The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) articles from January 2004

The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) archives from January 2004

Touched by Angels.(reader forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 20, 2004... I would like to commend The Advocate for its thorough and exhaustive coverage of HBO's production of Angels in America ["Faces of Angels," December 9]. The interviews with five of the eight leading actors, as well as the one with Tony Kushner,...

Including bisexuals.(reader forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 20, 2004... Thank you for your article on the second-class treatment of bisexual students by other queer students on college campuses ["Campus Byways," December 9]. Do homosexual students understand that they are using the same bigoted rhetoric against...

Oh, you beautiful dolls.(reader forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 20, 2004... I want to thank you for presenting the work of artist John Trobaugh [My Perspective, December 9]. I thought his comment on dolls and the images they hold for children was very profound. I have found that the sight of two men holding hands...

Medical firsts.(reader forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 20, 2004... In the December 9 issue of The Advocate, it is stated that Mark Pope is the first openly gay leader of a major mental health organization [Behind the Headlines]. This is not entirely so. Jim Scarborough is the current president of the...

Role models needed.(reader forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 20, 2004... Andy Sampson's commentary about the lack of adult role models for today's gay youth is very telling and too often true [Generation Q, December 9]. Growing up hi Washington, D.C., in the early '60s, I didn't know of any openly gay men. Though...

This month on Advocate.com.(reader forum)
January 20, 2004... SMALL SCREEN TV heroes Lesbian comedian Georgia Ragsdale (pictured) reports from a "Women in Television" panel, at which some of the best advice for budding TV creatives was, "You must care about it so much that you want to vomit...

Family crisis.(reader forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 20, 2004... Many thanks to both The Advocate and Rosie O'Donnell for sharing her Harvey Milk High School visit with us [Last Word, December 9]. The article brought tears streaming down my face. Unfortunately for my family, the subject of parents not being...

Wilton Station creates sophisticated village living in the Fort Lauderdale area.(Special Advertisement)
January 20, 2004... Coming in January 2004 is Wilton Station, a $100 million upscale residential village designed to provide a complete sense of community--a place for singles, couples, and families to call home. Wilton Station, LLC, the developer, will offer...

No special rights.(letter from the editor in chief)(Editorial)
January 20, 2004... In the movie Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, Billy's lover turns him on by whispering, in his breathy Latin accent, "You are so special." It's a funny bit because Billy (Sean Hayes) isn't really buying it, but it revs him up anyway. After all,...

Good news, bad news.(Time line 2003)(gays)(Calendar)
January 20, 2004... January 1 Lesbian couple Joanna Bare and Helen Rubin give birth to Washington, D.C.'s first baby of the year. 3 Lesbian feminist Monique Wittig, 67, dies of a heart attack in Tucson. 4 Clonaid, a company that claims to have...

The cover of 2003.
January 20, 2004... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] For those of you keeping score: 24 GLBT people, 11 straights, and 3 undetermined (not counting inset photos)

Rants 2003.(Gay and lesbian rights)
January 20, 2004... Rick Santorum is hardly alone among U.S. elected officials in opposing equal rights for gay and lesbians. A selection of the year's most memorable vitriol. "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your...

Changing history: the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas took many people by surprise--but those who had been fighting antigay sodomy laws nationwide knew the landmark ruling was years in the making.(Courts)
January 20, 2004... The landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas sent shock waves around the country and will undoubtedly stand as one of the most important civil rights victories in history. But the case almost never happened. John Lawrence...

This is middle age? Martina's back--winning two more Grand Slam titles and, at 47, beating players half her age.(Sports)(Martina Navratilova)(Interview)
January 20, 2004... Three decades after breaking onto the tennis scene as a timid and plump Czechoslovakian teenager, Martina Navratilova is still making waves with her on-court prowess. When the Prague-born player hung up her rackets in 1994, she owned a...

A champion retires: after nearly nine years of putting a human face on gay rights, Elizabeth Birch leaves HRC.(Politics)(Human Rights Campaign)
January 20, 2004... Call it the house Elizabeth built. The new headquarters for the Human Rights Campaign--an eight-story white-brick, steel, and glass edifice situated between the heavily gay Dupont Circle and the White House--stands as a monument to the vision...

Young voters come out: partisan gay political groups are reaching out to GLBT students on the nation's college campuses.(Activism)
January 20, 2004... Like most college students, gay men and lesbians attending Michigan State University in East Lansing have a lot on their minds: a soccer game at Walter Adams Field, a social at the student union, a math test to study for, or a term paper to...

Kissed out of school: two Maryland high school students drew more attention than they expected when they staged a same-sex kiss in the school cafeteria.(Activism)(River Hill High School)
January 20, 2004... Stephanie Haaser and Katherine Pecore knew they'd have the full attention of everyone in River Hill High School's cafeteria when they stood atop a lunch table, shouted "End homophobia now!" and then kissed. What the two Clarksville, Md.,...

Melissa & Tammy: a love story.(News Of The Year)(Melissa Etheridge)(Tammy Lynn Michaels)(Cover Story)
January 20, 2004... While the same-sex marriage debate raged in 2003, Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels took matters into their own hands and threw themselves a wedding. Now the couple sit down for their first joint interview, Tammy's first since...

Married in Massachusetts: meet the seven gay and lesbian couples whose desire to get hitched led to the court ruling that shook the nation.(News Of The Year)
January 20, 2004... Gina Smith and Heidi Norton were in the car with their two young sons when the Massachusetts supreme judicial court's decision in favor of gay marriage was announced over the radio. "In the background they were playing 'Goin' to the chapel,'"...

