The cast of the New York production of “Naked Boys Singing.” – Photo: Courtesy broadwayworld.com
Milwaukee settles ‘Naked Boys’ lawsuit
Five years after a Milwaukee vice squad officer shut down a traveling production of the gay-themed, off-Broadway hit “Naked Boys Singing” at the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center, the city has settled the resulting lawsuit with a $20,000 check delivered to the center on July 14.
The initial controversy broke in August 2005, less than five months after MGAC had opened with a Broadway revue. Fundamentalist street preacher Drew Heiss, tipped off by the extensive publicity campaign that preceded the performance of “Naked Boys,” filed an open records request that revealed MGAC had not applied for a small theater license with the Milwaukee City Council, which was then in summer recess and not scheduled to meet until September.
MGAC’s attorneys maintained that the center was exempt from the requirement because of its non-profit status, a position that was later affirmed by the city attorney’s office. But the city’s official stance was expressed in chilling terms by two visits to MGAC from members of the Milwaukee Police Department vice squad, followed by a telephone ultimatum.
“Naked Boys Singing” producer Mark Hooker told the Broadway-based publication Playbill that a man who identified himself as Milwaukee vice squad Det. Wilcox called him to warn that performing the play that evening was not advised.
"Naked Boys Singing" Milwaukee lawsuit settlementCity worker disciplined for sending hate mail
A Milwaukee city worker is back on the job after agreeing to apologize to a gay man she harassed via her government e-mail account.
Donna Luty, an administrative assistant with the Port of Milwaukee, was suspended without pay in mid-July after a man complained to city officials that she’d sent him e-mails from her office computer filled with Christian right anti-gay rhetoric.
Gordon Jablonski, a former Wisconsin resident who now lives in New Jersey, described Luty as a peripheral acquaintance from several years ago. He said she contacted him after seeing pictures on Facebook of his nuptials with another man. “You know you are living in sin and will burn in hell if you don’t change your life around,” Luty wrote in an e-mail that Jablonski shared with WiG. “I’m sorry to hear you married another man. God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve.”
“I wrote back and said, ‘What you’re saying to me is inappropriate, wrong and hurtful. I have the right to choose my own religion,’” Jablonski said.
But Jablonski said despite his objection and his request that Luty stop contacting him, she continued to write.
Milwaukee city worker sends anti-gay hate email
'I have a good life because I think I have a good life.'
Carol Stevens remembered as lesbian pioneer
Over 120 family members and friends crowded Milwaukee’s Quaker Meeting House on July 5 to pay tribute and share a potluck dinner in memory of Carol Stevens, a founding mother and guiding light of the city’s lesbian community.
Stevens passed away Saturday, June 26, at St. Mary’s Hospital surrounded by loved ones. She was 86.
Stevens was a member of the Gay People’s Union in the early 1970s, and one of only a handful of people at that time willing to publicly identify herself with the first gay organization to incorporate as a non-profit in Milwaukee.
She was a mainstay of many LGBT and feminist groups in the decades that followed, including Grapevine, the Lesbian Alliance of Metro Milwaukee, Silver Space and Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE). She was an avid volunteer, working for publications like GPU News and Amazon, staffing information tables, selling raffle tickets and organizing dances for the women’s community.
“The great thing about Carol was how committed and dependable she was,” an old friend said. “She’d have an idea for a fundraiser or event and then get everyone involved to make it successful. She didn’t really see herself as a leader and yet that’s exactly what she was.”
Carol Stevens obituary
Milwaukee County Democrats unanimously endorsed challenger Chris Moews for county sheriff.
Sheriff candidates square off for LGBT votes
Incumbent Milwaukee County Sheriff Dave Clarke and his challenger in the Democratic primary both say they support the hiring and promotion of openly lesbian and gay law-enforcement personnel. That’s apparently one of the few points of agreement between two candidates who seem to differ on nearly everything else.
Challenger Chris Moews (pronounced “maze”), a Milwaukee police lieutenant, told WiG that sexual orientation is “a non-issue” for him.
“This is the land of the free,” Moews said. “I’ve got gay and lesbian officers on the force who are my friends and they do excellent jobs. They should be given the same promotional opportunities. I don’t look at people as gay, straight, black or white. I look at them as officers.”
Clarke, who visited PrideFest this summer to meet LGBT voters, said he doesn’t know whether openly lesbian or gay people are currently serving under him.
“The only thing you’re judged on is your performance,” he said of his department. “I would imagine I have openly gay officers, but I have not gone around and conducted a head count, because I don’t care. That’s none of my business. I’ve never had anybody come up to me and ask me about my sexual preference.”
Milwaukee County Sheriff candidates square off for LGBT votes
Graphic: Jason Smith
Smoked out
Ban takes effect July 5
Milwaukee’s gay bar owners are bracing for a potential downturn in business when a statewide indoor smoking ban takes effect July 5. But they’re also looking at the bright side.
“I won’t have to clean the bar as hard,” says Kruz owner Jerry Breiling. “It will be one less thing I have to do every month – washing all those walls down. The environment will be nice.”
Breiling also hopes the absence of smoke will reduce the frequency with which he has to clean the bar’s air-conditioning filter – currently once every three days. And Breiling, like owners of other bars with patios, hopes he can mitigate any loss of business from smokers by offering them an outdoor space to indulge.
In addition, Breiling hopes that the ban “will help me quit.”
But bar owners’ concerns about falling revenue in the wake of the smoking ban appear to be well-founded. The United Restaurant & Tavern Owners of New York Inc., for example, found that 76 percent of New York City bars and nightclubs experienced a 30-percent decrease in customers during the year after that city enacted a ban in 2003. A year after Iowa’s smoking ban went into effect in 2008, the Quad City Times reported statistics suggesting that more people were chosing to drink at home rather than bars in Scott County. Liquor store sales there rose by 16.8 percent over the next year, while new liquor licenses in the county dropped sharply. It was unclear, however, whether the differences resulted from the ban or the economic downturn.
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