BENT magazine is produced primarily
for
the
gay
community
but accessible to the whole community. BENT is created to defy the misconstrued image that has tainted the gay world. It is essentially a BENT perspective
that
caters
to
those
in favor of the LGBTQ community but displays values that anyone
SPRING 2011
can relate to.
EDITOR IN CHIEF: Tony Tran EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Nicole Ramirez MANAGING EDITOR: Ruth Arellano FEATURES EDITOR: Rachel Wan ARTICLES EDITOR: Kelsey Cole STORY EDITORS: Sara Sheridan, Patrick McClure SENIOR EDITORS: Brittany Truex, James Davidson, Andrea Drake, Jessica Katona, Amy Keeling SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR: Brenna Marketello SENIOR WRITER: Derek Chan COPY EDITORS: Nina Kim, Rosa Lee EDITORIAL OPERATIONS MANAGER: Lauren Cascio CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Annabelle Gould ART DIRECTORS: Sophie Milton, Carolyn Shuetz SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR: Erica Coombs PHOTO EDITOR: Nick Myett PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Abbey Carlstrom PRODUCTION MANAGER: Ryan Diaz FOUNDING EDITOR: Lola Migas EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Jeremy Juel
HEALTH
TRAVEL
POLITICS
FEATURE SPOT
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
FASHION
CONTENT
02 14 24 32 42 52 BENT
Try a new spot and visit this fascinating city
G AY WATCH: G AY BOM BAY
Break the myths of circumcision and sex toys
DANG EROUS LI AISONS
California’s takes a leap towards marriage equality
S UCCESS! PROPOSI TION 8 OVERTURNED
Catch up on Dan and his fight against D.A.D.T.
TH IS I SSUE’S GUEST: DAN CHOI
A first-ever documentary on being gay and Muslim
I N M OVI ES: A JI H AD FOR LOVE
See our favorite new looks this season
TOP 10 URBAN LOOK S
BEN T M A R C H 2 0 11 / V OL UME 14
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Leather Jacket by Balenciaga
SPRING SPRING 2011 2011
Top by Odeur (AWA Taipei)
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Trouser by CrĂŠature De Keis (Liger, Hong Kong)
Shoes by Mansion Martin Margiela (MMM Hong Kong)
WHO: MAYAO, 22 WHERE: LONDON
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FASHION 02 Top 10 Urban Looks 06 An Introduction to Hypebeasts 08 How to Succeed in Fashion Week 10 Kanye West to Go to Fashion School? 11 Tyra Banks: Too Crazy? We Think So! 11 Tips & Tricks for Getting Into School
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12 Thrifty Finds and How to Do It
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Mayao won our pick for the Top Urban Look this issue with his great sense of layering and his use of this seasons hot new trend, low-crotched pants! Low-crotched pants have been a big hit in Asia and have finally caught on in the U.S.! This paired with more layers adds to the ensemble and makes the outfit look fresh and new while elongating your body. Try out this look and grab some pants today before they’re old news!
FA SHION
T OP 10 URB A N L OOK S
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Dapper - A well dressed person who looks sexy, smart, and stylish.
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WHO: EDWARD H, 17 WHERE: SAN DIEGO, CA
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Suit - H&M Cardigan Vest - American Apparel Button Up - H&M Shoes - Thriftstore
Looking dapper* on everyday occasions have become more and more common these days. There is nothing wrong with looking your best. This way, you’ll always be prepared for an interview or to meet your boyfriend’s parents. Invest in some dress pants and you’ll turn most of your tops into a classy outfit.
WHO: PETER A, 20 WHERE: LOS ANGELES, CA
A. B. C. D. E.
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Bow Tie - American Apparel Charcoal Vest - H&M Dress Shirt - Target Leather Jacket - Vintage Skinny Jeans - H&M
The bowtie is an excellent tool for making an impact and we are glad it’s coming back. Try putting some edge to your vest and bowtie by adding a leather jacket and you’ll turn heads. It’s all about mixing this season, so why not try some dapperness with some dopeness?
WHO: DENNY W, 22 WHERE: NEW JERSEY
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Hat - Urban Outfitters Sweater - Target Jacket - American Apparel Bag - Metro Park Skinny Jeans - H&M Sneakers - Puma
Here’s a look for you hip hop heads. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars at little boutiques to look fresh. If you layer the right things and accent with the right accessories, you’ll be fly in no time.
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WHO: MIKE Q, 17 WHERE: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
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WHO: KENNETH L, 21 WHERE: VANCOUVER
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A. Padded Blazer - Zara Mens B. Graphic T-Shirt - Urban Outfitters C. Watch - Marc Jacobs D. Skinny Pants - OBEY E. High Boots - Zara Mens
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Hat - Toque Studded Blazer - Zara Kids Gold Watch - Sieko Pandemonium Tshirt - Threadless Basic Skinny Jeans - H&M Sneakers - Urban Outfitters
A black blazer is a must in anyone’s closet, no matter the season. It can make your outfit that much more elegant or add spice to a simple T-shirt/pant combo.
Here is an example of a blazer adding that little “oomph” to your outfit. Pairing this with some sneakers and a beany turn your Plain Jane outfit into something you can wear to a party and actually be noticed.
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WHO: MOHCINE A, 21 WHERE: CASABLANCA, MOROCCO
A. Leather Jacket - Decontrol Kennedy B. Graphic Tshirt - Sport Moda C. Low Rise Jeans - Munich Overdrive
Who says you have to wear all sorts of bling to be noticed? A well-fitted leather jacket can go a long way, and when paired with good posture and attitude, you’ll be sure to make a lasting impression.
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Polo Shirt - American Apparel Argyle Cardigan - Vintage Blazer - Zara Women Skinny Jeans - H&M Ankle Boots - Zara Kids Canvas Briefcase - Alex Folzi
Who says only women can wear men’s clothes? Wearing pieces that aren’t too obviously cut for a woman’s body can work wonders; giving you that extra fit that is sometimes hard to achieve with bulky men’s clothes.
