Monday, September 30, 2013
Comments from the Web
Dear Editor,
In honor of National Coming Out Day (October 11, 2010), we at Affirmations would like to take a moment to reflect on the continuous benefits to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT) brought about since Michigan’s recently passed smoke free law has been implemented.
During the coming out process, many people seek to connect with the LGBT community for support, encouragement, networking and socializing. It is wonderful for the LGBT community to now socialize and connect at bars and restaurants in Michigan without facing the dangers of second hand smoke.
Historically, statistics have shown that the LGBT community is 50% more likely to start and/or continue smoking compared to its straight counterpart. We are hopeful …
Read More
In honor of National Coming Out Day (October 11, 2010), we at Affirmations would like to take a moment to reflect on the continuous benefits to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT) brought about since Michigan’s recently passed smoke free law has been implemented.
During the coming out process, many people seek to connect with the LGBT community for support, encouragement, networking and socializing. It is wonderful for the LGBT community to now socialize and connect at bars and restaurants in Michigan without facing the dangers of second hand smoke.
Historically, statistics have shown that the LGBT community is 50% more likely to start and/or continue smoking compared to its straight counterpart. We are hopeful …
Read More
Life Beyond Therapy
Is Monogamy outdated?
In this age of almost-legal GLBT marriage, many of my coupled clients are examining traditional heterosexual marriage-based relationships and finding them lacking. Other people, however, think that the idea of “emotional monogamy and sexual non-monogamy” is just a cop-out, a way to rationalize not being faithful to your partner.
While this is a controversial issue, it’s a great opportunity for us GLBTers to be social pioneers and make our own way. We can critically analyze what heterosexist society has pushed on us for the past two hundred years or so. For many of us, the model of a traditional monogamous “marriage” isn’t a good fit, no matter how many movies or TV shows tell us that a “faithful” marriage is…
Read More
In this age of almost-legal GLBT marriage, many of my coupled clients are examining traditional heterosexual marriage-based relationships and finding them lacking. Other people, however, think that the idea of “emotional monogamy and sexual non-monogamy” is just a cop-out, a way to rationalize not being faithful to your partner.
While this is a controversial issue, it’s a great opportunity for us GLBTers to be social pioneers and make our own way. We can critically analyze what heterosexist society has pushed on us for the past two hundred years or so. For many of us, the model of a traditional monogamous “marriage” isn’t a good fit, no matter how many movies or TV shows tell us that a “faithful” marriage is…
Read More
Change Is Good: Taking time to emphasize the positive doesn't mean turning a blind eye to the world's woes
Opinion:
My Facebook identity needs a change. For weeks, my profile photo has been the Trayvon Martin stylized black-and-white hoodie. My cover photo is Evgeny Feldman's Associated Press photo of activists in Moscow holding a rainbow banner that reads "Homophobia Is the Religion of Bullies."
I chose the Martin profile picture because as a high school kid in Florida, driving home from work one night, I was trailed by a police officer. All I knew was headlights were following me, and I tried to evade them. There easily could've been an accident as I careened around corners with what I guessed to be some fag-bashing guys from the football team in hot pursuit. After a mile or so, the officer finally turned on his flashing lights. I immediately pulled over, of course. Lucky for both of us no harm had been done, though I certainly would've gotten the blame had there been. I learned then that if you're going to trail someone, you're surely responsible for whatever happens next.
The Moscow protest photo stands as a reminder that LGBT people in Russia are fighting for not just their basic human rights, but their lives. Russia may not be following the lead of Iran and others in executing gays, but authorities have certainly fostered an environment that's made it open season on us.
And now there are fresh wounds on both fronts. Dr. Shiping Bao, the medical examiner who handled Martin's body, last week claimed -- after being fired -- that prosecutors were biased against Martin. Meanwhile, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is reporting that another savage attack on a gay man in Russia may have occurred.
Despite my reluctance to let these images go, I'm moving on in a sense. It's a lesson I learned growing up in the Catholic Church. If I'm faced daily with a disturbing or gruesome image -- in this case, the ever-present death-by-torture Crucifixion -- it becomes impotent. At some point I stopped associating the Crucifixion with a horrific execution, but with weddings, funerals and sleep-inducing sermons.
I certainly don't want to play a part in desensitizing people to the story of Trayvon Martin or to the oppression of the LGBT community in Russia.
Changing out a couple Facebook photos doesn't mean I'm not still thinking about both, of course. Note to Mr. Putin and others: It doesn't mean I'm forgetting. The images, and images like them will come back. I'll always be wearing a hoodie, in a sense, always holding a candle for my peers in Russia – and Saudi Arabia and Uganda and Cleveland – and acting accordingly.
While not forgetting, though, I also have a responsibility to put joy in my life when I can, to not let myself be mired in the masochistic pleasure of never acknowledging the good. The activist who refuses to ever let down her righteousness is little better than the complacent citizen who refuses to ever open his eyes.
The world is full of the horrific. Washington offered plenty of proof of that Monday. Any day of the week, however, we will see homelessness, will hear of another violent attack. There is no shortage of misery and cruelty wherever we look. But there is also no shortage of joy and beauty. For the sake of my own balance, I need to hunt for a bit more of the latter. It's important to me that I declare, however, that I've not forgotten Martin and Russia.
A Gandhi quote comes to mind: "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
And losing one's faith in humanity would be an even greater shame than turning one's back on injustice.
Will O'Bryan is Metro Weekly's managing editor. Email him at wobryan@MetroWeekly.com, or follow him on Twitter @wobryan. ...more
My Facebook identity needs a change. For weeks, my profile photo has been the Trayvon Martin stylized black-and-white hoodie. My cover photo is Evgeny Feldman's Associated Press photo of activists in Moscow holding a rainbow banner that reads "Homophobia Is the Religion of Bullies."
I chose the Martin profile picture because as a high school kid in Florida, driving home from work one night, I was trailed by a police officer. All I knew was headlights were following me, and I tried to evade them. There easily could've been an accident as I careened around corners with what I guessed to be some fag-bashing guys from the football team in hot pursuit. After a mile or so, the officer finally turned on his flashing lights. I immediately pulled over, of course. Lucky for both of us no harm had been done, though I certainly would've gotten the blame had there been. I learned then that if you're going to trail someone, you're surely responsible for whatever happens next.
The Moscow protest photo stands as a reminder that LGBT people in Russia are fighting for not just their basic human rights, but their lives. Russia may not be following the lead of Iran and others in executing gays, but authorities have certainly fostered an environment that's made it open season on us.
And now there are fresh wounds on both fronts. Dr. Shiping Bao, the medical examiner who handled Martin's body, last week claimed -- after being fired -- that prosecutors were biased against Martin. Meanwhile, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is reporting that another savage attack on a gay man in Russia may have occurred.
Despite my reluctance to let these images go, I'm moving on in a sense. It's a lesson I learned growing up in the Catholic Church. If I'm faced daily with a disturbing or gruesome image -- in this case, the ever-present death-by-torture Crucifixion -- it becomes impotent. At some point I stopped associating the Crucifixion with a horrific execution, but with weddings, funerals and sleep-inducing sermons.
I certainly don't want to play a part in desensitizing people to the story of Trayvon Martin or to the oppression of the LGBT community in Russia.
Changing out a couple Facebook photos doesn't mean I'm not still thinking about both, of course. Note to Mr. Putin and others: It doesn't mean I'm forgetting. The images, and images like them will come back. I'll always be wearing a hoodie, in a sense, always holding a candle for my peers in Russia – and Saudi Arabia and Uganda and Cleveland – and acting accordingly.
While not forgetting, though, I also have a responsibility to put joy in my life when I can, to not let myself be mired in the masochistic pleasure of never acknowledging the good. The activist who refuses to ever let down her righteousness is little better than the complacent citizen who refuses to ever open his eyes.
The world is full of the horrific. Washington offered plenty of proof of that Monday. Any day of the week, however, we will see homelessness, will hear of another violent attack. There is no shortage of misery and cruelty wherever we look. But there is also no shortage of joy and beauty. For the sake of my own balance, I need to hunt for a bit more of the latter. It's important to me that I declare, however, that I've not forgotten Martin and Russia.
A Gandhi quote comes to mind: "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
And losing one's faith in humanity would be an even greater shame than turning one's back on injustice.
Will O'Bryan is Metro Weekly's managing editor. Email him at wobryan@MetroWeekly.com, or follow him on Twitter @wobryan. ...more
(25) The Pope Show & Debbie Gibson
The Pope reps in NYC, The Pope-mobile, Pope apologies, The Pope on Evil Eve, The Pope, Pope and more Pope ….
Gambia President Calls Gays One of the 'Biggest Threats to Human Existence'
President Yahya Jammeh said gays and lesbians were 'more deadly than all natural disasters put together' in a United Nations address.
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Sunday, September 29, 2013
ADOPT ME! Take Consuela home!
Consuela is a tan Chihuahua weighing 7.8 pounds. She is 3 years old and has been spayed.
Why I'd make a great companion
Consuela is adorable! Take her home!
read more
Why I'd make a great companion
Consuela is adorable! Take her home!
read more
MTV, NYSE, and Times Square go purple for 'Spirit Day'
NEW YORK, NY - MTV talent including Ke$ha, Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi and Jenni 'JWOWW' Farley from 'Snooki and JWOWW,' and Nev Schulman and Max Joseph from 'Catfish: The TV Show'; trans athlete and advocate Kye Allums; openly gay basketball player Jason Collins; the cast of TeenNick's 'Degrassi'; celebrity radio host Elvis Duran; WNBA player Brittney Griner; 12 year-old transgender advocate and star of 'I am Jazz: A family in transition' Jazz; Archie Comics' Kevin Keller; Extra Host Maria Menounos; country music artist Kacey Musgraves; and Spanish-language talk show host Cristina Saralegui will join GLAAD, hundreds of corporations, national landmarks, schools, local communities and millions of Americans in wearing purple and 'going purple' online for Spirit Day on October 17, 2013, in a stand against bullying and to show their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender LGBT youth. Celebrity participants announced today will serve as Spirit Day Ambassadors for the 2013 campaign, helping to bring Spirit Day and positive messages of support to LGBT youth everywhere.
One Direction Gay Ad for Nintendo
Those One Direction guys are so metro-sexual with their tactile hugging and playfulness. They are toally surrounded by those One Direction Gay rumours. Irrespective of that, just like JLS they have an advertising deal with Nintendo! The only trouble with this is, they haven't released any music yet. The same thing happened with JEdward - thankGod they didn't release any music.
Getting an ad deal with Nintendo is really basically because they are famous for being an X-Factor contestant and of course for being cute, popular..... They are also at the top of their career (to date) and may have signed up for peanuts. JEdward allegedly earned �3 in their first year from PAs and advertising deals.
Anyway they are definitely getting cuter since they appeared on the X-factor?
Do you think One Direction deserve an ad deal with Nintendo?
Do you think One Direction are getting cuter?
Comments please
Gay newsView Australian Queer News on the web at Gay News Blog
Getting an ad deal with Nintendo is really basically because they are famous for being an X-Factor contestant and of course for being cute, popular..... They are also at the top of their career (to date) and may have signed up for peanuts. JEdward allegedly earned �3 in their first year from PAs and advertising deals.
Anyway they are definitely getting cuter since they appeared on the X-factor?
Do you think One Direction deserve an ad deal with Nintendo?
Do you think One Direction are getting cuter?
Comments please
Gay newsView Australian Queer News on the web at Gay News Blog
Sec. of State Kerry speaks at UN LGBT event
Remarks by Secretary of State John Kerry at the LGBT Ministerial Event, Sept. 26, 2013, New York, New York
Do you really *want* to know how you are bad in bed?
My ex girlfriend and I are back together again and things are better this time. Except for the sex. The reason we previously broke up is that my not wanting to be touched (PTSD, Child Abuse) was unfair to her. I was more than happy to do all the work in bed but she insisted that she actually wanted to touch me and it was bothering her that I didn't want her to. The problem is that now that I actually want to be touched in sex she isn't that good. And I'm not sure how to tell her that without hurting her. She has asked me over text and I told her it is a topic to have in person outside of bed and we made a date to do that this week.
While she has slept with a lot more women than I have she defaults to thinking that my body should work the same way hers does. That because we have the same parts that they like to be touched the same way. I've told her how I would like to be touched in bed. I've told her my fantasies. I've shown her how I like to touch myself.
She just doesn't get it. She tells me that she has a short attention span and that it is my job to remind her over and over again how I like it. Is this fair? It kind of makes me feel like crap that my lover can't be bothered to remember how I actually like it.
I'm afraid that she thinks that because in the past I didn't like to be touched that she never has to do anything that pleases me. Her not remembering how I like to be touched makes me feel that she actually doesn't find me attractive and is only with me because of what I can do to her in bed. I've asked her this and she's stated that it isn't the case and that it is just that she forgets and that I just need to train her how to touch me.
