Pointing Fingers

Speak Freely, Tracy Morgan

 
Because I'm known as a First Amendment purist and activist, I've received a number of messages and questions regarding Tracy Morgan and the First Amendment. I think it's worth expressing the following.

First and foremost, only a government can censor speech. Organizations such as NBC also enjoy a First Amendment right to express themselves, and as a private corporation can legally choose to deny someone a voice on their media properties if they so choose. And while we refer to it as corporate censorship, it is not really censorship at all in the context of the First Amendment.

Tracy Morgan is protected by the First Amendment. And while some may argue that his diatribe crossed the line into inciting violence, such a shouting fire in a crowded theater, it would not meet the strict standards that are applied that guarantee us our First Amendment protections.

That said, the First Amendment right to freely express oneself does not mean that speech is without consequence. Eminem can sing homophobic and misogynist lyrics, and the targets of his expression can just as loudly and freely berate him, mock him, pity him and boycott him.

Anti-gay organizations can spew their vile hatred under the guise of morality or religion, but it doesn't mean they won't be ripped a new one for it.

Tracy Morgan has the right to say whatever he wants about how he feels about gay people. That does not mean he has the right to be employed by NBC or Tina Fey if he crosses a line that either displeases them or reflects badly on them.

Rush Limbaugh can make as many racist, vile and ugly statements as he likes. It doesn't mean he is protected from it being attributed to a pathalogical, racist, vile, bloated Oycontin addict.

Ann Coulter can say that if she had a gay child she would tell the child he or she was adopted. And we can say that if Ann Coulter told a child she was a mother, the child could, and most likely would, say he or she was adopted.

As public figures shoot their mouths (and themselves in the foot), and laws that tackle hate speech are being crafted in congress, we need to be careful to make sure that context, mood and occasion are incorporated into how expression is assessed and managed as opposed to blanket condemnations of words.

Nigger, faggot and other epithets have an important historical relevance, and the outright ban of those words would be chilling and dangerous. We can't teach why these words hurt and sting without being able to use and reference them.

While it may be really tempting to silence people like Tracy Morgan, Mel Gibson, or Michael Richards, the best way to counter the lies and the hatred they spread is through countering misinformation. That means more, intelligent, constructive expression that neutralizes -- or better nullifies -- the original speech , not less expression.

Tracy Morgan may yet learn the hard way just why the kind of garbage he spews in unacceptable (not to mention unamusing and ignorant). In terms of fans, job opportunities, and goodwill, to name a few. But he still has a First Amendment right to express himself, as do all Americans.

Just because we have free speech does not mean it is without cost.

Man Up

Despite a recent article, Budget Showdown: Senate Democratic Women Preserve Party’s Principles by my friend Tanya Domi about those Democratic lawmakers who stood up for Planned Parenthood (and those Republican women who didn't), it's obvious that this problem transcends party politics and national boundaries, and I don't think this global, ugly war on women is about capitalism either, as another friend Joanne Kalogeras suggested among other things (other than the fact that today is Equal Pay Day, reflecting the amount of time a woman must work into 2011 to receive the same pay that men earned in 2010).

The revolting treatment of women is even worse in dictatorships and theocracies, and while the forced abortion policies in China alone say enough about a non-religious domination of women, as does the Soviet treatment of women, the powerful role of patriarchal religions are at the source. And while enlightened people can look at ancient doctrines for a more inclusive, respectful role for women in the church or synagogue or mosque, it’s an uphill battle that is exhausting to even contemplate.

Without any reference to my position on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, people often use this quote, disputably attributed to Golda Meir: “Peace will come when the Arabs start to love their children more than they hate us.”

I believe that this increasingly alarming war on women can only be won by having men join forces which can be achieved by capitalizing on the love they have for their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, daughters and wives. And that this war on women must be recharacterized as a direct attack on families, not just women. Reproductive rights, sexual abuse support systems, medical services etc. etc. must stop being characterized as women’s issues.

Crass is it sounds, let’s leverage misogyny, so that depriving a woman of choices and services is equated with denying a man the right to decide with his family what the best options are. Tackling the misogyny itself can come next.

I read a recent New York Times story about an 11-year-old girl who was repeatedly gang raped (18 suspects so far!) which chilled me to the bone. This wasn’t yet another Sharia-inspired, inappropriately and euphemistically termed “honor killing,” or the horrific story of a fourteen-year-old girl lashed to death for adultery after being raped.

Rather, this is an all-American, poverty-enabled, technology-glorified objectification that showed as much disregard for a young girl as John Boehner’s, Obama-green-lighted attacks against not only women, but families, in the name of deficit reduction.

