Upcoming
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Tennessee Vals
Newsletter August 2000
Upcoming
Group Meetings
In This Issue:
Vals'
SpecialEvents:
Sunday September 10: 7pm TVals/Pride
T-Mixer at the Chute
Saturday, September 16th: Nashville
Pride Rally at Bicentennial Mall
Sunday, October 22, AIDS
Walk,Bicentennial Mall
The Queens Throne by Marisa
Richmond
marisaval@aol.com
This summer has been an inordinately busy one for me, but it has also been an invigorating one. While Tennessee's state government has rarely been enlightened on social issues, it recently did the right thing for a change. The Tennessee General Assembly passed, and Governor Sundquist signed, a new hate crimes law that even included gender expression. This is an important first step in letting people know that the state will not tolerate violence against ethnic, national, religious or sexual minorities. Of course, we already have laws that make murder, rape and assault a crime, but they are not the deterrent they should be. A much bigger hurdle remains: education of society to accept diversity. It is the duty of each and every transgender person to find a way in which to do that. It can come by outing yourself to others. It can come by refusing to accept intolerance from others. It is up to us. So if you are a Tennessee resident, do not forget to vote on August 3!
A few days later, ten members of the Vals met and had dinner with Reverend Laurie Auffant, an openly transgendered minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church who was here for the UU annual meeting. In fact, there were reportedly several other transgendered ministers and delegates at the convention besides Laurie and we also got to meet one of them, Sarah-Wade Smith of Pittsburgh (who was also a former Knoxville resident). It just goes to show that not every denomination is intolerant and judgmental. If you are having trouble reconciling your religious faith with your gender expression, I suggest you look to a more affirming one like the UU Church.
Now that Euro 2000 is over, all of the football hating members of the American media can put away their poisoned pens and will have to find something else to write about besides the violence perpetrated by the English and Turkish fans (as if there has never been any sports related idiocy in Queens, North Chicago, or Los Angeles....). For the true aficionado, we can now focus on the real story to emerge out of the tournament: the new Italian uniforms. Officials of Kappa, the manufacturer, admitted that the material and design used was based on women's underwear. Given the fact that Italian fans have pronounced the new jerseys "sexy," and the Azzurri managed to reach the finals in the Low countries before losing to France on a golden goal, maybe we can expect to see more national team uniforms based on lingerie. If not, then David Beckham may want to change nationalities....
We had our June board meeting on the same night as John Rocker's highly publicized return to New York. Before the game, Rocker gave yet another "apology." While many in the media have pronounced it sincere, I, for one, was extremely disappointed with it. He said that he was sorry anyone was offended by his comments, but that in the overall scheme of things, his opinions should not matter. Well, it is true that he is insignificant, but he missed the point–his opinions are what is so objectionable. He can blame the media all he wants, but the simple fact is that there is no place for bigotry in this day and age. I was actually quite surprised by his brief stay in Richmond. I assumed that once he was removed from Atlanta, that would just be Goodbye to You. Personally, I feel he would be better off at one of Atlanta's Class A affiliates in either Myrtle Beach, South Carolina–where they are still trying to portray secession as a noble cause–or Macon, Georgia, Rocker's hometown. Sadly, another notorious sports bigot, Reggie White, is now talking about coming out of retirement to play right here in Nashville. I think the Titans would be making a big mistake. This past season was an incredible one and united all of the various segments of Nashville in a way no other institution has. To bring in a closed- minded bigot would help undermine a lot of the goodwill in this city fostered by a run to the Super Bowl. Let him stay in his church where he can spew all of his ignorance and intolerance to a captive audience. Nashville and the Titans do not need him.
As long as I seem to be on a sports theme this month (sorry Julie...and just think, the Olympics are right around the corner!), I should congratulate the Butte (MT) Copper Kings (Class A Short Season, Pioneer League, Anaheim Angels). They recently held a "John Rocker Awareness Night" offering free admission to anyone from the neighboring town of Rocker, from any of the groups maligned by the lunkheaded reliever (purple hair was sufficient....), or anyone who has ever ridden on the Number 7 train. Lessee, how many groups would I fit into? Maybe the Atlanta baseball club with the politically incorrect nickname should follow Butte's lead. And while they are at it, they should stick the charge on Rocker's tab....
...Not Too Blonde by Holly D. Storm stormdp1@aol.com
Let’s say I go home to visit my parents or attend a high school reunion. How should I explain my lifestyle to my family and old friends? How about this: After I arrive at my parent’s house, my mom usually shows me the latest home decor changes she has made to my old room. At this point, I think I’ll start to unpack with mom nearby and in a blonde moment, but purposefully, I pull out my white pumps and place them at the end of the bed. "Uh, son, what are those?"
"Mom, you know how you and my sisters never wore makeup. Well, I thought that someone in this family had to. So I took it upon myself to do just that." I could see it now; she would look at me and say “Oh, that explains your eyebrows.” After a few minutes I would make my way down to the living room where my mother would be into the liquor cabinet already, and I’d say, “Pour me a drink, too.”
"It’s O.K. Mom. Don’t think I’m weird. Everyone has something in their closet. I just had to get this out into the open. I’m not into stuff like leather and whips, just the latest fashions--although a riding crop would be a nice Christmas present. But seriously Mom, the last time Mindy (my sister) wore makeup was at her wedding
Jeez! She looked Clarabell the Clown. I wanted to say, 'Girlfriend, stop what you’re doing and let me fix your makeup!' But that was her day, and she probably had a lot on her mind anyway.
"I’ve come out to a couple of my regular friends and they think it’s so cool. We often go shopping and do girl things. My friends can tell I’m much the happier camper. I have made some great friends from a local support I belong to in Nashville, and I feel better about myself more than ever
"Mom, I’ve been trying to hint to you all for a long time. Haven’t you noticed that I say 'Fabulous!' all the time, or that my closet always seems half empty when you and Dad visit. I remember one time Dad found a bra in my car and he said, 'Way to go, son,' thinking it was a trophy bra. Little that he knew that it was mine.
"You’ve raised a great son, uh, daughter, um both! I earned my degree, have a great job, and don’t do anything illegal. But this is how I live. I’m a much happier person now. I feel complete for some reason; I don’t know why. I hope you and Dad can accept this is who I am. Have another drink Mom, so I can show you a picture of me at my most fabulous. "
Note from the Board Chair of the Tennessee Vals
I wanted to say thanks to all who attended our July meeting. Unfortunately, our scheduled speaker was unable to attend. Miss Stephanie Wells was supposed to give a make over to one of our members and talk about her career as a female impersonator. She sincerely apologized for not being able to make it to our meeting. Our back up discussion about self-defense and personal safety went very well. Also, I wanted to remind you all that our annual cookout is planned for our next meeting (August 12th at 6 PM). Hope to see y'all there!
(Editor’s Note: As we go to press, Holly is recovering from an emergency appendectomy. She’s fine and should be back up to speed by the time you read this. Her plans for a two-piece swimsuit, however, have been postponed indefinitely. Get well soon, Holly!!!)
