01.17.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, E's Thoughts at 4:02 pm by pikapp44
Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl was not pleased with fellow cast mate Isaiah Washington’s comments following Monday’s Golden Globe Awards. During an interview in the press room after the show’s best drama win, Washington denied his involvement in a heated on-set incident in October during which he allegedly used a homophobic slur.
”No, I did not call [costar] T.R. [Knight] a faggot,” Washington said. ”Never happened; never happened.” Rather than soothing the situation, his comments left Heigl seething.
”I’m going to be really honest right now: He needs to just not speak in public. Period,” Heigl told Access Hollywood at a Golden Globe after party. ”I’m sorry, that did not need to be said. I’m not OK with it.”
She called the comments ”hurtful,” characterizing the incident as one that should be handled privately among the show’s cast and crew. ”I don’t think [Washington] means it the way he comes off,” Heigl said. ”But T.R. is my best friend…. I will use every ounce of energy I have to take you down if you hurt his feelings.”
Knight, who said soon after the October fracas that he is gay, appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Tuesday to discuss the original incident and Washington’s recent comments. ”He referred to me as a ‘faggot.’ Everyone heard it,” Knight said of the October squabble.
Comments from Heigl and Washington were set to air Tuesday on Access Hollywood. A call placed afterhours Tuesday to Washington’s representative was not returned.
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01.16.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 3:11 pm by pikapp44
Sen. John McCain said Tuesday he hopes to patch things up with conservative Christian leader James Dobson, who recently said he wouldn’t support the Republican’s presidential bid under any circumstances.
In a radio interview with KCBI, a Dallas Christian station, Dobson argued that McCain didn’t support traditional marriage values and said he has prayed “we won’t get stuck with him.” Dobson is founder of Focus on the Family.
“I’m obviously disappointed and I’d like to continue and have a dialogue with Dr. Dobson and other members of the community,” McCain said Tuesday during a stop in Columbia.
McCain has said gay marriage should not be legal but has angered some conservatives with his opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions. The Arizona senator said the issue should be left to the states.
“I’m happy to say that I’ve established a dialogue with a number of other leaders,” including the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
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01.15.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, E's Thoughts at 12:43 pm by pikapp44
Even before its highly anticipated opening, the glitz-and-glam celluloid fest known as Dreamgirls was already blasting headlines. Is Dreamgirls really based on Berry Gordy, Diana Ross, and the Supremes?
But with all this whirl of Motown costume and camp, let us not forget who created this project—a dancer-choreographer-director born in 1943 in Buffalo, N.Y., the son of a Russian-Jewish mother and a Sicilian-Catholic father—Michael “Mickey” Difiglia, a.k.a. Michael Bennett.
By 18, he was a dancer on Broadway; five years later he was a fully credited choreographer. In 1971, with Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince and James Goldman, he cocreated Follies. In 1975, he gave us the legendary A Chorus Line, followed by the 1981 groundbreaking hit Dreamgirls.
He learned his craft firsthand from the theatrical gods, from dancer and choreographer legends Jerome Robbins, Michael Kidd, Marge and Gower Champion, Agnes DeMille, and Bob Fosse. He worked with Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim. But unlike his idols who reigned over the Broadway theater for decades, with plenty of time to create their lasting legacies, Bennett died of AIDS-related cancer at 44.
In 1983, Bennett said, “The Actors Fund wanted to give me their award for lifetime achievement, and I said don’t give it to me—I don’t want it. I’m only 40! This isn’t my life’s work yet.”
Given his constant exploration of mortality—the death of a career equaling death itself—perhaps he heard the whispering of his own ghosts; perhaps he saw something else in his mirror other than a youthful twin waving back at him. That mirror was a recurring theme in Bennett’s work. Not merely a theatrical device that he frequently incorporated into his stagings, Bennett’s mirror reflected memory, longing, denial, and distortion, particularly in his three seminal works of Follies, A Chorus Line, and Dreamgirls.
