Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida

Video | Gay families invited to holiday pop-up book story time and demonstration

From the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale:

Holiday Pop-Up Book Story Time and Demonstration with Chuck Fischer!

Family fun for children of all ages at the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 2 pm!

Remember the beloved Holiday  pop up books of your childhood?

Remember how with each turn of the page a world of three-dimensional beauty would fill your eyes with warmth, color and delight?

Share that experience again with your children for FREE on Saturday, November 29, 2008 from 2 pm to 4 pm at the Museum of Art | Fort  Lauderdale with renown pop up book artist Chuck Fischer!

Fischer will be doing an inter-active story-telling, a book signing, and even teach you how to make your very own pop up Holiday gift tag!

Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale, One E. Las Olas Blvd. at Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301

For RSVPs: Emily Mccrater, 954- 670-2854 or emccrater@moafl.org

Here's a video of Fischer's Christmas in New York Pop-Up Book:

Chuck Fischer photo by Ethan Hill

AIDS quilt to be featured at World AIDS Day ceremony in Northeast Miami

Monday, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day. A portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display at the American Legion hall in Northeast Miami. Here are the details:

(Click to enlarge)

Works of art: Anatomically correct Ken dolls to be displayed at Macys Lincoln Road

A message from artist Alexander Guerra of plastiquehouse:

I'm playing on the idea of "what if Ken dolls/GI Joes were more humanized? What if they had a real human torso? What would they look like nude? What if you stripped these guys/dolls down and you didn't end up disappointed? What if you ended up with an anatomically correct, nipple correct, belly button correct, smooth to hairy figure? That's where "Plastique" comes in. My images answer those questions. Some in more of a Dark manner and some in a very POP style.

On Monday the 24th I will be displaying 7 of my images at Macys, in their 17th and Meridian window. The images you will see at Macys are not nude for obvious reasons. I ended up collaborating with "Papi Underwear" (sold at Macys) and they were gracious enough to supply me with their latest line of underwear, which I later shot models with and created my images around. If you go by the window you will see what the end result is. The window will be up from Monday the 24th through Art Basel weekend.

The image attached is one of the images in the window, wearing the red "Papi" underwear.

Poll: Should gays and lesbians date on e-Harmony or separate website?

e-Harmony got into hot water a few years ago after a gay man learned the dating service wouldn't hook him up with another man. Then came a bunch of discrimination lawsuits from other gay men and lesbians.

Now, e-Harmony is launching a new website aimed specifically at the gay market: Compatible Partners, which begins March 1.

What do you think? Should e-Harmony have simply allowed men to date men and women to date women, or set up a completely separate website?

Online Surveys & Market Research

Gay advocates upset at shelving of Chicago school

By KAREN HAWKINS, Associated Press

CHICAGO -- As far as Miguel Garcia is concerned, Chicago already has a gay high school. Jones College Prep, where the 16-year-old is a junior, has the city's largest Gay Straight Alliance, an organization of more than 100 students that he and other members say wields considerable influence at their downtown campus.

When he heard about the now-scuttled proposal to open a gay-friendly high school, Garcia said to his classmates, "Don't we already have that?"

But not every Chicago Public Schools student has access to an environment like Jones', and gay rights advocates say the city lags behind its peers nationwide in making sure campuses are safe for gay students.

Unlike its two larger counterparts - New York City and Los Angeles - the nation's third-largest district has yet to implement comprehensive programs and policies to support the needs of gay youth.

While Chicago Public Schools has included sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy since 1997, schools have been slow to update their handbooks to include those protections, and students still find themselves fighting to establish Gay Straight Alliances, said Shannon Sullivan, executive director of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance.

"There has been ... a lack of translation between central office to local schools," Sullivan said.

That contrasts with New York City, home to the country's first gay high school and a pioneering training program developed in partnership with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN.

Before a proposal to create Chicago's Social Justice High School: Pride Campus was refocused and eventually withdrawn this week, planners intended for it to become one of the country's only schools dedicated to gay students. The school's design team modeled it as a haven for gay youth who disproportionately face bullying and harassment, resulting in absentee rates more than seven times the national average, according to a 2007 GLSEN survey.

But days before the Chicago Board of Education was to vote on the proposal, the plan was retooled and renamed to focus on serving any bullied or harassed student. Officials have hinted that those changes - including the removal of key references to the gay community - went too far.

The design team members agreed to withdraw their proposal "in order to protect its integrity," said Bill Greaves, a team member and the city's liaison to the gay community. He said the team plans to reapproach the board next year.

"We don't know what the proposal will look like at this point, but we will make sure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students are not invisible," Greaves said.

