Upcoming
Group Meetings
Tennessee Vals
Newsletter SEPTEMBER 2001
Upcoming
Group Meetings
In This Issue:
Vals Special Events:
September 29- Artrageous XIV, Gaylord
Entertainment Center, Nashville
October 5-Vanderbilt Lambda's Annual
Nat'l Coming Out Day Drag Show on campus' Wilson Lawn
7:30pm
The Queens Throne by Marisa
Richmond
marisaval@aol.com
I cannot talk about anything else until I first offer my heartfelt congratulations to two couples within the Vals. First, to Julie and Mr. Wonderful, who made a life commitment to each other (which even allowed me to be a bridesmaid for the first time!). Second, to Fredrikka and Elizabeth for their 10th Anniversary renewal of their vows to one another. Both ceremonies were incredibly beautiful, and it was encouraging to see all the support and love at both events.
Well, I just cannot believe it is that time of year again. That’s right, I am, once again, about to drive down Georgia--Home of the nation’s Ugliest State Flag. According to CNN, it was actually voted that by some design group, although I sometimes suspect Florida voters had a little something to do with this....For the record, New Mexico was voted as having the best flag. They did not report where Tennessee finished, but since our flag was used in Animal House, it figures to be one of the few things our state government has gotten right over the years. Anyway, it is time for the annual Southern Comfort Conference. Of course, this year, my role is significantly different from that in previous years.
Although I have been a seminar presenter on various topics since 1995, and have been a keynote speaker twice, in both 1996 and 1998, this year I am the Co-Chair in charge of programming. It was real flattering to be asked to serve in this role. The past few months have been quite a challenge, however, as the success of the convention has led me to become inundated with requests for time slots by many conscientious, well-meaning people who wish to be a part of what has become the transgender community’s biggest and most important gathering. Juggling times and room assignments to provide the most diverse schedule possible has been very time consuming. I just hope that everything goes well. If you are there and you should see me sitting in a stupor, whether you liked it or not, just remember, you can always volunteer to do it next year. Of course, you could just buy me a drink. Regardless of how it goes, I’m sure I’ll need it by then.....
One thing that surprised me was an e-mail we received complaining about the fact that this year’s convention was scheduled the week of Rosh Hashanah. The writer accused the organizers of insensitivity. I happen to know that nothing could be further from the truth. We moved to a bigger hotel in Midtown Atlanta this year in order to accommodate the increasingly growing crowds. But in order to find a larger, affordable site, we had to accept those dates the hotel had available. Southern Comfort has always been held at the very beginning of autumn, which means there will always be a potential conflict with the High Holy Days. We knew of the conflict, but were left with little alternative other than to return to last year’s hotel and set a limit on the number of attendees–something nobody wanted to do. This is not the first time I have seen a person make assumptions and accusations without making an effort to become informed first. In my years of dealing with the organizers of Southern Comfort, I have found them to be, much like the leadership of the Vals, a serious, dedicated group of volunteers who have shown tremendous imagination and ingenuity and have refused to be stuck in a box. Both groups have long had a corps of people who have done a lot of good for people in this community, and I cannot understand why some people feel the need to challenge their commitment to support and diversity without taking the time to ask important questions first.
Now, once again, I have reached one more of those milestones in my own life. Not only am I now older than Theodore Roosevelt was when he became the nation’s youngest President ever—100 years ago this month—but it was exactly 25 years ago this month that I stepped out the door and visited Rivergate Mall on my first ever outing en femme.
I was just about to start college, but before flying up to Boston, my parents took simultaneous business trips out to town. Normally, they scheduled official trips at separate times to make sure at least one would be at home. This time, I had the house to myself for three days, so after five years of dressing secretly, I was ready to confront the world.
The outing itself was relatively uneventful except for one clerk in the lingerie section of one department store (where else would I be?) who yelled out “Come back and see us!” Due to a lack of practice, I am certain I did not pass, but since I left my glasses in the car and couldn’t see a thing beyond the end of my own arm, people’s reactions were not a problem.
So what was that world like that I stepped out to face 25 years ago? Well, why don’t we step into the Way Back Machine and take an 8-Track Flashback together–
At the time, there was a new fascination with the sex lives of politicians. Representative Wayne Hays (D-Ohio) had just resigned after revelations of an affair with a staff member named Elizabeth Ray (she was a “secretary”, not an intern). Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter felt compelled to tell Playboy that he had lusted in his heart for women other than his wife. This was still about 3 weeks before Carter’s opponent, President Gerald Ford, single-handedly liberated Poland from Soviet domination. That month, there were riots in Cape Town against apartheid, Chairman Mao died, Viking 2 landed on Mars (but did not find anyone capable of attacking Roswell.....), the U.S. Military Academy was rocked with news of a cheating scandal among cadets, and the Dow Jones closed at 995. The top movies that week were All the President’s Men (still one of my personal faves–and one worth watching if you are mourning the death of Kay Graham), Taxi Driver, and The Omen. The best selling album was Frampton Comes Alive! (again.....), while the biggest singles were (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty and Play That Funky Music. Disco Duck was also in the Top 10 that week. Kiss was out on tour, Wings has just concluded their U.S. tour, and George Harrison (hang in there George!!!) was convicted of “unconscious plagiarism” for My Sweet Lord. In addition, there were new releases by veteran rockers Bob Dylan (Hard Rain) and Rod Stewart (Tonight’s the Night), along with the eponymous debut album by an unknown group named Boston (who would have thought a geek from MIT knew how to rock?). There was only one heavyweight boxing champ and he was The Champ--Muhammad Ali, the Yankees were in the process of returning to the “World” Series for the first time in 12 years, and the “Lovebird Duo,” Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert, won at Forest Hills–although Dr. Renee Richards was banned from the tournament because she was transsexual. We also saw the introduction of the ink jet printer, VHS, and the Atlanta “Superstation.”
