|| 2005 exclusives ||
Don't mess with
Texas gays
A week has passed
since the state’s voters added antigay discrimination
to the state’s constitution. One out University of
Texas student saw plenty of bigotry during the
campaign but plans to keep fighting.
By Lindsay Meeks
|
A life of two
spirits
I’ve been
thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a gay man
and native American. We were once revered on the
reservation. Can we find the same respect again?
By Kevin VanWanseele
|
A slam dunk for
lesbian players
WNBA star Sheryl
Swoopes’s dramatic coming-out has given this longtime
fan and player of the game hope for the future of gay
athletes. Now it’s up to the media to get in
the game.
By Nichole Wicks, Central regional media manager for the Gay
and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
|
My three loves
Back in college
there was Cherry, then Simon. Later came Lady, zippy and
black: a Ford Focus. Did we mention that these were cars?
And after Lady passed on: mass transit. Even in Los
Angeles.
By Neal Broverman
|
Happy Madonna
day!
Holiday!
Celebrate! The new Madonna CD, Confessions on a Dance
Floor, goes on sale on Tuesday, November 15, and with
spirituality taking a backseat to good old-fashioned
broken hearts, it feels like old times.
By Steve Gdula
|
Cooking for a
change
Our career coach
tells a laid-off flight attendant how to start a new
career in the kitchen and helps another worker understand
that getting more education means making more money
By Ed Vladich
|
Veterans Day
appreciation
I followed in the
footsteps of my grandfather, joined the U.S. military,
and proudly served in Bosnia. Even with “don’t
ask, don’t tell,” we should take a
moment to thank those who are serving.
By Stacy Vasquez
|
Bid now: Gay
student for sale
Actually,
21-year-old Scott Simpson is not selling
himself—he’s selling the right to pay
for his education. Price: $80,000. The eBay auction ends
November 10.
By Ryan James Kim
|
Questions about
Alito
The answers
remain shrouded, but here’s a brief guide to the
questions we as LGBT people need to be asking in order
to judge whether President George W. Bush’s
Supreme Court nominee will support or block our rights
By Kevin Cathcart, Lambda Legal
|
Jason, you bitch
A new history of
the popular Friday the 13th horror franchise reveals why
the movies have struck a chord—and also what’s
queer about them
By Sean Abley
|
Return of the
Bride
This is no trick:
Jennifer Tilly has a lot to say, and it’s quite a
treat to listen to her. In this extensive and amazing
conversation, the star of Bound and Bride of
Chucky talks about her screen personae, the
Hollywood closet, and her take on the gay men who are her
closest friends and most loyal fan-base.
By Michael Rowe
|
Giving away our
fears
How can we rebel
against those who would paralyze us with fear? We can
open our wallets and give, out Episcopal bishop V. Gene
Robinson told a recent philanthropy conference in West
Hollywood
|
Calling on
conservatives to come out
During this
challenging time in the gay rights movement, the fight for
equality demands that closeted gay conservatives come out
and stand up for their rights
By Patrick Guerriero, president of the Log Cabin Republicans
|
Just say no to
Uncle Sam
No, it is not
progress when the military turns a blind eye in order to
send openly gay soldiers to die in Iraq. Quite the opposite.
In fact, maybe all gays and lesbians should boycott
serving our country until our country serves us
By Charles Karel Bouley II
|
Coming out: A
domino game
Polls show that
the biggest supporters of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender rights are those who know LGBT people. So do
your part on this National Coming Out Day.
By Joe Solmonese, president Human Rights Campaign
|
Living la
vida leather
Can a gay
Cuban-American be too butch for the International Mr.
Leather competition? Can gay people be so
narrow-minded? A finalist tells his story.
By Will Castillo
|
The long road
ahead
Fifty years after
Brown v. the Board of Education, people forget
that most victories in the fight for racial equality came
after that court decision outlawing segregation. For
gays and lesbians, it’s time to steel ourselves
for the decades of work we still have to do to achieve
equality.
By Evan Wolfson, executive director, Freedom to Marry
|
Harvard versus
the military
Harvard
University receives a sizable chunk of its annual budget
from the federal government. As a result, the law
school is overlooking its own antidiscrimination
policies and allowing military recruiters on campus.
How sad.
