Snyde & Sneak

by Tracy Baim

Keith Boykin will be stepping down as head of the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum in February 1998. Call (415) 356-8133 for information on a search for his replacement.

There are rumors that President Clinton will address the Human Rights Campaign annual D.C. gala Nov. 8. That would make him the first prez. to appear at a major lesbigay event. V.P. Al Gore spoke at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force dinner last week.

Reuters reports that Gianni Versace left his share of his fashion empire to his 11-year-old niece Allegra-his nephew and his longtime companion, Antonio D'Amico, 38. Antonio will get $29,000 monthly and the right to live in Versace's homes in Milan, Miami and New York, according to news reports.

The Army released a report Sept. 11 which admits that the Army has engaged in calling or threatening to call women lesbians in retaliation for reporting sexual harassment, rape or for rebuffing sexual advances, reports GLAAD. "One particular form of sexual harassment not addressed in the survey but commented on in a few focus groups and by other female soldiers ... was the fear of being accused of being a homosexual," states the report. According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), the Clinton Administration's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy creates an obstacle to servicewomen's safety, arming perpetrators with a tool of extortion.

ER plans on keeping its token lesbian character, Dr. Maggie Doyle (Jorja Fox). ... NBC's Veronica's Closet includes a gay closeted character played by Wallace Langham (The Larry Sanders Show). His being closeted is actually going to be part of the story line. MTV's newest sitcom, Apt. 2F, is the saga of two twin brothers living in a big city. The twins' grandmother visits, and comes out, during a recent episode: "I'm completely out of the cupboard." GLAAD reports that her grandsons respond to the news in opposite ways-each exaggerated to its comedic extreme. Fax (212) 258-8718, e-mail feedback@mtv.com, http://mtv.com.

The Sept. 30 Globe tabloid splashed these photos huge and in four-color for their readers. Having fun with the photographers, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore showed their more carefree sides by switching partners with Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres after the Emmy Awards.

The new season of Ellen starts this week, with an old boyfriend wondering if he caused her to be gay. He says she sure looks happy, and she says: "Yes, and the best part about it is, it's taken five strokes off my golf game." Ellen actually questions her feelings for her ex boyfriend, and gay pal Peter admits to a past with a woman. "Oh, Ellen ... I was in college! It was a crazy time! Devo was hot!"

In and Out topped the weekend's films (including some star-packed competition), grossing $15.3 million. Second was Michael Douglas in The Game at $9.2 million, followed by Wes Craven's Wishmaster, L.A. Confidential, and A Thousand Acres. Contact: Tom Sherek, President, 20th Century Fox Studios, 10201 W. Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90035, e-mail: 5555@paramount.com.

Different for Girls, about a hetero male who falls for a trans woman, opens Oct. 10 at the Music Box. It has been getting great reviews in other cities and at film fests. Rupert Graves (Maurice) stars.

You still have a couple days to catch the supremely passionate and beautiful Fire film at the Music Box. Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das star as wives of two brothers -the women turn to each other for comfort and love in this film based in New Delhi, (773) 871-6604.

The Sept. 18 New York Times looked at the alleged "outing" of actor Kevin Spacey (Usual Suspects supporting actor Oscar winner) in Esquire magazine. The head of the motion picture talent department at Spacey's agency, William Morris, said he was so upset with the inferences that he will "strongly advise all of the agents to dissuade their clients from doing interviews with Esquire." Reports The Times: "The article, written by Tom Junod, addresses rumors that Spacey is gay and also discusses the gay role that Spacey plays in the coming movie version of the best-selling book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In the article ... Junod writes, 'He came out of the closet last spring,' before he makes clear that he is talking about the character Spacey plays, Jim Williams." Said Kevin's publicist: "Kevin Spacey categorically refutes the statement ... which implies that he personally 'came out last spring' ... While Mr. Spacey respects many diverse lifestyles and admires those who have chosen to come out with dignity and courage, he has always maintained a separation between his professional and personal life, and will continue to do so. His decision not to publicly define his private life has apparently prompted this publication's attempt to present as fact their version of what they imagine his private life to be." Time magazine brought the controversy to their millions of readers Sept. 29, noting that the William Morris agency has backed off plans to discourage their clients from interviewing with Esquire. The Washington Post wrote about Spacey Sept. 22. When gay papers outed stars in the 1980s, the mainstream media would "cover the story," and thus also be outing folks. Deja vu, but now it's mainstream Esquire doing the outing.