The Pride Campus plan, with its college preparatory focus, hoped to duplicate the success of New York City's Harvey Milk school, which primarily serves gay youth.

Harvey Milk sends 60 percent of students to advanced programs or college and has a 95 percent graduation rate, both higher than the district's overall rates. It is run by the city's Department of Education.

New York also recently expanded its Respect for All initiative, a citywide training program for educators on how best to address bullying and harassment, with a focus on gay students.

"Harvey Milk High School is an incredible program that has reached students who would not otherwise graduate," said Eliza Bayard, executive director of GLSEN. "At the same time, the city has also recognized that there is a need to address these issues across the board."

The San Francisco Unified School District has adopted policies against name-calling, established gay-friendly student organizations at all middle and high schools and hired staff trained to provide health-related information to gay students and those questioning their sexual orientation.

Similarly, the Los Angeles Unified School District has Project 10, which GLSEN has identified as the country's first in-school program for gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender students. And dozens of students who identify themselves as GLBT enroll in Central High School/Tri-C, a dropout prevention program.

Bayard noted that other states and school districts, from Massachusetts to Minnesota, have programs to support gay students and said she hopes Chicago follows suit.

"I can guarantee you that it's started a dialogue," said Rufus Williams, president of the Chicago Board of Education. "What we should do is try to create tolerance in every single environment that we have so we have a culture of tolerance."

California Supreme Court to take up gay marriage ban

• California Supreme Court

By LISA LEFF
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's highest court agreed Wednesday to hear several legal challenges to the state's new ban on same-sex marriage but refused to allow gay couples to resume marrying before it rules.

The California Supreme Court accepted three lawsuits seeking to nullify Proposition 8, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that overruled the court's decision in May that legalized gay marriage.

All three cases claim the measure abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.

As is its custom when it takes up cases, the court did not elaborate on its decision.

Along with the gay rights groups and local governments petitioning to overturn the ban, the measure's sponsors and Attorney General Jerry Brown had urged the Supreme Court to consider whether Proposition 8 passes legal muster.

The court directed Brown and lawyers for the Yes on 8 campaign to submit their arguments for why the ballot initiative should not be nullified by Dec. 19. It said lawyers for the plaintiffs, who include same-sex couples who did not wed before the election, must respond before Jan. 5. Oral arguments could be scheduled as early as March, according to court spokeswoman Lynn Holton.

Both opponents and supporters of Proposition 8 expressed confidence Wednesday that their arguments would prevail.

But they also agreed that the cases present the court's seven justices -- six of whom voted to review the challenges -- with complex questions that have few precedents in state case law.

Video | HRC observes National Transgender Day of Remembrance

From Human Rights Campaign:

SAVE to present 'Uniting for Equality' Sunday at Unity on the Bay

SAVE, Miami-Dade's leading gay-rights group, sent this message to supporters:

Your support this past Saturday showed the nation you do not stand for government sanctioned discrimination. Now channel that energy into grassroots action that will get the political change you need. Strengthen your purpose and join us as we find out what can be done next. SAVE looks to creating a citizen-centered approach to creating the systemic change necessary for marriage equality and civil rights for all people.

Speakers will include Rabbi Jody Cohen of Temple Israel of Greater Miami.

(Click photo to enlarge)

Gay comedy about Anita Bryant suddenly gets new relevance

Previous coverage and videos:

• Gay rights debate rages on 30 years after Miami-Dade challenge
• Bob Green: Anita's ex paid dearly in the fight
• Vintage Anita Bryant videos

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Playwright Michael Yawney spent the last three years crafting a comedy about Anita Bryant's 1977 campaign to repeal Miami-Dade County's first gay-rights ordinance. Yawney never expected that on the eve of its world premiere Thursday in Miami, 1,000 Homosexuals would be so relevant.

Earlier this month, voters in Florida, California and Arizona supported statewide gay-marriage bans with nearly the same fervor as Bryant and other Miami-Dade residents three decades ago.

''I thought we were beyond the era in which people would be fighting against gay families,'' Yawney said. ``We have advanced, but I wish we had advanced further.''

Yawney, 46, who also teaches theater at Florida International University, was raised in the steel town Bethlehem, Penn.

''I was in my teens when [Bryant] was leading her campaign. It was very frightening,'' he said. ``I grew up in the '70s and you always thought there'd be less bigotry and more personal freedom.''

To Yawney, who is gay, ''it seemed impossible'' back then that Florida orange juice spokeswoman Bryant could successfully convince 70 percent of Miami-Dade voters to repeal the gay-rights law.

''You only thought the clock was going to move forward,'' he said. ``Her success was a shock.''

