Gay Man

MIAMI -- For the first time in its history, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has recognized gays and lesbians as a distinct social group who are sometimes entitled to a haven in the United States.Earlier this week, an INS officer in San Francisco granted asylum to a Mexican man who said he was beaten, raped and extorted by police in his native country for only one reason: He was gay."As a gay man in Mexico, life was made intolerable for me," Jose Garcia said yesterday at a news conference in San Francisco.

As the punches kept coming, landing across his face and head, Kenni Shaw tried to talk to his five attackers but couldn't get the words out. "I was pinned down by punches," Shaw said of the beating he received Christmas night, outside the East Baltimore liquor store he frequents near his home. "It was so hard that I felt my lip and side face swell up immediately. I was trying to talk to these guys, but they weren't letting me talk. " Instead, they were intent on beating him - simply out of hate, said Shaw, a 30-year-old gay man. "I was just beaten in my face.

The chief physician at Maryland Shock Trauma Center denied yesterday that his staff discriminated against a gay man who claims he was barred from his partner's deathbed because he was not "family." Dr. Thomas Scalea said staff members blocked William Robert Flanigan Jr. from the 10-bed resuscitation unit for more than six hours Oct. 16, 2000, because doctors were too busy trying to save his partner's life to allow any visitors, who might have gotten in the way. "That evening was extremely busy," Scalea said at a news conference.

I was 4 years old when I was picked up after a minor fall and had my tears brushed away with the words "You'll be OK. You'll heal long before you grow up and get married. " But by the time I reached puberty, that promise seemed to only be for my three sisters. I had come to the realization that I was gay, and gay people were not even thinking about getting married when I turned 12 in 1968. I hadn't even yet learned a word for being attracted to another boy. As a culture we have come a long way since then.

For years, Akil Patterson wouldn't tell the world who he really was: a gay man playing Division I college football. His secret weighed on him, frightened him, confused him, taking on a life all its own. In lonely periods, the former University of Maryland player would go online and type in "gay," "athlete" and other keywords. And Patterson, an offensive and defensive lineman on former coach Ralph Friedgen's teams of 2001-03, would wonder: how many other Division I athletes are gay — and black — and feeling as isolated as he was?

A PROMINENT JAMAICAN gay rights activist is brutally murdered one June morning, and a crowd gathers to rejoice and sing "Boom Bye Bye," a popular reggae song about killing gay men. Nine days later, another gay man is "chopped, stabbed and stoned to death" by an angry mob egged on by police officers who, according to a witness, told them to "beat him because him a battyman," local slang for homosexual. Days later, six men are driven from their home and beaten by a group of angry men. When they report the crime to police, officers nearly laugh them out of the station.

When actor/playwright David Drake returns to Baltimore tomorrow to sign copies of his newly published script, "The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me," he will have come full circle.Not only is the script the semi-autobiographical story of his coming of age as a gay man in Maryland, but before the New York premiere of "Larry Kramer" in 1992, Drake tried out parts of the one-man show at Towson State University and Maryland Art Place.Since then, the 30-year-old boyish-looking performer won one of off-Broadway's coveted Obie Awards for his performance in "Larry Kramer."

Potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has been in the news lately for comments he made opposing same-sex marriage to the New York Times .  "It's like in golf," Trump told the paper. "... a lot of people are switching to these really long putters. Very unattractive. It's weird ... I hate it. I am a traditionalist. I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist. "  Last night on his NBC show, "The Celebrity Apprentice," Trump made more comments about homosexuality, which he refers to as "gayness.

THE QUEEN'S THROAT: OPERA, HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE MYSTERY OF DESIRE. By Wayne Koestenbaum. Poseidon Press. 271 pages. $12.WAYNE Koestenbaum, a professor of English at Yale University, openly describes himself as an "opera queen" -- a gay man who loves opera.His choice of subject is startling, however, only because he dispenses with the genteel fiction that opera's affinity to homosexuality is merely coincidental.On the contrary, Mr. Koestenbaum asserts, gay men are attracted to opera precisely because its extravagant displays of emotion and willfulness express a secret realm of feeling denied them in the straight world.

In case you've been hunkered down on Mount Kenya, Brokeback Mountain opened last weekend. No hurricanes destroyed Orlando. No meteorites were reported in Los Angeles. In fact, the film quietly attracted huge crowds in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco and will premiere in other markets this weekend. And so it seems Ang Lee's film about two cowboys in love is - at minimum - surviving. Why is a question we'll have to figure out later. Could be that all three opening cities have hefty gay populations.

