Queer

This is my World AIDS Day post, in a way. Last night James and I were talking with fabulous health care activist Karen Timour at a sort of “kick-off” party — generously supported by Counter, for the ACT UP Oral History Project.

Karen told us about a program we didn’t realize existed. New York State’s ADAP (The AIDS Drug Assistance Program) will pay for the health insurance of people with HIV, assuming they make less than $44,000 per year, which is a pretty generous number for most people I know. Go here to learn more and download the application. Spread the word! I’m sure we all know people who need help paying for their health insurance.

Appropriately, we had just come from a program, titled Pink Mafia: Movement and The Bent Minor, of short queer films dealing with youth issues at Galapagos/Ocularis. We went mainly to see Matt Wolf’s Small Town Boys:

Smalltown Boys imagines the historical relationship between AIDS activist artist David Wojnarowicz and Sarah Rosenburg, a teenage lesbian on the Upper West Side in 1994. In a “fake documentary” story, Sarah fights to save the television show My So-Called Life from cancellation on ABC in 1994. David is dying in the face of culture wars and an aggressive AIDS activist movement during the late eighties and early nineties. The collision of biographical fantasy and historical fiction calls the efficiency of contemporary modes of political protest into question. Wojnarowicz spread his seed — in a lineage of political rebellion through different cultural times — like a disease. Smalltown Boys addresses a precarious generational transition and the shifting fantasies of aesthetic and political liberation.

The Ocularis event also included a chance for us to see Scott Trelevean’s brilliant Salivation Army again. Here is what James wrote after we first saw it last summer.

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One more item: Matt Wolf’s film uses footage by ACT UP documentarian James Wentzy. If you haven’t seen his documentary on 15 years of ACT UP, you have another chance on December 15.

Wow. Some of my clients use Lyris to manage their mailing lists, so I get their monthly newsletter. Guess who they chose for their Customer Spotlight this month?

American Family Association: Appealing to Family Values with ListManager

Why did famous web marketing guru Seth Godin choose to profile the email strategy of a conservative Christian activist group like the American Family Association? And how can the budget-conscious nonprofit justify investing in a commercial email marketing program like ListManager?

Budget-conscious? They have a budget of more than $11 million and 200 radio stations. Here is a good write-up from People For the American Way on this “family” association. Their California director wrote the infamous “Pink Swastika”, which tells us “homosexuals [are] the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities.”

As promised, we went back at 3 for the kids leaving at the end of the school day. By this point, only the twinkie guy and the two others (that got left when the Phelps clan left via shiny Lincolns in the morning) were there. I added a few more photos to the gallery.

The twinkie guy held an extension cord to demonstrate the male/female aspect of electrical plugs, saying that this proved that homosexuality was unnatural. Someone yelled at him to tell him his big tool belt was “very Village People.” I was amused to see him waving the plugs at the transgender kids that walked across the street to confront him. Their cohorts over on our side of the street yelled encouragements, such as “smack him with your tits!” and chanted “We’re people! Not Plugs!”

After a bit the two bible guys walked over to the corner of Astor and Broadway — out of their pen! A group of us went with our signs to get between them and the kids headed that way on their way out of the school. At first the police didn’t like it and told us to go back to our pen, but we told them we didn’t want the kids to get yelled at by the bible-thumpers. They were sympathetic, and just brought some more barricades and made us and the two bigots a new holding area. Our original four good guys were eventually joined by more people, including several teachers from other schools that had arrived by that point. I had a bit more flashback to my southern upbringing than I wanted as one of them yelled in the cadence of a fire and brimstone preacher about gays, AIDS, etc. It was an interesting experience — we were standing right next to them in a 4′ x 10′ barricaded space next to Astor Hair.

One of the kids handed us a white paper heart that said, “My Big Gay Heart Loves You.”

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Updated: See James‘s afternoon report, including some nice photos of the kids that crossed the street to confront the bigots.

Fred “God hates Fags” Phelps, the man famous for picketing funeral of people who have died of AIDS and the Matthew Shepard funeral, arrived with his little group to protest the first day of school at Harvey Milk High School.

There are a lot more anti-Phelps protesters — we arrived at 7:30am and there was already a huge crowd.

