or realistic effect. Far from adding significance to the music, these additions and emendations merely disfigure it.”

But Goerke's brilliant performance deserved every minute of the screaming ovation she received.

Out and proud Jill Grove aced her first Klytaemnestra, voicing the chilling lines with uncommon tonal beauty, and Alan Held's sturdy Orest and Goerke made the tricky Recognition Scene remarkably moving. Emily Magee, while idiomatic and committed, worked as hard as most Chrysothemises and lacked radiance. Roger Honeywell's incisive tenor fueled a detailed, creepily louche Aegisth.

Kiri Deodarine's Confidante stood out for sheer vocal star quality.

Star quality certainly presided over October 24's “Simon Boccanegra,” in a sensible if tradition-bound production by Elijah Moshinsky. Davis led a sweeping traversal of Verdi's dark-hued, astonishing score. Towering above everyone, the wrenchingly etched Fiesco of Ferruccio Furlanetto reinforced his near-legendary status as the Last BigTime Italian Bass. When do we hear his Boris in New York?

The performance also featured the kind of clarion, huge format, marbled singing that bespeaks a world class “American Verdi baritone.” It came from Quinn Kelsey as Paolo, the fifth-billed baddie done in past decades by future Boccanegras like Leonard Warren and

Sherrill Milnes. Kelsey, terrific, will surely join their ranks.

If musicality and intelligence could validate a Boccanegra, Thomas Hampson might qualify, but in this role, like Macbeth, he overinflates his lyric sound, often taking on an unpleasant woody timbre. Not a disaster, but not a Boccanegra either. As the romantic pair, Krassimira Stoyanova and Frank Lopardo, coped resourcefully and with fine effect with roles in which a bit more heft might help. Stoyanova only indicated trills, but her sense of line and dynamics indicated a superior musician, and the tone was largely lovely. Don't miss her Met Desdemona this spring.

Lopardo had one or two awkward moments with head tones but by and large sounds remarkably ringing and fresh, certainly streets ahead of several young tenors the New York company now deploys in Lopardo's repertory. One left both Lyric performances delighted in the quality of the works performed.

The Chicago Symphony's “Missa Solemnis” (October 25) also proved highly stirring. Veteran Bernard Haitink channeled Beethoven's weird late-career ethos to fine effect. I'm used to hearing great playing from the CSO, and concertmaster Robert Chen deserved more acknowledgment for his exquisite work in the sublime “Sanctus.” But the chorus under Duain Wolfe gave the best live performance I have heard from it. Erin Wall — showing spectacular control and lovely tone — and rich-voiced Bernarda Fink could hardly have been bettered.

Anthony Dean Griffey drew beautiful tenor lines. By contrast, bass-baritone Hanno Mueller-Brachmann — sounding muffled and top-challenged — seemed an unnecessary import.

I also saw a well-considered “Sunday in the Park with George,” capably staged

by Gary Griffin at Chicago Shakespeare (October 23), out on the festive if malllike Navy Pier. Sondheim's cleverness both dazzles and cloys here; James Lapine's almost completely meretricious book ensures any director and cast major second act problems.

Jason Danieley made a charming, very worthy George, convincing in both of the musical's time frames (the second, the '80s art world, seems as much “period” now as the era of Seurat). Nice to hear George's high-lying music sung by a well-trained lyric tenor and not bleated.

Carmen Cusack, inconsistently vocalizing the twin “Bernadette Peters” roles, oddly alternated sly charm with mannered affect. Linda Stephens, playing Seurat's mother and a prickly art critic, stood out from an affable, clearly gifted cast for emotional resonance and sheer acting technique.

David Shengold (shengold@yahoo.com) writes about opera for many venues.

THE ALI FORNEY CENTER’S DROP-IN CENTER FOR HOMELESS LGBTQ YOUTH DEVASTATED BY HURRICANE SANDY. The nation’s largest and most comprehensive services provider for homeless LGBTQ youth suffered a serious loss as hurricane Sandy destroyed their Drop-in Center facility leaving it uninhabitable and in ruins.

The Chelsea based Drop-in Center was a safe refuge for 1,000 homeless young people each year. The facility provided over 10,000 warm meals, showers, clothing, and services to these young people, most of whom were on the streets with nowhere to go. Other services included a medical and mental health clinic, STD/HIV counseling, testing, and treatment, career and educational counseling. These services helped young people overcome the abuse and rejection of their families as they worked to reclaim their lives and begin to live independently.

The Ali Forney Center is asking for your help. Please visit

www.aliforneycenter.org/hurricanesandy to make a donation and learn more about their plan to rebuild this necessary haven in the homeless LGBTQ youth community.

