The Year In The Rear-View Mirror (2006)

In some ways, 2006 was a great year… In other ways, it kind of sucked.

We saw Britney Spears Crotch shot by the paparazzi … We heard what Mel Gibson thinks of the Jews … We heard what Michael Richards (who played Kramer on Seinfield) thought about hecklers. No wonder the Jib Jab people think we’ve gone Nucking Futs!

Sigh. Thank god 2006 is over! But, you have to admit - we’ve been through a lot this past year…

It is easy to point the finger at some of worst cases of blatant intolerance - such as James Dobson’s attack on Mary Cheney or Ann Coulter’s many many many anti-gay statements or Don Imus’ and Chris Matthews homophobic review of Brokeback Mountain… But, the truth is that we still live in a time when public “fag-bashing” is still, somewhat, socially acceptable.

Several celebrities came out of the closet this year… Neil Patrick Harris, Lance Bass, and T.R. Knight, for example. Oprah Winfrey, on the other hand, came out as heterosexual.

Two of the most (shockingly) successful movies this year included Brokeback Mountain and Transamerica. The NBC comedy Will and Grace aired their final episode.

Gay Marriage was, off and on, a hot topic - especially in areas like New Jersey.

Chicago (where I live) was host to the Gay Games… and I got to be a part of that.

The 25th Anniversary of AIDS occurred this year as well, and it was published that gays were not the origin of HIV (the virus that causes AIDS.)

Yes - this is just a small reminder of a few of the events that took place over the past year … it serves to remind us not only how far the gay community (in general) has come … but also serve as a reminder about how far we still have to go.

Mourning The Loss Of One Of Our Own…

This past Monday, 39 year old Tyrone Garner died of meningitis. He was a shy guy, according to those who knew him - but his story is one of inspiration, and his contribution to the gay rights movement were immeasurable.

On September 17, 1998 Tyrone Garner went to the home of John Lawrence, where the two men began to have sexual relations in the privacy of Lawrence’s own home. For obvious reasons, this seemed to upset Robert Eubanks, Garner’s partner at the time. Eubanks must have decided to teach his lover a little lesson because he responds to this by calling 911 and telling the dispatcher that a crazed gunman was loose in John Lawrence’s house. The police quickly respond and find no crazed gunmen, but two men engaged in private, consensual sexual relations. Lawrence and Garner were arrested for Homosexual Conduct. (In Texas, it was a misdemeanor crime to participate in gay sex.) The two spent several hours in jail before posting the two hundred dollars bond.

The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund approached Garner and Lawrence and offered their support. Lawrence wanted to fight the charges, but Garner was reluctant, stating he didn’t think they could win. He told the Houston Chronicle, “I didn’t enjoy being outed with my mugshot on TV. It was degrading to me.”

The two men pleaded No Contest to the charges, and took their case to the state level where it lost again. In 2002, their case landed them before the United States Supreme Court. By now, Garner had decided to fight these charges at all cost.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Lawrence and Garner, finding that Texas’ Sodomy Law violated the US Constitution’s privacy guarantee. The decision also struck down similar laws in thirteen other states.

The Sodomy Laws that criminalized homosexual behavior had long been used to criminalize homosexuals in order to deny them civil rights, were often used in custody cases, were used in denying housing or employment. Essentially, it prevented many people from seeking legal redress simply because the homosexual was considered a criminal. The decision of the US Supreme Court pretty much put a sudden stop to this.

This also started paving the way for future gay rights work - such as the fight for same-sex marriage.

Garner was never the political type - but his contribution to the world proves that even the smallest amongst us can affect the world in great ways.

Since 1998, life hasn’t been particularly easy for Garner, battling not only his legal rights, but also lengthy illnesses such as the meningitis that ultimately took his life. To Garner, I bid thee good night. May the angels hold you tightly and keep you safe, and warm, and loved.

