 I'm Keith Goslant here with renowned international poet Linda Quinlan. Yeah, that's how I mean. And Charles killed the same distinguished personage. It is Tuesday, November 2nd. Welcome to All Things LGBTQ. We have a lot of news and we'll turn it over to a wonderful internationally acclaimed poet. Our favorite Wicked Woman. Ready? I'm ready. My headlines are the Trump administration into a law discrimination and adoption in health care. Katie Hill, the bisexual representative in California, resigns. ICE is definitely detaining gay asylum seekers despite the court order that prohibited that behavior. Delta vows to restore deleted love scenes to bookmark and rocket man after a week of backlash. That's nice. Ed Buck will spend over a year in jail, because his trial won't be until August. As reported earlier, Ed Buck is a big democratic political donor who had two gay black men die in his house from drug overdoses. Colorado designer wants to discriminate against same-sex couples even though she doesn't really have a website yet. So we'll talk a little bit about that. Alrighty. In Georgia and Kentucky, law makers target trans youth. A two gay police sergeant wins $20 million. Openly gay killer Charles Rhine has been executed for a 1993 murder, but there's a little bit to talk about the politics of that. Igamion was assaulted in alleged hate crime at a Boston bar. Radio host fired for allegedly sending homophobic tweets to himself. Top executive and LGBT representative, Seuss Comcast, citing discrimination for being gay. Andy King, a New York City Democratic representative, has been suspended without pay for 30 days and fined $15,000 for comparing pride to child pornography. And Spellman College announces queer studies cheer in Audre Lorde's name. So we'll talk a little bit about that. So, okay. You're just cheery tonight. So trivia. One person got it. One person didn't. I got it. Out in the mountains, November 1987, front page article. And it was talking about the just march on Washington that had occurred. There was a reference made to a very moving speech that had been given by Karen Thompson. So who's Karen Thompson? And why was she included as a rally speaker? So then we're going to talk about some events. One of the things is I want to remind people that this is open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act, which is still the law of the land. So if you need insurance coverage between now and December 15th, it's the time to enroll. And following up on that, please be talking to your healthcare providers in reference to Vermont Act 53. We'll talk a little bit about that in greater detail, because your health information is about to go into a centralized pool to which all providers will have access. There is a symposium that's going to be happening on November 16th at Main Street Landing in Burlington, sponsored by the Alliance of the Vermont Law School. How many alliances can we have? This is Stonewall at 50, a half century of LGBTQ plus civil rights advocacy. It's nine to five. It's free because they had a grant from the Johnson Family Foundation, but you do need to register online. And Beth Robinson, our favorite Supreme Court Justice, is the lunchtime speaker. It's election day, and I'm going to talk about some of the races that are happening and why we may want to be paying attention to it. November is Native American Heritage Month, and I'm going to talk a little bit about a movie called Dawnland and how you can stream it for free for this month. And then we're going to talk about Toronto. We could be the community newspaper for them. And associated with that, I want to remind people that Wednesday, November 20th is the Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resilience. And Ohave Zed Synagogue in Burlington at six o'clock is going to do the reading of names, creating sacred space. And then there will be a pot like afterwards to which people are invited. Well, I have many items of news that I hope you'll be interested in. The first involves Gay Penguins. I've mentioned them before on the show. I have an update. Christina Claudia Lopez, the first woman to lead Columbia's capitals. She was elected Mayor of Bogota. She's an open lesbian involved with a senator. Very exciting news there. An anti-LGBT preacher is banned from Ireland over abusive views, which are likely to stir up hatred. And I'm glad to be able to report this story because he's also been banned from New Zealand. And when I was reporting on that last time, I identified him as Stephen Ambrose, who is a prominent historian. His name really is Stephen Anderson. And all the countries, 26 countries in Europe have banned him. I don't know where Stephen Ambrose came from, but I stand corrected and I hope I haven't vilified historian Ambrose. Yes. We'll take him to dinner if you ever show up. My former school. All right, let's continue. Qantas Boss, this is news from the 1%, in New Zealand, Qantas Boss Alan Joyce marries his partner Shane Lloyd in glitzy Sydney Harbor wedding. So he's CEO. He's worth millions and millions of dollars. I have a picture of the couple on their way to their lavish ceremony. News from the 1%. I have another picture of a entirely different nature. A transgender woman was murdered in the El Salvador capital. Her name was Anahi Miranda Rivas. She was 27. I have a picture before you now. She was beaten to death. On a more upscale note, the first Muslim Pride event to take place in London next spring. And it's going to celebrate the LGBT plus community after $10,000 was raised by a fundraiser. So there's been success there. That's going to be exciting. More news, stories I may not get to, but I have pictures for. First, thousands join the Pride Parade in Taiwan. 