This is my favorite Michael Jackson video, “Remember the Time,” though “Wanna Be Startin Somethin’” is probably my favorite song. I liked Michael’s music like most people, but was far from a HUGE fan. Nevertheless, I have found myself weeping at his loss. Perhaps he meant more to me than I thought.
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Tagged: michael jackson
Stonewall 40th and Pride Unveil NYC’s Shameful Priorities
Written by Yasmine Farhang & Kenyon Farrow
Just months before the 40th anniversary of one of the most significant rebellions of poor and working class queer and transgender people (mostly of color), out-lesbian New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced the city’s proposal for rich gay tourists to commemorate this anniversary—shop till you drop. But for us at Queers for Economic Justice and our allies, our movement for sexual liberation is not for sale.
This announcement was made weeks after New York City refused funding to organizations that house and provide services to homeless queer youth, leaving several organizations on the brink of closing. Speaker Quinn made the City’s priorities clear when she announced that two million dollars would go to launching a gay tourism marketing campaign called Rainbow Pilgrimage. The campaign claims to commemorate the forty year anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion by imploring tourists, domestically and internationally, to connect with this proud lineage. READ THE REST HERE.
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Tagged: lgbt pride, NYC PRIDE, queers for economic justice, stonewall
I recently met the author of this new piece on Wiretap Magazine called “Selling Ourselves: Questioning HIV Prevention Campaigns,” Kirk Grisham, through mutual friends and he’s a kindred spirit in trying to really push against all of the assumed narratives about “men who have sex with men,” and notions of “community” and “risk” in HIV prevention work. Let’s hope we get into Mailman, Kirk! LOL!
I have gotten into debates on this very blog about the meaning and efficacy of social marketing campaigns. While not perfect, and alone will not end the epidemic, I think they can be effective in breaking social norms, especially when they speak to people as having agency, value, and break certain silences and social taboos. In short: They get people talking and thinking.
Conversely, social marketing campaigns can also be stigmatizing, blaming, and as Grisham says in the article:
City agencies, private firms and the populations themselves share blame for producing these messages, which begs the question: Do we know what’s good for us? Are we simply propagating the same stigma, homophobia and racism vis-à-vis mainstream society through marketing, as seen in the Homoboy campaign?
Do these negative, racist and stigma-filled homophobic messages sell? Would positive messages work any better? Can one sell liberation?
He names some of the most problematic campaigns to come out in recent years, including “Don’t Be a Bitch. Wear A Condom.” The response he gets from Better World Advertising Exec Les Pappas (who I worked with on the WeArePartof You.org capaign)” basically says to Grisham that the message tested well in focus groups.
Where are your politics? When I was at New York State Black Gay Network and we did the campaign with Better World, we were very clear that we did not want to do some tacky stigmatizing campaign that talked down to Black gay men. The campaign we ended up with was taken to focus groups, but our values and politics shaped it from jump. This Don’t Be a Bitch message probably would test in the current social context where Black folks are running around talking about “Man Up” and “No Homo.” Does that make it right? Is it the goal of social marketing campaigns, as they pertain to public health interventions, just to mimick what else is already out there in the world? Or to actually know that what you’re doing isn’t doing more damage than it will acutally do any good? What are the measurements of success?
Very little reporting happens that questions the more subtle forms or racism and homopbobia that happen in do-gooder public relations campaigns. Thanks for continuing a conversation, Kirk.
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Tagged: black gay men, gay sex, hiv/aids, social marketing, wiretap magazine
This event should be a really interesting conversation. If you’re in NYC/NJ you should come through tonight! If not, make sure you get on board with the Newark Pride Events this week. I’ll be there. And I am comin’ from Brooklyn! What’s your excuse?
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Tagged: aclu, civil rights movements, gay civil rights, newark pride alliance, newark-essex pride coalition, people's organization for progress, queers for economic justice
I just started writing for a new Black-focused news site called TheGrio.com, and my first piece is on my growing frustration with same-sex marriage politics and the Black community:
I have spent many hours in lectures, panels and private conversations trying to explain why Black people, in poll after poll, overwhelmingly do not support same-sex marriage. But my arguments are beginning to lose steam and I am not sure I believe them anymore regardless of how I feel about gay marriage. At the end of the day, there is no excuse for homophobia and I am tired of indirectly defending it.
