March 2008 Archives
Site Stats: Oct 2007 - Mar 2008By on March 31, 2008 4:11 PM | 2 Comments
So March has been a good month for my blog! My hard work on revamping the site and making it more blogtastic have indeed paid off, as you can see below. March, which ends today, will have seen an almost 300% increase in unique visitors over February. You can see the previous six months below. Wew-hew!
Speaking of Queering Gender...By on March 31, 2008 1:32 PM | No Comments
Perez just posted this photo of Madge all muscled up. He's not a fan - but damn if she ain't fucking up femininity:
By on March 31, 2008 11:58 AM | 2 Comments
Gary Dowsett et al have just published a new piece in Sexualities about gay men's use of barebacking internet sites. Dowsett has long been doing fascinating work on gay men through the lens of masculinity studies, and this new piece is no exception. They begin by sketching out the need for internet studies and then by overviewing masculinity studies. I particularly like this bit on the trouble with trying to fit gay men in a domination/subordination model of gender power relations (which I just blogged about last weekend):
In gender theory, particularly mainstream forms of feminist theory, gay men are often wedged back inside patriarchy by virtue of their biological sex – they are men first and foremost. In the hegemony/subordination formulation, gay men are usually lodged on the right-hand side of the virgule, at best trapped within a set of discursive practices that render them always trailing behind if still within patriarchy, or at worst marginalized, stigmatized, refused or locked out from much of the patriarchal dividend. Which is it to be: subordinated or embedded? Is the reference point for gay men qua men still and always non-homosexual men, and then only the minority atop the hegemonic masculinity totem pole? Might we misread such barebacking sexual pursuits as merely masculine and miss something vital about the sexual that could be useful for HIV prevention?
He then goes on to complicate how gay men are percieved in the Western world at this moment, which I've also just blogged about. He notes that, in most western cultures, gay men "are certainly at or near the bottom of the masculine pecking order; yet, gay men’s position in the gender order is not uniformly that of subordination." He goes on to argue that, since the rise of gay rights movements in the 1970s, there has been a dramatic shift in gay men's position in western culture. The failure to acknowledge this shift, he says, is due in part to the current dialogues on Western sexuality that are largely limited to gay/straight and dominant/subordinate, which end up making for a pretty lousy discourse on sexuality (my words!). Dowsett ends this paragraph with two powerful questions:
1. "Is subordination all that gay men experience?"2. "We can extend this question by asking whether this applies to gay men uniformly; questions of social class, race and ethnicity, age and generation, even disability, come into play.
Dowsett concludes that "The rendering of gay men as a subordinate class/caste in the gender order masks significant chasms, fractures, gaps or simply differences within the homosexual order of desire" -- which is fancy way of saying that to uniformly describe gay men as being always "done wrong to" in our gendered culture is to erase the vast differences that exist in our experiences today.
In their analysis of barebacking sites, they find several themes (they refer to the six websites analyzed in ALL CAPS psuedonyms):
1. Macho Body Talk: "No flinching faggots here; both homosexual sex and barebacking are charging forward as definitively manly and ‘pussies’ flee in their wake! Elsewhere, site users are also enjoined to ‘simply tell the world that you take it like a man’. Here, the receptive mode in sex is manly; receiving semen (presumably anally as this is a barebacking site) is what ‘real men’ do."2. Sexual Ethics: "Men’s sexual actions are popularly regarded as selfish or oafish. There certainly was a hint of this in NOWIMP: ‘you just want to fuck and go home’ and ‘no matter what you promised, never, never pull out of Dodge’ (meaning even if you promised to withdraw before ejaculating, do not). This was rarely evident in other sites. More often, there were issues of intimacy, reciprocity, responsibility and comportment that emerged from the site analysis.4 We term these collectively sexual ethics."
3. Race and Ethnicity: "Importantly for the purposes of this article, we note the identification of race/ethnicity as an important sexual marker in the sites, particularly, but not exclusively, among users of colour. This is not achieved just through the employment of racialized stereotypes – Asians are ‘bottoms’ and effeminate, African Americans are ‘hung’ and ‘studly’ – although these clearly have effects (see Cheng, 1999). Handles at times (e.g. ‘blondbutt’, ‘tempura’ and ‘strokinrican’) and profile statements (e.g. ‘uninhibited black hole’, ‘into ethnic guys, latino, african-american, and asian’, or ‘I am open to all races and types of people . . . but a latin/Italian top would be ideal . . . and of course . . . strong Black brotha’) revealed how racial markers add, either explicitly or implicitly, a sexual cadence that intensifies desires sought or offered. Reading these markers becomes a racial act in itself: a user is urged to consider what race/ethnicity might offer to a potential sexual act or encounter. Deep-seated cultural and historical forces are engaged here. How does a European American man using these sites to meet African American men ‘read’ what is meant in an African American man’s profile text ‘horny big dick bottom looking to hook up with well hung tops’? Masculinities also become racialized (Bleys, 1995) in the handles users utilize, e.g. one African-American user called himself 'thugbro’, someone who ‘love[s] to tear up some ass’. The sexual cannot be separated from the racial/ethnic here; indeed, they are one and the same phenomenon."
Dowsett et al conclude with a call for more thoughtful research and theoretical work on the intersections between sexuality and gender -- and particularly research that looks more closely at intersections with other important factors such as race/ethnicity.
Curiously -- and I think rather brilliantly -- they discuss the ways in which the dialogues on these barebacking sites removes the penis as the focus of attention, and puts it all on the "desiring anus":
"One key feature is the decentring of the penis and the ascendancy of the desiring anus. Sexual objectification becomes a project of the self. There is playfulness, irony, dissidence and, at times, downright contradiction in the way language, bodies, desire and the self-as-object are deployed.
Dowsett has more hope for these discourses than I do. I have tended to link the "breeding" barebacking subcultures (porn, websites, etc) to a dominant heterosexist culture in ways that he is rejecting and resisting. I will certainly need to rethink some of my analysis in light of their arguments....
Unfortunately I can't repost the entire piece. Here's a link (if you have access via a library). The full citation is:
Dowsett, G. W., et al. (2008). 'Taking it like a man': Masculinity and barebacking online. Sexualities, 11 (1-2), 121-141."Ditch the Label" Campaign. *Yawn*
By on March 29, 2008 8:20 PM | No Comments
A seventeen year old in the United Kingdom has launched a new web campaign titled "Ditch the Label," which encourages young people to abandon social identity categories such as race, gender, and sexuality. How very 1990s queer theory of him. I have to say, I'm tired of this kind of postmodern anti-identity "politics." Don't get me wrong -- the intentions are in the right place. No doubt about that. But I would argue that this kind of politics is deeply neoliberal (read: individualistic) and riddled with problems.
