This afternoon, I thought it might be interesting to live blog an event that the Mayor actually attends. Something critical and groundbreaking, perhaps even newsworthy. Like, say perhaps, a "garden" party to celebrate his single-handed reclamation of a porn palace for the good citizens of Pittsburgh. <insert applause>
So off we toddled to West Park for the 4 PM kick-off time. We were promised live music and refreshments, plus entertainment. After snagging a primo parking spot on Arch Street, we thought things were going to be groovy and we were really looking forward to seeing the theater.
Unfortunately, Luke's partying aptitude requires a heavy dose of yinzerettes and Iron City, because this was just ... sad.
See, the party was across the street from the Garden Theater. But ... we weren't allowed to go in because there was a performance scheduled for later that evening. The nice lady keeping the homeless people away from the refreshment stand told us that we could save $2.00 on admission to the show. She also told us that the garden party was from 1 - 4 PM (it was 4:15 at the time) and refreshments would be served at 5 PM. So, perhaps she wasn't the most reliable of reporters.
This is where I stop the narrative. Why would you throw a party to celebrate reclaiming a theater and not let people see it? What the hell? Instead, I got to see 20 photos of the glory days and argue with a fussy gay man that, no I was not spending time at the Garden in 1974, because I was three years old and dealing with a curfew. Thus, I could not authentically sign his Garden Theater memory book. He seemed pissed.
So we milled around with the yuppies for awhile and fended off the overly eager Citi-Parks employees handing out programs, as well as some frightening giant puppet people. There were a few artsy vendors. I think someone drew a giant circle of protection in chalk around the whole affair to ward off people who don't pay property taxes. <am I being too mean? Ledcat thinks that, yes, I am.>
Meanwhile, I thirsted. The food lady told me that there were two whole coolers of beverages, but none for me. I had to wait until after the Mayor spoke. Cause if you throw a summer party and invite the entire Northside, why provide beverages to slake their thirst? Make 'em wait! I suppose I could trot down to the corner store ... oh wait, this is the Northside. The corner store is 17 blocks away. Darn.
My thirst got the best of me. So we trotted back to Arch Street with plans to head to see our niece and get a glass of water to boot. With ice. On the way, we passed a car with tags that read "Ms. Tonya" and a bumper stickers proclaiming "African-Americans for Kerry/Edwards" so I presume my City Council Rep was there. Good for her.
I hope she brought a bottle of water.
Truth be told, I wasn't really going to live blog. I brought my trusty notepad and several pens. I even wrote some stuff down until I was accosted by yet another puppet person and decided to flee for the relative sanctity of Perry Hilltop. I did make time to stop and tell all the locals (taxpayers and otherwise) that dinner was on at 5 PM sharp.
This was a silly little event designed for self-congratulations and the never-ceasing Mayoral commitment to throw us off the important issues. Who throws a party and doesn't let you see the inside of the building? If my tax dollars built the damn barn, get the friggin giant puppet the hell out of the way and let me see what I have bought.
Maybe they should just send the giant puppets to City Council meetings and leave Luke to do the really important stuff ...
The CP sent Jared Trent Stonesifer to cover Pride. In this article, he discussed the evening block party (Pride in the Streets), the Awareness March, the Pride Theatrer Festival and the Warhol exhibit on queer black life in the 30's and 40's.
Notice anything missing?
Yep, he forgot to cover the actual festival (PrideFest). The space filler between the march and the block party. Big stage, dozens of vendors, throngs of people numbering in the thousands. People with kids making crafts. People with lovers making out. Gay people EVERYWHERE.
Granted, I myself said it was a nice event, but relatively uneventful. Still, I did mention it. Not so much Mr. Stonesifer. What's up with that?
Here's a great example of why focusing on the block party alone does not do justice to our community. You get folks like this:
Partners Keith Parker and Bob Paraschak called Pittsburgh's gay community "horrible and unorganized," a label that people like Schneck are trying to get rid of by hosting larger and more organized events like Pride in the Street. "It's a 'don't ask, don't tell' mentality in Pittsburgh," Paraschak said. "It's not that people here aren't open; they just don't participate."
