Gay Youth Homeless Shelter Vandalized

On Wednesday night, a gay youth homeless shelter was vandalized with anti-gay graffiti that read; "We don't want gay people here."

The shelter, located in Queens, is operated by New York City's Ali Forney Center, the nation's largest organization serving homeless LGBT youth. "Gay shelter" was also scrawled on the building's door.

"I am infuriated that someone would target our kids in this cowardly way" says Carl Siciliano, Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center. "The young people who come to us for help and shelter have already experienced terrible hardship, and I will not stand for them to be further abused." (In April, I interviewed Siciliano on my Gay History: Uncut podcast on the gay homeless situation in New York.)

Community leaders and police have responded and an investigation is in the works.

On Monday at 6:30, thousands will rally in Union Square to protect homeless LGBT youth. While this rally was planned before last night's bigoted, cowardly vandalism, it's only made more vital because of it.

Speakers include Sandra Bernhard & Lt. Dan Choi and the rally has been endorsed by dozens of human rights and LGBT organizations and individuals.

I hope I'll see some of you on Monday night. Showing that there is visible support for this issue is important, because as many as 40% of the homeless youth in the United States are LGBT. That's hundreds of thousands of young people.


Originally posted on The Huffington Post.

Best Theatre of 2009

Originally posted on The Huffington Post:

In 2000, my first year living in New York City, I attended over two hundred different theater productions. This year, I clocked in barely a hundred. Below are my top five in no particular order.

In The Next Room or the vibrator play: A beautiful production (directed by Les Walters) that examines the marriage of a doctor who invented an early electric vibrator. Sarah Ruel offers a smart and funny look at how technology can affect our personal lives on many levels. Currently playing at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre, closes Jan. 10th.

Surrender: The International WOW Company produced this fully immersive military experience. The cast led the audience through basic training (complete with push ups) and into a simulated war environment. Afterwards, we're integrated back into society. While occasionally a tad heavy-handed, it was a profound experience. Performed Jan. 7th to Jan. 25th. Read my interview with director Josh Fox.

The Temperamentals: A fascinating Mad Men-esq look at Harry Hay, an often forgotten character in gay history, and the early Los Angeles gay rights movement. Reopening at New World Stages on Feb. 10th, prior limited run June, 10th '09 through Aug. 23rd 2009.

Ruined: A powerful tale of women struggling to live in the Congo won the Pulitzer Price and deserved a Broadway transfer. Performed Feb. 10th to Sept 6th at Manhattan Theatre Club.

My Wonderful Day: Alan Ayckbourn's new play is a surprisingly contemporary tale from a 70 year-old playwright/director. Ayesha Antoine's winning performance as an 8 year-old observing adult chaos was a delight. Played Nov. 11th - Dec. 13th at 59E59 Theaters.

Looking forward to what New York City theatre has to offer in the year & decade ahead.

Please Support My New Show, Street Lights

I've been hard at work developing Street Lights, a new musical that I'm directing & co-producing at the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival. It's a pretty big deal and I'm really excited about it. But, I won't be able to do it without your help.

Street Lights centers on a group of young people who come together to make their community better. It's themes were inspired by Barack Obama's historic Presidential Campaign. (Seriously, read about it on The Huffington Post.) In that spirit, we'd like to raise our production budget like Obama, small donations from many people.

This is a fully not-for-profit production, and we cannot bring it to life without the support of our friends & family. You can be a part of Street Light's history by making a tax deductible contribution today. No amount is too small (or too big!), $10 or $20 brings us that much closer to raising the curtain.

To donate with credit card (truly tax deducible), visit:

https://www.nymf.org/donatetostreetlights

Wanna send a check? E-mail me.

Tickets are now on-sale and we open on October 13th in New York. For more information, visit the Street Lights website.

In these difficult times, we need art that inspires and brings hope. A contribution from you can go a long way to making that happen. Thank you so much for all your support.

Photo by Cassie Corrigan, from Street Lights For Obama benefit at The Zipper Theater.

