News for the Week Ended February 2, 2011
BY ANN ROSTOW
Let’s Roll
This morning, Austin’s energy mandarins are conducting rolling blackouts because, um, it’s sort of cold here and too many people are using the heat. Yes, chaos reigns in Egypt, raging blizzards paralyze the Midwest, and the GLBT community struggles as ever for society to toss small shreds of human decency its way. But my power is out!
It goes on for ten minutes every hour, just enough time for me to make a slice of toast on the last brief surge of electricity. I also checked around for interesting GLBT news and noticed that the Iowa House has passed the anti-gay amendment that could possibly send Iowa’s marriage law to a repeal vote in the next election.
As I mentioned last week, the head of the Iowa state senate has pledged to block a vote in his chamber, but it seems there may be some Machiavellian way for Republicans to circumvent his authority. I’ll have to check further during my next power window.
Or not.
--
NCLR Saves The Day At Minnesota High School
Perhaps I’ll use this state of emergency as an excuse to avoid laborious fact checking in favor of hazy snippets of remembered GLBT news items, Proust-style. I can use my delicious piece of toast as a catalyst to evoke the lost times.
Crunch. Yum. Now I remember, for example, as if it were yesterday, the story of two high school girls somewhere, who were elected by their peers as, hmmm, a royal couple of some sort in one of those odd high school traditions. The school authorities refused to let the girls join their heterosexual counterparts in the ceremonial walk down the assembly aisle (or wherever the ceremonial walk was to take place) until thankfully, the National Center for Lesbian Rights rode to the rescue with a threatened lawsuit and all was made right in the world. I think it was yesterday, actually.
Oh! The power’s on again. Quickly now. To the Internet!
The girls in the above story, Dez and Sarah, went to a school in Minnesota and were elected to the Snow Days Week Royalty Court as part of the Snow Days Week festival. (Power is gone, now.)
At first, the school announced it would cancel the parade of royal couples rather than subject the assembly to the disturbing spectacle of tux-clad lesbian teens. After ignoring a stern letter from the NCLR on Friday, the San Francisco based legal group actually did file a federal lawsuit later that afternoon, and happily, the matter was settled in a mediation session Saturday---just in time for the “Pep Fest” on Monday!
Did your high school conduct these medieval rituals? Mine didn’t, although we did have a class-versus-class Glee-type song competition. To this day, I remember most of the words to: “Kids! I don’t know what’s wrong with these kids today, etc.…” We came in second.
Speaking of mediation, I’ve seen the trailers for a new legal TV show about a woman who gives up her law practice to be a mediator. I haven’t watched it, but it sounds like it would inherently be less interesting that an actual legal drama doesn’t it? It’s like a show about an ER doctor who quits to run the local drug store’s “minute clinic.”
“Dr. Blake… oh sorry, I mean Stan. Would you mind having a look at this? I think it could be bronchitis.”
“Hmmm. You’re right Sally. Mrs. Morris, you really should call your regular doctor. You might need some antibiotics.”
--
Illinois Joins the Cool States
Moving on, the governor of Illinois (who I think might be named Pat Something) has signed the civil union bill that passed the legislature a couple of weeks ago. I just realized that it’s February 2, so whenever I’m not sure of a recent date I can just write “last month.” Well, at any rate the civil union bill passed in January.
Illinois is the sixth state to offer full civil unions that provide all the rights of marriage without the title or status. The others are California, New Jersey, Nevada, Washington and Oregon. I know Hawaii is working on a civil union bill as well, as is New Mexico (I’m pretty sure). Plus, we have our five marriage states (Massachusetts, Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire and Connecticut), so we’re making some progress here. New York and Maryland recognize marriages from out of state as well, and both those states are addressing the legalization of marriage in their current legislative sessions.
Power back. The Illinois governor is Patrick Quinn. Thanks for signing the civil union bill Governor Quinn!
The TV popped back on in time for a warning to women about heart attacks. It seems that the symptoms for our heart attacks, like many other gender-based contrasts in this life, are more subtle than those of men. Instead of crushing chest pain and shooting agony down our right arms, we experience “dizziness,” “fatigue,” “shortness of breath” and other vague hints of imminent death. We may suffer flu-like aches and pains in the days running up to our attack. Not surprisingly, few of us actually dial 911 under these circumstances and therefore, we are more likely to die.
The people on TV basically suggested that women become more alert to these warning signs and take prompt action, a ludicrous recommendation considering many of us spend most of our lives under the sway of one or more of these coronary harbingers. Fatigue, aches, and pains are among my favorite personal complaints. Throw in a pack of Winstons and a few cocktails and we can add shortness of breath and dizziness to the list. But you don’t see me running off to the hospital like a baby now, do you?
Guys, I love you. But if fatigue or flu-like symptoms were the precursors of male heart attacks, America’s ERs would be packed tighter than a sports bar on Saturday.
