What do you think Perez Hilton would draw on this photo?
When Lauren Drain, 27, a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church hate group sat down with The Advocate to discuss her new book recently she revealed her belief that “something” had happened—something, let’s face it, that is TOTALLY EASY TO BELIEVE—in his past that inspired “church” founder Fred Phelps’ vicious anti-gay crusade:
I never understood why, when [the media asked him], “Why are you so against the homosexuals? Did you have a homosexual experience? Do you have homosexual tendencies?” And he would get so mad, he would shut down. And he’d be like, “I can’t talk to this person anymore, they’re stupid.” His reaction to that was stronger than any other question you can ask him. So I always wondered that — why does he get so mad? If I’m not gay, I’ll just say I’m not gay. And I’m not going to freak out, like, “Why are you calling me gay?” I always thought that was super strange. … I don’t know what happened there, so [speculation] is all that I can leave it at. But something happened, and something made him change his mind about the military, and in turn have kind of a crusade against sexual immorality and homosexuals.
No gasps from the peanut gallery? Nope, none at all.
Drain’s book, Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church, describes her childhood growing up with Westboro nutters after her father became obsessed with the group and moved his family to Kansas to be nearer to the Phelps family.
Isn’t it sad to see something you once truly loved dissolve into a lacklustre parody of itself, right before your very eyes?
Last year I went on record here at DM to state that RuPaul’s Drag Race is the best reality TV show ever. I mean, seriously, how can a show about competing drag queens not be!? So that’s why I am forced to write this blog post today. It’s depressing, yes, saddening, for sure, but I have to be honest. I think RuPaul’s Drag Race has fucked it up.
Let’s rewind a little first. If you have never seen Drag Race, let me explain just why it has been the best thing on TV, and still may be. First of all, the challenges the contestants face on Drag Race are harder than on any other reality show. Which other competition would ask its contestants to excel in acting, singing, dancing, stand-up comedy, design, clothes-making, catwalk presentation, make-up, hair and character creation? You have to have genuine talent to make the grade here, and in a number of areas.
Secondly, seeing as this is drag, there is a streak of irony a mile wide running through this show. It almost acts as a satire of the whole idea of reality TV competitions. Drag Race knows that you know how reality TV works. RuPaul delivers every product placement with a knowing wink, and certain tasks the queens face are direct parodies of tasks from other reality competitions.
Thirdly, and this is where it really strikes out of the ball park for me: Drag Race, whether unwittingly or in full knowledge, has done more than any other show of the last decade to make a set of gay people usually viewed as stereotypes appear actually human. The straight world generally sees drag queens as mentally unsound weirdos, obsessed with something they will never be, as easy to ridicule as to just simply ignore. They are either prostitutes or delusional, walking clichés. Well, guess what, Drag Race makes them people. Living, breathing, crying, lusting, funny, sad, flawed, brilliant people. This show has done as much for gay acceptance in the mainstream (it has been Logo TV’s break-out hit) as it has for a consistently marginalized art-form. And yes, hunty, drag IS an art form.
Last year’s Season 4 of Drag Race was unadulterated TV gold. It was pure televisual magic, the kind that simply cannot be planned or forced, the kind that unfurls organically, much to the viewers’ and the producers’ delight. Perhaps it was the larger-than-life personalities, and the strength of character of all he queens involved (not to mention the level of genuine talent on display.) Maybe it was the kindred sisterhood that formed among the queens that brought a lovely solidarity to the show that was unexpected and genuinely touching. Or maybe it was just the fact that some of the fiercest bitches in the world were there, in one room, trying to outdo one another. Whatever it was, it’s something that you simply CANNOT buy, and I urge anyone who has even a slight interest in television and/or alternative culture to seek out RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 4 on Netflix or iTunes. You will not be disappointed.