A Blonde, Brunette AND Redhead by Julie Phillips FabulBabe@aol.com
Who was that casually dressed woman I didn't notice?
There is so much in the world that seems to defy explanation. We can never possibly understand the “whys” and “becauses” of everything that happens. To cope with all the seemingly unexplainable events that happen , we develop our own rationalizations to make sense of the senseless. Examples? Those crop circles in England must be made by Sasquatch in a flying saucer because they are so precise. The fry cook at Denny’s must be Elvis because no one else would have sideburns that huge and buttery. The only reason I got stares going down Beale Street in Memphis must be because these people have no taste or style.
It couldn‘t possibly be that I was just a tad bit overdressed. We all know that could never be the case. Not me! Not Little Miss Glamour, Miss False Eyelashes Go Great With Breakfast.
Well, perhaps I do love glamour a little more than I should if I’m seriously hoping to blend into a crowd. (But if I’m guilty, then sentence me to solitary in sequins!)
My sweetie (to be known henceforth as Mr. Wonderful) and I made a trip down to Memphis recently and I was forced to rethink my glamorous taste if I didn’t want to be the center of attention. Granted, it’s hard to believe there are ever times when I don’t want to be the center, but luckily, they are seldom and fleeting. Excuse me, I’ve got to adjust my boa.
I’m back. What was I saying? Oh, right —de-glamming in Memphis. We went to dinner at a very classy restaurant and I dressed for the occasion: a nice black dress and I went sparingly on the makeup opting more for a daytime than nighttime/weekend look. With the exception of the waitstaff (the gay boys always pick me out immediately), few diners gave me a second glance.
It turns out I was perhaps a little too stylish for the popular tourist district known as Beale Street. I’d like to think I turned quite a few heads because of my beauty, my style, and my girlish figure. (Don’t bother trying to talk me out of this delusion. If my therapist couldn’t, you don’t stand a chance.) Odds are, however, that in that sweaty sea of “I’m With Stupid” t-shirts, ripped jeans and sandals, a vision of style in a form-fitting black dress and matching 3” pumps caused more people to check me out than I really wanted.
I learned a valuable lesson that night: If I want to blend in in a world of tourists, I’d better be willing to cancel my subscription to Evening Gown Weekly and buy a round trip ticket on the Polyester Express.
On a fateful day in 1979—the day the final stake was driven through disco’s funky heart— I vowed that never again would that evil, from-hell-it-came poly blend fabric touch my body. So I decided to compromise. It was time for Miss Glamour to buy—GASP—jeans.
Deciding that we both were too wealthy and needed to rid ourselves of some of our pesky cash, Mr. Wonderful and I drove down to Tunica, Mississippi (just south of Memphis) to do some gambling at any/all of the huge casinos located there. This would also be the place where the new, toned-down, less glam, evening gown-and-pumps-free Julie would test out the Jeans Theory.
Lessons Learned, Numbers Two, Three and Four: I liked the way I looked in jeans, I didn’t look any less femme and I could go just about anywhere without attracting a throng of admirers. (OK, I know everyone staring is not necessarily an admirer. Give me that delusion, too, would ya? Thanks.)
So, I’m sitting there in Harrah’s Casino, giving my money to the slots and wearing my jeans. (Oh, how I pray a typo didn’t happen in that last sentence!!) I‘m ordering free cocktails from the waiters (Oh, how I pray a typo didn’t happen that sentence either!!), and I’m attracting no attention whatsoever. Yes, I LOVED IT!
Learning what most girls already know—that most GG women wear jeans everywhere—gives me more confidence to conquer the world and continue spreading my message of peace and love—or whatever in the hell it is—to the public at large.
To celebrate my newly found freedom, Mr. Wonderful and I went to celebrate at Dillard’s, where we found a whole floor of women’s dresses and evening gowns clearance priced at fifty to seventy-five percent off original price. Yes, I bought four. You didn’t really think I was going to permanently abandon glamour, did you?
Not when it’s in my
jeans
.
One final note: Kathie Lee Gifford has FINALLY left the live morning TV show.
(Confidential to Regis: If you need ANY help with co-hosting, my offer still stands. I can be reached through the Vals' website.)
My Closet by Leslie Louise DuPaix lldupaix@hotmail.com
Life in general, and especially the T-life, is full of whys. Why in the sense of for what purpose. There is also a slightly different why - "what is the cause of all of this;” or “what is the root cause of all of this”-(or as it is often expressed in Southern “wha’h’cum” which, for those readers outside of the SE U.S. is a contraction of “why” and “how come”). There is also the mechanistic why as in “how does this come about, what are the mechanics of the phenomena?” I see the obvious overlap in all of this, but then I also see subtle differences as well and further thought would perhaps give more shading to some of the why’s.
Hope Edelman wrote a very interesting book a few years ago, Motherless Daughters (Delta, NY, 1995), which deals with the effect on females of losing their mothers, especially as a child or teenager. There is quite a bit on the Internet on this so I’ll not waste ink going any deeper than to share the following.
She uses the term “spiritual orphan” to describe the unmothered woman who may or may not have one or both parents but despite their physical presence had little or no emotional support and “. . . as children their most crucial emotional needs were never met.” Note that the mother may have been physically available; physically there, but not there in the emotional sense or even a practical sense - as in the case of a mother with a substance problem.
She goes on then and says: “As early orphans search for a reason why such tragedy would befall them, they reach for religion, metaphysics, rationalizations, even platitudes - any thing that will help them believe the universe is not so random that disaster can strike anyone at any moment and that they are not doomed or marked in any dark way. A girl uses whatever cognitive and emotional resources are available to her at her times of loss and in adolescence and then adulthood. She continually reworks the images seeking renewed comfort at each developmental stage.”
I think there is an obvious parallel between the experience of the motherless daughter Ms. Edelman describes and the internal girl-child of a M2F T-person who may have never had a “mother” or at some point lost her. Even a non-T boy-child loses his mother to a significant degree around age 6 because our culture demands that, so I would submit that even a “normal” male could find some wisdom in the “spiritual orphan” model.
I certainly went for the religion and metaphysics response part of the model, which is one of the drivers for this series of columns. The vast variety of T-experience and reactions defies easy grouping, but I would submit that this spiritual orphan model can explain some of the behavior I find in T-folks - the constant re-hashing of trying to make sense of what is believed to be understood about themselves and the feeling of being an orphan.
It may also cast a flickering light on the “Why?- For what purpose was this thrust upon me?” question.
San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross for you Anglophones) was a very important 16th century Spanish mystic. His most famous work, Dark Night of the Soul, was written around 1577. It is still widely available in probably any major language one might wish. It is not easy reading so I am not suggesting you run out and buy it. I did wade through it and probably 95% of it was lost on me, but one of the things that jumped out and caught my attention was in Book I Chapter II where he speaks Of certain spiritual imperfections which beginners have with respect to the habit of pride. He is talking about beginner in the sense of a person starting out on a serious spiritual path in the militant Hispanic Catholic 16th century sense of the concept, not in the rather casual, New Age, talk-show second millennium sense of the concept we tend to feel too comfortable with now).
