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Tennessee Vals
Newsletter JUNE 2001
Upcoming
Group Meetings
In This Issue:
Vals Special Events:
Thursday, June 7: Southern
Comfort, Nashville Independent Film Festival, 9:20pm
Saturday, June 16: Family Day, Nashville
Zoo, 9am to 6pm
The Queens Throne by Marisa
Richmond
marisaval@aol.com
"$80,000 awarded in cross-dress murder" screamed one headline. Then, just five days later, I saw "Miss Universe battles 'Mr. France' rumors." Media coverage is an issue with which many of us have been concerned for a long time, so allow me to spend part of this month's column talking about these two stories.
The first headline refers to the decision by the Nebraska Supreme Court that Joann Brandon, the mother of Brandon Teena, be awarded money due to the negligence of Richardson County Sheriff Charles Laux. Although the amount was much less than the $350,000 requested by the family, it was a significant victory for the entire transgender community. It means law enforcement will now be held accountable for their actions if they do not provide protection from possible hate crimes. Unfortunately, the article, which accompanied the rather misleading headline, was also inaccurate. Associated Press continues to state that Brandon "posed as a man," while Time referred to Brandon as a "cross-dressing woman." It is obvious that they still do not understand transgendered identities and still cannot make the distinction between those who live and those who "pose."
The second story was based on an Internet rumor (and we all know how accurate they can be....) about Elodie Gossuin, Miss France in the 2001 Miss Universe pageant. According to media reports, the 20-year-old nursing student angrily denied the rumors that she had been born male calling them "grotesque," while a pageant official said this rumor was designed to hurt her. Sadly, these forms of transphobia do not make Ms. Gossuin or any other pageant official look good. Their negative reactions to the rumor are most unbecoming and are based upon, and continue to fuel, attitudes that male-to-female transsexuals are not real women. Sadly, an AOL poll on the issue saw 49.6% voting to keep transsexuals out of the pageant while only 31.1% saying it should be open. While getting the anti-TS vote down to under 50% is an achievement, it shows there is still a lot of fear and misunderstanding out there, typical of a Weak Brain, Narrow Mind, which must be addressed. Years ago, I read that Miss Sweden in 1964 was reportedly a transsexual and the pageant world did not collapse. We still have a lot of work to do to overcome prejudice since not all of it comes from the Southern Baptists.
During the televised part of the pageant, Gossuin was asked about the rumor. She replied only that she was "100% natural." Of course, so is saline....She did make it to the final ten-probably to keep the ratings up-but did not make the final five (meaning she did not have to give a vacuous answer along with the others), eventually losing to Miss Puerto Rico. Along the way, she did look quite stunning in her red bikini and sheer white evening gown.
Every
now and then, we have events occur that remind us of how long we have been
around. This month presents one of those times in my own life: my 25th high
school reunion. Of course, since I'm only 29 (or thereabouts....), this shows
that I was an early bloomer. At a previous reunion, one classmate said that
I was the one who had changed the least. This time, I could try to lay claim
to the title of the person who has changed the most. At this point, however,
I am just trying not to get arrested for DUI since the last time I was at
the host's house (25 years ago for a graduation party) was also the only
time I nearly did get arrested. When the specter of jail looms, your priorities
do tend to change.
Another thing I am looking forward to this month is the release of Tomb Raider. Although I have never actually played the video game, the early publicity stills of Angelina Jolie as the very buxom Lady Lara Croft suggests this is going to be hot! It may be safe to say that Lara will be a popular Halloween outfit this year, providing you can fill up a D cup.
Finally, just as I was trying to fill out this month's column, I received an interesting fundraising letter from a group called the Alliance Defense Fund. It is an effort "to stop the ACLU and its radical homosexual allies from destroying God-ordained marriage." Their beef is over the upcoming legal challenge to Nebraska's Initiative 416 which denies equal marriage rights to some of its citizens based upon illogical definitions of sex, gender, and love, along with the relationship between religion and government. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has long supported equal rights and the First Amendment separation of church and state, is, apparently, providing funding for this challenge. I find it appalling that so many people use religion to mask pure prejudice. At one time, most people approved of bans against "Interracial" marriage (even though there is only one race....). It was the U.S. Supreme Court which declared such laws unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia (1967). If we are not willing to stand behind religious freedom in a secular society, then religiously-based bigots will continue to try and impose their will on everyone. Thanks to this appeal from the ADF, I think I will send some money....to the ACLU. What really surprises me the most about this is how they even got my name and address in the first place!
I hope your summer starts out well.
A
Blonde, Brunette AND Redhead
byJulie
Phillips FabulBabe@aol.com
Chicago Redux
The last time I mentioned the world “Chicago”, I’m pretty sure I used it in the same sentence as “tundra”. What a difference just a few months make.
Mr. Wonderful and I just returned yesterday from quick springtime visit to Chicago and I have a much nicer impression of the city this time around. (There’s something about below zero wind chill and the sound of knees knocking together that gets in the way of fun.)
We went clubbing Friday and Saturday nights, confusing several shifts of hotel workers who saw the same guy sometimes with a male friend, and others with a babe dressed for a night on the town. While they were left to figure out just how many people were staying in that one room, we headed up to the Old Town section of Chicago—also known as Boystown. Needless to say, we felt very safe and welcome in this neighborhood.
Prior to dancing Saturday night, we had dinner a cool restaurant in Boystown called Buddies. Before we spent anymore money on cabfare, we decided to check with our waiter to see if the club we were going to was within walking distance.
He looked down at my shoes before answering. “I had to check your heels first. Yes, girl, you can walk there. It’s just a couple of blocks that way.”
What a considerate man!
.
Crossdressing Gang Runs Amuck
The last time I saw the cake, it was left out in the rain in MacArthur’s Park. It’s not there now because this news took it: a mob of ruthless drag queens are stealing and robbing people to buy gorgeous gowns so they can compete in drag pageants.
Washington police even think the gang may have bumped off one of their former members who “squealed” to the cops.
I’ve met my share of drag queens who were bitchy, rude or just plain cranky, but never one I thought would kill for a new “fix” of rhinestones.
It’s The Sopranos in pumps!
Picture this….
The Godmother calls you into her office to have a little talk. It’s the night of the big DC Citywide Pageant and she has something on her mind.
“I’ve called you here to ask you a favor. It’s not a big favor, but important nonetheless. You’re going to be backstage at tonight’s pageant, right?”
“Yes, Godmother. I’ll be there would miss it for anything.”
“Very good,” said The Godmother, her eyes lighting up to reveal a pair of humongeous false eyelashes. She is the Godmother, after all.
“It seems the frontrunner for the crown is a certain Big Tanya. Big Tanya once snapped her fingers at me and told me to ‘talk to the hand.’ I don’t even know what that means, but I don’t like it. And I don’t like her.”
