WELCOME! HANK YOU for picking up our premiere issue. Like T what you see? Share it with friends, family and co- workers. Have feedback? Write us at managingeditor@ wisconsingazette.com. THE VOICE OF PROGRESS FOR WISCOnSin’S lGBT COMMUNITY November 19, 2009 | Vol. 1, No. 1 Court delivers ‘huge’ victory for state partners By Louis Weisberg WiG Staff Writer MADISON — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit seeking to declare the state’s domes- tic partner registry unconsti- tutional. In an unusual move, law- yers for Wisconsin Family Action had fi led the case directly with the state’s high court rather than a lower court of jurisdiction. The Christian-right group said that “it was important to act quickly,” because the registry violates a 2006 constitutional amendment banning same- sex marriage or civil unions. Supporters of the registry argue that domestic partner- ships are not the equivalent Partner page 5 This issue inside and online at wisconsingazette.com Still ‘out’ front News WigWAG ............................2 After keeping Milwaukee Gaze ................3 By Louis Weisberg Wisconsin Gaze.................6 WiG Staff Writer LGBT rights on Editorial ...............................8 MADISON — Shortly after joining Congress, Tammy Opinion ...............................9 Baldwin took her partner to an offi cial event and gave her Congress’ radar National Gaze .................11 a “spouse pin” to wear. A woman approached Baldwin’s International Gaze ......... 16 partner, Lauren Azar, as she stood at a buffet table and asked, for a decade, “Oh, who’s your husband?” Features “Lauren said, ‘Tammy Baldwin,’” Baldwin remembers. Tammy Baldwin WiGOUT ....................17 “And the woman sort of sputtered and lost it and put down Community Listings ..23 her plate and ran away.” says change is WisconScene..............24 That was probably the most awkward social situation Calendar ......................25 she’s encountered on the job, Baldwin says, despite being fi nally coming. Horoscope ..................26 the fi rst and only open lesbian elected to Congress. Real Estate ..................28 Baldwin page 7 PHOTO: JASON SMITH 2 WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM | November 19, 2009 LGBT news with a twist WiGWAG By Lisa Neff and test the Matthew Shepard c a m e r a Mail reports the couple is but sat tastefully behind a Louis Weisberg and James Byrd Jr. Hate for an awk- suing for reimbursement of chair with the iconic bunny WiG Staff Writers Crimes Prevention Act, wardly long their $4,500 fare, which they logo. Asked by Playboy what signed into law last month. time. paid for with loyalty points hubby Homer said, Simpson ‘MAkinG Although the law only Prejean aban- from a supermarket. replied, “Homer said he was WhOOPee’ applies to violent crime, the doned her legal According to the couple’s intrigued because he had While we were away… pastors behind the event case after learning that TMZ attorney, the suit is not never heard of your maga- No, wait, before WiG contend it encroaches on had obtained a sex tape she motivated by homophobia zine. The notion of women arrived… A gay couple, a their freedoms of religion made as a teen. She claimed but by “lost satisfaction” and posing in the buff was com- game show and a network and speech. Organizers the pageant discriminated “embarrassment.” The cou- pletely foreign to him. Wasn’t made history. Former “Star railed against homosexual- against her because of her ple claim they ran into sev- it sweet of him to lie?” Trek” star George Takei — ity “to show ministers and fundamentalist Christian eral acquaintances on board he was Mr. Sulu — and Christians that they are free religion and that it violated whom they didn’t know FOR THE RECORD husband Brad Altman com- to do the same.” her privacy by disclosing were gay, which made every- Cover girl: Marge Ted Haggard, the found- peted as the fi rst openly she’d had breast-augmenta- one feel uncomfortable. Simpson on the cover er and former leader of gay contestants on an epi- SILENT BEAUTY tion surgery. None of the outed gays, of playboy. the New Life Church sode of “The Newlywed TREATMENT NOM president Maggie however, have taken legal who resigned amid scan- Game” on the Game Show Carrie Prejean, the for- Gallagher has hailed the anti- action. their son, Tripp, works out dal in 2006, wants to Network. Takei, commenting mer beauty queen and cur- gay crusading Prejean as the at an Anchorage gym owned return to ministry. He on the historic television rent spokesperson for the “future of our movement, he’S TO BE IN by former Mr. Alaska com- told the Colorado Springs event, said, “We’re boldly National Organization for and the future of America.” THE BUFF petitor Marvin Jones. Independent, “…I want to going where no one has Marriage, gave CNN host Levi Johnston, father of be the man that I am, I gone before.” Larry King the silent treat- BUT HOW WAS Sarah Palin’s grandson, said She’S IN THE want to be true to myself, ment on the air after he THE FOOD? he’ll train three hours a day, BUFF, SORT OF and that’s why I haven’t let CHRISTIANS asked why she’d dropped her A straight Italian cou- six days a week to get ready Playboy promised: the others put me in a box. RALLY FOR HATE $1-million lawsuit against the ple say their vacation was for a shoot for Playgirl — Springfi eld’s sexiest celebrity Oprah really wanted me The Christian Anti- Miss California Pageant. In ruined because they weren’t now solely an online publi- reveals all in its November to be gay or straight or Defamation Commission response, Prejean removed warned they’d be sailing on cation. Johnston, who broke cover story about the “Devil something, and I just said, demonstrated outside the her microphone and sat a ship hosting Italy’s fi rst up with Bristol Palin several in Marge Simpson.” Simpson I am not going to fi t into Justice Department to pro- smiling and staring into the all-gay cruise. London’s Daily months after the birth of posed nude for the cover, your boxes.” GET THE WISCONSIN GAZETTE DELIVERED. 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Foundation’s Johnson But the UWM Libraries is and Pabst LGBT on a mission to reclaim the Humanity Fund will lost decades of Milwaukee’s match every dollar LGBT history and make them donated up to $5,000. accessible to researchers, as To contribute, con- well as the public. tact Susan Modder The libraries’ LGBT at 414-229-2811 or Collection is a trove of [email protected]. pre- and post-Stonewall Donations of materi- PHOTOS: MAX THOMSEN publications, documents and als are also welcome. The UWM Libraries celebrates its LGBT collec- memorabilia. It includes auto- tion Nov. 4: LEFT: Miriam Ben Shalom and her biographies, novels, personal partner Karen Weiss. ABOVE: Michael Doylen, correspondence, scrapbooks zines to the diaries of activ- head of the libraries’ archives department. and photo albums, oral histo- ists such as former U.S. Army ries, organizational records, Sgt. Miriam Ben Shalom, the UWM director of libraries ing this activity. It adds to the department in 2003. He said The collection also fi ts videotapes and broadcast collection tells the story of Ewa Barczyk told supporters richness of our collection.” his efforts are an outgrowth with the libraries’ goal of recordings. a thriving subculture and its of the collection at a private Michael Doylen began of the libraries’ commitment building bridges between the From the lurid covers of journey to empowerment. Nov. 4 thank-you event. “No pro-actively collecting LGBT to documenting historically university and the people of 1950s-era lesbian pulp fi ction “This addresses a signifi cant other cultural institution was materials after being named underrepresented popula- Milwaukee, said Max Yela, who and coded beefcake maga- gap in the historical record,” actively engaged in document- head of the libraries’ archives tions. 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