ING in the NEW: Vol 32, No

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RING IN THE NEW: vol 32, no. 18 Jan. 18, 2017 New Congress, www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com New President, Old Divisions

By David Thill

President-elect Donald Trump said that marriage equality is “done” and “settled” when he sat down for an interview with CBS’ Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes shortly after the election. “It’s law,” he stated. But his choice for vice president, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence—who drew national criticism in 2015 when he signed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act into Indiana law—raises concerns, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, of Illinois’ 2nd Congressional Dis- trict, told Windy City Times. “Supposedly, Presi- dent-elect Trump is accepting and open-minded,” she said, “but … we’ll see.” The results of the presidential election left many members of underrepresented groups, including the LGBTQ community, unsure of what FAREWELL, OBAMA the coming years hold for them, on local, state and national levels. Statements via spokespeo- President Barack Obama delivers an emotional ple, tweets, and the president-elect’s own mouth farewell in Chicago. Sen. Duckworth with VP Joe Biden at her swearing in. Photo by Kat Fitzgerald (www.MysticImagesPhotography.com) 8 Photo from Duckworth’s office Turn to page 8

WOMEN’S MARCH WINTER THEATER/ POLICE PROBLEMS Details unveiled for Jan. 21 event. DoJ report shows problems with CPD and LGBTs. Photo of speaker Fawzia Mirza by Joe Mazza/Brave Lux DANCE PREVIEW Protester detained by police during Millions March Chicago. 12 Photo from Aladdin by Deen van Meer 15-25 Photo by Tim Carroll Photography 7

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NEWS Planned Parenthood’s fight; Standing Rock 4

Obama’s farewell; 2004 interview 6

INDEX DoJ’s police report 7 Illinois pols talk future and LGBT rights 8 Bishop Oliveto visits Chicago 10 download Women’s march details 12 this issue VIEWS: Villareal 14 and browse the archives at ENTERTAINMENT/EVENTS www.WindyCityTimes.com Winter dance preview 16 Theater reviews 19-20 Winter theater preview: classics 22 Winter theater preview: premieres 24 Winter theater preview: LGBT productions 25 Moe Vela talks about being in the White House 26 VideoOut’s story-sharing event 27 NIGHTSPOTS 28 Classifieds 30 Calendar Q 30

Above photo: President Obama with Michelle and Malia. Photo by Kat Fitzgerald (www.MysticImagesPhotography.com)

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WELCOME TO MIAMI Miami Beach (left) beckons with its various attractions—including warmth. Photo by Ross Forman

SEEING RED

KAROL-ING ALONG Chicago writer Andy Karol is profiled.

THAT’S SHOW BIZ Find out the latest about Jennifer Holliday, American Horror Story and Anna Wintour.

Bent Nights reviews shows by Mutts, Archie Powell and the Exports, and plus others. DAILY BREAKING NEWS Photo of Archie Powell by Vern Hester 4 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES Planned Parenthood GUEST COLUMN prepares for fight of its life by Ra Mendoza By Gretchen Rachel Hammond provided the transgender and gender non-binary communities with Hormone Replacement Therapy The Embodied Power In as much as conservative Republicans have (HRT) which, in the majority of cases is an essen- waged their crusade against the civil and human tial step in both mental and physical well-being. of Standing Rock rights of the LGBTQ community, they have sought Windy City Times spoke with Dr. Amy Whitaker, I remember the last evening at Oceti much deeper and much more real than I to wield the same authority in both clandestine the medical director of Planned Parenthood of Il- Sakowin so clearly. I had begun the day have experienced before. and overt efforts to control the reproductive lives linois, to ask if Planned Parenthood can weather with a plan, but like the few days before, I came to Oceti Sakowin not quite sure of women. the present storm. ended the day surprised by the ways my of all the reasons why, but guided more A woman’s right to the governance of her own “The real consequences are going to be for plans had failed to work out in the best by this feeling of invitation. I’ve been body has been a battleground of increased inten- our patients,” she said. “In a lot of the lan- of ways. drawn to activism and justice work for sity ever since the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court deci- guage about defunding Planned Parenthood, I had planned on attending meetings the last four years. My job keeps me in sion upholding the right to privacy of Jane Roe. there’s this idea that we just get a check from and doing outreach (volunteering) at the spaces where I’m able to educate and kitchen like I had done the day before. train people with similar desires to en- But instead, my meeting turned into a ter into the same kind of work, but my much-needed time of debrief and pro- relationships keep me continually in cess for those of us planning on heading this heart space where I keep asking the home. My outreach time at the kitchen question of the realness of embodiment turned into a few hours standing at the (solidarity); knowing the issue and criti- seven councils fire or sacred fire. (The cally thinking with our minds, working original Sioux tribe was made up of Seven towards the intended goal with our bod- Council Fires. Each of these Council Fires ies, and also feeling the intensity of the was made up of individual bands, based longing for restoration … and healing. on kinship, dialect, and geographic prox- Standing Rock was a place of healing imity. This fire was lit when the seven for me. It was a place of embodiment. councils joined together again at Stand- What I mean by that is this: The call to ing Rock.) justice, to stand alongside the Standing One of the wrestlings I navigated over Rock Sioux to protect the water was a my time at camp was this internal ten- movement to bring an end to the final- sion of “doing” versus “being.” I place ization of the pipeline and call out the ultimate importance on what I can do, corruption of Energy Transfer Partners how I can be helpful, how I can meet a and to name the historical genocide of need—but for me, Standing Rock wasn’t Native peoples that is happening again if a place where I was needed based on this pipeline goes into effect. The call to what I can do necessarily, but for what I end this pipeline, to kill the black snake can long for, pray for, and embody. So fol- (the pipeline), for me has become an em- lowing the invitation of impromptu pro- bodied call to see and to love and to and cess time of the morning, I went to the to pray and to recognize the sacredness Planned Parenthood. sacred fire and stood there. As I stood that we, humanity, and creation hold. Photo by Gretchen Rachel Hammond there, I found myself being welcomed Standing Rock is a place that is al- into another space of intentionality and lowing the healing and reconnection of Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood offers a wide the government. But that’s not how we receive process. humanity and creation in a way that is range of services to millions of women, men, federal funds. We basically receive [them] by A group of about 70 women walked powerful and it has shifted me. I’m won- trans and gender non-binary individuals across seeing women and men who have Medicaid for into camp from the main road and en- dering how those shifts will manifest in the country. Because abortions are among those their insurance or who are using money from the circled the fire. Men were asked to stand my life. It is really more like anxious an- services, the more-than-century-old sexual and Title X Family Planning Program to get their ser- toward the back and I moved forward. ticipation. I left there with a deep long- reproductive health organization has consistently vices with us. So the consequences are going to For the next hour or so female elders and ing to love more, to honor those I see, to been the target of legal attacks and domestic ter- be that those men and women will not have as leaders spoke of their stories and expe- root myself in the sacredness of life, and rorism aimed at its centers and employees. many options for where they are able to get their riences, named the pain and trauma of to let it all change me. That is the gift of Somehow, it has weathered all of these storms. healthcare services.” the sexual violence enacted on their bod- Standing Rock, that is the kind of gen- But now, with the coming installation of Pres- According to Whitaker, a coordinated congres- ies—sacred, life-bearing bodies. Women erative justice I long for. It exists, it can ident-elect Donald Trump, GOP members of the sional assault “repealing the ACA [Affordable Care are life givers, the water is a life giver. be lived and felt, and I want to follow it. Republican-controlled 115th Congress are at- Act], defunding Planned Parenthood, limiting There was this intense circular connec- After the women finished sharing and tempting to seize an opportunity to cut some 40 Medicaid and Title X services will leave patients tion being made in that moment between the circle dispersed, I walked back to our percent of Planned Parenthood’s budget (or more without coverage and [they] will miss out on vi- humanity and creation, between women campsite. I paid attention to each step $500 million in federal funds—none of which tal healthcare services.” and water, between mother and earth. I took. I walked slow. When I got to our goes to abortion services). This includes the men who use Planned Parent- This was a connection, a reality, that was camp space I sat on the ground and held Planned Parenthood’s services go well beyond hood. natural and infused into life for the La- the dirt in my hands. I looked at the sun- abortion. The myriad affordable and free services “STI testing is for both men and women,” kota, Sioux, and all Native peoples. But set and felt the color in my heart. Four the organization offers include birth control, Whitaker said. “We provide vasectomy services for for me, a Mexican American woman, this days earlier I entered camp with so many mammogram referrals, cancer screenings, gyne- men, PrEP, partner treatment for sexually trans- moment of connection, this moment of emotions and a deep eagerness to learn cological care, HIV and other STD testing, repro- mitted infections and our sex-ed programs are for story, this moment of powerful truth and and serve and offer whatever I could. ductive education and health counseling, men’s everybody.” vulnerability felt like a gift—an invita- sexual health, PrEP and even help with smoking tion—for me to connect with a power Turn to page 9 cessation. For more than a year, the organization has also Turn to page 13 WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 5

HUMAN FIRST GALA 5/20/17

TEN XUBERANT YRS SPARCINC.COM SPARCINC.COM * Celebrate Ten Years and Human First 2017 Honoree Fred Eychaner along with Gala Co-Chairs Duane M. DesParte + John C. Schneider, Anne Kaplan, Robert Kohl + Clark Pellett, Laura Ricketts+ Brooke Skinner Ricketts, Michael + Cari Sacks at The Geraghty Chicago once again. Tix on sale now! CENTERONHALSTED.ORG/XTRAVAGALA #RISEWITHUS DESIGN: RICHARDCASSIS DESIGN: 6 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES Left: President Barack Obama. Photos in this story by Kat Fitzgerald (www.MysticImagesPhotography.com)

“That’s why we’ve ended torture, worked to tice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted close Gitmo, and reform our laws governing sur- flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of veillance to protect privacy and civil liberties. the moon; a creed at the core of every American That’s why I reject discrimination against Mus- whose story is not yet written: Yes, we can. Yes, lim-Americans. That’s why we cannot withdraw we did. Yes, we can.” from global fights—to expand democracy, and human rights, women’s rights, and LGBT rights— no matter how imperfect our efforts, no matter how expedient ignoring such values may seem.” Obama also said, “Our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted. All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions.” Obama cites LGBTs He concluded with, “I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and in farewell speech abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for jus- Performers included Eddie Vedder with the President Barack Obama bid a fond farewell to Chicago Children’s Choir (above) and BJ the his presidency at McCormick Place on Jan. 10 in Chicago Kid (below). a speech that covered everything from acknowl- edging hometown roots and family to “rebuilding democratic institutions.” He mentioned many different minority communities during his talk, including Muslims, African- Americans and LGBT individuals. At one point, he said, “Protecting our way of life requires more than our military. Democracy can buckle when we give in to fear. So just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are. That’s why, for the past eight years, I’ve worked to put the fight against terrorism on a firm legal foot- Left to right: Vice-president Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, Malia Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, ing. President Barack Obama.

years in business. WCT releases 2004 In 2009, soon after Obama was first elected Officials send letter president, Windy City Times released a copy tapes of Obama found in its archives from a 1996 written candi- to Trump about date’s questionnaire in which Obama said he was talking LGBT issues in favor of same-sex marriage. He later changed Cabinet appointees Two audiotapes from Barack Obama’s cam- In an open letter to President-elect Donald course and opposed it in favor of a compromise, paign for U.S. Senate from Illinois have been Trump, 156 elected officials express grave but before his 2012 race for a second term, he released by Windy City Times newspaper. The concerns about his Cabinet appointees, and revolved back to his 1996 position, as stated to audio is in the online version of this story, at implore Trump to “be a president for all Outlines newspaper (which merged with Windy http://tinyurl.com/Obama2004LGBT. Americans.” City Times in 2000). Both tapes were recorded by WCT Publisher U.S. Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney and Mark The May 7, 2004 benefit was a politically Tracy Baim, the first on Jan. 7, 2004 in a one- Pocan—as well as openly LGBT mayors, state packed event, with local and national politi- on-one interview during the crowded Democrat- legislators, city councilmembers and other cians, including a lot of prominent LGBT donors. ic primary, and the second on May 7, 2004, after LGBT elected officials—are among the let- As WCT stated at the time: “GLBTs raised nearly he won the primary and attended a standing- ter’s signers. $100,000 for the campaign of Democrat Barack room-only LGBT fundraiser for his campaign. Signers from Illinois include Chicago Ald. Obama for U.S. Senate from Illinois last Friday The transcript of the interview was published James Cappleman, Raymond Lopez, Deb Mell, night downtown. U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clin- Feb. 4, 2004 in full, and also ran in Baim’s 2010 Tom Tunney and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa; state ton was supposed to speak, but her flight was book, Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage. Reps. Kelly Cassidy and Greg Harris; Oak Park delayed after a long day of Senate hearings. The speech from May 7 was never published, but Village Board Trustee Colette Lueck; Metro- Two other U.S. Senators and two U.S. Reps did event photos ran in Windy City Times. A week politan Water Reclamation District of Greater attend in support of Obama: Sen. Jon S. Cor- after the interview was published, Obama re- Chicago Commissioner Debra Shore; and zine (D-NJ), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), and Illi- sponded with a letter to the editor clarifying Evanston Ald. Mark Tendam. nois Democrats Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Rahm his views. Aisha C. Moodie-Mills, President & CEO of Emanuel. Ald. Tom Tunney and Michael Bauer The release of the tapes is timed for the presi- Victory Institute, said in a statement, “This hosted the event.” dent’s final days in office. The tapes are among letter urges the President-elect to govern See WindyCityMediaGroup.com/lgbt/Windy- thousands of archival materials in the Windy by those core American values, and to put City-Times-releases-2004-tapes-of-Obama-dur- City Times collection, and the paper is just now forward legislation and policies that improve ing-Senate-campaign-/57756.html for audio starting to digitize cassette audio tapes used by President Obama in 2004. quality of life for all Americans.” links plus related links to transcript of the origi- reporters during the weekly newspaper’s first 31 Photo by Tracy Baim nal interview and more. WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 7 to me. I’ve been working at this amazing venue Berlin nightclub’s for much of my adult life... Chicago celebrates DOJ mentions LGBTs in diversity & acceptance, yet our current political washroom vandalized climate made some hateful person think it was ok By Matt Simonette to deface the place with this kind of nonsense.” CPD minority-policing report Berlin management did not immediately return A washroom at the popular Boystown nightclub a request for comment, but Windy City Times will By Matt Simonette ect director for ACLU Illinois, called the report Berlin, 954 W. Belmont Ave., was vandalized on “an indictment of policing in Chicago, from how update the story as more details become avail- Jan. 14, according to social-media reports. able. A Department of Justice (DoJ) report released police behave on the streets of the City to how The perpetrators drew swastikas and wrote Jan. 13 said that the Chicago Police Department police are managed. Segregation in Chicago mag- “King Trump” on the washroom wall, and smashed (CPD) has been using excessive force and violat- nifies the impact of these policies on communi- a mirror. Torres to work with ing the rights of Chicagoans—especially persons ties of color. Black and Latino Chicagoans face On a post appearing on Berlin’s Facebook page, of color—and issues a number of suggestions in- the worst of police misconduct, disproportionate- employee Greg Haus wrote, “This is so upsetting Howard Brown tended to bridge the chasms between CPD and ly experiencing unconstitutional behavior like ex- Crispin Torres is moving from Lambda Legal to many of its constituents. cessive use of force. Out-of-date polices and lack Howard Brown Health. Among the recommendations included in the of training result in harm for people with dis- Torres, the community educator at Lambda Le- report were adding LGBT liaison officers in each abilities, especially related to mental health, and gal’s Midwest Regional Office, will start at Howard district, and more stringent enforcement of poli- transgender people. … Today must be a wake-up Brown on Feb. 1. He will concentrate on policy cies protecting transgender individuals. call to change how Chicago is policed.” and legislative work there. One portion of the 164-page report details In an email he said, “I am very excited for recommendations to improve community polic- this new opportunity, albeit sad to say goodbye ing strategies that would supposedly “humanize” Trans patron: to some of my community partnerships through police officers and community members in each Nightclub’s apology Lambda. However, I am certain we will find new others’ eyes. To that end, the DoJ recommends ways to collaborate in the future!” utilizing community liaison officers for vari- is insufficient ous minority groups within each police district, By Matt Simonette among them the LGBT community, Muslims, lim- Correction ited English-speakers and persons with disabili- A trans individual who was allegedly misgendered In the review of the Art AIDS America exhibit ties. The report further suggests that the liaisons and denied entry to a Chicago nightclub said Jan. (in the Jan. 4, 2017 issue), it should have stated meet monthly to coordinate outreach efforts and 12 that the nightclub’s attempt at an apology that the Alphawood Foundation has renovated strategies. There is currently only one CPD liaison was insufficient, according to DNA Info. the former MB Financial space at 2401 N. Halsted for the LGBT community. Jay Graber said that when they (their preferred St. and converted it into the Alphawood Gallery The report also points to deficient investiga- pronoun) as well as friends attempted to enter for the purpose of creating a temporary home for tions into hate-crimes, often because of poor PRYSM Nightclub, 1543 N. Kingsbury St., on Dec. Words scrawled in Berlin restroom. the exhibit. communication within the department and poor 30, they were turned away; Graber was wearing a Facebook photo by Jonnie Lisak Windy City Times regrets the error. training for police officers about the logistics of dress. Employees first said the problem was Gra- hate-crimes. CPD’s Civil Rights Unit must be noti- ber’s shoes, which they changed. Graber and their fied before hate-crimes investigations can begin, party were still not admitted, and alleged that but the unit only has two investigators for the the employees mocked and misgendered them as entire city. In recent years, according to the re- well as their friend, who is also transgender. Their port, the Civil Rights Unit has never opened a ticket was marked as “male.” hate-crimes investigation in the murder of a trans Graber complained about the incident on social person. media and has said they are considering a com- “Not only are members of this community upset plaint with the city’s Human Rights Commission, that these crimes were never investigated as hate and that an attorney offered to represent them crimes, but they are also concerned that CPD’s pro bono in a lawsuit. failure to solve any of the murders reflects a lack The nightclub finally responded to the allega- of commitment to these cases,” said the report. tions on Facebook Jan. 10, saying that it would The DoJ report further maintains that more be hiring a “community educator” to instruct outreach is needed to assuage concerns by mem- employees presumably in inclusivity and diver- bers of the trans community that their rights will sity issues. It also offered Graber a refund for the be respected should they be in police custody or tickets they bought for the Dec. 30 event and to otherwise interact with officers. put them on the guest list for an upcoming show. “CPD updated its General Order governing inter- Graber replied, “Regarding your offer of free actions with transgender individuals in December tickets: Will my complimentary ticket say ‘MALE?’ 2015, which is commendable,” the report said. like the one I was issued Dec. 30?” Graber re- “However, the community has expressed concerns sponded. “Literally every member of your staff about the policy, including that it fails to en- with whom I interacted that night misgendered sure that transgender individuals are classified by me and I’m not trying to deal with that nonsense their gender identity and does not require officers again.” to ask an individual their preference regarding PRYSM is at the site of the former nightclub the gender of the officer to conduct a search.” Crobar. In a Dec. 13 statement following the DoJ re- DNA Info’s story is at http://dnain.fo/2jyCWrj. port’s release, Karen Sheley, police practices proj-

