GayWisdom

Jesse's Journal

Coming Out Politically

“Coming Out” has many meanings and can happen more than once in a person’s life. In previous articles I wrote about “coming out” as a Gay man, a Jew, a bear and a nudist. Now I want to talk about my “coming out” into politics. Though I never served in public office I consider myself to be a political person, if we define politics as a citizen’s healthy concern for his society and the way that it is governed. My political views, like those of other people, were shaped by my upbringing, my environment, my education, my life experiences and by events that changed my life. Two events were particularly influential in determining my life and politics: the Cuban Revolution (1959) and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Movement (1969).

My political bent, unlike my thick dark hair (now greying), soft brown eyes, left-handed dexterity or homosexual orientation, was not inherited. But it was definitely shaped by my upbringing. My friend and fellow activist, Allen Young, once wrote about growing up as a “red diaper baby,” the son of Jewish-American Communists. My parents were the opposite: proudly conservative, fiercely anti-Communist, Cuban exiles. Like most men and women of their generation, my parents experienced the Revolution as a disruptive force that destroyed everything they held dear and forced them to leave their home. Once settled in Miami (temporarily, they hoped) most Cuban exiles were firmly opposed to Communism and to anything that they thought led to it: socialism, progressivism, liberalism, homosexuality, etc. They saw the Democratic Party as hopelessly liberal and tainted by John F. Kennedy’s “betrayal” of the Cuban people after the Missile Crisis. The Republicans, on the other hand, seemed more willing to stand up to Castro and his henchmen, however ineffective their stand might be. For that reason, almost alone of all Hispanics in the U.S., Cuban-Americans vote overwhelmingly Republican.

Like other Cuban-Americans of my generation, I grew up in this conservative atmosphere. However, by the time I graduated from high school in 1972 I had developed a political bent of my own, one at odds with that of my parents or for that matter most people in my “hometown” of Little Havana. My political nonconformity can be attributed to several factors: my sexual orientation, which allowed me to question authority and the status quo; my natural curiosity, that encouraged me to go beyond my schooling to explore new ideas and personalities; and my own stubborn and rebellious personality. Whatever the causes, I was liberal where liberal wasn’t cool. I also realized, unlike my parents, that I was in the U.S. to stay. So on June 6, 1973 I became a U.S. Citizen, the first one in my family to do so. I also registered to vote that day.

Obviously, there was no political future for a liberal Democrat in Little Havana. In any case, by that time I had come to the conclusion that I was Gay, and that my sexual orientation trumped other issues as far as my politics were concerned. Many activists look back to a pivotal event in their lives that shook them out of their apathy and got them involved in the fight for GLBT rights and equality. In my opinion being openly gay in a homophobic society was in itself a political act; and my rights and freedoms as a gay man must not be taken for granted but fought for every day and in every way. For that reason, and in a time and place when most Gay men and Lesbian women were still in their closets, I refused to hide my identity.

Being openly Gay in Miami in 1976 and 1977 was not easy, and it probably kept me from building a career or making a lot of money. But I did what I had to do and I think I am a better man for having done so.

I came out politically at an important time in our history, when Miami-Dade County first considered adding affectional or sexual orientation to its Human Rights Ordinance. The resulting campaign, which led to the repeal of the “Gay rights ordinance” by a 2 to 1 margin (June 7, 1977), did more than make singer Anita Bryant a symbol of religious bigotry. It also made people realize that there were homosexuals all around them, and that Jesse Monteagudo was one of them. Though I was not a polarizing figure like Bob Kunst, I was president of Latins for Human Rights, a vain but notable attempt to encourage Gay Hispanics to come out of their closets. As if that wasn’t enough, the day after the election my smiley face appeared on the pages of the now-defunct Miami News, wistfully embracing my then-partner. At a time when the most influential Gay group in Broward was fondly known as “Closet Clusters,” just being photographed was a radical act.

During the next few years (1977-1982) I graduated from Florida International University, moved to Broward County, and changed my job a few times. And I served on the boards of the Dade County Coalition for Human Rights and the Broward County Coalition for Human Rights. A new crop of gay activists emerged in those days, political realists who knew how to play the game: Tom Bradshaw, Brad Buchman, Karl Clark and Gary Steinsmith (all sadly gone) among others. They created the Dolphin Democratic Club in Broward County (1982) and made it the political force that it is today.  And while I was a member of the Dolphin Club from the beginning, I never served on the Board, nor did I ever seek public office.  A non-partisan, activist, “in your face” group like the now-defunct GUARD – Gays United to Attack Repression and Discrimination - was more my style.

But while I am not a politician in the traditional sense of the word, I remain political to this day. Instead of running for office I channeled my political energies into another direction, as a writer for the then-flourishing Gay and Lesbian press. In 1980 I began an opinion column, now  “Jesse’s Journal”, in The Weekly News (twn), for 29 years (1977-2006) South Florida’s gay community paper. Writing a column gives me the opportunity to express my political views in a medium that I am comfortable with.  And it’s good to know that people read my work, if only to complain about it. I took it as a compliment when certain people, including some who knew me from way back, wrote angry letters to the paper, calling me a radical, a socialist and a communist along the lines of Ted Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Al Gore or John Kerry. When you’re compared to Ted Kennedy, you must be doing something right.

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and proud liberal who continues to disappoint his mother by not keeping his mouth shut.  Reach him at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

Jesse's Journal - the GLBT South, from Red to Pink

I have never been to Dallas, Texas, a city that I long associated with the Kennedy Assassination and J. R. Ewing. Unlike Austin or even Houston, Dallas is thought to be a very red city within a very red state.  Wrong! No less an authority than Jason Dottley, star of the LOGO TV series Sordid Lives, lists the city of Dallas as # 2 in his list of “the Gayest Places Down South.”

“If West Hollywood is the Gay Mecca of the West, Palm Springs the Gay Mecca of the desert, and South Beach the Gay Mecca of all coastal cities, then Dallas must be the Gay Mecca of the South...For a city to be loved by me, it must be able to provide the best-of-the-best in five key areas: Dining, shopping, accommodations, entertainment and culture,” all of which Dallas has aplenty. Only one Southern venue beat Dallas in Dottley’s list, and that place is in Dallas itself: The Rose Room, a show bar at the ever-popular (or so I’m told) Station 4, which, Dottley tells us, “is home to nightly drag shows that will blow your socks off!”

