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PAGE 7
ANGELA DAVIS
TALKS AT
U CHICAGO
WINDY CITY
TIMES
THE VOICE OF CHICAGO’S GAY, LESBIAN,
BI AND TRANS COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
May 8, 2013
vol 28, no. 31
www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com
Equality House ally
at Legacy benefit
EVE ENSLER
GETS PERSONAL
WITH WCT
page 20
state sen.
william
delgado talks
about gay son,
marriage bill
page 6
By Ross Forman
Aaron Jackson has made quite a statement without even saying a
word, just with a little paint.
Jackson, 31, had been hearing about the Westboro Baptist Church
and its staunch anti-gay ways for some time, so last year he went
online to research the group, starting with where it is based.
He found it in Topeka, Kan., and then just continued his online
research with Google Earth—and saw that the house right across the
street from the church was for sale.
“My first response was, ‘No way! That’s too good to be true,’” said
Jackson, who is straight.
He called the realtor and learned the house was no longer for sale,
but the house next to that was for sale.
Jackson’s charity—Planting Peace, which has concentrated on
rainforest conservation, opening orphanages and deworming programs—purchased the home for about $83,000 “with the full intent
of painting it the colors of the [gay] pride flag,” he said.
The multicolored painting was done in mid-March.
Jackson will be in Chicago Friday, May 10, as the keynote speaker
for the Legacy Project Gala Luncheon at the Palmer House, starting
at noon.
Turn to page 14
Equality House. Photo from Aaron Jackson
CRIME
OUT
pages 8-13
In this week’s issue, Windy City Times begins a
multi-week investigative look into the complex
history and changing relationship between the
LGBTQ community and the criminal legal system.
JILLIAN MICHAELS
BECOMES A
‘LIFE’ COACH
pagE 22
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
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WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
3
this week in
WINDY CITY TIMES
ENTERTAINMENT/EVENTS
NEWS
Ohio trans murder; column
ALCC marks 25 years
State legislators Delgado, Sandack
Angela Davis talks at UChicago
CRIMINAL LEGAL SERIES
Activist behind Equality House
Bi in the Life
Views: Monroe; Dignity letter
4
5
6
7
8
14
15
16
Scottish Play Scott
Eve Ensler interview
Knight: In the House
Tylan; Jillian Michaels
‘Dear Mom, Love Cher’ producer
MOTHER’S DAY: BOOKS
IGLTA convention coverage
Billy Masters
17
20
21
22
23
24
25
29
OUTLINES
Photos on cover (left, from top): Photo of
Angela Davis by Hal Baim; photo by Eve
Ensler by Brigitte Lacombe; image of state
Sen. William Delgado by Hal Baim; photo of
Jillian Michaels by Dan Flood
PAGE 7
IME
DOWNLOAD THIS!
GAY, LESBIAN,
1985
OF CHICAGO’S
THE VOICE COMMUNITY SINCE
BI AND TRANS
2013
May 8, no. 31
vol 28,
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By Ross
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GETS PERSONA
WITH WCT
PAGE 20
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page 14
Gala Luncheon
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Turn to
Project
Legacy
for the
Equality
House.
at noon.
Photo from
aaron Jackson
CRIME
OUT
SEN.
STATE
WILLIAM TALKS
DELGADO SON,
GAy
AbOUT E bILL
MARRIAG
pages
Go to www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com
to download complete issues of Windy City Times and Nightspots.
8-13
a
begins
City Times complex
the
issue, Windy
look into between the
week’s
In this
investigative
legal system.
multi-week changing relationship
criminal
and
and the
history
community
LGBTQ
PAGE 8
Then click on any ad and be taken directly to the advertiser’s Web site!
MICHAELS
JILLIAN A
bECOMES
‘LIFE’ COACH
PAGE 22
online exclusives at
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Everyone has their place.
At alexian brothers health system, we believe that everyone has a
place and everyone has the right to be cared for in society. For more than
20 years, Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry has provided health care and stable
housing for individuals impacted by HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases.
We will continue doing so as Alexian Brothers Housing and Health Alliance.
Our name has changed, our mission has not. Stable housing provides a place to
receive counseling, care, and to reconnect with family. It’s a place to be part of a
supportive community that offers comprehensive services.
It’s a place to call home.
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‘stay’-cation
Singer Lisa Loeb (left)—known for her ‘90s
hit “Stay”—talks family, eyewear and Lilith
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Alexian Brothers
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find your place.
Bonaventure House • Bettendorf Place • The Harbor
Bonaventure House • Bettendorf Place • The Harbor • Community Housing
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• AlexianBrothersHousing.org
[email protected]
Publicity photo
midtown.com/chicago
LEGAL EAGLES
The Lesbian and Gay Bar Association
of Chicago and the Hispanic Law
Association of Illinois hosted an event
about Hispanic LGBTQ issues.
khan do
Pop Making Sense spotlights Chaka
Khan, Charli XCX and other musicians.
Read about Fred
Says, which raises
funds for HIV+
teens.
See images from
the annual Chicago
House brunch/
fashion show.
Photo of Robert Garofalo
and Fred by Timmy
Samuel
Photo of state Rep.
Kelly Cassidy by
Matthew C. Clarke
beatlemania
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
Find out the latest about Zachary
Quinto, Andy Warhol and Jane Fonda.
plus
DAILY BREAKING NEWS
nightspots
nightspots
Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus held a tribute
show with Beatles songs (and another
performance is on its way).
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Photo by Ed Negron
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page 24
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4
Ohio trans murder
sparks fear, anger
over media coverage
BY KATE SOSIN
The murder of a transgender woman in Ohio has
sparked national mourning and outrage, after local media described the victim with what LGBT
activists deemed dehumanizing language.
Cemia “Ce Ce” Dove, 20, was found dead April
17 in Olmsted Township, according to police.
Dove was identified by her birth name by police,
but a report from TransGriot revealed her preferred name, after readers identified Dove.
According to multiple news sources, Dove suffered multiple stab wounds and was found in a
pond in Cleveland, Ohio.
NCAVP spotlights
three Black trans
homicides in April
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) released a statement citing its
concern over three unsolved homicides of transgender women of color that occurred during
April.
On April 3, Kelly Young, a 29-year-old Black
transgender woman, was found shot to death
inside a home in Baltimore, Md. The following
day, 30-year-old Black transgender woman Ashley Sinclair was found shot to death in a wooded
area in the Oak Ridge section of Orange County,
Fla. Lastly, another young Black transgender
woman, Cemia Dove (also known as Ci Ci) was
found on April 17 in a retention pond in Olmsted
Township, Ohio.
All three of these homicides were unsolved as
of May 1.
Chai Jindasurat, NCAVP coordinator at the New
York City Anti-Violence Project, said, “It is imperative to call attention to these incidents so
that the lives of these individuals are not forgotten or overlooked and so that we can bring all
resources to bear to discover what happened to
them, when that is possible.”
Rhode Island OKs
same-sex marriage
Cemia “Ce Ce” Dove. Photo from TransGriot
A news release from Olmsted Township police stated that Dove had been reported missing March 27. Police positively identified Dove
through DNA testing.
Police said that two senior investigators have
been put on Dove’s case.
“The Olmsted Township Police Department has
been working around the clock on this investigation, and will continue to diligently pursue all
leads,” the police statement reads.
Police did not identify Dove as transgender.
Local media reports, however, described Dove
using male pronouns, noting that she was “oddly
dressed.”
LGBT leaders have since confirmed that Dove
identified as transgender.
On May 1, LGBT media advocacy organization
GLAAD announced that it has been in touch with
the Cleveland Plain Dealer, after the newspaper
misgendered Dove in their coverage and stated
that her murder ended her “long fight for acceptance.” The paper has since altered some of its
coverage.
GLAAD further noted that it was reaching out
to other media outlets over problematic coverage of the murder.
Several LGBT blogs also fired back at reports
that used male pronouns and described Dove’s
clothing in detail, stating that such reports
trivialized her murder.
Dove was remembered at a rally in Cleveland
May 1.
Transgender people, especially transgender
women of color, face violence and discrimination at alarmingly high rates. Last year, Chicago
saw two transgender homicides. Tiffany Gooden
and Paige Clay, two friends who lived on Chicago’s West Side, were murdered within months
of each other. Both murders remain unsolved.
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
Rhode Island is now the 10th state that allows
same-sex marriage. According to ABC News, the
state House approved a marriage-equality bill
56-15, and Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the bill
into law an hour later.
Supporters framed the issue as one of civil
rights, arguing in legislative hearings that samesex couples deserve the same rights and protections given to opposite-sex married couples. The
first marriages will take place Aug. 1, when the
new law takes effect.
“Today is a great day for freedom and equality
in Rhode Island,” said Steven Brown, executive
director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, in a statement. “I am very proud to see our state join the
rest of New England by passing this momentous
law.”
Iowa rules for gays in
birth-certificate case
The Iowa Supreme Court has unanimously
ruled that married same-sex couples have the
same rights as married opposite-sex couples to
have both parents listed on the birth certificates
of their newborn children, according to USA Today.
Justices ruled 6-0 to require that the Iowa
Department of Public Health begin listing both
married parents on a newborn child’s birth certificate. The state argued that biological-based
parenting rights would be cast aside if, say, a
Des Moines lesbian were allowed to establish
paternity of her child.
Fla. board allows GSAs
Just one day after 14-year-old Bayli Silberstein filed suit against the Lake County (Fla.)
School Board to enforce her constitutionally
protected right to establish a gay-straight alliance (GSA) at her school, the board will allow the club to meet, according to an ACLU
press release. The ACLU stated that the school
board had, over months, repeatedly delayed and
thwarted the establishment of the GSA at Carver
Middle School.
Cultural Q’s
by FRANCESCA ROYSTER
We are Family. . . aren’t we?:
Searching for shared community
Cruisaboo is closing. That is, the Caribou
Coffee on Broadway and Aldine in Lakeview, aptly nicknamed for its lively reputation as gay cruising spot and social center, will soon be transitioning into Pete’s
Coffee.
I wonder what changes will come. According to WBEZ blogger and commentator Nico Lang, the shop, extraordinary
as a commercial space that has been reshaped in purpose and atmosphere by its
patrons, has long been a place to cruise,
yes, but also where you could come by
after a soccer game or gather with friends
to play cards. That is, with your male
friends. Lang observes that for the most
part, women have not been treated very
well there.
Now, I have never been mistreated at
Cruisiboo. It’s more like I’m invisible. And
I get that. I am not its intended audience. Throughout the LGBTQ Movement,
high schooler in the 1980s, I remember
picking up a fallen set of beads and handing them to the shirtless white man dancing beside me. Sister Sledge was playing
from a float for Bonaventure House, the
hospice for people living with HIV/AIDS
where my mother volunteered, and I felt
a surge of pride for her. I felt the sense of
a shared outrage about the “gay cancer”
that was increasingly ravaging poor folks
of color in and outside of the gay community. I felt the euphoria of the shared appreciation of beat, the high of being part
of a group of bodies taking up space and
stopping traffic down Halsted. The man
accepted the beads, and then whispered
in my ear: “My doctor says I don’t have to
eat fish on Fridays,” turning away.
It was the shared experience of sexism
at Pride, along a critique of its corporate
sponsorship and need for greater connection with diverse grassroots organizations
across Chicago, that
spawned the Chicago
Dyke March, which will
kick off its 17th annual
march June 29, 2013,
in Argyle. The Chicago
Dyke March Coalition has
sought to shift the location of the annual march
and rally from Chicago’s
so-called gay ghettos
to other neighborhoods,
including Uptown, Pilsen
and Bronzeville. Thanks
to year-long planning,
the Dyke March has managed to create a
remarkably inclusive space, with multiple
genders, races, sexualities and generations.
Are we really at a place where we can
afford to live without each other as a
community? I agree with the late writer/
activist June Jordan, who wrote in her
1992 essay, “A New Politics of Sexuality,”
“I will call you my brother, I will call you
my sister, on the basis of what you do
for justice, what you do for equality, what
you do for freedom, and not on the basis
of who you are.”
When I start to feel hopeless, I think of
my friends Brian and Mark, and the intentional friendship we’ve been able to keep
up for over a decade, despite our differences in gender, sexuality and race, and
despite physical distance. We’ve argued
and discussed and analyzed over ribs and
brunch and a good hand of Hearts. We’ve
met in each other’s homes and now over
Skype and Facebook. We’ve melded our
families, blood and chosen.
I think of the activists and artists who
have educated and inspired me, and who
continue to work to create coalitional
spaces across the city, like The Broadway
Youth Center, Pow-Wow, the Earth Pearl
Collective, Project NIA, the late FUFA,
Northeastern University’s Queer Prom,
and Dandelions in the Concrete at DePaul.
And I keep Sister Sledge on repeat in
the soundtrack in my head.
“Our sexuality doesn’t exempt
us from the ugly dynamics
of white privilege and
other forms of racism, cisgenderism, sexism, classism,
or ableism.”
we’ve flirted, drank, danced, lusted, made
love and community in bars, parks, music
festivals, cafes and coffeehouses—spaces
that we’ve built as well as wrested from
others and reclaimed as our own, sometimes together, sometimes apart. It’s
what has kept our spirits alive in an often
hostile world. But the transition of “Cruisaboo” does bring to mind the dearth of
truly integrated spots in Chicago where
gay men, lesbians, trans folks, bisexual
and queer and questioning folk come together across lines of race, sexuality, gender, class, ability, religion and age.
Perhaps it’s unavoidable that our community spaces reflect the tensions of the
larger community, especially in Chicago,
this city of neighborhoods known for its
segregation. Folks of color have long reported excessive carding at some Chicago
gay and lesbian bars. And tensions continue in Boystown between some business owners and homeless youth—often
youth of color—drawn to its reputation
for openness.
Our sexuality doesn’t exempt us from
the ugly dynamics of white privilege and
other forms of racism, cis-genderism,
sexism, classism, or ableism. This was
brought to light this past April, when the
Human Rights Campaign apologized for
censoring undocumented and trans activists at their marriage equality protests at
the U.S. Supreme Court.
At my very first Pride in Chicago as a
Francesca Royster is a Professor of English at DePaul University, where she
teaches courses on Shakespeare, Popular Culture, gender, race, sexuality and
performance. Her books include Sounding Like a No-No: Queer Sounds and Eccentric Acts in the Post-Soul Era (University of Michigan Press, 2013) and Becoming Cleopatra: The Shifting Image of an Icon (Palgrave, 2003).
WINDY CITY TIMES
AIDS Legal Council marks
25 years of service
By Carrie Maxwell
To commemorate 25 years of service, the AIDS
Legal Council of Chicago (ALCC) will host a benefit “A Salute to ALCC” at Kirkland and Ellis LLP
May 9.
ALCC supporters, past and present board members, staff, interns, and individual and corporate
sponsors are expected to attend the event.
“The response from the community surrounding our 25th anniversary has been tremendous,
and we look forward to a wonderful evening to
commemorate the life-saving legal work that the
council does each day. The HIV epidemic continues to grow and impact more and more communities. Thanks to the wonderful support from our
community and corporate partners, ALCC will be
here as long as we are needed,” said ALCC Executive Director Ann Hilton Fisher.
According to its website, “The ALCC exists to
preserve, promote and protect the legal rights of
men, women and children in the metropolitan
May 8, 2013
5
to Fisher.
The ALCC also provides free training for other
non-profits and companies, said Fisher. She noted that the most accessed brochure on the ALCC
website is the page about confidentiality that is
written in Spanish.
Hayford noted that they also work with a number of other organizations including HIV/AIDS
providers, mental health providers, drug treatment providers, and healthcare providers.
“We tell our donors that your dollar will go
further here than almost anywhere,” said Fisher.
The event sponsors are Kirkland & Ellis, Sidley Austin, Winston & Strawn, McDermott Will &
Emery, Jenner & Block, DLA Piper, Mayer Brown,
Schiff Hardin, Marshall Gerstein & Borun, Clark
Hill, Wintersteen & Dunning, Reed Smith, Sidetrack, BestGayChicago.com, ChicagoPride.com,
The L Stop, and Windy City Media Group.
Tickets start at $50 for the May 9 event, and
they can be purchased at www.alcc25host.
eventbrite.com.
A summer garden party will also be held at
Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted St., Aug. 14, 6-9
p.m., to commemorate ALCC’s 25 years of service
to the community.
See www.aidslegal.com for more information.
tion and employing a bilingual receptionist) and
flexibility in handling each client’s concerns.
According to Fisher, the ALCC has achieved all of
these goals throughout its 25-year history. Fisher noted that by staying a step ahead of client’s
needs, the ALCC has helped clients understand
the drug cocktail as it has evolved, the rules
regarding working while receiving social security
benefits and immigration laws among other issues. With the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare) going into full effect next January the ALCC’s goal,
Fisher said, is to be ready for any issues that
might arise from the new law.
Fisher explained that one of the ways the ALCC
works to make sure that the client’s needs are
met is by lobbying elected officials on issues
such as medicaid, confidentiality, HIV testing
and discrimination. Currently, the ALCC’s lobbying efforts are focused on making sure that
Illinois opts into expanding medicaid when the
new healthcare law goes into effect, according
Center on
Halsted’s GED
program starting
Center on Halsted will again partner with
Truman College to offer another session
of the onsite GED program. Pre-testing is
available 1:30-4 p.m. each Tuesday and
Thursday through May 23 at Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St.
The onsite GED program offering began
in February. Enrollment and assessment is
required for the program, which starts May
21.
For more information about the GED program at Center on Halsted, visit www.centeronhalsted.org, or contact Lynnea Karlic
at [email protected] or 773472-6469.
Downton Prairie Avenue
A Downton Abbey-themed evening to benefit Chicago House
Come dressed to impress for a special evening of food
and music celebrating the Elegant Edwardian Era at
1900 S. Prairie Avenue
in the historic Prairie Avenue Historic District
Chicago’s South Loop
Friday, June 7
6 p.m. wine and music,
7 p.m. dinner
ALCC Executive Director Ann Hilton Fisher.
Photo by Stephen Sonneveld
Chicago area impacted by HIV. The council provides direct legal services to people in need, educates the public about HIV-related legal issues,
and advocates for social policies that ensure
fair treatment for all people affected by HIV/
AIDS. With a full-time legal staff of just seven
dedicated legal professionals, the Council (the
only organization of its kind in the Midwest)
has helped over 900 clients with 1,600 cases in
2012, and is serving a larger and more diverse
client base than ever.”
When the ALCC was first formed there was always a crisis, Fisher explained. People were dying so the goal, according to Fisher, was to help
clients live as long as they could and then die
with dignity. “We were constantly flying out of
the office to do people’s final paperwork- wills,
guardianship of their children, or other issues.
We used to build dignified deaths and now we
build better lives,” said ALCC Case Manager Justin Hayford.
With people living longer the ALCC has had
to shift its priorities, noted Hayford. Keeping
clients—from teenagers to senior citizens—stabilized while also helping them navigate byzantine bureaucratic systems such as social security,
medicaid, medicare, private insurance, employment issues, health insurance and managed care
is ALCC’s current focus, said Hayford.
The overall goals of the ALCC include staying
a step ahead of client’s needs, planning and
implementing ideas that help clients in a quick
and efficient way, operating on a grassroots level while also being on the cutting edge regarding treatment and policies, accessibility (loca-
This is a formal, fivecourse dinner such as
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European Lords and
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Catering in Costume by
Mrs. Eaton and Mr. Howe
$150, capacity is just 20 people
Reserve by calling 773-387-2394 or emailing [email protected]
SPONSORS:
May 8, 2013
6
tive district by moving that legislation,” he said.
Delgado also wants LGBT people turn up pressure on lawmakers to pass the bill.
“The time is now now now. There is no reason.
The closet door is off,” he said.
“You are us,” he said of LGBT people. “You
must recognize that. You’re not a Flintstone.
You’re a Jetson,” he said referring to the television cartoons.
When Delgado argued in favor of the equal
marriage bill, he reminded other lawmakers of
his son and the struggles he went through after
Rubén died.
“I rise in honor of my son Rubén, whose
struggles were not with his partner or with his
parents, who he loved as he loved us,” Delgado
WINDY CITY TIMES
said. “His struggle was with the blatant dehumanizing, the comments, the looks that he got
from society...”
In this speech, which last several minutes,
one can hear Delgado’s voice start to shake as
he remembers his son. What begins as an eloquent and clear statement on the marriage bill,
rises into what seems like a impromptu personal
appeal.
Delgado, however, insists that his strong support for equal marriage rights is not about his
son, but about human rights.
“I have very many [LGBT] family members,” he
said. “But if I didn’t, it wouldn’t make a difference.”
Sandack affirms ‘yes’ on
equal marriage at protests
BY KATE SOSIN
State Sen. William Delgado. Photo by Hal Baim
State Sen. Delgado talks
gay son, marriage bill
BY KATE SOSIN
If Illinois Sen. William Delgado had an evolution
on LGBT rights, it happened decades ago, before
he sponsored the equal marriage bill, before he
stood up on Valentine’s Day and told his antigay colleagues that they sounded like they were
straight out of an 1865 debate on slavery.
For 2nd district rep., the debate on equal marriage in Illinois is personal.
Delgado’s son, Rubén, came out to him at age
17. Ten years later, in June 2010, Rubén died
unexpectedly after health problems that Delgado prefers not to discuss.
Delgado has been picking up the pieces ever
since, mourning a son who he not only loved but
felt could have improved his community.
Rubén told his father that he was gay while in
high school at Von Stuben Metropolitan Science
Center, Delgado said.
“Of course, I said, ‘I love you and your brother.
That doesn’t matter,’” Delgado recalled.
But Rubén struggled with name-calling outside his home. He was called “faggot,” and he
often felt uncomfortable, said Delgado. As he
got older and eventually went to college, he
settled into his identity, Delgado said.
At the time of his death, Rubén had a longterm partner and a condo. He worked as a Spanish teacher at Morton East High School, and he
was planning to travel to Spain where he had
been accepted into a master’s program.
He was so involved in his teaching that he
didn’t get involved in LGBT organizing, Delgado
said.
Delgado reads two paragraphs that Rubén
penned the same year he came out as gay.
“I am very aware that I have a long road
ahead of me,” the high school student wrote.
“I have a lot to look forward to in the field of
education. I’ve had many influences in my life
that have helped shape my thinking in terms
of importance of learning. I want to be there in
order to help future generations play an active
and, above all, positive role in society long after
I finish my career and my time here on earth. I
see it only fitting that I give back to the future
generations the way past generations gave to
us.”
Ten years later, those words grace the back of
Rubén’s funeral card, which Delgado carries in
his back pocket.
“He never leaves,” Delgado said. “I take him
everywhere.”
Rubén came with Delgado Feb. 14 when the
senator gave an emotionally raw speech in favor
of marriage equality before the Senate.
“We send messages to our citizens as government,” Delgado told his colleagues. “We help
gauge the moral turpitude of our citizens. They
look to us, many times in shame. Today, we
hope and pray that they will look at us as courageous.”