WHO: JOHN P, 25 WHERE: VANCOUVER
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WHO: RICARDO G, 17 WHERE: RIVERSIDE, CA
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Emerald Earring - Vintage Oversized Scarf - Homemade Sequined Top - Zara Mens Layered Cardigans - Urban Outfitters E. Knit Gloves - Metro Park F. Stressed Capris - Thriftstore
A. B. C. D. E.
Fedora - Urban Outfitters Skull Necklace - H&M DIY Tshirt - Union Jack Jean Jacket - GAP Leopard Print Tshirt American Apparel F. Bracelet - Metro Park
Though it may be warm, making use of light fabrics help pull off the layered look without making you die of heat. This distressed hobo look works best with many layers.
A simple look that works well for those breezy summer nights. Again, simple layers help and you can throw on a simple jean jacket if your day goes into the night.
SPRING 2011
ARTS& 14
E N T E R T A INME
18 It Takes Two Men to Tango 19 Before “Born This Way” 20 Artist Spotlight: John Fallon
22 2011 Most Googled Gays
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ALL: SCENES FROM “A JIHAD FOR LOVE”
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16 “A Jihad for Love”
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RIGHT: PARVEZ SHARMA AT THE QUEER AND PRESENT DANGER PANEL
A RT S & E N T E RTA INME N T SPRING 2011
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A JIH A D F OR L O V E
Breaking Silence on Being Gay and Muslim. New film shows Gays and Lesbians in the Muslim World. BY LAURA SETRAKIAN AND HAIFA JEDEA
Filmmaker Parvez Sharma says his film “A Jihad For Love” is an effort to shed light on the social and spiritual struggle of homosexuals who are devout Muslims. It tells an interesting story through personal narratives of gays across 12 countries. In the film, Sharma compiles a vision of Islamic life through the eyes of the gay and the faithful. “I felt it really important to empower gay and lesbian Muslims to tell the story of Islam,” Sharma told ABC News last week. Sharma, who is gay, said he was driven to make the film in part by the desire to “come out as a Muslim” after Sept. 11, hoping to broaden public perception about the diversity of Islam’s followers. The stories in the film are intimate, with main characters that include a gay Imam in South Africa, a lesbian couple in Turkey, homosexuals in Egypt and a group of gay Iranians fleeing the country to seek asylum in Canada. The characters struggle with their societies, some escaping persecution and abuse. They have strong bonds with their families, but forge a second family among other gay believers.
Muhsin Hendricks, an Islamic scholar in South Africa, openly and actively engages other Muslims in discussions about homosexuality. Hendricks came out on his radio show, setting off an angry and threatening response from listeners of the show. “I think Muhsin should be thrown off a mountain or burned or something like that,” we hear one caller say. “We should bring back the death penalty for this guy. He’s bringing down the name of Islam,” says another. In the film, Hendricks voices the scholarly opposition, trying to overturn an interpretation of Islam as categorically against homosexuality. He argues that the book of Lot, with its condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah, condemns sinners for molestation and rape – not simply for being gay. “We cannot find answers within orthodox Islamic thinking. We have to use one of the principles of Islam, ‘Ijtihad,’ meaning independent reasoning, to find a place for us within Islam,” he says. In opposition, another fellow Muslim in the film accuses Hendricks of interpreting Islam to suit his life choices. Hendricks describes how he lived before coming out, married to a woman in hopes that traditional family
Matters of Faith and Sexuality Sharma says it is the religious commitment of the film’s characters that makes the strongest impact. “Muslims who watched the film actually also are very surprised by the intense religiosity of the people profiled in the film. When you show to a Muslim a person who is as devout, if not more devout than them, then you are presenting a conundrum,” Sharma told ABC News. “You are presenting someone who is living by the Quran, is living by the book, and is still deeply struggling with this idea of their homosexuality.” Given the sensitive topic, Sharma put himself at personal risk by making the film. As he traveled through the Muslim world, he sometimes posed as a tourist or charity worker. He constantly made copies of his raw footage, just in case the originals were confiscated by authorities. Now that “Jihad for Love” is made, it is showing in the West and in countries with significant Muslim populations, like India and Turkey. Sharma has yet to show it anywhere in the Arab world. “I certainly don’t imagine that the film is going to show in a movie theater in the region, but I think in universities, private homes, conferences, and maybe the film festival in Dubai,” Sharma told ABC News, adding that he was turned down from last year’s film festival for fear of a public backlash. “There will be a way to show the film, but when you’re working with religious orthodoxy it is critical to work with respect and with a lot of patience.”
“WE SHOULD BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY FOR THIS GUY. HE’S BRINGING DOWN THE NAME OF ISLAM.”
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life would change his sexual preference. His life as a closeted gay Muslim was cloaked with depression and secrecy, which he sees as a common and potentially suicidal combination for gay Muslims who bury their sexual preference inside. It is Hendricks who coins the term “love jihad” in the film, referring to the inner struggle of gay Muslims reconciling their faith with their sexuality. In another narrative Kiymet, a lesbian living in Turkey, describes how she bridges the two. “My atheist friends always ask me, how can you be a lesbian and have such a religious faith? For me each has its own place. If God has planted this love in my heart, then it is legitimate,” Kiyamet says. She lives in relative freedom, but laments the closeted lives of other lesbians in Turkey. “Women like us are captives in a different life. We are prisoners. There are girls in the southeast [of Turkey] and remote areas who are lesbians but cannot lead full lesbian lives.” In another scene, three lesbians discuss the Koran and its implications for women. “The Prophet Muhammad did an enormous number of things so that women could participate in public affairs, including politics. For me, Muhammad was a feminist,” says one woman. She goes on to describe how she would profess her lifestyle while speaking to God on judgment day. “I have loved women and it was not a sin, because my loving a woman caused no harm. I only loved Allah, my one God, I only loved.’”
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FE ATUR 24
D A N CHOI
HEAR HIS STORY AND HIS FIGHT AGAINST DON’T ASK DON’T TELL.
