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August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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CIVIL RIGHTS

Navy to Name Ship in Harvey Milk’s Honor

Pioneering LGBT rights leader served on rescue submarine in Korean War

HARVEY MILK FOUNDATION

Harvey Milk during his service in the Navy.

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

S Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has notified Congress of the Navy’s intention to name a Military Sealift Command fleet oiler the USNS Harvey Milk, in honor of the LGBT rights leader and San Francisco city supervisor who was assassinated in 1978. In a July 28 story, USNI News reported that Mabus sent the notification to Congress on July 14, but that a Navy official told the publi-

cation no additional information would be released until the official naming announcement. USNI News is an online publication of the United States Naval Institute, a nonprofit educational organization focused on discussion of defense and security issues. The ship is one of a class of Navy oilers named for John Lewis, the Georgia Democratic House member who has been a leading civil rights leader since the 1960s. Other civil rights leaders honored in this class of ships include Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, women rights advocate Lucy Stone, and abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Sojourner Truth, USNI News reported. Slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers and Latino farm workers organizer Cesar Chavez have also previously been honored by Mabus, the publication reported. Milk, whose family included naval veterans, joined the Navy in 1951 during the Korean War, and he served on the rescue ship USS Kittiwake and later as a diving instructor at Naval Base San Diego. He left the Navy in 1955 at the rank of lieutenant, junior grade.

In a Facebook post, Stuart Milk, Harvey’s out gay nephew who has been advocating for the Navy to take this step since the military ended its Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy five years ago, wrote, “Joyful tears thinking of the meaning & symbolism at global ports of call for the USNS Harvey Milk.” The younger Milk specifically cited the advocacy by San Diego Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez in moving the issue forward. Milk, who grew up on Long Island and worked for a time on Wall Street, eventually moved to San Francisco, where he owned a famous neighborhood camera shop in the Castro and became an outspoken gay rights leader. After several failed runs for public office, he was elected to the Board of Supervisors in November 1977. In the statewide elections the following November, Milk was a leader in the successful effort to beat back a voter initiative that would have required the firing of public school teachers who were gay or supported LGBT rights. Just weeks after that victory, Milk and his political ally Mayor George Moscone were gunned

down at City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White, a conservative rival of Milk’s who days before had resigned his office in frustration but hoped to take back that decision. A year and a half later, White was acquitted of first-degree murder but convicted of voluntary manslaughter and given a sentence of less than eight years in prison, a verdict that inflamed the LGBT community in San Francisco and nationwide. Eighteen months after his release from prison, White took his own life. In a written statement, Ashley Broadway-Mack, president of the American Military Partner Association, an organization of LGBT military families, said, “Harvey Milk is an American hero and an icon for LGBT equality, and it’s phenomenal that the US Navy is going to honor his legacy by naming a ship after him. Harvey Milk’s incredible leadership in the face of adversity continues to inspire all of us in our ongoing fight for full LGBT equality. By breaking down barriers and fighting for the dignity and worth of all Americans, he left behind an example for all of us in his service to our nation, both in and out of uniform.”

EMPLOYMENT

Seventh Circuit Reluctantly Rejects Lesbian Bias Claim Panel says “illogical” precedent blocks professor’s suit under 1964 Civil Rights Act

BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD

eferring to precedents it described as “illogical,” a three-judge panel of the Chicago-based US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on July 28 that a lesbian professor could not sue a South Bend, Indiana, community college for sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In doing so, the panel rejected her argument that anti-gay discrimination is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by that law.

That legal question has taken on renewed vitality since July 20015, when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency that enforces Title VII, ruled that David Baldwin, a gay air traffic controller, could bring such a claim against the federal Transportation Department. Despite the panel’s dim view of existing Seventh Circuit precedents on the question, it concluded it was bound by them. Kimberly Hively, a part-time instructor at Ivy Tech Community College since 2000, applied six times for full-time positions for which she claims

to be qualified, but she was always turned down and her part-time contract was not renewed in July 2014. By that time, she had already filed a complaint with the EEOC, representing herself, about 18 months ahead of that agency’s breakthrough ruling on sexual orientation claims. The EEOC’s new posture is not binding on federal courts. Hively did not file a complaint with the South Bend human rights agency because that city’s anti-discrimination law, though amended in

SEVENTH CIRCUIT, continued on p.41

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

Protesters also noted the role of the Games’ sponsor Reebok and broadcaster ESPN.

DONNA ACETO

Demonstrators targeted the Crossfit Games in a protest that included a die-in.

City Public Advocate Letitia James joined the protesters.

CROSSFIT GAMES GLOCK GIVE-AWAYS SPARK ANTI-GUN ANGER The decision by the founder of the annual Crossfit Games, held last month in California, that winners would be awarded a Glock handgun stirred outrage among advocates for gun control, leading to both a change.org petition that the decision be reversed and a July 23 demonstration outside the Midtown crossfit gym run by Reebok, the Games’ sponsor. Three groups that earlier in the week had staged anti-gun demonstrations outside of Trump Tower — Gays Against Guns, formed in the wake of the June Orlando LGBT bar massacre, Queer Nation, and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence

— marched on July 23 from the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue to Reebok CrossFit Fifth Ave, between 37th and 38th Street. “How stupid and insensitive can they be?” said Kevin Hertzog, Gays Against Guns’ founder. “We’re in the middle of a growing trend of deadly gun violence against both civilians and police and Crossfit is proudly giving away the high-capacity gun that was used to kill six people and injure 13 more, including Representative Gabby Giffords, in Tucson in 2011, to kill 77 people in Norway in 2011, to kill a string

of immigrants in Sweden in 2009-10, and to kill 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007?” A Glock was also used in Dylan Roof’s fatal shooting of nine people in an African-American church in Charleston last year and by Omar Mateen in the Orlando killings that claimed 49 lives. More than 22,000 signed the change.org petition, but Crossfit Games founder Dave Castro declined demands that the gun give-away be canceled, saying that only a change in California or federal law would alter his plans. — Paul Schindler

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ADVERTORIAL

Nissan Congratulates NAGAAA on 40th Gay Softball World Series

Nissan Supports Equality on Every Road You Travel

Proud partner of the 2015 Gay Softball World Series #SameTeam for Equality

issan congratulates the North Amer-

This summer,ican Nissan hit aAmateur home run Athletic with Gay Alliance its partnership with the American Gay (NAGAAA) on North the 40th anniversary of its AmateurGay Athletic AllianceWorld (NAGAAA) and its Softball Series (GSWS)! The 39th Annual Gay Softball World Series event inevent is world-renowned LGBTQ sporting Columbus, Ohio. taking place Aug.15 to 20 in Austin, Texas.

“Nissan has the most diverse consumer base of any automotive manufacturer and is eager to champion grassroots LGBT events that give consumers a chance “Sports is history an incredible The event made GSWS with moreway than to build to interact with both our vehicles and our LGBT and ally community. And Nissan wanted 185 softball teams competing from 43 cities to extend said Rick Ash, Senior Manager, Nissan ourUnited well States wishesand toCanada. the NAGAAA family employees,” on across the The mulbringing the LGBTQ community ti-division tournament was more than justand a ballallies toMarketing. “It’s an honor for Nissan to bring more game. The 9-day event also featured opening gether for 40 years and counting,” said Erand closing ceremonies, community events, ich Marx, director, Marketing, and executive visibility to all of the LGBT athletes who competed.” celebritysponsor performances more. Alliance at Nissan. of Gayand Straight

than 185 consumer teams from “Nissan hasMore the most diverse base 43 cities across the United States and Canada are of any automotive manufacturer and is eager participating this multi-day to champion grassrootsinLGBT events that event, which includes opening ceremonies, a multi-divigive consumers a chance to interact with both sionand softball tournament, community acour vehicles our LGBT and ally employtivities andSenior the closing ceremonies. ees,” said Rick Ash, Manager, Nissan Marketing. “It’s an honor in for1977, Nissan bring American Established thetoNorth more visibility to all of the LGBT athletes whoOpen DiviGay Amateur Athletic Alliance competed.” sion is a 501©(3) international sports organization comprised of men100 andin women Since 2013, Nissan has scored a perfect dedicated to promoting amateur the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporateathletics theforLGBTQ community. policies The organization Equalityfor Index its LGBT-inclusive was formed after the first GSWS in 1976. and commitment to the community. The comFor athe second Nissan is a proud pany was among fastest year, risers in the history of the index. partner of the NAGAAA Gay Softball World Series, a six-day softball event that ex-

Nissan’s commitment to the LGBT community pects to draw more than 10,000 athletes, starts with its own employees. The company and fans. NAGAAA’s strives tocoaches ensure internal policies and benefitlocal LGBTQ softball leagues are also packages are inclusive of everyone. Andpartnering Nissan’s with Nissan at LGBTQ community includGay Straight Alliance at Nissan (GSAN) isevents the ing, behind Long the Beach Pride,LGBT LA Pride, driving force company’s out- Capital Pride, Nashville Pride, San Francisco reach efforts, focusing on its hometown of Nash- Pride, NYCasPride, Atlanta Pride, ville as well on other regional LGBTOrlando events Pride as

well as Northalsted Market Days in ChicaDiversityInc Magazine also named Nissan to its go. “With Nissan having the most diverse 2015 Top 25 Noteworthy Companies list for the consumer base in the automotive industry second year in a row. The company is an active anNashville engagedLGBT group of LGBTQ memberand of the Chamber of employees and allies, we’re well positioned to connect Commerce and a sponsor of the annual Nationwith community,” saidconMarx. al Lesbian andthe GayLGBTQ Journalists Association

Long Beach/OC Surf & Sun Softball League players at LA Pride

Since 2013, Nissan has scored a perfect 100 in the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equality Index for its LGBT-inclusive policies and commitment to the community. The company was among the fastest risers in the history of the index. “We are incredibly fortunate to have Nissan on our team,” said Chris Balton, NAGAAA Commissioner. “Nissan has been an outstanding partner at the national level and this year at the local level - leveraging our member cities for Pride activations across the nation.” Nissan’s Gay Straight Alliance at Nissan (GSAN) is the driving force behind the company’s LGBTQ outreach efforts. Nissan also offers inclusive benefits and Championing Diversity workshops for employ-

NAGAAA, the early years

ees, and a “Diversity and Inclusion” team works closely with advocacy groups such as the HRC to drive a culture of equality in the workplace.

vention. Nissan’s Diversity Office—with the help of GSAN—has sponsored several workshops for area business leaders where they can share diversity best practices for creating an inclusive environment for employees and supporting the LGBT community in Middle Tennessee.

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

WE ARE WITH YOU IN EVERY WALK OF LIFE. Nissan proudly sponsors the 2016 Gay Softball World Series.

NissanUSA.com

A DNC SCRAPBOOK A RECORD NUMBER OF TRANS DELEGATES

DNC

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During a meeting of the convention’s LGBT caucus, out gay US Representative Mark Takano (at l. in third row) appears with 20 of the 28 trans delegates to the convention, including: (front) Lou Weaver, Merrick Moses, and Anita Green; (second row) Diego Miguel Sanchez, Joanne Carroll, Babs Siperstein, Melissa Sklarz, Marisa Richmond, and an unidentified non-delegate; (third row) Sharron L. Cooks, Mia Satya, (non-delegate) Elizabeth Coffey Williams, Jeanne Smith, Danielle Jessica Pellett, April Spilker, and Mara Keisling; and (fourth row) Wendy Ella May, Tiffany Woods, Mara Glubka, Kimi Cole, Sophia Jean Hawes-Tingey, and Monica Paige DePaul.

The 2016 Democratic National Convention included a record number of out transgender delegates at 28, demonstrating dramatic advances in trans visibility within the party. That number represents just under six-tenths of one percent of the 4,765 delegates. For the first time ever, the convention included an out transgender speaker, 25-year-old Sarah McBride, who came out as trans at 21, while serving as student body president at American University in Washington. A former White House intern in the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, McBride now works as national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. She told the audience, “For me, this struggle for equality became all the more urgent when I learned that my future husband, Andrew, was battling cancer. I met Andy, who was a transgender man, fighting for equality and we fell in love. And yet even in the face of his terminal illness… this 28 year old — he never wavered in his commitment to our cause and his belief that this country can change. We married in 2014 and just four days after our wedding, he passed away. Knowing Andy left me profoundly changed. More than anything, his passing taught me that every day matters when it comes to

Sarah McBride, flanked by out gay US Representative Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, delivers remarks to the convention on Thursday evening.

building a world where every person can live their life to the fullest.” Hillary Clinton, McBride said, “understands the urgency of our fight. She will work with us to pass the Equality Act, to combat violence against transgender women of color, and to end the HIV and AIDS epidemic once and for all.”

HIV ADVOCACY AGAIN TAKES THE STAGE

DNC

2016 marked the first occasion since 2004 that an HIV-positive speaker addressed the Democratic National Convention about AIDS policy. Daniel Driffin, a 30-year-old Atlanta man who is co-founder of THRIVE SS, a non-profit group that works among men of color who have sex with other men on issues related to HIV, reminded the audience that when AIDS first emerged, he wasn’t yet born. “We know how to prevent the virus now,” Driffin said. “We know how to diagnose the virus now. We know how to treat it, and we know how to suppress it. We have learned all that within my lifetime. But still, there are many living with HIV. And who are most at risk? Young, gay, black men. Men like me. In fact, one in two gay black men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime if current rates continue. And if we have enough data, I’m sure black transgender women are more at risk, too.” Turning to solutions, Driffin said, “So, what do we do to fight HIV/AIDS today? We invest in research and education. Expand treatment and prevention. And we elect Hillary Clinton.”

Daniel Driffin, the HIV-positive co-founder of Atlanta’s THRIVE SS, addressed the convention on Wednesday afternoon.

Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, the first and only LGBT member of the Senate.

DNC

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo addresses the LGBT Caucus.

Jaron Collins (podium left) and the first openly gay NBA player Jason Collins (podium right), twin brothers who have both retired from the NBA.

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

THE BATON HAS BEEN PASSED

DNC

In a week of dramatic and memorable speeches, none was more stirring than that by Khizr Khan who, standing next to his wife Ghazala Khan, remembered their late son, Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was 27 in 2004 when he died while protecting troops under his command from an improvised explosive device in Baqubah, Iraq (see pages 14-15). The elder Khan’s stark challenge to Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric — “You have sacrificed nothing and no one” — prompted a strikingly self-destructive response from the GOP nominee, who in the days since has dug himself further and further into a hole attacking this Gold Star family. The only other remarks that came close to matching the power of Khan’s both came from speakers named Obama — First Lady Michelle on Monday evening and the president two nights later. Telling a rapt crowd, “I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before,” Barack Obama said, “How could I not be — after all that we’ve achieved together?... After a century of trying, we declared that healthcare in America is not a privilege for a few, it is a right for everybody… We put policies in place to help students with loans; protect consumers from fraud; cut veteran homelessness almost in half. And through countless acts of quiet courage, America learned that love has no limits, and marriage equality is now a reality across the land.” The president returned to the theme of LGBT equality several times, and said, “I promise you, when we keep at it, when we change enough minds, when we deliver enough votes, then progress does happen. And if you doubt that, just ask the 20 million more people who have healthcare today. Just ask the Marine who proudly serves his country without hiding the husband that he loves.” For her part, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in accepting the Democrats’ presidential nomination on Thursday evening,

Don’t boo — vote: President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton following the president’s convention speech on Thursday evening.

was more reserved, perhaps wisely not trying to match Obama’s soaring rhetoric in favor of a pose of dogged determination and readiness. Her one reference to LGBT issues in her speech was more oblique than the president’s, though delivered in a metaphor that packed considerable punch. “‘Stronger Together’ is not just a lesson from our history, it’s not just a slogan for our campaign, it’s a guiding principle for the country we’ve always been, and the future we’re going to build,” she said. “A country where the economy works for everyone, not just those at the top. Where you can get a good job and send your kids to a good school no matter what zip code you live in. A country where all our children can dream, and those dreams are within reach. Where families are strong, communities are safe, and, yes, where love trumps hate.”