It can be difficult, Delgado concedes. When he
argues in favor of equal marriage, he talks about
Rubén. He has mixed feelings about employing
his son’s memory in support of the marriage bill.
He knows Rubén wanted equal rights as a gay
person, but the issue is as personal as it is political for Delgado.
Delgado struggled with colleagues who are
not supporting the effort to pass equal marriage
in Illinois. He knows that some colleagues make
anti-gay remarks, usually out of his earshot. But
he also sees change, he said.
“For the most part, Illinois is becoming very
sensitive and understanding,” he said.
Still, there are others who have yet to move
on the issue, including his House successor, 3rd
Dist. Rep. Luis Arroyo.
Arroyo voted for the Religious Freedom and
Marriage Fairness Act in the House Executive
Committee because he did not want to prevent
it from progressing. But he told sponsors that he
could not bring himself to vote for the measure
on the House floor.
In a interview with Windy City Times, he later
reaffirmed that stance.
“My vote is ‘no,’” Arroyo said. “I voted for civil
unions, and that is as far as I can go.” Arroyo
said his constituents do not support the bill and
have asked him to vote against it.
But Delgado, whose district encompasses Arroyo’s, said he feels that his community supports equal marriage. He said that the two have
talked about the issue, and Delgado has been
frustrated by Arroyo’s lack of support for the
bill.
“Professionally, he’s ultraconservative,” said
Delgado. “We would hope that he would eventually come around and reflect the voters’ desires
and the overall 2nd District.”
Delgado has other hopes for his colleagues. He
questions why the bill has not yet been called
for a vote, something he feels House Speaker
Mike Madigan could make happen but has not.
“I urge Speaker Madigan to respect the wishes
of the communities, including the 2nd legisla-
Anti-gay protesters in Downers Grove more
than doubled LGBTs and allies at a rally outside state Rep. Ron Sandack’s office May 4,
but the Republican told crowds that his vote
on the state’s equal marriage bill was a firm
“yes.”
More than 200 rallied against SB10, which
would legalize same-sex marriage, in a demonstration organized by the Illinois Family
Institute (IFI), an anti-gay group working
against the bill.
Approximately 75 equal-marriage supporters attended a counter protest organized by
The Civil Rights Agenda and Gay Liberation
Network.
The demonstration was the third face-off
between opposing sides in three weeks. IFI
has scheduled demonstrations against wavering reps. every week. LGBT groups have
scrambled to assemble opposition to those
demonstrations.
Sandack recently came out in favor of SB10,
a position that he reaffirmed at a brief appearance during the Saturday rallies.
“I truly respect that you’re making your
voice heard,” Sandack told demonstrators. “If
the bill is called, I’m on it.”
Sandack told reporters that he thinks Republican colleagues who vote against the bill
might regret that vote in five years or less. He
said that if he lost on the vote he would do so
“with a smile.”
“I didn’t go to Springfield just to play defense and take votes that were just safe and
easy,” Sandack said.
Holly Plys, a Downers Grove resident who
opposes the bill, said she was surprised and
disappointed by Sandack’s stance. She said
she read his previous statements opposing
same-sex marriage before voting.
“I voted for him based on that as did many
people,” Plys said. “He betrayed that.”
Plys said she feels her district opposes the
bill.
Another man who grew up in Downers Grove
but declined to give his name, said he opposes the bill but has seen the district move
in favor of same-sex marriage over the years.
Carol and Peg Collins-Schmitt live in Downers Grove. The two have a civil union and
want to get married. Carol said that Sandack’s
support surprised them, too.
“We were so excited,” Carol said. “I am lifelong Democrat but I will be supporting him
and voting for him.”
Event fencing surrounded both rallies,
which were also divided by police. Neighborhood residents watched from across the
street. Some said they supported Sandack
while others said they would vote against
him in the future.
One man said that he did not live in the
district, but that if he did, he would vote
against Sandack.
A young man and woman riding their bikes
past the demonstration said they were new to
the area and unaware of the controversy.
“This is ridiculous,” said the man. “It’s
2013.”
The demonstrations attempted to shout
over each other through portable sound systems, creating a racket in the otherwise quiet
suburban neighborhood. One the anti-gay
side, songs like “God Bless America” played
over the crowd. On the pro-LGBT side, “Chapel
of Love” played.
The rallies ended without incident.
A House vote on SB10 is expected any day.
The bill passed the Senate on Valentine’s Day.
Gov. Pat Quinn has vowed to sign it into law.
GLN’s Andy
Thayer
introduces Rep.
Ron Sandack
to pro-gay
demonstrators
outside his
office May 4.
Photo by
Kate Sosin
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
Angela Davis at the UChicago talk. Photo by Hal Baim
Angela Davis speaks on
‘Feminism and Abolition’
by Yasmin Nair
World-renowned scholar, activist and feminist
Angela Davis was in Chicago May 4 to deliver
the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and
Culture Annual Public Lecture, in collaboration
with the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. Both institutions are at the University of
Chicago, and the event was held at Rockefeller
Chapel on the university’s campus.
Davis’ speech, “Feminism and Abolition: Theories and Practices for the 21st Century,” was
given to a packed crowd of more than 1,500.
She was introduced by Cathy Cohen, professor of
political science at the university. Davis, 69, is
currently Distinguished Professor Emerita at the
University of California, Santa Cruz where she
worked in both the History of Consciousness and
Feminist Studies Departments.
The lecture had already become historic before Davis stepped up to the podium because of
the prior day’s news that Assata Shakur is now
the first woman to be placed on the FBI’s Most
Wanted Terrorists list. The FBI and the state of
New Jersey doubled the reward for her capture
to $2 million. Davis had appeared that morning on the radio program Democracy Now, with
Shakur’s attorney, Leslie Hinds to speak out
against the move, and her comments had been
going viral all day long.
VALEO
Shakur, a former member of the Black Panther
Party and Black Liberation Army, was convicted
of killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973.
She escaped prison in 1979, and received political asylum in Cuba. Shakur and her supporters have long maintained her innocence. Like
Shakur, Davis faced charges of murder nearly 40
years ago, and was eventually freed after a long
trial. (The campaign around her became a global
one and is the subject of the recent documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners.)
Addressing the audience, Davis began by saying that she had revised her original introduction to incorporate material on Shakur, and
bookended the lecture with her words. Speaking about the the recent FBI announcement,
she said it “reminds me of how much work is
left over from the twentieth century” and that
“we live in a world mutilated by the ravages of
capitalism.” She recalled her own inclusion on
the FBI list decades ago and noted that that the
FBI “is still haunted by the ghost of J. Edgar
Hoover.”
Davis went on to list some of the many political prisoners still in prison, including Mumia
Abu-Jamal and her co-defendant from the trial,
Ruchell Magee. She said that while the FBI focused on them and people like Shakur, they ignored the mercenaries of Blackhawk.
Much of the lecture focused on what she and
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gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender
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many activists refer to as the prison industrial
complex (PIC), and its relationship to gender.
Historically contextualizing the category of
“woman,” Davis pointed out that it has always
been a contested one, especially in relation to
race and class. Black and working-class women
have been shut of the category, in favor of a
racialized and bourgeois version of the ideal
woman, she added.
Davis then focused on transgender women,
particularly those in prison. She called on feminists and feminists to understand and acknowledge the ways in which the presence and conditions of trans women in prison contest and
expand the category of woman while also exploding binary ideas of gender.
Referencing recent activist work and work on
trans prison issues, Davis said that trans women
are “at the intersection of race, class, sexuality,
and gender.” She pointed out that trans women
are often singled out by law enforcement and,
once in prison, denied access to hormones and
medical treatment and usually placed in men’s
prisons, where they suffer additional sexual and
gendered violence. David said that that understanding and questioning these conditions allows us to “learn a great deal about the reach of
the PIC” and about what is “ideologically constituted as normal.”
Expanding on this, she made the parallel between looking at trans issues and gender issues
in general: “When we look at women in prison,
we learn about the system as a whole, the nature
of punishment, the very apparatus of prison.”
WCT wins two Lisagor
journalism awards
Windy City Times reporters won two Peter
Lisagor Awards from the Chicago Headline
Club May 3 at the Union League Club of Chicago.
The Chicago Headline Club is the largest
Society of Professional Journalists chapter
in the country. Lifetime Achievement Awards
were presented to nationally syndicated columnist and Chicago Tribune editorial board
member Clarence Page and WBBM Newsradio
reporter John Cody.
Chicago Sun-Times reporter Kim Janssen received the second annual Anne Keegan Award
for Reporting. Janssen wrote a compelling
and emotional story about the life of 62-yearold Mexican immigrant Delfino Mora, who was
murdered by alleged Chicago gangbangers.
Windy City Times’ first award was in the
feature writing category, for the “Generation
Halsted: LGBTQ Youth Series”. The series was
written primarily by Kate Sosin, Erica Demarest and Bill Healy, and designed by Kirk Williamson.
The second WCT award went to Ross Forman for sports writing, for his feature “Esera
Tuaolo: Coming back from darkness.”
See www.headlineclub.org.
7
Speaking of the general reach of the PIC—
Davis is a prominent prison abolitionist—she
pointed to local Chicago statistics about violence and guns, and drew connections between
local activism around schools and the prison
system. She spoke of how the depletion of resources for public education was creating conditions where more felt compelled to turn to crime
and consequently became a larger “disposable
population surveilled by electronic technology.”
In the meantime,” she said, corporations profit
from creating more surveillance mechanisms
meant to police and control the expanding prison population.
Davis also spoke of her faith in younger generations of scholars and activists, saying that
they are informed by feminism, and operate
from pro-trans and -Islam frameworks. But she
also cautioned that as important as it was to
support social movements, “we also have to
struggle against the assimilationist agenda,”
and pointed to the fight for marriage equality as
one about attaining “bourgeois respectability.”
In the question and answer session that followed, Davis spoke to a range of issues, including her appraisal of the “Free Angela” film,
which she described as the account of a movement and not just about her. Asked about gun
control and the violence faced by Chicago public
school students, she said that the best solution
was “no more guns, removing all guns from human beings” but that this also meant “disarming
the police.” This, she said, was an abolitionist
struggle.
Country singers
back marriage
equality in Illinois
A group of renowned country musicians has
announced its support for extending the freedom to marry to same-sex couples in Illinois.
The letter states, in part,“To deny our gay
brothers and sisters the right to legally ritualize their love—to marry—is to deny that
they too experience the complexity of human
emotion that make a song like Dolly Parton’s
‘I Will Always Love You’ the shared phenomenon that it is.”
The musicians signing the letter are Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, “Big Kenny”
Alphin (half of the duo Big & Rich) and Mary
Chapin Carpenter.
“It’s the artist’s job to remind us that the
heart is the place where our true holiness resides. It’s why the word ‘heart’ is pervasive in
so many great songs,” the letter concludes.
“Gay or straight, when two people are lucky
enough to find each other and want to commit their lives to one another, it is nothing
less than a blessing to us all.”
Information about the marriage-equality
legislation is available at www.illinoisunites.
org.
“For any little boy who ever
wore ruby slippers (or a pointy
black hat) on Halloween…”
“A valentine to the city of Chicago, and a gift
for everyone who loves the Wizard of Oz.”
Author Tom Mula
will be reading and signing copies of
The Hackers of Oz
Wednesday, May 15 at 7:30
Women & Children First
5233 N. Clark
www.womenandchildrenfirst.com
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
8
CRIME
LGBTQs and the Criminal Legal System
OUT
A Windy City Times Special Investigative Series
When we talk about LGBTQ people and the courts today, we’re often referring to the seemingly endless stream of LGBTQ victories coming out of
judicial systems across the country.
But in the criminal courts, LGBTQ people have long faced a different
reality. Perhaps nowhere has that been more visible than in Cook County,
historically a model for criminal legal systems throughout the country.
In the next four weeks, Windy City Times will take readers through that
structure today as we look at how LGBTQ people get caught in the system
and the challenges they face once there.
Left to right: 1911 Chicago Vice Commission report. Chicagoan Henry Gerber, who was arrested in the 1920s after starting a homosexual rights group. Clarence Darrow defends the high-profile
murderers Leopold and Loeb, a case sensationalized based on the relationship between the two young men. At right: Two men or two women dancing together as well as cross-dressing were banned
in gay bars until the 1970s, but some people risked arrest to be themselves. Images this section from the Chicago History Museum, M. Kuda Archives and Windy City Times archives
With Malice Aforethought:
LGBTQs and the criminal justice system
BY Tracy Baim
The legal definition of malice aforethought includes “an intent willfully to act in callous and
wanton disregard of the consequences to human
life.”
Throughout much of U.S. legal history, this
would be an apt description of the legal system’s approach to people beyond the traditional
definitions of sexuality and gender identity.
The ways the system has harmed the LGBTQ
community are many, but here are a few key historical problems:
— Sodomy and related sex laws. They primarily targeted gay men. Illinois was the first state
to get rid of its sodomy law, in 1961, and the
U.S. Supreme Court finally banned such laws in
Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.
— Targeting “vice.” These commissions and
police squads go after any illegal activity, including prostitution. But many over-eager departments have also targeted gay men having
consensual sex (without prostitution), and police have had handsome decoys pose as gay men
in order to entrap victims in public spaces. Police even placed ads in gay papers’ personals and
massage sections seeking to entrap men.
— Cross-dressing laws. Many states and cities
had laws that barred people from wearing items
traditionally linked to the opposite sex. These
laws allowed for police harassment and arrests.
It took Chicago until the 1970s (first through
legal rulings and later through City Council action) to eliminate the cross-dressing law.
— Dancing queens. While it was technically
not illegal, police often harassed and arrested
people for dancing with a partner of the same
sex. Until the early 1970s, most Chicago-area
gay bars banned same-partner dancing to avoid
additional police scrutiny.
— Official harassment. LGBT bars, especially
prior to 1980, were targets of police shakedowns, and were often also harassed by the Mafia. The police harassment created a large level
of distrust in seeking help from authorities when
the businesses experienced other problems, and
owners often turned to the Mob for pseudo-protection. Police cooperated with media to provide
names of those arrested—resulting in lost jobs
and even suicides.
— Fear of authorities. Because of this fear,
including potential arrest, many gays did not
report crimes, including shakedowns by men
impersonating police officers, or blackmail from
other criminals. This in turn allowed criminals to
flourish. Even today, community organizations
often document higher anti-LGBT crime numbers
than police do, because of this fear of reporting
to authorities.
— Institutionalized bias. Past exclusion of
known sexual-minority persons from law licenses, police employment and other jobs meant
openly LGBT people did not have a seat at the
table in creating policies and enforcing laws.
— Gay panic. This is a common “defense”
used by those charged with violent gay attacks
and murders, and it has often been successful.
— Ignoring violence. Neighborhoods perceived as “gay” have often been targeted by
gay-bashers and serial killers. In the past, because police ignored the crimes or often treated
them with little seriousness, LGBTs organized
their own street patrols and response, including
a whistle-blowing campaign in 1970s Chicago,
and a 1980s Pink Angels group. Ignoring violence has gone beyond ignoring neighborhood
gay-bashing to ignoring or belittling individual
complaints of crime or to inadequate investigations of homicides. Some serial killers likely were
able to continue their trade longer because of
a lack of police attention to their attacks, and
their victims. (John Wayne Gacy, Larry Eyler and
Jeffrey Dahmer are three such examples.)
— Criminalization of HIV and AIDS. Gay men
have been targeted for their sexuality based on
the consequences of these types of laws, many
of them still on the books. And new HIV/AIDS
transmission laws are also being passed with regressive language.
— Intimate-partner violence. Police and authorities have had a difficult time handling
domestic-violence cases involving people of the
same gender, or gender non-conforming people.
The police ask “who is the man” or “who is the
woman” because they do not have the training
to understand how LGBT relationships work.
— Mishandling transgender cases. The police
across the U.S. have had difficulty with transgender survivors of attacks, and with solving
the large number of transgender murder cases.
Victims are often treated with shocking levels of
ignorance and transphobia.
— Prison problems. Discriminatory denial
of prison rights or privileges, derogation, and
the debatable issue of segregation, which has
sometimes seemed to benefit sexual-minority
prisoners but can lead to more discrimination or
harassment by guards.
— Criminalization of sex work. Transgender
people, who face employment discrimination
and lack of access to extremely expensive (often
life-saving) gender-related medical care, are disproportionately engaged in sex work. But even
those who are not are frequently arrested as
sex workers by police simply for “walking while
trans.”
These are just a few of the problems related to
LGBTs and the criminal justice system. There are
many more problems related to the civil courts.
In the civil courts, LGBTs have lost custody of
children, lost their homes after a partner dies,
been refused adoptions and encountered many
other biased decisions based on their sexuality
or gender identity.
Many of these problems have decreased in recent decades, solved in part by pressure from
activists, help from allies, and the coming out of
LGBT police officers, lawyers, judges and elected
officials.
But this recent history of harassment and
abuse by law enforcement and the courts still
has a residual impact, causing mistrust of the
system, and in some cases appearing on people’s criminal records still today. For example,
an adult man arrested for supposedly public consensual sex with another adult man may have to
register as a sex offender.
In this special Windy City Times series, we
will look in depth at the criminal legal system
and the LGBTQ community in Cook County. Our
reporters spent several months researching the
archives, looking into public records, interviewing authorities, visiting county facilities and
talking to people who have an up-close view of
the criminal justice system.
In many ways, the problems LGBTs face with
the prison industrial complex are a reflection of
the larger societal problem with incarceration
and of a society that would spend $50,000 incarcerating someone for smoking marijuana or
for stealing $100, rather than take a realistic
approach to drugs and survival crimes. But perhaps by investigating further this one area of
the system, we can see alternative solutions for
a system desperately in need of being fixed.
Tony Midnite was a popular female impersonator, including in Chicago. This image is from
1953. Cross-dressing was banned in the city
until the 1970s.
Chicago Tribune April 26, 1964 report on a
raid of the Fun Lounge, a suburban Chicago
gay club.
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
Mattachine Midwest report on an undercover cop entrapping gays, September
1969. From the M. Kuda Archives
9
Gay bars were among those pulled into a federal
investigation of police harassment, and a judge
overturned the cross-dressing ban, The Gay Crusader
September 1973.
A report in a 1975 edition of The Gay Crusader
noted that no arrests had been made in three of
six gay-related murders.
The Gay Crusader December 1973 (left) and August 1973, reports on police reforms and a benefit
for people injured in a devastating arson fire in New Orleans.
GayLife Aug. 29, 1975 report on muggings of
gay men in Chicago.
A rare case of a murder of a gay person solved, through a confession reported in The Gay Crusader
September 1975.
Left: In 1975,
The Chicago Gay
Crusader alerted
readers to attacks
on gay men in
public parks, as
well as police
arrests of gays.
Right: Activists
protested the
police response
to the murder of
Donna Smith by
her ex-husband.
In GayLife Dec.
24, 1974.
GayLife Dec. 10, 1976 (left) and Nov. 26, 1976
(below) report on yet more violence against gays in
Chicago.
Left: GayLife Oct. 1, 1976 reported on a study showing most gay
men are killed by heterosexuals, not other gays, and a report on the
murder of Bijou’s owner. Above: GayLife Feb. 4, 1976, stories about
a double murder of two women, and a blackmail scheme.
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
10
GayLife April 4, 1977
reported on the murder of gay bartender
Frank Rodde III, 29;
his murder was never
solved. His name was
used for a Tavern Guild
gay fund and a gay
community center.
GayLife Jan. 4, 1980 reported on the police raid of the
South Loop Rialto Tap. One hundred men were arrested
at the bar, which catered mostly to African American
gay men.
Vandalism at the Rogers Park gay Center,
reported in GayLife Aug. 5, 1977.
Above: Nov. 14, 1980 GayLife coverage of the murder
of popular Chicago personality Stephen “Wanda Lust”
Jones. Below: Dec. 12, 1980 GayLife on the murder of
Beverly “Tom” Woolard, a bartender.
Alyn Toler (left) founded the Pink Angels in
1991 as a response to anti-gay violence. Curtis Sliwa of the Guardian Angles is pictured
middle. Photo by Tracy Baim
GayLife Oct. 14, 1977 looks at
the blackmail threat to gays.
GayLife from Aug. 23, 1984 and Aug. 30, 1984, including coverage of anti-gay violence
nationally, and Larry Eyler’s murder of multiple young men and boys.
Gaylife May 10, 1984 coverage of a triple
murder on Chicago’s West Side.
June 14, 1984, coverage of a suspect in
bombs planted at 24 gay bars.
GayLife Aug. 11, 1983 coverage of gay murders
in Illinois and Indiana.
Baton Show Lounge owner Jim Flint was among
gay bar owners forced to testify in a case against
mob shakedowns on the North Side. From GayLife Oct. 4, 1984.
More coverage of Larry Eyler, and one of his victims, Danny Bridges, who was killed after Eyler had been let out
of jail because evidencewas ruled inadmissable against
Eyler. GayLife, Sept. 6, 1984.
Windy City Times reported Dec. 18, 1986 on
a $15 million lawsuit filed against officers of
the Northwestern Metropolitan Enforcement
Group from a Sept. 12, 1985 raid on the gay
bar Carol’s Speakeasy.
Ron Cayot was shot in 1992 while coming out of a gay bar on Halsted. He lost
the ability to speak normally from the
assault. Photo by Tracy Baim
A Queer Nation anti-violence march in Chicago, August 1991. Photo by Genyphyr Novak
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
11
“It seems to be politically motivated—somesaid he visits occasionally: “It seems to be mostone in the bird sanctuary complains, usually a
ly married men or ‘straight’ men looking to get
birdwatcher—so the police cast a wide net and
their cocks sucked or suck cocks themselves.”
sweep up people who should not be swept up,”
In 2010, Erickson defended a man who’d been
Erickson said. The police have sent out “morearrested on a public indecency charge in the
than-good-looking officers to lure gay men—if
forest preserves but had the charges dismissed
the harassment. In 1969, a bar called The Trip
they were straight men, it would be like they
when a judge agreed that the county Forest Prehad its licenses revoked after authorities claimed
were sending out Christy Turlington.” (Chicago
serve District’s public indecency law was antithe management had “overlooked indecency” on
Police Department officials did not return calls
quated.
the premises.
for comment by press time.)
The law read, “No person shall appear in any
“The bar had taken steps to protect itself and
He added that the arrests, however infrequent,
forest preserve in a state of nudity, or in a dress
its patrons by closing on Sunday nights and orare “a tool of harassment” against the communot properly belonging to his or her sex, or in
ganizing a private club,” Kelley said. “You could
nity. “They don’t arrest straights for doing the
an indecent or lewd manner, and no person shall
get a membership card, come in, and use the
same thing out in the open at the beach.”
make any indecent exposure of his or her perdance floor. Police got hold of a membership
Paul said he has only actually seen one person
son or be guilty of any lewd or indecent act or
card by stopping someone on the sidewalk and
getting arrested in the sanctuary.
behavior in any forest preserve, or while in any
seizing it. Then they came in and made arrests.”
“From what I could see, they were someone
vehicle within the Forest Preserve District.”