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@windycitytimes www.windycitymediagroup.com 8 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES POLITICS from cover judgeship. the same goal, but … different ways of getting rights protections, then I’ll be there to stand up Sessions is one of many Cabinet nominees that there.” and oppose them.” have fact-checkers scrambling and civil-rights raise concerns for Senate Democrats, said Durbin. groups at the ready, with many people asking (Others include Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, nomi- “It is really tough.” What constituents can do their elected officials variations on the same nated to head the Department of Health and Hu- Kelly noted that the 21st Century Cures Act— “I know the result of this presidential election question: “What happens next?” man Services, and Betsy DeVos, nominated to which passed both chambers overwhelmingly in was dispiriting for so many people,” said Duck- head the Education Department.) December before being signed into law by Presi- worth, “but we can’t give up, because there’s a Court rulings and executive orders However, Durbin pointed out that while hear- dent Obama—was a positive example of the two lot of work to be done.” “I think it will be very hard … to do anything ings may raise questions by members of Congress, parties working together. That bill provides $4.8 Constituents must not overlook current issues, significant about the gains that have already the Republican majority in the Senate makes for billion in new funding for the National Institutes Durbin said. “The repeal of the Affordable Care been made” for LGBTQ rights, said U.S. Rep. Jan easy confirmation of the president-elect’s Cabinet of Health. Act is important to everyone in America.” Schakowsky, D-9, discussing the U.S. Supreme nominees, plus there is deep concern about ap- Other bills face more opposition. For example, He and Schakowsky were present at the Decem- Court’s marriage equality ruling in Obergefell. pointments for federal judge posts, including the Schakowsky has co-sponsored legislation seek- ber opening of the Howard Brown Health facil- “I’ve talked to people who worry about the legal- Supreme Court. ing to repeal the Hyde Amendment, the contro- ity in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. “I’m ity of their relationships. But I think it’ll be very versial legislative provision that blocks certain impressed with the services that [Howard Brown hard, and I think the pushback will be fierce if Congressional gridlock federal funding—primarily Medicaid—for most is] offering to the community and beyond,” said there really are efforts” to repeal marriage equal- Recent issues such as gun control, the future of abortions. Despite Democratic support, that leg- Durbin. But “they are in jeopardy if there is a ity. the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), and the islation has not successfully passed the House. repeal of the Affordable Care Act without an ad- President Barack Obama has taken several ac- Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Associate In the Senate, Durbin is currently seeking reau- equate replacement. So, this is an issue which tions to protect LGBTQ rights, such as signing a Justice Antonin Scalia have highlighted the rift thorization of the Runaway and Homeless Youth I hope everyone takes personally, whatever your 2014 executive order that prohibits federal con- between the two major parties in Congress. All of and Trafficking Prevention Act, which expired in status in life, whatever your orientation.” tractors from discriminating against employees the legislators Windy City Times spoke with noted 2013. The law provides shelter and outreach ser- Kelly urges her constituents to be involved in on grounds including sexual orientation and gen- the difficulty that comes with trying to pass bi- vices for homeless youth, and in its newest ver- the political process all the time, and not just der identity. The U.S. departments of education partisan legislation. sion includes non-discrimination provisions for during election campaigns. This includes reaching and justice also released guidelines protecting Tammy Duckworth began serving as a U.S. sexual orientation and gender identity. out to legislators. “We have to be held account- transgender students in schools that receive fed- senator in the new session of Congress. She now “Under Democratic control, this was an easy able,” she said, and constituents can do that by eral funding, though a Texas judge issued a na- represents the whole state of Illinois, which is ask,” Durbin said. “If you go out at night and find voicing support or opposition for a bill, or simply tionwide injunction preventing those guidelines considerably more mixed than the largely Demo- homeless youth in the city of Chicago, a great sharing ideas. “We don’t know everything … so from taking effect. cratic 8th District, which she represented in the percentage of them are there because of their people that have experience in a certain area” Injunction or not, though, Schakowsky noted House. However, she said, many investments in sexual orientation [and gender identity], and the can share their insights with legislators. that the new administration can simply undo the state—such as in rails, roads, and educa- fact that they’ve either been thrown out of their She recently held her second LGBT stakeholders the Obama administration’s orders. “We would tion—“do not have political labels.” homes or don’t feel welcomed, or are threatened meeting. The gathering, which Kelly plans to be have—if we could have—put those [orders] into She acknowledged there will be disagreements in their homes. So, I really think this is an act of a twice-yearly event, drew a mix of elected of- law, but we couldn’t” due to congressional grid- between members of different parties, but said mercy that we need to reenact.” ficials, business and non-profit leaders, and con- lock. So, since legal action cannot prevent their she tries to approach every conversation “with Duckworth stated her position simply: If Re- stituents of the 2nd District, to discuss the role repeal, political action on the part of citizens— the assumption that whoever I’m talking to loves publican interests align with what she feels is of LGBTQ rights in the new congressional session petitions and demonstrations—can help prevent this nation as much as I love this nation, which best for Illinoisans, she will work with them. “But and presidential administration. Also in atten- it, she said. makes it easier to find a way to work together.” if they are going to propose policies that will dance was Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin’s 2nd “It’s a different ideology,” said Kelly. “Maybe harm Illinois families or roll back important civil- Congressional District, a co-chair of the House The Sessions question LGBT Equality Caucus. Volunteering and donating to organizations are The opening of the 115th Congress brings con- U.S. Rep. Schakowsky, U.S. Sen. Durbin and David firmation hearings for President-elect Trump’s also valuable ways of contributing, Kelly added, Munar at Howard Brown opening. “even if you don’t do it for a [legislator]… . choices to fill his Cabinet. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Photo by Hal Baim Alabama, Trump’s nominee for attorney general— There’s an avenue for every interest.” a post that carries with it key responsibilities in Schakowsky expanded on that idea, noting that enforcing civil rights—has been met with skep- many advocacy organizations send out action ticism from legislators, who question Sessions’ alerts with information about what constituents history of opposition to civil rights, reproductive can do to have a stake in legislative issues. “So rights and LGBTQ rights as a senator. stay in tune with those,” she said. “Social media “I’m concerned,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin lets us do that now—to really know, minute to said regarding the nomination. “What does that minute, what’s going on.” mean, in terms of lawsuits that will be filed—or She and Durbin also noted that, in addition to won’t be filed—from the Department of Justice? national debates, citizens of Illinois (and read- Will he aggressively enforce the laws as they exist ers of Windy City Times) have issues to focus on in protecting minorities, including those in the within the state. The ongoing lack of a complete LGBTQ community?” budget in Illinois is a “political and economic di- During confirmation hearings, Sessions stated saster,” said Durbin. that he would respect the rulings of Obergefell v. Illinois is one of 36 states that will hold gu- Hodges and Roe v. Wade when heading the Jus- bernatorial elections in 2018, and “we have to be tice Department, as well as the Matthew Shepard ready” for that, said Schakowsky. and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a law that classifies attacks based on sexual orien- Going forward tation and gender identity as federal hate crimes. In the wake of a contentious election—and (He opposed that law’s passage in the Senate.) almost a year during which Senate Republican He also dismissed allegations that he had leaders refused to hold confirmation hearings made racist remarks in the 1980s, which at that for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee— time kept him from being confirmed for a federal some Democrats are resistant to working with Republicans, who will now control both houses of

@windycitytimes1 /windycitymediagroup @windycitytimes www.windycitymediagroup.com WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 9 Congress as well as the White House. rights, presidential candidates typically stake out However, newly elected Senate Minority Leader a position during the course of their campaign. Chuck Schumer said in an interview with CNN, “If However, “This has not been the case when it we can work with [President-elect Donald Trump] comes to Donald Trump. … In terms of where he and be true to our principles, we’re not going is personally, where his Cabinet will be, what his to reject him.” That position has drawn criticism administration will do, I think that’s unresolved from some progressives, who feel Democratic law- as we think about it today.” makers are too quick to compromise. “We’re in a difficult position here,” said Durbin. “Donald Trump the candidate said things that Inauguration day most Democrats agree with on a lot of issues,” including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, protests in Chicago as well as his stance on reworking trade agree- Activist Andy Thayer reports on actions this ments. “Those are basic Democratic positions,” Friday, Jan. 20 in Chicago: Durbin said. “So what Senator Schumer was say- Two huge protests are going to meet up. ing is, we would like to stand with the president One starts at Daley Plaza at 3 p.m. (https:// in those areas of commonality.” www.facebook.com/pages/Daley-Plaza- But Durbin added, “We’re going to oppose [the Downtown-Chicago/524104144279966), president-elect] and the congressional Republi- which will then march to Trump Tower (re- cans when they go after what we consider to be ally, just south of it @ Wacker and Wa- our basic values.” bash) for a 5 p.m. protest organized by Schakowsky agreed. “It’s not to oppose him for another group (https://www.facebook.com/ the sake of opposing him,” she said, also noting events/359935351008861/). Trump’s campaign pledges to maintain programs Earlier that day, there’s also an event at such as Medicare and Social Security. But “so far, Rudy Lozano Library in Pilsen, which has his [Cabinet] appointments don’t really prove that point. … We’ll judge things as they come.” two Facebook events: https://www.face- Indeed, Trump already seems to be running book.com/events/1700932496864506/ a different show than his predecessors, and his andhttps://www.facebook.com/ positions on certain key issues remain largely un- events/1626512560978292/, which seems known. For example, it has been standard practice to be an organizing event. It’s headlined by for incoming presidents to divest their business Jorge Mujica, the principal organizer behind assets in order to avoid conflicts of interest, said the huge immigration rights / anti-Sennsin- Schakowsky. But, she added, “he’s not standard.” Center on Halsted CEO Modesto “Tico” Valle, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (Ill.) and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (Wis.). brenner bill in 2006. Durbin noted that, on issues such as LGBTQ Photo from Kelly’s office

