By any standard you care to choose, 2008 has turned out to be a stunning year for everyone. From last winter’s record-setting Wisconsin snowfalls (which may yet be surpassed in 2009 if the way Old Man Winter has been blowing so far continues) and late Spring’s record rainfalls and flooding, to the dizzying highs at the gas pump to the breath-taking lows on Wall Street this year has been one for the record books.
  Politically the longest primary season in U.S. history was followed by the most expensive presidential campaign every tallied. In California, gay marriage was granted in May and taken away just six months later - another first for the LGBT community. For Wisconsin’s queer community it was quite a year as well, filled with fire, flood, history-making success and sudden death.
  For our final issue of 2008, Quest takes a look back to the top 10 Wisconsin and national stories plus our top five predictions for the coming year.

Quest’s Top 10 Wisconsin Gay Stories Of 2008
1. Fairness Wins In Wisconsin.
On November 4 a combination of Barack Obama’s coat tails and savvy progressive organizing, including efforts by Fair Wisconsin and Center Advocates, resulted in the Democrats taking the majority of the Wisconsin State Assembly for the first time since 1994. Moreover, it marked the first time since 1986 that pro-LGBT equality majorities exist in both houses of the Legislature and an openly pro-gay chief executive lives in the Governor’s Mansion. Though the budget-busting 5.2 billion dollar state deficit and the ever deepening recession that face the new leadership may dampen enthusiasm for pro-gay initiatives, for the first time in over two decades Wisconsin’s LGBT civil rights leaders will not work in “reactive mode” to anti-gay legislative assaults - for the next two years at least.
  Due in large part for his efforts in coordinating the Democrats’ Assembly take back, openly-gay Madison Assembly Representative Mark Pocan also has emerged as one of Wisconsin’s most powerful political leaders. His recent appointment to a top budget post on the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee could result in more friendly response to a long sought-after package for UW-Madison (and possibly system-wide) employees: domestic partner benefits for committed but unmarried couples, including same-sex partners.
  Increased gay leadership in a receptive political environment, thankful for gay activist organizing helping to win eleven Assembly and four Senate seats in the last two election cycles makes this Wisconsin’s biggest gay story for 2008.

2. Patrick Flaherty Loses His Milwaukee Aldermanic Bid By Just 71 Votes.
He appeared to have the momentum. He had finished first in the eight-way February primary. He had endorsements galore, ranging from Mayor Tom Barrett to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Shepherd Express. He had strong financial support and volunteers from all walks of life making calls and knocking on door all over the 3rd District. But in a heartbreakingly close April 1 defeat, openly-gay political activist and non-profit manager Patrick Flaherty lost his bid to become the city’s first-ever openly-gay alderman by just 71 votes.
  Winning candidate Nik Kovac tallied 4,292 ballots for 50.2% of the vote, according to official results. Flaherty received 4,221 votes for 49.4%, with 37 write-in votes also cast. Overall turnout also may have hurt Flaherty, who had won 4,167 votes (31.8%) of the more than 13,000 cast in the February 19 primary that also included the hotly-contested Democratic Presidential race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Kovac scored 3,406 votes (26%) in the winter vote.
  Flaherty was also likely hurt when Sura Faraj, an openly-lesbian candidate who failed to make the primary cut in the 3rd District, threw her support to Kovac. Faraj had questioned Flaherty’s openness about his sexuality in his campaign materials during the primary.
  However, Flaherty’s record of successes in securing greater equality for the LGBT community both in Milwaukee and statewide will be a legacy few other activists anywhere in Wisconsin will be able to match. In addition to his years in HIV/AIDS work at the AIDS  Resource Center of Wisconsin, Flaherty was a leading force behind the establishment of the City of Milwaukee’s domestic partnership registry and the expansion of equal rights to the city’s transgendered employees. As the one-time lead figure at Center Advocates, he helped co-found the Fair Wisconsin “No On The amendment” campaign and in securing the Milwaukee Common Council’s endorsement of a “no” vote on the ballot measure to ban civil unions and gay marriage in 2006.

3. Full Financial Equality: Economic Downturn Hits Gay Organizations Too
It was not until after the presidential election that government officials admitted the United States had been in an economic recession since December 2007. But even before the mid-September Wall Street meltdown, sharp-eyed observers knew something was up among the state’s gay not-for-profits and businesses even if they weren’t necessarily admitting their problems openly and directly.
  Things began when, after 24 years, one the of oldest “mom & pop” video stores in the Midwest, the gay-friendly RSE Video Discount Superstore, 118 E. Dakota St. in Bay View, closed its doors at the end of April. Changes in the industry and franchise competition were blamed.
  However, not-for-profits showed more widespread signs of distress. In late Spring, the website for LGBT Center of The Chippewa Valley went dark, followed by a mid-year board shake-up at the Eau-Claire based organization. In a span of less than two months beginning in June, the Milwaukee LGBT Center announced then retracted the hiring of Milwaukee activist Paul Williams as communications director, followed closely by the severance of ties with its 501(c)4 arm - Center Advocates - in a move to focus more tightly on its core mission. August and September saw sub-par fundraising for both AIDS Network’s ACT IV AIDS Ride and ARCW’s annual AIDS Walk Wisconsin, with the latter down by a staggering 21%.
  November’s “An Evening With Rainbow Over Wisconsin” signature fundraiser saw an estimated 30% drop in revenue for the northeast Wisconsin-based charitable foundation. And, in what was reported as a last minute decision, soft ad sales and unpaid advertiser commitments made December’s issue of Queer Life - Quest’s  Milwaukee-based friendly competitor for the last four years -  its last.
  Gay bars and businesses also have been reporting slackening sales “off the record” for most of the year. The results of holiday shopping season may be the final make-or-break for several.
  Belt-tightening continues at most LGBT-supportive institutions around the state as the year ends. Quest encourages its readers to support their favorite gay businesses or not-for-profit groups. Donations made to non-profits between now and the end of the year will in most cases be tax-deductible.