Wow. Keith and Bob are pretty harsh. Even I don't go that far. And it is patently not true. PrideFest is a huge event and very well organized, primarily because it is coordinated by the Gay & Lesbian Community Center. An organization much lacking in horribleness. Then there's the film festival, the assorted sports leagues, the health providers, the queer arts scene ... the list of well-organized, cool events is pretty lengthy. Last time I checked, lots of people were participating in those events. So my quibble here is with Keith and Bob.
Or this
Mack feels that a close-minded attitude is still prevalent in Pittsburgh, but events like Pride in the Street are providing a brighter future for the gay community in the city.
"Pittsburgh pride grew up tonight," Mack said. "Parties like this stimulate people to come out of their closet and celebrate. This is a great party, and hopefully it will get better every year."
That's really sad. A block party provides a brighter future? What about PrideFest? What about ... ah, shucks. Why bother? People quoted in this article aren't attending Steel City Stonewall Meetings. They aren't volunteering with GLENDA. They aren't bowling or square dancing. They go to bars. So a giant bar in the middle of Liberty Avenue complete with Bruce Villance in the middle square is their idea of progress. Sigh. It is too sad to even get worked up about any longer.
It was a lackluster article. I miss Marty Levine.
ps: the article does quote this blog. It doesn't really make sense since I wrote specifically about the festival and the article didn't mention the festival, but what can you do ...
PrideFest. Our annual celebration of our community pride. Saturday, June 16, 2007. Riverfront Park on the North Shore. The march kicks off at 12 PM. The festival itself begins at 1 PM. We like to watch the march at the beginning (5th and Ross) and then hop in the car to drive down to the North Shore.
Visit the official PrideFest website for more details. I will warn you that it's really wordy and texty, but after a few peruses you'll get the gist of it all. Apparently, they ran out of bullet points at the GLCC. :-)
I always enjoy PrideFest because I like visiting the vendors, eating a hot dog and catching a squat while visiting with old friends. I like the entertainment. I simply like being surrounded by thousands of gay people. I hope a lot of people turn out. In fact, I expect a good turnout. It may only be a giant party, but it is proof positive of just how significant the LGBT community is.
That evening, a block party has been planned on Liberty Avenue. We were tempted to go for the kitsch of seeing Tiffany perform, but the prospect of hanging amidst a large group of streetsy drunken gay people isn't really appealing.
Thank goodness for FLUX which is being held downtown on Saturday evening. We went to FLUX in Braddock and it was really nifty. Performance art, installations, music, cool usage of spaces, interesting people and a really lively vibe. For $10, you get all that. It is at 610 Smithfield Street above Brooks Brother. Be there!
I miss the days when we had a PrideMonth with workshops and discussions and pancake breakfasts and all that wonderful stuff. It was great. Perhaps someday ...
Oh those wacky Polish children's rights watchers .... always a day behind and a dollar short. Remeber back in 1999 when Jerry Falwell deemed Teletubbie Tinky Winky a homo because he carried a purse (TW is the purple one)? Now Ewa Sowinski is on the same bandwagon. Well, she way until apparently someone reminder her of 1999 so she's off again.
"I noticed that he has a purse, but I didn't realize he's a boy. At first I thought that must be a bother for him," Sowinska told the magazine in an interview her office approved before publication. "Later I learned that there could be some hidden homosexual undertones."
Sowinska is a member of the League of Polish Families party, which is militantly anti-gay rights and anti-abortion. The party is a junior member in the coalition government led by Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Spokespeople from Sowinska's office have confirmed that they will not ask psychologists to examine the character.
Kacszynski has famously said, ""It's not in the interests of any society to increase the number of homosexuals, that's obvious."
I have a recurring dream that my father and I are on a long highway and we see a bridge that says "This way to Poland" and another exit that says "This way to France." For some reason, I always want to go to Poland. My father goes to France anyway. For the record, as a lesbian and a woman, I'd much rather go to France. Thank goodness for my Dad.