By the Reverend Irene Monroe
|
Telling our
stories
Twenty-five
readers opened up their lives in the October 11 issue of
The Advocate, but these men and women also have
stories to share as we mark National Coming Out Day
|
Schwarzenegger’s legacy
California
governor Arnold Schwarzenegger can impede the movement for
same-sex marriage rights, says the head of the gay rights
group Equality California, but he can’t do
anything to defeat it. We will win
By Geoffrey Kors
|
A is for action,
B is for balance
This month our
career coach helps an aspiring writer learn to make ends
meet while pursuing a dream, and a worker who is suffering
in a workplace full of low morale
By Ed Vladich
|
Honoring Ryan
White's Legacy
The Ryan White
CARE Act, America’s life stream to those living with
and at risk for HIV, is expiring, threatening to
unravel one of the nation’s most critical
health care safety nets
By Joe Solomonese, president, Human Rights Campaign
|
The real cost of
gay marriage
Allowing gay men
and lesbians to legally marry in California will pour
billions into the state’s economy. So why
aren’t we being treated equally?
By Mark Leno, member of the California assembly
|
Journey back to
Hope
During a visit to
the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library, I
wondered: How could things have changed so far, so fast, in
only five years? How had all of those accomplishments
simply vanished under George W. Bush?
By Archbishop Bruce J. Simpson
|
The meth horror
show
Why are gay men
so susceptible to getting hooked on crystal
methamphetamine? A gay drug counselor tells the creepy
tale—and how to find the happy ending.
By Christopher Murray
|
An open letter to
Arnold
Dear Governor
Schwarzenegger: You know what makes a family. Don’t
be a girly-man. Have the guts to stand up for equality
and allow marriage equality in California
By Jerome Cleary
|
Prosecuting a
killer
In August, an
Ohio man was found guilty of killing a well-known female
impersonator with a samurai sword. Here is a recap of the
trial
By Doug Maag
|
Rewriting history
This month our
career advice columnist helps a store manager move onto
another career and helps a gay couple navigate the world of
gay expo events
By Ed Vladich
|
Pink dollars for
Katrina relief
The cleanup after
Hurricane Katrina will last for months, so it’s not
too late for you to make an impact—or to give
more. Here’s The Advocate’s
roundup of relief efforts by and for LGBT evacuees and
people with HIV/AIDS
|
No exceptions to
equality
A California
state senator who helped lead the fight for marriage
equality makes her case for fair treatment: If the state
takes away gay citizens’ rights, who will be
next?
By Liz Figueroa, California state senator
|
Meeting Cindy
Sheehan
When this gay
activist headed to Texas last month, he didn’t have
George W. Bush on his mind but rather the simple quest
for truth and peace.
By Howie Klein
|
Awkward in Africa
In the second
half of his African tale, out Peace Corps volunteer
Philippe Gosselin meets the gay underground in Senegal and
deals with an unwitting flirt in Burkina Faso
By Philippe Gosselin
|
Change in the
wind
It’s not
just California: Gay and lesbian families are winning
important victories and vital recognition throughout
the country. A report from the front lines in Utah,
Virginia, Maryland, and beyond.
By Kate Kendell, National Center for Lesbian Rights
|
The wrong battles
We know how
limited our resources are in the battle for equality, and
how skittish our allies. So why waste time, money, and
goodwill on denouncing Family Guy and railing against
a Supreme Court shoo-in like John Roberts?
By Karel Charles Bouley
|
The mother of the
bride...
Is not happy, and
it has nothing to do with the wonderful man her
daughter is marrying. On her special day, why should a
loving daughter have to feel guilty that her lesbian
mom can’t get married?
By Dr. Delores A. Jacobs, CEO of the San Diego LGBT
Community Center
|
Into Africa...and
the closet
Out Peace Corps
volunteer Philippe Gosselin finds himself reluctantly
hiding his sexual identity when he arrives in Burkina Faso.
Then the questions about why he’s single begin.
What’s a gay man to do?
By Philippe Gosselin
|
The crystal party
is over
More addictive
and destructive than alcohol or marijuana, crystal meth
has become the drug of choice for gays. We need to do more
than just acknowledge this is true. We need to take
action
By Jerome Cleary
|
The gift of being
gay
If gay men are,
as is increasingly revealed through research, natural
components of the human spectrum, we must have particular
gifts to offer our fellow human beings. What might
those be? Let’s start a dialogue.
