Who Framed Lorenzo Garcia? (Pride Pack #1)

by R. J. Hamilton

In the spirit of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, here's a middle grade mystery where the heroes are a group of friends who've met at the local Gay and Lesbian Center!

16 year old Ramon had been living on the street, kicked out of his house for being gay. But things are looking up. He's been taken in by Lorenzo Garcia, a gay cop who wants to adopt him. But when Lorenzo is framed on drug charges, Ramon's life falls apart - and the only ones who can figure out what's going on are Ramon and his friends...

And as the very "pulp" back jacket reads:

As the clock runs down, they must make sense from the thinnest of clues. And a deadly trap awaits as they seek to discover Who Framed Lorenzo Garcia?

While "Who Framed Lorenzo Garcia?" (the first in the two book series) is out of print, you can still track down copies - I did. And anyway, it's cool to know about.

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Outfield Menace

By Mark Roeder

It's the 1950s in Verona, Indiana, and 15 year old baseball player Kurt faces off with resident bad-boy Angel.

There's a murder.

A love affair.

And a secret that puts both Kurt and Angel in mortal danger...


"Outfield Menace" is a work of passion that Mark published himself through iuniverse. It's the first book he suggests reading in his THE GAY YOUTH CHRONICLES series. Most of the novels in the series take place in small-town Verona, Indiana, over a few decades and some characters overlap from one book to another.

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Pedro And Me

By Judd Winick

True Story: Back in 1993, Judd was on season 3 of MTV's "The Real World," one of those reality TV shows where all these guys and gals from different walks of life are thrown into living together.

Judd's roommate was Pedro Zamora, a dynamic gay AIDS educator who had been diagnosed with HIV at age 17.

This graphic novel follows Pedro's life, their friendship, and explores the bond and then the loss experienced when Pedro died of AIDS in 1994.

The book is subtitled: "Friendship, Loss and What I Learned" and it is heartfelt. Here's two views of inner pages, to give you a feel for Judd's artistic style:






Powerful stuff. And while it's not technically a "novel" like most of the titles on this blogsite (as "Pedro and Me" is based on a true story)

I thought it was definitely worth sharing and adding to the list of GLBTQ Graphic Novels.

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Gay Marriage - What Would Cinderella Do?

How many times do kids watch the Disney movies about the wonderful Disney Princesses, who fight for and ultimately win their TRUE LOVES, and then live happily ever after?

Is it at nine viewings of "Cinderella 3: A Twist In Time" when the notion that TRUE LOVE is more powerful than even the fairy Godmother's stolen magic wand starts to be imprinted on their psyches? Or does it take an even dozen times to realize that what we all should want is this TRUE LOVE thing, and that the "happily ever after" starts with a wedding ceremony where that love is celebrated and confirmed to the community?

"Cinderella" ends with a wedding.

So does "Cinderella 3"

So does Ariel's story in "The Little Mermaid"

Okay, so we all watched these movies as kids, and now today's preschoolers are starting their indoctrination into the "magic" of what love and life holds in store...

Only, there's a betrayal for those of us boys who realize our TRUE LOVE is another Prince. Or for those of us girls who wish to find another Princess.

There's so much hub-bub among "concerned parents"and the "religious right" that exposure to the paltry few picturebooks that feature happy same-sex couples and families could somehow influence their children to be gay.






Books like "King and King" and "And Tango Makes Three" and even "The Family Book" by Todd Parr.

Well, I was exposed to an awful lot of heterosexual "propaganda," was raised by straight parents in a culture that was ALL about my finding a girl and getting married, and it didn't make me straight.


What I did take away from all those Disney films was a gender-adjusted goal:

I wanted TRUE LOVE with a "Prince", and I knew that when I finally found him, it would be celebrated with a wedding ceremony. Beyond that my plans were a little fuzzy...

Now I didn't have any elaborate plans about the wedding, and frankly, I didn't spend a lot of time daydreaming about that day...

But I knew that, just like everyone else watching those Disney Movies, that I was the star of the movie of MY life, and that I wanted a Happily Ever After as much as anyone, animated or real.

