Newspaper Page Text
March 1,1990 •Southern Voice /15
After the Ball
Cont'd from page 1
rights movement in the 1960's. Yet Kirk and
Madsen in After the Ball would agree with the
"more respectable" of Atlanta's gay leaders
(MACGLO Former Executive Secretary
Jeffrey Laymon and lobbyist Chris Hagin to
name two) who denounced the ACT UP
demonstration and refused to participate in it.
Kirk and Madsen would look at the image the
demonstration projected—radical, aggressive,
actively pushing sodomy in the faces of
Georgia legislators—and say that it did noth
ing but alienate and embarrass potential allies.
Well, if not allies, at least the people who will
decide on this issue.
Can we achieve societal sympathy for
our cause by simulating sodomy on the steps
of the State Capitol?
Kirk and Madsen would replace this type
of activism with a media campaign aimed at
persuadable pockets of straight America.
Banish the images of leathermen and drag
queens and NAMBLA representatives and
dykes on bikes; offer instead inoffensive pre
sentations of middle class gays buoyed by ads
attacking gay bashers: Hitler, the Klan, etc.
Their eight-point pro-gay strategy includes
items like: "Keep talking; desensitize, don't
shock;" "Make gays look good;" "Make vic-
timizers look bad;" "Appeal to ambivalent
skeptics."
Would it work if tried? Who knows. Kirk
and Madsen hope someone will ante up the
bucks to try it in magazines and on television.
But if straight prejudice is really as strong as
is documented in the First half of their book,
an ad showing the shamefulness of gay bash
ing seems all too likely to fall on deaf ears.
It's too bad After the Ball isn't a better
book. Written with a smug; self-congratulato
ry style, it aggressively alienates the very peo
ple who until recently have not only been the
strongest, but also the only supporters of les
bian/gay rights willing to stand up and be
counted. The authors' propose moving
activism into the realm of the gay middle
class—a group recently made more militant
by AIDS but who would never be caught
dead with the rabble present at a gay rights or
Grammys
Cont'd from page 5
Who cares if the Grammys don't tend to
recognize excellence outside the mainstream.
That annoyance vanishes in a puff when we
got to see artists who have worked so long
and hard for so little acclaim act like real live
human beings when they accepted their
awards. Bonnie Raitt's honest humility and
gratitude when she said"...having to wait
until I could truly appreciate winning...”
makes all those hours spent watching this
annual orgy of glitz, glamour and shallow
ness absolutely worth it.
Angela's Grammy Award Awards
Most Deserving artist: Bonnie Raitt
Corniest Tears Cried During a Live
Performance: Meryl Streep during Linda
Ronstadt's and Aaron Neville's duet of
"Don't Know Much". You musta' had to be
there!
Best Lyric From a Pop Tune Sound Bite:
"As long as you are here, put it there"—Paul
McCartney
Coolest and Most P.C. Rock Band: Living
Colour
Most In Tune Pop Vocal Performance:
Michael Bolton
pride march. This is certainly the only audi
ence that would not be offended by the ram
pantly classist attitude which infuses this
book.
Take their "Self Policing Social Code" for
the gay community; it's especially conde- .
scending. Suggestions such as, "If I'm a
Transvestite, However Glamorous, I'll
Graciously Decline Invitations to Model
Lingerie for 'Oprah' or 'Donahue'" are patent
ly offensive to the part of us all that knows
exclusion is oppressive; but then Kirk and
Madsen know exactly whom they want to
exclude from their pantheon.
The book even encourages the cultivation
of the homosexual-as-victim image as a way
of appealing to straights. Activism which
encourages that sort of demeaning accep
tance, even in presentation to society at large,
is antithetical to the very idea of empower
ment. Do the tenets outlined provide an
entree into activism for non-active, middle
class gays and lesbians, or just alienate those
who are active while failing to generate
replacements?
But, attitude aside, what about Kirk and
Madsen's practical suggestions for effecting
change? The authors rightly point out that the
1988 "War Conference" used and adopted
some of their strategies. There would seem to
be a need for such strategies, as well as those
of ACT UP and the other radicalizers.
The great Catch-22 of the lesbian and
gay rights movement is the paradox that to
earn our rights, we must be both outrageous
and respectable, ostentatious and invisible;
that we must find some way to work within
the system and to criticize it from the outside.
In 1983, when White wrote a new intro
duction to States of Desire . most lesbians and
gay men seemed to be moving toward the
mainstream model of activism. But AIDS
cases then numbered only 1300 and the ener
gy and chaos that the disease has brought to
the community could not have been easily
imagined; the rules of the game have been
changed.
There is one thing that both sides seem to
be able to agree on: For God(dess)'s sake, do
something!
Most Out of Tune Pop Vocal Performance:
Lead singer for the Fine Young Cannibals
Nat King Cole Look-a-like: See above
Most Underrepresented Group: Rappers
Most Unlikely to Be Clean and Sober:
Motley Crue
Most Relieved to be Clean and Sober:
Bonnie Raitt
Coolest Guitar Licks: Bonnie Raitt on "A
Thing Called Love"
Coolest Outfit: Stevie Wonder
Group Whose Name Sounds Most Like
Something to Eat: Milli Vanilli
Best Leather Jacket: Don Henley
Best Candidate for a Hair Cut: Don Henley
(It's just not flattering, Don)
Licks Most Likely to Induce Frantic Sexual
Activity: Miles Davis' bassist during "Aura"
James Brown Look-alike: Miles Davis
Phil Collins Look-alike: Lead singer for
Mike and the Mechanics
Amy Ray Look-alike: Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Etheridge Look-alike: Amy Ray
Heartthrob Award One: Meryl Streep
Heartthrob Award Two: Opera singer
Carolyn Blackwell
Highest Note Hit: Ditto
Most Beautiful Teeth: Ditto
Best Thing to Come Out of New York's Bath
Houses: Bette Midler (Sorry, guys...)
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