By Rick Evans
|
"Family Guy" has
fun with AIDS
Fox TV’s
irreverent animated series aired an episode this summer that
showcases a comic musical number called “You Have
AIDS.” Overburdened AIDS service organizations
are not amused.
By Bob Adams
|
Gays, smoking,
and the"Jennings effect'
In the wake of
Peter Jennings’ death from lung cancer, the
quit-smoking program at New York’s Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center has
had a dramatic increase in telephone calls. Can your
quitting be an act of pro-gay activism?
By Barbara Warren, LGBT Community Center, New York City
|
The real meaning
of "ex-gay"
“Reparative therapy” is based on an
understanding of homosexuality that has been rejected
by all the major health and mental health professions
By the American Psychiatric Association
|
J.R. lives!
From oil company
skulduggery to human drama to prime-time TV’s most
famous shooting, Dallas: The Complete Third Season
delivers the goods
By Mark Salzberg
|
An Army of 41,000
With recruiting
shortfalls in the military, the Defense Department needs
to look elsewhere. Some estimates say there are 41,000 LGBT
Americans who are ready to sign up for duty
By Steve Ralls
|
Decisions,
decisions
This month our
career coach decides it’s time for a gay couple from
Indiana to move to a more progressive state, and gives the
green light to a computer nerd who’s about to
start a business
By Ed Vladich
|
Did gay bashing
by the prosecutors cause the Watergate cover-up?
Attorney Douglas
Caddy's exclusive interview with The Advocate
detailed the connection between homophobia and the Watergate
cover-up. Now read his full account, in his own words,
with supporting documents.
By Douglas Caddy,
original attorney for the Watergate Seven
|
Holy merit badge!
Divine retribution?
If God hates
gays, why do his harshest punishments—electrocutions,
heat waves, hurricanes—seem to be directed at
antigay bigots? The Boy Scouts should take note.
By Karel
|
The sins of the
fathers
Cardinal Ouellet
doesn’t believe in punishing children for their
parents’ sins—that is, unless their
parents’ sin is homosexuality
By John Sonego
|
The gay film
festival in my living room
No fest and
barely an indie film in your home town? That’s why
Netflix exists. And frankly it’s less
embarrassing seeing America’s too-often
sex-obsessed gay male movies in privacy.
By Karel
|
Lip service is a
disservice to all
Black gays and
lesbians are being shut out of the planning and organizing
process of the Millions More Movement, which marks the 10th
anniversary of the Million Man March
By Jasmyne A. Cannick
|
Opera and beyond!
Advocate.com's
itinerant opera critic recounts recent encounters with
diva Susan Graham, legend Kitty Carlisle Hart, and Los
Angeles Opera productions of Strauss and Verdi.
By Fred Goss
|
Tough questions
for Judge Roberts
Bush’s
Supreme Court nominee has no record on GLBT legal issues.
But the glee of antigay activists over this pick is
reason enough to worry. Here’s how you can help
make sure Roberts faces tough scrutiny in the U.S.
Senate
By Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign
|
How to pick the
next Supreme Court justices
Where will the
next Supreme Court justice stand on gay equality? At this
point, no one knows. However, here are some general
guidelines as the battle for the bench begins to heat
up
By Kevin Cathcart
|
Literal
interpretation
A quick study of
the Bible reveals the hypocrisy of conservative
Christians, who claim to follow the good book word for word
By Charles Hammer
|
Trying to block
Mr. Bloch
Congress should
not be tinkering with a law that’s in perfectly good
shape already—and that five administrations have
interpreted to protect lesbian and gay federal
employees from job discrimination
By David M. Smith
|
Surviving a
nightmare
Like the millions
of other London residents, a gay magazine editor comes
to grips with the horrible terrorist attacks of July 7.
By Matt Miles
|
Periel of wisdom
Fashion
designer-activist Periel Aschenbrand made waves with her
"the only bush i trust is my own" underwear in
2004. Now she has a book of the same name—and
strong opinions about Larry Kramer and being
“post-gender”
By Ken Siman
|
Being Wicked
The smash
Broadway hit is in Los Angeles on its way around the
country, and there’s a lot in it for gays and
lesbians to relate to
By John Caldwell
|
Court opening
leaves equality in question
Sandra Day
O’Connor’s retirement is a loud wake-up call.
The antigay right is going to try to replace her with
a justice who believes the U.S. Constitution’s
equal protection clause doesn’t apply to gay and
lesbian Americans.