COURTESY: STATE SENATOR BRAD HOYLMAN

State Senator Brad Hoylman, West Side Congressmember Jerry Nadler, and his Hudson Valley colleague Sean Patrick Maloney. GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

CIVIL RIGHTS

Cake Baker Refusenik Seeks Supreme Court Review

Colorado businessman says his free speech, religious freedom rights infringed BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD

cake baker has filed a petition with the US Supreme Court seeking review of last August’s Colorado Court of Appeals decision rejecting his appeal of a state Civil Rights Commission ruling that his business unlawfully discriminated against a gay male couple in in refusing to sell them an appropriately-decorated cake for their wedding reception. The petition on behalf of Jack C. Phillips, proprietor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd., was filed on July 22 by lawyers from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a self-described Christian law firm that opposes LGBT rights advances, with the cooperation of local counsel, Nicolle H. Martin of Lakewood, Colorado. This petition comes after the Colorado Supreme Court refused to review the case. ADF positions this as a First Amendment free speech and free exercise of religion case, arguing that the creation of a wedding cake is an expressive act signaling the baker’s approval of the marriage for which it is being created. Penalizing him under the state’s public accommodations law for refusing service to Charlie Craig and David Mullins is, in effect, government-compelled speech, Phillips’ attorneys argue. They also argue that Phillips, as a devout Christian compelled by his faith to withhold approval of same-sex marriages, enjoys the right to free exercise of religion to decline the couple’s request. The petition also asserts that when it became public that Phillips had refused to bake a wed-

ding cake for Craig and Mullins, another bakery provided one at no charge, so the men were not deprived of this important component of their wedding celebration. In arguing for Supreme Court review, ADF contends that the Colorado Court of Appeals ruling conflicts with cases from the US Ninth and 11th Circuit Courts of Appeals “regarding the free speech protection of art,” that it “deepens an existing conflict between the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 11th Circuits as to the proper test for identifying expressive conduct,” and that it “conflicts with free exercise rulings by the 3rd, 6th, and 10th Circuits.” None of the cases mentioned involves the issue of a baker refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The contention that this is about “art” assumes the court will accept a characterization of Phillips as an “artist practicing in a visual medium” — the phrase lifted from the Ninth and 11th Circuit cases, which involved permits to operate tattoo parlors in specific locations — not just a baker who happens to design and execute wedding cakes. The petition also points to the 1995 Supreme Court case involving gays marching in Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, where the justices unanimously held that a parade is an inherently expressive activity that can exclude messages at odds with its own mission. Virtually the same issue was posed to the Supreme Court just a few years ago in the Elane Photography case, where the high court refused to review a ruling by the New Mexico Supreme Court that a photographer withholding her ser-

vices to a lesbian couple for their commitment ceremony had no First Amendment right to do so and had violated that state’s public accommodations law. It would be difficult to argue that a wedding photographer is less of an “artist working in a visual medium” than a wedding cake baker, but there was not sufficient support on the Court to take that earlier case. So far, lower courts around the country have unanimously rejected claims by small businesses that refusing to comply with public accommodations laws because of their religious or free speech objections to same-sex marriages enjoys constitutional protection. Phillips’ petition argues that because the Colorado anti-discrimination law allegedly allows for case-by-case religious exemptions, the determination by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission whether Phillips and his cake-shop are entitled to a religious exemption in this case should be subjected to strict judicial scrutiny. The state, ADF asserts, must therefore show a compelling interest justifying the imposition on Phillips’ religious beliefs. Here, the petition relies on the Supreme Court’s controversial 2014 Hobby Lobby ruling that businesses are entitled to claim religious free exercise rights based on the beliefs of their owners. Phillips’ petition also points to counterexamples in making its argument, stating: “It is undisputed that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission does not apply [the state nondiscrimination law] to ban (1) an African-American cake artist from refusing

CAKE BAKER, continued on p.40

FAMILIES

Anti-Gay Kansas Officials Now Under the Gun US Court issues injunction requiring full compliance with 2015 marriage equality ruling

BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD

n a ruling that demonstrates the continued recalcitrance of some public officials to last year’s marriage equality ruling, US District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree, who two years ago found Kansas’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, has issued a final ruling in that case. He did so because he concluded that without the prod of an injunction that would subject Kansas officials

to contempt proceedings if they fail to comply fully, they cannot be trusted to voluntarily carry out the high court’s 2015 Obergefell ruling. Crabtree acted in response to the state’s initial refusal to issue appropriate birth certificates for children of lesbian couples as well as continuing ambiguity about how they will handle such situations. The court rejected the state’s argument that the lawsuit should be dismissed as “moot” in light of

Obergefell. The plaintiffs in the Kansas marriage case asked Crabtree last year to issue his injunction after some marriage equality resisters argued that the Supreme Court’s decision applied only to states in the Sixth Circuit where Obergefell originated and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and other state officials made statements opposing the Supreme Court decision. The plaintif fs feared that Kansas would not give full effect to Obergefell’s “equality”

requirement, despite assurances by the state’s attorney that it would do so. Crabtree initially decided to give the state the benefit of the doubt, giving officials time to comply voluntarily. Though the state did issue marriage licenses, the plaintiffs alerted the court to two instances where officials refused to issue birth certificates listing both mothers of children born to

KANSAS, continued on p.43

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

DEFAMATION

Porn Diva Can Pursue HIV Libel Claim

Daily Mail Online faces suit it recklessly used stock photo in exposé BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD

unanimous three-judge federal appeals panel has blocked a newspaper company’s procedural motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a straight porn diva over the use of her picture to illustrate an article about HIV in the adult film industry. The panel of judges from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed District Judge George H. Wu’s decision denying what is known as anti-SLAPP motion by Associated Newspapers LTD, publishers of Daily Mail Online, which is being sued by “Danni Ashe,” whose real name is Leah Manzari. The porn star, who asserts, without contradiction from Associated Newspapers, that she is not HIV-positive, claimed the publication would lead readers to believe she was infected, and sought $3 million in damages for libel and “false light” invasion of privacy. The Ninth Circuit agreed with Wu that Manzari was likely to prevail on the merits of her claims, in a decision written by Judge M. Margaret McKeown. SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” and according to the legislative history of California’s anti-SLAPP statute, it was passed in response to “a disturbing increase in lawsuits brought primarily to chill the valid exercise of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and petition for the redress of grievances.” The law is intended to protect open discussion on issues of public importance from nuisance suits intended to discourage free speech. When faced with an anti-SLAPP motion, the burden falls on the plaintiff to establish that “there is a probability” they will prevail, a higher standard than typically required to pursue a claim. The Daily Mail Online, in 2013, published a story about a “shutdown of the Los Angeles-area porn industry” after a female performer, whose identity was not disclosed, tested positive for HIV. The article’s author, James Nye, asked the photo GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

desk to supply “some pictures representative of the pornographic film industry that contained no nudity” to illustrate the article and was provided with several “stock” photographs selected from the Corbis Images database. One of the images used was labeled as follows: “Soft porn actress Danni Ashe, founder of Danni.com, poses in front of a video camera connected to the Internet in one of her studios in Los Angeles in 2000.” In describing Nye’s article, McKeown wrote, “The headline read ‘PORN INDUSTRY SHUTS DOWN WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT AFTER “FEMALE PERFORMER” TESTS POSITIVE FOR HIV.’ After a few lines of text, the article contained a picture of Manzari lying suggestively across a bed with ‘In Bed With Danni” written in neon lights behind her. Under her photograph was the caption: ‘Moratorium: The porn industry in Califor nia was shocked on Wednesday by the announcement that a performer had tested HIVpositive.’” The article stated that “the performer was not immediately identified,” and “stock” photos depicting other porn actresses were also included. Neither Danni Ashe nor Manzari was named in the text of the article. Manzari’s attorney contacted Daily Mail Online when the article was published, demanding the photograph be removed. Daily Mail Online made the change on its website, but the damage had been done, according to Manzari. The original version of the article had been syndicated, and she claimed that a Google search returned the original version with her picture from websites around the world. Worse, the version that showed up on a search screen would have the headline and her photograph, without any of the explanatory text about the actress being “unknown.” As a result, she alleged, most of those who saw the article online would conclude that “Danni Ashe” was HIV-positive.

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DIVA, continued on p.17

MORSELS: Extra Butter, Extra Sugar

The overspillingly gay world of elite cake maker Ron Ben-Israel BY DONNA MINKOWITZ

Chef Ron Ben-Israel with two happy grooms.

Bloomingdale’s all made their way to the competition. Meanwhile Ben-Israel, whose cakes have been on the cover of O: the Oprah Magazine, New York magazine Weddings, and Modern Bride, and who was named Best Baker by Vogue, got to project a femininity I adore while also appearing as the enormous authority that he is. His persona became less forbidding in the second and third seasons, but perhaps even more feminine, appearing in the opening credits arranging the beautifully lifelike sugar flowers he is known for (purple roses, in this case) and smiling beatifically at the viewer, speaking-shouting “Aha!” and, later, “Abracadabra!” In one segment where the mandatory ingredient was baby formula, Ben-Israel told the contestants, “Remember, chefs, I’m a big baby with a sweet tooth! Pacify me! My next feeding is coming up!” The required “inspirations” remained thoroughly gay, from a sexy, slithering, muscular snake to a masked male acrobat, from an elite ballerina to “gorgeous real live firemen from the Bronx,” he told Gay City News in a recent interview, “hand-picked!” Ben-Israel, now a judge on Food Network’s “Cake Wars” and its “Halloween Baking Championship,” met me in his wedding-cake studio in the Garment District. “We used to call it the Schmatta District,” he said, sitting down with me in a beautiful, cool office decorated in muted tones, with a small brass figurine of the Hindu god Shiva on his shelf, dancing the universe

into creation by destroying the previous one. It was a gift from one of his pastry students. Handsome and unassuming in person, Ben-Israel told me he made it a point to come out to his commanders as soon as he went into the Israeli army for his mandatory military service in the mid-‘70s. “I was very much afraid of being bullied or physically hurt, because I knew people who were gay who were badly beaten up in the ar my or by the police. Being gay was illegal in Israel then. I couldn’t hide, so I thought if I came out, maybe they wouldn’t be able to make fun of me. And it worked.” Ben-Israel said he was outrageous in the IDF, putting his sexuality in everybody’s face. He brought a similar RON BEN-ISRAEL CAKES

SARAH MERIANS

s there something gay about the wild visual and tactile fantasies at play in dessert-making? “Of course, it’s a gay sensibility! We don’t say it in public anymore, but fuck them, of course it’s a gay sensibility!,” said Ron Ben-Israel, one of the most elite wedding-cake makers in America and the queerest queer to have ever starred in a TV food series. You’ll remember him as the madman behind “Sweet Genius,” the Food Network pastry-competition show where he subjected patissiers to amusingly cruel tests like making a cake with duck fat and fusilli that somehow reflected the artistic inspiration of a diamond. The surrealism of Ben-Israel’s tests seemed queer in itself: on the show, he made chefs confect chocolates out of Pop Rocks and beef jerky, inspired by a disco ball, and insisted on another occasion that they create a frozen dessert out of squid ink that also somehow got across the idea of butterflies. The tests for the four cheftestants went beyond “Chopped” — this was Dada. The show itself was far, far gayer than “Chopped,” regardless of the fact that that series also has an openly gay host and occasional LGBT contenders. “Chopped”’s chefs, whether lesbian, gay, or trans, duked it out in a macho fight-world all too similar to the sexist, gay-bashing world of restaurant kitchens. “Sweet Genius” was something new. On the first season, Ben-Israel reminded me of Paul Lynde, who thrilled me as a queer child by playing the fey warlock Uncle Arthur on “Bewitched.” Ben-Israel projected an androgynous wizardly authority that has always been rare on TV, entering the show robed in darkness and pressing the giant, thundering buzzer that would summon his mandatory ingredients and symbolic icons. “Be inspired by the bewildering objects I have selected! Be astonishingly creative with the mandatory ingredients I have chosen!” Looking otherworldly with odd-looking, mischievous eyes, a shaved head, and chef’s whites, the patissier (recognized by Martha Stewart, the International Culinary Center, and Brides magazine as one of the best in the US) got to act like the queen of the ball, saying to the viewer in his strong Israeli accent, “I am a sweet genius!” and then extending his powerful but slender hand, “Are you?” Despite the show’s theatricality, it was also dead serious: pastry chefs’ careers could be made by winning, and the executive patissiers of Buddakan, Morimoto, and David Burke at

BUTTER, continued on p.13

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

BUTTER , from p.12

BUTTER, continued on p.43

RON BEN-ISRAEL CAKES

scrappiness to the homophobia he experienced in restaurant kitchens. “I have a big mouth and I learned to defend myself, but places were abusive. There was so much discrimination — against Latins, Mexicans had to be the dishwasher, you could never really move up, and women, forget about it. I didn’t find the world of commercial cooking hospitable to anyone. How many famous black chefs do you know? We have to look at this.” Ben-Israel startled me by bringing up Quentin Crisp and Harry Hay: “I discovered Quentin Crisp’s books when I was in Israeli school, they were such a great source of hope to me. Then I had the privilege of meeting him after he came to New York. It was so wonderful to see him at the Center or even waiting for a bus, this aging man with purple hair and a big-brimmed hat who had made the choice, back before the Second World War, that he can’t hide it. With him you knew: he is gay.” Then he quoted Hay, the founder of one of the first gay rights groups in America, the Mattachine Society: “The work of homosexual liberation should come from us, we can’t expect it to come from the outside.” Ben-Israel amplified: “We have such an impulse to hate ourselves and put ourselves down, and you hear it in the bars. And more and more young kids kill themselves in shame!

And we can’t expect society to take care of it, we have to take care of it.” Ben-Israel is one of the few famous chefs in the country — you can count them on one hand — who has a history of actual, physical queer activism, not just sending a check now and then. He volunteered for Tom Duane’s early campaigns, and has gone to activist marches for years. “One of my most life-changing experiences was the lesbian and gay march on Washington in 1993.” One of the reasons he moved to Toronto for a year during his first career (as a dancer) was to be able to write for that city’s radical gay liberation newspaper, the Body Politic, which he had read for years. “It was a radical collective, very special.” In his dance and theater reviews in that paper, what I found most notable was Ben-Israel’s consistent feminism. In one 1984 review, he criticized the choreographer Paul-André Fortier for presenting female dancers who look like they “want it very, very badly” and get punished for it by angry-looking male dancers who “try to stick chairs into the women’s vaginas.” Later, Ben-Israel also wrote dance criticism for the New York Native, the gay newspaper that ran from the ‘80s through the mid-90s. “That was radical enough, and crazy.” A Ron Ben-Israel wedding cake made for “Sex and the City 2.”

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Above All, Donald Trump Is a Coward: Et Tu, GOP?

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Donald Trump is the kind of candidate who is always serving up yet another last straw. For many, it came right at his campaign’s get-go, when he stood in Trump Tower warning that Mexico was not “sending their best,” but instead “rapists.” A year later, he would call into question an Indiana-born federal judge’s fitness to preside over the Trump University fraud case, calling him a “Mexican” and a “hater.” For others, Trump disqualified himself years before, in 2011, when he was peddling absurd — and racist — birther theories about President Barack Obama’s citizenship. Many are rightly alarmed that Trump seemed this past weekend not to know that Russia occupied the Crimea region of Ukraine two years ago, or that he might be willing to cede

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people have written that.” “You tell me, but plenty of people have written that.” The man is tarring a Gold Star mother with a religious slur, and he doesn’t even have the courage to own the comment. “Plenty of people have written that.” This sort of vicious innuendo is the MO of a coward. Republican leaders recognize that, and some have spoken out forcefully, none more so than Arizona Senator John McCain, whose years as a POW in Viet Nam were similarly disrespected by Trump. As you read McCain’s full and powerful statement from Monday below, however, bear in mind the challenge raised by the president the following day: “I think what’s been interesting is the repeated denunciations of his statements by leading Republicans… And the question, I think, that they have to ask themselves is, if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?” ET TU, GOP?, continued on p.15

PERSPECTIVE: A Dyke Abroad

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that to his BFF Vladimir Putin — all the more unsettling given his disdain for honoring US commitments to NATO. LGBT Americans are understandably unnerved by Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s embrace of Trump, as well as the candidate’s list of potential Supreme Court appointees. And, of course, even many prominent Republicans joined millions of other Americans this week in shock over the attacks Trump is leveling at Khizr and Ghazala Khan — parents of Army Captain Humayun Khan, who in 2004 sacrificed his life protecting soldiers under his command in Iraq — after their appearance at the Democratic National Convention. But to me, what was most telling about Trump’s disgraceful comments about the Khans was the sniveling, disingenuous way he led off. “His wife, if you look at his wife, she was standing there,” he told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “She had nothing to say. She probably — maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me, but plenty of

BY KELLY COGSWELL

n 1992, failed presidential candidate Pat Buchanan went to the Republican National Convention and declared “ a r e l i g i o u s w a r. . . a culture war... for the soul of America.” America’s enemies? Radical feminists, environmentalists, homosexuals, and people of color. Though not all of them, because praising the “brave people of Koreatown” was a good way for him to slam the terrifying and cowardly — um, black —

mobs of the LA riots. It’s almost 25 years later, and we’re hearing the same refrain, but a hundred times louder, and in plainer, more dangerous speech. Independent women and feminists are fat, disgusting, threatening pigs. Latinos are rapists and criminals. Black people are thugs. Homos and trans people are pervs that need to be put back in their places by judges appointed specifically for that purpose. And of course, Muslims are terrorists who should be banned from immigrating, and subject to torture any time, any place.

