The Betty Pages March 2010 by Betty Desire

THE BETTY PAGES The regionâ€™s most inclusive alternative-lifestyle entertainment tabloid

March 2010

a Desire Enterprises publication

About our Contributors...

The Betty Pages - March 2010 Betty’s Corner

Page 3

By Betty Desire

Photo By Lea Kelley

The Month in Gay History

Sudoku for Tom

Edited by Brian Spencer

Written by Brian Spencer

In The Mix

By Bridget Adams

Interview with Poet Steve Fellner

2010 Olympics are Full of “Pride”

Biz Profile: Everybody’s Store

Gay Film Bibliography: A Hitch in the Woods

By Jory M. Mickelson

By Nick Milhoan

By Tara Nelson

By Bichoo Vrishchik

GLBT Resource Guide

Contributor Tara Nelson is a freelance writer and the managing editor of The Northern Light, a small newspaper on the U.S./ Canadian border. She enjoys cognitive dissonance, starting headlines with dangling participles and flirting with the cute Canadian border guards.

Miss Betty Desire has been entertaining anyone who would listen in Bellingham for nearly 10 years, and is proprietor of The Betty Pages, the monthly publication that you are reading at this very moment. It is her hope that your perusal of the Betty Pages will enrich your life one chuckle at a time.

Managing Editor Brian Spencer is a title-holder and board member with the ISCEE, aside from his involvement with various community organizations and work in graphic design. His interests include men, computers, drag queens and politics. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Live well, love much, laugh often.

Writer Bridget Adams currently resides in Washington State but that is always subject to change. Lucky enough to be a full-time, if poor, writer, she is most likely somewhere in front of her computer with a cup of coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

Queer Film Historian Bichoo Vrishchik (Scorpio Scorpion) has published in FILM QUARTERLY SIGHT AND SOUND, INTERNATIONAL FILM GUIDE, FILMFARE, YOUTH TIMES, MANSHOTS, and now THE BETTY PAGES. With a BA from Pacific Lutheran College (1959) and a MA from San Francisco State College (1968), he has also taught film at Western Washington University. His main interest is Indian cinema and articles on it are forthcoming.

Staff Writer Nick Milhoan is a student at WWU majoring in Journalism with a minor in LGBT studies. He is the current chair of the Bellingham Pride Festival and member of Whatcom PFLAG Board of Directors, as well as Princess for the ISCEE. His interests include movies, music, politics and the pursuit of equality.

Photographer Lea Kelley is a local artist, writer, and photographer. She thrives on incongruous pontifications of sardonic gratitude, combined with reflective musings, articulated in an ironic tenor with mordant respect toward inspiration, society, creativity, and the human condition - which is conducive to metaphor in run-on sentences. She’s a wry, loquacious kinda gal.

Contributor Jory M. Mickelson is a journalist and poet who resides in Bellingham, WA. His work has appeared in Collective Fallout and Oranges & Sardines and is forthcoming in Knockout and New Mexico Poetry Review. He is nonfiction editor of the magazine 5x5 (www.5x5litmag.org) and maintains the queer writing blog Literary Magpie (www.jorymickelson.blogspot.com).

Betty’s Corner Betty Desire

I like winter, partially because I enjoy brisk weather. Not necessarily below freezing, but I find a 45-degree day refreshing and invigorating. Anything over 50 is tee shirt and shorts weather and if it’s over 75 turn on air conditioning. Yep, I guess I belong here on the west side of Washington State. Cool,

You may have heard them at the celebration last year, be at the Baker at 6pm for an evening I am happy to announce that Miss Betty will of delight and help make this years Pride the be at The Anker Café Thursday March 4th at best ever! 8pm. This is an all age’s venue and the start time is early enough for all you worker bees Don’t forget about St Patrick’s Day! This year, to get home in time for a good nights sleep! thanks to Boundary Bay, Bellingham will have That is of course unless you drink 4 lattes, one a St Paddy’s Day Parade like the big cities! I mocha, and chase it with a straight shot! I intend to be there marching and you should intend to have a great time, hope you are there too; this is a grand idea for a community event, to share it with me. and is shaping up to be pure fun, so go to their website and get greened up for Saturday As some of you still remember, I was Empress March 13 the parade starts at Bellingham XXVIII of Bellingham and the Evergreen High at noon and proceeds down Cornwall Empire last year. My year is well over now, Ave to Depot Market Square see you there! but that doesn’t mean the fun and fundraising is done – far from it! Your Empress this year Again welcome to spring! Remember, the is an amazing individual, Her Majesty, Suzi official theme for Bellingham 2010 Pride: Diamond. She’ll be celebrating her birthday along with the entire community at Rumors Be you! Be true! Be Proud! on March 27. The show’s theme is “Over the Hill and Picking up Speed.” The proceeds benefit Safe for Free, our local free condom distribution program, so come down for a Get Involved with the stories and night of entertainment and help out a great issues that matter to you! Share your cause.