By Joe Solmonese President, Human Rights Campaign
|
The joy of
ambiguity
Let them think
what they will: Straight Americans brave enough to appear
more ambiguous can learn much about the daily experiences of
their GLBT brothers and sisters—and advance the
cause of equality
By Ian Ayres and Jennifer Gerarda Brown
|
Be on a Logo show
Logo–the
new LGBT network from MTV Networks and Viacom–is
looking for interested participants to be part of a
new documentary series.
|
The truth about
The Truth About Hillary
In an open
letter, Media Matters for America president and CEO David
Brock denounces the Penguin Group for publishing Edward
Klein’s mean-spirited and wildly inaccurate
anti-Hillary tome
By David Brock
|
Just me and
nobody else
Out figure skater
Stéphane Vachon reveals how he turned a life full of
shame and disappointment into one of peace and victory.
By Stéphane Vachon
|
Stay strong
In her final
entry, our 2004-2005 diarist talks about the amazing things
she has accomplished this year while sharing a little bit
more about who she really is and what she hopes to
become
By Paige Palmer
|
Was the mayor
entrapped?
An editor from
the Spokane Spokesman-Review, which revealed
formerly closeted mayor Jim West’s online cruising,
responds to an Advocate.com commentary, arguing that
what the paper did was just good journalism
By Jim Sands
|
Meet the new
mayor
Mike Gin, the
newly elected mayor of Redondo Beach, Calif., is openly gay
and overcame a nasty antigay mailing campaign to win. He
talked to Advocate.com about running a clean race and
what voters really care about
By Ryan James Kim
|
Mad at Microsoft
Operations
program manager Jeff Koertzen was so angry that his employer
backtracked on supporting gay equality that he quit the
company. In an exclusive Q&A he accuses a top
Microsoft executive of lying to employees
By Fred Kuhr
|
Muslim in the
middle
Cast as a gay
Muslim in an L.A. play, out Muslim actor and journalist
Ramy Eletreby found himself the center of a controversy that
led other Muslims to quit the production
By Angie J. Han
|
Straight Acting in gay New York
Debuting his
first documentary, a filmmaker returns to the city where he
first came out—only this time he’s got the
support of a worldwide network of gay men who like to
get dirty the old-fashioned way, on a muddy field.
By Spencer Windes
|
A Father's Day
tale
For years
Cincinnati was the one place in the USA where a law
expressly prohibited fair employment protection for
gays and lesbians. Here’s how one straight dad
helped change that.
By David Crowley, Cincinnati City Councilman
|
Jim West as a
role model
The antigay,
long-closeted, recently outed Spokane, Wash., mayor is one
big bad apple, but he’s still one of us. We should
condemn his hypocrisy, sure, but let’s also try
to learn from his actions
By Karel
|
Beyond marriage
Two vital
lessons, 14 months after marriage equality came to
Massachusetts: First, the courts are only one of many
battlegrounds. Second, every other issue—job
and HIV discrimination, for instance—still
needs our attention
By Lee Swislow, executive director, Gay and Lesbian
Advocates and Defenders
|
One gay
family’s Iowa adventure
When a gay
campaign worker for Howard Dean flies with his partner and
son from Vermont to Iowa—where caucuses to
select a Democratic presidential candidate will meet
on Monday—he learns as much from the gay and lesbian
Iowans he meets as the Iowans do about Dean’s
campaign for president.
By Marty Rouse
|
The graduate and
the neatnik
This month our
career coach gives a postgraduation pep talk and offers
advice to a reader who has found his future running a
cleaning business.
By Ed Vladich
|
Obi-Wan sings!
Ewan McGregor in
Guys and Dolls is just one of the West End
boys—and girls—keeping the London theater
scene hot this summer
By Michael Giltz
|
Women meeting
women
Whether you're in
a long-term committed relationship or just had a
one-night fling, this is an opportunity for The
Advocate's women readers to share their stories of
how we meet.
|
The real activist
judges
The Bush
administration has worked diligently to nominate right-wing
ideologues to the federal bench. The battle has reached a
boiling point and and there’s too much at stake
for gay men and lesbians not to fight
By Kevin Cathcart
|
Making great TV
together
LPI Media (the
owner of The Advocate) and Logo have agreed to
create original TV content and headline news services based
on the popular magazines The Advocate,
Out, and The Out Traveler. Here’s
what to look forward to
|
We’ll
always have Paris
On Pride day in
Los Angeles, the Grand Marshal will be heralded down the
street and it’s…Paris Hilton?