I am not sure if I am upset over nothing and that "training" her how I like it in bed is something that is my responsibility in bed. I'm not sure if I'm being fair to her in being irritated that she can't remember and that she laughs off her short attention span. I haven't had much experience in healthy sexual relationships.
To be fair: We communicate on all other issues wonderfully. I really do care about her and know that she cares about me. I have no problem lowering the amount of sex we have to her preference. We both are great at calling each other on our shit and taking it without resentment. We both are great at compromising and I feel really emotionally connected to her and she has stated the same to me. Our emotional and mental connection has never been the problem.
May be a reason as well: I have had to explain to her that vaginas aren't actually perfectly straight. That there is a G-spot in some women. That orgasms don't always look like what they are in movies (non-porn). That some women can orgasm from penetration and some can't. She is ex-Mormon. She has several learning disabilities surrounding education (Just throwing out all ideas no matter how ridiculous) but has been tested for ADHD and that proved to be moot.
While she has slept with a lot more women than I have she defaults to thinking that my body should work the same way hers does. That because we have the same parts that they like to be touched the same way. I've told her how I would like to be touched in bed. I've told her my fantasies. I've shown her how I like to touch myself.
She just doesn't get it. She tells me that she has a short attention span and that it is my job to remind her over and over again how I like it. Is this fair? It kind of makes me feel like crap that my lover can't be bothered to remember how I actually like it.
I'm afraid that she thinks that because in the past I didn't like to be touched that she never has to do anything that pleases me. Her not remembering how I like to be touched makes me feel that she actually doesn't find me attractive and is only with me because of what I can do to her in bed. I've asked her this and she's stated that it isn't the case and that it is just that she forgets and that I just need to train her how to touch me.
I am not sure if I am upset over nothing and that "training" her how I like it in bed is something that is my responsibility in bed. I'm not sure if I'm being fair to her in being irritated that she can't remember and that she laughs off her short attention span. I haven't had much experience in healthy sexual relationships.
To be fair: We communicate on all other issues wonderfully. I really do care about her and know that she cares about me. I have no problem lowering the amount of sex we have to her preference. We both are great at calling each other on our shit and taking it without resentment. We both are great at compromising and I feel really emotionally connected to her and she has stated the same to me. Our emotional and mental connection has never been the problem.
May be a reason as well: I have had to explain to her that vaginas aren't actually perfectly straight. That there is a G-spot in some women. That orgasms don't always look like what they are in movies (non-porn). That some women can orgasm from penetration and some can't. She is ex-Mormon. She has several learning disabilities surrounding education (Just throwing out all ideas no matter how ridiculous) but has been tested for ADHD and that proved to be moot.
Wanda Alston House Marks Five Years: D.C.'s only dedicated space for homeless LGBT youth reorganizes with new foundation
News:
Advocates for at-risk LGBT youth will host a reception Oct. 8 to celebrate the formation of the Wanda Alston Foundation and the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Wanda Alston House, the District's sole housing program specifically geared to providing support services to homeless or at-risk LGBT or questioning youth. The namesake Wanda Alston, first director of the Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs, was killed in 2005.
Since opening, the Wanda Alston House has helped more than 40 youths find permanent housing. The facility houses eight beds, which, advocates note, are the only eight in the entire city dedicated to LGBT youth. This lack of dedicated accommodation for homeless LGBT youth led The DC Center, Washington's LGBT community center, to circulate a petition calling on the D.C. Council to allot more beds for LGBT homeless youth.
The Wanda Alston Foundation was founded this year to help shore up the financial stability of the Wanda Alston House. While the foundation's tax-status application is under review, its fiscal agent is the LGBT community and services center Casa Ruby, and it receives some D.C. government funding.
The foundation has recently formed a nine-person board of directors and elected officers, with Christopher Dyer, director of the Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs during the Adrian Fenty administration, serving as president. Kevin Brunell, a local LGBT business owner, will serve as vice president; Xion Lopez, a former Wanda Alston House resident, will serve as secretary; and Kurt Vonderan, a local LGBT activist, will serve as treasurer. Brian Watson, formerly of Transgender Health Empowerment, which opened the Wanda Alston House, will serve as Wanda Alston House executive director.
David Mariner, director of The DC Center, which is hosting the celebratory happy hour for the house and the foundation, congratulated all involved.
''They are having an exciting new beginning, and we are happy to do whatever we can to support them,'' he said.
The Wanda Alston House Celebration and Foundation Kick-Off Reception will be held at Mova Lounge, 2204 14th St. NW, on Tuesday, Oct. 8, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tickets cost $10 each and may be purchased online at thedcenter.org. Donations may also be made directly to wandaalstonhouse.org.
...more
Advocates for at-risk LGBT youth will host a reception Oct. 8 to celebrate the formation of the Wanda Alston Foundation and the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Wanda Alston House, the District's sole housing program specifically geared to providing support services to homeless or at-risk LGBT or questioning youth. The namesake Wanda Alston, first director of the Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs, was killed in 2005.
Since opening, the Wanda Alston House has helped more than 40 youths find permanent housing. The facility houses eight beds, which, advocates note, are the only eight in the entire city dedicated to LGBT youth. This lack of dedicated accommodation for homeless LGBT youth led The DC Center, Washington's LGBT community center, to circulate a petition calling on the D.C. Council to allot more beds for LGBT homeless youth.
The Wanda Alston Foundation was founded this year to help shore up the financial stability of the Wanda Alston House. While the foundation's tax-status application is under review, its fiscal agent is the LGBT community and services center Casa Ruby, and it receives some D.C. government funding.
The foundation has recently formed a nine-person board of directors and elected officers, with Christopher Dyer, director of the Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs during the Adrian Fenty administration, serving as president. Kevin Brunell, a local LGBT business owner, will serve as vice president; Xion Lopez, a former Wanda Alston House resident, will serve as secretary; and Kurt Vonderan, a local LGBT activist, will serve as treasurer. Brian Watson, formerly of Transgender Health Empowerment, which opened the Wanda Alston House, will serve as Wanda Alston House executive director.
David Mariner, director of The DC Center, which is hosting the celebratory happy hour for the house and the foundation, congratulated all involved.
''They are having an exciting new beginning, and we are happy to do whatever we can to support them,'' he said.
The Wanda Alston House Celebration and Foundation Kick-Off Reception will be held at Mova Lounge, 2204 14th St. NW, on Tuesday, Oct. 8, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tickets cost $10 each and may be purchased online at thedcenter.org. Donations may also be made directly to wandaalstonhouse.org.
...more
HIDDEN HILLS Gay Comedy by Dan Steadman
Did you ever wonder what life in America would be like if LGBT
relationships were the norm? And if mixed race couples where the ONLY
acceptable matches? Well, that's the world of the new feature movie,
"Hidden Hills." It's a new 72-minute comedy from Circa 87 Productions
and Out Of The Closet Entertainment.
It's camp. It's fun. It's
funny. And it addresses the real live current issues of diversity,
acceptance, same-sex marriage, and the ability to be who you really are
-- but through fresh eyes and with a novel approach. The producers hope
to open the eyes and hearts of some, and to entertain everyone. It will premier live online October 11th, 2013. FREE. Please join us ONLINE at http://www.HiddenHillsTheMovie.com/
for the world premiere of "Hidden Hills." If you plan to attend this
event ONLINE, please accept our invitation for you to JOIN US at this
online event! Also, please invite all your friends
and family who you think might enjoy a romantic comedy that will
challenge their beliefs on issues like interracial marriage, ageism,
common body issue stereotypes, and GLBT issues, this feature
film will make them laugh and think. There is no nudity. No
violence. No bad language. So, why watch? We believe you'll be glad you
did. We also know your friends will think your amazing for having
recommended such an amazing film to them FOR FREE! Yep, no Netflix
account needed here.Follow Hidden Hills on Facebook!
relationships were the norm? And if mixed race couples where the ONLY
acceptable matches? Well, that's the world of the new feature movie,
"Hidden Hills." It's a new 72-minute comedy from Circa 87 Productions
and Out Of The Closet Entertainment.
It's camp. It's fun. It's
funny. And it addresses the real live current issues of diversity,
acceptance, same-sex marriage, and the ability to be who you really are
-- but through fresh eyes and with a novel approach. The producers hope
to open the eyes and hearts of some, and to entertain everyone. It will premier live online October 11th, 2013. FREE. Please join us ONLINE at http://www.HiddenHillsTheMovie.com/
for the world premiere of "Hidden Hills." If you plan to attend this
event ONLINE, please accept our invitation for you to JOIN US at this
online event! Also, please invite all your friends
and family who you think might enjoy a romantic comedy that will
challenge their beliefs on issues like interracial marriage, ageism,
common body issue stereotypes, and GLBT issues, this feature
film will make them laugh and think. There is no nudity. No
violence. No bad language. So, why watch? We believe you'll be glad you
did. We also know your friends will think your amazing for having
recommended such an amazing film to them FOR FREE! Yep, no Netflix
account needed here.Follow Hidden Hills on Facebook!
Just In Time For The Summer Wedding Season
Leave it to Saturday Night Live to come up with a fun way to spoof gay and lesbian weddings!As only they can do it: Xanax For Gay Weddings
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Lucy Jane Bledsoe Coming to the NW
Get excited bibliophiles! Lucy Jane Bledsoe is coming to Portland, Seattle and Bellingham soon. If you're a lesbian and don't know Lucy Jane Bledsoe, you've been living under a rock or your idea of reading is scanning your friend's Facebook updates. Lucy is a prophetic writer who's written some real jewels, including Biting the Apple (which is sitting to the left of where I'm typing right now).If you live in or near these fabulous NW towns, go check out Lucy and her new book: The Big Bang Symphony.Wednesday, June 16, 7 pmTHIRD PLACE BOOKS -- Ravenna store6504 20th Ave. NESeattle, WA 98115206-525-2347Thursday, June 17, 7:30 pmPOWELL'S BOOKS -- Hawthorne store3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.Portland, OR503-228-4651I love Powell's and I love Portland, my hometown. Come on out and say hi.Tuesday, June 22, 7:00 pmVILLAGE BOOKS1200 Eleventh StreetBellingham, WA 98225360-671-2626This reading with Carol Guess and Elizabeth Colen! Please come.
A View of Rome: Theater J actor Susan Rome is most often a mother -- except when she's a ''splosher''
Stage:
Remember John Waters's A Dirty Shame?
"I was the 'splosher,'" says Susan Rome, who played Messy Melinda. "I was the person who derived sexual satisfaction by splashing myself with messy stuff." It wasn't so sexy to her new husband, at least not when Rome would get home after a late-night shoot and have macaroni and cheese stuck in her ear. "My husband said, 'You look like Alice Cooper and you smell like a garbage dumpster," Rome laughs.
Among other film and TV roles, the Baltimore-based Rome repeatedly played DA Ilene Nathan on HBO's The Wire. But Rome is more often seen on area stages, and is currently appearing in a supporting role in Theater J's After The Revolution. Amy Herzog's play focuses on a political family struggling with the revelation that its patriarch wasn't the progressive hero he was mythologized to be. "I think it's really about disappointment," says Rome, who plays stepmother Mel Joseph, "and how families … deal with their disappointment with each other."
Susan Rome and Megan Anderson
(Photo by Stan Barouh)
Rome will appear in back-to-back plays at Theater J this season as the company's associate artist in residence. Next up she plays the lead role in Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros's The Argument. "I'm playing a woman who just does not want to be a mother," says Rome, who calls the character Sophie "an anti-mom," but one who happens to find herself pregnant. The role is a bit of a departure for Rome, who plays a stepmother in After The Revolution.
"I realized I've been a Jewish mother in every single play," Rome says about her 13 years of regular work with Theater J. "And I became a mother within that time, and becoming a mother definitely changed me as a person for sure, but it also had an impact on my acting."
"I don't know how I pretended to be a mother before I was one," she continues. "That love is terrifying. I think I had just scratched the surface in any previous portrayal I had done. What you're willing to do for your child is pretty serious." -- Doug Rule
After The Revolution runs to Oct. 6 at The Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater, Washington, D.C.'s Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets are $30 to $55. Call 202-518-9400 or visit washingtondcjcc.org. ...more
Remember John Waters's A Dirty Shame?
"I was the 'splosher,'" says Susan Rome, who played Messy Melinda. "I was the person who derived sexual satisfaction by splashing myself with messy stuff." It wasn't so sexy to her new husband, at least not when Rome would get home after a late-night shoot and have macaroni and cheese stuck in her ear. "My husband said, 'You look like Alice Cooper and you smell like a garbage dumpster," Rome laughs.
Among other film and TV roles, the Baltimore-based Rome repeatedly played DA Ilene Nathan on HBO's The Wire. But Rome is more often seen on area stages, and is currently appearing in a supporting role in Theater J's After The Revolution. Amy Herzog's play focuses on a political family struggling with the revelation that its patriarch wasn't the progressive hero he was mythologized to be. "I think it's really about disappointment," says Rome, who plays stepmother Mel Joseph, "and how families … deal with their disappointment with each other."