Set on a mirrored, multi-angled raked stage, the legendary number of “Who’s That Woman” from Follies became a high point in Bennett’s then-rising career: Older women sing the tangled duet with younger counterparts, who wear mirrors embedded in their costumes. From a plain opening solo, the song escalates into a nightmarish whirl of discordance as age and realization come bearing down on the elderly actress who was once a “somebody.”
The stage production of Dreamgirls. In the act 1 closer, as Effie White bellows out her declaration of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” she is vanquished by a wall of mirrors as the Dreamgirls overtake the stage. In an echo of what happened to Supremes singer Florence Ballard, Effie is cut from the act by her manager/lover because she is physically and vocally too overbearing; Effie, again reflecting Ballard’s life, dies nearly destitute in her early 30s.
But actress Jennifer Holliday, who played Effie in the original Broadway production, refused to go along with her character’s death in the script. Since Bennett couldn’t find a satisfactory replacement for Holliday, he relented and gave Effie a second chance. With 11 Tony nominations resulting in six Tony awards, including Best Choreography for Bennett, Best Actress for Holiday and Best Book for writer Tom Eyen, the musical’s happy ending paralleled an even happier ending for the production itself.
Flash-forward to 2006 and the excited hype-hype-hooray of the film Dreamgirls. Written and directed by openly gay Bill Condon, who was in the last row of the top balcony on the opening night of Dreamgirls in December 1981, he has dedicated the film to Bennett. As he should. Not only is it important to remember Bennett, but to be reminded that nearly 20 years after his death, the disease that ended his life continues to take countless others.
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01.13.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 9:37 am by pikapp44
A national LGBT group is showing concern over a move that would instate former congressman Harold Ford Jr. as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. The current chairman, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, announced he was stepping down and would be replaced by Ford.
National Stonewall Democrats executive director Joanne Wyrick said Ford lacks leadership and judgment on issues needed to push the DLC forward.
“His willingness to lightly amend the U.S. Constitution and to exploit gay families for political gain should alarm Democrats across the country,” she said in a press release. “The Democratic Leadership Council is in need of leadership that supports and affirms all American families.”
According to the NSD release, Ford has backed the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships.
On Ford’s 2006 campaign Web site, the Senate hopeful stated that he would “continue to be pro-family, including supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, without taking away the civil rights of gays and lesbians.”
Writing for the DLC’s magazine, Blueprint, the former congressman stated that the Democrats’ win in Congress was because the election was won on ideas and not ideology. In the article, he calls same-sex marriage a “traditional wedge” issue like abortion and gun control that has “plagued our party in recent elections.”
Ford was a representative in Tennessee, where he was elected to four consecutive terms. He sought Tennessee’s U.S. Senate seat but lost to Bob Corker in a close race.
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01.09.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 5:44 pm by pikapp44
White House hopeful Mitt Romney and 400 of his backers raised more than $6.5 million on Monday in a glitzy fund-raising blitz in Boston that will force all Republican rivals to take notice.
The figure dwarfed the $2 million that Sen. John McCain raised and the $1 million collected by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Like Romney, the two have created committees exploring bids for the GOP’s presidential nomination.
While Romney said he was not trying to send a message to anyone but his supporters, one of his national fund-raising cochairmen disagreed. ”I think it’s going to be a very strong message today, to everybody,” said Tom Tellefsen, a classmate of Romney’s at Harvard Business School and a top fund-raiser for President Bush. ”I think it’s going to be a strong message to McCain as well as Giuliani, and I think it’s going to be a strong message to those that are considering or haven’t really yet laid the groundwork that maybe they should have.”
The event, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, featured a four-screen projection TV system hung from the center of a ceiling, displaying pictures that included Romney in the Oval Office and at the presidential lectern. Besides the ”National Call Day” event, Romney also sought over the weekend to shore up his support among evangelicals who have been dismayed to learn that he ran as a moderate for the U.S. Senate in 1994 as well as for Massachusetts governor in 2002. He now is staunchly opposed to same-sex marriage and says he supports a state-by-state approach to abortion rights.