Ultimately, The Trip won its case. But the arwho seemed ‘off’—they were calling attention
He argued that the ordinance, which would
rests were “a police harassment tactic—there
to themselves. I think by keeping your eyes and
also, for example, ban trans people from uswasn’t anything going on,” Kelley said. “They
ears open and conducting yourselves quietly,
ing the forest preserves, was unconstitutional.
wouldn’t allow people to kiss or even get close
you can stay out of trouble.”
Additionally, the word “lewd” was problematic,
to each other in an intimate way,” except for the
Sunday-night dancing.
“Those CPD [Chicago Police Department] busts
in bars literally drove gay men looking for sex
into the streets,” added Mogul.
People who were afraid to be seen going into
bars, Kelley said, “were not afraid to be seen
going into Marshall Field’s.” But he was not convinced that the bar raids were the sole reason
gays gravitated toward cruising spots.
“I’ve always thought they did it because of a
preference for variety,” Kelley said.
Numerous public spots sprung up on Chicago’s
lakefront. “There was an area just off Lake Shore
Drive … between Lawrence and Foster,” according to Mogul. “People would go in and just
disappear behind these huge bushes—it was a
mixture of straight and gay men looking for blow
jobs.”
“Oak Street Beach—the retaining wall along
Lake Shore Drive—used to be a lineup of guys
looking for sex at night,” added Kelley.
Getting gay-bashed was an enormous risk.
Thugs would beat and/or rob men, often
counting on their victims’ being too embarrassed
to report the attack. One of Mogul’s first cases
stemming from a cruising incident involved
helping a man who had been viciously beaten
by a group of young men wielding broken-off
car antennas, for example. But police could be
equally violent.
“The younger officers were especially vicious,”
Mogul said. “They seemed to be having some issues. The real police were interested in fighting
crime. What police are interested in arresting
prostitutes and homosexuals?”
In 1969, a 63-year-old man named Delizon
In 1982, the Chicago Police Department, under Superintendent Richard J. Brzeczek, issued this
Bush was arrested by CPD Officer John Manley
Training Bulletin for officers. Despite this bulletin, undercover arrests continued for many years
on a charge of public indecency. Manley conin parks and bars. Courtesy of the M. Kuda Archives
tended that Bush had tried to attack him, and
Bush was acquitted of the public indecency
charge but found guilty of resisting arrest.
He has been stopped by a police officer only
having been out of favor with the courts for de But Bush was much smaller than Manley and
once. Paul was beginning to fool around with
cades.
had suffered numerous injuries.
another man in a parked car when the officer
“It’s so vague and open to interpretation,” Er “That got reversed on appeal. The judges obviasked what they were doing. “I answered, ‘Just
ickson said, adding that the possibility of arrest
ously didn’t believe Manley, because Manley was
chatting,’ and he fortunately just said to take it
depended on the mindset of the arresting ofso much bigger and younger,” Kelley said.
home, which we did.”
ficer. “‘Lewd’ means one thing to a police officer
Police were going into parks and arresting men
It’s easy to spot the guys in the sanctuary
who’s a Christian fundamentalist and something
on the grounds that they were committing sexfor cruising, he added. Most are dressed either
else to one who was a former San Francisco hipual acts. “Many times they were, but they were
in clothes not cut out for an afternoon in the
pie.”
doing it in seclusion, and many times the police
park, such as a suit, or wearing items that can
The county promised to look into the wording
were interrupting them in ways they would nevbe pulled off or opened up easily. In his experiof the law after the 2010 case.
er bother doing in an equivalent heterosexual
ence, most of the guys in the sanctuary are usu “I checked and they kept their word,” Erickson
situation,” Kelley said.
ally looking to give or receive oral sex, though
said. “It still says ‘lewd’ in the Illinois public
The arrests weren’t just taking place on the
he’s occasionally engaged in anal sex there. Paul
indecency law, but its terms are more concretely
lakefront. A number occurred in various parts of
is a top and insists on using a condom; some of
defined.”
the Cook County forest preserves, where county
his partners have protested, going so far as to
Erickson said that a number of judges have
officials had established a so-called “lifestyle
refuse to engage in sex with him.
been concerned with the constitutionality of
enforcement unit.”
He has cruised in many places—the gym, adult
public indecency laws, adding, “It’s unfortunate
“It was mostly suburban homosexuals—most
bookstores, the mall. He knows he is not the
because so many men that this happens to are
of them would leave their car in the preserve
only one who finds it exciting, and he doesn’t
embarrassed by it, so they just go in and plead
and go looking for sex,” Mogul said. “The forforesee himself changing.
guilty in order to get it over with.”
est preserve would seize the car, too, and they
“After [U.S. Sen.] Larry Craig was busted, gay
He gets a public indecency case about every
would have to pay an impound fee, so it was
rights people went on television to say that he
three months or so.
basically a revenue raiser.”
was doing that because he was closeted, and
“They’re not as common as they used to be,
When Cruising Goes Bad:
The private aspects of public indecency
BY Matt Simonette
Every place with a gay presence has had a place
where men have gone to trick—the Ramble in
New York City, Dolores Park in San Francisco and
Union Station in Los Angeles are just a few.
Chicago is no exception. Numerous locations
around the city—the restrooms in the old Marshall Field & Co. building and the Palmer House
¬hotel on State Street, the Lawson YMCA and
secluded parts of Lincoln Park—were legendary
among gay men looking for relatively quick and
easy sex. The Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary and
Cook County forest preserves are current hangouts.
Frequenting these spots has always carried an
element of risk, be it from police or gay-bashers.
But for some men, the risks are worth it.
“Paul”—not his real name—is an Edgewater
man in his early 50s. He cruises near the bird
sanctuary. While he said he doesn’t consider
himself an exhibitionist, he does get a rush from
cruising in public.
“There’s an element of ‘hanging out’ that’s exciting,” Paul admitted.
Men who have been caught cruising have
found themselves up against local or state public indecency laws— whether they actually were
thought to have had sex in an arguably public
place or, as is sometimes the case, were merely
there seeking partners to take home for sex but
were victimized by a perjurer who said they were
actually having sex there.. The Chicago city ordinance says that any person appearing in specified public places with the person’s private areas
“exposed to public view” is subject to a fine of
between $100 and $500. The Illinois statute defines public indecency as an act of penetration
or sexual conduct in public, as well as a “lewd
exposure of the body done with the intent to
arouse or to satisfy the sexual desire of the person.” The law defines “public” spaces as those
where the conduct can reasonably be expected
to be viewed by others.
Attorney Jon Erickson, who has defended a
number of individuals against public indecency
charges, pointed out a conundrum at the heart
of some cases.
“There has to be an expectation that you’d be
viewed if you are accused of public indecency,”
Erickson said. “But that expectation is not there
if you are hiding in the bushes trying to make
sure nobody sees you.”
The history of cruising in Chicago
Attorney Ed Mogul has also represented gay
men arrested for public indecency. He said public cruising in Chicago largely grew from some
gay men’s reluctance to set foot in gay bars,
which for many years were regularly raided by
city and county police.
“Back when the law against homosexuality
[the sodomy law] was eliminated in Illinois (in
1961), a lot of people thought that Illinois—
and Chicago in particular—would become a
mecca for homosexuals—and they were right,”
said Mogul. At the same time, police were aggressively watching over gay bars for signs of
lewd behavior.
“If you were caught in one of the raids, your
name and address were published in the newspaper; many lives were ruined,” Mogul added. “It
was safer for guys to go looking for sex in public
places than it was to be in the bars.”
Attorney and activist William B. Kelley described numerous ways bars diligently worked to
avoid having their patrons arrested and having
their liquor license revoked decades ago. Some
forbade patrons from buying each other drinks,
lest anyone be charged with prostitution. Patrons were also discouraged from close contact
and same-sex dancing, he said.
It was difficult for bar owners to get around
Cruising spots today
The preserves are still used for cruising—Paul
but they’re still too frequent,” he said, estimating that about 25 percent are from the forest
preserves, while the other 75 percent usually are
from the bird sanctuary.
that this sort of thing would stop if everyone
could live openly as gay,” Paul said. “I don’t
think so—for a lot of guys this is just human
nature.”
12
Bars For Life:
May 8, 2013
LGBTQs and sex offender registries
BY Yasmin Nair
In 1977, Anita Bryant launched her crusade
against a recently passed Dade County, Fla., ordinance that banned discrimination on the basis
of sexual orientation. As the leader of a coalition named “Save Our Children,” Bryant and her
supporters tapped into an old perception of gays
as sexual predators of children.
In a now-famous statement, she declared,
“As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot
biologically reproduce children; therefore, they
must recruit our children.” Bryant’s campaign
led to the repeal of the ordinance but paradoxically also became the beginning of the end of
her career, alienating her from some conservatives and liberals alike.
In the years since Bryant’s campaign, there
has been a palpable shift in cultural responses
to gay and lesbian issues, with several polls indicating greater support for issues such as marriage equality. But the figure of the gay man in
particular as a sexual predator still haunts culture and continues to re-emerge.
In 1955, Boise, Idaho, erupted in a sex scandal where nearly 1,500 men were questioned
about allegedly having coerced underage young
men into sexual acts. There was no such sex
ring, but countless lives were scarred forever.
This April, as the gay marriage debate reached
the U.S. Supreme Court, two married gay men in
Connecticut, George Harasz and Douglas Wirth,
decided to fight charges that they had sexually
abused children in their care. In a sign of how
differently such cases are still treated in the
mainstream press, the website Gay Star News’
headline stated, “Gay couple accused of child
abuse go to trial to clear their names.” New
York’s Daily New headline ran, “Gay Connecticut
couple accused of raping adopted children will
face trial.”
Since 1977, sex offender registries (SORs)
have been instituted in every U.S. state, ostensibly to prevent sexual abuse of minors and
others by tracking everyone convicted of sexual
abuse.
But according to a growing number of critics across the political spectrum, SORs have also
increased so much in scope, by including even
acts like public urination in the category of sex
crime, that they’ve become virtually meaningless. In addition, SORs place so many residential
and vocational restrictions on offenders that
larger numbers are unable to return to society
with places to live and stable systems of support.
In Illinois, registered sex offenders cannot
live within 500 feet of any school buildings or
have trade licenses. Illinois also mandated in
2011 that the licenses of medical and health
professionals convicted of sex offenses can be
permanently revoked without a hearing. Increasingly, many offenders across the country simply
end up homeless.
The term “sex offender” is rarely uttered at
gay and lesbian public events, raising as it does
an old and timeworn stereotype that still causes
fear because of its automatic association with
terms such as “pedophile” and “sodomite.” To
date, none of the major gay and lesbian organizations has explicitly taken a position on issues
concerning sex offender registries.
But there are in fact gay sex offenders on
the registry, and there have always been widely
sensationalized cases of alleged and real sexual
abuse of children by men who also identify as
gay.
Tracing the specific effects of sex offender
registries on LGBTQ people reveals that both
terms, “LGBTQ” and “sex offender,” are fraught
with multiple tensions and definitions. For instance, not all people convicted for sex offenses
are LGBTQ, but the sexual acts, such as oral and
anal sex, which place them on the registries are
defined as “crimes against nature” in certain
states.
The circumstances in which LGBTQs find themselves on sex offender registries both challenge
the applications of such terms and hark back to
older and still-prevalent ideas about sexual minorities.
The fact both sex offenses and sex offenders
fall into such diverse and disparate categories
also explains why it has been hard to mobilize a
concerted political movement against the prevalence of SORs.
U.S. sex offender registries: A brief history
In 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted from his hometown of St. Joseph, Minn.
Wetterling was never found, but his disappearance prompted concern that there was, at the
time, no verifiable database of sex offenders.
The Jacob Wetterling Act of 1994 was designed to create a registry that could enable
easier tracking of sex offenders. Megan’s Law,
an amendment to the Wetterling Act, was named
for Megan Kanka, raped and murdered by a
neighbor and convicted pedophile in 1994. The
amendment created the Community Notification
System, which requires all convicted sex offenders to register whenever they move and on a
periodic basis.
The federal Adam Walsh Act, or AWA, was
passed in 1994 and named for a six-year-old
abducted from a Florida mall in 1981 who was
later found decapitated. States are expected to
comply fully with the AWA or incur penalties for
noncompliance.
As this goes to print, an Illinois bill, SB 1643,
which with proposed amendments would bring
Illinois into full compliance with the AWA,
is under review and has just been listed as
“postponed,” but it is widely expected to pass.
With the proposed amendments, the bill would
change current laws to make stricter requirements that place greater financial and social
burdens on offenders and make it harder for
them to reintegrate. Provisions include forcing
“sexual predators” to register every 90 days for
life, and persons convicted of misdemeanor offenses to register annually for 15 years.
In 2007, Human Rights Watch, an international nongovernmental organization which researches and advocates on human rights issues,
issued a 146-page critical paper, “No Easy Answers.”
The HRW paper called for a massive overhaul
of the AWA, including terminating public access
to information about sex offenders’ places of
residence, information that has been used by
people in search of vigilante justice to intimidate and even kill sex offenders.
In June 2012 in Washington state, a man
named Patrick Drum shot and killed two convicted sex offenders; the first was his roommate.
When police tracked him down, he admitted that
he had planned to kill sex offenders until he was
caught.
The HRW piece acknowledges the need to prevent sexual abuse but questions whether the
AWA’s reach and stringency help or hinder the
quest for justice. The AWA contains sweeping
and detailed provisions, including those targeting juvenile sex offenders, and places conditions
and restrictions stricter or more costly than what
states might want or can afford to enact—such
as expensive GPS monitoring systems.
So far some states are refusing to comply with
the AWA, usually because of the high costs. California, for instance, has decided that the noncompliance penalty of $5.6 million annually is
less than the costs of implementing the AWA,
$32 million a year.
In 2002, U.S. Justice Department statistics
indicated that recidivism among sex offenders
is much lower than originally projected, about
5.3 percent, and studies indicate that most child
sexual abuse occurs at the hands of family members or people known to victims.
According to HRW, the U.S. has the most punitive and wide-ranging set of laws for sex offenders, and South Korea is the only other country
that has community notification laws.
For LGBTQ people on the registry, registration can mean a shame and stigma that many
worked to overcome on account of their sexuality or that others may have understood only as a
historical fact. For those living in already small
communities, it can mean a drastic shrinking of
their worlds and a heightened sense of danger as
they fear retaliation based on a combination of
their sexuality and their recorded offenses.
Time spent in prison, where gays and child
molesters are considered fair targets, can be
especially dangerous for LGBTQ offenders, and
more so in a culture that already naturalizes
prison rape as inevitable.
WINDY CITY TIMES
He was also part of the controversial study
which emerged from Butner, stating that as
many as 85 percent of convicted Internet offenders had committed acts of sexual abuse
against minors.
“I felt like I had to give them what they wanted, because I didn’t want to get kicked out of
the program,” he said.
In comparison to what many LGBTQ sex offenders report going through, Brett felt insulated and somewhat protected because he was in a
special program. But, “for me, it was still prison,
and it was difficult being away from my family.”
Brett had not been very out as a gay man prior
to his arrest, and the end of his prison sentence
left him wanting more connection to the gay
community.
“I would probably try to be more active in the
gay community but for my conviction. If I didn’t
have that, I’d want to be more of an activist,”
he said.
Brett has found a job as a paralegal, but he
LGBTQs on the registry
The presence of LGBTQ people on sex offender
registries is hard to detect, since demographic
information says nothing about victims except
their ages.
The details provided include criminal legal
categories (such as “sexual predator” or “murderer”), the legal terms for their crimes (“aggravated criminal sexual abuse” or “murder with
intent to kill”), and their ages at the times of
the crimes.
Jeff Haugh, a gay man, recalled the morning
of March 14, 2002, when he was awakened by
FBI agents who interrogated and arrested him
on the charge of having received child pornography the prior year.
Haugh would later find out that he was swept
up in the Candyman sting, set up under U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002 and named
for a Yahoo.com porn e-group. The operation resulted in the arrests of 40 men across 20 states.
The controversial image was of a man and a
little girl, and he told the FBI, “I’m gay, this
isn’t even something I’m interested in.” Haugh
had been sent the website link by someone and,
he said, he immediately deleted it: “But they
arrested me on the street five hours after they
showed up, for something I’d seen on the Internet a year before.”
Haugh, who is now 64, owned the house he
lived in, but when he came out of his five-month
sentence and a stint in an Indianapolis halfway
house, he found the residence had been “vandalized and torn to shreds.”
He currently lives on the $800 he gets in Social Security, after a lifetime of travel and work.
Prison was difficult because, he said, “people
figured out I was gay. They think you’re a child
molester automatically if you’re gay.”
Although Haugh was never charged with physically harming anyone, and although his crime
is listed as “child pornography/film/photos,” his
online registry information records a victim of
the age of 13, and him as a “sexual predator.”
The term “sexual predator” is defined by a wide
range of actions, including possessing child pornography and sexual assault. It can also include
“public indecency” for a third or subsequent
conviction. Public indecency can also include
urinating in public, and there have been several
recorded instances of people registered as sex
offenders for that act.
“Brett,” who asked to use a pseudonym, was
also, like Haugh, swept up in the Candyman
sting.
He said he didn’t remember joining that particular group, but had “downloaded thousands
of pictures” from other places. Of these, 33 were
deemed to be of minors under the age of 18.
For Brett, the arrest, which sent him to the
Butner Correctional Complex in North Carolina
and into a sex offender treatment program,
meant an immediate end to medical school.
These two GayLife stories from July 10, 1981
show that arrests used to be very common
at gay bars and in public spaces, and these
arrests may still be on the records of some
people today.
feels the daily weight of the restrictions on his
mobility. Once an avid tennis player, he has
stopped playing, because most courts are in
parks.
For these Illinois men, the restrictions, which
tie them down in terms of both physical and
social mobility, are the hardest aspects of the
registry. Brett also added that Illinois especially
overuses the term “predator,” which can make
people seem more dangerous than they are:
“If you go online, over 50 percent are listed as
predators. Nobody in Illinois wants to get rid
of [the word] ‘predator’ [as a legal category].”
Brett and others feel that the term is applied
too loosely, and only increases the stigma for
those who may not fit the stereotype. Echoing
the thoughts of many, he also said, “The registries have lost their intended purpose anyway—
if you register everyone for everything.”
In 1997, Richard Hunt of Massachusetts was
arrested for what he described as an “offense
against an 11-year-old boy.”
“I was 20, I should have known better,” he
said. But Hunt also said, “It wasn’t a Lifetime
movie. It was not what people think, the rape of
a child. It was not brutal but also not innocuous, not what people want to imagine.”
Hunt likens being on the registry to having a
chronic illness.
“It informs every decision you make in your
life and how you go about your daily business
when you think about it,” he said. “People hate
you; they want you to die and go away.”
He describes getting a job and housing as
impossible. He managed to put himself through
four years of state college and then two years
of graduate work at Brandeis University, before
notification requirements made that difficult.
Today, Hunt cobbles together a living working
for an older gay couple whose house and gardens he looks after. He considers himself fortu-
WINDY CITY TIMES
nate in having a connection with the older gay
community, which has been, according to him,
more supportive than many young people in the
community.
Frustrated with a lack of online resources and
help in navigating the system, he set up a blog,
[http://masexoffenderresource.blogspot.com/]
which he hopes to turn into a resource book.
There are fewer women than men on SORs, but
the effects are as far-ranging.
Rebecca Curtis, of Luray, Va., was 21 when
she, as she put it, fell in love with a 12-yearold girl who was also the daughter of the man
drywalling her home in 2004. Today, the two are
married.
Curtis said that the girl’s mother neglected her
and told her she could have her daughter move
in with her for $500, claiming she needed the
money for bills and rent. (Curtis also said that
the woman offered to sign over full guardianship
for $5,000 but that she refused.)
Over the next few years, Curtis and the young
girl developed a sexual relationship while they
lived together, until the mother filed charges
against her—Curtis claimed this was an attempt to deflect attention from having left her
4-1/2-year-old son unattended for two hours.
Curtis was convicted as a nonviolent sex offender in 2007, but when Virginia laws changed
to comply with the AWA, she was recategorized
as a violent sex offender.
The relationship continued, and they eventually married in Washington, D.C.; Curtis’ wife is
currently five months pregnant.
Being parents will not be simple for Curtis and
her wife, since Curtis will be banned from gatherings that include children.
Such cases represent a range of ways in which
LGBTQs can find themselves placed on sex offender registries. Both Haugh and Brett were
targeted in the kind of chat rooms in which gay
men in particular often find themselves. Intergenerational sex and the issue of consent between adults and minors are still topics that the
gay community has never fully reconciled satisfactorily, and the conversations are gendered
very differently. For women, who feel more at
threat from sexual violence because of what
many call “rape culture,” and from a general
cultural reluctance to think of women’s sexual
agency in terms of desire, the question of sex
between minors and adults is a more fraught
one. Intergenerational sex has a longer cultural
history among gay men, where the issue has
been more of a topic of conversation, until relatively recently.
Neither Hunt nor Curtis is likely to find many
sympathetic audiences in the younger gay community. As Hunt put it, the work of Wilhelm von
Gloeden, the German photographer famous for
his nude studies of young Sicilian farm boys,
graces the walls of many gay homes, but the
subject of man-boy sex is still a forbidden one.
Patty Wetterling , mother of the child after
whom the Wetterling Act was named, has been
outspoken about the problems she now sees
with SORs. “We need to keep sight of the goal:
no more victims,” she said. “We need to be realistic. Not all sex offenders are the same. We
need to ask tougher questions: What can we do
to help those who have offended so that they
will not do it again? What are the social factors
contributing to sexual violence and how can we
turn things around?”
Currently, it’s not just parents such as Wetterling but even organizations in support of SORs
that echo similar questions about how far they
have been extended. On its website, the group,
Parents for Megan’s Law, fully supports SORs and
the need for “arrests for non-compliance and increased accuracy of registry information.” However, it has also posted a letter from its director, Laura Ahearn, pointing out that residency
restrictions may have gone too far: “Enacting ill
conceived politically correct in the moment laws
may lead to a constitutional challenge, bringing
invited attention to the lawmaker but seriously
compromising existing laws. More importantly,
May 8, 2013
Corey Rayburn Yung, a law professor at the University of Kansas, pointed out that it was difficult to gauge how many people who committed sodomy crimes before Lawrence v. Texas
might still be on sex offender registries. “But there certainly
are people who engaged in consensual sodomy and are on
the registry,” Yung said. “Given that so many of our sex laws
have overwhelmingly been used to target sexual minorities,
it’s not surprising that there’s going to be a lot of people left
over from that era and continuing criminal laws that are in
LGBTQ communities.”
it will lead to a greater number of homeless
and non-compliant sex offenders—exacerbating
their tracking, monitoring and supervision—ultimately placing our children at greater risk for
victimization.”
Scholars and activists have differing opinions
about how SORs became what they are, and what
needs to change, but they’re united in opposing
the current state of things.
‘They Need to Go’
Corey Rayburn Yung, a law professor at the
University of Kansas, has studied the rise of
SORs. Yung argues that the there is a war on sex
offenders as much as there was and still is a war
on drugs.
