Guest: Kirsten Cappy
Topic: Children's Books
A conversation with children's bookseller and consultant Kirsten Cappy.
Guest: Carolyn Gage
Topic: Ugly Ducklings
A discussion of Carolyn's work, including her play, Ugly Ducklings, which has been nominated by the American Theatre Critics Association for the prestigious ATCA/ Steinberg New Play Award, an award given annually for the best new play produced outside New York.
Guest: Ron King and Jed Barnum
Topic: World Aids Day
Commeration of World AIDS Day 2004 and discussion of events.
Guest: Lisa Jahn-Clough, children's author
Topic: Country Girl, City Girl
Discussion of Lisa's first novel for young teens, COUNTRY GIRL/CITY GIRL, which debuted this October, published by Walter Lorraine Books.
Guest: Dan Williams, founder and Executive Director
Topic: The Charles O. Howard Foundation
A talk with Dan about the work of the new foundation, located in Bangor, and it's work in honor of murdered gay youth, Charlie Howard and also with minority groups on issues of discrimination.
Guests: Lorrayne Carroll, Naomi Winterfalcon, Mary Kay Kasper
Topic: Post-presidential election discussion
What happened? What do we do now? Here are several women's opinions and suggestions.
Guests: Donna Cassidy, Erica Rand, Liz Sheehan
Topic: Marsden Hartley Symposium
Discussion of Maine gay artist Marsden Hartley and the exhibition and symposium at Bates College on November 5 and 6.
Guests: Greg Fields, Executive Director of Peace Action Maine and Jessica Eller
Topic: Peace Action Maine
People become alienated from the political process for many reasons, but this time anything of relevance has been removed from information the media puts out about the election, the debates were infomercials and people don't have any input if they are not part of the status quo - it's all scripted. This is a discussion of the upcoming election and why folks should vote.
Guest: Martha McDevitt-Pugh
Topic: Love Exiles
Many people are not aware that the status of international same gender relationships is part of the greater discussion of same gender marriage in this country. What happens if you meet and fall in love with someone from another country and you are unable to live together in either place? My guest lives with this question every day. Martha McDevitt-Pugh is an American married to a Dutch woman, living in the Netherlands and founder of Love Exiles.
Guests: Jamie Gibson, Melissa Lowell and Kathleen Lowell
Topic: Trans-Parents
Transitioning from one sex or gender to another is an emotional process, to say the least. When there are children in the family, it is made all the more difficult for everyone involved. My guests are transsexual parents who will be talking about how transitioning has affected their relationship with their children.
Guest: Darlene Huntress, Project Coordinator
Topic: Equality Knocks
A project of Equality Maine (formerly MLGPA) to identify pro-LGBT issues voters in the state.
Guests: April Mulkern, Erik Moody, Karen Ball, Dave Ciampas
Topic: USM production of The Laramie Project
This play was created through interviews with the citizens of Laramie, Wyoming, after the murder of a young, gay man - Matthew Shepard. Eight actors play 72 roles in an intense and insightful look at hate crime and its aftermath. April Mulkern is the outreach coordinator for the production and my 3 other guests are actors in the production.
Guest: John Lesko
Topic: Chiltern Mountain Club
Chiltern Mountain Club is the largest LGBT outdoor club in New England. It was founded in 1978 by Sturgis Haskins. John Lesko was Chiltern's first President in the late 1970s.
Guest: Author David Carter
Topic: Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution
David Carter has a long history of activism for social justice causes -- in high school he founded a so-called underground newspaper to protest censorship of the student newspaper and in college he co-founded the Committee to Impeach Richard Nixon. David became a gay activist when Anita Bryant began her efforts to rescind the civil rights ordinance in Dade County, Florida. He has been a film director, a TV producer, a writer of film reviews, a copy editor, assistant editor and writer. His latest book, Stonewall: the Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution, has been extremely well received, getting positive reviews from a wide range of gay and non-gay publications.
