James has the full details on his blog, but I wanted to make sure my readers knew about this too. We'll be there on Sunday.
PROTEST DETAILS
Sunday December 19, 2010, 1:00 PM
GATHER on the Metropolitan Museum steps Fifth Ave. & 82nd Street
Then MARCH to the Cooper-Hewitt/Smithsonian FIFTH Ave. & 91st Street
Wear your free expression best and be part of the message.
Art+ is a New York City-based art action group - fighting censorship and homophobia
There will be a great opportunity to get some book bargains and benefit New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless Youth, a group I heartily endorse. It was founded by activist Kate Barnhart, whom James and I met long ago via ACT UP when she was a teenage activist.
Huge Book Sale on July 10
At LGBT Community Center on West 13th Street
Will Benefit Homeless LGBT Youth
�Buy a book, save a young life� fundraiser
Offers ten thousand new volumes on sale
For $10 per shopping bag
NEW YORK, NY, June 28, 2010 � A huge sale of more than ten thousand new and used books will take place in the West Village on July 10, with the proceeds going to charity. The event, called �Buy a Book, Save a Young Life,� will take place on Saturday, July 10 from Noon-6pm at the LGBT Community Center on 13th Street.
The books on sale encompass every subject and genre, including children�s, art, classic and modern literature, as well as collectables and rarities. These books were donated by veteran bookseller Robert Warren, who recently closed his landmark New York bookstore, Skyline Books. Admission is free to this event, and people can fill a shopping bag full of books and pay $10 per bag.
All proceeds of the �Buy a Book, Save a Young Life� sale will benefit New Alternatives, the East Village program based at Middle Collegiate Church. New Alternatives provides desperately needed services to LGBT homeless youth, including hot meals, emergency housing referrals, case management, and life skills training.There will be a special pre-sale on July 10 for dealers and collectors. For an admission fee of $25 (also going to New Alternatives), shoppers can get a jump on the crowd from 11am-Noon. Admission includes one free bag of books. Additional bags of books will be $25 each.
For hardcore bargain hunters, from 5pm to the 6pm closing, the price plummets to $1 per bag of books.To match New Alternatives goals of promoting HIV awareness and safer-sex education, each bag of books comes with free condoms, and New Alternatives promises a fun festive atmosphere. In addition to great book bargains the event will include performances from queer and queer-friendly acts such as Circus Amok, Rude Mechanical Orchestra, and The Church Ladies for Choice. Expect music, stilt walking, juggling and a good vibe to abound.
I love this part of the New York Times review of Reynold Price's latest book.
Mr. Price applies the word "queer" and dislikes "gay" because he thinks the latter hurt homosexual men during the early years of the AIDS crisis. It fit the assumption of bigots, he writes, that "homosexuals were giddy irresponsibles, negligible creatures." Mr. Price quotes a friend who says: "Please don�t call me gay. If you need an adjective, call me morose."
Lately I've seen a few gallery opening announcements where the beverage sponsor was Jamaican beer Red Stripe. This makes a good "teaching moment." Jamaica is the most dangerous place in the Caribbean for queer people, with a government that regularly issues anti-LBGT statements, and a dance hall culture whose musicians regularly call for violence against queer people in their lyrics. Much of Jamaica's income comes from investment, trade, and tourism from the United States. This is no time to do business with Red Stripe or for that matter Myers Rum. Visit Pam's House Blend and Boycott Jamaica for more information.
I can't get a bigger image thanks to the flickr settings on this photo, but click on it to see a larger version. The drawings in the style of Keith Haring at the bottom are a nice touch. Via the lovely and talented Jeff Simmermon.
Yes, the video is two years old, but I still love it. I think that might be Rufus Wainright playing a shoe salesman at one point.
Click here if you don't see the video above.
Gov. David A. Paterson, who has made advancing gay rights as central to his policymaking, was greeted enthusiastically at the gay pride parade in New York. James Estrin / The New York Times
Today was the first time a serving New York governor marched in the gay pride parade. He has walked in the parade, on and off, since 1976! I would like to think my headline above just made some conservative idiot's head explode.
From the NY Times:
If there was ever any doubt that gay people form one of Gov. David A. Paterson's most loyal and enthusiastic constituencies, that doubt was erased on Sunday by the howl of a drag queen on Fifth Avenue.
The drag queen, standing at the foot of the steps to the New York Public Library dressed in a green Afro wig, a red miniskirt and candy-cane-striped stockings, had the duty of announcing the notables marching down Fifth Avenue in the gay pride march.
She introduced Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, and the onlookers who had gathered along the parade route politely applauded.
But when she bellowed, "Let's hear it for the governor of New York, David Paterson!" the crowd roared.
...
Sunday was not the first time Mr. Paterson marched in a gay pride parade. He said he attended his first parade in 1976 at the urging of a gay friend and had walked in them on and off ever since.
"Back then, we would march in the back," he said. "But then we learned that wasn't cool because you couldn't hear the music in the back. So we moved up." He added that in those early years, he did not generate quite the same amount of attention from the crowd.
Here is an excerpt from a related NY Times story from two weeks ago.
Gov. David A. Paterson's decision to direct state agencies to recognize marriages of same-sex couples elevated his status in the eyes of many gays and lesbians to something of a celebrity.
But Mr. Paterson has unexpectedly discovered that some of the people who are most grateful to him for issuing the order are, in fact, parents with a gay son or a lesbian daughter.
The governor said in an interview last week that he had been approached by several people who expressed their gratitude. "What struck me were the straight people who came up to me," he said. "This has happened four or five times since. They'll say: 'We're so glad you did this. Our daughter is gay or our son is gay.' I found that to be so very touching."
One evening two weeks ago, while he was having dinner with his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, at a restaurant at 105th Street and Broadway, the governor said, a man and a woman approached him, introduced themselves, and then each hugged him. Their son was gay, they told Mr. Paterson, and they wanted to let the governor know how thankful they were about his policy.
...
The one memorable phone call that Mr. Paterson said he received shortly after his order became widely publicized was from the Rev. Al Sharpton, a supporter of civil rights for gay people. Mr. Paterson said Mr. Sharpton called to offer thanks, but also to take a friendly jab at the governor for disclosing that he became comfortable around gay people at a young age because two close Paterson family friends were gay.
"He was calling on behalf of Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald, saying I'd be in trouble for outing them," Mr. Paterson said, referring to a gay couple who often took care of him and his brother, Daniel.
For those of you following along, I'm wondering if the powers that be are realizing that appearing to be hostile to parades, especially queer ones at this time of year, is a bad thing. According to onNYTurf, The Audre Lorde Project is getting their permit to parade in the streets on Friday after having been denied several times. They received their permit as they were about to take the NYPD to court.
It will be interesting to see how "un-permitted" and historic protest marches such as the Dyke March and the Drag March are treated.
From the BBC:
Downing Street has said there will be no exemption from anti-discrimination laws for Catholic adoption agencies.But Tony Blair said they would get 21 months to prepare for change, calling this a "sensible compromise".
Adoption agencies had warned they would close rather than place children with gay couples, saying that went against their beliefs.
...
The proposed measures are likely to face a vote in Parliament next month before coming into effect on 6 April.
Mr Blair said he believed ministers had found a "way through" to prevent discrimination and protect the interests of children, which all "reasonable people" should be able to accept.
"There is no place in our society for discrimination. That's why I support the right of gay couples to apply to adopt like any other couple.
"And that way there can be no exemptions for faith-based adoption agencies offering public funded services from regulations that prevent discrimination."
This sort of thing seems pretty unlikely in the USA, and we don't even have a head of state who is also the head of the official church!