From today's Post-Gazette, I learned that the Three Rivers Arts Festival has recruited a talented young gay man as the associated director. His name is Chris Taylor, he's from Penn Hills and he describes himself as "single and looking for a domestic partner." Love that.
Taylor recently earned an M.A. in administration and policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since his last year of graduate school, he'd been director of community and cultural programs for the Center on Halsted, a Chicago gay and lesbian community organization.
Always nice when there is a bit of good gay news in the paper. Welcome back to Pittsburgh, Chris.
As we reported last week, Kennywood, the bastion of local family fun, was producing a pirate themed show that featured homophobic content ... lispy voice, gay kissing panic, you know the drill. In response to a complaint, Kennywood General Manager Jerome Gibis said he didn't find the content offensive and wasn't going to change the content without more complaints.
Intrepid Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force employee, Mary Hawk, brought the issue to the attention of Pittsburgh's gay community via email. Word spread like wildfire. And the complaints commenced. No numbers are available, but apparently the threshhold for "a lot" was surpassed by Saturday afternoon.
Mary received a call from Mr. Gibis, informing her that the offensive lines were removed. She shared the good news by email:
"I wanted to let you know that I just got a call from Jerome Gibis at Kennywood, who said they had removed the remarks we were concerned about from the dive show. Apparently, he got quite a few phone calls yesterday and today. Thank you all for forwarding the message, and to those of you who made calls."
Local queer advocate Ehrrin Keenan, owner the queer-events email list, got involved and sent me a transcript of her telephone conversation with Mr. Gibis:
> JG: Hi, I'm returning your call regarding your concern with the > content of our of our shows. > EK: Yes, hello. Thank you for calling. > JG: Can I ask how you heard about this? > EK: Sure. I received an email that was forwarded from an email that > Mary Hawk sent out to her co-workers after her conversation with you > about the homophobic content in the "Pirates of Kenny Cove" show. > JG: Yeah, I guess Mary told a lot of people. > EK: Yep. And, lots of other people told their friends, and friends > of friends, etc. You told Mary that you required "additional > comments" before you'd consider removing that content from the > show. I, and many others, wanted to make sure you received the > comments you needed. > JG: Well, it really was only about three words. I mean, it's > entertainment, and everyone has a different idea about what's > funny, so we can't change everything just because one person > doesn't like it
.> EK: I think Mary explain pretty thoroughly that it had nothing to do > with whether she "liked it" or not. It had to do with a particular > scene that was homophobia parading as comedy. She also explained > exactly why it was offensive, and who it could harm, and how it could > harm them. > JG: Well, everyone has a different idea of what's funny. > EK: Indeed. Some people find homophobia funny. Some people find > racism funny, too, but we generally recognize that those things > aren't acceptable, and in fact, can be very, very harmful. > JG: We removed it, so that was all I was calling to say.> So, yeah. He didn't remove it because it was the right thing to > do, or because he saw the point when someone brought it up to him, > but because he got too many calls and emails and wanted it to stop
I wonder if Jerome listened to Don Imus? Because he comes across like an ignorant oaf. I mean seriously, dude, how can you not recognize that a prancing, lisping gay pirate offering to perform mouth mouth resucitation is homophobic? The whole point of the "joke" is to mock homosexuals. I fail to see how a man bright enough to run an amusement park could miss that point. Obviously, Kennywood needs to work on their cultural sensitivity training. Or their management training.
Ehrrin makes an excellent point about the motivation for the change -- nothing to do with righting a wrong or addressing homophobia. Rather, it was simply a matter of appearsing a vocal minority. Kennywood doesn't give a damn about inciting gay bashing; they just want the homos to stop calling.
Nonetheless, the queer community should be very proud of this small success. Stamping out offensive language that could potentially harm our children (and the children of straight folks) is an important thing and kudos to everyone who took the time to make those phone calls.
