Category Archives: Bo Young

Arts, Bo Young, Culture, Current Affairs, Dan Vera, Elders, Entertainment, Music

A Goddess Speaks…and sings…

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There are very few artists who we revere as much as Joni Mitchell. In her complete and utter disgust with the music industry, a few years ago, she walked away and announced that she would never record again.

Maybe there’s something in those cigarettes? Or maybe there’s something in Starbucks coffee…we’re going to have to rethink our preference for Peet’s on the basis of this alone, I would say…but Joni has returned. And in this wonderful video, she speaks of her new multi-media project. Give a listen…this is the kind of truth telling that makes steel dance and glass sing. The music is available tomorrow, September 25.

Bo Young, Community, Culture, Current Affairs, History

Martin Niemöller, where are you?

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"In Germany, they came first for the Communists…"

Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote this famous poem as a reaction to the inactivity of the German intellectuals leading up to the Nazi regime and its brutal repressions. And the last thing I am interested in is more mongering of fear…but just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean….

Power has learned a thing or three since those ham-handed days, but the end result is no less chilling. Speaking as someone who was maced and beaten by seven Des Moines, Iowa cops back when the last criminal administration was in power, 1969, there have been a few occurences lately that have taken my breath away. In my case, it was five in the morning and I was walking back to my apartment off campus, a half block away from it, actually, when I was stopped, maced and beaten, my shirt torn off me, and I was unceremoniously stuffed in the back of a police cruiser and taken to …a mental hospital. They told my parents I was "crazed on drugs and climbing trees." In court, I was charged with "resisting arrest and simulating intoxication" (actually the bailiff misspoke and said "resisting intoxication and simulating arrest" to which I almost blurted out a "guilty" plea! Let me just say this…I was, as they say, in an "altered state" but I assure you, I wasn’t climbing trees. They lied. And they scared the shit out of my parents so they would put a lid on me.

In any event, while the corporate media gives us their happy talk and our dose of Daily Fear, ("BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID"…of toys, cholesterol, terrorists, good food, bad food, identity theft, dogs, cats, global warming, doom, gloom…I sometimes think the only reason some of these are getting any coverage is because they’re scary and serve their larger purposes…or sometimes it’s not "be afraid" it’s "those pesky celebs!" and we’re fed a steady diet of high fructose celebrity simple syrup)…there seems to be a growing threat against free speech. Back when the Republicrats had their convention here in New York, our billionaire mayor refused to allow a peaceful assembly of dissenters to gather in the Great Lawn or the Sheeps Meadow of Central Park, putting up some lame excuse about the grass.

And while most magazines, even in the Gay community (where media is slowly but inexorably being transformed by the attrition of market failure and bankruptcy or being gobbled up into conglomerate corporate blandness)…heck, especially in the Gay community…I mean, even I was almost distracted with our friend Malcolm Boyd being named to yet another "Top 10 List! Top 40 List! Top 100"…you fill in the number…how much bread and circus does it take to glaze over the eyes of a people? How many Brittney stories? How many O.J. stories? How many celebrity weddings? Even the Advocate list, a pale attempt at depth and history, ended up being more a celebration of fame mistaken for influence. Among the top ten, of that list of "Top 40 Influential Gays," there’s Elton John, Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O’Donnell, inane, self-absorbed celebrities who basically hid in their plush-lined closets and denied beng Gay for years…thirty years after Stonewall, mind you…until it became a convenient career move.

Boy…now that’s a hero! Extra ham on mine, please.

But a steady diet of processed sugar and processed news (have you noticed how all the networks always seem to have the same stories on the same days? They Decide…You Abide) is bound to blur and confuse after a while. And that’s the point. Isn’t it? You’re just too groggy to lift your head off the couch and say, hey…wait a minute…

I wrote about the cop threatening the silly spectator at Farm Aid. What great crime was he masterminding? Strolling…skipping, actually, back and forth a couple of times in the background of a television interview being carried out in a field of 30,000 people, lifting his shirt! Momma save the children! Like we’ve never seen that on the evening news. How dare he?! And without any prompting or so much as a request from the news people (Faux…er, Fox News, actually), Johnny-On-The-Law yanked Mr. Silly out of camera range and clearly threatened him with his wagging finger and god knows what else. Mr. Silly’s friends quickly spirited him away, calming him down. His face was pale with rage.