Trump scares me, scares everyone I know. The Latino supers are out in the street talking about the tyrants he reminds them of. And I remember how the Republicans lost in ‘92 but still radicalized Christians nationwide, inspiring a hydra of anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-multicultural campaigns, each followed by violence. Because bigots don’t just hate ideas. They hate people in the flesh. They wish we all had AIDS. Were locked up in camps. They want to drag us behind trucks like James Byrd. Burn down our hous-

es with us in them like Hattie Mae Cohens and Brian Mock. Blow up our clubs and abortion clinics. Rape and emasculate black men like Abner Louima. And they never just have a single enemy. I learned in the first Culture War that hate is a habit, a worldview. The white anti-gay foes of the New York’s aborted Rainbow Curriculum like Mary Cummins also had racist agendas, freaking out over “chinks” daring to run for the school board. That’s why the long view demands that organizations and activists fighting for queers also work against racism, and misogyny, and anti-immigrant sentiment. (And vice versa.) And not

DYKE ABROAD, continued on p.15

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

ET TU, GOP?, from p.14

Here are McCain’s own words: “The Republican Party I know and love is the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan. “I wear a bracelet bearing the name of a fallen hero, Matthew Stanley, which his mother, Lynn, gave me in 2007, at a town hall meeting in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. His memory and the memory of our great leaders deserve better from me. “In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents. He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States — to say nothing of entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates. “Make no mistake: I do not valorize our military out of some unfamiliar instinct. I grew up in a military family, and have my own record of service, and have stayed closely engaged with our armed forces throughout my public career. In the American system, the military has value only inasmuch as it protects and defends the liberties of the people. “My father was a career naval officer, as was his father. For hundreds of years, every generation of McCains has served

DYKE ABROAD, from p.14

GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

Even the speeches designed for disaffected Republican consumption, insisting on her (relatively) “hawkish” creds to be commander-in-chief, also reiterated Clinton’s preference for the exercise of soft power abroad — at which she excels. They also strongly denounced torture, which should go without saying, but this is America post-Bush with Trump gung-ho for waterboarding. Less explicit at the convention was her commitment to economic equality. Sure, she’s an advocate for debt-free college, perhaps thanks to the Sanders campaign. But she’s gone further than the senator from Vermont, regularly consulting with the extremely progressive Roosevelt Institute. They not only develop concrete policy measures, they identify key appointed positions across government that could have an immediate impact on economic and racial equality. I’m not sure anybody cares. So many people just hate her. Just

States Army showed in his final moments that he was filled and motivated by this love. His name will live forever in American memory, as an example of true American greatness. “In the end, I am morally bound to speak only to the things that command my allegiance, and to which I have dedicated my life’s work: the Republican Party, and more importantly, the United States of America. I will not refrain from doing my utmost by those lights simply because it may benefit others with whom I disagree. “I claim no moral superiority over Donald Trump. I have a long and well-known public and private record for which I will have to answer at the Final Judgment, and I repose my hope in the promise of mercy and the moderation of age. I challenge the nominee to set the example for what our country can and should represent. “Arizona is watching. It is time for Donald Trump to set the example for our country and the future of the Republican Party. While our Party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us. “Lastly, I’d like to say to Mr. and Mrs. Khan: thank you for immigrating to America. We’re a better country because of you. And you are certainly right; your son was the best of America, and the memory of his sacrifice will make us a better nation — and he will never be forgotten.”

ERIN SCHAFF/ DNCC

just because any of these can and will explode into queer-bashing, but because the LGBTQ community reflects America at large. We rise and fall together. So in this year of the Culture War Redux, hell yes, I’m with Hillary, who’s already more “evolved” at this stage than the 2008 Obama, who campaigned with the same anti-gay preachers as George W. Bush. As for his policies on homeland and security, don’t even get me started. And yet, Obama turned out pretty good. This time, instead of positioning themselves to cater to the lowest element of the Republican party, the 2016 Clinton and the Democrats are going high. (Yes, I’m stealing FLOTUS’ line). Their convention featured a rainbow of speakers from trans women to the disabled. While I’m usually pretty cynical about this kind of circus, they seem like the party might actually be on board with a progressive agenda.

the United States in uniform. “My sons serve today, and I’m proud of them. My youngest served in the war that claimed Captain Khan’s life as well as in Afghanistan. I want them to be proud of me. I want to do the right thing by them and their comrades. “Humayun Khan did exactly that — and he did it for all the right reasons. This accomplished young man was not driven to service as a United States Army officer because he was compelled to by any material need. He was inspired as a young man by his reading of Thomas Jeffer son — and he wanted to give back to the country that had taken him and his parents in as immigrants when he was only two years old. “Captain Khan’s death in Iraq, on June 8th, 2004, was a shining example of the valor and bravery inculcated into our military. When a suicide bomber accelerated his vehicle toward a facility with hundreds of American soldiers, Captain Khan ordered his subordinates away from the danger. “Then he ran toward it. “The suicide bomber, striking prematurely, claimed the life of Captain Khan — and Captain Khan, through his selfless action and sacrifice, saved the lives of hundreds of his brothers and sisters. “Scripture tells us that ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ “Captain Humayun Khan of the United

Khizr Khan, holding his pocket copy of the US Constitution, and his wife, Ghazala Kahn, sit backstage prior to their appearance at the Democratic National Convention last week.

because. Or they dismiss as window-dressing the people of color front and center at the DNC that featured not just speeches by heavy hitters like Cory Booker or Michelle Obama, but even Black Lives Matter and the black mothers of the victims of racist violence. Clinton herself didn’t just speak vaguely of equality, but specifically denounced systemic racism. But so what? So what if

the leadership of the party is now in the hands of three formidable black women: Donna Brazile, Representative Marcia Fudge of Ohio, and the Reverend Leah Daughtry? I’m also seeing lefty sneers at the appearance by Khizr Khan, which in some ways may be more important than Clinton’s historic acceptance

DYKE ABROAD, continued on p.40

PERSPECTIVE: Media Circus

Prognosis Negative BY ED SIKOV

woke up this morning and realized that I was old and that the condition was terminal. “Prognosis negative!” as Bette Davis snaps in “Dark Victory.” (What’s that you say? Oh. Bette Davis was a movie star in the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. That’s the 1930s, 1940s… Gay men of that bygone era adored Davis for her idiosyncratic, highly imitable vocal delivery and gestures. You put an unexpected pitch change at the end of a sentence, all the while grinding your arm in an inexplicable circular movement. That’s Bette Davis. If you want to know more about Bette, you should read “Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis.” I forget who wrote it.) What prompted this revelation? Apps, specifically Buzzfeed and Snapchat. Buzzfeed is hell. Buzzfeed is House HOUSE Calls CALLS

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what happens when an entire generation has the attention span of a puppy. Snapchat is like Buzzfeed, only worse. At least Buzzfeed leaves a record of itself — an idiotic record, but a record. (There was this movie called “All About Eve,” see, and — oh, never mind.) With Snapchat, everything you say, every selfie you send, disappears, just like that. Snapchat is media quicksand. I’m scarcely the first person to propose that Buzzfeed is the greatest threat to journalism since Rupert Murdoch. The HBO series “The Newsroom” featured a subplot in which a Buzzfeed-like reporter enters the scene and proceeds to dumb down not only the content for which he is responsible but also, by proximity, the whole substance of Atlantis Cable News, the fictional all-news channel anchored by Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels). Of course, this Buzzy Bozo was villainous. He was fat and unattractive. Same day Service available

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This was an Aaron Sorkin production, and Sorkin isn’t subtle about which side he takes. Sorkin makes sure never to let the bad guys win, and he’s always good for a preachy, self-righteous conclusion. But he was right to be threatened by the Buzzfeed-esque goofball. Buzzfeed is the wretched equalizer; the same screen might offer a choice between a bit chronicling the Taylor Swift/ Kardashian family feud and one on Syrian refugees. A recent Buzzfeed article is “21 Things You’ll No If You’ve Got a Flat Bum But Not a Flat Tum.” Yes, the editors failed to notice the glaring typo in the headline. (Somebody corrected it after a commenter pointed it out.) This particular article is considered “relatable” content; the readers, or, better, skimmers, click on the teaser because they, too, have flat bums but not flat tums. Another recent story was a full investigation into the burning question of whether or not Bernie Sanders has a framed photograph of Harambe, the silverback gorilla who was martyred after a three-year-old boy fell into his pit, on his bookshelf. Buzzfeed used the occasion to skewer Twitter for its “trending” attention to l’affaire Harambe. “Bernie Sanders would have his dick out for harambe (sic),” opined a Twitter user who goes by the name “shit head.” Buzzfeed ultimately concluded that the photo of Harambe that seemed to grace Sanders’ bookshelf had in fact been Photoshopped in. OMG! WTF? ROFLMAO IMHO! Sensing the ludicrous nature of its own enterprise, Buzzfeed spun off a separate Buzzfeed News app, which is actually decent. The “articles” may be short, but at least they’ve got some substance. Snapchat, on the other hand, is cybernihilism. The whole point is that every message you send, every photo or video you share disappears a few seconds after it’s accessed. Nothing is permanent on Snapchat; nothing survives. Perhaps for this very reason, the app is tremendously popular with youth. You can’t get caught sexting if the sext vanishes in a matter of seconds. As a result of its popularity among youngsters, Snapchat launched something called Discover, which features content from more established media outlets —

serious outlets like Buzzfeed. Here’s how Snapchat defines the newly revamped Discover: “Snapchat combines the best of social networks, magazines, and television in a redesign of its omni-entertainment app. You’ll now see image and headline previews of the content inside Discover channels and Live stories on the Stories page, instead of just logos for the publishers or events they capture. The Discover page now features a Pinterest-style mason grid of tiles, while the Stories page now combines the two rows of static Discover channels and Live Stories into one scrollable row of non-friend content.” Oh. Um, I have no idea what that paragraph means.

A recent Buzzfeed article is “21 Things You’ll No If You’ve Got a Flat Bum But Not a Flat Tum.” Yes, the editors failed to notice the glaring typo in the headline. “Crank” It Up: “Attention on the poop deck. It seems our ‘first gay president’ intends to ‘milk,’ with pride, his fetish for all things ‘LGBT’ in the closing months (mercifully) of his catastrophic presidency. USNI News (U.S. Naval Institute) reports that the Obama Navy presumes to ram, without consent, the most reprehensible aspects of the extremist homosexual political agenda down the throats of a divided American public. The Navy is set to name a ship after the gay rights icon and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, according to a congressional notification obtained by USNI News.” One scarcely needs to be a Freudian analyst to note — with unrestrained laughter — the insistence of straight bigots to employ the trope “ram down the throats” whenever they discuss gay anything. This time the “writer” is named Matt Barber, and he’s “writing” for something called “Townhall.com.” He and his “editors”

MEDIA CIRCUS, continued on p.40

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

DIVA, from p.11

Daily Mail Online argued this was a frivolous lawsuit intended to chill its publication of a newsworthy story, and that the stock photograph was an appropriate illustration. Its attorneys pointed out that the publication never named Manzari or “Ashe” in the article or stated that the model in the picture was HIV-positive. They also pointed out that the article reported on an issue of public interest, and was thus entitled to strong First Amendment protection. “There is no serious dispute that the libel and false light suit targeted speech protected by the anti-SLAPP statute,” wrote McKeown, so “the burden shifts to Manzari to show a reasonable probability of prevailing on the merits.” Daily Mail Online also argued that Manzari, in the guise of Danni Ashe, should be treated as a “public figure,” which means there would be liability to her only if it was shown that the picture had been published with “actual malice” — that is, with knowledge that it communicated a false meaning or with reckless disregard as to the truth. Libel law traditionally presumes “actual injury” if a person is falsely depicted as having a “loathsome” disease, and sexually-transmitted diseases such as HIV generally fall into that category, or is falsely described in a way that would be harmful to their standing in the profession. The court’s opinion subscribes to this view regarding HIV implicitly, without any real discussion. The court instead focuses instead on other legal issues, including whether it makes a difference whether Manzari is a “public figure.” Here, the panel concluded that although Danni Ashe’s fame might be somewhat specialized, she nonetheless qualifies as a public figure, pointing to press references to Ashe supplied by Daily Mail Online. As a result, Manzari would have to show she could probably prevail on her claim that the false representation was made with “actual malice.” The court rejected Daily Mail Online’s argument that the article never mentioned Danni by name, since the picture itself had her first name in neon lights as background to her image. “The bold headline and its content, juxtaposed with her photograph and yet another caption GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

under her picture that said the industry was ‘shocked’ that a ‘performer had tested HIV positive,’ was sufficient for a reasonable reader to infer that Manzari was the performer who had tested positive for HIV,” wrote McKeown, treating this as an “implied” defamation case. Regarding the question of “actual malice,” it was clear that the Daily Mail Online had done nothing to determine whether the person in the photograph, who was clearly a porn actress, was HIV-positive. “This case rests on the ‘reckless disregard’ prong of actual malice,” McKeown wrote, adding, “We hold that Manzari has raised sufficient factual questions for a jury to conclude that the Daily Mail Online acted with reckless disregard for the defamatory implication in its article on the Los Angeles porn industry shutdown. Manzari’s evidence is sufficient to support her claim that the Daily Mail Online placed her photograph in the article, juxtaposed with the incendiary headline and caption, knowing or acting in reckless disregard of whether its words would be interpreted by the average reader as a false statement of fact.” The court gave little weight to the publisher denying it intended to communicate to readers that Manzari was HIV-positive. “If all a publisher needed to do was to deny the allegation, all implied defamation suits would be dead on arrival,” McKeown wrote. “If, for instance, a newspaper ran the headline: ‘High Profile Figure Accused of Murder’ alongside a photograph of the Mayor of New York City, or ‘Industry Shocked that Grocery Sprayed Veggies with Pesticide’ alongside an image of a nationally-known grocery chain, the publishers would be hard-pressed to plausibly claim that they had simply selected a ‘stock’ photograph. The same holds true for a story about the pornography industry, featuring a picture of a world-famous pornographic actress with her name written in neon lights.” McKeown concluded, “This sort of willful blindness cannot immunize publishers where they act with reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the implication they are making.” Though Daily Mail Online could appeal, it may well instead decide to offer a settlement to Manzari.

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A TIMELY, GUTSY FRINGE Taking on tinderbox topics like blacks, whites, cops, guns, stage fest hasn’t forgotten the gays BY DAVID KENNERLEY

David Leeper in Leeper and Sean Chandler’s “At the Flash.”

Moore keeps it real in his play by portraying both sides of the issue in fresh ways. The protagonist is not a gun control advocate, but a Christian conservative who is a staunch defender of the Second Amendment. He’s the one waiting for Obama (any echoes of “Waiting for Godot” are purely intentional). “I was not interested in writing a one-sided screed,” he said. “I wanted a fair fight.” The Theater at the 14th Street Y (344 E. 14th St.); Fri., Aug. 12, 5 p.m.; Sat. Aug. 13, 2 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 13, 9:15 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 14, 8:30 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 15, 6:45 p.m. Tony Jenkins, author of “Black Magic,” a drama based on spoken word poetry that explores the lives and souls of seven slain black men, is grateful for theater fests like FringeNYC. “I believe that the Fringe accepts and supports work that otherwise wouldn’t be funded,” he said. “It’s easy to get behind a tried and tested family musical and totally disregard another race play. Another controversial play. A play with queer people or a play that redistributes power from the majority. A play we assume won’t make any money in the mainstream.” As an openly gay playwright of color, Jenkins’ work has a highly distinctive bent rarely seen in theater, mainstream or otherwise. “This play gives space for the voices that we never hear,” he explained. “These black men, after their deaths, are defined and criticized and picked apart by the news cycle and are never able to tell their own stories. Corpses aren’t available for comment.” According to Jenkins, infusing queer themes into his work is “almost inescapable.” In “Black

FRINGENYC

he New York International Fringe Festival, now two decades old, is notorious for being a fount of frivolity. A quick perusal of this year’s nearly 200 offerings confirms this: “A Naked Brazilian,” “Humorously Horrendous Haunted Hideaway,” and “A Microwaved Burrito Filled with E. Coli.” But over the years, FringeNYC has developed a taste for the topical, staging edgy shows seemingly ripped from the headlines. Soon after the economic meltdown in 2008, there were plays featuring greedy Wall Streeters. A few years ago, there was a profusion of marriage equality plays, and last year it was transgender issues. This is the year of blacks, whites, cops, and guns. And more guns. Not that anyone should be surprised; the nimble Fringe is expert at tackling current issues well ahead of mainstream theater. John Moore, author of “Waiting for Obama,” a biting dramedy about a Colorado family convinced the president is coming for their guns, asserts that the Fringe fosters a different kind of creative process where artists can explore what is happening in the moment, go with it, and have it presented much more rapidly. “In the mainstream theater, it typically takes even a sure-fire new play at least two years to get read, liked, scheduled, developed, and finally staged,” he said. “As a result, live theater can often seem, well, two years behind the times.” There are only six months between submission and staging at FringeNYC, he explained. Moore is outraged that in such a brief period, the issue of gun violence in America has grown only more numbingly topical. “I keep hoping I’m done keeping my script up to date, but the insane fucking daily headlines keep sending me back to the keyboard to somehow incorporate the latest mass fucking tragedy,” he said. The devastating loss of lives at the hands of deranged gunmen has been covered extensively in the media. What does his piece add to the conversation? “None of those ongoing gun sprees is changing minds on the gun issue,” Moore said. “And if Sandy Hook didn’t change people’s minds on little issues like background checks, then why even talk about it at all? But I say if we can’t talk about these polarizing issues in our own living rooms for fear of a fight breaking out, then we must talk about them in a theater. That’s why theater exists.” As a lifelong journalist, it would have been easy for Moore to churn out a data-heavy polemic on the gun issue. But he was also the Denver Post theater critic for more than a decade and knows how to engage audiences. “No one gives a damn about statistics in a theater,” he said. “You have to make it real.”