OK, this just strikes me as weird. The Tribune-Review sent a reporter to OUTrageous Bingo to do a story on the lack of a lesbian scene in Pittsburgh. "Lesbian scene" should always be read as "no lesbians bars," but we'll get to that in a moment.
OUTrageous Bingo is a mixed event - gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered men and women, old people, young people, etc. Why not send a reporter to an actual lesbian event (or a queer women's event) where it more likely you'll find a diverse group of people who are a little plugged in and can say with some authority what's missing?
Anyway, I personally get really tired of people moaning that there is no lesbian bar in Pittsburgh. Good grief. Of all the types of lesbian-friendly places I can conceive, one covered in smoke soot and encouraging women to consume alcohol is not high on my list of lesbian friendly ideals. I could take us on a little trip down the wonderful world of lesbian health to see the disproportionate impacts of alchol abuse and nicotine addiction in the lesbian community, but I'll restrain myself. It always strikes me as ironic that women who so enthusiastically support the ESTHER project, a lesbian health project, are the ones complaining about the bar situation.
Now that I got that off my chest, I have to say that the women profiled in the story made some excellent points about many projects and events being dominated by gay men, the small group of the same people who show up for everything, etc. And it is interesting how the younger women are picking up the mantle to get new kinds of things with an old twist organized. Sarah Claire, for example, organizes dance parties at the smoke free Ava Lounge in East Liberty. Cool. Ehrrin Keenan organizes lesbian book club and game nights. Very cool. Kat and Rowan got the potluck up and running smoothly. Awesome. We need to keep that kind of initiative flowing.
Now see Ledcat and I would do all of those things. Except we haven't. Because life gets in the way. Maybe part of the issue is that women have pretty full plates so a once a month or once every other month outing to a lesbian-centric event is enough. Maybe we've integrated as lesbians into society enough that our social needs can be filled outside of a lesbian bar.
Maybe its no longer about retreating to a lesbian-centric space as claiming our own spaces as lesbian-centric. Isn't that what we've been struggling for all these years? I'm not saying we don't need lesbian oriented places. But maybe they aren't bars. Maybe it's the fact that I can walk into Cafe Beleza on teh Northside, holding Ledcat's hand and call her honey without thinking twice about it. Or maybe that we can go out to dinner at the Square Cafe, staffed mainly by lesbians, and do the same thing. Or fly a rainbow windsock on my porch on a street with one other gay couple. Or that I have her picture on my desk at work.
Maybe this is an opportunity to generate a new sense of space and community.
To be fair, the article missed some pretty big things, namely the Dyke March and Celebrate the Night. It missed the queer performance events and the queer arts scene almost completely. It completely missed the Burghosphere.
It also missed the ongoing tension between gay men and lesbians over power and control of LGBTQ resources. This dynamic is at play whether its bar owners complaining about lesbians who drink water all night or the debate about the misanthropic content of drag queen shows.
The sidebar article sums up why this piece was not a hallmark step forward for the lesbians in Pittsburgh. The editor helpfully included a list of contact information for the events described in the main story, which is especially good for those lesbians in the hinterlands that aren't sure how to go about finding these resources. Kudos to the Trib. However, the title of that sidebar? Where the girls are.
An email message has been circulating the Internet for the past 24 hours, claiming that the newest entertainment at Kennywood has homophobic content and asking the community complain about it. I've been unsuccessful in contacting the individual, an employee of the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, but have received several copies of the message from credible leaders in the LGBT community who obviously know this woman enough to put their name behind her story. Thus, I've opted to go ahead and post about the rumor.
According to her email, she recently visited Kennywood and caught the newest dive show performance:
>> I was at the dive show, which this year is pirate-themed. The >> scenario is that the captain of the pirate crew is drowning, but > his >> crew members reject the idea of giving him mouth-to-mouth >> resuscitation. However, one of the crew members runs up, gives a >> swishy flip of his wrist, and says in a lispy voice, "I'll do > it, >> sweetie!" To this, the Master of Ceremonies replies, "Hey, hey, >> we'll have none of that here!" How homophobic and unnecessary.
