LGBTQ Vets Seek Changes to NYS Law Aiming to Aid Them

My choices for the films of the year, the runners-up, and the losers of 2019 follow: 1. “The Irishman” (Martin Scorsese): Picture “The Sopranos” if its final episode were closer to that of “Six Feet Under,” which fol... Show more

�� which followed every character through their entire lives, showing their aging and moment of death. I’m still stunned by the way this film uses its 210-minute running time to create a sense of complicity and identification with the life of its protagonist and then dives into its ultimate emptiness and despair. Few elderly directors have made films this remorselessly devoted to staring down death and the physical deterioration that comes with its approach. Scorsese’s dis of the Marvel Comic Universe scandalized fanboys, but this film is a far more successful and self-critical version of the elegiac take on a changing cinema Tarantino tried in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” And the silence of its women is an active, judgmental one that winds up spinning its protagonist’s narration of his own life on its head. 2. “Transit” (Christian Petzold) “Transit” lays the horrors of the past over an uncertain but oppressive present in a way that makes the continuity between all forms of fas

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< img src="https://www.gaycitynews.nyc/assets/photos/2019/28/veterans- restoration-of-honor-james-fitzgerald-2019-12-13-gcn01_s.jpg" alt="" hspace="8" />New Yorkers celebrated a new law aimed at restoring state benefits f... Show more

or veterans unfairly discharged from the military due to sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual trauma, traumatic brain injury, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but some LGBTQ veterans are holding their applause because they say it is far too limited. And yet, one elected official who championed the bill appears to be blowing off that concern and another is offering only ambiguous support when asked whether the Legislature will actually fix the lingering issues. The Restoration of Honor Act, which was signed into law last month by Governor Andrew Cuomo, was viewed as an important step forward in righting the wrongs of the US military’s treatment of LGBTQ service members who were denied honorable discharges due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Only the federal government can make decisions about military discharges, but the measure at least allows veterans in New York the opportunity to apply for state benefits afforded to other former service members.

Masterpiece Theater

Writers writing about writing can be a tricky business. It can tip into self-indulgence or be so much talk that it becomes tedious. Fortunately, Adam Rapp has avoided both of these traps and created “The Sound Insi... Show more

side,” a tense psychological drama that just happens to be about two writers. Bella is a 50-something professor of literature at Yale who has been diagnosed with cancer. The prospects are grim, and she is at first unsure of what she is going to do. A young student, Christopher, appears in her office without an appointment and begins to demand attention not merely for classwork but for a novel that is working on. An uneasy relationship begins between them. Bella is fascinated by Christopher’s writing, which she quite admires, and Christopher is a loner misfit in the Yale community. Both are out of their elements, and so it’s not surprising, at least for fiction, that they find one another and fall into an intimate relationship. However, when Bella decides she doesn’t want to go through the seemingly inevitable suffering from a cancer death, she attempts to enlist Christopher to help find a way out. Suffice it to say things don’t work out the way Bella thinks they will, but Christoph

What If Mexican Revolutionary Hero Zapata Had Been Gay?

There is no other word for it: “The Inheritance” is a masterpiece. Matthew Lopez’s expansive, engrossing two-play exploration of contemporary gay life in the post-marriage equality, effective HIV treatments world i... Show more

orld is a brilliant piece of literature that is surprisingly potent political theater and a wildly entertaining — and honest — tale of a group of men coming of age and coping with life’s challenges. Lopez’s earlier plays, notably “The Legend of Georgia McBride” and “The Whipping Man” were excellent, but neither of them foreshadowed the complexity and artistry he brings to “The Inheritance.” As a storyteller, he rivals Dickens with his ability to create compelling characters, a pointed portrait of a specific world, and a monumental, but always controlled, story. The inheritance of the title refers to what today’s young gay men have received from their elders and those gone. As dramatic literature, Lopez’s inheritance is the theater that has gone before. Terrence McNally put the first openly, unapologetic gay character on Broadway in 1965 in “And Things that Go Bump in the Night,” and at least one critic called for his death. McNally never drew back, and he was followed by Larry Kram

The Year in Music: 2019

What if the Mexican Revolution hero Emiliano Zapata was an effeminate gay man? We at least know what his family would think. Wide resentment has ensued since artist Fabián Cháirez’s depiction of Zapata — a heroic militar... Show more

ilitary figure assassinated while leading a movement of farmers against wealthy landowners during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 through 1920 — as naked and effeminate in a painting came to wide attention. The piece of art shows Zapata sitting on a horse, wearing high heels, and donning a pink-colored hat. A ribbon with the red, white, and green of the Mexican flag is wrapped around him and blowing in the wind, and the end of the ribbon is sparkling. Imagery of Zapata typically shows him in a completely different way: as a strong, masculine leader known to carry a rifle and sword. Zapata’s family has mounted resistance to the painting and is threatening to sue. His grandson, Jorge Zapata González, said the family would “not allow” the painting and that the piece of art “denigrates the figure of our general [Zapata], depicting him as gay,” according to the Associated Press. A group of individuals on December 10 flocked to the Palace of Fine Arts, where the painting resides, to protes

Two Trump Appointees Confirmed to Ninth Circuit

My list of the top 10 albums of the year is as follows: 1. FKA Twigs: “Magdalene” (Young Turks) In a year when most of the creative energy that would’ve livened up indie rock a decade ago went into indie pop inst... Show more

p instead, “Magdalene” brought FKA Twigs to a new level of ambition. She pushed her voice to new highs, summoning the spirit of ‘80s Kate Bush with production full of glitchy electronics. The album makes one misstep with the trap-oriented “Holy Terrain” (which sounds like a response to her label’s request for a potential hit single); but it puts her recent experience living in the public eye (on “Cellophane,” she sings “They wanna see us, wanna see us apart… And I don’t want to have to share our love”) and suffering intense pain from fibroids into a context informed by perceptions of religious figures like Mary Magdalene. You don’t need to have dated a movie star to feel her ache. 2. Polo G: “Die a Legend” (Columbia) Mainstream hip-hop with substance coming from a rapper in their early 20s is a rarity these days, especially from an artist who blew up thanks to a viral hit (“Pop Out”) promoted by teenagers’ memes on TikTok and YouTube. But Polo G masters an intense, rapid-fire flo