You may remember Stuart Timmons as the co-author with Lillian
Faderman of the book Gay LA. As members of this listserv, you may also recall that about two and a half years ago, Stuart suffered a
massive stroke that left him at death's door for what seemed like a very long
time. White Crane was involved in raising the funds necessary for the additional therapy Stuart was going to need. We knew then it was going to be a long hard road to recovery.
So it is with no small amount of pride and joy we report that with the attention and loving care of his family, especially his
sister, Gay, and friends like as Mark Thompson – he's really made a remarkable
recovery! So much so that it looks like he's going to help with the
celebration of what would have been Harry Hay's 100th birthday. Nice to get
some good news!
Thompson, a member of the White Crane Advisory Board, and former editor at The
Advocate, sent this wonderful news about historian Stuart Timmons:
Longtime
friends of author and community activist Stuart Timmons gathered last week
to celebrate his remarkable recovery from a major stroke two-and-a-half
years ago. Timmons, 53, is still wheelchair bound, but is now fully
mentally alert and with the ability to speak and move about with assistance.
He is expecting a return to his research and writing about GLBT
history and is especially delighted with the invitation
to participate in Centennial celebrations honoring the life and
work of gay movement founder Harry Hay.
A
two-day conference at City University New York and a major exhibition at the
San Francisco Public Library are in the planning stages, with other
cities soon to be included. Stuart wrote the award-winning biography on the
legendary gay rights leader, The
Trouble With Harry Hay, in 1990. Harry Hay was born on Easter
Sunday, April 7, 1912, in Worthing, England, although he lived many decades
of his life in Los Angeles.
HRH
Lee Mentley added:
Stuart
is doing amazing well…, had a great lunch at “The Coffee Table” and he was
alert with full memory correcting us on our history and although speaking
slowly was participating in the conversation. Well on his way to full
recovery! He spoke with Joey Cain on the phone and will be on the planning
committee for the 100 Year Celebration for Harry Hay in San Francisco and
New York City. It was a joy to be with him!
Many
of you gave support for Stuart's recovery, so we wanted to let you know
that it was money well spent. Stuart Timmons is a walking library of
GLBT history and of Harry Hay and John Burnside in particular. We need
him and we need his genius.
Pictured
in the photo are: (left to right) Mark Thompson, Stuart Timmons, Robert
Croonquist and HRH Lee Mentley.
Lawrence
Brose is an experimental film artist and has created over thirty films since
1983. His films have been shown at international film festivals, museums, art
galleries, and cinematheques in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and
South America. Brose’s most recent film, De Profundis has been greeted with
critical acclaim and has been screened at more than eighty venues and festivals
worldwide since its release. De Profundis is a 65-minute experimental film
based on Oscar Wilde’s prison letter with an original score for the film by the
American composer Frederic Rzewski. In 1989 he began a series of film
collaborations with contemporary composers to explore the relationship between
the moving image and music.
The Issues
The issues here are fundamental: freedom of speech, freedom of
expression, and artistic freedom. The case is precedent-setting, and
will help determine whether anyone exercising their right to free speech
can be criminalized merely for their ideas—a fundamental violation of
the United States Constitution.
The case of Lawrence Brose is a prime example of the contemporary
abuse of power by Homeland Security and the Justice Department. The
charges brought against Brose essentially make engaging a difficult
issue a criminal offense and recall the government’s tactics during the
McCarthy trials of the 1950s. Like that infamous challenge to
Democracy, this case questions how far the government can reach,
unopposed, into artists’ studios, galleries, museums, and even our homes
to silence free speech, thought, and inquiry.
Case For Support
Lawrence Brose is not a criminal, he is an artist, doing what artists
do best: asking difficult questions about our life and times in order
to illuminate a new perspective as we struggle to move forward as a
culture. His experimental cinema has a distinguished track record of
engaging issues that affect the gay community, such as AIDS and
hostility from certain segments of the public. Facing problematical
subjects is precisely the job that people like Brose carry out in our
society – they explore unexamined dilemmas and present them for our
contemplation. It is truly tragic to see him attacked with the blunt,
and misguided legalistic weapon of pornography prosecution.