Betty Desire

thoughts and comments on this article

Plans are well under way for our tenth (or at www.thebettypages.com eleventh, no one is quite sure) Pride celebration July 7-11 you can check out the website (www. bhampride. org) for more information. The first major “fun raiser” for the event is a concert by the Purple Passion Swing Band from Seattle at the Mt Baker Theater on April 24; these 1323 Railroad Ave (360) 734-3884 guys are great!

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Well, it looks like winter is over, the cherry blossoms are blooming, the crocuses are up, and we didn’t get one heavy snowfall all winter! Welcome to March! I am glad that the days are getting longer. I think I, like most Washingtonians, suffer from light deprivation. It doesn’t help much that I live in a basement apartment with indirect semishade. Seriously though, did you know that we get vitamin D from exposure to sunlight? If you live in Bellingham July is the only month of the year you get sufficient vitamin D from sunlight! Thank the gods for fortified milk! This is probably an old wives tale, or in this case, an old drag queens tale, but it’s what I’ve heard and as a dutiful gossip columnist I’m passing it on. How else did you think urban legends start?

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This Month in Gay History Edited by Brian Spencer

»1649 The first known conviction for lesbian activity in North America occurs when Sarah White Norman is charged with “Lewd behaviour each with other upon a bed” with Mary Vincent Hammon in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

»1986 March 31, The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on Bowers v. Hardwick. The case concerns the validity of Georgia’s sodomy law which outlaws oral and anal sex. The court will ultimately uphold the law, claiming that the constitution does not confer “…a fundamental right upon homosexuals to »1956 March 20, Dr. Alfred Kinsey, generally engage in sodomy.” regarded as the father of modern sexuality studies, tapes an interview for NBC’s Today Show explaining how he came to be involved »1990 Queer Nation, an organization of AIDS activists in New with sex studies. His previous publications York, forms to address the escalation of anti-gay and lesbian on sexuality detailed a “spectrum” of sexual violence on the streets and prejudice in the arts and media. orientation. The group is known for its militant confrontational tactics, its slogans, and for the practice of outing.

Sudoku for Tom Written by Brian Spencer

4 6 8 9

7 3

Difficulty

for answer see pg. 7

»2004 Following the primaries, a group of Howard Dean supporters forms the first Stonewall Young Democrats group in Los Angeles as an affiliate group of various other Stonewall and Democrat organizations. The group’s mission is to “…give voice to LGBTQ youth and take action in a grassroots manner on matters of both local and national significance.” www . thebettypages . com

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»2003 March 26, The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on Lawrence v. Texas. The case concerns a Texas sodomy law designating it as a misdemeanor when someone “…engages in deviant sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.” The courts final decision will overturn the previous decision in Bowers v. Hardwick and strike down anti-sodomy laws nationwide.

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»2008 Nicaragua decriminalizes homosexuality. Homosexuality had be informally illegal from 1982 to 1992. In 1992 the Nicaraguan government had specifically outlawed homosexuality with penal code section 204, providing for up to 3 years imprisonment for “anyone who induces, promotes, propagandizes, or practices sex among persons of the same sex in a scandalous manner.”

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Answer to Sudoku for Tom 2

Monday: Microbrew Pints @ $2.50 Well drinks & shots after 10 @ $2.50 2 all-beef hotdogs @ $1.00

Tuesday: Top Shelf Bourbon @ 4.00 BBQ pulled-pork sandwich @ $1

Wednesday: Top Shelf Tequila @ 4.00, 2 Tacos @ $1.00

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see game pg. 5

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»2009 March 27, Japan green lights foreign same-sex marriage for its nationals marrying abroad. While still not allowing same-sex marriage domestically, the act is a step toward recognition of LGBT rights for Japanese individuals.⁂

In The Mix Bridget Adams

Hi Poppets! I’ve been very political recently, I know, but let’s be honest: there is so much going on within and about the community that it’s hard not to be political these days. This month, I told David, was going to be different. This month, I was going to focus on fun, wonderful things to do and leave the politics to my betters. And then I saw a bumper sticker. The

bumper sticker read Tolerance Is For People Without Conviction. Are you kidding me? According to the owners of this car, Jesus had no conviction; Nelson Mandela has no conviction; Archbishop Desmond Tutu has no conviction; Mother Teresa had no conviction. With a group like this, maybe I’ll start claiming to have no conviction.

