CommuniKate

Just washed ashore from the RSVP cruise, and should have my land legs back any day now. I need a Dramamine to go to the Duane Reade.

I met up with my 2,200 mateys on the Eurodam in Curacao last Tuesday and they were in crazy good form. They had already had a sail away theme party, a Valentines party and when I arrived they were in Carnival Masquerade mode. You should have seen the two Avatars! These guys don’t mess around. They plan for two or three costume changes a day. I was unable to ask them how big their luggage was, due to silly double entendre problems.

When they weren’t party planning, the guests were entertained by the dynamic duo of Amy and Freddy, the Guys Who Would be Divas, and the comedy stylings of Paul Williams and Danny McWilliams. In honor of my comedy cohorts, I changed my name to Esther Williams. The RSVP staff was endlessly accommodating.

We arrived Saturday morning in Ft. Lauderdale and I deshipped, or whatever it’s called, and went to the gorgeous Atlantic Resort Hotel, one of the big sponsors of many local LGBT events. After I checked in, I ran right into the concierge who I knew when he owned a beautiful shop in Ptown. When I went for a walk to see if I could, I ran into the retired postmaster from Ptown. I had lunch that day with four friends from Ptown. It was old homo week.

That night I performed to a wonderful sold out house at The Amaturo Theatre in the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. It was the last night of their big and getting bigger ten day ArtsUnited Festival. Under the stewardship of Keith Clark, ArtsUnited brings LGBT culture – writers, artists, film-makers, musicians, comics – to Florida. Every visiting artist, especially those from wintry northern latitudes, want to stay extra days.

But next day, I left and drove to Ft. Meyers for a show at the Carefree Clubhouse. Again, more friendly faces from Ptown! Has anyone checked the live videocam feed from in front of Spiritus to see if anyone is left in Ptown? It was great to be in that community of women. Many are retired and are having a blast there – canoeing, volunteering, painting, writing, swimming, being the much visited favorite auntie. None of them can figure out how they had time to work. What I enjoy most is how well they take care of each other.

Back in NYC, snow expected this afternoon. Back to Polartec.

*Land-based Lesbian

When the Supremes ruled 5-4 in Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission - AKA Capitalism v. Democracy - I got that old familiar cement block on sternum feeling of despair that I haven’t had since Bush v. Gore, another vote from our resident terrorist cell #5.

According to the ruling, corporations can spend unlimited funds on political advertising in any political election. Or they can just threaten to. What candidate wants to piss off Citibank by saying, “If you’re too big to fail, you’re not too big to be regulated.”

The Supremest, Chief Umpire John Roberts, who claimed in his confirmation hearing that his job is just to call balls and strikes, threw the entire game, along with judicial restraint and precedent. He must be on the take from someone. Oh right. Corporations.

In one of the biggest insults to personhood ever, the Roberts’ Court ruled that corporations are the same as people and therefore have the right to free speech. The “and those people are mostly straight white males” was understood.

That my darling LGBT community thinks that by the strength of our incredible, obvious logic, we will be able to sway this willfully illogical, camera-shy Supreme Court to see the unconstitutionality of CA’s Prop 8 is poignant.

May they prove me wrong.

That was the slogan of the 22nd Annual National Conference on LGBT Equality in Dallas, Texas. Good thing we weren’t in Rhode Island. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of LGBT organizing happening in RI.

Two thousand activists from all over the world – big shout out to forty activists from the Artistic Revolution Gang from Arkansas – attended the five-day conference, AKA “Creating Change”. The confab sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force featured practical workshops, day-long skill-building institutes, national organization convenings, award ceremonies, constant conversation, cruising and large plenaries, which I had the pleasure of emceeing.

The first plenary program featured Thomas Saenz, the president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund [MALDEF] who outlined how our communities intersect. We all are undocumented, outside the full constitutional guarantees and suffer from a courage deficit from Washington, DC. Next, NGLTF’s executive director, Rea Carey gave the annual state of the movement address: our movement is still strong and quite pissed. Saturday, the writer and editor, Kai Wright moderated a totally inspiring panel of young LGBT leaders who made me feel like I could retire. But why would I? It’s just getting really fun again. Sunday’s closing plenary brunch, traditionally devoted to LGBT arts and activism, featured the House/Ballroom sensation Vogue Evolution, who brought down what was left of the Sheraton.

Conference co-chairs, Russell Roybal and Sue Hyde, closed out the conference and invited everyone to come to Minneapolis, MN next year for the 23rd gathering of the tribe. Slogan suggestion: It’s Cold. We’re Hot.

I tell you all this because the same weekend that 2000 people attended the Creating Change Conference in Dallas to bring the country we love to a more just future, 600 people attended the Teabagger Convention in Nashville to bring the government they hate back to the racist and sexist values of 1773. They wore more drag than Creating Change. We would not do the powdered patriot wigs.

Creating Change did not get as much media coverage as the Teabaggers. I know you are shocked. For more about the conference and NGLTF see HYPERLINK “https://www.theTaskForce.org” www.theTaskForce.org.

See you next year!!