But that was then, and this in now. It seems crazy to think that a “golden age” of TV could have started and finished less than a year ago, but that is indeed how it feels. The current season of Drag Race is but a pale imitation of itself, with queens who have been cast seeimingly because of their resemblance to last year’s crop, but who sadly cannot deliver the charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent needed to become the next drag superstar.
Whereas last year the tension between the race’s two front-runners (well, one front-runner and one sore loser) was affecting because it was so obviously organic and real, this year the producers and editors are spending way too much time trying to create drama where none exists, rather than just letting it happen. Instead they are opting for the George Lucas-school of heavy handed, “kill a kitten” emotional engagement: half an hour of bog-standard bitching followed by a story about an absent parent and two or three minutes of hanky daubing and maybe even some actual tears. It’s boring as hell, and that’s something I never thought I would say about Drag Race. This might work on some other shitty reality shows, but as I have already stated, Drag Race is no ordinary reality show.
But you know what? If that was the main problem, then I could live with it. Sure, editing and production values get changed up every year, it’s par for the course (though they seriously need a brand new set!) but that’s not it. What I really miss from Drag Race this year is any kind of warmth. This seasons’ queens are too interested in themselves and “playing the game” (poorly, I might add) to actually connect with the viewers. Sure, after 5 series, I guess it was expected that contestants might be a little more savvy upon entering. But really, it’s as if these queens watched the last series, thought “I could do that,” yet truly didn’t understand what made that season work, what took it far beyond the ghettos of drag and gay culture, and made breakout stars of the contestants. And that was the heart. It wasn’t pretending to be a stone-cold “fierce bitch” all the time. That schtick gets boring very quickly, and the truth is that none of this year’s contestants have enough charm to pull off being a likable bitch. It’s just annoying.
This year Drag Race has been christened “the year of the fish” (fish being a term to describe a very feminine looking queen.) In retrospect, I feel last year should have been called “the year of the mother.” There were some awesome caring drag mothers in there looking out for everyone, and you can tell that some of those children are themselves gonna grow up to be fierce mothers. The caring, mothering aspect of drag is rarely seen outside of the drag community, and it seems obvious to me that it was a very strong pull for a non-gay audience. Seeing drag queens who actually care, and are not just bitches, is a novelty to a straight audience, and one they can connect strongly to. But who are the house mothers this year? There’s maybe one or two future mothers in there, but they have yet to bloom.
In essence, I would gladly show my own mother Drag Race Series 4, and while she might blush at points, she would come away with a lot of respect and admiration for these people, and a bit more of an understanding of her gay son’s life. But this year? Forget it! Many of these queens are the kind of people that re-enforce the stereotype of the bitchy, backstabbing, insecure homo. They’re taking up all the screen time, and it’s making Drag Race a chore to watch.
So yeah, you probably think I am overreacting, writing a huge blog screed about a goddamn reality competition show. But the fact is, if this show didn’t mean so goddamn much to me, I wouldn’t have even brought this whole rant up. But it needs to be said, it really does. Put a lid on the toxicity Drag Race, it’s off-putting.
In lieu of Monday night’s “sob story means a bully stays” Drag Race episode, I’d like to end with a clip from another reality show, Naomi Campbell’s The Face, in which the supermodel (and Queen Bitch) has to choose between two models, both with heartbreaking back stories of neglect that will bring a tear to your eye and a lump to your throat. This is how you deal with weak contestants who use their personal stories as an excuse for failure, and it’s highly entertaining. This clip is specifically for you, RuPaul. Learn it and learn it well:
Note 1: Well RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 4 WAS on Netflix, but it appears to have been removed. I still can’t recommend it highly enough though, so here’s a link to watch/buy the show on iTunes, and here it is on Amazon.
This is a guest post by UK blogger and leftist activist Scriptonite Daily
A new ad campaign hit the streets of London two days ago, drawing attention to a surprisingly unrecognized state of affairs: the City of London is the tax haven in our own backyard. While the British government is busy protecting banker’s bonuses, a global grass roots campaign has set up to take on the rules which create the institutionalized inequality which sees 0.1% of the world’s population owning 81% of the world’s wealth, while 8 million people will die this year because they are too poor stay alive. It’s time to help make The Rules.