4. Northeast Wisconsin’s Pride Alive Sparks In An Off Year For Gay Pride
Perhaps it was the economy, or perhaps it’s because some feel the need for gay pride may be passé. In the case of PrideFest, it was the worst weather in the festival’s history. But this year was definitely a downer for most of Wisconsin’s gay pride events - except in northeast Wisconsin, where Pride Alive broke records for both attendance and gay visibility in that part of the state.
  On paper, Milwaukee PrideFest’s “coming of age” party certainly looked to be shaping up as its most star-studded and successful ever. That is until the rains came - and came and came and came.
  About 90 minutes before the gates opened for PrideFest 2008 on June 6 workers putting the final touches on the 21st annual festival at the Henry B. Maier Summerfest grounds scurried for cover in response to an ear-deafening tornado siren located just a few yards from the Miller Stage. It was an omen that ended up characterizing the weekend.
  Record-breaking weather generated by three successive days of multiple storms battered southern Wisconsin June 6-8, caused widespread flash flooding, popped manhole covers throughout downtown Milwaukee, collapsed two buildings four blocks from the city’s gay district and stranded hundreds of motorists across the metro area. Governor Jim Doyle later declared disaster areas in 30 counties across the state.
  The PrideFest grounds certainly appeared to qualify: Only one of PrideFest’s three headline shows went off without a weather-related hitch: Wanda Sykes’ pre-coming out party June 6. Weather was also kind for the two hours it took 48-unit Milwaukee’s Gay Pride parade to march down the city’s gay district, in part to the beat of the event’s first ever marching band: the Pioneer Drum and Bugle Corps and Color Guard.
  July’s Pride Alive event in Green Bay was an all-together different story. Attendance at northeast Wisconsin’s revitalized pride celebration exceeded organizers’ expectations with between 2000 to 2500 taking part the day-long festival held at Joannes Park July 12.
    The crowd was very mixed both in age and sexual orientation. Many couples, both straight and gay, pushed strollers and stopped by the children’s area for face painting and other kids’ activities.
  “This is a very impressive,” guest speaker and former Chief Financial Officer for the Human Rights Campaign Harvey Hurdle told Quest. “So many of the pride events in larger cities focus on the partying nowadays. But what’s happening here in Green Bay today really demonstrates just how far we’ve come with all segments of the community coming together in celebration of both our diversity and our commonality.”
  Pride Alive was truly the most dramatic rise from the ashes in 2008. Only 50 people had attended the NEW pride picnic a year earlier. The picnic had been canceled all together in 2006 due to a snafu in obtaining the required licenses necessary to serve beer.
  One week later it was “Back To Basics” for the 2008 edition of Madison Pride. Alleged financial mismanagement by Madison Pride’s former treasurer discovered earlier in the year had left organizers with no funds to produce a more elaborate event. Hundreds rather than thousands showed up for the 19th Annual Rally and March at the Capitol. Sunny skies and a few protesters greeted slightly over 200 people at the rally.
  August events also were less well attended than in previous years. Central Wisconsin Pride had a country fair flair, though the 250 who attended was about half of the previous year’s turnout. Eau Claire’s Unity Picnic, LaCrosse’s “Live, Love, Be Proud Of Your Colors” pride event and Milwaukee Black Pride were scaled-back versions of previous years’ festivities. Only Twin Ports Pride in Duluth-Superior, the longest-running pride event in the Badger State, saw a modest expansion among Wisconsin’s established pride traditions.

5. Domestic Partnerships Gain Recognition Across Wisconsin.
Despite the 2006 passage of the Constitutional amendment that banned legal recognition of all unmarried couples’ relationships, domestic partnerships made a bit of a comeback in 2008 with three notable achievements: a statewide law, a benefit package for some of the employees of the state’s largest school district and a county-wide partnership registry.
  In April Wisconsin has joined 20 other states and shortly will offer a standardized, legally enforceable form that will allow a person to state their final wishes and name a personal representative to handle their execution. AB305 also known as the Final Rights Bill, was approved by  the State Senate January 15. Following concurrence, the bill was submitted March 4 to Governor Jim Doyle who approved it a day later. The bill became law March 18 with an effective enforcement date of April 1.
  The law directed the Wisconsin Dept. Of Health and Family Services (DHFS) to develop a document similar to the current health care power of attorney and living will documents. Individuals now are able to list their preferences for final disposition of their remains and name any individual with whom they have a personal relationship as the personal representative to carry out their wishes as feasible. Same sex and other unmarried couples became able to name their partners if they so choose.
  On September 24, An effort that began more than a year ago to give domestic partners of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) employees the same standing for fringe benefits as employees’ wives or husbands moved forward when the School Board’s finance committee voted 3-2 to support the measure. The MPS finance committee voted 4-1 subsequently voted in November to provide the benefits.
  The committee’s decision moved the resolution to be voted on by the MPS board of Education where it is expected to pass. MPS will then become the fifth district in Wisconsin to provide benefits for unmarried families. Districts already providing such benefits are Madison, Middleton, Sun Prairie and La Crosse.
  In December Dane County residents became able to officially register their domestic partnerships with the county. The domestic-partnership registry was approved when the Dane County Board passed an ordinance establishing the program last September. According to the ordinance, companies working for the county on contracts worth at least $5,000 must offer health benefits to their employees’ domestic partners, whether of they are same or opposite sex couples.

