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Top queerNEWS on the Qt!
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queerVOICE
Smith vs Heifetz: Philadelphia's BSA Gay Discrimination Saga
copyright 2012
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The Boy Scout issue in Philadelphia appears in the front of my mind this week and, in particular, the actions and decisions of Shelley R. Smith, Philadelphia City Solicitor, who has brokered the "misguided sweetheart settlement" with the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
To sum up the ongoing saga, The City of Philadelphia sued to evict the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America, from the city-owned headquarters the organization was housed at 231-251 North 22nd Street.
The eviction was motivated by the fact that the Boy Scouts discriminate against homosexuals, both in membership and professional employment and is a clear violation of Philadelphia's current anti-discrimination ordinance.
In court, the City lost the 2010 eviction suit but reserved the right to appeal. Surprisingly and without clarification or explanation on Smith's reasoning or actions, she has also refused offers from a prominent Philadelphia law firm to handle the appeal at no cost to the City.
Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter, presiding judge, seemed to even encourage the City as landlord to either appeal the case, or to simply give a one year notice of termination of lease to the Boy Scouts as tenant--an option QUEERtimes wholly supports.
(It should be also noted that, according to Federal Civil Rights Law, the City is now on the hook for the Cradle of Liberty Council's legal bills, estimated at the high end of one million dollars, a sum that is seriously disputed in legal circles.)
With the threat of a one million dollar legal bill hanging over her head, Smith brokered a "sweetheart deal" to sell the city-owned property to the Cradle of Liberty Council for a mere $500,000. She also needed to convince the Nutter administration to support her ill-formed decision. In order to carry out this proposal, Nutter had to use his political clout to get Councilman Darrel Clarke to introduce a bill in City Council authorizing the sale of the city-owned property. Happily, the bill died by attrition in 2011.
In light of all this activity and its various, convoluted developments gay real businessman, philanthropist, and activist, Mel Heifetz, has renewed his earlier offer of 2011 to purchase the property from the City for either $1,500,000 cash or $1,000,000 cash, with his willingness and generosity of additionally assuming whatever liability (the legal bills) the City may have with the Cradle of Liberty Council, providing that he be "given full power to control the litigation on behalf of the City with respect to the attorney fees issue."
Heifetz has agreed to donate the building to a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that does not discriminate against others. (The recipient of the building has not yet been announced or identified.) He has also agreed to keep the original footprint and height of the building in place in "deference to the wishes of the neighborhood."
In his current renewal offer, Heifetz has informed the City that he is willing to go as high as two million dollars to match any other bona fide offer the City receives for the property from other developers, groups or parties.
QUEERtimes wholeheartedly supports the efforts of Mel Heifetz!
In other developments, the ACLU has strongly objected to the "proposed settlement (to sell the building to Cradle of Liberty Council) because it would transfer public property for a fraction of its true value to an organization that actively discriminates against many Philadelphians on the basis of sexual orientation and/or religious belief."
QUEERtimes further urges Philadelphia City Council not to allow Shelley R. Smith to push this "sweetheart deal" through and to instead encourage the Nutter Administration to accept the generous offer from Mel Heifetz.
For the City to accept anything less then the Heifetz offer would be to cheat the good taxpayers of Philadelphia of sorely-need revenue and to insult the City's and region's queer community.
Related Story: New push for action on Scouts building
Comments:james@QUEERtimes.net
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What It Looks Like From Here
Thom Cardwell
copyright 2012
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"Gay Agenda." The phrase elicits various responses from a wide range of constituencies of the far left to the far right.
Though not as popular a buzz word among groups at either end of the political spectrum these days as it was perhaps during the last presidential election cycle (with the not surprising exception as Rick Santorum who still slings mud at the queer community by calling homosexuality "man on dog" relations and compared it to polygamy), gay agenda resonates something very focused, specific, meaningful, purposeful and a means for which his message and his campaign to change the misunderstandings, misconceptions, intolerance, prejudice and hate that exists within the likes of the ordinary people who respond to the messages of the Santorums of the world and even his famous anti-gay grandfather.
 I speak of Randy Roberts Potts, openly gay 37-year-old grandson of the late Oral Roberts who, according to Details (February 2012) "was America's original celebrity televangelist and faith healer, the Oklahoma preacher who rammed Pentecostalism into the American mainstream and the taproot out of which bloomed Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggert, and Jim Baker.
Potts' "gay agenda" intends through his "performance art designed to foster love and acceptance" of same-sex relationships" to upend his famous , successful, wealthy and influential religious leader whose impact upon everything from American life to politics, especially his position on homosexuality.
