| Transcript |
HOUSTON VOICE • DECEMBER 3, 1999
VOICES AND ECHOES
PLANT LIFE
Resolutions for a new year and a new millennium
by DREW PLANT
At least once every
year, I write a list aimed at
resolutions for self-betterment. Now I
suspect I am supposed to write about
changing the world or myself for the new
millennium.
I'm all for any signal flare that creates
,i chance tor bonafide introspection. We're
a self-absorbed lot, me included, and we
love to decide what we'll do next for self
help. 1 just wish we could be motivated to
such on our own, and at some real juncture of change. (I ley, the new millennium
starts with 2001, not 2000; could we at
least obsess about it in the right year?)
Well, instead of being a complete party
pooper, I intend to drag my dateless self to
a New Year's Eve fund-raising gala with
my fine lesbian friend Abby on my arm
and party like it's, well, 1999. In the meantime, 1 chose to stake my claim on World
AIDS Day—that was Dec. 1—as a time of
promised change and self-reflection.
You see, I think we've become a little
too blase about the disease that the AIDS
Czar herself—Atlanta's own Sandy
Thurman—recognizes as "no longer chic."
If you didn't wear a red ribbon or write a
check {and, by God, what more important
thing could you write a check for?), I hope
you at least stopped on the one paltry day
we set aside for the Pandemic of Modern
Generations to do the following:
(1) Call someone you know who is
HIV-positive to say, "I am so glad you are
healthy and still with us; please take care
of yourself"; and (2) call someone you
know who is HIV-negative and say, "I am
so glad you have been able to avoid this
terrible pandemic; keep yourself healthy."
As for the Y2K, you make your wish-
and-self-help list, and I'll make mine:
Take more tub baths. One week short
of the six-month mark in my new low-
slung ranch house, I finally took a long,
hot bath. It was blissful. Why in the hell
did I wait this long? I looked at catalogs,
read a bit of Vanity Fair and didn't touch
myself once. Really.
Read each issue of Vanity Fair with the
fervor of a stalking fan. I know it's trash,
but it is star-fucking, intriguing trash. It's
the People magazine of the academic,
semi-informed wannabes. Escape to
Palm Beach, moneyed people with fetishes and the rumors of people who have
better bodies than anyone you or 1 could
even hope to sleep with.
Watch CBS' Sunday Morning (with
melodic-voiced Charles Osgood!) on a
regular basis. On Halloween weekend, 1
was ensconced at my sister's Nashville
home alone, all Sunday morning from
7:30 a.m. until the troops got back from
an Episcopalian attempt at faith.
I worked on mv laptop (computer!),
perused the Nciv York Times and watched
the best hour and a half of television
since an episode of Dynasty ran long in
the 1980s.
I plan to proselytize for HGTV. No,
I'm not going to sell my bodv for sex. I
want everyone to know how addictive
Home and Garden Television is. Okay, I
know they have the insanelv craftv
shows, but they also can honestlv teach
you to redo your foyer in marble and still
host a dinner party the same night. Is this
TV-by-and-for-fags, or what?
I plan to work in the yard more.
I don't care if it has been digging up a
half-buried and rusted-out toaster oven
(no kidding), planting abelia or doing
basic lawn maintenance, the time 1 have
spent in my new old house's yard has
been gratifying beyond description. Did I
pay for all of that therapy before I had a
yard? When I am in the yard, I don't even
care if the neighborhood children come
around. This is bliss.
I've said it before, but I am really, really, really going to say "no" more. Okay,
maybe not to the tragic men in my life,
but to commitments I shouldn't be mak
ing. It is indescribably freeing to let go of
the need to do everything. I suspect it
will take a century of World AIDS Days
to do so, but 1 will learn not to take on
everything, and I am starting now. No.
I plan to actually get to know Helpful
Larry from the Storehouse Clearance
Center. I plan to not apologize for shopping at Storehouse.
I plan to unapologetically adopt the
neighborhood stray cat, feed it well and
take it for regular veterinary care.
Starting now, her name is "Lunchmeat."
As for you, I hope you will write and tell
me what vou are doing for tlie new millennium. While you're at it, tell me what you
did to help make this one of the last World
AIDS Days we need to have. Ever. I gave the
Love of My Life and several of my best
friends to this disease, and I am all given out.
In whatever ways work for you, commit to celebrating a real holiday that's a
cause none of us can ignore.
Dreiv Plant is an Atlanta writer who
works in corporate communications for an
insurance and viatical company. He wants
you to actually do something about AIDS. He
can be readied at dreioplant@sovo.com.