Austin Jennings Boykin and Nicholas Cocchetto in Michael Bradley’s "The Illusory Adventures of a Dreamer.”

FRINGENYC 20th Annual New York International Fringe Festival The Present Company Various downtown venues Aug. 12-28 Performances are $18 FringeNYC.org

Magic,” two of the characters are gay, which adds a potent dimension to the Black Lives Matter movement. “There was no way to travel to the world of this play without encountering some black men who happened to be gay,” Jenkins said, adding that the first scene he wrote was explicitly queer by accident. “I found myself writing about a different kind of black love. These stories of dead gay black men felt even more silenced and more difficult to unearth. There is an epidemic of homophobia in the black community that remains mostly unchallenged. It is a subtle and destructive force. I am attempting to fight back.” The play wrestles with themes of forgiveness, sacrifice, loss of innocence, love, coming of age, self-discovery, reclamation, and equality. Yet Jenkins contends that the work is also a tribute to black love. “Black men loving black men, specifically and fiercely. The brotherhood. I don’t think we hear nearly enough about that,” he said. What does Jenkins hope audience members take away from “Black Magic?”

FRINGE, continued on p.36

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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FILM

The Last Picture Show Kurt Vincent’s doc on shuttered video arcade charts decline of communal life in Manhattan

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Chinatown Fair, where arcade games used to welcome a crush of youth, in Kurt Vincent’s “The Lost Arcade.”

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he appeal of Kurt Vincent’s documentary “The Lost Arcade,” a eulogy for Manhattan’s video arcade Chinatown Fair, might seem limited to gamers and people who grew up in the ‘80s. However, Vincent manages to speak to the ways New York has changed thanks to gentrification — and not for the better. As critic David Jenkins suggested, analog culture has been rudely shoved out of the streets; one can see this from the closures of Kim’s Video, St. Mark’s Books, and Other Music. It still hangs on in Brooklyn, where one hopes the colossal record and book store Rough Trade can stay afloat in Williamsburg and independent book stores can cope with increasing rents. We live in a culture where the options for buying books, DVDs, or music are downloading or ordering them from iTunes and Amazon most of the time. The Internet was supposed to expand our cultural options, not narrow them. “The Lost Arcade” offers a history of how gaming went from a social activity that took place in dodgy neighborhoods like ‘80s Times Square to an asocial home endeavor, played out on Nintendo or Sega machines. The film is a narrative documentary that starts by introduc-

ing us to a few of the people who played an important role in Chinatown Fair’s history. First and foremost is Pakistani-American owner Sam Palmer. There are also a number of kids, now approaching middle age, who discovered the place in the ‘80s and made it their home. One of them was literally homeless, having been rejected by a foster family, when he discovered the Times Square arcade Playland; its main attraction for him was the fact that he could find stray quarters underneath the machines, but he soon got hooked on video games themselves. Many Chinatown Fair devotees became employees, including Henry Cen. However, rising rents and the move to home gaming — which led to a decline in the release of arcade-only games — decimated Chinatown Fair’s ability to stay in business. Fortunately, some of its more creative fans came up with ways to keep social gaming afloat. Despite its location, Chinatown Fair didn’t cater solely to Chinese-American youth. In fact, it attracted a remarkably diverse crowd. I was waiting for a Wu-Tang Clan reference, and my patience was rewarded; Wu-Tang member Ol’ Dirty Bastard shot his video “Brooklyn Zoo” in Chinatown Fair. The arcade popped up in the media a few other times as well; its infamous tic-tac-toe playing chicken appeared on David Letterman’s talk show. Yet I sense that Chinatown Fair’s hardcore following didn’t care about these

ARCADE, continued on p.38

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

FILM

Finding Ourselves in Another Ray Yeung’s story of two Chinese men probes their feelings about ethnic identity, sexuality BY GARY M. KRAMER

GARY M. KRAMER: What prompted you to come up with this film and tell this story? RAY YEUNG: Basically, there are not that many gay Asian films out there. There’s a lack of diversity. The story to me is interesting to me because a lot of the Asians who live in the West try to live in a way that suppresses their ethnic heritage. In the gay scene, Asians are low in the hierarchy. So growing up as an Asian in the West you have to act as white as possible. GMK: “Front Cover” emphasizes national identity as much as it does sexual identity. Can you talk about that?

GMK: You have some pointed comments in your film about how Asian men are rarely seen as sex symbols or leading men. How do you want “Front Cover” to contribute to that conversation? RY: Asians are rarely seen modeling or selling perfume. We see a lot of Caucasians with sexy and virile images. Latin men, sure, but Asian men are seen as nerdy, feminine, or weak. Asian men when they are masculine are gangsters. They aren’t seen as sexy. Hollywood movies never have an Asian man as a romantic lead. Asians are computer experts or family men on TV, which is one of the best representations. But they are never sexy.

STRAND RELEASING

n writer/ director Ray Yeung’s fabulous “Front Cover,” Ryan (the charming Jake Choi) is an American-born Chinese fashion stylist who is proud of being gay, but feels ashamed about being Asian. He is assigned to work with Ning (the sexy James Chen), a proud Chinese actor promoting his new film in New York. The two men are “like fire and water,” with Ning telling Ryan “not to show his homo side.” But as the guys grow closer, an attraction develops that changes both of their perspectives on sexuality and ethnicity. Yeung spoke via Skype about the themes at work and play in his terrific romantic comedy-drama.

RY: There’s an inverted racism when you grow up where you not just suppress — but look down on — people of your own race. There is inherent racism for all ethnic minorities. To me, that issue is important. I grew up in Hong Kong, a British colony, so I looked up to things that are Western and white and suppressed my own heritage. I’ve been struggling with that all my life. I was sent to a boarding school in the UK and there were two Asians there, and it was hard to fit in at 15 and be accepted. Those things become important as Ryan is trying to fit in. Fashion is about putting up a front. That’s why I made Ryan a stylist. He can hide his insecurities and change his image.

Jake Choi and James Chen in Ray Yeung’s “Front Cover”

GMK: Your camera lingers on Ning when he is shirtless. Was that to emphasize his sex appeal? RY: Ryan is noticing a sexy Asian body and all that skin and smoothness surprises him. Asians are rarely sexy in Ryan’s mind, so when he looks at Ning, he thinks he’s sexy. GMK: Which is good, because when the guys have sex, it’s ambiguous whose body is being shown. RY: I think when they have the lovemaking scene, it’s not through a person’s point of view, it’s more about the union and passion that they have. I was trying to shoot the emotion that is between them rather than individual bodies.

FINDING OURSELVES, continued on p.38

Boys’ Life Ira Sachs’ “Little Men” is a story of friendship and disruption

“

ittle Men” is out gay filmmaker Ira Sachs’ sly, gentle comedy of manners. Not unlike his last film, “Love Is Strange,” this new drama deals with New York real estate, and like his first film, “The Delta,” it depicts the bonds that develop between two very different young men. Brian (Greg Kinnear), an actor, and his wife Kathy (Jennifer Ehle) move into his late father’s Brooklyn home with their sensitive teenGayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

age son, Jake (Theo Taplitz). On the ground floor of the residence is a dress stop run by Leonor (Paulina García). Leonor’s charismatic son Tony (Michael Barbieri), a wannabe actor, soon becomes fast friends with Jake. However, when Brian and his sister Audrey (Talia Balsam) want to raise Leonor’s rent, the relationship between the adults, as well as the boys, changes. Sachs immerses viewers in the lives of these characters as they all try to get what they want. The strong bond between the boys is palpable and tender and

MAGNOLIA PICTURES

BY GARY M. KRAMER

Michael Barbieri and Theo Taplitz in Ira Sachs’ “Little Men.”

provides the emotional heart of Sachs’ lovely film. The writer-director chatted about making “Little Men.” GARY M. KRAMER: After making “Love Is Strange” did you feel compelled to pursue another New York real estate story? IRA SACHS: I felt compelled

to pursue another story, another duet, about two men in New York City. But here, the ages are young boys. I fell upon real estate again. Nothing’s more interesting. Real estate is a place where money and home become the subjects.

LITTLE MEN, continued on p.32

BOOKS

When History Catches Up With Fiction Christopher Bram talks about how and when gay stories can best be told BY CHRISTOPHER MURRAY

CM: “Hold Tight” is the one novel of yours that I have yet to read. It takes place during World War II? CB: You’d love it. It’s about a sailor in a gay brothel in New York. One of the people I dedicated it to said, “But Chris, it’s your dirtiest novel!” I didn’t think it was that dirty. CM: I remember reading your novel “Almost History,” which is set largely in the Philippines during the Marcos regime, and being astonished when I found out that you’d never even been to that country. The writing and the descriptions of place and atmosphere were so vivid and compelling. CB: Well, I’ve never worked in a male brothel either! That’s one of the things I love about writing in the past: it frees my imagination to explore GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

GRAYWOLF PRESS

CHRISOPHER MURRAY: You wrote a novel entitled “Almost History,” and now you’ve written “The Art of History.” What’s up with that? CHRISTOPHER BRAM: I love history. I am a history nerd, I always have been. As a kid, I fell in love with history books long before I fell in love with fiction. I almost went to graduate school in history after I finished college, but found myself writing a novel instead. I forgot about grad school. But my second novel, “Hold Tight,” turned out to be an historical novel. I was delighted to discover I could combine my two great loves.

COURTESY: CHRISTOPHER BRAM

he celebrated gay author Christopher Bram has written nine novels — including “Father of Frankenstein,” made into the film “Gods and Monsters,” which earned screenwriter Bill Condon an Oscar and stars Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave nominations — and two works of nonfiction, including 2012’s “Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America,” a literary history of the second half of the 20th century. He and his partner of more than 30 years, the filmmaker Draper Shreeve, are longtime residents of Greenwich Village, where Bram recently sat down with Gay City News. The couple had a busy July, with Shreeve’s “Queer City” having tied for Best Documentary Feature at the qFLIX film festival in Philadelphia, and Bram’s publication of his newest nonfiction work, “The Art of History: Unlocking the Past in Fiction and Nonfiction.” Kirkus Reviews said of “The Art of History,” published by Graywolf Press, “Though Bram teaches at NYU, there’s no hint of academic stuffiness in a book that offers the joy of reading as well as praising it.”

Author and novelist Christopher Bram.

new experiences. In “Father of Frankenstein,” I was able to be a movie director in 1930s Hollywood. In “The Notorious Dr. August,” I could be a piano player who lives from the Civil War to the 1920s. I’ve always wanted to play the piano, but never could. CM: At the very beginning of the new book, you say, “The truth of the matter is that many people — maybe the majority — don’t like the past very much.” Why do you say that? CB: Well, because they don’t. The first chapter was originally going to be titled “Fear of History.” I regularly encounter people who don’t like to read history. All those strange names! All those foreign customs! And all those dates! It’s too much like math. For people like you and me, history gives us a whole new room to play in. But for many it’s unfamiliar and intimidating. They’re more comfortable in the present. CM: In talking to you about history, it’s apparent that it is vividly alive for you. I have a friend who once got so mad at a character in “Nicholas Nickleby” that she threw the book across the room. Have you ever defenestrated any books? Who is a figure from history that you’ve really, really hated? CB: I love books too much to throw them out of windows. Also our windows have screens. As for historical figures I hate? Napoleon. I don’t really hate him, but I don’t understand why anyone would hold him in high regard. He’s this bundle of energy but all he does is wage wars and invade

different countries, which results in the deaths of millions. To take just one example: he sent an army to Haiti with orders to lie to their leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture, seize him, and re-enslave the Haitians. We’re supposed to admire this man? He was a basically a butcher. I feel similarly about Alexander the Great. He sometimes loved men, but he didn’t really love Man. CM: Where would you take your time machine and who would you try to find? CB: Elizabethan England to meet Shakespeare. I recently read or reread several books by James Shapiro, the Shakespeare scholar up at Columbia University, including his newest book, “The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606.” I loved his earlier book “Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?” Shapiro gets into the history of the absurd debate about somebody else writing Shakespeare, beginning with Francis Bacon and ending with the Earl of Oxford. He’s very good humored about it all. Along the way he paints a rich, wonderful picture of the Elizabethan and Jacobean theater world. London was basically a small town packed with very talented people, giants in fact. I’d love to see that world firsthand, even though I’d expose myself to the bubonic plague. CM: In his play “The History Boys,” gay British playwright Alan Bennett has a character define history as “just one fucking thing after another.” What is gay history to you?

HISTORY, continued on p.33

THEATER

London Theater: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Imperialism, rebellion, infidelity, suicide on stage, along with our own Washington Heights BY ANDY HUMM

King Ugly, of course, is front and center in

I saw Fiennes play Frank Hardy quite well in “Faith Healer” in 2006 on Broadway, but Lyndsey Turner’s production at the Donmar Warehouse (to Aug. 20) sets a new standard for Brian Friel’s three-hander consisting of four monologues spoken directly to us. It’s the play that doesn’t sound as if it can work but miraculously does — even if you don’t believe in Frank’s occasional “miracles” with the ailing and deformed people who come to his tent for healing. Stephen Dillane is heartbreaking as Frank,

Helen McCrory in Terence Rattigan’s “The Deep Blue Sea,” directed by Carrie Cracknell.

Then there were the Ugly Americans. Alexi Kaye Campbell, whose debut gay-themed “The Pride” in ’08 wowed as did his screenplay for “Women in Gold,” is back at the National’s Dorfman with “Sunset at the Villa Thalia” (to Aug. 4) with Elizabeth McGovern (Lady Grantham!) and Ben Miles (“Wolf Hall” on Broadway). We’re in Campbell’s homeland, Greece, in 1967 during the military coup. McGovern and Miles, as someone who says he works for the State Department, are a middle-aged American couple having an impromptu visit (or is it?) with a young British couple played by Pippa Nixon and Sam Crane, as a playwright, at the Skiathos house they are staying in. Campbell’s drama is never less than engaging and entertaining as he blends the personal and the political — from large themes around the morality of US subversive activity in Greece and Chile and of profiting from people who sell at a loss when they are displaced to the emotional cost of abiding in a loveless relationship. Directed by Simon Godwin, this is a terrific play with a touching coda.

Between the devil and the deep blue sea is a pale blue set (by Tom Scutt) of a tenement filled with blue people in Carrie Cracknell’s take on Terence Rattigan’s mid-century classic “The Deep Blue Sea” (to Sep. 21 at the National’s L yttelton and in cinemas here through ntlive.com on Oct. 6, with encores), echoing her acclaimed revival of “A Doll’s House,” complete with scrims bringing rooms and neighbors outside of Hester Collyer’s home into her sad flat where she lies before the gas fireplace hoping to have died as the play opens. Helen McCrory plays Hester as neither heroine nor victim, exposing the fragility of war survivors in the land of stiff upper lips. (Her “Medea” in

ALASTAIR MUIR

Shakespeare’s “Richard III.” Ralph Fiennes brings a stunning blend of menace and hilarity to the role made even more intense by the intimacy of the Almeida Theatre in Islington (to Aug. 6 only, but let’s hope for a transfer to the West End and Broadway). Fiennes, often speaking from the very front of the stage, cajoles the audience into forgetting his moral deformity and rooting for his audaciously evil plots — hating ourselves for laughing at his twisted commentary. It’s not unlike some Trump rallies (with Finbar Lynch as Buckingham — Richard’s lead henchman, reminiscent of Trump’s deposed manager Corey Lewandowski) — though Shakespeare’s poetry rises infinitely higher than anything coming from The Donald and his crew. Rupert Goold directs Fiennes and a fine ensemble including veterans Vanessa Redgrave as an exceedingly bonkers Queen Margaret, Susan Engel strong as Richard’s mum, the Duchess of York, and Aislin McGuckin as Queen Elizabeth — whose little princes Richard has had murdered — matching his ferocity.

RICHARD HUBERT SMITH

hile not all those who voted for the Britain to leave Europe were xenophobes, the vote for Brexit did unleash a disturbing wave of attacks on people perceived as different — from violence against Muslims on buses to a Polish waitress being told to go back where she came from to a gay friend being called a “poofter” on the street for the first time in his life. Things got ugly quick — and themes of ugliness seemed to dominate a week of excellent theater in London.

the rural king of chicanery, as he bares his secrets, doubts, and deepest fears. And Gina McKee is something beyond that as his long-suffering mistress/ wife Grace. But Ron Cook as manager Teddy is a tour de force, delivering an epic discourse on show business and the people in it that is just, to use one of his favorite words, “fantastic.” Loved it so much I bought the play text, unwilling as I was to take my attention from these performances for a second to jot down a note.

Gillian Wright and Nicholas Le Prevost in Alan Ayckbourn’s “How The Other Half Loves,” directed by Bill Kenwright.

