Ancestors, Bo Young, Books, Community, Culture, Current Affairs, Elders, Fellow Travelers, Friends, Gay Health, Gay History, Gay Wisdom, History, Literature, Men, Politics

Every Elder Lost is a Library Lost…

February 4, 2009 Editors 1 Comment

G. Donn Teal, one of the founders of the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) organization in late 1969, died February 3, 2009 after a long illness. He was 76 years old.

On February 23^rd 1969, his pro-Gay New York Times article, "Why Can't 'We' Love Happily Ever After, Too?" appeared: a protest against the "doomed misfit/sinner" stereotype of American Gay men and lesbians in film, on stage, and in literature. The article provoked great response, and was followed on June 1^st by "Why Record Homosexual Anguish?", a Times review of A&M Records' original-cast recording of Mart Crowley's play "The Boys in the Band."

More importantly, he wrote the first history of the Gay liberation movement, "The Gay Militants" (Stein & Day, 1971; St. Martin's Press, 1995), as well as articles in The Advocate, Ovation, Musical America, and other magazine and newspapers, notably the Village Voice, in which appeared "Straight Father, Gay Son: A Memoir of Reconciliation" on June 26, 1978; the article was later republished under Mr. Teal's nom de plume, Roger Forsythe, in Ralph Keyes' 1992 collection for HarperCollins, Sons on Fathers.

Historian David Carter adds: Donn's closest friends, Trumbull Rogers and Randy Wicker, the early homophile movement militant, asked me to make the above material available to the media. I volunteered to use whatever media was available when they remarked to me that he and Randy would arrange a memorial service for Donn "although only seven people will show up."

I volunteered to do this, because I regard Teal's book, The Gay Militants, as one of the most important works of LGBT history and I did not want Donn's passing to be noted by only a handful of people. As the author of The Stonewall Riots I have always said that the Stonewall Riots are important only because they gave birth to the Gay liberation movement, just as the fall of the Bastille is important because it led to the French Revolution. If that book was about the spark that set things off, then Donn's was about something immeasurably more important: the revolution itself. And a damn fine history it was, written by Donn, who went to all the meetings he reported about in the book, allowing the book to be both highly accurate, have a wealth of detail and be told with an immediacy that makes it gripping to read. Unfortunately the book has been rather forgotten except by scholars. Anyone who has an interest in Gay history should — no…rather he or she must read this book.

Donn was one of the co-founders of the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA), the organization that was the main exemplar of that revolution, and, unfortunately today too many people have forgotten about GAA, Donn was so modest that not many people ever thought of him as a founder of GAA, but he was one of the original 13 wo started it in December of 1969.

Let us remember, then, that this is year is not only the 40th anniversary of the birth of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and of the Gay Activist Alliance and hence of the Gay liberation movement, that critical phase of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender civil rights movement that put us on the map for all time.

Donn Teal was born in Columbus, Ohio.

Also: The Oscar Wilde Bookstore has announced that, under the strains of the current economy, it is closing its doors. The Oscar Wilde Bookstore first opened in 1967.

Ancestors, Bo Young, Community, Culture, Current Affairs, Elders, Gay History, History, Travel

Go Iceland! Go Iceland! Go Iceland!

January 29, 2009 Editors Leave a comment

Iceland is set to become the first country to have an out-queer head of government. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, a Social Democrat and the current Minister of Social Affairs who's also an out Lesbian and is likely to be announced as the new prime minister as the former Icelandic prime minister leaves office due to esophageal cancer.

Besides being the first Lesbian prime minister in the world, she would also be the first female prime minister in Iceland.

Although Ms. Sigurdardottir’s rise has drawn widespread attention on the Web among Gay men and Lesbians outside Iceland, it is important to note, that her relationship is considered unremarkable at home. In 1940, while still a dependency of Denmark, Iceland decriminalized Gay sex. It approved civil partnerships for Gay and Lesbian couples in 1996, one of the first countries to do so.

“Iceland is a small society, and the public knows what Sigurdardottir stands for as a politician, and that’s the only thing that is important,” said Frosti Jonsson, a spokesman for Iceland’s National Association of Queers. “Nowadays, not only does Iceland have one of the most progressive legal environments for Gay people, there have also been changes in public attitudes towards Gay people. It simply isn’t an issue anymore.”

Wow.

Ancestors, Bo Young, Community, Culture, Elders, Friends, Gay Health, Gay History, Health, History, Men, Politics, Science

Martin Delaney

January 26, 2009 Editors 1 Comment

It is with profound sadness that we pass along Project Inform's announcement of the passing this morning of their Founder, Martin Delaney. He was 63 years old.