“Some of these beginners, too, make little of their faults, and at other times become over-sad when they see themselves fall into them, thinking themselves to have been saints already; and thus become angry and impatient with themselves which is a nother imperfection. Often they beseech God, with great yearnings that He will take from them their imperfections and faults, but they do this that they may find themselves at peace, and may not be troubled by them, rather than for God’s sake; not realizing that, if He should take their imperfections from them, they would probably become more prouder [sic] and more presumptuous still.” (Dark Night of the Soul translated by E. Allison Peers, Doubleday Image, NY 1959, pp 39-40). He mentions the imperfections that “ . . . they [beginners] may take courage and may desire that God will bring them into this night, wherein the soul is strengthened . . .” (op cit, p. 37). My point in all of this is that we are as we are, where we are, for a purpose and rather than being on some imagined “dead end” type road, we may well be at the beginning of a much longer road taking us to where we need to end up (but not where we need to be at this moment).
As a young child and beyond I did indeed pray fervently to have my T-ness taken from me and obviously it was not. Sometimes the prayer was to make my body match my mind. Other times it was to make my mind match my body. Always it was to be as I should be - so I could be happy and pleasing to others as I could detect the discomfort that my behavior sometimes caused in others (and there was not shortage of discomfort for me as well). In Sunday school I learned that sincere, honest, heartfelt prayer was all that was required, and I will submit that when I search for an example of “honest, heartfelt prayer” I quickly return to the young me trying to get his/her life in order through prayer and divine intervention. The outcome was that it didn’t really work like the Sunday school person said. I concluded that although organized religion meant well and thought it had the answers, the reality was much more complex than what was preached. Not only did organized religion not have all the answers, I doubted that it even understood some of the questions. I think I have a good relationship with organized religion (I will quickly admit that I can think of several folks who are absolutely sure I do not), but I have never been swallowed up by it. I think that one cannot sub-contract out the salvation of one’s soul (assuming that you buy into the concept that somehow your soul is at grave risk) to a third party, any more than one can sub-contract out personal happiness or growth. Certainly being social animals we can joint venture and cooperate in all of these endeavors and grow together - and that leaves room for organized religion and support groups.
It is always wonderful to discover greater minds than yours have wrestled with similar problems and drawn conclusions in line with your own. One of my current “reads” is Pocketful of Miracles (Borrysenko, Joan; Warner Books, NY, 1994). It is a daily reading/meditation book that I heartily recommend for those so inclined. For June 14 she quotes Brad Lemly (I have absolutely no idea of who he really is, but this is what he has to say) “We tend to think that the purpose of prayer is to terminate sickness, but we forget that the purpose of sickness may be to initiate prayer, or more generally a consciousness of the Infinite.”
Ending where I sort of started, a final thought from Hope Edelman. She quotes Northern California psychotherapist, Phylis Klaus, C.S.W. who says, “. . . . any kind of tragedy in life can be a springboard for creativity and growth and for working that tragedy out in very healthy ways.” (p 259) and Sn. Juan de la Cruz and good ol’ Brad counsel us that there may well be a higher reason for discomfort and our imperfections and the spiritual orphan model shows how a typical response to unpleasant circumstances is to start a spiritual journey, which I think may have been part of the plan all along.
Left
of Center by Pamela
DeGroff
It's that time of year again; summer is almost over, school will be starting soon, and the fall catalogs are beginning to arrive in my mailbox. Change is always inevitable, especially when it comes to the seasons, but I sometimes think the people in charge of catalogs jump the gun. I still have a summer dress I haven't had a chance to wear yet, and I already have a small pile of glossy mail-outs featuring fur coats, boots, and sweaters. This seems totally unfair. How do they expect me to justify spending money on beautiful new winter clothes when I'm sitting here sweating out the wazoo? It's expensive enough to maintain two wardrobes without these pre-season sale temptations staring at me saying, "Go ahead, order something. Skip lunch for a week, and you can afford it. You can stand to loose some weight anyhow, you pork butt."
"Hey, wait just a minute," I say back to no one in particular. "I know I could shed a few pounds, but that's not what I'm concerned about here."
"Well, you should be, "continued the disembodied catalog voice. "Turn back to page 44, and take another look at that nice skirt you liked. You remember, the black one, three quarter length, tight? C'mon, you can afford it."
"Stop! Enough already. What am I doing sitting here talking to a catalog, anyway? Jeez, I must have had a better time back in the 60s than I realized."
Okay, so I know this is a little whacked out. I mean, am I the only one who can pick up a catalog and have an item jump out and say, "Buy me, buy me, buy me! You'd look great. You have shoes to match. this will really work with that blouse you've only worn once." Does this happen to anyone else?
I decided I needed to get out in the fresh, although humid, air and take a walk to get away from the computer screen and that pile of possessed catalogs. The only reason I like catalogs in the first place is because I really, truly, unequivocally, (and any other adjective that can drive the point home), hate the shopping experience. If a shopping trip lasts more than five minutes, which should include time to park, then I am not a happy camper. I don't like meandering through crowds, dealing with psycho sales clerks, or getting attacked by the perfume snipers on guard near the cosmetics counter. I much prefer the safety, comfort, and availability of beer, of my own home.
Safely outside in the warm—better make that hot— air, I start to feel a little more in control of my thoughts. I round the corner, and there, bigger than life, is a billboard for a very expensive shop at one of our malls. A beautiful model is wrapped in a full length fur coat with the collar pulled up around her chin. She's staring right at me, saying "Are you ready for winter?"
Am I ready for winter? It's in the 90's right now; I can feel the sweat running into my shorts, and I'm glad I'm not in femme mode because, in this heat, my makeup would probably be doing an Alice Cooper impression. Am I ready for winter? What I'm ready for is to head back home to the air conditioning and a cold one.
But hey, maybe the model's right. I have been wanting to get a new coat for the last couple of years. That mall is only a short drive from here; I could find something and put it in layaway, skip lunch for maybe three weeks, and then I'll definitely have the money and lose the weight, and I would be able to fit into that skirt back on page 44...Hold it! Good lord, what's happening here? I'm turning into a shopaholic.
Better concentrate, sit down and do some writing. I'll take this big pile of catalogs and stash them away in the bottom drawer. I could toss them out, but they're all current. You never know... "Hey, you!" they say as the drawer slides shut. "Buy me, buy me, buy me..."
"Later, guys," I say as I start to get organized. Let's see, turn the computer back on, find the disk I need, get out my notes, move this pile of mail that just came in, and...PLOP! Oh my, another catalog. A new lingerie one, at that.
"Pamela, honey," the catalog says in a voice that sounds like Mae West. " We have some beautiful new things for fall. Why don't you come up and see us sometime?"
