Tag Archives: lgbtq

And So It Goes

Today is Sunday, July 13, 2025. I had another busy day today right after my viewing of Audra McDonald in Gypsy yesterday, even though I didn’t stay in Manhattan after having dinner at the Westway Diner after the show. Again, there would have been no reason to go to a gay bar so early in the day, so I decided to come home instead.

Today I headed again to Manhattan around 11:35 a.m. to meet my Astoria friend “Seth” at a supper club called 54 Below where comedian/singer/actor Lea DeLaria was holding court in a show that was advertised as “Brunch is gay.” I hate to say that I had no idea who this celebrity was since I had never seen her in anything, especially her most well-known series Orange Is the New Black from 2013 to 2019. According to her Wikipedia page, “she was the first openly gay comic to appear on American television in a 1993 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show.” Remember this one, folks? She is also the originator of the U-Haul Joke which she began performing at comedy shows in 1989. This is the joke that begins with a question: “What does a lesbian bring on a second date?” The answer: “A U-Haul.”

The show was supposed to have started at 1 and brunch was an option if you so wanted it. I had no trouble getting to the venue on West 54th Street, but Seth had some trouble with trains not stopping near there, so he was a few minutes late. When I entered the club, I descended stairs to the main area and was ushered to a table where an elderly couple was sitting. I thought we would have been sitting at our own table, but I was wrong. When I got to the table, the couple was having what looked like a salad.

There was someone in the audience who looked remarkably like the star of the hour, but it later turned out to be someone else. Before the appointed hour, the three-piece band started warming up. And at 1, Ms. DeLaria bounded on stage. I was very surprised to learn that she’s 67 years young. I assumed she was years younger. Sporting a dark suit and a practically bald pate, with black eyeglasses, she immediately begin singing a standard number. Which I’ve forgotten already. Her 75-minute set had less comedy but featured more of her inimitable jazz singing which reminded me of the late Ella Fitzgerald who distinguished herself as a scat singer. The only wonderful bit she did was when she screamed into the mic for an extended length of time this one line, “Fuck Donald Trump!” Fuck Donald Trump!” She went on interminably saying this line to the raucous applause of the audience. I also liked her diatribe of tourists in New York during the holiday season who stupidly stop traffic in the middle of the street to take pictures.

Since Seth came in slightly late, I decided not to have the brunch. I thought it was gauche to be eating while DeLaria was singing up on stage. I convinced him to go out someplace else after the show, which ended close to 2:20 or so. Overall, we were not so fond of the kind of singing that DeLaria did. Most of the songs we couldn’t even identify since she embraced a very different arrangement of them that made them almost unrecognizable. For example, her rendition of Debbie Harry’s “Call Me” from 1980 certainly didn’t sound like the version we were familiar with. Anyway, I was quite happy that I was able to sample a new venue right here in Manhattan.

The place I decided we’d go to for actual brunch was Friedman’s At The Edison, located on West 47th Street. We then walked to the restaurant after leaving 54 Below. I called first to see if I could make a reservation and I was told to just come. The gal at the other end said there should be tables at that time.

When we arrived at Friedman’s, we had no trouble being escorted to a table. The first thing I asked for was coffee since I had no time to go out this morning to get my first cup of java. I then ordered the blueberry pancakes for my entree and Seth ordered the Asian chicken salad. We were quite satisfied with our dishes.

At brunch, I discussed with Seth the opportunity we had to go to the Whitney Museum of Art afterward because it was free that day as a result of some West Side Fest. When I checked this further, I discovered that the museum is free on the second Sunday of the month, and this was that date. So we walked toward 8th Avenue to take the C downtown to 14th Street.