Let me explain a little bit. When I say postmodern / neoliberal, what I am referring here to is the kind of language that movements like this use which reject any notion that groups of people may share anything in common at all. "Ditch the Label," for instance, says "we believe that you are unique and that one, two or even three idiotic social labels... cannot define your entire personality." Like, duh! Since when did identity-based movements claim that to be gay you must be EXACTLY one way. I know plenty of different kinds of gay communities that promote / tolerate / support doing very different ways of being gay.
The idea that we should all just abandon these identities flies in the face of the reality that, for many of us, we find great utility / joy / support from these identities and the communities they can bring. Everyone *loves* to complain about gay or black or woman as being bogged down by "baggage," but as I've blogged about before, no one ever acknowledges that "baggage" isn't just a burden we carry around with us, but also a potential toolkit from which we can draw. Identities are of course constructed - but they are also constantly in flux - and open to reinterpretation and movement. Just think about the bear movement, which has totally reshaped the possibilities for what "gay" looks like.
I will certainly agree that our communities are often formed out of a shared sense of isolation / marginalization / prejudice. And certainly as we win more battles, that shared experience will (and has already) become much more diffuse. I think that this is obviously reflected in some of the gay teens I talk to today who aren't as inclined to be a part of any "gay community." I think this makes sense. But to me this is a contextual issue, and will become increasingly disparate between people who live in more tolerant communities and people who live in more hostile communities (think teens growing up in South Carolina versus teens growing up in the Bay Area). Thus, we can expect some variation in people's "need" for "gay" and "lesbian" and the resources they bring. I haven't fleshed these ideas out as much as I'd like to yet, though. Anyone have ideas?
Thanks to Fred for passing this along via Joe. My. God.!
CDC Quietly Releases Data on Black MSMBy on March 28, 2008 12:02 PM | No Comments
Sorry for the delay in posting this - this is super important info!!!!
MARCH 25, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kenyon Farrow 917.627.0853, kfarrow@champnetwork.org
A YEAR LATER, A RESPONSE DEFERRED:
CDC’S “HEIGHTENED NATIONAL RESPONSE” TO
HIV/AIDS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMMUNITY
IS CHAOTIC, UNDERFUNDED, AND FAR FROM ITS GOALS
As CDC quietly releases figures revealing 80% boost in HIV in Black gay youth,
advocates call for national AIDS strategy, adequate funding, and political leadership
Launched with much fanfare in March 2007, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC) A Heightened National Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis Among African-Americans called for “expanding the reach of prevention services; increasing opportunities for diagnosing and treating HIV; developing new, effective prevention interventions, and; mobilizing broader community action.” (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/cdc.htm)
One year later, the Heightened National Response (HNR) effort has been marked by shifting leadership, lack of communication to local leaders and community organizations, and no new funding for any initiatives that are not restricted to HIV testing. It is now widely believed that Madeline Sutton, MD, MPH, CDC Acting Director of Partnerships in the Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention, the latest in a series of individuals responsible for HNR, will once again restructure the initiative in an attempt to address its significant shortfalls.
In response to the failure of the HNR, leaders of the 13,000-person CHAMP Network are calling for a comprehensive, results-oriented and measurable national AIDS strategy, rather than piecemeal, under-funded initiatives that have not resulted in concrete change.
“The CDC released this report last March, and the only change we’ve seen is more HIV for African Americans, not less,” says Kenyon Farrow, Director of Communication at Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP). “This seems like yet another grand vision outlined in a glossy document that is, in fact, ill-equipped to make any real dent in new infections. We need real leadership, real funding and a comprehensive strategy at the federal level if we’re going to do more than give lip service to HIV prevention in our country.”
Advocates note that the HNR anniversary has coincided with CDC’s quiet release of new data revealing that Black gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) ages 13-24 had a nearly 80% increase in new HIV infections from 2001-2005 (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/slides/msm/index.htm). Another new study documents that fully half of all African American girls have had a sexually-transmitted infection (STI), which has been shown to increase the likelihood of HIV infection. HIV/AIDS is the number one cause of death for African-American women ages 25-34.
One year ago, CDC gathered leaders from around the country to announce the HNR, asking them to make specific commitments on pledge cards to amplifying their efforts. Now, leaders from around the country – including those in cities where CDC promoted HIV testing as a part of HNR – say that their pledges were never organized into significant efforts. In fact, many of the existing HIV prevention programs serving Black Americans through federal funds are in danger of losing funding under the Bush Administration’s 2009 budget proposal.
“The US requires countries applying for our global AIDS funding to have a national AIDS strategy, yet we don’t even have one of our own. Instead, we’ve got a chaotic and under-funded CDC dog-and-pony show passing out pledge cards that then get tossed between transient program heads,” says Waheedah Shabazz-El of CHAMP. “Perhaps the CDC should be up front about its own challenges to help Congress and the President recognize the need for a comprehensive national AIDS strategy, rather than rallying hardworking Black community leaders around grandiose plans almost guaranteed to fall short due to lack of resources and coordination.”
E Patrick Johnson: A Southern TreatBy on March 28, 2008 7:55 AM | 1 Comment
I had the pleasure and honor to attend a performance last night by E Patrick Johnson from his forthcoming book, Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales. "Pouring tea" in black gay southern circles is an expression for dishing gossip, and his performance strings together several narratives from black gay men in the South that he collected between 2004 and 2006. The men he interviewed were between the ages of 19 and 93 and from fifteen different states. I was homesick for most of the performance, with several of his guys hailing from or mentioning North Carolina!
The eight narratives, each built around a core theme ("Religion," "Being Transgendered," "Being Gay in the South," "Coming Out," "Sex," "Coming of Age in the 1920s and 30s," "Masculinity and Peer Pressure," and "Being a Southern Diva"), began first with a short audio clip directly from Johnson's interview with them. He would then perform -- word for word (including "ums" and "ahs"), we're told -- a segment of that interview. It was gorgeous! What complicated and fabulously intriguing stories were told.
I was struck by the resiliency in the narratives he performed, and so at the reception following the event I asked him about just that. He said that he had interviewed some 70 guys (I can't recall the exact number), and that resiliency was not a theme consistent accross all the narratives -- but that those were the stories that he wanted to perform. And it paid off!
The book is forthcoming. You must find it and a purchase it when it comes out!!! He'll be launching the book at UNC Chapel Hill. Sigh. Wish I could be there.
