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Quest
News Volume 12 No. 21 November 9, 2005
Compiled
& written by Mike Fitzpatrick
Judge Upholds Oregon Gay Marriage Ban
Salem - A judge has
upheld a gay marriage ban adopted by Oregon voters last year, rejecting
claims that the amendment made too many changes at once and interfered
with local government. In his November 4 ruling, Marion County Circuit
Judge Joseph Guimond backed supporters of the law who said the measure
only clarified marriage law in a single, simple sentence.
The Oregon amendment, passed overwhelmingly in November 2004 as
Measure 36, reads: “It is the policy of Oregon, and its political
subdivisions, that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall
be valid or legally recognized as a marriage.” Seventeen other states
have similar constitutional bans.
The gay rights group Basic Rights Oregon said it will appeal.
“We continue to believe that Measure 36 was too radical a change to the
equal protection clause of the Oregon Constitution to simply be
considered an amendment,” Roey Thorpe, the group’s executive director,
said.
In their lawsuit, opponents had argued that the measure
contained too many changes because it not only amended the state
constitution to forbid same-sex marriage, but also interfered with
local governments’ home-rule rights by barring them from recognizing
gay marriages performed elsewhere. Under Oregon law, a ballot measure
can make only one change to the state constitution.
The challengers also claimed the measure was improperly placed
on the ballot because it was a constitutional revision, not just an
amendment, that “violates the fundamental principles of liberty and
justice” by banning same-sex marriage.
Such a change would require a two-thirds vote of the state House
and Senate before it could be submitted to voters, they said. The judge
disagreed, saying that no court has conclusively defined the difference
between an amendment and a revision.
The ruling was the latest setback for gay rights backers in
Oregon, where more than 3,000 marriage licenses were granted to
same-sex couples in Multnomah County in spring 2004, until a judge
halted the practice. Short of achieving full marriage rights, gay
rights backers mounted an effort in the Legislature earlier this year
to pass a civil unions bill extending most of the benefits and rights
of marriage to same-sex couples, but the bill died in the Oregon House.
States Consider
Gay Civil Rights,
Marriage Equality In November Election
Editor’s Note: Because of Quest’s printing schedule,
results of the ballot measures reported in the overview article below
will be available as the magazine is distributed. Check QNU, the
Quest News Update online at: www.quest-online.com for full results.
Gay civil rights, marriage equality teen abortion, Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s prestige. These and other volatile topics added spice
to off-year elections in seven states where voters considered statewide
ballot measures on November 8.
As Quest went to
press, Texas voters are expected to approve a proposed constitutional
ban on same-sex marriages - a step already taken in 18 other states. In
Maine, a conservative alliance urged voters to quash a new law
prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In Texas, the proposed gay-marriage ban was the only
high-profile statewide item on the ballot, and both sides were
concerned about possible low voter turnout. “We think the vast majority
of people in Texas are with us but that doesn’t help if they don’t show
up,” Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Legal Institute said. The Jerry
Falwell founded group supports the ban.
Gay-rights activists opposing the ban had produced television
ads featuring direct appeals by same-sex couples for marriage equality.
“We are not second-class citizens, and we need the same resources and
rights available to heterosexual couples to protect our families,” the
Rev. Carolyn Mobley said. Mobley is an associate pastor at the
Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church, appearing with her partner
in one of the ads.
An election eve rally in Austin by the Ku Klux Klan was seen by
both sides as an unwelcome addition to the already highly-charged
rhetoric employed in the marriage ballot issue. Conservatives took
issue with religious-themed auto dialed phone messages opposing the ban
and pro-gay supporters took issue with right-wing flyers containing
handwritten comments claiming that the gay community was attempting to
take over the government.
Massachusetts is the only state allowing such marriages; Vermont
and Connecticut have approved same-sex civil unions. Texas law already
prohibits same-sex marriages, but supporters of the amendment say a
constitutional ban would guard that law from judicial challenges.
