Coming Out Support Newsweekly: 12/21/09

Coming Out Support (COS) Newsweekly
Volume 12 No. 51 December 21, 2009
Newsletter Editor: OnQYB@aol.com

The Fine Print

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The Gay Agenda: Datebook: December 21-27, 2009

MON: 12/21: San Francisco, CA: Frederick Hertz discusses his new book, "Living Together: A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples and A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples", co-authored with Emily Doskow. A Different Light Books. http://adleventscastro.blogspot.com/

FRI: 12/25: Global: Christmas. Seasons greetings to all.

Newsworthy:

Washington, DC: Same-sex couples won the right to marry in the nation’s capital 12/15/09, when the District of Columbia City Council voted 11-2 to pass a measure sponsored by openly gay council member David Catania. Congress has 30 days to review the law before it takes effect, but Congressional leaders have already agreed not to block the law’s adoption. GayPolitics. com reports: http://www.gaypolitics.com/2009/12/15/marriage-equality-approved-in-nations-captital/

Texas: Houston became the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor on 12/12/09, as voters gave a solid victory to the city controller, Annise Parker. The New York Times reports: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/us/politics/13houston.html

California: The California Assembly has picked John Perez as its first openly gay speaker. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/10/BAKV1B2CJU.DTL&tsp=1

Rent Boys: Coming to a Nevada Brothel Near You. But, not everyone's thrilled. Towleroad reports: http://www.towleroad.com/2009/12/homophobe-objects-to-opening-of-nv-brothels-to-male-prostitution.html

Awards and Honors:

Golden Globes Nominees: "Mad Men", "Glee", "Nine", Sigourney Weaver in "Prayer for Bobby", Neil Patrick Harris. For the list of nominees: http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/hfpa-golden-globes-nominations/

Features

Coming Out: Gay British Soldier speaks out about coming out while on tour of duty in Afghanistan. Towleroad reports: http://www.towleroad.com/2009/12/gay-british-army-trooper-speaks-out-about-coming-out.html

Chat: Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim talk about "A Little Night Music" and more. New York Magazine reports: http://nymag.com/arts/theater/features/62635/

The Resource Center:

GayPolitics covers the intersection of politics and the fight for LGBT equality, highlighting key stories about electoral politics, the legislative process and the people involved in both.  As a project of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, we also report on the campaigns and careers of openly LGBT elected and appointed officials at all levels of government. www.gaypolitics.com

In Print:

The Best LGBT Books of 2009: 56 writers select their favorites. Band of Thebes (one of our favorite blogs for literature) reports: http://bandofthebes.typepad.com/bandofthebes/2009/12/the-best-lgbt-books-of-2009-56-writers-select-their-favorites.html#more

Sordid Truths: Selling My Innocence for a Taste of Stardom by Aiden Shaw. Alyson Publications. Shaw's autobiography chronicles the author’s ascent from being just another broke college boy, who dabbled with the idea that he could sell his young body for hard cash, to becoming the internationally renowned adult film superstar. He later turned author.

In Performance: Onstage:Theatre/Music/Dance

New York City (and Broadway)

***A John Waters Christmas. Homo for the holidays. His one-man show. 12/22/09. www.bbkingblues.com
***A Little Night Music. Sondheim's all-waltz musical stars Catherina Zeta-Jones (singing "Send in the Clowns") and Angela Lansbury.
***Dec. '09: An Evening With Sandra Bernhard. 12/26/09-12/31/09. www.joespub.com
***Ernest in Love, a musical based on gay Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Ernest". to 1/31/10. www.irishrep.org.
***The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever. Joe Marshall's comedy about a struggling gay theatre company in West Hollywood. to 1/03/10. www.alternativethratreco.org.
***The Michael Feinstein & David Hyde Pierce Holiday Show. to 12/30/09. feinsteinsatloewsregency.com
***She Like Girls, Chisa Hutchinson’s drama about a 2003 hate crime, the killing of a high school lesbian, shot at a Newark bus stop. to 12/30/09. www.theatermania.com.
***Zero Hour. Jim Brochu’s award-winning play about the life of theatre legend Zero Mostel. Brochu, who plays Mostel, and his onstage/offstage partner Steve Schalchlin, penned "The Big Voice: God or Merman?". to 1/31/10. www.ZeroHourShow.com

Elsewhere...