2014, also directed by Cracknell, was similarly wrenching.) Rattigan wrote the play in response to the suicide of his ex-partner, but by the time it premiered in 1952 it had been de-gayed. Daring in post-war Britain for its treatment of suicide and living together without benefit of marriage, these are now themes dealt with constantly in network TV soaps, which also present gay characters without fear of censorship. While Hester is a pre-feminist creation, Rattigan’s exploration of the grip that love (or desire or obsession or whatever you decide has driven her to the brink) has on her is something to which most all of us can relate. A good supporting cast, notably Nick Fletcher as Mr. Miller, the foreign-accented neighbor who is not a doctor but is most capable of healing.

LONDON, continued on p.29

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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Tom Vaughan-Lawlor in Sean O’Casey’s “The Plough and the Stars,” co-directed by Howard Davies and Jeremy Herrin.

LONDON, from p.28

One hundred years after the

Irish Easter Rising against British oppression, Sean O’Casey’s

“The Plough and the Stars” (to Oct. 22), set in the year before and then during the rebellion, invades the L yttelton co-directed by Howard Davies and Jeremy Herrin, two of the National’s stars. O’Casey, who fell out with the rebels over their putting nationalism over socialism, gets back at his former comrades by satirizing them so it is understandable that the play caused riots in 1926, so soon afterwards — and led to O’Casey exiling himself to England. This combination comedy and melodrama is perhaps not the best introduction to the rebellion, even if it was conducted by a gang that couldn’t shoot straight led by gay poet Padraig Pearse and gay gunrunner Roger Casement, both of

whom were among the 15 leaders executed by the British. O’Casey tells the story through average people in Dublin — some ridiculous, most poor, some loyal to the crown, others hoping to be part of a people’s revolution that was sweeping Europe. The National has assembled a fine Irish ensemble to recreate the chaos of 1916 and what led up to it, but I agree with the rioters of ’26 that the subject needs a more serious treatment — not that O’Casey does not get deadly serious by play’s end.

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Prolific Alan Ayckbourn is back in the West End with his side-splitting and breathtakingly constructed 1969 infidelity farce, “How The Other Half Loves,” at the Duke of York’s (to Oct. 1), directed by Bill Kenwright with a cast led by Nich-

LONDON, continued on p.38

MANUEL HARLAN

Elizabeth McGovern and Ben Miles in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s “Sunset at the Villa Thalia,” directed by Simon Godwin.

GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

THEATER

JAMES HIGGINS

T. CHARLES ERICKSON

Jefferson Mays and Jennifer Ehle in J.T. Rogers’ “Oslo,” directed by Bartlett Sher, at Lincoln Center through August 28, and then transferring to Broadway in the spring.

Declan Conlon and Patrick O’Kane in Owen McCafferty’s “Quietly,” at the Irish Rep.

The Highest Stakes Brilliant historical thriller in Norway, self-indulgence in Belfast, just plain crass in Virginia BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE

f the prospect of sitting through three hours of Mideast political negotiations on a sultry summer night seems daunting, I understand. But you should not miss this fascinating play about the 1993 Oslo Accords, a most unlikely peace negotiated between Israel and Palestine in Norway. On the surface, “Oslo” is the literal story of how a Norwegian diplomat, Terje Rod-Larsen, and his wife, Mona Juul, brought these legendary adversaries together to talk away from the world’s spotlight. The advances, reversals, negotiations, fights, and ultimately agreement that occurred over the course of about 18 months are beautifully chronicled in J.T. Rogers’ script. This is also a very human story of people who set out to do great things and change the world and must do battle with their histories and identities along the way. It is not an easy peace that is forged but one dependent on a willingness to bend, the need to save face, and the advantages of “constructive ambiguity” in a treaty. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the subject matter, Rogers writes with great good humor and sustained tension. This is a cloak-anddagger political thriller — though on

a small scale on Michael Yeargan’s economical set — where common ground is found through the common consumption of scotch and waffles. Indeed, it’s Rogers’ ability to make these quotidian touches so effective at illuminating character that makes the sausage-making of diplomacy and the crafting of policy so accessible and the play so fascinating. The events of the play, which were conducted in private and shrouded in secrecy, are punctuated by reminders of the devastating history of violence between Israel and Palestine conveyed through a series of chilling projections. This context makes the moment of agreement among the most compelling theater of recent memory — and the heartbreak that the accords did not hold even more distressing. Bartlett Sher has directed brilliantly. He remains the master of finding the human center of outsized characters — as he does in the musicals he directs. He is helped by a stellar cast that includes a magnificent performance by Jefferson Mays as Rod-Larsen and a brilliantly understated, grounded, and powerful portrayal of Juul by Jennifer Ehle. They provide a stabilizing, if sometimes appealingly idiosyncratic force against the more dramatic actions of Israeli cabinet member Uri

Savir, in a remarkable rock-star performance from Michael Aronov, and Ahmed Qurei, the Palestine Liberation Organization finance minister, given a more restrained but incisive characterization by Anthony Azizi. Though the current Lincoln Center production is almost completely sold out, the production is moving to the Vivian Beaumont on Broadway next March. It’s not too early to book your seats.

“Quietly” is a tale of anger and forgiveness in present-day Belfast, but with echoes that reach back more than 40 years. Ian has agreed to meet Jimmy in a bar to talk about the events of 1974, when Ian, then 16, threw a bomb into the same bar, killing Jimmy’s father and four others. Over the course of the 75-minute play, the characters tell their stories, air their grievances, and describe how both their lives have been shattered by this event. For all the angst-ridden soul-baring that goes into this talky hour and a quarter, Owen McCafferty’s play seems contrived. Would these men have really met? What are they seeking? What will come out of this meeting? These are the basic questions the playwright should ask

OSLO Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater 150 W. 65th St. Through Aug. 28 Tue., Thu. at 7 p.m. Wed., Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m. Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m. $107; telecharge.com Or 212-239-6200 Three hrs., with two intermissions

QUIETLY Irish Repertory Theatre 132 W. 22nd St. Through Sep. 11 Tue., Thu. at 7 p.m. Wed., Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m. Wed., Sat.-Sun. at 3 p.m. $50-$70; ovationtix.com Or 212-727-2737 75 mins., no intermission

BUTLER 59E59 Theaters 59 E. 59th St. Through Aug. 28 Tue-Thu. at 7 p.m. Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m. Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m. $25-$70; ticketcentral.com Or 212-279-4200 Two hrs., with intermission

STAKES, continued on p.31

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

OPERA

Italian Composer, Japanese Geisha Girl Bard SummerScape revives Pietro Mascagni’s “Iris,” a long-ago repertory standard

CORY WEAVER

Gerard Schneider, Douglas Williams, and Talise Trevigne in James Darrah’s production of Pietro Mascagni’s “Iris” at Bard SummerScape.

BY ELI JACOBSON

n the early 1880s, two young Italian composers studied together at the Milan Conservatory, sharing an apartment and living the bohemian life of struggling artists. Their names were Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini, and for a time they led parallel lives. Five years younger than Puccini, Mascagni found success first in 1889 with his one-act “Cavalleria Rusticana”, a gritty melodrama set on the mean streets of Sicily. “Cavalleria” inaugurated the verismo movement, and Mascagni spent the rest of his career trying to duplicate its success. The verismo label is applied indiscriminately to Italian operas written in the last quarter of the 19th century. But the musical styles of the verismo school composers show the international influences of Massenet, Strauss, and Wagner and their dramatic subjects vary widely. Mascagni himself diverged from the Zola-like realism of “Cavalleria” with historical tragedies, 18th century comedies, sentimental rustic romances, and the oriental symbolist opera “Iris.” A stylized drama of an inno-

STAKES, from p.30

but appears not to have. So, rather than a dramatic arc, we get a lot of posturing and yelling. We certainly understand that these men have been severely damaged by the events of four decades before that shaped their lives, but it isn’t really enough to make a compelling play. Neither character is sympathetic beyond his wounds, and though they shake hands at the end there is GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

cent Japanese girl abducted and ruined by corrupt men, “Iris” was a huge success at its 1898 premiere and was considered Mascagni’s full-length masterpiece. It remained in the standard repertory in Italy and South America until World War II. Puccini eventually hit it big in 1893 with “Manon Lescaut” and went on to write hit opera after hit opera. One notable Puccini flop was “Madama Butterfly”, another oriental tragedy concerning an innocent Japanese girl that was booed off the La Scala stage at its 1904 world premiere. “Butterfly,” however, proved hardier after Puccini repaired her broken wings in multiple revisions until success was achieved at the Metropolitan Opera and worldwide. “Iris” was initially more popular and successful than “Butterfly” in Italy but faded from the repertory in the mid-20th century along with Mascagni’s other non-“Cavalleria” operas. Meanwhile, Puccini’s operas never leave the repertory: “Butterfly” was revived at the Met just last season while “Iris” was last performed there in 1931. “Iris” was revived this summer as the centerpiece of the “Puccini and his World” theme of the

no resolution and no insight into why there may not have been. The playwright has opted for pyrotechnics rather than probing character development. A litany of hurts and resentments is not an alternative to more substantive insights. The actors Patrick O’Kane as Jimmy and Declan Conlon as Ian approach their roles with force and focus, but despite the theatricality of the work, the hearts of these men always stay distant. There is anoth-

Bard SummerScape 2016 Festival curated by Dr. Leon Botstein. However, despite what Botstein’s program notes say, Bard’s fully-staged “Iris” production is not “the first major professional North American staging in nearly a century.” Alfredo Silipigni of the New Jersey State Opera presented a staged production in Newark in 1988 with Adriana Maliponte and Jerome Hines. The enterprising Teatro Grattacielo programmed a semi-staged concert a decade later — both of these productions were more than professional. Not only does “Iris” share subject matter with “Butterfly” but it shared one of its librettists, Luigi Illica. Illica’s libretto for “Iris” has elements of symbolist drama: the characters are archetypes rather than individuals in a Japan that is more fantasy than reality. The title heroine is a pure flower — a child of nature who longs for the rays of the sun. The urban roués who abduct and attempt to defile her in a Tokyo brothel are named after Japanese cities — Osaka and Kyoto. Iris’ bigoted, unforgiving blind father is simply named “Il Cieco” — the blind one. The story, however, is not derived from a Japanese source and is late 19th century European in tone and outlook. The final act, set in a sewer, baffled early audiences with its expressionist elements — we don’t know if what we see is real or in the mind of the dying heroine. Mascagni’s impressionistic score has elements of Wagner (low rumbling double basses in the preludes to the first and last acts lifted straight from the “Ring” operas) and Massenet’s fragile French exoticism. Mascagni stretches harmony to the limit, creating a sense of suspended time. The orchestration is lush, inventive, and sweepingly romantic with sprinklings of Japanese instruments and folk melodies as in Puccini’s later “Butterfly” and “Turandot.” Familiar excerpts include the inspiring choral “Hymn to the Sun” that opens and concludes the opera and Osaka’s tenor serenade “Apri la tua finestra,” which is programmed on vocal recitals. But there are many other haunting melodic pages in this score.

er character, a Polish bartender played by Robert Zawadzki, but he, like the audience, is relegated to the role of passive observer who remains unmoved.

Given the current political climate, someone involved in the production of “Butler” might have considered that attempting to stage a comedy about slavery is either tone-deaf, cynical, or both. The play, by Richard Stand, is the story

OPERA, continued on p.35

of a runaway slave seeking sanctuary at Fort Monroe in Virginia, right before the start of the Civil War, the day after Virginia seceded from the Union. The story turns on how one General Butler ostensibly saves the slave Shepard Mallory from being returned to his owner in the South. Butler, it turns out, is a lawyer, and he interprets the Articles of War to prevent Shepard from being

STAKES, continued on p.34

Summer LGBT

Business Networking

The Manhattan Chamber LGBT Business Network and Harlem Pride are hosting a professional networking event at Alibi Lounge, a new gay-owned lounge in Harlem. Come meet LGBT professionals and see firsthand how the neighborhood is growing with new dynamic businesses. Out in Tech will be joining us to give some insights on how they unite and showcase the LGBT technology sector. Five people will be selected to give a chance to “toot their horn” by giving a 3 minute presentation on their business. Enjoy drink specials and light food. Prizes will be raffled off!

Celebrating LGBTQ Leaders

Wednesday, August 10, 6pm - 9pm Alibi Lounge 2376 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (at West 139th Street), NYC Harlem Pride & Public Advocate Register in advance: Letitia James to www.manhattancc.org/events/Summer-LGBThonor leading LGBTQ businesses, Business-Networking-in-Harlem-2444/details entrepreneurs, & charities.

LITTLE MEN, from p.21

GMK: Like “The Delta,” this is a film about two young men, class, and sexuality. Can you discuss how these themes form a throughline in your work? IS: The issues of class, race, and sexuality speak to me. I’m interested in those questions. Sexuality, race, and class define character as well as create drama. If you are attentive to the world with that particular viewpoint, those are the stories you find. The subject of the film is also about filmmaking in this time and as part of this system. I think that’s more relevant for gay people: How valuable are our stories? GMK: What can you say about the dynamic between Tony and Jake? One is sensitive and polite, the other confident and cocky. Why are they such fast friends? IS: I think Tony sees a friend, an artist, someone who has some of what he wants: a playmate, a mentee — someone he can teach. Jake has a life that looks good to Tony. And I think Tony is like Tony Manero: You judge him on the surface, but he’s a very good actor. He has a real sensitivity, and it comes from understanding people. Theo said that Tony gives Jake access to all these worlds. He’s an inherently curious boy. There’s a lot in this relationship that mirrors the characters in “The Delta.” The Vietnamese character in that film says, “If I wasn’t gay, would you know me?” In childhood you cross lines that you can’t when you’re older. “Little Men” had a more overt sexual component — not a sexual relationship, it was a more an explicit understanding — but it felt imposed and not natural to define their sexuality. I want to make a film that is attentive to who the people are, not just the characters.

GMK: Can you talk about the contrast between the adults versus Interested in tooting your horn? the boys? Email events@manhattancc.org IS: There’s conflict between the adults, but the drama is when the June 15 at Hyacinth’s Haven adult world intrudes on the kids. networking from 6-8pm • free appetizers Their openness is taken away from drink specials • raffle prizes them by the element of money, difference, class, judgment — all these things get in the way of something www.gaycitynews.nyc www.manhattancclgbt.org www.pubadvocate.nyc.gov that is quite pure between these 212 473 7875 • manhattancc.org/lgbt West 139th St. & Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd

MAGNOLIA PICTURES

in Harlem

Filmmaker Ira Sachs.

LITTLE MEN Directed by Ira Sachs Magnolia Pictures Opens Aug. 5 IFC Center 323 Sixth Ave. at W. Third St. ifccenter.com Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Film Society of Lincoln Center 144 W. 65th St. filmlinc.com

two boys. GMK: What are your thoughts on parent/ child relationships? Brian wants to be a much better dad to Jake than it seems that he was as a son to his father. IS: I think each character in the film is trying to be who they want to be in the eyes of others; Tony, Brian, and Leonor. Each of them fails in their expectations for themselves. In the last act, they become closest to whom they are most essentially and more comfortably. Brian is a little man who becomes a bigger man. How we feel against our parents is very key to gay men, who may feel they disappoint their parents. Being gay has altered their parents’ perspectives. Children inherently disappoint their parents, and parents disappoint their kids. GMK: What are your observations on youth as a parent yourself? IS: My kids are four, so I’m seeing the burgeoning creation of youth. I’m seeing the moment between infant and child. The hardest thing is to have distance on your kids and let them become who they are. You want to save them from pain.

LITTLE MEN, continued on p.33

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

HISTORY, from p.27

CM: In “The Art of History,” you have some interesting things to say about written depictions of homosexuality: “Homosexuality is one area where fiction can complete what history, until recently, could only begin. The subject was taboo and the record sparse. But Mary Renault was able to flesh out — literally — the same-sex love of the ancient Greeks in such novels as “The Last of the Wine” and, gaudier and more exotic, “The Persian Boy.” Doris Grumbach took us inside the lives of the mysterious eighteenth-century ‘spinster’ couple known as the Ladies of Llangollen in her novel ‘The Ladies.’ There is a hypothetical what-if at the center of these books, an educated guessing at details, yet these men and women make more sense when their missing sexuality is included than when it was left blank.” CB: It goes back to the old privacy of gay life. At its most basic, gay history is love stories, lots of private love stories. Fiction has always been much better at love stories than history is. Which is why fiction usually does a better job with gay experience. As gay life becomes more public, and more political, however, we see great nonfiction accounts. One of my favorites is “Coming Out Under Fire” by Allan Berube, about gay life during World War II.

