Center Blog

The Center is reposting two blogs with permission from our friends at GLAAD. The blogs call the New York Times to task for its recent sensational coverage of the death of Lorena Escalera, a transgender woman who died in a fire this past weekend in Brooklyn. We join GLAAD in criticizing the extremely problematic article and urge The Times to acknowledge its mistake and take steps to ensure this kind of faulty coverage does not happen again. We also join the community in mourning the loss of Lorena Escalera

NY Times Trans Exploitation Completely Unacceptable

Update: NY Times Does Not Retract Dehumanizing Coverage of Trans Woman Who Died in FireThis weekend, the New York Times published an extremely exploitative article about a transgender woman who had died in a fire. The article, about Lorena Escalera, only mentions that she was killed in a fire after telling readers that she was “curvaceous,” that she “drew admiring glances” in her “gritty Brooklyn neighborhood,” that she “was known to invite men for visits to her apartment,” that Lorena was “called Lorena” (as opposed to saying she was “named Lorena” or that she simply was Lorena) and that she “brought two men to her apartment” sometime between late Friday night and early Saturday morning.

The article by Al Baker and Nate Schweber treats Escalera completely disrespectfully, later describing a pile of debris outside the burned apartment which “contained many colorful items. Among them were wigs, women’s shoes, coins from around the world, makeup, hair spray, handbags, a shopping bag from Spandex House, a red feather boa and a pamphlet on how to quit smoking.”

Take the word “transgender” out of the equation.

Would the New York Times ever describe a woman who is not transgender, who had died in a fire, as “curvaceous” – in the first sentence, no less? Would it carefully note that her apartment contained makeup and “women’s shoes?” Would it say that she was “called” whatever her name was – especially if police later identified her by that name?

Janet Mock, Autumn Sandeen and other noted leaders in the trans advocacy movement have been speaking out about this article online. Colorlines.com also wrote about the problematic coverage. Thank you to all of you who submitted incident reports about this article, or alerted us to it through Twitter. We are reaching out to the Times to discuss the many incident reports we received, and to ensure that exploitative pieces like this don’t get printed in the future.

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NY Times Does Not Retract Dehumanizing Coverage of Trans Woman Who Died in Fire

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 – 3:57pm by Aaron McQuade, Director of News and Field Media at GLAAD

In response to criticism from the LGBT community and allies over its coverage of a fire that killed a transgender woman this weekend, the New York Times released a statement that reveals a lack of understanding of how serious this problem is.

New York Times Metro Editor Carolyn Ryan stated: “We typically try to capture the personal stories of those whose lives are lost in a fire, and we sought to do so in this case. We certainly did not mean any disrespect to the victim or those who knew her. But, in retrospect, we should have shown more care in our choice of words.”

Unfortunately, the problem with the Times’ article on the death of Lorena Escalera, a transgender woman of color, is bigger than their “choice of words” or with their attempt to “capture” her story. It’s their failure to recognize trans women as women.

The decision by writers Al Baker and Nate Schweber to call her “curvaceous” in the first sentence was not a poor choice of words. It was a poor choice of focus. The way this entire article is framed comes directly from an idea that transgender women are curiosities. That they’re other. That they should be treated differently than other people. Saying that Lorena was “called” Lorena, even though that is exactly how police identified her, was not a poor choice of words. It was a disrespectful jab at her identity as a trans woman, by implying that she wasn’t really Lorena.

Lorena was a daughter. She was a friend. She was a beloved member of a community. But the only elements of her story that writers Al Baker and Nate Schweber seemed concerned with were; what she looked like, what her neighbors thought she looked like, and whether any items that would typically belong to a woman were in her apartment when it burned. Very little of this is relevant to the actual personal story of Lorena Escalera’s life. It seems very clear that this personal information was included in order to “spice up” the story by exploiting Lorena’s status as a transgender woman – not to actually inform readers about her life.

“As my city’s and our nation’s paper of record, I would expect the New York Times to treat any subject, regardless of their path in life, with dignity,” said trans advocate and journalist Janet Mock. “In Lorena Escalera’s life she was so much more than the demeaning, sexist portrait they painted of girls like us. It goes beyond a ‘choice of words.’ According to the Times’ limiting, harmful portrait of Lorena, she was nothing more than a ‘curvaceous’ bombshell for men to gawk at. That is not the ‘personal’ story of any woman, and until we treat trans women like human beings – in life and death – with dignity, families and struggles, our society will never see us beyond pariahs in our communities.