Overall, we spent about only an hour in the museum which was closing at 6 today. We started on the 8th floor and made our way to the 5th. The first installation we saw was one by the “sound” artist Christine Sun Kim who uses musical notation, infographics, and language – both in her Native American Sign Language (ASL) and written English – to produce drawings, videos, sculptures, and installations to explore the dynamics of sound. We thought this way too esoteric for our sensibilities, but we thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition on the fifth floor which featured the works of American artist Amy Sherald in an exhibit called “American Sublime.” This artist is best known for her luminous portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama which was on display in the exhibit. (I have several of her paintings as pics below.) She is the first African American painter to ever receive presidential portrait commissions from the National Portrait Gallery. One of her pieces, The Bathers, was sold at auction for $4.265 million.

Instead of staying until closing time, I convinced Seth to walk to the Chelsea Market to browse through the bookstore there. We left the museum at around 5:30 and walked to the Chelsea Market where I gave myself about 10 minutes to walk around the store. I tried to see if the store had my gay men’s reading club selection, I Make Envy on Your Disco, by Eric Schnall, but no such luck. However, it did have one of the previous books assigned to the guys: In Memoriam by Alice Winn. I missed the meeting where this book was discussed, so I never read it. But there was no reason to buy it.

Talking about books, I’m proud of the fact that I finished reading Griffin Dunne’s memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club. I read it in less than a week, and it was over 300 pages long. The book is a haunting and wildly funny story of a family torn apart by the heinous murder of a daughter and Griffin’s sister, Dominique Dunne, in 1982 and the subsequent fallout from the trial and unsatisfactory verdict from that trial. It was this flagrant miscarriage of justice that launched the second career of Dunne’s father, Dominick, to that of a crime reporter and subsequent novelist. What really intrigued me about the book was Dunne’s realization that his father was covertly gay after siring three children.

Anyway, this is where Seth and I parted. He took his train back to Astoria, while I took the E back to Forest Hills. I didn’t have to wait too long for a Queens-bound train, thank God.

I thought Elliot and I were going out when I came home, but he disabused me of that idea by saying we were going out tomorrow with our cross-country friend, “Patrica,” so he didn’t want to dine out twice. So I ordered in instead.

In the meantime, the president who was just cursed out by Lea DeLaria today during her show was actually booed in MetLife Stadium today as he attended the FIFA Club World Cup final. This spontaneous Bronx cheer arose when his ugly image was shown on the Jumbotron. Maybe he might finally get the message he’s not universally liked, as he so falsely thinks. Who knows? In his delusional mind, he might say Democrats put these people up to boo him.

Another week to get by. Have a good one.

As I said, I might not be here tomorrow if our dinner engagement with Patricia takes too long. But we’ll see.

And so it went!

Here’s a side view of Lea DeLaria at 54 Below.

Here’s Amy Sherald’s haunting portrait of Breonna Taylor. As you should know, she was the 26-year-old African American medical worker who was killed on March 13, 2000, after officers from Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) forced entry into her home.

Here’s another one of Sherald’s realistic paintings.

Another one of Sherald’s ordinary but truly extraordinary subjects.

This is the famous portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama that was hanging in the National Portrait Gallery.

Can you identify the original photograph Sherald is upending here by depicting two Black men kissing? If you guessed the picture of the American sailor kissing a nurse in white on V-J Day, by the world-famous Alfred Eisenstaedt, you get a free sticker from me.

One last picture before I go from Sherald’s wonderful exhibition. I don’t recall the caption that went with this picture, but if this guy isn’t gay, then I’ll eat my cap.

Oh, if you can, go see her exhibit which runs until August 10. It’s a must-see.

And So It Goes

Today is Sunday, June 29, 2025. I originally wrote that I might not post my blog because I was going to attend the Pride Parade on 5th Avenue and 10th Street. Which I did. I decided this morning to help my Astoria friend “Seth” distribute cups of water at the Church of the Ascension on 5th Avenue. I wasn’t sure if Elliot was going with me. I learned this morning that he didn’t want to accompany me because of the impending heat and that he was exhausted after driving upstate and downstate on Friday and Saturday. I notified my friend then that I would meet him at 12:30. So I had a little breakfast out here in Forest Hills and left the area around 11:30.