Did We Forget? Volume 2

Maybe the first one was too easy. Let's try this again. Let's see if you can figure out who I am talking about:

1. The circumstances surrounding this person's death directly lead to (and influenced) the Stonewall Riots, starting the gay liberation movement.
2. This person was dubbed "an Elvis for homosexuals" by The Advocate Magazine.
3. This person's father was gay. This person also legally married two gay men.
4. One of the stars of Grease 2 was this person's daughter, who later went on to do such shows as Trapper John M.D.; and making notable guest appearances in shows like The Nanny and Murder, She Wrote.
5. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Endowments of the Arts (NEA) both claim this person sung the Song Of The Century (1901-2000) - which happens to be one of the first gay anthems.

Any guesses who this might be?

Did We Forget?

Recently, I was talking with a friend of mine about gay history and was kinda surprised to learn how little he actually knew. There were quite a few people, who - in my humble opinion - he should have known, or at least been partly aware of - and when I mentioned their names or how they contributed to the state of local affairs, I was met by blank stares.

Are we forgetting our own history by not reminding ourselves (and not teaching our younger generations)about our past?

So, let me try a little experiment … let's see if you know who I am talking about.

1. This person was named as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Important People of the Century (1901-2000) alongside such names as Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Bob Dylan, Lucille Ball, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Wilbur & Orville Wright, Edwin Hubble, Princess Di, Rosa Parks, Anne Frank, Helen Keller, and Mother Teresa, alongside 84 other highly influential people.
2. This Person started out as a successful (and highly conservative) Wall Street Investment Analyst, and even supported Goldwater for President. In the 1960s, this person got involved with the Broadway production of Hair, which ultimately exposed this person to not only to the counterculture, but also took this person to San Francisco. Starting down a much more Liberal path, this person decided that her or his future resided in city politics. The first three attempts to get elected to public office, however, were rather unsuccessful.
3. One of the producers of Superman, Returns is currently filming a movie about this person's life and death, slated to be released sometime in 2007. This person's death was the focus of a Dead Kennedys song. An indy-rock band named themselves after this person. The San Fransisco Opera performed an opera based on this person's story and also released a recording. A documentary on this person won an Academy Award. A film released in 1999 (based on a play from 1983) also tells this person's story.
4. This person was assassinated, murdered in cold blood. The murder had just resigned from his city counsel position before a gay-rights ordinance was introduced, which he strongly opposed. He asked for his position back, but was denied by the Mayor. The murderer went to great lengths to kill this person, covertly entering the building concealing a gun with extra ammunition, shooting this person first in the chest, and then once this person was down, shooting in the head, again, at close range. The killer also murdered the Mayor before he killed this person. During the trial, the jury was composed only of anti-gay people who would be more sympathetic to the killer, and less sympathetic to the victims. The killer claimed he didn't premeditate the murders, and it seems the jury believed him - finding him guilty of voluntary manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility (eating too much junk food) - sentenced to a mere seven years, eight months. He only served one year of parole before he committed suicide in his wife's garage.

If you think you know who I am talking about - leave me a comment! I'll let you know if you were right.

25 Years Is A Really Long Time

Monday, June 5th, 2006 - marked the 25th anniversary of the start of the AIDS epidemic.

Looking back over the past twenty-five years - in some ways, it seems like we've come a long way; in other ways, it seems like we're still standing at the same point.

Twenty-Five years ago, nobody knew anything about what was happening, but they knew it was going to be something big, something major. It started with a report from the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) about five gay men with Pneumocystis Pneumonia. Pneumocystis itself wasn't new, but an outbreak of people who shouldn't be getting it sure was.

Because it was thought, at first, that this was a disease plaguing only the gay community, at first, they called it GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency). In 1982, the CDC began to realize that half the reported cases were from heterosexual, not homosexual men - they changed its name to AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.)

Throughout the first several years, nobody knew very much about this or why it was happening. They realized it was a sexually transmitted disease, but nobody had any idea what kind of virus it was or how to fight it.

Between 1985 and 86, researchers began working with a drug called Azidothymidine - which had initially been intended as a cancer drug, but failed the initial tests. When they started using the drug on HIV, it showed a lot of promise. On March 20, 1987, the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) approved the use of Azidothymidine (or AZT) for use against HIV, AIDS, and ARC (AIDS-Related Complex - a term we no longer use today but used to mean pre-AIDS illnesses.) In 1990, it was approved as a preventative treatment.