www . thebettypages . com

Copies of The Betty Pages are available at these fine local establishments:

Bellingham: •The Black Drop* •Camden Chameleon* •Cap Hansen’s* •Casa Que Pasa* •Film is Truth* •Grand Avenue Ale •House* •Great Northern Books* •The Horseshoe Café* •La Rue Costumes* •Mallard Ice Cream* •Old World Deli* •Pizza Pipeline* •Re-Threads* •Rumors Cabaret* •Slo Pitch* •True Blue Boutique* __________________ •Allied Arts •The Archives •Avalon Music •The Bagelry

•Bandito’s Burritos •Bellingham Public •Library •Cabin Tavern •Community Food Co-op •Evergreen AIDS •Foundation •Everyday Music •Fairhaven Laundry •Fiamma Burger •La Patisserie •The Love Zone •Lover’s Package (Meridian) •Lover’s Package (Telegraph) •Merch Bot •Mt Bakery •Pandora’s Box •Pel’ Meni •Public Market •Rocket Donuts

•Studio Galactica •The Sub Shop •Temple Bar •The Teriyaki Bar •Tony’s Coffee •Up N’ Up •Village Books •Whatcom Community College •Wild Buffalo •WWU LGBTA Mt. Vernon: •Draft Pic’s Sports Bar & Grille •Same Ol’ Grind •Skagit Valley College •The Tattered Page Bookstore (*Indicates our advertisers!)

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Now, part of me is still furious, as I think you know me well enough to know. However, since I have been very political recently, I think I will stick with my original plan this month. After all, since I have been released from having conviction, let’s look at events coming up in the area… First, in case you hadn’t noticed, Gay Bingo is back! They’ve moved to a new location at Freemont Studios but it’s still Gay Bingo. It’s still a great night. It still benefits a worthy cause (the Lifelong AIDS Alliance). This month, the theme is When In Rome on March 20th. Next month is Biker Babes on the 17th of April. Doors open at 6:00 pm and the event starts at 7:00. If you want more information, check out http://www.gaybingoseattle.org or http://www.lifelongaidsalliance. org/gaybingo. Next, the Seattle Men’s Chorus is bringing their Latin music show, Ole! Ole! Ole!, to life on Saturday, April 10th at 8:00 pm and Sunday, April 11th at 2:00 pm. The Saturday night performance is followed by a dance, free to all ticket holders. Get moving at the concert and stay moving into the night, until 1:00 am! Cash bar and food will be available, too. More information can be found here:

$3.00

http://www.flyinghouse.org/smc/ole/. If you love to dance but country is more your style, check out the Emerald City Hoedown, April 2325, also in Seattle. Three days of dancing, music, and great people – all to a country western beat, courtesy of Rain Country Dance Association. And no, you don’t have to be a member to attend. While primarily geared toward the LGBT community, Rain Country Dance is straightfriendly, as well, and open to all. Details about the Hoedown and the Association can be found at http://www.raincountrydance.org/hoedown.asp and http://www.raincountrydance.org/index.asp respectively.

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So, Poppets, if you want to stick to your convictions and keep tolerating, or if you want to throw up your hands for a few weeks and shun those who aren’t lucky enough to be us, here are a few ways to do it in style – snarkiness optional. Whichever you choose, until next month, take care of you.⁂

2.50 Get Involved with the stories and issues that matter to you! Share your thoughts and comments on this article at www.thebettypages.com

1.50 www . thebettypages . com

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Finally, for this article at least, it’s the time of year for Dining Out For Life (http://www. diningoutforlife.com/). Regardless of where you are, you can participate. Take a run up to the Vancouver, B.C. area on the 25th of this month to eat at some fabulous restaurants and then, on April 29th, be in either Seattle or Portland and repeat. Two delicious nights out; one worthy cause.

Between 6 PM and 10 PM

An Interview with Poet Steve Fellner Jory M. Mickelson

www . thebettypages . com

Steve Fellner’s first book of poems Blind Date with Cavafy was released by Marsh Hawk Press. It won the Thom Gunn Gay Male Poetry Award. His new memoir, All Screwed Up (Benu Press), centers on his odd relationship with his mother, who was once a champion trampolinist, and now a champion of the unpredictable. He currently teaches in Brockport, NY.