Lesbiancomic Suzanne Westenhoefer comes to the Vic Theatre Oct. 11, hosted by Full Moon Productions, Girlbar and Howard Brown Health Center. The show benefits HBHC. Call (312) 559-1212, (773) 472-0449.

k.d. lang performs Oct. 25 at the Rosemont Theatre. Tix go on sale Sept. 29, 10 a.m., (312) 559-1212. ... Bisexual singer Ani DiFranco performs at the Congress Theatre Oct. 18, presented by the Old Town School of Folk Music, (773) 525-7793. Singer Dar Williams, who has a piece on a new compilation of lesbian music, performs at Park West Oct. 3 in an Old Town concert.

Marcia Wilkie returns to Chicago for a performance as part of the Illinois Federation for Human Rights benefit Nov. 8.

Katy and Judy by Karen Gerbig is featured in HerVoice Sept. 28. The staged reading starts at 7:30 in the Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 Belmont. Katy and Judy is about the loss of a beloved dog, an intervention by Judy Garland, and the power of friendship.

Local gay poet Ifti Nasim reads form his work Oct. 4 at Gerber/ Hart Library. He is raising funds for a trip to his native India to read his gay poems. Call (773) 883-3003.

Newsweek Sept. 29 writes about "bareback sex" in the gay male community-sex without condoms. Since the decline in AIDS-related deaths and the advances of AIDS drugs, some gay men are slipping back into unsafe territory: "[A] small but growing minority of gay men have begun seeking out unsafe sex again. Because of the months-long HIV incubation period, it's too early to tell if this new attitude will reverse the declines in infection rates among homosexuals. But the signs are ominous. A small study conducted by doctors at the University of California, San Francisco, and published last month in The New England Journal of Medicine found that 15 percent of the men surveyed had already engaged in higher-risk sex because they're less concerned about AIDS."

The Sept. 8 Fortune features "My Life As A Gay Executive," a personal reflection by gay former Ford Chief Financial Officer Allan Gilmour. Fortune writes, "Gays and lesbians who aspire to top corporate jobs find they must leave their sexual orientation at home because disclosure could injure their careers. ... How Gilmour's [closeted] homosexuality affected his success at Ford can only be guessed at," noting he was passed over for CEO twice even though he was the candidate of the outgoing CEOs.

The Washington Blade has made an alliance with Wilbur Ross to enter the New York market. The Blade acted as if there wasn't a gay paper there already-making LGNY staffers quite upset. Wrote LGNY to the Blade: "[You] chose to write a story about the alliance between your company and a major communications conglomerate without providing any context. ... It is hard to imagine that you would have made the same editorial decision on any other comparable story. ... We are also concerned about what impact corporate ownership of the lesbian and gay community's press and dialogue will have on the cultural integrity of debates here in New York. ... In this regard, it is not encouraging to see a Sept. 19 New York Post article in which Mr. Ross is quoted describing the new venture as a 'very serious paper reporting news of relevance to that community-not advocacy.'" The LGNY letter continues: "By the way, you may be interested in knowing that Wilbur Ross, the owner of the New York Blade News, is married to the Republican Lt. Governor of the State of New York, Betsy McCaughey Ross. (Ms. McCaughey Ross first came to political prominence -and the attention of Al D'Amato and George Pataki -with a very influential, but devastatingly inaccurate, article in The New Republic that helped bury the Clinton health plan in 1994.) The political adventures of Mr. Ross' family are another aspect of the story relevant in considering the Blade's new business alliance."

The New York Times Sept. 22 edition looked at the controversy brewing in Germany over Karl Hugo Pruys and his new book which outs legendary German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), The Caresses of the Tiger: an Erotic Goethe Biography. As the Times reported: "Drawn from a 10-year examination of 2,500 letters by Goethe and his contemporaries [the book] sets out to prove that the author of Faust was not simply a repressed homosexual or bisexual, but actively gay, that women left him far colder than his poetic lauding of them would suggest, and that his work cannot be fully understood without acknowledging this background."