”My life experience convinced me that Ronald Reagan was right. I’m a conservative that gets the job done.
While Romney’s presidential committee is still labeled ”exploratory,” he and his staff have made it clear they are in the race to win. In e-mails sent last week, two of Romney’s sons estimated he would need to raise $100 million to be among the ‘’serious contenders” for the nomination. The stated goal on Monday was $1 million.
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01.04.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 6:38 pm by pikapp44
The nation remembered Gerald R. Ford on Tuesday for what he didn’t have—pretensions, a scheming agenda, a great golf game—as much as for the small-town authenticity he brought to the presidency—as well as his support for gays.
The service in Washington unfolded in the spirit of one of its musical selections, “Fanfare for the Common Man,” as powerful people celebrated the modesty and humility of a leader propelled to the presidency by the Watergate crisis that drove predecessor Richard Nixon from office. In his homily, Episcopalian minister Robert G. Certain touched on the fractious debate in the church over homosexuality, adding that Ford did not think the issue should be splitting Episcopalians. He was Ford’s pastor at St. Margaret’s Church in Palm Desert, Calif.
“He asked me if we would face schism after we discussed the various issues we would consider, particularly concerns about human sexuality and the leadership of women,” Certain said. “He said that he did not think they should be divisive for anyone who lived by the great commandments and the great commission to love God and to love thy neighbor.”
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01.02.07
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 5:06 pm by pikapp44
Lawmakers in Massachusetts, the only state where same-sex marriage is legal, voted Tuesday to allow a proposed constitutional amendment to move forward that could effectively ban the practice. The amendment’s backers had collected 170,000 signatures to get a question on the 2008 ballot asking voters to declare marriage to be between only a man and a woman, but they still needed the approval of legislators in two consecutive sessions.
On Tuesday, 61 lawmakers voted in favor of moving the measure forward, while 132 were opposed. The amendment needed only 50 votes of support to advance. If it makes it onto the ballot and residents approve it, the constitutional amendment would leave Massachusetts’s existing same-sex marriages intact but ban any new ones.
About 8,000 same-sex couples have wed in Massachusetts since the supreme judicial court ruled in 2003 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry. A few other states offer civil unions with similar rights for gay couples, but only Massachusetts allows same-sex marriage.
Backers of the amendment argue that it should be up to the people, not the courts, to define something as important as marriage. Supporters of same-sex marriage say the civil rights of a minority should not be put to a popular vote.
Democratic governor-elect Deval Patrick on Tuesday had met with leading lawmakers and urged them to skip the vote, calling it a ”question of conscience” and saying the amendment process was being used ”to consider reinserting discrimination into the constitution.” Since Tuesday was the final day of the session, skipping the vote would have effectively killed the amendment effort.
Instead, the senate president called for a vote shortly after opening the constitutional convention, though he left open a chance for parliamentary maneuvers by same-sex marriage supporters to try to reverse the vote.
”I’m very proud that we took a vote,” said Democratic senator Sue Tucker, who opposed the amendment. ”I think we owed the people that. At the same time, I’m also equally proud of my ‘no’ vote.”
Last fall the legislature angered the amendment’s backers and Gov. Mitt Romney when it recessed without voting on the amendment. The backaers appealed to the state supreme judicial court, which said it was powerless to intervene but chastised lawmakers, saying they had shirked their constitutional duties by not voting at all.
Lawmakers arriving for Tuesday’s vote were greeted outside the statehouse by crowds of same-sex marriage supporters and opponents waving signs. ”Legislators are sent to Beacon Hill to vote on a matter, not to not vote on a matter,” said amendment backer Paul Ferro, 30, of Norton.
A sign in the crowd of amendment supporters nearby read, ”Let the People Vote,” while at the pro-gay marriage rally across the street, another sign read, ”Let the People Marry.”
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