And while I'm blessed enough that I FOUND my Prince almost 11 years ago, and we had a religious wedding ceremony, and we're raising a daughter together, we're still not able to be legally married in our state or our country.

So now, when it seems possible that the California Supreme Court may finally make Gay marriage legal in our State (after our disappointing Governor Schwarzenneger twice vetoed Gay Marriage Bills that our amazing representative Mark Leno -and other brave politicians - championed through the state legislature), there are signature gatherers out all over the state, trying to get enough signatures to put an anti-gay marriage measure on the ballot. Trying to get a sense of fear and mob mentality stirred up (and trying to get more reactionary conservatives to the polls during the presidential election cycle in November) to take away any rights we as a minority may have been on the verge of achieving...

As Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart (representing San Francisco and the lead lawyer arguing before the California State Supreme Court) said so beautifully last Tuesday, this isn't about the tradition of one man and one woman marrying - no one's suggesting we take away that right. We're fighting the tradition of discrimination, the tradition of denying gay men and women access to legal marriage.

And I can just imagine the day that there's a Disney-quality animated musical about two Princesses (or two Princes!) who fall in love, and who, despite all odds, get to live happily ever after. I'll cheer that TRUE LOVE all the way from the Disney On Ice spectaculars to the character pajamas!

So, when you see one of these signature gatherers, trying to get YOUR name in support of keeping the tradition of discrimination against all GLBTQ kids, and adults, and gay and lesbian couples and families like mine, I hope you can ask yourself this question:

What would Cinderella do?

Wouldn't she want EVERYone to get to have true love like she has, and to have it recognized and celebrated? I mean, even Anastasia, her mean step-sister, gets to keep the King's seashell at the end of Cinderella 3 and is told "Everyone deserves True Love" by the King himself.

So, what would Cinderella do?



She wouldn't sign.

And she'd walk away, singing about it.

Thanks for thinking about it!

Namaste,

Lee


ps - you can check out Equality For All for the latest on the Anti-Gay Marriage Signature Gathering Effort.

Baby Be-Bop - A Gay Teen Book

By Francesca Lia Block

A prequel to (and the last published of) the Weetzie Bat Books, "Baby Be-Bop" follows Dirk and his early childhood realization that he's attracted to other boys.

In adolescence, Dirk struggles with his identity - with his best friend who can't deal with his being gay, and with how to tell his Grandmother who is raising him.

In a state of semi-consciousness after being gay-bashed, Dirk is visited by his ancestors - and even has a vision of his future, giving him hope that love will come to him in time.






"Baby Be-Bop" was re-published in the Weetzie Bat two-novels-under-one-cover "Beautiful Boys," which includes the novel "Missing Angel Juan."




"Missing Angel Juan" is a continuation of the story of Cherokee, who goes to New York to find her boyfriend.

Add your review of "Baby Be-Bop" (and if you wish, of "Missing Angel Juan") in "comments!"

American Idol Thoughts #2: Why Danny Noriega Makes Me So Swishily Uncomfortable: How I Need to Embrace My Inner (and outer) Sissy

Okay, so putting aside David Archuleta being a Superstar in the making, and Michael Johns being so incredibly good at making everything he sings and does sexy, I have to confess that the contestant who makes me the most uncomfortable is:

Danny Noriega

He grins, tilting his head to one side like he hears tinkling bells

He swishes on the stage

His wrists bend... a lot


Why does Danny make me cringe?

I think it's that he embodies the stereotype of "gay = effeminate" that I spent most of my adolescence struggling with inside, and then most of my 20s trying to act out against on the outside.

Once I got myself gayed out (think "straightened out") I thought I was able to embrace the drag queens at Gay Pride, and I thought I had accepted that there were different flavors of each letter in our particular alphabet soup (GLBTQ).

So WHY this cringing HOMOPHOBIC reaction on my part to watching this cocky teenager swish and preen and toss his hair like a girl on American Idol? He gets up to sing, and what goes through my mind?

His willingness to buck the system of conventional male roles and "acting" straight should be appealing.