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GUEST COLUMN from page 4 this sacred message back to our communities. ra Mendoza, originally from Los Angeles, is That night as I sat on the ground I realized that a recent transplant to Chicago (and is loving this camp and this time had transformed and it!). Ra works for Mission Year, a faith-based A proud member and supporter of the LGBTQ community for healed me in ways I will continue to recognize year-long service program as the recruitment/ over 20 years, no real estate broker in the city sells or gives back to as I live, work, serve, and offer whatever I can to academic/diversity coordinator and is also a first our community as much as Brad. the causes and movements that seek to dignify year student at McCormick Theological Seminary. and humanize myself and those around me. In work, in school, in life Ra loves people and BRAD LIPPITZ I am humbled each time I am reminded of my is drawn to cultivating spaces where authentic- 3323 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60657 | 980 N Michigan Ave #900, Chicago, IL 60611 time there. I pray for the water protectors, for ity, vulnerability and connection can be fostered 773.404.1144 | [email protected] | BradLippitz.com those still at camp, for those who are protecting among people different from each other. the pipeline, and I pray for those of us who carry 10 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES with that diversity,” she said. “As the United Oliveto also recalled her early childhood and Methodist Church grows exponentially outside recollected the first time she was called to minis- UMC’s Bishop Karen of the U.S. in the last 20 years, and into more try and her first sermon. conservative cultures, more conservative areas. I “From the minute my mom dropped me off at would say the U.S. church would have settled in a Sunday School I knew I had found a home,” she Oliveto visits Chicago much more open position eight years ago, maybe said. “I think I was three-years-old. I loved the 12 years ago, if it weren’t for the votes of the stories of faith and I loved the music that taught BY GRETCHEN RACHEL HAMMOND global church, but we are a global church.” me more about faith. I was more and more in- “Once you start talking about inclusion/exclu- volved. I found myself wrapped in unconditional United Methodist Church (UMC) Bishop Karen sion, you realize it’s not just LGBT people that we love and unconditional acceptance from God that Oliveto was in Chicago over the weekend of Jan. need to be talking about,” she said. “The church was expressed through that community. So I 13 for the Winter Warming conference that, ac- isn’t always a just and open community for all heard my call to ministry when I was 11-years- cording to its website, is “a reconciling United people: people of color, the poor. How do we old. I preached my first sermon when I was 16. I Methodist gathering for a fully inclusive church help the church learn to move into the fullness became a student pastor at the age of 18 and just co-hosted by NIC Reconciling Task Force & MFSA.” to which is it is called and that is a church where wanted to be the best pastor I knew how to be. Oliveto is UMC’s first openly lesbian bishop all people are welcomed, where all people can God deserves nothing less.” having served, for eight years, as the senior be seen as equals and as gifted and as beloved “I was born on Good Friday and raised in the pastor for Glide Memorial Church in San Fran- children of God?” town of Babylon, which is on Long Island in cisco (the denomination’s fifth-largest church at Oliveto also talked about her own position as New York,” she said. “As I was grappling with an 11,000 members). bishop and whether she has ever felt a sense of understanding of my sexuality which really hap- Oliveto said she was ordained in 1982 and isolation in the job. pened during my first year of seminary, something started her ministry in 1983. “It’s hard when you’re the only one,” she said. that I had tried to deny my whole life started to “I’ve served 18 congregations, campus minis- “You have to make sure you’re getting the spiri- peak through and I started to really see my story tries, as an associate dean for academic affairs at tual substance you need. I had to make sure and reflected in the stories of my gay and lesbian fel- Pacific School of Religion,” she said. “I was the my colleagues who would keep nurturing my soul low students.” first woman in United Methodist Church to serve and keep me healthy and keep reminding me of in one of our 100 largest churches. As a bishop, what God wants from me.” I have been assigned to the Mountain Sky area of United Methodist Church which includes Mon- tana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and one church in Idaho.” McCarter introduces “It’s about 400 United Methodist Clergy,” she said. “There are churches in that area covering Bishop Karen Oliveto. anti-LGBT bill in 417,000 square miles.” Oliveto also answered a question about the state Senate Oliveto had this to say about how she would By Matt Simonette importance of Reconciling Ministries Network characterize UMC’s challenges moving forward: that, according to its website, “mobilizes United “There are four ways to understand how we State Sen. Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon), on Jan. Methodists of all sexual orientations and gender look at God and study God: Scripture, tradition, 11, filed legislation prohibiting state and local identities to transform our Church and world into experience and reason, and when you put those governments from retaliatory action against an the full expression of Christ’s inclusive love.” four together, you and I can study scripture, we individual or individuals if they act under the “I think it’s very important,” she said. “When- can look at church history together, but you and belief that a marriage is an institution reserved ever there’s a group of people who are relegated I bring our own experience and reason into it, for unions between a man and a woman. to the margins, it’s so important that we have a and you and I can come from totally different The bill, SB0064, was referred to the Senate’s group of people committed to making sure those ends of understanding and still see each other as assignments committee and is one of several voices are heard, to instruct churches in becom- faithful,” she said. attempts by McCarter to legislate against mar- ing welcoming and to do a lot of education.” “Part of the challenge is it’s tough working riage equality. He filed similar bills in January 2014, a few months after same-sex marriage was legalized in Illinois, and July 2015, shortly Illinois state Sen. Kyle McCarter. Activism meet-ups, after the Supreme Court declared it to be the Official head shot law of the land. Neither attempt gained much personal book recommendations, traction. accommodations laws. “He seems to do it every session,” said Rick “This kind of stuff has purchase at this mo- weekly events, Kids Storytime, and more! Garcia, senior partner with the lobbying firm ment, given what’s going on in the states Foremost Strategy, who was present when Mc- around us,” said Garcia. “But in Illinois we There are so many reasons to support Carter introduced the bill. Jan. 11 was the first have firewalls all the way to make sure we day the Senate was in session for the calendar are protected from laws like this. That doesn’t Chicago’s only feminist bookstore. year. mean we can sit back and relax when this hap- SB0064 also says that individuals would be pens though.” protected from government action if their al- Also, Equality Illinois released a statment leged discrimination is rooted in the belief denouncing the bill. SB 64 is an assault on our that “sexual relations are properly reserved” shared Illinois values of fairness, justice, and to a marriage between a man and a woman, equality,” said Equality Illinois Brian C. John- and the legislation empowers those individuals son. “SB 64 is not about religious freedom. On to sue the government when they are accused the contrary, the bill targets LGBTQ people for of such discrimination. The proposed law ties discrimination in Illinois. SB 64 would turn into a number of court cases across the country back the clock on what we have achieved in where vendors want to be legally indemnified Illinois. We call on the General Assembly to re- for refusing to serve customers for reasons tied ject this mean-spirited legislation.” to gay marriage. Illinois, for its part, is fairly The legislation can be viewed at http://bit. explicit in protecting LGBT persons in publicly/2j888Qk. WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 11 12 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES Women’s March on Chicago Jan. 21 Chicago will be among more than 380 cities Grant Park from damage. The combination of un- to create a collaborative response. around the world hosting women’s marches Jan. seasonably warm temperatures (high expected in Starting at 10 a.m., Ari Afsar, Karen Olivo, and 21, the day after the U.S. presidential inaugu- the 50s Saturday), rain (bring rain gear), and an- Samantha Marie Ware from the cast of Hamil- ration. While the largest march is expected in ticipated large numbers of marchers threatened ton will speak and perform. A diverse line-up of Washington, D.C., with thousands of people from to turn the Petrillo’s grassy field into a mud pit. speakers including representatives from Planned Illinois attending, one of the largest marches There will only be seating up front for the dis- Parenthood, Youth for Black Lives, Mothers outside of D.C. is expected in Chicago. abled and elderly, but people can bring portable Against Senseless Killings, the Hadiya Pendleton Jackson Boulevard at Lake Shore Drive, imme- chairs if they wish to carry in the march, or leave Foundation and more will highlight the rally. diately south of the Petrillo Bandshell, will be behind. Attendance numbers for the march continue to the new kick-off point for the Jan. 21 rally and Marchers are asked to gather on Jackson, where grow rapidly, now with more than 120 registered march. People can start gathering on Jackson the stage will face west and back up near Lake supporting organizations sending marchers and at 8:30 a.m. An entertainment program begins Shore Drive. Drop off points will be at Columbus more than 22,000 people confirmed to attend on at 9:15 a.m. with Lucy Smith. The official pro- and Jackson, unless crowds force closure of Co- the March’s social media platforms. gram with speakers and additional entertainers lumbus. Jackson Boulevard will be closed to thru Information on accessibility, speakers, and the begins at 10 a.m., with the two-mile march kick- traffic from Lake Shore Drive to Columbus. There march route are available at womensmarchchi- off approximately 11:30 a.m. The march will go will be a disability access drop off point (no park- cago.org . Due to the rally location change, some through the downtown area and end at the rally ing) at Lake Shore Drive and Jackson. information is still being updated. Please check site, where people will then disburse. Co-chairs of the Women’s March on Chicago are back for updated information. Organizers decided to locate the stage on Liz Radford and Ann Scholhamer, two Chicagoans Jackson rather than at the bandshell to protect who came together after the presidential election Speakers and performers include Fawzia Mirza (top), Reyna Wences (above, left), Lynn Mooney (above, right) and Lucy Smith (below).

Eman Hassaballa Aly (above) and Tamar Manasseh (below).

Cleopatra Crowley- Pendleton (above) and Anne Christophersen (below).

Liz Radford (left) and Ann Scholhamer, co-chairs of the Women’s March on Chicago, working late at night on the planning. Photo by Tracy Baim

Speaker and performer list, alphabetical and in of Chicago — Tiffany Pryor: Executive Director, Illinois formation: — Pat Dowell (3rd), Susan Garza (10th), & Mi- Caucus for Adolescent Health — Ari Afsar, Karen Olivo, and Samantha Marie chelle Smith (43rd): Alderwomen, City of Chicago — Liz Radford and Ann Scholhamer: Co-Chairs Ware: From the cast of Hamilton,Performance — The Full Court Press Second Line Drummers: of the Women’s March on Chicago — Jaquie Algee: Director of External Relations, Performance — Lucy Smith: Performance SEIU Healthcare of Illinois and Marilyn Katz: Co- — Kids Off The Block and Diane Latiker: Speak- — Shani Smith: Lead Marshall of Women’s Founder of Chicago Women Take Action ing and Performing March on Chicago, Safety Instruction, SEIU — Jean Albright: Master Sergeant (retired) — Eva Lewis, Maxine Aguilar, Maxine Wint, and Healthcare Illinois U.S. Air Force Yahair Tarr: Youth For Black Lives — So Chi Voices: Performance — Eman Hassaballa Aly: Muslim community Ac- — Lights of Zion: Performance — Opal Staples: Performance tivist, TRUST Collective — Tamar Manasseh: Mothers Against Senseless — Katie Thiede: Vice President of Develop- — Faith Arnold: SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Fight Killings ment, Planned Parenthood of Illinois for $15 — Fawzia Mirza: Actor/Producer, Emcee — Kimberly Wasserman: Executive Director, — Khadine Bennett: American Civil Liberties — Sara Paretsky: Author, Sisters in Crime Cre- Little Village Environmental Justice Organization Union of Illinois ator — Reyna Wences: Organized Communities — Eloise Diaz Bahrmasel: RISE Movement — Channyn Lynne Parker: Transgender activist, Against Deportations — Ann Christophersen & Lynn Mooney: Women TransLife Project Manager — Rev. Dr. Janette C. Wilson, Esq.: National & Children First Books — Rahnee Patrick: Independent Living at Ac- RainbowPUSH Coalition Clockwise from top left: Rev. Dr. Janette C. — Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton: Hadiya Pend- cess Living Wilson, Esq., Sara Paretsky, Khadine Bennett, leton Foundation — Maria Socorro Pesqueria: President, Mujeres Channyn Lynne Parker. — Rabbi Shoshanah Conover: Temple Sholom Latinas en Accion Turn to page 13 WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 13 PLANNED from page 4 to ensure safe HRT administration. “Monitoring is very patient-specific,” Higgins Writer Maggie Poll: 10M LGBTQs Among the most vulnerable of Planned Parent- said. “The first year, we started at just a couple hood’s patients are members of the transgender of health centers in the Chicago area. It took a Jochild dies reside in U.S. community whose struggles in receiving adequate while for us to get going. We opened up some Writer Maggie Jochild—whose Twitter ac- The portion of adults identifying as LGBTQ healthcare are in lockstep with community-wide sites in central Illinois. The past few months, ser- count described her as a “third-generation les- increased to 4.1 percent in 2016, from 3.5 per- poverty rates, due to discrimination at all levels vice has really bloomed and we’ve been seeing a bian,” “a sixth-generation Texan” and “radical cent in 2012, according to Gallup.com. of society. lot more patients.” poet pacifist novelist disabled optimistic”— This translates to 10 million LGBTQ adults Planned Parenthood has been a life-saving oa- She added that there has been little or no died Jan. 6. She was 61. living in the United States—an increase of ap- sis for the transgender community’s health and pushback from communities across the state and Alison Bechdel, on her blog Dykes to Watch proximately 1.75 million from 2012. wellness. It has also been an impassioned mis- that, even if Planned Parenthood is defunded at Out For, had sent out good wishes to Jochild This analysis is based on interviews with a sion on the part of Planned Parenthood of Illinois a federal level, “we absolutely are going continue in a Jan. 3 post. Bechdel added that Jochild random sample of more than 1.6 million U.S. Associate Medical Director Liz Higgins to provide services for all people including hor- “met her partner, Margot [Williams], through adults as part of Gallup Daily tracking. Across “Planned Parenthood Federation of America mone therapy.” this blog years ago. Margot has managed to get the five years of data collection, more than has had protocols on providing hormone therapy It was a defiant tone echoed by both Whitaker from the UK to Austin, TX, to be with Maggie.” 49,000 respondents said “yes” when asked, and transgender healthcare for well over 10 years and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Rich- On GroupNewsBlog.net, Jesse Wendel wrote “Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, at some of our other affiliates,” she said. “Sep- ards, who promised the GOP “one hell of a fight.” that Jochild “was a fierce advocate for women, bisexual or transgender?” tember of 2015 was when we officially started “There are no federal funds that are used for children, the disabled, dykes, people of color, Human Rights Campaign President Chad Grif- providing services and it was really a combina- abortions,” Whitaker said. “Republicans in the for the underprivileged.” Jochild’s novel Ginny fin said in a statement, “This survey reflects tion of me asking over the years and also having past really believed that family planning should Bates is described here as “an amazing explo- the fact that in just the past four years, there an administration willing to expand the services be available for everyone. We will keep fighting ration of life lived intentionally by women, as has been a historic increase in American adults here in Illinois.” to provide comprehensive services for all patients free of the patriarchy as possible.” boldly coming out as LGBTQ, often at great Higgins noted that Planned Parenthood of Illi- who need them. We’ve been fighting for years. Wendel added that Jochild “was predeceased risk, but it does not take into account the nois initially began providing HRT for transgender Our supporters have been as strong as ever. We by her family, including her mother Mary Jo and countless LGBTQ Americans who remain clos- adults 18 and older. feel very positive and ready for the fight but her younger brother Bill. She is survived by her eted—especially in areas of the country where “In the last three months we’ve been seeing we’re going to have to fight really, really hard on beloved Margot Williams, and a vast network of our community lacks protections from discrimi- 16- and 17-year-olds as well,” she said. “For our this one if we’re not going to let our patients go loving friends, cyber and tofu, in Austin and nation and violence. adult patients, we work on the informed consent without. I feel like we’re always saying ‘this is around the world.” “However, the Gallup survey does confirm model. We work with a social worker and clini- going to be the fight of our lives.’” what we already know—the LGBTQ community cian team here in Planned Parenthood. Someone For more information on Planned Parenthood is at a turning point when it comes to political doesn’t have to have a referral from a primary of Illinois, visit PlannedParenthood.org/planned- relevance.” care provider.” parenthood-illinois. The organization provides consistent lab tests

WOMEN’S MARCH from page 12 — Pride Action Tank — Service Employees International Union More than 100 groups are supporting the — Sierra Club march, including those listed online here http:// — Windy City Times womens121marchonchicago.org/our_support- — Women & Children First ers/. Key partners providing additional support — Women Employed include: — YWCA Metropolitan Chicago — AIDS Foundation of Chicago — American Federation of Government Employ- Windy City Times’ publisher Tracy Baim is ees Local 704 among the “champions of the March” helping — Chicago Foundation for Women with behind-the-scenes planning. The march has — Chicago Teachers Union been inclusive of LGBTs from its launch. — Chicago Women Take Action See http://womens121marchonchicago.org/ — Common Cause speakers/ . — Illinois Education Association On Twitter: womensmarchchi . — League of Women Voters of Illinois Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ — National Coalition of American Nuns groups/1274648525889466/ . — National Rainbow PUSH Coalition Also see this link for other cities in Illinois — National Organization for Women and across the world hosting sister marches: — Planned Parenthood Of Illinois https://www.womensmarch.com/sisters/ .

http://womens121marchonchicago.org/ Left to right: Jean Albright, Maria Socorro Pesqueria, Opal Staples and Rabbi Shoshanah Conover. 14 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES viewpoints

