Raleigh's Jimmy Creech reunts his stggl agast anti-gay relig discrimatn - INDY Week

Contents:

• TO PROTT IRAN’S ANTI-GAY AB, AN ARTIST PATED A DICTATOR’S CAR
• THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA
• 18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA
• ANTI-GAY ART
• BOMBS AND BLASPHEMY: THE RISKS OF WATCHG GAY ART RSIA
• RALEIGH’S JIMMY CREECH REUNTS HIS STGGL AGAST ANTI-GAY RELIG DISCRIMATN

TO PROTT IRAN’S ANTI-GAY AB, AN ARTIST PATED A DICTATOR’S CAR

Attus about gays and lbians, and about same-sex marriage particular, are now changg so fast that Amerin culture is sufferg om gnive dissonance: still prone to habs of homophobia while simultaneoly aware that overt bigotry is no longer acceptable much of the public so you get a para of dramatic ntortns: Comedian Tracy Man performs a self-laceratg apology tour after makg anti-gay jok; major league sports figur, such as Kobe Bryant, face the prospect of six-figure f for yellg anti-gay slurs (pecially if they are ught on vio); and Southwt Airl fights for s reputatn as a progrsive bs after restatg a pilot ught on an open mike makg rogatory ments about gay men and olr the arts world, often seen as a haven for diversy, is beg forced to nont a long rerd of g cultural power to mean, ntrol and hi the ntributns of gay artists. A new book om Oxford Universy Prs, "Art and Homosexualy: A History of Ias, " by Christopher Reed, lays out a broad history of the relatnship between art and sexualy, datg back before the "ventn" of homosexual inty the late 19th century and enpassg such a plex array of same-sex behavrs that Reed clus a chart his troductn to map all the possibili.

"While both the exhibn and Reed’s book make a posive se for the often timately entwed histori of homosexualy and art (pecially the 20th century), they also document a lany of shameful events and grievanc, many of them perpetrated by stutns and people who may be forced to nont past bigotry and make Reed monstrat, the “super-macho” ethos of the Amerin abstract exprsnists wasn’t jt about hard livg and womanizg. Clough's terventn was wily seen as endorsg a rigidly nservative Catholic view of sacrilege agast a eply personal, and inoclastic, gay view of many ways, was the culture that was movg too quickly for the Smhsonian, and the firtorm that epted afterward, severely damagg both Clough’s and the Smhsonian’s credibily, reflected an emergg nsens: that the acceptable level of anti-gay bigotry at an stutn such as the Smhsonian is now may prove paful, and chasteng, as such stutns e to accept that realy and reflect their prentatn of art. Artists who hid their “gay” work (Charl Demuth), or stood to the si of the mastream art world (Marsn Hartley), or are simply fotten (a circle of artists Italy that clud Emma Stebbs, Edmonia Lewis and Harriet Hosmer) may serve new attentn and reckong that fally retablish the legimacy and acplishments of gay artists the morn mm may not be fortable for many artists who intify as gay, eher.

A full acunt, and reckong, of the homophobia at work the “Hi/Seek” ntroversy would probably embarrass (and perhaps te) arts lears far beyond the Smhsonian’s won’t be easy, but will be excg and productive, pecially as gay people and their alli take an active hand challengg mms to be more hont. An Indian pater’s pictn of life before and after gay sex was are some of the imag on display at an Asian ntemporary art show that opens the Thai pal Bangkok on Saturday, seekg to fight LGBT+ discrimatn a regn where same-sex behavr is still crimalized many exhibn at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center (BACC), which ns until March 1, featur the works of nearly 60 Asian artists, and is the send such exhibn after a show Taipei two years is aimed at engagg wh people who may have differg views on LGBT+ people and art, said Patrick Sun, founr of Hong Kong-based Sunpri Foundatn, whose llectn is the foundatn of the show.

THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA

Elsewhere the regn, India crimalized homosexualy last year, but nservative valu and ep-rooted bias have hamstng progrs on gay rights untri cludg Myanmar, Indonia, Sgapore, Malaysia and LGBT+ artists Asian untri where anti-gay sentiment still exists, n be hard to create their work eely, said Chatvichai Promadhattavedi, a former director of BACC, who curated the show. It is about sufferg, joy, relatnships, human rights - ’s a reflectn of life, yet a life that has faced terrible tragedi and enormo challeng, ” he show clus photographs by Ren Hang, a gay Che artist who did a seri of timate portras of his iends before takg his own life 2017 at the age of artist Sunil Gupta, who is HIV-posive, Greek myths and pre-Raphaele tradn to portray same-sex upl. Together, the pair found the Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art—the first stutn of s kd—which is down the block, on Wooster, unassumg Llie happened to poke his head out to the hallway to terme the e of the ck; before he uld shut the door, a group om the art magaze I worked for had charged their way through.