Where I Stand on Health Insurance Reform

There is a lot of anger from the left about what's being seen as Obama capitulating to the Republicans on Health Insurance Reform. During the campaign Obama favored a Public Option. Now, the Public Option appears in danger and many liberals don't think "real" reform is possible without it.

In a perfect world, I'm for the most progressive health reform possible. But, our world is far from perfect and politics is the art of the possible. There are 47 million people in America without health insurance and they don't care if it's a public or private option that provides it. They just want access to quality health care.

A few days ago Matthew Yglesias wrote where he stood on health care and I found myself agreeing with him.

— In terms of the present-day political debate, I think mandate-regulate-subsidize plus a public option would be a major improvement over the status quo.

— But even though mandate-regulate-subsidize without a public option wouldn’t be as good, I still think it would be an improvement over the status quo.

— I don’t think reform advocates should “drop” the public option; I think they should fight for it and try to bring practical pressure to bear on members of the Senate to vote for one.

— But if in the final standoff we get a choice between mandate-regulate-subsidize and the status quo, I would prefer to take mandate-regulate-subsidize.

In summer 2003, I moved to Burlington, Vermont to join Howard Dean's Presidential Campaign. One of Dean's main draws for me, besides his brave stance on the Iraq War, was his success at providing near-universal health insurance to Vermont's residents. He did this without a Public Option.

In fact, Ezra Klein recently pointed out that Dean, considered one of the most liberal candidates in the '04 primary, didn't have a Public Option or co-ops in his national '04 platform.

Dean's plan would have insured millions fewer people than the bills being considered in the House or the bill that we think we'll see out of the Senate.
...
For all that, it was a good and well-meaning plan. But it was a lot worse than what we're considering now. It was a lot worse even than the compromises we're considering now.

I admire the liberals in the House who say they won't vote for a bill that doesn't contain a Public Option, but I hope in the end they put a reform bill on Obama's desk to sign. As Paul Starr says in the current issue of American Prospect, "if any of them actually do vote against the final bill and prevent it from passing because it fails to offer a public option, they will help to ruin the best chance in years to put health care on a path toward reform."

Crossposted on The Huffington Post

The Disgraceful Mr. Dobbs

Pressure is building for CNN to do something about their resident conspiracy-theorist-in-chief Lou Dobbs. His nightly "reporting" on Obama's birth certificate drew fire today from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which called on CNN to take Dobbs off the air for "fanning the flames of racism." None of this should be surprising; for years, Dobbs has used his program to spread misinformation and paranoia.

In 2006, Dobbs ran several segments on the Amero, an imaginary currency that he believes will be shared by North America and replace the U.S. dollar. That same year he called for a new Sept. 11 investigation, vaguely citing the many "9/11 lies" told to Americans. Another favorite myth Dobbs reported on in 2008 is the NAFTA Superhighway, which (according to Lou's reporting) would extend from Mexico to Canada. None of these stories had a factual basis, and CNN repeatedly failed to exercise any editorial judgment.

Lou Dobbs has even appeared as a guest on leading Sept. 11 Truther and "Birther" Alex Jones's radio program and was sympathetic to Alex's rants. Knowing Lou, he probably believes the pressure to fire him is coming from the Illuminati and the New World Order. CNN needs to move quickly and remove Dobbs from their lineup to prevent further embarrassment. It's been a long time coming.

Originally posted on The Hill's Pundit Blog. Crossposted on The Huffington Post.

Gay Marriage: Stunning -- Though Not Shocking -- Setbacks

Yesterday's decision by the California Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8's ban on gay marriage is a sad, though expected, decision.

Now gay Californians have no way legally to protect themselves; they have zero legal recognition. All these couples have are California state domestic partnerships, which provide every single legal protection that marriage provides. The difference being the use of that dreaded (antiquated) "M" word.

The gay movement, seeing the Prop 8 decision as the end of the world, had rallies all around the country. These are the same type of reactionary rallies that have been staged by gay activists in the New York area over the last several months. I've expressed my view that these rallies were counterproductive and wouldn't change any hearts or minds. New polling in New York shows that I was right.