"No, no, no, no...don't start with me, " I answer back, a twinge of desperation in my voice.
"Look, sweetie, why don't you turn to page 15. We have those marabou slippers you like in two new colors. Colors you don't have, honey."
"...Uhhh...?"
("Hello, brain? This is your logic speaking. Shields are at half power. Imminent danger of a hull breach exists.") "Pamela, dear, did I mention they're on sale?"
"...Uhhh?...Sale...?"
"Half price, sweetheart. Just for you."
(Warning! Warning! Shields are down! Prepare to head for the life pods!")
"...Uh, well, let's see...I had planned to start skipping lunch so I could afford some of this new clothing for fall, and...NO! I won't do it!"
"Pamela, honey, remember the sale?"
"No, no, I'm not listening to you."
"Pretty new colors, dear."
"Look, you're going in the drawer with the rest of your money hungry friends. I'm not giving in this time!"
SLAM!!
Whew, narrow escape! Alright, so you probably think I'm certifiable at this point. I often wonder about that one myself. This is no doubt one of the best arguments for not having a credit card. The temptations can be way too much.
I do suppose it could be worse, however. At least I'm not in school and have to buy new clothes. The femme self just couldn't stand the possibility of having to do all the prerequisite shopping to prepare for classes. And these temptations can run pretty deep. I've always wanted a cheerleader's outfit. I know, I know— kind of perverse at my age—but I've always thought they were kind of cute.
Then again, if I was back in school, the safest route might be a school where uniforms are required. I've always had a secret longing to be a Catholic school girl when I grow up.
Let's see, now where did I put that school girl plaid catalog?
NEWS TRANS-missions
news, media mentions, etc...
Eddie Izzard Among the Nominees for Emmy Awards
The Sopranos and The West Wing led the Emmy nominations, announced July 20th, with 18 nominations each. Will and Grace led nominations among all sitcoms with 11, after being almost completely shut out last year. In nominations with particular interest to the GLBT community, the entire cast of Will and Grace was nominated: Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series: Eric McCormack (Will) and Debra Messing (Grace); Outstanding Supporting Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series: Sean Hayes (Just Jack) and Megan Mullally (Karen); plus Debbie Reynolds for her recurring appearances. The show was nominated for Best Comedy Series.
TG stand-up comedian Eddie
Izzard received several nominations for his HBO Special Eddie Izzard:
Dress To Kill, including Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy
Special and Outstanding individual Performance in a Variety or Music
Program. The Emmys have changed their nominating and voting procedures,
which has helped to freshen the nominations and, hopefully, winners.
The 52nd Annual Primetime Emmys will be September 10th
on ABC with host Garry Shandling.-jp
Source: The official Emmy website: www.emmy.org
SHOWBIZ: Male Opera Stars hit Sour Notes Without "The Sacrifice"
Even 10 years ago, audiences laughed at them as silly men with squeaky voices. But now a new breed of operatic superstar is taking music written for the almost mythical castrati back to the masses.
The resurgence in popularity of the counter tenor - for long dismissed as an operatic oddity - is now so strong that many in classical music are predicting their appeal will eclipse the great stadium-filling tenors like Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras.
Handel's greatest arias once required the ultimate sacrifice from a male singer. With few takers willing to undergo the knife, female contraltos and mezzo sopranos were hired to play those key male roles in baroque opera modern listeners found so strange and haunting.
Now the sublime voices of counter tenors like the charismatic David Daniels and Andreas Scholl, who can sing the high notes required by Bach and Handel without recourse to drastic surgery, have built a huge international following for a once forgotten oeuvre of early music.
Recordings by both men have recently topped the classical music charts, and their performances sell months in advance.
Unlike their 18th century counterparts like Farinelli, who were castrated in childhood so their voices would never break, modern counter tenors need not compromise their manhood for their art. Instead the falsetto (false voice) of which most men are capable - and which made Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees rich - can be honed to reach the higher registers.
Even so, a little of the prejudice under which the castrati labored lingers on. Not even the German-born Scholl, who created a sensation last year at Glyndebourne with his Bertarido in Handel's Rode-linda, has been immune from the sniggers. Though well over 6ft, and with the dashing looks which have earned him the soubriquet of Superman, he too has been laughed at. "I have sung in Nuremberg, and some of the audience laughed because they thought it was funny that a man sings that high - even though they hear it every day on the radio. Male pop singers sing higher than counter tenors, screaming their heads off, and nobody worries about that."
But that has not put off the hundreds of hopefuls who Daniels claims want to train as counter tenors in the United States. "When I started no one was interested. Now huge numbers of young men are training. There are hundreds at college auditions."
Daniels and Scholl are arguably the two greatest male singers in the world, according to Andrew Clements, the Guardian's classical music critic, a happy coincidence which has combined with the new interest in early music to cement the trend.
It is Britain which has done most to save the style from slipping into oblivion. The tradition of the counter tenor - or male alto as it was called here - never really died out and it was the post-war singer Alfred Deller who awakened its potential in contemporary composers like Tippett and Britten.
Margaret Cable, professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London, is convinced the new wave of counter tenors will give Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras a run for their money. "I wouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised if we get three counter tenors doing the same thing. Why not ... they are very, very popular."
source: The Guardian 07/13/00
Senator Fights for TG Inclusion in Legislation
"I will continue to fight for protection of transgendered people against violence," Frank pledges.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) today praised the historic actions of U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) to include transgendered people in a bill considered at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. Although the committee ultimately approved the bill without the proposed language, Frank's effort marks the first time that language specifically identifying transgendered people with the phrase "gender identity" has been proposed in Congress.
"This is an important step for transgender people," said Shannon Minter, Senior Staff Attorney for NCLR. "For the first time, a United States Congressperson has introduced legislative language that acknowledges our existence in an affirmative way."
Frank proposed adding "gender identity, characteristics or expression" into HR 1248, a bill reauthorizing grant money for domestic violence programs under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994. Frank's amendment modified Rep. John Conyers' (D-MI) original amendment to include sexual orientation and other categories among the underserved populations" that should be taken into account when considering domestic violence program grants under VAWA. Frank's provision was approved by the committee's voice vote without dissent, but the original Conyers amendment was defeated on a party-line vote, so neither measure was incorporated into the version of the bill that passed the committee.
"While I am disappointed that the Judiciary Committee Republicans voted unanimously to reject our effort to recognize sexual minorities as among those groups deserving special attention in anti-violence programs, I am pleased that none of them objected to my amendment adding transgendered people as a category to be considered, and I'm especially proud that every Democratic member present voted to include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people in the program, even though the Republicans thwarted our effort," Rep. Frank said. "I will continue to fight for protection of transgendered people against violence."...
At the state and municipal level, laws with language explicitly including transgendered people have begun to blossom nationwide: there are now 27 cities and counties and one state (Minnesota) with non-discrimination laws covering transgendered people. By March 2000, almost 4 percent of Americans lived in jurisdictions with non-discrimination laws that address gender variant people...