Seattle Trans Art Exhibition VandalizedBy on March 26, 2008 11:46 PM | No Comments
A fellow SexPoller, David Steinberg, has been travelling around showing photos from his latest project, "Divas of San Francisco," which features portraits of transsexual women who work at or frequent the bar Divas in San Fran. His work is currently showing at the Benham Gallery in Seattle in a show titled "Erotic Beauty." The show opened March 5th, and David was there on the 8th to give a talk on the show.
This past Saturday, someone smeared feces on the outside of the gallery during business hours, and then the next day someone threw a manhole and smashed the front window of the gallery. The gallery owners posted a sign on the plastic covering where the window used to be that reads:
We believe our window was smashed by a person who was challenged by the content of this exhibition. The subjects of these artworks have experienced enough of this kind of cowardliness and violence. We are happy to discuss our curatorial decisions with anyone who wishes to talk with us instead of experiencing this kind of behavior
Indeed! That's some fucked up BS for ya.
Bottoms for ObamaBy on March 26, 2008 9:19 PM | No Comments
Chris Bartlett was talking about this all wekeend in Guerneville. Does this mean I should be endorsing Obama now? So torn!
P.S. Don't you love the reference to the chocolate starfish? Amazing!
GMHLA Photos!By on March 25, 2008 3:53 AM | No Comments
As promised, here are a few photos I took this weekend in Guerneville. You can click on each picture to make it larger!
Here Bill smiles for the camera, overlooking a beautiful coastal view as we make our way up to the Academy site in Guerneville:
Same lookout point - I love this photo of Bill and Jason
Gorgeous!
Now in Guerneville, this is a candid photo snapped of Steve Gibson (director of Magnet in SF) overlooking "Julie Andrews Point," named as such because of it's resemblance to the scene in The Sound of Music when Julie Andrews sings the title song:
Bobby G + Joshua + Bill = Adorable!
On our way to "Julie Andrews Point" for the group photo!
The Gang!
Aww! This is my tribe -- "Oh Mighty Sisi." You can see us sing our theme song here at the GMHLA blog:
The beautiful faciliators: Kevin, Scott, Fred, and Chris:
How fucking adorable are Bobby G and Joshua!
Joshua and Luis -- snuggled up by the fire!
And finally, the grandmaster of brownies, Chris Bartlett:
By on March 24, 2008 9:21 PM | No Comments
Wow. I'm sitting here at the Chili's restaurant in the Chicago airport, waiting for my long layover to finally end, and I can't stop thinking about my sunny weekend in Guerneville. What a beautiful group of gay men. I still feel like I'm basking in the sun under the California sun - but perhaps that's because I have a sunburn on my arms and nose! I remain struck by one of the comments at one of the closing session. I can't remember who said it, but they reminded us that "Many people say that gay activism is dead. This room of men proves that wrong." Indeed.
What I will take back home with me to Michigan is a revitalized hope for the future of gay men's health organizing. If I have to spend the rest of my life working with these 32 guys, then I will be guaranteed a happy life. There were so many wonderful men in Guerneville. Michael Hurley, an Australian researcher whose humility and cutting insight is reflected in the utter captiviation he inspires in his audience. Joshua Love, who works with the Metropolitan Community Church and has one of the most ridiculously faggy laughs I think I've ever heard. Chris Bartlett, one of the facilitators and perhaps one of the sweetest and attentive men I've ever met. There are so many more -- everyone in attendance deserves recognition for their hard work, honesty, and kindness.
I unfortunately was so enthralled with the activities and socializing that went on in Guerneville that I did not get a chance to interview anyone for my podcast. Have no fear, I have backup plans. Hopefully I'll pull something together in the coming weeks for Episode II.
Okay, time for me to hop on a plane (again!). I hate travelling! For more on the academy, check out the main blog
xoxo
Trevor
By on March 24, 2008 11:03 AM | No Comments
Well, here I am. It's about 8 AM here in Guerneville, and I leave in about an hour back to SFO where I catch my flight to Michigan. Bummer. This weekend has been tremendous! I will sorely miss all the guys here -- their spirit, their energy, and their sexiness! :)
Yesterday began with breakfast as per usual, and then we moved into a session on leadership. We discussed the three types of leadership -- "Steward" leaders; "Inspirational" leaders; and "Servant" leaders. I'll post pictures of the "post-it" notes that included examples of each. It's 8 AM and so I can't quite process right now. But I remember one thing: if these are my options, I am certainly an inspirational leader. While the other types do not always feel strongly about "right" and "wrong" -- or rather, that they are able to distinguish clearly between the two -- I feel passionately about deciding between the two. I'll add more about this typology later.
What was perhaps the highlight of my day -- and weekend! -- was my participant-led session yesterday on my upcoming research project in bottom identity in gay men. Over a dozen guys came to dish about what they thought being a bottom meant and how I could best frame my questions and overall project. We had a fabulous discussion about sissy tops, pushy bottoms, and pleasure. These guys really pushed me in new directions, especially since my past audiences for this research proposal have been non-gay-male academics. While they can give great feedback on methods, not many folks who I talk to at Michigan can give me much insight into bottoming!
This discussion bled out into the smoking patio afterwards, and I continued chatting about bottoming with Jason Riggs from Stop AIDS Project. 7 out of the 28 participants here this weekend were from Stop AIDS, and I was honestly nervous going into this weekend that their organizational politics might overtake the weekend. This hasn't been the case. I also was a bit worried because I wrote an editorial in the Bay Area Reporter a little over two years ago that pissed off a lot of prevention agencies in SF. So I'm never sure how those folks will percieve me / interact with me. I was really blown away by my conversations and interactions with Jason. I think I often have a hard time seeing past organizations and their internal politics -- and talking with Jason demanded that I do just that.
Jason and I also instigated a caucus session yesterday about social marketing, in particular trying to think about doing assets-based HIV prevention. That is, doing positively framed prevention that encourages healthy behavior, rather than deficit-based prevention which blames gay men for their problems or tells them *not* to do something we see as unhealthy. I think we came to a concensus that good prevention needs to be happening outside the bounds of organizations -- whose hands are tied by funding and politics. This might mean doing guerilla marketing campaigns with sexy / daring imagery that could never be produced by The Department of Public Health. I think we just need to take matters into our own hands.
My battery is running low, so I'll have to cut the rest short. But check out this video of me and the Sisi tribe (which I talked about yesterday) doing our mantra! How fabulous!
So sad I have to leave in an hour. I can't believe I have to leave this beautiful place in the mountains to return to a cold, dreary, Michigan. Ugh. I'll miss these guys!
xoxo
Trevor
Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy: Day Two!By on March 23, 2008 11:19 AM | No Comments | 1 TrackBack
So I didn't wake up quite so early today as I did yesterday. Last night we were up late playing cards -- but I'm getting ahead of myself! Yesterday was an action packed day. We began the day with a lovely breakfast prepared by the staff here at the Wildwood Retreat Center. The highlight was this amazing blueberry cake/break, toasted with a smear of peanut on top. Heaven!!!