***The Addams Family. Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth and Jackie Hoffman co-star in the musical based on the TV sitcom, cartoon series and films. to 1/10/10. Chicago, IL. www.theaddamsfamilymusical.com
***Fiddler on The Roof. Harvey Fierstein, Broadway's classic Mom in "Hairspray" plays a classic father of five. to 1/10/10. Toronto, ON. www.mirvish.com or visit fiddlerontour.com.
***The Marga Gomez New Year's Eve Spectacular, the out comic's stand-up comedy blow-out. 12/31/09. San Francisco, CA. www.brownpapertickets.com
***Santaland Diaries. David Sedaris' tale of being an unemployed writer who takes a holiday job as a department store elf. to 12/30/09, San Francisco, CA. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/89315 to 12/27/09, Houston, TX. www.alleytheatre.org.

On Screen (and Video & DVD)

Out on Screen...

***A Single Man. Tom Ford's debut film, an adaptation of a Christopher Isherwood novel, about a day in the life of a gay man, starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.
***Hannah Free. Sharon Gless stars in the film adaptation of Claudia Allen's play about a woman who fights to see her lesbian partner one last time in a nursing home. Premiere screening:www.hannahfree.com
***Nine, the Rob Marshall movie based on the Broadway musical. Daniel Day-Lewis plays the conflicted film maker. The women in his life: Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench and Fergie.
***Oy Vey. My Son is Gay. A coming out film with Carmen Electra, Lainie Kazan, Bruce Vilanch, Jai Rodriguez. One assumes it's a comedy.
***Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. A stunning drama from out director Lee Daniels about an overweight, illiterate Harlem teen, pregnant with her second child, who is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.

Out On Video & DVD
.
***Every Little Step: The Journey of "A Chorus Line".
***The Fall of '55. The documentary about the gay sex sting in Boise, Idaho in 1955.
***Hope Along The Wind: The Life of Harry Hay. the 2002 documentary about the gay rights pioneer.
***Hump Day. Two straight dudes contemplate going gay to enter and win Humpfest, Seattle's amateur porn contest.
***Margaret Cho: Beautiful.
***Pageant. The documentary about the Miss Gay America Pageant.
***Taking Woodstock. Ang Lee's new film about the rock festival based on Elliot Tiber's memoir. Demetri Martin stars as the gay Tiber. Liev Schriber plays a transvestite; Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays a closeted married guy who has an affair with Tiber.

On TV Of Note: All times listed are ET. Check local listings for times in your area.

Resource:TV Gayed, GLAAD's Weekly Guide to What's LGBT on TV: Updated every Friday. www.glaad.org/tvgayed

***Ongoing: The Wanda Sykes Show. The out comic's late night talk show. 11PM Saturdays. FOX.
***December: In the Life. LGBT news magazine. PBS. Check local listings. http://www.itl.tv/inthelife/episodes/
***December: Liza's At The Palace, her recent Broadway concert form. Pledge programming on PBS. A DVD will be issued, first as a pledge premium and later on the retail circuit (2/02/10). www.pbs.org. for airtimes.

Conferences, Seminars, Benefits, and Special Events

1/6/10-1/10/10: Park City, UT: Utah Gay & Lesbian Ski Week. www.gayskiing.org

1/07/10-1/10/10: New York, NY: New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend. A series of events celebrating the arts in New York with Alan Cumming, Natalie Portman, Carrie Fisher, Lee Daniels ("Precious"), Eric Ripert and more. www.artsandleisureweekend.com.