Let us know what you think
Send the editor your letters (400 words maximum)
or op-ed submissions (800 words maximum).
Names may be withheld upon request, but submissions
must indude a name and phone number for verification.
Houston Voice, 500 Lovett, Suite 200, Houston, TX 77006
fax; 713-529-9531 • e-mail: editor@houstonvoice.com
LETTERS
Some films do trans well
To the Editor:
When Mark J. Huisman wrote about negative movie characterizations of transgendered
people ("On the outside," Nov. 19), which is
unfortunately too often the case, he quotes
Rosalyne Blumenstein, the executive director
of the Gender Identity Project as saying,
"There's never been a movie who has just
allowed a person of trans experience to just be
that person without pathology or ridicule." I
am more disappointed and surprised that
apparently neither of them is aware of two
films I can recall which did.
"Just Like A Woman" and "Different for
Girls," both of which played in Houston, were
set m England, tn the first, a male, heterosexual transvestite is thrown out of the house by his
wife who returns from vacation early to find
his stash of female clothing scattered about
their flat and assumes he is having an affair.
The film portrays the trials and tribulations he
endures, including being arrested and humiliated by the police, the knowledgeable acceptance by his business colleague, and his ultimate victory over his transphobic boss.
In "Different for Girls," a post-operative
transsexual meets and falls in love with a high
school class mate who is now a motorcycle
messenger delivery person. Again it deals
with her personal relationship and career
issues in a sympathetic manner.
Both films had male actors who portrayed
the transgendered roles effectively. Both were
low visibility films that should have, but never
got, the distribution the subject matter
deserved. More of this sort of portrayal will go
a long way toward demystifying tr-ansgen-
dered people.
jack Adams
Houston
Bush can learn from Buchanan
To the Editor:
The decision of George W. Bush to refuse
to speak to the Log Cabin Republicans ("Bush
says no to meeting with gay Republicans,"
Nov. 26) suggests that he is a homophobic
bigot pandering to a religious group fueled by
ignorance, hatred and superstition.
Pat Buchanan, whose writings dealing
with homosexuality may have been fueled by
a viscera] homophobia, apparently has had
his epiphany. This event occurred, of course,
on the road which he hopes will reach to the
White House, (story, page 6)
The major contender for the Reform Party
presidential nomination has urged gays to
enter tlie Reform Party and to support his candidacy. Does this represent intellectual growth
in a person who has been called a "bigot" and
a "Nazi" by many in the media? Or is this
sheer political opportunism in the manner oi
George W. Bush?
Whatever it is, Buchanan cannot help but
experience a measure of soul-searching and
look upon some of his gay bashing of recent
years with regret. As for George W. Bush, he
has exposed himself as the bigot that he is.
One can oppose the concept of gay marriage
without being a bigoted homophobe.
But for Bush to refuse to speak to loyal
members of his own political party because of
their sexual orientation suggests that "Shrub"
is still hopelessly immature and a coward to
boot for his failure to recognize the humanity
of persons simply because their sexual orientation is different.
Rev.TomHuttJRet.)
Menasfia, Wise.
Bradley a gay come-lately
To the Editor:
I read your account of the controversy surrounding Bill Bradley's suggestion to amend
the 1964 Civil Rights Act ("Gore, Bradley spar
over gay rights," Nov. 26), but I'm concerned
it widely missed the mark.
I agree Bill Bradley is a good and fair-
minded man. I also believe his commitment
today to the gay community is real.
Unfortunately, his timing, his record and his
judgment are not as real.
In 1991, Bill Bradley had the chance to co-
sponsor legislation to do precisely what he
now advocates, but he did not. Most voters
probably don't realize that during his 18-year
career in the U.S. Senate, Bill Bradley authored
573 bills. Not one of them would have gu.ar.an-
teed, expanded or even addressed the rights of
gay men and lesbians. He failed to co-sponsor,
conveniently missed or voted against bills of
importance to us.
We welcome Bill Bradley's newfound passion. Just imagine his legislative clout and his
vote in the Senate on behalf of gay concerns
these past three years had he instead decided
to stay and fight in the Senate with other
Democratic leaders.
Paul Yandura
Washington, D.C.
Editor's note: Tlie letter writer worked three
years as a presidential appointee in tlie
Clinton/Gore administration and tat th National
Gay and Lesbian Outreach Director for the
Clinton/Gore '96 campaign.
|