Unfortunately, many Americans, including members of the media, do view transgender people – and trans women of color in particular – as curiosities at best, or not deserving of basic human dignity at worst. And very few Americans know any trans people in their day-to-day lives, so this viewpoint is never dispelled. This is why extra care must be taken when reporting on a story that involves a transgender person, especially if that person is no longer able to speak for themselves, as is the case here. Writers and editors alike must be made aware of how common this underlying bias is, and make a conscious effort to remove it when they see it.

This is where the Times’ statement truly fails. Not only does it not show an understanding of what the problem with the original article was, it also makes no assurances to the community that it will educate its writers and editors about how to report on transgender people in the future. There’s nothing forward-looking in the Times statement.

GLAAD did ask the Times to detail what steps will be taken in the future to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We were told that this statement “will be all there is from us on this.”

But this statement is not good enough. The New York Times has highlighted the personal and inspiring stories of transgender people in the recent past, including an article on Harmony Santana, Laverne Cox and other transgender actresses, a piece on triathlete Chris Mosier and one on classical pianist Sara Davis Buechner. We can be almost certain that the New York Times does understand the problems with its piece on Lorena, and is embarrassed that it ran. Now it’s time for them to say so publicly, and to tell its readers that steps are being taken to ensure that an article like this won’t be printed again. We thank members of the LGBT community, including trans leaders like Janet Mock, Autumn Sandeen and Laverne Cox, as well as Colorlines and Feministing, for bringing attention to this story. We hope to continue putting pressure on the Times until they offer assurances that changes will be made.

On Thursday, May 24 the Center and several other agencies are co-sponsoring a community forum on HIV criminalization featuring a screening of a short film, HIV is Not a Crime followed by a panel discussion.

Panelists include Robert Suttle, Assistant Director of The Sero Project, who was convicted and incarcerated in Louisiana for HIV non-disclosure, Attorney Beirne Roose-Snyder from The Positive Justice Project, and Sean Strub of Poz Magazine and Executive Director of The Sero Project.

Partner organizations include the Positive Justice Project, ACT UP, SERO, Queerocracy and the Center.

The event is from 6 PM to 9 PM at the Center on 208 West 13^th Street in Room 101.

For More Information call: 646-556-9300

RuPaul's Drag Race Finalist Sharon Needles Performs for Center Youth- Photo by Lester Echem

On Monday, April 30 “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Finalists, Sharon Needles, Chad Michaels and Phi Phi O’hara visited the Center and each gave a special performace for the young people in our Youth Enrichment Services Program.

Photo by Lester Echem

LogoTV also sent a camera crew to capture all the fierce and fabulous moments, and highlight the young people who use the Center’s services– and their reactions to the show. It was a great opportunity for the youth to see these fabulous queens showcasing their creativity and being fearless.

The Center thanks LogoTV and all the finalists for taking time out of their busy schedules to share their immense talents and their message of inclusivity with our amazing young people. 

Photo by Lester Echem

And huge congratulations to Sharon Needles on winning Drag Race!

View photos of the Queens’ visit to the Center here.

Guest Post by Marina de la Torre

On Wednesday, April 18, the Center hosted Read our… Lips: Reading from the Best Lesbian Erotica.

Right before 7pm, mostly women start to gather in one of the Center’s rooms waiting in anticipation for the event to start. Over 25 women are present; some chat in small circles, others play with their phones, and many invite themselves to a glass of wine in the back of the room.

Promptly at 7 pm, Kathleen Warnock, editor of the Best Lesbian Erotica (BLE) 2012, welcomes the audience and explains how the BLE books come to life. The women in attendance learn that before the “best” stories are selected each year Kathleen receives hundreds of submissions; she then proceeds to read them all and make a selection of erotic stories that have “publishing” potential. Then she hands over her selection to that year’s guest judge. For the BLE 2012 book the guest judge was Sinclair Sexsmith, the mastermind behind the award-winning blog Sugarbutch Chronicles. The guest judge then proceeds to make a selection of 20 or so stories. Finally, after some back and forth with the publisher, Kathleen ends up with the final stories that appear in the book.

Process description over, the audience is introduced to not only Sinclair Sexsmith who is also in attendance but also to the four authors who will read their own hot stories out loud to the guests that evening.