And now we have this student (it’s always the students, isn’t it?) in Orlando, at Florida University (and no…that’s not an oxymoron) being tasered…TASERED!…for having the impertinence to ask pointed questions of John Kerry (I believe one of them was "Aren’t you and the President members of the same secret society at Yale? Skull and Bones?…and yes…they are.) The clips, all over YouTube, are pretty frightening with him being hustled out…incredibly, all the while Kerry saying "That’s all right. I’ll answer…let me answer his question,"… so Kerry isn’t asking to have him removed….this was an independent decision by campus Rent-A-Cops it seems.)

But this isn’t the scary part. The scary thing, from my perspective, is how the student is being demonized. Nice work this morning, Lauer, way to go after the lawyer of this kid. Matt Lauer questioned the student’s lawyer this morning like he was O.J. Simpson, pushing him (with his "serious face" on) with questions about "Is this guy a student? A campus loudmouth? Or a political agitator?" …like, how dare he ask those questions!!? Doesn’t he know what questions we’re supposed to ask and which ones we’ve all agreed to steer clear of? jeez, man…get professional, you know? Honestly, I think Matt Lauer saw his job flash before his eyes there …and he was scared. Where in the world is Matt Lauer coming from?

Almost all the stories are not about the over-reaction (to be kind) of the over-armed campus police (the justification, of course, being Virginia Tech…like the problem there was "not enough guns on campus") but about whether or not the student was an agitator? How dare he continue to ask questions about the stealing of a Presidential election? Isn’t that all settled? Can’t we move on!?

I hear this morning he’s being charged with "resisting arrest and disturbing the peace."

Peace? What peace?

Let’s not all forget that the U.S. government is capable of this and a helluva lot more. I have two words for you…Kent State. They weren’t tasering then…they were using bullets. Four dead in Ohio…

Arts, Bo Young, Community, Culture, Elders, Friends, Gay Wisdom, History, Malcolm Boyd, Men, White Crane Institute programs

Fellow Travelers — On the Road Again…

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White Crane Institute has been presenting Mark Thompson’s Fellow Travelers photography exhibit for the past few months at the New York LGBT Community Center. In October it will move to the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia. While it was here, Out At The Center, the LGBT Center video project, interviewed Mark and Bo about the show. Ok…so they misspelled Kilheffner, Monette and Ram Dass…the photos are stunning and the history is deep.

In November, Fellow Travelers will move to Salt Lake City in support of the Queer Spirit Retreat work Jerry Buie is doing. If you are interested in Fellow Travelers coming to your city, contact us at editors@gaywisdom.org .

Bo Young, Community, Current Affairs, Entertainment, Music

Faux News and Friends…

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Fauxnewscom I was at Farm Aid yesterday, standing in line at one point to use their disgusting shitters, when I saw a reporter and cameraman from local Faux News sticking their camera’s in people’s faces for "man on the street" shit for their despicable programming. There were about 35,000 people in the crowd, and one of them was a sort of tallish, straight man (I believe…at least he and I have never sucked one another’s cocks) who seemed to be being silly and enjoying it…so while this "reporter" (I have a hard time using that with respect to Faux News) was interviewing this other person, Mr. Silly was prancing along behind camera, pulling up his shirt to display his attractive torso for the camera (how they would have even got it in the shot is debatable…the camera was tight in on the interviewee, and there probably wasn’t a whole lot of background showing behind him.) Mr. Silly’s friends looked on, slightly embarrassed, it seemed, by their friend’s antics, but the interview proceeded unabated.

In any event…Mr. Silly did this a couple of times and all of a sudden, out of the crowd, came this uniformed cop, with a lot of brass on his starchy shirt. He commanded Mr. Silly, "Come over here!"…and Mr. Silly complied. And from my vantage point of about 20 yards away, you could see that Mr. Silly was getting quite the talking-to tongue-lashing, after which Brass Ass Starched Shirt marched away, and Mr. Silly’s friends had to sort of calm him down it seems, putting their arms around him and cooing calming things into his ear.

Faux_news_logo I couldn’t believe it! How DARE Mr. Silly interfere with Corporate Media’s shooting of the event!? And the amazing thing was the Faux News folks didn’t even need to ASK for this police escort, he jumped in unbidden to "preserve the peace" (yeah…right) like this silly prancer was creating some kind of threatening nuisance. Not even the Faux people seemed to think he was interfering with their interview, either. It was one of those small, little moments that makes my heart sink.

.