Speaking to Windy City Times, Yung said,
“Within the next couple of years, we’re going to
have a million sex offenders, people found guilty
or who plead guilty. That’s an enormous population we’re going to isolate from mainstream
society.”
Yung expanded on the similarities between
the war on drugs and the war on sex offenders:
“In some African-American communities in places like California, under the war on drugs, half of
African-American males between the ages of 18
to 26, are either currently in the prison system
or the criminal justice system more broadly, or
were in the past. You have communities where
the men in particular are now tagged as criminals and have their employment options diminished and are left to fend for themselves. That
same phenomenon occurs with sex offenders.”
A lesser-known aspect of sex offender registries is that sodomy statutes can still play a role
in ensnaring people in them. Some states still
have sodomy laws on the books, and those are
all states that had them in 2003 as well. The
U.S. Supreme Court case of Lawrence v. Texas in
2003 addressed sodomy as a private, consensual
act between adults, but that means that commercial acts of sex, such as prostitution, and
perhaps anal and oral sex between minors can
still be prosecuted.
Yung said that “crime against nature” statutes include sodomy and bestiality: “In those
states in particular, they’ve not removed these
statutes from the books, because, as they argue,
bestiality is still a crime. But then it turns out
they’ve done a lot of targeting of gay and trans
communities in some cases, using these laws
that were thought to be struck down in Lawrence v. Texas.”
In some prostitution cases, undercover police
officers target gay male prostitutes for acts involving oral or anal sex, defined as sodomy—
and which brings longer prison sentences and
sex offender registration. Yung also spoke of a
Virginia case involving minors, 14 or 15 years
old, prosecuted for sodomy, where the courts declared Lawrence v. Texas couldn’t apply because
they weren’t consenting adults.
Yung pointed out that it was difficult to gauge
how many people who committed sodomy crimes
before Lawrence v. Texas might still be on sex of-
fender registries. “But there certainly are people
who engaged in consensual sodomy and are on
the registry,” Yung said. “Given that so many of
our sex laws have overwhelmingly been used to
target sexual minorities, it’s not surprising that
there’s going to be a lot of people left over from
that era and continuing criminal laws that are in
LGBTQ communities.”
For Yung, moving forward and away from
overreaching sex offender registries means using more resources “in terms of imprisonment
and also in terms of police investigation for the
more heinous of our sex crimes, rape and child
molestation.” He pointed out that, “right now,
rape continues to be one of the most underprosecuted crimes” and that his own work on SORs
had come about because of his interest in studying how to combat sexual violence in particular.
The issue of sexual violence strikes close to
home for Jason Lydon, a founder of Black and
Pink, an organization of LGBTQ prisoners and allies on the outside.
Lydon spent six months in federal prison for
civil disobedience against the U.S. Army School
of the Americas (now the Army’s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). His
experience in prison, where he says he was
sexually assaulted, did not change his politics
regarding prison abolition. Like many queer
radical prison activists, including Angela Davis,
Lydon believes that the prison system—which
activists refer to as the “prison industrial complex”—serves no purpose other than to make
profits for the state and private companies.
Lydon’s appraisal of sex offender registries
comes from what he calls “a critique of the idea
that the state can protect people and create authentic safety.”
“My immediate response [to SORs] is as an abolitionist: This is not going to bring us forward
to transformative justice,” Lydon said. “They
need to go.”
Lydon said that his experience with sex offender registries comes from his past work as
a Unitarian Universalist minister, in which he
spoke openly about the need to have frank conversations about adult-minor sexual relations, as
well as from knowing several friends on SORs.
Aware of his views, a member of his congregation approached him to talk about the member’s own sexual desire for children. Lydon said
that, “as a minister and mandated reporter, I
had to think about what information I could and
couldn’t hear, how I could be supportive of him
and what that would mean, I was able to gather
that he wasn’t in physical contact with children.
So we talked about his support and got him in
to see a counselor.”
Lydon wants to see more conversations about
the age of consent.
“I do have a value judgment if someone is
under puberty, I don’t believe there can be consent with an adult,” he said. “I think that young
people’s sexuality with other young people can
be mutually fulfilling and doesn’t need to be policed by adults. But I do think we need to have
13
open and honest conversations about what consent looks like and where age and power dynamics play into that, how alcohol and drugs play
into that.”
Alan Mills, legal director of the Uptown People’s Law Center in Chicago, works with clients
on sex offender registries and sees no value in
those registries.
“I think they should be scratched, but I
don’t think that’s politically possible,” he said.
“[They] should be brought back to where they
started, which is to list pedophiles. The realistic
solution is to work with victim advocate communities to try to work on the ‘smart on crime’
rhetoric. Unfortunately, it’s far too easy for politicians to be ‘tough on crime.’ If you talk to
them off the record, most of the legislators in
Springfield will admit that what we’re doing with
sex offenders makes no sense whatsoever.”
Mills does not think the critical conversation
on SORs has made its way into the general public.
“Registries seem to be the in thing now,” he
said. “It’s easy, cheap, and it gets votes.”
Erica Meiners, a professor at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, is also a co-founder
of St. Leonard’s Adult High School, an alternative high school for formerly incarcerated men
and women.
She’s also the author of several books and
articles that address the intersection of LGBTQ
politics, the prison industrial complex, and public education. She has, in both her research and
activism, encountered people trying to get back
to normal life after prison and while on the registry.
When asked if sex offender laws might deliberately or inadvertently target LGBTQs in particular, as in gay chat rooms, Meiners pointed out
they’re not the only ones affected by the law’s
relationship to sexual identity. “The people I interact with may or may not
identify as non-heterosexual but may engage
in non-heterosexual or non-gender-conforming
sexual practices, including sex work that then
makes them more vulnerable towards being
picked up by police, being under surveillance,
where they can live or move, how their bodies are seen in particular locations in the city,”
Meiners said. “So that’s in addition to gay men
being targeted in chat sites or the idea of gay
male sexuality as predatory being recirculated.”
For Meiners, it’s important to consider how sex
offender laws are set up to target the most vulnerable among us.
Meiners spoke about a need to do two things
at once. The first is to develop ways for people
harmed by sexual violence to recover from the
trauma. The second is to make sure that those
who inflicted the violence are held accountable
without society’s resorting to harsh and longlasting measures such as sex offender registries.
“There’s no evidence that registries are successful in preventing sexual assault or transforming our larger culture or that they stop sexual violence,” she said “And people who have to
lodge complaints often find themselves violated
by the system itself.”
Meiners called SORs “the ideological scaffolding” that has pushed prison expansion in the
past decade.
“That expansion has happened with such little
critical interrogation from the general public
and also queers as we march towards assimilation,” she said. “Now is a politically important
moment for LGBTQ people to interrogate these
claims of protection being made, who benefits
from them, who doesn’t. Because decades ago,
those claims were being leveled against us.”
WCT contacted groups strongly in favor of sex
offender registries, but they were not able to
respond in time for publication. A later piece, on
sex offender registries and HIV-disclosure laws,
will return to this topic.
The crime series continues in next week’s
Windy City Times.
May 8, 2013
14
said, claiming their support and stating how
much the Equality House means to them. “We’re
appreciative and humbled by their support,”
Jackson said.
Planting Peace soon will launch a national anti-bullying program, one that goes into schools
and discusses the topic, Jackson said.
“When I read about what Aaron Jackson had
achieved in Topeka, I couldn’t help but break
into a broad smile. The pictures just tickled me,”
said Victor Salvo, founder and executive director
for The Legacy Project. “The idea to pursue him
to be our speaker at this year’s luncheon was a
lark, really. After a couple of false leads I finally
found Planting Peace’s website. I was stunned
by the success he has achieved in his work on
behalf of the children of the world, particularly
in Guatemala and Haiti, and on behalf of the
environment by addressing the effects of deforestation.
“The sheer audacity of taking on the Westboro
Baptist [Church,] right in [its] own back yard,
was the icing on the cake. Aaron is such a cool
guy. I am thrilled and so very grateful that he
will be lending his voice to support our mis-
Aaron Jackson. Photo courtesy of Jackson
ACTIVIST from cover
The luncheon’s theme—THE LEGACY PROJECT: Making a Difference for LGBT Youth—will
celebrate the arrival of the Legacy Walk along
Halsted Street in Lakeview last October and the
April launch of the Legacy Project Education Initiative (LPEI) for LGBT youth. The luncheon also
will feature the first reveal of the 2013 candidates for induction to the Legacy Walk.
Jackson said of his rainbow house, “We knew
we would get some publicity for this, but never
realized it would become what it has, with so
much publicity and so well received worldwide.
It’s really been a humbling experience to receive
support from so many people.”
The project, dubbed Equality House, is the
first in a new campaign Jackson’s Planting Peace
plans against Westboro. The house gets about
200 visitors daily, just to have their photo taken
in front of it, and about 500 on weekends.
“I never thought it’d become that popular,”
said Jackson, who lives in the house with two
other staff members.
Equality House has not endured any vandalism, and Jackson isn’t worried if it ever does.
“We have [extra] paint; we’ll just re-paint it.
We’re not leaving, and I’m not too worried about
it,” he said.
“I’ve been trying to get my charity into supDash for Detection-Poster:Layout 1
2/5/13
9:54 AM
porting the equality initiative, but I didn’t necessarily know what to do, or how to go about
doing that. The gay [debate] is so silly to me
that we haven’t made a lot of progress [going
forward]. I keep thinking, ‘When are we going to
catch up with the times, more or less.’”
The Westboro Baptist Church has made multiple comments, and posted pictures and videos
about Equality House and the evils of gay life.
The church and Jackson’s charity have even
tweeted back and forth, he said, “and for the
most part, it’s been pretty civil.”
Jackson has met several church members, including Shirley Phelps-Roper, church spokesperson, and she was “very pleasant,” he said. “On
a one-to-one basis, they actually are very kind,
which is very surprising to some. But when they
get in front of a camera, that’s when their message changes.
“Our original goal was, there are LGBTQ youth
who commit suicide annually, and others who
are thinking about it, and part of the reason
why is, there’s this message out there that, because they are gay, they are less-than. Our goal
is simple, to counter that message—and we
thought no better place to start than [near] the
Westboro Baptist Church. If we help one person,
then I think it will be worth it. And I think we
have.”
Jackson has received letters, emails and calls
from young LGBTQ from all over the world, he
Page 7
Friday, May 10
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Eve Ensler
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Tuesday, May 14
at the Swedish Museum
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sion to give LGBT kids, who endure taunts and
bullying every day, sometimes [even] by their
own families, a cultural and historic context for
people like themselves. Kids need role models.
They need to know that people care.”
Jackson said it’s “pretty humbling” that The
Legacy Project reached out to invite him to
speak—and he truly admires the mission of The
Legacy Project.
“I think it’s a phenomenal idea,” he said.
“Helping to secure the legacy of gay-rights activists, and letting people know what they were
able to accomplish, is extremely important for
the history of the LGBTQ community.”
Jackson was in Chicago in April, speaking in
suburban Hinsdale.
“I love Chicago, though unfortunately I don’t
get to spend much time truly enjoying the city,
and I’ve never been to a Cubs game, yet,” he
said.
For Legacy Project tickets, visit http://legacyprojectchicago.org/Luncheon_2013_Tickets.html. Sean Lewis of WGN-TV is hosting
the May 10 luncheon.
Stroger Hospital opens
LGBT clinic for city youth
By Sammy Caiola
John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County is
now home to an LGBT clinic.
The Same-Gender Loving (SGL) Clinic at
Stroger opened Feb. 1 and has been providing
weekly care for uninsured and underinsured
LGBT youth since.
SGL is one of three county-funded clinics
serving teens ages 13-24, but it’s the first and
only to cater specifically to the needs of the
LGBT community.
At the clinic, which operates between 1-5
p.m. on Tuesdays, youth can drop in for general health services like those offered at the
other two adolescent clinics. They can also
meet with a physician or psychiatrist to receive counseling on sexuality, gender identity, hormone therapy, safer sex or a slew of
other topics.
Dr. Margo Bell, a senior attending physician in the Division of Adolescent Medicine,
who encountered many uninsured LGBT teens
while doing outreach work on the South and
West Sides, first conceived of the clinic.
With the help of colleague Dr. Lisa HenryReid, Bell got the pediatrics department chair
to quickly approve the new clinic to supplement the general clinic and the HIV clinics
that run on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The new clinic is funded entirely by Cook
County and is staffed by three rotating physicians as well as two psychologists and a
health educator.
“We’re skilled in taking care of this population of adolescent young adults,” said HenryReid. “We provide very developmentally appropriate care, and we can do that in a setting
where you’re not going to be judged. We’re all
about making sure that you’re healthy and
trying to promote that in whatever way we
can—by the tests that we do, by the education we provide.”
An average of three youth visit the SGL
clinic each Tuesday, said Bell. Most, who are
over 18 or are with a consenting adult, are
seeking mental health services and hormone
treatment.
Charlie Person, a 16-year-old transgender
female from the North Side, started visiting
the clinic about six months ago to learn more
about transitioning, which she had only read
about on the Internet. A few weeks ago, Person brought her mom, Deborah Person, into
the clinic to try to educate her on transgender
issues and ask approval for hormone treatment.
Deborah, who knew little about transgender
issues before that visit, said the announcement was a little shock to her. It has been
accompanied by some conflict over whether
her child should be wearing female clothing.
But many conversations with Bell, have
made her more sensitive to Charlie’s needs,
and she will consider hormone therapy for the
future.
“The clinic is very informative, very patient,
giving you all kind of literature and information, opening questions,” said Deborah, who
still uses male pronouns for Charlie. “My position is loving him unconditionally, letting
him accept who he is and not letting society
dictate to him who he is. And that he lives
comfortable within himself as well as outside,
and be productive in society as he does this
transformation.”
Charlie is more at ease in the SGL clinic
than at a standard clinic, she said.
“It’s important because a lot of people
don’t have anywhere to go to take hormones,
or a lot of people don’t feel comfortable going anywhere else,” said Charlie. “They treat
you how you want to be treated and they
comfort you and make you feel welcome more
than any other clinic you go to.”
The only hurdle in running the clinic so far,
said Bell, has been establishing a genderneutral bathroom on the floor, which took a
fair amount of paperwork and debate.
Future plans for the clinic include hiring
a caseworker for visiting adolescents, which
would require grant money. Plans also include
further engagement with the lesbian community through a weekly lunchtime meeting.
Opening an LGBT clinic on the West Side
was important, said Henry-Reid. Bigger LGBT
centers like Howard Brown Health Center and
the Center on Halsted (which does not provide medical services) can be geographically
inconvenient for underprivileged youth in
other parts of the city. Most youth travel to
the clinic by public transport, she said, and
some money is available to help them with
travel if needed.
The clinic is also unique in its level of cultural competency and sensitivity toward LGBT
issues. Henry-Reid and Bell have led trainings with nursing staff and residents on LGBT
health issues, especially transgender issues.
WINDY CITY TIMES
BI
May 8, 2013
in the
LIFE
Wendy Bostwick
Text by ROSS FORMAN
Age
42
Relationship status
In a committed relationship
Job title
Assistant professor at Northern
Illinois University
Hobby
Brewing beer
Favorite local restaurant
Ras Dashen
Favorite TV show
30 Rock
Little-known fact
“When I was 13, I was pretty sure
that I was going to marry David Bowie
when I grew up.”
Wendy Bostwick has meshed her personal and professional lives on the DeKalb campus of Northern
Illinois University, while living in suburban St.
Charles.
She has been researching the health of bisexual
women, among others, for 15 years. “Given that
this is my area of expertise, and I have LGBT all
over my resume, I presume that those with whom
I professionally interact make some sort of assumption about who I am/how I identify,” she
said. “However, my work in the field of LGBT
health should stand on its own merits, not because of how I identify, but because it is done
well, makes a contribution to our knowledge of
BTLG health disparities, and hopefully spurs action toward change.”
Bostwick said the best part of her job is the
“tremendous amount of freedom” she enjoys,
both in terms of how and where she spends her
time, and the areas she gets to study, learn about
and explore. “I am in many ways my own boss,”
she added.
However, Bostwick said the worst part of her job
is “the current environment that treats education
as a consumer good, students as customers, and a
degree as something your tuition guarantees you,
regardless of ability or effort.”
She said the most challenging aspect of teaching is trying to balance all aspects of the job (research, teaching, service), and do all well while
also having a personal life. “Sometimes I feel like
I can do one or other, but not both,” Bostwick
said.
So why bi?
Then again, as she points out, why not bi?
“I think it’s in large measure about honesty,”
Bostwick said. “I am someone who is attracted to
people of various genders and who has relationships with women and men. To re-label myself as
‘straight’ or ‘gay’ based on the sex of my partner
feels not only disingenuous, but revisionist, and
disrespectful to previous partners, who may potentially become invisible by a shift to a monosexual label. It is also about visibility and the
desire to disallow easy assumptions about who I
am.”
Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational and professional development
organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination
of racism, prejudice and anti-Semitism in order
to promote the development of a more humane
and informed citizenry.
Tickets are now available at $500 per person,
with tables starting at $5,000; call 312-3453232.
15
L Stop holds ‘Casino Night’ party
The L Stop, Chicago’s lesbian community website, celebrated its second year running with a Casino
Night anniversary party May 5. The event, held at Center on Halsted, raised money for Affinity Community Services, The Crib, Chicago Women’s Health Center and Howard Brown’s Lesbian Community
Care Project. Pictured are Lisa Martinez and Vivian Gonzalez, The L Stop founders. Photo and text by
Kate Sosin
As part of the International
Gay & Lesbian Travel Association’s (ILGTA) 30th
annual global convention,
which took place last week
in Chicago, a contingent
from Pernambuco, Brazil,
gives a presentation at
Center on Halsted in hopes
of bringing the a future
convention to their city.
See Kate Sosin and Tracy
Baim’s write-up on the
convention, plus more photos, on page 25. Photo by
Kirk Williamson
scooterworkschicago.com / windy-city-times
5410 N. Damen • Chicago, IL • 773.271.4242
Chaka Khan at Center’s
‘Human First’ gala May 18
Actress Sohn at May 16
Facing History event
The Chicago office of international educational nonprofit Facing History and Ourselves
announced that actress Sonja Sohn (HBO’s The
Wire, ABC’s Body of Proof) will be the featured
speaker at the organization’s 22nd Annual Chicago Benefit Dinner on Thursday, May 16, at
5:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 E.
Wacker Dr.
Center on Halsted will hold its annual “Human
First” gala Saturday, May 18, at the Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan Ave.
The cocktail reception is slated for 5-7 p.m.,
with the awards and dinner 7:30 p.m.-12 a.m.
Chaka Khan will be the featured performer.
Regarding honors, Sarah Schmidt and Julie
Matthei; Jonathan Pizer and Bradley Lippitz;
and Richard Turner are the Human First awardees. Allstate Insurance Company will receive the
Community Spirit Award.
Billie Jean King is the honorary co-chair of
the event. Tickets start at $350 each; visit
www.centeronhalsted.org/newevents-details.
cfm?ID=5410 or call 773-472-6469.
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16
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Jason Collins:
The great
Black hope
The professional sports world has been waiting
for a Jason Collins moment—a gay athlete currently playing in a major league to come out
publicly. What you may not know is that the
subtext is that it was hoped the moment would
star an African-American male.
The African-American community, not to mention the sports world, desperately needed an
openly gay current male professional player.
Collins, who deliberately wore the jersey number, “98,” to honor slain gay student Matthew
Shepard during the 2012-13 NBA season, is a
seven-foot-tall center for the Washington Wizards and a former Boston Celtic, and is also African-American. Closeted for all of his professional playing life, until now, Collins told “Sports
Illustrated,” why he finally came out.
“I realized I needed to go public when Joe
Kennedy, my old roommate at Stanford and now
a Massachusetts congressman, told me he had
just marched in Boston’s 2012 Gay Pride Parade.
I’m seldom jealous of others, but hearing what
Joe had done filled me with envy. ... I want to
do the right thing and not hide anymore.”
LGBTQ athletes must constantly monitor how
they are being perceived by teammates, coaches, endorsers and the media in order to avoid
suspicion. They are expected to maintain a public silence and decorum so that their identity
does not tarnish the rest of the team.
In what will now hopefully become the last
closet where LGBTQ hide their sexual orientation, thanks to Collins, the sports world’s hypermasculine and testosterone-driven milieu might
actually begin to loosen its homophobic hold,
especially among Black athletes.
Doc Rivers, coach of the Boston Celtics and an
African-American, is revered among Black athletes.
Having coached Collins for 32 games before
Collins was traded to the Washington Wizard,
Doc Rivers remarks help spread a message of acceptance.
“I’m really proud of Jason. He still can play.
He’ll be active in our league, I hope, and we can
get by this— get past this. I think it would be
terrific for the league. More than anything, it
would just be terrific for mankind, my gosh.”
In terms of when and how you come out personally, timing is everything. So, too, in coming
out professionally.
The statement, “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center.
I’m Black. And I’m gay” by Collins in the May
6 issue of Sports Illustrated is as momentous
as when renown comedienne Ellen DeGeneres’
quote “Yep, I’m Gay” appeared on the cover of
the April 14, 1997 issue of “Time Magazine.”
Although the time span between the two
statements is 16 years, and many more advances
and civil rights have been afforded to us LGBTQ
Americans, we now see we’re still a nation grappling with the issue.
While both Collins and DeGeneres give a public
face and personal testimonies of their struggle
of being closeted about their sexual orientation,
their messages reaches and resonates within
only certain pockets of the American population
and not others. And within those pockets of the
American populace, the reprisal and applause
they also receive for coming out still fracture
alone several fault lines, with profession being
one of them.
When Ellen so boldly came out in 1997 she received a torrent of praises from the LGBTQ community and our allies. But “her career puttered
and stalled out for the three years following her
coming out,” and her impact did little for both
the world of sports and for many straight and
LGBTQs in the African-American community in
understanding the deleterious effects of homophobia. (It was still being argued, as now, in
many African-American communities that homosexuality is a “white disease.”)
In the sports world most women athletes, even
today, are assumed to either be lesbians and/ or
unfeminine. For example, in many African-American communities Olympic basketball player Lisa
Leslie was perceived to be a “girly-girly”—not a
lesbian, but certainly a weak and non-aggressive
player. Tennis phenoms the Williams Sisters are
aggressive players but too muscular, especially
Serena, to be seen as feminine.
LBT women in professional sports have come
out of the closet while playing, at least, two
decades before the “Jason Collins watershed moment.”
While race plays a factor in the African-American community coming to grips with its homophobia, especially in the world of sports, so,
too, does gender.
Case in point: Just last month, Brittney Griner, also an African-American like Collins, is a
6-foot-8, three-time All-America center and was
the number-one pick in the WNBA draft. She announced she was a lesbian, and it wasn’t considered a big news story.