The Way it Works Isn’t Working
The 2005 United Nations World Summit, before the bloated banking sector crashed the global economy, revealed the system was well broken before the crash;
Half the world lives on less than $2 a day
30,000 children die every single day due to poverty
2 billion people have no access to electricity
20% of people in the highest-income countries consume 86% of the world’s resources. The poorest 20% account for a minuscule 1.3%
“Income inequality and wealth inequality even more so, are worse in the United States since the 1920s, and by some measures since the 1890s. Most of the economic gains in the past 25 years have gone to the top 15-20 percent of Americans, but more recently, in the past six to seven years, most of the economic gains have gone to the top one percent. . . . The average CEO is making about 380 times more than the average worker – a huge gap relative to what it used to be 40 years ago – it was about 30 times.”
Whilst wages, working conditions and social security for the majority of the world are being undermined, the conditions of the 1% continue to improve as the rules which govern the world are bent in their favour. It is time we stopped living in a fantasy land of “trickle-down economics” and “anyone can make it if they try” fairy tales.
The campaign, which encompasses phone boxes (60 in all across the capital), a mobile billboard, viral video, postcards (and more) will run from the 11th to the 24th of March, is being brought to the UK by new anti-poverty initiative – The Rules - on behalf of people from the majority world who have signed a petition by people online and via a new mobile innovation called Crowdring, which enables people to sign a petition via dialling a “missed call.” This is a similar mechanism to Indian anti-corruption campaign of 2011, which became the biggest petition-type campaign ever seen, allowing people to participate without internet access and at very low cost.
“Our world has never been more connected or more prosperous than it is today. Yet right now, one in every three of us alive today does not have access to the most basic needs for a decent life – food, education, medical care, a safe environment.
The good news is that for the first time, ordinary citizens like you and I have the power and ability to change the rules that are creating these injustices. Technology and the shift of global power mean that we can now demand our say in decisions that have traditionally been made by elites behind closed doors. But the truth is, these things will only change if we demand it.”
The campaign operates as a decentralised network with several campaign hubs around the world, including in Johannesburg, Mumbai, New York and Rio. The focus of these hubs is to identify issues, opportunities, technologies and regional strategies for each campaign.
The ‘engine room’ for their campaigns is the Working Group, which is made up of more than 70 people from around the world. Members come as individual volunteers, not as representatives of their respective organisations. They come from a broad range of organizations – from civil society, to grassroots advocacy groups, to policy think tanks, to technology providers.
The sole objective of the Working Group is to help create campaigns for viable, alternative rules that serve the interests of the world’s majority, with disproportionate benefit to the poor, vulnerable and marginalised among us.
There will be a day of action on 16 March, where representatives from the majority world, The Rules and UK activists from groups such as Occupy and UK Uncut will all come together to transform a space in the City of London into a “tropical tax haven.” Pete the Temp has been confirmed to MC.
So, spread the word and join the campaign. It is time to stop complaining about the rules, and start rewriting them.
Take Action
Join The Rules campaign and be a part of the solution
This is a guest post from UK blogger and leftist social activist Scriptonite Daily. Follow Scriptonite Daily on Facebook and Twitter.
Oh this is good: As the papal conclave meets to select a new pontiff, it’s being reported by The Independent that the Vatican purchased a €23 million share of a Rome apartment block in 2008 that houses the Europa Multiclub, the continent’s largest gay sauna.
Cardinal Ivan Dias, the 76-year-old leader of the Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples and a senior Vatican “prince of the church”—due to participate in the election today at the Sistine Chapel—lives in a 12-room apartment merely yards from the sex club. There are 18 other Vatican apartments on this block.
