James Baldwin Home Added to US Historic Places Register

In this week’s episode of the Gay City News podcast “Thank You For Coming Out,” creator and host Dubbs Weinblatt (they/ them/ theirs) welcomes Scott Austin (he/ him/ his), a Brooklyn-based theater teacher who also wor... Show more

so works as a teaching artist with Ping Chong + Co. and performs improv comedy around New York. Scott received his MA from NYU Steinhardt, and he knows a pretty good joke about a penguin. As queer people, we are constantly coming out, and each coming out story is unique in its blend of humor, heartache, worry, and wonder. “Thank You For Coming Out,” inspired by Dubbs’ beloved live comedy show of the same name, pairs them as host with lesbian, gay, trans, bi, non-binary, and more members of the queer community to discuss their coming out stories. Listen in to our 12th incredible journey into the LGBTQ communities’ vulnerable and often hilarious stories of coming out. Presented by Gay City News, “Thank You For Coming Out” is one of the podcast offerings of Schneps Broadcasting, which also includes “Power Women” hosted by Schneps Media president and publisher Victoria Schneps-Yunis, “Brooklyn Paper Radio” hosted by editor Zach Gewelb, and “El Correo Radio” hosted by editor Karmina

“SNL” Makes Intersectional History, Then Erases It

The Manhattan home of renowned author, poet, and civil rights activist James Baldwin, who drew the ire of publishers more than half a century ago by writing about gay relationships, has been ad ded to the National Registe... Show more

r of Historic Places just months after the residence was designated as a New York City landmark. The national designation represents a significant recognition of a man who was unafraid to confront social injustices and whose work featuring queer characters and topics was revolutionary during his time. Baldwin recognized from an early age that he was gay. In 1965, Baldwin moved into an apartment in a now-landmarked building located at 137 West 71st Street between Broadway and Columbus Avenue, and spent parts of the final two decades of his life there before he died in France in 1987. He wound up purchasing the entire building, according to the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. Baldwin was not the only iconic black author to have lived in that apartment building. The late Toni Morrison, who passed away last month, spent a brief time living there, as well, according to the Historic Sites Project. Baldwin was born and raised in Harlem, but racism and homophobia in his home country

Justice Ignored in the Bronx

Out gay comedian Bowen Yang, who has appeared in past segments on “Saturday Night Live,” was added to the show’s full-time team on September 12, becoming the first Asian person and the first gay Asian person to join the s... Show more

the show. Yang is the fifth out LGBTQ cast member to join the show, following in the footsteps of cast members Danitra Vance, Kate McKinnon, Terry Sweeney, and John Milhiser. The historic impact of Yang’s hiring, however, was simultaneously overshadowed by NBC’s decision to also hire comedian Shane Gillis, who has used homophobic and racist slurs as recently as May of this year. Gillis’ true colors emerged during separate episodes of “Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast.” On an episode published this spring, he said director Judd Apatow and comedian Chris Gethard are “white faggot comics” and are “gayer than ISIS.” Journalist Seth Simons highlighted a clip showing Gillis spewing racist language in an episode of the same show last year during which he used racial slurs in referring to Asian people, conveyed false stereotypes about food culture in Asian communities, and mocked the accents of Asian people. Among other disturbing sentiments, he posed disparaging questions about Chinatown, t

You Say You Want A Revolution: A Prison Letter To Yoko Ono

In a conscience-shaking conclusion to a two-year tragedy in which a long-bullied gay youth, Abel Cedeno, was prosecuted for manslaughter in the stabbing death of Matthew McCree, who charged at him in their Bronx class... Show more

room in late 2017, the 19-year-old has been sentenced to 14 years in prison, of which he will have to serve at least 12 years. McCree’s death, of course, is to be mourned, as is the injury to his friend, Ariane Laboy, who joined the other boy in going after Cedeno. Abel Cedeno made a fatal error in judgment in carrying a knife to school, but it was a desperate decision made only after years in which his pleas for protection or transfer to another school fell on deaf ears. And as he saw McCree and Laboy come at him from the back of their classroom, he knew them to be bullies who had beaten his best friend. The sentence handed down, after a bench trial heard by Justice Michael A. Gross, reflects a failure at every level and in every sense of the word. The public school system and the teachers, counselors, and administrators at that high school failed Cedeno at every turn. On repeated occasions, Cedeno and his mother pleaded with officials to offer him protection from bullies who c

Storytelling After a Digital Revolution

Dear Yoko Ono, Years, years, and years ago, in 1980, a pathetically deranged man murdered the love of your life. You were walking home, into the Manhattan building where you lived, and suddenly this man, seeking the world... Show more

’s adoration, gunned down your husband, John Lennon. Mark Chapman was given a 20-to-life sentence. After almost four decades, he remains in prison. You want to keep him there for the rest of his life. One year before John Lennon died, across the river in Brooklyn, a 21-year-old woman and her teenage friend broke into an apartment and killed the elderly couple who lived there, stabbing them 70 times when they refused to hand over money for drugs. Valerie Gaiter was given a 50-to-life sentence. She entered prison 40 years ago and died this August in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility of untreated esophageal cancer, having been told for months that the pain in her throat was just acid reflux. That’s what sending someone to prison for the rest of their life means. Aging into sickness and death in a place where the food is bad and healthcare barely exists. Because, gratifying as it may feel to see people sent off to rot behind walls, there are two unseen realities in play: (1) Peo

Salut Aznavour!

It’s far from unusual for filmmakers to deliver multiple drafts of their films for public circulation, although the original cuts that no one but their inner circle has a chance to watch are usually too long for featu... Show more

ture-length release. “Blade Runner” has been released theatrically in three different cuts, as has “Apocalypse Now.” Wong Kar-wai re-edited his 1994 “Ashes of Time” into “Ashes of Time Redux.” George Lucas completely revamped his original “Star Wars” trilogy in elaborate ways that ticked off fans. Only two months after its original opening, Ari Aster’s “Midsommar” was briefly re-released to theaters in a slightly longer, unrated version. In fact, unrated cuts, even of films originally rated PG-13, have long been a common marketing gimmick for home video. But Seth Price’s “Redistribution,” essentially a video art project getting a week-long run at a movie theater, is unusual in that the current version is its eighth incarnation. The first one was completed in 2007, and he considers it a work-in-progress. “Redistribution” begins at a lecture Price gave in Kassel, Germany, about storytelling, which turns out (at least as filmed and edited here) to resemble a fashion show more than