6. Fires Strike Two Notable Gay Landmarks.
The furies that unleashed the rainstorms in June and the financial storms in September chose to reign fire on two notable gay landmarks during July and August.
  A mid-afternoon fire severely damaged the home of former Wisconsin Light publisher Jerry Johnson July 12. According to Johnson, the blaze started in the master bedroom, traveled up the walls to the attic, and engulfed the roof of the turn-of-the-century brick edifice located on Milwaukee’s Brewer’s Hill.
  Johnson and his late partner Dr. Terry Boughner produced the Wisconsin Light at the house for most of its years of publication. They also had had retained multiple complete sets of the newspaper in all of its three configurations. Johnson and Boughner also had amassed an extensive collection of African art and LGBT-themed movie posters and other memorabilia. Fortunately none of the valuables were lost.
  A late afternoon fire caused serious damage to Stevens Point's gay Club Night Out on August 16. A passerby noticed the fire just before 5 PM and called emergency responders. The building was unoccupied at the time of the blaze.
  The greatest damage to the nearly century old wood-frame structure occurred in the second floor living quarters, where the fire appeared to have started. The main bar area also suffered smoke and water damage. Local authorities did not estimate the loss or damage to the building. Though a planned September polka benefit for the bar fell though, owners Dan Wrycha and Scott Sohn vowed to be back once all the insurance matters were settled and contractors could be hired.

7. Openly Lesbian Carolyn “Biddy” Martin Named UW-Madison Chancellor.
In September Carolyn “Biddy” Martin became the new chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the process making  the school the largest university with an openly gay leader in the United States.
  Prior to her new post Martin had been Provost and a professor of women’s and German studies at New York’s Cornell University since 2000. Martin also authored the influential 1995 book “Femininity Played Straight: The Significance of Being Lesbian,” in which Duke University reviewer Carolyn Dever believed Martin laid “a powerful claim to the complex significations of the feminine.”
  UW System spokesman David Giroux said Martin’s sexual orientation was not a factor in her appointment, which was confirmed by the Board of Regents in early June. “What she is, in our eyes, is an exceptionally qualified academic leader. Period,” Giroux said. “And she was brought here so she can apply that considerable experience to our flagship campus and move us forward in areas of education and research.”

8. SSBL Milwaukee Wins 2009 World Series Bid.
In the predawn hours of February 1 in a driving snow storm, members of Milwaukee’s Saturday Softball League (SSBL) Gay Softball World Series Bid Committee made their way to General Mitchell International Airport for an early flight to Seattle, Washington. Their itinerary: to attend the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association (NAGAAA) World Series Bid Conference. Their mission - to present SSBL’s bid and bring the 2009 Gay Softball World Series (GSWS) to Milwaukee - was successful. TheNAGAAAFest 2009 Gay Softball World Series will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 31 through September 5.
  The Cream City’s affordability, SSBL’s organizational experience, and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s support were all key in winning the hosting duties for the “Fun & Friends First”-themed event over the Milwaukee group’s major Midwest rival: the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association.

9. Vic Milford’s Murder Gets Walker’s Point Neighborhood Increased Police Attention.
The tragic January murder of 43 year-old gay Miller Brewing Company executive Lodewikus “Vic” Milford initially left the city’s Walker’s Point neighborhood unsettled. The killing, which occurred after two members of the Latin Kings street gang robbed Milford and three female coworkers of their wallets and purses, also had focused attention on what residents and business owners believed was a long-ignored pattern of increased property and personal crime that has been ignored by the city’s police department.
  The city responded with stepped-up patrols that saw overall crime in the area subsequently plummet. In July, calling the crime a “terroristic act,” Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Wagner sentenced 21 year old Miguel “Wicked” Ayala to life in prison without the chance of parole. Wagner also tacked on an additional 50 years in prison for the robberies Ayala had committed.

10. Passings: Club 5’s Ed Gruenwald, Showgirl Kitanah Kim, Ally Lee S. Dreyfus
Sudden deaths took the lives of two well known figures in the state’s LGBT community in 2008.
  Veteran gay activist and Club 5 founder Ed Gruenwald died following a brief battle pancreatic cancer. The 58 year-old Gruenwald succumbed April 21, less than three weeks after being diagnosed with the disease.
  Following the loss of the Washington Hotel complex, Gruenwald had opened Club 5 in 1998 on Madison’s southwest side. He previously had owned Manoeuvres, a smaller gay club in the former Wilson Hotel. He also owned one of the first gay pride stores in Madison, We Are Family, on the city’s east side.  Gruenwald was also a longtime sponsor of the Madison Gay Softball (now SSBL-Madison) and involved with the MAGIC Picnic and Madison Pride.
  On December 6, popular western Wisconsin female impersonator and pageant promoter Kitanah Kim died in a auto accident in Roseville, Minnesota. Miss Kim had just assumed sponsorship of the Mr. and Miss Chippewa Valley USofA preliminary pageants and was about to complete a degree in Psychology at UW-Stout at the time of death. Kitanah’s full obituary will be published in the online State News section of this issue.
  A heroic gay ally also passed away in 2008 just as the new year began. Former Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus, known for signing the nation's first statewide gay rights law, died at his Waukesha home January 2. He was 81.
  A fiscally conservative Republican who was a social moderate,  Dreyfus had suffered from heart and breathing problems, according to a family spokesman.
  In addition to signing the 1982 bill that added sexual orientation to age, gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion as protected classes against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation, Dreyfus worked actively with Fair Wisconsin in 2006 to defeat the constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions.

