29 March 2007

20 Years of ACT UP's Infamous Support of Capitalism

Larry Kramer is correct about at least one thing: IT IS EVIL that the poor and marginalized are mistreated by government and pharmeceutical companies, that profits are put before human beings, and that they are allowed to make excuses while the poor die.

The ACT UP phenomenon, born from Kramer's efforts at the beginning of what was known as HIV/AIDS, challenged this social evil. It was also to be the last breath of activism in the United States of America. Since then, we have slumbered - a drug-induced slumber perhaps since even our anxiety has been stigmatized into a condition to be treated - to do not a godd*mn thing. Kramer is also right to ask, not rhetorically, "where is the outrage," given the state of working class people. Working class toil on, and the wealthy grow richer with government diversion of more resources to them. Remember, the rich don't make money, they are simply as allowed their piracy as Drake was for Queen Elizabeth I.

But activism's last breath is a sour-smelling one. It fed right in to the march of obsene capitalism guided by figures like Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret Thatcher in the UK. It is interesting to glance at their own empowerments, the Reagan victory and the Tory landslide which got Thatcher the requisite invitation to Buckingham Palace. A Reagan victory hung in the balance with Prsident Carter, the controversy being the hostages in Iran - it is speculated that those hostages were kept until after Reagan won, by design, to keep the Carter support low. Meanwhile, US espionage had been spying on the Labour government that preceeded Thatcher due to its leftist policies, union support, and its stance against the US war in Viet Nam. There are forces in the country about which you do not know, the current Queen warned.

The 1970's. The Trilaterals had already warned us, too, of the Crisis of Democacry, their own white paper speaking to the consequence to government of an empowered people. The rabble had to be tamed.

Economies were slowing, we were told. This meant nothing to the poor but spoke to the need of new frontiers for global capital.

Rightwing governments, which would bust unions and further empower a western capitalism with a new frontier that was direly needed. One of those frontiers would be the drug industry, which had helped win many battles in public health with public funding ... but how would profits continue to be made in a world without disease? Forces were at work to assure Reagan and Thatcher assumed the helms of power to deliver these frontiers.

HIV's link to AIDS was decided exactly 23 years ago by such a rightwing government in an April 1984 press conference with a political appointee who choked on her words as she spoke.

Public funding into medical research was starved by such a rightwing government.

Opportunities for drug companies to fund and control this research in universities was provided by such a rightwing government.

An old industry that was threatened with redunancy was reborn, and HIV-AIDS came along at a perfect time when government was getting out of the business of public health and capitalism let in to meet its bottom line, not needs of the people.

But the gay men of ACT UP did not demand the dismantle of capitalism. While theirs was a heritage that blended the elements of the 1960's civil rights era they also had direct ties to the modern world itself, and the modern world is structurally capitalist.

ACT UP was loud, angry, and theatrical, as they should have been; they used all sorts of strategies and antics to dramatize their purpose - this is a page lifted from the Black civil rights movement. But these were also the children of privilege. White men who had the same stake in being recognized as their merchant-class forbears who had to cut the head of a king off the begin the modern world. The modern world begins in France: more precisely, it begins somewhere when those slave-trading merchants grew richer and richer but were not acknowledged by an Old Regime of royalty and titled nobility. Those merchants - the bourgeoisie ... and I would add the American colonists - give us a better class picture of the ACT UP anger.

Their demand was not to dismantle or to question capitalism but rather to demand more drugs and drugs to be provided faster down the pipeline. AZT was dusted off the shelves and allowed to murder thousands of gay men. AZT had been shelved in the 1960's as being too toxic for the general population, but deemed fine to murder faggots.

So it was without surprise that the other day I heard veteran AIDS activist, Cleve Jones, founder of the AIDS Quilt, put his efforts behind the crystal meth "epidemic" and demand still more "treatment" - this means drugs and drug profits.

More drugs means more enrichment of pharmaceutical companies with funds that should be spent on the poor. In the ensuing years, where public health has become a shell of its former self and global capital is allowed to determine treatment, we already see the resurgence of diseases the world had once combated. We see them, and since the afflicted have no money and no power, they go neglected.