While the Texas amendment was placed on the ballot by the
legislature, the measure dealing with equal civil rights for people
regardless of sexual orientation in Maine resulted from a petition
campaign by conservatives upset that lawmakers expanded the state’s
human rights act to address anti-gay bias. The act already prohibited
discrimination based on race, gender and other factors; it was
broadened earlier this year to outlaw discrimination based on sexual
orientation in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and
education.
In Republican-controlled Ohio, site of bitter wrangling in the
2004 presidential election, four election overhaul measures backed by
Democrat-leaning groups are on the ballot. Voters will be asked if
bipartisan boards, instead of elected officials, should draw lawmakers’
districts and oversee elections; whether campaign contribution limits
should be lowered; and whether all voters should be allowed to vote
early by mail.
Doctors and lawyers in Washington state have spent heavily to
support rival measures dealing with medical malpractice. The one backed
by doctors would place a cap on certain types of jury awards and limit
lawyers’ fees. The lawyers’ proposal would create a state-run
supplemental malpractice insurance program, and allow doctors’ licenses
to be revoked after three malpractice verdicts against them within 10
years.
Other measures in Washington would ban smoking in public areas
and indoor workplaces, and overturn the legislature’s gas-tax hike of
9.5 cents a gallon.
New Jersey voters will decide whether the state should have an
elected lieutenant governor to take over if a sitting governor leaves
office early. The measure is a response to the gay sex scandal that
drove former Governor James McGreevey from office and installed Senate
President Richard Codey as acting governor even as he retained his
Senate duties. New Jersey is one of eight states with no lieutenant
governor.
Voters in New York are being asked to approve a $2.9 billion
transportation bond and a measure that would give the Legislature, not
the governor, the upper hand in writing a budget.
As is often the case, California had the most intriguing mix of
propositions - including four backed by Schwarzenegger, the Republican
governor, to curb the power of the Democrat-controlled legislature and
the state’s public employee unions. Another measure, notable in a state
with liberal leanings, would require parents to be notified when a
minor seeks an abortion.
California voters faced a special election called by
Schwarzenegger in hopes of strengthening his hand in confrontations
with legislators and civil service unions that have flared since he
took office in 2003. Schwarzenegger backed proposals - all
trailing in the polls at Quest’s
deadline - that would cap state spending and give the governor greater
authority to make budget cuts; make teachers work five years instead of
two to pass probation; strip lawmakers of their power to carry out
redistricting, and require public employee unions to get members’
permission before dues could be used for political purposes.
Schwarzenegger also supported the abortion measure, which would
require doctors to give parents or guardians written notice 48 hours
before performing an abortion on a minor. Adults would not have to
consent, but sponsors hoped the requirement would reduce California’s
teen abortion rate - the nation’s fourth-highest - by involving parents
in the decision. More than 30 states have parental notification or
consent laws.
World & National News:
Bush
Supreme Court Pick Once Backed Privacy, Gay Rights
Washington, DC -
President George W. Bush’s October 31 announcement latest selection of
Samuel A. Alito Jr.for the Supreme Court, just days following the
withdrawal of White House counsel Harriet Miers for the position
elicited the expected hue and cry from the nation’s political left and right.
But the November 2 revelation by the Boston Globe of a strongly pro-gay
document authored by the nominee has both sides wondering just
conservative the President’s selection may be.
As a senior at Princeton University, Alito chaired an
undergraduate task force that recommended the decriminalization of
sodomy, accused the CIA and the FBI of invading the privacy of
citizens, and said discrimination against gays in hiring “should be
forbidden.” The startling 1971 report by Alito and 16 other
Princeton students, stemmed from a class assignment to study the
“boundaries of privacy in American society” and to recommend ways to
protect individual rights.
The far-ranging report, which satisfied a requirement for public
policy students and which was stored in the university’s Seeley G. Mudd
Manuscript Library, was unearthed by Globe correspondents Christian R.
Burset and Alan Wirzbicki. That document has provided a glimpse of a
possibly more liberal Alito than the jurist is now perceived.
“We sense a great threat to privacy in modern America,” Alito
wrote in a foreword to the report. “We all believe that privacy is too
often sacrificed to other values; we all believe that the threat to
privacy is steadily and rapidly mounting; we all believe that action
must be taken on many fronts now to preserve privacy.”