Undertaking come to mind. As a poet who has written a memoir, why do you think this is? What led you from poetry to writing a Jory Mickelson: It seems to me that there is a growing memoir? trend among poets to also write memoirs. Mark Doty’s Heaven’s Coast and Thomas Lynch’s excellent Steve Fellner: I was very sick when I decided to write a memoir. In fact, I didn’t plan on my scraps of memory ever becoming a full-length book. This is the truth: I was very sick and lonely at the time. I’ve never had many friends. For some inexplicable reason, all these hives started to appear on my body; they wouldn’t go away. I had no one to talk to. I had no idea what to do. I thought I was going to die. Several weeks went by and things got worse, and I assumed I had AIDS. So I got a test and everything came out fine. Which made things even worse. I was left to my imagination and that can have fatal consequences for a writer. Convinced that I had an unknown disease, I decided to tell the people who I loved that I indeed did love them. The first one was my greatest love: my mother. I didn’t know to do it. And I couldn’t concentrate, as scared as I was. So I wrote a fragment, a single selfcontained memory. It was a paragraph long. And then I wrote another. And then another. And that’s how it continued. Until I had a book. A book which was nothing more really than a warped love letter for my www . thebettypages . com

mother.

And that one-on-one interaction has become even more important, having gone through the psychic pain I was JM: Your memoir came out in June 2009 from Benu finally forced to confront. Press, what have you been working on since then? JM: Living in a larger city on the East Coast you have SF: After the memoir, I had a breakdown. A very bad greater access to a queer arts culture. What would you breakdown. I don’t want to go into the details. But I felt tell gay poets who live in small towns far away from large hopeless; I felt I had nothing more to offer the world. I cities and urban centers? Or since we are actually talking didn’t know what to do. So I decided to write something about my situation…how can gay rednecks like me get that had nothing to do with me. And that thing was a blog involved with a wider queer writing community? where I would write about the books and poems of other gay men. I figured if I wrote about the men in my own SF: I know it might not be the same thing. But I live in community it would undoubtedly be read. And it is being Brockport, a village about 45 minutes away from the city. read. It makes me very happy and gives me a feeling that Most of my peers live in the city, and in the winter, I rarely words matter--something I had forgotten. JM: One question I always have for writers is how do you know when a poem, story or manuscript is done? Does an editor say, “Okay Steve, really, that is enough now” or do you have some intuition that your work has come to completion? www . thebettypages . com

SF: Something is done when I’m bored. I get bored easily. If I’m not having fun, then I figure I might as well stop. If I’m bored, my reader will be. JM: What are you reading right now or what is waiting to be read on your nightstand? SF: I’m going to rip off something that O’Hara said. I wish I could remember exactly what it was. I’ve always want to be one of those people who can recite quotations on demand. But I can’t. Breakdowns mess up your memory even more. It’s something he said about movies. I’ve been much more into movies. I just watched Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” about Keats and loved it. JM: You work as a creative writing professor. What has being an instructor taught you about your own work? SF: If I had to choose between teaching and writing, I’d choose the former. It’s fun to see someone improve. www . thebettypages . com

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twenty-something someday?

post-queers

SF: I don’t plan on being jaded. I think that’s one of the personal missions of my blog: to see what’s new and exciting. I’m the sort of person who only rents New Releases. I like to see what’s out there right now. And there’s always something that makes me happy. JM: Any last words? SF: I just want to thank you for doing this interview with me. People like you keep me going and help me resist the temptation to be cynical and, yes, jaded.⁂ Get Involved with the stories and issues that matter to you! Share your thoughts and comments on this article at www.thebettypages.com

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see them. I have a debilitating fear of SF: I only think certain sorts of gays driving--it was crucial that I live in with certain sorts of identities are walking distance to the campus. getting wider acceptance. So I think the loss of gay and independent I’ve never had that many friends. I’m bookstores is fatal. For example, at awkward and weirdly shy. I think the a queer bookstore, I just bought Tim most important thing is to find one Dean’s scholarly book “Unlimited super close friend--not a boyfriend, Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture but someone platonic. And to talk of Barebacking.” This is probably one regularly, if not every day, enough so of the most important ethical issues that when you hear about their life in our community. Would I find it becomes somewhat tedious. It’s that at Barnes & Noble? I doubt it. important to know peoples’ patterns. Would I find the works of queer rebel You can help them identify things they David Wojnarowicz in Waldenbooks? might not have noticed if left to their I doubt it. Everyone’s favorite David own devices. Sedaris has always pretty much bored JM: With gay bookstores folding me--not that he hasn’t had wonderful like…well independent bookstores, essays. But lately he’s a queer Erma there are fewer places to see gay Bombeck. And how many people in books on the shelf. Queer people their mid 30’s remember who she is are losing visibility for their work. Is anymore? this the price of wider acceptance? JM: Are we going to all be jaded

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2010 Olympics are Full of “Pride”

Nick Milhoan The 2010 Olympic and Paralympics’ are taking British Columbia by storm and people are showing their pride from Richmond, B.C. all the way to Whistler, but its not the typical waving of flag or wearing clothing with a maple leaf on it. No this time were talking gay pride!