Lawrence Brose is working in a well-established tradition of image
appropriation, drawing specifically on images of masculinity in home
movies, old films, Gay erotica and documentaries. Brose collects found
still images, which he then processes and re-processes to find more
depth in the picture, producing complex layers of imagery that are
highly conceptual and offer a poignant commentary on normative
conventions of gender and sexuality. The final product is as abstract as
the paintings of Willem de Kooning, and a seizure of source material
entirely misrepresents the final outcome.
As experimental filmmakers Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol before him,
Brose’s work pushes the envelope to create space for new expression.
For our society to remain open and vibrant, the answer is not to
criminalize that space for investigation, but rather to welcome it into
the marketplace of free ideas for examination.
The case against Lawrence Brose demonstrates an inappropriate
application of laws intended to protect children, and in the process
victimizes an experimental artist seeking to comment on societal woes.
The fact that he is under indictment for using images made by others to
examine the taboos that the laws are meant to prevent–is as
overreaching as it is troubling. It is so far from the intent of the
law, that it serves only to create a climate of fear. The result is
censorship and a chilling effect on the free expression of all artists
and all people. Censorship of this nature, and in all of its many forms,
occupies a realm of self-righteous presumption that abjures complexity
and results only in contradiction. It is very important that as
individuals living in a democratic society, we contribute to and speak
out openly in Brose’s defense, in essence defending our own lives and
our fundamental rights to think, work, and create freely.
This is the first time a case of this nature will be taken to trial.
It is important to note that Brose was not searching for the alleged
images nor is he accused of producing, distributing, buying or selling
pornography. This suit will be a protracted and expensive ordeal; one
that will have a profound impact on all artists. Your support is
greatly needed and much appreciated.
This website has been published by friends, colleagues and supporters
of Lawrence Brose, an artist and arts curator who has recently been
alleged to possess purportedly illicit digital images. One hundred of
the listed images are film frames from his highly acclaimed film De
Profundis, based on Oscar Wilde's prison writing. The purpose of the
website is to attest to Lawrence’s innocence, to provide a forum for
testimony on his behalf, and, importantly, to collect funds needed for
his legal defense.
We are in the process of collecting testimony from individuals, many
of whom are artists, academics and curators significant to the fields of
art and culture.
The Lawrence Brose Legal Defense Fund is a Class A Non-Profit
Corporation registered with the State of New York. Donations are not
tax deductible. To donate please send a check payable to "Lawrence Brose
Legal Defense Fund" and mail your check to PO BOX 501, Callicoon, NY
12723. Please see the Donate Now page for additional information. Or make a donation using Paypal.
A
few years ago the Zurich Zoo in Switzerland conducted guided tours that
centered around homosexual behavior among the zoo animals. Unfortunately,
the one hour tours were held in the early evenings, at a time when most
animals
were asleep. But this did not stop the gay zoo tours from being a
success. Though there was no same-sex activity in evidence, tour guide
Myriam Schärz assured her tourists that same-sex behavior is a common
part of
animal life: “I don’t know of any species that is exclusively
heterosexual,”
Schärz told “swissinfo”, Switzerland’s news and information platform. “Right here in Zurich we once had a gay flamingo couple who remained
partners
for life. In Cologne Zoo they have a pair of lesbian penguins who each
year steal an egg from one of their neighbors and treat it as their
own.”’
The last time I wrote about same-sex behavior among the so-called
“lesser”
species was in 1999. Later that year the standard work on the topic, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by
Bruce
Bagemihl, was published. “On every continent, animals of the same sex
seek
each other out and have probably been doing it for millions of years,”
Bagemihl
wrote. “They court each other, using intricate and beautiful mating
dances
that are the result of eons of evolution. Males caress and kiss each
other, showing tenderness and affection toward one another rather than
just
hostility and aggression. Females form long-lasting pair-bonds – or
maybe
just meet briefly for sex, rolling in passionate embraces or mounting
one
another. Animals of the same sex build nests and homes together, and
many
homosexual pairs raise young without members of the opposite sex. Other
animals regularly have partners of both sexes, and some even live in
communal
groups where sexual activity is common among all members, male and
female. Many creatures are ‘transgendered,’ crossing or combining
characteristics of
both males and females in their appearance or behavior.”