First up is Ali Oh, a young writer, who takes the stage and invites us to listen to “Vacation.” Despite being quiet sick (poor thing, her voice was all congested), Ali delivers her story with grace, wit, and smart intonation as she delights us with a libidinous narrative. The temperature is slowly rising in the room while Sinclair Sexsmith introduces us to the next writer, Julia Noel Goldman, author of “’50s Waitress.” Julia is a quick reader who enthralls us with her kinky chronicle. She is also funny and we all burst into laughter when she suddenly claims “can you see that the story is making me hot, or is it my hot flashes?!”

 Next up is Anne Grip the author of “Hot Yoga”. Anne enchants us with a steamy and very entertaining tale. The audience is giggling throughout her reading and I wonder if it because of the comic or the lascivious passages in her story.

By now our imaginations have been richly stimulated and our senses aroused. The fourth story belongs to seasoned author D.L. King, who wrote “On my Honor” in the 2012 book; although tonight she is gracing us with a new story. D.L. King is a dynamic reader who is keeping the audience enraptured in her lustful story; and right then, at the climax of her account, she stops reading and happily invites us to read the end of the story in the book! This woman knows how to create a suspenseful atmosphere as and we are all left wondering what happens next in her tale.

Before the evening is over, we get a chance to hear from Sinclair Sexmith, who wrote the introduction in the BLE 2012 book, and reads out loud a selected portion of the intro.

Finally, before closing the event, the attendees are treated with one of Kathleen Warnock’s own stories. Although her story is not part of BLE 2012, Kathleen is a multifaceted creative person and writing is among her many skills. Kathleen’s account is a perfect closing for the evening as it brings the heat down a notch and allows us to recover –if ever so slightly— from the sexy stimulation before we venture out into the street again.

Overall it was a very exciting (pun intended) evening at the Center!

Guest Post by Rosalind Lloyd

Last month, the Center featured an amazing program, “Old School Fly Girl Throw Down,” and hip-hop was surely in the house. The timing of the presentation could not have been better, coinciding directly with both Women’s History Month and the unveiling of the restoration of Keith Haring’s “Once Upon a Time,” mural. The showcase was a fitting blend of urban dance, spoken word, vocals with live DJs laying the soundtrack, all with a particularly feminine flair. It was a collage of old-school meets new-school that highlighted a rich urban history spanning well over twenty years, one not typically associated with women. Each performance displayed poignant portrayals of creative expression through movement, music and verse celebrating a unifying message of solidarity and acceptance.

Poet, performer and educator Charon P. Morris, a LAMBDA Literary Foundation 2011 Emerging LGBT Voices Fellow and an extraordinary woman in her own right, performed two riveting spoken word pieces that touched on topics ranging from homophobia to misogyny.

Some in the line-up were members and/or graduates of The Door, like Coyote, an impressive, 23 year-old spoken word artist. Her poetry recalled her growing up gay in a deeply religious household and how the experience led to her becoming homeless while only in her mid-teens. Hers is a story of evolutionary progress in the face of adversity as this Howard University graduate is currently working on her Masters at Julliard. Songstress Mika engaged the audience with her vivacious performance, which encouraged active audience participation. Mika’s footnote outlined the fact that she only recently came out which was a show of bold independence and liberation that many in the diverse audience from the young to mature could easily identify with.

It isn’t hip-hop if there isn’t anyone representing on the ones and twos. Chicago-born and bred DJ Brina created an amazing beat backdrop for the evening while DJ Val brought us to the 21^st century proving that DJing has indeed gone beyond two turntables with her sophisticated, computerized musical compositions during her hi-tech set.

Headlining and one of the organizers of the event was the spirited Fly Girl, Rokafella, of the prolific Full Circle, whose fluid, B-girl moves made it perfectly clear that she could definitely out-rock any fellow and any female with her energetic choreography. She brought along her all-female, multicultural dance troupe, Full Circle Soulsistas, whom in turn, brought much flavor to the evening. These talented ladies mesmerized the audience with their beautifully acrobatic moves. Their extraordinary backgrounds proved how far reaching and influential hip-hop is with the ladies reigning from the Bronx, New Jersey and Staten Island to as far away as London, Hong Kong and Japan. Some are moms, pilates/yoga instructors and proficient theatrical performers with dance backgrounds spanning some 15 years or more. They all rocked the house effortlessly. As the more–than-capable Mistress of Ceremony, Rokafella closed the evening by surprising the crowd with some free-style vocals of her own, which had the entire audience on its feet, rocking to the beat.

