GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Tim Miller

Continued from page 8

bed up on a tall pillar like Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. As you might imagine, the monument was somewhere in the Midwest-maybe somewhere near Peoria-an area I have racked up many of those 1,001 beds. Anyhow, this monument was a tribute to the bed, a place where most of us are born on, most of us die on and most of us spend one third of our lives on.

This idea thrilled me as a boy, since I loved being in bed greatly and knew in my life, bed would loom large as an emotional, political and psychic hot spot. I knew my deepest sense of self would be forged in bed, history is made in bed, creativity and life force is generated from between the sheets: all those 1,001 hotel beds I would travel to in the Midwest, just like that one up on the pillar in my Ripley's Believe it or Not memory.

March 14, 2008

Is there one bed that jumps out at you? Hmm, I think I would have to say the most important bed of my life has been a certain crummy hotel in London, the Adelphia Hotel in South Kensington, where I brought my Australian partner Alistair back to the day we met twelve years ago. Who could know that on that bed, that hot July night in London, underneath that water-stained ceiling, my life was about to be changed, challenged, deepened? Our lives, especially as gay people, are really written there in the sweat and heat of a tangle of sheets.

You and Alistair have been struggling for all those years against the injustice of U.S.laws denying marriage and immigration rights to gay people. Where are things at today?

As we know, in America, millions of gay people are denied all the 1,049 rights, and rites, of civil marriage equality that all our straight friends get automatically. A serial killer on death row in Texas has the right to get married but a gay member of the U.S. Congress can't!

If you want a smack in the face that will make you understand what second class citizens gay people are in the U.S., all you have to do is fall in love with someone from another country. One of those big rights that accompany civil marriage is immigration— the ability to sponsor your spouse to remain in the U.S.-which every straight couple can do and no gay couple can. Alistair and I are barely hanging on here in the U.S. with our Lee press-on nails!

We lucked out and were surprised he managed to get a business visa for teaching at a university that you can renew for a limited time, but he is now in his final possible period of 18 months on that visa. We will probably be forced to join the thousands of other American gay couples and their foreign partners who have been forced into exile from America.

Every western country except America recognizes gay couples for immigration purposes. One of the things I try to do in my performances and this book is to let folks know how lesbian and gay relationships are completely stripped of civil rights under federal law. Someday our beds will be equal, but they sure aren't right now.

What do these 1,001 beds add up to? These 1,001 beds today have become the symbol of my life on the road as an artist and activist. My mission and I have totally decided to accept it is to be always ready to run around and perform my lean-andmean homo-drenched performances, cultural agitating, teaching and general being a way-out gay moving target. Whenever I need to hop on a tiny plane for Des Moines or Chattanooga and show the rainbow flag I am ready to do this. This new book explores my journeys and adventures and observations of this mission!

A complete listing of Miller and McCartney's appearances in Ohio is available in Charlie's Calendar.

For more information on Tim Miller go to http://hometown.aol.com/millertale. Alistair McCartney's site can be found at www.hometown.aol.com/meaningme.

William J. Mann is the author of All American Boy and Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger. Currently working on a biography of Katharine Hepburn, he can be reached through his website www.williamjmann.com.

March 16 Palm Sunday

10:30 a.m. Procession of the

March 20

Maundy Thursday

7:30 p.m. Re-Membering the Last Supper

March 21

Good Friday

7:30 p.m. The Way to the Cross

March 23

Easter Sunday

10:30 a.m. Celebration of the

Resurrection

12:00 p.m. Easter Brunch

God is still speaking at...

keepingscore

Monday night women's pool standings

Cleveland-These are the standings of the Women's Monday night pool league as of the March 3 games.

Now in its 20th season, the league has eight teams. Play begins Monday nights at 7 pm, at each home team's bar.

Contact the league at womens8ball@adelphia.net.

Team

Wins

Losses

Team

Wins

Losses

Aces

Whiskey Business, Diane

Nickel II

Nickel I

Rookies

Whiskey Business, Dee

BJ's

Whiskey Business, Brenda 7

Cocktails team finishes pool season on top

Cleveland-The Shooters Pool League congratulates the Cocktails team for finishing the regular season in first place.

The standings at the end of regular play March 3 are below. The playoff tournament began March 10 and continues weekly until the finals on March 31.

This is the fifth season of an annual pool league which shoots on Monday nights from October through March. Although it is a semi-competitive league, all skill levels may compete as matches are based on individual handicaps. A team is made up of 4 to 7 players. Play begins at 7:30 pm at the home team's bar, where four matches are played each week consisting of as many games as necessary for one player to win as many games as their handicap.

For more information, contact the league by calling Dave at 440-871-4699 or buteohawk1@att.net.

Matches

Games

Team

Won Lost

Win Pct. Games Back

Won

Lost

Win Pct.

1. Cocktails

69%

191

122

61%

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Address.

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Phone(

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Monday, March 17-

First round of playoffs continue call 440-871-4699 for locations

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Monday, March 24 Semi-finals

Monday, March 31

Finals