Dottley’s enthusiasm is seconded by gaycities.com, according to which Dallas is no less than “Texas’s Biggest Gay Community.” “Dallas has one of the largest Gay populations in the US and is home to the largest GLBT church: The Cathedral of Hope. Gay Dallas is primarily centered around the Oak Lawn neighborhood with bars, restaurants, and stores found throughout Cedar Springs Rd and Oak Lawn Avenue. The intersection of Throckmorton and Cedar Springs has been called the ‘crossroads’ of Oak Lawn and is the home to a bunch of Gay and Lesbian Bars within walking distance.  Being a big city, there is a wide variety of people and scenes, so you are sure to find what you seek.”

Eddie Sanchez, writing about Dallas in the Gay Guide, agrees: “The US’s ninth-largest city, Dallas is  cosmopolitan and beautiful, with world-class architecture, a booming arts district (soon to be the country’s largest), and, like all of Gay Texas, a sense of duty when it comes to giving back to their community. What truly amazed me is how inclusive Gays are in Dallas. Sure, there are Gay bars and Lesbian bars and Hispanic bars, but people feel free and comfortable going from one to the next. Dallas’s Gay life is concentrated mainly in the Oak Lawn area with bars and clubs catering to varied Gay tastes, along with stores and restaurants.” As befits a city that’s smack in the buckle of the Bible Belt, Dallas is home to the world’s largest “Gay church,” the Cathedral of Hope, which used to be a Metropolitan Community Church but is now affiliated with the United Church of Christ. Dallas is also home to the world’s most famous “men’s chorus” (it denies being a “Gay chorus,” though most of its members are), the Turtle Creek Chorale.

Though Texas is one of most reliably “red” states,” at least during presidential elections, it is not as extremely conservative as I used to think, especially in its major cities: Dallas, Austin and Houston. In this matter the Lone Star State is not alone. There are many pink spots in the red South, including Asheville, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana; and half a dozen municipalities in my own state of Florida. Though I have never been to Dallas (as I said before), I have visited most of those cities and, honestly, I’d feel safer there than I would in some  rural areas in California or Massachusetts. Like their sisters and brothers in Dallas, Texas, the women and men who live in those cities have made the best of their lives in spite of the existence of some of the most homophobic state governments. In short, the GLBT communities of the urban South have taken their lemons and made a nice Lemoncello liqueur out of it.

On the other hand, there are still places in the South that seem to be homophobic through and through.  One of those, with apologies to those GLBT people who live in the Palmetto State, is South Carolina. Recently Amro Worldwide, a Gay travel agency, ran a series of ads in London subways that promoted Gay tourism in the United States. According to the ads, Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Washington D.C. and South Carolina are “so Gay.”  Though officials in the five cities appreciated and paid for their ads, South Carolina state officials went into a tizzy at the idea that anyone would actually think that South Carolina is “so Gay.”  Republican Governor Mark Sanford called the posters “inappropriate,” and Republican State Senator David Thomas demanded an audit of the state’s advertising budget: “South Carolinians will be irate when they learn their hard earned tax dollars are being spent to advertise our state as ‘so Gay,’” huffed Thomas, in a statement. The state refused to pay for the ad and the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department employee who approved of it resigned.

South Carolina politicians need not worry.  After this hoopla made the news around the world, there is no one left who still thinks the Palmetto State is “so Gay.” But once again the GLBT community was able to make a tasty lemonade out of a sour lemon. The South Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement, which paid for the ad after their state government refused to do so, has adopted its discredited slogan for this year’s Pride events. On September 20, “South Carolina Will Be So Gay” when the GLBT community celebrates its pride in the state capital of Columbia.

Jesse Monteagudo, a Florida-based freelance writer and Gay American, is celebrating his 30th year writing for the GLBT press. Reach him at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

Jesse's Journal - "Is It Hip To Be Square?"

GAY LIFESTYLES: IS IT HIP TO BE SQUARE?

In his New York Times (April 27, 2008) feature story “Young Gay Rites,” the delightfully-named Benoit Denizen-Lewis wrote about the “normal” world of young, white, married Gay men in Massachusetts, till recently the only American state that allowed same-sex marriage. Unlike previous Gay generations, Denizen-Lewis wrote, “Gay teenagers are coming out earlier and are increasingly able to experience their Gay adolescence.  That, in turn, has made them more likely to feel normal.  Many young Gay men don’t see themselves as all that different from their heterosexual peers, and many profess to want what they’ve long seen espoused by mainstream American culture; a long-term relationship and the chance to start a family.”

If Denizen-Lewis is to be believed, young Gay men are rushing to the altar as soon as they are allowed to do so. Many of these queer couples are married with children, acquired naturally or through adoption.  In some cases, the partners hyphenated their surnames; or one partner took the last name of the other.  Also breaking with gay stereotype, many of these young gay marrieds practice monogamy, or at least they tell us theat they do. In short, these Gay men turned Gay clichés on their head, opting for “straight” normalcy over gay rebelliousness. But is it hip to be square? (For the record, this writer has been in a Gay relationship himself for 23 years, though we have kept our distinctive surnames: “Greenspan-Monteagudo” is just too cumbersome.)

The number of young Gay men who choose marital bliss over circuit parties will no doubt increase now that the California Supreme Court ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.  Even states that only allow civil unions or domestic partnerships have witnessed many same-sex couples rushing to the registrar’s office. The current Gay penchant for matrimony is a sharp contrast to the post-Stonewall gay ideal of sexual freedom and promiscuity. Many Gay men in the 1970s agreed with film director John Waters, who thought that the best thing about being Gay was that he did not have to get married or serve in the military. Though there were partnered Gay men in the seventies, many of them were like the twosome in the Doric Wilson play A Perfect Relationship (1979), who have sex with other men but not with each other. The two lovers in Michael Denneny’s book Lovers (1979) were not exceptional because they broke up but because they stayed together for so long.