Susan Rome and Megan Anderson
(Photo by Stan Barouh)
Rome will appear in back-to-back plays at Theater J this season as the company's associate artist in residence. Next up she plays the lead role in Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros's The Argument. "I'm playing a woman who just does not want to be a mother," says Rome, who calls the character Sophie "an anti-mom," but one who happens to find herself pregnant. The role is a bit of a departure for Rome, who plays a stepmother in After The Revolution.
"I realized I've been a Jewish mother in every single play," Rome says about her 13 years of regular work with Theater J. "And I became a mother within that time, and becoming a mother definitely changed me as a person for sure, but it also had an impact on my acting."
"I don't know how I pretended to be a mother before I was one," she continues. "That love is terrifying. I think I had just scratched the surface in any previous portrayal I had done. What you're willing to do for your child is pretty serious." -- Doug Rule
After The Revolution runs to Oct. 6 at The Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater, Washington, D.C.'s Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets are $30 to $55. Call 202-518-9400 or visit washingtondcjcc.org. ...more
Exxon Mobil to Offer Benefits to Same-Sex Couples
The Exxon Mobil Corporation announced on Friday that it would extend health insurance and other benefits to married same-sex couples starting next month, an change of heart for the company that faced notable criticism for its treatment of gay and lesbian workers.
AIDS Walk, Run & Street Challenge plots new route, attractions
SAN DIEGO -- The 24th annual AIDS Walk & Run San Diego is scheduled for this Sunday, Sept. 29 with several changes in store. This year's event will feature a new route and added features, including the first-ever Street Challenge obstacle course.
The 24th annual AIDS Walk, Run & Street Challenge is this Sunday, and includes several new additions.
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The 24th annual AIDS Walk, Run & Street Challenge is this Sunday, and includes several new additions.
read more
Same-gender couples win day in court in Illinois
CHICAGO -- In another victory on the road to the freedom to marry for thousands of gay and lesbian couples and their families, Circuit Court of Cook County, Chancery Division today denied a motion to dismiss the two landmark cases seeking the freedom to marry for same-sex couples in Illinois, allowing plaintiffs' claims for violation of the fundamental right to marry, and for discrimination based on sexual orientation to go forward.
Judge refuses to dismiss marriage-equality cases in Illinois.
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Judge refuses to dismiss marriage-equality cases in Illinois.
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(14) Halloween Swinging! (1hr)
Questionable prank; Alix Olson?s, ?Cute For a Girl;? Lale complains about the prank, Some talk about swingers, Brit catches one of Tila Tequila’s TV suitors out at the local Halloween party, Loa sings ABBA and inhales second hand maryjane, Shelzy apparently wears too much costume at her local Halloween party
US judge: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ unconstitutional
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A federal judge said she will issue an order to halt the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, after she declared the ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ruled Thursday that the prohibition on openly gay service members was unconstitutional because it violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of gays and lesbians.
The policy doesn’t help military readiness and instead has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the armed services by hurting recruitment efforts during wartime and requiring the discharge of service members who have critical skills and training, she said.
The Log Cabin Republicans sued the federal government in…
Read More
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ruled Thursday that the prohibition on openly gay service members was unconstitutional because it violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of gays and lesbians.
The policy doesn’t help military readiness and instead has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the armed services by hurting recruitment efforts during wartime and requiring the discharge of service members who have critical skills and training, she said.
The Log Cabin Republicans sued the federal government in…
Read More
Friday, September 27, 2013
Gay Honeymoon Ideas
This past week New Mexico's three most populous counties - Bernalillo (home of Albuquerque), Dona Ana (Las Cruces), and Santa Fe - began issuing same-sex marriage licenses, effectively legalizing this act for just over a million of the state's 2.1 million residents. It's another big victory for gays and lesbians seeking the legal right to marry, as New Mexico joins 13 other states with full same-sex marriage laws. Six of these states (Washington, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Minnesota) have passed this law since last December, and several other states appear poised to legalize same-sex marriage in the next year or two, with Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, Nevada, and New Jersey among the most likely candidates....Read Full Post
Change Is Good: Taking time to emphasize the positive doesn't mean turning a blind eye to the world's woes
Opinion: My Facebook identity needs a change. For weeks, my profile photo has been the Trayvon Martin stylized black-and-white hoodie. My cover photo is Evgeny Feldman's Associated Press photo of activists in Moscow holding a rainbow banner that reads "Homophobia Is the Religion of Bullies." I chose the Martin profile picture because as a high school kid in Florida, driving home from work one night, I was trailed by a police officer. All I knew was headlights were following me, and I tried to evade them. There easily could've been an accident as I careened around corners with what I guessed to be some fag-bashing guys from the football team in hot pursuit. After a mile or so, the officer finally turned on his flashing lights. I immediately pulled over, of course. Lucky for both of us no harm had been done, though I certainly would've gotten the blame had there been. I learned then that if you're going to trail someone, you're surely responsible for whatever happens next. The Moscow protest photo stands as a reminder that LGBT people in Russia are fighting for not just their basic human rights, but their lives. Russia may not be following the lead of Iran and others in executing gays, but authorities have certainly fostered an environment that's made it open season on us. ... (more)
New Flower Service
As workmen begin installing the flowers for the Prince William and Catherine Middleton's Royal wedding, uur friends at The Garden Party Flower Service launched a new Flower Service today at http://www.thegardenparty.co.uk/ Head over and take a look.
Image by shannonpatrick17 via Flickr
View Australian Queer News on the web at Gay News Blog
Image by shannonpatrick17 via Flickr
View Australian Queer News on the web at Gay News Blog
(40) London Calling. Shoot Your TV!
She Calls to Say She Has Sense, Friends from http://www.DubiousInent.com Send Over a Fun Hello, Zeitgeists Addendum released 10/02/08 http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912&hl=en, Compulsive Sunflower Seed Overeater, Negative Television Hysteria, CNN Journalist Jill Abrams book The Myth, The Muse, The Meshuga http://www.myspace.com/jillabrams, Rachel from London discusses London Police, Heather Mills etc .
Christians Voice LGBT Support in NALT Project Video Series
To counter the assumption that all Christians are against LGBT rights, The NALT Christians Project shows videos in which Christians proclaim "We're not all like that!"
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Video of the day: Bloomberg Spanish
NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg held a presser a few minutes ago, and it was broadcast on major media. It was unremarkable at the outset, noting it's too late to evacuate at this point, to take precautions using candles, etc.
But then he decided to offer up a summary in Spanish. I want to give him props for trying, but it was so heinous that I burst out laughing. And I don't even speak Spanish. I can't imagine what that sounded like to native Spanish speakers.
This is one for the ages; it's at least nice to laugh during what's a pretty tough time to laugh with Irene barreling up the Northeast corridor.
Thanks @robrcb.
GLAAD's What To Watch on Thursday | VIDEO
(This post was originally published by SDGLN content partner GLAAD.)
GLAAD's LGBT-friendly TV picks for Thursday night.
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GLAAD's LGBT-friendly TV picks for Thursday night.
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Thursday, September 26, 2013
Reeling film fest hosts kickoff event at Sidetrack
Reeling, the second longest-running LGBT film festival in the world and a Chicago cultural institution for over 30 years, is back with another slate of movies that showcase not only diversity within the queer community but also diversity in the range of possibilities within film itself. The fest held a kick-off event Sept. 25 at Sidetrack bar, showing clips from some of the 2013 film selections.
Op-ed: 5 Questions to Ask Before Tying the Knot
Just because the federal government will recognize same-sex marriages doesn't make everything easier.
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Award winning singer/songwriter Nhojj returned home to celebrate SASOD's decade of LGBT activism in Guyana.
(06-20-13) --The Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), a human rights organization in Guyana welcomed 3x OUTMusic Award winner Nhojj to headline its 10 year anniversary concert and celebration dubbed -- SASOD at 10: Nhojj & Friends on Stage? on Friday, June 7, 2013, at the Sidewalk Caf� & Jazz Club in Georgetown.
(75) Prank Fails and Jive
Maybe we’ve outgrown the pranks, yeah? We tried over and over and over to get through one prank and failed every single time. Tune in and you’ll hear how pranks with potential go from bad to worse because of our inability to execute, as me and Nikki pretend to be a couple on the rocks. […]
Unbroken Circle & Tennessee William?s The Two Character Play - Hosting a LGBT night September 12th and 19th
TWO CHARACTER PLAY: SEPTEMBER 12th
Tony Award winner Amanda Plummer (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Agnes of
God, Pulp Fiction) and Academy Award nominee Brad Dourif (The voice of Chucky in the Child?s Play Series,
Lord of the Rings Trilogy, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,
Deadwood) unite their white-hot talents for this highly anticipated
production of Tennessee Williams? The Two-Character Play. Reality and
fantasy are interwoven with terrifying power as two actors on tour ?
brother and sister ? find themselves deserted by their troupe. Faced by
an audience expecting a performance, they enact The Two-Character Play. As they
dip in and out of performance they find it difficult to differentiate
themselves from their roles and reality from illusion. Haunting, provocative,
and often funny, The Two-Character Play is one of Tennessee Williams?
most personal ? and mystifying ? works. Now playing, for more info
go to www.thetwocharacterplay.com
Purchase a $40 ticket to Tennessee Williams? The Two-Character Play when you use code CPLGBT816 and receive admission to a
special post show LGBT Night reception.
Directly following the 8pm performance, join us for a complimentary
beverage at Lucky Cheng?s (240 West 52nd Street). This is a perfect
opportunity to see The Two-Character
Play and mingle with fellow theatre-goers.
UNBROKEN CIRCLE - SEPTEMBER 19th
UNBROKEN CIRCLE, written by James Wesley, is at turns hilarious and
deeply moving as it explores how family secrets affect every person in
each generation differently. The cast includes Stacey
Bone-Gleason and Broadway vets Jennifer Simard (25th
Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Shrek The Musical), Suzanna Hay (Dance of Death with
Ian McKellan and David Strathaim), Lori Hammel (Mamma
Mia!), and also stars Eve Plumb (?The Brady
Bunch?, Love Loss...) in a highly comedic yet ultimately
moving performance as the born-again Christian, Aunt June. Inspired by events
from his extended Texas family, playwright James Wesley stars
as the troubled Bobby alongside his real-life daughter Juli Wesley. UNBROKEN
CIRCLE is being produced by SiriusXM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky and Mary
J. Davis. ?The script makes all the right moves in Unbroken
Circle, a family drama with a whiff of ?August: Osage County?
raves NY Times. Now playing at St.Luke's Theatre. Visit UnbrokenCircleThePlay.com for
more information
Purchase a $35 ticket to UNBROKEN
CIRCLE when you use code UCLGBT35 and receive a drink ticket at Southern Hospitality (645 9th Ave at 45th Street) directly
following the 7pm performance. This is a perfect opportunity to see this hit Off-Broadway
Drama and mingle with fellow theatre-goers and members of the cast.
Tony Award winner Amanda Plummer (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Agnes of
God, Pulp Fiction) and Academy Award nominee Brad Dourif (The voice of Chucky in the Child?s Play Series,
Lord of the Rings Trilogy, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,
Deadwood) unite their white-hot talents for this highly anticipated
production of Tennessee Williams? The Two-Character Play. Reality and
fantasy are interwoven with terrifying power as two actors on tour ?
brother and sister ? find themselves deserted by their troupe. Faced by
an audience expecting a performance, they enact The Two-Character Play. As they
dip in and out of performance they find it difficult to differentiate
themselves from their roles and reality from illusion. Haunting, provocative,
and often funny, The Two-Character Play is one of Tennessee Williams?
most personal ? and mystifying ? works. Now playing, for more info
go to www.thetwocharacterplay.com
Purchase a $40 ticket to Tennessee Williams? The Two-Character Play when you use code CPLGBT816 and receive admission to a
special post show LGBT Night reception.
Directly following the 8pm performance, join us for a complimentary
beverage at Lucky Cheng?s (240 West 52nd Street). This is a perfect
opportunity to see The Two-Character
Play and mingle with fellow theatre-goers.