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RE SPOT 25
F E ATUR E S PO T
B A D L IE U T E N A N T, D A N CHOI BY STEVEN THRASHER
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Lieutenant Daniel Choi is most well known for getting kicked out of the U.S. military. An infantry platoon leader who served two tours in Iraq (and was one of the relatively few who was fluent in Arabic), he was tossed out after he outed himself in March 2009 on national TV – on prime time. A West Point grad, son of a Baptist preacher, and himself a born-again Christian, Choi, 29, became the face of the movement against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
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In a movement awash with political correctness, But it isn’t just getting kicked out of the military that irks him. He’s also not happy about being kicked off Choi decidedly isn’t. He is now speaking out without being asked, sometimes even angering people in his Grindr — four times. Grindr is an iPhone app that uses GPS positioning own camp. Rare among gay-rights activists in the to show your location, and it also shows the where- national spotlight, Choi mixes an irrepressible sense of abouts of other gay men nearby who are eager to hook humor into his growing militancy. Choi “has a public role and a private life,” one friend up and have sex. Unlike other Grindr users, who tend to adopt screen tells the Voice. “In his private life, he sometimes exhibnames like “Top-Jamaicanbkl” or “SmoothBoyish,” its behaviors that, I fear, if caught on YouTube by Choi uses “Lt. Dan Choi,” and his profile features an somebody who was a conservative spy, would reflect very poorly on him and, by extension, on the moveactual photograph of him in uniform. But Grindr repeatedly cancelled his account. “They ment. On the other hand, I’m just kind of jealous. kept saying, ‘You are impersonating the Lt. Dan Choi.’ There’s a lot of me wishing I could be out there and be I had to go onto Facebook and find the owner of Grindr as openly gay as he is.” Choi is unapologetic. He says he resents it when and say, ‘Can you please tell your people to stop deleting my account?’ “ It stopped, but he still gets messages anyone, especially those in the gay-rights movement, from other users asking if he’s really that Lt. Dan Choi, discourages him from exploring — well, sexually — his baffled to be cyber-cruising the spokesman for repeal- newly revealed homosexuality. “I think our movement hits on so many nerves,” he ing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” There’s no doubt that when Choi came out last says, “not just for reasons of anti-discrimination and March on MSNBC as a gay soldier, he helped take the all the platitudes of the civil rights movement. I believe that it’s also because it has elements of sexual movement to a whole new level. “When he appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show, he liberation. And it shows people that through what was very buttoned-down, very conservative, very pro- we’re trying to do, they can be fully respectful of themfessional — and clear as a bell,” says Rick Jacobs, leader selves, without accepting the shame society wants to of a group fighting California’s anti-gay Proposition 8, throw upon them.” “Sexual liberation” — that probably won’t play well The Courage Campaign. But Choi isn’t buttoned-down anymore. There are on Capitol Hill. And therein lies the conflict between many across the political spectrum who wish the lieu- Choi and the establishment. His bold public tenant would be quiet once in a while. He angered the actions — from chaining himself to the White House right by appearing as the grand marshal at last year’s fence (twice) to going on a hunger strike for seven San Francisco and New York Gay Pride parades, where, days — as well as his almost complete lack of inhibias he puts it, he was gleefully “breaking ‘Don’t Ask, tion about making his private behavior public, unnerve the old guard of both the military and the gay-rights Don’t Tell’ all up and down the street!” (In uniform.) He has angered the left by not being lockstep anti- movement. Everyone, he says, is “happy to send out e-mails war enough at times, and by warmly welcoming Ken Mehlman, Bush’s campaign manager, to the gaybor- when a good court case comes out, but no one is willing to take a risk for fear of taking blame. If people hood when he came out.
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BELOW: POSING FOR SALON.COM’S SEXIEST MEN ALIVE
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F E ATUR E S PO T
want to blame me for being the reason ‘Don’t Ask, uncomfortably hot it gets. Many in the gay-rights Don’t Tell’ isn’t repealed, I say fine then. Bring it on, movement have had something to say about how loudyou motherfuckers.” ly he’s acted, he says. Some have even criticized him for Last July, in Las Vegas, he personally handed his going on a hunger strike. West Point ring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, “When I saw that, I thought it was ridiculous! You telling the Nevada senator to keep it until he could look super insane!” says Jake Goodman, a founding repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” member of the Queer Rising. Goodman, no stranger to But to Choi’s mind, Reid’s gamble of attaching gay direct action, chained himself to the New York rights to a defense bill gave the Republicans a legiti- Marriage Bureau last year, but he said he was “very mate reason to feel shut out of the debate. So what turned off” by Choi’s strike. happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. “I have a lot of respect for Dan, and I know him per“Harry Reid is a pussy,” Choi angrily said after the sonally,” Goodman says. “If you feel someone shouldn’t failed vote in the Senate last month, vowing to speak chain themselves to the White House, I say too bad. out about the Democratic leader, “and he’ll be bleeding You can do your tactic, and you can see how well it’s once a month.” working.” Still, he thinks a “hunger strike has to be Lieutenant Dan Choi personifies the growing rift about life and death. It shouldn’t be done lightly as between gay-rights activists who want to cooperate something just to raise the stakes.” with lobbyists and elected officials, and those who Others have criticized Choi for supposedly charging demand direct action. It’s pretty obvious that the too much for speaking engagements. establishment activists — having allies controlling the “I’ve lost all respect for you as a gay- and humanWhite House and the Congress for two years with little rights activist,” Nonnie Ouch, president of the to show for it — are having a hard time keeping people Gay-Straight Alliance at Texas Tech University, wrote like Choi in line. in an open letter to Choi in August. Ouch, bemoaning For months, Choi wanted action from President “the exorbitant amount of $10,000 to get you out here,” Barack Obama, whom he considers a failure on gay wrote that “after nine months of dealing with your rights and whose only record, as far as Choi personally agent, I received an e-mail directly from you. In short, is concerned, is that “I lost my job.” you basically said that the only way I could get you to But when federal judge Virginia Phillips first ruled in speak is if I raised enough money to bring you to Tech. September that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was unconsti- No deals, no compromises, end of story.” tutional, Choi told the Voice that he’d actually had a Ouch had first seen Choi at the National Equality change of heart. March in October 2009, where she was inspired by his “Don’t do anything, Obama!” he railed. “Just keep on “Love Is Worth It!” speech. It broke her heart, she doing what you’re doing, which is jack shit. Don’t wrote, to tell him, “You, sir, have lost sight in one of appeal the decision. Don’t add one more thing to your those many $10,000 checks written to you, of why you plate — your heavy-ass plate.” came out and became an activist in the first place.”