According to Bagemihl, “Homosexual behavior occurs in more than 450
different kinds of animals worldwide, and is found in every major
geographic
region and every major animal group.” But we don’t need Bagemihl for
anecdotal evidence. Hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear stories
about
same-sex oriented otters or rabbits. You don’t have to go to the Zurich
Zoo to learn about “the indiscriminate and almost insatiable sexuality
of bonobo
apes” or “how gay male dolphins use their lovers’ blowholes for sexual
gratification.” Just last year a review paper by Nathan Bailey and
Marlene
Zuk of the Department of Biology at the University of California in
Riverside
concluded that “same-sex behavior is a nearly universal phenomenon in
the animal
kingdom, common across species, from worms to frogs to birds.”
“Female western gulls sometimes pair off for several years and
mount each
other while incubating eggs,” Steve Hogan and Lee Hudson wrote in Completely
Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia. “Similar behaviors have been
documented among female sage grouse, male mallard ducks, and female and
male
greylag geese and turkeys.” According to the authors of Out in All
Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America, same-sex behavior
has been
documented in all kinds of animal species, including antelope, bugs,
butterflies, cats, cattle, cockroaches, crickets, dogs, donkeys,
elephants, flies, geckos, guinea pigs, hamsters, horses, hyenas, lions,
martens,
mice, moths, octopuses, orcas, porcupines, raccoons, rats and wasps. “In
1994,” according to the Almanac, “two male flamingos in the Rotterdam
Zoo in the
Netherlands got the nesting urge and set up a same-sex co-habitation. After the two repeatedly sought to steal eggs from female flamingos to
hatch
them as their own, the zookeepers decided to provide them with a
fertilized
egg. he proud parents successfully hatched their own little chick, and
remained faithfully by the side of the baby flamingo for a while.” The
whole world knows about Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at the
Central
Park Zoo in New York who lovingly hatched and raised an adopted chick,
Tango. (The story of Tango and her two daddies appears in 2005's
often-censored children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, by Justin
Richardson and
Peter Parnell.)
Gay animal behavior seems to alarm religious conservatives almost
as much
as the human variety, and they have tried their best to deny it. Those
who
do admit that same-sex behavior exists in the animal kingdom try to
explain it
away as being playful antics or dominance behavior to assert hierarchy. “Some conservatives and religious groups now admit that homosexuality is
common
in the animal kingdom, but many of them have also put forward theories
to
explain the phenomenon,” said Myriam Schärz of the Zurich Zoo. “Some
argue
that homosexuality only occurs when animal populations become too large,
or that
animals only turn to homosexuality when they have no other alternative ,
, , But
there is no evidence to back up the population theory, and there is
plenty of
proof against the harem argument. Dominant silver-back gorillas, for
instance, have frequently been seen engaging in homosexual activity and
deliberately shunning available females.”
“Humans seem to be the only species where homosexuals are not
readily
accepted in society,” Schärz said. “Animal societies tend to stay
together and accept each other. Of course, animals do get excluded
occasionally
but that tends to happen if they get injured or if they are not liked,
rather
than because of their sexuality.” Here is another instance where we
humans
could learn from the animals.
Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and animal lover who lives
in South
Florida. Send all gay animal tales to him at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.
(Click On Banner Above to Go
Directly to Our Homepage)
A
Different Light Bookstore and ADLBooks.Com
A
Different Light Bookstore opened it's doors in November 1979. As
with all of the independent gay bookstores during that time, our stores
became meeting places to promote GLBT writers, as well as gathering
places for GLBT activists. And our independent gay bookstores served us
well in working towards the equality we have achieved today and are
working for in the future.
As you
are aware, from surfing the net to reading the few newspapers
and magazines that are still in print, our gay community bookstores,
publishers and many other gay community small businesses are closing
their doors. It is a fact that businesses are only as good as their
customer and vendor bases. And as history as shown us, change is
inevitable.