UNBROKEN CIRCLE - SEPTEMBER 19th
UNBROKEN CIRCLE, written by James Wesley, is at turns hilarious and
deeply moving as it explores how family secrets affect every person in
each generation differently. The cast includes Stacey
Bone-Gleason and Broadway vets Jennifer Simard (25th
Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Shrek The Musical), Suzanna Hay (Dance of Death with
Ian McKellan and David Strathaim), Lori Hammel (Mamma
Mia!), and also stars Eve Plumb (?The Brady
Bunch?, Love Loss...) in a highly comedic yet ultimately
moving performance as the born-again Christian, Aunt June. Inspired by events
from his extended Texas family, playwright James Wesley stars
as the troubled Bobby alongside his real-life daughter Juli Wesley. UNBROKEN
CIRCLE is being produced by SiriusXM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky and Mary
J. Davis. ?The script makes all the right moves in Unbroken
Circle, a family drama with a whiff of ?August: Osage County?
raves NY Times. Now playing at St.Luke's Theatre. Visit UnbrokenCircleThePlay.com for
more information
Purchase a $35 ticket to UNBROKEN
CIRCLE when you use code UCLGBT35 and receive a drink ticket at Southern Hospitality (645 9th Ave at 45th Street) directly
following the 7pm performance. This is a perfect opportunity to see this hit Off-Broadway
Drama and mingle with fellow theatre-goers and members of the cast.
Kirk Cameron is a NOT a Cock. He's a Dick.
This is so awesome and brilliant!! I used to have THE BIGGEST crush on Evie from Out of This World. What magic those fingers could do. *sigh* Oh and is it me or did that middle child chick from Charles in Charge grow up fancy? Milk does a body GOOD.Funny as hell...
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Plan B For Minors--It's Not About Sex
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-oneill/plan-b-for-minors--its-no_b_3428504.htmlTerry O'Neill has a new piece on The Huffington Post: "The Obama Administration's decision not to appeal a federal judge's order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without a prescription hasn't settled this debate. Not by a long shot."
Modern Families
Before I dive into my first column
I want to thank all my Facebook friends who contributed to the name of what I hope will become a very popular weekly feature column in The G&L Times. I needed all the help I could get. I’m a show producer, not a writer. One of the performers in my touring show “iL CiRCo” came up with the name: “Mary Has A Little Man”. I always thought Chris was cute, amazingly talented and has an Adonis of a body, but he’s a total smart ass (I don’t say “Smart-aleck” anymore as it has completely different connotations in my life which I will discuss in further detail later). I do appreciate Chris’ wit and humor… I just can’t see myself as “Mary”, you know? Other names that made it to t…
Read More
I want to thank all my Facebook friends who contributed to the name of what I hope will become a very popular weekly feature column in The G&L Times. I needed all the help I could get. I’m a show producer, not a writer. One of the performers in my touring show “iL CiRCo” came up with the name: “Mary Has A Little Man”. I always thought Chris was cute, amazingly talented and has an Adonis of a body, but he’s a total smart ass (I don’t say “Smart-aleck” anymore as it has completely different connotations in my life which I will discuss in further detail later). I do appreciate Chris’ wit and humor… I just can’t see myself as “Mary”, you know? Other names that made it to t…
Read More
Conversations with Nicole
In past columns in the last few years I have written about the issue of Bullying in our schools many times…I hope and pray that now all Americans….especially our community has awoken to this crisis. In one of my past columns I wrote that if “only1/4” of the energy, money, time that has been spent on Marriage Equality and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was focused on GLBT suicides and bullying this issue would have gotten further…we must make our GLBT youth/students who are coming out every day at younger ages our community’s No. 1 PRIORITY!
Take a stand against School Bullying: October 17
San Diegans will be coming together on Sunday, October 17 to take a united stand against all bullying…this …
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Take a stand against School Bullying: October 17
San Diegans will be coming together on Sunday, October 17 to take a united stand against all bullying…this …
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NOW Activists Buoyed by SCOTUS Decisions on Equal Marriage
http://now.org/press/06-13/06-26.htmlThe National Organization for Women is elated for the many same-sex couples whose loving, committed relationships will now be recognized in law a result of today's Supreme Court rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California's Proposition 8.
At Minn. Catholic Schools, Gay Rights Debate Stir
Recent remarks about inclusiveness by the new president of the University of St. Thomas have heartened gay and lesbian advocacy groups on the Roman Catholic campus.
WATCH: Trans Homecoming Queen Distraught Over Bigoted Backlash
Cassidy Campbell, a transgender teenager who won the title of Homecoming Queen at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, Calif., said she's tired of 'mean,' 'ignorant' people criticizing her victory.
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Stop Nationwide 20-Week Abortion Ban Petition
http://action.now.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8091Rep. Trent Franks' (R-Ariz.) nationwide 20-week abortion ban is close to passing. He recently reintroduced the D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would outlaw abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks, and has amended it to broaden its coverage so that its provisions will apply across all 50 states. Your representative — pro-choice or not — needs to hear from you so that we can preserve women's rights and lives. Please sign the petition below!
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
White Tie Ball
Playwright: Martin Zimmerman. At: Teatro Vista at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets: 773-871-3000; www.victorygardens.org; $25-$30 . Runs through: Oct. 13
Pa. School Board: Trans Student Can't Run for Homecoming King
A school board in Johnstown, Pa., declined to override school administrators' decision not to let Kasey Caron be listed as a king candidate.
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Hi Kids
I think about you often! Still spending time on my new website and podcast and not blogging here as much but I do miss the friends I made at MORE MARGA– Maybe I’ll be back. If you are in San … Continue reading →
Ready? Set! No.: No matter how much some people love Hillary Clinton, it is far too early to be focusing on 2016
Opinion: Even after a few years of watching it grow, I still find myself fascinated daily by my Facebook feed. The thousand or so ''friends'' I have — those aren't sneer quotes, just acknowledging the hilarity of the idea of my introverted self having an actual 1,000 friends — encompass quite the range of opinions and interests. I regularly bounce from progressive Green Party propaganda to libertarian denunciations of Obama's transgressions, from foodie pics at Le Diplomate to ultra-country recipes calling for Pillsbury and American cheese. America's a funny place in cross section. No, not so much. ... (more)
US judge: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ unconstitutional
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A federal judge said she will issue an order to halt the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, after she declared the ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ruled Thursday that the prohibition on openly gay service members was unconstitutional because it violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of gays and lesbians.
The policy doesn’t help military readiness and instead has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the armed services by hurting recruitment efforts during wartime and requiring the discharge of service members who have critical skills and training, she said.
The Log Cabin Republicans sued the federal government in…
Read More
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ruled Thursday that the prohibition on openly gay service members was unconstitutional because it violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of gays and lesbians.
The policy doesn’t help military readiness and instead has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the armed services by hurting recruitment efforts during wartime and requiring the discharge of service members who have critical skills and training, she said.
The Log Cabin Republicans sued the federal government in…
Read More
Op-ed: Why I'm Not Reading the 'Trutherism' About Matt Shepard
A new book aims to get the real story behind Matthew Shepard's murder, but is emboldening the right wing and sullying Shepard's image worth a still-unclear "truth"?
read more
read more
Transgender couple marry in Britain
Helen and Felix Fenlon this month became the first couple in Britain to marry after having both had gender reassignment surge -More-
Monday, September 23, 2013
Hurricane Irene's impact in central North Carolina
8/27, 10:45AM ET: At the time of this taping, central NC is in the outer bands of Irene with Durham and Wake counties under a wind warning (40-50 mph gusts), and the gusts in this video are creating whistling winds, the house definitely getting pelted with branches and even heaves a bit with some of the gusts. The storm is so large that its reach into the central part of the state is unusual. We should experience winds like you see here for a few more hours.
Our power lines are underground so we have power, but much of Durham and counties affected have plenty of traditional power poles that fall. There are already reports of many outages east of here, and the Outer Banks/Atlantic Beach is getting pummeled. The concern in the eastern inland parts of NC is flooding. Just learned that there are at least 60,000 without power.
Since we're a very dense tree state, I expect some roads will be blocked here after Irene passes. From the Weather Channel:
Hurricane Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout, North Carolina, just before 8 a.m. EDT as an 85-mph, category 1 hurricane.
The center of Irene is located about 5 miles north-northeast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, or about 60 miles southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and is moving to the north-northeast near 14 miles per hour. The center of Irene is forecast to cross through the North Carolina Sounds, through the Outer Banks, and back into the Atlantic today, then riding up the coast with an eventual landfall anticipated on Sunday along Long Island then on the other side of Long Island Sound in Southern New England as a minimal hurricane.
***
8/26, 7PM ET: Hurricane Irene is about to make landfall here in NC as I write this, around Morehead City. We are experiencing a downpour in Durham right now. Wind not too bad yet. Power is still on (for now).
I live in Durham, and that's about dead center on the map to the west of Raleigh. Because the storm is so large in size, we are receiving the outer bands of Irene, and it's not a small deal.
Wind Advisory for Durham, NC
until 12 am EDT, Sun., Aug. 28, 2011
* WINDS... NORTH 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH.
* TIMING... NOW THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING.
* IMPACTS... WINDS THIS STRONG CAN MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT... ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. SOME DOWNED TREE LIMBS AND SPORADIC POWER OUTAGES ARE ALSO POSSIBLE.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT WIND GUSTS OVER OVER 40 MPH WILL BE LIKELY. WINDS THIS STRONG CAN BRING DOWN TREE LIMBS AND WEAK TREES... TOSS AROUND LOSE OBJECTS... AND MAKE DRIVING VEHICLES DIFFICULT.
I don't expect that this will be as damaging in the area as Fran (1996), but what's of major concern is that most of our power lines in town are above ground, so they are vulnerable to trees falling. Where we live is relatively new (houses built in the 80s-90s), so the lines are underground. The down side of the age of the neighborhood is that construction was long enough ago that we have a lot of mature trees in the area, close to the houses, so if any of them decide to fall, damage to homes is likely
If you're in Wake County (just to the east, where Raleigh is, there's also a flood watch. As you can imagine, if the forecast is this bad this far inland, the coast is going to have devastation. Highway 12 in the Outer Banks is a fragile two-lane road that goes up the peninsula of the OBX. It's going to get washed out for sure, and anyone who stayed to ride this out is nuts. They will be trapped out there.
I'll have updates on Twitter and other social media; there is a Irene Twitterfeed in the left column. See you on the other side of the hurricane; those in the path stay safe.
White Tie Ball
Playwright: Martin Zimmerman. At: Teatro Vista at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets: 773-871-3000; www.victorygardens.org; $25-$30 . Runs through: Oct. 13
NOW Applauds Judge Korman's Refusal to Suspend Ruling on Plan B; Calls on Obama Administration to Comply
http://now.org/press/05-13/05-10.htmlNOW calls on the Administration not to ask the appellate court for a stay. NOW will not back away from our defense of the health and safety rights of women. The Obama Administration should tell the court on Monday that it will now simply follow the law.
BREAKING: Joe Solmonese to leave HRC in December; official announcement on Tuesday
This is a Pam's House Blend exclusive.
Yes, it's the end of an era. The Blend has learned, from a trusted source in a position to know the details, that Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization in the country, will announce his departure next Tuesday. Solmonese will reportedly step down from the organization in December of this year.
His departure also signals, according to our source, the beginning of a larger staff shake-up in the HRC. The Blend can also report that a replacement executive director has been identified -- it will be someone who is not currently on the HRC's staff, but is currently a paid consultant that has worked with the civil rights group for some time.
During his tenure, the Human Rights Campaign has become a bedrock institution that has played a role in successes -- a hate crimes law passed, the legislative repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- the extent of its leadership and success also depends on your point of view and knowledge of the back stories related to the hard work to make these gains happen.
We can review and critique the effectiveness of Solmonese's tenure in the growth of the organization and political savvy in working with the Hill all day long, but it's time to think about the job his successor has in front of him/her.
With the perception of the HRC leadership as the province of wealthy white gay men living in gay-friendly environs, there are several questions HRC -- including its board -- will face:
What will this mean for bisexual and trans community members? The L and G in LGBT have had much more visibility not only in its leadership composition, but in prioritization of political priorities. Some of this is a result of political expediency, but no doubt influenced by the composition of its leadership, board and donor base. This leads to...
Will more bisexual and trans staff be added with the staff shake-up? Unknown. Until Joe's successor announces for lack of a better word, "battle plan" we won't know if this means putting people who know bi and trans issues best in positions of influence.
With DADT at bay, and DOMA on the ropes in court, will HRC put additional to attend to matters of equity in the trans community and speak openly about them? The new executive director will have to address this head on, particularly since Joe Solmonese was seen by many in the trans community as a political obstacle at the minimum, or an outright man not to be trusted. Representing HRC, Solmonese last spoke in public on transgender issues to a trans-specific public audience at the 2007 Southern Comfort conference. He was adamently 100% in support of a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but later changed his position on the 2007/2008 version of the legislation -- effectively leaving trans rights behind.
Will this shift signal a change to include more people of color in positions of influence? Like bi and trans issues, a stronger HRC will come from actually honoring the influence that a socio-economically diverse leadership team brings to the table. Will a change at the top move the organization in this direction?
What kind of relationship will the HRC build with the LGBT media (including bloggers) and grassroots activists (like GetEqual) under new leadership? To be kind, there has been a tense and guarded relationship with activists and new media that work outside of the comfort zone of the HRC. The fact that these entities cannot be "controlled" or managed like a press release is old news - it's how the game of politics works now; any person who succeeds Joe Solmonese has to grasp this reality and find out how to work nimbly with not only the Hill and the White House, but to engage with these entities.