Source: NGLTF 06/22/00
Dr.Bellydancer, I Presume?
A Cairo court ruled on Wednesday that a belly-dancer who was once a man may not pursue her medical studies at Egypt's one thousand-year-old al-Azhar Islamic university. Court sources said the judge had decided that the dancer, Sally Mohammed Abdullah Mursi, had misled a court that supported a petition she filed last year to be allowed to continue at al-Azhar by not disclosing her current profession.
Originally named Sayed, Mursi had a sex-change operation in 1995 while studying medicine at al-Azhar's all-male medical college. The university then refused to let her transfer to its women's medical college to complete her final year.
Belly-dancing is a popular form of entertainment in Egypt, but the religious establishment frowns on it.
source: Excite UK Channels– News 06/21/00
Drinkers flocked to a beer festival expecting a massive bender - and were confronted by five crossdressers who sparked a brawl.
Fists flew as one of the fellas - all wearing frocks and wigs - was accused of nicking a wallet in the crush for the bar. He insisted he had nowhere to hide it, then lifted his dress leaving little to the imagination.
Startled onlookers, who had been downing pints of Rams Bottom and Deep Shaft Stout, were given an eyeful as a brawl erupted. One of the chums in drag ended up flat on his back at the Fleece Inn near Bretforton, Worcs. Two others lost their wigs. Witness Paul Rencher, 42, said yesterday: "When the man lifted his skirt it was not a sight for the squeamish.
"A couple of chaps took offense and weighed in. Wigs and jewelry were flying everywhere. It was very amusing to watch - almost as entertaining as the Morris dancing which had just finished on the village green."
Bouncers threw out the five crossdressers along with others involved in the dust-up.
Paul, of nearby Evesham, said: "It was all over in a flash."
"The crossdressers had arrived
late in the afternoon and looked out of place from the start. But to their
credit they mixed rather well - until the trouble started. A fair amount
of booze had been taken by those involved in the bust-up - especially Deep
Shaft Stout, Miss Voluptuous and Rams Bottom Strong Ale."
Another drinker revealed: "The blokes in women's clothes were not real transvestites - just a group of lads who were doing it as a dare."
Graham Brown, landlord of the 600-year-old inn - which is owned by the National Trust - said: "There was a heated discussion involving some blokes dressed as women. One of the chaps pulled up his skirt to show he had no knickers on and there was a bit of pushing and shoving. No harm was done and those involved were asked to leave by the security staff. They went without further trouble and everybody else had a great time." He added: "The Deep Shaft Stout went down very well that night."
source: The Sun 07/13/00
This is a modern love story.
Although they lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic, Katherine and Pat Spray became friends on the Internet in 1995. That summer, the pair were between jobs, so they decided to tour the United States, putting 15,000 miles on two cars in three months.
Somewhere on the interstate, they say, they fell in love.
They married while visiting a friend in North Carolina, applied for a marriage-based visa for Katherine, and settled down in Virginia.
Now the Immigration and Naturalization Service is trying to ship Katherine back to Ireland and has threatened to prosecute the couple on charges of marriage fraud.
The reason, the Sprays contend, is bigotry: Katherine, born Damien Niland, lived as a man until 1991. Pat, once known as Patricia, was born female but now lives as a man.
Immigration officials won't discuss the Sprays' case, but in official documents, the INS questioned Katherine's marriage-based visa application because Pat Spray did not disclose a 1975 marriage, and the INS discovered it had not been properly dissolved.
The Sprays don't believe that. "They are hunting us, and the only reason we can think of is that we are transgendered," said Katherine Spray, 31. "They want me gone."
The Sprays acknowledge their application contained that flaw. But several immigration lawyers say the INS usually allows applicants to fix such problems. "It's fairly common for people to have invalid divorces. . . . Under those circumstances, you let them fix it. Why not, especially if it's an honest mistake?" said Michael Maggio, a Washington immigration lawyer not connected to the case. "The reality is that we live in a country where, although it is much better on gay rights, homophobia still rules."
The Sprays said the INS has accused them of having a sham marriage and a same-sex marriage and threatened them with immediate imprisonment unless they withdrew their application. INS District Director Warren Lewis has ordered Katherine's immediate expulsion, according to INS documents. The couple have hired attorney Rex Wingerter, who is negotiating with the INS and planning to file a federal lawsuit.
William Bittner, the INS officer in charge of the Norfolk, Va., office, which is handling the application, confirmed the case has been forwarded for criminal prosecution but declined to comment further. The U.S. attorney's office would not comment.
As anti-immigrant sentiment rose in the mid-1990s, the INS came under increasing pressure to weed out inappropriate applications. Successful immigration-fraud prosecutions are up 9% nationwide in the first six months of fiscal 2000 over the same period in 1999, said INS spokesman Russ Bergeron. About 40% of those are marriage-fraud cases.
Katherine, who was born with external male genitalia and raised as a boy, learned in 1991 that medical tests had revealed male and female chromosomes (two X and one Y), as well as one ovary and a vestigial uterus. Katherine now has long hair, pierced ears and eyebrows, and hormone-induced breasts. Norfolk Circuit Court approved a name change to Katherine Spray in 1996.
Doctors told Pat Spray's family that blood tests detected unusually high levels of testosterone for a girl. Pat lived as a woman until the 1990s, marrying two men and giving birth to a daughter in 1980. "I've always been one of the guys," said Pat, 44. "My second husband was so frustrated, because basically I'm a guy, and he was trying to treat me like a woman and it wasn't working."
It was the first marriage that was the troublesome one. Patricia Spray and John Martin split up in Texas in 1978, and both say they thought the other had obtained a divorce. Martin, 57, said he has remarried and declined to comment further. Martin and Spray filed for divorce in May in Alexandria Circuit Court, in Virginia.
Pat and Katherine married in September 1995 in Winston-Salem, N.C. Their relationship was a revelation, they say. "When you're transgendered, you figure you're stuck on your own for the rest of your life because it's too weird," Katherine said. "Then I got here and found someone I could trust, someone who wouldn't laugh and wouldn't try to make me do something if I couldn't."
The couple moved to Norfolk, found work and filed the visa application in 1996. Two years later, Katherine, who had a temporary work permit because of the application, bought a townhouse in Virginia Beach, court records show.
For reasons that remain unclear, the INS did not act on the Sprays' application until this year. By then, Katherine was working at UUNet as a server operations team leader and moved to the Washington suburb of Sterling, Va. Pat followed, starting a job in April at a suburban Rockville, Md., consulting firm.
But the Sprays never changed their INS application to reflect the move to Sterling, and experts said that may have raised a red flag. The INS usually checks to see that marriage visa applicants are living together, and in this case, investigators would have found a mostly empty house.
The Sprays say the INS investigators were hostile from the start. At a first interview in March, the examiner accused Pat, then between jobs, of freeloading on Katherine in exchange for supporting the application, the couple said.
