Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

William "Wolf" Agress, who would have been 54 today...

Bill was my first serious relationship, when I was in college. We met at a meeting of Gay Youth — he started coming as a regular when I was president in 1971. He was aggressively snobbish about language and intelligence and used it as a defense since he was hit on by lots of guys of all ages. It made him hard to get to know. In fact, I didn't even like him when we first met. And he was never easy. But he was an original — and he was always an activist. I loved him a lot. And I miss him to this day.

When we first began our relationship, he was still smooth and free of chest hair. And he knew it was a look I preferred, this being the androgynous '70s. He asked me once, "Will you still love me when I'm hairy?" I told him yes, and I did. Even when he grew a wild beard. His wild heart took him to traveling the country — he lit out for the territories. We were each other's first — and the memories I share of him to this day with my friend Marion, who was there, leaves us both laughing and crying at the same time.

At his memorial service I was weeping uncontrollably — and then the rabbi came out to speak of him. The rabbi was cute, and I turned to Bill's brother and said, with a moment of lightness in the grief, "Bill would have said this rabbi was cute." His brother said, "He did, he me the rabbi before he died, and that's just the first thing he said to the rabbi — 'you're really cute.'" And then we laughed and cried at the same time.

Bill was one of the first to be diagnosed with HIV, and he was a founding member of the PWA coalition. He wrote for their magazine — articles like "THE CONDOM CONNOISSEUR"  — and he hosted their cable TV show. 

If you're a regular reader, you will know I've written about the Tupelo tree in the Ramble's Tupelo Meadow in Central Park. Bill and I used to climb that tree together. And when I took this photo out to scan it, underneath it I found a poem written for Wolf (he was always Bill to me even though he changed his name to Wolf, which was in fact the English translation of his Hebrew name, Z'ev) by Eric Thorndale, one of the original members of GAA who we were friends with and worked with as part of GAA's AgitProp committee. Eric, like me, was interested in medieval and renaissance English literature. The difference is that he regularly wrote poems in the style of the period. The poem below, that he wrote for Bill, mentions the Tupelo tree in the first line.

For Sweet William:

Thou comely Swain    by Trysting Tree,
I sought in Words    a looking Glass
That long undimm'd    might shine of thee
But as I laid me    on the Grass
And watch'd the lighted Morning shine,
I thought how Words    might wane and pass,
Which Thought    the while was woeful Tine.

What Words need I    when all's behight?
I'd bed in Burrs    could I but cleave
To thee    in blazing Bliss unstight —
How would that Joy     me speechless leave

How would my leaping Heart be blithe
When wordless    in thine Arms I writhe!

What's a "gentile bagel?"

The New York Times City Room column reported today about the Yom Kippur fast and what people did, where they shopped for break fast, etc. And one quote stood out for me:

"Mr. Jablonsky said H&H Bagels had only 'gentile bagels' by the time he made it through a long line to the counter"

So what's a gentile bagel? I mean, I've always referred to bagels that don't quite have the toothy hardness on the outside that a real bagel ought to as goyishe bagels — donut shaped and soft bread for people who can't deal with the authentic bite of a bagel. And I think of products like blueberry bagels as not authentic. Though once you get to cinnamon raisin, it's a slippery slope. And I have to say, I haven't like H&H bagels for years now, feeling that they have softened up to appeal to a generation not used to the tough chew a bagel requires.

So I am curious. What's an authentic bagel to you? What varieties are beyond the pale (which in fact any bagel in the US would be given the original meaning of that phrase)?

I'm still standing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A couple of weeks back a storm hit New York City that tore through Central Park like a vandal, snapping trees like twigs and felling over 200 of them. The number of downed branches was even higher, and a walk through the park after the storm was heart breaking.

Because Tupelo meadow is my favorite place in Central Park, I was worried about the old Tupelo tree at the center of the meadow. It is held together by cables, so that the massive twisted branches do not succumb to age and gravity. But even the Parks Department doesn't feel entirely safe about this solution, so that the circumference of the tree's branch reach is surrounded by a wire fence to keep people from sitting directly under its delicious shade.

I was happy to see that the old Tupelo is still standing. And not a branch snapped off. Yesterday I enjoyed a picnic with two old friends under the tree. And I wanted to share some photos of this grand old chlorophyll based being with you.

