Badpuppy Gay Today |
Monday, 02 June 1997 |
A day in the life of an editor? There are no days.
Only stories. Ask about a story in the life of an editor, why
don't you? It makes more sense. You see, one story just runs
into another, and there are no days, there are just unnoticed
numbers--a brief nod to night, maybe-- marking necessary divisions
between stories. This editor swims from one story to the next,
adrift forever in an endless human sea, keeping free, if possible
of communicative undertows, being splashed continuously in the
face with wavy surprises little and big.
There are a few stories I want to rant about, and
to tell you too about a book blurb-plug I just wrote for the back
of a dust jacket. I don't know if the publisher will use everything
I said, but I meant every word--and so I'll print the entirety
of the blurb. Sometimes, even, blurbs don't get used. That's what's
nice about cyberspace. You can hang your blurbs there even if
nobody else wants 'em.
The book I was asked to blurb-plug--and I'm able
to do it with no feeling of trauma--is Jim Kepner's forthcoming
Harrington Park Press book, Rough News, Daring Views:
1950's Pioneer Gay Press Journalism. (A recent speech by
Jim Kepner can be found in the Viewpoints section in GayToday's
archives). Kepner's book is coming out in the latter part of this
year. After looking over its prepublication galleys, this was
my reaction:
When a baby--Jim Kepner--now a legend of American gay journalism--was
found wrapped in a newspaper under an oleander bush, thus wrapping
him also in a kind of Newspaperperson's Moses drag. Rough News,
Daring Views, puts this extraordinary man in his proper context
as that of a pioneering giant on whose shoulders much of what's
best in American gay news coverage and commentary rests. Kepner's
philosophical interests are always broad, his fairness sound,
and he is ever a tireless artist-reporter, overflowing with punchy
inquisitive daring, while his erudition erupts in wide-ranging
thought-provoking pieces.This great book, an historic treasure,
shockingly shows how far we've traveled since the social barbarism
of the 1950's and yet reportage today could be vastly improved
if lesbian and gay media giants were to study the attitudes reflected
in this gentle observer, Jim Kepner, thereby passing to the future
the best to be plucked from his feisty spirit.
Remember, Rough News, Daring Views
comes out in bookstores in late 1997.
A home-for-the- mentally-disabled-operator in Iowa,
perched among cornfields, has crowed he's fired six employees,
crowing, "Faggots, Dykes, Are Gone!" The operator's
name, not surprisingly, is actually Crow. Roger Crow. He's administers
St. Katherine's Living Center in Davenport, Iowa.
Iowa's state ombudsman for long term care, Carl McPherson,
filed formal complaints against Crow, who responded with regurgitationist
blither. He said, "When I first came here, there were probably
at least three, excuse my French, faggots working here, and I
had at least three dykes working here," Crow told The
Quad City Times.
"And when I first came here it was like, 'These
people are gone.'..this isn't the kind of atmosphere that I want
to project when a client or family member comes to my nurse's
station and sees a 45-year old faggot that has got better skin
than you and I, and is a man but presents himself more like a
woman. This is no way to perceive my operation."
The mental health facility administrator said clearly
that he does not "want anything to do" with gays because,
"they're not part of society as far as I'm concerned."
It seems unfair, (though Carl McPherson has complained,
and also, that St. Katherine's is funded largely by taxpayers)
that a responsible response from concerned Iowan legislators and
federal authorities has thus far failed to materialize. It appears
that Clark Kaufman in The Quad City Times, at least, is
undertaking some responsible reportage on the appearance of this
anti-gay Crow. Not Jim Crow, mind you, but Roger Crow.
It appears that from the cornfields of Alabama, discussed
in this week's reflections in Entertainment on the Birmingham
Blues, corny attitudes grow out of all the unimpressive things
popping up between corny representatives in Iowa.
The Iowa Civil Rights Commission has no jurisdiction,
it appears, because Iowa legislators have not chosen to bar discrimination
based on sexual orientation.
Do these people need a wake up call? Ding-a-lings.
Its late, they probably think they're awake already.
Perhaps, if Atlanta's still the city bomb-busy city
too busy to hate, there have been state bureaucrats there too
stupid to love. Yes, they live in Atlanta, though they represent
the boonies. When a lesbian who happily unveiled womanly wedding
plans and a whiff of the cake's icing got to her boss, Mike Bowers
who is the state's outgoing Attorney General, she was passed over
pronto. The courts have just supported Bowers' dismissal of her
without ruling on whether he'd committed a right or a wrong. What's
wrong with this Georgia picture? I'll tell you. Its simple. There's
nothing peachy about it.
Richard Socarides, the White House special assistant
who serves as Clinton's liaison to the Gay community says, "There
is just not a grain of truth to the notion that we struck a deal
(with Republican congresssmen) that will abandon these (AIDS)
programs as a priority." The balanced budget deal struck
by Clinton and the Republican-controlled congress, major AIDS
organizations are saying, omits most AIDS programs, including
the budget for the National Institutes for Health. People accuse
Clinton of moving self-servingly toward the center. Gore Vidal
put it more succinctly when reporters during Great Britain's election
cornered him to ask about the differences between British and
American politics. He replied, "America, I believe, has
one party with two right wings." Stay posted for more goop
on President Bill's imaginary battles with AIDS.
GET READY FOR 'EM. .Just when some gay men thought
we had it good because one had to be straight to be sued for sexual
harassment. hA hA hA Guess what our friendly president's doing?
He's singing about what's good for the goose is good for the
gander. He's told the Supreme Court that existing federal laws
bars same-gender harassment. Can you live with that?
Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown University is coming
under fire for hosting a conference held by the foremost extremists
among fundamentalists, the Family Research Council. Gary Bauer,
the Council's Biggest Sourpuss, passes out literature that says,
"Homosexuality is a tragic affliction, with harmful consequences
for both individuals and for society."
Gary Baur, in fact, is a tragic affliction even to
himself, as witness his on-stage personality. Georgetown denies
being in cahoots with this Bauer-bore, claiming that the university
meeting rooms are sanctioned by Marriott, and that the University
has no power. The answer, dear Georgetown, is blowing up your
wind-breaking apparatus. David M. Smith of the Human Rights Campaign
has provided it: "If this was a conference to promote racial
hatred or to undermine religious freedom, there is no question
Georgetown University would not allow such an event to take place
on their campus. This conference promotes anti-gay prejudice
and should be held to the same standard."
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