By Charles Karel Bouley II
|
Finding
inspiration for gay rights
South
Africa’s unprecedented constitutional protections
serve as an object lesson for LGBT advocates here in
the United States.
By Julie Dorf
|
Articles of
faith: Biblical values for American families
If we have any
intention of preserving marriage or protecting families,
we must base our support on values that are unchangeable:
faith, hope, and love. The greatest among
these—whether the couple is same-sex or
heterosexual—is love
By The Reverend Jay Emerson Johnson, Ph.D.
|
Still hoping to
reach his skating dream
Dropped by
sponsors on the eve of the competition, 36-year-old out
skater Stéphane Vachon hopes gay contributions
will help him test his Canadian gold medals at the
Adult World Championships in Germany
By Daniel Vaillancourt
|
Gays love
Meredith + Gretchen
They
didn’t make it into this week’s finale of
The Amazing Race, but the oldest couple
ever to make it to the final four in the contest won
the hearts of both their gay fellow racers and GLBT viewers.
In this Q&A, it’s easy to see why
By Bruce C. Steele
|
Over the moon in
Miami
The Advocate's first trip to the Miami Gay and
Lesbian Film Festival is all about good movies, great
company, and, ah, that beach
By Anne Stockwell
|
Good-looking
grappler
Sexy bisexual
Michelle Deighton went from the wrestling ring to the top
six of this season's America's Next Top Model. The
19-year-old tells all about coming out, facing the
judges, and catching a skin disease in the middle of a
modeling competition
By Alonso Duralde
|
How to fight the
far right
Are you sick and
tired of getting beaten back by the religious zealots in
this country? Take 15 minutes and make a difference right
now. Here’s how
by Chad Graham
|
"Ex-gay" storm
over Throckmorton
In an exclusive
interview, psychologist Warren Throckmorton--fired and
rehired by Magellan Health Services--insists that he's not a
reparative therapist and that his far-right pals
didn't pressure Magellan to rehire him. But he does
think some gays can go straight. And apparently so does
Magellan
By Bob Adams
|
The
Amazing Lynn and Alex
West Hollywood
gay couple Lynn and Alex divided Amazing Race fans,
but they managed to finish in the top five. They dish to
Advocate.com about coming out on TV, befriending
senior citizens Meredith and Gretchen, and—of
course—their rivalry with Rob and Amber
By Alonso Duralde
|
Empowering black
lesbians
Conference
attendees came from across the country to celebrate and
embrace “sistahood” as well as a common bond
of culture and same-sex attraction.
By Jasmyne Cannick
|
Signorile and
Ratzinger
Sirius OutQ radio
host Michelangelo Signorile’s 1993 classic
Queer in America includes a telling anecdote
about Pope Benedict XVI, then known as Cardinal
Ratzinger, the pope’s point man on crushing gay
rights.
By Michelangelo Signorile
|
Survival of the
bitchiest
Survivor: Palau’s out gay
contestant—and self-described
“flamboyant queen”—talks about girls
vs. guys, which other contestant he’d like to
marry, and whether those donuts cost him $1 million
By Bob Adams
|
Missing the
target
According to the
latest Army recruiting statistics, we need more
soldiers, period.So why continue to fire and turn away gay
men and lesbians who want to serve?
By Sharon Alexander
|
Reaching out to
the middle
With a visit to
Kansas, the Human Rights Campaign’s new president
jump-starts the group’s cross-country tour into rural
and suburban America. The hope is to change hearts and
minds about GLBT equality
By Joe Solmonese
|
here! and now
Do you want the
new gay and lesbian TV channels—Here and the
soon-to-be Logo—to be the best thing ever? Good. Then
it’s time for all of us to bite our tongues and
start supporting them. Now
By Charles Karel Bouley II
|
Sheer
fabulousness
Outrageous party
planner Steve Kemble is just one of the larger-than-life
figures featured in TLC’s rousing new reality series
Sheer Dallas, debuting April 15
By Todd Camp
|
Between a rock
and a gay place
Her sister came
out to her, and that was cool—except to their
fundamentalist parents, who have since begun a relentless
war to “cure” their daughter.
What’s a supportive sister to do?