LITTLE MEN, from p.32

GMK: There are lines in the film about “being adaptable” and “letting go.” Can you talk about your approach to the material, which really breathes? IS: I’m the filmmaker, and you talk about if a film is a queer film or not a queer film. This is a queer film to me. The eye of the filmmaker is a gay man and that is specific to me. Letting go comes with maturity. You trust instincts and systems more than you maybe trust ideas. PeoGayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

CM: But we are clearly living through an epochal moment in gay history now. Such that it’s hard as an LGBT person living in New York City not to show up at the Stonewall after the Pulse nightclub massacre, not to be a living part of living history. CB: You’re right. It’s been an amazing year. After the Supreme Court approved same-sex marriage, many people thought the battles over gay rights were over. It was old history now. We were no longer an issue, we were part of the mainstream. I never thought that myself, but I never dreamed a massacre in Florida could show not only how many friends we now have, but how many enemies are still out there. We gathered in protest and mourning at the Stonewall, where we had gathered in celebration five years earlier when New York State passed gay marriage. Meanwhile, it’s been grotesque how the Republicans interpret the concept of religious freedom as the freedom to discriminate against gays, especially those who want to get married. This year’s Republican platform is full of anti-gay and anti-trans planks. It’s so bad that even those delusional Pollyannas, the Log Cabin Republicans, are appalled. It’d be wonderful if gay struggles were all past history now, but the GOP keeps them alive. CM: Your Gramma Mac and high school English teacher Mrs. Comstock are the benign hovering angels over “The Art of History.” You even have dedicated the book to your grandmother and in the first chapter you quote Jane Austen writing in “Northanger Abbey”: “But history, real solemn history I cannot be interested in… The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all.”

ple respond to the maturity around how the story is told. There’s a rigor, but it’s more relaxed. GMK: Can you talk about codes of masculinity in “Little Men”? IS: I guess those things were so important to me as a 12 to 13-yearold who went from pretty much an all-girls school to an all-boys school. It was traumatic for me as a gay kid who grew up in a family of women. How do I feel as a gay man in a heterosexual film industry? There’s an alienation that one

COURTESY: CHRISTOPHER BRAM

CB: Gay history is chiefly the actions of gay people. The tricky question is, what counts as a gay person? How gay do you have to be? A little bit of gay goes a long way… [Laughter.] I’m joking, but I’m serious, too. All it takes is a crush, a kiss, a romantic friendship, a shared bed. Much of that is so private it is almost invisible in history. There’s also the fear, the repression, the short bursts of persecution — luckily, they appear to happen mainly in short bursts. Only in the 20th century did this private life become so open it could be political.

The institutional history there is about the anti-gay campaigns waged by the military. The real gay history is the many private love stories that endured. And then after the war, the first gay activist organizations begin to take shape.

The future writer as a Boy Scout.

THE ART OF HISTORY: UNLOCKING THE PAST IN FICTION AND NONFICTION By Christopher Bram Graywolf Press $12; 184 pages

CB: [Laughing.] I used the same Jane Austen quote as the epigraph for “Almost History.” The protagonist is a gay man in the State Department, but the second lead is his niece, who becomes an historian. It’s ironic that two women played the biggest role in opening my eyes to history. Because until recently history has been primarily a macho male domain. But they opened my eyes to a different kind of history. Maybe with more women involved, history will become less brutal. It won’t be perfect, but it’ll be more civil and less bloody. In a few months, unless we’re very unlucky, the United States will elect its first woman president. About time, too. I wonder what Jane and Mrs. Comstock and my grandmother would make of it.

feels whatever identity you have. I’m interested in liberating those things, and in this world I did that through theater. I was involved in children’s theater in Memphis and I was free there. The kids were black and white, gay and straight, rich and poor. I felt more alive in that world — which is hard to replicate. Theater is where I felt that art was where I felt alive. GMK: This film is almost obliquely queer. You seem to alternate between making films with queer

content and telling stories that are sensitive, but not sexual. Can you talk about that thread of your work? IS: I think it’s complicated what I respond to, what I feel, and what stories I’m interested in. I’m not attuned to the market forces. Individually I’ve spent half my life to create opportunities for LGBT artists to make work that is not for profit. Queer art. Capitalism doesn’t value our stories. That means you have to find other reasons and possibilities.

CABARET

Tom Goss Confronts His Fears Tackling tough issues, singer/ songwriter goes personal but focuses on the positive BY GARY M. KRAMER

ut singer and songwriter Tom Goss, touring in support of his sixth album, “What Doesn’t Break, performs at the Metropolitan Room in Chelsea this month. Probably best known for his jaunty song “Bears,” Goss takes a darker direction with this CD, with songs revealing a troubled childhood but also anthems of strength and resilience, as well. The artist chatted about his music in a recent Skype session.

GMK: How you do balance giving fans what they expect from you and growing as a musician and doing different things? TG: I am who I am, and I am always going to be. You’re not going to pick up a Tom Goss record and think you’ll get someone else. I strive to put positive energy into the world and create

STAKES, from p.31

returned. All very well and good, but the interpretation still turns on Shepard being property, and though Butler is motivated to save Shepard from certain death the tone is all wrong. Strand imagines the interaction between the two men as a war of wits, with vaudeville style bits, over-the-top slow burns, and comic banter. It’s as offensive to attempt

GMK: Can you talk about the different genres of music you play? I’m curious how you create songs — do the lyrics or music come first? TG: I experiment with different rhythms and sounds. I’d get bored otherwise. My songs all come together at the same time. “Someone Else” is super simple; it’s mostly the loop of a riff. I sit with the riff and it evokes a kind of emotion. I don’t say, “I’m going to write a song about elephants.” I sit with the guitar and play something. I play a chord and that evokes a feeling, and then the lyrics come from that. It’s pretty organic and fluid. GMK: Do you feel you have to sing gay songs because you are a gay singer, with a gay fan base? TG: I don’t feel like I write gay songs. I write songs. I don’t know that songs have a sexual identity. I write from my personal experience. I’m a gay man married to another man. A song like “Bears” taps into a gay audience, but I don’t think it’s a gay love song. It’s a love song. I talk about love without using male pronouns. I would never use a female pronoun. I wouldn’t pretend I’m something that I’m not. The amazing thing about music is that you can hear a song and it drops your walls and hits you in your heart, and you feel you have the same emotions. I try to speak about truisms that we all have that are relatable and accessible to anyone who would listen. Even instrumental music has that ability. GMK: I love the track “Someone Else” which is a real “Fuck You” anthem to an adulterer. Do you feel a need to be edgier? TG: It’s funny. There have been several times in my career I thought: Do I need to be more edgy? No. I have felt I could be edgier, but I am who I am: a good wholesome Midwestern guy

to make light of the real dangers slaves faced trying to get away as it is to romanticize the reality of slavery. As it happens, I saw this production the same day Bill O’Reilly on Fox said that the slaves who built the White House were well fed, as if that possibility mitigated the fact that they were slaves. Director Joseph Discher has directed this as if it were a Kaufman and Hart play or a tacky sitcom, and the performances match the

VENFIELD 8

GARY M. KRAMER: Your songs are mostly personal stories. “Mama” is about your family. What inspires you to tell these stories through song? TOM GOSS: I’m not sure I have any other option at this point! I tell stories about what I know and my life. In that regard, when I sit down to write, I draw from my personal experience. I’ve always been writing those songs, I just haven’t been releasing them! [Laughs.] “Mama” is a hard one. It’s about fear of rejection, something that we all feel as gay men. We fear it because we have felt it. It can come again at any time. Sometimes our families reject us because they don’t understand us. We shouldn’t have to struggle with this, but we do. Is my mother or brother or father going to love me anymore when they fully understand who I am? What kind of question is that? That they may throw me away as a result of that? That was a hard song to release because it speaks to those moments in my life. At the same time, I don’t want to throw my family under the bus, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a struggle at times.

positive change. Even in songs like “Thirteen” or “Someone Else” or “Mama,” there is that positivity that is peeking through. Though the production is different or the music is different, I’m not betraying who I am as a singer/ songwriter.

Tom Goss takes the stage at the Metropolitan Room on August 13.

TOM GOSS The Metropolitan Room 32 W 22nd St. Aug. 13 at 4 p.m. $20; metropolitanroom.com Plus a two-drink minimum

who speaks honestly about love and relationships. This record does have more edge to it, but it is still a true representation of me. GMK: What can people expect from seeing you in concert? TG: They can expect these songs stripped down to the core of their message. They can expect strong storytelling and hearing why these songs are important to and resonate with me. I get to show you a piece of myself and make an entire room happy.

style. Ames Adamson as Butler is insufferable. He plays the role as if he were in a Looney Tunes cartoon, a cross between Yosemite Sam and Foghorn Leghorn — with due apologies to those comic icons. John G. Williams as Mallory is reduced to a stereotypical wisecracking character. We’re supposed to think he has an irrepressible spirit and can’t help himself, but it’s not believable, particularly when he bares the scars on his back from being

whipped. The other two characters, Lieutenant Kelly, Butler’s adjutant played by Benjamin Sterling, and Major Cary, sent for Shepard by his owner and played by David Sitler, exist for the other two to bounce jokes off. Again, pure sitcom drivel. It’s almost unthinkable that a company could defend mounting a play this insensitive and demeaning in 2016, but, then, a lot of what’s happening around us in today’s world is also unthinkable. August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

TELEVISION

Finding Something Close to Adulthood HBO’s “Looking” bids farewell to Patty and the gang BY MICHAEL SHIREY

“

OPERA, from p.31

James Darrah’s production at Bard freed the opera from its Japanese milieu, setting it in an unspecific time and place. The tale might be happening in Africa, as with the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls, or anywhere in China, India, or Eastern Europe where young rural girls are abducted and trafficked. Darrah also didn’t shy away from the opera’s expressionist and symbolist elements evoking ancient Greek theater and surrealist art. Botstein’s conducting emphasized the invention and sweep of Mascagni’s eclectic yet very Italian score. The voices were all capable and fresh. Talise Trevigne in the title role unleashed GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

HBO

o, is it good to be back?” That’s the very selfaware opening line of HBO’s “Looking: The Movie,” addressed as much to the audience as it is to the show’s main character, Patrick (Jonathan Groff). “Looking: The Movie” is the final installment of HBO’s troubled series about three gay men living in San Francisco. When it premiered in 2014, “Looking” received mixed reviews from critics and struggled to find an audience. It was canceled after just two seasons. Despite the apparent lack of audience, HBO greenlighted an 85-minute movie to give proper closure to the series. The finale premiered at the San Francisco’s Frameline Film Festival in June before debuting on the network late last month. It’s been over a year since viewers lost touch with Patty and the gang. When they last saw him, Patrick had broken up with his boyfriend and boss Kevin (Russell Tovey) — whom he had just moved in with — and found himself standing before his ex-boyfriend Richie (Raúl Castillo), supposedly to just get a haircut. In other words, he was a total mess. The movie picks up almost a year later: Patrick has moved to back to his home state of Colorado, but finds himself in San Francisco for the weekend to revisit the life he left behind.

Within the first 20 minutes, it is clear that this is a more mature and confident Patty. In sharp contrast with his behavior in the pilot episode — in which he epically fails to hook up with an older man in a popular San Francisco cruising spot — Patty successfully picks up a young man at a bar with ease. This, followed by an intelligent, banter-filled conversation about the state of the gay community, shows the growth of Patty and the show as a whole. Mature or not, one thing that has not changed for Patrick: he is still looking for his happiness. The rest of the finale is a bit more subdued, filled with director Andrew Haigh’s signature mix of scenes: breathtaking views of San Francisco, diverse bar/ club vignettes, and intimate conversations between the characters. While some would call these tête-à-têtes boring, this has always been the strength of “Looking,” and they tend to be where the answers to Patrick’s search lie. Without spoiling the story, I can report that all major characters are accounted for. Through Patty, we catch up with buddies Dom (Murray Bartlett), still obsessing over peri-peri chicken, and Augustín (Frankie J. Alvarez), who is working to solidify his relationship with Eddie (Daniel Franzese). Doris (Lauren Weedman) returns with her usual one-liners (“I love it when gays argue with other gays about being gay”) and words of wisdom. Doris’s beau Malik (Bashir Sala-

Jonathan Groff and Raúl Castillo in “Looking: The Movie.”

huddin), and Augustín’s ex Frank (O.T. Fagbenle) also make brief appearances. Patty, benefiting from the vantage point of a visitor, sees their struggles and triumphs, but more importantly he sees them growing up and finding ways to be happy. But what about Patty’s happiness? Of course, the answer to that always lay with Richie. The focus of the series never strayed far from the evolving relationship — ups and downs — between these two. Patrick met Richie in the pilot episode, and the two dated before breaking up in the season one finale. Perhaps more interesting than their initial courting, the two tried to be “just friends” in the second season, all the while flirting with the idea

a vibrantly pure soprano voice combining shimmering overtones with lush undertones. Though she lacks the verbal incisiveness and stylistic authenticity of Italian verismo specialists like Magda Olivero, her sweet voice was more inherently innocent and virginal. And in the dramatic second act aria, Trevigne opened up her tone with declamatory power. As Osaka, tenor Gerard Schneider handled the difficult high tessitura ably but pushed isolated high notes too hard. Baritone Douglas Williams, done up as a combination of Fabio and Orlando Bloom as Legolas, brought a softgrained lyricism to a role that could use darker thrust and snarl. As Il Cieco, Matthew Boehler’s

that there may be something more, a question that leads to the series finale. “Looking: The Movie” is no different. The two pick up right where they left off, much to the dismay of Richie’s boyfriend. You know the story; you can imagine how it ends. This does not make it any less enjoyable to watch, especially with mesmerizing performances by Groff and Castillo. So, was it good to be back? The biggest complaint about “Looking” the series was that it was plodding, and for those who felt that way the movie presents the same problem. But to those who enjoyed the show, “Looking: The Movie” will be a fond way to bid good old friends farewell.

smooth bass sounded too humane and youthful for such an intransigent old man. Mezzo Cecilia Hall as the geisha brought an arresting dark tone to her role in the puppet show that foreshadows Iris’ sad fate. The drama and the characters in “Iris” are static. Puccini’s Cio-Cio San grows into a tragic woman who determines her fate whereas Iris remains a passive child, more symbol than person. The late 19th century symbolist and orientalist avant-garde artistic movements have become outmoded and passé in our time. But Mascagni’s imaginative score for “Iris” is not a tired relic — it defies time and fashion and deserves to be heard.

FRINGE, from p.18

With “Machine Gun America,” Joseph Huff-Hannon has taken a sharply different tack, crafting a scathing satire about the rise of gun violence in America. And it’s a campy, over-the-top, full-throated musical. Like most brilliant theater, the genesis of the piece was purely by chance. “About a year-and-a-half ago, I was deeply struck by a bizarre and tragic news story out of Idaho,” he said. “A two-year-old shot his mother, with her own handgun, in an aisle of the Walmart shortly after Christmas. The gun was kept in a special pocket in her purse especially fitted for firearms — a Christmas present from her husband that year.” Huff-Hannon was motivated to learn more. He found dozens of examples of parents and siblings being killed or maimed. And of kids shooting themselves. He discovered that last year more Americans were murdered by armed toddlers than terrorists. “This is patently insane,” he said. “No other major nation has this kind of problem. But it’s also an inevitable byproduct of a country with more guns than citizens.” According to Huff-Hannon, there are plenty of documentaries and news exposés about America’s gun violence epidemic, but there’s very little in the popular culture, especially in theater. “There’s nothing that really explores the powerful mythos around gun ownership or the reasons that gun owners run one of the strongest lobbying groups in the US,” he said. “So the play came out of that, building up a bizarre reality on the stage, with original upbeat songs and tragicomic characters, with a very traditional boymeets-girl plot arc that’s only one step removed from the national tragicomedy we already live in.”

FRINGENYC

“The play argues that black lives are remarkable,” he said. “That violence in the world is not the solution that lasts. That we are more connected than we allow ourselves to be. That sometimes we are the ones holding the gun. The play argues that love is the way. The play looks the audience in the eye and dares them to say otherwise.” SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam St., btwn. Sixth Ave. & Varick St.); Fri., Aug. 12, 5 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 15, 2 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 17, 7 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 19, 7:15 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 20, 5:45 p.m.

Patrick Burns in his “From Foster Care to Fabulous.”

“Machine Gun America” gets its title from a theme park of the same name in Florida that bills itself as a "fully automatic adrenaline attraction.” Appallingly, it’s a place where families (kids as young as 10 are allowed on premises) can learn to shoot firearms at fake zombies or terrorists, and it’s only a few minutes from the Pulse nightclub, where earlier this summer 49 young LGBT people were massacred in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. “After the horrific Orlando killings, I didn’t see any news coverage noting the proximity of these two places, but that doesn’t particularly surprise me,” Huff-Hannon said. “There’s a lot of public hand-wringing about gun violence, but in this country we have more gun stores than Starbucks and grocery stores combined. And I think that shows us what our consumer priorities are as a nation. When we glorify weapons that can kill a massive amount of people in a short amount of time and make them available for sale almost everywhere, we can’t be surprised when people actually use those guns for what they’re intended to be used for.” After the Orlando bloodbath, a sign appeared at the entrance of the grisly gun center that offered free shooting lessons so visitors could have the “ammunition they need to fight back. “I seriously doubt the LGBTQ community in Florida has flocked to Machine Gun America to take them up on the offer,” he said. As an out playwright (in fact, virtually the entire creative team of “Machine Gun America” happens to be gay), this outrageous juxtaposition cuts particularly close to the bone. Huff-Hannon is enthused that the queer community is taking a leadership position in the fight for sensible

gun control, with new groups like Gays Against Guns organizing disruptive, ACT UP style protests. Flamboyan Theater at The Clemente (107 Suffolk St., btwn. Rivington & Delancey Sts.); Sat., Aug. 13, 7:15 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 15, 9:45 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 22, 4:30 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 24, 4:45 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 27, 2 p.m.