The Mission of PRIDE House is to provide an open and welcoming venue for the LGBT community and their allies to celebrate together diversity and inclusiveness through sport. To educate and make aware that LGBT people are still discriminated against and in some cases persecuted for being or assumed to be a homosexual. It is still illegal to be gay in over seventy countries around the world and in seven countries the punishment for being gay is death. If you’re planning a trip to Whistler, PRIDE House will be open through March 21st. The hours of operation are scheduled from 10AM to 10PM daily. Vancouver’s PRIDE House will also be open through the 21st and is scheduled to be open from 10AM to 7PM daily. Hours for both locations are subject to change.⁂ www . thebettypages . com

www . thebettypages . com

Iran, Jamaica, India, Ukraine, and 65+ other countries where it is still ILLEGAL to be a homosexual and in over 7 countries the crime of being gay or thought to be gay is punishable by DEATH. This enables all athletes to compete not only for their home country, but also in a community where for the most part those who identify as LGBTQ are For the first time in Olympic history Whistler Village is home to treated with respect and dignity, unlike their home countries where PRIDE House, a modern, cocktail style lounge that is available to all many are killed. GLBTQ athletes, coaches, families, friends and allies. There is also a smaller PRIDE House venue in Vancouver on Butte St, but on a much During the games countless athletes and celebrities visited the two smaller scale. locations including Olympian Jon Montgomery, the first Canadian Olympian to ever earn gold on domestic soil, Stephen Colbert made a PRIDE house is a complete athlete lounge with a cocktail bar and secret visit to the Vancouver location and many other Olympians from TV monitors to watch the Olympics, a place to hang out, trade pins, around the world have stopped by to visit. a media area to do interviews, and a venue to just have fun. PRIDE House was designed with the core values of celebrating authenticity, PRIDE House came about after Gay Whistler, the producers of the diversity and inclusiveness. annual WinterPRIDE festival, secured Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre as a partner and later worked with Vancouver Pride to secure a PRIDE house is significant not only because no other Olympics have spot off the mountain. had such a venue, but especially to those citizens in nations such as While it is not known if anything of this nature will make an appearance in two years at the 2012 summer games in London or the 2014 winter games in Sochi, they have been a hit and well received around the games. Early estimates are saying (as of 2/25) that over 20,000 people have visited the 2 venues.

Biz Profile: Everybody’s Store Tara Nelson

When Jeff Margolis took over this century-old general store 40 years ago in the small community of Van Zandt near Mount Baker, the Beatles had just cut their first album, the civil rights movement was underway and the vision was clear: Get back to the land to live the good life. “We are pioneers in this ‘buy local’ movement,” he said, citing two of his inspirations, Helen and Scott Nearing, former New Yorkers and theosophists who spearheaded the ‘back-to-the-land’ movement of 1950s. “We’ve been doing it for nearly 40 years, long before it was trendy.” This charmingly rustic store gives the appearance of a bucolic country store in which one might envision the owner running tabs for local residents. A quick trip inside, however, is nearly sensory overload with display of fresh,

Given the store’s adventurous mercantile, the engaging demeanor of the store’s owner comes as no surprise. During a recent visit Margolis, a former political philosophy professor from New York with a suspiciously large vocabulary, began into an effortless diatribe about a 1960s counterculture movement that favored a simple life of living off the land and Whatcom County’s own subversive culture that boasted “Northwest Passage,” one of the most avantgarde underground tabloids in the country. But before I could dig further, Margolis whisked me over to sample fresh green beans from the store’s fresh produce cooler, show me the nine different types of bulk rice (including long-grain, Canadian wild rice), a selection of bulk flours from grain milled in Bellingham and, finally, took me on a grazing tour of the 9,000-square foot on-site garden, where he handed me samples

www . thebettypages . com

wild harvested Chanterelle mushrooms, organic produce grown on-site, local wines, hand milled flours, bulk herbs and single-source chocolate. The cheese section alone is enough to get distracted and staff here is happy to sample any of the varieties. For starters, though, try the potato goat cheese from Holland, the wasabi-flavored cheddar and the Nokkelast, a traditional raw-milk Scandinavian holiday cheese studded with cumin, caraway and cloves and commissioned from Pleasant Valley Farms in Ferndale. The award-winning cheese, traditionally eaten at Christmas time, is sold in two and six pound wheels. Margolis, however, is happy to cut smaller portions on his 106-year-old antique cheese wheel cutter. (The cheese is also available online at www.everybodys.com or by calling (866) 832-4695 and can be shipped nationwide.)