38

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

FOCUS FEATURES

Punchinello on the Beach In “Patrick Webb: On the Beach, at Night,” an exhibition of new works, the painter’s ubiquitous Punchinello figure heads out onto the nighttime beach. Sometimes in groups of many Punchinelli, sometimes alone, Punchinello stands around, tells stories, and undresses to loll about with his friends in the dark and beside bonfires.

These paintings, inspired by nights spent on the beaches in Cape Cod’s Wellfleet, both as a child and more recently, explore many aspects of desire, connection, loss, and memory. The Painting Center, 547 W. 27th St., Suite 500. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. through Nov. 24. More information at bgc.bard.edu

November 10: “Pariah”

SUN.NOV.11

BENEFIT Porn Again 13

More than 250 designers, including Christian Louboutin, Libertine, and DVF, have made available more than $1 million in fashion accessories — on sale with discounts up to 70 percent — to support Housing Works, an AIDS services and advocacy group that provides job training, medical and legal care, transgender services, and counseling for men, women, and youth living with or affected by homelessness and HIV/ AIDS in New York City. Chelsea Thrift Shop, 143 W. 17th St. Nov. 9-11, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. For complete information, visit fashionforaction.com.

Addressing Transgender Health Concerns Community Healthcare Network, which provides healthcare regardless of ability to pay across the city hosts its second annual New York Transgender Health Conference to discuss pressing issues including transgender care, hormone therapy, mental health, HIV care and prevention, violence, holistic care, and resources available to navigate the often complex medical system. CHN is working in collaboration with the Anti-Violence Project, the LGBT Community Center, Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on AIDS/ HIV, CitiWide Harm Reduction, and Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

Columbia University School of Social Work, 1255 Amsterdam Ave. at 121st St. Nov. 9, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

You must register at tprogram@chnnyc.org; information at 718-320 6765 or 212-545 2460. Admission is free and breakfast and lunch are provided.

production in 1947 and a noir film adaptation in 1951, starring Anna Maria Alberghetti. Donna Drake directs, with musical direction by Elizabeth Hastings. Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, 10 W. 64th St. Nov. 9-10, 7:30 p.m.; Nov 11., 3 p.m. Tickets are $42 at counter-productions.org or 800-838-3006.

SAT.NOV.10

FILM A Brooklyn Story

“Pariah” is the story of a gifted African-American teenager in Fort Greene working to build her future while also embracing her lesbian identity in a family that struggles with that reality. Adepero Oduye is captivating as 17-yearold Alike in this film directed by Dee Rees. Chillfest at LITM, 140 Newark Ave., a half-block from the Grove St. PATH station, Jersey City. Nov. 10, 4 p.m. Tickets are $7 at chillfest.org. LITM has a full food and drink menu.

The all-male string quartet Well-Strung features classical musicians who sing, putting their own spin on the music of Mozart, Vivaldi, Rihanna, Adele, Lady Gaga, and more. The debut show by first violinist Edmund Bagnell, second violinist Christopher Marchant, cellist Daniel Shevlin, and violist Trevor Wadleigh is directed by Donna Drake and co-written by Drake and Mark Cortale. Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, 10 W. 64th St. Nov. 9-10, 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $32 at well-strung.com.

Merman Does Alberghetti Jeffery Roberson aka Varla Jean Merman stars in Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Medium,” an opera commissioned

by Columbia University in 1946, which had a Broadway

GALLERY Stephen Mueller’s Final, Brilliant Paintings Painter Stephen Mueller, in the year preceding his death in September 2011, was prodigious and brilliant in his output despite the health challenges he faced.

Lennon, Weinberg presents its second posthumous exhibition of his work, this time focusing on Mueller’s paintings from 2007 until his death. 514 W. 25th St. Tue.Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m., through Dec. 8. For more information, visit lennonweinberg.com.

FILM A Southern Embrace In Patrick Wang’s indie film “In the Family,” Chip Hines (Sebastian Banes), a precocious and loving six year-old, only knows life with his two fathers, Cody Hines, his biological dad, whom he calls “Pa” (Trevor St. John from “One Life to Live”) and Joey Williams, whom he calls “Dad” (Wang). Both men are embraced

by Cody’s family and by friends and co-workers in a small, but sophisticated Tennessee town. Opens Nov. 16, Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St. Screening times at cinemavillage.com. For more information on the film, visit inthefamilythemovie.com.