200,000 people, there's a picture of them celebrating. The mayor of Manila, Isco Moreno, paints rainbow pedestrian lanes for LGBTQ people, but some people aren't happy. So the picture shows you walkers on the rainbow crosswalks, but some of the LGBTQ community says, forget the aesthetics, let's have some rights. One more interesting visual for you. The openly gay New Zealand ambassador to South Korea attends a reception with his husband. And here they are before you. South Korean president greets New Zealand ambassador to South Korea. His name, the ambassador's name is Philip Turner, and his husband is Hiroshi Akeda. Maybe I'll have time to elaborate on that, but those of my head might not. Maybe not. And she's at the other end of the table. So watch out. Well, what I want to elaborate on is that the South Korean president's name is Moon Jae-in. So there he is with the two. All right. Gay gentlemen. And now we'll move to the Trump administration. And they want discrimination and adoption in health care. This, of course, was the same week as National Adoption Month. The administration is attacking LGBTQ families. The Department of Health and Human Services has a new rule that adoption agencies can discriminate against LGBTQ families even if they get money from the government. This is a reversal of the Obama era policy, which did not allow agencies who got money from the federal government to discriminate. And this could also affect other groups like elder services, Head Start, Refugee Resettlement, HIV Services, and programs for homeless youth. So... Lock him up. Lock him up. Katie Hill, the bisexual representative from California Resign from Congress this week. She was being cyber bullied by pictures of a threesome, as well as new pictures of her on the internet by who she says is her abusive ex-husband. And there were pictures that were taken without her knowledge. Last, she said, as her final act, she voted to move forward on the Trump impeachment on behalf of the women of the United States of America. She all talked about patriarchy and feminism. And if you want to see her whole speech, it is, of course, on the internet. I thought it was a pretty good speech. And the only other thing I wanted to say about this was, Nancy Pelosi talked about, you know, like somehow made it seem like it was her fault that these pictures had gotten onto the internet. And, you know, I just want to say if she did not know about this and it was cyber-bullying, then it was really hardly her fault. I was disappointed in Nancy Pelosi's response, also. So I didn't think that was really a good way of approaching that. This is revenge porn. And several sessions ago passed a law that you can prosecute someone for initiating revenge. And Pelosi's remark seemed almost like blaming the victim. Yeah, like it was her fault somehow that this has happened. You know, despite the fact that if she suffered this staffer, it's probably, you know, it's not a good idea. But, okay. Colorado designer wants to discriminate against same-sex couples, even though no LGBTQ people have even asked. And in fact, she doesn't even have a website. But she wants to have a website. But before Laurie Smith of 303 Creative in Denver puts up a website, she wants to be able to know that she can put up as a Christian that she doesn't want to do anything for LGBTQ people because it's against her Christian beliefs. Her attorneys are from the Alliance Defending Freedom. But I mean, she doesn't even have a site up yet. In Georgia, in Kentucky, lawmaker's target trans youth. In Georgia, Representative Ginny Earhart is preparing a bill that would make it a felony for medical professionals to assist in minor, in the minor's transition in any way. In Kentucky, Representative Savannah Maddox has begun drafting a bill to protect children under 18 from gender retirement surgery or getting any drug treatment to alter their natal gender. So, there we go. I'm not even going to go into that if you are diagnosed with gender dysphoria, that you want to start all of that treatment before adolescence. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's why they want to stop that to make sure it doesn't happen. Okay. So, there are elections in Kentucky, and it's the gubernatorial race. And apparently, it's really close. And people are watching this because next year, oh, the pro tem of the Senate might be up for re-election from Kentucky. And this may give an indication of how vulnerable he is. The other races that are happening are in Virginia, and Vice President Pence has gone and campaigned on behalf of the Republicans. This is Donica Rome's first re-election bid. So, we're going to be watching really closely what happens in Virginia. Also, there's a real chance that the Democrats can take control of both houses in the Virginia legislature so they might actually pass some non-discrimination legislation. And Donica Rome is the