In 1997, a pregnant Sheryl Swoopes—threetime Olympic gold medalist and three-time MVP
of the Women’s National Basketball Association
(WNBA)—was promoted as a heterosexual face
for the WNBA was the cover girl for the premiere
issue of Sports Illustrated Women. At the time
Swoopes was married to her male high school
sweetheart. That was considered a big news
story. But it was also a big story in 2005, when
Swoopes came out as a lesbian—becoming the
second in the WNBA—and endorsed the lesbian
travel company Olivia. She was at the time partnered with Alisa Scott, an assistant coach for
the Houston Comets that Sheryl played for during 1997-2007. And in 2011, it was another big
new story because she was with a male.
To incurable homophobes, especially of the
fundamentalist Christian variety type, who pedal
their “nurture vs. nature” rhetoric, they saw
Swoopes as the prodigal daughter who had finally found her way home to Jesus.
One of my heterosexual African-American
brothers, Chris Unclesho, the man Swoopes was
then engaged to marry, was the MAN! He was
seen as a bona fide “dyke whisperer” who had
turned Swoopes out to the sexual joys of what it
is to be with a man.
But long before Swoopes, Griner and Collins,
both tennis greats Billie Jean King and Martina
Navratilova came out in 1981.
Martina was publicly taunted for not only being a lesbian but for also not bringing femininity
and beauty to her game. Her muscular physique
and supposedly masculine appearance killed not
only sponsor endorsements but also attempted
to kill her spirit in playing the game.
With the sports world celebrating Collins news,
Navratilova has joined in voicing her joy in an
op-ed she wrote for SI.com.
“Collins has led the way to freedom. Yes, freedom—because that closet is completely and utterly suffocating. It’s only when you come out
that you can breathe properly.”
Navratilova is correct in stating that Collins is
a “game-changer,” because he stands on all the
LGBTQ shoulders in sports before him.
Collins is not the first professional gay or Black
athlete to come out. He’s not even the first professional athlete to come out while playing.
But in a sports world that has become overwhelming shaped by African-American male
players and masculinity, Collins coming-out
celebration has everything to do with timing,
gender, race and many more straight brothers
embracing their gay brethren.
LETTERS
Living the truth
To the Editor:
While Chuck Colbert’s recent article, ”Tensions
emerge as AGLO marks 25 years,” raises some
good questions about AGLO’s mission and its
need to be identified within the physical space
of a Catholic church and its authority, we at
Dignity see this whole situation differently than
what has been reported here.
Dignity/Chicago respects the right and the
need for those LGBT Catholic brothers and sisters
to seek out and experience the church’s ministry and acceptance. What we find confusing,
though, is the lack of engagement or challenging by those who seek this ministry and support
from a church hierarchy that continues to treat
LGBT Catholics with disrespect and intolerance.
This is not a criticism as much as a call to our
friends at AGLO to seize an opportunity for of-
fering an authentic witness to the truth of our
lives, loves and families.
Frank DeBernardo, executive director of New
Ways Ministry, got it right when he said that
this is an opportunity for engagement and dialog. What better opportunity is there for LGBT
couples in committed relationships to introduce
themselves to the cardinal, introduce their children, and speak with him about their spirituality
and how God has blessed their lives? Religious
leaders of many kinds tell the world that LGBT
people can’t be spiritual because of their “lifestyle.”
Let’s make sure that our authentic voices are
raised to challenge that lie. The controversy here
is not that the cardinal has been invited to lead
the Eucharistic celebration. There is controversy
if those in attendance fail to be their authentic
selves in front of the cardinal, as they undoubtedly are every other Sunday at AGLO.
We invite our fellow LGBT Catholics at AGLO
to discern their own opportunities for holding
Cardinal George accountable as the chief shepherd of Chicago while also making their voices
heard—not in protest as much as in witness to
the truth and value of our lives and loves, and
as people of faith.
As for us at Dignity/Chicago, these past 25
years have been ones of exceptional growth and
maturity in our faith. Celebrating our 41st anniversary May 19, we have strived to be an inclusive Catholic community that welcomes all to
the table. We stand strong in our belief that our
sexuality is loving, life-giving and life-affirming,
and we have welcomed every opportunity to witness to that belief to Cardinal George and to all
our Catholic brothers and sisters.
Chris Pett
President
Dignity/Chicago
WINDY CITY TIMES
WINDY CITY
TIMES
VOL. 28, No. 31, May 8, 2013
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“Windy City Media Group generated
enormous interest among their readers
in this year’s LGBT Consumer Index
Survey. Out of approximately 100
print and online media partners who
participated in the survey, Windy
City was the best performing regional
media in the U.S. Only survey partners
with a nationwide footprint were
able to generate a greater number of
responses.” ­­—David Marshall, Research
Director, Community Marketing, Inc.
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
GOINGS-ON
17
WINDY CITY TIMES’ ENTERTAINMENT SECTION
Photo by
Matthew
Murphy
COME HEEL OR HIGH WATER
From left: Stark Sands and Billy Porter show off their moves in the Tony-nominated Kinky Boots. See more info below.
THEATER
DISH
City life.
Page 26
EVENTS
‘Fitz’ right.
Page 18
Photo of grilled calamari
at Municipal by Andrew Davis
Photo from Tea with Ezra and Fitz
by Anthony Robert La Penna
SCOTTISH PLAY SCOTT
Camping it up
on Broadway
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
The Tony Award nominations honoring the
best of Broadway theater in New York were announced on Tuesday, April 30. And since the theater world has historically been very welcoming
to the LGBTQ community, it should come as no
surprise that a number of the nominated shows
feature out creative talents and characters who
sometimes don a certain amount of drag.
I was able to catch up with a few of these
shows during recent trips to New York. And Chicago theater fans have much to look forward to
when the Tony Award ceremonies are broadcast
live on CBS-TV from New York’s Radio City Music
Hall on Sunday, June 9, since a number of nominated shows have already played the Windy City.
The film-to-stage musical adaptation Kinky
Boots topped the Tony nominations list with 13,
including nods for Best Musical, Book for out
playwright Harvey Fierstein, Score for pop star
Cyndi Lauper and Direction and Choreography
for Jerry Mitchell. Kinky Boots played a world
premiere tryout locally at the Bank of America
Theatre in 2012, and the show is certainly in
better shape now on Broadway than it was on
opening night in Chicago.
Lauper dropped and replaced songs to the
show’s benefit, notably providing a much more
appropriate and contemplative song in “Step
One” for reluctant British shoe factory owner
Charlie Price (Best Actor in a Musical Tony nominee Stark Sands) as he takes his first risky step
at making women’s fetish footwear to be worn
by men. And though the Act II confrontation
scene is still problematic between Charlie and
the shoe-designing drag queen Lola (the singing and acting powerhouse that is Best Actor
Tony nominee Billy Porter), Fierstein has made
the exchange much more believable and pivotal
before the show’s ultimately splashy and happy
conclusion (which involves loads of fabulously
attired drag queens and British factory workers
who have taken to heart the notion that you can
change the world by changing someone’s mind).
The other two Best Musical nominees, A
Christmas Story, The Musical and Bring It On:
The Musical, both played Chicago touring engagements before hitting Broadway. Bring It On
notably featured a positive portrayal of a transgender teenager.
More playful gender-bending could be found
in the five-time Tony Award-nominated musical
revival The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which featured Best Actress in a Musical nominee Stephanie J. Block performing as an actress famed for
her performances impersonating male romantic
leads—a theatrical convention popular throughout the late 19th century and one still carried on
in many operas and British holiday pantomimes
of today.
A much more serious and historical look back
at effeminate men and drag conventions in
burlesque was seen in out playwright Douglas
Carter Beane’s drama The Nance, which prominently stars out actor and two-time Tony Award-
Global relations.
Page 25
Photo of Toronto contingent
at IGLTA event by Andrew Davis
winner Nathan Lane in a Lincoln Center Theater
production at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre. Beane
was fascinated with the effeminate sketch comedy male character known as a “nance,” long a
staple of burlesque and even immortalized, if
slightly altered, in film via Bert Lahr’s Cowardly
Lion in The Wizard of Oz and in Warner Bros.
cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.
Beane examines not only nance characters in
the context of hoary burlesque sketches, but
what it might have been like for gay actors who
often had to resort to subterfuge in finding sex
and love in the late 1930s. Lane plays a celebrated nance called Chauncey Miles, who picks
up a young man named Ned (a strapping Jonny
Orsini) initially as a one night stand.
Lane is perfect in the role of Chauncey, since
he can not only hit the burlesque sketches out
of the park, but he’s also dramatically compelling as a right-wing actor who is also filled with
self-loathing and doubt about monogamous gay
relationships. Though I could overhear several
audience members expressing disappointment
over The Nance’s unhappy ending, the odds
stacked against Chauncey at the time probably
would have seemed insurmountable.
Out director Jack O’Brien’s production probably can’t be bettered in terms of staging, comic
casting (notably Lewis J. Stadlen and Cady Huffman) and production values (the amazingly detailed rotating set by John Lee Beatty is a wow).
So it’s a surprise that The Nance failed to score
a Best Play Tony nomination.
With The Nance out of the running, the Best
Play Tony focus goes to three works by out
playwrights: Richard Greenberg’s drama The Assembled Parties, Colm Toíbín’s one-woman show
The Testament of Mary and Christopher Durang’s
Chekhov-inspired comedy Vanya and Sonya and
Masha and Spike. The late Nora Ephron’s journalism drama Lucky Guy starring Academy Awardwinner Tom Hanks rounds out the Best Play
nominees.
Like the race for Best Musical, the Best Play
category largely is between the two works by
Ephron and Durang which both have six Tony
nominations apiece. Though I haven’t seen
Lucky Guy, I think this might be Durang’s year
with his delightful comedy that borrows plot
strands and character types from Chekhov dramas (not to mention Greek tragedy with Shalita
Grant’s hilarious take on the feisty future-visionary maid Cassandra).
Set in modern-day Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Vanya… stars David Hyde Pierce and Kristine Nielsen respectively as gay brother Vanya
and adopted sister Sonia. These two sad-sack
introverts are confronted by the arrival of their
famous and self-absorbed Hollywood actress sister, Masha (Sigourney Weaver), and her hunky
boy toy Spike (Billy Magnussen, who isn’t always
fully attired in the show).
Although you don’t have to have an appreciation of Chekhov to roar with laughter at “Vanya,” it certainly is a bonus to see how Durang
weaves those theatrical hallmarks into his very,
very funny comedy that also has its emotionally
heart-tugging moments (particularly Nielsen’s
Act II telephone call for Sonia).
And though there is no gender-bending drag
involved in Vayna…, you can’t help but convulse with laughter at the characters’ costume
party get-ups. Just how Durang worked Snow
White and Dame Maggie Smith into the mix is a
sign of his quirky comic genius.
Kinky Boots continues in an open run at the
Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York. Visit www.
kinkybootsthemusical.com for tickets and more
information.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike continues through Sunday, June 30, at the John
Golden Theatre in New York. Visit www.vanyasoniamashaspike.com for tickets and more information.
The Nance continues through Sunday, Aug. 11,
at the Lyceum Theatre in New York. Visit www.
lct.org for tickets and more information.
For a full list of Tony Award nominations, visit
www.tonyawards.com.
May 8, 2013
18
THEATER REVIEW
Incident on
Run #1217
Playwright: Manny Tamayo
At: Factory Theatre at Prop Thtr,
3502 N. Elston Ave.
Tickets: 866-811-4111;
www.thefactorytheatre.com; $20
Runs through: June 1
Next Fall. Photo by Jeremiah Barr
THEATER REVIEW
Next Fall
Playwright: Geoffrey Nauffts
At: AstonRep (sic) Theatre at
BoHo Theatre, 7016 N. Glenwood Ave.
Tickets: 1-773-828-9129;
www.astonrep.com; $20
Runs through: May 25
BY JONATHAN ABARBANEL
Next Fall wants to be an important play about
being gay and Christian, but author Geoffrey
Nauffts encumbers it with tons of baggage unrelated to his central premise. Using alternating scenes of present and past, he examines the
five-year relationship of New York City lovers
Adam and Luke (yes, carefully chosen Old and
New Testament names) until a critical accident
leaves Luke comatose in the hospital. Luke is
Christian while Adam is casually atheist (meaning he really hasn’t thought about religion). Crucially, Luke is not out to his parents, of whom
his dominating father is a born-again, anti-gay,
anti-Semitic Southern bigot.
That’s enough meat right there, but Nauffts
layers on additional issues, among them a significant age difference between Adam and Luke,
a conflict between Luke’s divorced parents and
the presence of two friends, wise-cracking Holly
and solemn Brandon. Problem is, the issues and
friends do not affect the outcome one wit, so
why bother? The play is overburdened with exposition rather than theme as Nauffts throws
everyone together at the hospital in the opening scene, and then labors to explain issues and
provide backstories. Adam debates explaining
his presence explicitly to the folks, thereby outing Luke. Indeed, coming out becomes the play’s
central focus in both present and past, but it’s
not the central premise, which is (remember)
about being gay and Christian.
Legions of men and women are happily both
gay and Christian, and many denominations/
congregations welcome them. Luke, however, believes same-sex desire is sinful and says a prayer
after sex with Adam, we are told. Luke’s similarly
devout gay friend, Brandon, believes the sin of
sex can be forgiven but same-sex love (that is,
commitment) is unpardonable, an attitude that
perversely twists the concepts of Christian love
and repentance.
Nauffts suggests several alternative faith systems but develops none: Luke’s parents once
put faith in psychedelics while Holly believes in
yoga and crystals. If only Naufft had made faith
itself the focus of the play, and provided in Bran-
don a guiltless gay Christian in contrast to Luke
to energize a thematic dialogue ... but that’s a
different play.
Director Derek Bertelsen and his six-person
cast struggle earnestly and fairly successfully
with this oddly-shaped work in which the father,
appropriately named Butch, is the only character
who undergoes a change even though he’s not
the play’s hero, or shouldn’t be. As assertively
played by Jim Morley, Butch makes the gay characters seem unmanly by contrast, but the fault is
not Morley’s performance. The lovers are played
by nicely sculpted Mark Jacob Chaitlin (Luke)
and affable Ryan Hamlin (Adam), who could be
a touch more charming and less neurotic. Completing the cast are Curtis Jackson (Brandon),
Lona Livingston (mother) and Aja Wilshire (Holly).
CRITICS’ PICKS
Comrades Mine, City Lit Theater at Edgewater Presbyterian Church, through May 19.
Maureen Gallagher’s bio-drama recounts the
little-known story of the Civil War spy whom
nobody suspected was a woman until she
asked to be recognized by the government
for her service. MSB
In a Garden, A Red Orchid Theatre,
through May 19. A cemetery is a garden,
too, and Rom Barkhorder delivers a poignant performance as a lonely Middle Eastern bureaucrat striving to replicate a touch
of American landscape in his war-ravaged
homeland. MSB
L’imitation of Life, Hell in a Handbag
Productions at Mary’s Attic, through May
10. A hilariously campy drag send up of the
“serious” 1959 Douglas Sirk film starring
Lana Turner involving an ambitious actress,
her devoted African-American maid and
their troubled daughters. SCM
Pal Joey, Porchlight Music Theatre at
Stage 773, through May 26. It’s a fastpaced staging of the 1940 Rodgers & Hart
musical about a sexy cad hoofer who courts
two gals and gets his comeuppance. Snappy
songs, cheesy chorus numbers and handsome Adrian Aguilar as Joey will bewitch (if
not bother or bewilder) you. JA
—By Abarbanel, Barnidge
and Morgan
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
There is a branch of popular fiction less
concerned with insights into social issues,
or explorations in human psychology, than
with generating suspense sufficient to conceal the huge gaps in plausibility required to
bring the story to its conclusion. This can be
done smartly—as exemplified in the novels of
Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler—or
clumsily, but the all-important factor is that
we quickly become so riveted by anticipation
of what happens next that we never pause to
question the logic reflected in each individual
disclosure.
This latest contribution to the genre opens
in a subway car late at night, occupied by a
sleeping homeless man, a Yuppie couple absorbed in Vogue magazine (her) and Smartphone (him), an off-duty bus driver who
complains about the dangers associated with
public transportation—notably, young delinquents on “wilding” sprees—and a tradesman
in coveralls who insists that things are not
as bad as he claims. Minutes later, the train
WINDY CITY TIMES
comes to a halt between stations, prompting
a pair of drug-peddling hooligans to stroll in
from the next car and proceed to harass the
passengers. The tradesman objects to their
behavior and is quickly knifed for his audacity—and this is just the beginning.
We are willing to buy this premise, not simply because its setting is Chicago’s El—not
New York City, as we’d expect—or its characters are the one-dimensional stereotypes
of melodrama since its inception (our milieu
could be a stagecoach in the Old West, a lifeboat on the Spanish Main or a downed airplane
in a rural wasteland). What makes it compelling is that the cramped performance space,
with audience seated only inches away, allows author Manny Tamayo to orchestrate his
narrative over 65 minutes of swift reversals
to divert the attention of even experienced
CTA riders from such intrusive queries as “why
don’t they band together and overpower the
thugs/open the emergency exit doors/call or
text 911 with the phone?”
What is also required for this plan to succeed is a cast physically adept at close-up
theatrical violence and uniformly intent on
propelling the dramatic action ever-forward
at a velocity permitting no reflection to dilute
the emotional intensity. Fortunately, director
Matt Engle’s ensemble of tightly focused actors—in particular, newcomer LaQuin Groves,
from whom we will see more—are capable of
immersing us in their comic-book universe
long enough to render this a thrilling liveperformance alternative to the big-budget
summer blockbusters.
THEATER REVIEW
Tea with Edie
and Fitz
Playwright: Adam Pasen
At: Dead Writers Collective at the
Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.
Tickets: 773-404-7336;
www.greenhousetheater.org; $30
Runs through: June 9
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
Before the curtain rose on the opening performance of Tea With Edie and Fitz, the audience
was informed that the play they were about to
see was what earned 30-year-old author Adam
Pasen his Ph.D.
Viewed in this light, Pasen’s non-linear narrative chronology—one character’s story moving
forward in time and another’s backward—comes
as no surprise. Neither do the scripted directions calling for motifs such as silent movies
(with title cards) projected onto a stageside
screen, comical live-action re-enactments of
the aforementioned vintage cinema, blinking
wall-sconces signaling apparition activity, a live
Pomeranian dog, razzle-dazzle ragtime tunes issuing forth from scratchy gramophones and four
fully-detailed locales ranging from hotel rooms
in Paris to publishers’ offices in Manhattan.
Oh, and let’s not forget dialogue replete with
famous names, weighty quotations, tantalizing
gossip of the period and one inexplicably glaring
anachronism.
The text justifying all this decoration is ironically lightweight, composed mostly of Hollywood-biopic speculations on intimate conversations between the stars of early American
literature, e.g. a squabble where F. Scott Fitzgerald calls his wife a lesbian, and she calls him
a faggot, just like his pal, Ernest Hemingway.
Later, we hear Edith Wharton declare unswerving loyalty to her mentor, Henry James, after
he confesses his homosexuality (speaking from
beyond the grave), and we witness Fitzgerald
selfishly sabotaging his spouse’s artistic aspirations, even as he plagiarizes her lyrical southern
speech. We conclude with the fatal tea party
bringing together two generations of social
Tea with Edie and Fitz. Photo by Anthony
Robert la Penna
rebels—a meeting of minds that Pasen depicts
as the confrontation of an imperturbed dowager
by a precocious frat-boy. (The ensuing repartee
employing the homonymic slang of their respective eras is the highlight of the evening.)
The Dead Writers Theatre Collective manifesto
proclaims its members’ purpose to be, among
other goals, preservation of “the integrity of
the writer’s original vision.” This mission might
make for regrettable clutter in translating Pasen’s exhaustively researched project from academic hypothesis to physical actualization, but
Jim Schneider’s direction renders Patti Roeder
and Michael D. Graham’s Wharton and James as
witty and engaging a couple as ever shared passions all the more enduring for being platonic,
while Madison Niederhauser and Nora Lise Ulrey’s Scott and Zelda convey the tragedy lurking beneath the veneer of jazz-age celebrity.
However overstuffed this private-lives-of-therich-and-famous fantasy may be rendered by
the circumstances surrounding its inspiration,
playgoers without advanced degrees will find it
readily accessible, nonetheless.
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
19
ther came to trust and care so much for a seeming stranger like Bernard.
Along with Joseph’s great dialogue (including
a very poetical visual allusion tying the play’s title with guiding spirits from the hereafter), The
Lake Effect succeeds thanks to strong performances under the assured guidance of director
Timothy Douglas. The production is also aided
by set designer Dan Stratton’s run-down restaurant set.
Smith in particular stands out as Bernard,
showing a range of emotions as a recovering attack victim who finds a sort-of replacement father figure in “Vinnie.” So when Bernard is given
some information that shatters his impressions,
Smith’s reaction is palpably heartbreaking.
As the estranged grown sibling duo of Priya
and Viay, Gandhi and Poss seethe convincingly
with anger and hurt over their perceptions of
their father’s rejections and betrayals. Though
we never learn all the reasons why Vijay became
so irreparably estranged from his father, one can
make a guess at the fact that he’s a bachelor and
never mentions a girlfriend or wife.
Although The Lake Effect is full of rancor and
bad family blood, there is a glimmer of hope at
the end that some healing and forgiveness will
take place among the play’s three emotionally
hurt characters. And that provides a satisfying
coda to Joseph’s entrancing family mystery play
that skillfully grips the audience’s attention and
curiosity.
SPOTLIGHT
The Lake Effect. Photo by Michael Brosilow
THEATER REVIEW
sider became such a trusted friend to the ailing
patriarch.
The conflict in The Lake Effect is ramped up
right from the start when the African-American
bookie Bernard (Mark Smith) barges into an
Indian restaurant in Cleveland during a massive snow storm. An estranged son named Vijay
(Adam Poss) insists that the place is closed, but
Bernard is reluctant to leave. Bernard keeps on
revealing personal and surprising family facts
about Vijay’s parsimonious father (whom Bernard affectionately calls “Vinnie”), which only
makes Vijay increasingly incensed and baffled
at his exclusion from all of Bernard’s surprising
revelations.
Even more arguments over inheritance and
family loyalty come to the fore when Vijay’s
grown sister, Priya (Minita Gandhi), arrives from
Florida and admits to rifling through the family safe. As Vijay and Priya confront each other
over past family tragedies and resentments, they
start piecing the clues to find out why their fa-
The Lake Effect
Playwright: Rajiv Joseph
At: Silk Road Rising, Chicago
Temple, 77 W. Washington St.
Tickets: 312-857-1234 ext. 201 or
www.silkroadrising.org; $35
Runs through: May 26
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
There’s nothing like a good mystery to pull in
an audience, and Rajiv Joseph definitely delivers
one that exposes loads of family secrets in his
new one-act drama The Lake Effect.
Now having its rolling world premiere at Silk
Road Rising (as part of a co-commission with
Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick, N.J.), The
Lake Effect effectively sets up a situation to reveal what caused an Indian-American family to
become so fractured—and how an unlikely out-
One of Broadway’s longest-running musical revues, Smokey Joe’s Café—The Songs of Leiber
and Stoller, shows its strength yet again in Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre’s acclaimed 2012 production which recently transferred to the Royal George Cabaret Theatre for an independent run.