15 March 2007

Memoir from Black Gay L.A.

I grew up in mostly white neighborhoods and attended mostly white schools, and in high school gifted classes was the ONLY Black male, so my romantic crushes and sexual pursuits were after white boys. I spent most of this time in Southern California enclaves of Santa Barbara, Claremont, and Alta Loma, so it was surfer dudes and soccer players who mostly caught my eye. There was no one else around. My first beau was a horseback show rider.

When I went away to college at Washington University in St. Louis, I got my first real taste of other ethnicities, not of Blackness - Wash U was fondly called the Harvard of the Midwest, and we are still talking about the 80's, when multiculturalism was but a flicker in an academic's eye and few were even giving lip service to class disparities. At Wash U, I met East Coast Jewish boys, sephardic, hairy chested. They became an exotic crush until our politics diverged year by year, they to defend Israel, me to question her and why the US was giving this apartheidesque, nuclear-armed state so much money.

Then I moved to San Francisco, shacked up with a motley crew of an aspiring actress, fellow aspiring writer, and a Frenchman, who was not aspiring to be an American, thank god; later joined by a French girl who daily hung her bed clothes out the front window. My surroundings were more diverse, but only slightly more Black. More Latins. More Asians. San Francisco is a wee more than half non-white in population, according to the data at the time. I say at the time, before the working class was driven out by dot-com mania and Willie Brown, a Black politco who adroitly strokes the heads of brown babies with one hand and with the other hands the keys to their food supply to profiteers. In San Francisco, I dated a few guys, a white SF state film student, a UC Berkeley Black student, a Vietnamese Berkeley grad student activist extraordinaire, a Thai man. I joined Queer Nation. Blackness at this point came to me in the weekly suggested readings the white facilitators photocopied: [the late] Audre Lorde and [evolving] bell hooks became familiar to me. The names of June Jordan and Angela Davis were dropped like pop culture. But also white Marxist gay activist Harry Hay. In part, the white-led progressive Queer Nation led to its downfall, when the lesbians and the colored began to agitate for the things these writers of color were telling us. We imploded.

As always, when the going gets rough, I seek a seminal book. My comrade, Alex Chee, a worker bee at A Different Light Bookstore handed me this book by the recently deceased James Baldwin. I knew the name Baldwin. I minored in creative writing at Wash U, that white school, read many a nice and boring classic, but never Baldwin. Freshman year the rage writers were the Alan Greenspan mentor, Ayn Rand, and Brett Easton Ellis' "Less Than Zero." Worn copies of both circulated the dorm.

Chee handed me Baldwin's last book, "The Evidence of Things Not Seen." A slim book. The book blew my mind. Without exception, every time I re-read the book, a nugget exposes itself and knocks the wind out of me. The book remains my favorite and the most penetrating narrative of racism in the West. Baldwin is the Jose Marti of the US without question. Blackness was for all intents and purposes an ideology, a radical ideology. I read a little Malcolm, but much preferred CLR James and Walter Rodney, the Marxists, the non-Americans.

When I relocated to Oakland's Lake Merritt ... the OTHER side of the lake, readers! The side bordering East Oakland. I was surrounded by Blackness. On the buses, in the stores, everywhere. A few whites. A few Asians. More Latins. Many Blacks. It was the photo negative of what I'd lived in San Francisco. I did not react in shock or horror to this, but quickly grew to see Black men as complex objects of what Rodney, Badlwin, hooks, et al, had written about. But I also confronted a side not included in their poetry.

Despite the enormous history presented to me of the Black and African Diaspora, time and time again, the Black men I encountered were cowards, not dreamers: they lived here on the DL and/or had such a visceral reaction to whiteness, they despised the fact I associated with them, dated them, sexed with them, which is apparently why they refused the terms GAY or CLOSET ... worst of all: I was indicted many times for the whiteness of my speech. If I was to be so indicted, what of the Baldwins, Lordes, hooks, Rodneys, James ... and Malcolms? Malcom X was of course suspiciously a cypher, nothing more than an "X" on a cap, and an excuse to unleash untreated hatred on whites, far worse. It was such an irony that the few gay white men I encountered in the neighborhood even told me that, and that they wanted a real Black man[!], not me.