first transgender legislator anywhere in the country. And that happened two years ago. So, Tucson and Arizona, we're going to be watching because they have a referendum going to see if they're going to become a sanctuary city. This in the era of 45s repressive immigration. South Bend, Indiana, where Mayor Pete may be coming from, he's not running for re-election. We're going to be watching to see who gets it, who comes in following him. And there's a Citizens Initiative in Washington where they got enough signatures to try to overturn Initiative 1000, which would have allowed for affirmative action policies and public education employment in contracting. So, they're trying to pull back proactive legislation very quickly. This is Native American Heritage Month. There is a film that's been released called Donlan that hopefully Zach is going to be able to put up the website where you can go on this month and stream it for free. And it's PBS if you can't find another way in. And one of the things that's significant is that this documentary was done in Maine. So, they're very close to us why they say we should be paying attention. For most of the 20th century, government agencies systematically forced Native American children from their homes and placed them with white families. That there was an estimate that Native children in Maine were 19 times more likely to be removed by child welfare workers than non-Native children. Many children experience devastating emotional harm in homes that shamed, demeaned, and tried to erase their culture. We should be aware that these atrocities are not history. This is still an active process. One of the statistics that they cited were Native children in Minnesota are still 14 times more likely to enter foster care than non-Native children. So, if you have a chance, it's a 54-minute documentary. There was a longer version that's available on the story website. Please watch this. Sounds good. Let's turn to the animal kingdom. Happily. Penguins. Penguins? No. No? Yes. Penguins and other species. The penguin couple from Sydney, Australia upon whom I have reported extensively that is to say, Sven and Magic, the two male gen two penguins at the Sea Life Aquarium in Sydney, who adopted a foster egg that became named Svengic. Now Svengic is growing up, and I have a picture of the family group. They have a little chick now? Well, you know, Svengic is maybe an, yeah, maybe an adolescence or early, you know, so the three of them. But then there's a possibility that another chick will be born. So Svengic will have a sibling. When Svengic was first born last October, both dads did well. Keepers noticed that the power couple have started to build a new nest this breeding season, complete with a special display of ice pebbles. Penguin supervisor Tish Hannon told the 10 daily they have the neatest and largest nest in the colony. And when we noticed that another couple were struggling to incubate two eggs at the same time, we made the decision to foster the second egg to the power couple of the colony. In September last year, lesbian penguin parents hatched a penguin chick in the London Sea Life Aquarium. Keepers have decided to allow the chick to grow into an adult as genderless, which is normal in the wild until they mature. But I'd like to expand our recognition of this gay penguin couple to include a clip that I'd like to show now from the Sydney Zoo. The term gay or bisexual is a sort of human term, but we do see a lot of same-sex pairings of different species, including penguins, where animals of the same sex species of the same sex will form pair bonds together, and they can spend up to their entire lives living together in harmony. So we have three same-sex pairings within our colony, and these are male birds that are together, and they live together. We do have one pair, Rani and Reggie, that actually have reared a chick of their own. They abandoned egg was given to them, the chick was given to them, and they reared it in that the offspring is currently living with the colony on Penguin Beach now. While animals can have same-sex relationships or pair bonds, they don't become homophobic because that's a human problem, and animals don't tend to react in the same way when animals form same-sex pair bonds. They are generally well accepted within the colony or within the community. When you talk about some of the mammal species, there's examples, particularly in primates closest to humans, the things like macaque monkeys, where they will engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, and probably the most famous well-known is the Bonneville, which is a relative of the chimpanzee, which is very, very widely known and widely studied for having regular sex between both females and males, and doing that on a regular basis purely for pleasure rather than any other kind of understood scientific reason. Other mammals will also engage in same-sex relationships, so some of the cats, particularly lions, are known to mount and copulate each other during periods of pair bonding, but also probably more well-documented are some of the domestic animals, including cattle and sheep. It's well-documented that a number of species of insects, particularly after they first hatch or metamorphosize, will mate with individuals of their own sex, and we see