Not only has the production received five non-Equity Jeff Award nominations (Revue, Ensemble,
Director for a Musical or Revue, choreography and music direction), but the show’s run has been
extended through to Sunday, June 30. So now there’s even more time to revel in such early rock
‘n’ roll songs like “Hound Dog,” “Love Potion #9,” “Yakety Yak” and more. Smokey Joe’s Café
continues at 1641 N. Halsted St. The upcoming performance schedule is 2 p.m. Wednesdays,
7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 5 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $25$46.50; call 312-423-6612 or visit www.smokeyjoescafechicago.com. Photo courtesy of Theo
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20
Eve Ensler
May 8, 2013
on cancer, trauma
and her projects
by Yasmin Nair
Eve Ensler is most famous for her 1996 play, The
Vagina Monologues. Since then, the play has become a staple on college campuses and in women’s groups and collectives across the world.
Ensler speaks at the Swedish American Museum, 5211 N. Clark, on Friday, May 10, 7 p.m.
Purchase of her book from Women & Children
First Bookstore guarantees a free ticket to the
event.
Annual “V-day” readings of The Vagina Monologues, with all its sexual details, sometimes upstage the more conventionally romantic celebrations of Valentine’s Day. The Vagina Monologues
is also the center of a non-profit named V-Day,
which Ensler founded to launch a series of programs and initiatives that work on the issue of
violence against women.
But The Vagina Monologues is not Ensler’s only
work, and she has since gone on to produce a
long list of works and projects which have acquired almost as much fame. These include the
2006 A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A
Prayer, an anthology of writings about violence
against women the 2003 What I Want My Words
to Do to You: Voices From Inside a Women’s Maximum Security Prison.
Violence against women has been a central
theme in all of Ensler’s work. She has spoken
and written about her father’s sexual abuse of
her, and her work has explored both the internal
and political effects of gendered political violence. It’s safe to say that there are few women
with quite her success and influence, and Ensler
has used both to initiate, through V-Day, several
global activist projects aimed at ending violence
against women.
In 2011 she opened City of Joy, a $1 million
center for women, with money raised by V-day
and supplemented by UNICEF. City of Joy is located in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), which has witnessed some of the most
stark instances of violence against women. The
center, run and populated entirely by women, is
aimed at providing both therapy and leadership
training to women battered by the war.
Feb. 14, 2013 saw the first of One Billion Rising, intended to be the first of an international
campaign which asks women to join together
and dance in public in a show of solidarity
against gendered violence.
Ensler’s projects are characterized by this kind
of audaciously expansive, global ambition, where
the issue of violence is not only located in and
on individual bodies but within an international
set of bodies. She has traveled extensively and
worked with women’s groups across the world,
including RAWA, Revolutionary Association of
the Women of Afghanistan, and has worked on
the slayings of women in Juarez, in addition to
her ongoing work in DRC.
It’s the same global reach that has also
prompted many to criticize her for what they
point to as a tendency to universalize and to
think of gendered violence in terms that ignore
the specifics of history and politics. Yet, Ensler
has also taken pointed and sometimes controversial positions on politics: In 2008, she refused to support Hillary Clinton because of her
support for the war in Iraq. More recently, she
wrote, with Monique Wilson, One Billion Rising
Director about the fatal factory collapse in Bangladesh, about workers’ rights and the “consequence of a long line of exploitative systems in
place that put profit and money over the value
of human lives.”
In 2010, Ensler was diagnosed with uterine
cancer. Now, after a few years of successful
treatment, she has produced a memoir, In the
Body of the World, about the experience. In the
book, she connects what her body went through
to what women experience in places like DRC. In
the process, she also returns to her earlier incest, her faltering relationship with her mother,
who died of lung cancer while Ensler was going through her own treatment, her beef with
monogamy, and her theme of violence against
women.
Windy City Times spoke with the New York
City-based author on the phone about the new
book and more.
Windy City Times: You’ve written about your
father’s sexual abuse of you before, but this
time around your retelling of your relationship to him seems grounded in your experience with cancer. What was different for you
in writing about him this time?
Eve Ensler: I think the difference is the relationship I had with my body in this whole experience. I think when we go through really serious trauma when we’re younger, that thing that
Sue [her friend and former therapist, who appears in the memoir] talks about that projected
badness that kind of goes into you, then begins
to contaminate your body.
As much as I have forgiven my father or released my father, the hurdle I encountered with
this book, with cancer, was where he still remained in my cells and DNA, and that projection
of badness that’s within me. In a way, it got to
the bones, it got to the cells. Sue [gave] me that
vision of what chemotherapy could be, of purging that projected badness, and burning down,
melting away, and poisoning the perpetrator.
What’s so interesting about trauma is that it’s
so layered: it’s psychological and spiritual, but
it’s really cellular.
WCT: I know you’re not saying that everyone should get radiated, but how do you think
others should work on expunging trauma? We
tend to deal with trauma through therapy and
other means.
EE: We need to think how, in a deep way, we’re
going to help people on a physical, cellular level purge trauma. There’s this amazing therapy
that’s very physical. It involves dance, singing, screaming, releasing. I can only say that,
for me, that’s been the most successful kind of
work. Because the thing about mental therapy is
that it can give you a frame, but until you get to
that physical level, [trauma] still controls you.
Eve Ensler. Photo by Brigitte Lacombe
And I think there are many ways to get through/
to it, and I think dance is a huge way.
Being aware of how you’re disconnected and
where you’re disconnected and being aware of
your body and honoring your body and respecting the intelligence of one’s own body . The
body’s gotten such a bad rap. We treat it the way
we treat the earth, with such disdain. We take
from it, we rob from it, we abuse it, we exploit
it, we don’t cherish it, we don’t listen to it, we
don’t heed it.
WCT: This book is also about health care.
You write that you had a terrible experience at Sloan Kettering, before you moved
to Beth Israel, despite your celebrity, with
careless doctors and staff. And you point out
the inequality of medical resources around
the world. What else became evident to you
about this inequality?
EE: Sloan-Kettering was hell on earth for me.
Everybody told me, “You have to go to SloanKettering.” And I have to tell you, if that’s the
treatment they gave me, imagine the treatment
they’re giving everyone else. I’m on a campaign right now, and I’m really going to launch
it soon, to get a CAT-scan in every country in
the world. Because it’s so important. In Bukavu,
for instance, there’s literally no CAT-scan there.
When people get cancer in the Congo, they don’t
even use the word because there’s no treatment
for it. And you think how is it possible we’re
living in the same world in 2013? In this country, let’s get real, how many people [have health
care]?
I have insurance, I was incredibly lucky. How
many people could get the kind of care I got?
Very few people. And why, why, why is that? Because we’re spending trillions of dollars making
bombs, making things to blow people up and
not putting money into things [like healthcare].
And why don’t we value nurses? Why don’t we
value the people who take care of people? When
they are the people who are literally keeping
us alive? That’s such a huge thing that became
clear to me during my sickness: Who were the
people who were keeping me alive?
WCT: You’ve traveled extensively across the
world and have bonds with a great many people, including survivors of trauma. So it’s perhaps not surprising that as you think about
your illness, you also think about about
friends in Congo and other places, people
you’ve met who seem to become part of your
memory and bodily experience.
One of the criticisms of your work has been
that it tends to universalize people and experiences. There does, in the book, seem to be a
complicated tension between your own experience and that of others. Could you discuss
WINDY CITY TIMES
that in relation to some of the critiques?
EE: In terms of being criticized for the universalizing: I hope that I have portrayed people
in specific. individual ways, but the fact that I
see universal themes is absolutely true. And to
be honest with you, One Billion Rising was the
manifestation of that. I do believe that violence
against women is a rampant epidemic throughout the planet, for example, and I believe patriarchy is the underpinnings of it. And I think
the cultural manifestations of that violence are
obviously different in every different culture,
but I do think that patriarchy is pretty much the
same.
It’s fascinating to me, to see how quickly One
Billion Rising spread and how quickly it was
owned by people everywhere, and how we got a
billion people to rise on the 14th of March, indicating to me the universality of violence against
women. So I’m more than happy to embrace that
criticism. [Laughs] I think people are a little
afraid of subsuming their identities or feel their
identities will be lost through connection rather
than found.
Each culture was so particular in the way they
brought about One Billion Rising in that country, whether it was women dancing with butter
lamps in Bhutan, or belly dancing, or aboriginal
women calling up the sun in Australia.
WCT: How might patriarchy also connect to
very specific political conditions and issues?
EE: I’ve been fighting those different political conditions everywhere for years. The perfect
example is the piece I put on the V-day blog,
on Bangladesh and workers and the fact that
it was essentially a corporate murder that happened. I never really get where these criticisms
come from, I wonder if people really read what
I write,sometimes. Because I feel like I’ve been
fighting political conditions, whether it’s the
Iraq war or or Guantanamo.
WCT: You’ve initiated a number of different projects, including Vagina Monologues
and City of Joy. They’re all in many ways connected to you, and your name. Are you in any
way concerned about your projects sustaining
themselves without and after your presence?
EE: V-day is now in its 15th year. This year,
there were 5,500 events in 1,800 places, with
plays and pieces, a lot of them were Vagina
Monologues, some were from A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer, the anthology of
writings about violence against women which I
edited. But I don’t exist in any of those. Those
go on because of the play. And each of those
places where the play is performed, it is done to
raise some consciousness, to create dialogue, to
change laws, to raise money for those individual
communities, where that money stays in that
community. In the last 15 years, we’ve raised
about $100 million, and most of that has stayed
in individual communities. So it doesn’t rely on
me at all. The plays and the work and the activists and the mechanism, the tools are there on
the website.
With something like One Billion Rising, I’m
really proud of it. We made the decision not
to brand One Billion Rising, to let it be in the
world, to let it be an energy that people just
took and used the way they wanted. 270 countries adopted it and made it theirs. This year
we’re preparing an even bigger action that’s going to be announced in June. I actually have to
say that I think I’m slowly disappearing [laughs]
and becoming air, becoming loving air that will
circulate. But my job, my mission is to become
irrelevant. And I think it’s happening. The thing
with leadership, I think, is how do you lead, be
the wind on people’s backs and get out of the
way.
You have to connect with yourself enough so
that you can be of service and you’re not spending all your time finding your way back home
rather than being home and allowing yourself
to be of service to the world. And I hope that
people get that from the book. and that people
who’ve had cancer can see it as a tool of transformation and not just this dreaded, fearful, terrible thing.
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
script offers a rather inventive variation on the
expected trajectory for both teacher and student
in this devilishly entertaining movie. http://
landmarktheatres.com/
KNIGHT
AT
THE
MOVIES
By
Richard
Knight, Jr.
In the House;
Iron Man 3;
film notes
Francoise Ozon, the out French auteur who
makes one diverting movie after another (8
Women, Swimming Pool, Under the Sand, Time
to Leave, etc.) is back with In the House, a delicious, razor-sharp black—really black—comedy
thriller that is an intricately plotted puzzle box.
The movie—which favorably calls to mind Alexander Payne’s Election, and which Ozon adapted
from a play by Juan Mayorga—opens this Friday,
May 10, at the Landmark Century Centre Cinemas, 2828 N. Clark St.
Germain Germain (Fabrice Luchini, in an expertly droll performance) has been the literature
teacher at a provincial French high school for a
long time. He’s bored and contemptuous after
years of reading the mundane scribblings of his
students. So when he comes across an essay by
16-year-old Claude (Ernst Umhauer), who writes
about his new friendship with affable fellow student Rapha (Bastien Ughetto) and what he observes when Ralpha invites him into his home,
he recognizes a budding talent.
Even though Claude has described what he
has seen and felt in embarrassingly intimate
Chicagoan authors
books on grieving
Victoria Noe, former development director
of Chicago House, is a straight ally who understands LGBT and AIDS issues from being in
the trenches. She is now working on a series
about grieving. The first is Friend and Grief
and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends,
and the second is Friend and Grief and Anger:
When Your Friend Dies and No One Gives a
Damn. The AIDS book has chapters on ACT
In the House.
detail—potentially hurtful stuff for Rapha and
his parents—Germain nevertheless encourages
Claude to keep writing. In Claude, the jaded
Germain finally sees a talent worth nurturing
and after proffering private tutoring sessions
and stacks of books from his personal collection
Germain insists that the most important thing
in Claude’s life must be to keep those stories
coming.
Claude keeps at it, his own agenda apparently
in mind, and like a teenage Scheherazade, he
ends each installment about life inside Rapha’s
home, in which he has insinuated himself, with
that most tantalizing of phrases: “To be continued.” Almost immediately both Germain and
his wife Jeanne (Kristin Scott-Thomas), who
runs a failing art gallery, are hooked on Claude’s
insights about Rapha’s “perfect family.” But in
urging Claude to keep writing, the egotistical,
disdainful Germain unwittingly sets in motion
an ever increasing web of intrigue which quickly
spins out of his control. Germain is so seduced
by Claude’s writing and his bewitching manner
that even though he’s not gay Jeanne eventually asks him why he is so taken with the handsome young man, intuiting that perhaps he has
realized a late in life preference for men. But
it’s only Claude’s writing that Germain cares
about—or is it?
Like the misguided teacher in the aforementioned Election and Judi Dench in Notes on
a Scandal, In the House seems to be heading
Germain toward an unavoidable cliff. But Ozon’s
UP, the NAMES Quilt, guilt, glamour, World
AIDS day and much more. Here is an except:
“It’s only recently that I’ve heard anyone
speak of survivor guilt in the AIDS community. It seems a natural result of having lived
within this world for three decades. But especially for gay men of a certain age, AIDS is
like a sword of Damocles hanging over their
heads. They’re spared, but they’re not really
certain why. For those who have lost friends
to AIDS, the losses are ongoing, relentless.
At the height of the epidemic, you might lose
a friend/acquaintance a week; maybe more.
Now the numbers here in the US have slowed
down. Now it might only be one every month
or so. But remember: these losses have been
piling up for over thirty years. Thirty years.”
If you care about others, you have felt such
grief and pain. These books can help us remember, and help us cope. Noe’s books are
available as ebooks through Kobo, IndieBound
(Women & Children
First)
and Amazon.
Print versions
are available
through Amazon and selected indie bookstores.
Book
launch Thursday, May 16 at
6:30 p.m., Metropolis Coffee
House, 1039 W.
Granville Ave.
—Tracy Baim
I can’t be the only avid filmgoer, albeit a professional one, that is a tad shall we say, blasé
about yet another by-the-numbers Marvel Comic
Studios movie. Robert Downey, Jr., whose career
was reignited by his sensational turn in Iron
Man way back in 2007 is still in there doing
his job in Iron Man 3, bringing his megawatt
personality (and I do mean that sincerely) to
a franchise that is giving him less and less of a
return with each sequel.
Downey is what made the character of zillionaire/mad inventor Tony Stark so fast, smart and
likeable in that first go-round—with his droll
humor, his keen intelligence and his overwhelming confidence (not to mention his cute looks
and hot bod). But that ring-a-ding playboy mentality was tamed at the end of the first movie
when Stark hooked up romantically with his personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow)
who then took over Stark Industries. And his
inventiveness, too, has been curbed ever since.
What’s also missing from this middling, sorta
entertaining new installment of the franchise
is one single moment of surprise or real feeling. Not one special effect feels “special.” Not
one scene really rewards the headache induced
by wearing the essential 3-D dark glasses. Iron
Man 3 is certainly a well-oiled machine, just like
so many of its compatriots are. But it’s a movie
only in the way that Domino’s Pizza is pizza. You
order it because it’s fast, convenient and fairly
inexpensive. You eat it because you are hungry.
Not because you want to dine. And certainly not
because you want to feed your soul.
Note: A longer version of this review is available at the Windy City Times website.
Film notes:
—Let’s go camping this weekend: Campmovie fans will have three days of “so bad
21
they’re good” pictures to choose from this
weekend. Showgirls—the infamous 1995 raunchy ultratrash from director Paul Verhoeven, a
Vegas stripper variation on All About Eve with
lap dancer Elizabeth Berkley doing everything
to steal the glitter tassels away from the tinsel
queen Gina Gershon—is showing Friday, May 10,
and Saturday, May 11, at midnight at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark St.
Also on Saturday, May 11, Lew Ojeda, Tyler
Pistorius and Demetra Materis aka The Underground Multiplex present a midnight interactive
screening of the 2002 gay indie Ben & Arthur
as part of the long-running late-night Facets
Night School film series (Facets Cinematheque,
1517 W. Fullerton Ave.). Camp fans are encouraged to bring along a cellphone, sugar packets,
a stuffed toy cat and newspapers to increase the
fun (all presumably used in Rocky Horror fashion throughout the screening). Ojeda will also
discuss the history of interactive movies during
the evening. http://theundergroundmultiplex.
wordpress.com/
The weekend camping movie trip ends Sunday, May 12, with the return of Camp Midnight’s
Mother’s Day with Mommie Dearest at the Music
Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Dick O’Day
(my alter ego) hosts the pre-show, which starts
in the lobby at 1:30 p.m. with photos of David Cerda and Ed Jones (of Hell and a Handbag
Productions notoriety) as Joan Crawford and
Christina followed by a costume contest, music
box organ sing-a-long,and 2:15 p.m. interactive
screening of the 1981 camptacular classic. The
first 100 guests in their seats also get a commemorative wire hanger. There’s a brunch option
as well—starting at 11:30 at the Mystic Celt,
3443 N. Southport Ave.—involving members
of the Big Gay Brunch Club. Advance tickets at
www.musicboxtheatre.com
—Director Baz Luhrmann’s long-awaited adaptation of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
classic 1920s novel starring Leonardo DiCaprio
and Carey Mulligan was not screened in time for
deadlines. An online review will appear shortly.
BEFORE THE TUDORS AND BRING UP THE BODIES,
SHAKESPEARE EXPOSED THE INSATIABLE DESIRE
OF ENGLAND’S
ROYAL RAKE.
DIRECTED BY
BARBARA GAINES
PRODUCTION SPONSOR
MAJOR 2012/13 SEASON SUPPORTERS
May 8, 2013
22
NUNN ON ONE: MUSIC
Tylan goes solo
BY JERRY NUNN
Springing from previous group Girlyman, singer
Tylan is stepping out on her own with a debut
solo album entitled One True Thing. Friends like
Amy Ray from The Indigo Girls are helping on
the project on the track “Already Fine.” While
still remaining true to her roots, the album be-
playing at?
Tylan: Yes, I love Evanston Space. Girlyman
played there a lot.
WCT: I just went recently and had a great
time.
Tylan: It is a really nice room and not intimidating. The lighting is good and people seem to
really have a good time there.
WCT: Describe the process of making an album with a Kickstarter campaign.
Tylan: It is almost like having a contract with
our fans instead of having it with a record label.
It is very direct and intimate. When I decided to
make a record I put it out to Girlyman fans that
I have songs and would they like it to be made.
The response was stunning. I hit my goal in a
day and a half!
WCT: Wow.
Tylan: It was crazy. I knew I better make this
record after that. By the time it was over it was
close to $50,000. I really needed the resources
not just to make a record but run publicity and
have a little touring vehicle. It really kick start-
Tylan. Publicity photo
ing released on June 18 has a self-described
heavier sound.
We talked new music and the fate of Girlyman shortly before her arrival for her concert at
Space in Evanston.
Windy City Times: Hi, Tylan. You just go by
your first name these days, I read.
Tylan: I go by Ty or Tylan. I don’t know anyone
else who is named Tylan so I figure why use a
last name. It is not really supposed to be a Madonna or Cher kind of thing. [Both laugh.]
WCT: So you are not a diva. Tegan and Sara
just use their first names.
Tylan: That’s true.
WCT: What is nationality?
Tylan: I was born in this country. I am JewishAmerican.
WCT: You are from Atlanta?
Tylan: I live in Atlanta for about five years but
I was born in Philadelphia and grew up in New
Jersey. I spent about 10 years in New York. Now
I am out in California.
WCT: So you will be out touring with this
album and traveling everywhere again soon.
Tylan: I did a tour in the Northeast and one
on the West Coast. I am going to the Midwest as
you know.
WCT: You will be here before the album
comes out in June.
Tylan: That is right, but I will have it with me
at the show.
WCT: People can then purchase it and maybe have it autographed after the show.
Tylan: Definitely.
WCT: Are you familiar with the place you are
ed my whole project, no pun intended.
I think it put me in closer touch with the fans
in maybe a new way. It really feels like a community now and has been very cool.
WCT: What is the title of the album One
True Thing in reference to?
Tylan: There is a song on the album called
“One True Thing.” I had a really hard year and
a half. Pretty much everything changed in my
life radically. I was in a relationship for sixteen
years and that ended. Girlyman went off the
road indefinitely. That was my job for the last
ten years. Various other relationships came to
a close at the same time, just everything all at
once.
So that song is really about when the shit
hits the fan and everything is falling apart what
keeps me going and doesn’t change. It is about
the truth that keeps you going.
WCT: You have a song called “Fool Me Again”
so that must be relationship centered as well.
Tylan: That song is about when you have
reached that point with someone and that is
it. I am done but still love that person. That is
often the case with break up songs that somewhere in there you loved that person. You can
do whatever you want from here on out but you
can’t fool me again even though that person is
still significant to you. There is a line in the
song “though you rise like magic above the
fruited plain you won’t ever fool me again.”
It is saying you are incredible but I’m done.
That wasn’t about my romantic relationship but
that was about someone else, for the record.
WCT: You worked with Amy Ray. How did
that come together?
Tylan: That was really cool. I was looking for a
low harmony to that song. Because I sing alto I
thought it would be a guy singing that part but
Michael who produced the record suggested that
I call Amy Ray. I thought that you don’t hear
that very often, two female voices singing in a
very low register together.
I asked her and she came and totally nailed
it of course, because she is Amy Ray. I love it.
The song has a lot of depth to it and part of it is
definitely her contribution.
WCT: I’ve been fortunate to hang out with
her a bit and I think the world of her.
WINDY CITY TIMES
Tylan: She is such a good and passionate person. She really cares about people in the world.
She puts her money where her mouth is and all
of that. She is very inspiring.
WCT: Will there be more Girlyman music in
the future?
Tylan: I would say right now it is in a definite
hiatus. If we get back together it will be more
of a reunion kind of thing. I don’t see us picking
up where we left off, but never say never!
Look for Tylan with Heather Mahoney Sunday, May 11, at Space, 1245 Chicago Ave.,
Evanston. For more on Tylan, visit www.tylanmusic.com.
Jillian Michaels
becomes a ‘Life’ coach
By ANDREW DAVIS
If there’s anyone who knows how to motivate,
it’s Jillian Michaels.
Michaels—known as one of the trainers on
The Biggest Loser—will be at the Auditorium
Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Pkwy., Friday, May 10, at 8 p.m. as part
of her “Maximize Your Life” tour. Michaels will
share her keys to health, success and happiness by harnessing one’s potential and kickstarting goals in order to live a better life.
However, before that appearance, Michaels
agreed to answer a few questions from Windy
City Times via email.
