THE VOICE OF CHICAGO’S GAY, LESBIAN, BI AND TRANS COMMUNITY SINCE 1985 DECEMBER 5, 2007 • vol 23 no 12 CDC MUM ON STATS BY BOB ROEHR been working with testing technologies that numbers have been higher all along. One thing give a better sense of whether or not an infec- is clear, the CDC HIV prevention budget has Estimates of just how many Americans become tion is recent. been flat over the last five years. And that has infected with HIV each year are at the center of In a statement released to the media, and in resulted in a 19 percent decline in the purchas- a controversy at the 2007 National HIV Preven- a speech at the opening session of the confer- ing power of the dollars because of inflation. tion Conference that opened in Atlanta Dec. 2. ence, Fenton said, “Given the importance of the Speaking from the same stage, AIDS advocate The Centers for Disease Control and Preven- new estimates in guiding HIV prevention policy Jesse Milan, Jr., grumbled, why couldn’t that tion (CDC) has used an estimate of 40,000 new and programs, CDC’s public health responsibil- peer review analysis have been ready by this infections per year since the early 1990s, be- ity is to ensure accurate information.” meeting, the first in two and a half years. fore the introduction of highly active antiretro- “The estimates are currently being reviewed Thomas J. Coates had a different take saying, Chicago viral therapy. The new estimates could increase and analyzed by external experts prior to ac- “It kind of doesn’t matter” what the number is. page 8 that by more than 50 percent and top 60,000, ceptance and publication in a scientific jour- “The important point is that it is better sur- Marks World according to news stories that have appeared nal…This expert external peer review is impor- veillance. Better numbers are going to help us AIDS Day in the major media. tant to make sure that the methodology used know how much of a difference there is, and But the CDC isn’t saying; it neither confirmed and the conclusions derived are accurate.” He how to make the situation better.” nor denied the figures at its own premier meet- anticipates publication in early 2008. The HIV prevention guru, now at the Univer- ing on HIV. Kevin Fenton, who heads up the Until then, it remains unclear whether there Turn to page 4 agency’s HIV efforts, acknowledged that it has have been more infections recently, or the windy city times’ holiday gift guide 2007 ‘Bible’ week two of two page 20 special pullout section Premieres p. 13-24 World of Chocolate page 6 See Ross Jane Rule, citizens there in the 1960s. Ms. Sontoff, several Sackville-West, Colette, Djuna Barnes, and others page 34 years her senior, died at age 83 in 2000. whose names we accept today, without flinching, Run Author and Jane Rule is the author of seven novels and as lesbian-identified women. At the nascent Les- several collections of short fiction and essays. bian Writers Conferences in Chicago in the 1970s Reluctant Activist, “Desert of the Heart” (1964), her third novel (the her book and the reprint of Jeannette Howard first published) is her most recognizable, though Foster’s “Sex Variant Women In Literature” burst Dies at 76 not her critically best novel. It was adapted into like twin bombshells illuminating the history and the iconic lesbian film “Desert Hearts” by Donna impact of lesbian writing. Rule was the first to BY MARIE J. KUDA Deitch in 1985, and recently released on DVD. speak about “coding” in the works of such writ- pick it up take it home While Rule’s literary reputation will rest with ers as Cather and Stein. Lesbianism as “the thing Jane Rule “is one of our finest writers—surely her fiction, her pubic life of reluctant activism not named” would become a touchstone of later the most significant lesbian writer of the twen- soared with the publication of “Lesbian Images” biographers of women writers. Published at the tieth century.” So wrote author/editor Katherine #921, DECEMBER 5, 2007 in 1975. height of the women’s liberation movement and V. Forrest in her introduction to the 2005 re-issue “The silence has finally been broken,” pro- on the cusp of women’s studies on college cam- of Rule’s 1977 novel “The Young in One Another’s claimed Rule as she forced the academic and puses, “Lesbian Images” made Rule a lightening Arms”. literary establishments on three continents to rod for both censors and activists. American-born author Jane Rule died of com- reexamine the lives and work of women writ- Claiming that her mind was a safer place than plications from liver cancer at the home in Brit- ers they had decreed worthy of entry into their her body, she eschewed demonstrations and