Wednesday, December 21, 2022

They want to ban drag?

C.I. (THE COMMON ILLS) filling in for Elaine tonight.  



At 5 Points Diner & Bar in Nashville, Tenn., drag performer Veronika Electronika can often be seen strutting between brunch tables. Her big hair, glitzy outfits and quick wit keep patrons on their toes.

Veronika’s lighthearted performances are a staple of Tennessee’s drag scene, but on a recent Saturday in December, she abruptly stopped her show to address a heavy subject: a proposed state bill seeking to ban drag acts — like the one she was performing at that moment — from public view. 

“If that law passes, I would be committing a potential felony,” Veronika said, as the audience booed the bill. “If you’re not a fan of that bill, I highly suggest you contact your state legislator.” 

Tennessee is one of at least five states where Republican lawmakers are considering bills to restrict drag performances. The measure, known as Senate Bill 3, was introduced by Tennessee Republican Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson in November. 

“The intent of the legislation is just to simply say that you cannot have sexually explicit entertainment … in a public venue where kids might be present,” Johnson said.




Can you believe it?  They like to, these hate merchants, insist that there's no history of this or that right that LGBTQ+ Americans have fought for.  Their hate is astounding.  But now, they're going after drag performers and that's rather amazing when you consider America's long history with drag. It predates the creation of the United States and goes all the way back to ancient Greece.  When William Shakespeare was alive, female characters in his plays were portrayed by women.  As for the US, WIKIPEDIA notes:

The first person known to describe himself as "the queen of drag" was William Dorsey Swann, born enslaved in Hancock, Maryland, who in the 1880s started hosting drag balls in Washington, DC attended by other men who were formerly enslaved, and often raided by the police, as documented in the newspapers.[62] In 1896, Swann was convicted and sentenced to 10 months in jail on the false charge of "keeping a disorderly house" (euphemism for running a brothel) and requested a pardon from the president for holding a drag ball (the request was denied).[62]



That's a historical aspect that's not noted or recognized by many.  In the US, vaudeville was home to drag beginning in the late 1800s.  When vaudeville died out, drag performers appeared more and more in nightclubs.


They also appeared in TV shows and films.  Milton Berle was infamous for dressing up in drag on his 1950s TV program.  Jim Bailey was a night club performer whose drag act crossed over to TV.  Successful TV shows that he appeared on in drag included THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, THE TONIGHT SHOW SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON, THE CAROL BURNETTE SHOW, HERE'S LUCY (starring Lucille Ball, of course), and he performed as Barbra Streisand at the 1977 Super Bowl and the 1984 Winter Olympics.  He also impersonated Judy Garland (who became a friend and who he impersonated onstage with her daughter Liza Minnelli for "The Judy and Liza Concert" that played in Vegas and London), Phyllis Diller (on the episode of HERE'S LUCY, when Phyllis can't make a charity event so Judy asks for Jim's help), 

1927 was when Mae West's play THE DRAG debuted.  Other well known representations in media?  VICTOR/VICTORIA -- yes, the Julie Andrews film; however, prior to that it was also made in 1933, 1935 and 1957 -- the 1935 film was entitled FIRST A GIRL and featured Anna Lee (known to millions for playing Lila Quatermaine on GENERAL HOSPITAL as well as such films as THE SOUND OF MUSIC and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?), SOME LIKE IT HOT (possibly the greatest comedy film of all time), Ed Woods' GLEN OR GLENDA, WHITE CHRISTMAS (yes, Bing Crosby did drag), THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, John Waters' PINK FLAMINGOS and HAIRSPRAY, TOOTSIE, NORBIT, the documentary PARIS IS BURNING, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY ITCH, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE, WHITE CHICKS, HURRICANE BIANCA, Bob Hope's THE PRINCESS AND THE PIRATE, Mike Nichols' THE BIRDCAGE . . .

We could go on and on.

So if the hate merchants in Tennessee have their way, what does that mean for film portrayals?  Will they ban the movies from theaters?  Will they block out broadcasts of the films?

It's beyond stupid. There are real issues to address.  Pouring hate on drag performers is neither a real issue nor a needed one.

Remember who they have chosen to stand against -- performers not attempting to harm anyone, performers following in the footsteps of Jim Bailey, Dustin Hoffman, Divine, Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Nathan Lane, Bob Hope . . .  And what was good enough for the Olympics and the Super Bowl apparently isn't good enough for Tennessee lawmakers.


In other news, 24-year-old transgender activist Henry Berg-Brousseau has taken his own life.  AP reports:



Berg-Brousseau died Friday, said his mother, state Sen. Karen Berg. He “long struggled with mental illness, not because he was trans but born from his difficulty finding acceptance," she said in a news release. The cause was suicide, she said.


Berg-Brousseau, of Arlington, Virginia, was the deputy press secretary for politics for the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation's largest LGBTQ advocacy organizations.