Men. If you want to call yourselves that, stop attacking, raping, assualting and killing women with such unbridled hate, because they are my mothers, my sisters, my nieces, my grandmothers, my cousins and my friends you attack, and so me.

And trust me; with every weapon in my arsenal, I will fight you back. 

I Am America

Photo by Francesco Fadda, 2010

I Am America

Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
West Coast Premiere
Friday April 8, 8pm
Performance Art Institute, 550 Sutter Street, San Francisco

Seating is limited, please contact reservations@theworkcenter.org to reserve. $20 suggested donation.

In collaboration with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Stanford University, the Performance Art Institute presents I Am America by the Open Program of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards. I Am America brings the poetry of Allen Ginsberg to life in a visceral performance with language culled from his entire body of work, intermixed with calls, shouts and traditional songs from the American South. Original music developed in intensive collaboration over a period of 3 years complements and builds upon these sources.

As part of a year-long celebration of its 25th year anniversary, The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards presents the West Coast premieres of two original and groundbreaking performances in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Big Sur. I Am America and Electric Party Songs by the Workcenter's Open Program, will premiere in April, 2011 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Stanford University, the Performance Art Institute, and the Henry Miller Library. These performances are supplemented with a series of workshops, symposia, film screenings, and work demonstrations throughout April.

The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards was founded in 1986 in Pontedera, Italy by Jerzy Grotowski, well known as one of the most influential theatre practitioners of the 20th century, firstly for The Constant Prince, which changed Western theater forever, and then later in his life for his paradigm-shifting working method dubbed Art as vehicle. Today, the Workcenter continues its research into the very essence of theatre: the moment of meaningful contact between human beings.

The Open Program is an area of research within the Workcenter's larger mission and was commenced in 2007 by 11 actors from Italy, Spain, Poland, France, Argentina, the United States and Canada, led by the Workcenter's Associate Director, Mario Biagini.

Complete listing of the Workcenter's upcoming public events in California

For more information on the Master Class with Mario Biagini at PAI

Disaster and Distaste

Idealism is cute. Really. Eager entrepreneurs pitch their start-ups, caught up in the intoxicating thrill of possibly being the next multi-billion dollar visionary. A “don’t be evil”-like philosophy framing a social application (before marketing strategists condescendingly suggest a brand refresh) that will revolutionize the planet. Like seriously. A Western, Silicon Valley inspired narrative bathes these idealists in the warm glow of technocratic achievement, shimmering self satisfyingly in the reflection of a Zhi Tea-infused sweet tea vodka.

The now indelible associations – Mumbai/Twitter, Egypt/Facebook -- perpetuated by cunning PR flaks and extremely important, Klout-affirmed bloggers on iPad 2s – are overshadowed by the cataclysmic technological failures of Fukushima Daiichi and escalating violence in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen. The press release professed power of Twitter and Facebook and social graphs and mobile apps snuffed out by a dictatorial flick of an electrical switch, our twenty-first century, WikiLeaked, 2.0 reality irremediably shattered with 9.0 tsunamic force by the reliable stench of death, despair, depleted uranium and oblivion.

The Death of David Kato: A Family Affair

David Kato, a Ugandan activist who served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) was a brave and exceptional man. He was a leading opponent of the 'Anti-Homosexuality Bill' introduced in 2009 by MP David Bahati – a legislative proposal designed to criminalize any advocacy or support for LGBT people, and to punish homosexual conduct with the death penalty under certain circumstances. Having honed his activism in Johannesburg South Africa during the country’s transition from Apartheid, Kato was determined and fearless.

The international outrage over the legislation shone an unwelcomed spotlight on the homophobic climate of fear and hatred in Uganda, made worse by the concrete connection between the authors of the legislation and the insidious group, the Family, a highly secretive U.S.-based religious and political organization founded in 1935, and led by Douglas Coe.

The bill was promoted by U.S. evangelical Christian leaders including Scott Lively, Don Schmierer, and Caleb Lee Brundidge, who met with Ugandan parliamentarians and advocated for increased strictures against homosexuality while preaching in Uganda in early 2009.

The unwelcome attention thrust the unwilling organization into the headlines again. They had yet to recover from a series of reports of relating to C-Street and a powerful expose by Jeff Sharlet, revealing many of their members (including almost every conservative senator) and their own scandals (including adulterous affairs by Senators John Ensign and David Vitter as well as South Carolina governor Mark Sanford).