By Sara Thompson
|
Houston, we have
a problem
This month our
career coach helps a Texan who feels lost on her
life’s career path and gives some needed advice to a
Beverly Hills hotel worker who’s been getting
hot and heavy with a fellow employee during the
workday.
By Ed Vladich
|
Who deserves
respect?
Here’s one
gay man who wasn’t willing to sit back quietly
while Pope John Paul II was deified by the media without
mention of his war against gay families. Is it
disrespectful?
By Charles Karel Bouley II
|
Brandy, she's a
fine girl
The pop superstar
talks to her gay and lesbian fans on the occasion of
her brand-new greatest hits package, The Best of Brandy
By Peter Galvin
|
Fear and loathing
in Jerusalem
Fundamentalist
leaders from three faiths united recently to condemn a
GLBT celebration in Israel, in harsh terms that bordered on
the incitement of antigay violence. It’s time
for tolerant people of faith to similarly come
together to oppose such hostile bigotry.
By Jeffrey Montgomery
|
The legacy of
John Paul II
The first
“television pope” helped to defeat Communism
and to inspire a new generation of Catholics. But this
pope also ignored an epidemic of pedophilia while
giving prominent attention to the vilification of
God’s gay and lesbian children. We can only hope
the next pope will be more compassionate.
By the Most Reverend Bruce J. Simpson, Benedictine Order of
St. John the Beloved
|
Dinah Shore
virgin
A British sister
gives us the lowdown on her first trip to the mother of
all lesbian events: the legendary Easter weekend golf
tournament in Palm Springs, Calif., that retains the
name of its patron saint
By Katherine Mantle
|
Just your average
gay psychic
What’s it
like for a gay man with a special gift to glean the
secrets of his clients as a means to help them get their
lives in order? A new memoir offers a first-person
look at the life of one of the nation’s leading
professional psychics
By Dougall Fraser
|
Sex and song in
Singapore
The banning of
Jason and deMarco from an AIDS-awareness concert is the
latest sign that the government’s newly proclaimed
focus on HIV prevention remains far from effective
By Kevin Kumala
|
40 years? Or 55?
A national
celebration May 1 in Philadelphia is being touted as the
40th anniversary of the gay rights movement in the
United States. This leading gay historian suggests the
movement was actually born 15 years earlier
By Eric Marcus
|
When our marriage
was condemned
In 1968 a white
pastor-in-training married to an African-American woman
was a flash point for bigotry in their Richmond, Va., home.
In 2005 that pastor is still sharing God�s
message of love, now including same-sex couples
By the Reverend F. Russell Baker, United Church of Christ
|
Patrick's
Amazing Race secrets
The openly gay
half of the first mother-son team on CBS’s hit
around-the-world reality show shares his dislike of fellow
contestants Rob and Amber, his passion for musical
theater, and his doubts about ever getting married.
By Bruce C. Steele
|
Taxes and gift
giving
A recent article
in the print edition of The Advocate
inadvertently misrepresented tax options for same-sex
couples with widely divergent incomes: In fact, one
partner cannot shelter income by giving to the other.
An attorney who specializes in tax issues and estate
planning straightens out the facts.
By Harold L. Harkins Jr.
|
Gay people are
show dog's best friends
The couple behind
Inside Deep Throat are just two of the queers
behind the cameras of Bravo’s Showdog Moms and
Dads, premiering March 30
By Richard Andreoli
|
The Bush dodger
returns
After almost two
years of living with her Canadian partner in that
gay-friendly nation just north of Buffalo, an American
lesbian faces her own shame at not fighting back and
decides to return to the U.S. of A.
By Julie Weisberg
|
A tribute to the
life of Wanda Alston
A friend of the
murdered D.C. activist recalls her dedication to the
fight for GLBT equality, a legacy that cannot be diminished
by her life's sudden and senseless end.
By Vallerie D. Wagner
|
Weight Watchers
Equality
Enough with the
far right’s efforts in 2005 to destroy the rights
that GLBT America has earned. Here’s how to get
straight people on our side to help fight for
equality—a little help from British royalty.
By Chad Graham
|
Marcia Cross is
not alone: Many celebrities have had gay rumors swirl
about them.
By Michael Giltz
|
Around the world
with the L.A. opera
A grand tour of
recent productions, from the stunning to the
disappointing, with stops in Troy, Seville, Paris, Sweden,
Egypt, and Verona. Many unlucky lovers will not
survive the trip.
