Clamour Underbridge

Novotny? You're not from around here, are you?

Actually.  He is.  It comes as a shock to no one but me that actor Hal Sparks, Queer as Folk's Michael Novotny, is from Franklin County.  You know, Frankfort--the place with great big marble government buildings and unbridled homophobia with a dash of the establishment of religion for one and all.  That's the one.  Straight boy from small town Kentucky plays gay boy on TV for five seasons and is really good at it.  Film at eleven. 

Well, actually not.  You'll need to rent Queer as Folk from Wild and Wooly if you don't own it already.  It's probably in reruns on Logo, Insight Channel 127, I think.  I don't have cable.  You'll have to look it up.  And you should.  You should watch Queer as Folk even though it's in reruns and all the actors have moved on to other projects and this is not a paid commercial endorsement. 

You should watch it because it's very, very gay.  Love it or hate it.  Despise the characters or decide they're just like the girls, or guys, you know at the bar or the gym or sitting next to you on the couch.  Wonder what it would be like to have a mom like Debbie Novotny or Jennifer Taylor.  Would you really want to date Brian?  Seriously?  How about Ben?  Queer as Folk gives you something to think about and there's eye candy.  Oh yes indeed there is eye candy.  It's a guy-centric show so you gals need to brace yourself for that.  I have to admit I haven't kept up with L Word so I get there are different dynamics at work.  All the boys are pretty; they spend a lot of time at the bar and the gym.  Money doesn't seem to be a problem for any of them and the mythical land of Liberty Avenue is lined with gay friendly and gay owned businesses and surrounded by a gay ghetto where you can swish down the sidewalk holding hands and know you're surrounded by other community minded folks.  That would be the queer community not the "live by our rules or go to hell" community that one keeps finding oneself unfortunately mired in here in Kentucky.  Queer as Folk is not exactly set in the real world. 

So you only watch things set in “the real world?”  Right. You might want to go back to your knitting.  Anyway, before Queer as Folk what exactly did we have?  Will and Grace?  Yeah.  OK, except that I get around more than Will and I'm a big fat queen with smart mouth and short attention span.  Big Gay Al from Southpark?  Tara and Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer?  Willow started out with Oz.  Remember?  Here’s a little history lesson.  Queer as Folk hit the airwaves in the US in 2000.  The good citizens of Kentucky wrote gay marriage out of our constitution in 2004.  Voters in California wrote gay marriage out of their constitution in 2009.  Do you seriously think the real world is ready for us and we don't need a place like Liberty Avenue to at least think about? 

And that reminds me.  Queer as Folk had a life before it debuted on Showtime.  It’s actually a remake.  Queer as Folk was originally created for the BBC and started out there with a two series (as in seasons) run.  Their Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh was Canal Street, Manchester.  The names and some of the characters changed when they came across the Atlantic to the US but you can probably recognize everyone and the story if you set down and watch it.  The up-tight and prim were shocked by Queer as Folk UK.  I guess it was OK for Mr. Humphries to mince across the screen in Are You Being Served?  but Stuart and Nathan (their Brian and Justin) lock lips and the howls of outrage drowned out the chimes of Big Ben.  You can thank Russell Davies for all of this hoopla.  Mr. Davies went on to re-invent Dr. Who after creating Queer as Folk.  He also created Bob and Rose (a bisexual couple?  It's difficult to say), and, one of my favorites, Torchwood.  Does it matter that Russell Davies is openly gay and has a partner?  You bet.  The lead actor in Torchwood, John Barrowman, is also openly gay and had a civil union with his spouse in December 2006.  It's illegal in Kentucky but we wish him well anyway.  Barrowman's character, Captain Jack Harkness, is openly bisexual.  It's complicated.  You'll have to watch.

Hal Sparks was in Louisville in February of 2009.  He was the Valentine's Day headliner at the Improv Comedy Club in Fourth Street Live.  I missed it.  The good folks over at LEO, however, caught up with Hal and asked him how he was doing and what was going on in his life.  He's in a band.  He was going to skip out and visit his mom and sister while he was in town.  He doesn't play Louisville very much but has been in Lexington quite a bit.  I did some checking around to see what the other QAF alumni are up to.  Gale Harold (Brian) is in Desperate Housewives now.  Randy Harrison (Justin) and Scott Lowell (Ted) are doing theater.  Peter Paige (Emmett) is directing.  Life goes on.  I was surprised to discover that Russell Davies left the BBC in April 2009 and moved to Hollywood.  Who knows what he's cooking up.  I'll get back to you on that.