A classmate, Jeffrey G. Weil, told Burset and Wirzbicki
that Alito, one of the top seniors in his class, had been selected to
advise juniors writing the report, coaching them through the research
and then writing an introduction explaining their recommendations.
Alito was “not a person who has an agenda in terms of changing
the world,” Weil said. He is now a lawyer in Philadelphia. His role was
mostly advisory, noted Weil, who wrote the section of the report
dealing with gay rights but who said he could not remember whether
Alito personally agreed with the recommendations.
The Supreme Court did not strike down laws prohibiting gay sex
until the Lawrence v. Texas case in 2003. Many social conservatives
have criticized that decision.
As a judge, Alito has not ruled on any major gay rights cases.
Richard H. Fallon, a professor at Harvard Law School, said that it
would be a mistake to read too much into “little bits of evidence like
this” and that even if Alito held socially liberal views on gay rights,
it would not necessarily mean that he would vote in favor of gay
marriage or any other issue.
“From the fact that someone thinks legislators ought to forbid
discrimination,” he said, “it does not follow that the person would
necessarily think that the Supreme Court of the United States ought to
hold that the Constitution forbids discrimination against gays.”
Indeed, the 1971 report rarely commented on what action the
judiciary should take, focusing mostly in legislative action. The
report covered what its undergraduate authors saw as increasing threats
to privacy in the late 1960’s, questioning whether the “cybernetic
revolution” would result in more invasions of privacy and criticizing
government surveillance of “mild dissenters on the war in Vietnam.”
Alito, who would probably rule on many privacy issues arising
from the Bush administration’s pursuit of the war on terror, wrote in
his 1971 introduction: “We are convinced that in recent years
government has often used improper means to gather information about
individuals who posed no threat either to their government or to their
fellow citizens.”
At the end Alito wrote: “The erosion of privacy, unlike war,
economic bad times, or domestic unrest, does not jump to the citizen’s
attention . . . But by the time privacy is seriously compromised, it is
too late to clamor for reform.”
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese commented on Boston Globe
report, noting that “this is a hopeful sign that may provide insight
into his philosophy.”
“There were very few people standing up for gay Americans 34
years ago and most who did have evolved even more since,” Solmonese
said.
California Study Shows
Sharp Drop In Gay Male Meth Use
San Francisco - San
Francisco’s gay community may be seeing a significant drop in crystal
methamphetamine use, according to research conducted by the nonprofit
Stop AIDS Project and analyzed by the city’s Department of Public
Health. The Stop AIDS Project
conducted 4,197 individual surveys of gay and bisexual men between July
2003 and June 2005, project spokesman Jason Riggs said today. That data
indicates a 40 percent drop in methamphetamine use within that time
period, according to Riggs.
In a news release, Riggs reported that “In late 2003, 18% of gay
and bisexual men in San Francisco reported they had used crystal meth
in the last six months. In the first half of 2005, 10% had reported
using crystal meth in the last 6 months,” a 40% drop over two years.
Those data are based on a series of surveys conducted of individuals by
project volunteers at social and community events and on the street,
Riggs said.
Many subjects may have taken the anonymous survey multiple
times, but those who took it within the prior six months are asked to
indicate that, Riggs said. “We’ve been conducting the same kind of
survey since the early ‘90s,’’ Riggs said. `The questions have stayed
the same, so we have really good trend analysis.”
H. Fisher Raymond and Willi McFarland of the Department of
Public Health’s AIDS office indicated that, because the sample group is
hard to identify, the data might be biased. However, they concurred
with Riggs that the surveys are a good trend indicator. “We know that
(the survey) has limitations and possible biases, but it’s one of the
few pieces of information we’ve been collecting for so many years,”
McFarland said.
Raymond indicated that, although more than 4,000 surveys were
conducted, the population of the sample group is probably around 800 to
1,300 people.
The Stop AIDS Project’s findings have been taken with a grain of
salt by some. McFarland mentioned Christopher Carrington, an assistant
professor of sociology at San Francisco State University, who wondered
in a Bay Area Reporter article whether the study indicated a real drop
in use, or a reluctance to admit to using the drug due to an increased
stigma associated with it. Which could mean, McFarland continued, that
“you’re not changing the behavior, you’re changing people’s willingness
to discuss the behavior, which could be counterproductive.”
