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February 27, 2008
Sitting Shiva On She
Don’t ask. I’m a 60 year old white woman with the last name Clinton. How do you think I feel?
Please do not tell me your long night of the soul “Let this cup pass from me, Oprah” story about when you decided to switch from Hillary to Obama. I do not feel your pain.
Please do not send me that “Good-bye to All That Part II” Robin Morgan piece. It’s brill, but it reminds me of one of those desperate prayer chain letters. When you haven’t got a prayer. Besides, I am the weakest link in chain letters.
When I ask you a simple question, like “Can we get to 42nd Street in this traffic?”, please don’t breathlessly bug-eye me with, “Yes we can!” Sheesh.
Like the new Lexus, I have pre-collision intelligence, so I didn’t watch the last Democratic debate. My partner did. Actually she switched back and forth between American Idol with Simon Cowell and American Idol with Tim Russert. At least my partner didn’t announce to everyone that if I didn’t do well in Ohio and Texas, I wouldn’t have a chance.
I put on her new BOSE headset, cranked up Strauss’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra” and did the crossword puzzle.
Did I miss anything?
Obama won? Wow, I so did not see that one coming.
I’ve been thinking about returning to my radical lesbian separatist roots. Get back to the land. Get off the grid. Get some flannel shirts and patchooli at Urban Outfittters. Okay, maybe not that far back. But I have been re-reading my favorite feminist thinkers.
Like contemporary French Feminist philosopher, Monique Wittig. She said that heterosexuality is a political regime in which “woman” exists only through her relation to the category “man”. Between Gauloises, she called for the abolition of gender categories and boldly proclaimed that lesbians are not women.
Aha! My mistake was wanting a woman president. Next time I will be much more specific. I want a lesbian president, who is not beholden to a man or the derivative, woman. Think Mike Bloomberg, but vive la difference. He bought the NYC mayoralty fair and square so he did not owe anyone anything. That allowed him to go after smokers, small-gun toters and trans fats.
Shiva is the paradoxical god of opposites. What is the opposite of cynicism of despair but the audacity of hope. Where is Christine Quinn? Get me Tammy Baldwin’s number.
Hillary? Obama?
We were dissappointed to see that you aren't bringing your live show to
Portland, OR. My partner and I both enjoy your humor and would love to
see you in Portland or Seattle. I have a political question for you. My
partner and I are split on this election. I support Hillary and she
supports Obama. What are the concrete reasons you support her over Obama?
We don't argue over this so its not an issue. We are united in the joy
of Bush/Cheney leaving the carnage that is now the white house.
Susan Glenn
Patty Zurflieh
- - - - - - - - - - - -- -- -- - -- - - -- - - -- -- -- - -- -- - - -- -- -- -- - - - -- - ---
Dear Susan,
It is quite a pleasure to have two exciting candidates to chose from isn't it? The concrete reasons? I want a woman president. Simple enough. Actually I want a lesbian who doesn't give a shit what men think. That will be a few more years, apparently.
Like you I want the current junta out.
My audacious hope is that whoever the Democratic candidate, that she or he will be able to unite the party and defeat the Republican nutjob candidate and take back Congress.
Otherwise I'm off to Brazil.
Viva Lula!!
Best,
Kate
February 25, 2008
K8T Asks: Best Lesbian Movie Oscar Nominations?
Kate wants to hear from you! The next question of the week, straight from Kate, is: If there were an Oscar category for Best Lesbian Movie, and for the life of me I don't know why there isn't, what film would you nominate?
To get your voice heard, simply hit the Comment link below and tell her what you think! No registration is necessary, and you can post anonymously if you want.
February 22, 2008
THE BIG GAY SKETCH SHOW
Catch It ! or Set Your Tivo.....
Kate Clinton brings her hysterical humor to LOGO's BIG GAY SKETCH COMEDY SHOW
Episode 204- Season 2
Oprah and her platonic friend Gale discuss their latest adventures, Waffles takes a pilates class, and Jeff Foxworthy hosts "Are You Smarter Than a Tranny Hooker?" Appearances by Rosie O'Donnell & Chastity Bono. Guest stars Kate Clinton.
February 13, 2008
Power is sexy! Action is hot!
Those were the popping mantras of the recent National Conference on LGBT Equality sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in good old Detroit, Michigan. I did a warm up show the night before the conference in Ann Arbor at the wonderful Ark. Good thing the action at the confab was hot, because otherwise it was fa-reezing. Not that I ever left the hotel for four days.