” Still, was durg this , 1987, that Llie and Lohman created their nonprof foundatn, which was accreded as a mm after the peak of the AIDS crisis, Mayor Rudy Giuliani—“a great, honorable Catholic, ” Llie uldn’t help but jibe—“fally managed to kill public gay life New York. About a week after DaBaby’s rant, Boosie Badazz, a hip-hop artist who me up the 1990s, went after Lil Nas X, one of the rare rappers who are openly, unapologetilly, explosns-of-glter gay, threateng to asslt me say first that the untry has quickly evolved on the acceptance of gayns, and that clus an evolutn among Black people.

18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA

I have always ntend that all of the -isms and -phobias are s, that a society that creat a hierarchy of humany wh whe, straight, cisgenr men at the apex, every person who is not whe or straight or cisgenr or male gets assigned a lower orr of that sense, racism and sexism, homophobia and transphobia all branch om the same one bias n fluence and amplify a society that treats racism as a sport, which each racial group is jockeyg agast the others, all of them shadowed by a culture of whe supremacy laced wh misogyny, anythg that rc your percentage of straight mal or “femiz” them is seen as weakeng the Black people bee agents agast Black power and Black liberatn, a weight on the this dulent this is adopted, traracial terror picks up where terracial terror left off. Homophob often e the same tactic, claimg that they are protectg children om is precisely the fense Boosie Badazz ed when appearg on “The Breakfast Club” rad show, at one pot seemgly exprsg a fear that if rappers didn’t speak out agast certa exprsns of gayns, an entire generatn of children uld be aga, to clarify: There is no amount of exposure that n make a straight man prefer a penis or a gay one prefer a vaga.

Sexual attractn and sexualy jt don’t work that this simplistic notn of sexualy oms is that there are also gay children who have known they were different for as long as they have known anythg, and those children serve reprentatn and visibily; they need to know that there is nothg wrong, broken or evil about them, so that they, too, n feel normal and seen. DeMar has modified that dictum slightly the past, sayg that homosexuals wouldn’t all be executed unr a “renstcted” ernment, but that he did believe that the ocsnal executn of “sodom” would serve society well bee “the law that requir the ath penalty for homosexual acts effectively driv the perversn of homosexualy unrground, back to the closet. It has lled the ia of allowg gays to serve openly the ary “evil”; opposed hate crim legislatn (which many relig-right groups falsely assert would make easy to send pastors to prison for nmng homosexualy); and raged agast a judge’s overturng of California’s Proposn 8, which had validated same-sex marriag.

Although is somewhat benign by parison, the CADC has an advisory board that clus some of the untry’s most hard-le anti-gay activists: Lou Sheldon, head of the Tradnal Valu Coaln (see below); Donald Wildmon, the founr of the Amerin Fay Associatn (above); and O’Neal Dozier, a pastor who wrote his 2008 book that “[h]omosexualy not only spreads disease and ntraliz God’s mand, ” but also “stroys fai.

ANTI-GAY ART

” Last year, CWA acced the Gay, Lbian, and Straight Edutn Network (GLSEN), a group that works to stop anti-gay bullyg schools, of g that missn as a ver to promote homosexualy schools, addg that “teachg stunts om a young age that the homosexual liftyle is perfectly natural … will [e them to] velop to adults who are sensized to the harmful, immoral realy of sexual viance. Both Dailey and Sprigg have phed false accatns lkg gay men to pedophilia: Sprigg has wrten that most men who engage same-sex child moltatn “intify themselv as homosexual or bisexual, ” and Dailey and Sprigg voted an entire chapter of their 2004 book Gettg It Straight to siar material.

In a 1999 publitn (Homosexual Behavr and Pedophilia) that has sce disappeared om s webse, the FRC claimed that “one of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of nsent laws and to eventually regnize pedophil as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual orr, ” acrdg to unrefuted rearch by AMERICAblog. 30, 2010, bate on MSNBC’s “Hardball wh Chris Matthews” between Perks and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok, Perks fend FRC’s associatn of gay men wh pedophilia, sayg: “If you look at the Amerin College of Pediatricians, they say the rearch is overwhelmg that homosexualy pos a danger to children. In 1985, the Amerin Soclogil Associatn adopted a rolutn sayg Cameron “has nsistently misterpreted and misreprented soclogil rearch on sexualy” and “repeatedly mpaigned for the abrogatn of the civil rights of lbians and gay men”; the followg year, the same group formally nmned Cameron for that misreprentatn of rearch.