po- ish Columbia she had shared with her partner of literary canons. “Lesbian Images,” pressed their litical activism. While asserting she chose “not 45 years, Helen Sonthoff. She and Ms. Sonthoff noses into the sexual reality of writers like Willa met in the U.S., migrated to Canada and became Turn to page 12 www.WindyCityQueercast.com Cather, Gertrude Stein, Elizabeth Bowen, Vita www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com 2 December 5, 2007 THE POWER OF TWO. Two lives entwined. One symbolic ring. Introducing Fusion, The Commitment Collection, exclusively from Robbins Bros. With or without ceremony, show your devotion to each other with a ring uniquely designed to capture the physical, romantic, and emotional union of two. Exclusively from 2184 N. ELston Rd. | Lincoln Park | 773.486.3584 www.robbinsbros.com/fusion December 5, 2007 3 index News Population trends 4 DADT anniversary marked 4 CDC not discussing numbers 4 Henry Hyde dies 5 World of Chocolate pics 6 Equality, Vital Bridges photos 6 National; Lott leaves Senate 7 World news 7 AIDS protest, vigil 8 Anthony Hollins passes on 8 There were lots of goodies to eat (as Segal’s view; letters 10 well as see, hear and buy) at AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s World of HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDe— Chocolate. See page 6. PART TWO Photo by Kat Fitzgerald Select items 14 For the Bible Tells Me So 20 Book: 1933 ... Exposition 21 Holiday viewing guide 22 HRC buying guide 23 Brian Bouldrey interview 24 eNTeRTAINMeNT Theater 25 A talk with Tovah Feldshuh 28 Knight at the Movies 29 Dennis Christopher interview 32 OUTLINeS Real estate ads 30 Classifieds 31 Richard Knight, Jr., talked with actor Dennis Christopher (above) about Calendar, Dykes 33 Broadway, Breaking Away and the gay Sports: Ross runs in Italy 34 film nine lives. See page 32. News: Damski event 35 This week’s online-only www. features include: Windy —Theater reviews of Dog Sees God and C.S. Lewis City on Stage —A take on World AIDS Media Day and cannabis Group —TPAN’s ManAlive event —Media Watch .com —Deep Inside Hollywood —Starrlight, featuring Eduardo Verastegui (right) Photo by Steve Starr www.WindyCityQueercast.com GeISHA, GeISHA, gaysha! Cabaret performer Kyle Hustedt on his new show Geisha & Gaysha, each Sunday at Mary’s Attic. photo by Matt Leyes #921, DECEMBER 5, 2007 4 December 5, 2007 • Among states, Vermont has the highest con- Report Reveals centration of same-sex couple households (9.71 per 1,000 households); followed by New Mex- Same-Sex ico (9.03), Massachusetts (8.99), Washington (8.94), and Oregon (8.83); Population Trends • Among cities, San Francisco continues to BY LISA KEEN reign as the gayest city in the United States, based on its concentration of same-sex house- The number of same-sex couples in Illinois in holds (28.72 per 1,000). Seattle comes second 2006 was almost five times greater than the (21.27), followed by Minneapolis (18.68), Port- number counted in 1990 when the U.S. Census land, Ore., (16.94) and Sacramento (16.36). Bureau first collected data on same-sex partner • Of the 779,867 same-sex couples in 2006, households. That increase is similar to a nation- the data estimates that 53.5 percent of male al trend. But the number in Chicago has grown couples and 46.5 percent are female couples; at only about half that pace. Eric Alva at ceremony (above); flags near • Comparing population trends of the public at These are just some of the conclusions found the Washington Monument. Photos by Bob large and those of same-sex couple households, in “Geographic Trends Among Same-Sex Couples Roehr (above) and Patsy Lynch Gates said he found evidence suggesting more in the U.S. Census and the American Community same-sex couples are moving from the city to Survey,” a study released Nov. 2. The study was the suburbs. prepared by Gary Gates, a senior research fel- Marine sergeant Eric Alva was the first person The greatest surge in the number of reported 12,000 low at the Williams Institute, a research center wounded in the Iraq War, in 2003. He lost his same-sex couple households occurred between at UCLA for sexual orientation, law and policy American Flags right leg. “I served my country proudly for 13 the 1990 census, when the census form first pro- studies. Gates examined data from the 1990 years, and I shed blood for my country on the vided an option for same-sex couples to identify Mark DADT and 2000 decennial surveys of every household sands of Iraq. I have sacrificed for the rights themselves, and 2000. In 2000, the 594,391 in the United States and data from the annual and freedoms of people in this country.