It was their 20th such activist conference and it was like old Homo week. I saw a lot of old pals – the brilliant historian and biographer of Bayard Rustin, John D’Emilio; longtime activist and founder of Southerners On New Ground [SONG], Mandy Carter; and conference founder and general hell-raiser, Sue Hyde.
And I fell under the spell of roving gangs of young gay activists who brought me to poetry slams, dances and real-time organizing. We fought about Clinton v. Obama, kissed, made up and pledged to work to defeat whatever old Warhead the Republicans threw up.
The old homos embraced me, and I them. Just as they changed the health system to deal and deliver around the AIDS crisis, they are at it again to bring their skill-sets to transforming aging in this country. We are having a second wind, so watch out.
Trans-activists were fierce, funny and firm with me, making sure that I got the T in every mention of our community in my duties as emcee of the daily plenary sessions. We heard Julian Bond of the NAACP, Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire and Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon.
If you feel a subtle or not-so-subtle shift in the energy of your LGBT community, it’s because some hot, powerful, sexy activists have returned home from the Creating Change Conference and they are ready to kick it up.
Think about attending next year, January 2009, in Denver. It’s a friggin, awesome, rejuvenating blast.
February 12, 2008
K8T Asks: Candidate band?
Kate wants to hear from you! The next question of the week, straight from Kate, is: Mike Huckabee is a bass player. If you were putting a combo together, what instruments would you assign to other candidates? As you know, I would give the conductor baton to Hillary Clinton.
To get your voice heard, simply hit the Comment link below and tell her what you think! No registration is necessary, and you can post anonymously if you want.
February 06, 2008
Gay Christians
I just watched your 25th anniversary show on LOGO and enjoy you and your
humor - - but you talk about Christians as if it's impossible to be gay
and a Christian. But when you say that, you are in agreement with too
many in the "Christian" churches. You want to talk about courage? The
courage to come OUT as a gay Christian takes GUTS - so why not give us
some credit there?
I realize a BUNCH of the "Christian" stuff we hear today is crap - just
like a BUNCH of the gay stuff we hear today is crap. But why not give
credit to those of us who realize that we gays have to show tolerance too?
If we can't give it we'll never get it.
Carla
"It's not who you love, but whether you can..."
Janis Ian/Matthew
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear Carla,
Holy crap! Though it's not something I choose to do, I do admire gay Christians who are out in their churches. So thanks for witnessing in your church and being active in changing the dialogue.
I give big props to you for being an out gay Christian in your church, and I also give big props to out gays who have the courage to question the immoral authority of Christians whose extremism is actually unchristian. I think we need to do both. It makes for better bake sales.
Best,
Kate
February 05, 2008
Curb Your Cynicism
Curb Your Cynicism
My partner and I of twenty years – we can’t get married in New York State, even though a New York State appeals court just ruled our state must recognize out-of-state marriages – go to our local elementary school to vote in the primary.
The school is justly beloved for its dynamic principal, innovative curriculum, parental involvement and special needs program. With all manner of wheelchairs and walking devices, the first floor looks like Lourdes. It is a victim of its success, and so overcrowded, it has had to move many special programs out of the school.
We walk past the PTA Moms hawking baked goods for the school. “The croissants are low-fat.” We give them a ten, but don’t take anything. They are chirpingly grateful.
We walk into a steamy, Dianne Arbus low-ceilinged inner room, smelling faintly of green sawdust and cooked cabbage. I’m hoping that since it is early, the election officials are still just getting their system down. We are the fourth and fifth voters from our district.
The older woman I am directed to doesn’t hear or see that well and seems flummoxed with the multi-tasking of finding “Clinton” on her list – “Can you spell it?” - and assigning me a number. Five. The big lever to open the voting booth curtain is jammed. I cast my vote for someone who will have to deal with global warming, gay issues, education, aging issues, the economy, voting reform. And that war.
We vote, walk out and breathe deeply. We walk by a young woman by the playground fence, at the mandatory distance from the polling place, surreptitiously murmuring “Hillary” and passing out home made fliers like they were nickel bags. A woman with a regulation Obama placard stands in silent vigil across the street.
This Super Tuesday, it’s Carnival in other parts of the world. In the US, it’s the national semi-finals of American Idol and there is a late surge by a talented young man who can kick out a speech like nobody’s business. The handsome business cardboard cutout of a guy is lip-syncing Ronald Reagan. The white haired vet is cracking straight jokes. No matter the talents of the woman contestant, she is to be judged by Survivor rules.
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I am going to daub a big bindi of ash on my furrowed brow and try to give up cynicism for Lent.
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