Queerty reader Bill hit the premiere of Corpus Christi: Playing with Redemption—the documentary about a production of Terrance McNally’s gay-Jesus play—at San Francisco‘s Castro Theater on Sunday. He tells us the rumored protest by fundamentalist Christians never materialized but that anti-circumcision activists picked up the slack. “Since it was San Francisco, someone had to protest—if only to keep up appearances,” he says.
On a more merry note, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (above) were also on hand to help spread God’s glory.
WillBFair
This is typical of self destructive ghetto queens making us look bad to our allies. I haven’t seen the play, but if the Sisters’ attendance is any clue, it’s probably full of insults to our christian allies. Oh well. The ignorant set has been sabotaging us for thirty years. No reason for them to stop now.
jason
It’s more ignorant to make a comment about something you clearly know nothing about. As you say “I haven’t seen the play..” Judge not lest ye be judged. Before making ignorant, baseless and insulting comments, take a moment to actually educate yourself on a topic. As far as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, “the ghetto queens” you so lovingly describe here, it takes two seconds to google their organization and learn of the thousands of charities and organizations they help in fighting the very thing you are guilty of here: ignorance. God bless.
Fitz
Will, you are such a used douche. The Sisters are not ghetto queens, they are the financial and emotional backers of countless essential charities. They bring goodwill and fun, and funding wherever they go. You probably don’t contribute 1/100th of your time and money to the kinds of things that they do every month.
Drew
The Sisters give All LGBT people a bad name, don’t represent us, and are the reason why a lot of heterosexuals don’t like LGBT people, and yes they are a pointless relic of the LGBT/gay ghettos of the 70s and 80s and their pointless segregationist attitude that got LGBT people nowhere and did not do anything to help us or LGBT people in general.
B
No. 1 · WillBFair wrote, “This is typical of self destructive ghetto queens making us look bad to our allies. I haven’t seen the play, but if the Sisters’ attendance is any clue, it’s probably full of insults to our christian allies.”
Reality (from first-hand experience): the film was a documentary about the play and its cast, mostly interviews. They had a few very short excerpts, at least some made during rehearsals. They also had members of the cast there for a Q&A session after the film (which has not yet been released – this was a preview and even the producer or director didn’t quite know what it would contain due to last-minute editing).
The play itself (judging from the excerpts) seemed to be more or less a traditional passion play, but updated so that Jesus was gay and living in Texas. Rather than have Jesus cure people of leprosy, they had him cure someone of AIDS – as a theatrical device that is probably more compelling as leprosy is now treatable with antibiotics and is a lot less terrifying than it was 2000 years ago. It also contained a scene where Jesus married a gay couple, which of course outrages some religious people today, just as the religious authorities at the time were allegedly outraged at Jesus. McNally’s version in that respect probably gives the audience more of a sense of what the original Biblical stories were like to those who heard them 2000 years ago, regardless of whether you believe those stories are factual or not.
Most of the film, however, was really about the cast and how the production and controversies impacted them. When they finally showed the play in Texas, for example, they did it with a lot of trepidation – a real concern was that some religious nut might come into the theater with a gun and start shooting, and some of the cast had families to support so the impact of that would not just affect them.
Dr. Dick
Don’t Feed The Trolls! The Sisters are badass. Growing up in SF, I have seen firsthand the kind of joy/support/levity they bring to everything, from painting toddlers faces to hosting porn-related parties.
THROW LESS SHADE.
Spike
@Drew: Why would you think the Sisters have any interest in representing you? Last I checked, they represent one thing, themselves. Oh, and can you please reference where you got the fact that heterosexuals don’t like us is because of the Sisters. What a sad little gay boy you are if you think that the relics of the 70’s and 80’s got LGBT nowhere, then again, when your generation got us Adam4Adam and Grinder, how could us relics compete.
Kergan Edwards-Stout
I brought the play to our church, and can say it really is wonderful–and while I’m not particularly religious, it actually painted for me a picture of just how loving Jesus could have been, in how he dealt with his tormentors. Far from blasphemous, the play is actually quite generous and embracing of all.
I interviewed the lead, James Brandon, who plays the gay character, Jesus, named Joshua in the show, and that interview is at Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kergan-edwardsstout/gay-jesus-from-his-lips-t_b_1450904.html
Love Me Some Sisters
The sisters are a boon to the community and a continuing poke-in-the-eye to anyone who wants gays and lesbians to conform to some bland milquetoast heteronormalcy in order to gain acceptance. Screw that. I’ll take the sisters over assimilationists any day.
WillBFair
@Fitz: I admit I was just guessing about the play.
But I’m not guessing about the Sisters. I’ve known them from day one. And they’re totally self destructive and ignorant, from the beginning when they named themselves Perpetual Indulgence in the middle of an epidemic. The charities you so love are usually about caring for aids people, which is a band-aid approach since they never lifted a finger on prevention. I know because I have worked on it for decades. Scattering a few condoms at the bar every six months doesn’t count. And while I adore the old style drag queens of piled hair and filthy mouth, these queens are mocking real nuns, some of the only decent people in the rcc, and our allies. In the process, the queens make us look bad. More ignorance and self hatred.
Hugh7
The Intactivists were nothing to do with the play, but were demonstrating at a fundraiser for Mark Leon at Trigger. Leno threw in his support last year for AB768, which has made it legal for anyone in California to circumcise anyone (so long as he is a male minor) with a boxcutter if they choose – a bit of overreaction to a proposed local bill that would have restricted being circumcised to consenting adults (or others with genuine medical need, of course).
Hugh7
* Mark Leno
Drew
Spike what makes you assume that I’m a younger gay man? I’m 55 and I’ve been out since I was 15. Even back then I didn’t like the separatist attitude of LGBT people or how LGBT people were professional victims and thought that we somehow had to separate from heterosexuals, go live in LGBT ghettos, and be professional complainers and whine about how horrible straight people are and how much they hated us even though heterosexuals didn’t hate LGBT people back in the day.
B
No. 11 · Hugh7 wrote, “The Intactivists were nothing to do with the play, but were demonstrating at a fundraiser for Mark Leon at Trigger.”
They had signs criticizing Mark Leno and others, and they were in fact demonstrating right in front of the Castro Theater around 1 PM, when people with VIP tickets were entering and others were buying tickets. Earlier, they were demonstrating in front of a video store. That does not mean they didn’t also have a contingent demonstrating at Trigger, which was around the corner and out of sight of where I was.
Mark Leno walked by a little before 2 PM, but at that point the demonstrators were gone.
In effect, regardless of their intentions, they did end up filling in for the missing Christian protesters.