But Riggs said he doesn’t think a stigma associated with
methamphetamine use would be a bad thing. “I don’t think we need to
shame people who are addicts,” he said. “But we need to make sure
people are informed. Nobody wants to be a crack whore, so it is
stigmatizing because of what addicts become within the community.”
The Stop AIDS Project announced that the recent data appear to
buck the national trend of increased use, a trend that is corroborated
by Gaetano Vaccaro, manager of clinical research at the Los Angeles Gay
and Lesbian Center. “We’re seeing a steady increase in both crystal
meth availability and use here in L.A.,” Vaccaro said.
He expressed doubt about the implications of the San Francisco
surveys. “In my opinion, that is a very sharp decline that is hard to
validate. Before we would believe that that is true, we would need to
see it validated by an empirical study. That’s a lot and it doesn’t
represent what we’re seeing here,” he said.
Vaccaro cited data documented by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian
Center’s HIV counseling and testing program, which indicated an
increase in the numbers of gay and bisexual men who use methamphetamine
and test positive for HIV.
But Vaccaro said he was hopeful that Stop AIDS’ data were an
early indicator of a trend shift within the gay and bisexual male
community. “We are encouraged by their findings because it means the
kind of programs we’re working on might make a significant difference,”
he said.
Star Trek’s Mr.
Sulu: “I’m Gay!”
Los Angeles - George
Takei, who as helmsman Sulu steered the Starship Enterprise through
three television seasons and six movies, has come out as a homosexual in the current
issue of Frontiers, a biweekly Los Angeles magazine covering the gay
and lesbian community.
Takei told the Associated Press on October 27 that his new
onstage role as psychologist Martin Dysart in “Equus,” helped inspire
him to publicly discuss his sexuality. Takei described the character as
a “very contained but turbulently frustrated man.” The play opened
October 26 at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles, the same
day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei’s coming out.
The current social and political climate also motivated Takei’s
disclosure, he said. “The world has changed from when I was a young
teen feeling ashamed for being gay,” he said. “The issue of gay
marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable
when I was young.”
The 68-year-old actor said he and his partner, Brad Altman, have
been together for 18 years. Takei, a Japanese-American who lived in a
U.S. internment camp from age 4 to 8, said he grew up feeling ashamed
of his ethnicity and sexuality. He likened prejudice against gays to
racial segregation. “It’s against basic decency and what American
values stand for,” he said.
Takei joined the “Star Trek” cast in 1966 as Hikaru Sulu, a
character he played for three seasons on television and in six
subsequent films. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in
1986.
A community activist, Takei ran for the Los Angeles City Council
in 1973. He serves on the advisory committee of the California Civil
Liberties Public Education Program and is chairman of East West
Players, the theater company producing “Equus.”
State News:
Action Wisconsin Marks One Year Countdown
To The Marriage Ballot
Madison - The
leading organization coordinating statewide opposition to the
expected November 2006 referendum on a constitutional ban on the legal recognition of
unmarried couples, regardless of sexual orientation has formally
announced the formal start of its campaign exactly one year in advance
of the date here November 7. Action Wisconsin launched its
“Campaign Kick-off: The Countdown to the Ballot” with an open house and
a series of canvasses.
A Madison Door-to-Door walk, was held on Saturday, November 5,
with about one hundred volunteers canvassing the gay supportive
Atwood-Schenk neighborhood to talk to people about the proposed
amendment, and to find supporters and new volunteers. A Milwaukee
door-to-door walk was held the next day by Center Advocate’s Equality
Knocks volunteers, the group’s final canvass effort for 2005.
Action Wisconsin held its first-ever Open House on November 8 at
the organization’s State Street offices. Attendees met the staff and
board folks who will be leading the historic effort to defeat the
proposed constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage, and got
a peek at the group’s expanded offices.