I found some of the conversations yesterday a bit challenging. I haven't yet voiced some of my concerns, because I like to see where the conversation heads. I also wasn't quite sure what those concerns were. Now that I've had time to sleep with it, I feel that they mostly derive from one of the sessions that relied heavily on the language of "oppression" and "structuralism" (e.g. "white men hold the power"), which I find completely erases the complexity of everyday life. Collectively white men may indeed hold many of the cards, but: 1) we can imagine plenty of white men who are pretty powerless in many situations -- whether it be due to economic or gendered reasons; and 2) this erases -- and I mean erases -- any potential to understand how masculinity (which works to buttress male privelege) also has deeply painful emotional consequences for all men (and all women too, at that!). So I felt a bit frustrated by the conversation here, which I found relied on a kind of 60s / 70s style oppression framework that I thought had gone out of style (for good reason).
Phew. I'm glad to have written that to process my thoughts here. I'll find a chance hopefully to share them later. After this session, we were split up into "tribes" of men -- small working groups that we would be relying on for the rest of the academy. My tribe is the "Oh Mighty Sisi" tribe, which plays on the fact that Isis (the Egyptian God) spelled backwards is Sisi (pronounced, of course, like sissy). We used a piece of the music from the TV show from the 70s, The Secrets of Isis. We might have changed the words a bit:
Oh Mighty Isis!Sissy Winds
That Blow on High
Lift Us High
Into the Sky
There may have been some lisping and limp-wristing involved in our performance of said song. Good times.
We moved on to have a chat about the Gay Men's Health Movement's history and development over the past 20 years or so (with a loose timeline extending much further into the past). This is of course important historical work, to mark our progress and development and to make sure that other people also mark and remember it. We traced out history as coming out of the African-American and Women's Health Movements of the 70s, which both worked in reaction to a medical establishment that was not meeting their needs (and was often doing damage to their communities).
Perhaps one of the day's highlights was a participant-led workshop from Michael Scarce, whose work on crystal meth in San Fran I recently discussed here. He led a discussion about creating a movement of men who were trained to respond quickly and effectively to media messaging and medical research that potentially stigmatizes (or outright demonizes) gay men's lives and sexualities. This of course comes directly out of his work with MSRA recently, but also comes out of a desire to broaden the conversations beyond MRSA. I think this is excellent -- and I hope our conversations bears real fruit in the future.
The event was lovely. A group of us walked up to "Julie Andrews Point," which is called as such because it gloriously resembles the scene from The Sound of Music in which Julie Andrews run across the field singing the movie's theme song. It was pitch dark when we went up there, although the moon was so bright that the fields were basked in a silvery light. One of the participants by the name of Eric sang some songs and told some lovely scary stories -- which were only seperated by Chris Bartlett's painfully accurate renditions of a few of Ethel Merman's songs. Intense!
And of course post-storytelling, I had to jump into the hot tub. Yes! Gotta love the hot tub. Okay, I have to run. Time for breakfast! I woke up a bit late.
xoxo
Trevor
Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy: Day OneBy on March 22, 2008 10:29 AM | 1 Comment | 1 TrackBack
Good morning! It's 7:30 AM here in beautiful Guerneville, California - rise and shine! I can't believe I got up so early; I intended to sleep for another hour. Must be the mountain air! Yesterday around 3:30 PM, my friend Bill and his roomie Jason picked me up from my old apartment in the Castro to make our way up the California coast to Guerneville. We took the scenic route, quite literally. It was gorgeous. I'll add photos to each of these posts when I get back home (or if I'm able to scrounge up a USB connector for my camera). We drove up the CA-1 highway -- it was truly breathtaking!
Of course the scenic route had a cost -- it took us some time to get here. But we arrived at the Wildwood Retreat Center (where Chris just informed me Eric Rofes was married to Crispin some 10 years ago), which is a gay-owned little piece of heaven near the Russian River. It's really beautiful! We had to climb up a one-lane, twisty-turvy stretch of several miles to get to the Center. It was a bit daunting! But luckily we made it up without incident -- and we arrived just in time for dinner!
We moved from dinner to a session in the "yurt," a circular, hut-like structure where we all sat around in a circle lit by candles. It was beautiful! Each attendee was asked to, when the spirit moved them, to call out the name of a person who had inspired them and that they would like to honor in that moment. The diversity of our group was reflected in the range of people that attendees called out to. For some it was a family member or a close friend; for some it was an author or activist; and for others it was a fuck buddy who had unexpectedly impacted them.
I called out the name of Eric Rofes, for the way in which he mentored me and "took me seriously" as a thinker and activist. I remembered the way that, before I moved to San Fran in 2005, I would e-mail him three or four-page mini-essays on HIV and gay men -- and how, within the hour, Eric would have responded with an email just as thoughtful and lengthy as mine. I said that he was a model for a "feminist gay man who has a lot of great sex -- which is all I can ever hope to be." Amen.
After the session concluded and everyone had spoke, we broke up and went to mingle around the center. Of course, I immediately jumped into my bathing suit and headed for the hot tub! Oy vey! I *love* a good hot tub, and their's was no exception. The best part was that the pool was seperated from the hot tub by a small partition, which made jumping between the two pretty easy! The pool was *freezing* -- but it felt great after roasting in the hot water for a bit. Yum.
I spent the evening milling around the center, having some really fabulous conversations with many of the participants here about any number of issues: HIV prevention, social marketing, gay men's communities, doing prevention work with men who have sex with men but don't identifiy as gay -- what a great group we've got here! There are men (and one woman!) here from Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Fort Lauderdale, New York, and even Australia! I'm really excited and thrilled to be joining such a lovely group of guys. I think I'm in for a wonderful weekend! I'll be keeping y'all up-to-date on things here. Have a fab weekend!
xoxo
Trevor
Social Science By and For IdiotsBy on March 21, 2008 5:54 PM | No Comments
Jesus Christ! I've had it up to here with these bullshit stories that keep appearing over alleged "lost productivity" in the office space due to some inane reason. Case in point: Newsweek's story, "March Madness: Bad for Business," in which they claim that streaming webcasts of the game cost businesses in the US $1.7 billion dollars. This story is one of hundreds out there that lazily try to link some distraction in the workplace to billions of dollars of potential work-tim.
Please! It's got to be the most bullshit kind of social science I've ever seen. This is what lazy social science does. It doesn't actually prove -- or even attempt to prove -- a cause and effect relationship. It merely assumes the relationship between the two.