On October 9, 2010, a Ugandan tabloid, Rolling Stone, published a cover story sensationally titled “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak,” in which names and photographs, and in some cases home areas of suspected homosexuals, were published. Framing the story as a national scandal, the publication invited a remedy. “Hang Them”. David Kato was one of two men prominently splashed above the fold on the front page.

The editor, Giles Muhame, (not to be confused with Jann Wenner, the openly gay publisher of the iconic music magazine Rolling Stone) told blogger and activist Melanie Nathan of Lez Get Real: “The homos argued that their right of privacy- had been breached when we published their pictures – but we must reveal these criminals to protect our children, Homosexuality is spreading like wildfire and we must stop it. The parliament is trying to strengthen the weak law.”

Undaunted, Kato and two other SMUG members who were also listed in the article, Kasha Jacqueline and Onziema Patience, took the tabloid to the Ugandan High Court, and on November 2, 2010, the court issued an interim injunction against ‘Rolling Stone’, banning them from publishing any further personal details of alleged homosexuals as an invasion of privacy.

On January 3, 2011, High Court Justice V. F. Kibuuka Musoke ruled that Rolling Stone's publication of the lists, and the accompanying incitation to violence, threatened Kato's and the others' "fundamental rights and freedoms," attacked their right to human dignity, and violated their constitutional right to privacy. The court ordered the newspaper to pay Kato and the other two plaintiffs 1.5 million Ugandan shillings each.

According to his SMUG colleagues, Kato had received an increase in threats and harassment since the court victory. And so it came as little surprise on January 26, 2011, when reports surfaced that Kato had died after being maliciously attacked with a hammer.

I didn’t think twice when my friend and fellow long-time activist, Michael Petrelis, asked me and a few other activists to help honor David Kato and condemn the Ugandan government. I suggested we set the date to coincide with the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. to once again shine the spotlight on the Family and their role in this unfortunate assassination. Please join us tomorrow night at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro, between 6-7pm, and show the Ugandans they are not alone.

Blaming Lays and Laying Blame

Blogger John Aravosis recently made a comment about hanging a man for failing to disclose his HIV status.

An HIV positive Air Force sergeant, David Gutierrez, who engaged in spouse-swapping swingers parties was sentenced to eight years in prison after which he will be dishonorably discharged from the military. No one  contracted HIV from him, and he used a condom in his sexual encounters.

This kind of thinking, and its expression, provides fodder for those who make it their business to regulate sex and morality - usually hypocrites. (Aravosis seemingly has no qualms about the military convicting the man on eight charges of adultery, despite his wife being a willing participant, and of indecent acts for having sex in front of others .)

Regardless of one's position on the death penalty, Avrosis seems to think that those of us who are HIV negative are unable to assume responsibility for our own choices.

If you're fucking multiple partners at a swingers party, the onus is on you, the participant, to make certain assumptions, weigh the risks (including that a partner may be lying or not know) and act accordingly. Don't then turn around and blame someone else. It's ridiculous.

Is it a perfectly good driver's fault if you choose to dart across a busy road?

Not all of us need a Nanny State to govern our behavior or how we engage sexually.

Capt. Owen Honors' Not So Honorable Discharge

The video below destroyed Captain Honors' career.

Tasteless, sure. Enough to cause a little discomfort for those ranking beneath him who aren't straight males from Bumfuckville, Mississippi? You betcha. Symptomatic of an aging, yesteryear, misogynistic culture that needs to move on and grow up? Uh huh.

But enough to destroy a man's career? A recipient of the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medals, and Meritorious Service Medal among others? Not really. (Aside, perhaps, from his embarrassing use of the Styx song "Come Sail Away" which back in the not-so-old days would be evidence enough to launch an investigation into his sexuality, if not the corny, over-compensatory guys-in-the-shower jokes and old, tired, gay-stereotypical slurs). 

He shouldn't be fired. The United States fired enough talented men and women for stupid reasons that were detrimental in every way. Let's not replace Don't Ask, Don't Tell with politically correct hysteria.

Sure, Captain Honors needs a quick refresher course in leadership, and perhaps he won't demonstrate such a glaring need to be accepted as one-of-the boys. But that's about all he really needs. Almost.

The only punishment Captain Honors deserves is to serve under an openly gay Rear Admiral. Preferably female.

 

UN Restores "Sexual Orientation" To Anti-Execution Resolution

Yesterday, as reported by Tanya Domi, the UN voted in favor of restoring “sexual orientation” to the UN General Assembly resolution on extra judicial executions, by a margin of 109-41, with 35 abstentions.

This followed a resolution last month that had deliberately stripped sexual orientation from the resolution, essentially paving the way for the UN sanction of gay executions without cause.

