A Town For Sale

In 2011, I learned that the State of Nevada isn't the only place in the United States that has ghost towns. There was an online article that said that Scenic, South Dakota, in the state's southwest corner, was up for sale for $800,000.

The town, fifty miles southeast of Rapid City, was (and maybe still is) owned by a Philippines-based church. 

At the time I read the article, a thought came to me--a  group of enterprising (and wealthy) LGBTQ people should consider buying the town and transform it into a thriving LGBTQ resort. And another thought came to me--if such a group approached the church with an offer to buy the town, would the church be willing to sell it?

A Manhattan Bookstore Closes

More than a year ago, Shakespeare & Company's store, on Broadway near 105th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was closed a short time after it opened for business. I learned it was closing from an article in the weekly newspaper, The Spirit. I later went to the store to buy a couple of mystery paperbacks at a significant discount.

I think the store could have been saved if the owners had focused exclusively on LGBTQ books and merchandise (like posters, rainbow flags, key chains, and slogan buttons).

In a city with a sizable LGBTQ population, and no bookstore catering to it, I refuse to believe such a bookstore would not have been able to thrive, even in harsh economic times. LGBTQ bars seem to stay afloat no matter what.

Aside from selling books and LGBTQ-related merchandise, the store could have been used for book readings, book signings, lectures, film screenings, game nights, special events, etc. The store needed owners who could think outside the box and experiment with different ways to attract a loyal clientele.

The location, in a very busy section of town, would have been a perfect refuge for LGBTQ bibliophiles, in an area convenient to public transportation, public parks, restaurants, supermarkets, and smaller shops.

Give "Queer" The Boot

When I was on an elevator in an office building here in New York, it was either in the late seventies or early eighties, I rode with three other men. The one standing in front of me kept turning around to look at the two men standing in a corner. As soon as he got off on his floor, one of the men said to the other, "He must be a queer." Needless to say, he didn't use the word "queer" as a term of endearment. From then on the word "queer" has become cringeworthy.

I refrain from using it whenever possible because it's such an ugly word. Even dictionaries still describe it as offensive, as a pejorative. If the gay and lesbian community continue to embrace that word, they should also be willing to embrace "faggot," "bulldagger," "fairy," and "pansy." Like "nigger" and "kike," they are equally ugly, hateful, evil, and disparaging.

There are many highly educated gay men and lesbians. You would think someone within that segment of the gay and lesbian community could come up with terms that are more edifying and life-affirming. Trying to "reclaim" hurtful terms does not erase or sanitize their negative histories.

Note: This blog post originally appeared on my Facebook page on April 19, 2023. I've made a few minor changes.

Hold That Pose!

There's a scene I absolutely love watching that's in "Mother of the Year," the eighth and last episode of Season One of Pose, the FX television drama series about the black and Hispanic LGBTQ drag ball/voguing world. 

Billy Porter's character Pray Tell, the emcee/DJ, calls out to the participants on the dance floor to "Pose. And pose. And pose. And pose." Each time he says those words, everyone on the floor changes their pose and holds it.

It reminded me of when I attended the 75th Street Elementary School in South Central Los Angeles in the  1950s and 1960s. Every morning in the schoolyard, when the first bell rang, someone, probably the principal, shouted over the public address system, "FREEZE!" Everyone, including the teachers, no matter what they were doing or where they were standing in the schoolyard, became living statues. We would hold that pose until the second bell rang. 

My mother got a kick out of seeing this morning ritual because it was such an unusual sight at a public school.

Celebrating World Pride And Stonewall 50 Together

 I went to the World Pride parade in the Chelsea section of Manhattan yesterday. Boy, was it crowded and super long. When the parade ended, it was almost 12:30 in the morning!

A recent sighting: Propped up outside one of the display windows of the Bank Street Bookstore, an Upper West Side of Manhattan establishment that specializes in children's books, was a small black message board with removable letters of the alphabet. On it was this message, with one letter missing: "[I]T'S PRIDE BITCHES. SHAKE YA ASS!" It was placed in front of a display of Pride-themed children's books.

I couldn't resist the urge to put it in my tote bag and take it home where it will be put in a prominent place because it is such a novelty item. I may even take a photo of it and put it in one of my photo albums.

Happy Pride Month

Today is the first day of Pride Month! I hope everyone will have a happy Pride Month. I'm looking forward to the Stonewall 50 celebrations, which will probably last until the end of the year.

This month also marks the twentieth anniversary of  the publication of Fighting Words: Essays by Black Gay Men, an anthology I edited. It was published in 1999 by Avon Books.

Stonewall 50 Commemoration At The New York Public Library

The Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50 exhibition is slated for viewing at the New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, from February 14 to July 14, 2019. It will be on the third floor, in the Rayner Special Collections Wing & Print Gallery.

"This exhibition," announced the New York Public Library Now magazine (Winter/Spring 2019)," illustrates this history [of gay liberation] through the photographs of Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies, who captured the pivotal events of this era and changed the ways that LGBTQ people perceived themselves."

Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50 will also, continued Now, the library publication, feature "other items from the Library's vast archival holdings in LGBTQ history, including ephemera, periodicals, and more."

Harlem Week Celebrates 44 Women Achievers

This year marks the 44th anniversary of Harlem Week, which is now actually a month-long event (July 29-August 31). Its goal is to celebrate "the gravitas, history and brilliance of all that is Harlem," to quote the Calendar of Events brochure.

Harlem Week 2018's theme this year is "Women Transforming Our World: Past, Present and Future." And since Harlem Week is 44 years old, 44 women of achievement will be honored at various sites in and around Harlem. Among the honorees are opera singer Marian Anderson; actress Ruby Dee; choreographer, dancer Judith Jamison; U.S. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor; New York Amsterdam News publisher Elinor Tatum; activist Rosa Parks; tennis champs Venus Williams and Serena Williams; future activist Yolanda Renee King, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 9-year-old granddaughter; and television journalist and talk-show host Rachel Maddow.

Included in the Calendar of Events is acknowledgment of Harlem's LGBTQ members, "our community within the community." "The LGBTQ community has played a significant role," stated the brochure, "in developing Harlem's music, art, theater and literature scenes, and has been responsible for producing some of the greatest artists, thinkers, philosophers and poets over the past century."

With that in mind, I hope that next year's Harlem Week will do a month-long tribute to the LGBTQ community. The headline the brochure used for the acknowledgment of the LGBTQ community--"Harlem's LGBTQ Roots Run Deep"--would be an appropriate slogan for such a tribute.