The Sprays say that at the second interview, on Easter Sunday, the INS officer said Katherine would be thrown into a male detention facility if they did not withdraw their application. UUNet terminated Katherine's employment after the INS contacted the company to say the temporary work permit was no longer valid, a UUNet spokeswoman said.
For the Sprays, the message is clear. "They're gunning for us," Katherine said. "Everything they've done is to scare us into either leaving the country or doing something stupid that would give them legitimate grounds to kick me out."
Source: The Washington Post via The LA Times 06/04/00
No Beauty School Dropout Here--Just Let Her Take the Test!
A transsexual minister has been awarded £6,000 after claiming she was discriminated against on a college beauty course.
The Reverend Dian Parry - who used to be Bill Parry - wanted to learn make-up skills to help her look more like a woman. But she alleged she was denied the chance to pass the qualifying exams at Swansea College.
The college made the payout in an out-of-court settlement.
Rev. Parry, 60, celebrated
the victory with wife Anita at their home in the village of Croeserw, near
Neath, South Wales.
Swansea College denied discrimination. Principal Keith Elliott said: "The ex-gratia payment was agreed on the advice of the college's insurers who had no wish to bear the costs resulting from a court case.
"It does not represent an admission of discrimination in any form.
"At all stages in this matter, Swansea College has acted in the best interests of its students and clients.
"We reject all allegations of sexual discrimination."
source: BBC News 07/18/00
NEW ON VIDEO AND DVD: John Waters' Divine Trash
Rated by USA Today 3 1/2
Stars
1998, Fox Lorber, unrated, $20; DVD, $25)
Bad-boy filmmaker John Waters is still slogging away and come Aug. 11, multiplexes will premiere Cecil B. Demented (an enticing title for an product of Waters’ unique mind). But Steve Yeager’s documentary portrait tells of the writer/director’s groundbreaking early ’70s movies (for example, Pink Flamingos), perennial lead actor (300-pound transvestite Divine) and subject matter (Flamingos’ notorious excrement-eating scene) helped the Maryland bred jokester smash what screen taboos were still left to be shattered….Waters himself tells us that a New York trip to The Howdy Doody Show was a seminal childhood event. Buffalo Bob was mean to him.
source: USA Today 07/07/00
UPDATE: No One's To Blame for Winchell's Murder at Ft. Campbell, KY??
The long-delayed Inspector General's report as to whether the "command climate" at Fort Campbell in Kentucky may have contributed to the homophobia-motivated bashing death of Private First Class Barry Winchell has yet to be released to the public, but according to a CBS News report based on unnamed sources, the Army base and its former commander Major General Robert Clark have been given a clean bill of health. CBS noted that one soldier there had told 60 Minutes that his platoon regularly used to chant for its cadence, "Faggot, faggot down the street, shoot him, shoot him until he retreats." While all officers have apparently been exonerated, the finger of blame is pointed at Winchell's first sergeant for failing to intervene in at least four months of near-daily harassment preceding the fatal attack; that sergeant has already been relieved of his duties. The report is set to be released to the public on July 21.
Any other issues were reportedly put down to the service-wide lack of training regarding the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. At Fort Campbell, in the months after that training was provided in the wake of Winchell's death, 105 men were discharged for homosexuality, compared to six in the same period the previous year….
Whether Winchell actually was gay is a moot point; he had certainly begun questioning, spent time at a Nashville, Tennessee gay bar, and formed a close relationship with a transwoman. What is known is that he loved the Army, strived to excel at his work and wanted to make it his career, but feared discharge for homosexuality. Testimony at the hearings in connection with the criminal charges made clear that his co-workers believed him to be gay and harassed him for it, and that his immediate supervisors not only failed to intervene but acted in violation of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Winchell's death brought military
leaders a new level of recognition of the extent and danger of homophobia
in the ranks, but the one key element which has never been in place is
accountability: while thousands of servicemembers have been discharged for
"telling," there is no documentation of anyone being disciplined in any way
for "asking" or "pursuing" in violation of policy since it went into effect
in 1994. What Winchell's mother Pat Kutteles said months ago when filing
her $1.8-million wrongful death lawsuit against the Army is still true: "There
has been nobody that has been held accountable for the Army's part in the
harassment and the lack of safety."
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), originally formed to assist those harmed by "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," is carefully avoiding comment until the group has actually had a chance to review the report. But in the course of their own investigation in connection with Winchell's death, more than twenty soldiers from the base asked their assistance with harassment they'd witnessed or experienced. The Inspector General did not have the same access to reports from gay and lesbian soldiers because of their justified fear they would lose their jobs -- the Inspector General explicitly stated that he was required to turn in servicemembers who were discovered to be gay in the course of investigating harassment against them…
As a footnote, SLDN got a bad rap in the case from a cover article in the New York Times Sunday magazine ("An Inconvenient Woman," May 28), which said that that group and others had pressured Winchell's transgendered friend Calpernia Addams to identify herself to media as a man to emphasize the gay angle. Addams herself, SLDN's Kathi Westcott and Rhonda White of the Lesbian and Gay Coalition for Justice, wrote together to the Times to say that never happened. On July 2, the Times published a "Correction" saying, "Because of an editing error, an article on May 28 about Calpernia Addams, who is in the process of changing sexes to female from male, and the murder of her boyfriend, PFC Barry Winchell, included an erroneous statement about a meeting between Addams and Kathi Westcott, a lawyer, and Rhonda White, a gay rights advocate, after the murder. Westcott did not say that Addams, 'for the sake of clarity' should tell reporters to refer to her as a male. White and Westcott discussed the press with Addams but did not make a specific proposal about how the press should refer to her."
source: PlanetOut 07/18/00 AOL KEYWORD: PlanetOut
Dorothy, You're Not in Kansas Anymore.
No, Wait---You ARE in Kansas!
The Kansas court of appeals has been asked to decide if a male-to-female transsexual can be considered a legal wife, The Kansas City Star reports. The question stems from a dispute over the estate of longtime Leavenworth, Kan., resident and state legislator Marshall Gardiner, who died without a will in 1998 at age 86. J’Noel Gardiner, a transsexual woman who married Marshall just months before he died, filed a claim for half of his $2.5-million estate. But Joe Gardiner, Gardiner’s only son from a previous marriage, contends that J’Noel remains a man under Kansas law and that the marriage is void. David Watkins, a Kansas City lawyer who worked on Joe Gardiner’s case, said, “To the best of my knowledge, no state’s legislation says that for purposes of marriage a person can change sex and become a woman or vice versa. If you’re born a man, you stay a man. If you’re born a woman, you stay a woman.” Although J’Noel, who underwent a sex change in Wisconsin in 1994, offered a Wisconsin birth certificate as proof of legally being a female, a Leavenworth County probate judge ruled in Joe Gardiner’s favor in January. Judge Gunnar A. Sundby said, “J’Noel Gardiner was born a male and remains a male for purposes of marriage under Kansas law. The marriage between Marshall G. Gardiner and J’Noel Gardiner is void.” J’Noel has requested that the decision be reviewd by the appeals court.