The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, stated the resolution sent a "clear and resounding message" that justice and human rights was not precluded on the basis of sexual orientation.

Following the vote last month, Michael Petrelis – a San Francisco based activist organized a well-attended solidarity protest at UN Plaza on December 11th, the day after International Human Rights Day, which included a statement from State senator Mark Leno (read by veteran global gay activist Tate Swindell).

The rally was emceed by Supervisor and mayoral candidate, Bevan Dufty. Aside from myself, other speakers included author Davina Kotulski, transgender AIDS activist Veronika Cauley, Michael Petrelis, and veteran LGBT marriage equality advocate Molly McKay.

Two workers from the Department of Public Work lowered the UN flag and tied the rainbow flag underneath it, then raised both flags.

I spoke as a former South African, decrying South Africa’s embarrassing involvement in voting in favor of the removal and appealing to South Africa to vote in favor of the restoral of “sexual orientation” in order to resume the leadership role she assumed following the abolishment of apartheid, rather than stain the efforts of Nelson Mandela with homophobia and discrimination.

Much to my satisfaction, and most South Africans, South Africa changed her mind, voting in favor of the resolution.

However, the homophobia on display, clearly outlined on Tanya Domi’s article published on The New Civil Rights Movement blog, is more than a little disturbing.

"We will not have it foisted on us," Zimbabwe's UN ambassador, Chitsaka Chipaziwa, stated, according to Reuters. "We cannot accept this, especially if it entails accepting such practices as bestiality, paedophilia and those other practices many societies would find abhorrent in their value systems.

"In our view, what adult people do in their private capacity, by mutual consent, does not need agreement or rejection by governments, save where such practices are legally proscribed."

Robert Mugabe's henchman. A real charmer. Perhaps more disturbing than anything else, is that old, senile, racist lunatics like Mugabe have a voice at the United Nations.

Images of the San Francisco protest can be found here.

DADT - A Well Deserved Celebration, A Cautious Next Step

Yesterday the Senate voted to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Finally, clearing the way for President Obama’s signature. Although I didn’t serve in the military, this victory is intensely personal.

In 1994, I, along with Trace Cohen & Steve Campbell founded ApolloMedia, which purchased the electronic rights to Randy Shilts’ journalistic masterpiece, Conduct Unbecoming, about gays and lesbians in the U.S. military.

The critically acclaimed, award-winning CD-ROM we produced -- which Rolling Stone magazine called “evolutionary” -- was the first ever to tackle gay politics, and a product that in and of itself, pioneered digital activism by allowing users to use a zip code map to automatically print out and fax (yes, fax) their representatives in congress (no representatives had email accounts yet).

Using images and videos, we were able to build upon the brilliant research by Randy Shilts and put a human face on an issue that was largely invisible – unless you were in the trenches, actively fighting it.

The project involved meeting and interviewing incredibly brave and pioneering servicemembers and lawyers and activists fighting for the dignity of all gay and lesbian servicemembers.

Long before Lady Gaga and GOProud (an organization taking credit for the repeal),there were many people fighting in the trenches.

Before Dan Choi, Mike Almy, Katie Miller and Victor Fehrenbach there were Johnnie Phelps, Copy Berg, Perry Watkins, Leonard Matlovich, Miriam Ben Shalom, Grethe Cammermeyer, Dusty Pruitt, Justin Elzie, Keith Meinhold, Tanya Domi, Zoe Dunning, Joe Zuniga, Tracey Thorne, Joe Steffan, Andy Holmes, Barbara Baum, Ruth Voor, Karen Colton, Jerry Rosanbalm, Karen Stupski, Phil Adams, Chuck Schoen, Cliff Anchor and Carole Brock to mention but a few. Some of them actively fought the ban, others forced to suffer its consequences.

There were the legal minds, activists and writers that not only made life better for those facing discrimination long before DADT was hatched as an awkward “compromise” but shaped the legal framework of gay servicemembers that would ultimately lead to the demise of DADT – compassionate and savvy warriors like Bridget Wilson, Mary Newcombe, John McGuire, Kate Dyer, Kathy Gilberd, Kirk Childress, David Mixner, Frank Kameny and Rhonda Rivera, Alan Berube, Aaron Belkin and Nathaniel Frank among many.

There were the founders of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network – Michelle Benecke and Dixon Osburn -- which has been perhaps the most important organization protecting servicemembers under DADT to this day.

There was the GLBVA veteran organization founded by Miriam Ben Shalom, and stewarded by Nancy Russell, Jim Darby, Ed Clayton, Cliff Arnesen, AVER, and a host of others.