Quest’s Top 10 National Gay Stories Of 2008
1. Passage of California Proposition 8 Sets Off “Stonewall 2.0”
Anti-gay marriage ballot measures have been passing for most of the first decade of the 21st century, so when three more got voter approval last November 4, it first seemed like the same old story to pundits and even some leaders of the gay activist establishment. What happened next, however, wasn’t expected: a grassroots reaction that saw over 100,000 people protest in over 300 cities across the United States less than two weeks after the vote with a resultant surge in overall support for legalizing same sex unions nationwide.
  California's Proposition 8 was not just another exercise in anti-gay symbolism. Most other measures - including the two just passed in Arizona and Florida - have just confirmed constitutionally what was already illegal by legislative fiat. California’s measure, later found to be overwhelmingly supported by the economically and educationally disadvantaged, took away an already existing right for gay couples to wed. More significantly, it jeopardized the validity of 18,000 legal marriages performed between the state’s high court decision last May and election day.
  Massive protest demonstrations in California immediately following the vote coalesced into a coordinated international movement just days later, thanks to the social networking skills of Seattle lesbian blogger Amy Balliet. Within a week the “gay for pay” activist establishment was struggling to keep up and ally with the rapidly burgeoning Joint The Impact movement.
  The coordinated protests - including at least 7 in Wisconsin involving over 1,000 people - drew mainstream media attention to the gay marriage issue in a way not seen previously. Two weeks later a Newsweek survey showed that the unscripted personal stories and the ad hoc visibility angle of the low-budget November 15 protests had accomplished what millions of dollars and focus group-shaped professional media messages over many months had failed to do: move mainstream national opinion sharply in favor of legalizing same-sex unions.
  Though subsequent Join the Impact actions have been better promoted than attended - the gay food drive for faith-based food banks and “A Day Without A Gay” both fizzled - the ability of one person to both capture both the widespread interest and support of grassroots volunteers and coordinate a sophisticated, visible national response in just a matter of days using the Internet and fairly simple software has put activists on all sides of the gay marriage and other hot button issues on notice: there is a new force to be reckoned with, and is one that may be beyond any establishment control. What some are calling “Stonewall 2.0” and its coming aftershocks is the top national gay story of 2008.

2. Gay Marriage Moves Decisively Forward
Despite the seeming setbacks at the ballot box in three states last November, the gay marriage issue overall found a lot of traction in 2008. Supreme Court rulings in California and Connecticut eloquently stated the “equal protection under the law” case for civilly recognizing same sex unions. The fact that the coming Prop 8 lawsuits will land in front of the same mostly Republican-appointed California High Court that six months earlier invalidated the earlier Proposition 22 make the ore recent referendum’s future appear more dimmer than bright.
  Additionally, New York Governor David Patterson’s May 28 decision to accept out-of state gay marriages as valid in the Empire State followed the beginning of civil unions in New Hampshire last January and preceded a New Jersey commission’s December 10 recommendation that the Garden State scrap its current civil unions bill in favor of full civil marriage. At year’s end, Maine was gearing up for a full gay marriage battle in 2009.
  As 2008 comes to a close two states - Massachusetts and Connecticut - permit same sex marriages. Gay and lesbian civil unions are legally recognized in New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont, while Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, the District of Columbia and Maine have domestic-partnership laws granting gay couples varying degrees of spousal rights.

3. Only 2.9% of Americans Are Gay, According To the Nation’s Largest LGBT Civil Rights Group
In this down economy, is it also time to mark down all the Ten Percent Societies around the country? A poll sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign and conducted by Hunter College released its results last April and found that only 2.9% of Americans older than 18 identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual.
  The poll’s authors claimed the study provided the most comprehensive and truly representative picture of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual population to date because it was specifically designed for the that group. Transgender individuals were not included because, to date, their numbers are too few to provide a statistically accurate representation.
  The poll also found that gay people are both younger and more politically active than their straight counterparts. Issues of concern are divided by age with younger gay people seeking marriage and adoption rights while older gay Americans advocate for anti-discrimination and anti-violence laws.

4. CDC Admits: 40% More HIV/AIDS Cases Than Previously Reported
The number of Americans infected by the AIDS virus each year is much higher than the government has been estimating, U.S. health officials at the Centers For Disease Control admitted in a report issued last August. The United States actually had roughly 56,300 new HIV infections in 2006 – a dramatic increase from the 40,000 annual estimate used for the last dozen years. Also dramatic: the rapidly decreasing age of the newly-infected and the double-digit resurgence of HIV among gay men aged 25 and under.
  The CDC undercount was the most surprising of developments in the HIV/AIDS  field. Other eyebrow-raisers: the revelation that a German man may have been cured of HIV through a bone marrow stem cell transplant last July, a Swiss study released last February that suggested in certain cases seropositive couples whose viral loads were fully suppressed by AIDS medication might engage in condom-free sex, and the October recommendation by the CDC that so-called AIDS “cocktail” treatment should begin earlier in patients whose T-cell counts drop below 500, rather than the previously recommended 350. Studies suggest the new treatment recommendation could extend longevity in HIV+ patients seven-fold.

5. Execution-Style School Shooting Of Gay Teen Shocks Nation
The February 12 shooting of diminutive 15 year-old junior high school student Larry King by a fellow classmate in Oxnard, California sent shockwaves across the country similar to those that followed the murder of Matthew Shepard a decade earlier. Details of how 14 year-old Brandon McInerney coolly pulled out a handgun, shot King in the head, was briefly interrupted by his teacher before getting off a second round, then walking calmly out the door of the classroom after dropping the weapon swirled through news stories, opinion pieces and blogs, focusing attention on the ever-lessening age of coming out, now commonly happening almost concurrently with the heterosexual awakening of much of America’s pre-teens.
  King’s death from his wounds two days later sparks vigils and marches nationwide as well as diversity education legislagtion in King’s home state.
  McInerney was subsequently charged as an adult with premeditated murder and a hate crime. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges. On December 9 he was found competent to stand trial with a preliminary hearing set for January 2009.

6. One Gay Adoption Ban Voided, Another Passes
A Florida law that blocked gay people from adopting children was declared unconstitutional by a Miami judge November 25. Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman said the 31-year-old law violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents, rejecting the state’s arguments that there is “a supposed dark cloud hovering over homes of homosexuals and their children.”
  Lederman noted that gay people are allowed to be foster parents in Florida. “There is no rational basis to prohibit gay parents from adopting,” she wrote in a 53-page ruling. Florida had been the only state with an outright ban on gay adoption.
  Earlier in the month, however, Arkansas voters approved a measure similar to a law in Utah that bans any unmarried straight or gay couples from adopting or fostering children. Mississippi also bans gay couples, but not single gay men and women, from adopting.