--
Bush Twin Comes Out For Marriage
I suppose you noticed that Barbara Bush, the twin not the FLOTUS, taped a video in favor of marriage equality as part of an HRC promotional effort to push marriage in New York. I was just about to write something slightly cynical about it when I saw a headline from OnTop that read: “Barbara Bush Gay Marriage Nod Called Irrelevant, Insincere.”
Immediately I felt myself rise to her defense and condemn the critics as mean spirited, even before reading the article. After all, Barbara Bush was under no obligation to cooperate with HRC’s marriage campaign. Surely we can use all the friends we can get and how callous of us to turn our backs on this genuine gesture of solidarity.
Turned out the headline was a bit off. The pundits in the article pointed out that George W Bush and company manipulated homophobia to his benefit during the 2004 election, even though he had no particular personal feelings one way or the other. His wife Laura, in turn, stood by silently even though she herself probably backed same-sex marriage at the time. This, kind of political calculation, said someone who I forget, is even worse than heartfelt homophobia.
I’m no fan of George Bush, but I far prefer the conservatives who don’t really hate gays and lesbians to the ones with heartfelt homophobia. I mean, please. As for the twins, they have nothing to do with this. And would you really expect the wife of a president or a candidate to publicly repudiate part of his platform? As I recall, Laura Bush always ducked gay questions, which was the best she could do under the circumstances unless she had wanted to make a courageous stand.
Was Barbara Bush’s statement “irrelevant?” Maybe. In fact that was going to be the point of my cynical comment. But you know what? For whatever reason, her endorsement is big mainstream news. I just saw it flash under the MSNBC screen for the tenth time, so good for her. The defection of GOP youth, and some seniors, from the antigay party line is significant and to be encouraged. Each Republican celebrity who joins the fight for marriage equality deepens the erosion on the other side, and it seems Barbara Bush belongs in that celebrity category.
Et tu, Jenna?
--
GLAAD Finds An Acorn
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is up in arms over a transphobic sketch on Saturday Night Live that purports to advertise a one-a-day estrogen pill for MTF transsexuals.
I’m usually the first to roll my eyes over GLAAD’s hair-trigger sensibilities and humorless scoldings. But the skit was amazingly nasty, a two-minute frat boy attack on transitioning women, featuring masculine looking men in moustaches and dresses and including a sophomoric scene at an airport security station. The skit’s only theme was summed up in the idea that MTF transsexuals are bizarre oddities by their very nature.
I say “amazing” because for some reason I thought Saturday Night Live operated on a higher level. Nothing is beyond humor in my book, not even gender identity. But here’s the problem. Humor, like poetry and art, is founded on common assumptions and develops from there. To the extent that the common assumptions about what it means to be gay or lesbian are becoming increasingly rich and nuanced, we see much more opportunity for humor that uses gay men or lesbians as the theme rather than an object of ridicule. Just because someone makes fun of a gay guy in a commercial doesn’t mean it’s homophobic.
The trans community is far less understood and far more vulnerable to negative stereotypes. Indeed, there’s so little common wisdom on the subject of gender identity in mainstream society that truly funny trans jokes, though not impossible, present a delicate comedic challenge. How could the SNL writers and editors not know that?
The mock commercial, designed solely for everyone else to laugh at transwomen behind their backs, was something you’d expect from a Hasty Pudding show from the 1960s. Not from the writers of our iconic national comedy hour. It’s not simply that SNL needs to apologize. These writers need to spend a weekend in the company of a dozen transgender women and be schooled in what life is like for transitioning women in this country.
--
Honoring David Kato
Finally, I gather from Michael Petrelis’s blog that Gays Without Borders is planning a vigil Thursday night in honor of murdered Ugandan gay rights activist, David Kato, a man who courageously risked his life on a daily basis to fight for respect in a country that abhors homosexuality.
Petrelis asked the Castro district merchants group for permission to lower the rainbow flag on Castro and Market to half-staff for the event, but the group said no. According to the merchants, who are in charge of the flag, there are four to eight requests to lower the flag every week. Obviously, as Steve Adams wrote Petrelis, if the group were to agree to all these requests, the flag would be permanently at half-staff. (Actually, now that I think about it, maybe the flag should be at half-staff all the time, and we could raise it on special occasions, like big court victories or Gay Pride Day).
Anyway, I can’t characterize the routine requests of which Adams writes. But Kato is a gay martyr. His life eulogized by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, his death covered in the pages of major newspapers around the world, his sacrifice marked by vigils in New York, London, San Francisco and Cape Town.
If the Castro merchants can’t lower the rainbow flag for David Kato, hammered to death after his name and address were published last October in one of the most homophobic countries in the world, who would they choose to honor with this sign of respect?