His being here and being queer should make him a role model, right?

His sureness in who he is should make me stand up and cheer.

Instead, like a coward, I hit the tivo remote.

Bloop. Bloop. Bloop.

Randy: Dog, what can I say?*

Paula: I love, you are so original*

Simon: You are who you are, you just need to find the right song*

Wow. Not even Simon is as mean to him as I am. None of them will criticize him for being too girly.

And he can sing, too.

I am such an asshole. And I'm GAY! What's going on?


Then there's

David Hernandez

David Hernandez, who with his past as a stripper at a gay club makes me like him even more. This is a gay guy I can identify with.

He's a guy's guy - sexy, talented, and refreshing that he's not hiding who he is. (Though he'd need more than luck to succeed with that, what with all the news coverage of his past being billed as "Idol Scandal!") Puhhhlease. Like they didn't know beforehand. And frankly, shouldn't that help his chances?

Knowing that guys would pay to watch him on stage should certainly boost his confidence.

And he has a great voice.

But he's so easy for me to watch. And cheer. And think, "Thank God, there's finally someone gay on American Idol!"

Is he a role model?

Well, no one's perfect. I have to admit, I like him and I'm so proud of him for representing our community.


WHAT? What about Danny? Why the HELL am I not proud of him, too?


So here's what I think is going on. David is easy for me to like because he's the same flavor of "gay" that I like.

Growing up with 'friends' testing to see if I was gay in elementary school by asking me to look at my nails, and then seeing when I looked if I kept my hand straight (like a girl) or balled my hand into a fist (like a man) set the stage for my being hyper-alert and hyper-sensitive to signs of effiminancy. (Let me tell you, you only get that wrong once...)

An adolescence spent HIDING who I was, paranoid that a limp wrist would give away something that could destroy my future life and survival made sure that I held my hands very carefully.

My reaction to Danny's girly flair was crafted and forged in the fires of suburban Philadelphia homophobia.

It's an INTERNALIZED homophobia, a learned discomfort and suppression of my OWN girly flair that Danny brings out.

so what am I saying?
I can't watch Danny swish because I was teased too many times for walking swishy? Am I jealous of him?

No. I don't particularly WANT to swish. But here's a true life story:

A couple of years ago I was listening to music while I walked on the beach. Some great song came on in my headset (I think it was 'lady marmlade' from the movie "Moulin Rouge") and I was kinda dancing, kinda walking, kinda singing along. Having a great time.

These three teenage girls I passed burst into laughter, and cat-called after me, "You always walk so swishy like that, mister?"

I smiled and kept going, because I really didn't give a damn what they thought. But it took me 35 years to get there.

God bless Danny, He's there at 18.

So, I promise to not tivo past him this time. But you'll have to forgive me if I root just as loudly for David Hernandez.

But they're both "my boys."

It just took me a bit to realize it.

Thanks, and have fun watching!



Namaste,

Lee


*Uh, these are not quotes. Think of them as an historical fiction re-enactment, okay?

Witch Baby

By Francesca Lia Block

Book 2 in the Weetzie Bat series, "Witch Baby" tells us the story of the outsider among Weetzie Bat's group of dreamers.

In the Shangri-LA that is their Los Angeles, Witch Baby struggles with the injustices in the world, with pain, and figuring out where she belongs.

This book includes the whole gang again, including gay Dirk and his lover Duck.


"Witch Baby" was re-published in a two Weetzie Bat books-in-one set called "Goat Girls"




which also includes the novel "Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys."



"Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys" takes up the story of Cherokee and Witch Baby when they form a band with two guys while their parents (the adults in Weetzie Bat) are off in South America filming a new movie. Magical costumes help the band gain success, but the teenagers discover fame has a price.

Add your review of "Witch Baby" (and if you wish, of "Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys") in "comments!"

The Homoerotic (and Naked!) Ecstacy of the Prophets of Ancient Israel

David and Saul (1885) by Julius Kronberg.

Get ready for this amazing Queer interpretation of the Old Testament, which comes from "Jacob's Wound: Homoerotic Narrative in the Literature of Ancient Israel" by Theodore W. Jennings Jr.

