Federal gay marriage challenge has Hollywood style Reuters
The story of two famous U.S. lawyers from opposite ends of the political spectrum banding together to launch a bold and unexpected fight for gay marriage sounds like it could have been written in Hollywood.
In many ways, it is.
A handful of political filmmakers led by a Democratic consultant have crafted a gay rights challenge they hope will reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case which has its first hearing in a federal San Francisco court on July 2 could quickly make gay marriage a national right, or, some veteran gay rights advocates fear, cripple the movement.
The team has political experience, winning referenda in California in particular, and has brought together real-world firepower in the form of Ted Olson and David Boies, the lawyers who faced off in the 2000 election vote recount that led to George W. Bush’s presidency.
What sets them apart is the willingness to take on a court case that advocates steeped in the cause have avoided.
“Patience is a virtue I’ve quite frankly never possessed — if patience is a virtue,” said Chad Griffin, 35, who began his career in the political big leagues more than a decade ago as the youngest person to work on a president’s West Wing staff.
“History is on our side, law is on our side,” added Griffin, who is gay.
Rob Reiner, the “When Harry Met Sally” director and advocate for children’s health, and Bruce Cohen, the producer of “Milk,” a film about the first openly gay elected politician in California, are two of the six-member board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, founded for the court challenge.
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Closeted politicians stir filmmaker’s ‘Outrage’
Of the many insinuations in “Outrage,” Kirby Dick’s sad, devastating new documentary about closeted gay politicians - OK, alleged closeted gay politicians - the one that’s most disturbing is the case made against a former Southern congressman.
As a young liberal, the politician used his fraternity house “as his gay bar,” a former alleged hookup tells the filmmakers. Yet in pursuit of elected office, the politician got married, went to church, and voted Republican, never quite shaking his same-sex attraction but never doing much legislatively to acknowledge or advance the civil rights of gay people. On numerous occasions, in fact, he voted to suppress those rights.
Such alleged hypocrisy is the crux of “Outrage.” Dick speculates on the homosexuality of several current and former public officials which hasn’t been corroborated by the men themselves.
His charges aren’t new; they’ve certainly surfaced in the alternative press and online. But in accordance with Globe ethics poilcy, I can’t repeat those names here.
While dwelling on political contradiction, the movie unfolds at a unique juncture of psychological and moral character: the perverse place where a politician’s relentless personal drive and a closeted gay man’s shameful desire may meet.
In tying the purported secret gay sex lives of these putatively straight elected officials - the movie focuses almost exclusively on men - to their voting records, a caustic portrait emerges of self-deluded souls. Dick goes into scandals involving the married Idaho senator Larry Craig and the now openly gay former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey, who sits down and unburdens himself for the camera (he talks about “living your truth” with an abandon that suggests either lots of therapy or lots of disco). Former Arizona congressman Jim Kolbe talks about how much happier he was after he revealed he was gay (we never hear from his ex-wife, although Mrs. McGreevey does speak).
“Outrage” is armed with commentary and insights from openly gay members of Congress like Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin, activists like Larry Kramer (of course) and Rodger McFarlane, who died last month, and such Washington insiders as Hilary Rosen. The movie never allows you to forget its aim. It wants to hold these men accountable - if the speculation is true - not for their conservatism but for their double standard. “Outrage” tries to put the officials on a couch and determine why so many are Republicans. Someone likens their alleged behavior to playground politics, where potential outcasts help bullies persecute kids to keep the bullies off their trail. How could I be gay?, the thinking goes, I’ve voted with my party to block the passage of so many gay-friendly bills. See Closeted politicians stir filmmaker’s ‘Outrage’
Boston Globe
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‘Outrage’ comes at pivotal moment in gay rights fight
“Outrage,” the biting new political documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick that opens today in Los Angeles, candidly explores the murky intersection between private lives and public conduct.Dick’s thesis is that Washington’s closeted homosexual lawmakers, most of them members of the GOP, staunchly — often stridently — oppose equal rights measures for gays because they’re anxious to conceal their own sexual orientation. He also shares a sentiment voiced by openly gay Democratic Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts who told the filmmakers that his Republican colleagues have “a right to privacy, but there’s no right to hypocrisy.”So in that spirit, the film does what no mainstream cinematic treatment of this issue has done before: It names names.
All the law and policymakers identified have previously been “outed” in print or online, but most either deny being gay or simply decline to comment on privacy grounds. Among those named in “Outrage” are veteran California Rep. David Dreier, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, ex-Louisiana Congressman Jim McCrery, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and ex-Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, whose notorious 2007 arrest on suspicion of lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport men’s room effectively ended his political career.
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Los Angeles Times -* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Private dick meets public honors
An age-old Hollywood rule states that if an actor comes out publicly as gay, his career is over. Chad Allen not only broke that rule, he smashed it to pieces. His acting career has thrived since he came out, in roles both gay and straight, and some of his best opportunities came along specifically because he’s gay.
