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Two Tune Tuesday: The Pretenders

First: no listening until you go VOTE.

I have always been only a little bit Chrissie Hynde fan, but recently she’s hit me exactly the right way: every song, every lyric, every everything is just right. Maybe I had to get old enough to get her delicate mix of melancholy & anger, but either way: these two songs are very much the two moods I feel like I’ve been switching between for a year or so.

i shot my mouth off & he showed me what that hole was for she sings, which has to be one of the ruder lyrics ever sung by a woman: changing tires is slang for oral sex.

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Offensive: Mockumentary about Musical of Boys Don’t Cry

I know we’re going to get into a new round of conversation about art and humor and whatever the fuck else, but I’m horribly offended by the idea of a “mockumentary” about a supposed musical based on Brandon Teena’s death.

Just stop it already: leave trans people out of this bullshit.

It would have been just as possible to create a mockumentary about how stupid & shallow musical theater people can be without dragging that young man into it.

Ugh. Bad taste doesn’t even begin to describe my disgust.

And no, I don’t have to see the goddamn thing. I barely held back the contents of my stomach watching the short preview.

I did actually check to make sure this wasn’t published on April Fool’s Day, in some hope that it was a joke. It wasn’t, and it isn’t.

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Homophobic Sue Stanton?

Change.org has a petition up in support of a gay club that’s gotten some homophobic response from city government over noise complaints.

The Cottage, 522 Lucerene Avenue, Lake Worth, FL has been under attack by a small group of local residents who are using the city’s noise ordinance to harass The Cottage.  Noise complaints have been made by four residents on almost a daily basis for the past three years.  The noise complaints began shortly after The Cottage began its Sunday Tea Dances and branded itself as the only gay-friendly, downtown restaurant in Lake Worth. Many times when the police have responded to a complaint, The Cottage has not even had any live music playing.  The police in general are sympathetic and understand that The Cottage is being unfairly targeted but must continue to respond to the calls.

After a year of harassment, The Cottage reached out to the city for assistance.  Unfortunately, the City chose to enable and feed the underlying homophobic current, instead of helping a viable and community oriented business as well as honoring its own civil rights ordinance which provides protection for sexual orientation and gender expression.

In May of 2009, Loretta Lutfy, proprietor of The Cottage, along with family friend and local gay rights advocate, Mike Zewe, met with City Manager Susan Stanton to seek assistance to stop the harassment.  Instead of receiving support from Ms. Stanton, they were dismissed from her office with homophobic remarks.

Ms. Lutfy says, “She (Stanton) first asked if I would consider stopping the Tea Dance for awhile.  I responded that I would close my entire business first. She dismissed Mike and me from the office ending the conversation by saying that “men in dresses, and men dancing with men is offensive.  If you continue, you will just have to suffer the consequences.'”

For the next year, The Cottage, knowing that they had no support from the City, felt the only choice was to bear the harassment and hope it would stop.  Unfortunately, it has not and Susan Stanton has joined the four complaining residents in their crusade to chip away at the business until it has no choice but to close.  Stanton has added to the attack by sending code enforcement daily to The Cottage to look for violations. She went as far to change the hours of the code enforcement office to send employees at all hours of the day and threatened criminal prosecution.

What isn’t mentioned is that Stanton herself is trans; she quite famously & publicly transitioned a few years back, so I’m certainly not outing her.

First, I’d love to hear some verification of these claims from someone in that neck of the woods: I know you’re out there, so either post a comment or send me an email.

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WI Votes Tuesday, April 5th

On Tuesday, it’s Election Day in Wisconsin, and it’s one of those elections for which most people don’t bother to show up, most years. This year, I suspect, will see a much higher turnout because progressives, democrats, and sensible conservatives alike are frustrated at the strong-arm tactics of Governor Walker. Oh, you know who I mean: the guy who just decided collective bargaining is a disposable aspect of democracy, a hurdle in the way of the fiscal bottom line. It is, rather, the heart of democracy: that the many get a vote, that they get a say, that we get some modicum of a voice in our government, in our employment, and so, in our lives. The guy & his cronies will be recalled, but in the meantime, even if people did hear about Walker and the subsequent protests, you may not realize how motivated people are here.

I’ve had a couple of people from out of state write to me about the Kloppenburg campaign, which I’m happy to say is getting no small amount of attention now, and which is at least one of the big reasons progressives will be coming out to vote. Believe me, we’re paying attention to the Kloppenburg campaign, and so are many political orgs (including the LGBT one).

But here, in tiny Appleton, I’ve had the pleasure of watching two people step up to run for City Council exactly because they knew they had to. The first is Teege Mettille, who is running in Appleton’s 11th District. He’s a foster parent, as well as an adjunct faculty member and admissions counselor for two local universities.

The second is Christoph Wahl who lives in Distict #1, a district where the only candidate left running was a Tea Party Republican with possible connections to “White People’s Heritage” group (which, in a city that is home to the John Birch Society, you don’t laugh off). His opposing candidate dropped out, & Wahl, who has lived in Appleton all of his life, decided to step up. He didn’t have time to get added to the ballot; he’s running a write-in campaign in a district with about 4500 residents, about 1800 of which are registered to vote, and of which, about half voted in the last election. That is, he is running to win in a district where every single vote will count.

Which is why it’s about a million times more important for progressives and Democrats to get out & vote on Tuesday — or, if you live in WI, before Tuesday, as we’ve got early voting here. So go do it. Give someone else a ride to the polls. You don’t (yet) need a photo ID. BUT GET OUT & VOTE, WISCONSIN!

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Institute of Medicine Recommends Studying LGBT Health Needs

& That’s not an April Fool’s joke! Honestly, you’d expect it would be, but it’s not: the IOM released a report that in order to address LGBT health disparities, LGBT health issues need to be studied further.

Seems nutty, right, to find out what people need in order to provide it.

Tammy Baldwin will be introducing an Act (the Ending LGBT Health Disparities Act) based on the IOM’s findings.

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