Saul was told, "David is at Naioth in Ramah." Then Saul sent messengers to take David. When they saw the company of prophets in a frenzy, with Samuel standing in charge of them, the spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also fell into a prophetic frenzy. When Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they also fell into a frenzy. Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they also fell into a frenzy. Then he himself went to Ramah.... He went there, toward Naioth in Ramah; and the spirit of God came upon him. As he was going, he fell into a prophetic frenzy, until he came to Naioth in Ramah. He too stripped off his clothes, and he too fell into a frenzy before Samuel. He lay naked all that day and all that night. Therefore it is said, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" (19:19-24)

When Samuel told the youthful Saul that he was the Lord's chosen, Samuel also told him that he would receive three signs that he was indeed the one favored by Adonai. In the third sign, Samuel said:

You will meet a band of prophets coming down from the shrine with harp, tambourine, flute and lyre playing in front of them; they will be in a prophetic frenzy. Then the spirit of the LORD will possess you, and you will be in a prophetic frenzy along with them and be turned into a different person. (10:5-6)

The Queer interpretation Theodore makes of these Biblical passages is scholarly and fascinating. Here are some highlights:

The element upon which I want to particularly focus is the notice that Saul stripped off his clothes and lay naked for a day and a night. What has nakedness to do with prophetic frenzy?

...we may also note an intriguing parallel between the initial description of the band of prophets and the description that anticipated David's dancing before the ark. In both cases we have groups of men dancing; in both we have them accompanied by the wild music of lyre, flute, tambourine, and harp. Is the whole tale of David's dance before the ark modeled on the behavior of these ecstatic "prophets"? Is David, who is king and who will act as priest when the ark arrives at its destination, also taking the role of prophet in his own ecstatic dancing before the Lord?

There too we are told through the words of Michal that David's dancing was a naked cavorting. That is, nakedness seems to be a part of the ecstatic response to being possessed by YHWH.* It was the nakedness of David there that signaled to Michal his unfitness to be king, or so she said. But more than that, it was the naked cavorting that had awakened her sexual jealousy.

This brings us back to Saul dancing, throwing off his clothes in orgiastic ecstacy, and then falling into a swoon where he lies naked for a day and a night. We first observe that Saul's stripping off his clothes is identified as something that he has in common with the others who are in ecstatic frenzy: "He too stripped off his clothes." Getting naked is not something that distinguishes Saul from the other cavorting nabi'im but rather his identification with them. Naked cavorting is something "prophets" do.

What this episode is suggesting is that being possessed by Adonai leads males to whirl and writhe in naked ecstasy. The possession by the spirit of the Lord is an overpoweringly erotic, indeed sexual, experience.

I was raised in a Jewish household, dutifully went to Sunday School (though I often complained about it being boooo-ring), and at 13 was Bar-Mitzvah-ed.

Somehow, this fascinating and homo-positive history of what these Ancient Prophets of Israel did (the naked-ecstatic-dancing-cavorting-gay-orgies part...) was left out of my education.

What a shame. It would have made things a lot more interesting back then...

Well, at least we know about it now, right?

Hope you enjoyed learning about this as much as I did.

Namaste,
Lee





*YHWH is an intentionally un-pronounceable acronym for "God," which is part of the Jewish tradition of not writing out the word "God" but using other symbols and words to represent that idea. Other usages you may see include "G-d" and "Yahweh" instead of the Hebrew word for God, "Adonai." In Theodore's text, he distinguishes the character of God as portrayed in the Bible from the concept of God, and his use of YHWH represents the character of God in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament.

The quotes above are from pgs 83 - 93.

Weetzie Bat

By Francesca Lia Block

Nobody understands quirky Weetzie, until she meets Dirk, who takes her clubbing and tells her he's gay. Together the two iconoclasts and friends go "duck hunting" ...and find their loves.

The two couples move in together, make movies that become underground successes, and even have a baby!

"Weetzie Bat" is the first in what became a five book series.