that in things like fruit flies and certain beetle species. Birds are very well known for pair bonding, and birds, usually many long-lived species such as albatross and swans, as well as penguins, will pair for life. And if there aren't enough individuals of the opposite sex, they will often choose a member of the same sex because that instinct, that need to bond with another individual is very, very strong. I love those clips. It's great. Don't you feel like a grandparent now? And it says wisely that homophobia is a human. Animals don't have it, so they're all faring well in the zoos and in the wild, all these algae. You mean the other penguins I'm watching around saying? Yeah. Kill the gays. No, they aren't. And the clip illustrates all that. So let's turn to another good story, if I may, about Claudia Lopez. She's the leader of Columbia's Green Alliance Party and she has just won the mayoralty of Bogota, and I have a picture before you now of her celebrating. She kissed her partner amid a roaring crowd last weekend as she became the first woman to be elected mayor of Bogota, a position considered second in importance only to the presidency and a country known for its culture of machismo. She is now the first openly gay woman to be elected to that office throughout Latin America. The 49 year old won Sunday's election with 35.21 percentage of the votes. I'm aware that I've received the fruit of the labor and fights of many generations of many women, Lopez said in her victory speech. They led the way for us to get here. Lopez was raised by her mother in a working class neighborhoods of Columbia sprawling capital with five younger siblings. She worked as a housekeeper while getting her master's in public administration and urban policy from Columbia University in New York and later earned a PhD in political science from Northwestern University. She entered politics in 1989 during a mass student movement that followed the assassination of Colombian president Luis Carlos Galán. One of the most significant groups she was involved in became known as the seventh ballot movement credited for successfully forming a constituent assembly in 1990 to reform Columbia's constitution. Her victory and this is sort of interesting. Her victory was a reminder of these origins as it was Galán's son who Lopez nearly defeated in the race for mayor. To the day in which a humble woman who is the daughter of a teacher and diverse wins for the first time the second most important elected office elected by the people in the country Lopez said during her victory speech. Video captured by the CNN affiliate showed the moment Lopez won kissing her partner Senator Angelica Lozano and I wish I had a picture of that but I couldn't get one. She kissed her Sunday night sharing an emotional embrace with her mother. Well Lopez and Lozano are affiliated with the Center Green Left Alliance Party. Colombia is the only country in which the same political families from the 20th century are still governing in the 21st century she told CNN. Colombia is a country that is advanced in many things but it's still got a lot of machismo. It's a very conservative country so congratulations to her. I have one more story unless you'd like me to wait with it. I think you could probably do one short story if you have one. All right well let me return to this person whose name I make stuff last time. Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan signed the first exclusion order against Stephen Anderson in May. The mayor for justice Charlie Flanagan banned Anderson from speaking in Ireland because his views are considered likely to stir up hatred. A copy of the exclusion order was sent to Mr. Anderson. It reveals the minister's decision. Anderson founded a Baptist church in Arizona. Came to prominence when he said he had prayed for the death of President Barack Obama. He also prayed that he praised the killings of the 49 people in the Pulse nightclub. He was said to deliver a sermon in Dublin earlier this year with notice. He was set to deliver a sermon in Dublin with notice set on his website saying he was coming in May. The move this announcement led to an online petition calling for Anderson to be banned because of his anti-LGBT rhetoric which attracted 14,000 signatures as well as calls from Evangelical Alliance Ireland not to allow him into the country so he's even alienated the Evangelical Alliance. Following his exclusion Anderson said Ireland would feel the wrath of God because of the decision but he said he would not beg to be allowed into the country. He's been banned everywhere. Good. Except in like some other countries. Not so far. In Europe 26 countries have banned him. No. New Zealand just banned him as I reported last time. So he's not making much progress. Good. That's good. Well who's the woman minister who is involved is is considered Trump's white. What is his name? White I think. No. Anyway I heard her today giving a little speech about you know if um anybody voted against Trump you know they were um voting against God. Yeah. Pamela White if I had my phone I'd look it up. Anyway let's get to um some more stories. Two gay police sergeant wins 20 million dollars in a discrimination lawsuit. A jury decided the St. Louis police denied a promotion to an officer because of his sexuality after he