I met my friend exactly on time : 12:30 at his church on 28th Street and 9th Avenue, the Church of the Holy Apostles. I ambled inside and saw him immediately, so I greeted him, and was permitted to partake myself of some refreshments. I helped myself to an egg salad sandwich and poured myself a cup of cranberry juice. I saw Seth’s husband, “Jerry,” in the crowd, and I went to hug him. I asked how his anniversary was celebrated yesterday and he mentioned that he and Seth went to a local restaurant and had dinner out. Then he left us as we walked to 8th Avenue to take the C train one stop to 14th Street, where we walked down to 10th Street.

We walked into the building to leave our bags on a bench to go out and find our water station. We had to get around a barricade to get to a table where parishioners were filling trays with lemon water. Thus began my two-and-a-half hour stint handing out cups of water to dehydrated parade marchers. Many of those taking water from me were extremely thankful; they literally gushed with appreciation. It really felt good to do something for people on such a sultry day. I believe the temperature got as hot as 91 degrees today. Seth and I put in our volunteer efforts for close to 2 and a half hours; we left around 3:30. I took one break to go inside the church to charge my cell phone and to get out of the sun.

For today’s Pride parade, there was one downside, sadly, which I read about in both the Daily News and, even, the Rupert Murdoch rag, the New York Post, where both newspapers featured articles on the parade organizers, Heritage of Pride, banning the NYPD’s Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) from participating in the event today.

In the Daily News article entitled “March ‘hypocrites’ blasted: Tisch doubles down against Pride ban on gay cops in uniform,” written by Nicholas Williams, the issue is given a balanced examination. In it, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch criticized the Pride March organizer’s decision to prohibit gay police officers from participating in the event today.

In a strongly worded letter to the event’s organizer, Tisch called the group “hypocrites” and demanded the organization change its stance on the officers’ exclusion from the celebratory procession. The commissioner slammed the reason for the group banning gay cops, which was that it violated the event’s “no-weapons policy.” However, as I and Seth both clearly noticed, there were many other police officers at the parade who were wearing their uniforms and carrying weapons as clear as day. So why would the parade organizers request the security and protection of thousands of armed, uniformed police officers for the march today and then not allow gay police officers to walk in strong solidarity with fellow cops? To me, I hate to say this does smack of hypocrisy and I don’t understand it.

By the way, this is the fourth straight year that Heritage of Pride has banned gay officers from marching. According to Heritage of Pride spokesperson Chris Piedmont, the officers are welcome to march without weapons, but this would never be adopted by members of GOAL because NYPD officers are required to have their service weapons on them while they are in uniform “as a matter of public and personal safety,” according to Tisch.

The ban was first announced in 2021, when protests over the killing of Minnesota man George Floyd by police officers generated a wave of anticop sentiment across the country, including in New York. The ban is also rooted in the LGBTQ+ community’s experience with dealing with law enforcement over a span of many years – going back to the 1969 Stonewall riot, which was sparked by a police raid at the now-famous Greenwich Village gay bar. As you know, the ensuing Stonewall protests are considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement.

Detective Brian Downey, GOAL’s president, announced that in response to the ongoing ban, the organization will be protesting today at 11 a.m. at West 20th Street and Fifth Avenue, five blocks away from the starting point of the Pride March. He said, “This isn’t a time for apathy or complacency. It’s a time for visibility! It’s a time for protest!”

As I indicated earlier, I’m on the side of GOAL this time. There’s no reason to ban gay police officers with the specious reason that they can’t carry firearms, while the parade allows regular officers to guard the public carrying their firearms with them. If gay officers are continued to be banned, then the organizers shouldn’t be using New York’s police force at all then. I hope this knotty problem can be resolved by next year’s march then.

Anyway, I came home by 5; Seth didn’t want to stay in Manhattan to have dinner, so we both separated by 4 or so.

So all is not well in Gay World, as evidenced by this controversy. Let’s hope it does get resolved by next year’s procession.

