CitizeNYC Podcast #7

We're two beers in again this week and talking about waiting until 2011 to push for marriage equality, Mayor Bloomberg's lackluster State of the City address, and Pamela's disaster of a jean dress on Project Runway. (Plus loads more!)

Listen on iTunes, and be sure to check out last week's episode.

Next week we'll have Dorian Davis as our special guest! Watch out, it's gonna get crazy...

Via CitizeNYC.

Gillibrand For New York

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) filled up a large room with gay activists at New York’s LGBT Community Center yesterday for a 45-minute town hall meeting that touched on many issues important to the community. Questions ranged from gay persecution in Iraq to repealing “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Although she has been a vocal supporter of LGBT rights since her January appointment, this was the first time she faced an entirely gay audience for open questions. She did quite well.

An early question focused on her positive change of heart on gay marriage, but Gillibrand argued that she has always been “100 percent in favor of gay rights” and her gay congressional voting record is spotless. HRC actually gave her an 80 percent rating, but her current commitment seems passionate and real.

Gillibrand was very optimistic about what could be accomplished legislatively over the next year. She hopes to include gay couples in comprehensive immigration reform, which she believes could be voted on by March. She spoke of a “clear strategy” to end “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and pass an inclusive Employee Non-Discrimination Act. All great things, none very easy.

Over the last several months I’ve worried that Gillibrand was using gay issues primarily to excite the left and ward off a primary challenge. But that primary isn’t a concern anymore. New York Democrats’ main concern is recent polls showing Gillibrand trailing Republicans Giuliani and Pataki in general-election match-ups.

It’s time for New Yorkers to rally around their new senator, regardless of their feelings on lame-duck Paterson. Gillibrand seems ready to provide us with progressive leadership. She has quickly engaged herself in important issues in the Senate, and the last thing we need is some regressive like Pataki taking the seat because voters didn’t feel confident in Kirsten.

Originally posted on The Hill. Photo taken on my iPhone.

OnStage - Ruined, The Temperamentals, and Jeffery & Cole: Make It Bigger

The New York City stage is packed this summer and the three Off-Broadway productions I'm recommending, Ruined, The Temperamentals, and Jeffery & Cole: Make It Bigger, all represent the wonderful diversity of offerings currently available to theatergoers.

Ruined, which won the Pulitzer Prize this year, is the story of Mama Nadi, a women who owns a brothel in the middle of a civil war in the Congo. Loosely inspired by Brecht's Mother Courage, Ruined offers us a glimpse into the lives of these women as they struggle to survive. It's one powerful story.

The script feels authentic and was carefully researched and developed by interviewing women who live in the region under these deplorable conditions. The production has been running for months at Manhattan Theatre Club, but is still fresh, vital, and beautifully performed.

I'd be shocked if Ruined doesn't get a shot at Broadway soon.

Playing until August 23rd, The Temperamentals is the true story of the creation of American's first gay rights group. Staged both simply & beautifully in the intimate Barrow Group Theater, you feel as if you're a part of their early organizing - both victories & defeats. The entire cast is fabulous; lead with strength by Thomas Jay Ryan and Ugly Betty's Michael Urie.

Harry Hay, the founder of The Temperamentals, wasn't as known to me as Stonewall or Harvey Milk, but he's courageous and intelligent. Anyone currently involved in the fight for gay equality (and who believe it has to do with way more than marriage) will find lots to like in Hay's philosophies. He's no fan of total gay assimilation, and would question the value in the current pursuit of a strictly heteronormative agenda.

In fact, shortly before his death (at the age of 90) in 2002 Hay said, "The assimilationist movement is running us into the ground." Amen brother.

For big laughs, with zero assimilation, head downtown to Earl Dax's Hot! Festival. Queer performers have taken over the uber-trendy Dixon Place. Two of those performers are my good friends Jeffery Self and Cole Escola, extremely funny guys who have scored quite a hit with their current Logo TV show Jeffery & Cole Casserole.

Jeffery & Cole's Hot! Festival offering, 'Make It Bigger,' is loosely based on their story, from YouTube to the boob tube. Wonderfully raunchy and politically incorrect their rise to fame story has lots of familiar elements and big laughs. You can see their final performance on Thursday night.

--
Ryan is a freelance theater director, who is currently directing Vote! at FringeNYC and Street Lights at NYMF. His musical White Noise recently premiered regionally in New Orleans. Read his blog here.

Published 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.

Brooklyn L.I.D. Endorsements

Monday night Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, the largest gay political group in the borough, held an endorsement meeting for the upcoming NYC primaries. I'm new to the group's Board and wasn't sure what to expect-- but was pleasantly surprised. They had a great turnout and all the major candidates showed up.