www . thebettypages . com

of red cabbage, apples, wine grapes and sweet corn faster than I could eat them. While munching on wild rose hips plucked straight from the bush (I respectfully declined), he talked about conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, a type of fatty acid found mostly in the store’s pasture-raised beef that has been shown in studies to lose weight; Inca propensity, or the Mayan technique he uses to plant beans, corn and squash together in a symbiotic fashion; anarchy movements of the late 1800s; and the importance of living a simple, frugal and purposeful life that serves the community. “I live here, I work here, I grow the food, I eat and sell the food,” he said. “It’s a good set up.” Today, the store has been hailed by Seattle Post Intelligencer

and Pacific Northwest Magazine as a “food mecca.” But whether or not you choose to delve into the socio-political aspects of various food conspiracies, it’s still a good place to stop before you get into the hills to put together a picnic or provision a day hike with some of their locally made energy bars made of various combinations of chewy figs, crunchy hazel nuts and addictive chocolate. Everybody’s Store is two miles south on Highway 9 from the Mt. Baker Highway, which it meets just east of Deming. (360) 592-2297.⁂ Get Involved with the stories and issues that matter to you! Share your thoughts and comments on this article at www.thebettypages.com

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Gay Film Bibliography: A Hitch in the Woods Bichoo Vrischik

www . thebettypages . com

When feeling gay, Alfred Hitchcock would flip through VOGUE, searching for photos of Joan Crawford. Raymond Durgnat sees in Hitchcock’s PSYCHO a ‘potpourri’ of history’s sadistic, transvestic tales from Sophocles’ OEDIPUS REX (c. 429 BC) to James Parrott’s THE LAURELHARDY MURDER CASE (1930). “Queer,” i.e. odd, in Donald Spoto’s THE DARK SIDE OF GENIUS (Ballantine, 1983), Hitchcock is re-read in Robin Wood’s chapter “The Murderous Gays: Hitchcock’s Homophobia.” Although the U.S. government and the Hays office

forbade references to homosexuality in the 1930s, Tania Modleski in THE WOMEN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (Routledge, 1988), Theodore Price in HITCHCOCK AND HOMOSEXUALITY (Scarecrow, 1992) and John Hepworth in “Hitchcock’s Homophobia” (CHRISTOPHER STREET 64:1982; reprinted in OUT IN CULTURE, Duke University, 1995) out Hitchcock ‘s ROPE (1948), STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951), and PSYCHO (1960). Yet misogyny, or heterophobia, can be found in the same films. Rhona Berenstein wrestled with Hitchcock’s demonized lesbianism in “Monsters, Queers, and Hitchcock’s REBECCA [1940]” as does Lucretia Knapp in “The Queer Voice in MARNIE [1964],” both in OUT IN CULTURE. Wood finds queer desire in 1959’s NORTH BY N O R T H W E S T ’s bottom spy Valerian (Adam William)’s attempt to eliminate Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), Valerian’s rival for top spy Phillip Vandamn (James Mason). To Modleski, quoting Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), Eve uses sex like a “flyswatter,” a deadly predecessor on Mount Rushmore of the double-edged Madeleine/Judy (Kim Novak) who falls from