So what happened to change all of this?  There was AIDS, of course.  And a conservative political climate that discouraged sexual promiscuity.  Keeping pace with the political winds, “Gay” activist organizations -- now evolved into GLBT (or GLBT) groups – began to demand for our people those privileges that the heterosexual majority takes for granted, like getting married or serving in the military. Young queers who came of age with none of the trauma experienced by previous generations see nothing unusual in doing what their straight peers have been doing since time immemorial; dating someone, “going steady” with them and, eventually, getting married.

So far so good, but what about the rest of us?  Open any Gay bar guide and you will see photos of hot Gay “boys” who are living lives far removed from those of the young couples in Denizen-Lewis’s article.  For them, as for many Gay men before them, being gay is an act of rebellion, a break from the restrictions of straight society. These guys are “boys” in the best sense  of the word, not protracted adolescents but males who kept their youthful exuberance and their willingness to take chances and try new ideas and new experiences. Though the Gay party scene is conformist in its own way, and fraught with many dangers -- drug use and unsafe sex being the most obvious ones – no one is gong to accuse gay party boys of trying to imitate heterosexual men. On the contrary, in matters of physical fitness and attire, straight men are imitating us...

Of course, not all Gay men are made for the party scene, just as not all Gay men are made for the settled married life in the suburbs. Our community encompasses all lifestyles; and if there is anything we can agree on is that we all have the right to shape our lives the way that we want to. Though GLBT conformity is not as repressive as heterosexual conformity – because our community does not have the power to enforce it – it is no less objectionable.  In this, as in so many other things, our enemies are wrong: There is no such thing as a “Gay lifestyle.” There are as many “Gay lifestyles” as there are Gay lives and we should all have the right to choose the one that suits us best.

Jesse Monteagudo, a South Florida-based author/activist, is currently celebrating his 30th year writing for the GLBT press. Write him a note at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

Jesse's Journal - Tales from the Gay Outdoors

by Jesse Monteagudo

Tales from the Gay Outdoors

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people love camp, in both senses of the word.  According to CampGayUSA, there are over a hundred GLBT-owned or GLBT-friendly campgrounds in the United States alone. My own State of Florida has two popular gay campgrounds:  the Sawmill Camping Resort in Dade City and Camp Mars in Venus.  Most of the time, GLBT campgrounds were created with little or no controversy.  This is not the case of a camp established on Route 226 near Casar, North Carolina; one which bears the provocative name of Camp Lickalotta.

Camp Lickalotta is the child of Nancy Leedy and Joanie Beasley, two business and life partners who describe themselves as “unabashed environmentalists, Christians and lesbians.”  According to the Camp Lickalotta Web site, “our dream is to establish a LGBT Campground for adults in Western North Carolina that is earth-friendly.  A SAFE place, where ALL who come are welcome to enjoy camping in a non-threatening environment. Where they can relax in nature.” According to an article published in the Gaston Gazette (a local paper), Leedy said that she and Beasley chose the name Lickalotta because their goal is to “Lickalotta prejudice,” “Lickalotta pollutants” and “Lickalotta pessimism.” To these ends, the women rented space at the straight-owned Golden Valley Campground, and planned to inaugurate Camp Lickalotta with the first annual Bushstock, a women’s music festival, on May 16-18. Leedy and Beasley planned to use the money raised at Bushstock along with public donations to buy land for a permanent Camp Lickalotta.

Unfortunately, Leedy and Beasley reckoned without the residents of their Bible Belt community. When the women tried to attend services at nearby churches, they were told to leave outright or to attend early, less-attended services. When news about Camp Lickalotta spread around the community, the neighbors were outraged. They complained to Golden Valley owners Joe and Lynn Hoyle, threatening to keep themselves, their children and their grandchildren away from the camp if the Hoyles allowed the dykes to stay. Though Leedy and Beasley expected a fight - they knew what they were getting into when they picked the name Lickalotta - Mr. and Mrs. Hoyle caved in. According to a letter that they wrote the women, the Hoyles “decided that the best thing for all parties involved is for [the camp] to find another place to host their events. This also means that Nancy Leedy and Joanie Beasley will have to find another campground to park their camper.” The Hoyles also complained that the women promised that Bushstock was going to be a “family-oriented” festival, not the “adults-only” event that it eventually became.

Perhaps Leedy and Beasley were foolish to make their intentions so blatantly clear, and to give their Camp a name that served as a red flag for the local bigots. But the Hoyles were wrong to cave-in to local pressure, out of fear, greed and prejudice, even as they claimed that “there has never been any dispute between any of these parties related to or arising out of the sexual preferences of Joan [sic] Beasley and Nancy Leedy.” “Joe and Lynn have a strong commitment to the citizens,” said the Hoyles’ lawyer, O. Max Gardner III, “and would never knowingly and willingly take any actions that would do anything to tarnish the image of this area with respect to our high moral standards and commitment to traditional family and religious values.” Beasley and Leedy were only given seven days to pack and leave Golden Valley, under the protection of the local sheriff’s office. Undeterred, the women found a new location for Bushstock and are working hard to find a new home for Camp Lickalotta. We wish them all the luck.

  Whatever you might say about the wisdom of their methods, Joanie Beasley and Nancy Leedy were clearly in the right. More controversial are the Gy and bisexual men who, since time immemorial, have used public parks and preserves for sexual activity. In the Dutch city of Amsterdam, long-known as a center of sexual liberty, men have sought sexual satisfaction in the city’s Vondelpark, around the rose garden (or so I’m told). Recently the City government shocked conservatives there and elsewhere when they moved to allow public sex in the Park. (However, most of the complaints came not from moralists but from dog owners, who still have to keep their dogs on leashes.) Even so, City Alderman Paul Van Grieken defended their decision, asking “why should we impose a rule on something you can’t impose a rule on?  Moreover it isn’t a nuisance for the other visitors and gives a lot of pleasure to a certain group of people.”  Cruisers are still expected to pick up their used condoms and other trash, stay away from the children’s playground and limit their sexual activities to night hours. The Netherlands Police National Diversity Expertise Center asked other cities to follow Amsterdam’s example, noting that it would free the police to deal with more serious matters, such as anti-gay violence. The Dutch approach to park cruising is sensible, reasonable and humane, which means it will never be adopted in the Untied States.