Windy City Times: How closely would you
say physical and mental health are linked?
Jillian Michaels: There is no question the
two go hand in hand. Your physical health is
simply a reflection of what’s going on internally. Stress translates to ulcers, headaches,
high blood pressure. Sadness, depression,
loneliness are often cause for emotional eating and obesity. The list goes on and on.
WCT: What can people expect from the
“Maximize Your Life” talk?
JM: Of course, I will teach them the ins
and outs of diet and exercise so they lose
weight quickly and keep it off permanently,
but more importantly they will learn how to
attack their inhibitions and unleash their
true potential. They will walk out with the
information, tools, and skill set to help them
accomplish anything in their life that they
so choose. We will be working on everything
from building will power and support to maximizing productivity and managing fear, worry
and failure.
WCT: What’s the biggest mistake people
make regarding workouts?
JM: They lack the proper information to
make their workouts effective. The key to
training in ways that transform your physique without spending hours in the gym is
simply a matter of strategy. I’ll teach people
the simple fitness techniques that will scorch
calories and elevate metabolism.
WCT: What is your opinion of some of
the so-called “trendy” workouts, such as
Zumba and super-slow, high-intensity regimens?
JM: I think ultimately if you find something
you love do more of it. That said, if you are
looking to accelerate your results then highintensity training is the way to go.
WCT: Some people would say that eating
healthful foods 24/7 is unrealistic—especially with all the restaurants out there.
What’s your response to that statement?
JM: Of course it’s unrealistic. That’s why
an 80/20 balance is ideal. Choose the better
food 80 percent of the time, and 20 percent
of the time have a slice of pizza. I just don’t
want anyone eating chemicals or processed
crap that makes them sick as well as obese.
That’s why I choose brands like Unreal Candy
or Newman’s Own Cookies, etc.
Jillian
Michaels.
Photo by
Dan Flood
WCT: There were teens on The Biggest
Loser last season. How much do you think
bullying contributes to adolescents overeating and not exercising?
JM: It absolutely exacerbates the problem.
That’s why reaching out to kids and helping
them get empowered is so critical to combatting childhood obesity.
WCT: Is it safe to assume that you stood
behind New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent attempt to ban large containers of soda (a ban on 16-ounce containers
of sugary drinks that have more than 25
calories per ounce)?
JM: I think he had the best of intentions,
but I wouldn’t pass policy that tries to control
the public; I would pass policy that incentivizes them. I would try to shift subsidy dollars
to vegetables, meat and dairy so healthy food
was more affordable. I would require staterun organizations like hospitals, schools, etc.,
[to make] 10 percent of the food they provide
be sourced locally, and so on.
WCT: You and your partner, Heidi, have
two children. How has parenthood changed
your fitness routine, and what do you plan
to advise your children as they grow up?
Ha! It dramatically has impacted my previous routine, but I still get it in. Even if it isn’t
as long or as intense. With my kids I do my
best to be a healthy role model. Limit their
screen time. And positively incentivize them
to make the healthier choice so good food
and activity is fun and not a chore.
WCT: Would you ever do another season
of the show Losing It with Jillian?
JM: Even if NBC would let me I simply
couldn’t at this stage in my life. I loved doing
it, but my kids take precedence now.
WCT: On a separate note, your recent appearance on The Wendy Williams Show involved a talk about your daughter’s hair.
Did Wendy give you some helpful tips?
JM: No!! She even conceded that I was right
about blowing it out while on the road!!! This
white girl knows Black hair.
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
23
TELEVISION
Producer talks about
‘Dear Mom, Love Cher’
By Sarah Toce
Picture this: Cher—randomly sitting in her
Oceanside living room, watching a documentary
(Hit So Hard) about Patty Schemel, the drummer
of Hole. A phone rings in an office somewhere
nearby—we’ll say L.A. to keep it colorful—and
it’s Cher. She has an idea: she wants to make
a documentary for her mother that chronicles
her life in the entertainment industry. No, not
Cher’s life—her mother’s life. Therein is the
background of Lifetime’s Dear Mom, Love Cher.
This (sort of) really happened.
Producer Todd Hughes and writer/director P.
David Ebersole were on the other end of their
agent’s call when they discovered Cher’s ideas
for the documentary that would soon take
shape; a retelling that would alter the course of
her mother’s life forever and bring a Hollywood
family back together in a Malibu mansion over
sunshine and old tales.
According to the film’s official website, the
documentary begins with Holt’s humble beginnings in rural Arkansas where she first dreamt of
stardom as a little girl. [It] continues through
her six tumultuous marriages while pursuing a
career among Hollywood’s elite as a singer and
actress. Holt endures a series of dramatic personal and professional triumphs and setbacks
but survived and overcame the odds—no matter the challenge—to successfully raise two loving daughters. One of the daughters would live
out the dream Holt could never fulfill for herself
and go on to become one of the world’s biggest
stars.
“This project started as a gift for my mom’s
86th birthday. Like most things in my family, it
was initiated by my sister Georganne, who asked
me if I could update mom’s album. So I went BIG
(I’m known in the family for doing that),” said
Cher. “My sister and I are proud of our mom and
we want to share her with the world. My mom is
EXACTLY like Rocky. She NEVER gives up! Well…
if we must nitpick, they aren’t totally alike.
Rocky is a fictitious boxer and mom’s a singer.
He’s younger and a man. Other than that they
are the same person! FIGHTERS.”
“When we found out Cher, one of the world’s
most iconic stars, wanted to make a film about
her mother, we jumped at the chance to partner with her,” said Rob Sharenow, Executive Vice
President, Programming, of Lifetime Networks.
“The film offers an extraordinary glimpse into
this private family and we discover that Georgia
Holt, like her daughter, is a very talented and
fascinating woman.”
We sat down with Ebersole to chat about
Cher’s unique gift to Holt and what it was really like during production of a film chronicling
a lifetime (Get it? “Lifetime”) of dancing in the
spotlight.
Dear Mom, Love Cher provides a rare peek into
Cher’s fascinating family history and features in
depth interviews with Holt, her daughters Cher
and Georganne LaPiere Bartylak, and grandchildren Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman.
Windy City Times: Dear Mom, Love Cher is
such an endearing concept. Why did it seem
like the appropriate time to release this project now?
P. David Ebersole: Cher and her family discovered the master tapes of an album that Georgia
recorded in 1980. It wasn’t ever released and the
tapes were decaying in Georgia’s garage. Cher
had them remastered as a birthday present for
her mother, plus made a short film for her—kind
of a superstar’s version of home movie for her
mom. Cher’s manager, Risa Shapiro, saw it and
thought it could be something more. That started a snowball effect that led to Dear Mom, Love
Cher.
WCT: How did Cher approach you for this
project and did you have any trepidation accepting?
P. David Ebersole: Our agent said, “This is
probably the gayest call I’m ever going to make
to you, but Cher wants to talk to you guys about
a project.” Through her manager, Cher was looking for documentary filmmakers to do her mother’s story and had seen our last movie Hit So
Hard about Patty Schemel, the drummer of Hole.
We were literally pinching ourselves. Could it
really be true that Cher sat in her Malibu mansion and watched our movie? But you know
what? She did. We had a two-hour call with her,
where we pitched our take on the story and she
told us so many great stories about her growing
up with her mother. In just that call, we already
knew we had a movie. We tried to end the call
professionally by saying she probably wanted to
talk about us with her reps and call us back with
an answer, but she just said right then and there
that she wanted to work with us.
Any fear you might have about who Cher
might be—the fame, the legend—all of that
gets immediately erased by her realness and her
graciousness. We have had nothing but an excellent experience working with her, from that first
phone call.
WCT: The documentary features a host of
notable icons—Cher and Chaz among them.
How did the crew manage to juggle their
schedules to make this work? Was it an easy
feat or a difficult one?
P. David Ebersole: It was a miracle. The shoot
all came together on one weekend. And with
what we know now about how complicated
Cher’s schedule can be, it’s hard to believe it actually happened. But you know, this was a labor
of love for Cher, a gift to her mother. And when
Cher calls in her favors, people say yes. Want to
know a true thrill? Having Jose Eber on your call
sheet. This is the man that invented the Farrah
Fawcett hair style. We shot with four cameras to
get a natural flow of conversation and just went
for it. I did 100 years of research on her family
before I got there so I could pretty much ask any
question I needed to.
WCT: How long did filming take for this
project?
P. David Ebersole: Principal photography was
all done in a long weekend. But the real work
of this movie was the research and post-production. We went through thousands of family photos and searched down Georgia’s appearances on
things like I Love Lucy and Ozzie and Harriet.
Also, it was a pretty intense schedule for a documentary. We shot in September and now it is on
air in May.
WCT: What locations were used for filming?
P. David Ebersole: We shot everything at Cher’s
house, in Malibu. The first time we went there,
they buzzed us in, the gates opened and we
walked down the long drive to the front door.
We called it Cheradise. No one really knows what
it means to let a film crew into their house until
they show up and take over, so it was amazingly generous of Cher to let us film there. The
truth is that it was just the easiest thing to do
for Georgia. Cher and her sister Georganne were
rightly protective of their mom and didn’t want
the weekend to be too hard on her, so shooting
in Cheradise made the most sense.
WCT: Why was Lifetime a great fit for this
project?
P. David Ebersole: For us, Georgia’s story illustrates the changing roles of women from the
1900s to today. And it lets us see the family life
that shaped one of our culture’s greatest female
icons. I think Cher is partly an icon for this generation because she represents the idea that a
woman can be herself and be powerful, that she
Cher and her mother, Georgina Holt. Photo courtesy of Lifetime
can do things her own way, against all odds. As
glamorous as she is, everyday women see themselves in her. She is a hero for them. But she’s
also a hero for men who love to see women express themselves at their fullest potential.
So then you have to ask, “How did she get
that way?” We always felt this movie gave us
the opportunity to say that behind every great
woman is another great woman—can’t get more
Lifetime than that!
WCT: Was there anything that stood out in
particular during filming and production that
you could share with us?
P. David Ebersole: Knowing that Georgia had
dreamed of being a star herself, we thought she
might harbor some hidden envy of her daughter’s success. But it just wasn’t there.
WCT: What might viewers be surprised to
learn in this film?
P. David Ebersole: Cher’s blonde mother is the
one who is part Cherokee. Georgia hung out with
the likes of Lenny Bruce and Robert Mitchum.
Cher’s sweet sister Georganne originated mean
girl Heather Weber on General Hospital. Elijah
has a kind of spiritual side. And the first person
Chaz came out to in the family was his grandmother.
WCT: Do you have any words of your own for
your mothers?
Lambda Literary
finalist readings
May 22
Chicago will host a reading of nine finalists
for the 2013 Lambda Literary Awards Wed.,
May 22, at 7 p.m. The event will be at the
new Gerber/Hart Library, 6500 N. Clark Street.
If the library is not open by that date, the
alternate location is the Center on Halsted.
The readers will be Anne Laughlin (Runaway), Marty McConnell (wine for a shotgun),
Lania Knight (Three Cubic Feet), E.M. Kokie
(Personal Effects), Ramon H. Rivera-Servera
(Performing Queer Latinidad: Dance, Sexuality, Politics), Chris Paynter (Survived by Her
Longtime Companion), C.P. Rowlands (Jacob’s
War), Lewis Wallace, and Windy City Times
Publisher Tracy Baim (Gay Press, Gay Power:
P. David Ebersole: Todd [Hughes, Dear Mom,
Love Cher producer] and I are both very close
with our mothers so this film is a nice opportunity to express gratitude for what a mother’s
guidance and support can offer you in life. And
Cher just said something hilarious in an interview with Jay Leno for Dear Mom, Love Cher—
she said, “True bravery is going on national TV
with your mother!” They know all our secrets, so
hopefully we never become famous enough so
that someone wants to talk to our mothers on
TV!
WCT: If you could sum up Cher’s relationship with her mother in one word, what would
it be?
P. David Ebersole: Real.
WCT: If you could sum up Chaz’s relationship with his grandmother in one word, what
would it be?
P. David Ebersole: Trusting.
Cher executive-produced Dear Mom, Love
Cher. The Ebersole Hughes Company (Hit So
Hard, Room 237) and APIS Productions were
joined by P. David Ebersole, Todd Hughes,
Risa Shapiro, and Lifetime’s Tanya Lopez.
The original air date was May 6; additional
air dates and times can be found on Lifetime’s official website.
The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers
in America).
Each author will read from their nominated
book and have books for sale and signing.
See www.lambdaliterary.org.
Phyllis Hyman
tribute May 11-12
at DuSable
The Company Band will present “A Tribute
to Phyllis Hyman: A Mother’s Day Extravaganza featuring Julia Huff” Saturday, May 11, at
8 p.m. and Sunday, May 12, at 4 p.m. at the
DuSable Museum of African American History,
740 E. 56th Pl.
Tickets are $45-$75; call 773-885-8778,
visit www.JuliaHuff.com or stop by M Lounge,
1520 S. Wabash Ave.
24
Happy Mother’s Day!
May 8, 2013
WINDY CITY TIMES
Pictured on this page are images from a photo essay book from Windy City
Times, Mom: A Tribute to Mothers of LGBTs. Kat Fitzgerald was the primary
photographer for the book, which was edited by Tracy Baim.
Mom: A Tribute to Mothers of LGBTs is available on Amazon.com and at
Women & Children First Bookstore in Chicago. See tinyurl.com/MomLGBTBK .
While the book’s primary focus is on Chicago-area families, there are also
a few well-known moms interviewed for the book, including:
— Judy Shepard, mother of murdered gay activist Matthew Shepard.
— Dorothy Hajdys-Holman, whose son Allen Schindler was brutally killed
by military colleagues in 1992.
— Go-Gos singer Belinda Carlisle and her son James Duke Mason.
— Charlene Sonenberg and her son, actor/model Ronnie Kroell.
Windy City Times sought a diversity of families to include in the book.
“Both Kat and I have lost our own amazing mothers,” said Windy City Times
Publisher Tracy Baim. “We wanted to have a book as tribute to our own
moms, but also to all of the loving and accepting moms out there. We hear
a lot of stories of families who do not accept their LGBT children, and this
book tells the other side of the story, with moms who are wonderfully supportive.”
The book ends with a heartwarming and anonymous essay by Huffington
Post blogger “Amelia,” to her son, who came out to her as gay at a very
young age. She is only anonymous to protect her child, and her love is unconditional for all her children.
Photos by Kat Fitzgerald, www.MysticImagesPhotography.com, unless
otherwise indicated.
Maureen Mandolini, Aimee Mandolini & Alexi Mandolini
Barbara Smith & Chris Smith
Marilyn Keller & children Irwin and Lynn Keller
Photo courtesy of the Keller family.
Elida Bernal Rivera
& Miguel Ayala
Photo copyright 2012
by Sandra Jimenez
Jamie Owen Daniel & Owen Daniel-McCarter
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
International LGBT travel confab in Chicago
BY KATE SOSIN and TRACY BAIM
Celebrating its 30th year, the International Gay
& Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) convention
was held in Chicago May 1-4.
Hundreds of delegates from more than 20
countries attended workshops, celebratory
events and expos at the Hyatt and Center on
Halsted.
At a May 1 opening press event at Willis Tower,
speakers connected the growth of LGBT travel to
advances for LGBT rights. The press conference
was hosted by IGLTA conference sponsor United
Airlines.
“LGBT travel goes hand-in-hand with LGBT
rights around the world,” said Tanya Churchmuch,
board chair of IGLTA.
Among those at the event were the IGLTA
Foundation’s five Building Bridges Scholarship
recipients. They hailed from Suriname, Peru,
Brazil, the U.S. and Liberia. Charlie Rounds,
IGLTA Foundation leader, and Jack Markey, African Division Chief, American Citizen Services,
Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of
State also addressed the press conference.
The 2013 IGLTA Building Bridges Scholarship
recipients were:
— Student: Kathy Eow is studying hospitality
and tourism management at Florida International University.
— Student: Teddy Frank made his first visit to
the U.S. from his home in Liberia, where he is
enrolled in airline studies and supports the Stop
AIDS in Liberia organization.
— Student: Kleber de Oliveira da Silva is pursuing a master’s degree in tourism and hospitality at Brazil’s University of Vale do Itajai. This
was his first U.S. visit.
— Small Business: Aaron Paiva Leyton runs
Peru Magia y Mysterio, offering tours that explore what it means to be Peruvian, the country’s history, and its culinary arts. He started an
LGBT section on Peru’s official website: TravelFabulousPeru.com.
— Emerging Destination: Jermain Tjin-A-Koeng is from the Republic of Suriname. His organization, LGBT PLATFORM Suriname, works to
raise the profile of the LGBT community in his
country—he sees the connections made through
travel as particularly beneficial to their goals.
IGLTA opened this year’s convention with
a commitment to ending child trafficking and
prostitution. The group is signing on to the
Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct, a set
of guidelines intended to prevent child exploitation. According to IGLTA, the organization is the
third association to adopt the code.
At the Field Museum, David Scowsill, president/CEO of World Travel & Tourism Council,
gave a keynote speech. Sessions included those
ones led by Google’s Brandon Feldman, TripAdvisor, Professional Association of Innkeepers International and the U.S. Department of State.
(See upcoming issues of Windy City Times for
more detailed coverage of several workshops.)
IGLTA volunteers spent part of their last day
volunteering for community projects at Nettelhorst School, Greater Chicago Food Depository
and the Chicago Park District.
This year’s conference honored Center on Halsted with the IGLTA Community Award. Center
Executive Director Modesto “Tico” Valle accepted on behalf of the Center. Other honorees included Manuela Kay, co-owner of several German
LGBT media, including Siegessaule and L.Mag.
See www.iglta.org. See many more photos
from IGLTA’s conference and the gay expo online.
There were a few picketers outside of the Hyatt during parts of the conference. They handed
out orange flyers protesting the Hyatt’s treatment of workers and called on IGLTA members
and LGBTQAs in general to stand with the global
boycott of the company.
25
Pictured, from left: Travis Ferland, IGLTA Foundation executive director; Charlie Rounds, IGLTA Foundation board chair and managing director for Brand g Vacations; Jermain Tjin-A-Koeng from the Republic of
Suriname; Teddy Frank from Liberia; Kleber de Oliveira da Silva from Brazil; Kathy Eow from Florida; Aaron
Paiva Leyton who runs Peru Magia y Mysterio; and IGLTA President John Tanzella. Photo by Hal Baim. Many
more photos available online at www.windycitymediagroup.com
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
26
WEEKLY DINING GUIDE IN
ZURKO PROMOTIONS
ANTIQUE
& Collectables Markets
May 11th & May 12th
Hours: Sat. 10am - 4pm
Sun. 8am-3pm / $7
Plus! GARDEN ACCENT
Early Buyers: Sat. 8am - 10am / $25
Lake County Fairgrounds
Gray’s Lake (1060 E. Peterson)
If you’re in the mood to see sports, there’s
no shortage of screens everywhere—and I do
mean everywhere. (On the day I went, I think
I saw every thing except badminton—nirvana
for this sports fan.) In addition, sports celebrities frequent the venue. (The day after I was
there, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was
among those slated to be at Municipal for the
NFL draft—and a Chicago Blackhawk was there
CLEANING SERVICES
DECK CARE
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Sundays at 11 A.M.
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Sunday 11am, 1545 W. Morse Ave.
Sunday 11a
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a certification was filed by the undersigned with the
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Rev. Jacki Belile, CEC
Nurturing Pride & Faith for 20 Years
773.655.4357
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312-588-5005
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CALL FOR ARTISTS: SKOKIE ART GUILD’S 52nd ANNUAL
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awards. Held on the Village Green, 5211 W. Oakton St.,
downtown Skokie, IL. APPLY NOW. For applications or
information: [email protected] or 847-677-8163.
www.skokieartguild.org (7/3/13)
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TQ
ANTIQUES
divided into sections—and some are easier to
figure out than others. For example, hot appetizers are in the “Department of Fire” category
and salads are ensconced in the “Department of
Environment” section. However, Fakhouri had to
explain to me why flatbreads are in the “Department of Cultural Affairs” categories (and it basically has to do with the diversity of toppings on
the items).
G
CLASSIFIEDS
Pork belly tacos at Municipal Bar + Dining Co. Photo by Andrew Davis
LB
TQ
No restaurant embraces Chicago quite like Municipal Bar + Dining Co. (216 W. Ohio St.; www.
municipalbar.com).
From the furniture (including tables with Ibeam supports) to the subway-themed facades,
the place—which co-owner Sam Fakhouri described to me as an “upscale sports bar”—
screams Chicago.
This, of course, includes the menu, which
has drinks such as the very tasty River North
and Gold Coast cocktails. As for eats, they are
LB
TQ
By ANDREW DAVIS
G
Municipal Bar
+ Dining Co.
while I dined.)
As for the food, overall, it’s more than impressive. (FYI: The dishes are not all Chicagorelated.) Sous chef Donald Penza should really
be proud of the pork-belly tacos (which have a
slight kick), grilled calamari (with three different sauces), half-chicken, scallops and the duck
sliders. Among the many other options on the
menu are tuna tartare, beet-and-goat-cheese
salad, lobster rolls, BBQ chicken flatbreads and
risotto.
By the way, if you possibly have room after
dining on appetizers and entrees, there are desserts such as the beyond-decadent chocolate
chip cookie with caramel, chocolate sauce and
vanilla ice cream; and the Ferris Wheel, a dish
with ricotta doughnuts, funnel cake, seasonal
berries, chocolate sauce and caramel.
Fakhouri added that this summer, the place
plans to have a patio that seats up to 100 people—and it will be complete with LED lights.
Here’s hoping there’s a rainbow night for Pride
Month
G
DISH
the
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
27
WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
28
to produce and star in her own adult variety show. 9pm-11pm, Hydrate, 3458 N.
Halsted St., www.hydratechicago.com
Friday, May 10
Brought to you by the combined efforts of
WINDY CITY
TIMES
Wed., May 8
CALOR confidential HIV and STI testing
Every Wednesday without charge, regardless of age, ability to pay or residency.
The process, from completing the consent
paperwork to getting the results, takes
45 minutes. Counselors are available to
review the results and provide referrals,
as necessary. 12pm-4pm, CALOR, 3220 W
Armitage Ave,www.calor.org
Triangle Neighbors Bi-Monthly Meeting
Learn more about the Wrigley Field proposal, the OUT Hotel proposal, June’s
pride events and nominate officers for
the annual elections; 7pm-8:30pm, 19th
District Police Station Community Room 850 W Addison, Chicago, IL, https://www.
facebook.com/groups/triangleneighbors
Carol Horton Discussing her books Yoga
Ph.D. and 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics & Practice. 7:30pm, Women & Children First Books, 5233 N. Clark St., http://
www.womenandchildrenfirst.com
May Shorts, Dyke Delicious Series May is
the month for our popular shorts program
with films and videos by and about lesbians, a collection of thought-provoking
and rib tickling stories. Keep a lookout
for the full line-up. 7:30pm, Hokin Hall
@ Columbia College Chicago, 623 S. Wabash Ave., http://chicagofilmmakers.org/
cf/genre/17
You’re A Star Karaoke with Honey West
This is your big chance! Entertain Boystown and receive the love and adoration
of community icon and Diva, Honey West.
