“I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one!” Some of the best signs of this movement are hand-painted. And desktop designers and pros alike are busy producing sharp propaganda. This is a networked, global movement, with hundreds of local hubs and new websites launching daily. The Occupy Together site offers free posters for download. Designers may also upload their own work for others to use in regional protests.
For naked artists occupying Wall Street in advance of the current occupation, click here. For a statement from the de facto HQ, and a simpatico marine, here. For the Walmart bleacher, who may or may not be an activist, here. And for slide shows of sexy revolutionaries, here and here.
When an androgynous male model named Jo Calderone appeared in Vogue Homme Japan last year, celeb watchers noted that he looked a lot like Lady Gaga might in male drag. Turns out, that is exactly who “he” was. The young diva, who dodges regular rumors that she is intersex, shows off Jo on the cover art of her next single, “You and I.” You Go, Guy Gaga!
Friend of this site Jim Ward founded The Gauntlet, and is widely regarded as the grand-daddy of the modern body piercing phenomenon. Now he has published a history. In May, he spoke to a packed room at The Leathermen’s Disscussion Group in San Francisco. Running the Gauntlet—An Intimate History of the Modern Body Piercing Movement tells the detailed story of “how Jim discovered his own fascination with body piercing and went on to found the industry.” Full of wonderful and terrible stories and amazing photographs, it includes details of his friendship with the heavily pierced and very gay Louis Rove – the adoptive father of the notorious Carl Rove. Other interesting bits include how the color purple came to signify piercing in the hanky code, and how he was collared to his long-term partner and Master, Drew Ward.
On Saturday, July 16th, 2011, from 1 to 5 pm, Jim will be at Mr. S Leather , signing books and chatting. Mr. S is at 385 8th St at Harrison in San Francisco, four blocks south of the Civic Center BART Station. If you can’t make it to the book event, and you want a copy, you can order one at the Running The Gauntlet website, here. Jim will even sign it for you.
It is the middle of the SF LGBT Film Festival, high holy days are underway in the City by the Bay, Pride is coming, and outside the festival’s host venues, gay film buffs are rubbing their bleary eyes after marathon sessions in the dark. The cinematic apparatus, not that other dark! There is something for everyone at this annual festival, now in its 35th year. The shorts programs are some of the best, and for those with short attention spans, are just the ticket. One film is not doing it for you? Wait 5 minutes. The next one could be all that.
“All that glitters is indeed gold in this wonderful collection of shorts featuring several gems from our very own Bay Area filmmakers… Take a look at disgusting alien bodies and eavesdrop on the deaf relay system. Follow a camera off a bridge in a memorial for lives lost. A dispute on the high seas can only be settled by a dance off (of course), and we’ll see just how campy an AIDS camp can be. Rounding out the program is a silent comedy set to Tchaikovsky and starring Peggy the Peg-leg Ballerina.” via festival director Jennifer Morris
“Glitter Emergency” shows at the Victoria Theatre, 9:30 pm on Tuesday, June 21st, 2011. The Victoria is located at 2961 16th Street in the Mission district. Built in 1908 as a Vaudeville House, it is the oldest operating theatre in San Francisco.
The Queer Cultural Center will be awarding at least 20 commissions of between $250 – $1000 each for individual artists and groups to help create and stage innovative community-building projects. Cross-cultural, multi-ethnic and intergenerational projects are strongly encouraged. To be considered, you MUST attend the 90-minute introductory workshop on June 29th at 7pm at the Center for Sex and Culture in San Francisco. The address is 1519 Mission Street at 11th. For more information on the annual funding process, click here.
But does it? Well-known Leatherman and friend of this site Peter Fiske has made an “It Gets Better” video and posted it on YouTube. We are, of course, re-posting. Kudos, Peter! It is fantastic. Of course. Messages of future promise are great, and can be just the thing to turn despair into hope. But. But. But. The “It Gets Better” video pep talks, started by columnist Dan Savage last year in an effort to curb high rates of suicide among queer youth, have really taken off. Cool. More on them here. Great campaign, but…it is not enough. Not nearly.
By all means, keep these positive messages coming. But. But. But. There are a few problems here. First off, it does not always get better – and we know that. If it always got better, dead friend of this site and Frameline co-founder Mark Finch would not have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. A popular, successful adult gay man kills himself. Or: youthful co-conspirator WRG, handsome, smart, set to inherit two fortunes, dead in a hotel room in Rio with a spike in his arm, the body stripped of valuables. They had to identify him by dental records. Just two examples. It did not get better for either of them, and they were pretty well set to overcome the past.
But. But. But. Another problem: The most vulnerable queer kids may be those least likely to be able to respond to these messages. Consider two scenarios:
One: You are 17, a junior in high school, with loving, educated PFLAG parents, a nice group of theatre friends, early acceptance to UC, and a problem with the school bully who taunts you with calls of “Faggot!” and elbows you in the hallways to the amusement of his toadies. It makes your stomach churn.
Two: You are 17, living on the periphery of San Francisco’s Castro district. You left Idaho and your violent Christian Identity family at 13 when your mother caught you with another boy. She broke a bottle over your head as you fled the house. See the scar? Arriving in SF, you met guys who turned you on to meth and fucked you raw. Already shell-shocked from childhood, you seroconverted at 14, have been on the streets for four years, and look really rough. Half-crazy with rage and despair, you kick trash cans and shout in frustration, sometimes sit on the curb sobbing. Everyone avoids you.
