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Marianne Faithfull at City Winery in December
In case you missed it, see Steve Barnes’s review here of Marianne Faitfhfull’s latest. She’ll be performing at SoHo’s City Winery in December, where I recently saw Rickie Lee Jones, one of my musical idols. If you’re a Faithfull fan you’ll want to catch this.]]> -
Review: ‘Savage Beauty’ & ‘Art and Homosexuality: A History of Ideas’
By Steve Barnes
“I think everyone has a deep sexuality,” Alexander McQueen says in the astonishing catalog for “Savage Beauty,” the retrospective of his work that is in its last few weeks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (it’s up through August 7). “And sometimes it’s good to use a little of it—and sometimes a lot of it—like a masquerade.”
Both sexuality and masquerade make their presence strongly felt in the photograph on the page facing that quote. A provocative skirt and jacket ensemble that mixes black leather, fox fur and a series of silver metal hoops and studs, it seems to be made for a woman who is equal parts dominatrix, socialite and heroine from an Edward Gorey book. Its combination of childish whimsy, in-your-face sadomasochism and classically flawless high style makes it a near-perfect introduction to the unique world that McQueen created.
If you can’t make it to the Met, or don’t want to face the show’s daunting crowds, this sumptuously produced catalog is a good way to enter McQueen’s world. Its hundreds of photos show off many of the designer’s strengths—his amazingly precise hand at cutting garments, his unconventional yet always controlled sense of balance and his ability to bring together the most unexpected materials in ways that make the results seem as if we should have expected them all along. This is a man who makes a jacket on which crocodile heads serve as epaulets, creates a bodice from feathers, and constructs an aluminum facsimile of a spinal column to run along the backbone of a vest.
And most importantly, none of these things ever feel like stunts. McQueen always saw himself as a storyteller, his shows relating back to themes taken from film, literature and history. The clothes exist simultaneously as fashion statements and part of a larger artistic discussion. They absolutely belong in an art museum—and they will definitely repay the amount of time spent going back over them in the pages of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.
Sexuality and masquerade also figure prominently in another recent book that’s also well worth looking at. Christopher Reed’s Art and Homosexuality: A History of Ideas is an engaging, well-written history of how the development of homosexual identity and the major movements in art history have fed off of each other. Reed, an associate professor of English and Visual Culture at Penn State, discusses a broad range of ways that same-sex relationships have appeared throughout history, arguing that it was really not until the early 20th century that a homosexual identity as we currently understand it emerged in any public sort of way.
That is not at all to say that he finds no examples of homosexuality itself in earlier periods. From the patronage system of ancient Greece (in which relationships between an older man who served to “initiate” a younger man were common), through the many examples of same-sex relations in feudal Japan, the South Pacific islands, and the culture of the American Indians, Reed constructs a long history of alternatives to what we see as “normal” gender roles. But just as those social alternatives remained somewhat open-ended and unformed, so did their representation in sculptures and paintings. Open-ended and unformed certainly does not mean invisible, however. We see a 12th century illustration depicting the wedding of two men, representations of rather bawdy relations between 13th century knights and monks, and 16th century engravings showing groups of fleshy naked women pleasuring themselves with no men anywhere near. We also get to know many of the artists who drew outside the lines when it comes to sexual behavior: Gianantonio Bazzi, who referred to himself as “Il Sodoma,” or the Sodomite; the 19th century painter Rosa Bonheur, who needed to file an official permit with the Paris police to allow her to wear men’s clothes and keep her hair cut short; and the African-American sculptor Edmonia Lewis, whose brute strength permitted her to do the kind of rough cutting on marble that even most male sculptors left to their workmen. Once modernity takes over, according to Reed, artistic temperament and homosexuality became intertwined in the public imagination. When homosexuality was turned into a medically and politically applied label, it became a much more direct target of attack for the powers that be, and many avant-garde artists strenuously tried to distance themselves from any suggestion of it. The macho posturings of the Abstract Expressionists are a major case in point, as are the directly anti-homosexual pontifications of such critics as Clement Greenberg. Reed points out the difficulty that such gay artists as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and especially, Andy Warhol, had in being accepted as serious artists by the boys in the Ab-Ex pack and their hangers-on. Vivian Gornick even went so far as to label Pop art “a malicious fairy’s joke” rather than an art movement. But as our vantage point in history shows, Johns, Rauschenberg and Warhol certainly succeeded in entering the highest reaches of the esthetic and financial art worlds. Despite the power of the many artists who fought the AIDS epidemic in their work and the extraordinary strides made by feminist and lesbian artists, however, Reed still finds a reticence on the part of museums and critics to open themselves up to the political messages that many gay (or queer, which seems to be his dominant term) artists are still trying to deliver. Thanks to this book, though, that message is getting a worthy platform. Steve Barnes is a freelance writer based in New York City. His work has appeared in such publications as ARTnews and the Wall Street Journal. ]]> -
Chicago to host 9th annual Salute to LGBT Veterans
Next week will see a salute to LGBT veterans by the city of Chicago. Another of many reasons to love the Windy City.