The Letter August 2009

The Letter August 2009

The Letter July 2009

The Letter July 2009

Photos from 2009 Louisville Gay Pride Parade and Festival

Must we talk about shame?

For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any.
William Shakespeare.  Sonnet X

Must we talk about shame during Pride?  Pride, Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer-Questioning-Allied-or Other, is all about knowing who we are, what we want and taking stock of our accomplishments (or lack there of) along the way.  Shame, however, is what some groups want to serve up anytime gay people get mentioned.  While most of us are having Pride month those wonderful people in the “nobody’s actually gay” or the “normal people aren’t gay”  or the “I’m a used-to-be homosexual and you can be one too”  movement are dishing out the shame and the guilt.  There are all kind of places you can go around Louisville or on the web to get a walloping dose.  I advise you to leave these folks alone, let them get on with their angst-ridden lives and be sure to point them out as the damaging, psycho-babble charlatans they actually are. 

Let’s start with Southeast Christian Church.  If you go to their website and search for homosexuality you will find their relationships/care ministries.  You see, at Southeast Christian Church, homosexuality is a disease.  You “recover” from homosexuality.  You’ll find, on their website, a quote from Bob Davies and his book When a Loved One Says, “I’m Gay.”   Since Bob Davies’ work is published by Focus on the Family you know it’s going to ignore most, if not all, of science, medicine and modern thought.  There’s a Women’s Group that “helps” you overcome “unwanted same-sex attraction and relationships.”  Change is Possible! Give me a break.  Southeast provides “helpful” links to dubious and oft-debunked “agents of change” such as Exodus International, Troubledwith (A Focus on the Family site), NARTH (National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality), New Direction Ministries of Canada (that link is broken BTW), Regen Books (another broken link and actually Exodus Books), Desert Stream, and Exodus Youth.  One and all a cock-and-bull (irony much?) collection of psychologically damaging and professionally disparaged gaggle of life destroying drek that does a great deal of harm and absolutely no good.  Southeast Christian and their recovery programs are all about the shame.  Get it while it’s hot and steaming. 

Then there’s Sojourner Church.  Their website is a little less blatant in the shame and guilt, ex-gay BS but still cleaving to the some tired old ox trail.  Sojourner’s Women’s Ministry is very well connected to the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) brought to you by the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Since CBMW is all about opposing feminist egalitarianism and other “errors” of modern thought you can bet they buy into the whole “ex-gay,”  “homosexuality is a disease,”  “there is only one sexual orientation” pack of untruths.  CBMW exists to stamp out “confusion” in the church (you know, the one holy absolutely not Catholic and by no means apostolic one) and bring an end to “acceptance of homosexuality,”  the “secular homosexual” influence on theology as well as “confusion…regarding maleness and femaleness.”  Oh yeah.  They’ve got the guilt and shame train coming in right on time.

The “desperately seeking rigid and coercive gender roles” crowd will do you wrong every time.  Trust me I’ve been there.  Don’t fall for it.  If you want to make a change then chose to be Proud.  You have only your shame to loose.

The Letter Pride Edition

The Letter Pride Edition has been published.  It's a web only issue so there is no pdf to download.  Hopefully The Letter will be moving to a twice-a-month print edition this Autumn.  Stay tuned for further information. 

Want to march in this year's Pride Parade?

It's time for the annual Louisville Pride Parade.  Progressive Pathways Fellowship (PPF) will be marching in the parade and you are invited to join us. 

Date:             Friday, June 19, 2009
Time:             Please arrive no earlier than 7 p.m.  The parade begins at 8 p.m. 
Where:          Tryangle's rear parking lot.  209 S Preston St Louisville, KY. 
Route:           We will be marching from Tryangle's to the Belvedere.  It should take about 45 minutes. 
Things needed:  
     Marchers--you, your family, friends and other supportive folks that want to be in the parade.  Costumes are optional. 
     Transportation--In the past we have ridden (or walked) with a small pick-up that we decorate with the PPF banner and whatever else strikes us as festive.  We would be happy to add your pick-up truck (full size or whatever) or your convertible or any other motor vehicle that lets us wave to the crowd and that can be decorated.
      Treats for the Crowd--if you have things we could distribute to the crowd (candy, toys, stuffed animals, etc.)  That would be very helpful.  It's a lot farther from the middle of the street to the side walk than you think when we throw stuff to the crowd. 

What else:       Wear a hat and sunscreen.  Bring water.

After the Parade:  There is a free festival on the Belvedere after the parade.   