Fred Goss
|
The new head of
the Human Rights Campaign starts his job on April 11 and
vows to hit the road in order to reintroduce the
country�s largest gay rights group to voters
across the United States
By Chad Graham
|
The boys are back
in town
The youngest
Amazing Race contestant is now helping to
organize activities for young gay, bi, and questioning men
in his adopted Ohio hometown. The goal is 90% fun and
10% safer-sex education, and it's working.
By Andrew Hyde
|
One of the
toughest careers around
Our career coach
talks about how to navigate the ultracompetitive world
of real estate and what to look for in a professional career
counselor
By Ed Vladich
|
He's in
and he's out
Openly gay
designer Jay McCarroll talks about making his way past Wendy
Pepper's mind games to become the winner of Bravo's
Project Runway. It's been quite a trip for
a boy who came out before age 14 in a small
Pennsylvania town.
By Dennis Hensley
|
Conservatives off
the deep end
Right-wingers and
family values vultures, newly drunk with power, are
reaching a level of hypocritical hysteria that makes last
year’s Janet Jackson breast brouhaha seem like
a tempest in a C cup
By Jim David
|
Meet the indies
We'll see these
films roll out all year—and some of us will be
lucky enough to remember their very first screenings
By Anne Stockwell
|
Behind the red
curtain
A dishy new books
reveals everything you ever wanted to know about
backstage goings-on at the Academy Awards but were afraid E!
would never ask
By Trudy Ring
|
The gay agenda
revealed!
We know
there’s an antigay agenda: They want us gone, period.
But a “gay agenda”? Can we all even
agree on anything? Yes. In fact, the gay agenda is
familiar to every schoolchild: liberty and justice for
all
By Charles Karel Bouley II
|
A letter from
Mrs. Cottontail...
…to
Education Secretary Margaret Spelling: This is one bunny
mother who’s hopping mad over your treatment of
little Buster, just because he went sugaring with some
children with two moms. Why not pick on those
misbehaving Peanuts kids instead?
By Kimberly Gadette
|
Keyes follows
Cheney’s lead
Two families
missing from a new PFLAG campaign about loving your GLBT
relatives are those of “family values”
politicians Alan Keyes and Dick Cheney: Keyes has cut
off his daughter, Maya, while Cheney supports policies
that heap shame on his daughter Mary. So much for
right-wing Christian love.
Marc Paige
|
More from Maher
to his Big Gay Following
In his BGF
interview with The Advocate’s Adam B. Vary,
comedian Bill Maher was really on a roll. Witness these
outrageous outtakes from the host of Real Time With
Bill Maher, now in its third season on HBO
|
Defining the
movement for same-sex marriage
Many LGBT
African-Americans are resisting the urge to equate the
struggle for gay equality with the struggle for racial
equality. It’s not too late for everyone to
find a common ground.
By Irene Monroe
|
Project Runway’s audacious and flamboyant
Austin Scarlett talks about expressing his vision,
surviving his teen years, and the treachery of
Runway competitor Wendy Pepper
By Dennis Hensley
|
Maya’s
Turn
In her first
interview with the gay media, the 19-year-old daughter of
right-wing presidential candidate and conservative
commentator Alan Keyes comes out of the closet. For
her honesty, she’s paid a very heavy price.
By Sarah Wildman
|
Dyke eye for the
L Word girl
Do lesbians have
to conform to stereotypes fitting gay males--fat-free
bodies, designer clothes, aggressive sexuality--to win media
visibility? Why are the women of The L Word and
Queer Eye so Birkenstock-free?
By Stephanie Fairyington
|
Post-Exposure
Prophylaxis
Antiretroviral
drugs can be an HIV prevention safety net when other
options fail
By Ronald O. Valdiserri, MD, MPH
|
In the grip of
gay panic
What do the
murderers of gay men have in common with the White House? An
aggressive strategy to justify their own selfish actions by
devaluing the lives of gay men and lesbians. And we
have no one but ourselves to blame
By the Most Reverend Bruce J. Simpson, Benedictine Order of
St. John the Beloved
|
Bloomberg goes
both ways
Speaking at an
HRC dinner, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg earned cheers
and jeers for saying he personally supports same-sex
marriage on the same day he said he’d appeal a
pro–gay marriage court decision
By Ryan James Kim
|
An Ellen
lovefest, but no hugging
One fan’s
visit to a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show
provides a glimpse behind the cameras, including a
“no hugging” rule that keeps all the
mutual affection channeled into dancing and laughter.