Hours after the California Supreme Court decided to uphold Proposition 8, effectively banning future same-sex marriages in that state, I found myself standing along a protest route where about 1000 same-sex marriage activists marched along 14th Street in Manhattan to rally in Union Square. Suddenly behind me I heard someone shout “God meant marriage for a man and a woman! Stand Strong Obama!” READ THE REST AT TheGrio.com
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Tagged: black homophobes, black lgbt, same-sex marriage, white gay racism
I have recently been having a lot of conversations with Black women, particularly lesbian friends, about Black gay misogyny. Without going into grave detail (right now anyways), what are the ways in which black gay male performances of black women actually support patriarchy more than they do to disrupt gender norms? Why is it that many people in our community can only be bothered with women they consider femme, attractive, or some other superficial markers of womanhood while are incredibly hostile to women, lesbians in particular who don’t perform for them, or fit certain high-femme gender norms of what it means to be a woman?
In any case, while I sometimes really am annoyed by Black gay misogyny, I cannot help but also be entertained and highly value the ways in which we continue to develop a whole language and culture that is a whole thing all its own. Case in point, the following video (and if you go to Youtube there’s a whole series of these) of a fake conversation between Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, which the two describe their frustrations with the other so-called Divas and Legends, reading as if they are two queens from the Ball scene. And what’s funnier is the script run through a computer voice interpreter which strips away the contours of how we actually sound, but you get to hear the actual words and phrasing. This is clearly written by a Black gay man, and while I have to ponder at the ways in which we invoke the feminine that are sometimes horribly problematic, it is at the same time very creative, inspired, and in this case, damn funny.
OK. One more. Whitney Houston schools Keri Hilson.
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Tagged: black gay men, janet jackson, Mariah Carey
The last few days have been strange.Perhaps it was not so strange, as it was a series of events that got me thinking alot about Black gay life in New York.
RIP! Octavia
Last week, we lost Octavia St. Laurent, singer and Ball scene legend and icon, who most would remember from the documentary Paris is Burning, and she also appeared in the 2003 film How Do I Look? Octavia was a really outspoken advocate for transgender and “third gender” people. In How Do I look? she describes herself as being third gender, and how she remembers seeing more third-gender people in the Black community years ago, but how violence and HIV/AIDS had taken many away from us. This is a really great interview of Octavia. Rest in Peace, Sweetie.
NYPD Beating of Two Black Lesbians in Brooklyn
On Saturday I got an email from my ex forwarded to him about the NYPD beating and arresting two Black lesbians outside of a nightclub in Bed-Stuy–right down the street from me. Audre Lorde Project’s SOS Campaign is taking the lead on organizing a response–which includes a rally on June 6th. Here’s the email in its entirety:
Hey ya’ll…
I am writing today with a heavy heart. And for me no matter how much the world seems to dissappoint me I always want to bounce back. But this time is a little different.
I and another lesbian in the community were involved in a BRUTAL BEATING by ALL MALE COPS the 77th PRECINCT of the NYPD.
It took place at the IFE LOUNGE, corner of Nostrand & Atlantic in Brooklyn. I know for a fact there were at least 100-200 woman outside at the time and I am hearing rumors of video footage. LOOK LADIES… IF YOU FIND CAN FIND A PARTY SO F-IN IMPORTANT, THAT YOU HAVE THE TIME TO TELL A FRIEND TO TELL A FRIEND TO POST BULLETINS TO EMAIL FLYERS. THEN I WOULD HOPE YOU WOULD HAVE THE TIME TO ASK A FRIEND TO ASK A FRIEND TO ASK A FRIEND TO FIND PICTURES VIDEOS, WRITTEN TESTIMONY TO SUPPORT THE FACT THAT TWO OF YOUR OWN WERE BEATEN IN THE STREET BY POLICE!!!
NOT ONLY WERE WE BEATEN, COPS HURLED ANTI-GAY STATEMENTS AS THEY RAISED THIER NIGHT STICKS IN THE AIR. LIKE “YOU FUCKIN BITCH ASS DYKE”… AND THEN HAD THE AUDACITY IN FRONT OF THEIR OWN SEARGENT AND THE REST OF THERE BROTHERS AND SISTERS SAY “WE ARE HAVIN SOME DYKE PUSSY IN HERE TONIGHT”
Really ladies… This crime wasn’t about me or about the other female involved. As I laid there and I felt the night sticks hit me, I thought of Martin Luther King, and what he had to endure just for us to have the freedoms we do today. I immediately relaxed my body, put my arms up where they can see I wasn’t resisting, and screamed at the top of my lungs for someone to hit record on there camera. As they pulled me into the car I knew then that they picked the wrong quote unquote “DYKE”, to mess with.
