Stepping Up War on Transgender Americans, Trump Opposes Military Service
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | In a rapid-fire series of three tweets this morning, President Donald Trump announced his intention to bar transgender Americans from serving openly in the military. At about 9 a.m., tweeting on his personal account @realDonaldTrump, the president wrote: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the […]
Funny Money
BY DAVID KENNERLEY | The Broadway juggernaut “Hamilton” stunned critics and audiences alike by injecting new life into a musty, iconic American statesman well over 200 years old. So perhaps dramatist Peter Kellogg figured, why not create a musical promoting one of Hamilton’s equally brilliant and colorful contemporaries, Benjamin Franklin? “Money Talks: The Musical,” which […]
Looking His Best in Shorts
BY STEVE ERICKSON | Narrative shorts may be among the most marginal forms of cinema. It’s possible that Chris Marker’s “La Jetée” is the only one to have achieved the canonical status of avant-garde shorts like Kenneth Anger’s “Scorpio Rising” and Jack Smith’s “Flaming Creatures” or documentary shorts like Alain Resnais’ “Night and Fog” and Georges […]
The GOP’s Mayoral Candidate. Seriously.
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE| As she was discussing crime and the extent to which New York City residents feel safe in the city, Nicole Malliotakis, the presumptive Republican candidate for mayor and a member of the State Assembly since 2011, was asked about her continuing opposition to the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which would add gender […]
Just In Case, Health Advocates Return to Capitol Hill
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | One day after efforts by the Trump administration and the US Senate’s GOP leadership to dismantle President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act collapsed, up to 500 activists descended on Senate offices demanding that Republicans work on “providing health care rather than taking it away.” That’s how Eric Sawyer, the vice president of […]
Under de Blasio, Bulk of Pot Arrestees Black or Latino
BY NATHAN RILEY | Despite the fact that Democrats continue to become more dependent on reliable voting support from communities of color, groups fighting the criminalization of marginalized New Yorkers report that under Mayor Bill de Blasio virtually everyone arrested for marijuana is black or Latino. Appearing at a July 11 City Hall press conference, drug […]
Why Isn’t the Rainbow Flag Flying at the Stonewall National Monument?
BY MICHAEL PETRELIS | From the foot of historic Christopher Street to its head at the Stonewall National Monument, the LGBTQ Rainbow Flag should fly every day of the year. In the week leading up to this year’s Gay Pride Day, I submitted a request to the New York City parks department and the National Park […]
The Mash-Up of Appetite and Desire
BY DONNA MINKOWITZ | It was the last day of the Fancy Food Show, and every attendee was frantically scooping up free Italian sodas, chips, organic diced tomatoes, caramels, ginger tea premixed with kilos of sugar, and little French éclairs. I was one; my life had turned into an episode of “Supermarket Sweep,” and like the […]
Five-Year Sentence for Not Disclosing HIV Status Upheld
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD | An Ohio state appeals court has affirmed a felonious assault conviction and five-year prison sentence for Jeffrey A. Boatright, a gay Akron man convicted by a jury of violating a law criminalizing an HIV-positive individual’s failure to disclose their serostatus prior to engaging in sex. In a July 12 ruling, Ohio’s […]
Creature Comforts
BY GARY M. KRAMER | There is something very peculiar things going on in Mexican writer/ director Amat Escalante’s ambitious queer erotic sci-fi drama “The Untamed.” The pre-title shot is of an asteroid-like object in space. Then a naked woman, Verónica (Simone Bucio), is seen writhing in pleasure, and viewers next get a glimpse of a […]