It is
my belief that the GLBT community is the best read and highest achieving
groups of people anywhere in the world. I also believe that in the
future when the digital revolution has settled down that community based
businesses will again serve as a place of social interaction that the
human condition needs so badly.
In
saying this, A Different Light Bookstore and ADLBooks.com "need your help and support" to
continue to be a presence in San Francisco and online for our
communities that we ship to all over the world.
If
every customer in our store and online who receive our new product
updates would commit to investing $10, $20 or more each month in
purchasing our products, that would be an enormous step in continuing to
preserve this very important part of our community.
The
effect of this action is more then just keeping our
business operational, but it also trickles down to our vendors. Equally
important, your support will help keep and create local jobs that are
so important to our community.
There
are two actions that I would like you to consider. The most immediate
action is of course stopping by our store or signing onto our website
and buying a great book, gift, movie, magazine or DVD's.
A
more serious request, and one that I think would set a stage for
preserving GLBT literature for the future is that you might consider
buying 1-10 copies of each Queer Classic and "donating" it to a school, university, GLBT
Center Library, local libraries or any of your favorite organizations.
In addition to our GLBT archives around the world, this would put our
literature in the hands of readers who might otherwise not have access
or are being censored.
We
are asking for your support. We sincerely appreciate and are thankful
for our customers who visit and buy from us on a regular basis.
Thank
you for your consideration and taking the time to read this note.
In the fascinating book, Marsh interrogates the
assumptions and prejudices that have combined to disparage the sincerity of
Isherwood’s spiritual life. He delves into those features of Vedanta philosophy
that enabled Isherwood to integrate the various aspects of his dharma:
his vocation as a writer, and a spirituality not based on a repudiation of his
sexuality as a gay man.
Marsh interviewed Isherwood’s life partner, Don
Bachardy (who produced the portrait of Isherwood used on the cover at the right) in the Winter 2006-2007 issue of White Crane.
People may or may not be aware of the magician and professional skeptic, The Amazing Randi, but he has recently decided to come out and we think it's a fascinating conversation…listen here. He comes out as a gay man and has a rather nice conversation about it with the interviewer. He has always been a personal favorite of mine, a debunker of scams shams and magical thinking, including the $1,000,000 Paranormal Challenge...which has yet to be awarded.
I can't help but wonder if the caricature portrait of Arthur C. Clarke (another gay man and long-time White Crane subscriber) in the background on the right might be an old boyfriend?
The conversation in the interview takes some interesting turns when they posit that rationalism (i.e. non-deism) might be as powerful a tool in the gay rights struggle as assimilationist gay religiosity and gay "spirituality"; Both have an interest in debunking pseudo-science (i.e. Right Wing creationism). Here's the quote:
"I think there is something that skepticism can do with homosexuality. A
lot of cultural conservatives use a kind of pseudo
science to argue against gay wrights. And people who rail against pseudo science
should want to argue against it even if it has to do with culture war
questions like gay rights. Cultural conservatives use junk science to
argue that gay parenting leads to mentally ill children.
They use fake
science to argue that being gay is not natural; that homosexuality
is an aberration when in fact you find it widely among many different
species. So, in a real way I think gay issues are skeptic's issues." D.J. Grothe, President of the James Randi Educational Foundation, the
international educational non-profit founded by celebrated social critic
and activist James Randi.
The
Dolphin Democrats are South Florida’s oldest, largest and most
successful LGBT political organization. Founded in 1982 by Karl Clark,
Tom
Bradshaw, Jamie Bloodworth and other activists, the Dolphins have made
Broward
County the most gay-friendly county in a still-homophobic state. Thanks
to
Dolphin leadership, Broward has both an LGBT-inclusive human rights
ordinance
and a domestic partners law. Friendly politicians on both the state and
local levels owe their success to the votes, money and volunteer labor
of the
Dolphin members. Gay activist-politicians like Dean Trantalis, Ken
Keechl
and Justin Flippen have used the Dolphins as a launching pad for their
political
careers; and our community has been the better for it. I have been a
member of the Dolphin Democrats since the early days and have nothing
but
affection and respect for the women and men who lead that organization.