“Henry was first and foremost a fighter and an advocate. He was fighting for transgender rights as a teenager in Kentucky, far earlier than he should have had to," HRC president Kelley Robinson said in a statement. “As part of his job at HRC, he faced down anti-transgender vitriol every single day, and no one was more aware of the harm that anti-transgender rhetoric, messaging, and legislation could have on his community.”

His mother, a Democrat from Louisville, said her son had finally found a community, “but that could not undo the brokenness that he already felt.”





In a statement posted on Twitter via Bluegrass Politics, Berg said that her son had spent his life “working to extend grace, compassion, and understanding to everyone, but especially to the vulnerable and marginalized.”

She added that “this grace, compassion, and understanding was not always returned to him” as a transgender man. The state senator called out the politicians who actively sought to marginalize her son because of who Berg-Brousseau was.



Berg said Berg-Brousseau had dealt with mental illness, “not because he was trans but born from his difficulty finding acceptance.”


"Iraq snapshot' (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, December 21, 2022.  Hate merchants peddle hate with little consequences, Iraq's last prime minister was a sadist sicko, Will Lehman calls out voter suppression, and much more.

We're going to start with this exchange from last week's  House Oversight Committee hearing: 


US House Rep David Cicilline: Republicans are happy to discuss our community when they're attacking our rights, when they're crying on the House floor because they oppose marriage equality or when they releasing statements attacking our community in press releases and when they release new bills targeting our community.  But when it comes to actually discussing the violence against our community and its causes?  Just a quick condemnation of what happened at Club Q and violence broadly and nothing more.  In my view, this is shameful.  And so I want to begin, Ms. Robinson, to thank all of the witnesses for being here today.  Ms. Robinson, as we near the end of this hearing, is there anything that we've not covered yet relating to anti-LGBTQ+ extremism and violence that you would like to share for the record? 

Kelley Robinson:  We can do something about this.  We can assure that social media companies uphold their community standards.  We can pass the equality act to ensure that LGBTQ+ people actually don't have legalized discrimination happening to them in more than half of the states.  We can, as a community, step up and say whole heartedly, no matter what our party affiliation is, repudiate and rebuke these horrendous attacks on our people.  There is work to be done and, especially on this ten year mark of Sandy Hook, we can do something to end this epidemic of gun violence.  We have to and we must.

US House Rep David Cicilline:  Thank you so much.  And Mr. Wolf, thank you so much for being here and for sharing your story.  What message do you have for politicians who are championing bills to limit the rights of the LGBTQI+ community?

Brandon Wolf:  Thank you, I'm grateful to be here.  And my message is simple: Words have consequences.  Somebody has to pay the price for unmitigated, unbridled hatred -- the kind of hatred that we've seen on the rise across this country.  We've heard a lot about accountability in this hearing and I'm glad we're talking about accountability.  No one is asking for anyone but the shooter at Club Q to be on trial in Colorado Springs.  But what we are saying is that people should be accountable for the things that come out of their mouths.  And when you're willing to traffic in cheap shots and biogtry against a marginalized community that's already seeing hate against it that's on the rise, already seeing violence rising across the country, when you're willing to traffic in those things to score political points, you have to be accountable for what happens next. You have to hold yourself accountable for the impacts of your words.  Words really do have consequences.  Unfortunately, communities like mine have felt them.  We have to do better than we are today.


Last Wednesday, the House Oversight and Reform Committee, chaired by US House Rep Carolyn Maloney, held a hearing entitled "The Rise of Anti-LGBTQI+ Extremism and Violence in the United States."  The hearing was held due to the rise in violence aimed at the LGBTQ+ community which includes last month's Club Q shooting.  The shooting left five people dead:

  • Daniel Davis Aston, 28
  • Kelly Loving, 40
  • Ashley Paugh, 35
  • Derrick Rump, 38
  • Raymond Green Vance, 22

The shooting also left twenty-five people injured.

Michael Anderson, James Slaugh and Matthew Haynes survived the shooting and they made up the first panel before the Committee. The second panel made up of Human Rights Campaign's Kelley Robinson, Pulse Nightclub shooting survivor Brandon Wolf, National Center for Transgender Equality's Oliva Hunt, Inside Out Youth Services' Jessie Pocock and The Williams Institute's Ilan Meyer.



Hate merchants continue to attack the LGBTQ+ community and they largely get away with it.  You can -- and a body does -- call for gay people to be killed -- and get away with it.  At least with regards to government officials.  Sometimes, a community comes together to make clear that this hate speech is neither wanted nor desired.  Such as in Fort Worth, Texas, where Stedfast Baptist Church's hate merchant Jonathan Shelley is in a tizzy that his church will have to move yet again:


“The reality is nobody really wants to lease to us, so it makes it very difficult,” Shelley said. “I am still working a few options, as far as lease options, or maybe even getting a building.”