For other reasons [I think], I moved to Los Angeles. I considered that not only might a move improve my career but also my love life with my Black brothers. Neither has been the case. I have found a decimated, shame-filled population of pathetic Black Gay men. Hurricane Katrina came through here, I imagine, and no one reported it. I think I should have read the more dense writing of Franz Fanon along with Rodney, Fanon who goes into the psychoses of colonialized Black men.

The Black community in LA had yesterday been a middle class community, but evidently it did not produce much. The public education system is a Third-World atrocity, with a conservative 50% drop-out rate. Worse is what years of middle-class jobs did for this community and how they used it to supply themselves with houses, stuff, cars, and no sense, let alone not a single institution. When the defense industry floor was ripped from beneath them, they did not hum the Internationale or storm the Bastille, or wage a peasants' war ... they smoked more weed. They bought more weed, a point which cannot be missed. More weed was available to sell. Who's selling? Who's profting from this? At any rate, I've met Black men who proudly grew up in LA, educated in their schools, jobless, marginally employed, or employed in the underground, drug economy. This doesn't speak well for the 50% who do matriculate.

The local white men have learned. White men my age will not touch me, period. White men who have spent any time here catch on a lot quicker to what lies on the other side of the tracks. Race puts me automatically on that other side. Baldwin did comment he loved but did not like all Black people, so I guess I can safely say the same now, but it makes the dilemma no less complicated. I can't take these weed-smoking, meth-addicted men home to my mother and don't want them in my bed for a fling. I've had my periods of misery and joblessness and had to take lower-wage jobs and never thought to turn to alcohol or weed. "My head is bloody but unbowed," wrote Henley. Henley's poem, "Invictus," ranks for me along with Kipling's "If," and Cavasky's "Ithaca" as poems every child should know by heart. They are poems that may sound nice to a 9th grader but will continue to explain a Journey, which we all make alone. I guess for some, the poetry of the Old and New Testaments resonate.

But not these Black people. There is no poetry or holy commandment. A few years ago, Bill Cosby seemed to have a meltdown when he deigned to criticize the Black community; more recently, a prominent Black Harvard scholar, Henry Louis Gates, and talk show diva, Oprah Winfrey, added their voices to this criticism. Knowing what a risk this criticism entails, I can only imagine the private frustration these public people brought to their public comments. Cynically, we expect white America not to care, and are dismayed to find Black America equally pathetic. The Black community - if you can call a small cadre of ageing activists no one listens to a community - is broken when its elders are ridiculed. Really, guys, what has been going on here? I wish Mike Davis, socialist historian, would conduct an anthroplogical study of what went on in this city all those years.

I speak as a Black Gay SINGLE man who desires, like most gay men, to make connections with other gay men. We really are social animals. But this is problematic in a phenomenon like Los Angeles. If a rise in hardcore drug use is an indication of hopelessness, LA is at the pit. Crystal Meth is used in epidemic proportions here and a deal breaker if you're trying to meet someone for a fling. Heavy weed smoking slows the brain and clogs the plumbing from working, if you get my drift! (I know I am a teetotaler, but I am a teetotaler who knows that putting SMOKE of any kind into your lungs is counter-intuitive) The new, fashionable hatred for Whiteness dismisses not only white allies but identifies any sign of progress, like good grammar, as suspect. The Down Low phenomenon is not really different from my generation's construct of The Closet, but DL comes out of a rejection of whiteness. Gay is white. Language is white. And White is a deemed a social negative.

All men are brothers, Baldwin told us again and again in sometimes agonizing terms. Like other admonishments, ancient and biblical and kindergarten, we do not heed their instruction. Life is always more complicated than a commandment. But we must all stop and ask ourselves, in light of the state of our post-Katrina society, what would we say to a drowning man who would quibble about the color of the life jacket you would throw to save his life?