Just say 'mo.(news from a blond)
January 20, 2004... It's time for the rear-end review. Oh, sorry, must have read the memo wrong. Year-end. Maybe that e-mail was from somebody at Unzipped Monthly. A sad concept to begin with, only being unzipped monthly. And certainly one that would make no sense...

Richard's redemption: what is it like to spend 68 years of your life in the closet? Richard Chamberlain digs deeper than ever to tell us why it happened and how he finally got out.(Coming Out)
January 20, 2004... When Richard Chamberlain walked into the living room of his Oahu home and shook my hand, 36 years of dodging an Advocate interview ended. While his sexuality has been an open secret for most of his long career, so has almost any star's who has...

Truly, madly, depp-ly: Johnny Depp reasserted his unique magnetism with his performance as a fey-but-not-gay brigand in the summer's biggest hit.(Film)
January 20, 2004... He has played a hack director with an angora fetish in Ed Wood, a topiary artiste with a manicure only Wolverine I would envy in Edward Scissorhands, and both a prison guard and a drag queen prisoner--with amazing smuggling skills--in Before...

Talking trash: as much as we loved the gay-savvy Pirates of the Caribbean, that's how much we hated these gay-shabby "comedies" of 2003.(Film)
January 20, 2004... Gigli Audiences could smell the scent of a turkey, but no amount of bad buzz could prepare them for how bad Gigli really is. In this megaflop from writer-director Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman)--the most talked-about, least-attended movie of...

Top 10 film.(Worst Of The Year)
January 20, 2004... 1 Camp Out creator Todd Graft and a super teen cast rev up this musical Sundance lave about the pansexual days of summer at a performing arts camp. 2 Blue Gate Crossing Lovely Taiwanese tale of a budding lesbian and the hunky boy who wants...

Dressed for excess: with Boy George playing performance artist Leigh Bowery, Taboo gave us the year's gayest costumes.(Theater)
January 20, 2004... Broadway offered many queer pleasures in 2003: Hugh Jackman embodying Peter Allen in The Boy Frown Oz, Robert Sean Leonard kissing Scott Foley hl Richard Greenberg's The Violet Hour, Jefferson Mays dazzling as a German cross-dresser in I Am My...

Top 10 theater.(Best Of The Year)
January 20, 2004... 1 Avenue Q The happiest musical ever about puppets finding their sexuality. Starring gorgeous John Tartaglia. 2 Anna in the Tropics Out playwright Nilo Cruz won the Pulitzer Prize for this hetero love tale set in a cigar factory. 3 I...

Gay TV 2003 instructions.(Television)
January 20, 2004... Q CARD OUT PRODUCERS' TANGO! Collect an Oscar for Chicago and a full-season pickup for It's All Relative. On youre next turn, go back two spaces after The Reagans gets dumped only) cable at the last minute. Think twice about making...

Girl meets boy: while gorgeous James was turning heads, best friend Andra was the mother figure who drew the heat. Here's her side of the story.(Television)
January 20, 2004... It was possible to get the wrong impression, watching her sipping cocktails with the "mates" or conferring conspiratorially with leading man James. But Andra--the straight best friend who signed on to steer James Getzlaff through the dating...

Top 10 television.(Best Of The Year)
January 20, 2004... 1 Angels in America (HBO) The epic play on AIDS and gay themes has become a stirring monumental telefilm. 2 Tipping the Velvet (BBC America) The women! The clothes! The conniving! Who knew Victorian lesbians were so sexy? 3 Soldier's...

Kidd in a candy store: this year acclaimed book designer (and author) Chip Kidd was the subject of a book about his own work.(Books)
January 20, 2004... Chip Kidd loves comic books. He doesn't mind saying so. He also doesn't think it's any big deal. "It's really not a special or unusual story," says the 39 year-old, who, like most comics aficionados, fell under the spell during his childhood....

The velocity of Zoe: at 17, she has already written a critically admired book and snagged a six-figure contract; 2003 was quite a year for Zoe Trope (not her real name).(Books)
January 20, 2004... Before October 2001, the writer known as Zoe Trope was just another band geek trying to start a gay-straight alliance at her Portland, Ore., high school. But then her creative writing instructor, Kevin Sampsell, published a section of her diary...

Top 10 books.(Best Of The Year)
January 20, 2004... 1 Dry Augusten Burroughs (St. Martin's) Never was getting sober so funny. 2 Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life Forms to Watch Out For Alison Bechdel (Alyson) In her 20th-anniversary comic strip collection, Bechdel just gets better....

"Beautiful," damn it: the Linda Perry-penned Christina Aguilera hit--not to mention the sexy video--was the great queer anthem of 2003.(Music)
January 20, 2004... With the simple words "you are beautiful, no matter what they say," pop vixen Christina Aguilera delivered an emotional edict that transcended Hallmark sentimentality and became one of the most powerful moments of queer activism in 2003. In its...

Top 10 music.(Best Of The Year)
January 20, 2004... 1 Meshell Ndegeocello Comfort Woman (Maverick) Smooth as cocoa and way sexier. Brilliant. 2 Junior Senior d-d-don't don't stop the beat (Atlantic) This gay-straight duo make dance music that's pure joy. No chemicals required. 3 Rufus...

That swinging Schwarzenegger.(last word)
January 20, 2004... If you have any lingering doubts about who has won the cultural war in America in 2003, consider this: Our born-again president is celebrating the election of a new California governor (married to a Kennedy), who bragged about smoking "grass...