CHRONICLI
on the airoff the press
Xena moves heaven and hell to stay with Gabrielle
by John Graves
Xena's nightmare came true as she and Gabrielle were crucified by the Romans and died in last season's finale of Xena, Warrior Princess.
The lesbian subtext continues and seems to be getting stronger in this fifth season of the sword-and-sorcery show. The season opened on a battle scene between heaven and hell that seemed to taken from the pages of Paradise Lost. After they were crucified by the Romans, a host of angels began to take the two women up to heaven, but raiding demons from hell carried Gabrielle off to hell, where she was turned into a demon herself.
Meanwhile, Xena became an angel when she reached heaven. Realizing she could not bear the thought of her beloved Gabrielle condemned to an eternity in hell, Xena asked
Holliday sings at men's wedding
Singer and Tony award-winner Jennifer Holliday, renowned for her award-winning Broadway role in the musical Dreamgirls, honored the October 16 wedding of her friends Jeffrey L. Newman and Jeffrey W. Parker with a live presentation of a direct-from-theheart repertoire of songs.
"I am so very pleased and proud to join in the celebration of Jeff and Jeffrey's special day." Holliday said. "It gives me great pleasure to present to them a personal musical gift straight from my heart."
A host of high-profile wedding guests attended the history-making nuptials of Newman, who is president and COO of gfn.com, the Gay Financial Networkand president and CEO of out.com, and Parker, an men's accessories designer, which were cybercast world wide via www.out.com.
the Archangel Michael to help her lead a raid WCW drops gay cariacture wrestlers
to hell in a desperate attempt to rescue Gabrielle. She knew that to do so would mean that she would have to condemn herself to eternal damnation.
At the last moment, when Xena was about to meet her eternal fate, the loving warrior women were miraculously returned to mortal form, whereupon Gabrielle declares that she and Xena are meant to spend all eternity together.
Ruthie's back, but Jason's gone
Over at MTV's Real World, a family health crisis has forced gay activist Justin to suddenly leave the house, still puzzled over the sudden cooling of his friendship with Kaia. But Ruthie's back from rehab with a new lover, a stripper named Malo.
World Championship Wrestling and Turner Network Television have finally dropped the gay caricatures Lenny and Lodi in response to protests from GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, that the gay caricatures were being used to incite wrestling fans into a frenzy of homophobic catcalling.
"Ultimately, TNT deserves applause for making the right decision, but it's unfortunate they didn't think this thing through before those characters made it to air." said GLAAD's Scott Seomin. "Never in 15 years have we seen a more literal encouragement of gay bashing in entertainment."
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'But our listeners love it'
The Cleveland Free Times protested a nasty bit of homophobia that seems to have taken root at WMMS, 100.7 FM. A couple of weeks ago the station aired "Livin' La Vida Homo," which the paper calls "a tasteless parody of the Ricky Martin hit that simulates sex between two gay Hispanics."
The Free Times went on to say sarcastically that, "The powers that be at station owner Clear Channel must have extensive polling data that show the majority of the WMMS audience is homophobic and antiHispanic. The joke inside the station is that 'sure this stuff is offensive but our listeners love it.' Ah, we love that radio consolidation. Not only do these conglomerates buy up all the stations and decimate their programming, they spew hateful material through the air-
waves.
95
Unhappy with Happy's movie look
Townspeople support TG teacher
Look for a feature article in the October 25 issue of People magazine on how the townspeople of Antelope, California have rallied in support of high school teacher David Warfield who came out as a transgender person about to undergo gender surgery in December, and will become Dana Rivers.
According to the magazine, some of the school board members, who supported Rivers at first, changed their minds even though they got only four negative responses to a letter to the school's 15,00 parents explaining Rivers' plans and urging "courtesy and respect" for the popular teacher.
After the board members announced their change of heart, students rallied in front of the school in favor of Rivers and parents circulated recall petitions calling for the ouster of the board members who had turned against the teacher.
The real-life residents of Happy, Texas Etheridge okay with poster child role
are not pleased by the film of the same name in which two escaped convicts pretend to be gay traveling beauty pageant gurus.
The 650 residents of the real West Texas town, 120 miles north of Lubbock, are not only upset about the film's gay characters they are also upset about the film's stereotypical portrayal of Texans.
"If they're going to make a movie about Happy, then let them make it about the real place, said farmer Ed Burk. "There is no gay bar in Happy."
Actor William H. Macy, who portrays a hard-boiled county sheriff experiencing a sexual identity crisis, denies the film was intended to poke fun at small-town Texas.
"The script made me literally laugh out loud," Macy said. "It's a great story, a worthwhile story with real humanity and a genuine love for all the characters. It could've so easily been cliched in that mean-spirited way so many movies are now, with cardboardcutout stereotypes. It could've made fun of people, but it didn't."
City secretary Patricia Sims said she and other officials voted to give the film's producers permission to use the town's name. At the time, however, they didn't know the plot. Ellen, Anne, and Gillian Anderson
Anne Heche talks about her life with Ellen DeGeneres and her commitment as a gay activist in a feature interview in the November issue of Curve magazine, while bisexual Korean-American comic Margaret Cho talks about her sexual orientation a little in a feature interview in the November issue of Girlfriends magazine.
By the way, gay-friendly X-Files star Gillian Anderson seems to be spending most of her nights out on the town with Ellen and Anne. Hmmm.
Asked if she was concerned about becoming a gay "poster child," lesbian rocker Melissa Etheridge told the San Francisco Chronicle, "I am anyway... But let me put it this way: I refuse to not be it . . . I'm not going out and doing it. But I will stand there and be it."
Good Coming Out Day stories
Finally, kudos to the Cleveland Plain Dealer for featuring a number of items about the LGBT community on National Coming Out Day October 11, including announcements about Coming Out Day events and a feature article by reporter Julie E. Washington on the Black Gay Film Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Art, sponsored by Brother2Brother.
Kudos also to Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston for running a multi-week storyline featuring her ground-breaking gay youth character Lawrence in her syndicated strip For Better or Worse. Also to Abigail Van Buren-Dear Abby-for featuring a reader's letter listing the reasons why we, as LGBT people, talk about our lives and struggle for our rights.
In the comic strip, the mixed-race Lawrence has apparently broken up with his lover and has just met the African-American father he never knew for the first time. As this column goes to press, it appears he is about to come out to his father. How very appropriate for this National Coming Out Month of October!
John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian-gay public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1FM Fridays at 7 pm, and at http://radio.cwru.edu. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contribute to this column.
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