From the Windy City Times:
The Chicago Commission on Human Relations will host the City of Chicago’s ninth annual Salute to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Veterans, 12-1 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, at Richard J. Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington Street.
This is the nation’s only municipally sponsored Salute to LGBT Veterans, and it is meant to pay tribute to their honorable service.
Veterans John Graziani, Veronica Hernandez, Marquell Smith and Willa J. Taylor will be featured speakers, and Chicago vocalist Alexandra St. James will perform the national anthem. The program will include a presentation of colors, a mayoral proclamation and a wreath-laying ceremony.]]> -
U.N. resolution underscores dangers for LGBT people around the globe
By David Webb – The Rare Reporter
The passage of a resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council last month declaring that LGBT people around the world should be afforded equal protections with all other human beings left me overjoyed, yet still full of consternation.
The measure’s passage represented a great victory for human rights advocates who pressed for it, but the very need for such an action underscored how dangerous it is to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender in many parts of the world, including the United States of America. Homosexuality remains illegal in 76 of the globe’s countries, and it is punishable by death in five of them.
In the United States, where the nation’s sodomy laws were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003, discrimination and violence against LGBT people continues to run rampant. An analysis of 14 years of FBI hate crime data by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project in late 2010 revealed that LGBT people are more than twice as likely to be violently attacked as Jews and blacks, more than four times as likely as Muslims and 14 times as likely as Latinos.
In a press release by the U.S. Department of State, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the U.N. resolution a “historic moment to highlight the human rights abuses and violations that LGBT people face around the world based solely on whom they are and whom they love.” She noted that torture, rape, criminal proceedings and killings are sanctioned all over the world by religions that condemn anyone who does not adhere to traditional heterosexual norms regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.
The controversial resolution, which was proposed by South Africa, passed narrowly on a vote of 23 to 19. Although the measure was supported by the U.S. and other Western countries, it was opposed by African and Arab countries where the prosecution and persecution of LGBT individuals is the most severe. Three countries, including China, abstained from voting.
Reaction to the U.N. resolution from opponents of LGBT rights was telling.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative to the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, denounced it as a maneuver in an international agenda to restrict the freedom of churches. Tomasi claimed the church opposes violence against homosexual behavior and punishment based on a person’s “feelings and thoughts,” but he condemned the measure as detrimental to society and likened laws against homosexuality to prohibitions against incest, pedophilia and rape.
In Ghana, the Rev. Joseph Bosoma of the Sunyani Central Ebenezer Presbyterian Church called on President John Evans Atta Mills to crack down on homosexuality in the country, warning that society was on the verge of a punishment similar to what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah in Biblical times. The president assured the pastor that the government would take action to check homosexual activity.
Similarly, Alex McFarland of the American Family Association, the group that is sponsoring Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s The Response Prayer Rally in Houston on Aug. 6, declared recently that the world is now in The Latter Days, in response to the passage of marriage equality in New York. He argued that LGBT rights are not the equivalent of human rights.
Soulforce, an LGBT group that monitors conservative religious groups, noted that another host of Perry’s rally, Lou Engle, the leader of The Call, is one of three evangelical leaders in the U.S. who supported the Kill the Gays bill in Uganda.
For three decades the greatest impediment to the LGBT rights movement has been Christian Rights groups and its leaders who have seized on the concept of a “homosexual agenda” bent on destroying American culture and society. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, declared the fight against LGBT rights as a “second civil war.”
Some of these Christian Rights groups have earned the distinction of being identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center because they have resorted to crude name-calling and spreading false information about LGBT people in an effort to draw support to their cause.
Like the Ku Klux Klan that vilified all minorities in its terroristic oppression of people and also operated under the guise of Christianity, today’s militant Christian Rights groups target LGBT people for scapegoating.