We have come quite a ways since I went down to the Crossroads on that first outing of mine in my five inch disco platform shoes. We all have to start somewhere and progress from that point. I recommend that you get out and do the same as I did recently with Stephanie Sands when we went to see Joan Osborne in concert recently. Besides, it is not like you have to spend your time dwelling over another Washington sex scandal....
A
Blonde, Brunette AND Redhead
byJulie
Phillips FabulBabe@aol.com
I'm not Finished with You Yet, Jesse
It was not supposed to end this way. Jesse Helms, Senator from North Carolina, leader of the Inbred party, was not supposed to simply announce he wouldn’t run again. What kind of lame finish is that for the man who sang “Dixie” to an African-American Senator. The man who held up the nomination of James Hormel as Ambassador to Luxembourg for over a year because he was gay cannot simply clean out his desk and start collecting his retirement checks.
No, Senator Hick--—er, Helms needed to go with a big finish, the kind befitting a man who’s made a career out of name-calling, gay-baiting and general nastiness. He needed to go out the way of all holier-than-though politicians: with a delightful sex-scandal!
I agree; finding someone to actually have sex with North Carolina’s answer to Boss Hogg would be next to impossible, but rumors could be whispered to reporters, and grainy suggestive photos could just show up on the Internet. As we know, the cable news networks love nothing more than beating a sex scandal to death 24/7 for months at a time, so you know it would make the news.
Rather
than hiring some actress or an underpaid intern to play the part , I was
going to volunteer to be the woman who brought Jesse down to his
knees—figuratively speaking, of course. (Ick! What a repulsive thought!
Let’s quickly move on.)
Having voted against Senator Would-It-Kill-You-To-Floss-Just-Once many times when I was a Tarheel resident, it would have been my honor to finish his career with a CD sex scandal. Plus, as an added bonus, I would be on television non-stop for four to six months!! This could have been my big break to fifteen minutes of fame—and I‘d be doing something patriotic. I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. Rather!
I can see him now, defending himself in a special two-hour Larry King Live:
Larry: So, Senator Helms, you had a torrid affair with a transgendered woman. What I want to know is….are they real???
Jesse: Now looka he-ya Larreh. I’m tellin’ ewe foah thuh las tiiiiime, I would nevah hayve such relations with a radicuhl libuhruhl pre-vert like thayt.
Larry: Great, great, whatever Senator. But….are they real??
I guess I should just be happy he’s leaving Washington and heading back to Carolina to spend his golden years sitting on the front porch of the David Duke Retirement Home, eating fried pork rinds, bossing around African-American doctors and shaking his fist at male nurses who wear earrings. He should love his retirement.
My Closet by Leslie Louise DuPaix lldupaix@hotmail.com
Some 10 years ago we were on the road back home. We had just passed through Memphis and were keeping alert so as to not miss the turn off for Nashville that always seems to be in the wrong place and going in the wrong direction, to say nothing of its being on the wrong side of the road. We had already been on the road almost 3 hours, and by now, as he usually does on long trips, Bubba had turned off the radio and was in a pensive and introspective mood. When he is alone, as he was then, our twin spirits start to dialogue, if for no other reason than to keep ourselves company. He knew I was there and acknowledged that I might think it fun to go to the Outlet Mall and see if there were any bargain blouses or other things, but we both agreed we were behind schedule and continued on.
One thing about Memphis traffic is that flashy cars are not rare. This time our attention was called to a white car that accelerated rapidly from its on-ramp into the stream of traffic and after a few well executed lane changes was gone. The license plate said "Ruby T" [I have changed the name to protect the innocent owner] and the Cadillac it clung to was white with gold trim and a maroon Landau top. We agreed that one could not question the quality of execution but the car was, in our collective opinion, totally lacking in taste and style.
I got a glimpse of the driver, a past middle age well- preserved white lady with salon coifed strawberry blonde hair. Clearly for whatever she may have lacked in taste, Ruby T had a sense of presence and direction. With a long drive ahead of us and taking care to not miss the turn off, Bubba searched for what meaning this small incident might hold.
We have had contact with women that define a type that I think would also include Ruby T. They are rich, although the money did not come easily, and getting it may well have made them a widow sooner than the mortality tables said they should have been. Often their families are not without problems, so there is a definite backbone and resilience to these women and no shortage of intellect but not necessarily education. Those assumptions made, we guessed that she thought her garish car wonderful and beautiful not realizing how "nothing" and offensive it was to the refined tastes of Bubba and Lesa.