TODAY!!! ITS TIME FOR US TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!! I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely tired of the way police, club owners & bouncers treat us. If you didn’t know what they think about YOU. I hope you RECOGNIZE NOW, what it really is.
THIS IS WHAT WE NEED:
1. VIDEO FOOTAGE
2. PICTURE FOOTAGE
3. WRITTEN TESTIMONIES W/CONTACT INFORMATION
PLEASE EMAIL ME ASAP!!!
DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU IT ISN’T YOUR BUSINESS, IT IS. IF YOU HANG WITH US, PRAY WITH US, IF YOU PARTY WITH US, IF YOU SHOW YOUR PRIDE WITH US, THIS CRIME WAS COMMITTED AGAINST YOU AND MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY. Email me @ civilrights@LadiesLoveLadies.com
Prop 8
As many of you know, the California Supreme Court upheld Prop 8, which placed a state Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage but declared the 18000 same-sex marriages that occurred between May 15 and November 5 to be legal marriages. A mess. Anyhoo, I was passing the NYC protest and March that happened last night protesting the decision and got some photos. Some of the posters are, well, I’ll let you decide.
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Tagged: audre lorde project, california supreme court, homophobic violence, NYPD, octavia st. laurent, prop 8
I met Brontez Purnell about a year ago in Oakland. Anyhoo, we’ve become very good buds and and I continue to learn how totally talented he is–not to mention hella sexy. Here’s his bio from Zinewiki:
Brontez Purnell is a zinester, writer, dancer and musician, who now lives in California.
Brontez was originally from Triana, Alabama, then moving to Huntsville, Alabama, and then to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he released Schlepp Fanzine while still living at home. He then relocated on his own to Oakland, California, where he released his next zine, Fag School. Three issues of the zine have been released to date. During this time he was in a number of punk bands.
After his arrival in California, he briefly played guitar for the band Panty Raid, then joined the group Gravy Train!!!!, (as ‘Junx’) in which he continues to perform, record and make videos with. He is also the mastermind behind the band The Younger Lovers. He has performed with the band Hot Ass Sex Bomb with members Janelle Hessig and Vice Cooler and, as well, he DJs at clubs in San Francisco.
Brontez has written for various publications, including the on-line edition of Jigsaw, and has also written a column called “She’s Over It” for Maximum Rock ‘N’ Roll. He has read his work at Lit Quake in San Francisco.
Here’s a video of him reading from Fag School. It’s hilarious. Brontez was in NYC a few weeks ago doing some shows, and I wish he lived closer. I miss him and we’ve only seen each other like 4 times.
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Tagged: black punks, brontez purnell, fag school
Instead of spending your hard-earned cash on the boys on the pole, in the back of HX, or on the now ill-fated Craigslist escort “Adult Services” ads, go see some Whore Works, playing at the Kraine Theater for 6 more shows.
WHORE WORKS features a male prostitute (played by Juan Michael Porter II, who also wrote the play) servicing several clients, (all played by Bryan Webster, far left) over the course of several vignettes that are by turns pulse-quickening, thought-provoking, hilarious and surreal. If you’re a prude, from the Family Research Council, or don’t like male nudity and simulated sex acts, as George Clinton once said — KEEP YO DEAD ASS HOME!
The play explores the dynamics of sex for pay, and what happens when feelings get caught in the trade–but this is no Pretty Woman. Bryan Webster’s work is some of the stongest and most engaging character work I’ve seen in a long time on stage for an actor playing multiple roles. Sex aside, Webster’s work is worth the price of admission.
Sugar Valley Theatricals
presents
Whore Works
a play by Juan Michael Porter II, directed by Patricia R. Floyd
with Bryan Webster & Juan Michael Porter II
Kraine Theater, 85 East 4th Street between 2nd & 3rd Avenues, New York
Thursday-Saturday, May 14, 15, and 16
Thursday-Saturday, May 21, 22, and 23
Thursday-Saturday, May 28, 29 and 30
All performances at 7:00 p.m.
Tickets $18 available by calling TheaterMania at 866-811-4111or online at www.whoreworks.com
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Tagged: black gay theater, whore works
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