You can see how green the meadow is due to our very wet summer. And while you can't see the fence that surrounds the tree, you can see the perimeter of greenery that grows along the fence border under the tree, since while the meadow is kept, under the tree all is wild.

From afar the greenery looks dense and almost impenetrable, but from the other side, and the underside, looking east, you can see the branch architecture of the tree and the sunlight streaming through:

In the 1970s I climbed those branches with a boyfriend. My friend Eric would weed the meadow, which was overgrown and wild with the neglect of the city in financial crisis. And the surrounding Ramble was much denser with underbrush before so many men had trampled it flat, denuding the park while denuding themselves (on a number of levels).

If you find yourself in the Ramble, go visit and stand before this tree under the cathedral sanctuary of its leaves. And say a prayer for the park, for the city and for the planet.

The best of the festival: films from NewFest at BAM this month

Some of the finest films from the NewFest, New York's lgbt film festival, will get a second showing the last weekend of August at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's BAMCinématek.

First and foremost is Rivers Wash Over Me, from director John Young (and co-written by Young and Darien Sills-Evans, who plays the sheriff in the movie). This tense drama about a gay high school student from NYC who is orphaned and must live with his relatives in a small town in rural Alabama. It's a film that explores the tensions of race, class, sexuality, gender and power. Sounds heavy huh? Well, I am not going to pretend that this is a light film. But what I can say is that like The Hurt Locker, it is non stop entertaining tension that grips your guts from the inside and then makes you think. Here's the trailer — more on the other films to come.

Vigil for the Victims of the Attack on the GLBT Youth Center in Tel Aviv

This evening Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in NYC hosted a vigil for the victims of the attack last week in Tel Aviv. Co-sponsored by a list of groups that was so long you would think there would have been a vast crowd. Nope. Barely a third of the Westbeth yard was filled with people. It was heartening to see all the young people from the Center's youth program though — these kids live with the threat of violence on a daily basis in ways many of us older folk forget.

Speaking at the gathering were Rep. Jerry Nadler and Jay Michaelson of Nehirim among others. Christine Quinn spoke, though what she thought of the huge sign for Yetta Kurland in the window of her campaign HQ across the yard who knows.

Carl Siciliano of the Ali Forney Center spoke movingly of the plight of gay youth in this country. And David Saranga from the Israeli Consulate in NY spoke of Israel's commitment to full LGBT equality (though what that means in a country where only Orthodox rabbis can perform religious marriage ceremonies I don't know).

Here are the videos of Rep. Nadler and Jay Michaelson speaking:

Dr. Thio calls it quits at NYU: an opportunity lost...

According to the NY Times Dr Thio "had changed her mind about teaching because of “the atmosphere of hostility by some members of our community towards her views and by the low enrollments in her classes.”

NYU students voted with their feet.

It's a pity that now she can play the victim card, and claim she's a casualty of the gay agenda. I would say she's a casualty of her own bigotry — but then David Duke claims he is also a victim of bigotry. Looking glass logic.

However, had she been present at NYU it would have given the students and the school a real opportunity to expose her thinking to the light of reason on an ongoing basis. We will not have the opportunity now. While I thought the appointment was idiotic on the part of NYU, it was an opportunity to create dialogue (though most likely not with her, since it is clear her mind is closed) with the international and Asian communities. We don't have that chance now, and it's too bad.

But then, perhaps Dr. Thio recognized that she would have been this opportunity for ongoing withering critiques. Perhaps she should take an appointment at Liberty University, where the intention of avowed Christians to impose their views on the government is out in the open.

I appreciate the Statement from Dean Richard L. Revesz of the New York University School of Law making clear not only the history of the appointment, but the subsequent email exchange between Dr. Thio and various students. The only issue I take with the explanation is that they only looked at her published scholarship, and not her speeches as a legislator. In the field of Human Rights law, the record of a legislator on the subject of human rights is not tangential. It is central. The law is not onl scholarship — it affects real lives, and in Singapore the law says my expression of love is a criminal act.

I do find it hard to believe that the faculty was unaware of her position given that is was so public and controversial even in Singapore. And I somehow suspect that if she had advocated the criminalization of the practice of any non-Christian religion she would never have received this appointment. So while I agree with the Dean about academic freedom, and I welcome honest intellectual dialogue, I don't believe that ideal would have been served with this appointment. Her withdrawal however, means that the demonstration of bad faith on her part in intellectual dialogue will not be on view. And that's a loss.

