From the ‘A-Few-Bad-Apples’ file: The NY Times (7-25) reports that the alleged murderer of NYC councilman James E. Davis, Othniel Boaz Askew had something of a criminal history—he had chased his naked boyfriend into the street with a hammer. Askew was running against Davis and had accused Davis of threats to reveal Askew was gay.
In a letter to The Economist (7/19-25) a reader does not like the new word for ‘straight men taking their cues from gays’—’metrosexual,’ and instead proposes the word ‘fauxmosexuality.’
The Chicago Tribune (7-18) on its editorial page, discusses the new finding about the Y-chromosome which indicates men and women are one to two percent more genetically different than was previously thought. Let’s put that one in the ‘Duh’ file, shall we?
A major article in The NY Times (7-24) about Indonesian transvestites was fascinating. Their role in Indonesian society dates in public records to the 14th century, when a ruler, Hayam Wuruck, dressed as a woman and used a woman’s name. The founder of modern Indonesia, Sukarno, played women’s roles in, apparently, a dance troupe, where, in his own words, he used powder, rouge and stuffed ‘two sweet breads’ in his blouse; ‘with this addition to my shapely figure, everybody said I looked absolutely beautiful.
After the show I pulled the breads out of my blouse and ate them.’ This sure beats our founding father’s cherry tree tale. By the way, Indonesia is a mostly Muslim country, but its imans are tolerant of the local cross-dressers.
From the ‘Covergirl’ file: The Chicago Tribune (7-23) runs an occasional series on women’s lives and attractive young lesbian, Sarah Stigler, apprentice union plumber, furry legs and all, is portrayed on the cover of the Trib’s Womannews.Achy Obejas, the Cuban-American writer, wrote a eulogy for Celia Cruz in the Chicago Trib (7-20) in which Ms. Cruz had a show at the Warsaw, a gay club in Miami. Cruz—’long a drag queen’s icon,,, came on [and] people cheered through tears.’
Let’s hear it for the historians. The NY Times (7-20) reported the U.S. Supremes paid special attention to a supporting brief during the recent Lawrence v. Texas sodomy case. The brief asserted that homosexuality had not, in fact, been disapproved of for ages, and that most legal prohibitions flowed from 20th century prejudices