UW-M Journal Publishes
All-Gay Issue
Milwaukee - The Cream City Review, a literary
biannual published out of UW-Milwaukee, has become the first mainstream
literary magazine in America to publish an issue consisting entirely of
contributions by gay, lesbian, and bisexual writers.
Cream City Review is a
literary journal with a history of supporting work that is socially
progressive and politically conscious. The journal has, over the years,
published work by many writers who identify as queer, but this is the
first time that the journal has devoted an issue exclusively to this
contingent of its contributors.
Antler, the recent poet laureate of Milwaukee, believes that
this special issue of Cream City
Review has a wider significance for the region as a whole: “For Cream City Review to publish an
entire issue dedicated to LGBT experience, awareness, sensitivity, and
celebration is a major milestone not only for the English Dept and UW-M
but for all of Milwaukee and the community of poets here. And the
Heartland.”
And the magazine has drawn praise from all quarters. The most
well-known poet to be included in Cream
City’s current issue, Timothy Liu, wrote that, “Over the past
couple of decades, Cream City Review
has reinvented itself again and again, distilling the cultural pulse of
American literary life, concocting for us a most wicked Midwestern
brew.”
Writer’s Digest
proclaimed the Review “one of
the ten best markets for non-traditional poetry.”
Non-traditional indeed. In its focus on an awareness of gay and
lesbian art and culture, joins a burgeoning group of magazines
and news outlets in Milwaukee this year, such as Outbound News, Quest, Queer Life and Edge, which strive to convey not
only the sexuality of queerness, but the lifestyle in all its
complexity and variety.
Cream City Review is
celebrating its thirtieth year of publication in the Spring, and the
Queer Writers Issue became available October 24th at many local
Milwaukee bookstores, including Harry Schwartz, People’s Books,
Woodland Pattern, Broad Vocabulary, and others.
For more information, or to purchase copies of the journal, send
inquiries to: Cream City Review,
University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Department of English, PO Box
413, Milwaukee, WI 53201
Gift Itself To Offer
Art Classes
Green Bay - The Gift
Itself, a gallery in the historic Broadway district representing over
100 artists and crafts people, will offer a series of art classes
beginning this month. Two November, beginner level classes will offer
opportunities to create jewelry and turn clothing items into “works of
art.”
The Found Object Jewelry class, instructed by Al Buch, will be
held November 9 and explore jewelry making with all of the things one
has saved over the years. Students will be able to clean out junk
drawers and make creative, fun jewelry. Using different techniques
taught in this class, you will walk away with one-of-a-kind pieces that
mean something to you! Class is approximately three hours long, and
costs $35. Snacks will be served.
Instructor Allen Buch is a Green Bay native and graduate of
Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College’s Jewelry Repair and
Fabrication program, holds a Bachelor degree from the University of
Wisconsin Green Bay and a one year vocational degree in boat building
from Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College in Sturgeon Bay. Allen
and his partner opened their jewelry design company in 1991 and opened
The Gift Itself gallery in 1993. The Gift Itself represents over 100
artists and is the home of Hand in Hand Partners, Inc., the partners’
jewelry design studio.
The Paint Your Docs! class, instructed by Mary Sue Fenner, will
be held on November 12. In approximately two hours, students will turn
their leather or canvas shoes, boots, bags and belts into works of art.
Following Mary Sue’s lead, students will paint accessories to match
their favorite fabric swatch or any theme of their choice. Bring
inspiration and one pair of plain leather or canvas shoes, boots, belt,
purse or leather piece. The class, which costs $40, will also
expect students to provide acrylic paints and brushes, inexpensive
containers and rubber stamps of their choice. Lots of samples will be
available for students to look at before beginning their projects.
Instructor Mary Sue Fenner is a professional instructor, weaver,
artist, spinner and seamstress. She has written articles for Belle
Annoire, Handwoven, Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot magazines. Mary Sue was
lucky enough to be the first teacher at Sievers School of Fiber Arts on
Washington Island, Wisconsin in 1979 and returns every year. Her one of
a kind garments are sold in area galleries and stores. When she is not
working on her textiles she teaches full-time, Marketing & Graphics
Communications at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
For more information or to enroll in either class, contact the
Gift Itself, at their 125 N. Broadway site or by phoning 920-433-9171.