1/15/10-1/17/10: Los Angeles, CA: Annual National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students Conference. Workshops, services, community building, and social time. NUJLS is a fiscally managed project of Keshet, an organization that works for the full inclusion of LGBT Jews in Jewish life. http://www.nujlsonline.org/confereinceinfo.html

1/17/10-1/24/10: Aspen, CO: Aspen Gay Ski Week. www.gayskiweek.com

1/20/10-1/24/10: Stowe, VT: Winter Rendezvous. gay skiing & winter sports. www.winterrendezvous.com

1/21/10-1/31/10: Park City, UT: Sundance Film Festival. Among the screenings: James Franco as beat poet Allen Ginsburg in "Howl", the story of the poet's obscenity trial, which also stars Jon Hamm and Mary-Louise Parker and a documentary: "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work". www.sundance.org

1/28/10-1/30/10: Bloomington, IN: Pride Film Festival. www.pridefilmfestival.org

Last Week’s Trivia Quiz: 2009 In Review: Part II

1. Question: Name this American university that established an endowed chair in LGBT studies, in what was believed to be the first professorship of its kind in the country. Hint: It wasn't City University of New York, which started the first LGBT studies program in 1986, nor Yale which attempted to endow a chair in the 1990's. Answer: Harvard University. The New York Times reported: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/education/04harvard.html?_r=1&ref=us

2. Question: Name this radio host and former TV spokesperson whose crystal ball and tarot cards said it was time to come out. Answer: Miss Cleo, former spokesperson for the Psychic Readers Network, came out. She's now released a spoken-word CD and started a radio show.

3. Question: Name this LGBT bookstore (the oldest in the USA) which folded this year. It's not Los Angeles' A Different Light Books, which folded nor Giovanni's Room in Philadelphia, which had financial issues. Answer: The Oscar Wilde Bookshop in New York's Greenwich Village, which shuttered on 3/29/09. The New York Times reported: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/nyregion/04bookstore.html?ref=nyregion

4. Question: Name this out Broadway and television star who has hosted both the Tony Awards and the Emmy Awards in the same year. Hint: It's not Ellen DeGeneres. Answer: Neil Patrick Harris, star of "How I Met Your Mother" and Sondheim's "Assassins".

5. Question: Name this legendary gay porn star who died in 2009. He went from porn to musical theatre and producing; he married a legendary big band singer, and his life was the subject of a film documentary. Answer: Jack Wrangler, who died at age 62. He married the famous big band singer Margaret Whiting later in his life. The Advocate recapped his life. http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid77929.asp

This Week’s Trivia Quiz: 2009 In Review: Part III

2009 was a milestone year. A new President promised change, but it came slowly to the LGBT community. Gay marriage rights in California and Maine were put to the test. Stonewall was commemorated, Washington got marched upon, and a gay rights icon made Oscars history. How much of 2009 do you remember ? Answers to this quiz are found in previous editions of the coming Out Support News. http://cosnewsweekly.blogspot.com/

1. Question: Name this publishing empire which closed shop, silencing major LGBT voices in Atlanta, Houston, and Washington, DC.

2. Question: Name this gay scientist, the father of modern computing, who broke the Nazi Enigma codes. He was convicted of "gross indecency", after which he committed suicide. This year, The British government formally apologised to him.

3. Question: Name this out African-American author who died in 2009. His writing often addressed gay black culture on the down low, and his 10 consecutive books were New York Times best-sellers, making him one of the most successful gay and African-American writers of his era.

4. Question: Name this actress, beloved by the gay community, who died this year. She played a boozy Broaway star and yenta on Broadway, and a liberal suburbanite and loud-mouthed senior on TV. She was a generous supporter of New York's Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBT teens, and she left the bulk of her estate to that institution.

5. Question: Name this comic character who came out this year. DC Comics resurrected her character as a lesbian.

The first person to submit the correct answers gets their name in print right here. Email your answers to: OnQYB@aol.com. If you do not want your email address to appear in the blog format of this newsletter, please indicate that. http://cosnewsweekly.blogspot.com/