The event was…an event. Seems it actually has to be "Earth Day" and a "Save the Earth" concert, and not just farmers, for some people to remember not to throw their trash on the ground when they’re done swilling their beer and chowing down on their organic corn dogs, as I saw repeatedly. Obviously it was a small percentage of the 35,000 or so people in attendance, but then that’s all it takes to sort of filthy things up, isn’t it?

.

.

It was a nice day, not too hot, the music was good. Or at least it got better. Early sound left much to be desired. The sound guys just didn’t seem to get on the ball until later when the headliners showed up.

Counting Crows (who I wouldn’t know, other than by name, if they showed up at my front door); the ever cute Dave Matthews, singing and playing acoustic guitar fantasitcally with one accompanist. Ditto the Allman Brothers (electric), John Cougar Mellencamp (really great), adn Neil Young, who was magnificent, acoustic and quite mellow. At the end of the day, it was lovely to lay in the grass, swathed in the baby-blanket softness of the night air, and look up at the night sky and be serenaded by Neil Young singing:

.

Workin’ hard every day

Never notice how

the time slips away

People come, seasons go,

We got something

that’ll never grow old.

.

I don’t care

if the sun don’t shine

And rain keeps pouring

down on me and mine

‘Cause our kind of love

never seems to get old

It’s better than silver and gold.

.

I used to have a treasure chest

Got so heavy I had to rest

I let it slip away from me

Didn’t need it anyway

So I let it slip away.

.

I don’t care

if the sun don’t shine

and rain keeps pouring

down on me and mine

‘Cause our kind of love

never seems to get old

It’s better than silver and gold.

Bo Young, Community, Current Affairs, Gay Wisdom, Health, Men, Radical Faerie

Follow Up Fridays…WNYC-FM – The Brian Lehrer Show

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OK…I almost forgot about this, and it was so cool, it’s something that needs to be shared. Earlier this week, Dan and I posted our thinking about the Larry Craig debacle [see below]. Or at least some of the thinking, there’s a lot to this story (not all of it negative: entrapment, the perils of the closet, the importance of not thinking in simplistic binary terms, "public" sex, MSM, "down low" — and why is that usually only applied to African American men…isn’t Larry Craig "down low"? — and bisexuality among the more interesting ideas).

Anyway, as I sit working at the computer every day, I am, invariably, listening to New York Public Radio Station, WNYC-FM, and one of my favorite shows is the Brian Lehrer Show. Next to Terry Gross, on Fresh Air, I think Lehrer is one of the best interviewers in the business.

So I was perturbed, when Brian was discussing the Craig story, that both he and his guest commentators, continued to refer to Craig as "Gay" and talking about "other Gay men" in the same breath as though just because at some point in time some men share a physical attraction to, and seek out sexual contact with other men, that all men who do so are ipso facto "Gay." So I wrote a letter. This is what it said:

Dear Mr. Lehrer, I am a huge fan of your show, listen daily and support WNYC on a monthly basis. I beg you, please please please stop referring to Larry Craig as "Gay" as though this was the problem. 

He is sexually confused.  At best, Larry Craig is bisexual or homosexual. But the problem with Craig is, plain and simple, his hypocrisy and the effect that has on innocent people’s lives. It is the issue with his constituency; it is the issue with his colleagues and it is the issue with the LGBT community. The LGBT community, and Gay men specifically, have worked long and hard to establish the term "Gay" as opposed to the medically derived "homosexual." This was to distinguish it as a sexual orientation as opposed to a medical diagnosis. "Gay" specifically has connotations of pride, self-worth, self-respect and integration of one’s sexuality with one’s life. It is a difficult thing to achieve…coming out to one’s self, as well as to one’s family and loved ones. It is harrowing. And those of us who identify as "Gay" deserve to make a distinction between us, and closeted, dishonest, confused, homosexuals who have real psychological issues.

Gay_freedom It is extremely disheartening to be lumped into the same category as this man. And it confuses the issue. Homosexual hypocrisy is the issue here. Self-loathing is the issue. I hope you can finally come to understand…and share with your listeners, that there is a world of difference.

And as for the behavior in the bathroom, it is classic closet behavior. Bathrooms aren’t being plagued with prowling, predatory "Gay" men. But they are probably frequently filled with closeted men looking to connect with other closeted men. It’s what almost every closeted homosexual man I ever knew did before he discovered he was not the only one, not sick, and could live a healthy, happy and fulfilling life…as a Gay man.