Potts is taking his "show" on the road across the "red-states" to present his "willingly unentertaining" performance, set up in storefronts, like his test run in his adopted city of Dallas, exposing audiences of curious onlookers "to show the neutral, domestic side of gay couple hood-the 99 percent of quotidian gay life, that's according to Randy . . . identical to straight life."
It's a visual that people haven't ever really seen in conservative towns. A lot of people immediately jump to images of sex or a pride parade. Well, here's another visual. This is what gay couples look like when we're together as a couple in love. There's really nothing to watch, and I want to leave people with that impression. Psychologically, visual images like that go a lot deeper," explained Potts.
 Next month the serious-minded and passionate Potts will kick-off his tour of the "Gay Agenda" in his native state, in Oklahoma City, then to cities like Jackson, Mississippi, Omaha, Nebraska, and Birmingham, Alabama, to name a few.
In and of itself, Potts' campaign is somewhat subversive, "the antithesis of the "we're here, we're queer, get used to it" in-your-face approach to acceptance. His approach is a deliberate "strategic divorcing of homosexuality from sexuality, a tent-revival effort to de-fabulize gay stereotypes."
Even many out gay men who live openly with their domestic partners in communicates of all kinds from the urban streets of New York City to the country hamlets of New Hampshire might readily identity to Potts' ethos.
The idealized image of the contemporary gay man in America, muscle-bound, perfect skin, attractive appearance, well-dressed with a sense of style, a party animal and always exuding sexual energy, ultimately reflects only a small portion of the nation's gay male population. It's not Potts' model, far from it, and even further from his ideology, his philosophy, his message and that's his very point.
[Editor's Note: This is the first of a special two-part feature for QUEERtimes. Part two will appear in the January 27, 2012, issue of Qt.]comments@QUEERtimes.net
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Thom Cardwell
copyright 2012
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"What good is a book without pictures and conversations," queries Alice in Lewis Carroll's masterpiece, "Alice in Wonderland." I have to admit that I subscribe to Alice's evaluation of picture books, somehow known more popularly as "coffee table books" in our contemporary world. In fact, I frankly think that I've become a "coffee table books" addict. And, yes, naturally, I own more of such books than I do coffee tables. The great thing about books is that they can even stylistically be piled up on the coffee table or even on the floor next to a piece of furniture or under a chair. Years ago, I learned that from looking at interior design magazines. Anyway, here's just a smattering of coffee table books, many of them, celebrating the male body, clothed or nude, and beautifully photographed and to be distinguished from pornographic images (nothing wrong with those books per se) but not what I'm including in this list of recommendations. Anyway, so enjoy this select group of titles and maybe purchase one or two of them-give yourself a gift for Valentine's Day or just for being you!  "All American IX: A Near-Perfect World" by Bruce Weber, from the queer photographer who has given us countless images in books, magazines and even catalogs, the sexy and controversial Abercrombie & Fitch, his idealization of the all-American boy. (Literally, now all collector's items as Weber's books always become due to their limited print run and thus increase in value and price.)
Of this volume in the ongoing series, Weber explained: "I wanted to put together a series of stories as eclectic and inspiring as you might hear at a late-night party because the morning after, you feel a reason to continue, even if you don't know all the answers."  "The Company of Men" by queer photographer Blake Little sought out "masculine males" rather than model types that tend to represent mainstream gay culture and which Little felt little connection. His images collected in this volume create something of "a new gay archetype."
Little himself seeks to connect with his subject, less about their sexual orientation than on a physical, emotional and spiritual journey. Of Little's images, punk icon Henry Rollins observed: "He [Little] has the ability to put the subject at ease, allowing them to reside, to come to the forefront."  "George Platt Lynes: The Male Nudes" edited by Steven Haas, presents signature images of this queer twentieth century master of photography who privately, when not shooting professionally for fashion publications like "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar," was documenting "homosexuality in mid-century America." He captures male images of dancers, athletes, servicemen, inspired by Greek mythology to more explicitly graphic moments, in his studio settings.
 "Players Two" by queer photographer Rick Day, is the follow up volume to his sensationally popular original volume, "Players," in which he captures his models in various stages of undress in a wide variety of sports and athletic gear that distinctively create a homoerotic response to the images. "Pioneers" by Rick Day that is entirely devoted to his "breathtaking sessions in Brazil shooting the fashion campaign for Rufskin's men's swimwear" is evocative of the photographer's ability to entice viewers with fantasies and dreams.