Allen will be honored for his groundbreaking work at the 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday night, May 9, at the Hilton San Francisco. The event will be hosted by comedian Chelsea Handler of E! TV’s Chelsea Lately. Oscar-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black will receive a Special Honor, and Mayor Gavin Newsom will present a Local Hero Award to San Francisco filmmakers George Callan and Mike Shaw for their film The Pursuit of Equality.
Special guests include finance guru Suze Orman, Sex and the City hunk Jason Lewis, Queer as Folk’s Robert Gant, Milk producer Dan Jinks, Calpernia Addams, Megan Cavanagh, Gabrielle Christian, Michelle Clunie, Laverne Cox, Wilson Cruz, Mandy Musgrave, Simon Rex, Eduardo Xol and TV’s Judge David Young. Musical performances will include violinist Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and out gay singer Matt Alber. See Private dick meets public honors
Bay Area Reporter * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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“Voices of Witness Africa” Screening Set for May 10
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Backers Of Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Face Backlash
Since California voters passed a ban on gay marriage, some supporters of the measure have found themselves squarely in the bull’s-eye of angry gay rights activists.
It’s no secret who gave money for and against the controversial amendment to the state’s constitution, known as Proposition 8. California’s secretary of state publicized the lists of contributors, which were picked up by local media and Web sites.
And in the aftermath of a contentious campaign, protests followed. In Los Angeles, would-be patrons of a popular Tex-Mex restaurant were greeted by furious protestors like John Dennison.
“El Coyote — millions in gay margarita money funding hatred,” Dennison yelled during the protest. “Boycott El Coyote!”
The restaurant owner’s daughter, Margie Christofferson, a faithful Mormon, had made a modest $100 contribution to the “Yes on 8″ campaign — and the restaurant’s gay patrons, like Edward Stanley, felt betrayed.
“I won’t be eating here,” Stanley said.
Business dipped about 30 percent at the height of the protest, and it still hasn’t returned to pre-protest levels. Several members of the restaurant’s staff — including many of its gay employees — have seen their hours cut back in response. And Christofferson, who managed the restaurant, has resigned.
Others Feel The Heat
In Sacramento, the owners of Leatherby’s Family Creamery found themselves part of the backlash when The Sacramento Bee printed the list of contributors. Dave Leatherby, a devout Roman Catholic father of 10, says he was responding to a direct request from his bishop to give generously.
“We gave $20,000 for Yes on Proposition 8,” he says.
And once that was known, retaliation was swift. “We soon started getting very nasty e-mails and letters and phone calls by the hundreds,” he says.
Leatherby says he was mystified, because the Creamery had always enjoyed good relations with the gay and lesbian community.
And he says something interesting happened when demonstrators arrived outside his shop: Business went up, instead of down. “The day they picketed us, there were about 15 picketers, and that day we had people waiting two hours to get into our restaurant for four or five hours,” he says.
Not every backlash story ends that way.
Richard Raddon, director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Scott Eckern, director of the California Musical Theater in Sacramento, are devout Mormons. Both made contributions to Yes on 8, and both got demands for their resignations from gay rights protestors. They quit so their organizations wouldn’t face further controversy. Ironically, the film festival has been instrumental in introducing works by gay and lesbian filmmakers to a broader audience — and the musical theater included works by gay playwrights and composers.
See Backers Of Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Face Backlash
NPR
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Muslim gay filmmaker’s work to be shown at the arts school
UT at the Movies/Winston-Salem presents the documentary, A Jihad for Love, 7 p.m. Saturday at the ACE Theatre Complex on the UNC School of the Arts campus.
Muslim gay filmmaker, Parvez Sharma, brings to light the hidden lives of gay and lesbian Muslims from such countries as Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, France, India and South Africa.
Admission is $5, and all proceeds will benefit the Adam Foundation and UNCSA’s School of Filmmaking.
For more information, call 336-918-0902, or e-mail OUTattheMovies@triad.rr.com.
See Muslim gay filmmaker’s work to be shown at the arts school
Winston-Salem Journal, NC
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‘Out of Annapolis’
‘Out of Annapolis,’ a documentary film featuring 35 gay alumni of the U.S. Naval Academy, has almost been completed. The filmmakers, an organization called USNA Out, are hoping to get it shown at festivals come summer 2009. A preliminary trailer has been released: See ‘Out of Annapolis’
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‘Milk’ captures doomed life of gay, Jewish politician
“I’M FROM WOODMERE. I’M JEWISH. I’M GAY.”
Harvey Milk often carried a sign with those words on marches during his activist days in the 1970s, his nephew Stuart Milk says. The first openly gay man in the country to be elected to public office “was not religious or observant, but Harvey absolutely identified himself as a Jew,” he said.
The San Francisco County supervisor, who was murdered in his City Hall office in 1978, also enjoyed conversing in Yiddish with Sharyn Saslafsky, who would come into his camera store in San Francisco’s Castro district as a customer or just to shmooze.