Questions:  Send me an email (fatherjimppf@gmail.com). 

Here are a few pictures from last year's parade. 

The Letter June 2009

Letter June 2009 -

Reflections on California's Proposition 8

I've been reading about Prop 8 and I'm not sure what I think. 

How does this effect Kentucky?  Not at all.  Kentucky has one of the most bigoted and regressive marriage laws in the nation.  In 2004 Kentucky voters decided to reserve marriage and any other "legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage" to heterosexual couples.  California still has domestic partnerships that are substantially equivalent to marriage.

Can the California Supreme Court's decision be appealed?  Yes and no.  It cannot be appealed under the constitution of the state of California.  It can be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

What about the same-sex couples that are already married in California?  They're still married.  The California Supreme Court ruled that the ban approved by voters was not retroactive and marriages performed before the proposition was approved by voters are valid. 

Are same sex couples that got married in California or get married in Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Iowa or Vermont still married if they move to Kentucky?  No.  They are not.  Even though the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution of the United States clearly states "acts, records and judicial proceedings or copies thereof, so authenticated, shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the US" the US Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 to specifically exempt states from their responsibility to recognize marriages performed in other states if the persons getting married are of the same sex.  States are still required to accept marriages of opposite sex couples of different races or religions even though many states have laws that specifically make those types of marriages illegal.  DOMA is unconstitutional on its face but has never been appealed to the Supreme Court.  President Obama has also decided to renege on his campaign promise to ask Congress to repeal DOMA.

Does this mean that all civil rights are subject to popular vote?  No.  Other unpopular minorities in the United States are protected by the due process clause of the United States Constitution.  Due Process has, however, been attacked by Justices Scalia and Thomas.  The possibility exists that as public opinion waxes and wanes on the acceptability and unacceptability of identifiable groups that they could also lose their civil rights in a popular vote without recourse to the courts.  One wonders how, for example, separate but equal and other odious ways of enacting racial segregation would have been overturned without due process protection since segregation was a popular practice and received overwhelming majority votes in its time.

NOM just can't take the heat and it scares them

My sainted mother always said, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."  And then she'd throw something at me because, well, you have to do things to get my attention and my mom was a woman accustomed to being heeded.  Meanwhile, back at my point if groups like the Camp Meeting Association (Ocean Grove, New Jersey) and the North Coast Women's Care Medical Group (San Diego, California) want to offer a public service and take public payment then they are required to abide by the non-discrimination laws and everyone's right to access a public accommodation. 

But then that wouldn't be news worthy and juicy, would it?  So now you have you to go see the "Gathering Storm" commercial from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to really get a flavor of the issue.  Browse to your favorite search engine and check it out.  I'll wait.  OK.  Isn't it creepy?  Yeah, I thought so too.  It's also a pack of lies but, hey, NOM must protect, uh, something, doctors and children and churches or something.  Wait, oh yeah, straight-people-only marriage. 

The things that scares NOM is that gay Americans (and lesbians and bisexuals and transgender folk and queer Americans and all those other Americans) get to be citizens of the US even though NOM really, really doesn't approve.  See how we're right back to the kitchen thing.  NOM  has deluded itself into thinking it owns the kitchen.  NOM only wants the right people to have rights. And by "right" people they mean Christians and not just any Christian but just those with the right kinds of beliefs and practices.  Usually that included "practicing" on other people.  Fortunately, it just doesn't work that way.  We're all in the kitchen together and if NOM can't stand the heat then they need to go back to their churches (or whatever) and hate freely and without hindrance.  Westboro Baptist does it all the time.  There's a role model for you.  We'll all free to believe as we please but out in the harsh glare of the public domain all Americans get to be citizens whether NOM likes it or not. 

Here's how it works.  If you're a non-profit organization and you rent out your pavilion on the Jersey shore for dog shows, concerts and graduation parties then you have to rent it out to lesbians that want to have a commitment ceremony too.  Did you notice a church being punished?  No, neither did I.  NOM is lying to you.  Then there's the "punished" doctor.  If you're the Women's Care Medical Group and you treat women, left, right and center then you don't get to say, "oops, sorry, we don't treat lesbians."  It doesn't work that way and we're all pretty happy about that.  And then we have that Massachusetts parent that fears her son will learn that gay marriage is OK.  Well, guess what?  Gay marriage is OK in Massachusetts as is interfaith marriage, interracial marriage and civil marriage.  Civil marriage is a civil issue and your faith doesn't get to dictate which civil rights other people get.