Typical stupied homophobic humor. You would think after Johnny Depp's performance as a fey pirate, they would have enough sense to use a little wink, wink swish to make their gay references. Fortunately, they are stupid enough to be blatant which means they got caught. A ha!
The author took action and contacted Kennywood management.
>> After a couple of calls to Kennywood, I finally got a call back >> from the general manager, who said that he didn't pick up on > the >> content as being offensive, in fact didn't even think about it >> until he got my message and then went to see the show again. He >> basically said he was not concerned about it, and generally they >> don't change show content until they get numerous complaints. > As >> such, is going to leave the show as it is. (I could tell he thinks >> I'm crazy, which I may be, but not about this.)
Thus, content is not offensive unless they get a critical mass of complaints. Then it is still not offensive, but might cost money so they'll consider pulling it. Overall, things ain't gonna change at Kennywood if people don't complain.
The rumors that Kennywood is not gay-friendly have been circulating for years. I've had very credible LGBTQ community members share stories about management resistance to a "Gay Day" at Kennywood. Apparently, we are welcome to come spend our money as long as we aren't too flamboyantly gay. That's reserved for the pirates. However, when Ledcat and I are in line, we notice dozens of homos, coupled and not. None, to my knowledge, have attempted to convert the innocent children running amok without parental supervision -- if anyone should be banned from Kennywood, it is children dumped by their parents for 8 hours and a few $20 bills.
And make no mistake about it -- the kids know we are gay. They aren't stupid. They see gay people at school, on television, in the movies and on the Internet. They probably know the coded gay behaviors better than most gays. Kennywood isn't protecting them from anything other than lessons in tolerance.
So now throw a gay pirate into the mix. How original! Why not take a group of sugar hyped unsupervised teenagers and infuse a little gay-panic into the mix? Cause the kid they all pick on for being a sissy -- he's probably somewhere in the park, maybe with his kid sister. And when they track him down, will the pirates come to his rescue? Will the sweeper chicks use their pans to defend him? Will anyone even care as long as he doesn't bleed in front of Kiddieland?
Our on the scene correspondent has a few more thoughts:
>> I then pointed out to him that a majority of our local population >> may not find these comments offensive, but that this doesn't > make >> it right to continue it. I also said that many individuals who are > >> indeed offended by it may not be able voice their concerns, for > fear >> of having to identify themselves as gay and or being perceived as >> gay. I also said that the young, gay teen who is watching the show > >> and is hurt by those comments, will certainly not complain to >> management. I further encouraged him to do the right thing for the >> voices that can't express themselves. However, he said he is >> going to leave the show as it is unless he gets any additional >> comments.
Amen, sister. He's being a stupid homophobic ass.
The general manager of Kennywood is Jerome Gibas. I left a message asking for a comment. No response thus far.
Please pick up the phone and let Kennywood know this is unacceptable. It is stupid pandering to the latent homophobia in their audience and just absurd content for kids to view. Family friendly my ass. Why not hoist a giant Rosie O'Donnell balloon and let kids go to town with paint ball guns?
The park phone number is 412-461-0500. You will need to select Guest Relations from the menu and ask to speak with Jerome.
New York based comedian Victor Varnado is hysterical. Check out this Village Voice article to see for yourselves. He occasionally rolls into town courtesy of local comedian Gab Bonesso.
Disclosure and update: Ledcat told me I wasn't being completely honest about this post. We saw Victor a few weeks ago when he came to town for the anniversary tour we had caught the year before. I introduced myself to him. He gave me the limp, damp handshake and barely mouthed "nice to meet you" before sighing deeply and turning away to talk with his friends. I was pissed. Ledcat was more compassionate and assumed that he has an on-stage and off-stage switch. I still say if someone shows up to see you perform, pays for it and learns that because of a screw-up on your end they have to wait an entire hour ... you could at least PRETEND to interact with them. Acting. Its called acting. I fake being interested in people all the time. At work. At family gatherings. Its called acting.
Thus, Victor is funny but not very well-mannered. It does matter.