08 March 2007

I'm in Love with Todd Oldham


Cable TV's BRAVO Network has kept me tuned in the last few months with its reality shows in particular and to the dying species of television in general. I never got hooked to the early generation of reality shows on network tv, people getting voted off islands and tribes being formed and reformed, and ever since the production of "Alf" in the 90's and the appointment of Michael Powell to the FCC in the same decade, this writer has witnessed a precipitous downfall into thinner blonde jobs and thinner plot lines.

Having grown up a gay creative wanna-be strangely fascinated with Julia Child and William Alexander and the arts behind what they did in those half-hour shows on pre-historic PBS, BRAVO's presentation of some ambitious designers-artistes ["Project Runway" hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum, "Top Chef" hosted by Padma Lakshmi, and "Top Design" hosted by Todd Oldham] have caught me in their nets. I never thought "reality" could be so interesting.

I was hooked on "Runway' in the second season when the show still held a gay aesthetic. I suspect by season three the producers rather than put up a NO GAYS sign and shut down, simply edited footage to keep things toned down for our middle countrymen whom they wanted to buy soap. And I suspect this is what happened in a revealing moment in its sister show, "Top Design." The men are interesting. The women strike me as either what we used to call Fag Hags or are Elegant, which means they have more white collar gay friends perhaps. Klum, the hostess, seems to be competing the 9 births of Queen Victoria, but she remains tres elegante herself. And between her and Miss Tyra Banks one has to admire they will not go softly into the Night like Cheryl Tiegs or Christy Brinkley.

The fact that some of the "Project Runway" contestants were openly gay or were secure enough in their sexuality to take on a gay mannerism or two like a tasteful pair of shoes hooked me more. Here they were in a space where their art mattered, not their sexuality. Ironically, when your sexuality is not a threat, gay and straight men can open up and be their fluid selves, aggressive, flirtatious, demure.

When "Top Chef" hosted by Indian actress Padma Lakshmi was announced to take "Project Runway's" time slot, I was discouraged and suspicious: could lightning hit twice? Nope. Where were they taking Heidi [labor and delivery perhaps]? Would I be denied chances to see grown men behaving naturally and creatively? "Top Chef" seemed butch, so I tuned out until the 3rd episode or so. Geez!! Hooked again! It was in fact less gay, and yet seeing these young men and women create to outdo their peers' creations was a war of the gods worth seeing. My vote in season three was for the diabetic New York head chef. The Latina had my vote until she got to whining. The handsome young Jew, Ilan, who eventually won seemed a reasonable choice.

Then "Top Design" hosted by designer Todd Oldham was announced to replace "Top Chef" I feared we were going into "Rockey V" territory. Again, I thought they'd gone too far and had run out of creativity. Who cares about the design of a room? Thanks to the paltry offerings on network tv, I tuned in during the 2nd or third episode and found they'd hit on the magic again ... and TODD OLDHAM!!!

Yeah, I'm in love with Todd Oldham, the show's host. He's my cup of tea. Cute, successful, unassuming, geeky. My kind of gentleman caller. So call me, Todd!! I'm in LA and single and have a room you could dress up.

The show's first season doesn't measure up to the best of "Project Runway", but it has that gay chic the other, earlier shows, albeit toned down. Goil (like Gargoyle, he reminds us ... and I am enamored with that CURTSEY he executes), Michael, John. So I was a little disappoinnted when in one of the early episodes one of the gay contestants announced he was HIV+, the cast was shown to just stare at him, including the several men I suspected were gay. The contestant is then says he's leaving the room to take a bath, and the cast is shown just lounging. Any comment was reserved for their one-on-ones with the camera filmed later. But what would I have them say? FAGS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! In the very same episode he is ousted, which I call TIMING. The Challenges don't feel as refined as "Project Runway's", like they may have been put together at the last minute.

Back to Todd: the cameras never seem to hover on Oldham more than a few seconds at a time. True, he's not the beauty that Klum or Lakshmi are, but he's a Catch. At least let me see what the man is wearing!

If it seems like Todd and Goil and Michael are John are only holding my interests, you would be wrong. Todd first. Goil reminds me of a perfect composite of a few men I have dated - Daven and Andy, who were perfectly LOVELY men, and I was a creep. As I said, the challenges on the show seems a bit contrived, but then: look at my room! Look a my clothes! I am neither fashion queen or design maven.