They are not going away, in fact their existence moved the civil rights ball forward on DADT when traditional means of Beltway negotiation and hand shakes in closed door meetings dissolved into political inertia. That this influence is publicly ignored, but privately fretted about (yes Virginia, we have eyes and ears everywhere), should be a signal that precious wasted energy worrying about allies that use different tactics should be spent on how a powerful institution with access like HRC can leverage those differences without appearing to "sell out" or be in battle when the end goals are actually in alignment.So now the commentary is left to readers - how does this prospective news affect your view of the potential of the Human Rights Campaign to rework its reputation within the elements of the LGBT community that have questioned its strategy and decisions regarding legislative focus and its image to the larger public? Is there any positive/negative fallout from this organizational shift?
Discuss. More to come as additional details emerge.
***
UPDATE: Chris Geidner at MetroWeekly has filled in a few more details that conflict with our source's account, and identified the consultant.
Although Spaulding reported that "a replacement executive director has been identified," four sources familiar with the situation describe that portion of the report as inaccurate -- with one saying the process is just beginning and will not be rapid.
...Spaulding refers to the person she reported was identified as Solmonese's replacement as "a paid consultant" who has worked with the organization. Metro Weekly has identified that consultant as Cathy Woolard, who most recently served on the senior leadership team at CARE, which describes itself as "a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty" and is based in Atlanta.
Although the sources say that no permanent replacement has been selected, none of the four sources were willing to say what, if any, role Woolard would play in the transition efforts at HRC.
I know they're nice, but they're not for me!
I'm in an amazing relationship, with someone I've known for over two years, and we've been dating for a year-ish. We're both women in our early 20's. I've only dated women up to this point, and been very happy with that. It seems that my brain doesn't want to keep that status quo anymore and is trying to convince me I want to experience being with men. I don't want to be with men. I don't like men as well as women, I prefer women sexually, and I love my girlfriend an extreme amount. We're very happy and healthy. I like the idea of being with men, and I had a good experience with the one guy I've seen (see next paragraph). I just know I'm happiest with her, and the few benefits of dating guys wouldn't make up for how much I care about her and how happy she makes me.
This doesn't bother me often. But the last time I had these urges, I ended up breaking it off with her abruptly, seeing the guy for a few weeks, and then ending that because it wasn't what I wanted. She took me back. I will not do that again. I don't want to break up ever, but I definitely won't break up with her for a stupid fling.
How do I ignore these feelings? I don't care that I'm sexually attracted to both genders. Not a big deal. The problem is that I start to think about men too much in what-if hypotheticals, and that makes me anxious. That anxiety makes me question the relationship in ways I wouldn't if I were thinking clearly. And then that leads to me distancing myself from my girlfriend. And then it snowballs.
I know I need to talk to someone about this, but I don't want to bring it up with her because of last time. I just need tips on how to rationalize this to myself and convince myself that this is not the end of the world that my brain wants me to think it is. And I do not want to break up with her.
This doesn't bother me often. But the last time I had these urges, I ended up breaking it off with her abruptly, seeing the guy for a few weeks, and then ending that because it wasn't what I wanted. She took me back. I will not do that again. I don't want to break up ever, but I definitely won't break up with her for a stupid fling.
How do I ignore these feelings? I don't care that I'm sexually attracted to both genders. Not a big deal. The problem is that I start to think about men too much in what-if hypotheticals, and that makes me anxious. That anxiety makes me question the relationship in ways I wouldn't if I were thinking clearly. And then that leads to me distancing myself from my girlfriend. And then it snowballs.
I know I need to talk to someone about this, but I don't want to bring it up with her because of last time. I just need tips on how to rationalize this to myself and convince myself that this is not the end of the world that my brain wants me to think it is. And I do not want to break up with her.
(13) Lez-Bionic Birdy Friends and Cheezy Sound Board Fun
Sandi creates her own special automated message for The Lesbian Mafia, Motherly Love, Messages From Birds, Cheap Shots At The Lezzie’s On TV, Fem Sergeants “Wanna Have Some Fun,” Laughing and Seeing Visions, And Good Vibrations, All Make For A Typical ADD Show.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Lesbian News - 07 Sep 2013
Blue is the Warmest Colour actors say lesbian sex scenes were 'horrible'
Lez Miserable: "Is a lesbian coup about to hit Britain?"
Help Lesbian Short 'Camp Belvidere' Make it to Completion
Lez Miserable: "Is a lesbian coup about to hit Britain?"
Help Lesbian Short 'Camp Belvidere' Make it to Completion
White Tie Ball
Playwright: Martin Zimmerman. At: Teatro Vista at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets: 773-871-3000; www.victorygardens.org; $25-$30 . Runs through: Oct. 13
FEAST OF FUN!!
Hello and thanks for visiting my semi retired blog. Since April I have been blogging and podcasting on my SNAZZY NEW WEBSITE. Granted I do need to increase my output over there but I just hooked up my wii to … Continue reading →
Show Me Love
Please help me find some lesbian films that have a happy romantic ending. I'm basically looking for the lesbian equivalent of a romantic comedy, except I don't even care if it's a comedy or not, just so long as it has a happy ending. I'm tired of movies where the protagonists break up at the end, or one of them falls for a man, or their relationship is still ambiguous, or one of them dies. It's possible that I've just had lousy luck with the genre, and I'm really hoping that's the case. So what I want are movies about two women who fall in love, and at the end they are unambiguously in a relationship and happy together. That's it. Any genre is fine, and the romance doesn't have to be the main point of the movie as long as it's central. Anime and television shows are fine too, though it would be nice to find some movies like this.
We're Not Fooled!
http://action.now.org/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=9812Please get the word out that "We're Not Fooled" by these extremists and share these images with your social network!
Best Gay New York.com Supports QUINN
Friday September 6th, 2013 7pmCongressman Sean Patrick
Maloney, Senators Brad Hoylman, Tom Duane, Assembly Members Deborah
Glick, Danny O'Donnell, Matthew Titone, Council Members Rosie Mendez,
and Jimmy Van Bramer invite you to a LGBT FOR QUINN GET OUT THE VOTE KICK OFF Friday, September 6th, 7:00-8:00pm Location: Christopher Park at 7th Avenue and Christopher Street (across from the historic Stonewall Inn)
with Nick Adams, Durell Arthur, Gilbert Baker, Titus Burgess, Gilbert
Baker, Eliza Byard, Bruce Cohen, Kevin Graves, Judy Gold, Cheyenne
Jackson, David Mixner, Rory O'Malley, Neil Lowe, Richard E. Pelzer II,
Billy Porter, Anthony Rapp, Omar Sharif, Jr., Pastor Joseph Tolton,
Ulysses Williams, Evan Wolfson and Chely Wright RSVP NOW at www.quinnfornewyork.com/lgbtkickoff or email brianfooter@quinnfornewyork.comQUINN FOR NEW YORKIt's Unanimous! The New York Times, the Daily News, New York
Post and BestGayNewYork.com all say Christine Quinn is the Democratic Choice for Mayor!
Maloney, Senators Brad Hoylman, Tom Duane, Assembly Members Deborah
Glick, Danny O'Donnell, Matthew Titone, Council Members Rosie Mendez,
and Jimmy Van Bramer invite you to a LGBT FOR QUINN GET OUT THE VOTE KICK OFF Friday, September 6th, 7:00-8:00pm Location: Christopher Park at 7th Avenue and Christopher Street (across from the historic Stonewall Inn)
with Nick Adams, Durell Arthur, Gilbert Baker, Titus Burgess, Gilbert
Baker, Eliza Byard, Bruce Cohen, Kevin Graves, Judy Gold, Cheyenne
Jackson, David Mixner, Rory O'Malley, Neil Lowe, Richard E. Pelzer II,
Billy Porter, Anthony Rapp, Omar Sharif, Jr., Pastor Joseph Tolton,
Ulysses Williams, Evan Wolfson and Chely Wright RSVP NOW at www.quinnfornewyork.com/lgbtkickoff or email brianfooter@quinnfornewyork.comQUINN FOR NEW YORKIt's Unanimous! The New York Times, the Daily News, New York
Post and BestGayNewYork.com all say Christine Quinn is the Democratic Choice for Mayor!
Conversations with Nicole
None of us should have been surprised at the defeat of our efforts to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”…it’s the usual politics and lack of leadership from the White House and Democratic Party and the new homophobia of two faced Senator John McCain and his fellow Republican Senators…this country needs a new third party!
Tea Party Movement and the Radical Right
This past week MSNBC stated that the “Culture War” is back especially with the growing alliance of the Tea Party movement and the radical Christian (?) Right movement….Now we have Tea Party leaders coming out against gay marriage and some even against condoms and sex education. All the “Tea Party” rallies are 95% white and a majorit…
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Tea Party Movement and the Radical Right
This past week MSNBC stated that the “Culture War” is back especially with the growing alliance of the Tea Party movement and the radical Christian (?) Right movement….Now we have Tea Party leaders coming out against gay marriage and some even against condoms and sex education. All the “Tea Party” rallies are 95% white and a majorit…
Read More
National Women's Music Festival
Lesbian music and culture is alive and well in the Midwest. Every year since 1974 women have come together in America's heartland to celebrate women's music and culture at the National Women's Music Festival. This year our own Retts Scauzillo was there. Find out what happened and why she thinks we all need to attend next year's National Women's Music Festival....Read Full Post
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Lesbian filmmaker Ky Dickens talks 'Sole Survivor'
Ky Dickens—the out Chicago based filmmaker noted for her 2009 documentary Fish Out of Water, which put the Bible's seven references to homosexuality under the microscope—returns with Sole Survivor, a thought-provoking documentary that is playing at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., on Sept. 21 and 26. Dickens' film centers on four of the just 14 sole survivors of large scale airplane disasters—whom she aptly describes as members of "the loneliest club on earth."
Poll: Nearly 70% of Americans Oppose Russia's Anti-LGBT Laws
For the first time in 15 years, Americans view Russia as unfriendly to the U.S., due in large part to the country's violent crackdown on LGBT people, a new Gallup poll reveals.
read more
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Take your best shot against HIV and stigma | VIDEO
"A Day With HIV" global photography project is on Saturday
CHICAGO -- Whether you are HIV-positive or HIV-negative, everyone is affected by HIV in some way. To increase awareness of this and help end the stigma that surrounds the virus, Positively Aware will present its fourth annual "A Day With HIV" tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 21.
Whether one is HIV-positive or HIV-negative, everyone is affected by HIV in some way. To increase awareness of this and help end the stigma that surrounds the virus, Positively Aware will present the fourth annual "A Day With HIV" tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 21.
read more
CHICAGO -- Whether you are HIV-positive or HIV-negative, everyone is affected by HIV in some way. To increase awareness of this and help end the stigma that surrounds the virus, Positively Aware will present its fourth annual "A Day With HIV" tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 21.
Whether one is HIV-positive or HIV-negative, everyone is affected by HIV in some way. To increase awareness of this and help end the stigma that surrounds the virus, Positively Aware will present the fourth annual "A Day With HIV" tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 21.
read more
Spin, Spin Sugar: DJ dirtyKURTY
DJ dirtyKURTY is a former professional soccer player turned spin goddess. She hails from New Jersey where she discovered her love of music in the New York club scene at clubs like Sound Factory, Roxy, Limelight and the Palladium. She moved to San Francisco where she discovered DJing, then to San Diego where she now resides. While DJ dirtyKURTY is passionate about her House music, it’s her mission to get everyone moving on the dance floor regardless of what style music she is playing. She’s performed all over the East and West Coast. She’s the featured DJ on the Sweet Caribbean Cruise, Co-Owner/Promoter of in2U Events/U*NITY Party and a member of the San Diego MixMasters DJ Crew.
“House music is definitely my passion, but I can play …
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“House music is definitely my passion, but I can play …
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Fit Savvy
Blazing balls of fury
The tension is high, the room is hot, the crowd watches anxiously as sweat drips from the players’ foreheads and puddles on the floor, creating a smell reminiscent of a high school boys’ locker room after gym class. Bloodthirsty athletes with their souped-up, hard-hitting paddles show off their mind blowing skills as onlookers cheer them on in awe and admiration. These warriors of the rectangular table are fierce and are in it to win it! It’s official, ping pong fever has struck the masses.
What was once considered a “geeky game” is now a full blown hipster sport, and an Olympic one at that. Yes, unbeknownst to many, ping pong (also known as table tennis) has been an Olympic sport since 1988. Although the game seems to be do…
Read More
The tension is high, the room is hot, the crowd watches anxiously as sweat drips from the players’ foreheads and puddles on the floor, creating a smell reminiscent of a high school boys’ locker room after gym class. Bloodthirsty athletes with their souped-up, hard-hitting paddles show off their mind blowing skills as onlookers cheer them on in awe and admiration. These warriors of the rectangular table are fierce and are in it to win it! It’s official, ping pong fever has struck the masses.