LGBT people comprise the last minority group left that it is politically correct in some quarters to attack, and Christian Rights groups and politicians like Gov. Perry are making the most of it.
The beginning of this summer marked the 16th anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention’s apology to black people for its abominable treatment of that race over the years, and some gay activists, such as Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out, petitioned the church group to issue a similar apology to LGBT people. That, of course, did not happen, but one day perhaps it will.
Until groups like the Southern Baptist Convention, which urges followers to “go the extra mile when witnessing to gay people” recognizes LGBT people as equal, freedom will continue to be a worldwide challenge.
The U.N. resolution was a milestone in that journey to equality, but the road ahead for LGBT people will continue to be a long and difficult one. The U.S., which admittedly is far behind some countries, will likely see success long before LGBT people in some parts of the world feel free.
David Webb is a veteran journalist who has covered LGBT issues for the mainstream and alternative media for three decades. E-mail him at davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com.]]> -
Lifestyle choices play significant role in Alzheimer’s
My father died a year and a half ago from pneumonia, something that is often a blessing for people with Alzheimer’s. Watching him deteriorate over the course of several years was distressing, and something I would avoid at all costs for myself and my partner (and anyone else I love). A new study outlines several important behavioral choices we can make to significantly reduce the risks.
From AOL Health Living:
PARIS — Taking care of your body just might save your mind. Millions of cases of Alzheimer’s disease worldwide could be prevented by curbing risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, obesity and lack of exercise, new research suggests. The study offers more than the usual pep talk about healthy living. Seven conditions or behaviors account for up to half of the 35 million cases of Alzheimer’s around the world, it found. With no cure or treatment to reverse the mind-robbing disease, preventing new cases is crucial. The study was presented Tuesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in France, where sessions on prevention have been drawing standing-room-only crowds for several days. “Prevention is a particularly attractive option given the state of therapy. That’s why there’s so much interest in it,” said William Thies, the association’s chief scientific officer. The study was led by Deborah Barnes, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. Results also were published online by the British journal Lancet Neurology. The researchers have grants from the Alzheimer’s Association and the U.S. National Institutes on Aging. The study used a mathematical model to estimate the impact of top modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease: smoking, depression, low education, diabetes, too little exercise, and obesity and high blood pressure in mid-life. How much of an impact each one has on total Alzheimer’s cases depends on how common it is and how strongly it affects dementia risk. Researchers calculated the impact globally and just for the United States. Continue reading]]> -
ACLU sues Alaska over transgender woman's driver's license
From the Examiner: The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the state of Alaska on behalf of a transgender woman, alleging that it denied her a driver’s license listing her gender as female unless she provided proof that she’d undergone a sex change operation. The lawsuit, which ACLU said was filed in state court in Anchorage Monday, states that denying the woman a license that accurately reflects her gender identity because she hasn’t undergone surgery is unconstitutional. “No one should have to disclose sensitive personal information or be forced to make major medical decisions in order to get an accurate driver’s license,” Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Alaska, said in a news release. A message was left late Monday afternoon with the Department of Law’s civil division. According to the lawsuit, the woman, a pilot identified only as K.L., has lived her life as a woman for nearly two years. The lawsuit states she officially changed her name and is identified as female on her passport and other documents. It states that she receives hormone therapy and “could not imagine a circumstance in the future in which she would no longer identify as a woman.”]]>
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50 useless signs
Time for the occasional ‘for no particular reason’ post. Here are 50 useless signs (BuzzFeed).]]> -
Interview: Mark Reed-Walkup on his Skype wedding and the Dallas Morning News
By Rick Rose
Mark Reed-Walkup and his partner Dante Walkup made headlines for conducting their marriage ceremony via Skype with the couple in Texas and the minster in Washington, D.C. They were subsequently informed the marriage would not be honored, and had that disappointment compounded by the refusal of the Dallas Morning News to run their announcement. As it turned out, vindication was theirs, at least in part. Our own Rick Rose became friends with the couple through Mark’s niece Shanna. He caught up with Mark on the day their marriage announcement finally ran in the Dallas paper. Here they share their interview with you.
RR: How did you first meet and did you know he was “the one” for you?
MRW: I spotted Dante on the dance floor, dancing by himself, so full of life, self-confidence and thought he was the most handsome man in the world. We became best friends at first but on a trip to P-town together 11 years ago, we fell deeply in love and that trip changed our lives forever.
RR: Was the thought of marriage even an option then?
MRW: We never thought marriage would be an option in our lifetime. Same-sex marriage was not legal anywhere at that time.