Perfect Harmony To
Perform Twice During Holiday Season
Madison - The Perfect
Harmony Men’s Chorus has two public concerts coming up in the next
month and a half.
The 35-voice men’s choir will perform at the Overture Center on Friday,
November 18 accompanying the Kanopy Dance Company and be singing
Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols to their choreography. Show
time is 7:30 PM. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased through the
Overture Center’s box office or online at www.overturecenter.com.
On Sunday, December 4 Perfect Harmony will be singing its
annual Winter Concert at First Congregational Church, 1619 University
Avenue. This year’s theme is “From Darkness To Light: A Winter Solstice
Celebration.” Show time is 7 PM. Tickets are $12 or $9 for students and
can be purchased from a PMHC member, at the door, or via PayPal
at the chorus’ website at: www.perfectharmonychorus.org.
Perfect Harmony Men’s Chorus is Madison’s gay and gay-friendly
men’s chorus. Perfect Harmony is a non-profit organization. Its singers
and directors, and accompanist, and non-singing members serve in a
volunteer capacity. With a singing membership of around 35 men, the
chorus strives to provide gay bisexual, transgendered and gay friendly
men with opportunities for the performance of choral music in a
supportive and affirming environment.
Through music, the chorus strives to enrich the lives of its
members, the Madison Area lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
communities and the community at large. Perfect Harmony provides a
visible presence and positive voice in and for the Madison LGBT
communities. Perfect Harmony is also a member of GALA , an organization
of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered choruses across the world.
ARCW Picked As “Health
Care Hero”
Milwaukee - ARCW has been
selected to receive a Health Care Hero Award for outstanding community
service by the Small Business Times in Milwaukee. The award will be
presented at a “Meet the Heroes” awards breakfast on December 8.
Each year the Milwaukee-based business journal seeks nominations for
health care heroes and presents awards for physicians, nurses,
volunteers, health care corporations, health care advancements and
community service.
In announcing ARCW’s selection as a Health Care Hero, the Small
Business Times specifically praised ARCW for accepting the transfer
of so many new patients to the ARCW Medical Clinic when Aurora’s
Positive Health Clinic closed.
Sondheim Musical
Review At Off The Wall
Milwaukee - Dale Gutzman
and company at Off The Wall Theatre will present a rare musical comedy
event, a staging of Stephen Sondheim’s musical revue “Putting It
Together.” The show will debut Thursday, November 10 for a twelve
performance run at the theater,
located at 127 N. Wells St, ending November 27.
Like most Stephen Sondheim shows, “Putting It Together” has lots
more to it than first meets the eye or ear. The title itself
refers to the fact that the show is made up of over thirty Sondheim
songs first used in or cut from other shows of his. But it also refers
to the structure of the show itself. The show is about putting together
ideas of relationships and marriage. It focuses on a cocktail party at
which four people and a narrator explore their own ambitions, longings,
fear, desires, and doubts concerning love. We meet a couple who seem to
have everything, but whose marriage has reached the stage of going
through empty motions, and we meet two young ambitious guests who would
love to change places with them.
When Sondheim was in Chicago several seasons ago with his show
“Bounce,” Gutzman talked with him over lunch about the delicate nature
of the show. How it has to remain a revue, but still delve into the
characters and their plight. It’s a character driven show, not a plot
driven one. The Sondheim Review, a magazine devoted to his works,
a few years ago, named Gutzman one of the country’s “best Sondheim
Directors.” This new revue promises to be filled with the witty
ironic side of the composer, but also features the kind of tug at the
heart strings for which he is so well known.
Music Director David Brady has been working for over a month
with the cast of five on the difficult material. “This show seems to
have almost every complex song Sondheim ever wrote. It’s a real
challenge for the cast to simply learn it,” he commented
recently. It’s true, the songs in the show read like a list of
Sondheim at his most brilliant and irritating. Tunes in the
ninety minute show include: “Pretty Women,” “A Country House,”
“Every Day a Little Death,” “Back in Business,” “Rich and Happy,”
“Ladies who Lunch,” “Leave You,” “Buddy’s Blues,” “Not Getting Married
Today,” and many more. In addition, there are several songs Sondheim
has written for films including, “Back in Business,” and “More.”