10pm, Roscoe’s, 3356 N Halsted St., www.
roscoes.com
Thursday, May 9
Annual AIDS Legal Council 25th Anniversary Celebration Join AIDS Legal Council
for a special evening to commemorate 25
years of the Council’s work assisting lowincome people and their families impacted
by HIV. 6pm-9pm, 312-427-8990, Kirkland
& Ellis LLP , 300 N. LaSalle St., www.aidslegal.com; Tickets: http://alcc25host.
eventbrite.com/#
Mary Hutchings Reed, author Warming Up
Former musical actress now can’t bring
herself to audition for parts, even though
she once won leading roles. Not therapy
but a runaway teenager conning her out
of sixty bucks changes her life. 7:30pm,
Women & Children First Books, 5233 N.
Clark St., www.womenandchildrenfirst.com
Out at Wrigley Singing Contest Arrive by
8 to sign up. Free to enter. First round
is song of choice; second round will be
National Anthem. There will be a karaoke
machine to pick your first-round song.
Multiple people can advance straight to
semifinals at Sidetrack. 8pm-10pm, DS Tequila Company, 3352 N. Halsted St., www.
dstequilacompany.com
Inside Amy Armstrong’s Mind Again! Diva
Amy Armstrong is back in an all new once
a month show! Boystown’s favorite cabaret performer broadens her horizons, assembling a cast of her favorite comedians
REAL ESTATE
Eve Ensler: In the Body of the World Shattered by the horrific rape and violence
inflicted on women of the Congo and by
harrowing treatment for uterine cancer,
Ensler calls on all to embody connection to and responsibility for the world.
Bestselling author, playwright (The Vagina
Monologues and I Am an Emotional Creature). Benefits V-Day, global movement
to end violence against women and girls.
Seating limited, tickets required. Purchase
book from Women & Children First for
ticket. Companion tickets, $10. 7pm, The
Swedish Museum, 5211 N. Clark St., /www.
womenandchildrenfirst.com
Weekly lunch and discussion West Suburban Senior Services LGBT Seniors Program
also offers free case management and
mental health counseling to LGBTs 55 and
up in the Western Suburbs. 11am-2pm,
8300 Roosevelt Road, Forest Park, http://
www.wsseniors.org
Legacy Project Gala Luncheon First look
at 2013 candidates for induction. Keynote speaker: Aaron Jackson, straight
ally who purchased the house across from
Fred Phelps’ klan and painted it rainbow
colors. The Legacy Project celebrates
contributions GLBT people have made to
world history and culture. $125/$225 VIP;
12pm, Hilton Palmer House, 17 E. Monroe
St., www.legacyprojectchicago.org
Dating for Queer Nerds, adventure theme
Smart LGBT singles in an adventurethemed Dating for Queer Nerds. Sail the
high seas of love over rounds of board
games and trivia. 7pm-10pm, 855-6373568, Will’s Northwoods Inn, 3030 N. Racine Ave., http://queerpiday.eventbrite.
com/#; Tickets: http://nerdsatheart.com
Jillian Michaels and The Tenors Maximize
Your Life” tour. Tickets are $36 - $150. The
$150 VIP package includes prime seating,
an exclusive Q&A with Jillian Michaels, a
30 day free trial to Jillian Michael’s Online
training program and total weight-loss so-
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lution and a surprise takeaway item. 8pm,
312-341-2310, Auditorium Theatre of
Roosevelt University, 50 E Congress Pkwy,
http://auditoriumtheatre.org
Ben Bailey of “Cash Cab” at Up Comedy
Club Two-time Emmy award winning host
for Discovery’s Channel’s popular trivia
show “Cash Cab”; 8pm-10pm, 312-6624562, Up Comedy Club, 230 W. North Ave.,
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4 Play Fridays All New Lesbian Hot Spot
All new lesbian hot spot every Friday
night. 8pm, 7733506592, EM Lounge 4247
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Just Another Love Story: The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo
A modern take on an age old love story.
In this adaptation, Realize Theatre Group
portrays the passionate relationship and
suicide of two teenage women. Runs
through May 25 on Fridays, Saturdays.
8pm-10pm, 847.769.4961, Prop Thtr,
3502 N. Elston Ave., https://www.facebook.com/events/370799769701931/;
Tickets: http://justanotherlovestory.bpt.
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GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
Friday, May 10
Dating for Queer Nerds
will take place at Will’s
Northwoods Inn, 3030 N.
Racine Ave.
Photo by Andrew Davis
Saturday, May 11
Girlyman’s Tylan Previously in acclaimed
folk-pop group Girlyman, Tylan has set out
on her own, maintaining her folksy roots
while creating a heavier vibe. $12-$22;
7pm, 847-492-8860, Space, 1245 Chicago
Ave., Evanston, http://www.evanstonspace.com/
‘The Men of Fred’ Casting Party and Fundraiser ‘The Men of Fred’ Casting Party
and Fundraiser is an event aimed at celebrating the work that has been done so
far by Fred Says, raise awareness around
the lives of HIV+ teens and of course
cast some men for their 1st Annual Calendar. 12pm-3pm, Sidetrack, 3349 N.
Halsted St, https://www.facebook.com/
events/506477229411874/#
Chicago-based LGBT artist Robb Stone
Get
online
:
Artist’s reception 5pm-8pm, 312-4347544, Bert Green Fine Art, 8 S. Michigan
Ave. #1220, http://bgfa.us/press.html
Tig Notaro Professor Blastoff Live comedy
tour with hosts Tig Notaro, Kyle Dunnigan
and David Huntsberger. Doors: 6:30pm. 21
and over. $20; 7:30pm, Abbey Pub, 3420
W Grace St., Tickets: http://gopride.com/
z86d
Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus-”All You Need
Is Love: The Music of The Beatles” Music
of the Fab Four, some of the most famous
pop songs of all time re-examined through
a gay lens, while adding splashes of color
Turn to page 29
WindyCityMediaGroup.com
ChicagoPride.com
1
2
THE CALL
Thu., May 2
1) Finalist Julio Perez proves to be an opera
shocker.
2) Finalist Kate Hamilton charms.
3) Seriously?
4) (L-R) Judge Meghan “Big Red” Murphy;
finalists Julio Perez and Kate Hamilton; judges
Kirk Williamson and Lili-Anne Brown; hostess
Sofia Saffire.
Photos by Kirk.
More photos at facebook.com/windycitygayidol
Look for photos from Windy City Gay Idol at
Jackhammer in the next issue of Windy City
Times.
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WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
29
BILLY MASTERS
“Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to
be the lead. The other character was the lead!”—
Will Smith explains why he passed on Django
Unchained—his part wasn’t big enough! Apparently Jamie Foxx has no concerns about the size
of his part—and he showed off every inch of it
in the film (and on our website).
One morning last week, I woke up to the following headline: “Collins Invited To Lead Gay
Pride Parade.” My first thought once again illustrates how out of touch I am: “Joan Collins is
going to be in a gay pride parade?” I knew that
wouldn’t happen—La Collins hasn’t seen direct
sunlight since 1902. Maybe they meant Jackie
Collins—you know, the one with all of that hair.
Or maybe I was thinking of her because I just
watched the Kentucky Derby.
I was wrong on both counts. They were talking about Jason Collins—the first male athlete
to come out while still participating in a professional sport. (The basketball star was with
the Washington Wizards, but is currently a free
agent.) His historic coming-out was via an essay in Sports Illustrated. “I’m a 34-year-old NBA
center. I’m black. And I’m gay.” Jason reveals
one of the things that inspired his revelation:
“I realized I needed to go public when Joe Kennedy, my old roommate at Stanford and now a
Massachusetts congressman, told me he had just
marched in Boston’s 2012 Gay Pride Parade. I
was proud of him for participating but angry
that as a closeted gay man I couldn’t even cheer
my straight friend on as a spectator.” This led to
the invitation to be grand marshal of the 2013
Boston Gay Pride Parade. So far, Jason hasn’t
responded, but I believe both of the Collins girls
are available.
Last week, the Tony nominations came out and
I must congratulate a few special friends. Not
surprisingly, Kinky Boots got the most nominations (13), including my dear Jerry Mitchell as
Best Director of a Musical. The brilliant Holland
Taylor got a Best Actress nod for her work in Ann
(which just extended through the summer). And,
of course, Andrea Martin will walk away with her
Best Featured Tony for Pippin. Congrats!!!
The nominations also delivered a few surprising snubs. OK, I’m sure nobody really expected
Scarlett Johansson to get a nomination (the
first “Maggie” on Broadway to not get one). And
despite some champions, no one really expected
Jessica Chastain or Katie Holmes to even be invited as seat-fillers. Then there’s Bette Midler,
who got love letters from the critics for her
portrayal of Sue Mengers in I’ll Eat You Last. I
don’t know how to explain it, except that maybe
some people on the nominating committee still
see her as a replacement “Tzeitel!” Even more
shocking was the omission of Alan Cumming
for his solo take on Macbeth. But Alan’s having
the last laugh and has already lined up his next
Broadway project—a revival of his Tony-winning
turn as the Emcee in Cabaret. Someone who will
not be starring alongside him is Anne Hathaway, who many outlets said was being pursued
to play Sally Bowles. In fact, Emma Stone is the
frontrunner for the part.
Moving on to television, this week also
brought the Daytime Emmy nominations. Yes,
they still hold the Daytime Emmys—except now
they’re on HLN (airing live June 16). Since the
daytime field has really thinned out, it was a
pretty predictable bunch. But we were happy to
see Katherine Kelly Lang get her first nod after
playing Brooke Logan for 26 years on The Bold
and the Beautiful. Of course, my fondness for
KKL might be encouraged by my fondness for her
23-year-old son, Jeremy Skott Snider. Although
he previously worked with his mom on the soap,
Jeremy has moved on to greener pastures—gay
porn. OK, he only did it once. Well, twice. While
his solo work is pleasant enough, his (alleged)
“first time” bottoming scene has attracted
scores of fans from the first time I ran it. Since
it’s come up yet again, I see no harm in sharing
with you again—at BillyMasters.com.
We have a theater-related “Ask Billy” question.
Roger in Connecticut writes: “I was looking at
your photos on Facebook and was wondering if
anyone has ever said that you look like Tony Goldwyn? My partner claims he saw Goldwyn naked
in a play, but I’ve never heard about that. Is it
true?”
You are not the first person to note my resemblance to Tony Goldwyn. It started after he
did Ghost—back then, we also had similar hair.
Needless to say, I take the comparison as a huge
compliment. As to your second question, your
partner is correct—Goldwyn did indeed appear
nude in the 2006 off-Broadway production of
The Water’s Edge (written by Theresa Rebeck).
As he undresses to take a bath, he not only
CALENDAR from page 28
Alan Cumming may not have gotten a Tony
nod, but he’s already winning with another
juicy Broadway part, Billy says.
exhibited an impressive physique (better than
mine ever was) but also a substantial penis—
which dangled and everything! We’ve unearthed
some very explicit footage of this scene, which
you can watch on BillyMasters.com.
When I’m attracted to my own doppelganger,
it’s definitely time to end yet another column.
There’s one last story to mention. Way back in
2000, when Miss Ross mounted her kinda “Supremes” reunion without Mary and Cindy, biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli said to me, “The only
person who could ever keep those two in line
was Berry Gordy. If he wanted to, he could sit
them down in a room and resolve everything.”
But that never happened ... until recently.
The new Broadway show Motown: The Musical depicts Gordy’s rise to fame—including his
romance with Diana. On opening night, both former Supremes were in attendance. As the press
descended on Berry after the show, they found
him positioned between Diane and Mary—talk
about a Kodak moment! The photos and footage
are priceless—but, then again, so is everything
at www.BillyMasters.com, the site that’s worth
its weight in gold. While you don’t need to send
me gold, I do encourage you to continue to ask
your questions (for the column, or just between
us). So send an e-mail to Billy@BillyMasters.
com and I promise to get back to you before
Mary Wilson auditions to play Miss Ross in the
national tour of Motown: The Musical! So, until
next time, remember, one man’s filth is another
man’s bible.
and movement as only CGMC can do. 8pm-10pm,
773-296-0541, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie, http://www.
cgmc.org/event/2013/all-you-need-love-musicbeatles
Chicago Kidney Action Day Kidney Action Day is
coming to Chicago on Saturday, May 11th! The
American Kidney Fund is providing free kidney
health screenings, healthy food samples, interactive fitness demos, local entertainment and children’s activities. Free. 10pm, 2402927055, Millennium Park Chase Promenade North 201 E. Randolph
St., http://www.kidneyfund.org
Nettelhorst French Market Enjoy the freshest flowers, vegetables, fruits, breads, meats, and crafts
from local farmers, at this weekly farmers market
in the heart of Boystown. 8am-2pm, Chicago Nettelhorst French Market, 3252 N Broadway, http://
www.bensidounusa.com
Sunday, May 12
Urban Village Church Spiritual worship is about
coming together as community to make space for
God to move in us. It’s a place to receive God’s
grace and love and to give of ourselves, as well.
LGBT welcoming worship services at Urban Village Church are eclectic and experiential, practical
and intelligent, relevant and, hopefully, inspiring.
10:15am-11:30am, Spertus Institute 610 S. Michigan Ave., www.urbanvillagechurch.org
Susan G. Komen Chicagoland Race for the Cure To
honor those who have battled breast cancer and
further the mission of the Chicagoland Area Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. 6:30am registration, 7 pre-race entertainment . 1:15pm, Grant
Park, Chicago, http://www.komenchicago.org
The Tenors “Lead With Your Heart” Tour Selections
from their new album, #1 on the Billboard crossover
charts, with cover features such as Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” and Elton John’s “Sorry Seems To Be
The Hardest Word”; 7pm-10pm, 800.982.ARTS2787, Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E
Congress Pkwy, www.auditoriumtheatre.org
Monday, May 13
TPAN Complimentary Therapy Programs Reiki is offered the second and fourth Mondays of the month
from 1pm to 3pm on a first come first serve basis.
1pm-3pm, TPAN, 5537 N. Broadway, www.tpan.com
GLBT Loop People Funnest GLBT group in the Loop,
sitting near the bar, and looking forward to drinks
and/or dinner. An organizer will be there until at
least 7:30 so if you’re there by 7:30, you’re on time.
6pm-8:30pm, Berghoff Bar, 17 W Adams St, www.
meetup.com/glbtloop/events/116702672/
Spring Gathering to Focus on Health Concerns Interfaith Action of Evanston’s Spring Gathering. Information about health resources for the uninsured
and under-insured and the unique health issues
facing the homeless. Park at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church located at 1012 Lake St. 7pm-8:30pm,
847-475-1150, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1509
Ridge Ave., www.interfaithactionofevanston.org
Tuesday, May 14
Chicago Academy for the Arts’ A Taste for the Arts
Student art and performance alongside the culinary
creations of acclaimed chefs who have been featured on WTTW’s “Check, Please!”. Guests will be
treated to a performance at the Harris Theater at
6pm and proceed to the Millennium Park Terrace
at 7:30pm to enjoy eight different food stations.
Show $30. Gala $350. Reserved tables starting at
$5,000. 6pm-10:30pm, 312-421-0202, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E Randolph Dr, Chicago, http://www.atasteforthearts.org
Wed., May 15
Leading Chicago: Women Making the Case For
Equality Women leading social justice work in
Chicago, keynote address by attorney Fay Clayton,
founding partner, Robinson Curly & Clayton, performances by artist and educator Rebecca Kling and
musician KOKUMO, beer, wine, catering by Chicago
Gourmet to You. $35. advance, $40 a door. 5:30pm8:30pm, Douglas Dawson Gallery, 400 N Morgan St.;
www.lambdalegal.org
Festival of Disability Arts and Culture Opening
Celebration Bodies of Work is an 11-day, multivenue Chicago event featuring visual and performing arts that highlight the work of artists with disabilities. Opening is hosted by the City of Chicago
Department of Cultural Affairs; 5pm-9pm, Chicago
Cultural Center, 78 E Randolph St., Preston Bradley
Hall., www.bodiesofworkchicago.org
30
Youth sports and
leadership camps
coming to Chicago
By Ross Forman
Wade Davis and Darnell Moore, co-workers in
New York City, conceived an idea last year over
the countless lunches that they ate together.
They decided to combine both of their passions: sports and youth work for Davis, youth
advocacy and leadership for Moore, an LGBT
rights activist.
Concept becomes reality this summer at the
inaugural sports camp aimed at empowering
LGBT and straight-ally youth. YOU Belong Sports
& Leadership Initiative will host quarterly camps
for high school and college students, ages 1421, each camp focusing on a different sport.
The first YOU Belong camp, basketball focused, will be held July 25-28 in Chicago. The
second YOU Belong camp (soccer) will be held in
November, in either California or Arizona.
“We want LGBT and straight youth [to attend],
so they can see each other as equals, not different [from each other,]” said Davis, who played
in preseason NFL games for three teams and
then in NFL Europe for two teams. He came out
in 2012.
“We need to create safe spaces for LGBT youth,
and also have straight students there too, so the
LGBT [youth] know that they are no different,
are as acceptable and as worthy of love, affection, attention and respect as anyone else.
“We want these camps to leave a footprint
and get youth around the country excited about
being involved, and to make youth feel safe in
sports. I think a lot of LGBT youth feel they are
not welcome in sports, but we want to change
that.”
The Chicago camp will feature 50 to 60 students, mostly from the Chicago area, plus involvement from select NBA and WNBA players
and coaches, Davis said. Plus, Dr. Bechara Choucair, the commissioner for Chicago’s Department
of Public Health will attend, he said.
“I think the big surprise will be that many
more youth will want to be involved with the
camp than the camp can support the first time.
I really think there will be hundreds of youth
wanting to be a part of it,” Davis said.
A press conference took place May 5 in Chicago to formally announce the camp, which will
include extensive team-building, plus workshops
on such topics as leadership development and
anti-bullying. Plus, there will be basketball
drills, led by NBA and WNBA coaches and players, plus college coaches. There also will be a
free-throw shooting contest at the camp.
“I think this [type of camp] would have allowed me to meet LGBT kids who are out, proud,
doing things in their community. It would have
made it a lot easier to own who I was at a
younger age, and empowered me to love myself
a lot quicker—that’s the gay part of me, not just
the sports person,” said Davis, who admits he
didn’t even have a conversation with anyone
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A more detailed pet care document should also be prepared and left in an obvious location in your
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for the care of the animals, medical information, and veterinarian information.
Second, plan for your death. One option is to make an outright gift of your pet to another person
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funds to care for the pet. Or make an outright gift to another person of the pet and a reasonable amount
of money for the pet’s care, conditioned on the caretaker providing proper care for your pet.
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WINDY CITY TIMES
May 8, 2013
lege at Weber State.
“Something like this, which high school-aged
youth can be involved in … to me, it’s something I never even dreamed of, so I can’t even
imagine the impact [a camp like this] can have.
A lot of young kids who identify as queer, and I
use that as an umbrella term, this camp is going
to make them believe that, yes, they belong in
sports, and in all parts of society.
The YOU Belong Sports & Leadership Initiative
opened a fundraising campaign to help make
the camps free for participants. The fundraising
page www.indiegogo.com/projects/you-belonglgbtqa-youth-sports-and-leadership-initiative
For more information, visit http://youbelonginitiative.com.
‘YOU Belong’ sports camp hosts kickoff
Center on Halsted hosted the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital Of Chicago Safe Space
Day May 5. As part of the event, former openly gay NFL football player Wade Davis and writer/
educator Darnell Moore spoke about their YOU Belong sports and leadership camp for LGBTQ and
allied youth.
YOU Belong will present a series of athletic and leadership development camps across the
country. The first such camp will be in Chicago July 25-28, for youth ages 14-24.
Davis and Moore are collaborating with The Center for Gender, Sexuality, and HIV Prevention
at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and the Center on Halsted as well as with national
LGBTQ sports movements such as You Can Play Project and Outsports. The Chicago Department
of Public Health is also working with the men. The camp will also feature professional basketball
players from the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and the NBA.
Davis and Wade said they are filling a void in the community. They say there are no athletic
clinics designed specifically as safe spaces for LGBTQA youth in the United States.
For more info see www.youbelonginitiative.com.To see a video of the press conference, visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDPFbK38gH0&feature=youtu.be.
Photo of Moore (left) and Davis by Tracy Baim
New hall of fame
launches in Chicago
By Ross Forman
The National Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall of
Fame will announce some of the inaugural inductees for the Class of 2013 next week. The
entire class will be announced in July and the
ceremony for honorees is set for Aug. 2, at
the Center on Halsted, in conjunction with
Out At Wrigley the following day.
The National Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall
of Fame, the first of its kind in the United
States, is a 501(c)(3) organization based in
Chicago—and the brainchild of Chicago resident Bill Gubrud, the group’s executive director.
This Hall “will recognize those who stood
up to stereotypes and worked to break down
the walls of differences to bring people together for the good of the games,” Gubrud
said.
Gubrud, 40, lives in Lakeview, and owns and
operates MTM Chicago, an online resource for
the LGBT community. He was born and raised
on Chicago’s Northwest side and has been
partnered with Jon Larson for more than six
years. Gubrud plays softball in the predominantly gay Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association (CMSA).
“When I started working [in the] gay press
in the early 2000s, the first sales call that I
made was to the Chicago Cubs, hoping [the
team] would place an ad, particularly because
I’m a diehard Cubs fan and also gay,” Gubrud
said.
Ultimately, the Cubs became one of the first
major professional sports teams to place an
ad in a gay newspaper in the country. And
Gubrud originated Out At Wrigley in 2001.
“I always had it in the back of my mind
to do something like this [Hall of Fame], but
I didn’t know when the time was right,” he
said.
Last November, Gubrud started filling out
paperwork for the IRS and the State of Illinois. He also then brought on others who are
very sports-savvy to be part of the Board of
Directors for the Hall.
“I want to promote history as far as sports
in the gay and lesbian community,” Gubrud
said. “I think it’s very big, and not a lot of
people, straight or gay, know a lot about the
history of gay sports, or the history of people
in sports who happen to be gay, or people
in sports who have helped gay people along
the way.
“Who knows if [NBA player] Jason Collins
would have come out if he didn’t see all of
the support around him.”
For more information on the National
Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame, go to
www.gayandlesbiansports.com.
Read the full article online at www.
WindyCityMediaGroup.com.
X
WINDY CITY TIMES
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IONS
Ray J. Koenig III and Clark Hill PLC
Ray is a legal authority on all of his
practice areas, which include probate,
trusts, guardianship, estate planning,
and elder law, including the litigation
of those areas. He is a longtime
advocate for and member of the
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associations, and professional
organizations. Ray is a member of Clark Hill PLC, a full-service
law firm consisting of a diverse team of attorneys and
professionals committed to our clients and our communities.
Tel: 312.985.5938 | Fax: 312.985.5985
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May 8, 2013
WINDY CITY TIMES