RR: At what point did you decide to marry? Who asked who and how?
MRW: When we became partners, we created commitment vows that we would strive for in our relationship. One of those vows was to have “fun at fifty”, so when we turned 50, we decided it was time. I asked Dante to be my husband on a very romantic trip to New Orleans.
RR: When was the first time you felt discrimination in your journey to marry and what emotions were evoked?
MRW: We tried to submit our wedding announcement to the Dallas Morning News and were denied because of the ban on same-sex marriage in Texas. I had to go before a county judge to get a court-ordered name change because of the ban.. Discrimination has a very negative emotional impact every time you experience it. Its hurts, it’s degrading and it makes us both very angry at the way our community is mistreated and disrespected.
RR: How and why did you decide to marry in Texas using a Washington, DC clergy?
MRW: We’d been together for 10 years and had long intended to wait until marriage equality came to our state, but as we moved into our 50s we realized that time was still a long way off. Then Dante was in an automobile accident and our experience at the hospital put things into perspective. You can read all the details in an article I wrote after the wedding.
RR: How were you notified that your marriage was being contested and how did you react? MRW: We received a letter from the D.C. marriage bureau 6 weeks after receiving our marriage certificate. It was the day before Thanksgiving and it was devastating to us both. After so many legal analysts agreed we had found a loophole, they closed it and annulled our marriage without even attempting to contact us to confirm the “news” they read about was true. RR: When you placed the announcement in the paper, did you expect the response you got? MRW: Their 2003 policy still in affect allowed same sex couples to place engagement and anniversary announcements. It also allowed couples to place commitment announcements, which were seen as very progressive back at the time of their policy change. This change occurred before same sex marriage was legal anywhere. We fully expected them to place our wedding announcement because of their policy on engagement and anniversary ads. How could they allow those ads and not allow the announcement of the event itself? We assumed they would just update their policy again as Texas gay couples can get married elsewhere. RR: How did it feel when you were vindicated and the ruling came down in your favor with the paper? MRW: We were encouraged that the city agreed there was a possible case of discrimination when they launched the formal investigation. Once the Dallas Morning News responded via their legal team and had no interest in mediation, we directly reached out the CEO and asked for a meeting to try and work out this issue. We met with them twice and at the second meeting they agreed to make a change to their policy because as the CEO stated, “it was the right thing to do.” RR: Why does anti-lgbt discrimination exist in 2011 and what is the basis for it? How might anyone reading this help use move forward? MRW: Certainly religion has played a large role in the hatred felt by many toward our community as it has for other minority groups such as African Americans. Insecure people often fear the “unknown” and enjoy having a sense of power over people. Many homophobic people are also very insecure with their own sexual identity and express their hatred about gay people so others won’t think they are gay themselves. Thankfully, attitudes toward gay people are changing because so many people have come out of their closets and shared their true lives with their friends and families. The number one motivator for us to fight the Dallas Morning News was how it important it is for people to read stories about loving committed same-sex couples. We know that when people see that we are really no different than other committed couples, their attitudes will often change about gay people. We also wanted gay youth be able to see that marriage is possible and it might give them hope for their future.
RR: Projecting positively in the future, when do you think Texas will pass same-sex marriage, and if elected for a second term, do you think Obama should AND/OR would lead to overturn DOMA (the federal Defense of Marriage Act)? MRW: I believe marriage equality will come to Texas via a Supreme Court decision just as the Loving vs. Virginia case ended discrimination against inter-racial couples. If the Democrats take back the House and keep the Senate, we might have a shot of repealing DOMA if the Supreme Court hasn’t overturned it. DOMA is clearly unconstitutional now that a large population of citizens live in states where marriage equality exists. DOMA was passed in 1996 before same-sex marriages were legal anywhere in this country. RR: Why do you continue with this fight? MRW: We fight this fight because we don’t want the next generation to face discrimination and can live their lives to their fullest poten tial.