There was one sentence that stuck out in The Independent’s reporting that I got a bit of a chuckle from:
Cardinal Dias, who is seen as a social conservative even by the current standards of the church hierarchy, is no doubt horrified to learn of the activities taking place a floor below.
Is he really? Why… tell me HOW could this be a surprise in any way to someone living in the same bloody building??? Raise your hands, how many of you reading this would be “horrified” to find that the largest gay bathhouse in all of Europe was a few yards away from your own front door? And under a circumstance like this one where the Catholic Church itself—the very organization that you yourself work for—would be the landlord? This is utterly preposterous. He sleeps one floor above it!
Furthermore, the Cardinal, is known for being a homophobe who has described homosexuality as both an “unnatural tendency” and a disease of the soul.
What I want to know is, what does Cardinal Dias think the Europa Multiclub is, if not THE LARGEST GAY BATHHOUSE IN EUROPE?
A Chipolte? An Abercrombie & Fitch? Has anyone asked him?
It’s difficult to write an actual “book review” of someone’s collected letters, in this case, Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1959-1974 (edited by Bill Morgan) but trust me when I tell you that if you’re a Burroughs buff there is much to love between the covers of this thick volume. Some real revelations and some of it’s just flat-out hilarious. If you are considering buying it, you should.
In 1959, the year Naked Lunch was published, Burroughs, then 45 years old, was living in Paris and avidly exploring the occult implications of Brion Gysin’s cut-ups technique. A page of text would be sliced with a razor or else folded in from something else so that the “real” meaning could sort of, mediumistically speaking, “leak through.” Things changed quickly for the author by the end of that year. Via a Life magazine article, Burroughs’ rising notoriety as part of the Beat movement, his drug habit and his homosexuality was becoming known to his wealthy Palm Beach socialite parents. One letter to his mother begins, in reference to her reaction to the Life article.
Dear Mother,
I counted to ten before answering your letter and I hope you have done the same since nothing could be more unworthy than a quarrel between us at this point.
Yep, William Burroughs having a fight with his mom… and you can eavesdrop. Burroughs goes on to try to mollify his mother (who still sent him a small monetary stipend each month that he very much depended on) by telling her that risque publicity sold books and hey, weren’t Poe, Byron and Baudelaire considered bad boys of literature in their time before gaining charter memberships in the Shakespeare squad? (I only wish that her letter that preceded his was in the book, too.)
.
His parents were raising his young child, William “Billy” Burroughs, Jr. (Burroughs had, of course, killed his son’s mother). In a letter to Billy, who was then 13, his wayward father mentions how traveling would be easier now without his “monkey” travelling companion (i.e his heroin addiction) but how his mother had forbidden him from stepping foot in Palm Beach under threat of “financial excommunication.”
Brion Gysin’s deep influence on Burroughs was a topic frequently mentioned in his correspondence during this time period—with Gysin the recipient of the bulk of the letters, along with Allen Ginsberg—and they are also filled with references to other WSB obsessions like Hassan-i Sabbāh, the apomorphine cure for heroin addiction, Wilhelm Reich and his theory of orgone energy, Count Alfred Korzybski, tape recorders, the Mayan calendar, the then-burgeoning underground press and Scientology. In fact, there is far more information about Burroughs’ interest in Scientology in these letters than I’ve encountered in any other source. So many Burroughs scholars seem to have a difficult time believing that a literary genius like William S. Burroughs could have been conned by a second-rate flim-flam man like L. Ron Hubbard, but he was in fact a very enthusiastic adherent to Scientology for about eight years, and that’s all here in his own words (along with plenty about his vicious post-fallout with the cult as well).