AZT, tho, was not the miracle drug that everyone hoped it would be, but it was a start. The side effects were terrible and the drug turned toxic at the levels it was prescribed at - yet it was still better than the alternative.

So - how far have we come since those days? A long way. We now know a lot more about HIV and how the Virus operates. We know how it enters the system, and what it does once it gets there. We've been able to map how it takes over the immune system.

In 1995, a new class of medications came out called Protease Inhibitors. This was really teh first breakthrough since the AIDS epidemic began. By as early as 1997, an AIDS Diagnosis was no longer a life sentence.

Today, 2006, we have even more types of drugs for use on HIV and AIDS. We are still using AZT (although at a much lesser amount, and in combination with other medications) and Protease Inhibitors, but now we also have Reverse transcriptase inhibitors, Fusion inhibitors, Integrase inhibitors, plus several new drug classes on the not-so-distant horizon too.

We have also learned how to deal with many of the AIDS-related conditions - such as Pneumocystis Pneumonia, Kaposi sarcoma, Tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) colitis, just to name a few.

That doesn't mean that today there are no health worries with HIV or AIDS - only that we know more about how to prevent and treat these illnesses. We know more about how to fight the virus itself.

This also isn't to say that we still don't have a long way to go. We still have no cure. There are still quite a few unanswered (and unanswerable) questions.

While looking back at all the progress we've made, it saddens me to think that in other ways, we're no better off than we were twenty-five years ago.

Throughout the early years, we often heard about how HIV and AIDS was some form of punishment from God… God doesn't tolerate homosexuality. If you use drugs, Jesus isn't going to allow you to go to Heaven. You're only going to get this if you're immoral or do ungodly things.

It surprises me that even today, this attitude is still present. God doesn't punish anyone for having sex by giving them AIDS - just like He doesn't punish immoral New Orleans' people by throwing them a hurricane or two. And yet, this is what we hear when Fred Phelps and the Westburough Baptist Assholes (pardon my French) show up at the funeral for a (most likely heterosexual) soldier killed in the line of duty in Iraq.

Being open and honest about ones HIV status often leads to isolation. The HIV and AIDS stigma is just as bad now as it ever has been.

If you have HIV or AIDS, most people are still going to think you're either some perverted gay guy or some strung out drug addict. Many will even think its your own fault for getting this disease because if you didn't stick that needle in your arm or have sex with whomever it was that gave it to you - and if its your own damn fault, why should they care?

Even the gay community often turns its back on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic.

Granted, there are cities like New York City that offers so many options for HIV related housing, HIV related social services, HIV support groups, that it's hard to know where to start … and yet there are other cities that offer almost nothing. And the current political climate is only making this issue worse.

Barebacking (having sex without a condom or any form of protection) is big in the gay community right now. You can get barebacking videos at the local adult shops, lots of places have (private) bearbacking parties - it seems like you can see it everywhere. Do these people know this is exactly how you get HIV in the first place? Or is it just that they don't care?

You'd think we'd have learned to live with HIV by now - whether we have the disease or not. And that - that is why we still have a long way to go.

Remembering The Holocaust

On May 15th, officials in Vienna announced that gay and lesbian victims of the Holocaust are getting their own memorial at the former Gestapo headquarters there in Morzinplatz, Vienna. The memorial will be a large basin inscribed with the word Queer filled with pink water - in rememberance for all the gayd and lesbians who were victimized by the Nazi regime.

There is no difinitive number of gay and lesbian victims of the holocaust, however experts believe the number was around 15,000.

With today's political climate I think it is very important to remember this aspect of our history. When discussing topics like gay marriage (or civil unions) … or whether or not gay history should be mentioned in schools … I think we owe it to ourselves to remember where we've been. We need to remember those gays and lesbians who were put into the concentration camps, tortured, experimented on, and exterminated.

I am also surprised at the number of gays and lesbians who have no clue as to what things like Paragraph 175 (the provision of the German Criminal Code which criminalized male  homosexuality) or why the pink triangle is considered a gay symbol (gay men were forced to wear the pink triangle - just like the jews were forced to wear the yellow star of david - by the nazi regime). 

This is our history, folks. We better not forget it.