SPRING 2011
“Just have sex with a Korean girl! Pray for boner for Korean girl!”
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Choi wanted Obama to follow the playbook of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has not appealed the overturning in court of Proposition 8. But now that the administration has appealed Phillips’s decision, it’s obvious that Obama — much as he did when Choi was handcuffed to his backyard fence — has ignored him. When he first came out, Choi says, he could “never have imagined criticizing the commander in chief.” Now, he does it routinely. In a new century that seems far removed from the days of ACT-UP militancy, that makes some of his fellow activists jittery. “They keep saying, ‘Don’t say anything bad about Obama, or you’re going to end up with Sarah Palin as president!’ “ He resents what he considers to be a Hobson’s choice — Obama or nothing — because he says it lets the Democrats off the hook. To Choi, that scare tactic of trotting out the likes of Palin just shows that the Democrats “can wield fear just as well as a political weapon as the Republicans!” He butts heads with activists on the most local of levels. When organizers in Maine didn’t want him going door-to-door on behalf of gay marriage because they’d “done a poll, and Mainers only trust eighth-generation Mainers,” Choi says, he thought, “That’s a very subtle way of saying ‘No Asians.’ “ But more than his race or his open sexuality, it is perhaps Choi’s outspoken militancy on political issues that scares the gay-rights movement. To tightly scripted organizations like the Human Rights Campaign, “I am destabilizing,” he openly admits. “And it freaks the shit out of people when I tell young activists and soonto-be activists that they have the power, and they owe nothing” to groups like HRC or the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. (Neither responded to questions specifically about Choi.) Now that Choi has stepped out into the public spotlight, he’s not about to give it up — no matter how
Asked about it, Choi calls it “a strange situation” but is dismissive of Ouch’s description of Texas Tech students who wanted to hear him as “poor college kids in an extremely conservative city.” The poorest kids, Choi argues, “are not going to college.” He says he’s proud of the fact that he’s been taking care of himself “since I left high school,” by getting appointed to West Point and serving in the military. And he says that he donates a great deal of his fees to homeless LGBT youth of color, “who are really the poorest and the most marginalized.” Besides, students can get funds, he maintains, through their student activity boards and other sources to pay his appearance fees. He says he thinks the dispute “wasn’t about money.” He has a rider in his speaking contract that stipulates he won’t come to a school unless all campus groups are invited — gay, military, Christian — and that “they must invite the most homophobic group, four times, in writing.” When the Texas Tech kids wouldn’t play ball by his rules, he says, “I didn’t have time for it.” Money is a touchy subject for Choi, who says that, regardless of the amount he charges, “there are those who even question, ‘Who are you to charge anything?’ “ It’s no one’s business, he says, but “those plane tickets don’t buy themselves.” Over the past couple of years, he has gone from earning $62,000 a year down to about $700 a month (from a monthly disability check for his Iraq service, which has left him 50 percent disabled with a lung condition that, he says, won’t prevent him from re-enlisting). For all his fame and his presence on Grindr, Dan Choi does seem to have a rather lonely existence. “I am homeless,” he tells people. Since being honorably discharged from the 69th Infantry of New York’s Army National Guard, he has had no home to go to. He is registered to vote in New York City (and, when he endorsed Mike Bloomberg last year, found himself
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ABOVE: D.A.D.T. RALLY AT THE WHITE HOUSE LEFT: DAVID AND HIS PARTNER MATTHEW KINSEY AT THEIR HOME IN MANHATTAN RIGHT: RALLYING AT F PRIDE ‘09
smack in the middle of a war between lesbian activist on the couch. And sometimes, even with the movelawyer Yetta Kurland, lesbian City Council speaker ment, the couch is literally a couch.” Christine Quinn, and the city’s term-limit supporters). Going home isn’t an option for him. He says he Choi has broken up with the boyfriend he used to won’t speak to his first-generation Korean-American stay with in Chelsea, and he is estranged from his par- parents because he thinks “they are imposing their ents in California. He says that he has few, if any, own ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ “In other words, they friends from “before.” would see him, he says, but only while refusing to Instead, he’s a couch-surfing activist, staying with acknowledge his sexuality. other movement folk around the country wherever he In recalling how he came out to his parents — shortneeds to speak or organize. When he first spoke to the ly before going on Maddow last year — Choi typically Voice, he was crashing in San Diego with “a lesbian disregards political correctness and throws in several with five kids. I’ve practically gotten pregnant just dollops of humor to play both parts of his conversastaying here!” says Dan. tion with his mom. She had been pestering him about The friend — a veteran named Lisa Kove, who is who he was going to marry when he sat her down and president of an organization for openly gay military told her: “I’m not going to marry a Korean girl.” contractors — says that “being discharged under the “Oh, no! “ he says, mimicking his mother’s voice with best of circumstances can be disorienting. And Dan’s a high-pitched, heavy Korean accent and broken were hardly the best of circumstances.” Kove says she English. “Don’t marry white girl!” (It was a sin his feels maternal toward Choi and was glad to have him brother had recently committed.) stay in her home and play video games with her son. Choi (assuming the stentorian tones of a profession“He needs to have time when no one is wanting any- al broadcaster): “No. I’m not going to marry a white thing from him,” she says. “It’s not fair that all this girl.” He says he made his mom promise that she would pressure to come out is placed on his shoulders. love him, no matter what he was about to tell her. Everyone should come out.” “Why you not marry Korean girl?!” his mom cried. Choi says he lives out of a couple of bags and, being “What kind of girl you going to marry?” used to “falling asleep wherever you have to” in the “I’m not going to marry a girl at all. I’m gay. God military, he doesn’t seem to mind the nomadic life. made me this way.” “I’m in a relationship with the movement,” he says. “I love you,” his mother replied. “But gay don’t exist. “And in any relationship, sometimes you have to sleep It’s not in the Bible. It’s fake. Did you pray about it?”