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Crush

By Carrie Mac

17 year old Hope is sent to live with her sister in New York while their parents go halfway around the world on a humanitarian mission.

Once there, Hope gets a job as a nanny for a lesbian couple, which throws her a little.

Then she develops a crush on Nat, which throws her a lot. 'Cause Nat... is a girl, too.

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The Filly

By Mark Probst

17 year old Ethan is pretty sheltered for growing up in the 1870s in his mother's boarding house.

Travis is a cowboy passing through who charms Ethan into joining up on a 900 mile cattle drive through the "untamed west."

What neither of them expect is that the biggest adventure ahead of them is that they fall for each other!

Passionate about old westerns and re-making them in his own style, Mark published "The Filly" under his own Cheyenne Publishing banner.

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Queen Califia and the 15th Century Lesbian Myth behind the name "California!"

California

You may or may not have known that California's state motto is: "Eureka!" (I didn't) but the Lesbian history of the name California was a total surprise to me.


In the 1400s, Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo wrote

a protolesbian tale about a mythical island called "California," where Queen Califia lived with her beloved subjects, all of them masculine women. "And there were no males among them at all," Montalvo wrote. He described the women as having "energetic bodies and courageous, ardent hearts." Like the Amazons of Greek myth, they waged bloody war on other lands, killing most of the males but carrying away a few so that they might copulate with them for the sake of procreation. Female babies were kept among them; male babies were slaughtered.

Here's an amazing mural of Queen Califia and two of her female warriors in the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco:




Now, after it was published, the story caught on with Europeans and Spaniards, and especially caught the fancy of

Hernan Cortez

So much so that...

In 1535, Hernan Cortes, sharing his era's enchantment with the story of these fierce, manless women, wrote the name "California" on a map of a strip of land on the west coast of North America. It has remained its name ever since - though the protolesbian source was long forgotten.

Interestingly enough, early maps of California (like the one below) showed California as an island, a fallacy that wasn't corrected until after 1747, when King Ferdinand of Spain decreed that "California is not an Island."


A Lesbian Myth as the historical source for the name "California." Hmmm. How's THAT for unexpected and incredibly cool?

Namaste,
Lee


Both quotes are from pg. 10 of "Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians" by Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons.

The source of the original myth of "California" was Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo's "The Labors of the Very Brave Knight Esplandian," trans. William Thomas Little (Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1992), pg. 456-458

The info on the maps came from this website.

Simon Says

By Elaine Marie Alphin


Charles is 16, he's a serious artist, and he's sick of playing games.

He transfers to a boarding High School for artists to meet Graeme, a Teenager who wrote a book all about the "Simon Says" games that people play. He's sure Graeme will help him figure out how to balance being an artist and living life.

The guys' connection with each other is intense, but (in the words of the author:)

"...in his effort to find a way to be true to himself, Charles becomes caught in a tragic game of Simon Says that will ultimately leave one student dead."

Elaine originally wrote this book when she was in college. It took another 25 years (and publishing loads of other great books) before she re-worked this one and had it published. Now that's perseverance!

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The Chinese Garden

By Rosemary Manning

16 year old Rachel attends an all-girls boarding school, where the "ultimate crime" is students falling in love with each other.

When her friend Margaret is caught with another girl, Rachel's ensnared in the administration's net. In the face of Rachel's growing understanding of her own sexual identity, she realizes that if she doesn't betray her friend, she'll suffer the same fate. But how can she?


The author originally published this book in 1962. It was republished in 2000, by The Feminist Press.

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Cheeky Angel

By Hiroyuki Nishimori

When Megumi, a 9 year old martial arts fanatic, saves a sorcerer and gets a magic genie to grant him his fondest wish, he asks to be "the manliest man on Earth."

But, the genie's hard of hearing, and thinks Megumi asked to be "the womanliest woman on Earth."

oops.

Now, it's 6 years later, and 15 year old Megumi is the hottest, bad-guy-ass-kickin'-est GIRL around.

And watch out - the town's resident bad guy has fallen for her!


Note: This post is about "Cheeky Angel: volume 1" To date there are 20 mangas in this series!

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