The winners of the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards were announced Monday night at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. Among the winners were Colm Tóibín’s The Empty Family for best Gay Fiction, Farzana Doctor’s Six Metres of Pavment for best Lesbian Fiction, Justin Vivian Bond’s Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels for best Transgender Nonfiction, and Rahul Mehta’s Quarantine for best Gay Debut Fiction. Attendees included comedian Kate Clinton (who hosted) food personality Ted Allen, playwright Charles Busch, drag star Lypsinka (who performed), actress Ally Sheedy and Lady Bunny (who DJed the after-party).
In addition to the regular honors, special Pioneer Awards were given to writers Kate Millet (Sexual Politics) and Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City). In presenting Armistead his award, Olympia Dukakis said playing Tales’ trans den mother in the Showtime miniseries was the the most meaningful role of her career. “I understood the most important thing was to survive myself—and that’s what Anna Madrigal did.”
Photos: David J. Martin /Lambda Literary Foundation
The Real Mike in Asheville
I know am very lucky —
When “Tales of the City” first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle as a daily column in 1976, I was a high school sophomore beleaguered and puzzled about my desires of intimacy with boys and men.
And my luck, my city-savvy born New Yorker straight-as-an-arrow man’s man Dad loved the hilarity charm and fun that made Tales of the City so enjoyable. So, every morning at breakfast, my dad would read each day’s column aloud for us all to enjoy.
When I came out to my parents just a few years later, my dad remained my champion, embracing the strength of character and conviction embodied by Maupin’s amazing world of characters. Thank you Armistead, the true creator of the original “it gets better” life.
Matt
Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City” whitewash SF and is actually highly ra_cist, and his characters are your stereotypical white urban queens.
Not to mention the prose itself sucks and the plot is boring.
ErikSF
I lived in SF when “Tales of the City” was written and Maupin does revise history, whitewash SF, and it may have been somewhat exciting when it was first published but now it’s boring and highly dated.
Dave
It gets better is just a bullshit PR campaign, nothing more. Telling LGBT and hetero kids to put up with bullying until they leave school is not constructive advice. It’s cruel. School boards, school administrators, teachers, etc, need to have zero tolerance policy for bullying. It’s not uncommon for teachers to bully unpopular kids themselves. That’s where the changes need to be made… The reason “It Gets Better” caught on with politicians and celebrities is because it’s great PR and it requires absolutely NOTHING from them in the way of real action.
Brent W.
I really dislike the “it gets better” attitude because it’s saying that bullying and harassment and shame is normal and acceptable. It’s saying that the attitudes and the systems behind that behaviour can never be changed so why try. it’s saying that if only you can tough out the first twenty-odd years of your life then you’ll emerge into a magical adult land of equality where things are Better, or that you’ll move to an LGBT ghetto where things aren’t magically going to Get Better and may just as well be worse.
Hiding behind the flawed pretense that “it gets better” is just another way to avoid having to face the original problem. The only way anything will get better is if we stop pretending that closing our eyes and covering our ears will make the problems go away.
Maria
Kate Millet is bisexual yet queerty ignores this about her. Good job spreading bisexual erasure queerty!
Fatdet32
@The Real Mike in Asheville: Nice Post man, Thank you for sharing that.