7. Most Outrageous Anti-Gay Bigot of 2008: Sally Kern
Though many may vie for the coveted-honor of being the most outrageous anti-gay personage in any given year, sometimes a contestant comes completely out of left, er, right field. That certainly seems to be the case of Republican Oklahoma City state representative Sally Kern, whose YouTube performance last March mixed terrorism, pedophelia and societal decay into a tantalizingly brief sound bite.
  “Studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it’s the death knell of this country,” Kern said, apparently unaware that her remarks were being recorded. “I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam — which I think is a big threat, okay? Cause what’s happening now is they are going after, in schools, two-year olds...And this stuff is deadly, and it’s spreading, and it will destroy our young people, it will destroy this nation.”
  Kern stuck to her story, claiming that “I said nothing that was not true” and refused to apologize, triggering competing demonstrations for and against her at the state capitol.
  But the best twist was not Ellen DeGeneres’ on-air attempt to talk with Kern. It was the revelation by several classmates that her son was most likely gay.

8. Passings Of Note: Del Martin And Jesse Helms
One was a true hero of the gay civil rights movement. The other was - well - not.
  Just two months after achieving a life-long dream, the legal marriage to Phyllis Lyon -her partner of 55 years -lesbian rights pioneer Del Martin, whose trail blazing activism spanned more than a half century, died August 27 at a San Francisco hospice. She was 87 .
  Martin began her crusade for lesbian equality in 1955 by co-founding the a lesbian social-turned-political organization Daughters of Bilitis. The organization started a newsletter, called The Ladder, which grew into a magazine focused on lesbian politics and culture for nearly two decades prior to Stonewall.
  In 1972 Martin co-founded with Lyon the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, the first gay political club in the United States. Martin also helped spearhead a successful campaign to get the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its roster of mental illnesses in 1973.
  A month earlier as most in America celebrated their freedom July 4, one of the nation’s best known obstacles to full equality for African-Americans, women, gay folks and those struggling to live with HIV/AIDS breathed his last. Former North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms passed away  at a nursing home in Raliegh at age 86.
  Fondly remembered by America’s right wing as “Senator No” for his lifelong opposition to civil rights for just about any group you care to name during his six terms in the Senate, Helms was instrumental in slowing the U. S. response to AIDS in the mid-to-late 1980’s because some interventions might “promote homosexuality.” Though late in his career he actually advocated for increased funding for HIV after meeting and becoming friends with U2 singer Bono, Helms’ legacy is largely viewed negatively by most in the LGBT community.
  Unlike many of those HIV sufferers whose lives he likely shortened by his actions, Helms died peacefully of natural causes.

9. Reality TV Gets Just A Little Too Gay
America’s ongoing love affair with low-budget and supposedly unscripted “reality” television shows took a decidedly gay twist in 2008 with contestants tumbling out of the closet on some of the country’s most popular shows.
   In January, former U.S. Marine contestant Militia on the second season of NBC’s American Gladiators certainly looked familiar to a lot of gay viewers for some reason. Gay bloggers quickly pointed out the hunky Cuban-born Alex Castro - Militia’s real name - had once worked a Colt studios porn star under the name Elian Cortez.
  Last February on Big Brother 9: Till Death Do Us Part, supposedly straight contestant James Zinkland entered the house looking for his true love. That was until the Dirty Boy Video website proclaimed Zinkland was also their Mohawk-wearing, heavily tattooed gay porn star “Crazy James.”
  A month later the top-rated American Idol struggled with not one, but two gay surprises. First, 24 year-old David Hernandez was to reveal a talent other than singing. He once worked as a stripper at a Phoenix night club called Dick’s Cabaret, where he appeared fully nude and performed lap dances for the club’s “mostly male” clientele, according to club manager Gordy Bryan. Hernandez wasn’t disqualified but he also didn’t make the Final Eight which would have guaranteed him a spot on the reality show’s nationally touring show of Idol stars.
  American Idol’s pert Ramiele Malubay also was discovered to have a photo that showed her partying with friends.  The problem was that her breasts were being groped by some of her female friends. Two separate girlfriends each had their hands on her breasts in the blurry black and white shot. Malubay also had her mouth open in a faux shocked look. The Saudi Arabia-born sweetie also missed the Final Eight cut however.

10. Most Over-Exposed Supposedly Gay Celebrity: Lindsay Lohan
2008 continued the now long-in-the-tooth trend of alleged outings in the gossip media of various celebrities as gay. Last August Clay Aiken puffed up and shared he was a daddy - well, surrogate style that is - before dropping all pretenses, coming out and subsequently lusting after fellow Broadway dancer Reed Kelly of Wicked, even as Clay was tap dancing down the street in Spamalot. Not to be outdone, fellow fey songbird Ricky Martin showed of his twin bon bons, er, babies for People En Espanol in late November.
  But the hands down winner of most over-exposed allegedly gay celebrity of 2008 belongs to Lindsay Lohan and her year-long but now-shelved Sapphic relationship with club DJ Sam Ronson. After a few months of - peek-a-boo candids last Spring, Lindsay “came out” then stepped onto bisexual street, with her daddy denying the entire thing as merely a phase. However, shortly after a guest star stint on the trés gay Ugly Betty, Lohan dumped Sam and is now moving on to... well, who really cares? Perhaps a monestery in Tibet to enter treatment for Michael Jackson Syndrome?

