16 GAY PEOPle's ChroNICLE NOVEMBER 6, 1998

EVENINGS OUT

Life begins 7th year with Shakespeare, opera and Hawaii

by Mark J. Huisman

Forget Ellen repeats. Forget new episodes of shows like Will & Grace or Chicago Hope. Real queer TV is just around the television dial, as America's gay and lesbian newsmagazine series In the Life kicks off its seventh season.

It's remarkable to think that just over half a decade ago this show was considered a

and viewers in the other twenty with some lobbying to do), In the Life now has a home on over one hundred stations. This show is one of the few on public TV not polluted by corporate sponsors: There's no advertising here.

After the prelude by host Katherine Linton, now in her fifth season, a question introduces the first segment:

"Shall the Constitution of the State of

Hawaii be amended to specify that the legislature shall have the power to reserve marriage to opposite sex couples?"

That's the wording of the ballot issue that faced Hawaii voters on election day. In "Making History in Hawaii," the show visits a number of activists from each side who, predictably, have passionate opinions.

Gay advocates warn of "opening up the constitution to exclude us" while priests and state legislators rumble about the Bible. A refreshing perspective comes from native Hawaiian Islanders, who compare our struggle with that of their people when Hawaii was first settled, calling Christianity then a "colonizing tool" and Christianity today "a discrimination tool."

Strings! Winds! Lights! Sets! Costumes! Libretto! Dykes? Having had the pleasure of seeing Patience and Sarah, a new American opera, at Lincoln Center this summer, I can personally attest that lesbian love has arrived at the opera, and it could not be more glorious.

The Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Co.'s all-female production of Hamlet pioneer, going where no PBS, network or cable program had gone before: the backyards and living rooms of nearly every gay and lesbian person in America.

Now available in thirty states (which nonetheless leaves the show's producers

The opera tells the true story of two American pioneer women who fell in love and built a life together in the 1880s. I recall seeing it in workshop form over four years

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ago at the cramped SoHo theater of the American Opera Project. The stage was bare but for music stands, and the performers wore street clothes. And the four dozen audiences members simply swooned.

I don't want to spoil any of this for viewers eager for a glimpse of art history in the making, thanks to composer Paul Kimper and librettist Wende Persons--who attributes her work to "a mad crush on a soprano."

I loved the comment by soprano Elaine Valby, who played Sarah to Lori Phillips' Patience: "From that first kiss... you know this is not Fried Green Tomatoes."

Another segment about the arts later in the program examines the trend captured by the segment title "Same Sex Shakespeare." We visit both the current New York all-male production of Romeo and Juliet and the all-female, but not necessarily lesbian, Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company.

In the Life talks to Frank Bennett, who played Othello; Mia Torres, the company's technical director, and several people behind the scenes. As one Los Angeles woman quips, while building the set for a production, "There's more power in a tool belt than almost anything else."

The segment on "Housing for Gay Seniors" covers the quiet but valiant work of Senior Action in a Gay Environment, or SAGE, as this longtime advocacy group focuses on the struggle gay and lesbian seniors face in finding supportive housing.

Executive director Terry Kaelber cites a survey in which, when asked who they could call in an emergency about health or housing, a frightening twenty percent of his membership chose the response “No one I can think of."

Miraculously, we are transported to Palmetto, Florida's Palms of Manasota, described as the "first alternative living facility" for seniors. It's beautiful, replete with groomed grounds and brand-new buildings. Madelin Alk of SAGE says, "The ideal place for me would be where I could have all the comforts that I've got now, plus my friends, and be out of the closet."

One group not ignoring us is the Southern Baptists. In this episode, In the Life visits Texas, where the largest Protestant denomination has its headquarters, to locate queertolerant congregations.

What are we up against? President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich are members; its annual conference recently voted overwhelming to state that, essentially, women are subservient to men.

In the Life compares this modern religion with Anita Bryant's 1970s "Save the Children" campaign, saying the Baptists "still preach that message of intolerance."

Its easy to report, but hardly incisive journalism or useful community service. Where's the examination of why things

haven't gotten better in over twenty years? Or, better yet, why it's seemingly gotten worse for gay men and lesbians who simply want to practice their religious beliefs?

But there are some terrific moments, notably New York pastor David Waugh's wry comment "It's Christ's kingdom... It's not our place to decide who's in and who's out."

Rev. David Waugh

"Children's Books, Adult Battles" again examines the uproar over Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy's Roommate. Homophobes, first-amendment champions, evil preachers and dutiful public servants abound.

Unfortunately, this segment, the weakest of the episode by far, fails to unearth what always seems to be missing from this story: If our community continues to see the mass media (books, plays, TV and film) as a passport to equality, we'll be disappointed every time. There are two places that won't save your life-Washington and Hollywood.

Heather author Leslea Newman defends her book by saying, "Some people seem to use [the book] for their own political agenda." But how is that any different than what gay and lesbian America, including In the Life, has been doing for years?

Besides, as we are so often reminded here, free speech is a vital part of a free soceity. This credo, however, also protects words and beliefs other than our own. That, too, is a vital part of a free society.

In the Life airs in Akron, Alliance and Youngstown on Wednesday, November 11 at midnight on WNEO-WEAO channels 45 and 49, which can also be seen on many Cleveland-area cable systems. It airs in Erie, Pa. on Friday, November 6 at 10 pm on WLQN channel 54.

Mark J. Huisman is a freelance writer living in New York City.

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