The Godmother’s attitude changed as her eyes got squinty and she deepened and lowered her voice.
“I ask you a favor. Before Big Tanya’s big dance salute to Donna Summer, I want you to break her heels! Break ‘em both! Break ‘em good!“
“But Godmother, I like Big Tanya. She loaned me some lip gloss once when I left mine in the car.”
“Like I said,” the Godmother continued. “It’s just a little favor. One day, perhaps I can do a little favor for you. Don‘t forget who you‘re talking to.”
The Godmother leaned over her desk, her left breast enhancer almost falling out. She paused to readjust it—just long enough to glimpse the pistol she had shoved into her bra strap.
“Uh—yes, Godmother! I’ll do as you wish. Right away.”
“Smart girl, smart girl,” The Godmother said, shoving cotton balls into her cheeks. “This doesn’t make me look fat, does it?” she asked.
“Uh, no! No. Not at all. Makes you look like you’ve had cheek implants.”
“Just the look I wanted. You know Loose Lipped Lana who used to perform down at the club.”
“I remember her. She left town suddenly about a year ago.”
The Godmother leaned back in her chair and gazed at her poster-sized picture of J. Edgar Hoover in a one-piece swimsuit and continued. “ Loose Lipped Lana couldn’t keep a secret. She started talking too much. You know what happened to her, don’t you?”
“Gulp! No what happened?”
“She woke up one morning to find a Styrofoam wighead in her bed! It was made-up with blue eyeshadow and Revlon lipstick painted outside of the lip lines. You wouldn’t want to find that in your bed one morning would you? ”
“Uh, uh, uh. No, Godmother. I’m not a talker. I’m a doer. Uh, uh. Anything else, Godmother?”
“No, my drag daughter. That small favor will be enough.”
“Thank you Godmother. I’ll just show myself out. I promise I’ll take care of Big Tanya’s platforms before she gets even close to lip-synching ‘Last Dance’.”
“Wait. There is one more small thing you can do for me.”
“Yes. Sure. Anything.” “Would you give me a ride? I just need to knock off a liquor store real quick, then, drop me off at the mall. I just can’t be seen wearing this gown again tonight. The girls would never let me hear the end of it.”
My Closet by Leslie Louise DuPaix lldupaix@hotmail.com
If you have been taking notes on all of my columns (and I just KNOW you have), hanging on every word, marveling on the insights, the wonderful things that have never been said so wonderfully, you will recall that I started out trying to communicate the deep connection I feel there is between "T"-ness and the religious experience.
In May's column I shared some scriptural references to the Divine Feminine and Spring as a time to nurture the creative and the Feminine in us all, "T" or otherwise. I am always comforted in Exodus 3:14 when Moses asks of God what he needs to tell the Israelites when they ask him "What is His [God's] name?" and God replies "I am who am." and adds "This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you." What I get out of that exchange is that The Great Oz is so beyond human ability to understand and comprehend that the only dimension of the Creator that we can comprehend is "existence." The Great Oz is beyond further subdivision. Beyond constraints of form, physicalness and, of course, gender and sex. She IS. He IS. Period. Whittling Her down to images our small minds can juggle is OK, of course, but like a condensed book, or review of a work of art, a great amount is going to be left out.
The most obvious threads in "T" writings tend towards the more worldly. Physical aspects of the "T" trip and how to master them. Political aspects of the "T" experience. Emotional dimensions of early experiences. But the spiritual connection is definitely out there. A few web sites have the spiritual aspect as a dominant theme, so I have no illusions of really breaking new ground, but sometimes I am appreciative when I find validation in what I have felt and am trying to express.
Searching the web on a different thread completely, I ran across a review of a book Gay Spirituality: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness, by Toby Johnson. { Alyson Publications, 2000. Trade paperback, $13.95. ISBN 1-555-83523-6.}
Quoting from the review: "Toby Johnson, Ph.D., is a former Catholic monk and comparative religions scholar turned psychotherapist. He is the author of numerous books, including Getting Life into Perspective, In Search of God in the Secret Underworld, and the Lambda Literary Award-winning novel, Secret Matter."
My interest aroused, I read the review and was taken by the following: "Johnson contends there is a certain kind of enlightenment that goes with being gay, a familiarity with being an outsider, a precocious discovery that if the conventions of society are wrong about something as basic as sex, they're probably wrong about a lot of other things as well. Because of homosexual orientation, gay men have an in-sight into the nature of consciousness. Able to step outside the assumptions and conventions of culture, gay men see things from a different point of view and consequently gain insights into our culture, our traditions, and our metaphysical assumptions."
From my standpoint, changing "gay" to "gay/trans-gendered" and "sex" to “sex and gender," everything else makes even more sense. Brother Toby must write about what he knows, so I am not taking him to task for lack of inclusivity. In my world view Brother Toby has wonderful credentials. One does not just go out and play and flirt with being a Catholic monk, or a scholar or a psychotherapist, and I would suspect he is all of those things because of his feelings of being an outsider and his attempts at finding a way of inclusion. So Toby Johnson's spin from his world would seem to be in line with my ongoing point that our "T" experiences, which are a mixture of wonderful and horrible, are an opportunity to grow that we might effect the world and society in ways and in areas that most of humanity never questions and tends to ignore.
Reading elsewhere I ran across a quote attributed to e-columnist Camille Paglia where she says, "When a woman puts on male clothing, she is seeking power. When a man puts on female clothing he is seeking God." Clearly that is worth repeating and remembering. If our earthly task is to become more God (or Goddess)-like, more in harmony with God's way, then the "T" path is as a legitimate path to growth, understanding and harmony as any other. I AM understands. As She is both male and female and everything in between and beyond, we can be as well.
One of the metaphysical themes found in just about any spiritual path I have ever had contact with is that the illusion of separateness needs to be overcome. We are not alone. We are connected to one another and to the creator. When Lesa blossoms, she is taking a tiny step towards transcending the earthly-plane boundaries that strengthen the illusion of separateness. She has broken through a barrier. Bubba and Lesa are no longer as separate as they were from the other half of humanity. Bubba, through Lesa, has started a whole new folder of shared experiences with the female half of human experience and a small amount of increased understanding and compassion. No pretension that Lesa will ever be wholly female nor that she has any real desire to be so. But even a trickle of water through the levee is a breaching of the barrier. If Bubba, through Lesa, can't join and understand in a small scale, how can he hope to do so on any larger more meaningful scale? Moving through barriers can weaken the illusion of separateness and may be rewarded with a feeling of wholeness and holy-ness.
Julia Cameron in her absolutely wonderful book, The Artist's Way (ISBN 0-87477-694-5) says "Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move towards our dreams, we move towards our divinity."