Quest’s Top 5 Predictions For 2009
Before looking at our new predictions lets see how we did in 2008. Here were the five forecasts:
1. Milwaukee Will Elect Its First Openly-Gay Alder. It didn’t happen. Despite the odds, for at one point three gay candidates - Patrick Flaherty, Sura Faraj and Michael LaForest - were running, the stars did not align in the Cream City last April. Though it was exceptionally close: Flaherty lost by just 77 votes.
2. The Marriage Ban Ballot Lawsuit Will Falter. That it did. UW-Oshkosh professor William McConkey’s do-it-yourself lawsuit to overturn Wisconsin’s so-called “Marriage Protection” amendment briefly gained a bit of traction in late 2007 when Dane County Circuit Court Judge Richard Neiss ruled the “one question” argument deserved further study. However on May 30 Neiss ruled that the November 2006 civil unions and gay marriage ban referendum did not violate the single-subject rule of Article 12, Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution. McConkey later appealed Neiss’ ruling and at year’s end Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen had issued the state’s defense of the referendum question to the Appeals Court. Though it’s not over yet, the case is likely to share the fate of similar suits ultimately thrown out in Georgia and Kentucky.
3. The Wisconsin State Legislature Will Remain Houses Divided. Wrong. The Obama wave crashed through the Wisconsin Assembly washing six Republicans out of office, with a little help from Wisconsin’s gay civil rights organizations.
4. Democrats Retain Congressional Control. Oh yes, and then some, although the economic forecast we used to suggest a closer race was off. Instead, the economy slipped right past recession to what may be the point of depression and Republicans took the brunt of the blame. Gains in the House were more modest than in the Senate, where at year’s end it appeared the Democrats were just one vote shy of a supermajority.
5. President Obama. Not only did we pick the winner, we also had alluded that John McCain would be the most likely GOP nominee at a time when both the presidential races were wide open. If you have to nail it, nail it well!

Three out of five again! My psychic batting average continues to be far better than my dear departed prognosticating idol Jeanne Dixon’s less than 5% accuracy ratio. So, once again dabbing on a bit of her brilliant red lip polish, here are my predictions for 2009:

1. The UW System Will Finally Get Domestic Partner Benefits. Despite the increased cost in sour economy, benefits parity with the rest of the Big Ten and faculty retention are the arguments that will win - not to mention Democrat majorities in both houses of the Legislature to grease the process to get the package to the desk of on-record supportive Governor Doyle. My guess is that the benefits will be bundled in the biennial budget bill, something that is also likely to pass on time for the first time in memory. I also had made this prediction (then inaccurately) for 2007 but this time around my confidence is 90%.
2. The California Supreme Court Will Void Proposition 8. Speaking of reruns, this is also a variation of another failed 2007 forecast. This time, however, I believe that my promise of a pro-gay ruling that will likely set up a federal case on same-sex marriage will happen because literally 18,000 gay couples’ marital lives were directly impacted by the passing of Prop 8 last November. The Court will rule by the end of the year and in those couples’ favor, though the reasoning will be more technical this time - lack of legislative review on this basic civil rights issue. My confidence here is 80%.
3. For 2009, It’s The Economy, Stupid - Not Gay Civil Rights. President-elect Obama has already signaled as much to our community, by suggesting through his transition team that gay issues, like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for example, will not get reviewed until 2010. With economists and even Vice President-elect Biden whispering the “D-word,” Obama will have not choice but to focus on all things economic in his first year in the White House in 2009. Gay civil rights issues are going to get very short shrift. Look also to history - the Great Depression - to confirm that when basic life security issues like food, shelter and income are threatened, progress on less tangible issues like civil rights equality make little if no progress. Expect platitudes, not progress federally in 2009. My confidence here is 80%.
4. Obama Will Get To Nominate At Least Two Supreme Court Judges. The liberal wing of the nation’s high court has held on through eight years of social conservatism. They’re old and, in some cases, ill. At least two - most likely John Paul Stevens, who turns 89 in April, and cancer survivor Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who turns 75 a month earlier  - will seek to respectfully bow out at the end of the current court term next June. My confidence here is 70%.
5. Cold Economic Climate Causes Consolidation Or Collapse. The scramble is already on for increasingly scarce donor dollars for not-for-profit groups of all stripes, including those with rainbow colors. Gay groups with overlapping and redundant missions will either fight it out with the losers closing their doors, or find a way to combine their efforts for the greater gay good. Look for at least one organization shuttering and one merger nationally - possibly in Wisconsin as well - in 2009. My confidence here is 70%.
  That's Quest's psychic look into what may be a dark and cloudy 2009 overall if the wizards of Wall Street's predictions also come true. What's your take on 2008 and our prognostications for 2009. Join in the online discussion by clicking here at Quest On Facebook. (You must become friends with Quest News to add to the dialogue. If you're already a Facebook member its easy!)

State News:

Roseville, MN - Phimmanou Opboune, 29, was killed on Friday, December 6, as the result of a one-vehicle car crash here. Born July 4, 1979, in Thailand, Phimmanou was a dean’s list student at the University of Wisconsin-Stout majoring in Psychology with one semester until graduation.
  In the persona of Miss Kitanah Kim, he was a well-known and respected female impersonator throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota. Involved in the USofA pageant system, Kitanah had won several crowns and awards, including the Sage LaRue Miss Congeniality Award. She had most recently become the promoter for the Mr. and Miss Chippewa Valley preliminary pageants.
  In the wake of her death, many nightclubs and drag families statewide have hosted benefits and tribute shows to raise funds for her family to cover funeral expenses. On January 17, 2009 the Fillmore, 310 N. 4th Street in Wausau will host “Forever Kitanah,” a tribute and fundraising show in memory of this beloved performer.  Kelli Jo Klein will emcee with performances by notable drag queens from all over Wisconsin.  All performer’s tips and cover charges will go to Opboune’s family.