Are Gay Rights Human Rights? Ask NYU...

So the controversy over the appointment of Dr. Li Ann Thio as Visiting Professor at NYU's Law School continues with Dr. Thio being assigned to teach Human Rights Law in Asia.

Dr. Thio claims to have gay friends, and not to hate gay people — she is just opposed to gay agenda. Where have we heard this before? Oh yes, from her intellectual teachers at Focus On The Family, whose associated church she is connected to in Singapore.

Here is someone who claims that she has nothing against gay people, she just wants them to be labeled as criminals or suspected criminals for their physical expression of love in the privacy of their own homes. And she doesn't see that as a human rights issue.

In the last week, AboveTheLaw.com published a complaint from an NYU student about Dr. Thio's appointment, and a response from Dr. Thio, who feels personally attacked by the protests. No doubt there have been ad hominem attacks. It's interesting to see her respond to uncivil words in response to the her desire to criminalize an entire group of people — efectively denying them their civil rights.

NYU has refused to rescind the invitation, and the dean of the law school has vigoursly defended the appointment. But NYU students have made the issue fairly moot by avoiding registration in her class. By last count, her class on Human Rights in Asia has 5 full registrants. Compare this with classes by queer legal scholar Kenji Yoshino who has had over 200 people try to register for each section of his courses.

What makes this all particularly sad is that the state of human rights in Asia is an extremely important subject, and one that should be taught every semester. The subject of women's rights and human trafficking alone would fill an entire curriculum.

NYU Law alumnae, Jill Filipovic at Feministe, suggested that her financial support of the school may take a turn:

The next time you send me an email or a letter asking for financial support, you're going to receive a note back from me explaining that I'm donating to an LGBT rights organization instead, and will be doing so for the foreseeable future. I would love to be a more involved graduate, but I'm not going to give a penny to an institution that invites people like Dr. Thio to teach. That will hold true long after she is no longer teaching at the law school.

I would like to suggest however, that Ms. Filipovic, rather than contribute to an LGBT rights group here, send her money to human rights organizations in Asia, which clearly need more help. Starting perhaps with the Somali Mam Foundation.

The Colbert Report, Jim Fouratt and Queering the News

Steven Colbert just gets more amazing every week. He went to Iraq and stood before a cheering crowd of soldiers as he made fun of Don't Ask Don't Tell — proof positive that the troops on the ground are more than ready to end this shameful charade perpetrated by successive administrations, Obama included.

And last night, he had as a guest on his show (after mercilessly hitting Obama for cowardice and duplicity in "stonewalling" the lgbt community) Jim Fouratt, veteran of GLF, GAA, former proprietor of Danceteria - the great 80s disco. (This Danceteria bit made Colbert's comment on surviving the Disco Inferno all the funnier, though if 5% of the audience understood the reference I'd be amazed)

Colbert usually interrupts his guests and they rarely get a chance to really deliver their message. That didn't happen last night, and Fouratt got a chance to tell the story of the Stonewall Uprising as it actually happened (as opposed to the mythology of the event) to a national TV audience (even if it's cable!). Colbert isn't mere satire, he is queering the news. Here is the interview:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jim Fouratt
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

Faigele, Feigele, Feygeleh, Shmegeleh - no matter how you spell it, there's a queer film festival coming up at the JCC in NY

NewFest may be ending on Thursday, but next Monday and Tuesday nights, the queer film programs continue with three movies about lgbt life in Israel at the JCC in Manhattan. And all of them deal with the complexities of being queer in a country where religious fanaticism is rising.  This is the 4th year in a row that the JCC has held this short festival during Pride month, and the JCC has become a real resource for the queer community extending beyond just the Jews. Out Professionals has held several events there.

To get tickets

This coming Monday you can see:

Veahavta—And Thou Shalt Love - June 15th, 7pm
Directed by Chaim Elbaum (30 min, Israel, 2008)
Winner of the coveted Wolgin Prize for Best Drama at the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2008. Ohad is a student in a hesder yeshiva who is secretly in love with his best friend. Torn between his homosexuality and his religion, Ohad must struggle between his love for God and his love for Nir.