In May, Shelley spoke to the Arlington City Council and said that gay people deserved to be killed. He advocated for enforcing an old Texas law outlawing “sodomy” that has since been ruled unconstitutional.

Residents in Watauga have said they want Stedfast out of their community because it promotes hate-filled, violent rhetoric that causes them to be concerned about their safety. Church officials said they have been harassed by the protesters.

You're calling for murder.  And you're surprised people don't want to lease to you?  You're calling for murder and you're pretending that this is due to your religious teachings.  See "Those fake ass 'religious' litigants (Ava and C.I.)" for how to many idiots are getting away with too much by citing ''religious freedom" when they're not even practicing the teachings of Jesus.

Your a hate merchant spewing hate but don't worry, Jonathan Turley will always protect your speech.  He won't protect the rights of other speech.  He won't protect the speech of drag performers or of libraries but he'll rush to defend the hate merchants and only the hate merchants.

 


Protesters trying to shut down a reading event geared toward neurodiverse children at a branch of the New York City Public Library were met by a wall of counterprotesters.

The standoff over the Drag Story Hour event — a popular national storytelling program where drag performers read children's books at libraries, schools and bookstores — took place outside the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday. The event was billed as “storytime with local drag performers adapted to be more accessible to kids with autism and other disabilities.”



Saturday's protest was just the latest in a string of standoffs across the country from a fringe movement targeting drag events over unsubstantiated allegations of grooming.

The group demonstrating on Saturday brought handmade signs covering a spectrum of issues, with messages protesting everything from fascism to grooming to gender identity.

New York City Council member Erik Bottcher shared images and videos online of the protesters, some of whom he tried speaking with before entering the children’s reading event.

“I want to show you the face of hate, right here in Chelsea,” Bottcher said in a video shared on Twitter, before showing the counterprotesters clad in rainbows.

A representative for the New York Public Library said the event went on as planned and added that the library would continue to offer programs supporting diverse voices.

“This is particularly important at this moment when we are seeing a rise of hate and violence targeting LGBTQ+ communities," the representative said.


A right winger gets booed at a campus events and Jonathan Turley's sobbing tears and insisting booing is wrong.  (Another example of how stupid he is and how he shouldn't be commenting on supposed art -- cake baking and computer templates aren't art.)  But a mob goes after a library event and, in fact, targets a local government official and Jonathan says nothing.  Well, after all, FOX NEWS is now paying him.  







Outrageous.  Unless you're banking a check from FOX NEWS apparently.

Turning to Iraq . . . 

Mustafa al-Kadhimi was Iraq's most inept prime minister since the US-led invasion of Iraq.  It turns out that he might have also been one of the most corrupt and sick -- and remember, Iraq has already suffered through two terms of Nouri al-Maliki being prime minister. So to be more corrupt and sick than Nouri is really saying something.  Remember, Nouri's actions lead to the rise of ISIS in Iraq.   Louisa Loveluck and Mustafa Salim (WASHINGTON POST) report:



A flagship anti-corruption drive under the tenure of U.S.-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi used incommunicado detention, torture and sexual violence to extract confessions from senior Iraqi officials and businessmen, according to a nine-month investigation by The Washington Post.

Kadhimi, who left office in October, came to power in 2020 after mass anti-corruption demonstrations felled his predecessor. His government’s high-profile campaign to tackle graft in one of the world’s most corrupt countries drew widespread international encouragement.

Central to the effort was a series of highly publicized night raids in late 2020 on the homes of public figures accused of corruption, conducted under the authority of the Permanent Committee to Investigate Corruption and Significant Crimes, better known as Committee 29. The architect of the raids was Lt. Gen. Ahmed Taha Hashim, or Abu Ragheef, who became known in Iraq as the “night visitor.”

But what happened to the men behind closed doors was far darker: a return to the ugly old tactics of a security establishment whose abuses Kadhimi had vowed to address. In more than two dozen interviews — including five men detained by the committee, nine family members who had relatives imprisoned, and 11 Iraqi and Western officials who tracked the committee’s work — a picture emerges of a process marked by abuse and humiliation, more focused on obtaining signatures for pre-written confessions than on accountability for corrupt acts.

Those interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters or, in the case of detainees and their families, to protect their safety.

“It was every kind of torture,” one former detainee recalled. “Electricity, choking me with plastic bags, hanging me from the ceiling by my hands. They stripped us naked and grabbed at the parts of our body underneath.”

In at least one case, a former senior official, Qassim Hamoud Mansour, died in the hospital after being arrested by the committee. Photographs provided to The Post by his family appear to show that a number of teeth had been knocked out, and there were signs of blunt trauma on his forehead.


Right now, my thoughts go to Robert Pehter, whose been held forever and who looks like he's been tortured.  The Australian government has done nothing to secure his release.



We'll wind down with this from Will Lehman's campaign:


 
The following sites updated:






 

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