From the Lesbian Look-out file: the Chicago Tribune (5/26) reports on a play done by Chicago’s Black Ensemble Theater, Don’t Make Me Over: In Tribute to Dionne Warwick. Three actresses protray Warwick at different life stages. The snarky among us wonder who will play DW’s long-time main squeeze, singer Leslie Gore, or even if the ‘It’s My Party’ lady will even be mentioned. (In which case the play’s title will be more than a little ironic.)
The Chicago Trib (5/28) has an item describing a new Cuban soap opera, The Dark Side of the Moon featuring homosexuality and AIDS. The Cuban government has until recently had an unfortunate view of alternative sexuality: ‘… its leaders often have displayed little tolerance for those who do not fit their definition of a proper revolutionary.’ Gays were sent to rehabilitation camps. Since the Cuban government approves (or not) all TV programming this is a signal that it has ‘acknowledged reality’. The homophobia that remains in the country is not skipped over—the derogatory Spanish word for homosexual, ‘maricon’ is liberally used.
The Comix file: the NY Times (5/28) says big changes are coming to DC & Marvel Comics. For one thing Batwoman has been outed: she is ‘… a wealthy, buxom lipstick lesbian’ who is a socialite at night (before fighting crime). Can an appearance on The L Word be far behind? Characters of various colors will appear and Green Arrow, the mayor of (fictional) Star City will legalize gay marriage. Meanwhile, up on stage and screen the Trib (5/28) tells us that actor Hugh Jackman who is in the flic X-Men: The Last Stand, also played the gay Peter Allen on Broadway. He reports being heckled before kissing a guy on stage when people would yell, ‘Don’t do it, Wolverine!’ By the way The NY Times and other papers say the hidden theme of the plot of the new X-Men movie is a very thinly veiled hint at how fundamentalists would like to ‘cure’ homosexuality.
From the Homosexual History file: a story in the Chicago Sun-Times (5/17) on how the German government has decided to open the sealed archives, 50 million of them, of the Nazis. Not stated were these implications: the actual names of who was detained for what will finally be known. Besides Jews, the mentally ill, and Gypsies, the names and numbers of executed gay people will finally be known.
The Chicago Reader (5/17) did a major story of Ketty Teanga, the Mistress of Cermonies, at Chicago’s oldest Latino gay club. Teanga, a 59-year-old transgender dancer who hosts and manages drag shows at La Cueva, on 26th Street, has been doing this since the 1960s.