Martin Delaney, Founder, Project Inform

When the full history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is written, there can be no doubt that Martin Delaney will rank as one of the greatest contributors to ending this great human tragedy. Those of us living with HIV, and all of us who care about people living with HIV, mourn the loss of this great leader, lifesaver and wonderful human being.

Delaney’s activism is legendary. He was a David among many Goliaths. He has assured that government, researchers and pharmaceutical companies understand and respond to the needs of HIV-positive people. He heavily influenced the development of the strong arsenal of medications we now have to prolong life for millions of people worldwide.

Personally and through Project Inform, Martin Delaney educated or counseled tens of thousands of HIV-positive individuals and their caregivers about how to treat HIV. A day does not pass in the life of this agency that a person living with HIV or a supporter tells of a life lengthened or saved as a result of Marty’s efforts.

Intellect, activist, diplomat, mentor, friend — each of us will remember Marty for the great attributes he brought to his lifesaving work. He will be missed terribly.

We will provide information as quickly as we are able about the date of a public event to memorialize Marty. Emails of support can be sent to support@projectinform.org and cards can be mailed to Project Inform, 1375 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.

Bo Young, Culture, Gay Health, Health, Men, Science, White Crane Institute programs

Healthy Balls

January 24, 2009 Editors Leave a comment

As you may or may not be aware, White Crane sponsors the Gay Men’s Health Leadership Academy, under the guidance of the wonderful Chris Bartlett. In the interests of Gay men’s health, then we would like to offer this instructive video…NOT your father’s instruction video:

We recommend you do the same.

Arts, Bo Young, Community, Culture, Current Affairs, Entertainment, History, Music, Poetry, Politics

Some thoughts on the Inauguration…

January 21, 2009 Editors Leave a comment

OK…is it just me? Sylvester

…or is Aretha Franklin sounding more and more like Sylvester these days?

Obama's inaugural address is one that bears repeated readings and/or listenings, I'd say. This was a wake-up call for sobriety, to a nation that's grown drunk on celebrity and wealth.

I hear a lot of people expressing disappointment…not enough this, not enough that…much of the same sort of thing we heard early on in this intriguing man's campaign…not "black enough" "not experienced enough"…it's time to stop bringing our expectations to this man and trying to fit him into them, and let him do what we put him there to do. Some people expected more reference to Martin Luther King…missing, I think, the point that this is not just the first African American President…with no diminishment for all that means…this is The President. And I think that's what he was letting everyone within earshot know. And is this the first time a President has acknowledged "non-believers"? How refreshing.

It has been noticed that, within seconds of President Obama's swearing in, the official home page of the White House was updated with a lengthy list of commitments to further LGBT rights. It doesn't go far enough and we will see if he is really committed to it, but there's an opening. Perhaps the only way you aren't going to be disappointed by this man is if you are looking for disappointment. There he will not disappoint.

That said, the expectations for this man are so high, and one suspects so unreasonable, that it is inevitable that he will disappoint: he's already disappointed me with the Gene Robinson snub. I don't care who's decision it was to censor him, the buck still stops on Obama's desk. This wouldn't (and obviously didn't) happen to Rick Warren.

Warren's Christ-centric blather seemed to be generally ignored, to my ears, with nary an "Amen" joining in from any corner at the end, that I could hear. Reverend Joseph Lowery was sweet and funny…though, as my friend Ellen pointed out, after "the black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around … when yellow will be mellow … when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right"…he left out "And Gays will have their day."

Wow…Gays were left out. What else is new? President Obama is asking us all to "rise above" and leave childish things behind (Are you listenting Senator John Cornyn?…what a numbnuts.)

Anyway, while we're at it…how about putting homophobia on that list of childish things we leave behind?

(…I'm not a cynic, but it's only been three days and I am already finding Wil.i.am and Oprah's "America's Song" insipid.)

Arts, Bo Young, Community, Culture, Current Affairs, Dan Vera, Elders, Friends, Gay History, Gay Wisdom, History, Homophobia, Men, Politics, Religion, Television

WE WILL NOT BE ERASED

January 19, 2009 Editors 1 Comment

As many of you know, the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, the out Gay Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, gave the opening prayer at yesterday's Lincoln Memorial event. It was the first event in the inaugural festivities this year. HBO, which had paid for exclusive rights to the event chose not to broadcast Bishop Robinson's prayer.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kWWAnitUCw4

So if you watched there you wouldn't have caught it or even known that it occurred. To his ever-lasting credit, Brian Lehrer at WNYC in New York aired the first two minutes of the prayer on his morning show. But shamefully, there's no record of it in images placed on the sites of Getty Images, New York Times and the Washington Post.