Sincerely,

Bo Young

Publisher

White Crane Journal

The Journal of Gay Wisdom, Spirit and Culture.

www.gaywisdom.org

Well…imagine my surprise on Friday, when the show does a segment they call "Follow Up Fridays" on stories of the week that continue to call for comment, Brian Lehrer starts talking about the difference between "Gay" and "homosexual" and asking listeners to call in! I just about fell out of my chair when he gets to the segment, and without identifying me personally (or more importantly, alas, White Crane), proceeds to read my letter…verbatim. I was kvelling.

Mostly people responded positively. A woman called in and said she hadn’t been able to put her finger on why the story had been bothering her until she heard this. One gentleman called in and accused me of trying to "hijack the language for political purposes"…well duh!  A "professor" (of …I don’t know what) called in and quibbled with my description of "homosexual" as a "medical term" averring, correctly, that homosexuality is no longer a diagnosis in the DSM. Again…well duh! But it was, at one time. It was only taken out of the DSM as a diagnosis in 1973, thanks to the tireless efforts of Barbara Gittings, Judd Marmor, Franklin Kameny and "Dr. H Anonymous" who later turned out to be Psychiatrist John E. Fryer, and the origins of the term are, in fact, from the medical community, and the origins of same-sex sexuality being pathologized. Knowing  history is important. Claiming it is imperative.

Arts, Bo Young, Books, Call for Submissions, Gay Wisdom, White Crane Books, White Crane Institute programs

Call for Anthology Submissions

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White_crane_books_logo_rectangle White Crane Books is reading submissions for an anthology to be edited by Bo Young and Steve Berman entitled:

IDOL THOUGHTS: GAY MEN AND THEIR HEROES.

IDOL THOUGHTS [a working title] will be a collection of   personal essays and short fiction (as patterned after the Lambda Literary Award-finalist CHARMED LIVES published in 2006 by White Crane Books) that offer Gay authors the chance to express their admiration for historical and literary Gay figures that have inspired them, motivated them, served as role models and muses. Whether it be Michelangelo or Andy Warhol, Lord Byron or James Broughton, John Grimes or Harvey Milk, there are many figures that reaffirm our cultural and artistic sensibilities.

Essays submitted should be between 500-1,500 words in length. Fiction submitted should be between 1,000-3,500 words in length. Reprinted works are okay with editorial consent.Vitruvian_3

Submissions can be sent to submissions@gaywisdom.org or Lethepress@aol.com

White Crane Books is an imprint of Lethe Press and is funded by White Crane Institute, a 501(c)(3) foundation, that promotes the study of the role of Gay men in the evolution of society, psychology, sociology, and practice of spirituality, ritual, and religion. Since WCI is a non-profit, the editors are asking authors donate their short work to the anthology rather than offering payment for one-time anthology rights. All contributors will received two [2] copies of the book and will have a copy donated in their name to a local Gay organization of their choice.

All submissions must be received by February 1st. The book is scheduled to release in 2008.

Bo Young is a publisher, journalist, editor, poet, and publicist. In addition to publishing White Crane Journal and White Crane Books, his writings appear regularly in White Crane, and have been seen in Fine Cooking, RFD, POZ Magazine. He is the author of First Touch (White Crane Press, 1998). He lives in Brooklyn.

Steve Berman edited the Lammie Finalist anthology Charmed Lives, as well as So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, and Magic in the Mirrorstone. His debut novel, Vintage, released to enthusiastic critical review, proved that readers enjoy good old fashioned boy-meets-ghost stories. A member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, he lives in southern New Jersey and has has sold over 80 articles and short stories of queer and weird fiction.

Bo Young, Current Affairs, Dan Vera

Larry Craig is So Not Gay

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20070828_sonofcohnlarrycraig"I am not Gay."
"I never have been Gay," Sen. Larry Craig

Today’s statement from Senator Larry Craig that he is "not Gay" is yet another reminder of how our current use of language isn’t helpful.

Craig claimed he is not Gay after pleading guilt and paying over $1500 in fines in connection with a charge of lewd conduct in an airport restroom in Minneapolis. The story [See the AP video below if you’ve been out of the loop] has been all over the media the last few days with perhaps the best prize for freudian slip going to Craig’s spokesperson who claimed that the whole incident was just a case of "he said/he said." Comedy writers couldn’t make this stuff up. And why, O why, is Jon Stewart off this week of all weeks?!