“Although neither of us spoke it fluently,” Saslafsky recalls, “we had fun using Yiddish to tell stories, laugh and talk about different things. We would use it interchangeably with English, correctly or incorrectly.
“We would also talk about Yiddishkayt, about what Judaism stresses,” she continues. “That was clearly very important to Harvey. I believe his concern for justice, fairness, equality and ethical behavior came from his Jewish background.”
The fact that he was Jewish is mentioned only briefly in the recently released biopic, “Milk,” which focuses instead on the personal and political events that occurred over the last eight years of Milk’s life.
Prior to that period, Milk, born in 1930, had played high school football, served in the Navy, worked on Wall Street, dabbled in the theater, been a Republican and led an essentially closeted life until he settled in San Francisco. There he transformed himself into a progressive gay activist at a time when violence and discrimination against gays were commonplace.
Many Hollywood filmmakers, including Oliver Stone, have contemplated making a movie about Milk. However, it wasn’t until a young writer named Dustin Lance Black finished a spec script based on extensive research that the project began to move forward.
Cleve Jones, one of Milk’s protégés, sent the script to Gus Van Sant, who enthusiastically agreed to direct the film and who brought the screenplay to Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks, the team that produced the Oscar-winning film, “American Beauty.” Jinks, like Milk, is gay and Jewish and says they were on board immediately.
“I thought the idea of this ordinary man who was not raised to be a politician, and who was not a particularly good politician initially, becoming a tremendous leader at a time when leadership was so necessary was a spectacular story. I found it powerful and so moving. As soon as I read it, I knew I had to be part of it, and as I was going through the script, I started thinking about actors who could do it, and I kept going back in my mind to Sean Penn. Fortunately, he said ‘yes’ pretty quickly, in about three weeks.”
The movie is already creating Oscar buzz, particularly for Penn’s extraordinary performance in the title role. Filmmaker Rob Epstein, whose documentary, “The Times of Harvey Milk,” won an Oscar in 1984, particularly admires what he calls the tenderness of Penn’s portrayal. See ‘Milk’ captures doomed life of gay, Jewish politician
The Jewish Journal of greater L.A, CA
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Verge Communications launches online film festival at www.GirlsShorts.tv
Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 6, 2008 - Imagine what it would be like to find quality lesbian short films in one central location on the web. GirlsShorts.tv has now made this possibility a reality.
GirlsShorts.tv is a new online community created to promote lesbian, bisexual and transgender short films, music videos, film and book trailers and more. It will provide affordable pay per view, pay per download and free ad-supported content to an international audience, and internet exposure to professional, semi-professional, and amateur lesbian, bisexual and transgender filmmakers.
“The internet has made web video a reality, but finding real lesbian content can be quite difficult (and sometimes icky!). This site should have great potential for both creators and those of us hungry for content.”
GirlsShorts.tv is owned by Verge Communications, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and operated by two women with a passion for film: Angie Beauchamp and Nina Knapp. The owners have a history of experience in promotions, marketing, and active involvement in filmmaking including making their own films.
“For the past two years, we have volunteered on the screening committee for the Southwest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival here in Albuquerque. What struck both Angie and I was how many good films were submitted, and how few would find their way into the festival program.”
- Nina Knapp
“Many filmmakers find distribution to be a difficult and daunting task, but their short films are just as deserving of an audience as those films accepted for national and international film festivals.”
- Angie Beauchamp
Knapp and Beauchamp decided to form a partnership, Verge Communications, and to launch a new online community dedicated to bringing lesbian, bisexual and transgender short films to a global audience, while supporting the filmmakers through a revenue sharing program at the same time. Thus, GirlsShorts.tv was born.
“The internet has made web video a reality, but finding real lesbian content can be quite difficult (and sometimes icky!). This site should have great potential for both creators and those of us hungry for content.”
The goals of GirlsShorts.tv are:
· Provide global exposure to filmmakers;
· Provide a revenue stream to filmmakers through our revenue sharing program;
· Provide a venue for filmmakers to promote all their works;
· Find a new life for older films;
· Provide exposure to comedians, musicians and authors through performance clips and book trailers;
· Allow filmmakers to retain all rights to their work.
“GirlsShorts.tv is the most exciting thin I’ve heard about in a long time. Part of that is the profit sharing that can occur by having your work on the site, and the other part of that is just by having another platform to launch your work…Particularly with our niche market, the lesbian and queer population worldwide,…having a way to make more films by earning revenue on the short films you’ve already made is an incredibly delicious idea.”
- Rosser Goodman, Director, Producer, HOLDING TREVOR - KGB Films
GirlsShorts.tv accepts video content up to 35 minutes in length in avi, mpg, wmv, dat, mov, or flv formats. We prefer content be submitted on DVD, but VHS, VCD, or CD are also acceptable. Content in PAL must be submitted on a DVD.
“We look forward to creating a diverse community celebrating lesbian, bisexual and transgender film!”
For more information please email nina@vergecom.com,
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