What was once considered a “geeky game” is now a full blown hipster sport, and an Olympic one at that. Yes, unbeknownst to many, ping pong (also known as table tennis) has been an Olympic sport since 1988. Although the game seems to be do…
Read More
(9) Interview w/ Lea Delaria and More Nonsensical Babblings
Interview with Lea Delaria and some more nonsensical babblings ..
(40) London Calling. Shoot Your TV!
She Calls to Say She Has Sense, Friends from http://www.DubiousInent.com Send Over a Fun Hello, Zeitgeists Addendum released 10/02/08 http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912&hl=en, Compulsive Sunflower Seed Overeater, Negative Television Hysteria, CNN Journalist Jill Abrams book The Myth, The Muse, The Meshuga http://www.myspace.com/jillabrams, Rachel from London discusses London Police, Heather Mills etc .
Friday, September 20, 2013
FEDERAL Government WILL Recognize Same Sex Marriages
The U.S. Department of Treasury has just made it official: legally
married same-sex couples will receive the same tax benefits as
opposite-sex married couples, regardless of where they reside.
In
a call earlier today, U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Jacob Lew told
leadership of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
(NGLCC) and other LGBT interest groups that effective immediately the
U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in jurisdictions that
recognize their marriages, will be treated as married for federal tax purposes.
The ruling applies regardless of whether the couple lives in a
jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex marriage or a jurisdiction that
does not recognize same-sex marriage.
"Today's ruling provides
certainty and clear, coherent tax filing guidance for all legally
married same-sex couples nationwide. It provides access to benefits,
responsibilities and protections under federal tax law that all
Americans deserve," said Secretary Lew. "This ruling also assures
legally married same-sex couples that they can move freely throughout
the country knowing that their federal filing status will not change."
This
is a major victory for the entire equality movement, but especially for
married same-sex couples who own and operate businesses. LGBT people
who are legally married in one of the 13 states that grant same-sex
marriage, can now ensure their business is a "family" business and are
legally entitled to determine the legacy of their wealth.
The
NGLCC will continue to work with LGBT small business owners to ensure
they are equipped with all the pertinent knowledge and resources
throughout this transition. The organization will also advise dozens of
our more than 140 corporate partners who will be augmenting grossing-up
best practices as a result of this announcement.
Other key takeaways:
Joint filing beginning 2014 for couples married in 2013.
Retro-active filing for those married in the past three years.
Same tax treatment for items like income, gifts, and estate.
Secretary
Lew acknowledged there would be further refinements needed and that
both his department and the IRS are looking to the public to help
identify these needed refinements; for instance, child tax credit issues
surrounding same-sex parents where it is not legal at the state level
for a same-sex second parent to adopt.
married same-sex couples will receive the same tax benefits as
opposite-sex married couples, regardless of where they reside.
In
a call earlier today, U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Jacob Lew told
leadership of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
(NGLCC) and other LGBT interest groups that effective immediately the
U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in jurisdictions that
recognize their marriages, will be treated as married for federal tax purposes.
The ruling applies regardless of whether the couple lives in a
jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex marriage or a jurisdiction that
does not recognize same-sex marriage.
"Today's ruling provides
certainty and clear, coherent tax filing guidance for all legally
married same-sex couples nationwide. It provides access to benefits,
responsibilities and protections under federal tax law that all
Americans deserve," said Secretary Lew. "This ruling also assures
legally married same-sex couples that they can move freely throughout
the country knowing that their federal filing status will not change."
This
is a major victory for the entire equality movement, but especially for
married same-sex couples who own and operate businesses. LGBT people
who are legally married in one of the 13 states that grant same-sex
marriage, can now ensure their business is a "family" business and are
legally entitled to determine the legacy of their wealth.
The
NGLCC will continue to work with LGBT small business owners to ensure
they are equipped with all the pertinent knowledge and resources
throughout this transition. The organization will also advise dozens of
our more than 140 corporate partners who will be augmenting grossing-up
best practices as a result of this announcement.
Other key takeaways:
Joint filing beginning 2014 for couples married in 2013.
Retro-active filing for those married in the past three years.
Same tax treatment for items like income, gifts, and estate.
Secretary
Lew acknowledged there would be further refinements needed and that
both his department and the IRS are looking to the public to help
identify these needed refinements; for instance, child tax credit issues
surrounding same-sex parents where it is not legal at the state level
for a same-sex second parent to adopt.
Peruvian lawmaker faces church backlash over civil unions support
Peruvian congressman Carlos Bruce is facing criticism from the leader of the country's Catholic Church over his support for c -More-
Bonez N Booze with Franki
Bartender and Culinary Extraordinaire
Franki has been a staple in the San Diego lesbian, nightlife and art scene for a long time. She is someone that everyone has something good to say about. Franki was one of the first lesbians to throw San Diego art shows including The No Name Art Shows that drew in huge crowds eager to participate in something other than the status quo. Franki has the reputation of being one of San Diego’s hottest and most down to earth bartenders. A combination hard to find in any person let alone a bartender and she truly is one of a kind. Talented in the art of making drinks and customer service she commands her bar like a pro. She is equally as talented in the arts of all kinds. Everything from food to painting to the drums she does well and grabs attention while do…
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Franki has been a staple in the San Diego lesbian, nightlife and art scene for a long time. She is someone that everyone has something good to say about. Franki was one of the first lesbians to throw San Diego art shows including The No Name Art Shows that drew in huge crowds eager to participate in something other than the status quo. Franki has the reputation of being one of San Diego’s hottest and most down to earth bartenders. A combination hard to find in any person let alone a bartender and she truly is one of a kind. Talented in the art of making drinks and customer service she commands her bar like a pro. She is equally as talented in the arts of all kinds. Everything from food to painting to the drums she does well and grabs attention while do…
Read More
Carrying the Torch: Brandon Uranowitz delivers the relevance and emotion in Studio Theatre's noteworthy new staging of 1982's ''Torch Song Trilogy''
Feature Story:
''Torch Song Trilogy had a very big emotional impact upon me when I saw it the first time around,'' Michael Kahn says. Of course, that was over 30 years ago, when Harvey Fierstein's play broke new ground as a Tony Award-winning hit play built on gay themes, with a lead character who is both gay and a drag queen. Kahn, whose main gig is as the Shakespeare Theatre Company's artistic director, hadn't thought much about the play in the intervening decades until Studio Theatre's David Muse asked him to make a directorial debut at the 14th Street venue. ''I knew that I wanted to do a play by a gay writer, so I re-read a bunch of plays and fell in love all over again with Torch Song.''
The play, which focuses on a gay man's struggles to find love and respect in relationships with men, as well as his hidebound, homophobic mother, is one that affects everyone, especially every LGBT person -- even today.
Torch Song Trilogy: Brandon Uranowitz and Alex Mills
(Photo by Todd Franson)
''In rehearsal, quite often we would be reading a scene or something and we'd all end up in tears,'' Kahn says about the seven actors he cast for the production that opens Studio Theatre's new season. ''We all decided we couldn't do the play like that, but there's just something about the [characters] being so human and so vulnerable and so often wrong…. It affected all of us.''
''It's still relevant today,'' says Alex Mills, who plays Alan, lead character Arnold Beckoff's lover. ''It's not just this time capsule that we're bringing back for nostalgia's sake.''
Studio Theatre's production of Torch Song Trilogy is the first in D.C. in decades. Mills thinks part of the reason it's so rarely performed is the show's length: Studio's version is a daunting three-and-a-half hours, with two intermissions. Of course, Shakespeare's plays are often near the same length. ''If the play is compelling, you don't really think about the time,'' Kahn avers. ''And the extraordinary thing about this play is it's emotional, but it's also very funny. And I think it's brilliantly constructed. Just when it gets emotional, there's a joke. And when it gets jokey, there's a scene that'll break your heart.''
An even bigger challenge in staging Torch Song Trilogy is finding the right cast. ''A couple roles were hard to cast, but the big one was Arnold,'' Kahn says, about the lead character, a role Fierstein wrote for himself -- and a character who's always on stage the entire length of the show. ''It didn't have to be anybody that looked like Harvey Fierstein or talked like Harvey Fierstein,'' Kahn adds. ''It just had to be somebody who could be this character.''
''I saw lots of people, and a lot of great actors,'' Kahn continues, ''but [none] able to find their way into being Arnold.'' That is, until -- really, truly -- the last day of auditions, when Brandon Uranowitz walked in. ''I didn't know Brandon, and I had no idea who he was,'' Kahn says. ''It was like some light came on in the room.''
Once Uranowitz proved he wasn't just a one-note actor, but was able to take on a variety of scenes and just really be Arnold, ''I knew then that I could do the play,'' says Kahn.
''It's kind of crazy how 'on' [Uranowitz] was from Day 1,'' Mills agrees. ''There's another 50 percent of jokes that he gets because of just the details he's put in with his physical behavior and mannerisms. He's completely fleshed out the character -- which is why it's so brilliant to watch.''
Critics agree. The Washington Post's Peter Marks even went so far as to suggest Uranowitz should star in every future production of Torch Song Trilogy, calling his portrayal ''an Arnold Beckoff for all (theater) seasons.''
The 27-year-old Uranowitz isn't a total newcomer to the stage. Among other things, in recent years he was in the national tour of Rent and he made his Broadway debut in the 2011 jukebox musical Baby, It's You. But Studio's Torch Song Trilogy is shaping up as a breakout role for Uranowitz. At the least, there's a good chance we'll see the New York-based actor again onstage in D.C. After all, in an interview with Metro Weekly Uranowitz says he'd like to do more Shakespeare. While noting that nothing has been discussed, Kahn, of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, adds: ''I'm very eager to see what else Brandon can do -- and to do it with him.''
METRO WEEKLY: How daunting was it to even consider playing Arnold Beckoff, a role still so closely tied to the man who created it?
BRANDON URANOWITZ: Well, I've never seen the movie, and I wasn't born yet when it was on Broadway. So the only thing that I could sort of gather was the tone, and what I know of Harvey's other work in other things. It was never my intention to do an impression or anything of Harvey. What happens to be on the page is very Harvey Fierstein, and so I assume that what I do hints at things that Harvey has done.
It was obviously daunting and terrifying because those are big shoes to fill. But I sort of had to make it my own in order to really give the emotional depth and the comedy and all of that any sort of truth. Because otherwise if I was just doing an impression, or if I just had Harvey in the back of my mind the whole time, something about that would seem false to me. So if I wanted Arnold to really become a human being, I needed to let that go, and put myself in there, and take the stuff off the page and put it in me and try to find my version of him.
MW: You've definitely made the character your own. Obviously, you don't have the voice, but I did wonder about your very comic, exaggerated mannerisms and moves: How much of that is naturally you and how much is what you were inspired to do because of the character?
URANOWITZ: [Laughs.] I guess I discovered all of that working on this show. I think all of that lives inside me to some extent. But I feel like this part allows me to explore the extreme parts of my character and parts of my personality that I can give on a daily basis. But for this character and for this show, I feel like I'm allowed to let them out of their cage a little bit and play. I guess they're part of me, but it's not really how I behave in my personal life. I think they exist inside of me, but getting to know Arnold more and more through the rehearsal process, it sort of came to the surface a little bit more.
MW: Well, it's pretty amazing to watch. So much of the script and what your character says is funny to begin with, but you've added another level with your body language alone.
URANOWITZ: Oh, well good, that's the goal I think. You know, we could all just read Harvey's script and laugh, because it's a beautiful, hilarious piece. But Arnold's also a person. And this person says these things, these zingers and these one-liners, so it seems to me that this person would probably act a certain way as well.
MW: How much do you identify with the role and the struggles Arnold went through, such as coming out?
URANOWITZ: My coming-out process was fairly smooth, because I just have wonderful, supportive, amazing parents. But for those big emotional scenes, I guess you just have to kind of dive into that well of fear that any gay man has I think when they're thinking of coming out. Any gay man growing up thinking about that process has the fear of a negative outcome, no matter how supportive or amazing your parents might be. Or not even just your parents, the people around you. So I think especially for those big scenes it was just trying to get in touch with what that felt like -- the unknown and the fear of having to deal with the possibility of a negative/adverse reaction to coming out.
MW: Have you done much camp or comedy before? Or even drag?
URANOWITZ: Never done drag before. Never played a gay character before, actually. So this is the first on those fronts for me. It's like playing dress-up, living out all the fantasies you have as a little gay boy wanting to put on lipstick.
I've done comedy -- Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound out at the Old Globe in San Diego. There's a very specific Jewish dryness and a Jewish tone that I grew up with, so doing Neil Simon or even playing this part, the comedy just sort of feels natural, and the intonations and the rhythms are stuff that I grew up with.
MW: How familiar were you with this play?