Roses In December Now Playing At The Boulevard
By Paul Masterson
The Boulevard Ensemble Studio Theatre continues its 2008-09 season with Victor L. Cahn’s two-person comedy, Roses in December.
  Cahn’s play is a study in communication. The young grad student Carolyn Mayers (Anne Miller) sends a snail mail reunion invitation, replete with formulaic frills, to the curmudgeon author and alumnus Joel Gordon (David Ferrie). The recipient remains mute until, after an incessant barrage of formal follow ups, his ire is ignited and he returns a rejection. From there, a correspondence ensues. The entertaining tit for tat exchange provides the foundation, and the eventual edifice, of a relationship between the correspondents.
  Artistic director Mark Bucher’s choice of Cahn’s successful 2007 Broadway production is yet another in the Boulevard Theater’s array of Milwaukee premieres and quirky studies of human nature.
  Bucher’s calculated direction adds staging to the play absent in its Broadway run. Rather than have the duet seated at desks on opposite sides of the stage, Bucher gives them movement and interaction, albeit distant, that allows a better sense of the complex personalities involved. He is assisted by Kevin Wleklinski and Holly Blomquist.
  The action adds dimension but Roses in December is about the power of language. The literary devices, wit and well chosen vocabulary defy and reject today’s technological trend to reduce communication to abbreviations. As a study of the lost art of letter writing, Cahn contrives his characters and the audience to explore the nuanced stages of a very personal relationship as it develops through the machination of a linguistic cat and mouse.
  Is it a love story? Bucher admits the presumption is a logical one. “After all, the play’s cast is a man and a woman. But it’s more than that and we come to know more than just two characters. There are some curve balls for a traditional love story. So, it’s a mystery, a comedy and a holiday tonic. It’s not sentimental or saccharine. It’s a natural progression through the barriers and openings language affords us. A perfect fit for this time of year and for any audience,” Bucher said.
  Both Anne Miller and David Ferrie are Boulevard veterans.  Appearing together for this two-person show, they find being on stage for the duration of the play a fulfilling challenge. “Concentration is a peak level and demands full focus.” Miller said. Ferrie agrees but added “never leaving the stage allows for momentum and sustaining the role. It’s sometimes more difficult to exit and enter and have to retrieve the character each time.”
  In light of the numerous closures of Milwaukee theater companies including Milwaukee Shakespeare, the Boulevard’s longevity (now in its 23rd season) is a testament to Mark Bucher’s resolute and persistent perseverance. He believes in his mission to give the community thoughtful and thought provoking performances and to train new actors.
  Roses in December opened Friday, December 26 and runs through January 18, 2009 at the Boulevard Ensemble Studio Theatre, 2252, South Kinnickkinnic, in Milwaukee’s Bay View. For ticket information call 414-744-5757 or visit the Boulevard Theater website www.boulevardtheatre.com.

Are You Queer Enough for Square Dancing?
Milwaukee -  The Cream City Squares, Milwaukee’s LGBT square dancing club, invites everyone to take their challenge: get out of the cold and into the warm world of LGBT square dancing beginning February 8. “This ain’t your parent’s’ dancing! It’s high-energy stylin’ and movin’ to music,” organizers told Quest.
 According to the group, there are no gender roles and a dance partner isn’t required. Women can “lead” and men can “follow” or vice versa.  Best of all, no “silly skirts” are required. Most women and men dance in jeans or slacks and a t-shirt. 
 For those whose interest may be piqued there will be a “taste of square dancing” party for newbies to LGBT square dancing on Sunday, February 8 at Lake Park Lutheran Church, beginning at 1 PM.  Absolutely no previous dance experience is required. Lake Park Lutheran Church is located just west of Sendik’s on Downer, 2647 N. Stowell St.  Free parking is available in a city lot just north of Sendik’s. Club dances at Lake Park Lutheran are smoke and alcohol-free.
   If you’re up to the “challenge,” organizers noted, lessons will begin the following week: Sunday, February 15, at the same time and location. Cream City Squares members will teach everything a new dancer needs to know,one step at a time. Cost is $3 per lesson. 
  After completing 11 lessons, dancers will be able to dance with other people throughout the world, including a few thousand LGBT folks in the US, Canada, and Japan. Fiver square dance groups operate in southern California for example. One the East coast there are the Boston Uncommons, while on the west coast Seattle’s Puddletown Squares dance every Monday night. For a complete list of LGBT clubs, go to: www.iagsdc.org.
  According to the Puddletown website, “Square dancing. . .  is a highly social activity, one of the few where gay men, lesbians, straight people, and all the other groups that are part of the gay and lesbian community all join hands (literally) to dance, and the first night of lessons is often the first time we see people who are about to become life long friends.”
  The Cream City Squares are now celebrating their 17th anniversary in Milwaukee. The invite all members and allies of the LGBT community to join them in dancing fun and friendship this February. For more information call Shari by phone at: 414-526-5055 or visit the club’s website at: www.iagsdc.org/creamcity

Big Trips: More Good Gay Travel Writing
Book Review and Interview by Tim Miller
All gay people imagine the “Big Trip” that may break open the doors, lead you to romance, find that perfect beach or perfect love. Is there something  about gay folks and travel that makes us always ready to “get out of Dodge”? When we think of the famous Twentieth Century queer travelers and adventures-Lawrence of Arabia, Sir Richard Burton, Amelia Earhart, Richard Halliburton- it almost seems as if there is something compelling gay people to push themselves beyond boundaries and look for love and ourselves. The extraordinary new anthology Big Trips: More  Good Gay Travel Writing edited by Raphael Kadushin builds on the earlier anthology Wonderlands and digs even deeper in to the psychic, emotional and sexual adventures of travel in a rich variety of stories and essays by such luminaries as Edmund White, Dale Peck,  Martin Sherman and many other remarkable literary voices. It all comes together in an anthology of dynamic writing about travel that makes us want to book our next flight, or at least gets us dreaming of other places, our own personal “Big Trips”. I spoke with editor and author Raphael Kadushin about gay lives and journeys.
 
Quest: There seem to be so many travel books coming out these days? What sets this apart from the pack?