Endorsements included: Bill Thompson for Mayor, Bill De Blasio for Public Advocate, Charles Hynes for District Attorney, Marty Markowitz for Borough President, and Diana Reyna for City Council District 34.

In the race for Comptroller, John Liu and David Yassky tied. There will be a runoff vote between those two on June 4th. Other races that will be considered on June 4th include: City Council Districts 33, 35, 38, 39, 46, and Civil Court judgeships.

I voted "No Endorsement" for NYC Mayor, because I'm unimpressed with the Democratic Candidates. I also support Norman Siegel over Bill De Blasio for Public Advocate.

Other thoughts:

• David Yassky is a generally impressive guy who couldn't give an answer that made any sense what-so-ever on his support repealing term limits. John Liu is my choice.
  
  
• I got the biggest laugh of the night for asking Mark Green how long it would take for him to begin his mayoral campaign after the Public Advocates race.
  
  
• The group voted to endorse Diana Reyna, City Councilmember in Bushwick, even though she doesn't support gay marriage because she's Catholic. How that's relevant to city business remains unclear.

Primary elections in New York City are on September 15th. For more information or to register to vote, visit the NYC Board of Elections.

It's Fine for Obama to Remain Silent on Gay Marriage

Queerty points out that Obama hasn't said anything about any of the recent gay marriage victories. Why should he? He thinks it's best left-up to the states and the states are deciding. Gibbs said that as plainly as he could today at the White House, "I think the President believes this is an issue that's best addressed by the states." Obama continues to support Civil Unions.

Obama is focused on major issues like the economy, the environment, and reforming health care. Just because he hasn't addressed Don't Ask, Don't Tell or DOMA doesn't mean he hasn't done anything for the gay community. Gay people live in the environment and are part of the economy. Some don't even have health insurance! Don't be dismayed Mr. President, some of us understand that you have to prioritize. You've already started helping the gay community, even if some of us don't get it.

The GOP and Gay Marriage: Let's Get it Straight

Maine leaped to the right side of history today with the passage of a gay-marriage bill through legislative channels. I'm impressed with the momentum of the LGBT movement post-Iowa, and it looks likely that advocates will reach their goal of marriage equality throughout New England by 2012.

What's overblown is all this talk, from Meghan McCain to Jon Huntsman, of the Republican Party "embracing" gay marriage. Not taken into account is what is sure to be a brutal 2012 primary decided largely by Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. In a recent poll, only 3 percent of Iowa Republicans found candidates who favored gay marriage appealing. And does anyone seriously think Huntsman has a shot at the GOP nomination? Republican primary voters in early 2012 states are too conservative for him, and he's the governor of Utah!

More likely than the GOP endorsing gay marriage is that 2012 candidates will be racing to support "traditional families" the most. (Huckabee may get super-duper-married, instead of just super-married.) It's gonna get really ugly, further regionalizing the party and peeling away young voters.

Lead by the Huckabees, Palins and Gingriches of the party, opposing gay marriage will be a cornerstone of the 2012 Republican candidates. We haven't heard the worst yet.

Originally posted on The Hill's Pundit Blog.

What Would An Omnibus LGBT Rights Bill Contain?

Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) is an openly gay freshman congressman who has been making lots of news lately. He just returned from Iraq, where he asked the American & Iraqi governments to investigate the murder of gay Iraqis. Now, he's talking about an omnibus LGBT rights bill.

What would such a bill include?

The nonprofit donors group eQualityGiving.org last month proposed that Congress tackle omnibus legislation that would include language regarding hate crimes, employment non-discrimination and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as well as language from other LGBT rights-related bills.

The group’s proposed measure would also contain a clause requiring the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships legalized by states.

Marriage rights wouldn't be included. Polis said that if the bill contained marriage language, “it’s a more difficult battle.”

President Obama is a supporter of gay Civil Unions. From the White House website: "Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights."

Could the omnibus bill contain some sort of gay civil union or domestic partnership language? It very well could. Recent national polls have shown majority support for civil unions, so it's not politically impossible. Excited to see how this develops.

Watch Me Saturday Morning

I'm appearing on Backstage Live, a web only section of CBS' The Early Show, tomorrow from 9:45-10:15AM. I'll chat with host Cali Carlin about topics ranging from Gay Marriage in NY to the upcoming Broadway Beauty Pageant.

Watch on-line here, Saturday from 9:45-10:15AM.

Gay Marriage Reintroduced In New York

Earlier tonight, I appeared on Brooklyn News 12 to talk about Gov. Paterson's reintroduction of a gay marriage bill in New York. You can watch the interview here.

