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queerVOICE
Our Political Fights
James Duggan
copyright 2010
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Back to politics, particularly Pennsylvania politics that deserve national
attention. Not the marquee elections such as Dan Onorato for Governor or
Joe Sestak for U.S. Senate, both still very important races that deserve our
attention and support. But I want to draw our attention to two lesser
known races that need our attention on the national level.
Pennsylvania, a state without an
inclusive anti-discrimination law, excluding sexual orientation and gender
identity, which is well known for its culturally conservative center and
northern tier, is now on the verge of electing its first out candidate. Truly
exciting news yet this can not happen without your generous and strong support.
Dr. Fern
Kaufman
(D) is running for the Pennsylvania 26th
Legislative district in Chester
County against 18-year incumbent Tim Hennessey (R). This is
Kaufman's second run against the conservative Hennessey. She was narrowly
defeated by 1,000 votes two years ago.
Kaufman, a hospital administrator in charge of
pharmacy services, is currently OUR most viable and creditable chance of
getting an out candidate elected to state office in Pennsylvania.
But elections are not won by hopes and dreams; they
are won by volunteers and dollars.
Kaufman brings to the table experience, leadership,
passion, and a willingness to fight for what is right and good for the people
of Pennsylvania.
What can we bring to the table?
Kaufman's election to the State House would give us
our first seat at the state legislative table. In doing so, she would give us a
strong voice advocating our rights and be a living presence and example of the humanity
of our community. These arguments for our rights will become personal in
a way that can only take place when out candidates are elected to office.
Kaufman needs our help. She needs both our
time and our dollars. Whether one day or every weekend; whether $10 or
$10,000, your help is needed. Kaufman has put herself out there for
us. She is a smart, viable, impressive and resourceful candidate. I hope
that you all consider donating as much as you can, more if you have it, so that
we can celebrate the election of the first statewide out candidate this fall.
What an amazing feat that would be for us in the Keystone State!
Another race of great importance is that of Ruth S. Damsker
(D), 12th PA Senatorial District, running against 31-year incumbent
Stewart J. Greenleaf (R).
The conservative Greenleaf is Chair of the all
powerful Senate Judiciary Committee where he sits as gatekeeper preventing any
advancement of legislative action that would provide protections for our
community against discrimination and hate crimes. He has the power to
single handedly block all pro-gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
legislation.
Defeating Greenleaf in November would be like
cutting the head off of the snake. Such an accomplishment, a win for Damsker
would send, for the first time, the clearest and most powerful message to
legislators statewide that our community has ever sent. We will no longer sit back and watch our
rights denied us.
Damsker, a creditable, impressive and no-nonsense
candidate, offers us a glimmer of hope in the possibility that we can remove a
major stumbling block in the Pennsylvania State Senate and, hopefully, bring us
one vote closer to full equality that we in Pennsylvania deserve.
For more information andto donate to Fern Kaufman, visit fern4pa.com
For more information and
to donate to Ruth S. Damsker, visit voteruth.com
Comments: james@QUEERtimes.net 
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What It Looks Like From Here
Thom Cardwell
copyright 2010 |
 Sometimes when art
imitates life it's scary. One of the more poignant queer documentaries screened
at Philadelphia Qfest 2010 was Beyond
Gay: The Politics of Pride, directed by Bob Christie, that
explores the role and relevance of pride celebrations, exploring, revealing,
and exposing the vast differences in Pride movements around the world.
The film takes the
viewer literally around the globe from New York to Sri Lanka,
from Vancouver
to Moscow,
from Brazil
to Warsaw.
Unfortunately, the
message of the film is that the observance of Pride isn't all celebratory, with colorful floats, people's
parades, dance parties with boys in practically nothing but their underwear. In
some countries, the "celebrations" if you can call them that are about fighting
for an queer community's very survival. Freedom and equality for our
International queer brothers and sisters and friends is endangered, threatened,
outlawed, and banned.
So, not
surprisingly, The New York Times
(July 18, 2010) reported on this year's EuroPride
2010 that was held in Warsaw, Poland,
and the backlash from right-wing group like All-Polish Youth and Warsaw's
parade organizer stated that "gays and lesbians are still being attacked in the streets all the time in his city."
 There were 2,000
police officers protecting and controlling the crowd, one for every four people
who marched in the Pride parade that attracted only 8,000 in the conservative,
passive, generally non-participatory population when it comes to public debate,
protest and demonstration. Though some organizers said that each year that
there are fewer negative reactions to Warsaw's Pride events, still this year
the streets were filled with Polish youth chanting
obscenities, taunting the marchers, hurling eggs and plastic bottles at them.
 The event in
itself was "daring" to hold in the conservative society of Warsaw. "The march was demure compared to
similar events in cities like New York or Berlin," observed
reporter Nicholas Kulish, "A few men
decided to forgo shirts in the heat, while another group dressed in feathered
carnival outfits, but otherwise it was a clothed and orderly procession."
Many gay men and
lesbians here [in Warsaw]
say they continue to fear repercussions
from coming out of the closet," said Kulish.
"The event, the
first Europe wide gay pride parade held in a former Communist bloc country,
revealed a place where gays and lesbians aspired to the level of acceptance
found in Western European cities like Amsterdam
and London, yet remained part of the
deeply Catholic society that was still significantly more opposed to
homosexuality than in the West and where politicians did not seem ready, or
perhaps willing, to change that," concluded Kulish.