Newsweek briefly acknowledges these gross shortcomings in the story, but the article's subhead says it all: "America's B-ball obsession costs $1.7B in lost productivity." Um. You can't say that, Newsweek:
According to Cobb, March Madness distractions could cost American companies about $1.7 billion in lost productivity. "It's certainly going to impact ability the concentrate," he says. Cobb is the first to admit the figure is not the most scientific; its based on the estimated number of workers expected to participate in pools, the money they earn and estimates 10 minutes wasted each day on March Madness-related activities. That 10-minute figure is largely a guess, Cobb says. And its also unclear whether those 10 March Madness wasted minutes would have actually been spent working diligently or, say, playing Scrabble online - workers could just be substituting one time wasting activity with another.
Pathetic! This is what bad social science looks like. Rick Cobb should be fired. Sarah Kliff (author of the story) should be fired. It's not just lazy, it's horribly inaccurate and misleading. Ugh!
Salon: "What's So Funny About Black Men in Dresses?"By on March 21, 2008 1:58 PM | No Comments
Speaking of black drag queens, Salon.com has just posted an article analyzing the recent trend in black movies to feature male actors doing.... drag? Well, it's not quite drag, really. It's something much more tricky and complicated and problematic. The author cites critics who call this trend nothing more than an updated minstrel show:
Like Chappelle, blogger Darryl James sees the phenomenon as part of an effort to neutralize black masculinity. For him and a lot of other straight black men, gender-bending comedians are "castrated clowns," whose emasculation makes them palatable to white people and man-hating black women alike. "The black man in drag is one of the new coons," he writes. Never mind that he's also one of the old coons -- according to Marjorie Garber's 1999 book, "Vested Interests," the men who played women in minstrel shows were "the best-paid performers in the minstrel company."
Her analysis in the rest of the article I find a bit weak, but it's worth reading. I think this trend is something that we -- we being people concerned about representations of race, gender, and sexuality -- should certainly be thinking critically about!
Wish I could write more, but I'm off to lunch with my friend Ethan and then hopping in a car with my friend Bill, whose giving me a lift to Guerneville!
Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy or Bust!By on March 19, 2008 1:41 AM | No Comments
I fly out in a few hours to San Francisco to attend the Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy in Guerneville this weekend! Wew-hew! I'll keep y'all up to date on that. They'll also be posting updates at the Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy Blog - check it out!
In the meantime, here's an amusing video one of the co-facilitators sent, starring the four presenters for this weekend! Enjoy!
Call for Papers: Special Trans Issue of HypatiaBy on March 18, 2008 11:14 PM | No Comments
http://www.msu.edu/~hypatia/
Call For Papers:
For a Special Issue of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy
Transgender Studies and Feminism: Theory, Politics, and Gendered Realities
Edited by Talia Mae Bettcher and Ann Garry
The recent publication of The Transgender Studies Reader (ed. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle, New York: Routledge, 2006) marks a watershed in the development of trans studies. Arising in the early nineties in close relation to queer theory, trans studies is characterized by the coming-to-voice of trans people, long the theorized and researched objects of sexology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and even feminist theory.
Sandy Stone’s groundbreaking “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto” sought the end of monolithic accounts of trans people (authored by non-trans) to reveal a multiplicity of trans narratives told by trans people themselves. By recognizing trans people as flesh and blood human beings with particular access to experiences of “transness” and transphobic oppression, as its starting point, trans studies opens up a way of theorizing “transgender”--for trans and non-trans people alike--that ideally resists, rather than reinforces, mechanisms of transphobia. This raises important questions in feminist theory and politics. How can feminist theory best understand transphobia and trans resistance? Where do feminist and trans politics meet? Where are the overlaps and gaps, the points of connection and disconnection?
Hypatia invites submissions to a special issue on transgender studies and feminism, which recognizes the emergence of trans studies.
We welcome articles that investigate the relations between feminism and transgender studies. Articles exploring the intersections of multiple oppressions are especially welcome, as are submissions that come from subject-positions outside the United States (and North America more generally). We seek a collection of papers that is international in scope.
We also welcome articles that focus on issues specific to trans studies, trans politics, and trans people. This includes (but is hardly limited to) the following: medical regulations of trans bodies; transphobic violence; transphobia in housing, employment, education, medical treatment, and the like; sexual violence against trans people; critiques and concerns about various views within trans studies or politics, tensions between queer theory and trans studies.
Submissions need not be limited to the discipline of philosophy; we encourage interdisciplinary submissions. Regardless of disciplinary orientation, all submissions need to be theoretically sophisticated. Submissions that show a sensitivity to the interrelations among theory, politics, and real impacts upon flesh and blood human beings are especially welcome.
Papers should be no more than 8000 words, prepared for anonymous review, and accompanied by an abstract of no more than 75 words. Please provide a cover letter identifying your paper as a submission for the special issue “Transgender Studies and Feminism: Theory, Politics, and Gendered Realities.”
The deadline for submissions is 15 April, 2008. Papers should be submitted by electronic attachment in Word to Ann Garry at agarry@calstatela.edu. Submissions should follow Hypatia guidelines (see http://www. msu. edu/~hypatia/). Please address all correspondence, questions and suggestions to Ann Garry or Talia Bettcher at tbettch@calstatela.edu.
We look forward to hearing from you.
21st Century Pride: Use a Condom and Don't Kill YourselfBy on March 16, 2008 6:42 PM | No Comments
My friend Nat here at Michigan alerted me to the message for Pride Week here at the University of Michigan for 2008: "Be Safe. Be Healthy. Be Proud!" I spent the bulk of my evening last night dishing over wine with Nat and another friend Maxime about this fucked up conflation of health and pride.
It used to be that we -- LGBT people, that is -- could be proud for our history or our queer sensibilities. Perhaps gay men might even be proud that, as a community, we have higher rates of volunteerism than any other community. But post-AIDS, funding for LGBT resources on campuses and for youth has become so conflated with funding for HIV/AIDS and suicide prevention that it's impossible to tease the two apart anymore. Today, we're left with the kind of bland / moralizing messaging that we see below in the poster for this year's Pride celebrations at Michigan: "Use a condom!!! Don't kill yourself!!! Yea, be proud!!!!"
We should call out this kind of BS messaging when we see it. This isn't about queer liberation or organizing in the interests of LGBT people. This is again about constructing the image of a good queer who's both "safe" and healthy." Likewise, this kind of rhetoric is easily used in demonizing / moralizing attacks on our communities that straight folks (and conservative gays) see as "unsafe" or "unhealthy." Unprotected sex. Drug use. Promiscuity. S&M. Under this kind of "healthy pride" regime, these and other practices get equated with being ashamed of our sexuality and inherently evil / bad / wrong.