Maybe Uganda is too far away.
BY ANN ROSTOW
Let’s Roll
This morning, Austin’s energy mandarins are conducting rolling blackouts because, um, it’s sort of cold here and too many people are using the heat. Yes, chaos reigns in Egypt, raging blizzards paralyze the Midwest, and the GLBT community struggles as ever for society to toss small shreds of human decency its way. But my power is out!
It goes on for ten minutes every hour, just enough time for me to make a slice of toast on the last brief surge of electricity. I also checked around for interesting GLBT news and noticed that the Iowa House has passed the anti-gay amendment that could possibly send Iowa’s marriage law to a repeal vote in the next election.
As I mentioned last week, the head of the Iowa state senate has pledged to block a vote in his chamber, but it seems there may be some Machiavellian way for Republicans to circumvent his authority. I’ll have to check further during my next power window.
Or not.
--
NCLR Saves The Day At Minnesota High School
Perhaps I’ll use this state of emergency as an excuse to avoid laborious fact checking in favor of hazy snippets of remembered GLBT news items, Proust-style. I can use my delicious piece of toast as a catalyst to evoke the lost times.
Crunch. Yum. Now I remember, for example, as if it were yesterday, the story of two high school girls somewhere, who were elected by their peers as, hmmm, a royal couple of some sort in one of those odd high school traditions. The school authorities refused to let the girls join their heterosexual counterparts in the ceremonial walk down the assembly aisle (or wherever the ceremonial walk was to take place) until thankfully, the National Center for Lesbian Rights rode to the rescue with a threatened lawsuit and all was made right in the world. I think it was yesterday, actually.
Oh! The power’s on again. Quickly now. To the Internet!
The girls in the above story, Dez and Sarah, went to a school in Minnesota and were elected to the Snow Days Week Royalty Court as part of the Snow Days Week festival. (Power is gone, now.)
At first, the school announced it would cancel the parade of royal couples rather than subject the assembly to the disturbing spectacle of tux-clad lesbian teens. After ignoring a stern letter from the NCLR on Friday, the San Francisco based legal group actually did file a federal lawsuit later that afternoon, and happily, the matter was settled in a mediation session Saturday---just in time for the “Pep Fest” on Monday!
Did your high school conduct these medieval rituals? Mine didn’t, although we did have a class-versus-class Glee-type song competition. To this day, I remember most of the words to: “Kids! I don’t know what’s wrong with these kids today, etc.…” We came in second.
Speaking of mediation, I’ve seen the trailers for a new legal TV show about a woman who gives up her law practice to be a mediator. I haven’t watched it, but it sounds like it would inherently be less interesting that an actual legal drama doesn’t it? It’s like a show about an ER doctor who quits to run the local drug store’s “minute clinic.”
“Dr. Blake… oh sorry, I mean Stan. Would you mind having a look at this? I think it could be bronchitis.”
“Hmmm. You’re right Sally. Mrs. Morris, you really should call your regular doctor. You might need some antibiotics.”
--
Illinois Joins the Cool States
Moving on, the governor of Illinois (who I think might be named Pat Something) has signed the civil union bill that passed the legislature a couple of weeks ago. I just realized that it’s February 2, so whenever I’m not sure of a recent date I can just write “last month.” Well, at any rate the civil union bill passed in January.
Illinois is the sixth state to offer full civil unions that provide all the rights of marriage without the title or status. The others are California, New Jersey, Nevada, Washington and Oregon. I know Hawaii is working on a civil union bill as well, as is New Mexico (I’m pretty sure). Plus, we have our five marriage states (Massachusetts, Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire and Connecticut), so we’re making some progress here. New York and Maryland recognize marriages from out of state as well, and both those states are addressing the legalization of marriage in their current legislative sessions.
Power back. The Illinois governor is Patrick Quinn. Thanks for signing the civil union bill Governor Quinn!
The TV popped back on in time for a warning to women about heart attacks. It seems that the symptoms for our heart attacks, like many other gender-based contrasts in this life, are more subtle than those of men. Instead of crushing chest pain and shooting agony down our right arms, we experience “dizziness,” “fatigue,” “shortness of breath” and other vague hints of imminent death. We may suffer flu-like aches and pains in the days running up to our attack. Not surprisingly, few of us actually dial 911 under these circumstances and therefore, we are more likely to die.
The people on TV basically suggested that women become more alert to these warning signs and take prompt action, a ludicrous recommendation considering many of us spend most of our lives under the sway of one or more of these coronary harbingers. Fatigue, aches, and pains are among my favorite personal complaints. Throw in a pack of Winstons and a few cocktails and we can add shortness of breath and dizziness to the list. But you don’t see me running off to the hospital like a baby now, do you?
Guys, I love you. But if fatigue or flu-like symptoms were the precursors of male heart attacks, America’s ERs would be packed tighter than a sports bar on Saturday.