Bubba became philosophical. He decided that Ruby T represented the essence of the feminine in our culture. Layer upon layer of shallowness and wretched excess. He uncharitably imagined her spending way too much time and money in the beauty parlor, on overpriced clothes, shopping, trying on, taking off, asking opinions--all with the goal of maintaining a facade of a beautiful creature--a creature of mostly form and little substance.
Normally, when he is on a roll, I just stay quiet. "You could be talking about me," I said in a not very supportive manner.
"Yes, just like my femme self," he added, smiling and shook his head. "My thoughts about Ruby T probably are going to be about you as well--and by extension, me."
"A creature," his rant continued, "that is rewarded for pretending to live in a world that is not a real one--where shallow, insubstantial behavior is rewarded and encouraged keeping a real, authentic person from developing." He thought of some girl friends the kids had brought home and felt sad.
"But," I interjected, "all life is inconsequential, and it is wrong to criticize Ruby T, or Ms. Lesa or Bubba. Life is a series of challenges that may seem to be meaningless in the big picture but still require effort, trial and error and lead to some sort of success (whether or not the goal was especially important). If one forgets about evaluating the activities, it can be seen that the value lies not in the outcome, nor necessarily in the activities themselves but in what surrounds the activities."
"You run," I continued, "yet we both know you will never be a competitive runner, even on a local basis. So is your running activity meaningless? What is not meaningless is the intent to stay healthy and use your physical resources to the best of your meager abilities and to maintain the discipline that keeps you running --especially when there is not going to be any pay off as our society defines "pay off." No trophies, no lucrative endorsements, no pictures in the paper. I dress. On one level this is meaningless. On another it is not. We are attempting to transcend a constraint and become more than we are if we do not dress. Seen this way, all activities, shallow or deep, become more equal."
"A Ruby T becomes very meaningful when seen from the standpoint that she has pursued a goal, played a role and done so very successfully--meeting and exceeding the standards for the role and the tasks required to get there. A lesser woman might be overweight, might not take pride in her appearance, could demonstrate being over-whelmed by life in a million ways. I doubt that Ruby T had an easy life. Becoming 60 never is. But I imagine that she does not project that to the general public. A model of seeming female bow-headedness and non-substantiality did not become so without effort and suffering. If that is what society wishes to encourage the blame should be on society not those who try and fit in, and even less on those that successfully live within society's constraints."
“Perhaps the deliberate pursuit and repetition of seemingly meaningless behavior may in itself be a sort of yogic or Zen practice. FemDo (the way of the feminine) may be as valid a way through earthly experience to enlightenment as the way of the karateka or the samurai or the nun," sometimes I amaze myself. I know Bubba was impressed.
Bubba started to say something along the lines of "But she should intuitively see the shallow, dead end that she is headed for" and he saw that would be blaming one for not being enlightened--something few of us really are. Bubba was silent for a bit and then said, "A person is not necessarily what they project or present. Ruby T is, I imagine, much more than my first impression of her. My unflattering first take speaks more about me and my attitudes than it does about her. I am glad I made her passing acquaintance and am glad that she is Ruby T and not someone I would not have noticed."
"Bubba," I said, "I think you are turning into a sensitive, perceptive guy. I think I could be happy living in a guy like that."
"Boy!! I hope," he said and turned on the radio. We were almost to Jackson.
Left
of Center by Pamela DeGroff
Pamela Reports on OPEN Nashville's Mr. and Ms. Pride Pageant
Nashville's
Pride organization OPEN (Our Pride Encompasses Nashville), and Mac Productions,
kicked off a week of Pride activities with the Pride Pageant, held Sunday,
August 19th at the Illusions/Toolbox complex. Contestants competed for the
titles of Ms. Pride and Mr. Pride 2001.
Female impersonators were judged on presentation, formal wear, talent and
their response to brief questions. Mr. Pride male contestants competed in
presentation, sports wear, talent, and questions.
Mac Productions presented an incredible evening of entertainment. In addition to the contestants, there were performances by well known local talent, Mr. Pride 2000 and Ms. Pride 2000, and an all-girl (real girls!) dance troupe called the Lady Divas.
Although there were only two contestants for each title, the crowd was not disappointed by the event. Mr. Pride 2001 was won by local Nashvillian Tommy Boy. This is his first major title, although he was first runner-up in last year's Mr. Esquire Pageant.
Ms. Pride 2001 was won by another local favorite, Jerri A. She has previously won the Connection Newcomer Pageant for 1998-99, and was Dream Girl Entertainer of the Year in 2000.
Ms. Pride
received a beautiful tiara, cash, and a one night stay at the Amerisuites
in Atlanta. Mr. Pride took home a handsome scepter, cash, and a chance to
also stay at the Amerisuites. Trophies were awarded to the
runner-ups.
OPEN and Mac Productions, along with the management and staff of Illusions/Toolbox, would like to thank all the contestants, talent, and everyone who came out to support the Pageant. Nashville's GLBT community launched a week of Pride with style.
.
...Not Too Blonde by Holly D.