To be sure, there are scads of other provocative shows about race, cops, and guns at the Fringe. You may also want to check out “Black & Blue,” “Not All Cops Are Bad,” “Colorblind’d,” Night of the Living N-Word!!,” “My White Wife, Or So I Married a Black Man,” and “Mother Emanuel” (about the tragic 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston). In addition to the topical shows mentioned above, here’s our annual Top 10 list of must-see queer-themed shows:

At the Flash Have you ever found yourself in an ancient gay bar and mused, “If these walls could talk.” Well, Sean Chandler and David Leeper have, and this heartfelt solo show, performed by Leeper, is the result. The dazzling, dizzying drama spans multiple decades from 1965 to the present, imagining an array of endearing denizens of the Flash, including the beleaguered owner, a married man struggling with his sexuality, an aging drag queen, a party boy facing the results of an HIV test, and a frustrated marriage equality activist. This ambitious production has received raves from Chicago to Dublin to Philly. Under St. Marks (94 St. Marks Pl., btwn. First Ave. & Ave. A); Sat., Aug. 13, 8 p.m.; Thu., Aug. 18, 4:45 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 19, 4 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 21, 2:45 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 24, 9 p.m.

Johnny Darlin: In the Closet According to playwright/ performer Michael Doshier, we’re all in the closet about something. Staged as a mashup of a Broadway musical and an arena pop-rock concert, Johnny Darlin takes center stage, recounting his coming-out tale from his first celebrity crush to sending his first nudie pic, revealing a few secret fetishes along the way. This multimedia extravaganza features live music, dance, video projection art, and home videos. Presented by the Queer South, the piece features electro-pop music by Johnny Darlin, Francis Steakknife, and Gandor Chorale. A riff on “Hedwig,” with a Southern Baptist bent. drom (85 Ave. A, btwn. Fifth & Sixth Sts.); Sun., Aug. 14, 12:30 p.m.; Tue., Aug. 16, 7 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 17, 5:30 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 24, 6 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 26, 9 p.m.

The Illusory Adventures of a Dreamer Most modern updates at FringeNYC tend to be based on predictable, crowd-pleasing classics, but playwright Michael Bradley likes a challenge. He’s taken Ibsen’s 19th century poetic fantasy “Peer Gynt” and wholly reimagined it in a contemporary queer setting. This darkly comic journey of self-discovery finds Peer confronting a crisis of sexual identity, a mischievous guardian, and gluttonous trolls, and finally finding his true soul mate. Chris Goodrich directs a large, talented, and highly attractive ensemble. Presented by the Rhapsody Collective, with original music by Marc Giguere. Teatro SEA at the Clemente, 107 Suffolk St., btwn. Rivington & Delancey Sts.); Sat., Aug. 13, 9:30 p.m.;

FRINGE, continued on p.37

August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

FRINGE, from p.36

Tue., Aug. 16, 5 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 22, 4:45 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 24, 7 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 27, 1:30 p.m.

The Cleaning Guy

That’s MISS FITS, to YOU! Years ago, playwright Todd Tif Fernandez (book, music, lyrics) lived in Africa as a gay man in abject fear, and a human rights activist was born. This mystical poly-gender musical extravaganza channels that fierce spirit, tracing Miss Fits’ head-spinning journey to self-awareness, with an assist from Stonewall rioters, Rosa Parks, Judy Garland, and Radical Faeries. Directed by Jonathan Warman, the production features more than a dozen tour-de-force queer performers of every stripe. SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam St., btwn. Sixth Ave. & Varick St.); Sat., Aug. 13, noon; Mon., Aug. 15, 9 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 19, 8:45 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 22, 4 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 27, 2:30 p.m.

A Microwaved Burrito Filled With E. Coli The zany, beloved character Molly “Equality” Dykeman is back at FringeNYC, and this time she’s trapped at a lesbian wedding reception at a Mexican restaurant with a blabbermouth waitress known as Angie Louise Angelone, somewhere in the outermost reaches of Brooklyn. After chowing down on some nasty nachos, she gets more than she bargained for. This cracked-out comedy, directed by Mark Finley, GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

Cyrano: A Love Letter to a Friendship This modern, homoerotic twist on the 1897 classic finds two best buds, Cyrano and Christian, living in present-day New York City. When one of them begins to date the impossibly hunky Rock, their world is turned upside down. Expect plenty of gyrations about insecurity, beauty, ugliness, and anal sex. Written by Sean Peter Drohan (who also plays Cyrano) and directed/ choreographed by Eamon Foley, this play is presented courtesy of the Princeton-based Grind Arts Company. SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam St., btwn. Sixth Ave. & Varick St.); Mon., Aug. 15, 7 p.m.; Thu., Aug. 18, 3:45 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 22, 2 p.m.; Thu., Aug. 25, 6:30 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 27, 9:30 p.m.

FRINGENYC

Ever wonder what your maid really does all day in your home? And what she thinks of that dildo drawer under the bed? Well, Paul Adams, aka “the cleaning guy,” is more than happy to tell you. He’s been cleaning New York apartments since 1991, and he’s ready to dish the dirt. You’ll meet such quirky clients as an aging leather queen with an ancient vacuum cleaner and a proper English slob. FringeNYC veteran Melissa Attebery directs this witty solo show with original musical numbers by Adams and Matt Casarino. Presented by Emerging Artists Theatre (Adams is its longtime artistic director). The Huron Club (15 Vandam St., btwn. Sixth Ave. & Varick St.); Sat., Aug. 13, 5:15 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 15, 7:15 p.m.; Thu., Aug. 18, 9:30 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 21, 4:30 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 24, 6:15 p.m.

is created and performed by the comedic duo — and Fringe faves — Andrea Alton and Allen Warnock, in association with Emerging Artists Theatre. The Huron Club (15 Vandam St., btwn. Sixth Ave. & Varick St.); Tue., Aug. 16, 5:15 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 19, 5 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 20, 7 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 24, 8 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 26, 3:45 p.m.

Kate Rigg and Lyris Hung in “Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show!”

Come for the edgy, music-filled theatrical comedy, stay for the funky urban Asian stuff, like Hello Kitty. drom (85 Ave. A, btwn., btwn. Fifth & Sixth Sts.); Sun., Aug. 14, 8 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 15, 9:15 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 21, 9:30 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 22, 7:15 p.m.

The Radicalization of Rolfe Most men who watched “The Sound of Music” as teens lusted after Liesl. But I suspect Andrew Bergh was crushing on Rolfe. Because he wrote a play set in the waning golden days of

the 1930s, where Rolfe, going on 18, is stuck delivering messages for the Third Reich in Salzburg, Austria. But he has an even bigger problem: reconciling his ambition with his same-sex urges. This dark dramedy, courtesy of M & R Productions in association with Glenn Krutoff, is directed by Abigail Zealey Bess. How do you solve a problem like Rolfe? The Players Theatre (115 MacDougal St., btwn. W. Third & Bleecker Sts.); Fri., Aug. 12, 5 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 14, 9:45 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 19 p.m., 7; Sun., Aug. 21,

From Foster Care to Fabulous To say that Patrick Burns hails from the school of hard knocks would be a major understatement. But he’s turned his bumpy journey growing up as a wayward teen trapped in the foster care system in Oakland, California, into an inspirational musical comedy. In this oneman show, Burns plays a late-night talk show host delivering jaw-dropping anecdotes and songs, chatting with a gaggle of deranged guests. This alternately heartwarming and heartwrenching musical, courtesy of Red House Arts Center, is directed by Richard Israel. drom (85 Ave. A between Fifth and Sixth Sts.); Fri., Aug. 12, 7:45 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 14, 6 p.m.; Thu., Aug. 18, 3 p.m.; Tue., Aug. 23, 9 p.m.; Thu., Aug. 25, 5:15 p.m.

Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show! Subversive Amerasian duo “Slanty Eyed Mama” (aka comedian/ actor/ MC Kate Rigg and electronic violinist L yris Hung, both trained at Juilliard) will rock your world with outrageous characters, spoken word, and snappy stand-up.

ARCADE, from p.20

pop culture shout-outs. Kurt Vincent’s style combines talking-heads and man-on-thestreet interviews. He talks to his subjects on a variety of subjects, ranging from Palmer’s upscale suburban home to the street outside Chinatown Fair. Rather than narrating it himself, he lets his subjects tell the narrative of Chinatown Fair’s rise and fall. The film uses a deliberately cheesy synth-pop score that evokes the ‘80s heyday of games like “PacMan” and “Defender.” It’s easy to feel despair about the prospects for culture in Manhattan these days. The borough’s streets are littered with empty storefronts. The Ninth Street space previously occupied by St. Mark’s Books never found a commercial tenant; it currently houses an art gallery run by Cooper Union, which own the space. When St. Mark’s Books moved to Third Street, it was hobbled by the fact that the size of its new store was much smaller; consequently, its stock consisted of new releases and a few perennially popular authors. It seemed that begging for money on Kickstarter, rather than selling books, was its main

LONDON, from p.29

olas Le Prevost, born to play the bumbling wealthier husband, Frank, and Jenny Seagrove as his wife, Fiona, who is cheating with Frank’s employee, Bob (Owen Oldroyd, the understudy, though fully in command of the role), who is cheating on his feisty wife, Teresa (Andrea Lowe). Matthew Cottle and

source of income in its final days. Still, “The Lost Arcade” is surprisingly optimistic. A magazine editor relates a story about traveling to Barbados and seeing a tiny storefront where poor children played Nintendo and Sega games intended for the home. Perhaps inspired by this story, Cen opens up an arcade called Next Level offering a similar experience in Brooklyn. I won’t spoil the film’s narrative beyond that point, but it has further twists to offer. Even if you don’t give a damn about video games and can’t tell the difference between “Dance Dance Revolution” and “Mortal Kombat,” “The Lost Arcade” has something to say to every New Yorker who cares about street-level culture and communal spaces in our city. To top the film’s release off, the Metrograph is offering a weeklong program of video game-inspired films. You can watch “War Games,” in which a teenage Matthew Broderick almost hacks his way into starting World War III, and emerge into a world where every 12-year-old has a cell phone with Internet access. Without an ounce of technophobia, “The Lost Arcade” says something about what’s gone wrong during the intervening years.

Gillian Wright as the mild-mannered Featherstones, invited to dinner on successive nights by the couples, complete the mayhem — with Wright’s mousey Mary blossoming into the most fully realized human being amidst the schemers. I haven’t had so much fun in the theater since, well, June when I saw Ayckbourn’s “Confusions” at the 59E59 Theater in New York.

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FINDING OURSELVES, from p.21

GMK: Do you feel there is a bias or even a stereotype to portraying gay Asian characters? RY: Gay movies are trying to fight the stereotypes so much that they move the characters away from gay guys who are camp. I think it’s more about trying to get the essence of the character. It’s dignity. Ryan is proud of what he has achieved and what he does and how he looks, even though he has shame about his heritage. The characters all have a confidence within themselves. A lot of Asian characters in film are two-dimensional: good or bad; they have nothing to give to the audience other than that one function. I created a real character with different emotions and feelings, rather than trying to check boxes to make sure gay Asians are represented in a particular way. GMK: Now that we’ve talked sexuality, what can you say about the characters’ nationality? RY: The two characters see something the other is proud of which is something they are ashamed of. When we detest others it’s because they are doing something we are ashamed of in ourselves. We bring in stereotypes, but when you get to

Before Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped the story of the founding of our republic in “Hamilton,” he applied his poetry to the story of his uptown neighborhood in “In the Heights,” his Tony-winning musical enjoying a hit revival at the King’s Cross Theatre (to Oct. 30) in the burgeoning new neighborhood behind St. Pancras and King’s Cross stations. It’s a lively, heartfelt, and traditional family tale with a Latin beat and rap street smarts, starring Sam MacKay as Usnavi, David Bedella as Kevin, and yet another talented ensemble. A great way to experience Miranda’s hit before his megahit.

ALSO RUNNING, COMING UP: Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” at Wyndham’s (Sep. 8-Dec. 17). Kenneth Branagh in John Osborne’s “The Entertainer” (Aug. 20-Nov. 12) at the Garrick and

FRONT COVER Directed by Ray Yeung Strand Releasing Opens Aug. 5 Village East Cinema 181 Second Ave. at 12th St. citycinemas.com/villageeast

know them you understand why they do something. Ryan looks down on his Chinese culture, his parents, and the social value he puts on things — the association of anything Chinese is something he detests. Through his relationship with Ning he learns to respect Chinese culture. Ning says it’s nothing to be ashamed of. The slow curve Ryan goes through has him accepting his parents more. GMK: The film is very stylish, visually and with the clothes and such. How would you describe your personal style? RY: Oh, my God. [Laughs.] I don’t really have a style. I put the film in the fashion world because it’s about changing someone’s image to present them to the world, which is an interesting idea. It fit the story and the characters. I’m casual and aware of what looks good, but I don’t follow fashion much. In general I go out and I think I look good.

in cinemas. Dominic Cooper in Stephen Jeffreys’ “The Libertine” (Sep. 22-Dec. 3) at the Haymarket. Glenda Jackson returns to the stage as King Lear at the Old Vic (Oct. 25-Dec. 3). “Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour” by Lee Hall (“Billy Elliot”) at the National’s Dorfman (Aug. 8-Oct. 1). David Hare’s new versions of Young Chekhov Plays: “Platonov,” “Ivanov,” and “The Seagull” (to Sep. 3) at the Olivier at the National, where Russian plays thrive. The late Pete Shaffer’s “Amadeus” with Lucian Msamati (“Game of Thrones”) as Salieri at the National’s Olivier (Oct. 20-Dec. 31). The Donmar at King’s Cross has a Shakespeare Trilogy (Sep. 23-Dec. 17): “The Tempest,” “Julius Caesar,” and “Henry IV,” all directed by Phyllida Lloyd with all-female casts led by Harriet Walter. That “Tempest” comes to St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn Jan.13 through Feb. 19.

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August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

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GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

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walking on a leash, so you’re not pulled out into traffic. • Use caution at bus stops. Many injuries occur from pedestrians running to catch a bus or stepping out into traffic after exiting a bus. Remember, there will be another bus behind the one you’re chasing and safety is more important. • Wear brightly colored or reflective clothing if walking at night. • Do not cross highways or interstates on foot.

SAT.AUG.6 THEATER Journey to Paradise

COMEDY The Eternity of Suffering Drag star BenDeLaCreme, best known for her turn on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” returns to New York, puppets and video dioramas in hand, with the debut of “Inferno A-Go-Go,” her latest theatrical blend of burlesque, comedy, performance art, and music. Laurie Beechman Theatre, inside West Bank Café, 407 W. 42nd St. Aug. 6 & 14, 9:30 p.m.; Aug 11-13 & 18-19, 7 p.m. Tickets are $22 at SpinCycleNYC.com, and there’s a $20 food & drink minimum.

Jazz & A Freestyle Swim Rome Neal’s Banana Puddin’ Jazz welcomes a new vocalist on the scene, Joy F. Brown, in an evening hosted by the former emcee of the Nuyorican's Poetry Slam, Nathan P. At the same time, the audience will have a chance to watch Neal’s daughter, Olympian swimmer Lia Neal, compete in the 4x100 freestyle relay live from Rio as broadcast on a two-story screen. Nuyorican Poets Café, 236 E. Third St., btwn. Aves. B & C. Aug. 6, 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 at nuyorican.org/ calendar.

WED.AUG.10 BUSINESS LGBT Opportunities in Harlem The Manhattan Chamber LGBT Business Network and Harlem Pride host a professional networking event so LGBT professionals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners uptown can see firsthand how the neighborhood is growing with new dynamic businesses and as an emerging technology hub. Out in Tech is on hand to offer insights on how they unite and showcase the LGBT technology sector. Alibi Lounge, 2376 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. at 139th St. Aug. 10, 6-9 p.m. Register at manhattancc.org/events/ Summer-LGBT-Business-Networking-inHarlem-2444/details.

CAKE BAKER, from p.10

to create a cake promoting white-supremacism for the Aryan Nation, (2) an Islamic cake artist from refusing to create a cake denigrating the Quran for the Westboro Baptist Church, and (3) three secular cake artists from refusing to create cakes opposing same-sex marriage for a Christian patron.” One suspects the first two are hypotheticals, while the

DYKE ABROAD, from p.15

speech. Too bad if he lost his son in Iraq. It’s one more narrative of the Good Muslim. These “progressive” critics are missing the importance of his expansive rebuke to Trump in the name of diversity, and why the man exploded in rage. “Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.” And by offering to lend Trump his well-worn copy of the US Constitution where the Republican nominee should “...look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law,’” the immigrant lawyer signaled that he is not trying to be accepted as a good Muslim, he’s fighting for the soul of America itself.