Photo by Victoria Anderson

Guest Post by Jeff Adams

The Second Tuesday series moved temporarily to Wednesday to welcome Simon Doonan on February 15. The fashion/style maven delighted the audience with a reading from his latest book, Gay Men Don’t Get Fat, and answered a wide variety of questions.

Doonan, who is the Creative Ambassador at Large for Barneys, said he’d debated about what chapter to read—should it be about food, or fitness or celebrity. He ultimately chose “Hokey Hookers and Gypsy Tarts” because “the only way for the ordinary gay or gal to afford fashion is restoring to the world’s oldest profession.” We were regaled with his own “reformed hooker” story, which took place in Manchester in 1973 during his last year of college when his funds were running low.

Photo by Victoria Anderson

It all started because he found out his friend was pleasuring her landlord every month. He decided he’d give it a try to and he went out to a pub in search of someone he could make some cash off of. He ultimately found a Charles Bronson-type and a misadventure ensued. You’ll have to pick up the book to find out what happens because no blog post retelling can do it justice—you need Doonan’s own words.

Following the reading, Doonan took questions from the audience. It’s not surprising, given the title of the book, that the first question was “How do you stay thin?” He said the key is to eat the right mix of gay food and straight food correctly. An example was to mix steak (a straight food) with a salad (a gay food) rather than potatoes (another straight food).

Photo by Victoria Anderson

He went on further to discuss the food he had while growing up and making it clear that he isn’t nostalgic for it at all—he categorized it as appalling. That included the gypsy tart from the chapter he read. A mixture of evaporated milk and sugar, the tart was something he loathed but ended up eating a lot of anyway because it was cheap.

Not surprisingly, there were questions about fashion. Doonan characterizes today’s fashion as incomprehensible. “Every trend that ever was is concurrently available,” he said. “You have to surrender to the vastness. It’s liberating because you just have to have your own wardrobe and look. “

Doonan, who has published five books (six depending on how you count Beautiful People, which is also under the title Nasty in the U.S.) and also writes a column for Slate.com, started writing when he was 44 and “from the get go established a style that was demented.”

“If I had to write straight stories, like covering fashion for The New York Times, I’d have a nervous breakdown,” he said. “The books are a good counterpoint to keep me from being the world’s oldest window dresser.”

Photo by Victoria Anderson

While he no longer does the Barneys windows in his creative ambassador role, he is not sure what the future holds for him. “I’m not very ambitious,” he says. “I’m a hard worker. I’ll grab the opportunities and not procrastinate, but I’m not a visionary.”

Guest Post by Richard Allen

“If you need my bra, my shirt, my weave, my lashes, I’m going to give it to you.  That’s just the kind of person I am.” – Lady Jasmine

On the most recent World AIDS Day, filmmakers Kate Kunath and Sasha Wortzel screened the rough cut of their documentary film Starlite at the Center.  The Starlite Lounge was a gay bar in Crown Heights, Brooklyn that closed in 2010, due to the location being sold and the subsequent rent hike –one which, it is suggested by the film, was as much a choice based in moralism as in commerce.  The Starlite lounge was the oldest black-owned gay bar in New York, and the oldest black-owned business on Nostrand Ave., and the film makes a compelling case for the importance and centrality of it to the history of gay life in New York, black life in New York, as well as simply the history of New York itself.

The documentary, which looks fantastic—the colors are crisp and clean, and avoid many of the problems of shooting in digital—seeks to tell the history of the Starlite, from its beginnings in 1959 on through to the community efforts, ultimately unsuccessful, to keep it open.  In between, it tells the story of the owners, bartenders, customers, and performers of the Starlite, and the uniquely welcoming community that sprang up around it.  As one of the filmmakers said, this story lies “at the intersection of race, orientation, gentrification and AIDS awareness,” but it is truthfully about a place that rose above cultural differences.  Ittruly became a safe space that was welcoming to all, and sought to be more than just a place that served alcohol or had a dance floor, but instead a hot spot for community activism, AIDS activism, gang deterrence, and racial and sexual reconciliation.  Along the way, the film makes manifest the impact of AIDS on everyone who is even marginally connected to the LGBT community.

Following the screening, there was a question-and-answer session with the filmmakers; the owner, Linda King; a former bartender, Dennis Parrott; the former resident drag queen, Lady Jasmine; as well as several customers.  They all continually discussed the impact of the Starlite lounge and the hole created in the community, as well as their hopes and attempts to reopen in another location.  Their warmth and openness towards the audience, and their easygoing affection for each other were the best advertisement for what New York is now missing, and one hopes that they are ultimately successful in re-establishing this crucial safe space.