Students who don’t feel safe using the restrooms in rooms gender-neutral. Francesca their schools and campuses are “holding it.” Changing the building code regulating single-stall Imagine not being able to use a restroom for hours bathrooms is a simple and inexpensive but power- WINDY Gaiba when needed. Over time, this can lead to significant ful change that municipalities across the country Truthout chronic physical and mental problems, ranging from can implement to significantly improve the health CITY urinary tract and kidney infections to distress and and safety of transgender and gender nonconform- anxiety. ing people, and that allows all people, regardless Most people have all- A 2007 study for the Virginia Department of Health of how they identify, to use the restroom in peace. found that 11 percent of transgender and gender This proposed legislative change only requires an TIMES gender restrooms at VOL. 32, No. 18, Jan. 18, 2017 nonconforming people cited lack of safe restrooms inexpensive change in a bathroom’s sign. LGBTQ or- The combined forces of Windy City Times, home. Why not have as a barrier to accessing health care. More disturb- ganizations like the Chicago Restroom Access Proj- founded Sept. 1985, and Outlines newspaper, ing, a 2016 study by Dr. Seelman at Georgia State ect (CRAP) are ready to donate gender-neutral signs founded May 1987. University found that “both denial of access to bath- that businesses can hang on their bathroom doors as them everywhere? PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR rooms and denial of access to campus housing due soon as the building code is changed. Tracy Baim Just in time for holiday shopping last month, the to being trans* were statistically significantly as- retail giant Target absorbed some boycotting noise sociated with a higher incidence of suicide attempts Redesignating multi-stall bathrooms ASSISTANT PUBLISHER Terri Klinsky from a conservative website calling for a boycott of over a lifetime.” However, single-stall gender-neutral bathrooms MANAGING EDITOR Andrew Davis the stores because of its policy of allowing transgen- This is a public health problem and a civil rights are only one step toward an inclusive solution. While ASSOCIATE EDITOR Matt Simonette BUSINESS MANAGER Ripley Caine der customers to use the bathroom of their choice. problem. they are becoming more and more common in new DIRECTOR OF NEW MEDIA Jean Albright The website, 2nd Vote, has been shut down by its The first step needed is to increase the number businesses and new constructions, a phenomenon ART DIRECTOR Kirk Williamson web hosting company for having “hateful” and dis- of public bathrooms that transgender and gender called a “gender-neutral revolution” in the design SENIOR REPORTER Gretchen Rachel Hammond Senior Account Executives Terri Klinsky, criminatory content. nonconforming people can use without fear of ha- world, the majority of buildings do not have single- Kirk Williamson, Amy Matheny, Gretchen Rachel The debate over the use of public bathrooms by rassment or violence. A simple solution is to change stall public bathrooms. Hammond, Scott Duff, Monika Pickett, David transgender people is raging across the country. the municipal building codes to require all public The most logical solution to this problem is to Strzepek accommodation businesses to make their single-stall build public support for the redesignation of cer- NATIONAL SALES Rivendell Media, 212-242- In Texas, State Rep. Jason Isaac, R-Dripping 6863 Springs, has spoken out against the local school dis- bathrooms gender-neutral. tain multi-stall bathrooms as open to all genders—a SENIOR WRITERS Bob Roehr, Tony Peregrin, trict for its decision to allow a transgender girl to change that requires no architectural interventions Lisa Keen, Yasmin Nair use the girls’ bathroom in a local elementary school. Requiring single-stall bathrooms to be gender- beyond a change in signage. The Santee Education THEATER EDITOR Scott C. Morgan CINEMA WRITER Richard Knight Jr. In South Dakota, the 2018 ballot may include a neutral Complex, a high school within the Los Angeles Uni- SPORTS WRITER Ross Forman question about banning transgender students from Most codes mandate that a business with two sin- fied School District, is just one of the many institu- ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT WRITERS certain bathrooms and locker rooms, an initiative gle-stall bathrooms make them gender-specific. But tions nationwide that have embraced this solution. Mary Shen Barnidge, Lawrence Ferber, Mel Ferrand, Jerry Nunn, Jonathan Abarbanel spurred by the governor’s veto of a controversial bill the concept of a single-stall gender-neutral bath- UC Berkeley is working toward all-gender multi-stall COLUMNISTS/WRITERS: Yvonne Zipter, Jorjet that would have required students to use the bathroom is not new. Most of us have one in our homes— bathrooms. Missouri State University has one, as Harper, Charlsie Dewey, Carrie Maxwell, Billy room and locker room matching their biological sex a bathroom with a toilet and a sink and a door that does LaGuardia High School in New York. The Center Masters, Sarah Toce, Dana Rudolph, Melissa at birth. locks, and that can be used by people of any gender, on Halsted in Chicago, the most comprehensive LGBT Wasserman, Joe Franco, Nick Patricca, Liz Baudler, Rex Wockner, Angelique Smith But while the conflict rages, the reality is that regardless of how they identify. The White House has community center in the Midwest, provides its visi- SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS Kat Fitzgerald, Hal more U.S. lawmakers have been arrested in public one. tors and staff with plentiful all-gender multi-stall Baim, Tim Carroll, Ed Negron bathrooms for inappropriate sexual behavior than Given that single-stall bathrooms are used by one bathrooms, while complying with code by offering WEBSITE LISTINGS VOLUNTEER Gene Naden CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Jean Albright have transgender people. Transgender people are person at a time, they eliminate interaction with two gender-specific single-stall bathrooms. DISTRIBUTION Ashina, Allan, Dan, John, Sue more likely to be victims of violence and harassment other people, thus reducing the likelihood of the Large institutions have an advantage in that for and Victor in this country than they are to be perpetrators of harassment and violence that trans and gender non- them to redesignate a multi-stall bathroom, it’s not WEB HOSTING LoveYourWebsite.com (lead violence. According to a new report from the Nation- conforming people face in gendered multi-stall pub- necessary for all people in the institution to feel programmer: Martie Marro) al Center for Transgender Equality, close to 60 per- lic bathrooms. This type of bathroom also serves the comfortable using an all-gender multi-stall rest- Copyright 2017 Lambda Publications Inc./Windy City Media Group; All rights reserved. Reprint by permission only. Back cent of transgender people in the U.S. have avoided needs of other groups. Parents or guardians of any room. Invariably there will be only one or two of issues (if available) for $5 per issue (postage included). using a public bathroom out of fear for their safety. gender who need to use the baby-changing station these in a building or on a campus, with the rest Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and It is they who are not safe in public bathrooms. or help their opposite-sex child to the bathroom remaining traditionally gendered and available for no responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials. All rights to letters, art and photographs sent to Windy Right-wing media and politicians have consistent- benefit from gender-neutral bathrooms, also known anyone who prefers them. City Times will be treated as unconditionally assigned ly sought to portray transgender people, especially as family bathrooms. In their absence, parents must To address lingering public anxieties about all- for publication purposes and as such, subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the columnists, transgender women, as potential “sexual predators” send their opposite-sex children to the bathroom gender bathrooms, however, some designers are also cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position ofWindy City in bathrooms. Those claims were used to justify con- alone. implementing architectural changes to create more Times. Publication of the name, photograph, or likeness of troversial bills in North Carolina and South Dakota People of any gender who assist their loved ones or privacy within multi-stall bathrooms redesignated a person or organization in articles or advertising in Windy City Times is not to be construed as any indication of the that restrict their access to public bathrooms. LG- care for disabled or elderly people in the bathroom as all-gender spaces. These architectural changes sexual orientation of such person or organization. While we encourage readers to support the advertisers who make BTQ advocates have debunked those claims, and the would also benefit. include replacing shorter partitions between stalls this newspaper possible, Windy City Times cannot accept backlash against the North Carolina bathroom bill My own parents are an example. My father helps with floor-to-ceiling walls and a real door that locks, responsibility for advertising claims. (773) 871-7610 FAX (773) 871-7609 seemed to bolster the emergent transgender rights my mother, who uses a wheelchair, when she needs essentially creating a row of gender-neutral, single- e-mail: [email protected] or movement. to use the bathroom. Put the toilet that complies stall bathrooms that share a sink area, with one or [email protected] Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s administration is with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in a more of the bathrooms ADA accessible. www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com threatening to further institutionalize transphobia women-only bathroom, and my father cannot enter This solution provides both access to an all-gender podcast: WindyCityQueercast.com on a national scale, curtailing the civil rights of it to assist my mother. bathroom and a higher level of privacy and safety WINDY CITY MEDIA GROUP, transgender Americans. Trump’s election may also Additionally, designating two gender-neutral bath- than a regular multi-stall bathroom. 5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL, 60640 U.S.A mean that the Supreme Court will not hear the trans- rooms side by side in a bar or restaurant will elimi- To be sure, this solution requires broader revisions (MAILING ADDRESS ONLY) gender bathroom case, Gloucester County School nate the ridiculous waiting line that women often to the municipal building codes, allowing these all- Windy City Times Deadline every Wednesday. Board v. G.G., as it had planned to do. endure while the men’s bathroom is empty. gender bathrooms to be counted toward the bath- OUT! Chicago’s LGBTQ Visitor’s Guide Online Since public bathrooms are a significant site of Cities that have implemented this change include room fixture count, so that they don’t need to be www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com violence and harassment for transgender and gen- Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Austin, created in addition to gendered bathrooms but can der nonconforming people, it is not surprising that Seattle, Santa Fe, West Hollywood and more recently, instead replace some of them. This solution also many transgender and gender nonconforming people San Francisco. In these cities, all businesses and city requires some construction costs. Many businesses, avoid using them. buildings are required to designate single-stall bath- Turn to page 30 WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 15 WINDY CITY TIMES DIVERSIONS THEATER • FILM • ENTERTAINMENT • SPORTS

25 28 28 ‘Inch’ by inch Hedwig and the Angry Inch is part of WCT’s winter theater preview. Mama’s Boy. Sync It!: Dudes at Sidetrack. Photo by Joan Marcus

WINTER DANCE SPECIAL Winter dance is warming up By Lauren Warnecke after several seasons on the shelf and complemented by a new-to-Hubbard Street duet from This year is shaping up to be mellower one for the choreographer’s Multiplicity. many local dance companies, many of which are The main highlight of Giordano Dance Chica- still recovering from a prolific fall dance season go’s two nights at the Harris (March 31-April 1) filled with ambitious projects and world pre- is a new staging of former River North Dance Chi- mieres—scaled back, perhaps, but no less excit- cago artistic director Frank Chaves’ 1993 Grusin ing for all brands of dance fans. Suite, originally created at Giordano’s well-known —The Harris Theater has a very full calendar Jazz Dance World Festival. On March 5, Visceral this winter, of which the notable engagements Dance Chicago teams with the Chicago Philhar- include Batsheva Dance Company (Jan. 27-28) monic for the telling of a Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s and the return of Brian Brooks for his second story. The creative rendering of The Dream of a engagement as the venue’s inaugural choreogra- Ridiculous Man features artistic director Nick Pu- pher in residence. Brooks pairs with New York City pillo’s choreography to music by Dmitri Shosta- Fool’s Paradise, by Christopher Wheeldon Ballet’s famed former ballerina Wendy Whelan for kovich, Osvaldo Golijov, and Radiohead’s Jonny Photo by Cheryl Mann a one-nighter Feb. 24. Greenwood, among others. 205 E. Randolph Dr., After their popular duet appeared in Whelan’s HarrisTheaterChicago.org North Shore Center for the Performing Arts Feb. including the first-ever U.S. appearance of Bal- 2015 national tour, the duo creates their sec- —After an exhausting Nutcracker season un- 25 that will include Thodos’ stunning Near Light, let de Lorraine (Feb. 18-19) performing, among ond project together with live chamber music by veiling The Joffrey Ballet’s new production by created in 2015 as a tribute to her late brother others, Cunningham’s Sounddance, which is re- Brooklyn Rider. Batsheva, the Israeli contempo- the ballet/Broadway legend Christopher Wheel- (NorthShoreCenter.org). Alvin Ailey American puted as one of his favorite works. Also on the rary dance company which has informed and in- don, a winter contemporary program at the Au- Dance Theater makes its annual stop in Chicago Edlis Neeson stage, former Cunningham dancers spired pretty much everyone, is the creative home ditorium Theatre will be delightfully understated. March 22-26. It’s a shorter engagement than usu- Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener present Tes- to choreographer Ohad Naharin, whose Last Work The company revives Wheeldon’s Fool’s Paradise al, but packed to the gills with varied programs seract March 23-25, an immersive collaboration performed for two nights at the Harris are in his and Wayne McGregor’s INFRA, rounding out the and Chicago premieres, including MacArthur “Ge- between dance and 3-D video created with radi- iconic Gaga style. On Friday, the company will be program with the Chicago Premiere of Justin nius” (and Chicago favorite) Kyle Abraham’s work cal filmmaker Charles Atlas. 220 E. Chicago Ave., presented with the 2016 Ruth Page Award, fol- Peck’s Year of the Rabbit. It’s a program that may Untitled America. Fear not, Revelations closes MCAChicago.org. lowed by a moderated discussion with Naharin challenge Joffrey’s audiences, but then again, so every night. Auditoriumtheatre.org —Worth a note are two ballet companies cele- following the performance. This one’s not to be did the Nutcracker. 50 E. Congress Pkwy., Joffrey. —The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago brating their fifth anniversaries:Chicago Reper- missed. org presents a new exhibit dedicated to one of the tory Ballet March 24-26 at the Biograph Theater —Locals in residence at the Harris this winter —Also at “The Aud,” Thodos Dance Chicago 20th century’s most prolific choreographers: Mer- including director Wade Schaaf’s elegant one-act include Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (March will celebrate its silver anniversary March 11 as ce Cunningham. Running Feb. 11- April 30, the The Four Seasons (2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago- 16-19) bringing back some of last season’s fa- part of the venue’s “Made in Chicago” dance se- Common Time exhibit boasts original artifacts RepertoryBallet.com) and Ballet 5:8, performing vorites: Lucas Crandall’s spectacularly fun Imprint ries. The program boasts a trilogy of works, one from an extensive collection of drops, costumes, work inspired by the Scarlet Letter at the Ath- and the serene and sorrowful Solo Echo, by Crys- brand new, based on a signature work of artistic and renderings at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Cen- enaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., March tal Pite. The theme of the evening, however, is director Melissa Thodos. This downtown perfor- ter, a co-presenter of the event. The art exhibit 18-19. AthenaeumTheatre.org. Nacho Duato, whose Jardi Tancat will be restored mance follows a winter engagement at Skokie’s is complemented by four performance events, 16 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES

YOU MATTER AND SO DOES YOUR HEALTH That’s why starting and staying on HIV-1 treatment is so important.

® What is DESCOVY ? What are the other possible side effects of DESCOVY? DESCOVY is a prescription medicine that is used together with Serious side effects of DESCOVY may also include: other HIV-1 medicines to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years and older. • Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking DESCOVY is not for use to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 HIV-1 medicines. infection. DESCOVY combines 2 medicines into 1 pill taken once • Your immune system may get a day. Because DESCOVY by itself is not a complete treatment for Changes in your immune system. stronger and begin to fi ght infections. Tell your healthcare provider HIV-1, it must be used together with other HIV-1 medicines. if you have any new symptoms after you start taking DESCOVY. DESCOVY does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. • Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses, you provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. must keep taking DESCOVY. Ask your healthcare provider if you have Your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking DESCOVY questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others. if you develop new or worse kidney problems. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of • Bone problems, such as bone pain, softening, or thinning, which sexual contact with body fl uids. Never reuse or share needles may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to or other items that have body fl uids on them. check your bones. of DESCOVY is nausea. Tell your IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION The most common side effect healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or What is the most important information I should don’t go away. know about DESCOVY? DESCOVY may cause serious side effects: What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking DESCOVY? • Buildup of an acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include feeling very • All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), including hepatitis virus infection. feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat. • All the medicines you take, including prescription and over- the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other • Serious liver problems. The liver may become large and fatty. Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of medicines may affect how DESCOVY works. Keep a list of all your your eyes turning yellow (jaundice); dark “tea-colored” urine; light- medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. colored bowel movements (stools); loss of appetite; nausea; and/or Ask your healthcare provider if it is safe to take DESCOVY with all pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area. of your other medicines. • or plan to become pregnant. It is not known • You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver If you are pregnant if DESCOVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking DESCOVY for a long time. In some cases, lactic acidosis and serious provider if you become pregnant while taking DESCOVY. liver problems have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right • If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not away if you have any symptoms of these conditions. breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. DESCOVY is not You are encouraged to report negative side effects of approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, taking DESCOVY, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop or call 1-800-FDA-1088. taking DESCOVY without fi rst talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health. Please see Important Facts about DESCOVY, including important warnings, on the following page.