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Thom's World
Thom Cardwell
copyright 2010 |
 Tel Aviv has now officially joined the ranks
of International cities that wish to be identified as gay-friendly. This week Tel Aviv Tourism Association kicked off a six-month outreach campaign labeled "Tel Aviv Gay Vibe," hoping to introduce
gay communities around the world to Israel's "city that never sleeps."
Etti Gargir,
CEO of the Tel Aviv Tourism Association,
said the first-of-its kind campaign for the city, budgeted at ILS340,000
($88,000 US), will be targeted primarily toward gays and lesbians in Germany and France, offering discounted flight and hotel packages that begin at
$500 for three nights.
She said that visitors will be eligible for four free tours of the city as well as a City Pass
that provides discounts at restaurants and other venues through February 2011.
"The gay market, they have money to
spend and they love very much the stylized life of Tel Aviv," Gargir said.
"They like the good life."
Tel Avia with its combination of
nightlife, culture and beaches makes it a natural destination fit for gay and
lesbian tourists, Gargir added.
 Yaniv Weissman, an adviser to Mayor Ron Huldai and a
representative of the gay community
in Tel Aviv, said, "It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Christian. Just
come to enjoy."
He added that the "Gay Vibe" campaign was not intended to
change the city but to enhance what has already been in Tel Aviv. "It's our effort to expose the international
gay community to an already thriving
gay scene here," he said.
Two years ago, Weissman applied for his position in the mayor's office on a
platform of popularizing Tel Aviv's gay community
to a global audience.
The new campaign is jointly supported by the Tourism Ministry and the Tel Aviv
Municipality. El Al Israel Airlines,
Lufthansa and Air Berlin
will offer package and charter flights to Tel Aviv.
At the press conference and kick-off, Weissman did downplay security concerns,
less than a year after a shooting last summer at a gay youth center in the city
that left two people dead. He admitted that security remained a central issue,
but noted that such concerns were not unique to Tel Aviv.
"The gay community around the world
is very strong. Even though we had this terrible murder in the youth center, it
connects the communities even further," he argued.
Tel Aviv has already seen its tourism
figures skyrocketed with Gargir projecting the yet-to-be-released numbers
will be "record-setting."
Earlier this year, the Tourism Association announced the ambitious goal of
drawing more than 2.4 million touriststo Tel Aviv in 2010.
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What They Said and Did!
copyrighted 2010
| We heart queer actor Matthew Montgomery. The
32-year-old, Texas-born, theater-trained University of Southern California
educated theater major is but a handful of out acting talents who seems to be a
consistently working  actor in gay Indie feature films. Back at USC, Montgomery
was dubbed "the wonder freshman" because of both is acting ability as well as
his knack for snagging major roles in every production that he auditioned.
Recently, he was recognized for his artistic achievement in acting by receiving
an award from Philadelphia QFest 2010. Montgomery starred in no less than three
new films at QFest 2010, including Role/Play, The Dark Side of Love and Flight
of the Cardinal, the closing night film, directed by Robert "Two Minutes Later"
Gaston. He has assumed impressive and sometimes challenging roles in Redwoods,
Socket and Pornography that is still hitting the queer festival circuit
worldwide. He recently confessed to the editors of Blade (July, 2010) that "Pornography: A Thriller is a kind of mind fuck of a movie,
which is what I said to myself when I read the script and what really attracted
me to the movie. There aren't a lot of films out there like it-particularly in
the gay genre-that push the boundaries and try to think out of the box. I was
really attracted to the challenge, of telling a story in a non-linear way, from
an acting standpoint and from a visual and cinematic standpoint." ___________________________________________ There's definitely a buzz about the studio-driven,
queer feature film, The Kids Are All Right, starring Hollywood straight heavy
weights Annette Bening,, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, all playing
lesbian and gay  characters in lesbian auteur director Lisa Cholodenko's latest
film about a lesbian couple's child who discovered who is the sperm donor. Not since Brokeback Mountain
has there been quite so much pre-opening film hype with a major national
release with some of the industry's finest as cast members. Moore who has
worked with many a queer director talked candidly to the editors of Metro
Source(August/September 2010) about her role in what she calls Cholodenko's
very funny film about some otherwise pressing and serious topics of concern to
the nation's queer community and
everyone else. She sees the film's message as one about the power of family,
something that's also a personal value of hers. "I feel urgency to protect every family. Family is the most sacred
thing we have. It's the most important thing we do; it's what we start in and
hopefully what we end in. You move through it-start as a child, end up a
parent. The fact that anyone should be denied that experience is abhorrent to
me." The film hits a theater near you soon. ___________________________________________ Thirty-two-year-old creative director Kim Jones
has transformed Dunhill, the stodgy English fashion house best known for its
fine traditional tailoring and exquisite writing utensils-- in just two short
years into a  genuine contemporary style leader. The wunderkind of style talked
about the essentials of dressing with the perfect wardrobe for fall with the
editors of Details (August, 2010). On the basics, like a quality blazer, Jones
advises: "When I think of a blazer, I
think of it more as a sportswear item than as something formal, because you can
dress it up or down." What about trousers? "They're always a hard item to change up because there are only so many
kinds. It's less about finding a new shape and more about trying other
textures. Wool, tweed, and flannel lend a different feel to a pair of pants." What about suits? "You can wear patterns as long as they're subtle. This season I'm into
soft windowpane check. Ninety percent of
guys wear suits that don't fit properly . . . When you go to buy a suit, bring
someone you trust or ask the salesperson for his opinion. Don't just rush to
buy it . . . [then] go home and think . . . I'm never going to wear this."
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Coming August 26 . . . Stay Alert for Details
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