Whatever else one might have to say about the "T" path, it is not short on creativity. From the mop-as-a-beautiful-wig and a dish-towel-as-long-hair of our childhood to the birdseed-in-pantyhose-toes-for-boobs days of more recent memory, creativity is not unknown at all. And I AM is pleased because She knows it is leading us to a better appreciation of the totality of Her creation and she is enjoying the trip.
Left
of Center by Pamela DeGroff
An Interview with Abby Rubenfeld
The current addition of Transgender to the Human Rights Champaign's mission statement has caused a stir among trans activists and leaders across the country. To some, it is nothing more than lip service whose sincerity has yet to be proven. To others, however, it represents the possibility of an alliance that could help propel Transgender issues and anti-discrimination policies to a mainstream, national level.
Recently, I was able to conduct an interview with HRC board member, Abby Rubenfeld. Ms. Rubenfeld is one of the movers and shakers of Nashville, Tennessee's GLBT community. She is a well known attorney who has been practicing law for over 22 years, and as such, was instrumental in the repeal of the states sodomy laws in 1995. She worked on this for four years. She is also one of the founders of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association.
The following is our discussion of HRC's inclusion of Transgender in its mission statement, and Ms. Rubenfeld's personal views on what this means. She emphasized throughout that she cannot speak for HRC as an organization.
PAMELA DeGROFF: What was the overwhelming opinion of HRC's board concerning this change in the mission statement? ?
ABBY: "I'm on the Board of Directors for HRC, which is the governing body for HRC, and we also have a very large board of governors, that also helps. We're the official governing body; the board of directors.
"The governors are more involved with local steering committees and local fund raising, and more of implementing policy. The directors are more the policy making arm. We're really legally responsible for the organization-a smaller group, about 30 people on the board of directors.
"We've been considering this for a long time. It's a fairly conservative group of people, they're very responsible. For some of the people on the board, people have to be educated on this issue. But, HRC as an organization has been committed to Transgendered issues, and working on them...for years, working with Transgendered organizations. Changing our mission statement was really just formalizing what we'd already been doing.
"I was pleasantly surprised at the overwhelming approval. There really wasn't much controversy about doing it. We had a task force that worked on it for a couple years, but when it finally came down to voting on it, it was fairly noncontroversial."
PAMELA: Was there any one issue or set of circumstances that brought about this change?
ABBY: "I don't think so. It was just kind of catching up with the times. We've done the work for a long time, it was just a matter of formalizing it in the mission statement. I think the only hesitation that there's been for a long time about doing it was that one of the keys to HRC's success is that we're a very focused organization. While a lot of us on the board and on the staff have strong views on a variety of subjects-like the death penalty, for example-while a lot of things are important to us like choice issues for women, those aren't part of our mission statement because we're focused on the big issue for us."
PAMELA: You mean Gay and Lesbian issues?
ABBY:"Right. But we've been doing Transgender issues for a long time, and I think that adopting this policy is a reflection that these issues are intertwined. The issues of gender identity affect gay people directly, and that we should formalize in our mission statement the work that we're doing."
PAMELA: What will it take to get HRC to back Transgender inclusion in the national ENDA now before Congress? ?
ABBY: "I don't think, in all honesty and just being direct, that's not going to happen. I think that what our strategy is and what our intent is, is that we see ENDA as a specific piece of legislation. It's not entirely ours. HRC's played a big role in it, but it's not entirely our piece of legislation. It's sponsored by different congressmen and senators; there's other organizations involved. It's not really ours to control. But, I think we see it as focused on dealing with issues of sexual orientation and sexual orientation alone. Which is not to say that there's not a problem with discrimination based on gender identity and expression. There is. And there probably should be some sort of legislative solution.
"But, I think what we see is that there should either be some way to amend the existing gender discrimination statues to make clear that they also include gender identity. As a lawyer, I see it fitting better there.
"Or, to draft a separate, free standing piece of legislation that would deal with those issues."
PAMELA:That leads right into the next question. Would HRC support a separate Transgender only employment rights bill?
"Well...I can't speak for HRC, but my guess would be, my sense would be, yes."
PAMELA:If the current ENDA passed as written and Transgenders organized enough to get a written bill with what we wanted in legislation for transgendered employment rights, would HRC be committed to stand with the Transgender community to get this passed?
ABBY: "Well, like I said, I can't speak for HRC, but my guess would be yes, absolutely, because I think we believe in nondiscrimination. It's part of our mission statement now. It's always been part of our commitment. HRC's a really practical organization and it has really skilled people, we have a really developed strategy when we deal with legislation. I think we would want to help. I'm sure that our staff would want to be involved in helping draft legislation, to work on a strategy of what's the best way to approach this. We're going to do something that's smart, we're going to help be involved in a strategy that's smart, that's designed to get this thing passed. I think HRC's committed to that. I don't know that there's any particular piece of legislation that's already been proposed, but I'm sure HRC would want to be involved in helping to develop that."
PAMELA: Who in your viewpoint do we need to convince, or change the minds of, within HRC's structure as to inclusion of Transgender issues? ?
ABBY: "I'm personally not familiar with the people. Our lobbyists at HRC have dealt with this issue. I don't know the answer to that."
PAMELA: What about Barney Frank?
ABBY:"I've seen some of the quotes from him. I honestly don't know what his position is. I think he's opposed to trying to change ENDA."
PAMELA:To be blunt about it, he's got a lot of misinformation about Transgenders... ?
ABBY: "Well, he's got to be educable. HRC can be involved in that process. He's obviously someone we should approach. All the openly gay people on the Hill should be on our side."
PAMELA: That again leads to another question. In 1997, Transgender activists canvassed the Senate supporters of ENDA and all indicated that their support of ENDA would not have been affected by Transgender inclusion in it. How does this reconcile with HRC's past statement that the Congressional supporters of ENDA are not ready for Transgender inclusion?
ABBY: "I don't know, because I didn't do whatever happened in '97. I'm not the person who issued that statement. My guess would be, if that's true, I'd be surprised if all the people who are supporters said that. But if that's the case, it's four years ago, and there's probably a lot more sponsors now. I don't know, I'm not on the Hill, I'm just on the board."
PAMELA: Do you have any direct input on what happens on the Hill?
ABBY: "Oh, I have input as a board member when we talk about stuff, what we want our lobbyists to do, what our policies are. And our policy is to support nondiscrimination, including based on gender identity and gender expression. But, I think we're clear as an organization that ENDA is ENDA, and it's not just HRC's little project that we can say, well, we want to change it now, even if we did. Although, I don't think there's a sense on the board that ENDA should be changed. I think ENDA is ENDA and we need to have a different piece of legislation to deal with gender identity, or, fix the gender statutes to make clear that the definition of gender includes gender identity and gender expression. Which I think is more intellectually honest and consistent to do that, because that's where it fits. It's a gender issue on that, in a legal sense."