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and Gay American who lives in South Florida with his life partner.  Write him a note at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

Fable of City Moe & Country Les

The Fable of City Moe and Country Les
by Jesse Monteagudo

[Note: According to a study published in Population Today, Gay men tend to live in big cities while lesbians prefer university towns and other small communities.  Based on 2000 Census figures, the study reports that the top ten cities for Gay male couples are San Francisco; Miami/Fort Lauderdale; Santa Fe; Atlanta; San Diego; Orlando; Los Angeles; Seattle; Austin; and Portland, Maine. Meanwhile, the top ten cities for Lesbian couples are Santa Fe; Burlington, Vermont; Portland, Maine; Springfield, Massachusetts; San Francisco/Oakland; Corvallis, Oregon; Madison, Wisconsin; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Eugene, Oregon; and Iowa City, Iowa.]

Once upon a time a young Gay man named Moe left his home in San Francisco to visit his Lesbian cousin Les. Les lived with her partner and their children on a farm outside Corvallis, Oregon. She welcomed cousin Moe’s visit, which gave her an opportunity to show him the pleasures of life in the country. From the moment that Moe arrived, Les and her partner took him around Corvallis, fed him home-cooked meals and gave him a cozy bed to sleep in. Though Moe appreciated his cousin’s hospitality, he could not understand why she and her family opted to live in the country, away from San Francisco’s bustling queer community.

“I don’t know, Les, how you can live in  place like this, away from the amenities of big city life. San Francisco has a large, politically powerful Gay community; a variety of community-oriented businesses and organizations; and a lively social life. I can walk down the Castro holding my boy friend’s hand everyday, which you and your partner can not do around here. And while we in California now enjoy domestic partner protections, you folks in Oregon are still debating whether or not Gay people should even be protected by law. You even had a local right-wing demagogue, Lon Mabon, running for the U.S. Senate.”

“Actually, the Oregon legislature just passed a domestic partners bill. And Mabon lost the election. But I agree that I cannot hold my partner’s hand on Main Street in Corvallis. And I agree that Oregon is full of anti-Gay bigots, just like any other state. But this lovely town, and its surrounding country, are great places to live in. Corvallis is a beautiful college town nestled in the heart of Oregon’s lovely Willamette Valley. We enjoy a wealth of performing arts and festivals as well as galleries, antique shopping and wineries. Corvallis is also the home of Oregon State University, which gives this community a youthful vitality that you can not find even in San Francisco.”

But Moe was not convinced. “Come back with me, Cousin, to San Francisco.  This Sunday is the Gay Pride Parade and I want you to see it.” Finally, Les agreed to follow her cousin back to San Francisco, though her partner and children could not join them, because she had never been to a Gay Parade and wanted to see it. As soon as Les arrived in San Francisco, Moe and his boyfriend set her up in the guest room of their posh loft that overlooked Castro and Market Streets. From that vantage point, they could watch San Francisco’s Gay Pride Parade in all its glory.

It was a magnificent sight. From Dykes on Bikes to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the San Francisco Gay Day Parade lived up to all of its expectations. Half a million people attended this magnificent event, a testimonial to the GLBT community’s clout in the City by the Bay. Les could only smile as her cousin proudly pointed out the different floats and marching units, which represented the various businesses and clubs and organizations that catered to their community. All this would be at her disposal, he said, if she and her family moved to San Francisco. 

“Don’t you love it here?,” Moe said to his cousin, as they walked down Castro Street after the Parade.  “Imagine the opportunities for you and your family.”

“I agree that San Francisco is a nice place to visit, but it’s too expensive to live here. Both you and your boy friend make a lot of money, and can afford to live in a faboo loft overlooking the Castro. My partner and I have a couple of kids, and you need bigger housing to raise a family. And a big house is an expensive house. That is why we like to live near a college town like Corvallis. It combines the amenities of country life, like cheap homes, with a progressive, tolerant attitude. Besides, there is a lot of crime, dirt and homelessness in San Francisco.” As if to prove her point, a man tried to steal their bags, but was kept from doing so by a well-placed karate chop from Les.

“I cannot agree with you,” said Moe. “My boy friend and I would be bored to death if we lived in Corvallis.  This is our home,” he said, pointing at a crowd that gathered in front of the Castro Theater. “Our friends are here, as well as all the Gay clubs, Gay shops, Gay restaurants and Gay theater,” he added.

“I understand, Cousin,” Les answered, as she said good-bye to Moe. “And I admit I had a good time here. But San Francisco is not for me. Still, you have your life and I have mine, and each one of us picked a place to live that’s best for each one of us. Hopefully, some day all of us will be able to live the way we want, anywhere we want to.”

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance author who lives with his partner in the suburbs.  He got his inspiration from the beloved Tale of the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, by the immortal Aesop. He (Jesse, not Aesop) can be reached at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

Jesse's Journal - Choosing a President: The Beat Goes On & On

The best reality show on television today is not American Idol, Survivor, or the Amazing Race.  Rather, the biggest reality show on TV (or elsewhere) is the race for President of the United States.  As a spectator sport, the race for the White House goes back to the days of George Washington (before there was a White House). Every four years a group of ambitious politicians decide to compete for the coveted title of President of the United States and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces. They are joined in their endeavor by their families, supporters, political parties, campaign contributors, special interest groups, blogs and the media. Occasionally, the people of the United States also get into the act.  What make the current presidential race unique are the length of the race and the people who are running in it.

It has been a year since I last wrote about this seemingly endless presidential campaign. Twelve months later, the field of candidates is smaller but the race is still as hectic and the method of choosing a president is as crazy as ever. Though I would never suggest that we return to the old smoke-filled rooms, it seems to me that our current system of primaries and caucuses benefits noone but a few well-financed candidates and the economies of Iowa and New Hampshire (and Nevada and South Carolina). States that defied the system by holding early primaries, like Florida and Michigan, were punished by the major parties to no avail. Meanwhile, the beat goes and on and on, seemingly forever. To quote Will and Ariel Durant: “Who would want to live forever, and go through an endless series of American presidential campaigns?”