The Advocate online 06/27/00
Imagine How High the Award Would Have Been Without Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices
A judge in New Brunswick has ordered Wal-Mart to pay more than $2 million to a former cashier who said he was harassed and fired after a boss learned he was undergoing a male-to-female sex change.
Ricky Bourdouvales, 27, sued the retailing giant, alleging it violated New Jersey's anti-discrimination laws by firing him in January. The default judgment was issued Monday after the company failed to respond to the lawsuit.
Bourdouvales, who dresses as a woman, claimed no one at the Piscataway Wal-Mart had a problem with his work while they thought he was a woman; he said they even asked him to train other employees.
But when a store manager reviewed his job application and noticed the box "male" was checked, he questioned Bourdouvales, who confided he was undergoing a sex change. It was then that harassment and discrimination started, he claimed.
"New Jersey's law against discrimination is a very strong one, and it definitely covers what happened here," said Bourdouvales' lawyer, Mark Stanton. "We feel this was a firing based on an employee's sexual preference."
Bourdouvales said he was told he was fired because of discrepancies with his cash register count. A Wal-Mart spokesman said Bourdouvales was fired for “mis-conduct," but would not detail what the charge involved.
Bourdouvales has an unlisted telephone number, and did not respond to an interview request made through his lawyer. But he told The Star-Ledger of Newark in Tuesday's editions that everyone treated him as a woman until his procedure became known.
“I was a good worker," he said. "I never had any complaints, and for them to pull this sham is terrible."
Bourdouvales filed suit in May, but Wal-Mart never responded to the complaint, Stanton said. He said he sent the company a notice in June that Bourdouvales was going to seek a default judgment. The company still did not respond, he said.
As a result, Superior Court Judge Douglas Hague awarded Bourdouvales $2 million in punitive damages, and another $100,000 in compensatory damages and legal fees.
Tom Williams, a spokesman for Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., said the company will ask the judge to vacate the award. He said the store was aware that a document was served in May but did not realize what it was.
"We were totally unaware of the lawsuit, and we want to have the opportunity to defend ourselves," he said. "We'd like to have our day in court."
Bourdouvales has undergone hormone treatment and received breast implants over the past six to seven years. He is now in the final stages of the sex change procedure, which takes several years to complete.
He claims he was subjected to slurs, including being called a "he/she/ it" in front of customers, and was forced to use the men's rest room at the store.
He began working at the store in October, dressed like a woman, and assumed customers and co-workers thought that's what he was, Stanton said.
Debbie B., a transsexual from Houston and an official with the Transgendered Network International, a support group and clearinghouse for transsexuals and their families, said such experiences are common for those who choose to change genders.
"It's almost expected when you start out with the procedure," she said. "I was fired when they found out I was a transsexual."
She would not say what type of work she did when she was fired, and asked that her last name not be used in order to prevent possible problems at her current workplace.
"There's a lot of difficulty involved in this, a lot of emotional stress, and on top of that, you have to deal with society," she said.
Source: by Julie Cush AP via GAIN 07/18/00
In a conversation with StopDrLaura.com, SkyTel has acknowledged that a flood of anti-Schlessinger comments had factored in the company's announcement yesterday that SkyTel would stop advertising during all talk radio programming.
"Absolutely" was the response of SkyTel's public relations manager, Mary Margaret Johnson, when asked if customer outrage over Schlessinger's anti- gay commentary had "factored heavily" in the company's decision. Johnson also confirmed that a number of SkyTel corporate accounts had canceled due to SkyTel's advertising during Schlessinger's show. Johnson said that SkyTel had been "inundated" with messages of concern regarding Schlessinger's anti-gay comments.
In a prepared statement provided to StopDrLaura.com yesterday, however, SkyTel was careful to point out that it would also pull advertising from all talk radio…
SkyTel's decision comes on the heels of a stronger announcement by GEICO that the insurance giant was dropping Schlessinger in particular. "We have decided we will not continue our advertising on the 'Dr. Laura' radio program," the statement read. "GEICO is an equal opportunity employer and does not condone discrimination of any type directed toward any minority," GEICO said in making the announcement.
...The StopDrLaura.com site had urged viewers to contact both SkyTel and GEICO. The site...contained contact information for SkyTel and other companies advertising during Schlessinger's program.
SkyTel now joins a growing list of major corporations that have distanced themselves from Schlessinger, including Procter and Gamble, United Airlines, American Express, Xerox, Toys R Us, GEICO, More.com, BoxLot, and Amica Insurance…
Source: press release StopDrLaura.com StopDrLaura.com 07/14/00
Laurie Mason Schmidt is right. "You have to see it to believe it."
She's also right when she says "and even when you see it, you still don't believe it."
Schmidt is talking about this summer's newest rage sweeping the small towns and county fairs of western Iowa. It's called tractor square dancing and that pretty much is what it is. Eight farmers, ages 41 to 59, promenading on eight tractors. And just for fun, four of them are dressed as women.
Yes, folks. Step right up and see your favorite farmer on his bright red Farmall, twirling his partner, his left wheel locked to her right. Watch them reverse gears in a do-si-do. Watch them circle to the left and circle to the right. And watch in awe as their precision chorus line brings the cheering crowd to its feet as the farmers wave their hats and bonnets in farewell.
Schmidt is the caller for what is formally dubbed the Farmall Promenade Tractor Square Dancers.
A physical education teacher, Schmidt is the spark plug that keeps 10 men (two are alternates) and their antique tractors on their toes with square dance music and her homespun patter. As the back of her shirt says, "I holler, they foller!"
She's with you, have no fear,
She's won't go home with that John Deere!
The group,
from Nemaha, a small farming community midway between Sioux City and Fort
Dodge, formed last year when the town celebrated its centennial. The lead
tractor dancer, Damon Mooney, remembered local farmers did a similar thing
some 50 years ago, when model C and H Farmalls were new, and thought it might
be fun to give it a whirl again...
They've gotten so good, they have taken their show on the long and straight country roads that crisscross this part of the world. They already have their own T-shirts ($10), video ($20) and groupies who travel to most every performance.
The group is halfway through a 16-stop summer tour. Monday night, they were here in Sioux Center at the Sioux County Youth Fair.
Four gents start, go all around,
Watch those tires churn up the ground!
Each dance couple is named after local seed-corn dealers who are sponsoring them, and each is dressed in the company's colors -- Mr. and Mrs. Pioneer (green), Mr. and Mrs. Wilson (red), Mr. and Mrs. Dekalb (yellow) and Mr. and Mrs. Garst (blue).
The "women" are on the Farmall Cs, the 16-horsepower tractor. The men drive the more powerful 25-horsepower H.
"More people are figuring it out now, what we do," says Mooney (Mr. Garst). "They didn't have a clue in the beginning. You try to get them clapping. The more the audience is involved, the better we are."