It's not just Michigan that is stricken with this kind of health / pride promotion. LGBT youth groups everywhere have become dependent on HIV prevention / health promotion funding that makes their curricula focus heavily on using condoms and not killing yourself. Even 10 years ago, when I started attending Time Out Youth in Charlotte, North Carolina, this shift had already begun. We need to reject firmly this kind of organizing. It obscures what Pride should really be about: our histories, our communities' resiliency, our history of organizing and movement building, and our spirit for progressive social change.
If you want to teach HIV prevention, great. In fact, that's totally fabulous! But don't try to sneak it in under the auspices of Pride. That's just fucked up.
By on March 14, 2008 3:09 PM | No Comments
Okay, so I haven't quite formulated things yet here. But Perez Hilton has just posted this video of a black drag queen performing as Wonder Woman to a remix of Bonnie Tyler's classic song, "I Need a Hero." It's pretty fucking fierce. Check that shit out.
But on to the meat. Perez has been posting to several performances by black drag queens of late -- particularly a performer by the name of Britney Houston. So this leads me to my question: Why are black drag queens in particular so visibly present in popular gay culture right now?
This is intensely complicated, and perhaps not particularly new -- after all, who's the most famous drag queen in the world? RuPaul of course. But there's something about the moment we're in now that makes me feel like black drag queens are much more visibly present that their white counterparts. I have two main lines of thought here:
1) I think black drag queens have embraced popular culture in a way that white performers haven't. Well, embraced is the wrong word. It's probably what José Esteban Muñoz has termed "disidentification" -- they're using / queering symbols from pop culture for their own purposes. White queens seem more obsessed with cult films (Showgirls, Elvira, etc) and female icons from many moons ago (Judy Garland, Joan Crawford). It's good stuff, don't get me wrong. But it's not nearly as legible in popular culture.
2) There's something perverse going on about the relationship between white gay culture and blackness in general. I'm thinking here of my time spent in the company of other white gay boys (and men!). Whereas the white gay man of 20 years ago would conjure a dramatic line from a Joan Crawford movie to express affective emotion (anger, bitterness, ecstasy), the young white gay boys I know today (and even older guys I know) will conjure the black woman. "Oh, snap! No she didn't!" You know what I'm talking about. So I'm wondering here if this is playing into the way that images / performances from black drag queens are being consumed right now...
I need some help thinking this through, though. Any ideas, y'all?
South Park AIDS InaccuraciesBy on March 14, 2008 12:13 AM | 1 Comment
Okay, so this isn't a critique of last night's new episode of South Park, really, since I don't hold the show to a particularly high scientific standard. And the show was pretty hilarious social commentary. Good stuff. But it's worth noting a few pretty glaring myths perpetuated in last night's episode in which Cartman gets HIV through a blood transfusion:
1) People don't really get HIV through blood transfusions anymore in the US. It just... doesn't really happen. Back in the 80s, yes (in fact, HIV-tainted blood transfusions wiped out huge proportions of hemophiliacs worldwide).2) Post-exposure prophylaxis would have most likely been able to prevent Cartman from becoming infected.
3) Neither Cartman or Kyle would have tested positive so quickly. It takes usually about 3 months (the "window period") for your body to produce antibodies that would show up in a test.
4) Cartman infects Kyle with HIV by squirting some of his blood into Kyle's mouth. This is highly unlikely to infect someone. Particularly because Cartman became infected the day before. It's possible, but not probable.
Okay so taking the show so seriously is ridiculous, I know. Hah! But a little HIV 101 is useful every now and then! :)
Sex and the City -- Official TrailerBy on March 14, 2008 12:12 AM | 1 Comment
Okay, so I must have been living on Planet Xenu. I had no idea a full-length trailer had been released! Agghhhh - I can't wait!!!!!
Take Action: Queer Nightlife in SF Under FireBy on March 13, 2008 11:19 PM | No Comments
SF Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell have put forward legislation that would effectively kill independent queer nightlife in San Francisco. The bill, "would require anyone who promotes two or more events a year to obtain a permit, and would enable police to determine who to hold accountable for a security plan, any health or safety rule violations, or creation of a public nuisance."
More importantly, it would require event promoters to provide proof of at least ONE MILLION DOLLARS in liability insurance!!!! One Million Dollars!!!
The best queer nightlife in San Francisco would be killed under this new legislation. How can indie queer organizers afford this costly burden? They couldn't. The parties would be over.
This kind of regulation and government encroachment on queer lives -- along with real estate development -- has been destroying gay nightlife in cities across the US. We've seen the closure of some of the most famous clubs in the country over the past five years: Club Universe in San Francisco; The Roxy in New York; Backstreet in Atlanta; Nation in DC -- just to name a few!
Tell Supervisor Maxwell and the Entertaintment commission that this legislation is bullshit and should be killed ASAP. Contact Maxwell here -- and here's the Entertainment Commission's contact info:
Entertainment Commission City Hall, Room 453 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place San Francisco, CA 94102Phone: (415) 554-4539
Fax: (415) 554-7934Web: www.sfgov.org/entertainment
Robert Davis, Executive Director
(415) 554-7793 voice
(415) 554-7934 fax
bob.davis@sfgov.orgJocelyn Kane, Deputy Director
(415) 554-5793 voice
(415) 554-7934 fax
jocelyn.kane@sfgov.orgAudrey Joseph, Chair
City Hall, Room 453
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102To leave a message for any Entertainment Commissioner, please call (415) 554-6678.
Give 'em hell!
Dutch Police: Allow Public Sex in ParksBy on March 13, 2008 4:36 PM | No Comments
In a new advisory sent out to police stations in The Netherlands, the police's "National Diversity Expertise Center" has urged that police throughout the country follow the lead of Amsterdam and allow public sex in parks.
This, of course, is perhaps not news to New Yorkers. Gay penguins have been regularly having sex in public in Central Park for several years now, with no legal ramifications. The NYPD could not be reached for comment.
By on March 13, 2008 2:58 PM | No Comments
Okay, did anyone see South Park last night? It was *hilarious*! Cartman gets HIV/AIDS through a blood transfusion, but everyone around him tells him that being HIV-positive is "so retro" and that "cancer is much worse." Cartman travels to LA to meet with Magic Johnson and they realize that the cure for AIDS was sitting in Johnson's bedroom - money! "180,000 dollars shot directly to the bloodstream." Amazing!
Some of the money quotes:
"I'm not just sure. I'm HIV-positive.""If you don't find a cure for HIV, I will break your XBox."
"AIDS? Wow.... that's really.... retro."