Now, Larry Craig, is a right-winger. He’s signed on to every bit of malicious anti-Gay legislation he could get his hands on. With the exception of his, apparently open views on immigration (for which he’s received a pummeling from the nativist fringe-nuts in the Republican right wing) he’s a total wing-nut. You mention the "gays" to him and he starts hollerin’ about the evilness etcetera, etcetera. Rumors about his sexuality have been swirling around DC for a while (thanks to the good folks at Blog Active).

Sons of Cohn
20070828_roycohn_2But hearing Craig claim he was "not Gay" puts us to mind of the late Roy Cohn, lackey of Senator Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist witchhunts and general destroyer of lives.  Cohn was an evil piece of work on par with J. Edgar Hoover, who terrorized the country and destroyed many lives. 

What’s this got to do with Craig? Well, Roy Cohn’s homosexuality was a well known secret in Washington but he was always adamant that he wasn’t "one of those." [If you saw Tony Kushner’s excellent "Angels In America" you’ll remember Al Pacino’s scenery chewing tour-de-force depiction of the closet case.] People like Cohn, and many of the other Republican closet cases that have been caught of late, could claim that they weren’t gay because their existence was so far from the experience of gay people. 

We can only imagine that the disparity between the self-loathing Cohn and his same-sex-loving peers was even more pronounced in the 1970s as the Gay community rose up post-Stonewall. On the one hand you had people like Harvey Milk who were out and balanced and trying to contribute to the community at large and then you had the basket/closet-cases like Roy Cohn and his ilk. We can only imagine Cohn looked at the rise of gay-consciousness and its call for "Gay is Beautiful" and thought he had nothing to do with that.  It was anathema to the life he’d carved out for himself. 

And he would’ve been right. Craig seems to be of that ilk too. So when Craig says "I’m not Gay," we believe him.

We take "Gay" to mean (at the very least):

  • "with it" in terms of sexuality or trying to come to terms with one’s sexuality
  • honest in the face of one’s truth
  • honest to one’s self and one’s family
  • loving of oneself
  • self-respecting

Granted, these definitions may be somewhat arbitrary. But they make more sense than the popular media and blogosphere’s misapplication of the term "Gay" when using the term "homosexual" would be much more useful in differentiating between people who are honest and work to be whole and productive in the face of a cultural climate of Gay hatred (personified by people like Craig and right-wing fundamentalists) and people who are so far away from getting a clue to what really makes them tick and what would make them happy and whole.

Think about it: what has Larry Craig ever done to DESERVE the term Gay? He seems like the saddest of individuals. He seems like a sorry mass of self-loathing and delusion. In that state, we can feel pity for him and his pathetic lack of courage. We can feel pity because we were there once and we know how hard it is to try to be true to ones self in the face of the culture’s hatred of Gay people. [We can pity him, but we don’t have to excuse his self-hating actions that make the lives of his Gay constituents miserable. His self-loathing doesn’t excuse his anti-Gay actions.]

But when it comes to terms we think Craig is right. We think Larry Craig is, at best, a homosexual or a bisexual. But Gay? Nope. No way. Maybe some day — if he musters the courage to be honest with himself and the world.

Till then he’s nothing but a closeted homosexual who’s not ready for the prime time of a life worth truly worth living.

Bo Young, Nature, Science

The Second Total Lunar Eclipse of 2007

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Total Lunar Eclipse of August 28

The second lunar eclipse of the year is another total eclipse.

Moon_1

Moon_2_3

Moon_3_2

Moon_4_2

Moon_5_2

Moon_6

 

All of North America will witness some portion of the eclipse, but western
observers are favored. The early penumbral or umbral phases will be in progress
at moonset for observers in Maritime Canada. From the eastern USA, the Great
Lakes region and Ontario, the Moon sets in total eclipse. Only observers to the
west of the Rockies (including Alaska) will be treated to the entire event. All
phases of the eclipse are also visible from islands of the Pacific Ocean, New
Zealand and eastern Australia. Various stages of the eclipse are in progress at
moonrise for eastern Asia. No eclipse is visible from Europe, Africa and western
Asia.

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 07:53:39 UT    

Partial Eclipse Begins: 08:51:16 UT

Total Eclipse Begins: 09:52:22 UT              

Greatest Eclipse: 10:37:22 UT         

Total Eclipse Ends:     11:22:24 UT             

Partial Eclipse Ends: 12:23:30 UT    

Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 13:21:01 UT