The New Bicep

Congratulations to the compact team of gay (un)organizers for a superbly (un)planned and (un)structured protest at the Mormon Temple in New York City on November 12, 2008 (and to the lone blogger responsible for the nationwide town hall protests scheduled for Saturday, November 15, 2008). This is the way in which stuff will get done in the future. Without elaborate staffing and inflated funding. Without much formal organizational sponsorship.

The casual and blog-based source and management of these huge events mark a startling power shift in the leadership of the gay community. Not many people are commenting on this secondary aspect of the event because they are rightly preoccupied with the central issue of Prop8/church&state. But I am more fascinated by the viral genesis and growth of this event and by the fact that it will most certainly be replicated elsewhere. I am more fascinated by the fact that while gay bloggers had already moved well beyond merely scrap-booking and reflecting about pets and lovers, they are now moving beyond ancillary reportage and advance-work, into creating and directing real events and experience and opinion.

Gay bloggers are finally understanding their own meta-virtual power. They are legion and can muster the troops instantly.

We are on the verge of no longer needing formal (and sometimes hidebound) advocacy groups to pave a way for us down Main Street.

Blog, seen yesterday as a media appendix, is now the new bicep. In Manhattan, I saw it flex. Thousands moved. More reps!

Tax this church! Tax this church!

they shouted at the gay protest at the Mormon Temple in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Electrifying, but not in the old-school way (or maybe I am just older). I was weaving through the crowd remembering the March on Washington in 1993. There were many tearful moments during that weekend, but last night was different. A much more serious and clear-eyed conviction about justice that is within our reach if we push for change. In the "old-school" days, just seeing the queer community assembled and visible was thrilling. We are used to that by now, but what was really amazing was the diversity of the last night's crowd. Many straight people attended. People who simply want to get the monkey of religion off the back of our government. People who know right from wrong, and are not afraid to tell a large church that it is dead wrong, that its actions are unacceptable and that there will be consequences.

You ought to go to one of the concurrent Saturday events at town halls all over the country. Look at the faces of the crowd and try to tell me we won't win this. In adversity, we are closer than ever to justice.



Joey was there (with a sign he brought back from California).



Eric was there.



Danny and his partner, frequent Farmboyz commenter Rey, were there.




The two guys C and I met when they had been protesting all alone in front of the Mormon Temple last Sunday were there.



There were many thousands of others. A peaceful crowd. Young, strong and convincing. No speeches. No politicians. No celebrities on red carpets or platforms. Just people who, because they can no longer count on the leaders of church and state to lead, have taken matters into their own hands. This is just the beginning. We ain't seen nothin yet.

(Here's a link to the full set of my photos.)

Tomorrow on Bilerico: "She wants to be a lizard"

You will have to go to Bilerico tomorrow after noon to see my response to the following:

Dear Father Tony,

It’s pretty clear that the LGBT community is angry at organized religion and quite justifiably so, especially in light of recent events. But there are plenty who desire to be received into a loving congregation. More and more churches are recognizing the need to be intentionally welcoming and inclusive.

Let’s say you’ve been given access to the senior pastor of a large metropolitan church whose membership is, for the most part, white, educated and conservative. What gay members may be present are well-closeted. The pastor wants very much to have his church to be open and affirming, and he is willing to guide his congregation in the process.

What advice would you offer him?

Grace

Update: It's up. Get on it.

Manhattan, take note.

Mayor Bloomberg would certainly approve. After having spent two weeks in Buenos Aires where the rabid and smoke-belching buses threaten pedestrians, and where we saw exactly four bicyclists, two of whom were involved in accidents, this urban novelty is precious and ought to be instituted here in New York where the rudimentary bike lane infrastructure is already in place.

Last Night in Buenos Aires

The Hotel Axel gave us a good-bye party last night.
(It happened to coincide with their first anniversary celebration.)







Champagne, open bar, clever food, jugglers of crystal globes, costumed greetings, and a guest list of the prettiest Buenos Aires travel, media and arts types.








C was in his vacation-relaxed posing mode.







The two guys in the back have the hair style that is the height of fashion here in Buenos Aires. Highly feathered and caressing the face, it calls to mind Jane Fonda in Klute.



And of course, the two ubiquitous athletic blonde lesbians were glowingly present.



We had a nice chat with the manager, Santi Ruiz, and with the president of Axel Hotels, Juan Julia. These guys know what they are doing. Their staff is excellent and the environment they provide for their guests make us certain that their next venture, Hotel Axel Berlin, will also be a success. Can we book a room pre-construction?

Today on Bilerico: How to have gay vacation sex.

You will have to go to Bilerico sometime today (I am totally confused by the time differences between Buenos Aires and wherever you may be) to read my response to this:

Dear Tony,


My name is Paulo, I am a journalism student from Buenos Aires. I would like to know, if you are still at the Axel Hotel, if I can interview you for an article that I have to write to qualifiy. Qualifing or not, isn´t that important but I need a good story and I think that I found one. I would like to meet you to chat. I am not gay, I hope that doesn´t matter.


If you are interested, tell me how to contact you.


Sorry for my bad english, I haven´t practiced for years.


Sincerely,

Paulo


[Paulo made clear in subsequent email his curiosity about how gay visitors to Buenos Aires have sex.]

Update: It's up. Get on it here.