One thing I neglected to write about last year was the role the media play in choosing a president.  Televised curmudgeons, political pundits, talk show hosts, and presidential historians take it upon themselves to decide which candidates are “unelectable” (and thus not worth talking about) and which candidates have the all-important “momentum.” Professional chatterboxes like Tim Russert and Chris Matthews anointed Rudolph Giuliani the Hero of 9/11, declared John McCain to be a Maverick, and elevated Barack Obama to the status of Messiah. They are also responsible for making Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Sam Brownback and Duncan Hunter (not to mention the minor party candidates) “unelectable” and thus not worthy of serious discussion. Even Ron Paul, the sweetheart of the Internet, is ignored by the pundits and the pollsters.

In certain ways, the presidential campaign of 2008 has defied all predictions. A year ago, we all thought that Giuliani and Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the respective Republican and Democratic candidates, and that we would be treated to an all-New York World Series of politics. But Clinton reckoned without the charismatic Barack Obama (and Oprah Winfrey); while Giuliani bet the house on the Florida primary and lost. In fact, it seems that after all is said and done, the two major parties might end up true to form, with the GOP “falling in line” behind McCain and the Democrats “falling in love” with Obama. Meanwhile, the media have had a field day reporting the apparent cat fight between Clinton and Obama, and debating whether electing a (white) woman is more important than electing an African-American (man). (Black women never entered into the equation.) Meanwhile, the equally contentious feud between McCain and Mitt Romney was largely ignored, mainly because both McCain and Romney are white men. (According to conventional wisdom, only women, Jews, racial minorities and queer people are thought to be “emotional,” and thus likely to indulge in cat fights.)

Where is the Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in all of this? As in previous election, the Republicans are using the public’s fear of Gay marriage to bring out the social conservatives, trusting that a “Florida Marriage Protection” amendment would keep the Sunshine State red in November. Log Cabin Republicans, repeatedly rebuked by their party and desperate to find a candidate who would give them the time of day, first endorsed Giuliani and then, after the New Yorker dropped out of the race, McCain. 

Meanwhile, all the Democratic candidates paid lip service to the needs of the GLBT community, even though none of them (except Kucinich and Gravel) went so far as to endorse equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. Most of the Democratic candidates took part in a candidates’ forum sponsored by the GLBT cable channel LOGO, where they answered questions from the likes of rocker Melissa Etheridge, journalist Jonathan Capehart and Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. Since then the candidates have largely avoided the “Gay issue,” except when Republicans pontificate about “family values” and Democrats include us in their vision of a new society. (“Gays and straights united!”)

If there is one good thing about the presidential campaign of 2008, is that Americans are voting in great numbers, particularly young Americans, a good sign of things to come. These new voters made themselves heard on “Super Tuesday” (February 5), when the charismatic Obama continuing his momentum within the Democratic ranks and the established McCain going a long way towards winning the GOP nomination. Meanwhile, the great reality show that is the American Presidential Race of 2008 continues, only to end in November when one contestant gets the privilege to live in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the next four years. And the beat goes on and on and on. . .

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and gay American who lives and votes in South Florida.  Write him at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

Jesse's Journal - Folsom Street Blues

Thank God for the religious right.  Often when I suffer from writer’s block, a crackpot comes along with some harebrained scheme and I have something to write about.  The latest loony toon who’s come to save the day (and this column) is Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth, “a newly reorganized national organization devoted exclusively to exposing and countering the homosexual activist agenda.”

According to Wayne Besen, “LaBarbera is notorious for donning leather garb and sneaking into sundry gay S&M bars to take supposedly incriminating pictures of naughty gays.  LaBarbera is obsessive with following the seamier side of gay life, even frequenting establishments where gay sex occurs.  For him, no bahthouses are too remote to discover, and no dark, grimy dungeons not worthy of explorations.  It is no exaggeration to say that the man has probably frequented more gay venues than RuPaul and Mr. Leather USA combined.”

Peter LaBarbera’s latest exposé is of the Folsom Street Fair, a annual gathering of kinky folk in San Francisco that proudly calls itself “the world’s largest leather event.”  Not letting a good thing pass him by, LaBarbera crashed this leather party on September 30 in order to expose the depravity within.  Since the Folsom Street Fair takes place in Nancy Pelosi’s congressional district, LaBarbera gave a detailed description of the Fair’s naughty bits in a letter that he wrote to the Speaker, hoping no doubt that she would be as outraged as he claimed to be: “I was in San Francisco with a videographer on Sunday, September 30 and verified but a small segment of the most immoral and outrageous sexual behavior that ever disgraced the streets of any American city.”

LaBarbera followed his introduction with a laundry list of debauchery; depraved acts that he assured the Speaker were going on in full view of innocent children.  These included “large numbers of men walking on public streets either fully or partially naked; . . . groups of men engaged in orgies on the public street, including acts of oral sex and mutual masturbation; . . . theatrically dramatic sadomasochistic whippings and floggings; . . . ‘Master-slave relationships’ in which one man or woman would ‘walk’ their subservient ‘slave’ with a dog collar and chain” and so on.  LaBarbera saved much of his outrage for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a charitable group of gay men in nun drag that LaBarbera denounced as exhibiting “blatant anti-Christian bigotry.”  LaBarbera closed his letter by demanding that Pelosi “condemn these public perversions and use your great influence to stop them from happening in the future in San Francisco.”

As if that wasn’t enough, LaBarbera held a press conference on December 5 for the sole purpose of denouncing the Folsom Street Fair.  “Americans For Truth will be airing uncensored videotaped footage, documenting public perversions and nudity at the Folsom Street Fair, an open-air, sadistic sex festival held September 30th on the streets of San Francisco,” LaBarbera promised.  Held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., LaBarbera was joined by fellow fundies Matt Barber of Concerned Women For America and Grace Hurley of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX).  Though LaBarbera’s promise of hard-core, gay leather porn seemed sure to attract a crowd, less than ten people attended his press conference, according to Rebecca Armendariz of the Washington Blade, who was there.