URANOWITZ: I had read it – I want to say in high school. I remember being completely moved and amazed by it, but also being a little scared of it, because I wasn't out yet. I was dealing with my sexuality, secretly, on my own, in my own head -- so I think I just sort of brushed it off.
But it's like one of those things that makes an impact and then sort of recesses into your subconscious and inspires a lot of the things that you do, but you don't really consciously think about it. I think it just sort of lives there forever. I never really thought about it until my agent called me with the audition appointment for the play. And then I re-read it, in my bed, alone, in my apartment in New York, laughing and sobbing. I had totally forgotten about it.
MW: Well, it's had quite a legacy. It was groundbreaking for its time, but even though it's set in its time period, the turn of the 1980s, it still has relevance today.
URANOWITZ: I know! That's what was so amazing to me about it, when I read it again. What else was so amazing to me was that it hasn't been done [much] at all since it premiered back in the '80s. And it's still so relevant, which is kind of wonderful to me. It's pre-AIDS, before the AIDS epidemic and before that tragedy. So it's nice to have a play where you can really just sort of focus on the relationships and the love -- the love story -- and not cloud it by this massive, massive tragedy, and you don't have to look at it through that lens. You can really just focus on the people, and what they want, and what they deserve and what they're entitled to. It's still so relevant.
MW: Back then marriage equality wasn't even –
URANOWITZ: And not just marriage equality. Gay relationships, gay love, period. There's this great interview that Harvey did with Barbara Walters, when [the show] premiered on Broadway. She's talking about gay love, and homosexual love, versus heterosexual love, and talking about it like it's this completely foreign, novel, alien idea.
MW: And I'm guessing back then the audience might have even sympathized a little more with the mother than they do today.
URANOWITZ: Yeah, probably. Exactly. Today she seems a little more malicious and villainous, but even back then I think they would have probably had a similar mindset [as she] about the whole thing. People's minds have changed, but the fight is still strong and I think that's why this play speaks to people still.
MW: It's also interesting to think about the audience. The night I saw it, the crowd was probably half straight. And in particular there's the gay-bar backroom scene, which is quite hysterical -- and the women behind me were laughing hard -- but it's also a bit startling to see the goings-on there so openly simulated onstage. In the midst of laughing I was also partly recoiling, thinking: These straight women aren't supposed to know about this, let alone find it funny.
URANOWITZ: I know! I know, it's jarring. But it was a reality. Harvey presents it in a comedic sort of tone, and through a comedic lens I think to make it a little more palatable for people. But, you know, it's where a lot of men went to satisfy their urges and their desires that they were not allowed to have. And they had to do that in a dark backroom where it was a kept secret, and no one could see your face. It was completely anonymous. People think that that's dirty, and irresponsible. And at some point it did become irresponsible because of the disease, but these men are struggling in the outside world to live. Arnold says it in the play that he wants to live a normal life, out in the daylight where everybody can see him. But he goes into the backroom because that's where people would go.
MW: And there is a distinction made between love and sex, and the hunt for a relationship -- and whether that has to be built on monogamy. The play notably touches on that with the ''straight'' couple, Ed and Laurel.
URANOWITZ: Like Arnold says in the play, monogamy is a much easier system to keep track of. You can be there, and you can live in it, and you can be comfortable and safe and stable in it, but then once you start opening those doors, which Ed and Laurel seem so dead-set on opening, it allows for a lot of the unknown. And that can play into the relationship in negative, detrimental ways, whether you want to admit it or not.
MW: Speaking of relationships: The Wikipedia entry on you says you're married to actor Molly Hager.
URANOWITZ: Oh, my God, I know. [Laughs.] Okay, here's the story behind that. This is the first time it's actually sort of affected my professional life.
When Facebook first came out, it was for a handful of colleges. And one of my best friends at NYU was Molly Hager, and she still is one of my closest, closest friends. And Facebook was just this weird kind of fun website that people would play with when we were at college. It didn't have all the features that it has now. It was pretty basic. And then they randomly started rolling out these different features, and one of them was the relationship status, and there was a married option. We thought that that was hilarious, because it was just for young college kids. Like, who the hell is married and in a relationship on Facebook? Which seems so silly now because, I mean, most people have a Facebook now.
So we decided to get married on Facebook. This was like in 2005. Then Facebook blew up, and we vowed never to change it. I have no idea who created my Wikipedia page. Molly has no idea who created hers. But somehow it made it on there because of this thing on Facebook. And we just think it's hilarious, but I guess maybe it's probably more responsible to change it at this point.
But, no, I was never married to Molly Hager. Nope. Never.
MW: Are you in a relationship these days?
URANOWITZ: I am. To an actor, Zach, that I met doing my first Broadway show, Baby, It's You. He was my understudy. That was in 2011. So it's been almost two-and-a-half years. He's in Portland doing Fiddler on the Roof, but, hopefully, if we extend he'll be able to come and see this show.
MW: It must present special challenges, being in a relationship with a fellow actor.
URANOWITZ: Oh, my God. Especially 'cause it's not just dating a fellow actor – it's dating an actor and we go out for the same parts. Like he auditioned for this, you know what I mean? It's sort of something that comes up all the time. It's a really true test of character and keeps your selfishness and selflessness in check. Becoming an actor -- like any job should be, really -- it's kind of a dream you have growing up as a kid, and you have all these fantasies and aspirations of all this stuff growing up. You're not growing up, necessarily, with your significant other [in mind]. So once this person comes into your life, it becomes about prioritizing your dreams and this person that you love unconditionally, and trying to put all of those things that you'd fantasize about in your childhood aside for the sake of a healthy, positive relationship. It's a struggle. It's a struggle, but we're somehow making it work.
MW: When you two compete for a part and you win, such as this one, do you owe him something? I mean, do you find a way to make it up to him?
URANOWITZ: [Laughs.] No, no, because what we've realized over the past couple years is that it can't be a competition. I'll get a part, he'll get a part, I'll get a part, he'll get a part. It's always just going to be alternating. That's how it's been historically for us. The comeuppance, I guess, if you want to call it that, is getting another part somewhere down the road.
MW: Have you actually worked together since that first time in Baby, It's You? Would you like to?
URANOWITZ: No, we have not. Yeah! I think that would be fun. It would be very interesting. I'd be curious to see what exactly we would do together.
MW: Growing up, did you have your sights set on becoming a stage actor?
URANOWITZ: Yeah, well, I grew up in New Jersey, right outside of New York City. I was in extracurricular acting/theater classes since I was 6.
Then I started – because we were so close to New York – I started acting professionally. I did a lot of stuff as a kid between the ages of 9 and 13. And I was in the world premiere of Ragtime in Toronto. My mom and my sister moved with me to Toronto for eight months. Growing up, stage acting was what I always wanted to do. It was always sort of musical-theater focused. Then I sort of lost interest in that in high school. In college I fell in love with Shakespeare, and would love to do more of that. There's also some really, really wonderful, amazing writing happening in the TV world right now. I think it'd be fun to do that as well. I'd love to be able to break into that. There's some really incredible writing going on there, so I think that would be fun. But I don't know what the future holds. I'm just going to ride the wave and see where it takes me.
MW: Obviously, you had a supportive family not just in terms of being gay, but in terms of your acting and theater aspirations. Is your sister also an actor?
URANOWITZ: She's also an actor. She's four years younger. She just graduated. She also went to NYU. Yeah, my parents were always very supportive. That was an incredible thing that they did. My parents are still married and still together. My dad stayed in New Jersey to work and make money while my mom moved up to Canada with me and my sister so that I could do the show. They lived apart from each other for a long time. They're just amazing.
MW: Have they seen you in Torch Song Trilogy?
URANOWITZ: They came to opening night. It was very nerve-wracking for all of us. It was also very emotional. It was a great night.
MW: One thing we didn't really touch on is the whole drag aspect of the character and the play. Early on, Arnold says drag queens are a dying breed, essentially asserting that once gays have more equality, drag queens will wither away. And yet, drag queens are probably more popular now than ever.
URANOWITZ: Than ever, I know, I know! It's fascinating. I think it's kind of wonderful, though, that the gay community sort of held on to this campy, over-the-top self-expression, and didn't let it die. I think, at the time, to Harvey -- this is probably not a very PC thing to say -- but there was something a little minstrelsy about drag: painted face and this caricature of a gay person to make people laugh. I think he probably thought that once [gays] were accepted that drag would probably not be. It's like Arnold says, like the blacks did to Amos, Andy and Aunt Jemima. It's these characters that came out of a struggle, but were sort of performed and done to entertain the naysayers. It's fascinating to me that drag has become more of an art form and a performance art, and I think that's kind of wonderful. I don't think it's necessarily about fighting to be accepted, although that is obviously a very real and very present struggle for any gay person, and any transgendered person and any drag queen. But at this point it's more about the art of it and the craft of it.
You know, with RuPaul's Drag Race and everything, some of these queens are kind of brilliant. They're really good at what they do.
MW: Do you think you'll do drag again?
URANOWITZ: I don't know. It's not something I've ever really thought about. It's really fun. But, you know, it's also kind of scary. Doing drag seems to me like doing standup comedy. It's like one of the scariest things to me. Like putting yourself out there and hoping that people respond and laugh and enjoy it. But, also, the other thing is, most drag queens have a gimmick. They have a thing. I have no idea what mine would be. But it would be something fun to explore.
I'm also going to have all of this makeup once the show is over, so I might as well use it, right?
Torch Song Trilogy runs to Oct. 13 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Call 202-332-3300 or visit studiotheatre.org.
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''Torch Song Trilogy had a very big emotional impact upon me when I saw it the first time around,'' Michael Kahn says. Of course, that was over 30 years ago, when Harvey Fierstein's play broke new ground as a Tony Award-winning hit play built on gay themes, with a lead character who is both gay and a drag queen. Kahn, whose main gig is as the Shakespeare Theatre Company's artistic director, hadn't thought much about the play in the intervening decades until Studio Theatre's David Muse asked him to make a directorial debut at the 14th Street venue. ''I knew that I wanted to do a play by a gay writer, so I re-read a bunch of plays and fell in love all over again with Torch Song.''
The play, which focuses on a gay man's struggles to find love and respect in relationships with men, as well as his hidebound, homophobic mother, is one that affects everyone, especially every LGBT person -- even today.
Torch Song Trilogy: Brandon Uranowitz and Alex Mills
(Photo by Todd Franson)
''In rehearsal, quite often we would be reading a scene or something and we'd all end up in tears,'' Kahn says about the seven actors he cast for the production that opens Studio Theatre's new season. ''We all decided we couldn't do the play like that, but there's just something about the [characters] being so human and so vulnerable and so often wrong…. It affected all of us.''
''It's still relevant today,'' says Alex Mills, who plays Alan, lead character Arnold Beckoff's lover. ''It's not just this time capsule that we're bringing back for nostalgia's sake.''
Studio Theatre's production of Torch Song Trilogy is the first in D.C. in decades. Mills thinks part of the reason it's so rarely performed is the show's length: Studio's version is a daunting three-and-a-half hours, with two intermissions. Of course, Shakespeare's plays are often near the same length. ''If the play is compelling, you don't really think about the time,'' Kahn avers. ''And the extraordinary thing about this play is it's emotional, but it's also very funny. And I think it's brilliantly constructed. Just when it gets emotional, there's a joke. And when it gets jokey, there's a scene that'll break your heart.''
An even bigger challenge in staging Torch Song Trilogy is finding the right cast. ''A couple roles were hard to cast, but the big one was Arnold,'' Kahn says, about the lead character, a role Fierstein wrote for himself -- and a character who's always on stage the entire length of the show. ''It didn't have to be anybody that looked like Harvey Fierstein or talked like Harvey Fierstein,'' Kahn adds. ''It just had to be somebody who could be this character.''
''I saw lots of people, and a lot of great actors,'' Kahn continues, ''but [none] able to find their way into being Arnold.'' That is, until -- really, truly -- the last day of auditions, when Brandon Uranowitz walked in. ''I didn't know Brandon, and I had no idea who he was,'' Kahn says. ''It was like some light came on in the room.''
Once Uranowitz proved he wasn't just a one-note actor, but was able to take on a variety of scenes and just really be Arnold, ''I knew then that I could do the play,'' says Kahn.
''It's kind of crazy how 'on' [Uranowitz] was from Day 1,'' Mills agrees. ''There's another 50 percent of jokes that he gets because of just the details he's put in with his physical behavior and mannerisms. He's completely fleshed out the character -- which is why it's so brilliant to watch.''
Critics agree. The Washington Post's Peter Marks even went so far as to suggest Uranowitz should star in every future production of Torch Song Trilogy, calling his portrayal ''an Arnold Beckoff for all (theater) seasons.''