Storm
There is a disturbing trend crossing America these days. With this sagging economy, many girls have gone to desperate measures to fill their closets. You may be a witness to this irksome event while leaving the mall or you local drag bar. Yes, I’m talking about those Dumpster Diving Divas.
Hello, Holly Storm here. You may remember me from starring roles in the afterschool special Beer, Men and More Beer, The Jenna Bush Story and the scandalous new cable series, The Tall Blonde of Dickerson Pike. I’m here to today to talk to you about the lengths some girls will go to keep enlarging their wardrobes— and what YOU can do to help.
Dumpster diving! Yes,
those Divas who go Diving in
Dumpsters for clothes (or as we like to refer to them,
Triple D’s) are not only the new girls looking for the ultimate bargain.
This powerful, social life-crippling habit effects even the most veteran
tranny. There is a no cure, but with your help, we can help bring an end
to this madness.
Often, these Triple D girls go into a dangerous shop and spurge cycle. The guilt--or too many doughnuts--are often the main causes of this downward spiraling habit of exploring the depths of these banana peel infested, green treasure chests. Or perhaps, a down on her luck Queen may also fall victim to this addicting habit. These girls don’t see that with every discovery of a pristine ruby red slipper, often a half rat-eaten heel, coffee-stained Dorothy shoe is lying at the bottom.
We can bring an end to this insanity and bring these
girls back to Kansas. But, we can only do this with your help. With your
small monthly donation, we can counsel and provide for these desperate girls.
Yes, with a donation equal to what you spend on one pair of pantyhose per
month, you can help keep these girls get their dignity back on track. Help
these girls climb out of a dumpster that may be right around the corner from
you. Help give a girl the choice of more than one shade of lipstick.
You also have the option of being a sponsor. If you choose to do so, you will receive a picture of your “drag child” and a monthly letter informing you of her progress, were she is shopping now a days and what new tips she has learned from our fabulous fashion counselors. You will be also able to write back and inform her of the latest fashions and where to find the best sales. You can make a difference in an up and coming tranny’s life. And remember Triple D is not only a bra size; for an unfortunate few, it’s also a socially debilitating disease.
news, media mentions, etc...
Two Murders Rock Tennesseans
Gay Tennessee residents are reeling from two gay-related murders that happened within days of each other.
Activists said the Nashville killing fits the definition of a hate crime, and gays in the city are still trying to decide how to mobilize around the shooting. The case could become the first test of the state's newly amended hate crimes legislation, should police decide the killing was motivated by the victim’s perceived sexual orientation.
Willie B. Houston, 38, a bus driver with Metro Transit who often drove a van for the elderly and people with disabilities, was gunned down after witnesses said a man taunted him with anti-gay slurs. Police are still looking for the suspect, Lewis Davidson III. They said he has a long criminal history, including arrests for assault and drug offenses.
Houston was not gay and he did not know Davidson. He had been helping a blind male friend and his girlfriend when the alleged murder took place, according to police.
Houston
met Davidson in the bathroom the night he and his fiancée, Nedra Jones,
were out celebrating their engagement with two other friends, according to
press reports. They had just finished a midnight cruise on the popular General
Jackson Showboat. After Houston's fiancée asked him to hold her purse,
his friend, a man who is blind, asked Houston to help him find the bathroom.
With a purse on one arm and his blind male friend on the other, Houston entered the men's dockside bathroom. Inside, witnesses said Davidson noticed the two and started harassing them, making anti-gay remarks. To avoid a confrontation, Houston escorted his friend out of the bathroom and went to get their girlfriends.
Witnesses on the boat that night told police Davidson had been harassing a number of passengers. He followed Houston out of the bathroom, making more anti-gay remarks, and also called Houston's girlfriend a "fat bitch," the Tennessean, Nashville’s daily paper, reported.
Houston's fiancée told police Davidson grew angrier when he couldn't provoke them to fight. Jones told the Tennessean that they were walking through the Opry Mills parking lot when the man said, "I've got something for you in my car. I've got something for all of you to take your whole clan out."
Davidson then allegedly pointed a gun at Houston. Houston reportedly put his hands in the air and said he just wanted to go home.
Instead, according to police reports, Davidson shot Houston at close range in the chest and fled the scene.
Houston's fiancée, Jones, told police her friend tried to stop the bleeding, but without success according to an account of the crime reported in the Tennessean. Moments before paramedics took Houston away, he told Jones, "Just remember—I will always love you." He died in surgery hours later at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The couple would have married in just two weeks.
Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said in an interview with Southern Voice that Davidson used anti-gay taunts, but wouldn’t say if the case will be considered a hate crime. Detectives said since this is an ongoing investigation, they won't comment on the specific nature of the motivations behind the case.
Gay activists in Nashville said the killing was prompted by anti-gay hate.
"This really has been a shock to the gay and lesbian community," said Rhonda White, co-chair of Nashville-based Equality Tennessee. "This kind of gay-related hate crime just doesn't happen here. It sounds like the victim was a super nice guy who was just helping people out and he got killed for it." ...
Although Davidson reportedly harassed other people on the river boat cruise, the fact that he only killed the man he perceived as gay shows the case is a hate crime, lawyer and gay and lesbian rights activist Abby Rubenfeld told the Tennessean.