PAMELA: True, it's not an issue that revolves around sexual orientation...
ABBY: "Not per se; it affects gay people, because I know if I go to court dressed wrong, people say stuff like-'Look like a girl!'-that kind of thing. But it isn't sexual orientation per se."
PAMELA: How would you describe the relationship between HRC and GenderPac?
ABBY: "Well, see again, the staff has more of that relationship. I think it's a good relationship from what I hear at the meetings, but if there's something I'm not aware of...that's something that's more staff driven than board driven. GenderPac representatives have spoken at our board meeting and they've always been well received."
PAMELA: Do you think HRC would ever consider having Transgender leaders as keynote speakers at your fund-rasing dinners and other events?
ABBY: "Probably, I don't know why not."
(Author's Note: Although Ms. Rubenfeld has no personal knowledge of the relationship between GenderPac and the rest of the trans community, it was not the intent of this interview to focus on anything negative or to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing internal Transgender politics. And, although she made it very clear she was not doing the interview as an official representative of HRC, she was nonetheless up front about HRC's stance on the issue of Transgender inclusion in ENDA as it's currently written.
If HRC is honest in their intention regarding employment rights legislation for us, then the Transgender community should be equally honest in our desire to stop the bickering and start working together towards achieving this goal.
The Transgender community is bigger than any one organization that claims to solely represent it. Perhaps HRC has finally recognized the work that many individuals, as well as various organizations, have done. This is a unique opportunity for each side to test the others sincerity. And if we don't start working together now, then when and where? Let's not waste an opportunity.
I'd like to thank Abby Rubenfeld for giving me her time, as well as some very honest, up front answers. Perhaps we can work with HRC in the future.)
news, media mentions, etc...
Breast Implants May Increase Cancer Risks
Two new studies suggest that breast implants raise women's risk of brain and lung cancer.
Compared to the general population of women the same age, those who had received cosmetic breast implants were more than twice as likely to develop or die of brain cancer, the studies found.
Their risk of developing or dying of lung cancer was about the same as that of all women the same age. But the risk was more than twice that of a comparison group of women who had undergone other types of cosmetic surgery. The studies did not find higher rates of other smoking-related cancers, such as bladder tumors.
Still, National Cancer Institute epidemiologist Louise Brinton, lead author of both papers, called their findings for the most part reassuring. The studies did not find increased risks of multiple myeloma, sarcomas or blood cancers — three types of malignancies about which previous research had raised concerns, Brinton says.
Both of her studies, which appear in the May issues of Epidemiology and Annals of Epidemiology, focused on the same group: 13,488 women who had received cosmetic implants before 1989.
Only about 12% had saline implants; most of the others had silicone gel implants, which have virtually been banned for cosmetic use in the USA since 1992. An estimated 800,000 to 1 million women have received silicone breast implants since the early 1960s.
Both studies compared the implant patients to the general population as well as to 3,936 women who had undergone other types of plastic surgery. Besides reviewing medical records and death certificates, the researchers surveyed survivors about their medical and reproductive history and lifestyle.
Both the implant recipients and the other plastic surgery patients had lower death rates overall than the general population. Like elective surgery patients, both groups of women probably were generally healthier than their peers, the researchers write. But the implant recipients did have higher cancer death rates than the other cosmetic surgery patients.
Source: by Rita Rubin USA Today 04/24/01
SF Becomes First City to Cover TS Surgery
San Francisco is set to become the first city in the country to cover sex changes in its employee benefits package.
With a 9-2 vote, the city's Board of Supervisors on Monday approved a measure that will allow city employees to claim up to $50,000 toward the cost of therapies and surgeries needed for sex reassignment. The vote was scheduled for April 23, but was delayed by Supervisor Mark Leno (pictured) in order to ensure he would have the nine votes necessary for his bill to pass. A city committee approved the measure earlier in April following a five-year battle within the city's health department. Leno told the Associated Press that support for the move is widespread, with the only opposition coming from people out of state.
"We have transgender people living and working among us," Leno told the AP. "They deserve the same dignity and respect as every other citizen. One way is to make sure the city provides equal benefits for equal work."
Supervisor Tony Hall, who voted against the added benefit, called it reverse discrimination and said he had heard from many constituents who agree with him. "This is not like heart failure," Hall told the AP. "This is an elective procedure." But supporters pointed out that the measure would not cover cosmetic surgery and could only be used if a doctor declared it a medical necessity.
The screening process will last up to six months and will include an extensive medical review. "This is a matter of conscience," said Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano in the San Francisco Chronicle. "It is not a political decision; it is a moral decision."
The city estimates that 17 of its 37,000 current employees are transgendered, and that as many as 35 might make use of the new benefits in the first year. Implementation of the coverage changes, which include hearing aids and acupuncture, will increase each employee's monthly insurance premium by approximately $1.70, the bulk of which will be paid by the city.
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown supports the measure and is expected to sign it quickly. The new benefits will take effect July 1.
Source: by Barbara Dozetos, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network 05/01/01
RI House Passes TG Bill
The Rhode Island house of representatives voted Tuesday in favor of a proposal that extends antidiscrimination protections to transgendered people, The Providence Journal reports. The bill, which would prohibit schools, banks, employers, and other nonreligious institutions from discriminating based on “gender identity or expression,” would make Rhode Island the third state with such protections. Minnesota and Connecticut are the others. The legislation faces a tougher road in the senate.
source: The Advocate 05/03/01
New Zealand's TS Lawmaker Retires After One Term
New Zealand's first transsexual lawmaker, Georgina Beyer, says she will retire from politics next year. Beyer told the governing Labor Party's April 28 regional conference that she was leaving politics to spend time developing her links with her Maori tribe and family. "It was not my intention to be in politics forever. There are other things that I want to do in my life," she said. Beyer first won office in local government in 1993; she published her biography, Change for the Better, before she won parliamentary office. The book described Beyer's gradual realization that she was a woman in a man's body. "My life is an open book," she said after her election, asserting that recognition of her work in the public sector, rather than curiosity, led to her electoral success.
source: AP via The Advocate 05/06/01
Source: by The Advocate 05/06/01
AZ Repeals Various
Antiquated Sex Laws
Calling the statutes "unenforced
and unenforceable," Arizona's governor signed into law a bill repealing the
state's ban on cohabitation, oral sex and sodomy.
Arizona Gov. Jane Hull surprised many of her constituents this week by signing into law a bill that repeals the state's ban on cohabitation, oral sex and sodomy.