was told that the command staff has a problem with his sexuality saying would you mind toning down your gayness? I'm sorry I take that personally. I mean good that he is one. Sergeant Keith Windhaber brought a suit against the county police after he was denied promotion to lieutenant after serving since 1994. He was passed over for promotion 23 times. So 20 million dollars. Nice you can retire on that. Yes I would think so. And here's an interesting story about the openly gay killer Charles Rines and he was executed in I think it is North Dakota South Dakota um very recently. And one of the problems with this suit was it was not that he didn't even do the crime but the fact that the jurors in 1993 argued that um they didn't want to send him to prison because he might have too much fun there. And um so you know basically because of his sexuality he was given the death penalty. He killed a Donovan Schaefer a 22 year old worker at a Rapid City South Dakota shopping shop during a robbery. So there was no um he did it but the reasons he got the death penalty seemed really horrible and they they um tried to some lawyers tried to uh argue his case and appeal but it never went anywhere so anyway. May I just say one thing? Yeah. Her name is Pamela White. She's a televangelist based in Florida and personal pastor to President Trump. Right right. So that's the person. Yeah and and if anybody is interested in that she gave a little talk today about uh God punishing all of us for not voting for Trump. Nice. I know a gay man was assaulted in alleged hate crime at a Boston bar. Three men identifying as queer said they were the victims of a homophobic assault outside Jacques Cabaret early Sunday night. They were physically assaulted by a group of straight men according to one of the men Michael Flowers on his Facebook page. The attackers used anti-gay slurs while kicking and punching the three men. The Boston police department of civil rights is investigating this incident and a radio host fired for allegedly sending homophobic tweets to himself. Did you hear about that? No I missed that one. Seth Dunlap denies he did any such thing. The slur was sent after he criticized New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees for appearing in a focus on the family video. So the Louisiana radio station fired him because they said he was using the station's Twitter account to send messages to himself. So I don't know about that but I'm telling you. And then there was another lawsuit top executive in LGBT where Sue's Comcast citing discrimination for being gay, Clayton Fennel began working for Comcast in 2001 and the lawsuit contends that discrimination started shortly after he started working at Comcast and that Comcast made a very hostile work environment for him. Early in his corporate career he was told he was too gay and too flamboyant for Comcast corporate culture. Some senior leaders said his voice was too high pitched. Really? Yes. And he was also asked three times to take a demotion and move to San Francisco where it would be more acceptable to be gay. Oh my gosh. And a really good story is Spelman College announces queer studies chair in Audre Lorde's name. Spelman is a prestigious old women black college in Atlantic Georgia. The newly created chair will be attached to the school's comparative women's studies program. And Audre Lorde as we know was an African-American poet and essayist. And when did she die, Ann, do you remember? I don't know but I can look that up too. She died probably in the 90s I would say, early 90s. And I always really loved her poetry. I loved her presence. I really really liked who she was. And I love the saying that she said if the revolution costs what more than fifty cents, Ann, or was it fifty dollars? Fifty dollars. It's not her revolution. I was at a conference where she was and it was a women's studies conference and these two scholars did a little song and dance saying you can join for fifty dollars. You can join the National Women's Studies Association and she came out afterwards immediately following this presentation and said any revolution that costs fifty dollars is not my revolution. Wonderful. I know she is a dynamic wonderful person. Yes. So anyway that'll be something to look at and follow as time goes on to see who gets to be put in that position and what not. So we can now go back. We're going to Toronto. Toronto. But first Thursday the 14th November six o'clock Pride Center in Burlington is the last of the local town hall forums where you can come and say as the LGBTQ plus community if you're advocating on my behalf these are the issues that are important. Toronto, their public library, the Palmerston branch, they gave space to Megan Murphy. Megan Murphy is the founder of the feminist currents website. She's also someone who says you know born woman that's it that sex is innate male female or intersex that she is not supportive of the transgender community that while you know she doesn't argue that transgender women have a right to exist she's worried about men disguising themselves as women and entering women only space. One of the issues is the library has a policy about promoting discrimination contempt or hatred to any group or person that they will not give space to anyone promoting discrimination and so it's in their