The Folsom Street Fair [www.folsomstretfair.com] is one of four annual events produced by Folsom Street Events, a not-for-profit organization whose mission “is to create volunteer-driven leather events that provide the adult alternative lifestyle community with safe venues for self-expression while emphasizing freedom, fun, frolic and fetish and raising critical funds to benefit local charities.”  Earlier this year, the Fair outraged the Catholic League and other Christian groups with its official poster, an obvious parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” where leather folk of various genders and sexual orientations took the place of Christ and his apostles.  [Please visit www.folsomstreetfair.com/fair-info.php for the offending poster.] Though Andy Cooper, Board President of Folsom Street Events, hoped that “people will enjoy the artistry for what it is - nothing more or less,” there was such an uproar that the Fair’s primary sponsor, Miller Brewing, asked the Fair to remove its logo from all promotional materials.

By the time Peter LaBarbera called his press conference, the Folsom Street Fair had become a byword for queer debauchery.  The Fair’s infamy reached as far as the nearby city of Vallejo, where openly-gay mayoral candidate Gary Cloutier had to assure a voter that he would not bring a similar leather street fair into their city.  And there is no question that San Francisco’s liberal political climate allows a degree of public nudity and kinky sex unheard of elsewhere in the United States.  (Compared to the Folsom Street Fair, the Leather Masked Ball in Fort Lauderdale is very sedate.)  Using an obvious take on the Last Supper for its official poster was probably a mistake, since it did not do much but give ammunition to the enemy.  And even I was surprised to learn that the Fair has no age restrictions at the gates, though Fair volunteers “do inform attendees of the adult oriented nature of our events.”

On the other hand, nobody is forcing Peter LaBarbera and his friends to attend the Folsom Street Fair, though it seems that LaBarbera had a good time while he was there.  Those who attended the Fair – and there were around 400,000 of them – knew what they were getting into and were willing to pay good money to get into it.  They also raised $350,000 for local charities and contributed millions to San Francisco’s economy.

San Francisco is proud of its liberal political climate, which is why many people hate it.  And the crusade against the Folsom Street Fair is, to a large extent, a campaign against “San Francisco values,” which Street Fair President Cooper (like Speaker Pelosi before him) called “values of community, diversity, education, and freedom of self expression.”  The religious right hates San Francisco for espousing those values.   We only wish that the rest of the USA was more like “the City by the Bay.”

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance author and gay activist who enjoyed his all-too brief visits to San Francisco and looks forward to his next visit.  Write him a note at jessemonteagudo@aol.com

Jesse's Journal - Sex and the Daytona Beach 9

Jesse’s Journal

by Jesse Monteagudo

Sex and the Daytona Beach 9

Male homosexual activity in public bathrooms, for decades a fact of Gay life, became big news in 2007, thanks to the misadventures of conservative politicos like U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Florida State Representative Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island) and the (mostly unfounded) complaints of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle. Now come the “Daytona Beach 9;” nine men who were arrested for lewd behavior during a sex sting operation at a Sears Department Store bathroom in Daytona Beach Nov. 1. 

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, the accused include “a former Daytona Beach city commissioner and a local high school teacher” who promptly resigned from his job. “The reason that we did this sting is we all go to the mall; our kids go into the bathroom,” said Police Chief Mike Chitwood, who could hardly contain his disgust. “That they could be susceptible to this type of behavior is absolutely a disgrace.”  (Please note that I refuse to name the Daytona Beach 9. In my opinion, these men have suffered enough already.)

Public sex, especially sex in public toilets or “tearooms,” has always been controversial, even within our GLBT community. Almost without exception, bathroom sex is male masturbatory or male homosexual, proof perhaps of the male’s greater sex drive. (It is not my intent, in writing this article, to condone bathroom sex. In fact, due to its health, safety and legal hazards, I do not recommend it.) There are many reasons why a man would want to have sex in a public restroom. For some men, bathroom sex is a step in the coming out process; a relatively easy way for them to discover the joys of male love before moving on to Gay social networks, commercial institutions, or even a life partner. For other men, tearoom trade is their main or only form of sexual expression. Many of these are repressed “closet cases;” men who can not or will not accept their homo- or Bisexuality. For them, a quickie in a toilet satisfies their sexual needs but does not require them to be publicly “branded” as queer, which would be the case if they went to a Gay bar, sex club, community center, church, etc. This was apparently the case with Sen. Craig, Rep. Allen, and at least some of the “Daytona Beach 9.”

What makes a public bathroom a hotspot for tearoom sex? Though opinions differ, a bathroom’s location often makes it a favored place for sexual activity. College campuses are ideal tearoom locations, if only because colleges are full of testosterone-charged young men who still question their sexuality. Public parks are also popular (ask George Michael) as well as libraries and department stores (like the Sears in Daytona Beach). Once a place gets a “reputation” there is no telling what might happen. A good example is a Home Depot store in Oakland Park, Florida, which in its heyday was notorious for its men’s room activity. How did that Home Depot become so cruisy?  Certainly the store’s butch image attracted a certain type of Gay man. Perhaps two guys hit it off at the paint section, went off to do their business in the bathroom, and then told their friends. And the rest is history.

Male homosexual activity, especially in public places, threatens a lot of people, which is why the media have a field day with sex stings like the recent one in Daytona Beach. The Daytona Beach News-Journal's excited coverage of the Nov. 1 arrests is a case in point. The day after the arrests were made the paper (and its Web site) published an article (“Ex Daytona commissioner, teacher charged in sex sting”) which not only published the names, ages and professions of the accused but also their mug shots. The next day the News-Journal ran a second article (“Mall bathroom sex sting spotlights subculture”) that tried to analyze “a subculture in which adult men meet for sex in restrooms designated online as hot spots, almost in plain view of unsuspecting patrons.” In fact, the only explanation of this “subculture” came from police Sgt. Jeff Hoffman, who talked about “coughing, grunting, sharp zipper noises, ... tapping on shoes” and other “signals” used by men to attract sex partners. Though the accused limited their sexual activities to masturbation, they were nevertheless arrested “because a bathroom stall doesn’t completely conceal a person” and, thus, “he has no expectation of privacy, making any sexual behavior unlawful.”

