GLAAD
Just as everyone was sobering up from the St. Patrick’s Day parade and march, the big NYC GLAAD dinner was held at the mid-town Marriott Marquis. It was a dangerous but cuddly gay gridlock alert, color code level rainbow. Because of, or in spite of, a wild week of market, governor, construction crane up-then-down news, GLAAD fired up the jumbo-trons, poured the vodka, and put on a party.
There were stars aplenty, jammed corporate sponsored tables, pharma-fonted teleprompters, and a dinner din that registered a ten on the Can You Hear Me Now scale. No I can’t, but your lips are gorgeous. You can check out all the results at GLAAD.org, but allow me to report a few highlights.
The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, a dramatic compilation of the 1950s lesbian pulp novels of Ann Bannon won a GLAAD Media Award in the “Most Fun Off-Broadway Lesbian Entertainment, L-Word Eat Your Heart Out, Written by Kate Moira Ryan and Linda Chapman, Friends of Kate Clinton, And She is as Proud as Can Be of Them, You Should Go See It, Tell Your Friends” category. I’m not sure if that was the category, but yippee!
Despite the major comic temptations of Eliot Spitzer, the Jim McGreevy Trio, and George W’s market reassurances to the Economic Club as Bear Stearns collapsed a few blocks away, I had the serious task of presenting the GLAAD Excellence in Media Award to Judy Shephard.
It has been ten years since Judy’s son Matthew was brutally killed in Laramie, Wyoming for being gay and out. Judy has been a tireless witness against anti-gay violence. Each new anti-gay atrocity is both a raw reminder to her of what happened to her son and a further spur to her activism. She graciously accepted the award, and said she would of course rather have her son.
Her activism has impact. On the way out of the ballroom I ran into an old friend who told me that her Catholic High School had just dis-invited her to her reunion, even though she was class president and is one of their largest donors. She had just sent them updates on her partner and their three kids. Apparently she’d been stewing in her juices about it until she attended the GLAAD dinner and heard Judy Shepard. She said as she listened to Judy, she was texting the reunion committee and planning to use her own successful, mainstream publicity company for her media campaign.
Despite the big Bear Stearns weekend, the gays were out
Much Absolut vodka was consumed,
Not so much Bear Week
Bear Stearns week
Just as the gay people have their Bear Week, the copycat straight people had a big Bear Stearns weekend.