Unquestionably, the Dolphin Democrats are a big success. In fact,
the
Dolphins are too successful; so successful in fact that it’s almost a
given that
any up-and-coming LGBT activist in Broward County would join the
Dolphins as a
matter of course. Thanks to their success, the Dolphins have sucked the
air out of Broward’s queer political life. There was a time when our
community was led by independent, non-partisan political advocacy
groups like the Broward County Coalition for Human Rights, the Tuesday Night
Group,
GUARD (Gays United to Attack Repression and Discrimination) and the
“PAC-PAC.” Today the only alternative we have to the Dolphins are the
equally partisan (but less successful) Log Cabin Republicans and
Sunshine
Republicans.
As a Democrat, I was proud to be part of a community and a state
that
helped elect Barack Obama President of the United States, along with a
Democratic Congress. Just over a year later, Obama remains popular
but he and his Congress have failed to deliver most of what they
promised
us. Though the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes
Prevention
Act is now the law of the land, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act
(ENDA) is
going nowhere and both “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) and the so-called
Defense
Of Marriage Act (DOMA) promise to be around for a long time. (The
recent
“revelation” that the White Houses doesn’t really want DADT repealed
this year
was the last straw for too many activists.) Our community expects more
from this President and this Congress than a few empty gestures or
symbolic
appointments.
In all fairness, we are not alone. Each and every group that
worked
hard to elect Obama and a Democratic Congress in 2008 — anti-war
activists,
civil libertarians, environmentalists, feminists, labor unions, racial
and
ethnic minorities – has had its collective heart broken by the reality
of an
ineffective and incompetent Administration and Congress. Our president
seems to do a better job hosting parties in the White House than pushing
other
Democrats to pass his agenda. For their part, the “Dems” have missed
their
opportunity to enact useful reforms because of their distressing
inability to
unite and their disgusting lack of will power. The long-awaited health
care reform bill is a disaster; going from a concept that everyone
favored to a
bill that everyone hates. Unemployment is still high, our men and women
are still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, and cap and trade is still a
long way
off. Obama and the Democratic Party have disillusioned their friends,
energized their enemies, and alienated independents. he question
right now is not if the Dems will lose seats in Congress come November
but
whether or not the Republicans will gain enough seats to retake the
House and/or
the Senate. The Republicans are evil but the Democrats are incompetent;
and frankly I’d rather deal with evil than with incompetence.
Like too many other progressives, LGBT activists are sick and tired
of
being taken for granted by a Democratic Party that takes our votes, our
money
and our volunteer work and gives us little in return. Admittedly, the
Republicans (except for Miami Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) have done
nothing to win
our support, being married as they are to homophobic, religious
extremists. However, the fact that GOP is controlled by our enemies is
besides the point; as is the fact that Democratic clubs like the
Dolphins have
done great things for our community. As LGBT activists, our priority is
to
win equal rights for lesbian women, gay men, bisexuals and transgender
people
and not to elect politicians of one particular party. If the Obama
Administration and the Democrats in Congress want our support, they are
going to
have to earn it.
Like too many other progressives, LGBT activists are sick and tired
of
being taken for granted by a Democratic Party that takes our votes, our
money
and our volunteer work and gives us little in return. Admittedly, the
Republicans (except for Miami Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) have done
nothing to win
our support, being married as they are to homophobic, religious
extremists. However, the fact that GOP is controlled by our enemies is
besides the point; as is the fact that Democratic clubs like the
Dolphins have
done great things for our community. As LGBT activists, our priority is
to
win equal rights for lesbian women, gay men, bisexuals and transgender
people
and not to elect politicians of one particular party. If the Obama
Administration and the Democrats in Congress want our support, they are
going to
have to earn it.
Jesse Monteagudo is a regular contributor to White Crane and the GayWisdom blog.
Building Connections & Community for Gay Men since 1989