Kadushin: Well I think three things. First I think it’s just the range of strong writers, really the best of both young gay voices and established gay writers. So you have everyone from Mack Friedman, Aaron Hamburger and Cliff Chase to people like Edmund White, who of course if one of our finest American writers, and Andrew Holleran and Dale Peck. And Martin Sherman who is probably best known for his play “Bent”. I always wish I’d had the chance to see the Broadway production of that play when Richard Gere starred in it. And these aren’t just great gay writers but great writers period, so they each have a distinctive voice that goes through you.
  The second thing that was fun for me, in editing the book, and that distinguishes it is the range of destinations the writers took on. I didn’t try for any geographical balance; I though I’d just see what came in when I asked people for pieces. But what came in was just naturally balanced and no writer wrote about the same place. So the anthology jumps all over the world, which if great for vicarious travel readers, since none of us can really afford to travel much right now. It skips from Corfu to Sicily, San Francisco, Egypt, Provincetown, Mexico, Vienna, Rome, Prague, Florida, the English countryside, London, Dordogne, Paris, Morocco, the Greek islands, and northern Spain. It’s like a grand tour on paper.
  And the third thing that makes the book worth reading I think is the depth of the pieces. These aren’t consumer travel pieces, which you can get in any magazine or website. You’re not going to find the ten best bistros in Paris kind of travel writing here, or the thread-count story or 18 hours in London. Each writer is really exploring the sensibility of the place they visit, so if you can’t travel now, or if you’re thinking about future trips, you get a sense of immersion in the place, what it really feels like to be in Prague or Cairo. And you get a real narrative story as well, so you can read the pieces in Big Trips as travel stories or as really short stories.

Quest: In fact some of them are short stories, in the sense that you are mixing fiction and nonfiction in this anthology. How do you justify that?

Kadushin: Well I think most travel writing is a form of fiction, in the sense that most travel writers are just seeing a fragment of a place and projecting their own fictions onto that place. You don’t really know Vienna or Paris or Marrakech in a week or two so you are always creating a story, even if you are pretending to be an objective journalist. You’re partly seeing what you want to see or what you are looking for. And in some ways fiction, because it doesn’t have to stick to any rules or conventions, can capture the emotional reality of a place better, and it can take on bigger themes. A lot of the pieces in the Big Trips, in the end, aren’t just about a single trip. They tackle universal issues too, like why we travel, what drives our wanderlust, what we are really looking for when we travel, and even how we define our sense of home.

Quest: And also issues like how and why we fall in love. I was surprised at how many pieces in the anthology are half travel story and half romance. Aaron Hamburger’story about his infatuation with Lucas, the perfect Czech porn star, and Duncan Fallowel’s subtle, erotic flirtation with a man in Sicily, and Michael Klein’s poetic story about his affair during a perfect Provincetown summer, are as much love stories as anything else. Were you consciously looking for that intersection, between travel and romance?

Kadushin: No but I think it’s sort of inevitable. I think the impulse that fuels our wanderlust, the hunger for new experience and sensation, is to some extent a sensual, erotic impulse and it’s the same thing, in a way, that drives our search for sex, and love, and a real personal connection. So I think it becomes a nature part of a lot of travel writing and probably half the stories in here have some elements of a love story. Edmund White’s piece is probably the truest love story because it’s a double-decker love story, about an American writer living in Paris who falls in love first with a French man and then with a young American, from Georgia, who is an expat like himself and who in some ways is more French than the French; White describes him as loving everything French, French manners, clothes, food. And together the two Americans go from Paris to Morocco where they become pure outsiders, exotics, together. So the romance and the travel become intertwined; the travel in some ways heightens the romance. The other thing about the way travel stories and love stories intersect has to do with the quality of the writing too. Travel writers have to be sensual writer if they’re good; they have to capture the smell of a place, the taste of it, the quality of the local beauty. And that talent for sensual, sensory description makes for good romances. White’s story ends with a wonderful, poetic description of his French lover’s ass and Fallowel describes his Sicilian crush, a man named Riccardo, as having the black curls and startled-looking arched eyebrows that you see on statues of ancient Greeks.

Quest: Your own story, which focuses partly on the narrator’s affair with a British man, is also a love story but a sad one.

Kadushin: It starts out as sort of a burlesque, as this series of almost comical accidents happen to this young American boy living in Londdon. He meets this very handsome slightly older British journalist who is being kept by a sugar daddy, and they go off on this tour of Yorkshire, past all these odd literary sites—Whitby, where Bram Stoker’s Dracular landed, and Beatrix Potter’s house, and Byron country. So it’s sort of a literary tour. But the story is really about in some ways the two different sides of travel. One side is that sense of euphoric adventure we have when we set off for a new place. But the other side is that sudden sense of vulnerability you feel when you are lost in the world, and the search for home that can result.

Quest: Do you feel that split personally? I know how much you travel yourself, as a journalist for a lot of the travel magazines, and I would think that gets exhausting.

Kadushin: Well you know it does; you probably travel as much as I do. But I feel it more and more and that sort of informed how I divided the pieces in Big Trips. There are two parts to the anthology. The first part is called Going Out and it focuses on the wonderful rush you get from traveling, so it has pieces like Michael Klein’s description of a golden summer in Provincetown and Phil Gambone’s excitement over being in Mozart’s Vienna. But the second part, called Coming Back, is about travelers who are really tired of traveling, who are looking for some sense of a home.And those are less romantic pieces but in some ways, for me, more moving. So you have a wonderful story by Andrew Holleran, about his visit to these gated retirement communities in Florida that he realizes could never be a home. And Mack Friedman’s elegiac story about a man traveling with the ashes of his cremated mother, back to Mexico, where they once vacationed. And then the first act of a relatively unknown play by Martin Sherman, that starred Vanessa Redgrave when it was produced in London. It’s the perfect ending to Big Trips because it’s a two-person play set on a Greek island and it becomes this almost debate between a young boy who is just starting his travels and an older woman named Mrs. Honey who is the spent, tired traveler looking to land anywhere, somewhere. She just wants to go home.
 
Tim Miller is an internationally acclaimed solo performer and the author of Body Blows and 1001 Beds. He can be reached at his website www.timmillerperformer