RR: With all your experience and vigor, what do you say to a new and young, say 21-year-old, member of the LGBT community…as far as what to expect and how to live, to make a difference? MRW: We would say to them to be very proud of who you are and believe in yourselves. We have come such a long way in forty years and we need you to join the battle for full equality. You have a wonderful life ahead of you because of those who have fought hard for the rights we won to date. Do not accept discrimination at any level and learn know that one person can make a difference and help change the world to make it a better place for everyone.]]> -
Closet can be costly for employers, too
From Bloomberg: This post was written with Karen Sumberg, a senior vice president at the Center for Work-Life Policy. Erika Karp vividly remembers the secrecy and subterfuge that colored every workday before she told her colleagues that she was a lesbian. “You have to devote a huge amount of psychic energy to being closeted — changing pronouns, switching names. I did that for years,” Karp recalls, all the while knowing that coming out could jeopardize her career in investment banking. “It was torture.” According to a 2009 Human Rights Campaign, more than half of LGBT employees are not “out” of the closet. Being in the closet is not just painful to individuals; it’s also an enormous talent drain for their employers. By not promoting and supporting an inclusive workplace, organizations whose workplace environments cause LGBTs to stay in the closet risk alienating and ultimately losing a critical tranche of talent. A new study by the Center for Work-Life Policy published in the July/August 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review quantifies just how high the cost is for both closeted LGBTs and their employers. Nearly one-third (31%) of LGBTs surveyed in the study live double lives — out to their family or friends, but closeted on the job. Being forced to stay in the closet — or feeling penalized by a disapproving or hostile environment once they do come out — puts their career ambitions at war with their ability to put their whole self behind those ambitions. Like Karp, LGBT employees expend an enormous amount of energy simply keeping their stories straight, leaving less for focusing on the work they need to do to advance. Forced to lie about their private lives, they are excluded from the collegiate banter about weekend outings and personal interests that forges bonds in the workplace. Continue reading]]>
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WeddingChannel.com expands LGBT organizations on its charity registry
Someone asked me over the weekend if Frank and I were going to register. I don’t know about that – it’s all so foreign to me – but WeddingChannel.com is getting ahead of the curve by adding several LGBT organizations to its charity registry program.
From MarketWatch:
LOS ANGELES, Jul 18, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — In celebration of the Marriage Equality Act recently passed in New York and due to popular demand, WeddingChannel.com, the leading wedding and gift registry website, today announced the addition of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) to the robust registry offerings in its Charity Donation Program, which already includes Lambda Legal and Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Now when same-sex and heterosexual couples register for retailers like Macy’s and Michael C. Fina through WeddingChannel.com, they can donate to their favorite organization working to achieve LGBT equality in one of two ways: WeddingChannel.com will make a donation to the couple’s charity of choice each time a guest uses WeddingChannel.com to purchase a gift through their registry search, or guests can donate directly to the charity as their wedding gift. “The addition of GLAAD, GLSEN and PFLAG to our Charity Donation Program further establishes WeddingChannel.com as the ultimate one-stop destination for couples and wedding guests to register for and donate to charities,” said Amy Eisinger, editor of WeddingChannel.com. “To honor this historic milestone and answer our audience’s demand, we’re thrilled to provide engaged couples with even more LGBT organizations that will continue the fight for marriage equality across the country.” ]]> -
LGBT consumers prefer brands that support equality
Not surprisingly, LGBT consumers prefer brands we’re aware of that support equality and diversity. It can also trump price, despite a tough economy.
From PR Newswire:
NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Brand preferences and customer loyalty often are measured by marketers as the “holy grail” and as benchmarks of consumer behaviors. In a new poll released today, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults confirmed attitudes that strengthen their loyalty to companies as well as their brand preferences. The new national survey found that nearly three-fourths (74%) of LGBT adults are likely to consider brands that support nonprofits and/or causes that are important to them as a LGBT person, an increase from January 2007 when 62% reported they were likely to consider those brands. A significant portion of these adults, two-fifths (41%) say they are extremely likely or very likely to consider these brands. When it comes to workplace policies, nearly nine out of ten (87%) LGBT adults say they are likely to consider a brand that is known to provide equal workplace benefits for all of their employees, including gay and lesbian employees. More significantly perhaps, nearly half (49%) of LGBT adults say that they are extremely or very likely to consider these brands. This finding represents an increase from January 2007 when 78 percent reported they were likely to consider. By comparison, the survey also revealed that three out of four (75%) heterosexual adults agree they are likely to consider a brand that is known to provide equal workplace benefits for all of their employees, compared to 70% in January 2007. The new nationwide online survey of 2,357 U.S. adults, (ages 18 and over), of whom 328 self identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender, was conducted between June 13 and 20, 2011, by Harris Interactive, a global market research and consulting firm, in conjunction with Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc., a strategic public relations and marketing communications firm with special expertise in the LGBT market.
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Marine issues YouTube invite to Betty White for Marine Corps Ball