policy. That way and I was going to get to that if you are promoting these things you can't use their space. So they received a petition with 9,000 signatures saying these people should not be able to use this space and the presentation was sponsored by the radical feminist unite. The event was sold out but there were so many demonstrators out front that when she finished she had to go out the back door. And this is the part that I just sort of go the library's response was they'd already hosted a neo-nazi group so what's the problem? The library. So yeah there you are dear to our hearts Toronto. There we are. Well let me begin by clarifying that Audrey Lord died in 1992. Very very young I think she was near 50s. Terrible loss for us all. Yes. So I was going to look up her exact age when she died. I think she was 50 something. 58 but we digress. Let's go back to the Qantas wedding. Ellen Joyce and his long-term partner Shane Lloyd in Sydney's famous harbor tying the knot in front of about 120 family friends and business executives. Joyce was a key campaigner for a same-sex marriage personally donating a million dollars to the campaign and nuptials came nearly two years after the yes vote. He and Lloyd had been together for 20 years share a house in the inner city suburb the rocks near the wedding location. The Qantas boss who is the country's country's highest paid CEO has raked in 24 million dollars last year and then there's a little he wore a suit by Aussie born designer Martin Grant whose outfits were favored by Meghan Markle during her tour last year so be informed about that. Our invitations must have gotten lost. I know. Let's return to this terrible thing in El Salvador the transgender woman authorities say a group of armed suspects who were inside a van grabbed Anahi Miranda Rivas 27 and I have a picture again you saw it in the beginning but let's show it again. In San Salvador the Capitol preliminary reports indicate the suspects held and dragged her for several meters along the boulevard before they stabbed her with a sharp object. The suspect then left Rivas body near a night club. Authorities arrived at the scene after a group of people realized what had happened and called 911. Additional details have not been released but Rivas's death raises the number of hate crimes that have been committed against the LGBT community especially against transgender women in the Central American country to more than 300. They have already seen been seven deaths this year and Anahi's death is the third most violent trans programs coordinator said we urgently need the mechanisms that have already been put in place with El Salvador's national civil police and in the prosecutor's office to be applied. We have time. Good let's talk about the first Muslim pride event that's going to take place. It's going to be held in London in the spring as I said. The celebration run by charity Iman will take place in the Capitol. Iman was set up in 1999 with the aim of helping LGBT Muslims who feel isolated due to prejudice toward them. The event will look to bring the people it supports together so that's great. And wasn't there like well I was reading about Palestinian authorities arresting LGBTQ people in Palestine? Really I didn't see that in my news feed. Do we have a trivia question or anything? Yeah we have a trivia question but I was going to go back to something that we were talking about while you were conferring with Zach. Apparently we're to blame for the wildfires in California. Tucker Carlson said that California has a diversity employment program and they're hiring under qualified LGBTQ plus and immigrants and that's why they can't contain the fires. So I will give the trivia question and then I'm told we might have a book review. So Karen Thompson March on Washington 1987 it might be easier to identify who Karen Thompson is if I told you that her partner was Sharon Kowalski and this was the lesbian visitation and guardianship hearing that started after Sharon was in a car accident in 1983 and sustained severe head trauma and was in a nursing home and there was a series of court battles first allowing then rescinding Karen's visitation then granting it back and finally the court ordered an independent evaluation to determine if Sharon had capacity to express her wishes and when she was asked repeatedly she always responded with where do you want to live and she said St. Cloud with Karen so finally in December of 1991 remember this started in 1983 Karen was finally granted full guardianship yeah and this was the first major visitation guardianship recognition of our rights as LGBTQ plus couples and did you see where this was what state Minnesota Minnesota okay because we were living as constant then right okay you're going to introduce your own book well yes um you're a self-contained act I know that we have many features in this show among them book reviews um on march 19th this my review of this memoir by uh Esther Newton called my butch career in 1985 Esther Newton's trailblazing essay The Mythic Managed Lesbian, Radcliffe Hall and the New Woman appeared in the pages of the lesbian issue of signs signs was a prestigious feminist journal at the time I was a lesbian scholar I remember greeting that volume reading the article it was really groundbreaking written in 