Over the last month, gay marriage support in New York has fallen 14 percent. This is a fairly stunning turnaround, with drops among independent voters, New York City voters, young voters, women and African-Americans.

Not that any of this is shocking, exactly. New York Gov. David Paterson's (D) job approval is a pathetic 18 percent. It's not helping gay marriage that Paterson has made it one of his major issues — it's actively hurting our chances at marriage equality in New York.

The gay movement needs proper focus and fresh ideas, not more rallies, if we want to keep our forward momentum.

Originally Posted on The Hill & The Huffington Post.

Why I'm Not That Into Caring About AIG

I'm with Brad Friedman on the anger over AIG's bonus nightmare. Sure, it sucks - I wish they didn't get any money - but it's only .1% of the cash we forked over to them.

I guess I'm just in the minority here, but I'm having a bit of trouble getting exercised about $165 million (just to put that into perspective, the movie sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian had a budget of $200 million) in bonuses to AIG employees.

Yeah, it's a shame that approximately one-tenth of one-percent of the $144 billion made available to the company by the federal government in bailout monies went to such bonuses, but where is all the furor from public officials, media outlets and bloggers -- from both Right and Left -- over the 12 billions of dollars (with a "b") sent over to Iraq as pallets of cash (literally, shrink-wrapped $100 bills), which then simply disappeared into that trillion (with a "t") dollar rat hole without accounting or explanation?

Where is the outrage and accountability there? Nowhere.

How about the $4 billion (with a "b") that went to the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 to purchase privately made electronic voting systems which don't work and don't meet the federal standards it was claimed that they did?

Keep things in perspective people.

Mya Releases Domestic Violence Track - Blackout

Pop singer Mya has released a portion of her new song Blackout (Explicit Lyrics), which addresses domestic violence. The song was recorded before the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation, but one can't help but make the connection.

Mya said in an interview with Honey Magazine, that at first she didn't believe the Chris Brown story, "I assumed it was another outrageous, untrue rumor from an illegitimate gossip site." It wasn't until she was playing tracks of her upcoming album for friends that she realized the song's impact.

Blackout was inspired by two friends who were abused by their boyfriends.

Mya wouldn't give Rihanna any advice, saying that she wasn't in any "position to give proper advice unless I’ve been given all facts from the direct source." She also stressed that she believes abusers can change, "I think anyone can change if they truly want to. It’s internal first. Regarding violent partners, it helps if a strong support system is in place to monitor and see the process through. "

The response from the male members of the pop/hip-hop world has been underwhelming, with many performers sounding like wife-beater apologist. It's nice that some members of the music world are trying to speak out.

Mya has been active in organizations that combat domestic violence, including her own, The Mya Arts and Tech Foundation.

(See also, Where Is The Outrage...)

Originally posted on The Huffington Post.

Fierstein: Stop Making Weak Analogies

One of the pictures above is of slavery, a two-hundred-plus year old American institution with millions of casualties, and the other is of gay marriage. If you're Harvey Fierstein, you probably won't be able to tell the difference. Others won't have much a problem, since they don't have a whole lot in common. Fierstein writes today on The Huffington Post an open letter to President Obama, comparing his views on gay marriage to Abe Lincoln's (early) views on slavery.

Lincoln was always against slavery and was an early opponent of expansion into the western territories. The South feared he'd try to end slavery, which caused states to secede from the Union after his election. Although the Civil War was originally fought simply to preserve the Union, slavery wasn't far from anyone's mind.

Lincoln did become more progressive on his personal views of African-Americans during his Presidency, he hadn't known many before, becoming friendly with Frederick Douglass. He certainly evolved on the issue, but the quote that Fierstein picks at the beginning is cherry-picked and doesn't accurately reflect Lincoln's position on slavery at the time. Although he was a product of the culture, he always abhorred slavery.

Slavery and gay marriage are not similar issues. They don't carry equal moral weight and it's insulting to suggest that they do. Would Mr. Fierstein have used the Holocaust so casually in a weak analogy? Probably not. The gay rights struggle cannot be defined by looking at the end of the slave trade, or even the black civil rights movement. It's it's own movement, existing in it's own place in time. The sooner we stop trying to equate our movements with past ones the better.