Memorial planned for Chattanooga entertainer
Three days before Houston’s killing, Chattanooga police were called to the home of popular Chattanooga female impersonator Lester Childress, 46, who friends called "a living legend" in the Tennessee drag scene.
A friend went to check on Childress after he did not show up for work. They said they were worried because he had never missed a day in his 20 years of working at Chattanooga's largest gay bar, the Tool Box.
There would be no final curtain call for Childress that night. According to police reports, the friend went into the house and found the body of Childress, who had been stabbed several times. His car was also missing.
Friends who gathered at the house said they felt numb: They couldn't believe such a vibrant performer, who had sold out the house for as long as some of them had been "out," was now gone.
A friend who didn't want to be identified told Southern Voice it was hard to believe that someone so gentle and kind would meet with such a violent end.
"He was
such a wonderful person," said this friend, who had known Childress for more
than a decade. "He never had a bad thing to say about anyone and you know
that's rare."
Police spent just two days tracking down Childress’ confessed killer. A captain at the Catoosa County jail, just across the state border in Georgia, said they arrested Brian Keith Jackson, 26, on July 28, and immediately extradited him.
Chattanooga police spokesperson Ed Buice said Jackson was booked on homicide and theft charges.
Buice told Southern Voice the suspect did give a statement about why he killed Childress. But Buice refused to discuss the nature of Jackson’s relationship to Childress.
A police report said that there were no signs of forced entry at the murder scene. Typically, that suggests the victim knew his killer. Friends of the victim said Lester had been seeing the suspect for the last four weeks.
A co-worker who didn't want his name printed said he had been working at a Chattanooga gay bar for over a decade and had never seen the suspect there before, nor had he ever seen Jackson out in the community.
An estimated 500 friends, fans and family members filled a local church for Childress' funeral. Much like his many performances over the years, the service was standing room only.
Friends reminisced about Childress' performances as Mr. Della Reeves. He was known best for his version of Looking for a City by the Happy Goodman Family. Sell-out crowds would drive from as far as Nashville or Atlanta to hear his renditions of Gladys Knight hits and Della Reeves standards.
Managers said his outfits were always exquisite, but the crowd could never predict if he would come out in a sequined evening gown or a flouncy dress.
"He will be greatly missed; no one can believe he’s gone," said one of Childress' long-time co-workers from Allen Gold's, a Chattanooga gay bar…
Source: by Jennifer Christensen Southern Voice 08/09/01 .
.
Alabama's Gov. Hates Earrings on Guys/ Wrestling fans, Willie Nelson and Everyone Under 65 Offended
Gov. Don Siegelman said Tuesday that if God had wanted boys to wear earrings He would have made them girls.
The governor's remarks came in response to a question about a Hoover couple's challenge to the city school board's policy banning earrings on boys at school. Siegelman was asked about the issue at the end of a Birmingham news conference.
"I don't think guys ought to be wearing
earrings," Siegelman said. "I think kids that put metal through their tongues
are idiots." Parents should talk with their children about the consequences
of their actions and about "how their image affects their ability to succeed
in life," Siegelman said. "Parents ought to be there talking to their kids
and saying, `You know what kind of fool you look like with an earring? If
God had wanted you to wear earrings, He'd have made you a girl.'"
Hoover parents Scott and Dana Weaver disagree. They're fighting for the right of their 8-year-old son, Dustin, to attend Hoover's Trace Crossings Elementary wearing his earrings. The Weavers have kept their son out of school for five days since school officials refused to admit the third-grader with his earrings on.
On Tuesday, Scott Weaver referred questions to Dustin's grandmother, Linda Bedell, who declined to comment about the governor's remarks. The Weavers filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights last week protesting the schools' rule. The parents say the school is engaging in gender discrimination because girls can wear earrings but boys can't.
Hoover schools Superintendent Jack Farr and Trace Crossings Principal Dot Riley said they've gotten numerous calls, visits, faxes and e-mails from parents supporting the school board's policy.
"We have not changed our rules and don't intend to," Farr said. Dr. Riley said she got only one negative response from someone saying the ban on male earrings probably fit community norms when it was established but is now antiquated. Hoover school officials have offered to provide Dustin books, assignments and a home tutor while the issue is being resolved...
Source: The Birmingham News 08/24/01
UPDATES on Murder of CO TG Teen
CO Attny Gen to Help
Prosecute
The state attorney general's office
has agreed to help prosecute the first-degree murder case against a New Mexico
man accused of killing a 16-year-old transgender Navajo boy.
"I feel I'm perfectly comfortable in dealing with this case, but I do need, and have asked for, assistance," said Montezuma County District Attorney Joe Olt. Olt has been in the job eight months and has never before prosecuted a murder case.
