Herland Sister Resources

by frank rich, new york times

WHAT if they held a culture war and no one fired a shot? That’s the compelling tale of “Brokeback Mountain.” Here is a heavily promoted American movie depicting two men having sex - the precise sex act that was still a crime in some states until the Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws just two and a half years ago - but there is no controversy, no Fox News tar and feathering, no roar from the religious right. “Brokeback Mountain” has instead become the unlikely Oscar favorite, propelled by its bicoastal sweep of critics’ awards, by its unexpected dominance of the far less highfalutin Golden Globes and, perhaps most of all, by the lure of a gold rush. Last weekend it opened to the highest per-screen average of any movie this year.

Those screens were in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco - hardly national bellwethers. But I’ll rashly predict that the big Hollywood question posed on the front page of The Los Angeles Times after those stunning weekend grosses - “Can ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Move the Heartland?” - will be answered with a resounding yes. All the signs of a runaway phenomenon are present, from an instant parody on “Saturday Night Live” to the report that a multiplex in Plano, Tex., sold more advance tickets for the so-called “gay cowboy picture” than for “King Kong.” “The culture is finding us,” James Schamus, the “Brokeback Mountain” producer, told USA Today. “Grown-up movies have never had that kind of per-screen average. You only get those numbers when you’re vacuuming up enormous interest from all walks of life.”

In the packed theater where I caught “Brokeback Mountain,” the trailers included a National Guard recruitment spiel, and the audience was demographically all over the map. The culture is seeking out this movie not just because it is a powerful, four-hankie account of a doomed love affair and is beautifully acted by everyone, starting with the riveting Heath Ledger. The X factor is that the film delivers a story previously untold by A-list Hollywood. It’s a story America may be more than ready to hear a year after its president cynically flogged a legally superfluous (and unpassable) constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage for the sole purpose of whipping up the basest hostilities of his electoral base.

By coincidence, “Brokeback Mountain,” a movie that is all the more subversive for having no overt politics, is a rebuke and antidote to that sordid episode. Whether it proves a movie for the ages or as transient as “Love Story,” it is a landmark in the troubled history of America’s relationship to homosexuality. It brings something different to the pop culture marketplace at just the pivotal moment to catch a wave.

Heaven knows there has been no shortage of gay-themed entertainment in recent years. To the tedious point of ubiquity, gay characters, many of them updated reincarnations of the stereotypical fops and fussbudgets of 1930’s studio comedies, are at least as well represented as other minorities in prime-time television. Entertainment Weekly has tallied nine movies, including “Capote” and “Rent,” with major gay characters this year. But “Brokeback Mountain,” besides being more sexually candid than the norm, is not set in urban America, is not comic or camp, and, unlike the breakout dramas “Philadelphia” and “Angels in America,” is pre-AIDS.

As far as I can tell, the only blowhard in the country to turn up on television to declare culture war on “Brokeback Mountain” also has an affiliation with the American Family Association. By contrast, as Salon reported last week, other family-values ayatollahs have made a conscious decision to ignore the movie, lest they drum up ticket sales by turning it into a SpongeBob SquarePants cause célèbre. Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America imagined that the film might just go away if he and his peers stayed mum. Audiences “don’t want to see two guys going at it,” he told Salon. “It’s that simple.” So he might wish. The truth is that the millions of moviegoers soon to swoon over the star-crossed gay cowboys of “Brokeback Mountain” can probably put up with the sight of “two guys going at it.”

CETLALIC is an alternative Spanish language school in Cuernavaca, Mexico dedicated to social justice. CETLALIC offers small classes as well as homestays with gays and lesbians in the community. (Hotels or apartments are also available if you prefer.) We provide a place for cultural exchange with a focus on mutual understanding and social justice. Classes at all levels are offered year-round, as well as several special programs throughout the year, each focused on a particular social issue or area of interest.

Upcoming special programs include Winter Queer Program in Mexico (for all gay and lesbian folks interested in learning about the real situation of the gay and lesbian community in Mexico through the study of the language and cultural exchange) and Women and Social Change in Mexico (learn about Mexican culture, politics, and economics through the lens of women´s experiences and struggles for social justice).

Classes are intensive Spanish language instruction integrating texts and discussions to supplement program focus. Students are evaluated and placed at the appropriate level with a maximum of five students in each class.
Cultural activities include guest speakers, roundtable discussions, field trips, and encounters with local community groups affording participants an understanding of the cultural context of gay and lesbian identity in Mexico.
For more information email infor@cetlalic.org.mx or visit http://www.cetlalic.org.mx/

The American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss., a leader in the 1997 anti-”Ellen” crusade, claimed this month that its threat of a boycott had led Ford to stop advertising its Jaguar and Land Rover lines in glossy gay magazines. Last week Ford, under fire from gay civil-rights organizations and no doubt many other mainstream customers, essentially told the would-be boycotters to get lost by publicly announcing that it would not only resume its Jaguar and Land Rover ads in gay publications, but advertise other brands in them as well.

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Persons - and their families, friends, supporters and allies - in the Oklahoma City area will convene as GayOKC.com presents “The State of Our Community 2006″, Monday, January 30th, 2006 at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1901 N Douglas Avenue in Oklahoma City.

The program, organized by Rob Abiera - owner and editor of GayOKC.com - will feature a look back at newsworthy events in OKC’s GLBT Community in 2005 from the perspective of the people who actually made those events happen and presentations on the state of OKC’s GLBT Community from representatives of the community’s organizations and businesses. The program will be preceded by a reception.