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Mom's
This one is probably self-explanatory. I made it after hearing someone say that sentence. No links tonight I am a theatre critic OK...so it's a new "career", but if you're interested in reading my reviews, go here WHAT I'M READING Christmas present from my friend Diane, who figured it was time I learned about Australia. That's it for today!
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STANDING IN THE SHADOWS 10 February 2001 We went to see a play called "Standing in the Shadows" tonight. It was at a little picturebox theatre, that held 49 seats, where the company manager is also the artistic director, sold tickets, ran lights, and brought his dog into the light booth with him. The director was a woman I met at Breaking Barriers when I was working condom detail last week. I read the poster about the show and called the paper here in Davis to find out if they would run a review of a production by the gay theatre. I got the go-ahead and arranged for reviewer tickets. The "shadows" in the title of the piece are metaphors for the way a lesbian partner traditionally has been compelled to step out of the picture in matters involving the family of her partner. The play is based on the true story of Sharon Kowalski and Karen Thompson, who had been partners for five years in 1983 when Kowalski was in an auto accident which left her a quadriplegic and brain damaged. Because the women were lesbians and Kowalski’s parents disapproved of their relationship, and because Kowalski was not able to speak for herself, the parents barred Thompson from seeing her partner. Ultimately they had her discharged from the hospital and taken to an undisclosed location. Thompson fought for ten years to gain custody of Kowalsi, who finally was allowed to come back to live with her in 1993. But the ten year battle educated and activated Thompson who now speaks on gay and lesbian rights, the rights of the disabled and women’s rights. Ironically, the timing was right. I was seeing this play the same day that I received a copy of an article from a Sydney paper telling about a new series of bus posters designed to prod people into thinking about the hidden advantages held by straights, simply by virtue of their sexuality. Each poster is headed with the words "Hey hetero." Some of the works depict straight couples in typical scenes -- having a picnic, getting married, or surrounded by housewares. Another shows a baby lying on a rug, while one features a murder scene where a straight couple have been killed during a sexually motivated attack. But each one makes a comment on the invisible empowerment unconsciously owned by straights. "Hey hetero!," proclaims one, with the parents of a little girl having a picnic in a park. "When they say family, they mean you!" "Hey hetero!," claims another, which features an infant lying on its back on a rug. "Have a baby: no national debate." A third instructs straights to get married -- because they can. The straight community, some of whom are quick to shout "special rights" when gay and lesbian couples talk about things like marriage and childbirth and adoption and a host of other things, seldom stops to think about this large segment of the population denied equal rights because of their sexual orientation. In the case of the women in the play this evening, had it been Walt lying in a hospital bed, unable to communicate, nobody would even have considered that I should be barred from the hospital, should not have a say in his care, should not make decisions for him. Why are gay relationships so trivialized by the straight community as to be discarded frivolously as it suits the whim of the straight powers that be? I may not always like the partners that my friends or relatives choose in their life, but why should my opinion about the partner have any legal bearing on the rights of the couple involved? The story of Kowalski and Thompson is a tragedy that didn’t have to happen. Two adult, independent women, deeply in love and sharing a life of many years were kept apart for 10 years simply because the parents of one of them had the legal right to do that. This is not liberty and justice for all. I drove Priscilla this morning. First thing she said when she got into the car was to ask me to tell all of you hello for her. She's not doing well. Now she has pain in her stomach that doubles her over. She thinks a vaginal infection has infiltrated her stomach. Whatever it is, she's definitely a lady in pain at the moment. |
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Some pictures from this journal |
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Created 2/7/01 by Bev Sykes |
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