Heard It Through the Gayvine Queers, Quotes and Quips of Interest By [email protected]

Damiano Wins Non Fiction Award Express features writer Mary Damiano has won first place nonfiction in the National Writers Association South Florida Chapter Writing Contest. The piece that won is called “Creature of the Night” and it is about what it’s like to work crazy hours as a writer. Mary has been a member of the chapter that Mary sponsored the contest for about a year and she is Damiano editor of their monthly newsletter. It was an international contest, with entries from all over the world, including Australia and British Columbia. Mary told us: “I was the only local first place winner. I was awarded a certificate and a check for $300. I was very surprised especially because I almost didn’t enter. I wrote the piece two days before the deadline but couldn’t come up with a title I liked. I went with Creature of the Night, sent it in, and pretty much didn’t think about it. It was even more exciting to win, knowing that I almost didn’t even enter..” Congratulations, Mary. ‘AIDS Incorporated’ Generates Controversial Article Why does federal money fund psychic hotlines, flirting classes, and Copacabana conferences? Well, all of these questions and more can be answered in a biting article that was the cover story for this month’s Washington Monthly, a popular caustic Capitol journal of provocative and sometimes liberal thought. Accessible at washingtonmonthly.com, the piece in their April issue was written by a rather controversial fellow himself, Wayne Turner, the co founder of ACT-UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power in Washington, D.C. Here in South Florida, we have a few different AIDS groups coalitions, but none as up front or as in your face as ACT-Up. In fact, the only time we ever had ACT-Up Active in South Florida, it was chaired by the late Barry Teeters, who took on a gubernatorial candidate named Jeb Bush at a seminar in Pompano Beach, getting himself arrested to protest the indifferent statewide policies on AIDS funding. This article by Turner talks about federal indifference and individual irresponsibility. Worth a read. By the way, whatever happened to that Barry Teeters hotline that so many said they were going to set up after his suicide? Let’s not forget….. British Christians Claim Foot-and-Mouth is God’s wrath over Gays A Christian newsletter has been distributed on the Wirral in Great Britain claiming that lowering the homosexual age of consent brought on the foot-and-mouth disease beef crisis. The Moreton Christian Assembly newsletter claims God’s disapproval of gays and the outbreak of the virus are too much of a coincidence. Gay and lesbian website RainbowNetwork, http://www.rainbownetwork.com/,has branded the claims as “outlandish” and irresponsible.Wisely, the RainbowNetwork says the comments are not helpful at a time when gay people still face the threat of violence. In the newsletter, the not so right Pastor Ray Borlase says: “The last major outbreak of foot-and-mouth was in 1967. A Christian leader at the time linked that outbreak to ... the legalising of homosexuality. Just prior to this [latest] outbreak Parliament lowered the age of consent for homosexual acts to 16.” Julie Dean, one of the residents who received the leaflet, said: “This is outrageous. It is publications like this that drive up the suicide rate for young gay people.” Dan Gould, editor of RainbowNetwork, told Ananova: “These outlandish comments speak for themselves. At a time when gay people still face violence, such extreme views don’t help anybody.” It’s just delightful to know that there are crazies all over the globe, not just here in the States. Enjoy your summer at Picadilly Circus. ER Star Makes Surprise Confession About Her Character’s Lesbian Relationship Emmy-nominated actress, Laura Innes, who plays ER’s no-nonsense and fiercely private chief of emergency medicine, Dr. Kerry Weaver, confesses to GayHealth.com that her character is indeed “in love” with lesbian character, Dr. Legaspi. “Her attraction to Dr. Legaspi is very strong,” Innes admits. This confession comes as a pleasant surprise to fans of the show, who’ve witnessed Dr. Weaver’s slow struggle with coming out and identity issues. “The coming out process for somebody Dr. Weaver’s age is incredibly slow,” Innes explains. “There’s enthusiasm, a sort of adolescent excitement, and then self-recrimination and pulling back.” Despite Dr. Weaver’s strides toward self-discovery, “my gut feeling is that she’s trying really hard not to be gay,” Innes says. “She puts all this energy into pushing these feelings down and turning them into something else. But she just keeps coming back to it.” Good news for fans of Dr. Weaver: she’ll be “coming back to it” in a big way at the end of this season. Dr. Legaspi is returning for the end-of-the-year episodes, and “there’s gonna be some good stuff between us,” promises Innes.

CYMK