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a lighthouse in VERTIGO (1958). The Hays office even outlawed heterosexuality, demanding separate beds onscreen after marriage. Chastity became an onscreen goal while West Hollywood partied behind concrete walls in ersatz, erstwhile hacienda interiors designed by randy William Haines. It was thus the French Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol, in HITCHCOCK (1957, trans. Unger, 1979), who first outed Hitchcock’s gay trilogy: the “moral” MURDER! (1930), “realistic” ROPE (1948), and “psychoanalytic” STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951). D.A. Miller’s article title “Anal ROPE,” in INSIDE/OUT (Routledge, 1991), now seems self-explanatory. Wealthy University of Chicago, Nietzschean geniuses and lovers, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, murdered 14-year old Bobby Franks in 1924, prompting the U.S.’s first “Trial of the Century.” Anti-capital punishment lawyer Clarence Darrow took their case. Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 British play ROPE fictionalized it, transferring to Broadway the same year. Hitchcock bought it, hired Robert Walker and Farley Granger as the lovers, now named Brandon and Phillip (he’d wanted Montgomery Clift as Brandon, the dominant) who strangle “Michelangelesque,” to Miller, David Kentley (Dick Hogan). Hume Cronyn scripted, and probably to the delight of Granger, Granger’s apprehensive lover, playwright Arthur Laurentes (GYPSY et al.) wrote new dialogue. Cronyn cut the English-isms, like “My dear boy,” and Laurentes implied the gay relationship, but Hitchcock or his producer, to outsmart the censor, reinserted the English phrases, realizing they would be cut as “HOMOSEXUAL DIALOGUE.” The love that dare not speak its name thus

remained unnamed; only a year earlier it had been excised as a motive for murder from Edward Dymtryk’s CROSSFIRE. To Miller, citing Roland Barthes, Hitchcock further obfuscates the unnamed with an obsessive technique, attempting real-time, 10-minute takes, the longest possible at the time. Suspicion is thus directed at killers insubstantially gay via, e.g., bank statements, lifestyle, penthouse. Conflicting positions – misapplied genius, self-hatred, and justice -- form a triangle (read upside down, perhaps like the pink Nazi ones). If Cary Grant could have been cast as the Nietzschean ‘gay’ professor who uncovers the murder, rather than straight James Stewart, all three characters could be guilty of ‘choking the chicken,’ paraphrasing a line of dialogue. Dall and Granger fumble with a phallic champagne bottle, depth perception and a choreographed wrestling

match suggest more; a cassone, as David’s coffin, implies a closet. Anal sex to Miller is suggested seven times, Hitch’s camera ending on Dall’s backside four times, Granger’s twice, Stewart’s once, finally resting on the cassone. After opening the coffin, Stewart sits in a chair with a discharged gun, perhaps covering his own ass. As it is, ROPE met a mixed, lukewarm reception.

BY NUMBERS (2002), are all inspired by it. In AMC’s MAD MEN, Don Draper (John Hamm)’s vice-presidents ‘gay’ Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staten) and recovering alcoholic Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray) are called ‘Leopold and Loeb.’

So, was Hitchcock homophobic, and how far have we come? Three years later Hitch adapted Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 novel Yet in 1956 Meyer Levin retold the Leopold STRANGERS ON A TRAIN.⁂ and Loeb story, in his novel COMPULSION, Get Involved with the stories and filmed by Richard Fleischer in 1959. issues that matter to you! Share your Tom Kalin’s openly gay SWOON (1992); thoughts and comments on this article Michael Haneke’s Austrian FUNNY at www.thebettypages.com GAMES (1997), and his 2008 American remake; Gary Fleder’s KISS THE GIRLS (1997) from James Patterson’s 1995 novel; and Barbet Schroeder’s MURDER www . thebettypages . com www . thebettypages . com

300 W. CHAMPION STREET, DOWNTOWN BELLINGHAM Whatcom Community College’s

Queer Straight Alliance Join the QSA for weekly meetings on campus Thursday afternoons 4-5 pm in the Heiner Building, room 101. The QSA promotes queer related issues on and off the WCC campus through education and entertainment while facilitating a safe environment and creating a community. The QSA supports WCC’s commitment to inclusion and diversity.

GLBT Organizations in Whatcom and Skagit Counties www.theslowlane.com This website includes a gay resource guide for Bellingham located at www.theslowlane.com/guide.html. There is also a Yahoo Groups at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ alternativebellingham/ Sean Humphrey House An apartment complex for people living with HIV/AIDS in Bellingham. For more information call 360-733-9357 Triskeli Guild TheTriskeli Guild is Bellingham’s BDSM group that promotes community and education for safe, sane and consensual play. They encourage participation by all sexual preferences, race and age 18 and up people. They meet monthly every 2nd Tuesday, at Pandora’s Box at 314 W. Champion St. at 7 m. www. triskeli.org Queries—triskeli@triskeli. org

Washington Gender Alliance A support and educational organization for anyone dealing with issues of gender identity or expression, and the people in our lives. We have weekly Open Support meetings in Bellingham and Everett. For more information, please write to us at info@ WashingtonGenderAlliance.com or call 360-445-2411, or visit our web site at www.WashingtonGenderAlliance.com. ISCEE The Imperial Sovereign Court of the Evergreen Empire is affiliated with the International Court System and has been actively raising money for charity for over 25 years by sponsoring drag shows and pageants. The group is open to all regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, seeking to provide social activities and community service opportunities for gays, lesbians, and their friends and allies in Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan Counties.