"We sometimes offer free seats to cancer patients, but AIDS? Hey Mitch, do we have any AIDS patient policies?"
"Hmm... I dunno. These days I think I'd rather have AIDS than cancer!"
South Park - some of the most incisive social commentary on television.
A Very Important Message to Parents About SexBy on March 13, 2008 11:27 AM | No Comments
A very important response to www.4parents.gov's PSA...
Hilarious!
ANTM's Claire and Julia Styles: Sisters?By on March 12, 2008 9:01 PM | 5 Comments
Seriously - they look EXACTLY alike! It's super creepy.
Okay, that's all I'm posting about ANTM for a week - I promise! :)
xoxo
Trev
Miss Jay: The Most Genderqueer Person on TV?By on March 12, 2008 8:21 PM | No Comments
So I'm sitting here watching tonight's episode of ANTM, and again I'm just struck by fucking amazingly genderqueer Miss Jay is. But the best part is that all the girls refer to Miss Jay as Miss Jay. They don't miss a beat. It's just amazing. Is there anyone else that people know of on TV who's more queer? I can't think of *anyone*!
Max and Tom Get it On!By on March 12, 2008 7:16 PM | No Comments
So I've spent this afternoon catching up on The L Word -- I've been missing the show for the past three weeks. A good marathon was in order! I was watching Episode 510, "Liquid Heat," and I was surprised when Tom and Max started making out! If you haven't been watching, Tom is Jodi's ASL interpreter and a very handsome homo! Him and Max -- lesbian-turned-questioning transguy -- have had some sexual tension this season. And they finally got together! It was poorly shot (as you can see in the screencap above), I have to admit, but still exciting!
April 4th: Transsexual and Trans Feminine Perspectives on SexismBy on March 12, 2008 4:15 PM | No Comments
If you happen to be in Michigan, you should totally come out to this event! Serano is fabulous transgender writer / activist -- I'm sure she will have some very smart things to say!
Please forward widely
The University of Michigan Queer Studies Workshop presents:
"Transsexual and Trans Feminine Perspectives on Sexism"
A talk by Julia Serano, University of California, Berkeley.
Friday April 4th, 2008
3:00 PM, 2239 Lane Hall
Free and open to all. Light refreshments will be served.
Julia Serano is a writer, performer, trans activist, and biologist, and the author of the book, "Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity" (Seal Press, 2007), a collection of personal essays that examines the ways in which misogyny frames popular stereotypes and assumptions about transsexual women.
This event is sponsored by the University of Michigan Women's Studies department, The Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and the Lesbian-Gay-Queer Research Initiative.
***********************************************************
Julia Serano will also be performing spoken word with Creative Writing M.F.A. candidate Randa Jarrar at the ShAut Cabaret on Thursday April 3rd at 8pm, 325 Braun Ct. $5 admission. A portion of the proceeds will to go Camp Trans.
Camille P on Today's Un-Sexy Hollywood LadiesBy on March 11, 2008 11:34 PM | No Comments
Camille Paglia has a new article up at Salon that includes a lot of babble about Hillary that I can't get down with - but her analysis of Hollwood's leading ladies is - as always - incisive (I've linked to page three, where the action is). She argues that Hollwood's leading ladies have become, well, anything but titillating:
"One could see it in the banal pack of glamazon young actresses on the red carpet at the Oscars -- with their parched, stylist-honed outfits, their bony Pilates arms, their immobilized faces and simpering smirks, and their vapid, perky voices. All of them were upstaged in an instant by Marion Cotillard, the best actress winner whose French sensuality and sparkling vitality simply leapt off the TV screen. In France, there's still a mystique about female sexuality, a quiet magnetism that has been completely lost in the U.S., where at least our major movie stars once had it."
And you know, she's totally right! Look at Renée, Cameron, and Nicole from this year's Academy Awards! Those cheekbones! Kidman denies having had botox done - puh-leaze! Have you ever seen a face that tight? 40 year old ladies don't look like that sans-botox.
This isn't to say that these women aren't under *intense* pressure to conform to these changing beauty standards (which, as Paglia notes, now include muscular arms and wrinkle-free, emotionless foreheads). But it is to say that this image is, well, not very hot. Perhaps its glamorous or fierce. But it's not bombshell.
Gay Iranian in UK Faces Deportation, ExecutionBy on March 11, 2008 3:44 PM | No Comments
Reports from the UK indicate that an Iranian-born immigrant there is facing deportation. Iran is notorious for its human rights violations against any number of minority groups, particularly gay men. The UK's "Home Office" for immigration told CNN the quote featured above -- basically denying the well documented history of abuse there. I call it like I see it - total bullshit!
In a letter to the "Home Office," the teenager involved, Mehdi Kazemi, wrote:
"I wish to inform the Secretary of State that I did not come to the UK to claim asylum. I came here to study and return to my country. But in the past few months my situation back home has changed. The Iranian authorities have found out that I am a homosexual and they are looking for me... I cannot stop my attraction towards men. This is something that I will have to live with the rest of my life. I was born with the feeling and cannot change this fact but it is unfortunate that I cannot express my feeling in Iran. If I return to Iran I will be arrested and executed like my former boyfriend."
Iranian-born LGBT-identified people in Western countries should be granted political asylum. End of story.
"Vatican lists new sinful behaviors"By on March 11, 2008 5:54 AM | No Comments
I've railed in the past about being open-minded about religious faith, but for God's sake I cannot be open minded about this. My choice quote:
Girotti, who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican body that issues decisions on matters of conscience and grants absolutions told the paper that whilst sin used to concern the individual mostly, today it had a mainly a social resonance, due to the phenomenon of globalization.
Isn't just the idea of the bureacractic nightmare that must be the Vatican deeply disturbing / amusing? A bustling office that "issues decisions on matters of conscience and grants absolution"? Ridiculous!
Action Alert: MRSA Protest WEDNESDAY at SF Chronicle OfficeBy on March 10, 2008 9:33 PM | No Comments
Title: "Clean Up Your Act" protest
Date: Wednesday March 12, 2008
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Location: Chronicle Building, 5th & Mission San Francisco
Phone: 415.302.3655 Arthur Cirbin
The recently formed MRSA Action Group is going to be doing a non-violent one-hour legal picket at the Chronicle building at Weds, march 12, noon, to present our "white paper" about what was wrong with their January story on MRSA as a "gay plague." Some of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will be joining us.
This will be a light-hearted, non-civil disobedience action (i.e. no arrests; the police know we will be there) but will make clear that the community was very angry about the errors in the story and how it promulgated homophobia. (A protest at UCSF likely will be happening later in the month, depending on group preferences.) We will demand a meeting with the Chron editorial board.