The bludgeoned body of Fred C. Martinez Jr. was found June 21. Shaun Murphy, 18, a Farmington, N.M., oil-field worker, is charged with first-degree murder.
source:
Rocky Mountain News 08/17/01
Charges Upped/Still Not Officially
a Hate Crime
Authorities insist the beating death
of a transgendered Navajo teen was not a hate crime, though charges have
been upgraded to first-degree murder. Shaun Murphy, 18, of Farmington, N.M.,
was advised of the upgraded charge Monday. He was originally charged with
second-degree murder in the death of Fred C. Martinez Jr. Martinez’s
bludgeoned body was found June 21 near Cortez. A preliminary hearing for
Murphy was scheduled for Sept. 7. Prosecutor Joe Olt Jr. said testimony provided
last week led to the amended charge. He declined to elaborate. Murphy was
being held in the Montezuma County Jail on $500,000 bail. Activists believe
Martinez might have been assaulted because of his transgender identity. "It
doesn’t fit the criteria of a hate crime at this time," said Lt. Kalvin
Boggs, a Montezuma County sheriff’s deputy About 200 people attended
an Aug. 11 candlelight vigil for Martinez, including Martinez’s mother,
Pauline Mitchell, and Judy Shepard, the mother of slain gay Wyoming college
student Matthew Shepard.
Source: AP 08/16/01
Blondes Taking Over the World!!!!!
Some of us were born blond. But, apparently, not enough of us. Perhaps that's why America — make that the whole blond-worshiping world — is awash in some ultra-serious blond envy. Or so it would seem from the insatiable consumer craving for all things blond. Blond fads have come and gone. But this time around, it's as often as not blond without the stereotypical conventional beauty. Blond without limits. Blond for blond's sake. "Green hair was a fad," says hairstyling maven Vidal Sassoon, just back from 3 months in Europe. "Blond hair is a global fashion."
The fire is being stoked by the $1.4 billion dollar hair-color industry, whose ads feature young men gone platinum and blond locks on the heads of African-American celebrities. There's blond-as-the-beach Beyonce Knowles, lead singer of Destiny's Child, under contract to L'Oreal. And black supermodel Roshumba sporting blond for Clairol. Even Asian women are looking blonder than Blondie. Five years ago, L'Oreal couldn't give away a bottle of blond hair dye in Japan. Today, blond represents 25% of all hair coloring L'Oreal sells there. Europeans are gobbling up blond coloring, too.
For the
$6 price of a bottle of budget hair color, you, too, can be blond as Tiger
Woods. (He says he did it for laughs.) Or New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza.
(He did it on impulse.) Or, when he still had hair some years ago, Bruce
Willis. (Yippee-ki-yay, I'm blond today!) Or, no surprise here, Madonna.
(If you're gonna charge more than $200 for concert seats, why not do it as
a blonde?)
Is it any surprise that Regis Philbin went blond for a day last month? Cuba Gooding Jr. went blond to raise dough for a charity. Tennis champ Serena Williams did it, she says, so people won't recognize her when she goes shopping...
Maybe this is why 40% of all hair coloring sold is blond. Or that one of the summer's hit comedies is dubbed Legally Blonde, about a sexy blonde who makes the grade at Harvard Law School. Or that author Joyce Carol Oates chose the title Blonde for her fictional account of Marilyn Monroe's life. Or that the best seller Four Blondes by Sex and the City creator Candace Bushnell has just been released in paperback.
"Going blonde is as addictive as getting tattoos," says Rachel Hayes, beauty editor at Cosmopolitan. "You get it done once, and you keep wanting more."
Ultimately, the blonding craze is about sex appeal, says Renee Fraser, an advertising psychologist and Los Angeles agency owner, who has been a brunette-turned-bottle-blonde for 22 years.
But unlike when Fraser was a kid in the 1950s watching "Does She or Doesn't She?" commercials for Clairol hair coloring, the trend has nothing to do with looking naturally blond anymore, she says.
These days, blond is ultra-cool when it looks blatantly fake. "This is a streets-meets-the-hood-meets-Park-Avenue-style obsession," says marketing guru Marian Salzman...
No one seems more enamored with this Blond New World than teen males, who
are beckoned by male-targeted hair dyes. High-caliber ads urge these
barely-adolescents to go blond. And product packaging increasingly features
young men gone blond.
Bradley Basinger did. Last year, the 15-year-old from Fort Worth grabbed a bottle of peroxide and turned his hair orange. His horrified mother agreed to dye his hair for him if his grades improved.
Since then, Bradley says, every one of his pals (a couple dozen, at least) has tried going blond. Why? "It makes me look better," says the high school sophomore...
The craze is changing the look of classrooms across America. Some 63% of teen boys say it's cool to dye their hair, reports Teenage Research Unlimited. But the bigger driving force is probably the 81% of female teens who opined that it was "in" for male teens to dye their hair.
No one is more acutely aware of this than the hair-care giants. That's why
it's a young, blond, blue-eyed male model who is the focus of L'Oreal's ads
for Feria Extra Bleach Blonde.
It's also why a blond guy is seen smirking from the front of Clairol's Herbal Essences Bleach Blonding. It's why ads for the brand are appearing in such male-targeted magazines as Details, GQ and Rolling Stone.
The men's hair-color market is growing twice as fast as women's, says Elizabeth Kenny, senior director of hair-color marketing at Clairol. A decade ago, the men's market was less than a blip. Today, it's $200 million — and growing.