1981 and published in this landmark volume the piece Newton explains was my return to scholarly work and it made masculine lesbians my subject finally I could pull my career and my queer life together but it is the period preceding this fusion that is the subject of this memoir Newton follows a conventional chronological path tracing her ancestral line and unorthodox childhood as she struggled to adjust as a half Jewish illegitimate child whose birth prompted ostracism from her firebrand mother's genteel wasp family describing her early years with her mother and her mother's second husband and lifelong father figure Saul Newton clarifies we signaled our deepest feelings toward and about each other if at all in a semaphore in which none of us were fluent I love that line Newton's life was also complicated by the fact in her early years that I became an anti-girl a girl refused Nick caught between genders she loses her straight virginity at 17 and more important is initiated into lesbian sex later that year introduced to the New York lesbian bar scene soon after Newton provides a cultural snapshot and here I'm quoting again that's what being butch meant in 1959 a masculine girl like me who wore men's clothes smoked lucky strikes wore her collar up in t-shirt sleeves rolled and dated femmes this formative milieu demonstrates to the young Newton what it's like to be butch the first identity that had ever made sense out of my body situation the first rendition of gender that ever rang true the first look I could ever pull together nevertheless Newton doesn't come out as a lesbian until seven years later during graduate school where her dissertation would become the book mother camp female impersonators in america a volume that helped establish her established her reputation as a radical thinker in lgbt studies when newton leaves chicago for new york in the summer of 1967 she under undertakes her first sexually satisfying relationship with an older woman and discovers the political movement to match her beliefs in the form of second wave feminism this chapter in the narrative rekindles the energy intentions of that time as newton chronicles her involvement in the upper west side witch stands for women's international conspiracy from hell the early meetings of the gay liberation front and interactions with such lesbian icons as jill johnston and bertha harris newton writes compellingly of her struggle to negotiate a long-standing friendship with a married heterosexual colleague during these years of political passion and contention six years after her arrival in new york newton acts on an impromptu invitation from friends to join them in mexico where she meets a french love interest who has requested anonymity in the memoir having received tenure yet alienated from academia newton embarks on a long distance relationship with this woman and eventually moves in with her in her paris flat this part of the memoir provides an informative counterpoint to the new york years as newton explores the women's movement in france dominated as it was by two separate factions the feminist revolutionary led by writer monique vt and psyche a poll led by psychiatrist antoinette fuq according to newton the two groups were not on speaking terms another key feature of new another key feature of newton's partial expatriation is her quest to adopt the lifestyle of her butch role model gertrude stein yes and to write an autobiographical novel a project she eventually abandons before returning to the states barnard college's famous 1982 scholar and the feminist nine conference marks a turning point for newton together with her friendship with feminist thinker gale rubin and perusal of an article by writer amber hollaball these catalysts allow newton to reject what she perceives to be the rigidity of certain lesbian feminist dicta and to finally declare it was okay to be butch for the first time in my life i embraced it without ambivalence i knew then that i would never be with another female partner who was attracted to me but ashamed of who i was who did not consciously identify as fem occasional debatable assertions notwithstanding my butch career is an important narrative of liberation they contribute singularly to the growing body of collective lgbtq history it covers the first 41 years of the writer's life a time frame that calls out for a sequel newton concludes her memoir with a tribute to the queer writers who have preceded her with this work she has secured her place in that august pantheon very good and it's a good book may i add there's a movie about her called agility that's being filmed and if you want to go on facebook and look up agility you can see clips of her clips of her reading she's making the rounds kind of on a book tour when's the film coming i don't know they're working on it okay so commercial release or cable or can't tell you i was gonna say is this like an amazon prime and netflix or am i going to go to the savoy and see this savoy i would say it's an independent film okay and it's in the works and it looks very interesting okay and what about terminator with all that new feminist um it's not getting good reviews oh i can't wait till it comes out we saw harry at its fabulous harry at its fabulous so okay and with that are we done i think we are okay remember to resist