Yawney's fascination with Bryant led to him writing a 1988 farce based -- very loosely -- on her life. ''We made her the mother of Burt Reynolds,'' he said. ``It was silly.''

He read Bryant's autobiography and other writings. ``If you took her seriously, she was more interesting than if you made fun. And she may have been one of the last people to lead a major movement against gay rights who thought she was doing the right thing.''

Yawney relocated to Boynton Beach in 2000 and four years later moved to Miami. In 2005, what is now the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts commissioned him to write his proposed play about Bryant.

''This project is costing close to $70,000,'' said artistic director Octavio Campos, 40, whose Miami company Camposition is producing the play and raising money to present it.

Large contributors include The Arsht Center, which is donating theater space and labor worth $20,000; Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs, which gave about $15,000; and Dade Community Foundation, which gave a $10,000 grant.

Ruth Shack, the foundation's president, also happened to play a key role in the '77 gay-rights campaign. Then a newly elected county commissioner, Shack sponsored the ordinance that outraged Bryant.

1,000 Homosexuals will have five performances this week at the Arsht Center. Miami Beach Arts Council contributed $10,000 for three more performances during Winter Party Festival Feb. 26-28 at the Byron Carlyle Theater on 71st Street.

Campos said he was ''really driven'' to make Yawney's play happen. The two met five years ago when they both taught at the New World School of the Arts in Miami.

``For me, Michael Yawney, I call him my secret weapon. A piece of artwork like 1,000 Homosexuals is hitting different chords in people, not just financial.''

1,000 Homosexuals gets its title from a book by Freudian psychoanalyst Dr. Edmund Bergler, who died in 1962 -- the year Yawney was born.

''It's sort of a socio-political extravaganza,'' Yawney said of 1,000 Homosexuals. ``It's a comedy with music. There are dance numbers.''

Yawney said he carefully researched the play to make sure it's historically accurate. ''Most of my initial work was drawn from newspapers, transcripts of county commission meetings,'' he said. ``Most of the people I spoke with, who really influenced this piece, were the foot soldiers: members of Anita's church and older gay men.''

1,000 Homosexuals is directed by Sheldon Deckelbaum. Seven actors ''play way too many parts'' in the show, Yawney said.

Miami actress Merry Jo Cortada, who recently portrayed the ghost of Ethel Merman in Rising Action Theatre's production of The 11 O'Clock Number, stars as Bryant.

''Now I'm playing another gay icon,'' Cortada said during a rehearsal. ``All I need to do is play Marilyn and Bette and we're all set!''

Though camp at times, Cortada mostly plays Bryant straight, so to speak.

''I just need to present her as fairly and accurately as possible,'' Yawney said. ``By being as fair and accurate as possible in my presentation of her, the audience can make its own judgments.''

Bryant won the '77 gay-rights battle at great cost: She lost both her popular-singing career (Paper Roses, My Little Corner of the World) and her marriage to one-time Miami disc jockey Bob Green.

At age 68, Bryant is remarried and lives in Oklahoma. She has endured a series of bankruptcies and performs occasional gospel concerts.

It's very easy for people to demonize Bryant, perhaps a bit unfairly, Yawney said.

''Today we can easily draw up sides. Back then, the sides were much less clear,'' he said. ``It doesn't help anyone to view her as a villain. I tried to create a perfect world in which her views made sense. She really is a heroine, perhaps a misguided one.''

Photos by Dale Stine

Photo 1: Geraldine, Merry Jo Cortada as Anita Bryant and FernandD Cute.

Photo 2: Kristoff Skalet, Geraldine, Ralph de la Portilla and FernanD Cute surround Merry Jo Cortada.

IF YOU GO

What: 1,000 Homosexuals, a new play by Michael Yawney about Anita Bryant's 1977 anti-gay-rights crusade

Where: Carnival Studio Theater, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

When: 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $35. For general admission tickets, call 305-949-6722. Miami Beach Pride Festival is sponsoring an opening night reception. VIP tickets including the show and party with cast and crew are $100 each. Call Cindy Brown at 786-210-0613.

Info: www.1000homosexuals.com or www.arshtcenter.org.

College group seeks gay young-adult leaders for national award

From CampusPride.org, "a national nonprofit for student leaders and campus groups working to create a safer college environment for LGBT students. The organization is a volunteer-driven network "for" and "by" student leaders. The primary objective of Campus Pride is to develop necessary resources, programs and services to support LGBT and ally students on college campuses across the United States."