One short note politely abstains from joining Norman Mailer in his tax withholding protest against the Vietnam War:
November 20, 1967
8 Duke Street
St James
London S.W.1
England
Dear Norman,
As regards the War Tax Protest if I started protesting and refusing to contribute to all the uses of tax money of which I disapprove: Narcotics Department, FBI, CIA, any and all expenditures for nuclear weapons, in fact any expenditures to keep the antiquated idea of a nation on its dying legs, I would wind up refusing to pay one cent of taxes, which would lead to more trouble than I am prepared to cope with or to put it another way I feel my first duty is to keep myself in an operating condition. In short I sympathize but must abstain.
all the best,
William Burroughs
Burroughs already had enough problems, obviously. Lack of money and yet always being generously and sweetly concerned about the welfare of friends less well-off is another theme that runs throughout the collection. Unsurprisingly the letters also frequently mention Burroughs’ lifelong misogyny and distrust of females. A proposed Naked Lunch film to be made in conjunction with Terry Southern and produced by Chuck Barris is discussed. There is one letter that I thought was especially funny, Burroughs writing to Gysin about seeing gay porn on Times Square for the first time and how it’s going to put a novelist like himself out of business. There is even some correspondence from Burroughs to Fred Halsted (an early pioneer of extremely hardcore gay pornography) about a potential Wild Boys porn film(!), but WSB pulled the plug, he wrote the S&M auteur, for both of their sake’s, knowing that it was never, ever going to be funded or made.
I have been a bit slack with my Notes column of late, and here’s the reason why.
I love voguing (and you should know this by now.) I love the music, the dancing, the style, the language, the queens (both butch and femme), the battling, the videos, the full length films, the drama, the energy, the past, the present and the future. Voguing and Ballroom culture a very significant and valuable part of the LGBT landscape, the serves to teach children self-respect and personal growth, and gives them a space to be accepted, and to thrive, in.
I love voguing so much that I have written a in-depth introduction to the culture for Boing Boing. Funny as it may seem, this wasn’t an easy piece for me to write—I started and scrapped 3 drafts, which just kept getting longer and longer—but I am happy with this one. There’s quite a lot of material that I just didn’t have the space to include in this piece, and my thoughts are now quite seriously turning towards a book documenting the culture. It really is that rich.
Like hip hop, ballroom encompasses many different elements of artistic expression, from music and language to clothes and design, and, of course, dance. It deals directly with some of society’s most controversial issues, namely sexuality, race, class, gender roles and expression, beauty modes, self-definition and competition. It doesn’t do this in the polemical style we may be used to from punk and political hip-hop, however, where topics are theorised and discussed. In ballroom these issues are lived and experienced, as a vast number of those taking part in this underground scene are transgender, working class, people of colour.
Ballroom includes society’s most marginalised: minorities within minorities within minorities, for whom voguing and ballroom culture is an important resource. In a world where they have been rejected, ballroom not only accepts these people for who they are, it celebrates them, in a variety of unique and different categories. The competitive, prize-winning aspect of ballroom gives some participants a sense of worth lacking in the “real” world (not to mention money), and the familial structure of the “houses”—mother, father, sister, brother—often acts as a real surrogate, as many in this world have been disowned by their biological families.
Here, voguing is not just a dance, and ballroom is not just a genre. It’s a way of life that brings pride, peer recognition and self-respect. The genre of music is one thing, but the culture which surrounds it is another; and both are intricately tied into one another.
...
To quote the late, great Willi Ninja, who is perhaps the greatest voguer the world has yet seen, voguing is like a challenge dance: instead of fighting you take it out on the dancefloor. Depending on who you ask, this uniquely stylised dance form arose either amongst the inmates of Ryker’s Island, or at gay Harlem dance parties in the sixties (it’s most probably a mixture of both). Voguing got its name from Vogue magazine, as the competing dancers would flip to pictures of models posing, and imitate them, trying to outdo each other in the process. As it developed the dancers became quicker and more agile, and incorporated other forms of dance such as waacking (high speed arm movements and hand gestures) and body popping (though some say that voguing actually pre-dates popping, and was itself an influence on the original b-boys). Fast forward to 2013 and voguing has come a long way, progressing through the styles of old way, new way, femme and dramatics, to today’s almost hyperactive, turbocharged version of the dance. Although key elements of old way voguing remain (posing, “face”), a much more frantic and stylised choreography takes precedence, with signature moves such as the dip (when a dancer falls flat on their back), the duck walk and hair control (using long hair as stylistic element of the dance, in essence whipping it back and forth).