President Obama should be for gay marriage. There isn't a single objective argument against it that isn't plain bigotry. We don't need Abe Lincoln to know that.

Crossposted on The Huffington Post.

Odds & Ends

The first day of Vote! rehearsals in Bloomington was a blast. We've got a great cast up here (comprised mostly of IU students) and I think the show is gonna be lots of fun. I'll try and get some pictures for you all soon.

Lots of Odds & Ends today:

-- Gay City News has a great feature on gay marriage in New York, with lots from Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. Also, a little shout-out to yours truly for my article on Daniel Squadron. (Also, thanks to the NY Daily News for their link last week.)

-- We may finally be able to visit Cuba legally.

-- Christopher Hitchens on Zimbabwe.

-- I'm really fucking disappointed in Chris Brown. I thought more of him. Apparently Rihanna's injuries are "horrific."

-- Huge study out that appears to show that multivitamins may not work at all.

-- Looks like Connecticut voters are finally done with Joe Lieberman.

-- Shepard Fairey, Obama's Hope artist, is fighting back against those assholes at the AP.

-- How awesome is it that Obama called on The Huffington Post's White House correspondent last night? Welcome to the future.

-- Catholicism is back in the dark ages! You can now pay to get rid of sin again.

Google Ads Are Funny

The most amusing thing about Google Ads, is when the advertising content is exactly opposite of what it should be. Yesterday, in a piece at The Huffington Post - I brought up the idea of copyright law reform under Obama.

In the article I told the story of my own battle with Mr. Broadway, known to everyone in the world besides himself as Stewart Lane, over using Mr. Broadway as the title for a beauty pageant benefiting homeless gay teens. Mr. Lane has now purchased Google Ads for the search "Mr. Broadway," and one appeared under my recent Huff-Po article.

The ad is for a book he wrote on "Great Theater Plays!" Sounds insightful.

Huffington Post: Gay Marriage In New York Unlikely in '09 or '10

Daniel Squadron, the twenty-nine year old freshman New York State Senator, is ready to take the lead on gay marriage in New York. Squadron said his goal was, "making this a law as quickly as possible," last night at a meeting of the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn. He came to discuss strategy with leading activists and received plenty of feedback.

However, Squadron is not optimistic about passing gay marriage in the 2009 Senate session and believes that 2010 will be even tougher, due to the election year. "Looking at the members, it's hard to get to thirty-two votes," he admitted. Thirty-two is the magic number to pass a bill in the New York State Senate.

Squadron is not opposed to attempting in 2009, but said their were basically two strategies. Either, put the bill up in 2009 and risk a defeat or lay the ground work for passage later. "Just making the Senate Democratic is not enough, we need a fundamental change in Senate culture," Squadron explained. He believes that while the Senate is progressing, we aren't there yet.

Laying the ground work for victory, Squadron believes, involves showing marriage opponents "the ways it (gay marriage) leads to a traditional family structure." As well as explaining to members of the Senate the economic benefits Squadron added that, "real resources" need to be spent on changing people's minds in key districts and in the Senate.

Earlier this year I met with New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver at his Manhattan office. He assured us that he'd have the votes to pass marriage again. The Assembly passed marriage in 2007, largely due to member Daniel O'Donnell, an Upper West Side Democrat. O'Donnell, a gay man, personally plead his case to members of the Assembly.

Squadron revealed that the heads of many New York gay political groups are urging caution. One even suggesting that an attempt in 2009 would "kill us."

I believe that ultimately, it's not worth risking defeat in 2009. A major defeat in the Senate would set us back five years or more. We could have those votes as early as 2011 or '12, the way the public support continues to move toward marriage. If we keep winning the hearts and minds.

Outside of LGBT issues, Squadron truly impressed me tonight with his knowledge and support of progressive taxation and affordable housing. He spoke out directly against the change in the term limits law, calling it "obviously undemocratic." I supported his opponent in the primary, but it looks like we may have a rising star on our hands.

