The Chicago Reader’s blog (9/8) quotes Sam Smith, who ‘suggests that any congressional candidate who’s against gay marriage be asked, ‘Would you accept a compromise in which we outlawed not only gay marriages but cheating on your spouse? If not, why not?”
From the ‘We-Missed-This-First-Time-Around’ file: A Time Out Chicago (3/30-4/6) that was being recycled fell open to this quote re an American Muslim family in which the father says ‘I’d rather be represented as a terrorist than the father of a gay son.’ Gay Chicago Muslims Malik Gillani and Jamil Khoury are life partners and have founded Silk Road Theatre Project partly to combat such attitudes. Among plays they’ve produced is Khoury’s own Precious Stones, a ‘Jewish-Palestinian lesbian love story.’
The Chicago Sun-Times (9/13) tells the tale of Chicagoan Nancy Heche, the mother of Anne Heche, who was Ellen DeGeneres’ partner. Mama Heche has become a conservative counselor for married couples who have issues in which one of the couple is gay. The elder Heche’s own husband was a closeted gay man who died of AIDS in 1983; she believes that ‘…homosexuals can convert to straight lives.’
Along the same lines, the New York Times (8/3) illustrates in ‘When the Beard Is Too Painful to Remove’ why married couples where the man is gay try to stay together: finances, children and prestige. The problem is, say many therapists, these fellows want to have their cake and eat it too; they want all the perks and pleasures of straight marriage but the love of a male partner, too. Various arrangements that satisfy both urges only work ‘a small percentage ‘ of the time.
From the ‘Makeup-To-Makeover’ file: The New York Times (9/14) says gay makeup artist-to-the-stars Billy Brasfield, AKA Billy B, when he is not painting up Beyonce, the Dixie Chicks and Katie Couric (to the tune of $5,000 a day), takes off for his hometown of Aberdeen, Miss., (where his mom still lives) and buys decrepit Victorian houses, fixes them up and sells them (without profit). He is saving the tiny town all by himself.
Want to go to college and you’re gay? The New York Times (9/14) touts The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students, listing 100 of the best campuses for the other-gendered and alternatively-sexed. The book scores schools on their ‘…policies, programs and practices affecting lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.’ The University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California scored highest.
From the ‘They’re-Who-And-Where?’ file, the New York Times (9/6) looks at the documentary Paper Dolls, about a group of Philippine transsexuals who have immigrated to Israel and are home attendants to elderly Israelis. These Filipino folks perform in nightclubs on the side, have learned to speak Hebrew just fine and illuminate what sounds to be a strange but charming movie.