I'm writing a piece for The Huffington Post on the increasing use of gay marriage as a tool to garner leftist support, that should be posted on Monday. For now, I'll say that I'm always happy to see politicians advancing progressive legislation and I hope Paterson has some clue on how to get 32 votes in the Senate. I also hope this doesn't all blow up in our faces and set the NY gay rights movement back several years.

Flashback: Read my Huffington Post piece Gay Marriage In New York Unlikely in '09 or '10, from February 6th 2008.

News 12 Brooklyn Tonight

I was interviewed today about Gov. Paterson and Gay Marriage for News 12 Brooklyn. It airs locally tonight on Channel 12 at 5:30PM. I'll post a video if one becomes available.

Update: Posted video.

NY Times On Iraqi Gays

Last week I asked gays to be mindful that despite victories in Iowa (and now Vermont & D.C.) we still had a long way to go to provide the most basic human rights to gays in The Middle East.

My piece was met with more scorn that I expected. One reader told me that we need to mind our own business! I truly hope isolationism is not the lesson that the left has learned from the Iraq War.

Now, The New York Times has stepped up with a brilliant (yet horrible) piece on gay Iraqis. It's worse than I thought.

In the past two months, the bodies of as many as 25 boys and men suspected of being gay have turned up in the huge Shiite enclave of Sadr City, the police and friends of the dead say. Most have been shot, some multiple times. Several have been found with the word “pervert” in Arabic on notes attached to their bodies, the police said.

“Three of my closest friends have been killed during the past two weeks alone,” said Basim, 23, a hairdresser. “They had been planning to go to a cafe away from Sadr City because we don’t feel safe here, but they killed them on the way. I had planned to go with them, but fortunately I didn’t.”

The entire piece is worth a read for a look inside Iraq's developing gay culture. It's extraordinarily unfair of American gays to advocate for gays to come out and express themselves and then abandon them to be murdered by thugs.

Queerty has more on what you can do.

Iowa Says Yes, We Can

Iowa's Supreme Court handed down an amazing unanimous decision striking down a 1998 gay marriage ban.

Equal protection under the Iowa Constitution is essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike. Since territorial times, Iowa has given meaning to this constitutional provision, striking blows to slavery and segregation, and recognizing women’s rights. The court found the issue of same-sex marriage comes to it with the same importance as the landmark cases of the past.”

This is great news. No doubt that the cultural zeitgeist is changing and Iowa is on the right side of history. This is the best thing Iowa has done since giving Barack Obama a big win in the Democratic Caucus.

Yesterday, I blogged about the disconnect between the American gay rights movement and the big picture. My argument stands that gay marriage shouldn't be at the top of our agenda. Bob Ostertag's brilliant piece on The Huffington Post is well worth a full read - but I'll give you a taste.

The fact is most of us won't marry even if we have the right to. We are putting all our resources into winning a right that only the few of us in long-term conventional couple relationships will enjoy. What's more, we are creating a social climate in which young queers are encouraged to recast their vision of the relationships they seek to favor the married couple. This is not only a loss for the vibrancy of queer culture, it is a disservice to young people who will not be well served by their nuclear family ambitions. Just consider the high number of gay and lesbian divorces (yes, the rate is already high despite the fact that we have not even fully won the right to marry yet).

It is no secret that marriage isn't working for straight people. That's why religious institutions are so up in arms about it. The institution of marriage is in crisis. On what basis does anyone imagine it is going to work better for queers?

Through years of queer demonstrations, meetings, readings and dinner table conversations, about gay bashing, police violence, job discrimination, housing discrimination, health care discrimination, immigration discrimination, family ostracism, teen suicide, AIDS profiteering, sodomy laws, and much more, I never once heard anyone identify the fact that they couldn't get married as being a major concern. And then, out of the blue, gay marriage suddenly became the litmus test by which we measure our allies. We have now come to the point that many unthinkingly equate opposition to gay marriage with homophobia.

As Bob says, marriage is a largely failed social institution. We're talking 40-50% of marriages fail, no small amount. Marriage doesn't have anything to do with my life, I only know it as something my parents did before they got divorced.

Gays Should Care More About Iraq Than Iowa

In the last couple hours I've gotten several messages on Facebook about Friday's impending Iowa Supreme Court ruling on Gay Marriage. Several of the activists groups I loosely belong to are planning a "celebration or protest" rally Friday evening in New York's Union Square from 6:30-7:30PM. The ruling is important, but it's likely to fall short of the full marriage rights that we're hoping for.

On the other side of the world, the idea of gay marriage is a total fantasy. In Iraq, over 100 gays have been scheduled for execution. They will be murdered by their government for being born homosexual.

Anyone brave enough to be a gay activist in Iraq is hunted down and murdered. One such activist group, Iraqi-LGBT, says:

“Raids by the Iraqi police and Ministry of Interior forces cost our group [to the extent of] disappearing and killing of 17 members working for Iraqi-LGBT since 2005.