--

Ryan J. Davis is on the Board of Directors of the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn. All views reflected are his own. This was originally written for The Huffington Post.

Huffington Post: Idiot Copyright Holders

Idiots who overprotect their copyrights really bother me.

In 1947 Tennessee Williams wrote a masterpiece of a play, Streetcar Named Desire, which has been a major part of the American dramatic cannon for over sixty years. Everyone has read it or seen it, it's something most of us were forced to read in high school or college.

It's now 2009 and Mark Sam Rosenthal has put together a satirical look at the government's response to Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of Blanche DuBois, Streetcar's leading lady. The play, Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire, is a one person drag performance that didn't really work for me - but certainly is not in anyway infringement on Tennessee Williams' intellectual property.

That's not how the copyright holders feel, they sent the producers a cease-and-desist letter stating the performance was an "infringement on the university's valuable intellectual property rights." For some reason Streetcar's copyright is held by The University of the South, which has no interest in exploring their play or creating new work - those silly educationy things. They love money and they set out to stop the production as quickly as possible.

Rosenthal's reaction mirrored mine: "I don't think Tennessee Williams would approve of anything they're doing in the name of protecting his work, not one bit. He was one starving artist, and I don't think he'd do anything to hurt other starving artists."

Beyond that, the whole idea of some university holding the copyright on one of America's most famous and beloved plays and then not allowing people to develop things based on it is absurd. Are these lawyers so clueless that they haven't seen the now famous Simpsons episode lampooning a community theater production of a Streetcar musical? (Which was un-satirically made into a real-life opera for some reason.) Is it really realistic that a play showing in a 99 seat theater in SoHo can hurt their internationally known play's reputation?

I think if they truly cared about the play, they wouldn't have let Roundabout Theater put on that dull revival a few years ago, which caused serious damage to their 'property.'

Even more ridiculous than some southern college claiming to stick up for Tennessee Williams is the AP taking Shepard Fairey to court for drawing a poster. (You know - that world famous Obama Hope one) based on a picture they took. Markos on Dailykos responded, "This is quite the novel claim by those assholes at the AP -- that artwork based on a photograph is now a copyright violation. Not use of the photo, or even use of part of a photo. But that an entirely different work, on a different medium, is now somehow owned by the AP because it happens to be based on that photo."

I'm no stranger to frivolous copyright lawsuits. In 2007, while producing a male beauty pageant with Broadway actors benefiting a gay youth homeless shelter, we picked an obvious name: Mr. Broadway. Little did we know, that some 150 year-old man had trademarked Mr. Broadway as his personal nickname. I'm serious! He sued us and for the last two years we had to use a less convincing title- The Broadway Beauty Pageant. At least he's been made fun of in the NY Post for being such a jerk.

In this era of YouTube and blogs, our copyright laws need some serious work. Something else for President Obama to put on his to-do list. If he's too busy, give it to Lawrence Lessig to figure out.

Originally posted on The Huffington Post.

Watching Skins...

I just finished watching season 1 of BBC's Skins, a sexy, realistic look at middle class teens in suburban England, on DVD. The series goes way further than any similar American show at realistically portraying the experience of being a contemporary teenager. It's full of sex, violence, and drugs. All the stuff I remember most from my teenage years.

Some of Skin's characters are new to television. Dev Patel (from Slumdog Millionaire) is Anwar, who trying to find his place in society as both a teenager who wants to have fun and a Muslim. One of his best friends is Maxie (The super cute Mitch Hewer), a gay tap dancer who struggles with his friend's faith more than his own sexuality. One of the most powerful scenes for the first season involves Anwar's conservative father and Maxie. The other characters deal with traditional teen stuff from anorexia to low self esteem. It's great television.

Skins doesn't follow a traditional narrative, each episode focuses on different character and flows freely from story to story. It's the kind of grown-up story telling that teen shows usually don't receive. The cast is uniformly great and you may notice Nicholas Hoult, the boy from About A Boy, is now all grown up and the most popular boy in school.

