Ford's Theatre has announced that due to the shutdown of the federal government, performances of The Laramie Project have been canceled ''as long as the shutdown is in effect.'' While the shutdown affects Ford's Theatre, which operates as a partnership of the federal National Park Service and the private Ford's Theatre Society, the shutdown has not closed The Center for Education and Leadership, which is wholly owned by the society. As the center continues operations at 514 10th St. NW, visitors may view the exhibit Not Alone: The Power of Response, which features some of the 10,000 letters sent to the Shepard family following Matthew Shepard's murder.
According to Ford's associate director of communications, Lauren Beyea, some contingency plans will likely be announced soon on fords.org.
UPDATE, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 4:20 p.m.: Ford's Theatre has announced that during the closure it will present two free performances of The Laramie Project at an alternate venue, First Congregational United Church of Christ, at 945 G St. NW. The free performances will be Friday, Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m., and Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be distributed on a first-come basis beginning at 6:30 p.m., with doors opening at 7 p.m. Further, the scheduled Monday, Oct. 7, Lincoln Legacy Project panel discussion featuring Dave O'Malley, former Laramie, Wyo., police commander, and Billy Rawles, former sheriff of Jasper, Texas, has been moved from the theater to The Center for Education and Leadership at 514 10th St. NW, still set for 7 p.m. The panel discussion is a free event.
...moreCalling a country "democratic" doesn't necessarily mean much when it comes to human rights. At least, not in Serbia, with its hopes of being accepted into the European Union, yet banning Belgrade's attempted Gay Pride celebration for the third year in a row – most recently, last Saturday.
Though born in Berlin, I've lived most of my 25 years in Belgrade. During the past two years, I've also spent much of my time in D.C., because my boyfriend lives there. Certainly, D.C. is a much easier place than Serbia to be gay.
LGBT-equality activists march in Serbia, Sept. 27
(Photo by Vesna Lalic/Courtesy Viktor Vilotijevic)
Being one of the youngest out LGBT activists in the country puts me in a difficult position. I have been attacked a few times, beaten and threatened at gunpoint.
Three years ago, when we had a different political structure that was even worse than today, we still managed to hold the only legal LGBT Pride celebration Serbia has ever had. Though with more than 5,000 police, fewer than a thousand participants – mostly straight allies – and a few thousand counter-protestors of mostly soccer hooligans, Belgrade was left looking like the set of a post-apocalyptic film.
Viktor Vilotijevic
(Photo by Marko Sovilj/Courtesy Viktor Vilotijevic)
Three years later, everything was ready for another attempt, set for Sept. 28 at 10 a.m. According to Serbian law, if authorities were to cancel our Pride celebration, they had to do it with at least 24 hours' notice. Last weekend, the authorities broke the law, issuing that cancelation around 7 p.m. the night before, citing safety concerns that apparently hadn't existed earlier. We were told those concerns included threats of us being attacked with acid, Molotov cocktails and – the weirdest part – wasps in jars. But despite authorities having these vivid details, they apparently didn't have enough information to make any arrests.
Pride organizers countered by rallying supporters to gather in front of the Government Building of the Republic of Serbia that evening. About 200 of us responded, gathering around 11 p.m. Police also responded, soon outnumbering and surrounding us. Still, we walked along Kneza Milosa, a main city street, where LGBT Pride should have happened. We stopped at the Parliament, where we were told we were breaking the law with our ''Guerrilla Pride.'' We were the ''disobedients,'' as one government official called us, not the authorities who were denying us our right to assemble.
Yet in our outnumbered group, there were university professors, famous playwrights, actors, people from public life, ordinary people who support the LGBT community – and fewer than 10 activists, among which I was the youngest.
Together, we made clear that we are not going away. Indeed, President Tomislav Nikolic reacted the next day by saying that preparations for the next LGBT Pride should start right away. But as I am familiar with the way the things work in this country, it's hardly going to happen without the strong support of our LGBT peers in America. I am very disappointed in Serbia, but most of all in our fake democratic leaders who are not doing anything to fight discrimination of any kind, and certainly not homophobia.
Viktor Vilotijevic is a filmmaker and LGBT-rights activist based in Belgrade, Serbia. He can be contacted at // .
...moreYou have to admit that as gay people we have some considerable experience at losing. While the pace of change in recent years for LGBT equality feels historic when compared to the African-American Civil Rights Movement and others, decades of losses preceded the wins.
It wasn't even that long ago that we were losing badly on anything remotely gay. The 1990s saw ''no promo homo'' laws barring effective HIV-prevention programs for gay men; ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' forced gays, lesbian and bisexual servicemembers to either lie or be discharged; and the ''Defense of Marriage Act'' outlawed our relationships as attacks on straight marriages.