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F E ATUR E S PO T
“Yes,” Choi said. “I prayed all the time! I prayed in the fourth grade, at the church retreat! I prayed, ‘Jesus, Lord, make me pop a boner for Michelle Pfeiffer.’ It just doesn’t work!” “Pray more!” she barked. “Just have sex with any Korean girl! Pray for boner for Korean girl!” Turning serious, Choi says he knew the hardest work was over, despite the fact that he was still in the military as a gay soldier. “After I came out to my parents,” he says, “I realized I wasn’t afraid of anything.” But his coming out to his parents has not had a storybook ending — no PFLAG rallies for Mom and Pop. They can’t accept the news, he says, so he has cut them out of his life until they can. He calls it “an act of love,” adding, “Asian parents are happy to repress and repress and repress and to drag things on for years. I am forcing them to deal with it now. It’s just less painful that way.” On his latest trip to California, Choi did plan to visit them. But when his sister picked him up at the airport and told him their minister father was plotting an ambush “exorcism,” he says, he thought better of it. And a valuable one to the war effort, considering that the U.S. military has been — and still is — desperately short of skilled translators. Choi can back up his contention that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” hurts the military: “It doesn’t hurt me, other than losing my job — it really hurts straight Americans,” especially those serving in Iraq, he says. One of 59 Arabic linguists who have been discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Choi says, “I get e-mails regularly from soldiers — gay and straight — who are still over there.” The most worrisome are from those “who will e-mail me a cell phone pic of some graffiti [in Arabic] and ask me to translate.” Their platoon’s linguist doesn’t understand street
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BELOW: TAKEN AT HIS HOME IN MANHATTAN, NY
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Arabic enough to read the tagging the way Choi does, or — worse yet — their platoon has no translator at all. On a recent trip to D.C., Choi is staying in a Columbia Heights town house with a gay power couple, both of whom have worked high up in Democratic circles. Choi looks much younger than he does on TV. Decked out in jeans and a T-shirt and sans makeup, some acne is visible, and his smile seems too boyish for a man who has already done two tours in Iraq and has turned the gay-rights movement on its head. He’s in town to lobby the Senate on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” the following day. “It’s 6 o’clock at night, and my day is just getting started,” he says as he disappears upstairs. He has three interviews booked all over town tonight, and three more tomorrow. When he returns — wearing a blazer and sharp tie, his hair gelled in spikes — he looks much more like the Lieutenant Dan Choi you know from TV. His baby face starts to disappear into his public mask. Getting into a black Mercedes that Al Jazeera has sent for him, Choi sighs. “The problem with this kind of work is that it never ends,” he says, though he seems to not really want it to. “Political work is like an addiction. When I’m not doing it, I feel guilty.” Naturally, Choi is at ease exchanging salaam-aleikums with a member of the Al Jazeera crew, and the interviewer is sympathetic to him. From the K Street studio, the Mercedes will take him right into the lion’s den: the Fox’s D.C. affiliate across town, where Choi will debate black preacher Harry Jackson himself, an anti-gay activist. Fox 5 in D.C. is staffed by more open homosexuals than you might imagine, including a male reporter who had very publicly taken a husband when D.C. legalized gay marriage. Gay and straight, the reporters
and crew members are falling over themselves to tell Democrats Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln vote “nay” Choi how much they admire him. as well, it’s all over. Although Choi, Jackson, and the moderator are all “Someone’s e-mailing me, ‘What is your reaction to in the same building, they’re on different floors and the vote, Dan?’ How about I just respond with a ‘Fuck!’” never meet in person. Once the on-air light comes on, Choi wonders aloud shortly after as he scrolls through Choi proceeds to rip Jackson a new asshole. “Nobody’s his little iPhone. telling you to be gay!” he shouts into the camera. In uniform, Choi meets the Voice in front of the Choi’s responses are as rapid and staccato as fire White House the next day to have his picture taken. from the weapon he carried during tours of Baghdad. Immediately, Secret Service agents descend upon him. From the studio, you can’t hear Jackson or the moder“Hi, Lieutenant Choi,” the most senior agent says. ator, but Choi’s verbal assaults make the weather “Are we going to be handcuffing ourselves today?” The reporter look up abruptly from a screen where she’s agent, two weeks from retirement, seems quite relaxed, tracking a hurricane, an expression of horror or shock but his underling — Deputy Barney Fife to his Sheriff on her face. Andy Taylor — appears as nervous as one of the hun“I’ve faced racism in this country, and I’ve faced gry squirrels outside the East Wing. homophobia in this country,” he proclaims to the cam“Hmmm,” Choi teases, “I don’t think so — but you era, “and it feels exactly the same!” And later: “I refuse just never know!” to bear false witness to my neighbor, as my daddy “Well, let me know if you can do it in the next few taught me.” Saying he was raised religious, his voice minutes, ‘cause I was going to break some of my guys has the rhythm of a Baptist preacher’s. for lunch,” the agent responds. After a few minutes of When the light finally goes off, a couple of people in banter — including good-natured ribbing — the agents the office applaud. leave Choi alone. “Oh my goodness,” one of the weather reporter says Watching Choi back where he was first locked up, it’s to Choi, “that’s just about as lively as it ever gets hard not to wonder: If he had just come out on Rachel around here at night!” Maddow’s MSNBC show, without his having repeatedTwo adoring staff members are escorting Choi out of ly broken the law, could he have stayed in the Army? the building when he is approached by Jackson’s driv“It’s complicated,” says openly gay former Army caper — a portly, elderly black man — in the parking lot. tain (and Choi’s West Point classmate) Anthony Woods. “Sir,” he says to Choi, “I want to tell you I was in the “Yes, I think that’s possible. But while his case was military for a long time. I was at the Tet Offensive. And pending, he may have left them no choice, with the I never heard anyone say anything like what you just actions he was taking as a vocal candidate. But Choi said.” The words are spat out of his mouth, and then wouldn’t have been in that position if ‘Don’t Ask, the man turns and walks away. Don’t Tell’ wasn’t on the books. In the face of that, he “I don’t think you should feel the right to be able to say that to me and just walk away,” Choi says, following the man swiftly. “It’s not right what you said,” the man retorts quickly over his shoulder. “I’ll pray for you, sir!” Choi hollers, which elicits a grunt from the driver as he gets into his car. “I will pray for your soul! God bless you, sir!” Choi