Ask your healthcare provider if an HIV-1 treatment that contains DESCOVY® is right for you. WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 17

YOU MATTER AND SO DOES YOUR HEALTH That’s why starting and staying on HIV-1 treatment is so important.

Ask your healthcare provider if an HIV-1 treatment that contains DESCOVY® is right for you. 18 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES

IMPORTANT FACTS

This is only a brief summary of important information about (des-KOH-vee) DESCOVY® and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DESCOVY POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF DESCOVY

DESCOVY may cause serious side effects, including: DESCOVY can cause serious side effects, including: • Buildup of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), • Those in the “Most Important Information About which is a serious medical emergency that can lead to DESCOVY” section. death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have • Changes in body fat. any of these symptoms: feeling very weak or tired, unusual • Changes in your immune system. muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and • New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure. legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or • Bone problems. irregular heartbeat. The most common side effect of DESCOVY is nausea. Severe liver problems, • which in some cases can lead to These are not all the possible side eﬀ ects of DESCOVY. death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new any of these symptoms: your skin or the white part of your symptoms while taking DESCOVY. eyes turns yellow (jaundice); dark “tea-colored” urine; Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor loss of appetite; light-colored bowel movements (stools); your health before and during treatment with DESCOVY. nausea; and/or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area. • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. DESCOVY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and BEFORE TAKING DESCOVY HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking DESCOVY. Do not stop taking DESCOVY without ﬁ rst Tell your healthcare provider if you: talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months. • Have or had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis infection. You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver • Have any other medical condition. problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking DESCOVY or a similar medicine for a long time. • Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. • Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby. ABOUT DESCOVY Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take: • DESCOVY is a prescription medicine that is used together with other HIV-1 medicines to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years • Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the- of age and older. DESCOVY is not for use to help reduce counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements, the risk of getting HIV-1 infection. and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. • Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about • DESCOVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. Ask your medicines that should not be taken with DESCOVY. healthcare provider about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to others. GET MORE INFORMATION

HOW TO TAKE DESCOVY • This is only a brief summary of important information about DESCOVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist • DESCOVY is a one pill, once a day HIV-1 medicine that is to learn more. taken with other HIV-1 medicines. • Go to DESCOVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5 • Take DESCOVY with or without food. • If you need help paying for your medicine, visit DESCOVY.com for program information.

DESCOVY, the DESCOVY Logo, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, and LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. All other marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. © 2016 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. DVYC0019 11/16 WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 19 be careful here to separate expectations—built- these men really are, beyond pioneering Western- THEATER REVIEW Kelli Simpkins (center) in up or assumed, for whatever reasons—from ex- ers and Civil War vets. Men on Boats. ecution. I knew going in that the expedition’s Ultimately, Men on Boats appears to skewer the Men on Boats Photo by Michael 10 men were played by women or “genderfluid” history of America’s western expansion, and the Playwright: Jaclyn Backhaus Brosilow actors, so that wasn’t it. I’ve seen many substan- sense of white males doing manly things, espe- At: American Theater Company, tial cross-gender performances. What shocked me cially at the expense of those who came before 1909 W. Byron St. was the approach of playwright Jaclyn Backhaus them. Arguably, the play’s most pointed line has Tickets: 773-409-4125; atcweb.org; $38 and director Will Davis, which was one of bur- Powell saying, “The natives have probably named Runs through: Feb. 12 lesque masculinity and exaggerated comedy from all this already, and here we are naming it after the opening moment. For the life of me, I could ourselves,” while an epilogue of sorts comments BY JONATHAN ABARBANEL not figure out—still can’t—what’s funny about on fleeting fame and the dust of history. Why all Powell, his men and their dangerous and grueling this is done with mockery rather than, say, irony One of the greatest journeys of my life was a three-month expedition into terra-almost-incog- is beyond me. 12-day rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. It nita. Men on Boats has a spell-binding physical set- connected me to indescribably vivid and majestic In fairness, Backhaus’ script doesn’t minimize ting by William Boles, a giant shadowbox that’s scenery, a profound natural spirituality and hu- the challenges Powell faced, detailing boats an abstraction of a deep and narrow canyon with man history dating from the Anasazi. I was on a splintering on rocks, men washed overboard and towering, striated walls, supplemented by Bran- large neoprene raft, but the Colorado River also saved (Powell never lost a man to the river), food don Wardell’s lighting. Melissa Ng’s creative and was dotted with colorfully-painted heavy wooden and supplies lost, all of which are acted out in amusing costumes drip with individual detailing dories, identical to rowboats used by John Wesley vigorous physical sequences. Nonetheless Back- and seem inspired by spaghetti Westerns. The Powell and cohorts in their ground-breaking 1869 haus seems more interested in revealing the performers are robust and vivid to a “man,” with expedition through the Canyon. explorers’ petty egos, eccentricities, jealousies, each finding excellent specific details to define I was, therefore, excited to see Men on Boats, need for acclaim and second-guessing of Powell’s hir persona. Even so, I doubt if viewers will come about Powell (Kelli Simpkins) and the expedition. leadership. Yet the dialogue and cartoon-like act- away with new knowledge or feeling emotionally It wasn’t what I expected, to put it mildly. I must ing prevent audiences from ever discerning who engaged.