I have a gallery with a few photos I took. Highlights of the morning:

• The crowd cheered the school kids as they walked past us to enter the school.
• The Police actually moved the barricades to give us more room, and put us closer to the Phelps gang across the street, when the “FAGS FDNY” and “Thank God for 9/11” signs appeared. I’m sure they also appreciated it when the Phelps people brought out the American flags to stand on.
• Someone yelled out, “Love the purple jacket, Fred!”
• Around 8:15 black towncars arrived and took most of the Phelps people away. They used a car service!
• There was one heavy guy on the Phelps side wearing a Twinkie box as a hat.
• They used printed lyrics to help them out while singing.
• There was a big garbage truck next to them, being loaded with demolition debris, for most of the demo. When it left around 8:30, people yelled, “Hey! Your ride is leaving!”

I’ll be back there at 3:00 when the kids get out of school.

Here is what I wrote when people started screaming about segregation and “the gay high school.”

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Updated: James‘s post and photos are up too.

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Updated again — I’m in the photo at the top of the MSNBC article — the blue and white striped shirt.

It’s time to be there for the Harvey Milk kids on Monday morning and afternoon.

Fred Phelps and his ilk will be screaming their god-soaked obscenities at young gay kids on Monday as they attend the first day of school.

Supporters are encouraged to be at the school at 7:30 am on Monday, September 8 (first class is at 8:00 a.m.) and 3:00 pm (end of school day), with happy signs and encouragement. The Harvey Milk School is located at Two Astor Place at the corner of Astor and Broadway (take the 6 train to Astor Place or the N or R to 8th Street and Broadway).

James has more info.

I posted a version of this in the comments on a friend’s web log:

I think the thing people need to realize is that the people that end up at Harvey Milk are, as the administrators put it, ones “with a history.” These are generally kids that have reached the point of being physically hurt, kicked out of their homes, etc. These aren’t kids with a lot of options. In a perfect world we wouldn’t need such schools, but to say that it is the duty of these vulnerable kids to change the world while those of us who are more privileged wait for a more pure solution is offensive. I am reminded of the idea that it is not the job of the oppressed to educate their oppressors.

Go read James‘s post on the subject. I think it’s one of the best things he has ever written for his weblog.

For some statistics on gay youth and education, check out this PFLAG page.

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Updated: Also see Steve Gilliard’s post at Daily Kos.

Not only does Ireland allow homos to march in their St. Patrick’s Day parades (unlike the one in NYC), the Irish government is now warning priests that they are subject to prosecution if they distribute the Vatican’s anti-gay marriage document:

(Dublin) Priests and bishops are being warned by the Irish government that they face charges if they distribute the Vatican’s denouncement of gay marriage.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said Friday that priests who quote sections of the document, hand it out, or send it to politicians or other citizens could be prosecuted under Ireland’s strict incitement to hatred legislation.

The 12 page document released this week in seven languages describes gay marriage as “evil” and says “legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behavior.” It also says that “Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children.

That reminds me of something else. This document is coming from the Vatican’s “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”. I think all articles referring to this office need to refer to its previous name: The Roman Inquisition.

Amazing. It’s the top story on CNN right now.

I’m not a big fan of the institution of marriage. I would rather live in a society where we think people are valuable and should be able to have healthcare or be taken care of in their old age or able to leave their estates to someone of their choosing without regard to their marriage status.

Bush said it is “important for society to welcome each individual,” but administration lawyers are looking for some way to legally limit marriage to heterosexuals.

“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, and I think we ought to codify that one way or another,” Bush told reporters at a White House news conference. “And we’ve got lawyers looking at the best way to do that.”

Regarding Mr. Bush’s so-called tolerance, fuck that!

Even as he made it clear that he did not support the idea of gay marriage, Bush appeared to issue a call for tolerance.

“Yes, I am mindful that we’re all sinners,” the president said Wednesday when asked for his views on homosexuality. “And I caution those who may try to take the speck out of the neighbor’s eye when they’ve got a log in their own.”

“I think it’s very important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts, to be a welcoming country,” Bush added. “On the other hand, that does not mean that somebody like me needs to compromise on an issue such as marriage.”

Almost all of my posts are in the Queer category lately. Go figure.

The inimitable Patric King has a beautiful post filled with advice for the newly out.