yells at the top of his lungs, over the screech of the car’s wheels. “JESUS LOVES YOU!” Choi acknowledges that he doesn’t pray “as much as I used to,” but he emphatically states, “I am a bornagain Christian, in the truest sense.” He has had a was left with no choice but to protest in the most effec“lifelong flirtation with Islam,” something he attributes tive way possible.” Of course, Woods knows the answer to this in his to “the intersectionality of oppressed people.” It was largely while living near Muslims that he first started own case. He came out in early December 2008, he to come out. But he is still a preacher’s kid at heart and never engaged in civil disobedience, and yet he, too, often attends Metropolitan Community Church in was also discharged. As usual, Choi himself is unequivocal: “The only reaNew York when he’s in town. As much as it might enrage some evangelicals, Choi son I was discharged was because of the ‘Don’t Ask, is not at all reluctant to proclaim his born-again bona Don’t Tell,’ act” he says angrily. “The civil disobedience fides. “If you follow what Jesus taught, and look at the charges were dropped, nor are they mentioned in the political forces of the time, and realize the persecution discharge papers.” Official or not, Dan Choi is clearly not obedient. On he was under,” he says, “you would see that gay people the other hand, he can be quite civil and frequently are bearing the real cross today.” It was in that spirit that he approached Senate funny and charming. When he leaves the photographer after his photo Majority Leader Harry Reid this past July. Choi was in Las Vegas at Netroots Nation when he got the final shoot in front of the White House, he looks serious — the lone American soldier — walking toward word that he’d been discharged from the military. “I just wanted to be alone, and I was in the belly of Lafayette Park. But before he even finishes crossing Pennsylvania the beast, surrounded by every liberal blogger in America!” he says. With all eyes on him, he thought, “I Avenue, he pivots and walks toward the group of Secret Service agents who have been keeping an eye on him. have nothing else to give.” But he did have one thing left: his West Point ring. He shakes all of their hands, and they immediately begin chatting animatedly. Within seconds, they are all And when he saw Reid, he gave it to him. Idealists thought the Republicans couldn’t bring throwing their heads back with laughter. Last week, Choi Tweeted, “I’m headed to the Times themselves to vote against the troops, while cynics knew better (and thought Reid took this tack just to Square Recruiting Station.” Just a few hours earlier, Judge Virginia Phillips had denied the Obama adminisrally gay support before the midterm elections). After a day of lobbying and press hits on the Hill, tration’s request to stay her injunction effectively Choi seems calm enough when the Senate vote starts. ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — and former Army But he tenses up slightly when one moderate Lieutenant Choi was attempting to enlist as a Marine. Republican after another vote, “nay.” When Arkansas
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“Political work is like an addiction. When I’m not doing it, I feel guilty.”
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32 Proposition 8 Overturned! 36 Maryland Vote Pushed to 2012 37 An Unlikely Advocate: Ezra Nawi 38 Michael Lucas on Bad Journalism 41 Awaiting Our Fierce Advocate
PROPOSI T ION 8 O V E R T URNE D
POLI The fe d eral ju dge Va ugh n Wal ker r ule s California’s gay marriage ban as simply unconstitutional, stating that “California just has no interest in differentiating between same-sex and opposite-sex couples.”
SPRING 2011
BY ANDREW HARMON AND KERRY ELEVELD
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In a highly anticipated decision with potentially farreaching implications in the national battle over marriage equality, a federal judge has struck down California’s Proposition 8. U.S. district judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the ballot measure violated both equal protection and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution in a 136-page opinion released Wednesday, nearly seven months after an unprecedented trial over marriage rights began in his San Francisco courtroom. “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license,” Walker wrote in a decision deemed by many legal observers to be both straightforward and breathtaking in its scope. “Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional,” Walker wrote.
Walker issued a temporary stay of the judgment, however, pending a motion by Prop. 8 proponents, who appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday. In a letter to Walker prior to the decision, attorney Charles J. Cooper wrote that another “window of same-sex marriage in California would cause irreparable harm.” Walker has asked for arguments from both sides regarding a stay of the decision to be submitted to the court by Friday but has not indicated whether there will be a hearing on the matter. Should the district judge deny a stay, it’s likely that Prop. 8 proponents will seek one from the Ninth Circuit. Lead attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who brought the case last year on behalf of a gay male couple in Burbank and a lesbian couple in Berkeley who were denied marriage licenses, spoke shortly afterward outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco with Chad Griffin, founder and copresident of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which organized and helped finance of the suit. Walker’s decision “increases the stability and value of marriage to our society,” Olson said outside the courthouse after the ruling was released. The state has
no legitimate interest “in contributing to discriminate against any of its citizens,” he said. “This is a victory not only for the American people – it’s a victory for our justice system.” Whether or not the decision is stayed, attorney Ted Boutrous, who argued the case for marriage equality alongside Olson and Boies, told The Advocate, “we’re going to push for expedited treatment of this appeal, because every day that goes by, the rights of thousands of people are being injured – especially now that we have this powerful, powerful ruling.” The decision was released on the court website shortly after 2 p.m., though a leaked version went viral on the Internet shortly after 1 p.m. Pacific time. A link to the decision is available here. On Wednesday the legal team and plaintiffs Kristin Perry, Sandy Stier, Paul Katami, and Jeff Zarrillo spoke to a large crowd at a West Hollywood park attended by Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, and country singer Chely Wright. “With this decision, our system worked,” Perry told the crowd. “Our courts are supposed to protect our constitutional rights. Today, they did just that.” Legal observers had widely expected Walker to rule Prop. 8 unconstitutional, though an ultimate favorable decision by the U.S. Supreme Court remains uncertain, should the court eventually take the case. Walker’s decision addressed only the legal situation in California, where same-sex couples no longer have the right to marry and are instead offered domestic partnerships, which “do not provide the same social meaning as marriage,” Walker wrote.