THEATER REVIEW forces spiritual, natural and industrial. Prominent preservation of their privileged lifestyle—burn- could still be only the imaginings of frightened among the first is the Biblical prophesy of a holo- ing the books in the library to make room for children in hiding. The Sundial caust destroying all earthly life (excepting its ad- increasingly frivolous stores of survival supplies, In performance, the degree to which the indi- Playwright: adapted by Paul Edwards, herents, of course). The invention of the atomic for example, and retaining the virile young librar- viduals in this uniformly unpleasant tribe recog- from the novel by Shirley Jackson bomb, however, introduced the secular specter ian for purposes of repopulating the scorched nize their own shallow values imposes a brittle At: City Lit Theatre at the Edgewater of a cataclysm annihilating both good and bad earth. candor upon those resisting the growing malaise, Presbyterian Church, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. alike. That’s one interpretation, anyhow. Literary while reducing those capitulating thereto to the Tickets: $29 The propensity of nebulous fears to intermingle scholars may recognize hints of Edger Allan Poe’s helpless dithering found in Agatha Christie thrill- Runs through: Feb. 12 is what propels Shirley Jackson’s tale of a snob- Mask of the Red Death in Jackson’s premise, as ers. A stage with more shadowy corners (where bish, self-centered clan confronted with a premo- science-fiction buffs may hearken to the fantasies lurk our own hobgoblins) would also better serve BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE nition of impending doom. The newly ascended of H.P. Lovecraft. A decade later, witchcraft con- this brand of creeping unease. No one can deny matriarch, who proposes to eject most of her re- ducted by the sullen pre-adolescent heir to the that Jackson spins a shivery-good yarn, though, In an uncertain world, rarely is there a shortage cently deceased son’s kin from the commodious property would be the culprit, or perhaps a con- nor that the cast assembled for this City Lit proof free-floating dread (dubbed “anxiety” by the family residence, is skeptical of an elderly aunt’s spiracy perpetrated by relations threatened with duction doesn’t exercise unwavering control of its shrinks). claim to have been warned by an ancestral ghost eviction. Our author never reveals the source of atmospheric complexities. Since putting a name to unseen terrors proof cataclysmic danger beyond the boundaries of the delusional behavior, and if adapter/director vides an illusion of control, this inescapable con- their gated estate, but soon its members are busy Paul Edwards decides to throw us a big, fat, aero- c dition has been attributed, at various times, to converting their home into a bunker ensuring nautically inaccurate clue at the last moment, it CRITICS’PICKS The Christians, Steppenwolf Theatre, through THEATER REVIEW age, discovered to be the mistress of the house, typal experiences compiled from media images Jan. 29. Religious beliefs and business basics but presently bunkered down against invasion of rust-belt refugees just recently brought to uncomfortably collide in Lucas Hnath’s thought- Her America by a pack of aggressive dogs. As she cowers in popular attention. provoking drama about faith and followers. SCM Playwright: Brett Neveu fear and confusion, occasionally peering out the Neveu’s intentions are admirable, but his full- The Rosenkranz Mysteries, Opus Magna Mu- At: Solo Celebration at the ground-level window at her pursuers, she takes out weep-for-the-innocent-poor campaign only sica at the Royal George, extended through Feb. Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. comfort from the surrounding welter of family succeeds in sentimentalizing those he would 12. This isn’t your everyday razzle-dazzle look- Tickets: $34-$48 artifacts and the memories generated thereby, ennoble. That task falls to Buddeke, who reach- ma-no-hands legerdemain, but a gentle blend of Runs through: Feb. 12 which she recounts to an unseen, perhaps images beyond the checklist text—further muddied the historical and the imaginative. MSB inary, companion whose location is gradually lo- by the author’s ambivalence toward abusers The Weir, Irish Theatre of Chicago at Den BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE calized to a large steamer trunk. and enablers alike, hackneyed diatribes aimed Theatre, extended through Feb. 4. Like children No, this is not one of those body-in-the- at the usual religious, economic and domestic at bedtime, audiences demanded another story In theater jargon, the term “vehicle” indicates box thrillers, although we might be forgiven brainwashes and a curiously anticlimactic Big and so you have three more weekends to hear a play or production designed to showcase the that assumption, given the propensity of fic- Revelation—to endow her Kmart-clad heroine the ghostly yarns that propel Conor McPherson’s talents of a particular artist, often—but not tion writers in the last three decades to por- with dignity and pathos. If this necessitates heartwarming tales of loneliness in the hinter- always—at the expense of other dramatic fac- tray lower-middle-class citizens as uneducated, occasionally slipping into emotional excess (a lands. MSB tors (plot, character, plausibility, etc.). Brett immoral, meth-and-moonshine-crazed troglo- hazard catalyzed by Lindsay Jones’ incidental Women, The Cuckoo’s Theater Project at Col- Neveu’s conveyance for Chicago icon Kate Bud- dytes. Neveu’s flyover-country damsel in dis- score overamplified use of Aerosmith’s “Dream laboraction in Flat Iron Arts Building, through deke meets this definition, but his efforts to tress is no murderer—indeed, has always obedi- On”) under the collaborative guidance of Linda Feb. 4. By plonking down self-absorbed 21st- impose a second agenda thereupon encumbers ently accepted her lowly status and restrictive Gillum, the resulting 70 minutes in this Solo century teenage girls into the plot of Louisa it with unnecessary baggage. options—but in a gallant attempt to generate Celebration welcome of a new year never cease May Alcott’s beloved 19th-century novel Little Our setting is a home basement overflowing— compassion for her plight through affixing to engage—and maybe even enlighten—audi- Women, playwright Chiara Atik and her cast find like most such storage spaces—with the detri- blame to social conditions, he has created a ences too long ignorant of their fellow travelers. plenty of laughs in this sharp and inclusive stage tus of its residents stretching back generations. persona not so much a human being, possessing spoof. SCM Its sole occupant is a woman of indeterminate a distinct personality, as a catalogue of stereo- —By Barnidge and Morgan 20 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES THEATER REVIEW Did director Carlos Murillo think to re-examine What of the Night? as a timely warning? Its cy- Jeremy Ashley Owens. What of the Night? clical structure begins with violent desperation Photo by Jill Howe Playwright: María Irene Fornes during the Great Depression and ends in an imag- At: Cor Theatre and Stage Left Theatre ined future feral existence following an economic at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. disaster. Tickets: 773-975-8150, or CorTheatre.org How could Murillo have known that the first or StageLeftTheatre.com; $18-$30 two scenes would feel so relevant in light of the Runs through: Feb. 12 Republican-dominated U.S. Congress dismantling the Affordable Care Act? Should we see folks re- BY SCOTT C. MORGAN sorting to desperate measures to buy medicine for sickly family members in the 1930s or lesbian What to make of What of the Night? lovers in the 1950s as a disturbing near-future There are so many questions about Cor Theatre preview? and Stage Left Theatre’s co-production of Cuban- Why does Fornés give so many characters the American lesbian playwright María Irene Fornes’ same names throughout the work’s four distinct experimental play. time periods? Are they the same people aging First off, there’s the play’s title—its symbolic from the first scene on, or is it pure coincidence significance and what it really should be. When that characters share the same distinctive moni- was the title shortened? Why was it previously kers like “Rainbow” (Kathryn Acosta) or “Birdie” billed as “And What of the Night?” (Dionne Addai)? Is the second half of the play supposed to show the society-destroying greediness of the abusive bisexual power brokers Joseph (Stephen Loch) and Ray (Nelson Rodriguez)? Since Helena (Kate Black-Spence) is married off to Ray as a problem- solving measure, is she supposed to be a tragic feminine symbol? Why is there such a long Act II dream sequence for Ray? Why must the Asian characters in it be so offensively stereotyped? Do the actors themselves sometimes feel that the play is beyond their acting abilities despite game stabs at the script? Or might they have NUNN ON ONE: COMEDY liked more time with a dialect coach due the vari- able quality of accents like Allyce Torres as the not-too-convincing German lesbian Greta? Jeremy Ashley Owens Will some annoyed audience members question why What of the Night? was named a Pulitzer fi- nalist for drama in 1990? And are there enough riffs on Cher and people out there to put up Fornés’ deliberately dramatic obtuseness over a patience-trying running time of nearly three hours? being ridiculous Are you not at all surprised that I can’t provide was too much for me at the time. concrete answers to these questions about What by Jerry Nunn In 2010, when I was laid off from Weber af- of the Night? Or is it likely that Fornes would ter the economy tanked, I felt Oprah and the be happy that each and every audience member Jeremy Ashley Owens is showing the funny side Stephen Loch and Nelson Rodriguez (front) in universe was trying to tell me something. I made up his or her own minds about this con- of life with his popular Chicago series You’re What of the Night? loved theater and wanted to be onstage talk- founding play? Being Ridiculous. In the show, a different topic Photo by Ian McLaren is featured each run. Currently, family is front ing about what I wanted to talk about. I didn’t and center, with games, choices and lightbulbs want it to be memorized because that scared all planned for the future. Sounds ridiculous? me. I wanted a safe, happy place where I could It is all part of the fun. talk and be in charge of it. I didn’t want to do Founded in 2010 by Owens, the cast rotates it alone. I wanted other people with me. eSPOTLIGHT to include locals that tell a humorous or touch- I decided on a monologue show where I will ing story about themselves keeping with the set the theme. I could write the story and read Chicago Children’s Theatre is simultane- theme. it to the audience. I begged a lot of people ously celebrating its future and its past Windy City Times: Start off with where you to do it with me. It was right around my 35th this month. The recent opening of Chicago are from originally. birthday so it felt like a coming out of sorts. Children’s Theatre’s new headquarters for Jeremy Ashley Owens: I am from Stuttgart, I thought it might only happen one time and classes and small-scale shows in the former Arkansas. It is the rice and duck capital of the was happy if that was all that happened. It 12th District police station in the West Loop world! worked! The next show didn’t happen until over six conincides with the revival of one of the WCT: Did you study theater there? JAO: Yes. I went to the University of Arkan- months later. Now we do about four a year. I company’s biggest hits. Back in 2009, Ralph sas and studied theater. I moved to Chicago for do the Fillet of Solo Festival and a gay-Pride Covert (Ralph’s World) and G. Riley Mills re- graduate school in 2000. show at Women & Children First bookstore in ceived much acclaim for their anti-bullying WCT: How did You’re Being Ridiculous be- addition to that. musical The Hundred Dresses, which was Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn gin? WCT: So it is growing? based upon Eleanor Estes’ still-relevant 1944 St. Tickets are $10 to $39; call 872-222-9555 JAO: I had the idea for a while. When I was JAO: Yes. We are at Steppenwolf right now. children’s book. The Hundred Dresses con- or visit ChicagoChildrensTheatre.org. Photo at Weber Grill, I was still in grad school. When tinues through Sunday, Feb. 12, at the Ruth by Michael Brosilow I got out of school the stress of being an actor Turn to page 23 WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 21 Associate Artistic Director of the Chicago Hu- member of another marginalized community. The illumination event is aligned with The Ghostlight LGBT critics announce manities Festival Alison Cuddy will moderate a resultant portraits reflect these stories. Project, a national effort of U.S. theater. panel discussion about this year’s nominees—the This presentation is part of Working in America, The iconic vertical marquee above the Good- Dorian Award nods good, the bad; the shoo-ins and the snubs—with a national multimedia initiative created by Proj- man’s Dearborn Street main entrance will match The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics As- Chicago film critics J.R. Jones (Chicago Reader), ect&. the look and dimensions of the original sign, sociation (GALECA)—composed of more than Sergio Mims (Shadow and Act, WHPK 88.5 Chica- See https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/ which was erected in 2000 and irreparably dam- 170 film/TV critics and entertainment journalists go), Pamela Powell (The Daily Journal, Fete Life- events/search/index. aged by an electrical fire last spring—but feature across the U.S., Canada and the U.K.—revealed style Magazine, Reel Honest Reviews, The Reel greater illumination functionality and energy ef- its nominees for the best in film and television Focus), Ray Pride (Newcity) and Dean Richards ficiency. of 2016. (WGN News). National comedy According to a press release, the marquee will The selections come across 24 categories, and Admission is free. remain lit around the clock for the foreseeable are mainstream and LGBTQ-focused, with 20th Also, the Siskel’s Oscar fete, “Hollywood on benefit Jan. 19-21 future. In response to what the event’s organizers Century Women and The Lobster among the titles State: Where You’re the Star,” will take place have called President-elect Donald Trump’s “re- in the varied movie races. Among show nominees Sunday, Feb. 26; doors will open at 6 p.m. The peated threats on human rights,” comedians in on the TV side: Black Mirror, The People v. O.J., 89th Academy Awards® HD Telecast begins at Wayne Brady more than 20 cities are coordinating shows to London Spy and Looking: The Movie. 7:30 p.m. raise money for the ACLU on Inauguration Day Moonlight leads with seven nominations, with Tickets ($100 general admission/$200 VIP) can joining ‘Hamilton’ Weekend for the WHAT A JOKE Comedy Fest, orga- Five-time Emmy Award winner and Grammy La La Land earning six. In addition, John Wa- be purchased at SiskelFilmCenter.org or 312-846- nized and produced by New York comedians Jenn nominee Wayne Brady is joining the Chicago cast ters has been named the Timeless Star, given to 2072. an actor or performer whose exemplary career is Welch (The New York Comedy Festival) and Emily of Hamilton (as Aaron Burr) Jan. 17-April 9 at marked by character, wisdom and wit. Winter (Writer for TV Land, Fusion TV). The PrivateBank Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St. The winners will be announced Thursday, Jan. Riva Lehrer On Jan. 19-21, benefit comedy shows under the Brady will return for his eighth season as the 26. The group’s annual Winners Toast, honoring a name WHAT A JOKE will take place simultaneously host of CBS’ Let’s Make A Deal as well as the fifth select group of 2016-17 winners, is set for Sat- talk on Jan. 25 around the country and in the United Kingdom. new season of Who’s Line Is it Anyway on the CW urday, Feb. 18, in Los Angeles. See GALECA.org. Project& will present a conversation with Riva In Chicago, the show will take place at The Hide- this year. Lehrer, who’s a Working in America exhibit par- out, 1354 W. Wabansia Ave.; visit WhatAJokeFest. Hamilton is the story of founding father Alex- ticipant, artist and activist. The event will take com/project/chicago/. ander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West In- Siskel’s Oscar place Wed., Jan. 25, 12-1 p.m., at the Harold dies who became George Washington’s right-hand Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St. man during the Revolutionary War and was the panel Jan. 24 She will talk about her working life. Goodman to show new nation’s first treasury secretary. The musi- The Gene Siskel Film Center (GSFC) of the Lehrer is known for depictions of those who cal features hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B and School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), have rarely been the subjects of portraiture. In new marquee Broadway. Goodman Theatre will illuminate its brand-new 164 N. State St., will present the 89th Academy order to create an image, collaborators talk about See BroadwayInChicago.com. marquee for the first time during a public cer- Awards® Nominations Panel on Tuesday, Jan. 24, what it means to be disabled, LGBTQ and/or a 4:30-5:30 p.m. A reception will follow. emony on Thursday, Jan. 19, at 5:30 p.m. The 22 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES one takes him seriously until it’s too late. Vic- Namir Puja Mohindra and tor Quezada-Perez directs. Trap Door’s tiny space Richard Costes in Vanya. should put the physical action in your face (Trap- Photo by Scott Dray doorTheatre.com). Iolanthe, The Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company @ Mandel Hall (1131 E. 57th Street), March 10- 12—This still-popular 1882 hit contains, arguably, Arthur Sullivan’s finest music and certainly some of William Gilbert’s most clever lyrics. A send-up of the House of Lords and British politics, it concerns mortal peers-of-the-realm and immortal fairies who fall in love. Musically, this production is sure to be first-rate with an orches- tra from the University of Chicago’s Department of Music (gilbertandsullivanoperacompany.org). The Most Happy Fella’, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre @ No Exit Cafe, 6970 N. Glenwood, March 10-May 7—This 1956 Broadway hit was com- poser/lyricist Frank Loesser’s follow-up to Guys and Dolls, and it’s one of the most gorgeous and musically-lush Broadway shows ever written. Set in the 1930s Napa Valley, it concerns a Decem- WINTER THEATER SPECIAL ber-May romance in California wine country, with a few complications (of course) added. Loesser himself was in love at the time and poured his The winter classics: emotions into a dazzling score of Mozartean melodies. The show has opera proportions yet re- mains very Broadway. Theo Ubique—which gen- erally amazes—will squeeze this big show into Old and not-so-old the very intimate No Exit Café space. The show’s hits include “Standing on the Corner,” “Joey” and “Big D” (TheoUbique.org). Picnic, American Theater Company, March BY JONATHAN ABARBANEL eatre.com). sweet little romantic musical, featuring “Try to 17-April 23—It opens on St. Pat’s Day and closes Cymbeline, Strawdog Theatre Company at The Remember” and “Soon It’s Going to Rain” among on Shakespeare’s birthday. William Inge’s 1953 Classics... Factory (1621 N. Howard St.), through Feb. 25— its lilting or comical songs. Nowadays, The Fanta- classic of mid-20th Century realism injects a The very word is an attraction for some but a Shakespeare’s rarely-staged fantasy romance calls sticks isn’t seen often on professional stages, so handsome young man into stultifying small-town turn-off for others, which is understandable if an for a highly-inventive production to make its this new production is welcome. Quest does well life and he riles things up. The deeply closeted old play is presented as a stodgy museum piece, sweeping story work. Set partly in Roman Brit- with musicals, and Quest performances are free Inge often created such alluring and unavailable or used as a springboard for some ill-conceived ain and partly in Rome itself, it tells of chastity (QuestEnsemble.org). men, and American Theater Company (ATC) di- deconstruction. Fortunately, the finest and great- wronged, an evil queen, betrayal, long-lost chil- The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, Trap Door rector Will Davis intends to refashion Picnic by est theater pieces remain pulsing and pertinent dren and a clownish prince in a soap opera-like Theatre, March 9-April 15—A demagogue muscles incorporating an Inge-like character to observe for contemporary audiences through the univer- story. It can be great fun or a tedious, confusing in on the 1930s Chicago meat-packing industry. his own fantasy male. ATC’s website (ATCWeb.org) sality of their characters, stories and humanity. slog. We hope for the former (Strawdog.org). Mr. Ui, as created by playwright Bertolt Brecht mentions Dust Bowl songs, which are wrong for Phedre, Trap Door Theatre, through Feb. 11— Love’s Labors Lost, Chicago Shakespeare The- in 1941, looks and acts a lot like Adolf Hitler. the 1950s. Here’s hoping Davis isn’t changing the Jean Racine, the 17th-century French playwright, ater, Feb. 7-March 26—Canadian master director Or perhaps Vladimir Putin. Or conceivably Don- time period. created a powerful play of taboo lust, jealousy, Marti Maraden returns to Chicago to direct The ald Trump. He’s self-serving, whining, manipula- innocence destroyed and terrible vengeance in Bard’s wittiest comedy of manners, about flirta- tive, insinuating, crafty, a liar to the core and no this tale from Greek mythology of a beautiful tion and love among the educated and royal Up- queen in love with her pure-hearted and heroic per Classes. Sure, there’s some low comedy, too, stepson, the handsome Hippolytus. This adapta- but LLL is cut from altogether different cloth tion by Paul Schmidt modernizes the language than most other Shakespeare romantic comedies. Charles Busch in (the Racine original is in Alexandrine verse) if The cast features numerous veteran Chicago ac- not the story itself (trapdoortheatre.com). tors, and the production is certain to be hand- Chicago Jan. 29-30 Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, will Vanya, Rasaka Theatre Company @ The Edge some and lavish (ChicagoShakes.com). present Charles Busch: That Girl, That Boy on Theater (5451 N. Broadway), through Feb. 3— Carmen, Lyric Opera of Chicago, in repertory Jan. 29-30 in The Broadway in the center. This has been quite a season for Anton Chekhov’s Feb. 11-March 25—A new production (with the This is the first time this theatrical legend 1899 comedy, Uncle Vanya, a daisy chain of unre- Houston Grand Opera) of Bizet’s racy and sweaty will play his solo show in Chicago. And this quited love, middle-aged regret, misplaced self- tale of passionate but careless love, seduction, is the first of what will be quarterly Pride Arts sacrifice, eccentricity and ego-centrism, all set smuggling, betrayal and bullfights. Hard to be- Center Presents events featuring prominent at a country estate. First, Lookingglass Theatre lieve that this vastly-popular opera, with a daz- performers from the world of theater, music, brilliantly staged Aaron Posner’s contemporary zling and colorful score, was a failure when first film and more. Americanized retelling, Life Sucks. Now Rasaka produced in 1875. This new production will have Busch—a two-time MAC Award winner, Tony is presenting an adaptation by Lavina Jadhwani a 20th Century look and features an extraordinary nominee and drag legend—will bring an eclec- which turns Uncle Vanya (the title means, liter- cast of sexy singers. If you’ve never been to an tic program of songs both contemporary and ally, “Uncle Johnny”) into a tale of the South opera, try Carmen. Hey, you already know some of from the past. Asian diaspora in contemporary America. If that’s the music (LyricOpera.org). Musical-theater mainstay Tom Judson is the not enough, the Goodman Theatre presents Uncle The Fantasticks, Quest Theatre Ensemble @ musical director, and will duet with Busch on Vanya in a modern adaptation by Annie Baker, the Blue Theatre, 1609 W. Gregory, Feb. 17-March several songs. Feb. 1-March 12. The Rasaka version, Vanya, or 26—The original 1960 Off-Broadway production Tickets are $40-$75 each; visit http://bit.ly/ Charles Busch. That’s Life, promises to offer American India folk ran for 42 years (yes, that’s 42 years) and not charlesbuschatPAC or call 800-737-0984. PR photo songs and move backwards in time (RasakaTh- so long ago everyone knew this whimsical and WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 23 OWENS from page 20