--
Bush Twin Comes Out For Marriage
I suppose you noticed that Barbara Bush, the twin not the FLOTUS, taped a video in favor of marriage equality as part of an HRC promotional effort to push marriage in New York. I was just about to write something slightly cynical about it when I saw a headline from OnTop that read: “Barbara Bush Gay Marriage Nod Called Irrelevant, Insincere.”
Immediately I felt myself rise to her defense and condemn the critics as mean spirited, even before reading the article. After all, Barbara Bush was under no obligation to cooperate with HRC’s marriage campaign. Surely we can use all the friends we can get and how callous of us to turn our backs on this genuine gesture of solidarity.
Turned out the headline was a bit off. The pundits in the article pointed out that George W Bush and company manipulated homophobia to his benefit during the 2004 election, even though he had no particular personal feelings one way or the other. His wife Laura, in turn, stood by silently even though she herself probably backed same-sex marriage at the time. This, kind of political calculation, said someone who I forget, is even worse than heartfelt homophobia.
I’m no fan of George Bush, but I far prefer the conservatives who don’t really hate gays and lesbians to the ones with heartfelt homophobia. I mean, please. As for the twins, they have nothing to do with this. And would you really expect the wife of a president or a candidate to publicly repudiate part of his platform? As I recall, Laura Bush always ducked gay questions, which was the best she could do under the circumstances unless she had wanted to make a courageous stand.
Was Barbara Bush’s statement “irrelevant?” Maybe. In fact that was going to be the point of my cynical comment. But you know what? For whatever reason, her endorsement is big mainstream news. I just saw it flash under the MSNBC screen for the tenth time, so good for her. The defection of GOP youth, and some seniors, from the antigay party line is significant and to be encouraged. Each Republican celebrity who joins the fight for marriage equality deepens the erosion on the other side, and it seems Barbara Bush belongs in that celebrity category.
Et tu, Jenna?
--
GLAAD Finds An Acorn
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is up in arms over a transphobic sketch on Saturday Night Live that purports to advertise a one-a-day estrogen pill for MTF transsexuals.
I’m usually the first to roll my eyes over GLAAD’s hair-trigger sensibilities and humorless scoldings. But the skit was amazingly nasty, a two-minute frat boy attack on transitioning women, featuring masculine looking men in moustaches and dresses and including a sophomoric scene at an airport security station. The skit’s only theme was summed up in the idea that MTF transsexuals are bizarre oddities by their very nature.
I say “amazing” because for some reason I thought Saturday Night Live operated on a higher level. Nothing is beyond humor in my book, not even gender identity. But here’s the problem. Humor, like poetry and art, is founded on common assumptions and develops from there. To the extent that the common assumptions about what it means to be gay or lesbian are becoming increasingly rich and nuanced, we see much more opportunity for humor that uses gay men or lesbians as the theme rather than an object of ridicule. Just because someone makes fun of a gay guy in a commercial doesn’t mean it’s homophobic.
The trans community is far less understood and far more vulnerable to negative stereotypes. Indeed, there’s so little common wisdom on the subject of gender identity in mainstream society that truly funny trans jokes, though not impossible, present a delicate comedic challenge. How could the SNL writers and editors not know that?
The mock commercial, designed solely for everyone else to laugh at transwomen behind their backs, was something you’d expect from a Hasty Pudding show from the 1960s. Not from the writers of our iconic national comedy hour. It’s not simply that SNL needs to apologize. These writers need to spend a weekend in the company of a dozen transgender women and be schooled in what life is like for transitioning women in this country.
--
Honoring David Kato
Finally, I gather from Michael Petrelis’s blog that Gays Without Borders is planning a vigil Thursday night in honor of murdered Ugandan gay rights activist, David Kato, a man who courageously risked his life on a daily basis to fight for respect in a country that abhors homosexuality.
Petrelis asked the Castro district merchants group for permission to lower the rainbow flag on Castro and Market to half-staff for the event, but the group said no. According to the merchants, who are in charge of the flag, there are four to eight requests to lower the flag every week. Obviously, as Steve Adams wrote Petrelis, if the group were to agree to all these requests, the flag would be permanently at half-staff. (Actually, now that I think about it, maybe the flag should be at half-staff all the time, and we could raise it on special occasions, like big court victories or Gay Pride Day).
Anyway, I can’t characterize the routine requests of which Adams writes. But Kato is a gay martyr. His life eulogized by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, his death covered in the pages of major newspapers around the world, his sacrifice marked by vigils in New York, London, San Francisco and Cape Town.
If the Castro merchants can’t lower the rainbow flag for David Kato, hammered to death after his name and address were published last October in one of the most homophobic countries in the world, who would they choose to honor with this sign of respect?
Maybe Uganda is too far away.
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