With the fair queen crowned and the sheep all judged, fairgoers turned their attention to a patch of dirt in the southeast corner of the fairgrounds. Off in the distance, the crowd could hear tractors revving as Schmidt warmed them up with her banter, dubbing herself "Nemaha's No. 1 call girl."
Her men were ready, and when they drove out onto the field, half had on gingham skirts, padded bras (44DD) under white blouses and wigs, some bearing bows. Their male counterparts wore color-coordinated shirts and bow ties. The dressing room in one of the trailers that transports the Farmalls was a beehive of activity just minutes before.
Ladies spin out, circle to the right,
Gents go on, keep your tires tight!
Mrs. Garst (Jeff Smith) was
without earrings, admitting he had to give them up during performances. "They
were killing my ears."
His breasts are also a bit smaller than those of his fellow distaff performers. Building a bust with the help of a helium balloon tank, he stops at a more modest size. "This is as big as she goes," Smith says. "After that, she blows."
"I tell you, the minute they put on those dresses, they turn into different people," says Sandy Smith Hurd, whose brother is the bearded Mrs. Pioneer Lynn Smith, and whose husband drives one of the trucks that haul the tractors.
Once the show begins, it becomes clear quickly that the group is part precision drill team (and a very good one at that) and part circus clown act.
The crowd, which lined the field and filled two sets of bleachers -- some brought lawn chairs to get a front-row seat to view this newest form of prairie entertainment — started clapping, laughing as Mrs. Dekalb (Russ Davis) adjusted her blond wig once the eight tractors came to a stop, hoods facing one another in a tight circle.
Wheel meets wheel, hood meets hood,
Turn around, you're looking good!
Monday's show was toned down a bit. The troupe adjusts each performance, depending how conservative the town they're performing in might be. The crowd at Sioux Center, known for its strict Bible Belt traditions, didn't get to see Mrs. Wilson jump into Mr. Wilson's lap and rub her bosoms in his face...
The men are still waiting for an invitation to the Iowa State Fair, but time is running out—it starts Aug. 10—and they're now pinning their hopes on an invitation next year…
Source: by Craig Wilson USA Today 07/20/00
The American Film Institute surveyed over 1,500 leaders in the film industry to compile it’s list of “America’s 100 Funniest Movies.” The list was announced this summer, with a prime-time special, and can be viewed in it’s entirety at their official website: www.afionline.com. In the meantime, check out what the top two films were, along with other TG highlights.-jp
1. Some Like It Hot
Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Joe E. Brown
Billy Wilder's comic take on the 1928 St. Valentine's
Day Massacre finds Lemmon and Curtis as musicians who witness a gangland
killing in Chicago and need to get out of town fast. Disguised as women,
they join an all-girl band headed for Miami, where Curtis doffs his wig and
chases Monroe while millionaire Brown falls for Lemmon's alter ego, Daphne.
When confronted with the truth about Lemmon's gender, Brown utters the film's
memorable last line - "Well, nobody's perfect."
2. Tootsie
Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr
Hoffman is an out-of-work method actor who can't keep
a job, until he puts on a dress and lands the role of a lifetime on a television
soap opera. Love interest Lange and her lonely father make situations even
more complicated in this gender-bending love story.
67. Mrs. Doubtfire
Robin Williams, Sally Field, Harvey Fierstein, Pierce
Brosnan
Field is fed up with husband Williams' free-spirited
approach to life and files for divorce. Desperate for additional time with
his children, Williams concocts a scheme, aided by flamboyant brother Harvey
Fierstein, to transform himself into the perfect British nanny. Field hires
"Mrs. Doubtfire" on the spot, allowing Williams to see his children and,
hopefully, to break up his estranged wife's new romance with Brosnan.
76. Victor/Victoria
Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston
With the help of her gay manager, played by Preston,
out-of-work singer Andrews pretends to be a man to get a gig as a female
impersonator in the Paris nightclub world of the 1930s. Macho Garner finds
himself inexplicably drawn to "him." Warren is Garner's lusty mistress, who
steals a scene with a rousing song about her hometown, Chicago.
The Decatur City Commission voted last week to ban discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation, sexual preference or transgender status" in personnel regulations governing the city's employees.
Decatur becomes one of only a handful of Georgia governments to officially ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and only the second in the state to offer job protection for transgendered city employees.
"I am very happy to see this pass. I think it is reflective of who we are as a city," said Decatur Commissioner Kecia Cunningham, who became Georgia's first African-American openly gay elected official when she won election last year.
Decatur has long been known for its large lesbian population... The Commission voted unanimously to approve the policy, and "it was kind of just the normal course of business, which was nice," Cunningham said.
The policy, passed June 5, went into effect immediately upon adoption, said Decatur City Manager Peggy Meriss. The policy applies to Decatur's 190 full-time employees, as well as additional part-time workers, Meriss said.
The policy's wording is a bit unusual: It includes both "sexual orientation" and "sexual preference" to cover homosexuality, bisexuality and heterosexuality, while most other municipalities including the city of Atlanta use "sexual orientation" only.
Many activists have stopped using the phrase "sexual preference" because they feel it implies that being gay is a choice, while many people say they experience their sexual orientation as innate.
"As long as 'sexual orientation' is included, I don't think it is harmful to use that language, although it's not what we would have recommended," said Harry Knox, executive director of the Georgia Equality Project, the statewide gay political group...
The Decatur policy uses the wording suggested by a constituent who made the initial request for the policy, Meriss said. "We were trying to be as broad as we can possibly make it, so we weren't coming back and doing amendments," she said.
The city of Atlanta, Fulton County and DeKalb County ban job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The southeastern city of Tybee Island includes in its personnel policy a commitment to "assuring fair treatment" of employees "without regard" to a variety of categories, including sexual orientation... Atlanta became the first Georgia government to ban discrimination against transgendered people when "gender identity" was added to non-discrimination statements in the city charter earlier this year…
QUICK HITS:
Media Mentions
Newsweek / 07/03/00
Al Gore, on his emerging friendship with Minnesota
Gov. Jesse Ventura:
“I’m even thinking about a feather boa.“
USA Today / 07/02/00
Actress Rene Ruso, on playing evil-doer Natasha Fatale
in the recent film Rocky and Bullwinkle :
"Natasha looks like a drag queen, and I've got the
kind of face that goes into drag-queen mode really well. Just put the right
makeup on me,"
News of the Wierd / 06/18/00
Brazilian legislator Wilson Lima told reporters in April that he still thought his proposal to require clubs and bar, to have three restrooms (males, females and gays/transvestites, for their own protection from homophobic men) was a good idea, even though Brazil’s largest gay-rights organization said it was horrified of such a prospect.
USA Weekend / 07/02/00
“Q: Who is the baby in those clever “Bob”
TV commercials for Freeinternet.com. How old is he? And how do they make
it look as if he’s really talking?
The baby in the big brown chair actually is a girl
named Hunter, 8 months old in the ad ads. She was chosen after a casting
call for baby boys produced no “really chubby”
babies…”