In spite of heavy lobbying by conservative groups asking her to veto the measure approved by the state's legislature last week, Hull, a Republican, said, "At the end of the day, I returned to one of my most basic beliefs about government: It does not belong in our private lives." Her comments came in a letter explaining her decision to the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives.
The law being repealed set out a maximum of 30 days in jail and a $500 fine for the misdemeanor crimes of unmarried men and women living together; sodomy -- including oral sex; and any sex act not intended for procreation.
"The laws that are repealed by HB 2016 are unenforced and unenforceable," Hull wrote. "Keeping archaic laws on the books does not promote high moral standards; instead, it teaches the lesson that laws are made to be broken."
Conservatives are considering a move to take the issue to the polls in a referendum, but doing so would require gathering 80,000 signatures in 90 days at an estimated cost of $150,000, Republican Sen. David Peterson told the Arizona Republic. "The question is if there is enough fire in the belly," he said.
Any legislator moving to reinstate the law would be "laughed out of office," said Rep. Steve May, the repeal bill's sponsor and a gay Republican. "Let them go to the ballot, and we'll watch them waste all their money," May told the Republic.
According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 17 states still have sodomy laws on the books.
Source: by Barbara Dozeots, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network 5/09/01
The Homecoming King is...Go Ahead, GUESS
Some think it was a joke, while others call it a show of support. But one thing's for sure: everyone in Ferndale, Wash. is talking about the town high school's lesbian prom king.
Students at Ferndale High School in northwestern Washington State have picked an out lesbian as their prom king.
Seattle's
KOMO TV reports that lesbian senior Krystal Bennett won the election at last
weekend's school prom. After posing for photos with the prom queen -- who
was also female -- she danced for the rest of the evening with her girlfriend.
Bennett told KOMO that she had joked with some friends early in the evening about being prom king. "I really wanted to win and was excited about it," she said. "But 'cause it didn't seem realistic, I didn't take it as seriously as I felt about it."
She suggested that many students may have voted for her as a joke.
But Principal David Hutchinson said in an interview with KOMO, "I think the students that were voting were telling Krystal, 'We support you.'"
Although some students and community members have objected to the win, Bennett said her reign as king is raising important issues. "This is one the entire school is gonna have to hear about, everyone is gonna have to address and one that's gonna directly affect the administration and staff," she said...
source:Matt Alsdorf Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network 5/08/01
A Washington area fraud ring, which authorities say used stolen checks and credit cards to finance a lifestyle centered on cross-dressing and drag balls, is being investigated in connection with the killing of a D.C. youth home counselor last month.
Law enforcement sources said this week that Zebedee Hawkins, 33, who was shot to death April 25 on the steps of the youth home in Northeast Washington, had been a member of the ring, which calls itself the House of Khan. But he left the group last year and in recent months had become an informant in a federal investigation into allegations of fraud committed by some of its members, sources said.
"The word on the street [was] Mr. Hawkins was talking," said a D.C. police source. Authorities said Hawkins helped reveal a criminal organization that had long been hidden in subcultures of the Washington area gay and transgendered communities.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which investigates mail fraud, began looking into the group two years ago, after officials were alerted by local banks to the theft of checks and credit cards.
Law enforcement sources and those familiar with the city's house subculture said the House of Khan apparently formed in the 1980s, in the mold of drag houses that had sprung up in New York City the decade before.
Created by black and Latino gay men disaffected with their ethnic cultures as well as mainstream gay life, the groups were primarily social, and their members often would compete in drag pageants. A house typically would have 30 to 50 members.
The culture of houses, which often were named for fashion labels, spread up and down the East Coast. The House of Khan is believed to be named after a designer prominent in the 1980s.
As the house subculture grew, so did the cost of competing -- a set of designer evening wear might cost thousands of dollars. In some corners of the subculture, members turned to fraud to pay for their activities, sources say.
Beginning in the late 1980s, the Postal Inspection Service tracked several cases of credit card fraud among houses down the East Coast. Members of groups called the House of Dupree and the House of Ebony were convicted of fraud in New York City in the late 1980s, according to the Postal Inspection Service. In the early 1990s, members of a group called the House of Revlon -- some of whom had served time for the New York cases -- were found guilty of credit card fraud in Baltimore.
Last year, Annapolis city and Anne Arundel County police investigated several cases in which cross-dressers stole credit cards and checks. Peter Medley, an Annapolis police detective, said those arrested included members of the House of Khan.
According to a D.C. police source, the House of Khan had been running various scams since the early 1990s.
The Postal Inspection Service investigation into the House of Khan deals only with the period from 1997 to last fall. According to an indictment issued in March against three alleged leaders of the house, fraud schemes netted the group nearly $300,000 during that time.
In those schemes, mail was stolen from Washington area residents' mail slots. In some cases, several house members would enter a store in drag and distract clerks while other house members rifled through the clerks' bags, law enforcement sources said.
The aim was to obtain credit cards, credit card numbers, checks, identity cards or bank account information. According to the indictment, the three men -- Steven Daval Jones, Dominique Alphonzo Gray and Miles Nathaniel Holloman, all of the District -- along with two unnamed co-conspirators -- sometimes used these documents to set up new bank accounts or get new ID cards in their victims' names. Attorneys for the three men declined to comment.
Many victims said they had no idea of the identity theft until they started receiving past-due notices...
Hawkins became an informant last year and helped secure the indictments by testifying before a federal grand jury.
After testifying, Hawkins taped an interview with WJLA-TV (Channel 7), in early April. With his face and voice obscured, he described how he would work scams.
"I use your credit card number to order things, and while I'm ordering the things -- if I don't want to put a bogus address on it -- I'll sit in front of your house . . . waiting for the UPS man, FedEx man . . . and sign for the package," Hawkins said in that interview.
The D.C. police source said that Hawkins's status as an informant was well known on the street. "He wasn't hiding it," the source said.
About 11:45 p.m. April 25, Hawkins was shot on the front steps of the youth home on Eads Street NE as he arrived to work the overnight shift. Hawkins, who served as a counselor to seven offenders ages 15 to 18, died at the scene, D.C. police said. A small amount of marijuana was found on his body.
The agency that runs the home under a city contract, Associates for Renewal in Education, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Neither they nor District social services officials would comment about Hawkins, whose criminal record in the city included nine charges dating to the 1980s, such as car theft, robbery, assault and drug possession. In most of the cases, he was not prosecuted, and his only conviction in the District since 1992 was on a misdemeanor attempted-theft charge in the early 1990s.
The homicide investigation has involved the Postal Inspection Service, the FBI and D.C. police.
Those familiar with the D.C. house scene said there has always been an edge of violence, though never a slaying. Sometimes, according to D.C. transgender activist Earline Budd, brawls would break out at drag pageants because of a glance or a word from one house to another. "If you had a run-in with someone," Budd said, "you fight and it's done."