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Tobias Wolff, a constitutional law professor who also advised the Obama ‘08 campaign on LGBT issues, called the decision “thrilling to read.” Wolff noted that Walker said from the very beginning of the trial that his main charge as a district court judge was to adjudicate the facts. “The most important thing about this ruling is the extensive analysis that the judge offers of the facts that were put on trial,” he said of the 80 findings of fact Walker made in his decision. “The judge concluded in a rather prosaic evidentiary ruling that the other side had not offered any legitimate testimony in support of their case.” In his decision, Walker systematically dismantled arguments made by Prop. 8 proponents during the 2008 campaign and in court. Among his findings based on trial evidence:
·Prop. 8 perpetuates the stereotype that gays and lesbians are incapable of forming long-term loving , healthy relationship ·Children do not need to be raised by a male parent and a female parent to be well-adjusted ·No evidence supports stereotypes that gay men and lesbians are disease vectors ... or child molesters who recruit young children into homosexuality ·Stereotypes and misinformation have resulted in social and legal disadvantages for gays and lesbians “The purported reasons for denying same-sex couples the right to marry today echo the same ugly myths deployed against us for generations,” said Lambda Legal marriage project director Jennifer Pizer. “By refuting each of them and naming antigay bias for the rank prejudice it is, today’s decision is an important legal step forward, confirming yet again
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“This is a victory for the American people – it’s a victory for our justice system.”
by some as a risky and premature move for marriage equality on the federal level. During the three-week bench trial in January, Olson and Boies sought to refute assertions regarding the potential negative consequences of marriage equality by putting on the stand some of the nation’s preeminent experts on gay culture, history, and politics. Expert testimony included evidence that same-sex couples marrying has no detrimental effect on heterosexuals marrying and raising children, and that the children of gay and lesbian couples fare better when their parents are able to marry. “At trial we built a solid record to show that marriage ... has been defined in both law and language as a union between a man and a woman and acts as the predominate relationship in which to create and support children,” ProtectMarriage.com general counsel Andy Pugno said in a Wednesday statement. But in his decision Walker slammed Prop. 8 proponents’ argument that children were better off when raised by opposite-sex parents. “Children raised by gay or lesbian parents are just as likely as children raised by heterosexual parents to be healthy, successful and well-adjusted,” Walker wrote. “The research supporting this conclusion is widely accepted beyond serious debate in the field of developmental psychology.” Richard Socarides, a New York lawyer and former LGBT adviser to President Bill Clinton, marveled at the irrefutable nature of the win for equality.
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ALL: SUPPORTERS CELEBRATING AFTER PROP 8 WAS OVERTURNED IN SF
that constitutional guarantees of liberty and equality must require equal treatment under a state’s marriage laws,” Pizer said. Wednesday’s court win against Prop. 8 was a stunning and emotional victory for the marriage equality movement, in stark contrast to staggering losses in multiple states over the past year. Last month Hawaii governor Linda Lingle vetoed a civil unions bill, following legislative defeats for gay marriage in both New York and New Jersey late last winter. Attorneys with Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit last week in Hawaii, challenging the state’s inadequate patchwork of protections for same-sex couples and their rights. Attorneys challenging Prop. 8 have made broader claims regarding the fundamental right to marriage and the unconstitutional nature of laws and ballot measures that deny marriage rights to same-sex couples. In court they argued that Prop. 8 violates both the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution, and they frequently referred to Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 Supreme Court ruling that struck down state laws banning interracial marriage. The Perry lawsuit was met with initial concern from many LGBT legal groups that had advocated an incremental, state-by-state approach as vital to ultimate victory before the Supreme Court. Brought by Olson and Boies, two former adversaries in the 2000 Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore with no prior experience litigating gay rights cases, the case continues to be seen
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42 Gay Watch: Gay Bombay 46 The Gayest International Getaways 46 Drag Queens and the Philippines 48 Flights of Fancy
SPRING 2011
50 Summer Camp for Adults
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G AY WAT CH: G AY BOMB AY
No longer are they criminals according to their country’s laws, India’s proud gays are coming out loudly and proudly as never before, in the process creating yet another interesting lure for the world’s already India-crazed queer tourists. BY DAN ALLEN
Big, bold and beguiling, India rarely fails to transform While several conservative groups have opposed visitors with its sheer onslaught of sensory stimuli. Section 377’s overturn and are actively fighting the Yet while an ever-growing number of American queers High Court’s decision, India’s Union Cabinet (comare making the long trek to immerse themselves in the prised of its top ministers) has opted not to weigh in South Asian behemoth’s many wonders, until recently on the matter, leaving the ultimate decision with the a great many have left “gay” entirely out of their country’s Supreme Court. A ruling is expected someIndian trip mix, convinced that if there is such a thing time in late October. as a queer India, it’s likely buried too deeply for the Meanwhile, decriminalization has spurred on the short-term tourist to uncover. discovery of the “pink rupee,” with entrepreneurs and That’s all changing, as gay India continues to under- advertisers suddenly scrambling to get in on the go a major transformation, one in which its previously ground floor of nascent queer commerce. India’s firstbelow-ground LGBT scene is, albeit with baby steps, ever LGBT magazine, Bombay Dost, returned brighter venturing evermore out in the open. Case in point: than ever this year following a seven year hiatus. A Mumbai’s Queer Azadi (or Freedom) March, which in Delhi-based fashion designer, Sanjay Molhotra, recentAugust drew an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 gay Indians to ly launched IndjapInk, the country’s first gay travel its second annual incarnation, doubling last year’s company. Even Amul, India’s largest food brand, ran a attendance numbers in spite of Summer 2009’s infa- gay-friendly post-Section 377 ad for butter, with the mous swine flu worries. caption “Out of the closet, out of the fridge!” The most seismic shift yet toward queer Indian visiGeneralizations are impossible in a land so large and bility had come a month earlier, when on July 2 the diverse as India, and this is certainly true when speakcountry’s High Court repealed Section 377 of the ing of the country’s massive and far-flung gay populace. Indian Penal Code, the British-era statute that for 150 Millions live in cities, millions more live in rural areas. years had criminalized sexual activity “against the Millions live openly as gay people, millions more live order of nature.” Though no convictions for homosexu- cloistered in traditional marriages and families. ality had actually been handed down in India for many “India is approximately where the U.S. was in the decades, the law had served, as similar laws do in so ‘70s,” says Vikram Doctor, a prominent Mumbai-based many other places, as a way to quietly sanction journalist and LGBT rights activist. “So while there are homophobia and mistreatment of the country’s homo- lots of openly queer people and more and more young sexual citizens. queer people who have no intentions of getting