In the land of the losers, the orange-skinned man is king.
After those losses and many others, we did what one does in a democracy: We worked to gain allies, educate voters and change minds. Over time, more politicians came to vote for us, more judges agreed with our legal arguments. Past defeats like DADT became legislative victories. Overreaching federal powers such as DOMA were struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Given that experience, I feel completely justified saying that today's Republicans are the biggest, whiniest group of sore losers this country has seen this side of post-Civil War Southerners lamenting the dissolution of Jim Crow.
I'll preface this with my obvious bias: I'm a big supporter of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. My main criticism of the bill would be that it doesn't go far enough, but given the politics in a play during its passage I know that it's the best bill we could get.
People may disagree with me. That's fair enough in a representative democracy. Opponents of the law are free to try to repeal it. And boy, have they! Time and time again, Republicans have voted for bills to repeal Obamacare; time and time again, those bills have not passed the Senate, much less made it to the White House where they would be vetoed.
That's how our system of government works. It's all laid out in fairly plain language in the Constitution. Unfortunately, far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives slaver and drool over the Constitution like 14-year-old boys flipping through Playboy while ignoring the words. Republicans are working from the fantasy constitution in their heads, the airbrushed and siliconed version that guarantees their way or the highway.
It's hard not to feel like I'm howling uselessly into the wind given that essentially everyone in the world except a small subset of Republicans thinks a government shutdown — or worse, a default on the nation's debt — is the sign of a failing government. This is the time when I get out my old copy of P.J. O'Rourke's Parliament of Whores — no fan letter to Democrats and liberals — to repeat the quote: ''Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected to prove it.''
All this comes after a few months of Republican efforts to discourage uninsured young people from signing up for health insurance through the Obamacare market exchanges that opened on the day of the shutdown, probably one of the most morally repugnant political acts I've seen since Dick Cheney made torture an official American policy. You want to take away that health insurance by repealing Obamacare? Go ahead and try it. We have a governmental system set up to let you go at it again and again, until you win or give up.
What we don't have is a system where you get to hijack the country in a toddler-level tantrum because you didn't get your way. This isn't about negotiation. This is purely about a minority of politicians threatening our well-being because they can't accept that they've lost. They're happy to retreat into their fantasies of ''real Americans'' because they can't abide the reality of America.
And what they may leave us with is a political system broken beyond repair.
Sean Bugg is editor emeritus of Metro Weekly. Follow him on Twitter @seanbugg or email him at seanbugg@gmail.com.
...moreDuring his Conservative Party Conference speech, British Prime Minister David Cameron praises LGBT acceptance as one of Britain's best achievements.
The Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the team's first LGBT Night OUT Friday, celebrating the historic event with appearances by Lance Bass, Billy Bean, and Jason Collins.
Jonathan Warman will direct a reading of the Broadway-bound new musical The Happy Hooker, which will be presented October 7 at The Cutting Room in Manhattan. First published in 1971, Xaviera Hollander’s memoir The Happy Hooker: My Own Story (co-written with Robin Moore and Yvonne Dunleavy) has now sold over 20 million copies. Producer […]
The post Jonathan Warman directing reading of Broadway-bound musical “The Happy Hooker” appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
A judge ordered that state officials in New Jersey must begin allowing same-sex couples to get married beginning October 21st. Judge Mary Jacobson in Mercer County Superior Court issued her order in a lawsuit filed by a group of gay couples against the state of New Jersey. The judge said that although New Jersey recognizes […]
The post Judge rules in favor of gay marriage in New Jersey appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
The New York Times released the following documentary this week titled, “Hers to Lose: A Look at Christine Quinn’s Failed Campaign for Mayor.” The video takes a look at the openly gay Speaker of the New York City Council’s final month on the campaign trail. When the times first started following Quinn for this piece […]
The post Documentary on Quinn’s failed NYC Mayoral bid released [VIDEO] appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
Drag queens invaded Atlantic City over the weekend, and Victoria ‘Pork Chop’ Parker took home the title of 2013 Miss’d America. Parker is no stranger to drag fans. She was a contestant on the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. In the contestant Q&A segment, Victoria said she would attend next year’s Miss America Competition […]
The post 2013 Miss’d America crowned appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
Former Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is back with a gig in a new movie playing gay poet Allen Ginsberg called Kill Your Darlings. Radcliffe and his co-star Dane DeHann are speaking out about playing gay in the upcoming flick “For me, Kill Your Darlings is a film about young love in whatever form it […]
The post Daniel Radcliffe talks playing gay in Kill Your Darlings [VIDEO] appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
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