Source:Clarence Williams, Steven Gray and Robin Givhan © 2001 The Washington Post Company 05/11/01
In one out of every 3,000 births, the physician cannot tell the new parents what some have waited to hear -- namely, whether they have had a boy or a girl. But the results of a study described in the May issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics may offer new hope to parents whose infants are born sexually ambiguous. According to the report, researchers have determined that a second copy of a sex determination gene known as WNT-4 can change an embryo from male to female, which often results in ambiguous genitalia. The finding could help doctors more accurately and quickly identify an externally ambiguous baby’s gender.
Geneticist Eric Vilain of the University of California at Los Angeles and his colleagues identified WNT-4 as one of several genes that determine sex. Whereas most genetic defects stem from the absence or mutation of a gene, genital defects arise when WNT-4 appears twice on the chromosome. WNT-4, it seems, "influences the sex determination pathway at each step of the way," Vilain notes. "We discovered that when the amount of the gene fluctuates even slightly at any stage in the genetic blueprint, it changes the embryo from male to female."
The WNT-4 study results will enable researchers to use genetic testing to help identify the causes of genital ambiguity. Moreover, scientists might one day even be able to treat a defective embryo in utero. "Our findings suggest that clinicians could identify the WNT-4 duplication prenatally," Vilain remarks. "If this proves true, in the future we may be able to correct the defect in the womb and restore the embryo to its original male status. This may repair the genital malformations before the child is born."
source: Scientific American 05/02/01
...the beautiful Miss France, Elodie Gossuin, was interrogated by Miss Universe pageant officials because they heard rumors she was a transsexual. (They decided she's not.) "All delegates must be natural-born females," a pageant spokesperson dutifully explained. Quel horseshit! Firstly, all the contestants look like transsexuals, so why should a real one cause a problem? Secondly, a trannie is a woman, just as those who've converted to Judaism because they always felt Jewish belong in a synagogue. Hey, pageant freaks: start embracing all forms of womanhood and stop wondering if you've got male...
Source: La Doce Musto, by Michael Musto The Village Voice 04/27/01
KS Judge Decides Big Feet Do Not Make the Man OR Woman
A marriage involving a person who has had sex change surgery may be valid under Kansas law, a state Court of Appeals panel ruled Friday.
The decision overturns a lower court decision that found such unions violated state law banning same-sex marriages.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals said courts must determine whether a person is male or female at the time of marriage, not at birth.
But the panel concluded such a determination may be difficult and ordered the case returned to district court for more proceedings.
A Leavenworth County District Court had declared the September 1998 marriage of Marshall and J'Noel Gardiner invalid because J'Noel once was a man. Judge Gunnar Sundby ruled that J'Noel remained a man, despite the surgery.
Marshall Gardiner, who was 85 at the time of the marriage, died in 1999 of a heart attack. J'Noel Gardiner is embroiled in a legal dispute over his $2.5 million estate with his son, Joe. The son learned about J'Noel's surgery after his father's death.
``The same science which allows
us to map the genome and explore our DNA requires us to recognize
these discoveries in all aspects of our lives, including
the legal ramifications,'' Appeals Judge Robert Gernon wrote in Friday's
ruling.
``We can no longer be permitted to conclude who is male or who is female by the amount of facial hair one has or the size of one's feet.''
Legal experts said the case could have ramifications on the recognition of transsexuals and their unions across the nation.
``There's so little case law in marriages involving a transsexual person that inevitably, other states are going to look at what Kansas does,'' said Shannon Minter, a lawyer for the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco.
source: AP via NTAC 05/14/01
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force will be home to what is believed to be the nation's first legal fellowship specifically aimed at addressing discrimination against transgender people, thanks to a grant awarded earlier this year by the National Association for Public Interest Law (NAPIL).
Lisa Mottet, a former NGLTF legal intern graduating with honors from Georgetown University Law Center in May, will work as an Equal Justice Fellow for two years on a project designed to ensure that existing and future laws result in equal treatment in employment, education, housing and public accommodations for transgender people.
"We will be free as a community only when everyone in the community -- whether gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender -- is a fully valued and welcome member," said NGLTF Political Director Tim McFeeley. "This fellowship represents NGLTF's commitment to that goal and we are very excited to continue our work to make sure no one is left behind in our progressive movement for equal justice."
The Transgender Civil Rights Project's goals are to amend civil rights laws, both local and federal, to include transgender people and to ensure that current sex discrimination laws are interpreted to protect transgender people. "This Project begins with the expectation that in a free society an individual's gender identity and gender expression should be a matter of free choice," Mottet said. "The enactment and interpretation of law should reflect this ideal."
Mottet's work will be an integral component of NGLTF's State Legislative Lawyer Project, which provides critical legal analysis and legislative strategy advice to state and local activists on legislative issues facing the GLBT community.
"State and local activists need legal assistance in drafting and advocating for transgender-inclusive bills and ordinances," Mottet said. "NGLTF is the ideal organization to house this project because of its extensive organizing efforts at the state and local level and commitment to transgender equality."...
"The Transgender Civil Rights Project has the potential to significantly advance the transgender movement in the United States," said Marsha Botzer, a member of the NGLTF Board of Directors and an activist on transgender issues. "This project can provide the movement with technical, legal and strategic help from a national organization that is well-grounded on how to write effective legislation that will withstand the scrutiny of both the courts and of those who oppose our campaign for civil rights."
The Transgender Civil Rights Project is one of 75 NAPIL Fellowships for Equal Justice scheduled to begin in September 2001...
Source: NGLTG press release
Additional info at:
NGLTF Official
Website 04/25/01
Popeye and Bluto: Gym Boy and a Bear Together?
Popeye and Bluto may be the most recent celebrity couple to be outed by the media.
In a recent
Minute Maid orange juice ad, the pair is seen palling around on a swing-set,
burying each other in sand on the beach and riding a bicycle built for two
as they gleefully pass by a scorned Olive Oyl. They even get matching tattoos
that say "Buddies for Life."
The animated spot, created by the ad agency Leo Burnett, is one of the latest additions to The Commercial Closet, an online museum of gay-themed ads from around the world, which launched Monday.
CommercialCloset.org compiles video clips and storyboard stills of hundreds of commercials featuring gay characters or themes, including several that never made it on the air. The archive includes ads representing 150 different ad agencies and 250 major advertisers, including American Express, Coca-Cola, Nike and the Gap...
Michael Wilke, a former reporter for Advertising Age, created the site to promote awareness of the "evolution in the portrayal of lesbians and gays in advertising as it reflects the public's perception of them," and to raise money for a documentary film he's making to further explore that theme.