WCT: How did you become CULTURECULTURE CLUBCLUB involved with that iconic theater group? JAO: We were at the Mayne The Cuckoo’s Theater Project Presents Stage in Rogers Park and my friend encouraged some produc- ers to see the show. They enjoyed it and invited us to work with them in their new cabaret space the 1700 Theatre. WCT: So you are looking for people that write their own material? A JAO: They don’t have to. They Comedy by don’t have to be a performer. Chiara Atik Directed by They just have to want to tell Melissa Golden a story that fits our theme. I’m confident that they will make it work if they have a story to tell. Jan 6th- Feb 4th The Pentagon Theater at Collaboraction Studios The show is submission- in the Flat Iron Arts Building based. Sometimes it is hard because we get more submissions than we can take. Having to say www.TheCuckoosTheaterProject.com no is the worst part of all of it. WCT: Talk about Fillet of Solo Festival. JAO: It is at Lifeline Theatre for three weeks. There have 15 acts brought together. It is in its 20th year being with Live Bait Theater before Lifeline. before ACT UP There are also shows at the before Stonewall... Heartland Studio Theatre. There are tons of good people featured, like Nestor Gomez, who has a solo show. WCT: How was meeting either you’re in, Cher? or you’re out. JAO: I went to meet her at the Hillary Clinton event here in Chicago. When I went to take a picture with her, she could see that it was too much for me. She grabbed my jacket saying, “I love your jacket, but I’m Cher and, of course, I love velvet!” She then turned me towards the camera for the picture. I felt like I had crazy eyes and was Photo by Joe Mazza / Brave Lux Inc. biting my lip. I might have had a mild stroke. Afterward, I got in a fetal position in the other room on the floor! Get Ridiculous at YoureBe- ingRidiculous.com, submit a story and become part of the act. Follow the Fillet at Lifeline- Theatre.com to find out times by complicitE and dates for YBR performanc- originally conceived and directed by Simon mcburney es along with GayCo, OUTspo- deviSed by the original company ken!, and many others. Fillet chicago prEmiErE of Solo runs through Sunday, directed by nick bowling Jan. 29. “Explodes with so much intellectual stimulus Read the full interview on- it makes you giddy, thrilled, intoxicated, line at WindyCityMediaGroup. ready to talk.” – Chicago Tribune com. timelinetheatre.com 773.281.time (8463) 24 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES Ave. John Walch’s dark one-man comedy concerns Adam Jacobs in Aladdin. a guy trying to figure out why his father had such Photo by Deen van Meer an obsessive hatred for squirrels and other ro- dents. (now to Feb. 12; GreenhouseTheater.org) The Adventures of Robin Hood, Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave. Non-tradition- al casting comes into play for Oliver Emanuel’s stage adaptation of the famed legend of the Eng- lishman who robbed the rich to feed the poor. (now to March 19; FilamentTheatre.org) Gloria, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ dark cutthroat comedy concerns twentysomething editorial assistants scrambling to find the next big thing in contemporary media. (now to Feb. 19; GoodmanTheatre. org) Saturday Night Fever, Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace. Sean Cercone and David Abbinanti are the latest scribes to write a new script adaptation of the hit (and very dark) 1977 disco film that notoriously starred John Tra- volta. (now to March 19; DruryLane.com) Earthquakes in London, Steep Theatre, 1115 W. Berwyn Ave. Mike Bartlett’s drama focuses on a WINTER THEATER SPECIAL climate scientist and his three estranged daugh- ters when an environmental disaster befalls Eng- land. (Jan. 21-March 4; SteepTheatre.com) The Nether, A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. World and local Wells St. Jennifer Haley’s drama focuses on a young detective who exposes a disturbing brand of entertainment. The script is the winner of premieres abound the 2011-12 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. (Jan. 26-March 12; ARedOrchidTheatre.org) The Assembled Parties, Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St. Richard Greenberg’s 2013 Broadway drama follows the Bascov family in 1980 and in BY SCOTT C. MORGAN come suspects in a terrorist attack on Chicago lonely island. (Feb. 18-26; ChicagoOperaTheater. 2000 where planned-for ambitions go awry. (Jan. in Shepsu Aakhu’s new drama. (now to Feb. 26; org) 25-March 25; RavenTheatre.com) There are plenty of offerings this winter for the- MPAACT.opg) Linda Vista, Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. The Bodyguard, Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Ran- ater lovers who prize new-to-Chicago and never- Captain Blood, First Folio Theatre at Mayslake Halsted St. A divorced 50-year-old guy faces new dolph St. Deborah Cox stars in a touring produc- seen-before works. Here’s a sampling of world Peabody Estate, 1717 W. 31st St., Oak Brook, Da- possibilities at life after moving out of his ex- tion of the London stage adaptation of the hit and local premieres to watch out for. All shows in vid Rice’s adaptation of Rafael Sabatini’s prom- wife’s garage in Tracy Letts’ comic drama. (March Whitney Houston film musical. (Jan. 31 to Feb. Chicago unless otherwise noted. ises plenty of swashbuckling high-seas adventure 30–May 21; Steppenwolf.org) 12; BroadwayInChicago.com) full of intrigue and piratical sword fighting. (Jan. King of the Yees, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. The Scottsboro Boys, Porchlight Music The- World premieres 25-Feb. 26; FirstFolio.org) Dearborn St. Lauren Yee’s family drama concerns atre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Kander Fantastic Super Great Nation Numero Uno, Hobo King, Congo Square Theatre at Athenae- the conflicts between a pillar of San Francisco’s and Ebb’s critically acclaimed 2010 Broadway Second City e.t.c., 1608 N. Wells St. You can bet um Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. Javon John- Chinese-American community and his reluc- “minstrel” musical exploring the lives of African- that this 41st revue will feature some material son’s new plays takes its inspiration from a true tant daughter in this co-production with Center American teenagers who were wrongfully accused about the new divisive president elect. (in an event of a homeless man who slain by city police Theatre Group in Los Angeles. (March–April 30; of rape in the 1930s. (Feb. 3 -March 12) open run; SecondCity.com) and the subsequent fallout in the homeless com- GoodmanTheatre.org) The Columnist, American Blues Theater at Psychonaut Librarians, The New Colony at Den munity. (Jan. 27-March 5; CongoSquareTheatre. Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. Playwright Sean org) Chicago premieres Award-winning playwright David Auburn (Proof) Kelly imagines what flights of fancy librarians get Faceless, Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie The Tall Girls, Shattered Globe Theatre at The- explores sex, betrayal and Cold War-era politics up to late at night in this new fantasy-filled com- Blvd., Skokie. An alleged 18-year-old female ter- ater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Meg Miroshnik’s by focusing on a powerful journalist in Washing- edy. (now to Feb. 12; TheNewColony.org) rorist faces off against a Muslim prosecutor in Depression-era drama focuses on a pioneering ton D.C. (Feb. 17-April 9; AmericanBluesTheater. Jim Lehrer and the Theater and Its Double Selina Fillinger’s tense courtroom drama. (Jan. women’s basketball team in the Midwest. (now to com) and Jim Lehrer’s Double, Theater Oobleck at 26-March 4; Northlight.org) Feb. 25; SGTheatre.org) Destiny of Desire, Goodman Theatre, 170 Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St. Mickle Maher The Book of Joseph, Chicago Shakespeare The- Winter, Rivendell Theatre, 5775 N. Ridge Ave. N. Dearborn St. Latin American telenovelas are has devised a sequel to his 2007 hit The Stran- ater, 800 E. Grand Ave. Karen Hartman (Roz and Utah-based playwright Julie Jensen explores the the inspiration for Karen Zacarias’ comic drama. gerer, this time delving into the subconscious of Ray) create a new drama based upon the life of conflict between an aging mother who is losing (March 11-April 16; GoodmanTheatre.org) the former PBS news anchor. (Jan. 20-Feb. 19; Joseph A. Hollander and his Jewish relatives who her faculties and her grown children who have Upright Grand, Citadel Theatre, 300 S. Wauke- TheaterOobleck.com) might have collaborated with the Nazis. (Jan. other ideas about her wellbeing. (now to Feb. 11; gan Rd., Lake Forest. Laura Schellhardt’s drama Diamond Dogs, House Theatre of Chicago at 29-March 5; ChicagoShakes.com) RivendellTheatre.org) deals with musical and familial differences be- Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St. Humans and Monster, Steppenwolf for Young Audiences, A Disappearing Number, TimeLine Theatre, tween a jazz pianist father and his concert pia- transhumans are forced to team up to investigate 1650 N. Halsted St. Aaron Carter adapts Walter Wellington Ave. Simon McBurney’s collaborative nist daughter. (March 16-26; CitadelTheatre.org) a mysterious alien tower in Althos Low’s adap- Dean Myers’ novel about a 16-year-old aspiring company Complicité shines a light on the com- Aladdin, Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Ran- tation of Alastair Reynolds’ sci-fi adventure for filmmaker in juvenile detention. (Feb. 15-March plex and inspirational friendship between Indian dolph St. Broadway star Adam Jacobs launches mature audiences. (Jan. 22-March 5; TheHous- 9; Steppenwolf.org) mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan and British the North American tour of the hit stage adap- eTheatre.com) The Invention of Morel, Chicago Opera The- mathematician G.H. Hardy. (now to April 9; Time- tation of Disney’s 1992 animated blockbuster. By Association, MPAACT at Greenhouse The- ater at Studebaker Theatre, 410 S. Michigan Ave. LineTheatre.com) (April 11—July 2; BroadwayInChicago.com) ater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. An immigrant Stewart Copeland’s co-world premiere with Long Circumference of a Squirrel, Solo Celebration teenager and his African-American friend be- Beach Opera is a sci-fi story of a man stuck on a at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 25 Uptown storefront house this much Great Gay Travis Turner and Robert Fenton in Bootycandy. Hits juke-box musical fabulosity? (Jan. 17-Feb. Photo by Justin Barbin 12; PrideFilmsAndPlays.com Fifty Shades of Shakespeare, (re)discover theatre at Mary’s Attic, 5400 N. Clark St. Get your education and alcohol at the same time—four actors perform the Bard’s sexiest scenes in a bar/ cabaret and you get to choose the cast. (Feb. 3-27; RediscoverTheatre.com)

Festivals Fillet of Solo, Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glen- wood Ave. and Heartland Studio, 7016 N. Glen- wood Ave. The line-up for the 20-year anniversary of this showcase for single-voice narratives includes GayCo, the Kates, OUTspoken and Sap- pho’s Salon, along with regulars Tekki Lomnecki WINTER THEATER SPECIAL and the Sweat Girls. (Jan. 13-29; LifelineTheatre. com) Rhinofest, Curious Theatre Branch at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston Ave. Theatre Y’s production of LGBT plays to chase Hector Alvarez’s docudrama The Ghoul Exhibition encompasses homophobia, racial profiling, club shootings and much more. (Feb. 2-23; PropThtr. org) away the darkness Even if alarmists would have you believe the sky is falling, keep calm and carry on. See you at the theater. BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE in their own lives. (March 8-April 29; RavenThe- atre.com) Hannah Corneau as Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The Wolf at the End of the Block, Teatro Vista Don’t put away that gay apparel yet. After a Photo by Joan Marcus stressful 2016, it’s time to rally around LGBT at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. A boarded- plays to raise consciousness and morale while up bar becomes a crime scene, but when its Out having a good time as well. gay playwright is Ike Holter, you know this will be no ordinary whodunit. (Feb. 3-March 5; Teat- Gay history roVista.org) The Temperamentals, About Face at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Before Stonewall Gender flips sparked the creation of Gay Alliances, Coalitions Henry V, Babes With Blades Theatre Company or Liberation Fronts, the Mattachine Society at City Lit, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Others may fought for the rights of men-who-love-men. (Jan. claim the spotlight today, but the Babes pio- 19-Feb. 18; www.theaterwit.org) neered women-playing-men decades ago—look Blues For an Alabama Sky, Court Theatre, for that “Band of Brothers” speech to take on 5535 S. Ellis Ave. A gay male dressmaker who new dimensions in this unigender rendering longs to outfit Josephine Baker is only one of of Shakespeare’s classic. (Feb. 27-April 1; Ba- the African-American artists struggling to make besWithBlades.org) their fortune in Pearl Cleage’s tale of the Harlem For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, Shattered Renaissance. (Jan. 21-Feb. 12; CourtTheatre.org) Globe Theatre at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont The Baltimore Waltz, Brown Paper Box at the Ave. The boy who never grew up (once portrayed Frontier, 1106 W. Thorndale Ave. A seize-the-day only by female actors) brings comfort to elderly vacation in Europe gradually morphs into Paula siblings in Sarah Ruhl’s play, starring her mother, Vogel’s farewell to her brother in the waning days Chicago favorite Kathleen Ruhl. (April 6-May 20; of the AIDS epidemic. (Jan. 21-Feb. 19; Brown- ShatteredGlobe.org) PaperBox.org) Gender Breakdown, Collaboraction Theatre at The Kid Thing, Nothing Without A Company the Flatiron, 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave. Dani Bryant at Berger Park North Mansion, 6205 N. Sheridan weaves real-life testimonials into a symposium Road. A revival of Sarah Gubbins’ 2011 drama ex- on misogynistic prejudice in show business to- ploring the consequences of a lesbian couple with day. (Feb. 22-March 19; Collaboraction.org) misaligned biological clocks. (March 13-April 8; Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Oriental Theatre, NothingWithoutACompany.org) 24 W. Randolph St. The transgender East German “internationally ignored song stylist” returns to Gay today share her side of the story of a notorious rock star Bootycandy, Windy City Playhouse, 3014 W. scandal in a tour of the 2014 Tony Award-winning Irving Park Rd. Robert O’Hara’s survey of options Broadway revival. (March 7-19; BroadwayInChi- open to gay, adolescent, African-American males cago.org) pays homage to George Wolfe’s “Colored Muse- um.” (Feb. 3-April 16; WindyCityPlayhouse.com) Just for fun Sycamore, Raven Theater, 6157 N. Clark St. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Pride Films and Two teenagers—one male, one female—vie for Plays at the Pride Broadway, 4139 N. Broadway. the affections of the handsome new neighbor boy Can two drag queens and a transchick on a road next door, as their parents grapple with changes trip find happiness and fulfillment? Can a tiny 26 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES “In the Clinton White House, that Southern Moe Vela. genteel kind of hospitality was everywhere,” he Photo courtesy of Deiv Compton remembered. “They rolled up their sleeves, willing to do whatever it takes to do right by people.” By contrast, Vela sometimes found the Obama administration aloof and perhaps overconfident. “I’m not suggesting the President was that way,” Vela said. “The few times I was around him, he was actually not like that at all. And neither was Mrs. Obama. But it was some of his senior ad- visors who really never stopped being that way.” When Vela suggested looking at the effects of particular policies on niche populations, a senior Obama official told him that he didn’t understand the mandate of the election. “We are now one America,” the official said. If that moment had happened under Vice President Gore, Vela said he would have started crying. “At 48 or 49, I was able to remain composed,” he said. He noted that Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign targeted specific populations, just as Vela had suggested happen with policy initiatives. Although his relationship with both the Gores and Bidens was always respectful and he consid- BOOKS ers both couples friends, Vela thinks his maturity changed his relationship with the new second family. “I had a little more life experience, and Pink and Brown in the White House: I felt more competent and comfortable,” he said. Despite the fact that his White House career took him by surprise, and a new, less welcoming Talking with Moe Vela administration is about to take office, Vela sees value in young LGBTQ people entering government service. By Liz Baudler and childhood to his White House years. He tells LGBTQ crowd, and other Latinos tended to be in- “We as gay and lesbian and bisexual and trans- charming, madcap tales, like when he ripped his secure when a member of their community suc- gender Americans have earned the equality that Moe Vela is the sort of guy who starts speeches pants open on the day Air Force Two and Vice ceeded. should have always been ours in many ways by saying, “It’s so good for this ugly, bald chubby President Gore were scheduled to fly to South “It never dampened my spirit to want to do that we didn’t have before,” Vela said. “It’s up gay Latino from South Texas to be with you to- Texas. Vela stapled his pants together, the trip right by both of my communities,” Vela said. “I to us. Let’s do away with our cliques, let’s do day.” Vela’s claim to fame? He was a senior execu- went smoothly, and Vela was proud of his inge- was a senior policy advisor on both of those com- away with what divides us, let’s come together. tive to the vice presidents in both the Clinton nuity ... until his pants set off the White House munities both times. I did it with fervor, I did it I’m confident and positive that we will remain and Obama administrations, and was the first gay metal detector a few months later. “Buns of with passion, I did it with complete commitment. moving forward towards that incredible dream of Hispanic person to do so. steel,” he quipped to the Secret Service agent. I feel proud of that, to be honest.” full equality.” “People ask me all the time, how do you get Throughout his narrative, Vela displays im- Vela’s White House stints were 15 years apart, Little Secrets, Big Dreams is available on to do this twice?” Vela said. “You don’t plan it. I pressive good humor and an ability to connect and he finds notable differences in both himself Amazon and at MoeVela.com. was open, I was flexible and adaptable to what with anyone from Joe Lieberman’s elderly Jewish and the two administrations he served. the universe brought. I didn’t sit there and say mother to actor Rob Lowe. “I’ve always thought this is the exact step by step process that’s going connecting with people is like the basics of life,” general public, and $15 for museum members to happen in my life. If I had done that, it would he said. “And self-deprecating humor is a very Forum on LGBTQ and students; visit https://www.chicagohis- have never happened that way.” powerful and key tool to meaningfully connect tory.org/outatchm. Trained as a lawyer from a family of Latino law- with people. ” bars on Jan. 26 Out at CHM—the Chicago History Museum’s yers in South Texas, in the mid-’90s, Vela was That’s why he introduces himself as chubby and annual three-event series exploring LGBTQ is- drinking with an acquaintance who mentioned ugly. “I feel like that like allows people to feel Bill T. Jones to sues—is launching its 14th year of program- that the Clinton administration was looking for they can relate with you,” Vela said. ming with “Our Bars: Community, Safety, Vio- “lawyer types” to serve in the vice president’s of- Despite his boisterous adult spirit, severe anxi- speak at DuSable lence, Sex, and Activism,” an exploration of the Art AIDS America and the DuSable Museum of fice. ety marred Vela’s childhood. He knew he was gay, movement that developed from LGBTQ bars and African American History are hosting dancer/ “I was a schedule C political appointee in the but he felt he couldn’t tell a soul. As an adult clubs. activist/Tony-winning choreographer Bill T. bowels of the Department of Agriculture,” Vela working in the White House, Vela and his former The event will take place Thursday, Jan. 26, Jones at the museum, 740 E. 56th Pl., on Fri- said with a laugh. “Here’s this chubby Latino bald partner, Deiv, were victimized by a relatively new at the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark day, Jan. 27, at 7 p.m. gay guy. ... It just wasn’t where we would have Clinton policy: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Deiv was St. The panel discussion begins at 6:30 p.m. Jones, who is a passionate HIV-positive art- expected me to be. There was a combination of honorably discharged from the National Security and includes a reception at 5:30 p.m. ist, will offer a one-night-only presentation naivete, innocence and frankly, kind of an enthu- Agency—but only because investigators couldn’t Author and historian Owen Keehnen moder- (entitled “Return”) touching on his decades- siasm, my almost raising my hand like I was in prove the couple had had sex. ates a panel to include community activists long relation to HIV/AIDS. class saying me, me. I was just, like, “Well, that “You feel so violated when people are telling and bar owners Art Johnston (Sidetrack) and This program is free and open to the pub- sounds kind of fun.” I did not even, for a second, you “we know you’ve been talking to him, we Marge Summit (His ‘n Hers). lic; a $10 suggested donation will benefit contemplate ‘This is the White House.’ ... I’d just watched you through your window kissing,’” Vela This is the first program in the Out at CHM the DuSable Museum. Advance registration had two or three beers. I probably thought the said. “It was a very powerful lesson in the power 2017 series, followed by “Art, AIDS, and Activ- is required, and can be made by visiting chances of it were so slim that I didn’t even give of legislation, and how it is so vital for us to be ism in Chicago” on Friday, March 3l and “From https://1466.blackbaudhosting.com/1466/ it any thought.” vigilant at all times.” New Town to Boystown to Lake View” on Thurs- Bill-T-Jones-Art-AIDS-America-Chicago?mc_ In his book, Vela writes that those beers were While in public service, Vela often felt at odds day, May 18. cid=c512a8d3c9&mc_eid=302e9a21a4 or call- probably the most important of his life. Little with his communities. As a “big beefy bear” he Admission to each program is $20 for the ing 773-947-0600. Secret, Big Dreams covers Vela’s family origins never felt fully accepted by the image-conscious WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 27 Judge: Secular ‘Cartooning AIDS’ celebrants can at Gerber/Hart A new major exhibition is in the new Sandfield officiate marriages Exhibition Gallery at Gerber/Hart Library, 6500 N. By Matt Simonette Clark St. “Cartooning AIDS” features the political car- A federal judge, on Jan. 4, ruled that certified toons of Danny Sotomayor and looks at how secular celebrants are authorized to perform mar- issues surrounding AIDS were engaged through riages in Illinois. political cartoons, comic books, trading cards and Secular celebrants are trained by the organiza- ‘zines for the purpose of political critique, education Center for Inquiry (CFI)—which advocates tion, and awareness. for “reason, science and secularism”—to officiate The exhibition will be open through April. This at weddings wherein the couple might not want a exhibition is being presented in conjunction with religious or government official. the Art AIDS America Chicago exhibition (ArtAID- “I am truly relieved by this ruling, and I am SAmericaChicago.org). ready to get to work,” said Galen Broaddus, a secular celebrant who brought the suit, in a statement. “I think of all the couples who feel mar- Laura Jane Grace ginalized for being nonreligious, who either had to compromise their core beliefs by taking part in Chicago on Feb. 5 in a religious wedding ceremony, or else settled On Sunday, Feb. 5, trans singer Laura Jane for a government wedding. But now they have Grace will perform at City Winery, 1200 W. Ran- the opportunity to have one of the most deeply dolph St., at 8 p.m. meaningful events of their lives commemorated Grace is a musician best known as the founder, in a way that reflects who they are.” lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of the punk U.S. District Judge Colin S. Bruce rendered the rock band Against Me! Her solo debut EP, Heart Jan. 4 decision. A 2014 court decision ruled that Burns, was released in 2008. Secular Celebrants could officiate at weddings in In 2012, she publicly came out as transgen- Indiana; there are similar cases pending in Texas, der, admitting to years of struggling with gender Michigan and Ohio. dysphoria and announcing her plan to medically “We made sincere efforts with the Illinois leg- transition to female. In 2014, Grace was included islature to have the authority to solemnize mar- in The Advocate’s annual “40 under 40” list. In riages extended to secular celebrants, and it’s November 2016, Grace released her autobiogra- frustrating that this simple matter had to be phy, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most In- famous Anarchist Sellout. settled through the courts,” said Nicholas Little, Participants in Chicago Story Collection Day. vice president and general counsel of CFI. “It Tickets are $28-$40 each; visit CityWinery. Photo by Gretchen Rachel Hammond would be so much easier—and far less expen- com/chicago/laura-jane-grace-2-5-17.html. sive to taxpayers—if lawmakers across the country would agree to work with us so that secular couples everywhere can be married in accordance VideoOut hosts story-sharing event with their values.” NYC-based nonprofit VideoOut (created to amplify the voices of LGBTQ people by sharing coming-out stories and building community) and Chicago-based film-production company Strangewaze hosted Chicago Story Collection Day Sunday, Jan. 15, at Center on Halsted. @windycitytimes1 /windycitymediagroup Pride Action Tank (PAT) Kim Hunt (left, back row) was one of those who took part. Photo by Gretchen Rachel Hammond @windycitytimes www.windycitymediagroup.com