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“SOME OF THOSE GUYS ARE LOOKIN ARE LOOKING BECAUSE THEY THIN FOREIGNERS THAN INDIANS, SOME YOU A CARPET. VERY CONFUSING.” married, there are still a lot of queer people who came giving them the eye, and it’s confusing,” says Doctor. of age before the scene was so out and who did end up “Some of those guys are looking because you’re foreign, getting married. And it’s still going to take time before some are looking because they think it’s safer to have things change.” sex with foreigners than Indians, some are hookers, As would be expected, the country’s most progres- some want to sell you a carpet. Very confusing.” sive areas are its large cities, especially New Delhi, Despite the dearth of exclusively gay venues in India, Bangalore and Mumbai. “All three cities have large-ish Doctor says locals have no trouble finding places and gay scenes,” says Doctor. “Mumbai’s is perhaps a bit ways to meet up. “Most cities have well known parks more open because it’s a bit more tolerant and cosmo- or places for cruising,” he says. “The big cities have gay politan. It’s in the DNA of the city -- people have come parties that are becoming meeting places. And of here from the rest of the country to make money, so course, and hugely, there’s the Internet. Sites like they really don’t care [about] much beyond that. I GayRomeo are particularly popular.” don’t want to exaggerate how easy it is to be gay in For travelers who want to meet gay Indians, Doctor Mumbai, but people are likely to care just a little bit says local LGBT organizations are an invaluable less than in other cities. Also, there are industries like resource. “Check at sites like Gay Bombay for the next Bollywood, the fashion business and advertising, party or meeting,” he recommends. “Also Time Out, which have always been queer-friendly here.” which publishes in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, Each city has its own particular flavor in terms of its always has a special Queer Page with contacts for gay culture, Doctor adds. “Delhi has a larger NGO/ many other organizations.” activist scene, because it’s a city more conducive to activists, politicians, and policy makers,” he says. “Delhi also has a larger expat gay scene because of the embassies and allied trades. Bangalore has a lot of gay techies, and some good community-based spaces – it’s a smaller, friendlier city, and that shows.” For the gay tourist, India is an always dazzling and sometimes bewildering place, not least in terms of finding queer locals. “Lots of foreigners feel that so much in Mumbai is cruisy, everyone looking and
G BECAUSE YOU’RE FOREIGN, SOME NK IT’S SAFER TO HAVE SEX WITH ARE HOOKERS, SOME WANT TO SELL
While enjoying Mumbai’s Queer Azadi, take some time to ask the locals and ask the happening spots in town. While they are making progress, the gay lifestyle is still pretty discreet thus places only have certain gay nights that only the locals know about.
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So ask around!
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ABOVE: DELHI’S 2ND GAY PRIDE LEFT TOP: TWO GAY MEN IN MUMBAI LEFT MIDDLE & BOTTOM: MUMBAI’S QUEER AZADI
SPRING 2011
HEALTH 52
52 Dangerous Liaisons 56 Easy Exercise Tips for Busy Bees 56 Diets? Do They Really Work? 57 H.I.V. & Gay Men Today
D A NGE ROUS L I A ISONS
Unsafe sex toys, Circumcision not the answer to HIV, Seasonal Affective Disorder. BY FRANK SPINELLI, M.D.
A little bit of realism may be unsafe when it comes to sex toys Sex toys have evolved in recent years – some into more discrete shapes, looking more like pop art (less embarrassing if discovered at airport security?), and others into more naturalistic devices, many of which are made from jelly rubber, a substance that feels more like flesh. I can understand why these jelly rubber toys are so popular – who’s going to turn away from something that not only feels more lifelike but also comes at a more reasonable price than other toys? But what you won’t read on the packaging is that these jelly devices are made with phthalates, a chemical compound found in PVC flooring and shower curtains and shown to cause damage to people’s livers, lungs, kidneys, brains, and testes. In fact, phthalates are believed to be so harmful that in 2008, Congress banned the sale of children’s toys and baby products that contain more than 0.1% of certain phthalates. So play safely – stay away from jelly rubber sex toys and opt for silicone, hard plastic, glass, or metal. Cut It Out
Let Your Light Shine
Circumcision doesn’t protect gays from HIV When several 2007 studies indicated that circumcision could cut in half the risk men face of contracting HIV, many different groups – including UNAIDS and WHO – began promoting the snip as a viable strategy for reducing the spread of the virus. But new research out this year concludes that losing foreskin is less likely to protect gay men, who still account for half the new cases of HIV in the U.S. each year. In unprotected vaginal intercourse, men can contract the virus through the inner foreskin’s mucous membrane, and by eliminating that membrane through circumcision, transmission to men is reduced. That effect isn’t parallel during anal sex, which is generally rougher on the body’s tissues and can cause microtears, foreskin or no foreskin. The variance in HIV transmission rates for circumcised and uncircumcised men who have sex with men is statistically insignificant; in other words, it makes no difference in gay men if you’re cut or uncut. Your best protection is still to practice safe sex.
Catching some rays can curtail Seasonal Affective Disorder The holiday season stirs up depression in many people –and not just at family gatherings after too much mulled wine. While most of us are happily shopping for gifts, many men and women suffer from a slow and steady decline in mood and energy level called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD, an appropriate acronym – if potentially reductive), a condition associated with shorter periods of daylight in winter. If you find yourself depressed, irritable, and anxious – particularly if it happens every winter – you can take some precautions to prevent SAD. Get as much natural sunlight as possible by keeping windows and blinds open at home and while working, doing chores outside during the day, and taking a walk during midday when the sunlight is the brightest. Your doctor may prescribe phototherapy (using specially designed lamps), psychotherapy, or antidepressants. Catching those rays can keep you in high spirits, but remember to protect your skin by using sunscreen.
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Play Time
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HE A LT H SPRING 2011
“IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE IN GAY MEN IF YOU’RE CUT OR UNCUT. YOUR BEST PROTECTION IS STILL TO PRACTICE SAFE SEX.”
ALL: THE MAKING OF PHTHALATE TOYS
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“Drag is a man who wears everything a lesbian won’t”