These are two pretty extreme, but true, examples. “It Gets Better” is a good message, but it is not enough. The kids need more than words. Even the UC-bound good gay kid needs more than words. And seriously damaged youth need a lot more. They also need the tools to survive a world which will continue at times to be hostile. Food. Shelter. Protection. Health care, including mental health and substance abuse help. Access to education, job-training, connections and good adult mentorship. Spiritual support, including services for survivors of religious abuse. They do not need to be encouraged in magical thinking: “Oh…if I can only get to San Francisco! It’s like Oz! Everything will be fabulous!” Yes, sometimes it gets better. But: it does not always get better, and it does not automatically get better. If we actually want to see the kids flourish, we need to open our eyes to the full scope of the horror under which some queer kids come up – and add real resources that are equal to our encouraging words. We need to get real.
One of the web’s very best, Joe Jervis of Joe. My. God. has been blogging for over eight years, and has built a loyal and lively readership. Unlike many queer sites which strive to create safe spaces for their readers, JMG operates more like a free zone. The unmoderated comments section is always entertaining, informative and challenging…and often offensive. This is a good thing. Debate is healthy. Covering up rot just breeds more rot. And we’ve all got our rotten elements. Air helps dissipate the stink.
Joe published a rant in 2006 in which he talked back to the ‘normal’ gay people who want to rid pride parades of ‘defectives’ – those nice folks who discuss “how we might go about ‘discouraging’ certain ‘elements’ from taking part in the parades.” We all know who the elements are. Joe’s nice gays spell it out: “Why must all the coverage be drag queens and leather freaks in assless chaps?” The more outre the image, the better the press.
Of course, freaks have always made for good spectacle. The ancient Romans even bought and sold deformed human slaves at specialty ‘monstrosity markets.’ We no longer generally buy and sell living human bodies, but we do trade in representations of those bodies: images, words, memes. We deal in abstracts: Semiotic Weaponry – wars of words. Violence is inherent in communication. We undo and remake one another with our choice of words, appearance and other social signifiers. We attract and repulse one another. Vanillas might be put off by Leather’s overt sexuality and we might gag on their cologne. Punks and preps trade shade. We insult each other on purpose and accidentally. Dykes can see patriarchal oppression in a nice basket, and few gay men want to look at naked jiggling double D-cups – even with those little pieces of electrical tape over the nipples. One guy’s hot hairy bear is another’s disgusting old fat man. You think that intersex or trans boy is an attractive man? The guy next to you might think she’s a stupid self-deluding bitch. Feelings are real, but they are not facts. We can modify our interactions to minimize psychic damage, but the potential to offend others with our particular “defects,” or to participate in a particular ideology by our presence, will always be there. Only solitude and silence guarantee against this. We can stake out a spot on the mountaintop or disappear into the depths of a shimmering nishikigoi pond. Not a bad plan for serious self-reflection, but eventually we just might want to rejoin the party. Maybe.
Joe continues: “I’m not worried what the outside world thinks about the drag queens, the topless bulldaggers, or the nearly naked leatherfolk. It’s OUR party, bitches. If you think that straight America would finally pull its homokinder to its star-spangled bosom once we put down that glitter gun, then you are seriously deluding yourself. Next year, if one of the Christian camera crews that show up to film our “debauched” celebrations happen to train their cameras on you, stop dancing. And start PRANCING.” For the rest of the rant, click here.
The World Champion San Francisco Giants have made an “It Gets Better” video. For more videos and more information on the project, founded by columnist Dan Savage to give gay kids a vision of life beyond high school, visit the website here. For more Giant charitable work, click here. If you’ve ever wondered about Brian Wilson’s edgy style, here. For sadly broken Buster, here, and for Timmy the Kid, here.
We have made it this far. What next? How can we keep what we have created and protect it for the generations coming up? The theme of this year’s National Queer Arts Festival is A Sustainable Queer Planet. Presented by The Queer Cultural Center, the festival includes 22 venues and runs for a month. An array of performers, poets, writers, visual artists, musicians, comedians and dancers work through diverse notions of sustainability. Organizations, collaborations, friendships, political movements, publications, networks, connectivity, intentional communities, Queer families, and various ecological and economic interventions are all well represented in this month-long festival. High Holy Homo Days are upon us!
Watch this space for notices and commentaries on select individual programs. Philip Huang, pictured above, performs in Formerly Known As: Performances by Male and Trans Sex Workers. This two-day program, hosted by Kirk Read, takes place at The Center for Sex and Culture, and features a different line-up each night. It includes writers, performance artists, comedians and a slideshow of visual work. For a complete listing of festival offerings, visit The Queer Cultural Center’s site here.
According to an SF Weekly article: “the team will make an iconic ‘It Gets Better’ video to encourage LGBT youth across the nation. The Giants will be the first professional sports team to join the spirited campaign aimed at curbing LGBT bullying and teen suicides.” Good for the Giants! Way to set the bar, boys. For more about the ‘It Gets Better’ anti-bullying media campaign, click here. For a bizarre promo for the Giants May 25th “Dynamite: A Fundraiser for Keenan Cahill” click here. For Brian “The Beard” Wilson at home with his Leathery pal “The Machine” here. And for the real action – ATT Park!
gayhighwaymen
Maštíŋčala Sáŋ
The Gay Highwaymen 