THU.AUG.11 TELEVISION Jeffrey Tambor on “Transparent” Jeffrey Tambor, a recent Emmy Awardwinner for his performance on the hit Amazon Studios series “Transparent” and his co-star Judith Light, a two-time Tony Award-winner, discuss how the show and Tambor’s transgender character have influenced social dialogue around the nation. Tambor will also offer candid stories about his career, including his time working alongside the late Gary Shandling. The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A. Paley Center for Media, 25 W. 52nd St. Aug. 11, 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $32 at paleycenter.org/2016-jeffrey-tambor.

MON.AUG.15 PERFORMANCE The Man Behind Lypsinka John Epperson, the real person behind Lypsinka, takes take the stage in “John Epperson: The Artist Principally Known as Lypsinka,” an evening in which he shares personal and rarified experiences about moving to and living in New York City. With a nod to the urbane cabaret style of Bobby Short, Epperson’s show embraces classic entertainment filled with stories, tunes, and a few surprises. The entertainer, aka The Goddess of Showbiz Lypsinka, commands the piano and stage with a musical journey that weaves together Stephen Sondheim, Frank Loesser, Jule Styne, Kay Thompson, Kander & Ebb,

third stems from a stunt undertaken in reaction to the gay couple’s original filing of a civil rights claim. Whether hypothetical or real, however, in each of these examples the customer is asking the “cake artist” to create a particularized political statement on a cake, which could be distinguished from merely requesting the creation of a wedding cake without any overt political statement. Disputes of this type continue to arise around

MEDIA CIRCUS, from p.16

clearly have a thing for “quotation marks.” Even LGBT gets set apart with quotes. The headline of the nasty thing is, “Navy to Name Ship After ‘Gay’ Child Molester.” It’s 2016, “Mr.” Barber; enough with the quotes around Gay. And what is this insistence on labeling the Obama presidency “catastrophic” all about? You’d think the stock market wasn’t sky high and unemployment low; you’d think we were actually facing the runaway inflation the right wing insisted would happen; you’d think things were as bad now as they were when Obama took over from the demonstrably catastrophic presidency of George W. Bush. I acknowledge that Barber isn’t entirely ratshit crazy when he labels Milk a “child

KENNETH FALLIN

“Dust Can’t Kill Me,” presented as part of the New York Musical Festival — with book by Abigail Carney, music and lyrics by Elliah Heifetz, and directed by Srda Vasiljevic, an out gay Bosnian refugee — is an original folk musical that tells a distinctly American story about a ragtag group of wayward souls journeying toward a prophet’s promise of paradise that ends up being unlike anything they’ve been promised. The cast includes Elizabeth A. Davis (Tony and Drama Desk nominee for “Once”) and Kathryn Gallagher (Deaf West Theatre’s “Spring Awakening”). June H a v o c T h e a t r e , 3 1 2 W. 3 6 t h S t . Aug. 6, 1 p.m.; Aug. 7, noon. Tickets are $29.50 at nymf.org/festival/2016events/dustcantkillme.

PERFORMANCE

Comden & Green, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and transgender icon Christine Jorgenson. Jay Rogers directs. Joe’s Pub, inside the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., btwn. E. Fourth St. & Astor Pl. Aug. 15 & 17, 9:30 p.m.; Sep. 13 & 16, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 at goo.gl/1DmOj4.

THU.AUG.18 THEATER Drunken! Careening! Fringey! In the latest installment of her monthly series “Drunken! Careening! Writers!,” host Kathleen Warnock welcomes “The Fringes of August,” writers and actors involved in this year’s or past editions of the annual theater festival, including Andrea Alton and Allen Warnock (represented this year with “A Microwaved Burrito Filled With E. Coli”), David Leeper and Sean Chandler (“At the Flash”), and Honor Molloy (whose play “Crackskull Row” opens Sep. 1 at the Cell Theater on W. 23rd St.). KGB Bar, 85 E. Fourth St., btwn. Bowery & Second Ave. Aug. 18, 7 p.m. Admission is free. (See page 18 for full coverage of the 2016 Fringe Festival.)

the country in states and cities that ban sexual orientation discrimination in places of public accommodation. This issue would likely get to the Supreme Court if a genuine split occurs among federal appeals court circuits. In light of the high court refusing review in the Elane Photography, however, it’s likely the ADF petition falls short of demonstrating that lower courts are in fact divided on the specific question at hand.

molester”; he’s only semi-ratshit crazy. Milk was no saint, except politically. Yes, he once had sexual relationships with a 16-year-old guy. Is it a cop-out (a 1960s term meaning “drastically avoiding something, especially the truth”) to argue that because gay men’s sexuality was already against the law, we didn’t necessarily see other laws pertaining to sexual conduct as especially valid? It reminds me of the Village Voice mainstay Richard Goldstein’s comment after he married his longtime partner at the March on Washington for Gay, Lesbian, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation’s mass wedding ceremony in 1993, way before such marriages were recognized by law: “It’s a bond that can’t be broken,” Goldstein wrote, “because it’s illegal.” Follow @edsikov on Twitter and Facebook. August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc

SEVENTH CIRCUIT, from p.4

2012 to include sexual orientation, explicitly exempts state-operated educational institutions from its reach. Indiana has no state law forbidding sexual orientation discrimination. Though the EEOC concluded it did not have jurisdiction, it sent Hively a “right to sue” letter, and she filed her claim in federal court in August 2014. The college responded with a motion to dismiss, arguing that sexual orientation discrimination claims are not covered under Title VII. In March 2015, District Judge Rudy Lozano, while saying he was “sympathetic” to Hively’s arguments, granted the college’s motion, citing a Seventh Circuit decision from 2000 and a 2010 decision by a US district court in Indiana. The fate Hively suffered in the district court shows the perils of individuals trying to navigate federal employment law without legal representation. A well-versed lawyer might have found a way to construct a 14th Amendment Equal Protection claim on her behalf, which could be directed against individual school officials if she could allege sufficient facts suggesting they refused to consider her applications because she is a lesbian. There would, however, be no guarantee of success because the Supreme Court has yet to rule on whether sexual orientation discrimination claims against public officials are entitled to heightened or strict scrutiny. Attorney Gregory Nevins from Lambda Legal’s Atlanta office represented her on appeal to the Seventh Circuit, where oral arguments took place last September. The long wait before the panel ruled is surprising given the existing circuit precedent. Judge Ilana Rovner’s opinion obviously took so long because the majority of the panel was not content just to issue a pro forma dismissal relying on that precedent. Rovner was joined by Senior Judges William Bauer and Kenneth Ripple in citing circuit precedent as grounds for dismissing Hively’s claim, but a second part of her opinion, joined only by Judge Ripple, provides a lengthy and detailed discussion of how last year’s EEOC’s Baldwin decision spawned an intense debate among district courts nationwide about how older precedents are out-of-step with where the US has moved on LGBT rights. Rovner cited numerous district court decisions — particularly from circuits where there were no adverse appeals court precedents — in which judges followed the EEOC’s reasoning to find that discrimination because of sexual orientation is “necessarily” sex discrimination. As far back as 1989, in the Supreme Court’s ruling in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins — involving a woman denied a partnership because she was perceived as inadequately feminine in her dress and conduct — discrimination against an employee because they fail to meet their employer’s sex-stereotypical views about how they should present themselves was accepted as evidence of sex discrimination. GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

Since then, some district courts have extended protection under Title VII to LGBT plaintiffs who could plausibly allege that they encountered discrimination because of sex stereotypes, but other courts have refused to take such cases, criticizing them as attempts to “bootstrap” coverage for sexual orientation into Title VII against the intent of Congress. What has emerged is a hodgepodge of decisions, resulting in the odd situation that — at least in some circuits — a gender-nonconforming gay plaintiff may be protected under Title VII using the stereotyping theory, but a “straight-acting” gay plaintiff would have no protection. Rovner noted the irrationality of all this, but also the challenge of sorting out the discrepancy.

It seems illogical to entertain gender nonconformity claims under Title VII where the nonconformity involves style of dress or manner of speaking, but not when the gender non-conformity involves the sine qua non of gender stereotypes — with whom a person engages in sexual relationships.”

“Although it seems likely that most of the causes of discrimination based on sexual orientation ultimately stem from employers’ and co-workers’ discomfort with a lesbian woman’s or a gay man’s failure to abide by gender norms, we cannot say that it must be so in all cases,” she wrote. “Therefore we cannot conclude that the two must necessarily be coextensive unless or until either the legislature or the Supreme Court says it is so.” Rovner pointed out that Kimberly Hively made no specific allegations of gender non-conformity, other than the implicit contention that being a lesbian, as such, was gender non-conforming. And despite all the advances in LGBT rights at the Supreme Court, which the judge noted, Rovner concluded that in none of those cases has the high court said anything dealing directly with whether anti-gay discrimination must be treated as a form of sex discrimination under Title VII. She was not unmindful, however, of the stark legal anomaly now existing after last year’s marriage equality decision. “The cases as they do stand, however, create a paradoxical legal landscape in which a person can be married on Saturday and then fired on Monday for just that act,” she wrote, adding,

“From an employee’s perspective, that right to marriage might not feel like a real right if she can be fired for exercising it.” Rover found it “curious” that “the Supreme Court has opted not to weigh in on the question of whether Title VII’s prohibition on sex-based discrimination would extend to protect against sexual orientation discrimination” and that even in last year’s “watershed” marriage equality ruling the court “made no mention of the stigma and injury that comes from excluding lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons from the workforce or subjecting them to un-remediable harassment and discrimination.” Rovner was very critical of the Seventh Circuit’s precedent, writing, “It may be that the rationale appellate courts, including this one, have used to distinguish between gender non-conformity discrimination claims and sexual orientation discrimination claims will not hold up under future rigorous analysis. It seems illogical to entertain gender non-conformity claims under Title VII where the non-conformity involves style of dress or manner of speaking, but not when the gender non-conformity involves the sine qua non of gender stereotypes — with whom a person engages in sexual relationships.” She then quoted Justice Anthony Kennedy’s marriage equality decision, pointing out how “new insights and societal understandings” could lead to changes in the law. Society, she concluded, was “unlikely” to tolerate this anomalous situation for long. “Perhaps the writing is on the wall,” Rovner wrote. “But writing on the wall is not enough. Until the writing comes in the form of a Supreme Court opinion or new legislation, we must adhere to the writing of our prior precedent.” This conclusion is not totally accurate. The full Seventh Circuit, considering this question en banc, could decide to overrule the prior precedent within the circuit without waiting for Supreme Court or congressional action. Of the nine active judges on the circuit — Ripple and Bauer, as senior judges, would not participate in en banc reconsideration of any precedent — three are Democratic appointees and six Republican appointees, including Rovner. Assuming the three Democratic appointees agree with Rovner’s view of the precedent, only one other GOP appointee would be needed to overturn it. Richard Posner could be the prime candidate for that. He wrote the circuit’s magnificent marriage equality decision in 2014, which reflected his strong openness to reconsidering his views on LGBT issues, a point he later reiterated in a law review article musing about his changing views since he was appointed to the court by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. On the other hand, it is possible that this opinion took so long to get out because some attempt was made within the judges’ chambers to provoke a spontaneous en banc reconsideration, but it was unsuccessful. At this point, we simply cannot know.

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KANSAS , from p.10

married lesbian couples, in one of which they resisted a specific court order. The two cases were eventually resolved by the state issuing appropriate birth certificates, but contradictory statements issued from officials of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment suggested that future compliance remained in doubt. One official suggested that same-sex couples would be treated the same as different-sex couples when children were conceived through donor insemination, but another stated that same-sex couples would have to alert the department in advance so that a case-by-case determination could be made about whether a birth certificate listing both women would be issued. As a result, Crabtree concluded that the case was not “moot” and an injunction was necessary, citing clear evidence that state officials were complying with Obergefell reluctantly, sometimes only under the pressure of court orders. “Exercising its remedial discretion,” wrote Crabtree, “the court has decided to grant a permanent injunction forbidding defendants

(and their successors) from enforcing or applying any aspect of Kansas law that treats same-sex married couples differently than opposite-sex married couples. As the court noted last August, a significant value exists in giving public officials a reasonable opportunity to comply voluntarily with a mandate by the Supreme Court. The record here shows that defendants have said they will comply with Obergefell and, in many instances, they have acted to implement the changes that compliance requires. But even after Obergefell and even after this court’s declaratory judgment, the record also demonstrated one defendant’s department deliberately refused to treat two same-sex married couples in the same fashion it routinely treats opposite-sex couples. This disparate treatment did not result from oversight, inadvertence, or decisions made at lower levels of the department. To the contrary, the conduct involved officials who the court would expect to know about Obergefell.” Crabtree listed decisions by judges in numerous other states who issued permanent injunctions against those states after

BUTTER , from p.13

Finally, it was time for me to taste the two wedding-cake samples he’d prepared for me on a porcelain plate. My favorite was the piece that balanced a layer of amazingly butch, intense deep chocolate with an equally powerful tier of light substantial vanilla, occasionally intermingling some salted caramel cream like a sexy third person invited home for the night. It was the most gay male cake I’ve ever eaten. Then he took me on a tour of his workshop. The most extraordinary objects were the sugar flowers: rows and rows of see-through containers organized by type of flower, hydrangeas, roses, peonies, lilies and others in all the colors of the rainbow, perfectly matching their real-life models. I saw one of his assistants individually sculpting pink peonies that would go on a cake; I found them movingly lifelike, and sexy. Ben-Israel has invented a technique of crafting flowers in all stages of opening, even ones beginning to go past their prime; the resulting swaths of flowers look alive, as though they are breathing. All of them are edible. I have to say that most of the cakes on display in his studio and on Ron Ben-Israel Cakes’ social media are much too formal for my tastes, looking like cakes for weddings that are more about joining the Social Register than they are about exuberance and joy. Some are abstract, architectural layers with graphics like stripes or dots; others resemble the interiors of Saks Fifth Avenue GayCityNews.nyc | August 04 - 17, 2016

the Obergefell decision upon finding that the cases were not “moot” because of actual or potential compliance failures, including cases in Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, Arkansas, South Dakota, Idaho, and Louisiana. Under Crabtree’s injunction, the court will maintain super visory oversight for three years, which means that at the first s i g n t h a t a g o v e r n m e n t o f f icial in Kansas is denying equal treatment to a same-sex couple, direct application for relief can be made to Crabtree without the need to run into state court and start a new lawsuit. Crabtree rejected the state’s argument that Obergefell was a narrow ruling that did not address the issue of birth certificates for children born to same-sex couples, pointing out that Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion specifically mentioned this issue. “The Supreme Court found that the rights, benefits, and responsibilities of marital status include ‘taxation; inheritance and property rights; spousal privilege; hospital access; medical decision making authority; adoption rights; the rights and benefits of survivors; birth and

death certificates; health insurance; and child custody, support, and visitation rules,’” Crabtree wrote. The judge also rejected the bizarre argument made by Kansas that one lesbian married couple who had difficulty getting an appropriate birth certificate were not entitled to recognition of their marriage under Obergefell because they were married in Canada and the Full Faith and Credit Clause refers only to other states. Crabtree pointed out that Kansas’s own marriage recognition statute provides otherwise. Quoting Justice Kennedy’s comment that a “slower, caseby-case deter mination of the required availability of specific public benefits to same-sex couples would deny gays and lesbians many rights and responsibilities intertwined with marriage,” Crabtree concluded, “Perhaps defendants will provide the voluntary compliance with Obergefell that they promise. But the court cannot assign plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to such uncertainty. In short, defendants’ assurances of future compliance do not provide the reliability that those rights deserve.”

or Bergdorf Goodman, looking like chandeliers, marble, and luxury women’s shopping. But the ones overspilling with flowers — and I do mean overspilling — mad fountains of roses, Gerbera daisies, lilies of the valley, purple, red, blue irises, green snapdragons — are ones I would gladly buy for my own wedding reception. Chef Ron noted that he’s single, and said interested parties should look for him in small coffee bars around the Village. “Come and say hi.” He said he “love[s] all colors and types,” but doesn’t understand men who say they’re “straight-acting.” “You act as you are,” he said. “For me, if someone is effeminate or outrageous, it’s a wonderful expression of our versatility.” Both his parents were Holocaust survivors, his father interned in Auschwitz and his mother in a Nazi ghetto where Jews were slowly starved. For him, the result is that he wants to “go with extra butter, extra sugar. I tend to be a hedonist. Build the cake taller, add more sugar flowers. I don’t hoard or hold back. I want it to be a celebration of life, not ‘We shouldn’t make waves.’” Ron Ben-Israel Cakes; weddingcakes.com. Specialty and wedding cakes begin at $16 per person, minimum order $800. Tasting sessions available by appointment at office@weddingcakes.com. If you’re a queer or trans chef in New York, I’d like to know about you, too. You can email me at morsels69@gmail.com.

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6/14/16 9:59 AM August 04 - 17, 2016 | GayCityNews.nyc