It's a complete erasure of his ever having delivered the prayer.

As if that wasn't enough, the chorus appearing behind Josh Groban, was none other than the Washington D.C. Gay Men's Chorus…also unidentified in the chiron, unlike virtually every other performer.

Such is the continuing policy of silence and erasure we have to live with from people who should know better. We are used to this. If you know your Gay history this has happened again and again. In fact White Crane is really about recovering the truth in our history and celebrating it.

So we're going to celebrate it by providing here the full text of Bishop Robinson's prayer. We suggest you forward this around so that everyone has a chance to enjoy it.

Opening Inaugural Event

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC

January 18, 2009

Delivered by the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson:

"Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God's blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN."

Uncategorized

Calls for Future Issues

January 15, 2009 Editors Leave a comment

The following are the scheduled topics for future issues of White Crane. In an effort to remain as topical as a quarterly publication can be, the order of this schedule may be changed so that we may be responsive to the "zeitgeist."

Spring 2009
Music & Poetry
We honor the place of music in our lives. We shed light on pioneers in the creation of Gay music. We revel in the works of visionary Gay troubadors.
We also will announce the winner of the 2009 White Crane/James White Poetry Prize

Deadline for Spring 2009:
February 1, 2009

Summer 2009
Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary & the 30th Anniversary of the 1st Radical Faerie Gathering
Exploring what survivors experienced then and what we've experienced since, where we are now and what we're doing to get where we want to be in the future, individually and collectively. A call for stories, photos, poems and other sharings from 1979 survivors, and from younger faeries influenced by that seminal event and their own, more recent, experiences and dreams. Deadline: May 1, 2009

Fall 2009
Freethought
We honor the lives of those who follow a humanist, agnostic or atheist path in life. What is the place of reason in life and how does one construct a life without the need for certainty about or belief in a God.

Deadline for Fall 2009:
August 1, 2009

Winter 2009:
Fathers
We invite an exploration of our relationship with fathers. How are we fathered? How do we father? Conflict and resonance? The man who set a role we rebelled from or grew to resemble? Tell us your story of Father.

Deadline for Winter 2009:
November 1, 2009

Bo Young, Community, Gay Health, Gay History, History, Homophobia, Men

A Request for Justice

January 8, 2009 Editors Leave a comment

We don't get these kinds of requests very often, but this one seems to be a simple enough one with which to comply that we thought we would share it.

In May of 2007, Stephen Andrew Moller punched Sean Kennedy, a 20-year-old Gay man who lived in Greenville, SC, in the face so violently that Kennedy's brain separated from its stem; Kennedy died several hours later. Despite the unprovoked nature of the assault and the homophobic slurs that Moller made both before and after the murder, Moller was plea bargained down to involuntary manslaughter and given a suspended sentence of 3 years in prison.

Sean Kennedy was murdered because he was Gay. This crime happened in our own community and it strikes fear into the hearts of us all. Moreover, the injustice of this case was outrageous.

Sean's murderer could be out of prison on parole as early as next month, meaning that he will have served only 8 months since his sentencing. We must protest this injustice and ask the parole board to make Moller serve the remainder of his sentence. It is critical that they hear from as many people as possible.

Join us in supporting Sean Kennedy's family and Sean's Last Wish and consider writing a letter to the parole board asking them to deny Stephen Moller parole and make him serve out his sentence, which will end in September 2009. In your letter, please remind the board of the violent and unprovoked nature of Moller's offense and the pain and suffering it has caused in the lives of Sean Kennedy's family and friends. If you knew Sean or know his family personally, please include that information.

Also, please let Elke Kennedy know if you send a letter and if possible, send her a copy of the letter at elke@seanslastwish.org, so she can have them to take with her to the parole hearing.

It is important to to include Moller's full name and ID number:

Stephen Andrew Moller – SCDC ID # 00328891.

Letters should be addressed and sent to:

Department of Probation Pardon and Parole Services

2221 Devine Street, Suite 600, PO Box 50666

Columbia SC 29250

Please forward to your contacts, friends and family.

Bo Young, Community, Culture, Current Affairs, Gay History, History, Homophobia, Malcolm Boyd, Politics, Religion, Right Wingers

A Victory in California

January 6, 2009 Editors Leave a comment

Once again, the courts have dealt a blow of constitutional reality to religious bigots.