There’s more to vogue culture than just the dancing and the dressing up, and if you have seen Paris Is Burning you only know the very tip of this glittering iceberg. If you want to know more, read the rest of Welcome to the Ballroom, where Voguing is always in stylehere.
To accompany the piece, here is a 13 minute dj mix I put together of “cunt” tracks, “cunt” meaning “fabulous” in the world of Ballroom. Yes, the c-bomb gets dropped quite a lot in this mix, so you’re getting a warning: it’s NSFW!
Alas, it is not known who was the artist, or in what the year this portrait was drawn—though likely to be one of the many students who drew Mr. Crisp during his time as an artist’s model between 1942 and the early 1970s, which he described in his autobiography as:
‘It was like being a civil servant, except that you were naked.’
Los Angeles-based World Of Wonder productions are marking 21 years in the business of televisual entertainment, and to celebrate they have just brought out a new coffee table book, The World According to Wonder featuring exclusive portraits of practically every person they have ever worked with; from stars like Pamela Anderson, RuPaul, Dita Von Teese, Elvira and John Waters, to many of their behind-the-scenes crew, and even the staff at their popular The WOW Report blog.
The list of portrait sitters for The World According to Wonder‘s photographers Idris & Tony and Mathiu Andersen is huge, and the book (which has been a few years in the making) is very impressive indeed. When I say “coffee table book,” I mean if you stuck legs on this thing, it would be its own coffee table. (It weighs 8lbs!)
James St James and companion “Harvey”
Chaz Bono and ex-partner Jennifer Elia
World Of Wonder have brought us some of the best television of the last 20 years, shows and documentaries like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Becoming Chaz, The Adam & Joe Show, The Divine David Presents, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Inside Deep Throat, Pornography: The Secret History Of Civilisation, Jon Ronson’s Crazy Rulers Of The World, and Party Monster: The Shockumentary (not forgetting Party Monster the feature film, starring Macaulay Culkin as Michael Alig, the murderous king of the NY club kids, which has gone on to influence a new generation of club kids and become a cult classic in its own right).
Interspersed among the pictures is the story of World Of Wonder itself, eloquently and entertainingly told by the company’s founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato; from its beginnings in 80s New York, its early work with upcoming drag legend RuPaul and British TV station Channel 4, through expansion into full-length documentary features, all the way up to the present day, a slew of coveted awards and its position as brand leader for all things queer/drag/alt on television.
As an early 90s TV junkie, glued to late night BBC 2 and Channel 4—oh those really WERE the days!—this book brings back a lot of good memories (and reminders of forgotten but influential shows like Shock Video and Manhattan Cable) and it is inspiring and instructive to read how these shows came to be, directly form the people that made them. If there’s any message, here, I would say it is “believe in your vision and never take no for an answer” and The World According to Wonder is testament to how dreaming big, and thinking outside the box, can ultimately pay off.
My favorite aspect of vintage smut is its ability to explode any notion of a time of “orthodox” sexuality. These, for example, hearken back to a simpler time, when men were men—except when they weren’t.
(edited by Bill Morgan) but trust me when I tell you that if you’re a Burroughs buff there is much to love between the covers of this thick volume. Some real revelations and some of it’s just flat-out hilarious. If you are considering buying it, you should.
and the coffee-table book 
.
The glorious RuPaul
Chloe Sevigny
‘s photographers Idris & Tony and Mathiu Andersen is huge, and the book (which has been a few years in the making) is very impressive indeed. When I say “coffee table book,” I mean if you stuck legs on this thing, it would be its own coffee table. (It weighs 8lbs!)
James St James and companion “Harvey”
Pamela Anderson
Sharon Needles