Auf Wiedersen!!

04 March 2007

The Alternative Health Care System in this Country is called TYLENOL: Stop * Think

The bill for a recent, sudden illness and stay in the hospital was $67,403.23. I don't even have a fraction of that kind of money, but I am fortunate to be one of a shrinking number of people in the US with "health care." Even that oft-used term must be deconstructed.

But that my co-pay for my hospital stay was only $250 is a relief.

Why is the United States of America the only industrialized country without a public health care system? It's not for lack of talk, not for lack of Congressional hearings, not for lack of funds - we have plenty of all.

We are triangulated in this country by a party system funded, guided, and run by an oligarchy of capitalists. Support of the Republicans yields a perpetuation of this system; support of the Democrats yields the same. Writer Gore Vidal once called the Insurance Industry the Piggy Bank of the Rich. If this is true, it would explain why they have kept health insurance private, costly, and relentlessly advertized as the best in the World.

The worst example of what perpetuates this health care system is not from elites within this party system - they know their limits, so continue to frame the issue as "affordable health care" - but from Progressives. Respected writer and honorary co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America dissed Ralph Nader and backed John Kerry in 2004. The Communist Party USA has been favoring the Democratic Party lately, and this has made its magazine, Political Affairs, a depressing thing to behold.

There have been insurgents within the Democrats, but their fate has always been crash and burn: to date [late winter 2007], I have only heard Demcratic candidates John Edwards and fellow vegeatarian Dennis Kucinich define the solution as UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.

I do believe Universal Health Care was First Lady Hillary Clinton's goal in her early endeavor, which is why she attemtped and was vilified for shutting out the oligarchy. Universal Health Care is not the goal of US Senator and Presidential Candidate Clinton, as we have heard. Our Press and Elites are fond of pointing to the real power behind the Iranian presidency, the Mullahs - these Islamic chieftains - but not the oligarchs that stand behind the thrones of the West.

In a recent, wide-ranging interview on C-Span, Ehrenreich said "The Alternative Health Care System in this Country is called TYLENOL." In fact, our so-called health care system is not about health but rather about chemo/medicine-centered industry, the power of which also keeps us away from a health-centered health care system.

A headache is not the body's deficiency of aspirin, and yet we are conditioned to be pill-centered in the treatment of our ailments. Our treament of many ailments - and it seems more are discovered everyday just when a new pill is concocted - are chemicalized. How often do you hear a discussion of our diet, especially in the US? Our heavy consumption of carcasses - excuse me, meat products - can be linked to the rise in disease, where at once time in the recent past our diets were more vegetable centered, less meat; and now it is the inverse, often no vegetation at all. Our animals now are even being fed animal products - the cow and bull are vegetarians by nature but are fed animal products and steroids and antibiotics to make them into the fattened creatures we've come to recognize as cattle.

Further, I learned during my extended hospital stay, that I had gotten a very special, dangerous bacteria in my intestines: campenella. This comes from chickens. Not to indict chickens, they are also fed steroid and antibiotics, and this is what makes these bacteria and fungus even more powerful: when they survive this chemical stew, they are resistant in your intestine as well.

So not only has our medical industry been chemicalized but so has food production, the long-term consequences of both scarcely discussed but met with the creation of more drugs.

After Reagan and Thatcher let for-profit drug companies into the universities research centers and starved them of public funds to work in the public interest, research has been geared to medicines not for the poor but for yuppies and the rich. Drug companies have quarterly reports and shareholders to always consider. They have no interest, fiscally, in drugs for the poor when the government won't pay full price for them or that the poor themselves cannot afford.

So while we should demand universal health care, this health care must be rational and address the planet, our food supply, and our diets primmarily. Drugs must be a last option. Prince Charles of the UK was recently heard to whisper to an Arab prince how McDonald's restaurants could be banned. The movie, "Super Size Me," would highlight this argument.

But people's needs will never be heard in an anti-democratic system, like the US, with its capitalist party system.