Certainly, Madison Avenue has re-embraced the blonde-as-bombshell stereotype. The latest Abercrombie and Fitch catalog is laced with blondes of both genders and all colors cavorting at the beach. Nor is it by accident that those sexually haunting flight attendants pictured in sultry Virgin Airlines ads are often as blond as Bardot...
Author Bushnell says she hasn't seen her real hair color since she was 16. That's when her mother took her for the full treatment: contact lenses, a short-but-stylish hair cut and blond highlights.
"When you change your hair color, you change your life," she says. It's no accident that she named her new book of novellas Four Blondes. It's not just because the main characters are blond, but because she knew that title would move books off the shelf.
That's also why the hair-care giants are signing on African-American women who are blondes. Or turning them blond...
Last year, Clairol persuaded popular model and VH1 vee-jay Roshumba to go blond. Never mind that she wasn't blond at the time — and that she was, in fact, known for her short, natural-looking Afro.
Roshumba vividly remembers walking out of the hair salon on New York's Park Avenue, when a convertible drove by and the driver shouted, "Hey, Blondie!"
"I felt really, really sexy," she recalls, "and my IQ didn't drop."...
Not everyone thinks blondes symbolize the good life. Joyce Carol Oates, author of the fictional account of Marilyn Monroe's life, Blonde, says that by dying your hair blond, "a person is announcing that he or she is a playful fraud."
Still, blond is vogue, so vogue, there's even an online columnist who writes a weekly advice column dubbed "Ask the Blonde."
Pam Russell gave it that name because she believes consumers feel "less threatened" by e-mailing a question to some anonymous blonde than they do corresponding with, say, Dear Abby...
Researchers at Edinburgh University in Scotland recently began a serious scientific study to determine if, in fact, blondes really do have more fun.
The study is ongoing. But these blondes already know the answer. They’re living it.
Source: by Bruce Horovitz USA Today 08/27/01
The addition now appears in NavigAAtor online regs Sections 1-3 and 6-1. Specifically, "Gender Identity" applies only to those individuals who, with the documented support of medical and/or psychological professionals, are changing, or have changed, their physical characteristics to facilitate personal and public redefinition of their sex as opposite that which they were assigned at birth.
The employer reserves the right to enforce reasonable dress code standards. For more information, contact your local Human Resources department. More specific guidelines to guide management employees on this issue are forthcoming.
Source: by Jetwire via GAIN 08/17/01
Midlife Crisis
and the Kinsey Sicks
Ben Schatz stole the show at his
recent 20th Harvard reunion during a panel discussion about unconventional
careers.
He did not dwell on his legal work during the AIDS epidemic or his appearances on Nightline as an upstanding ambassador for gay rights. He did not boast of writing briefing papers for President Bill Clinton or delivering commentaries for KQED-TV in San Francisco. That was all behind him, Mr. Schatz said, appearing before the convocation of high achievers in a lavender satin dress, matching hair bow, strapless bra, waist-cincher and pantyhose (two pair, to hide his hairy legs).
Mr. Schatz had had the midlife crisis to end all midlife crises, expressed in a far more original way than by buying a sports car or running off with a sweet young thing. These days he has a new full-time gig: as a sassy drag queen named Rachel --"performer, lyricist and manager of an a cappella drag quartet that is taking the gay cabaret world by storm. "How can I say this in a way that isn't trite?"
Mr. Schatz said in an interview, explaining his bold career move in the context of two decades when he lost too many friends and too many political battles. "The 80's were pretty bleak times. I wanted some joy in my life. And this makes me incredibly happy."
Mr. Schatz, 42, recounted the reunion story between performances here of the Kinsey Sicks (more about that later), which bills itself as America's Favorite Dragapella Beauty Shop Quartet. The group is playing at Tropical Joe's on Cape Cod until after Labor Day and then opening in Manhattan in October as the inaugural act at a new cabaret space at Studio 54.
The Studio 54 engagement, with a seasoned executive producer, Maria Di Dia, and director, Glenn Casale, is a coup for a bunch of friends who used to amuse themselves by turning up in drag for Halloween parties and Bette Midler concerts in San Francisco, where such behavior barely warrants notice.
All were recreational musicians who sang in choruses or amateur theatricals while working conventional careers as lawyers, marketing executives and the like. Their first performance, if you could call it that, was on the corner of Market and Castro Streets seven years ago, when friends and passersby tossed $37 in a hat.
From their beginnings on the street corner, the Kinseys got a couple of $100 gigs at a San Francisco youth hostel, then a longer run at Josie's Juice Joint, a nightspot in the Castro district. There they caught the eye of a producer from the New Conservatory Theater, where they became regular performers. Soon there were nationwide appearances, two CD's and rave reviews in publications as varied as The Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, Billboard and Poz magazine.
Mr. Schatz -- burned out as a lawyer and blessed with a healthy savings account -- gave up his regular legal job in 1999 to "push us forward to the next level." That meant "moving from being a friendship group to a business," with partnership agreements, investors, public relations, tryouts for understudies and other tasks that came naturally to a media-savvy attorney.
"This uses every side of my brain and my personality," Mr. Schatz said. The side that was largely hidden before erupts in the character of Rachel, a rebel with unshaved armpits and a foul mouth who is a distant cousin to the characters created for Saturday Night Live by Gilda Radner. "Everybody should have a Rachel," Mr. Schatz said. "She gets a lot out of my system.