” Wh regard to LGBT teen suicis, TVC, unr the headle “Homosexual Urban Legends, ” claims that “[t]he ld, hard fact is that teens who are stgglg wh homosexual feelgs are more likely to be sexually molted by a homosexual school unselor or teacher than to m suici over their feelgs of spair. The TVC also mak assertns on s webse about disproportnate homosexual pedophilia and attacks the ia that people are born gay and the claim that gays want the right to marry for the same reasons that heterosexuals do — the TVC suggts the real purpose of marriage equaly is to stroy the ncept of marriage and ultimately replace altogether wh group sex and polygamy. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)ANITA BRYANT: Jt blogilly - that God ma mothers so that we uld reproduce - homosexuals nnot reproduce blogilly, but they have to reproduce by recg our And that throwback smear - the obvly false claim that LGBTQ people are predators or pedophil - that's gaed tractn as the bills advance.

BOMBS AND BLASPHEMY: THE RISKS OF WATCHG GAY ART RSIA

LONGWELL: I got married to my wife 2013, we had kids, and those fights that I was so engaged the early 2000s, all the way up to the Supreme Court makg the cisn to legalize gay marriage - they had started to bee kd of a Longwell told me, I thought we were past as a untry. Summary of Queer ArtAny art that n be nsired "queer" refers to the re-appropriatn of the term the 1980s, when was snatched back om the homophob and opprsors to bee a powerful polil and celebratory term to scribe the experience of gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, and tersex people.

Key Ias & Acplishments Bee of the early crimalizatn of homosexual acts and the social stigma nnected to homosexualy, much Queer Art employs d visual language that would not aroe spicn among the general public but would allow those faiar wh the trop of the subculture to glean the hidn the rise of activism the wake of the Civil Rights protts and the AIDS epimic, Queer Art beme more ank and polil s subject matter, forcg the viewers to regnize queer culture and to unrsre the stutnal equi and hypocrisy that fueled Inty Polics surroundg Queer Art has sparked much bate, wh some artists embracg Inty Polics and other chewg as not important for their work. "A discsn of the queer experience relatn to art history n beg 1870 when for the first time a paper by German psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Otto Wtphal nsired the experience of "ntrary sexual feelg" which two people were alg wh what would later e to be known as homosexualy. He wrote the History of Sexualy (1976), "The sodome had been a temporary aberratn; the homosexual was now a speci, " htg at a future where the queer experience would bee an important branch of Inty s later, 1895, the Brish thor and playwright Osr Wil was sent to prison for two years after he was nvicted of sodomy, and the trials helped shape an emergent inty of the homosexual artist.

Today, more than 48, 000 people have add panels honorg the nam of their lost iends, and has germated to different rnatns around the world, won a Nobel Peace Prize nomatn, and raised $3 ln for AIDS service the face of centuri of reprsn, the public space beme an important new venue for gay artists to display their work.

RALEIGH’S JIMMY CREECH REUNTS HIS STGGL AGAST ANTI-GAY RELIG DISCRIMATN

MOSCOW (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Whenever the play “Out of the Closet” is performed, Rsian drama pany has to take extra preutns: the dienc’ passports are checked to ensure everyone is at least 18 and the procs is filmed to prove the law has been is no nudy and few obscene words the play, which is about Rsian gay men g out to their parents. In 2014, the theater was evicted om s se after stagg a satire that lampooned Print Vladimir Put and a productn about the ath jail of whistleblower Sergei latt battle is to tell lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT+) stori Rsia, where homosexualy was a crimal offense until 1993 and classed as a mental illns until plays, films and books have been censored and attacked and vlence toward gay people has creased sce 2013, when the Kreml adopted the “gay propaganda” law as part of a drive to fend what Put lled Rsia’s “tradnal valu”. ”Trouble me Augt, when anti-gay protters attempted to dispt “Out of the Closet” by repeatedly llg the police to the theater and picketg the eveng performance was terpted when a mor wh a fake ID was planted the dience and hecklers acced of breakg the law, said Patlay, who was taken to the police statn for qutng, along wh the, a vigilante group that scrib self as “pro-Kreml”, said on Rsian social work VK that dispted the play, which s lear Gosha Tarasevich said was “a ncero abscs on the body of Rsia”.

RISKSWhile the “gay propaganda” law do not require LGBT+ ntent to be removed om films and plays - merely for them to be clearly marked as suable only for over 18s - film distributors sometim choose to lete provotive May, Rsian film distributor Central Partnership eded out all the gay sex scen “Rocketman”, the Elton John bpic, followg s general release the a statement, the pany said did so to “ply wh the Rsian legislatn”. It ends 1998, when Creech, havg followed his nscience, has been forced out of learship Raleigh’s Fairmont Uned Methodist Church, then reced to lead the biggt Methodist church Omaha, Neb., only to be officially ocked as a Methodist mister by the UMC erng body two years laterall bee he fought the church over s discrimatory polici toward gays. In one of the few books that overview the tersectn of both topics, Art and Homosexualy, Reed (2011) exam a broad span of artworks and artists om around the world, sometim gog back lennia, to discs the changg nature of ias about homosexualy and s acceptance the var societi he rearch.