Over the past 30 years, "there's been an evolution from complete invisibility to popular stereotypes to more neutral and positive portrayals of gays in advertising," Wilke said.
While there's an increasing number of gay-themed ad campaigns cropping up today, according to Wilke, it's still a mixed bag.
"There's definitely an increase in gay-positive ads, but the negative stereotypes continue to be a popular source of comedy in commercials," he said.
Transgendered individuals in particular almost always end up the butt of the joke in commercials, which earned them their own sub-category in Wilke's archive, called "(Straight) Dude Looks Like A Lady."
But not all ads in this category are negative. Some manage to cast transgender characters in funny situations without making them out to be villains or clowns.
A 1996
Australian commercial for air-freshening spray Domestos, for instance, riffs
off the cult classic Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, featuring a Terrance
Stamp look-alike who asks to use the ladies' room in a roadside bar. Finding
it filthy, she pulls Domestos out of her purse and clears the air. Later
she proclaims the bathroom "fit for a queen."
"It's not that transgendered people can't be funny," Wilke said, "but there's a difference between laughing at someone and laughing with them."
Although there may be more gay-themed ads on the air today, there's a popular misconception in the media about who gay people are and what motivates them as consumers, according to Kathy Renna, a director at the media advocacy organization Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
"There's the perception that gays and lesbians are very affluent, own three cars and buy 100 CDs," Renna said. "That's not reflective of the whole gay community. One thing that is true is that it's a very loyal demographic."
Companies with gay-positive reputations include American Airlines, Absolut vodka and Coors, she said.
But while marketing to gays and lesbians is an important priority for many corporations, advertisers and ad agencies must still walk a fine line when depicting them in ads.
Today, ads featuring gay people among other minorities in a happy-people world are relatively safe bets for corporations wanting to project a multicultural image.
A 1994 Ikea ad about a gay couple buying a dining table together, for instance, was controversial as one of the first gay-positive commercials by a major corporation.
Part of a three-part ad campaign depicting people in alternative lifestyles buying furniture – the other two being a single mom and a white couple with an adopted Asian baby – the ad was meant to "reflect real life and real people and not the middle-of-the-road all- American family," according to Kathy Delaney, the executive creative director at Deutsch, the agency that made the ad...
On the other hand, the ad was also one of the first in many countries to show AIDS in the context of real human suffering and compassion. Although it was singularly criticized, the ad was part of a larger, ongoing campaign for AIDS prevention and awareness that included the distribution of condoms in Benetton stores.
Some companies, by contrast, seem reluctant to acknowledge any controversy their ads may create.
The Popeye and Bluto spot, for instance, is included in the "Gay Vague" category, because the advertiser's message related to gay people isn't very clear. In fact, there's no substantial proof that the two adversaries are in fact lovers, as they are never seen kissing.
In a interview with Wilke, the creative director for the Popeye ad seemed pleasantly surprised at the suggestion that it implied a relationship between the two erstwhile foes, and that the spot was simply meant to show two enemies who become friends, supposedly transformed by drinking Minute Maid orange juice.
Minute Maid, meanwhile, firmly denied that Popeye and Bluto are an item.
"Any intent to draw a (gay relationship) parallel would be wrong," Minute Maid spokesman Dan Shafer told Wilke. "Anyone who knows Popeye and Bluto understands that's not the case, there's no intent like that."
Source: Wired News 05/08/01
Texas Gov. Signs New Hate Crimes Bill
Gov. Rick Perry has decided to sign the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act into law, toughening penalties for crimes motivated by hate against minorities, gays and others, supporters of the bill said Friday.
Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the bill's House sponsor, said she felt like a load was lifted off of her shoulders when she found out from the governor's office that Perry would sign the bill...
A spokeswoman for the governor would say only that Perry planned to announce his intentions regarding the hate crime legislation Friday afternoon. As recently as Thursday he had said he hadn't made up his mind.
Texas already has a hate-crimes law that increases penalties if a crime is proven to be ''motivated by bias or prejudice,'' but it does not list specific categories of people who would be protected, and some prosecutors have said it is too vague to enforce.
The new bill strengthens penalties for crimes motivated by the victim's race, religion, color, sex, disability, sexual preference, age or national origin. Two years ago, a similar bill passed the
House but was turned down by the Senate when critics complained it created unnecessary distinctions for homosexuals.
Then-Gov. George W. Bush refused to support the measure, saying all crimes are hate crimes. Democrats attacked him for that decision during the White House campaign.
It is named for the black man dragged to his death from a pickup truck by three white men in 1998. Louvon Harris, one of Byrd's sisters, praised the governor for his decision.
''We're so overjoyed and grateful at this point. I have no words to describe how we feel at this point. It was a long road,'' Harris told American Urban Radio Networks. The Legislature gave final approval to the measure Thursday.
source: USA Today 05/11/01
Profile of Hedwig's John Cameron Mitchell
There comes a time in every man's life when he must pull himself up by his pantyhose and show people who's boss. For John Cameron Mitchell, that moment came last summer in Toronto. He was filming Hedwig and the Angry Inch, doing double duty as both director and star, which meant he had to be in costume even when moving cameras and sets around.
As he recounted the incident a few weeks ago, Mr. Mitchell, 38, spoke softly in the flattened, lingering vowels of the Great Plains. He wore a red plaid shirt, just this side of flannel. During the shoot, he recalled, he cut quite a different figure. "I was running up and down hills in heels and yelling, `Move those trucks!' in a large wig, to Teamsters."
The Teamsters dutifully took direction, he said. These days, even outside the major sin cities, a guy in a dress is no longer such a big deal. This little wisdom, that we have come a long way from the burlesque of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, lies at the heart of Mr. Mitchell's movie, which opens on July 20.
In a summer calendar full of eager blockbusters, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which won the best director and audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival this year, is a smart, funny little musical whose most outrageous special effects come from the house of Maybelline, not Industrial Light and Magic.
Based
on a 1998 cult Off Broadway show, which Mr. Mitchell wrote and starred in,
the movie tells the story of Hansel, an East German boy who grows up in thrall
to rock 'n' roll and hungry for the world beyond the Berlin Wall. When he
meets a handsome American serviceman, the two concoct a scheme to marry and
leave the country. Unfortunately, just dressing the part of the bride will
not get Hansel out of East Germany; as Hansel's mother observes, "To be free,
one must give up a little part of oneself."
So begins the drama, as well as the egregious punning. A botched sex-change operation leaves the patient, now named Hedwig, with a knot of scar tissue, an angry inch. In this state of gender limbo, Hedwig transforms herself into a wisecracking, "internationally ignored" rock singer whose calamitous tour of strip mall restaurants forms the movie's narrative structure.