"The character, he said, is a "direct response to the work I was doing," which required him to be a "likable, respectable, consumable homosexual -- on TV, as a public speaker and to my board of directors." But "being diplomatic 24 hours a day really doesn't suit me," he continued, "as Rachel can attest."
Irwin Keller, a onetime corporate lawyer and later the executive director of an AIDS legal services agency, found similar liberation in becoming Winnie, a nerdy lesbian with thick glasses, who begins each performance with a bossy command that the audience sit boy-girl, boy-girl. "The tension between being good and being bad is something all gay people feel," Mr. Keller said.
The other Kinseys have also created signature characters. Maurice Kelly, as the platinum blonde Trixie, and Chris Dilley, as slinky Trampolina, are a pair of divas, one past her prime and the other too young to understand that someday she will be. Mr. Dilley, 29, was the last to join the group, originally as an understudy. Along with Mr. Keller, 40, he arranges the songs that Mr. Schatz writes. Mr. Kelly, also 40, is the costume, set and lighting designer.
Drag usually means bad lip-synching and Cher
impersonations. And that is what most clubs offer in this honky-tonk resort,
where performers take to the streets each evening for a ritual known as barking,
in which they pitch their acts to the crowds outside the tattoo parlors,
taffy stands and tour buses.
Since their first night in town, when the Kinsey Sicks rode down Commercial Street singing in a red Rambler convertible, Rachel, Winnie, Trixie and Trampolina have been the hottest ticket in town. The group, which delights in bad puns, is named for the one-to-six scale devised by Alfred Kinsey to measure sexual orientation, in which a six (get it?) signifies exclusively homosexual behavior.
"P-Town has not seen an act like this is years and years and years," said Joe Pezzulo, owner of Tropical Joe's, who normally shuns drag shows. "People who want drag don't expect talent. But the minute they open their mouths, crowds form around them, asking: `Who are these guys? We've got to see them.' "
The Kinseys get 90 percent of the ticket sales at Tropical Joe's and are selling out the 100-seat room almost every night. They have been doing six shows a week, at $20 a ticket, since the Fourth of July and added extra weekend performances this month. They poll the audience each night and find that most have come after seeing them in the street...
The Kinseys wear bad wigs, cheap jewelry and too much makeup. Their shows are punctuated by Jewish shtick, with more to be added for the New York audience. Mr. Dilley is a natural lyric tenor and the others baritones, but all can move from bass to falsetto.
Some of the songs, about gay sexual practices, are unabashedly gamy. But others tread more universal ground, drawing a crossover audience...Titanic: Why Does Celine Go On? is a lampoon (lasting five minutes and five seconds) of the Academy Award-winning song My Heart Will Go On, which loops back on itself interminably….
After midnight, a show behind them, they wheeled their bicycles along Commercial Street, which was slowly quieting down for the evening. With no audience but one another, they did an impromptu oldies-but-goodies concert, their voices sweet as bird song. "I don't think I've ever known anything," Mr. Schatz said, licking an ice cream cone, "that gave me this much joy."
Source: by Jane Gross The New York Times 08/22/01
Wouldn't You Rather be Called Robin or Kim?
Hamilton resident Richard Clark Maloney believes he is a woman, and he says he needs a woman's name. But the Middletown-based Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals disagreed yesterday in a 2-1 ruling, upholding a Butler County Probate Court magistrate and trial judge. Administrative Judge Anthony Valen dissented.
Maloney, 50, applied to probate court in March 2000 to change his name to Susan Louise Maloney.
A magistrate denied the request, as did a trial court. Maloney appealed the trial court's decision. He argued that its ruling was unconstitutional and that the trial judge erred in finding that his need for a woman's name was outweighed by public confusion that would result from the name change.
Valen disagreed with the trial judge, saying there are plenty of names that don't indicate whether someone is male or female.
"Consider such names as Chris, Jamie, Kim, Kelly, Leslie, Max, Pat, Robin and so on, which can be used for either gender," Valen wrote. The decision written by appeals court Judge James E. Walsh upheld the trial court. Noting that Maloney said he would have "sex-reassignment surgery,"
Walsh wrote: "The evidence presented shows that he was not scheduled for such surgery, and there was no evidence that the surgery would take place in the immediate future." Referring to that point later, Walsh wrote that the trial court's denial was "premised on its belief that (Maloney's) request may have been made without thorough consideration of the consequences."
But Maloney needs to have a woman's name before he can have the surgery, said his Cincinnati attorney, Scott E. Knox.
"He needs to live entirely as a woman for a year," Knox said. Maloney, Knox said, "lives entirely as a female," but "forced" to use the name Richard. He said Maloney does computer work, but declined to say where. Asked if Maloney is accepted as a woman at work, Knox said he didn't know if colleagues are aware of his situation.
Knox dismissed any idea that his client had not given the matter enough thought. "This wasn't a whim," he said. Walsh's ruling noted that Maloney ended a marriage of 22 years and had been treated by a psychiatrist and a psychologist. Knox said he will encourage Maloney to appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.
source: Columbus Dispatch 08/17/01