Zirei Kayitz - Seeds of Summer  - June 15th, 7:30pm
Directed by Hen Lasker - (63 min, Israel, 2007)
Hen Lasker’s feature documentary takes us back to the place where she first fell in love with a woman—the Israeli Defense Forces. Baby-faced teen recruits transform into combat-ready soldiers by day and cry for their parents by night. Lasker takes a close look inside a little seen world, and ends up revealing part of herself.

And on Tuesday...

Jerusalem Is Proud To Present - June 16th, 7pm
Directed by Nitzan Gilady - (80 min, Israel, 2007)
In the summer of 2006, Jerusalem was to host the World Pride events and parade. The planned events stirred turmoil in the politically complex city, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders banding together in an uncompromising battle against what they said would “defile the holy city.” On the other side stood the activists of the Open House, Jerusalem’s LGBTQ community center. Steadfast in the face of anti-gay sentiment, they dealt with threats that extended beyond their right to march.

All this comes at an important time, since the tensions are rising as we approach this year's Pride in Jerusalem. And normally safe Tel Aviv is less so, with the report that  31 year old openly gay actor & singer Yehonathan, was mugged and robbed during the weekends pride events in Tel Aviv.

Celebrating Pride, Jewish Style

It’s Pride Month, and for Jews around the country — and around the world, it’s the time of year that has become traditional over the last couple of decades to celebrate a Pride Seder or a special Pride Shabbat.

This weekend in New York City there are a number of Queer Jewish Pride events. At Congregation Rodeph Shalom on the Upper West Side there is a dinner following Friday night services with Judy Gold as the Guest of Honor, you can register on the JCC site, or at this date best to call 646-505-5708.

At the Village Temple, the Pride Shabbat d’var will be given by Gabriel Blau on this weeks Torah reading, and titled "Building Open Tents, The Jewish Journey and Civil Rights."  I’d like to be at both of these events, but this weekend I’ll be at NewFest, where I’ve marked out about 22 films I want to see — which means I will probably see about 15.

Meanwhile, the Temple for Universal Judaism is screening the film Hineini, a documentary about a young woman coming out in a Jewish high school, following services.

New Jersey won’t be left out — after all, they’re ahead of New York state in partnership rights for same-gender couples. And at B’nai Keshet, a Reconstructionist congregation, there will be a Pride Seder tied to the cause of marriage equality (which was the focus of the last seder at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun). And speaking of marriage equality, there is a great posting on the Jewish case for marriage equality from Australia (where pride seders have been celebrated as well).

Next weekend, down in Miami, at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, there will be a Pride Seder. I am always thrilled when I read about Pride Seders, since we started doing them at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in 1995, based on the liturgy developed by the Queer Minyan in Berkeley. We expanded the text and added a number of rituals, calling it the Stonewall Seder.  And over the years, as the text was picked up at other synagogues with additions and edits, we revised our text to reflect what we liked that we saw elsewhere. I wish there were one place where all the texts were collected so that someone could study the evolution of this new tradition.

Also next weekend in Boston, what is perhaps the oldest Pride Seder in the country will be held at Temple Sinai, and is sponsored by Congregation Am Tikva, CJP GLBT Team, Keshet, Ohel Tzedek of Temple Israel, and the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality.

The text of the Stonewall Seder (which can be downloaded here) was particularly influenced by revisions made by Andrew Ramer and Joss Eldridge at Congregation Sha’ar ZaHav, which this year will be holding their seder on Saturday, June 20, 2009, 6:00 pm. And for those of you who can’t go to a seder, you can see clips from the last Stonewall Seder at B’nai Jeshurun on YouTube, with the complete speech given by the guest of honor, Lisa Kron, and selection from the readings over the course of the night. My favorites include readings about the objects on the seder plate and a very different set of four questions:

And speaking of video clips, also at the JCC in NYC later this month is the Feigele Film Festival, with some great movies about queer life in Israel, including Veahavta—And Thou Shalt Love, Winner of the coveted Wolgin Prize for Best Drama at the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2008 and also inlcuding a documentary about pride celebrations in Jerusalem and how finally all religions of the middle east finally united — around a message of intolerance.

However you celebrate Pride Month — as  Jew, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Jain…may it reflect the deep love that our expression of love in the world stands for.