A great, related story comes out of Hungary, that autocratic country dominated by one of Chump’s pals, Viktor Orban, where thousands of people came out to protest the ban on having a Pride March. Massive crowds protested the Hungarian government’s antigay ban. This is marvelous and it correlates with the massive crowd that came out in New York today. As reported in the Post article by Steven Vago and Alex Oliveira, “More than a million people filled Manhattan on Sunday for the largest annual Pride parade in North America.” There is the definitive quote on the number of people who either marched or showed their support for the queer community on the second-to-last day in June. Truly amazing on such a hot day!

Have a great week, everyone.

And so it went!

Excuse my pics here today! They weren’t that hot (no pun intended). This was because I was holding a water tray for a long time and couldn’t use my camera so freely and there were so many people all over the place, that they got into my pics very easily.

I can’t fathom what this float is. I see the letters “Mac” on the side of the vehicle, so maybe it was Mac Factor; oops, that’s “Max Factor.”

Oh, here they are again! I still don’t know what this float represents. Do you?

I liked this marcher’s glittery, silver outfit. And now you see a police officer wearing his firearm there, don’t you?

What’s a Pride Parade without half-naked guys? Oh, they’re not all sporting abs of steel here?

Here is one of those half-naked guys buoyantly receiving a cup of water from one of our volunteers. She’s the one in the green floppy hat.

Nice costumes, eh?

These are representatives of the Imperial Court. “The primary mission of the Imperial Court of New York is to raise funds for LGBT and HIV/AIDS, Equality, and LGBTQ youth-related charities,” according to their Facebook page.

And So It Goes

Today is Thursday, June 26, 2025. Today Elliot and I had a surprisingly disappointing day trying to get Elliot a real ID at the White Plains Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in which his appointed time was 1:45 p.m. We woke up early, say, around 8:15 to prepare to receive our cleaning lady, “Lareto,” who unfortunately called us at 10:15 to say that she was canceling because her son couldn’t drive her. We were going to leave around 10:30 to get to Larchmont to have breakfast, and so we did, Lareto or no Lareto.

It was smooth sailing driving to Larchmont, as we sauntered over the Throgs Neck Bridge and past my old stomping grounds in the Northeast Bronx, Co-op City, which used to be where Freedomland U.S.A., a theme park dedicated to American history, was situated in the Baychester section of the North Bronx. It opened on June 19, 1960, and permanently closed four years later, on September 13, 1964. I have very vague memories of going to Freedomland as a child with my parents before moving there to live in the housing development known as Co-op City which broke ground in 1966.

When we got to Palmer Avenue where the Harbour House Coffee Shop is located, we had to find parking. The only parking we found was linked to some app that I had to download since no meters were functioning. Naturally, I was left to navigate this system, as Elliot just left me to go to the coffee shop. I moved the car first from the street into a lot, thinking I wouldn’t have to use this system, but I was unable to find a snug-enough spot for the car, so I had to find another spot somewhere else. I lucked out with moving into a spot at the end of the block where the coffee shop was across the street. However, I was beginning to have trouble registering the car with this parking app. Fortunately for me, a young man was passing me on the corner, so I accosted him and asked if he could help me download the app properly. He was very courteous and showed me how to do it. And if this young man hadn’t shown up, we might have still been there in Larchmont. Now I was able to join Elliot in the coffee shop.

To make a long story short, we got to White Plains within 24 minutes or so. We were early for Elliot’s appointment at 1:45, so we were told to return five minutes before 1:45. The guard who informed us of this mentioned we could go to Whole Foods around the block and hang out there. Which we did. I got a coffee and a chocolate croissant while Elliot did a little shopping. By 1:30, we returned to the DMV office.

After waiting at least an hour, Elliot was given the red light by one of the clerks who examined all of the documents he brought to verify who he was. She stated he did not have an original Social Security card and that was why she was not proceeding with his application. Huh! Elliot showed the woman other forms of proof of his identity and this was still not enough. In fact, he had a copy of his Social Security card, but that was not accepted. Elliot took this setback rather well; me, I wanted to scream. I should have said something to the clerk behind the window, but I didn’t. Like, “Can’t you let this one pass?” Didn’t he bring you enough forms of identification?” I wanted to proclaim, but I stayed quiet.