Guest: Author Ona Russell
Topic: O'Brien's Desk
Ona Russell holds a Ph.D. in literature from UC San Diego. Her first novel, O'Brien's Desk, is a literary mystery set in the 1920s, based on the true story of a prominent and popular Democrat judge in Ohio whose progressive politics and humanitarian strides were nearly destroyed when a blackmailer threatened to end his career by revealing his controversial secrets.
Guest: Jim Bailey (5 min. to promote AIDS Benefit)
Guests: Pam McCann and Jamie Gibson
TTopic: Programs sponsored by the Maine Speakout Project
Pam McCann is the Program Coordinator of the Maine Speakout Project. She recently completed her masters degree in Women's Studies while living in Baltimore, MD. Pam has worked in student affairs, adovcacy and health education for the past 12 years.
Jamie Gibson is a trans-woman and parent of two daughters. She lives in Freeport with her younger daughter and her partner Marty. She grew up in rural Maine and was married for 20 years before transitioning in 2000. Jamie has been a volunteer for SpeakOut since March of this year.
Guest: Pamela Means
Topic: Pamela Means' New CD
Pamela Means is a Boston-based, Biracial, Outspoken, Lesbian independent artist who kicks ass. She performs some 120 shows a year at clubs, colleges, coffeehouses, theaters and festivals and has shared the stage with artists such as Ani DiFranco, Neil Young, Joan Baez and Violent Femmes. She is the receipient of the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival's No. 1 Most Wanted New Artist, has been named Folk Artist of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year in her native Wisconsin, and has been a Boston Music Award Nominee for Outstanding Contemporary Folk Artist. Her most recent recording, Single Bullet Theory, has won the 2004 Outmusic Outstanding New Recording award.
Guest: Evan Wolfson
Topic: Marriage Equality
Evan Wolfson is Executive Director of Freedom to Marry, the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Prior to founding Freedom to Marry, Evan was marriage project director for Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, was co-counsel in the historic Hawaii marriage case. He was Associate Counsel to Lawrence Walsh in the Iran/Contra investigation, Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, NY and spent two years with the Peace Corps in West Africa. Evan was named one of "the 100 most influential lawyers in America" in 2000 by the National Law Journal for his national leadership on marriage equality and his appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale. Just this year, he was named one of the "Time 100," Time magazine's list of "the 100 most influential people in the world." Evan's just released first book is titled Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry.
Guests: Jay Porter and Professor Rita Kissen
Topic: Boycott of the State of Virginia
Rita Kissen is an associate professor of teacher education and Women's Studies at USM. She is the author of The Last Closet: The Real Lives of Lesbian and Gay Teachers (Heinemann, 1996) and the editor of Getting Ready for Benjamin: Preparing Teachers for Sexual Diversity in the Classroom (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002). She is also a founding member and past president of the Portland chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and of the Southern Maine chapter of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network).
Jay Porter is a brand and communications strategist for the Seattle office of SS+K, a Manhattan-based advertising and PR firm. His professional work focuses on the technology sector, a specialization that lead to his early participation in the "blog" or "web log" movement. With his partner David Smith and several friends, Jay launched nonfamous.com in 2002. The software that runs nonfamous made it easy to set up VirginiaIsForHaters.org, with the boycott site launching within a week of the April 21 passage of the "Marriage Affirmation Act" in Virginia. Jay and David were married in Vancouver, BC this May.
Guest: Professor Abraham Peck
Topic: Homosexuality and the Holocaust
Abraham J. Peck is Director of the Academic Council for Post-Holocaust Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies at USM. He has a long history of work within the Jewish community both on a local and national level and is the author of many scholarly volumes and articles. Professor Peck is a former advisor to Elie Wiesel, and is the son of two Holocaust survivors who survived the Lodz Poland ghetto and the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Stutthof, Buchenwald and Theresienstadt. Professor Peck has been involved for more than two decades in numerous programs devoted to creating meaningful dialogue and creative social action programs between members of the American and international Jewish communities and members of the Christian, African American, German and Polish communities.