Guest Post by Richard Allen

On March 8, as part of the run-up to the annual Black Party at the Roseland Ballroom, the Center held a benefit called Art + Sin, an exhibit of thirty-two years of posters for the notorious expo and dance party.  While the posters were meant to titillate, excite, and above all, advertise, they also function as art in and of themselves (the original poster, as well as several subsequent years, featured Robert Mapplethorpe photographs, after all). These posters also serve as a continuous document of the various sexual preoccupations of the last three decades of gay life, and as such, make the viewer think past the current representations of sexuality, and to instead situate them in a larger conversation about the changing nature of gay life.

This continuing conversation manifested differently throughout the exhibit.  The poster from 1993, by Bastille, was among the most sexually explicit and graphic of the images, showing a group of men in various stages of S&M play in the background, while in the foreground, a disembodied penis emerges from the corner, still sheathed in an obviously used condom.  This poster is from a period when the gay community found itself consumed not just with dealing with the current AIDS crisis, but also increasingly concerned with prevention, and provides a fascinating example of an early attempt to  express gay male sexuality in a way that is non-judgmental and inclusive, but that also pointedly demands responsibility.

Another pair of posters makes this conversation even more explicit and functions as an amusing sort of call-and-response across generations.  The first poster, from 1982, by Scott Facon, incorporates woodblock illustrations that look plucked from a century-old German medical text showing a step-by-step guide to performing a circumcision.  The 2004 poster, by Thom Graves, uses the same layout of imagery and simple black-on-beige color palette, but instead is a medical illustration of foreskin restoration.  The later poster references the larger (both gay and straight) culture’s growing debate about circumcision, but also draws a witty and knowing historical thread through the entirety of the Black Party itself.  Yet another poster, from 2002, is a photograph of a bound and roughed-up man in Abercrombie and Fitch underwear wearing an Abercrombie and Fitch shopping bag with a model’s head printed on it over his own head.  Behind the subject,muscle mag posters tacked to the wall.  On the surface, this photograph suggests simple bondage within a sexual context, but the juxtaposition of boxer-briefs and shopping bag also evokes much darker interpretations about gay male self-esteem and body-image, and how media and consumer culture shape and reinforce men’s relationships to their own bodies.  Ultimately, the viewer wonders if enslavement to an ideal is the real bondage being referenced in this photograph.

Alongside the posters, while attendees chatted and sipped vodka and bid on auction items, another group of men were actively shaping ideals as they quickly but skillfully sketched a nude model who changed positions every fifteen minutes.  As I walked around the circle, peering over shoulders, I was impressed by the confidence of the drawings and paintings I saw.  Clearly, all of the assembled artists had formal training or were freakishly-gifted naturals.  However, what was most fascinating was not the skill and beauty, but the tiny little ways that each participant manipulated the model to closer conform to a personal ideal.  Some depicted him with a larger penis, some with a squarer jawline, some with a more feminine mouth, more chest hair, less chest hair, leaner, more compact, and so on, but invariably, something happened in the mind and hand of each sketcher that subtly reshaped reality to a version that pleased them more.  In that way, the benefit itself felt like just the most current manifestation of this dialogue about contemporary gay life, sexuality and aesthetics that continues to play out in posters, parties and streets throughout New York.

Dear Center Volunteers,

Last Monday, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation declaring April 15 – April 21, 2012 National Volunteer Week. In his statement, the President emphasized the power of service to unite individuals, strengthen communities, and transform our collective future.

At the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, we are privileged to witness this power of selfless service every day, in all areas of our work. Volunteers work alongside Center staff and interns in every program at the Center: supporting Pride events, facilitating yoga classes for Youth Enrichment Services participants, caring for the Center’s garden, and staffing over 150 Center events annually. Several Center institutions – the National Archive of LGBT History, the Pat Parker/Vito Russo Library, and the David Bohnett CyberCenter – are sustained entirely by volunteers.

In these and countless other ways, volunteers contribute 14,000 hours annually to nourish and enrich our home for New York’s vibrant Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender communities. (To learn more about volunteering at the Center, visit our website.) 

In his National Volunteer Week proclamation, President Obama noted that “our Nation has always been at its best when individuals have come together to realize a common vision.” We are honored to work with hundreds of volunteers every year envisioning a better New York, and proud of your impact in the service movement.

Thank you for volunteering at the Center!

Yours in service,

Glennda Testone
Executive Director