The show has been quite controversial, apparently British teenagers now throw 'Skins parties' where they do drugs and have sex. My bet is they had those same parties before Skins premiered, under a different title.

Skins has just entered it's third season on the BBC, but for now those of us in the USA can only get season one on DVD. The second season is scheduled for release in the states on April 14th 2009.

Note: In America Skins was shown on BBC America, but it is a Channel 4 Production. Thanks for the note.

Cross Posted on The Huffington Post.

The Hill: Howard Dean for HHS

Tom Daschle's withdrawal leaves an opening at Health and Human Services. Howard Dean is the man for that job.

Dean isn't given enough credit for his expert chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. His "50 State Strategy" is as responsible for Obama's large victory in 2008 as any other factor. Not to mention the 2006 congressional gains. He rebuilt the grass roots of the Democratic Party from the ground up, organizing a whole generation of young leaders.

His record as a five-term governor of Vermont is strong, including providing near-universal heath coverage. During his gubernatorial reelection bid, he had to wear a bulletproof vest because of death threats he'd received due to his support for gay civil unions.

Personally, Dean inspired me enough in 2003 that I moved to Vermont to work for him. He was one of the early voices of reason (followed by Gore and Obama) in the Democratic Party, opposing the war in Iraq. His 2004 campaign's use of the Internet changed the face of American politics forever.

Dean, also a medical doctor, would be an inspired choice for secretary of Health and Human Services. His knowledge of the issues plus his openness to innovation make him uniquely qualified. Join us on Facebook in support of the good Doctor!

Originally posted on The Hill.

Huffington Post: Memorial Day, Abu Ghraib Film, Opens in NYC

On a gloomy Sunday afternoon I ventured to the closing performance of downtown's Surrender, a "simulated war deployment experience," produced by The International Wow Company. Upon arrival we were issued army uniforms and rifles, given a very basic training course, and led off to battle. It was one of the most intense and ultra-realistic experiences I've ever had in a theater.

Surrender was conceived by Brooklyn-based director Josh Fox with the assistance of Jason Christopher Hartley, the Iraq War Veteran and the author of Just Another Soldier. The duo has teamed up again on the new film Memorial Day, which opens in New York City at The IFC Center on Wednesday.

Memorial Day begins with a group of young Americans partying at a beach town over their holiday break and follows their army service at an Iraqi Prison. The documentary feel makes the film all the more shocking, it's a real experience.

Fox and Hartley put their cast through an extensive boot camp, that lasted for more than three weeks. I was exhausted after the hour boot camp during Surrender and can only imagine what the full experience is like. The Iraqi prison used in the film was constructed near Wow's company headquarters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and much of the film was shot locally in Brooklyn.

Fox told me that one night they were shooting a scene on a Brooklyn rooftop, when they got into some trouble. The scene involved one character firing off a few rounds, loud blanks off the roof. The crew had warned the police that they'd be shooting so they wouldn't alarm them - but their warning didn't seem to work. In the middle of filming the scene the NYPD stormed the rooftop with their guns drawn. It was an extraordinarily anxious few minutes as they tried to explain to the officers that they were just filming a movie and no real guns were present.

The film has received critical acclaim, but has been subject to a fair amount of controversy. At one screening at a Las Vegas film festival, several audience members rushed the box office, one even proclaiming - "If you show this movie again, I'll burn down the casino!"

While I don't think it'll receive quite that strong a reaction in NYC, it's a film certain to make people on all sides of the issue examine their position.

Memorial Day opens Wednesday at New York City's IFC Center. Visit the official site.

Originally Posted on The Huffington Post.

South Carolina Friends: Please Vote Saturday!

Hey guys,

I'm here in chilly Saluda, SC working for Barack Obama! I hope you can get out and support the man who deserves more than anyone to be our next President.

I wrote an endorsement of him that gives you some background on my support for his candidacy.

If you live in South Carolina, PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE Saturday. The polls are open from 7AM to 7PM.

Now more than ever, we need change and Obama is the only candidate who will deliver.

Thanks for you support!

Ryan