As if that was not enough, the paper followed this tidbit with a third article (“Activists say arrests a setback for Gay community”) that claimed that “the entire local Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community is going to have a harder time than ever gaining equality and convincing people that only a tiny fraction among them is interested in sex with strangers in public places.” That’s a lot of responsibility to be placed on the shoulders of nine formerly closeted men. Not surprisingly, the News-Journal’s coverage of the arrests “generated more than 120,000 page views and hundreds of comments on the News-Journal’s Web site Friday. That’s more traffic than the entire site gets on a normal day.” Needless to say, most of the comments were even worse than the cops’.

The media justify their lurid reports by protesting that bathroom sex threatens the well-being of “innocent”  bystanders, especially children. Leaving aside the question of whether or not witnessing sexual activity is more traumatic than watching a traffic pileup or a Fort Lauderdale City Commission hearing, the fact remains that an unsuspecting child is more likely to be hit by a bolt of lightning or win the lottery than run into sexual activity in a public john (unless he’s looking for it). As any vice cop could tell you, catching men having sex in restrooms is difficult, which is why they often have to resort to entrapment or other extralegal subterfuges. A sting operation like the one in Daytona Beach is newsworthy because it is so unusual.

The media will also deny that they are conducting a witch-hunt against gay or bisexual men. But a witch-hunt it is, and many of our brothers have paid the price for it. Thirty years ago, reporters used hidden cameras to catch men who gathered in gay bars. Today, the media use similar tactics to catch men having sex in public parks or public bathrooms. In fact, today’s accused have it even worse, for they are branded for life thanks to sex offender laws and the Internet. One does not have to condone public sex to agree that media coverage of sex sting operations is often sleazier than any crimes that the stings seek to prevent.  We can feel sorry for the accused, which is why we agree with the Rev. Beau McDaniels of Hope Metropolitan Community Church, who “said she can understand why some local Gay and Bisexual people go underground. It’s a conservative area where people’s sexual preferences can ruin their careers, she said.”

“If people would learn to accept people as God accepts them, we wouldn’t have this issue,” Rev. McDaniels said. “When you’re told it’s wrong and bad, you hide. This will drive us deeper underground.”

I welcome your comments. You may reach me by e-mail at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

Jesse's Journal - Gay Heroes

Jesse’s Journal

by Jesse Monteagudo

Gay Heroes

What is a hero?  According to the “Illustrated Oxford Dictionary” (revised and updated), a hero is “1. A person noted or admired for nobility, courage, outstanding achievements, etc.”  In Greek antiquity, a hero was a “man of superhuman qualities, favored by the gods; a demigod” such as Herakles or Achilles.  Modern culture is full of men and women who have unique powers that they use for the common goods, whether in comic books or movies or the television series “Heroes.”  Not as powerful but equally as memorable are those real-life individuals who became heroes by leading a worthy cause, as did Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa or Aung San Suu Kyi [image at right].

Like everyone else, the Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is always searching for heroes who would lead us in the fight for freedom and equality. Recently the Advocate celebrated its 40th anniversary by compiling a list of 40 GLBT heroes. It asked its readers to go online (advocate.com) and vote from a prepared list, along with a line for write-in candidates. 

Not surprisingly, the resulting “top 40" list, as published in the September 25th issue, favored celebrities over activists.  Though I have no problem with Ellen Degeneres being # 1 -- she did, after all, put her job on the line by coming out on TV – the absence of Virginia Apuzzo, Samuel Delany, Barbara Grier, Marsha Johnson, Jim Kepner, Franklin Kameny, Morris Kight, Paul Monette, Joan Nestle, Jack Nichols, Jean O’Leary, John Preston, Sylvia Rivera, Marty Robinson, Craig Rodwell, Eric Rofes, Vito Russo, José Sarria, Nadine Smith or others like them is appalling.  (Barbara Gittings made it, but barely, at # 40.)   On the other hand, celebs Billie Jean King and Elton John, who had to be dragged out of their closets kicking and screaming, scored high in the Advocate’s list (at # 6 and # 8, respectively).

To many people, just being openly queer in a homophobic society is an heroic act.  One activist who agrees with that statement is Scott Hall, who told an interviewer that “It takes courage to live an openly Gay lifestyle. . . . I applaud the people who can do that.”  But coming out often comes with a price, and many of our brothers and sisters have sadly paid the ultimate price just for being themselves.  The fact that these men and women are all-too often forgotten moved Hall, himself a victim of anti-gay violence, to create the group Gay American Heroes (GayAmericanHeroes.com).  The purpose of Gay American Heroes is “to honor and remember LGBT victims of hate crimes. . . To engage and inform the public about hate crimes against LGBT persons [and] . . . To inspire compassion and greater appreciation and acceptance of diversity.”

 

Gay American Heroes tries to preserve the memory of hate crime victims by creating a “traveling multi-dimensional memorial that will be displayed at college campuses, gay pride events and communities across the USA to honor LGBT persons, who have been murdered as the result of hate crimes based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.”  Though one would argue that these “heroes” did nothing heroic – they were just passive victims – it is good that something like this exists that would preserve their memory - and hopefully prevent future hate crimes.

Even before Stonewall, GLBT people have searched for a “gay Martin Luther King, Jr., one” who would unite and lead our often disparate communities.  But as Nadine Smith of Equality Florida – herself a hero of our community – famously said, what our community needs is not one Martin Luther King, Jr. but a thousand Rosa Parks; women and men who do not flee injustice but use it as a catalyst in their lives.  Two Gay men who did just that are Waymon Hudson and Anthony Niedwiecki.  The two life partners were energized into heroic action when they heard an anti-Gay message coming over the P.A. system at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.

