Coming Out Support Newsweekly: 12/28/09

Coming Out Support (COS) Newsweekly
Volume 12 No. 52 December 28, 2009
Newsletter Editor: OnQYB@aol.com

The Fine Print

See previous editions.

Subscription Information: This newsletter is available via free email subscription only. Our mailing list is confidential.
To subscribe: Email OnQYB@aol.com and write “Subscribe COS News” in subject line.
To unsubscribe: Email OnQYB@aol.com and write “Cancel COS News” in subject line.

Season’s Greetings! Our best wishes for a happy holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year !

The Gay Agenda: Datebook: December 28, 2009-January 3, 2010

THU: 12/31: Los Angeles, CA: Adam Lambert performs a midnight set at Gridlock. Pamela Anderson hosts. www.gridlockla.com

FRI: 1/01: New York, NY: 2010: An Equality Odyssey Benefit. The cast of Broadway's "Hair" will perform a benefit at Joe's Pub to raise money for Broadway Impact. www.broadwayimpact.com

Newsworthy:

Mexico City gets marriage equality. Towleroad reports: http://www.towleroad.com/2009/12/mexico-city-gets-marriage-equality-in-definitive-vote.html

The Buzz (People Making News)

Coming Out: Gareth Thomas, the Welsh rugby star, has come out. Towleroad reports: http://www.towleroad.com/2009/12/british-rugby-star-gareth-thomas-im-gay.html
Also: Thomas' ex-wife speaks out:Towleroad reports: http://www.towleroad.com/2009/12/i-still-love-gareth-and-i-will-never-stop-loving-him-says--jemma-in-her-first-interview-since-he-publicly-announced-he-was.html

In Memoriam:

Arthur Cores, one of the founders of Boston Market, the chicken restaurant chain, died on 12/16/09 at age 52. The New York Times reports: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/business/19cores.html?_r=3

Features

Decade-End Recap: It's a Wrap: 2000-2009: Charting the course of progress in LGBT rights during the last decade. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/16/MNML1B484M.DTL

Opportunities

Scholarships Opportunity: Point Foundation Scholarships. The Point Foundation is the nation’s largest, publicity-supported organization granting scholarships to LGBT students of merit. Point provides support through multi-year scholarships, leadership training, mentoring and hope to LGBT students who are marginalized because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Scholarships for the 2010-2011 school year become available on 12/11/09. Application deadline is: 2/12/10. www.pointfoundation.org

In Print:

Year-End Recap: Fifty Gay and Lesbian Books Everybody Must Read. Edited by Richard Canning. Alyson. A wide-ranging group of essays by some of today’s most outstanding novelists, writers, and critics. Some familiar names—Melville, Plato, Sappho, Rimbaud—are seen afresh, while others will be unfamiliar books waiting to be discovered.

In Performance: Onstage:Theatre/Music/Dance

New York City (and Broadway)

***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. to 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.
***Finian's Rainbow. An old show with good tunes and Cheyenne Jackson starring as Woody for the swoon quotient.
***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.
***Present Laughter. Gay Noel Coward's gay comedy. Victor Garber stars as an aging star. 1/2/10-3/21/10. www.roundabouttheatre.org
***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.

Elsewhere...

On National Tour

***Dixie's Tupperware Party, bringing Tupperware-mania to a theatre near you. Dixie Longate stars. through 4/25/10. www.DixiesTupperwareParty.com
***Xanadu, the camp roller-disco musical, described by one character as "children's theatre for 40 year old gay men". www.xanaduonbroadway.com

And...

***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.
***F*cking Men. A new play, conceived as a riff on Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, observes the sex lives of modern urban gay America. 1/01/10-2/14/10, Los Angeles, CA. www.celebrationtheatre.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

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.
***Dare, a trio of high school students who become unlikely friends at the end of their senior year. starring Alan Cumming, Ana Gasteyer, Sandra Bernhard and Emmy Rossum.
***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.
***Glee: Road to Sectionals. the first DVD based on the hot new TV series.
***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.
***Out At Work. The documentary that vividly illustrates what happens when LGBT people are not legally protected from employment discrimination.
***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.

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/January: 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.
***TUE: 12/29: The Kennedy Center Honors Gala. This year's honorees include: Bruce Springsteen and Mel Brooks. 9PM. CBS.
***THU: 12/31: CNN New Year's Eve from Times Square with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin in Times Square and Lance Bass in Las Vegas. 11PM ET.

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.

1/11/10: New York, NY: True Colors Cabaret. Karen Olivo and sRufus Wainwright co-star to benefit Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund and Broadway Impact. The True Colors Fund seeks to inspire and engage everyone, particularly the straight community, to become active participants in the advancement of LGBT equality. Broadway Impact is a grassroots coalition of the Broadway community and its fans, mobilizing in support of marriage equality. www.FeinsteinsatLoewsRegency.

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

1/16/10: East Haddam, CT: Musical Theatre Symposium with historian John Pike, author Ted Chapin, and "The Creation of Next to Normal". For showtune people. Goodspeed Opera House. www.goodspeed.org.

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

1/25/10: New York, NY: Michael Urie ("Ugly Betty") stars in a reading of Albert Camus' "Caligula". www.redbulltheater.com.

1/25/10: New York, NY: Bruce Vilanch hosts the Night Life Awards, celebrating the best in clubs, cabaret, and other entertainment. Winners perform in lieu of acceptance speeches. Town Hall.www.SiegelEntertainment@msn.com

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

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

1. Question: Name this publishing empire which closed shop, silencing major LGBT voices in Atlanta, Houston, and Washington, DC. Answer: Window Media, the former publisher of Genre magazine, which also published the Washington Blade, Southern Voice, Houston Voice, and South Florida Blade. The New York Times reported: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/business/media/17window.html

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. Answer: Alan Turing. Two years after being convicted of "gross indecency" and sentenced to undergo hormone therapy, he killed himself with a cyanide-laced apple. His story was made into a play and ilm called "Breaking The Code".

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. Answer: E. Lynn Harris, who died on 7/24/09, at age 54. The Washington Post reported: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/24/AR2009072403333.html

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. Answer: Beatrice Arthur, the TV star in the hit shows "Maude" and "The Golden Girls" and Broadway's "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Mame". She died 4/25/09 at age 86. C

5. Question: Name this comic character who came out this year. DC Comics resurrected her character as a lesbian. Answer: Batwoman. DC Comics reinvented the classic comic book character as a lesbian in July. EDGE Boston reported: http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=&sc3=&id=87244

This Week’s Trivia Quiz: January Milestones

1. Question: Name this musician, author and activist, who was the first person to come out on television on January 18, 1973. His family was the subject of a reality series documentary on PBS. A

2. Question: Name this playwright and activist. On January 12, 1982, a group of gay men met at his apartment to form the GMHC, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, a non-profit organization to provide programs and services to people with HIV. Today, the GMHC is one of the nation’s laregest AIDS service organizations, and the playwright is best known for his activism.

3. Question: Name this out award-winning actor and activist. His gay and lesbian theatre and film colleagues, among them Alec McGowen, Simon Callow, Stephen Fry, Cameron Macintosh, and Martin Sherman, came out publicly in the UK’s Guardian to support his knighthood on January 9, 1991.

4. Question: Name this popular icon who was outed in January, 2005. He joined Tinky Winky and Bert & Ernie as gay icons.

5. Question: Name this bisexual American actress, born January 31, 1902. She was best known for her portrayals of Southern belles, although she had a mouth that could frighten sailors.

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/