Cindi Creager of GLAAD will be joining us at that meeting, we hope.
Any concerned citizen who'd like to attend the protest can either just show up, or, if they have questions, can come to the next MRSA Action Group meeting at StopAIDS 2128 15th Street on Monday (3/11) at 7.30pm.
Bring a dish pan, soap & water, a scrub brush, rubber gloves, and an attitude.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will be attending to provide the necessary blessings, and prayers to cleanse what soap and water cannot.
The End of The L WordBy on March 10, 2008 8:53 PM | No Comments
How sad! After six seasons, Showtime's dykalicious series, The L Word, will be coming to an end. Yea, okay, the plot kind of went downhill post-Season One, with the writers trying to take the show *way* too seriously. But I've been a regular watcher since then, hosting weekly viewing parties in both Chapel Hill when I was an undergrad and in San Francisco for my Masters. I will miss my weekly dose of dyke drama! *tear*
Better Archives are Here!By on March 10, 2008 3:49 PM | No Comments
Phew. After a few hours of tinkering and plug-in installing / configuring, better archives are finally here. This new system makes exploring my old entries *much* easier / more comprehenisble than before when it was just a big old list. Now they're categorized by Year and Month.
By on March 10, 2008 12:26 PM | No Comments
According to multiple sources, Tucker Carlson's show on MSNBC is about to be cancelled. Sigh. I kind of have to admit, I'm a closet Tucker-lover. I was devastated when the bowtie stopped showing up - so adorable! As TVNewser notes, his shows been bumped around MSNBC multiple times:
Carlson first came to MSNBC in June, 2005 as host of The Situation With Tucker Carlson at 9pmET. That show originated from MSNBC's New Jersey headquarters. In August 2005, the show was moved to 11pmET. In July 2006, the show was renamed "Tucker" and moved to 4pmET (with a repeat airing at 6pmET). In July 2007 the 4pmET hour was scrapped and it aired live at 6pmET only.
Tucker: if you need a shoulder to cry on -- or a blowjob -- you know where to find me! I understand your pain. I can help. I know this isn't the first time I've offered, but here's hoping that second time's a charm!
xoxo
Trevor
Last Week & My New Motto: "I Don't Give a Fuck"By on March 10, 2008 11:45 AM | No Comments
Phew. Okay so apparently you can tell what kind of week I'm having based on the kinds of blog posts I've been throwing up. Let's see here, the past five posts: Bette Midler and Cher in Las Vegas; an episode of Planet Unicorn; Twinkie porn actor photo; new BRAVO dance TV series; and a photo of Israeli Cous-Cous.
In my defense, last week was rough (in part from the weeklong hangover from my illicit activities in San Francisco). But it was also a product of increasing frustration with academia, particularly departmental politics and tenure-track mania (must publish in that journal at this moment or die!!!!). I also got my statistics midterm back Tuesday -- I got a big fat F. And - finally - I've become the latest victim of Seasonal Affective Disorder, which I had never fully believed in until living through this winter. Fuck a duck - this long winter has been *really* depressing! I bought a SADlight online Thursday night. We'll see if it helps!
So in response to it all, I came up with my new motto: "I don't give a fuck." I don't give a fuck about my grades. Who I piss off. What my peers think of me or my research. I don't give a fuck about statistics or the priorities set for me by my departments. All I care about is three little letters: P. h. D. Whatever it takes. PhD. Whatever my GPA. PhD. Whoever thinks I'm an annoying little fucktard. PhD. It doesn't effing matter! P-h-fucking-D!
Phew. I feel better now, thanks!
Fall Break 2008: LAS VEGAS, BABY!By on March 10, 2008 10:43 AM | No Comments
Okay so I can't fucking wait. Cher and Bette Midler BOTH will be on the Strip performing soon. Midler just began her show this past Friday, titled The Showgirl Must Go On. Cher's show starts May 6th -- and it's ALSO at Caeser's Palace. One stop shopping! Me and my friend Andre have made a pact: Las Vegas or bust for Fall Break '08! Yea!
I particularly enjoyed this quote from the Bay Area Reporter's coverage over Midler's opening:
Midler acknowledges that Showgirl is "basically the show I've been doing for the last 35 years," and she is correct. It is now on steroids, with Midler, and the latest incarnation of her three singing "Harlettes," backed up by 18 showgirls and a 13-piece band. Choreography is provided by Toni Basil of "Oh, Mickey" fame. The show opens with a sensational Spielbergian film clip involving a billboard for Midler's show, a vulture, a burro, and a tornado that moves across the Nevada desert before striking the Las Vegas strip. Enter the diva, atop a stack of Vuitton luggage with the Harlettes serenading her with "Big Noise from Winnetka." Midler informs the crowd she has arrived courtesy of "hormones and mood elevators," and they should expect "glitz, hits, and tits." She then proceeds to deliver on her promise.
Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! It's a gay fantasy explosion.
Planet Unicorn!By on March 8, 2008 4:16 PM | No Comments
I had a hard week, guys! I needed a little laugh, thus my need for PLANET UNICORN! Here's episode one. You can see the rest here. The best webshow ever. Enjoy.
Saturday is for.... The Candy SpookieBy on March 8, 2008 1:32 PM | 2 Comments
What a twink! "The Candy Spookie," aka Kyros Christian, is all over Xtube. "Mean ass bitch." Loves it!
By on March 7, 2008 4:51 AM | No Comments
In happier news from UNC, James Alsop is going to be on BravoTV's upcoming show, "Step it Up and Dance." James is fierce - he danced with the group MisConceptions on campus at UNC. They opened for our drag show every year. Fabulous! Good luck, James! The show debuts April 3rd - check it out!
By on March 7, 2008 4:19 AM | No Comments
Beautiful, delicious Israeli Couscous. Yummmm.....
By on March 7, 2008 1:40 AM | No Comments
Eve Carson, a Georgia native, was shot and killed Thursday morning. She was UNC's Student Body President. My heart goes out to everyone at UNC, my alma mater!
The Gayest Podcast in Michigan - Episode 1: Jackson BowmanBy on March 6, 2008 4:03 PM | 1 Comment
Episode 1 is up! Hop on over to The Gayest Podcast in Michigan homepage to check out my interview with Jackson Bowman about his experiences coming out as a lesbian, then as butch, then as trasngender, then as a gay man!
By on March 2, 2008 11:37 AM | No Comments
Spring break, I bid thee adieu! Today, I fly back to Michigan. I saw Juno with some friends the other night here in SF, and when I saw snow in the film, I had this visceral reaction. It upset me just to see it!
Ugh. Snow. Ice. Salt. Here I come!