 

Though Hudson and Niedwiecki were surely not the only GLBT people at the Airport at that time, they were the only ones who did something about this outrage.  Risking ridicule (or worse) from the press and the public, the men contacted Airport authorities, the media, and openly Gay Broward County Commissioner Ken Keechl.  Eventually, Hudson and Niedwiecki received an apology from the County and the Airport; and the offending individual was fired from his job.  Since then, the two have has remained active in South Florida GLBT politics, creating the group Fight OUT Loud as “a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping GLBT individuals and their allies fight discrimination and hate.”  If Waymon Hudson and Anthony Niedwiecki are not gay heroes, none of us are.

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and Gay geek who may not be a hero but tries to do his best, one day at a time.  Write him at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.

Halloween: the Great Gay Holiday

Jesse’s Journal

by Jesse Monteagudo

"Halloween: The Great Gay Holiday"

October is an important month in our Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and transgender calendar. October is GLBT History Month, a month devoted to dis-covering and celebrating our past. On October 11, we observe "Coming Out Day", a day in which we "take the next step" in our ongoing, coming-out process. But while both GLBT History Month and Coming Out Day are of recent origin, this month’s most popular queer holiday predates recorded history and captures the essence of sex and gender variance to a much greater degree than do the activist holidays. Just open the pages of any queer paper during the first weeks of November and you will see what our communities were doing on October 31^st. In the words of the Lesbian poet and scholar Judy Grahn, Halloween is "the great gay holiday".

I love Halloween. All through my life, October 31 has always been a special day, though now I don’t go out as much as I used to. I certainly enjoy writing about it, though, and I try to write a Halloween article every few years. Once thought to be a children’s holiday, Halloween (actually Hallowe’en, but I prefer to use the more common spelling) is now almost as popular with adults. According to Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, "Halloween at the end of the millennium has become a major party night for adults, arguably the most important after New Year’s Eve. . . . [T]he amount of money spent on Halloween has more than doubled in the last decade, making it the second retail bonanza after Christmas."

Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is a corruption of All Hallows Eve, which is observed the night before All Saints Day (All Hallows Day). Like other Christian holy days, Halloween was adapted from a pagan holy day, in this case the Celtic feast of Samhain (pronounced sow-end). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Samhain "was the eve of the new [Celtic] year . . . and was the occasion for one of the ancient fire festivals when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits." On Samhain, the Celts believed, the spirit world and the mortal realm come into close contact and spirits can slip out of their domain in order to visit us. Today, followers of the Craft or Wicca (witches) still observe Samhain as the greatest of their eight seasonal sabats. Rich Wandel, an openly Gay high priest of Wicca, told the authors of The Gay Almanac that "Samhain . . . is a time of connection to those who have gone before us and will return again. It is my favorite ritual, and is one we never let the students lead. We do it ourselves, because it is important, particularly in terms of the many friends that all of us in our communities have lost."

Though the Protestant reformers tried to suppress All Hallows Day observances as being both pagan and papist, Halloween emerged as a secular holiday during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. And while Halloween is enjoyed by everyone, "it has been the Gay community," Rogers tells us, "that has most flamboyantly exploited Halloween’s potential as a transgressive festival, as one that operates outside or on the margins of orthodox time, space, and hierarchy. Indeed, it is the Gay community that has been arguably most responsible for Halloween’s adult rejuvenation." What William Stewart, writing about Halloween in Cassell’s Queer Companion, called "the Gay festival par excellence," has been observed by our people long before there were Pride Days or Coming Out Days; Southern Decadence or Wigstock; bear busts, circuit parties, leather runs, nudist gatherings or womyn’s music festivals. Long before there was Disney, Halloween was and is the original Gay Day.

In Another Mother Tongue, her cultural history of our peoples, Judy Grahn wrote about Halloween and its significance to us. Halloween, Grahn wrote, is a special holiday for GLBT people, who in many societies served as priests, witches, shamans, healers and intermediaries between the mortal and spirit worlds. The ancient Celts tried to ward off the Samhain spirits by offering them gifts or scaring them away with jack-o-lanterns. Others dressed up in fantastic costumes to impersonate and confuse the wandering spirits: As Grahn put it, "impersonating a spirit is the only safe way to travel outdoors on Halloween. And who could better imitate spirits than the Gay people whose traditional priestly role required just such intercourse with the spirit world? . . . The qualities of impersonation," Grahn concluded, "and the dangerous business of crossing over from one world to another help explain why Halloween is the most significant Gay holiday."

According to William Stewart, "Hallowe’en has always been a time of year when the Gay communities experienced greater freedoms. . . . Even in the 1940s and 1950s when police harassment of Gay bars was at its height, Hallowe’en was the one fairy-tale evening when the drag queens could come out with impunity." In Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965, historian Nan Alamilla Boyd wrote about Halloween parties that were held at the Beige Room and other San Francisco bars back in the fifties, which "included not simply a drag ball and a ‘parade of queens’ but the selection of the best dressed participant." In New York City, Rogers wrote, by the mid-1970s "Gay promenades had become a constituent feature of the Greenwich Village Halloween celebrations. Beginning in 1974 as a countercultural event for the Village arts community, this annual parade, with its puppets, floats, and revelers, has become a fixture in Gotham’s calendar." Key West’s Fantasy Fest is just one of many events that evolved from the local Gay population’s’ Halloween celebrations.

Halloween's appeal to the Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities goes beyond that holiday’s historical or spiritual connotations. I believe that it has a lot to do with our role as outsiders in society; our propensity for cross-dressing and gender-bending; our love for the unusual and the fantastic; our ability to find humor in the absurdities and misfortunes of life; our fascination with festive costumes and the world of make-believe; and our special capacity to have fun. While others might treat Halloween as mainly a kid's day, LesBiGay and Trans people observe and cherish it as a day in which we can do away with dull, ordinary, dumb reality and be our fun, exotic, erotic selves.

All of us have Halloween stories to share; some good and some bad but all of them fabulous. To me, Halloween is a time to be myself, to let loose, to wear an outrageous costume (or nothing at all), to stay out late, to get drunk (but not to drive drunk), and forget about my individual and communal problems in the company of like-minded souls. So whatever you do on this very special, and very Gay night, remember to be careful, to play safe, and to enjoy yourselves. After a few thousand years, we should be able to do it right.

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and Gay activist who lives in South Florida with his life partner and many friends. Share your Halloween tales with him at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.