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Sidetrack is throwing a Love is Love Party all day and night, Fri- day, January 20. Sidetrack, along with partners Lambda Legal and Absolut, want to “Make J20 Great Again!” with a bevy of ways for people to come together and to remind all of us that love is still love, resistance goes better with slushies and the LGBTQ community has powerful lawyers that are ready for the fight of our lives. Sidetrack has a long history of being an epicenter of LGBT activism. Sidetrack co-owner and founder of Equality Illinois Art John- ston often speaks to the importance of bars and their impact on the gay community as places to gather to commiserate, celebrate and, most importantly, activate. Lambda Legal knows how to fight against a hostile government and will be on hand to help our community engage in the resistance work ahead. Absolut will have a Love is Love photo-booth so that people can celebrate their love, along with a special on their signature Sidetrack Krush from 5-9 pm. iCandee will also be on hand, selling exclusive Love is Love hats and T-shirts, with pro- ceeds from these sales going to support the work of Lambda Legal. SIDETRACK There will be inspiring performances from RuPaul’s Drag Race star Open wide for Sync It!: Dudes, Wed., Jan. 11 DiDa Ritz and Chicago favorite The Vixen. Photos by Jed Dulanas “We all need to come together in solidarity on January 20. Public opinion is on our side and we will not ignore this major shift that is taking place in our country with the inauguration; however, we In its third year, The Sofo Tap’s Otter gets hotter than ever as Chicago’s ulti- are determined to remain positive and motivated to create change mate otter mascot, Woody Woodruff, hosts this year’s Lumbersexual, Saturday, together,” says Sidetrack general manager Brad Balof. January 21. Lumbersexual, much like Chicago winters, brings out the rugged Sidetrack will open at 3 pm on Friday, January 20. Show Tunes side in all of us. Join fellow Chicago otters in sporting your sexiest flannel, play 5-9 pm, culminating with a collection of uplifting dance and plaid or whatever gets you in the mood to tackle some wood ... and some party music with performances and surprises from 9 pm to 2am. Woody! Beats by Moose the DJ. —Press release WINDY CITY TIMES Jan. 18, 2017 29 Billy MastersMasters

“I’m going to give America a happy ending.”— The newest Bachelor, Nick Viall, discusses his hopes for love the fourth time around. I’m gonna hold him to that. I’m disappointed in Jennifer Holliday. For those of you who may be out of the loop, Don- ald Trump is having a devil of a time booking performers for the inauguration. An inquiry went out to the Dreamgirls star. While she was considering it, people on the internet immediately went on the attack. “They were calling me coon, calling me house n-----, calling me Aunt Jemima, calling me all kinds of names and asking me to kill myself,” she said. I personally saw dozens Out journalist Thomas Roberts (left, with of vile posts, specifically from members of the husband Patrick Abner) is showing off his LGBT community. People were saying things like fit bod, Billy says. she’ll never work in our community again, that Facebook photo the gays made her career and they will destroy it. One memorable post said, “Remember what we did to Donna Summer.” Ominous indeed. also give a trophy to everyone for just showing I assume people who would perform at this up! inauguration fall into two categories: 1) people Do you know who Nico Tortorella is? He’s a who support and voted for Trump, and 2) people kinda hot actor who appears on Younger and has who need the money and/or exposure. Holliday come out as sexually fluid—so I guess we now went out of her way to say she did not fall into have to add an F to the already cumbersome LG- either category. She publicly stated that she BTQIA; he also has a podcast called “The Love voted for Hillary. She said she wanted to sing Bomb.” A recent guest was someone who knows a for America. She wanted to help heal the divide. thing or two about sexual fluids—gay-porn actor Her fee would be donated to LGBT charities. Her Colby Keller. Colby shared his coming-out story inspiration was Marian Anderson, the Black opera with Nico. As a kid, Keller had a box of gay porn singer who gave a concert in 1939 at the foot of under his bathroom sink. Let’s stop right there— the Lincoln Memorial to more than 75,000 on the did Colby grow up having his own bathroom—or National Mall after being denied the opportunity was he stupid enough to hide gay porn in the to sing in an auditorium because of her race. An- family bathroom? Anyway, one day his parents derson didn’t buckle down under hate—she went discovered the box. Colby barricaded himself in forward. But despite Holliday’s best intentions, his bedroom—shades of “Les Miz.” Through the she was met with vitriolic hate from all sides and door, his father expressed support for his son and was essentially bullied to not perform. She apolo- said “everything he could in the language that gized specifically to the LGBT community for even he possessed to try and comfort me and make it Yes, I wrote about Jonigkeit several times in considering to perform “for America,” and ended okay for me.” Then it was time for his mother. She 2012 when he was touring the country with Kath- her address with this: “Thank you for your posted said, “I wish I had a gun so I could kill you and leen Turner in Matthew Lombardo’s play High. At comments, both the good supportive ones as well then blow my own brains out all over this sofa.” the time, I was quite taken with his range of act- as the ugly hurtful ones.” When we went low, she Colby says his mom had very strong Christian being. I wasn’t the only one. When I interviewed went high. liefs. After that incident, Keller stopped calling Turner (who played a nun), all she wanted to Thomas Roberts’ show at MSNBC has come to her “mother.” Perhaps she would have answered do was talk about him. She said, “I think Evan’s an end. The show was taken off the air with little to the term “defendant.” one of the most exciting young actors around. I fanfare on Dec. 16. The show was a replacement Gay-porn star Tyce Jax (legal name Jared Louis equate him with Jude Law, who I worked with on for Ronan Farrow’s short-lived endeavor. Inter- Valazquez) was recently arrested for beating, Broadway in Indiscretions. Evan is quite extraor- estingly enough, Farrow filled in on the Today choking and biting his boyfriend. What caused dinary. He’s got it.” He also appeared nude in the show over the holidays, so who knows what’s the fight? Tyce caught his boyfriend watch- play and was quite hot. And then, as if a gift from ahead for Roberts. In the meantime, the athletic ing—wait for it—gay porn! I’m speechless. This the Lord, video of his nude scene appeared in my anchor shows off his exercise regime in Muscle is the FIFTH domestic violence charge for Jax/ inbox. You may not have seen all of him on Girls, & Fitness magazine—a periodical I don’t believe Valazquez. As Judge Judy would say, “He’s a real but you can on BillyMasters.com. ever featured the physiques of Tom Brokaw or winner!” When heaven is a place on Earth, it’s definitely Dan Rather. See the sizzling centerfold on Bil- You know how they say that when you sleep time to end yet another column. And don’t for- lyMasters.com. with someone, you’re sleeping with everyone get to check out www.BillyMasters.com—the site A law was just passed in France making it il- they ever slept with? Last week, I went to bed that features a wide assortment of heavenly bod- legal for parents to spank their children. Now, with one number and by the time I woke up, ies. If you’ve got a question for me on any topic, I’m not advocating spanking in general—but poof, it went up by 500! send it along to [email protected] and sometimes a kid needs a good whack. Apparently Our “Ask Billy” question comes from Henry in I promise to get back to you before Trump ap- the French Parliament disagrees with me and has Florida. “I was binge-watching Girls and saw this points Jennifer Holliday as secretary of pancakes! issued a nationwide ban on all forms of “corporal hot scruffy actor, Evan Jonigkeit. He did a sex So, until next time, remember: One man’s filth is punishment.” Instead of hitting, parents should scene, but you couldn’t see anything. I think you another man’s bible. try “positive reinforcement.” Yeah, and we should wrote about him before.” 30 Jan. 18, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ 3656 N Halsted Chicago http://dbsa- com refusing-to-choose-lgbtq-and-ortho- glbt-chicago.com COMMUNITY dox-in-israel-lakeview-event-tickets- Women’s March on Chicago Women and Tuesday, Jan. 24 30343348773?aff=erelexpmlt supporters of women mobilize to pro- Oscar Nominations Panel Alison Cuddy CALENDAR tect rights and civil liberties. 10:00am moderates panel discussion about this Friday, Jan. 20 Grant Park, Chicago http://wom- year’s nominees-the good, the bad; the GayCo at Fillet of Solo In the Queer ens121marchonchicago.org/register- shoe-ins and the snubs featuring film Wed. Jan. 18 and Now 8:30pm Heartland Studios for-the-march/ critics J.R. Jones, Sergio Mims, Pamela Another Door Opens Chicago House, in 7016 N Glenwood Ave Chicago http:// 28th Annual Rhino Fest Curious Theatre Powell, Ray Pride and Dean Richards. partnership with Architectural Artifacts. www.lifelinetheatre.com/performanc- Branch and Prop Thtr present the 28th Followed by a post event reception. An evening of elegance, intrigue and es/16-17/filletofsolo2017.shtml year of the Fest, Thursdays through Free. Kicks-off “Hollywood on State: hope as 60 of the city’s top artists and What A Joke: A National Comedy Fes- Mondays through, Feb. 25. $15 or pay Where You’re the Star” annual Oscars designers create original works of art to tival National Comedy fest in response what you can. Time: TBA Prop Theater viewing party. 4:30pm - 5:30pm Gene be auctioned off to help open doors for to the President-elect’s repeated threats 3502 N. Elston Chicago http://http:// Siskel Film Center 164 N State St., Sis- those in need. VIP Tickets $175 include on human rights, comedians in more rhinofest.com kelFilmCenter.org Luxury Scavenger Hunt from 6-7 pm than 20 cities are coordinating shows Men Cuddling Men meetup group $20 6:00pm - 10:00pm Architectural Arti- to raise money for the ACLU on Inau- in advance. $23 at the door. RSVP on- Wed., Jan. 25 facts 4325 N Ravenswood Ave Chicago THE WRIGHT STUFF guration Day Weekend. From Thursday, line, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Rast Dance Chely Wright in Evanston Country music Studio, 1803 W. Byron St., #201, Chi- http://www.chicagohouse.org/home/ Wed., Jan. 25 January 19th, through Saturday, Janu- singer, who came out on the Today Show anotherdooropens/ ary 21st, benefit comedy shows under cago https://www.meetup.com/Men- in 2012, appearing in support of her re- Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise In-depth Out singer Chely Wright the name WHAT A JOKE will take place Cuddling-Men/events/235611309/ cently released eighth studio album, I portrait of the poet, writer, and activ- will perform in simultaneously around the country Am The Rain. 7:30pm Evanston SPACE ist which includes a substantial element Evanston’s SPACE. and in the UK. Kristen Toomey, Matt Sunday, Jan. 22 1245 Chicago Ave Evanston, IL 60202 of storytelling by the artist herself. Ryan, Sammy Arechar. $20. Doors 8pm. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert the Musi- http://www.ticketweb.com PR photo Through Jan. 19 7:45pm Gene Sis- 9:00pm 1354 W Wabansia Ave., Chi- cal Heartwarming, uplifting adventure BootyCandy Based on the playwright’s kel Film Center 164 N State Chicago cago Tickets: http://www.ticketfly.com of three friends, Tick, Bernadette and experiences growing up black and gay, http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/may- Adam, a glamorous Sydney-based per- this shocking play unfolds in a kalei- Saturday, Jan. 21 forming trio who agree to take their aangelou Pizer and Brad Lippitz. Wine and hors doscope of sketches, taking no prison- Depression & Bipolar Support Alliance show to the middle of the Australian d’oeuvres will be served. Questions to ers when confronting racial, sexual and (LGBTQ) Support meeting to talk about outback. They hop aboard a battered old Thursday, Jan. 19 Laurie Grauer [email protected] cultural stereotypes. Through April 16. illnesses, symptoms, treatment, doc- bus (nicknamed Priscilla) searching for Refusing to Choose: LGBTQ and Ortho- 7:00pm - 8:30pm Lake View Home of 7:30pm Windy City Playhouse, 3014 W. tors, and personal issues such as dating, love and friendship and find... 3:30pm dox in Israel Presented by A Wider Yoni Pizer and Brad Lippitz. Address Irving Park Rd., http://windycityplay- relationships and work. Every Saturday. Pride Arts Center, 4139 N Broadway, Chi- Bridge at the Lakeview Home of Yoni provided after registration https:// house.com/bootycandy 11:00am - 12:30am Center on Halsted cago, http://www.pridefilmsandplays.

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