trapeze!

Hi everyone,

I will be performing in Ruby Streak Trapeze Studio's Springtime Showcase at The Bushwick Starr Theater (directions here) ** February 7, 2009 ** Showtimes: 7pm, 9pm ** Tickets available at the door for just $15. Please come and share this special night with me! A work-in-progress video of my piece is below:

international human rights day

pink

i *love* pink's new song, sober. the lyrics are raw, vulnerable, and brutally honest. and the video is smokin:

keith olbermann on Prop 8

November 10, 2008:

yup, another post on gay stuff

wow, i'm on a roll this week. i've been averaging one post a quarter. this week i'm writing 1+ a day!

anyway, yoga chickie posted this morning about the ABC primetime show "grey's anatomy" and the executives' choice to not only kill the lesbian storyline that just recently started to unfold, but to abruptly fire brooke smith, who portrayed a lesbian on the show.

i commented on YC's post, but decided to repost my response here as well.


earlier this week, l.a. times critic mary mcnamara wrote an insightful blog entry about the firing here.

in the article she discusses the homophobia (overt) as well as the sexism and ageism (not as apparent) that underscore the storyline's abrupt ending and brooke smith's firing:

"I suspect what irked whoever made the call ... is precisely what made the Erica/Callie relationship worth talking about. Not that they were both women — good heavens, how dull — but that they were, how shall we say, average size. With hips, you know, and actual breasts. Not two girly waifs exchanging a stolen kiss or a grope in the women's room stall over a line of coke, not an androgynous club kid putting her best moves on some sitcom heroine. But two women of substance, physically and psychologically, falling in love and talking about it way too much, the way women tend to do.

As Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) might say: 'Girl on girl is hot. Woman on woman? Just a downer.'"

in other words, they were two women unapologetically trying on a relationship with each other, not for the pleasure of the straight male viewership, not for shock value, not for any reason than simply to explore this kind of intimacy with one another.

i'd like to also point out that with the erasure of the GA's callie/erica storyline, the number of lesbian characters on any of the 2008-2009 616 primetime broadcast television series is approximately ZERO. studies have shown a clear correlation between the visibility of gays and lesbians on television, and attitudes towards homosexuality (and rates of suicide among LGBTQ teens).

i know i shouldn't be surprised, but the past week's events -- ABC's shenanigans simply underscoring four states' passage of absolutely hateful anti-gay measures -- remind us that there's no resting when we are on the (VERY long and rocky) road to equality.

why gay marriage is important

on june 29, 2005, spain became the fourth nation in the world to offer legal marriage to same-sex couples. the prime minister eloquently stated why this right to marry is so important:

Today, my government definitively submits for Senate approval the Bill, modifying Civil Law, [to] recognize today in Spain the rights of same-sex couples to enter in a marriage contract. Before Spain, they allowed this in Belgium, Holland, and, as of two days ago, Canada. We have not been the first, but I assure you that we will not be the last. After us, there will be many more countries motivated, honorable members, by two unstoppable forces: freedom and equality.

It is just a small change to the legal text, adding but a paragraph, in which we establish that marriage will have the same requisites, and the same rights, when the couple is either of different sexes, or the same sex. It is a small change in the letter of the law that creates an immense change in the lives of thousands of our fellow citizens.

We are not legislating, honorable members, for a far away and unknown people. We are extending the opportunity for happiness to our neighbors, co-workers, friends, and our families: at the same time, we are making a more decent society, because a decent society is one that does not humiliate its members.

In the poem “The family” our poet Luis Cernuda lamented:

“How does man live in denial, and how in vain
By giving rules that prohibit and condemn.”

Today, Spanish society responds to a group of people that for years have been humiliated, whose rights have been ignored, whose dignity has been offended, and whose identity and freedom has been denied. Today, Spanish society grants them the respect they deserve, recognizes their rights, restores their dignity, affirms their identity, and restores their freedom. It is true that they are only a minority, but their triumph is everyone’s triumph. It is also a triumph of those who oppose this law, even as they attempt to ignore it, because it is the triumph of freedom. This victory makes all of us a better society.

...

Aware that some people and institutions profoundly disagree with this legal change, I wish to say that like other reforms to the marriage code that preceded this one, this law will not generate bad results, that its only consequence will be to avoid senseless suffering of human beings. A society that avoids senseless suffering of its citizens is a better society.

...

With the approval of this Bill, our country takes another step in the path of freedom and tolerance that was started by the democratic Transition. Our children view us with incredulity when we tell them that many year ago, our mothers had less rights than our fathers, or we tell them that people had to stay married against their will.... Today we can offer them a beautiful lesson: every obtained right and liberty has been the result of the struggle and sacrifice of many people of whom we must recognize and be proud.

Today, we demonstrate with this Bill that societies can better themselves, and can cross barriers and create tolerance by putting a stop to the humiliation and unhappiness. Today, for many, comes the day evoked by Kavafis a century ago:

“Later was said of the most perfect society
someone else, made like me,
certainly will come out and act freely.”

yes he did, and no we didn't

wow. what a tumultuous election season. barack obama will be our 44th president. i can't even put into words how proud, excited, happy that makes me. for the first time i cast a vote for someone i truly believe in, rather than voting for someone who was simply less bad than the alternative. wow. barack obama will go down in history as one of the _great_ leaders and orators of our time. i look forward to celebrating his birthday with a national holiday and having my grandkids read his speeches in their history classes. i look forward to the fact that there will (hopefully) still be a world for potential grandkids to inhabit. change is here!

BUT.

FL. AZ. AR. CA. every single state passed hateful, discriminatory measures yesterday.

arizona passed an amendment to alter the constitution's definition of marriage as a privilege reserved only for straight people.

arkansas passed a proposition that says gays can't adopt or foster kids.

florida passed an amendment that not only outlaws gay marriage, but any substantive gay partnership that comes with legal protections or rights. thanks, florida.

but california's prop 8, which takes away the fundamental right of same-sex couples to marry as granted by the state's supreme court earlier this year, actually passed. i am really f-ing angry that a majority of california voters would deny gay couples the same dignity, respect, protection, and equality that other couples enjoy are afforded, and have been for the past 5 months. come on, california. i thought you were better than that. look what company you are keeping. in this election you effectively joined hands with the ultra-conservative bible belt in a very unholy matrimony.