on the airoff the press

A talk with Dan Quayle leads to same-sex marriage

by John Graves

A special, and overdue, thanks this week to cartoonist Gary Trudeau for helping us celebrate Lesbigay and Transgender Pride by featuring a storyline in his popular Doonesbury comic strip about gay talk show host Mark and his life partner Chase all through June and July.

It all started innocently in June when Mark debated same-sex marriage with former Vice President Dan Quayle on his radio program. The debate inspired Mark and Chase to make wedding plans of their own.

The two men turn to Stan's father in surprise, and say that they had been talking about Ricky Martin, the singer. Ricky and the tabloids

Speaking of Ricky Martin, the tabloids were full of those rumors when Martin broke onto the music scene big-time in June.

The tabloid stories-and more reserved one in the mainstream press-centered around a close friend Martin lost to AIDS complications, and implied his managers and publicists were pushing him to be very public about having a girlfriend. Recent specials on Martin do seem to make a big deal of his heterosexual appeal.

Like the Log Cabin folks who refuse to leave a Republican Party that seems to have been co-opted by the anti-gay religious right, I say this is my church, too. I refuse to let ignorance and bigotry rule, just as my fellow African-Americans refused to jump on Marcus Garvey's "Back to Africa" movement in the 1920s. (Some racists thought if all African-Americans would move back to Africa it would put an end to the race question, making America the lily-white "Ozzie and Harriet" country they dreamed about.)

God is the personification of Truth—and we who have come out recognize and celebrate that Truth in our creation as lesbigay and transgender people. We are not "objectively disordered" or "intrinsically evil," nor

Mark wanted a regular church wedding with all the family, to which Mark's wealthy father responded by threatening to cut Mark out of his will. Chase suggested they just Catholic paper supports New Ways are the good works we might do "tainted with

make their vows on a romantic beach watching the sun go down over Bali.

The July issues of the comic strip followed the gay couple's adventures and misadventures through their vows and honeymoon in the South Seas.

Lawrence is back

Speaking of comics, I see Lawrence, the young man who came out as a gay teen, has just last week made a reappearance in Lynn Johnston's strip For Better or Worse.

Hot tub action on South Park

Comedy Central's South Park really got deep into sexual orientation issues a couple of weeks ago. In the episode, Kyle's and Stan's fathers begin to discover their bisexual natures in a hot tub at a meteor shower party.

The two men timidly talk about same-sex fantasies, and decide that if two men watched each other masturbate, "it wouldn't really be gay."

Meanwhile, Stan is sent to the "kiddie's room" in the basement to play with Pip, the much-maligned English kid, and three other boys Stan calls "Melvins." Pip and the Melvins soon discover a box of women's clothing, exclaiming, "Now we can play Charlie's Angels.

Later, Stan's father starts to freak out, thinking that others can tell he fooled around with Kyle's father in the hot tub, while Kyle's father kept seeking reassurances that their "relationship has not changed." At one point, Stan's father comes upon two other men who are saying, "Of course everyone knows he's gay."

"Two men watching each other masturbate isn't really gay!" he shouts.

The National Catholic Reporter's July 30 issue features a series of three full-page articles about the Vatican clampdown on Sr. Jeanine Gramick and Fr. Robert Nugent. The two have ministered to lesbigay Catholics for over 20 years through the New Ways Ministry.

The articles lay out the history of Gramick and Nugent, their New Ways Ministry and the almost constant pressure by conservative bishops to have the Vatican silence them. Notable among these is Cardinal James Hickey of Washington, who is a former bishop of Cleveland.

The articles also cover the reaction of Catholic lesbians and gays, who are asking themselves why should they stay in the church after the Vatican's action.

The Reporter concludes with an editorial which goes over the contributions the pair have made toward fostering a better understanding and acceptance of lesbians and gays.

"This story is not over," the Reporter concludes. "There will be a more generous legacy than this Vatican condemnation. While those intent on ending Nugent's and Gramick's ministries may feel temporary satisfaction, Catholics might well wonder, given today's church climate, whether Jesus, had he come in our time, might not be banished, too."

The world isn't flat, and we're not evil

Being a lesbigay Catholic, I also questioned why I should stay in the Catholic Church just as many Log Cabin Republicans ask, and are asked, why they stay in the party.

evil" as the infamous Cardinal Ratzingerhead of the Vatican office that ordered Gramick and Nugent to end their workcharacterizes us. To be anything other than who we were created to be would be unnatural for us.

Just because ignorance and bigotry are trumpeted by authority from the bully pulpit of Vatican pronouncements does not make them correct, any more than they made the world flat or the Earth the center of the universe.

A priest who was working to have the church reach out to us once said, "Don't get your hope up too much.” To which I replied, "God is the source of all Hope, if we have nothing else, we have hope."