There was the Alexander Hamilton Post, Post 447 – the first gay American Legion post, founded by Paul Hardman, and active today thanks to people like Bud Robbins, Arch Wilson, Mario Benfield, John Forrett and many others.

Many of these incredible and inspiring people became friends that I love, treasure and respect to this day.

There are many more – too numerous to mention – who have played a role in fighting this battle.

Days before the release of Conduct Unbecoming, the Navy attempted to bar the use of a 1972 recruiting poster featuring the first African American used in a recruiting campaign. Servicemember Ed Graves had been discharged from the Navy a few years later for being gay. Refusing to allow the "Don't Tell" provision of the new policy relating to gays and lesbians in the armed forces to extend to civilians as well, ApolloMedia refused to pull the image.

Represented by Mike Traynor at Cooley Godward, ApolloMedia prevailed against the Navy, establishing the de facto recognition that CD-ROM publishers were entitled to the same First Amendment protections as traditional media.

Wired magazine, under the stewardship of Jane Metcalfe and Louis Rosetto, sold the the CD-ROM through their online property, Hotwired - the first ever commercial web magazine. Additionally, original content from the CD-ROM was developed to promote it, further bringing light to the injustice of the military’s treatment of gays and lesbians.

The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was very new, but already the extent to which it was just as bad as prior policies was already clearly evident.

Following the release of Conduct Unbecoming, ApolloMedia set up the first website for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, allowing SLDN to extend its reach beyond traditional avenues, and become one of the first policy driven entities to establish a web presence, serving as a critical destination for servicemembers ensnared in the horror of DADT.

In the case of a naval sailor facing dismissal after private information about him was leaked to Navy investigators by America Online, as publisher of Annoy.com, I launched a "Who's That Queer" Competition" by posting a photograph of a gay active serviceman and daring the military to identify him.

While our efforts pale by comparison to the many who risked their careers and lives to change the treatment of gays in the military, or have made eliminating this discrimination their life's work, yesterday’s senate vote repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, serves as an affirmation that despite the insidious efforts of the likes of Senators Sam Nun and later John McCain, we were on the right side of history back in 1994.

And once the champagne glasses have been appropriately drained, there are those of us who know all too well that the repeal of the policy is just the beginning. Even the demise of Apartheid, where the oppressed became the rightful stewards, did not transform institutionalized discrimination overnight. Allen Schindler and Barry Winchell, viciously and savagely murdered by fearful, hate-driven fellow servicemembers, can attest to that.

There is a lot of educating to do, and a lot of work needs to be done to ensure new methods of discrimination don’t creep into the military, and that the military doesn’t turn a blind eye to harassment.

Women, who can openly serve alongside men, can attest to the sexual harassment that continues to this day – ironically aided and abetted by DADT. Lesbian baiting, however, will become an ugly thing of the past.

SLDN has a lot of work ahead. But right now victory is well deserved.

Whether you are a kid growing up in a small American town and need an escape from a claustrophobic, homophobic mindset, are a patriotic American who believes in defending American’s promise of freedom, or whether you’re following in the footsteps of a proud family tradition, you can now serve openly and honestly without being forced to lie about who you are.

Thank you to all the servicemembers, past and present, and their ardent supporters, without whom this victory for civil rights would not have happened. I salute you.

David Bahati Needs a Really Gay Welcome

Uganda's “Kill the Gays Bill” author, David Bahati, claimed to be coming to Washington DC next week for the International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management's Winter Program (December 6-8, 2010).

Bahati being the Ugandan Parliamentarian who authored the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (advocating a death sentence for HIV positive gays, and life in prison for others).

I was hoping the conference would be brimming with gays and lesbians of every stripe and color. Truly, that’s what GLAAD and HRC should be spending their money on rather than ineffectively sucking up to the White House. Sponsoring conference attendees solely to make people like Bahati feel like shit, and chewed out and booed and ostracized and humiliated.

But turns out, despite Bahati's intentions,which he communicated in a telephone conversation with Prof. Warren Throckmorton, the International Consortium of Governmental Financial Management decided they didn't want his ilk there.

ICGFM Vice President of Communications,Doug Hadden, told Prof.Throckmorton in no uncertain terms that Bahati was not welcome, and would not be allowed to attend, even if he tried.

"Hon. Bahati has not paid and ICGFM will not accept payment from him. The ICGFM Executive Committee has agreed that his attendence is not consistent with the mission of the organization."

Glad that ICGFM wan't interested in taking Bahati's blood money, but I almost wish they would have allowed him to attend, just so he could have been given his just dessert.