Campus Pride Launches National Voice & Action Award
to Recognize Young Adult Leaders across the United States

Application process open until December 1, 2008

APPLY NOW: www.campuspride.org/voiceandaction

Campus Pride (www.campuspride.org) launches the Voice & Action National Leadership Award, an honorary recognition highlighting the extraordinary contributions of young adult leaders at colleges and universities across the United States. Never has there been a national award focused solely on the work of undergraduate college students who are creating positive change for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and ally issues. The application process is open until December 1, 2008.

“To be a leader in our movement, you do not need to be in charge of a national nonprofit organization or be on a board of directors raising thousands of dollars. Young adults have always been a force locally in communities and on college campuses creating systemic, long term change -- but seldom are they recognized for their efforts nationally,” said Shane Windmeyer, Executive Director of Campus Pride. “The Voice & Action Award finally gives visible national recognition where it has long been overdue.”

According to Windmeyer, the Voice & Action National Leadership Award is meant to underscore the mission of Campus Pride – “to develop, support and give voice and action in building future LGBT and ally leaders.” The award is bestowed upon individuals who use their “voice” to speak up and who take “action” to make a positive difference. Every academic year in the Spring, Campus Pride plans to honor at least one outstanding young adult in each region of the country with the Voice & Action National Leadership Award. Recipients will be recognized during one of the three regional LGBT and ally college conferences – the Midwest, the NorthEast and the West Coast.

The Campus Pride national recognition includes a free registration to attend the regional conference and the Voice & Action Award itself. The award program is made possible this year through the Campus Pride corporate partner Cargill. As a special bonus to the honorary recognition, OUTmedia (www.outmedia.org) has also partnered with Campus Pride to offer a free artist or speaker of the recipient’s choice to bring to his/her campus the following year. Artists and speakers include LZ Granderson, Team Gina, Vidur Kapur, Jason Stuart, Marga Gomez, Ari Gold, Eddie Sarfaty and Emanuel Xavier. OUTmedia is nationally known for its work in the arts as a queer cultural activist organization and social enterprise promoting LGBT and ally visibility.

"OUTmedia is proud to support Campus Pride and to have our diverse roster of speakers and artists pay tribute to young adult leaders in this special way. Our artists and speakers believe in promoting inclusion and multiculturalism – recognizing all aspects of our community,” said Shelly Weiss, founder/owner of OUTmedia.

For more details and to download the application, please go online to www.campuspride.org/voiceandaction, email info@campuspride.org or contact Campus Pride staff at 704-277-6710. Any current undergraduate student enrolled at an U.S. accredited institution and in good academic standing is eligible to apply for the award. A completed application must be received on/before deadline of December 1, 2008. Recipients will be chosen by a selection committee comprised of student leaders and a diversity of national representatives on LGBT issues. Notification of award recipients will happen by January 12, 2009.

Believe In -- Campus Pride. Campus Pride is the leading national nonprofit organization 501(c)(3) for student leaders and campus organizations working to create safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities. It exists to give "voice and action" in building future LGBT and ally leaders. More info online at www.campuspride.org.

Rate of anti-gay employment discrimination similar to race and gender rates, study shows

News release:

LOS ANGELES ­ Today the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law reported that laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace are used as frequently by LGBT workers as laws prohibiting sex and race discrimination are used by women and people of color. Currently, twenty states and the District of Columbia prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; thirteen of those states also prohibit gender identity discrimination.

Analyzing employment discrimination complaints filed with state agencies in states prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination, the study finds 5 out of 10,000 LGBT people in the workforce file sexual orientation employment discrimination complaints each year, compared to sex discrimination complaints filed by 5 out of 10,000 women in the workforce and race discrimination complaints filed by 7 out of 10,000 people of color in the workforce.

³Our analysis directly questions the popular argument that sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws are unnecessary² noted study co-author M.V. Lee Badgett, research director at the Williams Institute, ³they are needed and utilized by the LGBT workforce.²

The report also addresses any worry that expanding employment discrimination to LGBT people would overwhelm state and federal agencies. Given the size of the LGB population and the filing rates of LGB people, any increase in complaint intake would be negligible.

Christopher Ramos, a researcher who also worked on the study, pointed out that in eight states sexual orientation claims surpass sex claims; the same is true for three states when compared to race claims. ³Clearly, LGBT employees are not only facing a certain level of discrimination, but also, taking advantage of protective state policies.²

In 2007, a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act made a historic passage through the U.S. House of Representatives, which would have established sexual orientation as a federally protected class.

Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute, noted that over

3.1 million LGBT adults live in states that do not provide this protection from discrimination in the workplace. ³As the debate surrounding the necessity of LGBT workplace protections begins again in Congress we must keep in mind the fragile economic position of these LGBT employees and their families.²

The full report is available at http://www.law.ucla.edu/WilliamsInstitute/home.html