Guest: Martin Sabol
Topic: LGBT Health Issues (Infectious Disease)
Martin Sabol manages the Infectious Disease Program at the Portland Public Health Division of the Department of Health and Human Services. He oversees prevention efforts and health care services related to HIV/AIDS, TB, sexually transmitted and vaccine preventable diseases in the Portland area. He recently served as vice-president of the Maine Public Health Association and as a Governing Council member as well as a member of the GLBT Caucus of Public Health Workers with the American Public Health Association. Marty was also a founding board member of the Maine Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance.
Guest: Marc Stein
Topic: The importance of LGBT history
Marc Stein is Associate Professor of History at York University in Toronto, the author of City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia 1945-72 and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in America, which was published last year. Marc is a former editor of Gay Community News and is presently working on a project titled The U.S. Supreme Court's Sexual Revolution? 1965-1973.
Guest: Members of USM Dialogues in Diversity
Topic: Teaching Diversity at USM
Discussion of what it was like to present issues of diversity to USM audiences through role playing, skits and discussion. Members present on Queertalk are Keita Whitten, Naomi Paisley, J.B. Whipple and Naomi Winterfalcon. Please note that only the second half of the show was recorded.
Guest: Robyn Ochs
Topic: Bisexuality
Robyn Ochs is a co-founder of the Boston Bisexual Women's Network and the Bisexual Resource Center, both of which have been active since the '80s, she is a pioneer as a teacher of courses on bisexual identity at the college level, and she is the editor of the Bisexual Resource Guide and the International Directory of Bisexual Groups. Robyn has been published in a number of anthologies on bisexual issues and her book, Getting Bi: Essential Resources for Bisexuals and Other Folks Along the Sexuality Spectrum will be out soon. And, she and her spouse, Peg, were recently married in Massachusetts.
Guest: Dwight Cathcart
Topic: Ceremonies
The activisim that began in Maine during the 1970s with Mainely Gay, Maine Lesbian Feminist and other groups, was changed profoundly by the death of Charlie Howard in the summer of 1984. Charlie's death was the catalyst for the formation of many of the LGBT organizations that have become political with a capital P. If you're interested in learning more about the early groups that were active in the 1970s, a good deal of their papers, photos and material objects are available to read and view at the LGBT Collection at the Jean Beyer Sampson Center for Diversity at the Glickman Library here at USM. Having said that let's get to our guest. Dwight Cathcart has written a novel based on the above events, Ceremonies.
Guest: Chris Shuping, co-chair of Southern Maine Pride
Topic: Southern Maine Pride 2004
As you may know, LGBT pride events began in the early '70s on the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, which is recognized as the event that started the present-day gay rights movement. Pride events have been political events where LGBT people have celebrated our culture and demonstrated our presence to the straight community while working for the right to be who we are by demonstration and legislation. As time has gone on, the focus seems to have shifted to party mode. What is the future of Pride events? How does it serve the LGBT community?
Guest: Danielle Askini
Topic: Transgender Youth
Danielle Askini is a 21 year old Social Work student and Transgender activist. She has been very involved with Outright and the USM Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity. She has been transitioning since high school, and has spoken to hundreds of other students about issues facing trans-young people.
Guest: Lois Galgay Reckitt
Topic: The Matlovich Society
Lois Galgay Reckitt is Executive Director of Family Crisis Services in Portland. In 1977, she was, to quote Lois, "part of a small but hardy group" that introduced civil rights legislation in Maine - the first gay rights bill. In 1980, she was a founder and member of the first Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and for thirty years she has been a lesbian rights activist in the National Organization for Women (beginning well before she "came out"). She was the co-founder, along with Ron McClinton, of the Matlovich Society.
Guests: Erica Quin-Easter and foster son Tony
Topic: LGBT families and adoption
Twenty or thirty years ago the idea of a queer person or couple being foster parents or adopting a child was almost unthinkable. But now, many LGBT couples are doing just that. Whatever your opinon of this phenomenon, the fact is that access to the foster care and adoption systems is often confusing and convoluted. My guest today decided to do something about it.
Guest: Frank Brooks
Topic: Transgender Boys at Risk: The Social Work Perspective
Frank Brooks is a clinical social worker in Portland and a doctoral student at the Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston. He has taught part-time in the USM School of Social Work and is chair of the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues of the National Association of Social Workers, Maine Chapter. He is currently on the board of directors of the Kids First Center.