SAT.NOV.17

ACTIVISM Remembering Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich

Jim Caruso, who recently made his Broadway debut alongside Liza Minnelli in “Liza’s At The Palace!,” joins award-winning composer, arranger, vocalist, and jazz pianist Billy Stritch for a month of Sundays at Bemelmans Bar, the Carlyle Hotel, 35 E. 76th St. Nov. 11, 18 & 25, 9 p.m.-midnight. The cover charge is $15 at the bar; $25 at a table. No reservations accepted, but additional information at thecarlyle.com

To mark a year since Adrienne Rich’s death and the 20th anniversary of Audre Lorde’s passing, the Lesbian Herstory Archives hosts a marathon reading of these iconic lesbian writers’ work. Both women were committed supporters of the Archives, which hold many of their manuscripts, personal papers, oral histories, and photographs. Their work and visibility as poets, theorists, activists, and teachers have inspired decades of antiracist and lesbian feminist thought and activism. 484 14th St., btwn. Eighth Ave. & Prospect Park W. Nov. 17, noon-midnight. For more information, visit lesbianherstoryarchives.org/.

TUE.NOV.13

For 25 years, MIX NYC has presented the latest in queer experimental film and previously unseen works from legendary LGBT and other queer-identified figures in avant-garde cinema. The festival returns Nov. 13-18 at MIX Factory, 339 Butler St., btwn. Third & Fourth Aves., Brooklyn. In 19 programs over six days, admission is $13; $20 for the opening and closing programs. Complete information and tickets at mixnyc.org.

MUSIC Well-Strung

The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission hosts an open house to introduce its new executive director, Jessica Stern. IGLHRC, 80 Maiden Lane, btwn. Gold & William Sts., Suite 1505. Nov. 16, 5:30-7:30 p.m. RSVP to 212-4306033 or rsvp@iglhrc.org.

CABARET Billy Stritch & Jim Caruso Together

FILM Queer & Experimental

LENNON, WEINBERG

FRI.NOV.9

COMMUNITY Fashion For Action

Adult film star Vito Gallo hosts a beer bash where new and pre-viewed gay adult DVDs will be available at discount prices to benefit the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. Splash, 50 W. 17th St. Nov. 11, 2-5 p.m. Admission is $10, which includes three draft beers and a ticket for a P-town getaway raffle. The first 100 attendees also receive a gift bag valued at more than $30. More information at nycgmc.org.

FRI.NOV.16

ADVOCACY IGLHRC’s New Leadership

WED.NOV.14

DANCE Lar Lubovitch’s Debussy Premiere

The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company’s fall 2012 season features a world premiere for six dancers set to Debussy’s “String Quartet in G Minor,” performed live by the Bryant Park Quartet, as well as last season’s premiere “Crisis Variations” (which won Lubovitch the 2012 Prix Benois de la Danse), set to a commissioned score by Yevgeniy Sharlat, and the company’s “The Legend of Ten” (2010), set to Brahms’s “Quintet for Piano and Strings in F Minor.”

Florence Gould Hall, 55 E. 59th St. Nov. 14, 7 p.m.; Nov. 15-17, 8 p.m.; Nov. 18, 3 p.m. Tickets are $20-$45 at ticketmaster.com or 800-745-3000. For details on the Nov. 14 Opening Night Celebration, visit lubovitch.org or call 212-221-7909.

SUN.NOV.18

CABARET Tall Tommy Tune

Tommy Tune, one of the most prolific choreographers and directors of recent decades and Broadway’s tallest tapper takes to a small stage for three evenings of dancing, singing, and tale-telling.

Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, 540 Park Ave. at 61st St. Nov. 18, 25-26, 8 & 10:30 p.m. The cover charge is $30-$45, with a $25 food & drink minimum.

For reservations, visit Feinsteinsatloewsregency.com or call 212-339-4095.

FRI.NOV.23

CABARET The Corner of Arias & Vine

For the first time in more than a decade, drag legends Sherry Vine and Joey Arias appear together in New York. Their show, “Looking Back At The Future,” is a sexy, over-the-top spectacle featuring original material as well as Broadway, rock, Joey's infamous Billie Holiday, Sherry's trashy parodies, and videos by Francis Legge. XL Nightclub, 512 W. 42nd St. Nov. 23-24, 8 p.m. Admission is $20, with doors opening at 7 p.m.

You must be 21.

39

| November 7, 2012

I am a best friend, a leader, and a force.

And I am living with HIV. TM

Robert (right) has lived with HIV since 2011.

Get the facts. Get tested. Get involved. www.cdc.gov/ActAgainstAIDS

40

November 7, 2012 | www.gaycitynews.com

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