 "Dolce & Gabbana Uomini" by queer photographer Mariano Vivanco features celebrities of all stripes from Rick Genest to Lady Gaga. His images are all about the light, controlled in a studio with all his subjects, even if in shadows." "Any light can create something beautiful," said Vivanco. And the 35-year-old artist has and will continue to do so in future books and those eye-catching fashion spreads for the queer Italian design duo, Dolce & Gabbana.
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What They Said and Did!
Copyrighted 2012
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Tilda Swinton. The mere mention of her name evokes otherworldliness. Both as a person and an actress she seems to be have her origins from another planet, infinitely intriguing,  sometimes frightening, but never uninterestingly. That can easily be said for a career that has been anything but "Hollywood." She even lives far away from Los Angeles, the epicenter of the film and entertainment industry, preferring to reside in her native Scotland, with her partner, painter Sandro Kopp and her twin daughters. The Oscar-winning supporting actress for "Michael Clayton" (2008) told The New York Times (January 1, 2012) that she continues, to this day, to feel like an alien in the world of glitz and glamour. "When I visit Hollywood, I come in and out like a tourist, and I am really happy to be a tourist." The queer androgynous beauty, first discovered by critics and audiences alike in "Orlando," (1992), flows easily from Indie to industry made films. Her 25-year career with roots in writing poetry while getting a degree at Cambridge and her early filmmaking experiences with queer director Derek Jarman before he was lost to AIDS has prepared her for a string of roles that are unconventional, experimental, jarring, and memorable. Her latest film, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is just one more example of Swinton's insight into the human condition. "People perpetrate atrocities and other people say, 'We didn't see it coming,' The idea that people actually wear themselves on their faces seems to me to be less real than what life actually is, which is a series of concealments and containments." _______________________________________ "I like there to be something scary about project. There's got to be a pocket of fear when I show up for work. All right, can I pull this off," posits the renegade (and not renegade) director Steven  Soderbergh in Entertainment Weekly (January 20, 2012) whose filmography thus far ranges from his now cult film, "sex, lies and videotape" (1989) to "Erin Brochovich (2000) starring Oscar-winner Julia Roberts in the title role to the remake of "Ocean's II." The 49-year-old director is all over the place with these and his many upcoming projects that represent as much contrast as was his upbringing in both Pittsburgh and Baton Rouge. The "unruly talent" who can as easily confound his devoted audience as studio executives avoids "the flashy" in putting his directorial signature on his work. Two films that will excite and intrigue his gay male following will be "Magic Mike," described to the press as "a dance movie about male strippers inspired [no less] by the life of its star and co-writer, hunk Channing Tatum; and "Behind the Candelabra," an HBO-biopic about queer megastar of the entertainment world, Liberace (played by Michael Douglas) and his 40-years-younger lover, Scott Thorson (played by Matt Damon). _______________________________________ With politicians of all stripes (but particularly the gaggle of Republican presidential hopefuls) and a considerably large segment of the American public yearning to return to the past (you pick which  decade), that somehow life was easier, gentler, kinder, more innocent and, clearly, more prosperous, unencumbered by violence, crime, corruption, class struggles, racial and ethnic clashes, and global upheaval that intruded upon our everyday lives. But memory plays tricks on us. What might seem better wasn't, in actuality, all that great. Queer literary lion Edmund White who fellow straight novelist John Irving ("The World According to Garp") calls "one of the best writers of my generation" conjures up the past in "City Boy" (Bloomsbury), a favorite book on the recent queer bookshelf, in which his writing is not only erudite but his recollections insightful, meaningful and instructive. Talking about the 1960's and 1970's, he also naturally refers to the 1950's, in an interview with journalist Michael Ehrhardt on glreview.com (October 7, 2010): "In retrospect we could see that the 1950's had been a reactionary period in America of Eisenhower blandness, of virulent anticommunism, of the 'feminine mystique.' I lived through the 50's in the Midwest when everything that was happening-the repression of homosexuality, for instance, the demonization of the Left, the giggly, soporific ordinariness of adolescence, the stone deafness to the social injustice-seemed not only objectionable but also nonexistent . . . The great triumph of the 60's was to dramatize just how arbitrary and constructed the seeming normality of the 50's had been. We rose up from our maple-wood twin beds and fell onto the great squishy, heated water bed of the 60's."
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Publishers
Thom Cardwell
James Duggan
Editor James Duggan
Editor-at-Large
Thom Cardwell
Contributor
John Adam Di Pietro
Copyright 2012
All Rights Reserved - BUCKmonkey, LLC
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QUEERtimes is published weekly as a service for discerning queers and heterosexuals alike in Philadelphia and beyond.
Expressed opinions are that of the author(s) and do not represent the thoughts, feelings and /or opinions of any person, organization, company, staff member, or any of our advertisers.
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