Guest: Michael Rossetti
Topic: Portland Pride
Michael Rossetti is the founder and was the producer of Portland's gay pride celebrations from 1987 to 1999. He is a native Mainer, born in Portland. Michael now, presumably temporarily, resides on an exotic bird refuge outside Sacramento, California and owns a west coast entertainment and educational company in which he co-stars as both clown and magician. He refers to it as "having run away and joined the Circus".
Guest: Del LaGrace Volcano
Topic: Gender Terrorist
Del LaGrace Volcano is a filmmaker, photographer, theorist and "gener terrorist" whose work "consistently and intentionally subverts, destabizes and challenges the binary gender system." Pushing the boundaries of current conventions of gender and sexual differences and the social hierarchies that enforce them. Recent photographic projects include Sublime Mutations (2000), The Drag King Book, co-written with Judith "Jack" Halberstam (2002), which represents over 20 years of work engaging with difference and its embodiment.
Guest: Jim Fotter
Topic: Mainely Men Conference
Jim Fotter lives in Brunswick, Maine with his partner of ten years, Jim Carroll and his son Keegan. Originally from Connecticut, Jim moved to Maine from Wyoming where he was an elementary teacher and served as President of the Wyoming Education Association. He is currently employed as a labor advocate representing teachers and education support staff in Maine's public schools and is an active volunteer for the Maine Speakout Project, the Maine Gay Men's Chorus, and Outright. Jim attended his first Mainely Men gathering in the Fall of 1999 and has attended regularly since then and was appointed as a Board member last year.
Guest: Lynn Deeves
Topic: Chat and a few songs from this Maine-based singer/songwriter.
In January 1995, after years of playing the New England top-40, club circuit as the energetic "chicksingah", Lynn Deeves flipped the band equipment truck on an icy Maine back road. It was her "wakeup call" to move in a different direction, coming out with her first effort in 1996, "Connecting the Dots" - a versatile mix of originals with folk, blues, and gospel influences. Lynn's second recording, "Soul Food" followed in 1998, celebrating Spiritual growth, Nature, and Humor. Rich, soulful vocals combined with a sharp wit, and dynamic stage presence, are creating a continually expanding New England fan base.
Guest: Michelle Brodsky, Coordinator of the Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity USM
Topic: LGBT pride at USM week
The first gay pride march in the U.S. took place in June of 1970 to commemorate the Stonewall Rebellion, which started the gay rights movement, one year before. Since then, in towns and cities in many parts of the country, and around the world, celebrations of LGBT pride are held every June. At USM pride is celebrated during a week in April. On this program we discuss the Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity and the teach-in on Same-Gender marriage scheduled during pride week.
Guests: Shannyn Vicente, Andrew Jones, Maggie Zall
Outright - programs for LGBTQ youth
How can LGTQ youth find support and become involved in their communities? Outright has some of the answers.
Guests: Howard Solomon and Steven Wessler,br> Topic: Conference: Charlie Howard 20 years later
Twenty years ago this summer, a young gay man was murdered in Bangor, Maine simply because his assailants, 3 high school boys, didn't like the fact that he was gay. Charlie Howard's name has become synonymous with the worst extreme of homophobia in our culture and his death has affected the LGBT community for the past two decades: it made us realize that we had to organize and act politically if such atrocities were to be prevented in the future. My guests today are organizing "Charlie Howard Twenty Years Later: How Far Has Maine Come?", a conference dealing with issues of hate violence and also the importance of preserving LGBT history in Maine.er: How Far Has Maine Come?
Guest: Cynn Chadwick
Cynn Chadwick was born and raised in New Jersey, but has lived in the South for over twenty years. Her work has appeared in Words of Wisdom, Writer's Gazette, and Creating Fiction, amongst others. Cat Rising was her first novel, by Haworth Press 2002 and her latest book, Girls With Hammers is the sequel which has just come out this month. Currently in progress, is the third novel in the series entitled, Between Here and Motherwell. Chadwick lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina and is a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Asheville where she teaches creative writing.