And a beautiful new five part harmony arrangement of “Being
Alive.” One curious number in the show is a version of “Do I Hear
a Waltz” that has never been done before. This is not the song Sondheim
wrote with Richard Rogers for the show of that name, but a solo effort
written several years before.
The cast for the revue consists of Marilyn White, Bob Hirschi,
Sharon Rise, Jeremy Welter, and J. P. Clemente. White, Hirschi,
Rise, and Welter are all Off the Wall regulars, and J. P. Clemente
worked with Gutzman a decade ago and has since moved on to direct and
choreograph on his own. Musical Director David Brady is putting
together a talented combo of musicians for the intimate Off The Wall
space.
As usual, Scenic Designer David Roper is altering the entire
theatre environment for the show. The audience will enter through the
set into the auditorium. The multi-level set consisting of four
separate playing areas and a long staircase will be painted vibrant
colors assisted by a myriad of rope lights and optical effects.
Seating in the small space is limited to fifty people a night,
so early reservations are suggested. Tickets are $22-26 and may
be reserved by call the the box office at 414-327-3552. Wednesday and
Thursday curtains are at 7:30 PM. Friday and Saturday shows start at 8
PM and all Sunday performances are 4 PM matinees.
Don’t miss this exciting, witty, fun-filled, sly, musical
theatre treat, presented by some of Milwaukee’s most talented
performers in one of the city’s most charming intimate settings.
Feature Story:
Thom Ertl: “Look What I Did!”
Milwaukee Gay Man’s Home Profiled
On New HGTV Do-It-Yourself Series
Interview by Mike Fitzpatrick
Milwaukee - The producers
of HGTV’s new series “Look What I Did” recently went looking for
“unique, cool and creative projects designed and done by real people” without the help
of contractors or interior design experts. One of their stops on their
cross country talent search was on the east side of Milwaukee at the
home of gay graphic artist Thom Ertl where he shared what producers
call his “fun stories and incredible results” about the remodeling of
the two-story home he shares with his partner Scott.
In advance of the series’ mid-November debut on the cable
network, Quest visited with Ertl and got the inside dish about how his
episode segment came about.
Quest: Tell us a little
about yourself.
Ertl: I’ve lived in
Milwaukee since 1980 and have owned a house in the Riverwest part of
city for the past nine years. I have always been a
person with an artistic bent. My current occupation is as a free-lance
graphic designer. I also have worked as a cosmetologist and a visual
merchandising specialist.
Quest: Tell us a little
about the program you’re going to be on.
Ertl: The program is
called “Look What I Did” - or as I’m subtitling it - “Smell Me.” What
basically happened is that I came back from a vacation right before
Labor Day and was rifling through my messages at home. There was this
message from a woman who was identifying herself as one of the
producers of this new show on HGTV - Home & Garden Television -
called “Look What I Did.”
Immediately I thought: “Well, someone is playing a really cruel
joke on me.” I know enough people who would be silly enough to do
something like that. I went into it thinking “I’ll go with the joke
until somebody screams ‘April Fools’ or whatever is going to be
yelled.”
I got in contact with her and she asked for background
information on a specific project that I’d done with my house. The
reason she had gotten in touch with me to begin with was the fact that
I was profiled in the Entree section of the Sunday edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel two and
a half years ago.
A section of that article that discussed one of the rooms of my
house - the room I’m calling the den. My house was built in 1919, an
older home. In that room I tore out a closet. The existing walls were
uneven. I was trying to find a way to camouflage that but do something
more interesting than doing a stucco wall or textured wallpaper.
The room had a lot of my industrial kind of stuff in it - for
lack of a better term. I wanted to do something that was sort of
metallic and graphic and linear. That’s when I came up with the idea of
doing a metallic wall in there.
Quest: What was it like
to have a television crew invade your house?
Ertl: Having done
versions of videotaping before, I sort of knew what to expect as far as
a production crew coming in. The HGTV crew was a producer, an associate
producer, a sound and camera crew - like five people.