Election Night Buenos Aires

We joined the liberal ex-pat community of Buenos Aires at Sacramento, a resto-bar in the fashionable Palermo Hollywood neighborhood, for an election night event organized by the local chapter of Democrats Abroad. The room was typical ex-pat: thoroughly mixed gay/straight with no issues attached.

The crowd was lovely. The news anchor was lovelier and the news was loveliest.

The authentic and the Disneyfied Buenos Aires

You get in the taxi and say one word. Caminito. The driver takes you to a neighborhood in the Boca section of BA that is a bag of contradictions. Very poor but very colorful. Italian (Genovese) heritage. They tried to become their own nation just a few years back. The "Caminito" is like Times Square. A tourist trap that you must see but not belabor. We headed through it and wandered the real streets and parks and open air markets. We ate oranges and inspected colorful bottles of home-brewed cleaning fluids. I made a sketch. The locals made suggestions in Spanish over my shoulder.

Buenos Aires Real Estate

All agencies post the prices for residential real estate in US dollars. This leads me to believe that the tide that brought Latin American buyers into Florida in search of real estate in which to park cash has gone out, and that US buyers are now looking at Buenos Aires as a safe option. I may be wrong in this perception. (There are several mysteries that I'll list in a future post. Local health care. The underground recycling operations involving children. The abnegation of personal citizen responsibility involving smoking, littering, curbing one's dog and traffic. Lack of coins/exact change. The fencing off of statuary and fountains.)

US $75,000 - $230,000 will get you a fine place with a terrace (some neighborhoods are much more desirable than others).

We were, however, shocked and amused by the prices for the new Norman Foster development in La Boca, an exclusive enclave of gentrification on the riverfront. It is 45% sold with mid-range unit prices at US $750,000. Nearby, the cranes were hummin' and the cement mixin' and the skyscrapers scrapin' and we were guessin' that this town had not gotten the memo about the failure of the residential real estate market. Or, maybe, having read the headline "Real Estate Market Goes South", they thought this to be good news for Buenos Aires.



Here is the new Faena Hotel and Universe, a sleekly converted grain warehouse designed by Philippe Starck with an emphasis on deep red and black polish. Our DC spa-owning friends here at the Axel had dinner in its contrasting white Unicorn Room where they were served squid ink. They spit it out and demanded that the waiter replace it with something edible. They described it to me as "squid piss".



Peaking through the blinds of the glitzy ruby-accented lobby, we were surprised to see the that the amorous athletic blonde lesbians and their body guard (Uncle Fester in speedos) had translated themselves from the Axel into the infinity pool of the Faena. Perhaps they required a more refined audience.

Manzanas Deliciosas

At Gay Pride Buenos Aires, a tango dancer is inspired by Javi Punga who was performing his hit, Manzanas Deliciosas, nearby.

I am translating Manzanas Deliciosas as Tasty Apples but I suspect the actual lyrics are less about vegetarianism.

Gay Pride - Old School

On Saturday Nov 1, we attended the wonderful Buenos Aires Gay Pride Celebration and Parade at the Plaza de Mayo. This is an old school pride fest that reminded us of the way things used to be before sponsorships and barricades and police-every-five feet killed it all. Very freeforall/Montreal-Pridelike.

Here are 80 pictures of a beautiful day full of beautiful porteños (locals). One question: where are all the older gay people? You would think they would be visible at least on this day, but this was an overwhelmingly young crowd.

The parade ended after sundown at the central Plaza del Congreso with fireworks and performances. You really have not lived until you have heard an Argentine transvestite lip sync the Quebecoise Celine Dion's cover of Englishman Andrew Lloyd Weber's American Broadway hit "Don't Cry for me, Argentina". Our life is now complete.

PS to our German farmboy friend, Reinhold: You photograph so well.
PS to Naty: you handle direct sunlight with valiance.

Here are some sample photos. Video to follow.

In crazy funny BA Dayz

Barely a moment to write. Here are some pics from our trip to El Cementerio de la Recoleta. Think Pere Lachaise in Paris, or maybe Campo Verano in Roma or even Green-Wood in Brooklyn. I touched the tomb of Eva Peron.








Back at the hotel, they were holding one of their weekly art evenings. This one featured an artist named Tom Middleton who explores light from within the body, or something. A lot of fun. We convived with Jim and Eduardo of a certain celebrity spa in DC. Their personal scandal has now been broken open on Facebook by the lover/business partner of Jim who is of a certain automobile family. I could dish, but I guess that's already been handled efficiently. They are fun company and their new hair cuts are very Jane Fonda in Klute. The 24 yr old Eduardo will not use the subway and once crashed a car while on route to Jim's house where the lover answered the door disturbed at the sight of the bloody Eduardo screaming "I know he's in there!". Reinholdt, the tall Bavarian from Munich, joins us. He is off to Montevideo tomorrow. We all gossip about the incredibly beautiful blonde athletic lesbian couple who have been making love all over the hotel in their bikinis. Later, C, with camera, lets me know what I look like underwater when viewed from below the glass-bottomed rooftop pool. I develop a new respect for Esther Williams.








And I learned a new Spanish idiom that may be particular to this town. A surface parking lot is called a playa di estacimiento. A parking beach! I am sure this will be useful knowledge at some point in the years to come.