Guests: Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon
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| February 12, 2004 - Phyllis and Del are first same sex couple legally married in U.S. |
On the very steps of City Hall where my spouse, Naomi and I in 1986 spoke to a crowd of several thousand about being attacked on the street * speeches about trying to physically survive in a hostile, homophobic environment - couples were waving their marriage licenses in the air and being cheered. I've was crying all week while I viewed the photographs posted on the web of happy couples leaving City Hall. What a wonderful feeling of inclusion, even if we haven't gone back there ourselves. My guests today were there and played an important role, being the first couple to be married after Mayor Newsom's decision to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon met in 1950. In San Francisco in 1955 they, with six other Lesbians, founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first national Lesbian organization and its newsletter, The Ladder. They have been a couple for 51 years and have been active in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Women's Movements. On February 12, 2004 they became the first same sex couple to be legally married in the United States. It took place at City Hall in San Francisco, California, after Mayor Gavin Newsome announced he had ordered the city clerk to issue marriage licenses to couples of the same sex. Since February 12, more than 3,000 couples have taken advantage of the offer.
Guests: Bess Welden, Executive Director of MJFF Steven Jones, program coordinator
The Maine Jewish Film Festival is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide a forum for the presentation of films to enrich, educate and entertain a diverse community about the Jewish experience. That experience encompasses a large constituency, defined by race, gender, youth and sexual orientation, to name a few. Included in the wide array of films this year is a mini-LGBT festival of three films, which we will be discussing today with my guests Bess Welden and Steven Jones.
Guest: Steffan Morin
In this age of corporate greed and environmental degradation many people are looking for meaningful belief systems to try to find meaning for their lives. Paganism is one such belief system. There are many myths and fears connected with the word "paganism" and today on Queertalk we'll talk with a member of the Pagan Students Association here at USM to find out what the meaning of paganism is for him and how this practice manifests in his life.
With the economy down and cash scarce for a lot of us, Queer or not, now is an especially good time to find alternative ways to get the services you need. The Maine Time Dollar Network could be just what you've been looking for. From a pilot Time Dollar exchange, Maine Time Dollar Network has expanded and there are now 10 satellite sites in place throughout New England and other sites are in various stages of development.
Donna is a nationally respected, well seasoned LGBT activist. The Des Moines Register recently quoted a religious right organization who called her "the most dangerous woman in America." In her previous work, as Executive Director of Portland Oregon's Lesbian Community Project (1989-93), Donna helped battle Ballot Measure 9. For this work, the Advocate named her "Woman of the Year," and the radical right gave her the label, "most dangerous woman in Oregon." She has served as the National Field Director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (1993-96) and for The Human Rights Campaign (1996-99). Until April 2003, Donna served as Policy Director at the Gill Foundation, where she managed such programs as the National Faith Leadership Project and the Democracy Project. She curently serves on the Boards of Directors of The Advocacy Institute and the Mautner Project, both in Washington, DC.
Susan Wiggin is a social worker and dedicated straight ally. She co-created & co-facilitates a program at the Kids First Center for parents who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & questioning who are also going through separation, divorce, or family transition. Susan also facilitates many other groups and programs at the Kids First Center.
Frank Brooks is a clinical social worker in Portland. He is currently a doctoral student at the Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston. He is conducting his research for his dissertation which is entitled "Transgender Boys at Risk: The Social Work Response." He has taught part-time in the USM School of Social Work and is chair of the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues of the National Association of Social Workers, Maine Chapter. He is currently on the board of directors of the Kids First Center and he is the co-facilitator of the support group that is the subject of today's program.
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| Martin Swinger visits Queertalk |
Martin has been a singer/songwriter in Maine for 13 years. For the
past 7 years he has been teaching songwriting in elementary schools,
producing Concert Series for Adelphia Network 9, and has performed at
various Gay and straight political and public functions. Originally
from Georgia, Martin has a long performance history before moving to
Maine. Martin is now a resident of Augusta, Maine.
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