What they first had me do is doing some very extemporaneous,
unscripted kind of interview where I gave info about what I’d done to
the house and the whole process of designing and decorating it. They
were trying to have me sound scripted but spontaneous.
Being that its a new show, I didn’t know exactly what their
focus is. I knew they wanted people on the show who had done things to
their house that was interesting but didn’t require an interior
designer or contractor.
Quest: What was your
take on the actual taping?
Ertl: It was fun. It was
a six hour taping but within that six hours they were going to use
about 5-7 minutes for the actual segment. They shot a lot of what they
call “B-roll” which is stuff that doesn’t require any kind of audio.
Then they did an interview with me as well as some demonstration shots,
showing how I did the wall in my den as well a second demonstration on
doing the ceilings in my living room, dining room and kitchen areas.
The latter was weaving that was done with corrugated cardboard.
Quest: Is there anything
they crew asked you to do that made you feel uncomfortable?
Ertl: One thing they
were trying to have me (and my partner Scott) do was have everything
come off as being big. They had me do  some of
that kind of big drama thing where I threw my arms out and screamed
Look what I did!” Everything we did had to have a feel of an
exclamation point at the end of it. While some of that could be done,
there were moments where I felt kind of like “Oh please! Look what I
did - my ass!”
Quest: As you know
there’s an old saying that goes “Oh Mary, It takes a fairy to make
something pretty in life.” Will that shine through in the program?
Ertl: And what part are
you suggesting there? The “Mary” part? Or the fairy part? (laughs) Oh
gee! I get to choose between “Mary” and “Fairy?”
Quest: No, I’m asking if
the “gay angle” in your segment is going to show through to the viewers
at home?
Ertl: Well, unless
they’re Helen Keller - I would think so, yah! When we were discussing
the whole process, they were talking to me about the elements of the
shoot. They wanted to show me and my process but they also wanted sort
of an affidavit shot to include in the final segment.
When they talked to my partner Scott, they asked me who he was
to me. They kept asking if he was my roommate. I kept saying: “No, he’s
my partner.” There was this debate - not high drama or anything - but
this discussion of what the terminology of Scott and my relationship
should be. I asked them “What’s wrong with partner?” and they kept
saying “Well, this is a conservative show - we’re not sure how America
handle it.”
I said the them: “Let’s put it in a different perspective. I’ve
seen shows of this genre where they have a male and female on who have
a baby, but they say that they’re no married. I’m sure there’s people
out there who don’t consider that ‘status quo,’ but it’s still being
shown. Or they’re showing a male-female couple of different
enthnicities. And that may not sit well with Joe Public in Bumblefuck.
Our relationship is a fact of life.”
Quest: Are you telling
all your friends to tune in and watch?
Ertl: Well, the way it
stands now is that the show is scheduled to be debuting on HGTV on
November 21. I won’t know exactly when my segment is going to air until Friday,
November 18. I was told it will be within a four month period of the
show’s debut. But I don’t know now when it exactly will air.
Quest: Will it repeat
over and over like so many of those cable home improvement shows?
Ertl: I think so. It’s
part of a series. It’s one of those kind of shows that will be shown
multiple times.
Quest: Any reservations
about what the show is going to look like?
Ertl: I’m not nervous but
I’m kind of a little concerned about what are they going to do with
this (the footage). I have no idea what the end product is
supposed to be. For all I know this is going to be so schmaltzy and
queer that I could be throwing up a little bit in my mouth as I’m
watching it. After this they might change the name of the show to “Look
What Mary Did!”
Quest: That show’s
already on the air. It’s called “Queer Eye For The Straight Guy” or
Christopher Lowell.
Ertl: Yeah, we don’t want
to do that again. He’s the Rudy Galindo of fabric!
Quest: Were you
compensated in any for this?
Ertl: No. the only
compensation is -you know - going public with what I’ve done and seeing
where it goes from there, at this stage of the game.
Quest: So the only
payment is to be able to go up to a person and say “Look what I did!”
Ertl: Shut up! Spare me!
(laughs)
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