Mr. Mitchell originally conceived of a story built around a secondary character, a teenager named Tommy, who steals Hedwig's heart, then becomes a huge rock star by stealing her songs. The character was loosely autobiographical. "Tommy was more like me," Mr. Mitchell said. Both are sons of Army generals and came of age in Junction City, Kan., somewhat befuddled about sexuality and religion.
"I went to a very small Catholic school," Mr. Mitchell said. "It wasn't an easy place to be growing up gay. I remember my girlfriend dropped me for the guy I thought was really cute."
When his brothers and his peers were selling their souls to Led Zeppelin, he found his muse ; if not much of a social life; in the choreographer Bob Fosse. Zeppelin found him later.
After coming to New York as a Broadway understudy, Mr. Mitchell started to work on Hedwig in the mid-1990's, collaborating with a musician named Stephen Trask, who wrote all the songs and lyrics for the show and the movie. At the time, Mr. Mitchell was performing in musicals on Broadway and off, and had a role on a 1996 Fox sitcom called Party Girl.
The drag culture in downtown New York gay clubs in this period was being transformed, from stylized, hyperfeminized lip-synching to a more rugged rock 'n' roll aesthetic. "Everything was opening up," Mr. Mitchell said. Drag was moving in from the margins. RuPaul, a drag performer, became a hit singer; Gloria Estefan, pregnant with her second child, hired outrageous impersonators to "do" her in concerts and videos.
At a SoHo club called Squeezebox, Michael Ortega, who performs under the stage name Misstress Formika, began playing host to a weekly rock night that drew a mix of gays and straights, curiosity seekers and celebrities. Mr. Mitchell was a regular; Mr. Trask led the house band.
"I was known as the rock 'n' roll drag hostess of the East Village," Mr. Ortega said. With Mr. Trask's help, Mr. Mitchell persuaded the hostess to allow him to develop a character on the club stage.
"Some of the drag queens were really suspicious, because I wasn't a real drag queen," Mr. Mitchell said. They referred to him as a baby drag. Nor was he quite ready for Mr. Trask's brand of trashy, glam-influenced rock. "At the first rehearsal, I'd only done Broadway musicals up to that point. I remember someone in the band said, `Are you going to do it with that vibrato?' Which to them wasn't very rock 'n' roll."
Ultimately, though, the more seasoned performers embraced Mr. Mitchell, teaching him the tricks of the drag trade. Mr. Ortega offered pointers in how to apply what he calls "clowndation," because it goes on so thick, or how to avoid 5 o'clock shadow. "A little red lipstick under the foundation offsets the blue of the beard," he said. And during long days in character, it saves time to shave with the makeup on.
FINALLY, a drag queen named Sherry Vine taught Mr. Mitchell about a practice known as the Tuck. "Tucking is a drag secret," Mr. Ortega said somewhat ominously. It involves a very tight belt and a pushing around of vital organs and; well, perhaps that is enough to describe here, except to say, as Mr. Mitchell did, "It's painful."
As the character of Hedwig evolved, Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Trask developed their musical around her, graduating in 1998 to a small theater in the West Village. Here, Hedwig developed a cult following of "Hedheads," who attended multiple performances wearing plastic-foam wigs. They brought the cast baked goods and shared cigarettes on the theater steps. Mr. Mitchell made up drag names for members of the crew: Immanuel Labor, Renata Options.
Executives from New Line Cinema, Jersey Films and other film companies, drawn by enthusiastic reviews, stopped backstage. "Best scenario, I felt this could be embraced the way Rocky Horror was," said Robert Shaye, chairman and chief executive of New Line, who has known Mr. Mitchell since 1989, when he cast him in a coming-of- age movie called Book of Love.
Christine Vachon, a producer who had been involved in gender-bending films like Boys Don't Cry and Todd Haynes's Velvet Goldmine, approached Mr. Mitchell about putting Hedwig on the screen. The sexual fluidity of the story "is not what attracted us to Hedwig," said Ms. Vachon, whose Killer Films ultimately produced the movie for Fine Line Films. "The fact that this story had the capacity to be so moving was really extraordinary."
She said she was not worried about whether Hedwig would reach out to the megaplex audience. "We made it for the right price," she said of the film, which cost about $6 million, "so we don't have to worry about crossover." They cut one scene, of two men in bed, to avoid an NC-17 rating.
Mr. Mitchell's parents back in Colorado Springs were less enthusiastic. "They avoided seeing it for a while," he said. "My mom said she thought it was gratuitously vulgar. I find the vulgarity essential, not gratuitous."
Mr. Mitchell began to bend himself to his character, and vice versa. "I was doing it for so long, the character got closer to me," he said. "When I was doing it for a year, seven shows a week, you don't have any energy to play it any way else but close to the bone. So if you're hung over or having a bad day, Hedwig's having a bad day. It really would adapt that much."
The influence cut both ways. In the movie, Hedwig likens herself to the Berlin Wall, neither man nor woman, daring her audience to try to tear her down. She is trapped by an accident of sex, wanting not to be a woman so much as to be free. In real life, putting on the wig and dress, sliding into subtly feminine mannerisms, had a liberating effect on Mr. Mitchell; if not exactly glasnost, then a certain erotic thawing.
"I think I was scared of the drag thing, as a lot of gay boys are," he said. "It's sort of knocked out of you in junior high. I wouldn't find guys who were very feminine attractive. Then doing Hedwig, I got to be man and woman, really butch and really femme at the same time, and I realized, this is kind of the ideal. I started finding feminine men much more exciting. And the people who would find me attractive; a lot of women said they were really attracted to me as a woman."
Beyond that, he said, he developed wicked calf muscles from all that time in high heels. Mr. Mitchell is now looking forward to leaving his character behind.
A handful of local theater companies continue to stage Hedwig in various parts of the country and in the Philippines. But the show must go on without him. "If I wanted, I could make Hedwig my life," he said. "But it's just boring." Instead he is writing another musical, this one for children, and giving up on acting, at least for a while.
His hopes for Hedwig the movie are modest but not without aspiration. He evoked the cult stature of Lou Reed's first band. "My favorite model of success is when people say, `Nobody bought that first Velvet Underground album, but everyone who did started a band.' " If Mr. Mitchell achieves such success, he will have done so the honest way, putting on his pantyhose one leg at a time.
Source: by John Leland The New York Times 05/13/01
QUICK HITS: Media Mentions
Time Magazine / 05/14/01
In it’s “Here and There” column, these thoughts appeared... ..."HERE: San Francisco decides to help city employees pay for sex-change operations. Supporters of transgender meter maids rejoice. THERE: England decides to help female British soldiers pay for breast enlargements. Supporters of flat-chested paratroopers rejoice."