MTV has bedroom series

Don't know if there are any of our people in it yet, but check out Undressed, MTV's new dramatic series that follows the romantic entanglements of some 23 young couples in the intimate setting of the bedroom.

MTV airs the show every night at 11 pm, repeating two hours later at 1 am.

Great lesbian performers on VH-1

Lesbian and bisexual musical stars Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, Chaka Kahn, Dusty Springfield, Bessie Smith, k.d. lang, Melissa Etheridge, Laura Nyro, Ani DiFranco and the Indigo Girls are featured on the miniseries documentary 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll, now airing on VH-1.

Where is Sophie now?

Take a look back at the life of bisexual rock star Sophie B. Hawkins on VH-1's Where Are They Now? And ask for Timbre, Hawkins' new CD, at your local music store.

Ellen may get new TV show

Ellen DeGeneres is in negotiations with CBS to star in a new sitcom in which she plays the host of a TV variety show, which would air in the fall of 2000. Early reports indicate that the sexual orientation of Ellen's character has not been discussed and may be straight, but the network has indicated that it would not matter if the character was gay or straight.

The Gay '90s comes to an end

Finally, we must sadly bid farewell to Buck Harris' wonderful live, gay call-in show The Gay '90s, which has aired on WERE 1300 AM in Cleveland every Sunday night since 1993. The pressure of being a gay and AIDS activist, trying to put together a weekly radio show while getting his new restaurant going proved to be a little too much.

We'll miss you on the air, Buck, you knew the importance of having our own voice on the airwaves. Show your appreciation to Buck when you visit Lake Effect, his new restaurant overlooking Lake Erie at 4204 Detroit Avenue on Cleveland's near West Side.

There was a very nice, full-page review of Buck's restaurant in the July 29 issue of Cleveland's Scene magazine, and another two weeks earlier in the daily Plain Dealer.

Meanwhile, don't forget Cleveland's other lesbian and gay radio shows: the syndicated gay public affairs show This Way Out, on WCSB 89.3 FM Thursdays at 5:30 pm; Aware, a syndicated public affairs show focusing on AIDS and sexual health, on WNWV 107.3 FM Sunday from 11:30 pm to midnight; and for the best in club music, there's Gaywaves alumnus Jerry Szoka's Grid Radio, at 96.9 FM every day after 4 pm, earlier on weekends.

John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian-gay public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Fridays at 7 pm, and at http://radio.cwru.edu. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contributed to this column.

Curbside

THE

FRYING

PAN 1999

I HOPE I HAVE ENOUGH SUN BLOCK ON...YOU THINK THIS STUFF'LL WORK FOR ME?

BY R

KIRBY

YOU'RE FINE, DREW.

BY ROBERT KIRBY

So I HAVE FAIR SKIN. IS THAT A CRIME? SURE, WHICH COVER STORY DO YOU

WHY, YES, AROUND HERE IT IS. BUT WE'LL

LETIT SLIDE THIS TIME,

HONEY.

THANKS. HAND ME

ONE OF

THOSE

WANT? I'VE GOT RICKY MARTIN, THE PHANTOM MENACE, THE BACKSTREET BOYS, AND THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME.

LORD, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY

TRASHY MAG | BE MORE OVER-

AZINES, WILLYA?

EXPOSED THAN ANY OF THAT?

ww

HM, HOW ABOUT THAT "KO-Sovo" THING? WITH THAT "MILOSEVIC" GUY? I'M PRETTY SICK OF ALL THAT, WHATEVER IT'S

ALL ABOUT

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Your Barmaid Anna

WAG

I MEAN, YOU SPENT LIKE, 15 MINUTES PUTTING IT ON.

NATHAN, MAYBE IT'S TIME TO GET YOU BACK INDOORS.. I THINK YOUR BRAIN CELLS HAVE COMPLETELY FRIED.

WHAT'S EATIN' YOU KEVIN YOU'RE EVEN BITCHIER THAN USUAL TODAY.

THE

BACK

WOODS

BOYS

people

RICKY!

RICK

DON'T MIND HIM, HE'S JUST FRUSTRATED. WANTS SOMETHING HE CAN'T HAVE,

AND WHAT MIGHT THAT

YEAH, WHAT

BE?

NOT WHAT, WHO! AN ACTOR FRIEND OF MINE WITH BIG ARMS, A HAIRY CHEST, AND "SKIN] THE COLOR OF MOCHA!"

THE

BACKDOOR TB012

I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON JORGE! HE'S.. HE'S JUST VERY

HEY, I THINK I'D LIKE TO MEET THIS GUY!

NICE TO LOOK AT, IS ALL..

mmm hmm

NATHAN, DON'T MAKE ME HAVE TO KICK YOUR ASS. AND HAND ME THE SUN BLOCK PLEASE...

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