PFLAG of Skagit County Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays’ Skagit County Chapter meets at the Central United Methodist Church at 1013 Polte Rd. in Sedro-woolley on the second Monday of every month at 7 PM. For directions and information all 360-856-4676 Counseling Line To connect with a licensed therapist in Whatcom County who is educated about kink, polyamory, and LGBTQI lives and lifestyles, call 360-756-0718. Individual, couples, and family and phone sessions are available. Lavender Light Meeting An LGBT Lavender Light meeting of Narcotics Anonymous meets at 1209 Girard Street every Wednesday and Friday night at 7 PM and Sunday at noon. This group has been meeting since June of 2001. PFLAG of Bellingham and Whatcom County For information about parents and friends of lesbians and gays in Bellingham and Whatcom County call 360-733-1500. Skagit Young Men’s Group A place for young, gay men (ages 2035) to meet new people, get support, make conversation and have fun. Meetings held at Central Methodist Church, Sedro-Woolley. Rumors Cabaret Rumors Cabaret caters to Bellingham’s GLBT and alternative lifestyle community and has done so since the 1980’s. An award winning dance club, Rumors provides a gathering place to celebrate party and mingle. From the Betty Desire Show at 10:30 PM on Wednesday nights, to Fetish Nite on the third Sunday of the month, to hosting foam parties and drag shows, there is something for everyone at Rumors. Go to rumorscabaret.com for info.

Evergreen AIDS Foundation Evergreen AIDS Foundation provides support services for people living with HIV and AIDS who reside in Whatcom or Skagit County. 1509 Cornwall Ave. 360-671-0703 Western Washington University LGBTA The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Alliance at Western Washington University is a student organization which supports lesbians, gays, bisexuals, people who identify as transgender, and their allies; in the various stages of their coming out process, in the creation and affirmation of positive self identities, and in the promotion and defense of their human and civil rights. The LGBTA is located on Western’s Campus in Viking Union 515 and is open from the first day of Fall quarter until the last day of Spring quarter. For information call 360-650-6120. Whatcom County KINK is a group to help organize events, munches, help if you have items to sell, or just a way for people to get to know each other. Meetings are the 1st Tuesday of the month at Rumor’s Cabaret. Happy Spankings! Bellingham Radical Faeries Community of queerfolk interested in lifestyles celebrating queer sexuality, spirituality and sustainability of the natural world. 18+ recommended. Meet at Three Trees Coffeehouse, 118 W. Holly St, Saturdays from 11am-ish to 1pm-ish. http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/BellinghamRadicalFaeries/

Whatcom Community College’s Queer Straight Alliance is committed to supporting the GLBT community by promoting awareness of queer issues and entertaining and educating students and staff of WCC, as well as Whatcom County. We can be reached at wccqsa@gmail.com for more info or CRavenwo@whatcom.ctc.edu 4th Corner Poly A friendly group involved in or curious about non-monogamous relationships—people open to having more than one loving and honest relationship in their lives. All gender orientations and persuasions are welcome. This is a family, kid-friendly get-together for sharing experiences and desires—not a pick-up or swing scene. We meet every 3rd Thursday evening. For meeting information: http://groups. yahoo.com/group/4thcornerpoly/ Bellingham Leather Men is a community based organization dedicated to empower gay leathermen in Northwest Washington through social and educational events, and is open to all men who wish to better understand the gay male leather/fetish experience. We support support safe, sane and consensual play. Monthly Men’s Leather Social every second Saturday of the month at Rumors Cabaret, 7:30 until 10:30. For more information, contact President Rick Ruben at werebear100@yahoo.com Lesgo.com Is a website that helps connect the Whatcom County lesbian community with information on local and regional happenings.

The Betty Pages Copyright Notice While The Betty Pages and/or its contributors generally reserve all rights and privileges of copyright, several parts of this publication are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. For more information and permissions, contact The Betty Pages at thebettypages@gmail.com or send a letter to The Betty Pages, c/o Desire Enterprises, PO Box 2724, Bellingham, Washington, 98227-2724, USA.

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On Eagle’s Wings Counseling Sue Stackhouse offers counseling services to the GLBT community in Whatcom and Skagit County. For information call 360-599-2627

Gay and Lesbian Alcoholics Anonymous Meets every Wednesday night at 7:30PM at St. Joseph’s South Campus.