By Mary Ann Petersen
|
Rough trade
When TV’s
Wife Swap landed an ultraconservative Texas
homemaker in a two-mommy household in Arizona, the
homophobia flowed hot and heavy. How did it feel to be
in the direct path of the bigotry? The Advocate
talks to lesbian mom Nicki Boone
By Dave White
|
Ask not for whom
homophobia tolls
The poison that
flows from diminishing gay and lesbian lives, as the
president did again last week, sickens everyone in our
society. It’s contingent upon all of us to join
together to free our country from this evil.
By Warren J. Blumenfeld
|
Back to
AIDS’ origins
A new documentary
premiering on Sundance Channel February 7 asks tough
questions about The Origins of AIDS
By David Ehrenstein
|
Practice makes
perfect
Our career coach
talks about another resource for gays who want to move
to Canada and how to deal with a past disappointment on the
job.
By Ed Vladich
|
Victory at Clear
Creek High
With the support
of some newfound friends and a willingness to stand up
and fight, our high school diarist wins the right to form a
gay club at her Texas school
By Paige Palmer
|
Gay vets’
benefits at risk?
As many as a
million gay and lesbian veterans depend on the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs for health
care—including many who can’t get
HIV/AIDS care anywhere else. It’s reason enough for
GLBT activists to keep an eye on the Bush
administration’s coming cutbacks
By Lara Ballard
|
One wild night at
Sundance
From dodging
celebrities at the Queer Lounge to crashing Middle-Earth and
boxing-themed parties, The Advocate’s senior
arts editor packs a lot of queer indie film networking
into her first night at Park City’s annual film
extravaganza
Anne Stockwell
|
Why Alexander
won’t meet Oscar
As the Oscar
nominations are announced—and pass over Oliver
Stone’s epic that cast Colin Farrell as the bisexual
Greek conqueror with an Irish
brogue—Advocate.com finally finds the truth
about the same-sex footage that you didn’t get to see
By Mike Goodridge
|
We need another
hero
With all the
advancements being made in regard to GLBT equality, we still
don’t have any openly gay showbiz heroes
By Neal Broverman
|
Rainbow of help
In the first 10
days after a devastating tsunami hit southeast Asia on
December 26, killing at least 150,000 people, Jeff
Cotter’s Rainbow World Fund raised over
$150,000 for relief from within the gay and lesbian
community
By Patrick Letellier
|
Why is Oscar
silent on musicals?
I don’t
like show tunes, but my boyfriend does. Yet somehow I ended
up producing an original film musical called Open
House—one of five musicals eligible for an
Oscar for Best Original Musical for 2004. Problem is,
the Academy nixed the category. Is this discrimination?
By Stephen Israel
|
A historic
statement of unity
An unprecedented
22 national gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual
groups have gotten together to issue a combined manifesto
calling for all GLBT Americans to continue the fight
for full equality.
|
Logo’s
good to go
Logo,
Viacom’s gay channel, ends months of speculation by
announcing a June 30, 2005, launch date. Its president,
Brian Graden, talks to Advocate.com about what to
expect from the fledgling network.
Alonso Duralde
|
Equality Wars:
Coming to your state
For the next four
years, work in Washington, D.C., may be limited to
stemming the damage. But real progress can continue on state
and local levels, especially if average LGBT citizens
are prepared to get involved
By Ian Palmquist, Cochair, Equality Federation
|
Expelled
teen’s parents threaten to kick him out
James Barnett,
the 18-year-old senior forced to leave a Texas Christian
high school last month, says his parents will eject him from
their house if he tells his story on television.
By Matthew Cardinale
|
Cult
comic’s Kvetching hits L.A.
Jackie Hoffman
had audiences collapsing with laughter in Broadway’s
Hairspray. After hours she became a New York gay icon
with her one-woman cabaret show, The Kvetching
Continues. Now Hoffman brings Kvetching to
Los Angeles
|
Our path forward
The recently
departed head of the Human Rights Campaign quotes Martin
Luther King and Susan B. Anthony to argue that the gay
rights movement should stay the course in fighting for
full equality—including marriage rights.
By Cheryl Jacques
|
Lively Addition
A new straight
character learns to say The L Word.
By Peter Davis
|
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