The 27-year-old Uranowitz isn't a total newcomer to the stage. Among other things, in recent years he was in the national tour of Rent and he made his Broadway debut in the 2011 jukebox musical Baby, It's You. But Studio's Torch Song Trilogy is shaping up as a breakout role for Uranowitz. At the least, there's a good chance we'll see the New York-based actor again onstage in D.C. After all, in an interview with Metro Weekly Uranowitz says he'd like to do more Shakespeare. While noting that nothing has been discussed, Kahn, of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, adds: ''I'm very eager to see what else Brandon can do -- and to do it with him.''
METRO WEEKLY: How daunting was it to even consider playing Arnold Beckoff, a role still so closely tied to the man who created it?
BRANDON URANOWITZ: Well, I've never seen the movie, and I wasn't born yet when it was on Broadway. So the only thing that I could sort of gather was the tone, and what I know of Harvey's other work in other things. It was never my intention to do an impression or anything of Harvey. What happens to be on the page is very Harvey Fierstein, and so I assume that what I do hints at things that Harvey has done.
It was obviously daunting and terrifying because those are big shoes to fill. But I sort of had to make it my own in order to really give the emotional depth and the comedy and all of that any sort of truth. Because otherwise if I was just doing an impression, or if I just had Harvey in the back of my mind the whole time, something about that would seem false to me. So if I wanted Arnold to really become a human being, I needed to let that go, and put myself in there, and take the stuff off the page and put it in me and try to find my version of him.
MW: You've definitely made the character your own. Obviously, you don't have the voice, but I did wonder about your very comic, exaggerated mannerisms and moves: How much of that is naturally you and how much is what you were inspired to do because of the character?
URANOWITZ: [Laughs.] I guess I discovered all of that working on this show. I think all of that lives inside me to some extent. But I feel like this part allows me to explore the extreme parts of my character and parts of my personality that I can give on a daily basis. But for this character and for this show, I feel like I'm allowed to let them out of their cage a little bit and play. I guess they're part of me, but it's not really how I behave in my personal life. I think they exist inside of me, but getting to know Arnold more and more through the rehearsal process, it sort of came to the surface a little bit more.
MW: Well, it's pretty amazing to watch. So much of the script and what your character says is funny to begin with, but you've added another level with your body language alone.
URANOWITZ: Oh, well good, that's the goal I think. You know, we could all just read Harvey's script and laugh, because it's a beautiful, hilarious piece. But Arnold's also a person. And this person says these things, these zingers and these one-liners, so it seems to me that this person would probably act a certain way as well.
MW: How much do you identify with the role and the struggles Arnold went through, such as coming out?
URANOWITZ: My coming-out process was fairly smooth, because I just have wonderful, supportive, amazing parents. But for those big emotional scenes, I guess you just have to kind of dive into that well of fear that any gay man has I think when they're thinking of coming out. Any gay man growing up thinking about that process has the fear of a negative outcome, no matter how supportive or amazing your parents might be. Or not even just your parents, the people around you. So I think especially for those big scenes it was just trying to get in touch with what that felt like -- the unknown and the fear of having to deal with the possibility of a negative/adverse reaction to coming out.
MW: Have you done much camp or comedy before? Or even drag?
URANOWITZ: Never done drag before. Never played a gay character before, actually. So this is the first on those fronts for me. It's like playing dress-up, living out all the fantasies you have as a little gay boy wanting to put on lipstick.
I've done comedy -- Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound out at the Old Globe in San Diego. There's a very specific Jewish dryness and a Jewish tone that I grew up with, so doing Neil Simon or even playing this part, the comedy just sort of feels natural, and the intonations and the rhythms are stuff that I grew up with.
MW: How familiar were you with this play?
URANOWITZ: I had read it – I want to say in high school. I remember being completely moved and amazed by it, but also being a little scared of it, because I wasn't out yet. I was dealing with my sexuality, secretly, on my own, in my own head -- so I think I just sort of brushed it off.
But it's like one of those things that makes an impact and then sort of recesses into your subconscious and inspires a lot of the things that you do, but you don't really consciously think about it. I think it just sort of lives there forever. I never really thought about it until my agent called me with the audition appointment for the play. And then I re-read it, in my bed, alone, in my apartment in New York, laughing and sobbing. I had totally forgotten about it.
MW: Well, it's had quite a legacy. It was groundbreaking for its time, but even though it's set in its time period, the turn of the 1980s, it still has relevance today.
URANOWITZ: I know! That's what was so amazing to me about it, when I read it again. What else was so amazing to me was that it hasn't been done [much] at all since it premiered back in the '80s. And it's still so relevant, which is kind of wonderful to me. It's pre-AIDS, before the AIDS epidemic and before that tragedy. So it's nice to have a play where you can really just sort of focus on the relationships and the love -- the love story -- and not cloud it by this massive, massive tragedy, and you don't have to look at it through that lens. You can really just focus on the people, and what they want, and what they deserve and what they're entitled to. It's still so relevant.
MW: Back then marriage equality wasn't even –
URANOWITZ: And not just marriage equality. Gay relationships, gay love, period. There's this great interview that Harvey did with Barbara Walters, when [the show] premiered on Broadway. She's talking about gay love, and homosexual love, versus heterosexual love, and talking about it like it's this completely foreign, novel, alien idea.
MW: And I'm guessing back then the audience might have even sympathized a little more with the mother than they do today.
URANOWITZ: Yeah, probably. Exactly. Today she seems a little more malicious and villainous, but even back then I think they would have probably had a similar mindset [as she] about the whole thing. People's minds have changed, but the fight is still strong and I think that's why this play speaks to people still.
MW: It's also interesting to think about the audience. The night I saw it, the crowd was probably half straight. And in particular there's the gay-bar backroom scene, which is quite hysterical -- and the women behind me were laughing hard -- but it's also a bit startling to see the goings-on there so openly simulated onstage. In the midst of laughing I was also partly recoiling, thinking: These straight women aren't supposed to know about this, let alone find it funny.
URANOWITZ: I know! I know, it's jarring. But it was a reality. Harvey presents it in a comedic sort of tone, and through a comedic lens I think to make it a little more palatable for people. But, you know, it's where a lot of men went to satisfy their urges and their desires that they were not allowed to have. And they had to do that in a dark backroom where it was a kept secret, and no one could see your face. It was completely anonymous. People think that that's dirty, and irresponsible. And at some point it did become irresponsible because of the disease, but these men are struggling in the outside world to live. Arnold says it in the play that he wants to live a normal life, out in the daylight where everybody can see him. But he goes into the backroom because that's where people would go.
MW: And there is a distinction made between love and sex, and the hunt for a relationship -- and whether that has to be built on monogamy. The play notably touches on that with the ''straight'' couple, Ed and Laurel.
URANOWITZ: Like Arnold says in the play, monogamy is a much easier system to keep track of. You can be there, and you can live in it, and you can be comfortable and safe and stable in it, but then once you start opening those doors, which Ed and Laurel seem so dead-set on opening, it allows for a lot of the unknown. And that can play into the relationship in negative, detrimental ways, whether you want to admit it or not.
MW: Speaking of relationships: The Wikipedia entry on you says you're married to actor Molly Hager.
URANOWITZ: Oh, my God, I know. [Laughs.] Okay, here's the story behind that. This is the first time it's actually sort of affected my professional life.
When Facebook first came out, it was for a handful of colleges. And one of my best friends at NYU was Molly Hager, and she still is one of my closest, closest friends. And Facebook was just this weird kind of fun website that people would play with when we were at college. It didn't have all the features that it has now. It was pretty basic. And then they randomly started rolling out these different features, and one of them was the relationship status, and there was a married option. We thought that that was hilarious, because it was just for young college kids. Like, who the hell is married and in a relationship on Facebook? Which seems so silly now because, I mean, most people have a Facebook now.
So we decided to get married on Facebook. This was like in 2005. Then Facebook blew up, and we vowed never to change it. I have no idea who created my Wikipedia page. Molly has no idea who created hers. But somehow it made it on there because of this thing on Facebook. And we just think it's hilarious, but I guess maybe it's probably more responsible to change it at this point.
But, no, I was never married to Molly Hager. Nope. Never.
MW: Are you in a relationship these days?
URANOWITZ: I am. To an actor, Zach, that I met doing my first Broadway show, Baby, It's You. He was my understudy. That was in 2011. So it's been almost two-and-a-half years. He's in Portland doing Fiddler on the Roof, but, hopefully, if we extend he'll be able to come and see this show.
MW: It must present special challenges, being in a relationship with a fellow actor.
URANOWITZ: Oh, my God. Especially 'cause it's not just dating a fellow actor – it's dating an actor and we go out for the same parts. Like he auditioned for this, you know what I mean? It's sort of something that comes up all the time. It's a really true test of character and keeps your selfishness and selflessness in check. Becoming an actor -- like any job should be, really -- it's kind of a dream you have growing up as a kid, and you have all these fantasies and aspirations of all this stuff growing up. You're not growing up, necessarily, with your significant other [in mind]. So once this person comes into your life, it becomes about prioritizing your dreams and this person that you love unconditionally, and trying to put all of those things that you'd fantasize about in your childhood aside for the sake of a healthy, positive relationship. It's a struggle. It's a struggle, but we're somehow making it work.
MW: When you two compete for a part and you win, such as this one, do you owe him something? I mean, do you find a way to make it up to him?
URANOWITZ: [Laughs.] No, no, because what we've realized over the past couple years is that it can't be a competition. I'll get a part, he'll get a part, I'll get a part, he'll get a part. It's always just going to be alternating. That's how it's been historically for us. The comeuppance, I guess, if you want to call it that, is getting another part somewhere down the road.
MW: Have you actually worked together since that first time in Baby, It's You? Would you like to?
URANOWITZ: No, we have not. Yeah! I think that would be fun. It would be very interesting. I'd be curious to see what exactly we would do together.
MW: Growing up, did you have your sights set on becoming a stage actor?
URANOWITZ: Yeah, well, I grew up in New Jersey, right outside of New York City. I was in extracurricular acting/theater classes since I was 6.
Then I started – because we were so close to New York – I started acting professionally. I did a lot of stuff as a kid between the ages of 9 and 13. And I was in the world premiere of Ragtime in Toronto. My mom and my sister moved with me to Toronto for eight months. Growing up, stage acting was what I always wanted to do. It was always sort of musical-theater focused. Then I sort of lost interest in that in high school. In college I fell in love with Shakespeare, and would love to do more of that. There's also some really, really wonderful, amazing writing happening in the TV world right now. I think it'd be fun to do that as well. I'd love to be able to break into that. There's some really incredible writing going on there, so I think that would be fun. But I don't know what the future holds. I'm just going to ride the wave and see where it takes me.
MW: Obviously, you had a supportive family not just in terms of being gay, but in terms of your acting and theater aspirations. Is your sister also an actor?
URANOWITZ: She's also an actor. She's four years younger. She just graduated. She also went to NYU. Yeah, my parents were always very supportive. That was an incredible thing that they did. My parents are still married and still together. My dad stayed in New Jersey to work and make money while my mom moved up to Canada with me and my sister so that I could do the show. They lived apart from each other for a long time. They're just amazing.
MW: Have they seen you in Torch Song Trilogy?
URANOWITZ: They came to opening night. It was very nerve-wracking for all of us. It was also very emotional. It was a great night.
MW: One thing we didn't really touch on is the whole drag aspect of the character and the play. Early on, Arnold says drag queens are a dying breed, essentially asserting that once gays have more equality, drag queens will wither away. And yet, drag queens are probably more popular now than ever.
URANOWITZ: Than ever, I know, I know! It's fascinating. I think it's kind of wonderful, though, that the gay community sort of held on to this campy, over-the-top self-expression, and didn't let it die. I think, at the time, to Harvey -- this is probably not a very PC thing to say -- but there was something a little minstrelsy about drag: painted face and this caricature of a gay person to make people laugh. I think he probably thought that once [gays] were accepted that drag would probably not be. It's like Arnold says, like the blacks did to Amos, Andy and Aunt Jemima. It's these characters that came out of a struggle, but were sort of performed and done to entertain the naysayers. It's fascinating to me that drag has become more of an art form and a performance art, and I think that's kind of wonderful. I don't think it's necessarily about fighting to be accepted, although that is obviously a very real and very present struggle for any gay person, and any transgendered person and any drag queen. But at this point it's more about the art of it and the craft of it.
You know, with RuPaul's Drag Race and everything, some of these queens are kind of brilliant. They're really good at what they do.
MW: Do you think you'll do drag again?
URANOWITZ: I don't know. It's not something I've ever really thought about. It's really fun. But, you know, it's also kind of scary. Doing drag seems to me like doing standup comedy. It's like one of the scariest things to me. Like putting yourself out there and hoping that people respond and laugh and enjoy it. But, also, the other thing is, most drag queens have a gimmick. They have a thing. I have no idea what mine would be. But it would be something fun to explore.
I'm also going to have all of this makeup once the show is over, so I might as well use it, right?
Torch Song Trilogy runs to Oct. 13 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Call 202-332-3300 or visit studiotheatre.org.
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