Word from California has been, at best, mixed, lately. But yesterday, we got word from our friend Mark Thompson, confirmed today in the NY Times, that the California State Supreme Court ruled that three parishes that left the Episcopal Church over its ordination of Gay ministers cannot retain ownership of their buildings and property…no small loss. And it was a unnanimous decision. We can only imagine it's only a matter of time before this gets kicked up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The full details are at the NY Times site, but the parishes are located in some high rent districts in Southern California: Newport Beach, Long Beach, and North Hollywood.

I guess the bigots are just going to have to move to some old abandoned drive-in.

Books, Community, Culture, Elders, Entertainment, Gay Wisdom, History, Jesse Monteagudo, Literature, Malcolm Boyd, Perry Brass, The Magazine, White Crane Books

Jesse’s Journal — In Praise of Books

December 29, 2008 Jesse Monteagudo Leave a comment

I recently saw Mark Doty accept the National Book Award in Poetry for his book Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems (Harper Collins). During his acceptance speech Doty thanked his husband Paul; they

were recently married in Massachusetts. Like Augusten Burroughs’s memoirs, and David Sedaris’s humor, Mark Doty’s poetry appeals to all readers regardless of sexual orientation. Needless to say, it is a great distinction for an out Gay poet to be honored, not as an "American Gay poet," but as an American poet, period. Doty’s honor was well-deserved. (He is, by the way, also the judge for the 2008 White Crane James White Poetry Prize, the winner of which will be announced in the spring issue of White Crane.)

Doty’s NBA acceptance speech was one of the most inspirational I have seen or heard in quite a while. Unfortunately, I had to go to the National Book Awards Web sit to see and hear Doty’s acceptance speech, and those of the other NBA winners. That is because, unlike awards ceremonies honoring movies, recorded music, television or theater, literary awards are never televised, except perhaps on C-SPAN (which, as the saying goes, “nobody watches”). The fact that literary awards are almost never televised is an indication of literature’s low standing in modern American society, gay or straight. While the major networks know that broadcasting the Oscars, the Grammys, the Emmys or the Tonys will win them large audiences, televising the National Book Awards would almost certainly be a ratings disaster and, even worse, drive away the advertisers.

There was a time, before recorded music, movies, radio and television, when literature was our culture’s most popular art form. Great writers like Voltaire, Goethe, Scott, Byron, Hugo, Dickens, Zola, Tolstoy and Mark Twain were celebrities in their own right, and their lives and loves enthralled the public the way that the antics of Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan do today. Today, of course, we have a wide variety of media to give books and their authors stiff competition. Books have to compete with movies, television and recorded music for the public’s time, money and interest, and books generally lose. Only a few writers dominate bestseller lists and make fortunes from their works. J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter), Stephenie Meyer (Twilight), TV preacher and homophobe Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life) and, of course, Barack Obama are just four names in an all-too short list of popular and successful writers.

Xie - the MOMA Library 46-50 - oil on canvas

For generations of Gay men, Lesbian women, bisexuals and transgender people, books were an important part of the coming out process. Books like Malcolm Boyd's Take Off the Masks, Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, Donald Webster Cory's The Homosexual In America, Christine Jorgensen’s Personal Autobiography, Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle or Patricia Nell Warren's The Front Runner, helped many of us come to terms with our own sexual or gender identity.

Sadly, interest in books and writers is not what it used to be, not even in the GLBT community. For many years GLBT bookstores served as de facto community centers. Today, there is only one GLBT bookstore left in Florida, Lambda Passages in Miami. Wilton Manors, Florida’s leading “gayborhood,” has many types of stores on Wilton Drive, but no book store. And while book reviews are still a major part of such publications as White Crane, the Lambda Book Report, the Gay & Lesbian Review and the online Books to Watch Out For, most mainstream GLBT publications have dropped their book columns altogether for lack of interest. (Most mainstream journals, Gay or straight, have done the same.)

At their best, books are an important part of our lives: they educate us, they entertain us, they enlighten us, they inspire us. Unlike most media, books do not require expensive equipment (unless you consider reading glasses to be “equipment”). Long before other media deigned to notice us, books spoke to us and about our lives as GLBT people. And books will continue to do so (I hope) when the other media are long gone. So I urge you to support good Gay books, writers, literary journals, book stores and book clubs, for they give us so much in return.

Jesse Monteagudo is a South-Florida based freelance writer and Gay book buff. Write him and express your views at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

Building Connections & Community for Gay Men since 1989