“The death penalty has been increasing at an alarming rate in Iraq since the new Iraqi regime reintroduced it in August 2004.

“In 2008, at least 285 people were sentenced to death, and at least 34 executed. In 2007 at least 199 people were sentenced to death and 33 were executed, while in 2006 at least 65 people were put to death.

There isn't anything wrong with caring about gay marriage, it's certainly something we should work toward. But scheduling a rally to protest (or celebrate) the decision of Iowa's Supreme Court in the face of gay genocide in Iraq, rising HIV rates among young gays, and the increase in gay youth homelessness seems fairly trite to me.

Bottom line: It's time for the gay civil rights movement to expand it's agenda.

Sunday Morning Odds & Ends

Looking at the ideas behind the new Facebook design. I'm quite a fan of the Twitterlization of Facebook and see why they did it. You don't want Facebook to fall behind and become Myspace or... Friendster already do you?

What is your neighborhood's Walk Score? Enter your address and find out. Mine, Bushwick, got 89 out of 100. (h/t Freakonomics Blog)

Barack Obama made a dumb joke about the Special Olympics on Jay Leno. Gov. Schwarzenegger defends him.

Defending Provigil: "And is modafinil the next cocaine? Probably not. It just doesn't have the powerful reinforcing and rewarding effects. Not only that, it's usually taken as a pill, and so highs resulting from it are more unlikely."

Californians in 2010 will likely have a pro-gay marriage initiative to vote on. The ballot initiative process could lead to some on-again, off-again marriages.

Rupert Murdoch purchases The Brooklyn Paper.

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.

2012 Watch: Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr.

Gov. John Huntsman, of Utah, recently announced that he supports gay civil unions. The "good" people of Utah don't agree with their popular governor, 70% oppose them. Huntsman is not seeking reelection, leaving many to wonder if he plans to run for president as a GOP moderate.

It's not just civil unions, Huntsman is a fan of LGBT legislation in general.

Beyond civil unions, Huntsman also threw his support behind a bill to allow two unmarried, co-habiting adults to sign a "joint-support declaration" to gain inheritance rights and medical-decision making decisions for one another, as well as a bill to outlaw employment and housing discrimination for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

I can actually see how being more moderate on gay issues may help Huntsman in New Hampshire, but fail to see what his path to the nomination would be. Does he think he could win South Carolina in a primary against Palin? Doubtful.

He seems like a cool guy for a Mormon. He speaks fluent Chinese and is a fan of progressive rock, but still goes to the opera.

Part of my continuing series, 2012 Watch.

10PM Odds & Ends

I'm starting to feel better, from whatever coldy allergy thing that I'm dealing with here in Bloomington. Someone told me yesterday that, "If you don't have allergies before you come to Bloomington, you'll have them after." Well, I had them before. So, I guess I have them doubly now.

-- NY Times - Is the conservative Supreme Court out to abolish the Exclusionary Rule?

-- Another liberal pushing for a return of The Fairness Doctrine. This is one dumb issue.

-- Bob Burnett makes a case for the separation of civil unions and religious marriage. No one has ever explained to me what business the state has issuing marriage licenses. Federal civil unions for all. Get married in your church.

-- Wild visualization of Walmart's growth.

-- Focus On The Family spent six-times as much money on Prop 8 as the Mormons.

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.

Early Morning Odds & Ends

I'm up early, getting ready to leave for my flight to Indiana to direct the musical Vote! I'm a little worried about making it through airline security with this orange plastic bag from a Halloween store full of colorful costumes, but I guess it doesn't make me look like a terrorist... just crazy.


Jeff, Kevin,& Me

--Last night Kevin and I went to see People I Slept With Who Never Called Me Back at Ars Nova. The show, written and performed by my friend Jeffery Self, was part of Ars Nova's Residency Encore series and was extremely funny. You missed this run, but Jeffery is one half of YouTube's VGL Gay Boys and blogs daily. So, keep up.

-- This women, a lesbian denied seeing her dying partner in a Florida hospital, is an example of why the gay movement needs to focus on federal civil unions asap. It's not enough to protect gays who live in liberal states. Federal unions are the only way to protect the rights of gays and lesbians in conservative states where there isn't a path to full marriage in the near future.

-- Human cloning is finally viable. "The research is the first step toward therapeutic cloning — making embryonic stem cells from a patient's own DNA capable of replacing diseased tissue, failing organs and even lost limbs. And, theoretically, the same technique could be used to produce a cloned person."

-- Cablevision's internet service continues to be less reliable than the 28.8 modem I used in 7th grade and even makes AT&T's cell service look acceptable by comparison.