Even though you can say we had a pleasant enough drive to White Plains, I considered the whole venture a major disappointment. Now we have to start from Square 1, schedule another appointment somewhere else, and go through with the same waiting. At least Elliot didn’t have to wait as long as I did on Friday, April 4, when I applied in Manhattan for the same thing. Elliot will also have to carry his passport the next time we travel domestically, which will be next month. I expected his new ID to have been mailed to him before this trip. But that was not meant to be!

I wanted to indicate that today, June 26, marks the 10-year anniversary of nationwide marriage equality in the United States. An online article about this milestone appears in Gay City News by Matt Tracy entitled “Report sheds light on 10 years of marriage equality in the United States.”

“Nearly 600,000 same-sex couples have been married in the United States since the landmark 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, according to a report published by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.” Here’s another intriguing statistic: “In total, there are now 823,000 married same-sex couples in the United States – twice as many as there were in 2014, just one year before the Obergefell ruling, according to the report.”

Not surprising is the fact that the ruling has had the greatest impact on southern states, “none of which had achieved marriage equality by the time the Obergefell ruling was handed down: From 2014 to 2023, there was a 21% increase in same-sex married couples in the south, compared to 16% in the west, 15% in the midwest, and 11% in the northeast.”

Even though many states have moved to codify marriage equality in recent years, the fate of this precedent is uncertain, especially in these troubling and regressive times under a new fascistic president. The year that the legislation was passed, it was Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who wrote in a concurring opinion that the Supreme Court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” referring to rulings establishing rights to contraception, sodomy, and marriage equality, respectively. Oh, why hasn’t this very corrupt justice been impeached already? I ask.

Voters last year in California, Colorado, and Hawaii became the latest to repeal bans on same-sex marriage, and earlier this month, the Delaware Senate approved legislation to codify same-sex marriage.

“As of June 2025, more than two dozen states still maintained statutes and/or constitutional amendments barring marriage equality – though those policies have been with 433,000 married same-sex couples residing in those states.”

Though today does mark a commemoration of the ruling that brought marriage equality to the United States, there is still a sense that things can change very fast, just like Roe v. Wade was overturned by this “Extreme” Court in June 2022 after observing it for 50 years. We still have to remain very vigilant then.

In the meantime, let’s hope that horrible “murder” bill that the lying sack of shit called Donald Chump laughingly calls his “Big, Beautiful” bill dies before it can ever be passed. But this president wants the bill jammed through very soon so that he could sign it before the Fourth of July. This is only for optics., folks, nothing else.

But the bill is now receiving opposition from the Senate’s rules referee, Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who struck down key provisions, saying they don’t meet the chamber’s strict budget rules that must be followed so the bill can be approved by a simple majority of 51 votes – or just GOP support. This fact is reported in a CNN online article by Lauren Fox, Manu Raju, and Morgan Rimmer entitled “Trump’s massive agenda bill faces headwinds in the Senate after key ruling from chamber’s rules referee.”

Devastating changes to the Medicaid program have badly divided the Senate GOP, with a number of members – including Josh Hawley (He with the Raised Fist) of Missouri and Susan Collins of Maine, among others – worried that the new limits would devastate rural hospitals in their states, just the kind of Dump supporter that would be affected by these changes.

Again, let’s hope this bill goes through various iterations and that certain changes are added to it that will not devastate Americans’ food assistance and Medicaid as it’s originally been conceived. If it does pass with these horrible cuts untouched, repugnicans should then run for the hills in 2026!

Tomorrow Elliot and I are driving to Highland, New York, to visit our friends “Ted” and “Peter.” We are staying until Saturday. So I’ll be absent from this venue until Saturday or Sunday, depending on what time we get home on Saturday.

Have a good Friday then.

And so it went!