Carrie Fisher is in town for a run of her one-woman show, "Wishful Drinking," at the Hippodrome , and fans will have a couple of chances to chat with her, courtesy of the Baltimore County Public Library. Fisher was born to Hollywood stars Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, and played Princess Leia in the Star Wars movies. But her life has been filled with challenges, including depression and addiction. Thursday, February 2nd, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., she'll discuss her books "Wishful Drinking" and "Shockaholic," at the library's Towson Branch.

She survived drugs, booze, parental issues, complex relationships and a metal bikini, not to mention the electroconvulsive shock therapy that helps her cope with bipolar disorder. And Carrie Fisher has a lot to say about all of it. In 2006, the actress and writer who gained global fame as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" saga poured her eventful life into an autobiographical show, "Wishful Drinking," which went on to play Broadway and was aired on HBO. On Tuesday, Fisher opens a two-week run of "Wishful Drinking" at the Hippodrome . "I've changed it a little bit," she said.

For years, Akil Patterson wouldn't tell the world who he really was: a gay man playing Division I college football. His secret weighed on him, frightened him, confused him, taking on a life all its own. In lonely periods, the former University of Maryland player would go online and type in "gay," "athlete" and other keywords. And Patterson, an offensive and defensive lineman on former coach Ralph Friedgen's teams of 2001-03, would wonder: how many other Division I athletes are gay — and black — and feeling as isolated as he was?

Potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has been in the news lately for comments he made opposing same-sex marriage to the New York Times .  "It's like in golf," Trump told the paper. "... a lot of people are switching to these really long putters. Very unattractive. It's weird ... I hate it. I am a traditionalist. I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist. "  Last night on his NBC show, "The Celebrity Apprentice," Trump made more comments about homosexuality, which he refers to as "gayness.

G len H. Footman would appear to be the perfect candidate to get a check from Maryland's Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. He was shot in September 2008 while walking hand-in-hand with his longtime partner, Alex Chavarria, on Howard Street in Mount Vernon. Witnesses told police that a young man, previously overheard saying, "I'm going to kill myself a gay tonight," stopped to ask Footman a question or bum a cigarette, and then shot him twice. Baltimore police classified the shooting as a possible hate crime but have not made any arrests.

Life generally doesn't move very fast in Kentucky. But for Paducah resident and up-and-coming celebrity William Sledd, it has quickly reached whiplash speed. Sledd, at 23, has already begun making his name as a fashionista, a Gap manager and a YouTube star. He recently signed a development deal with NBC Universal. He has e-mail to answer, YouTube responses to check and his Web site to maintain. The newest problem: his Internet has been down for hours. "I just called [Comcast] again," says Sledd.

MIAMI -- It is, at the very least, a lead that gets your attention. "For the past year and a half," it says, "I have been having an affair with a pro baseball player from a major-league East Coast franchise, not his team's biggest star but a very recognizable media figure all the same." Brendan Lemon wrote those words. He's the editor of Out, one of the nation's most widely read gay-interest magazines, and that's how he begins his column in the May issue. Mr. Lemon's unidentified friend is apparently so deep in the closet he sleeps on a hanger.

BOSTON -- Not that I am worried about Rupert Everett's career. Anyone who can dance away with the kudos at "My Best Friend's Wedding" is bound to catch bouquets.The British actor was more than Julia Roberts' gay consolation prize for losing the man she loved in that film, more than a walker at a wedding. He was campy, sensitive, sensible and, by anybody's definition, a true friend. He was the best man in the movie.So no one is surprised that Mr. Everett has lined up two more star turns: one as a gay secret agent, another as a married man coming to terms with coming out. Nor is it any wonder that the gay actor is being cast as a gay character.

In case you've been hunkered down on Mount Kenya, Brokeback Mountain opened last weekend. No hurricanes destroyed Orlando. No meteorites were reported in Los Angeles. In fact, the film quietly attracted huge crowds in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco and will premiere in other markets this weekend. And so it seems Ang Lee's film about two cowboys in love is - at minimum - surviving. Why is a question we'll have to figure out later. Could be that all three opening cities have hefty gay populations.

A gay father has been granted a Circuit Court hearing in Maryland to determine the constitutionality of a Virginia court order that forced his partner to move out of the house they shared as a condition for keeping custody of his son. Maryland's Court of Special Appeals said the Montgomery County Circuit Court must hear evidence presented by attorneys for the father, Karl Ulf Hedberg of Rockville, before deciding on a custody agreement. The boy is 12 years old. Hedberg's attorney, Susan Sommer of the New York-based Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund - a gay-rights organization - lauded the ruling by Maryland's second-highest court.