★You don't hove to be GAY
to love going to the theatre...
but it helbe!
•••Especially if you come to the Gay and
Lesbian Audiences Series (G ALA) at
Portland Center Stage. Sponsored by
Birthright
Climbing through a lifetime of old baggage
to board the baby train
V3
justrrm
i*
Selected Tuesday evenings throughout the season - attend great plays and join
the cast for the parties that follow at P ia tti’ s on Broadway - for the gay and
lesbian community.
★ The 1998-99 Season*
The little Foxes
by Lillian Heilman ★ GALA night is October 6
The measures Regina Giddens takes to pursue her desires reveal a woman of singular
and horrifying purpose. This portrait of a ruthless Southern family stunned Broadway
when it premiered in 1939 —and again when Bette Davis starred in the movie..
September 26 October 24
-
Red
by Chay Yew ★ GALA night is November 3
A world premiere play of spectacle and substance spanning two generations as a
contemporary author revisits Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, and comes face to
face with a man renowned for his portrayals of the divas of Chinese Opera.
October 30 - November 21
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens ★ GALA night is December 8
The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future visit Ebenezer Scrooge in this
delightful holiday treat featuring holiday musical favorites, original carols, and Portland
favorites Terry Sneed, Michael Mendelson, and Susannah Mars.
December 1 - January 2
How the Other Half Loves
by Alan Ayckbourn ★ GALA night is January 19
Two dinner parties - both appearing on stage at the same time - collide with some
ferociously funny results. Directed by Cliff Baker, director of Comfort and Joy at PCS.
January 9 February 6
-
The Old Setder
by John Henry Redwood ★ GALA night is February 23
In 1940s Harlem, two sisters must find a way to lay down the bitterness of the past if
they are to find peace for the future.
February 13 - March 13
As Yeii lik e It
by William Shakespeare ★ GALA night is March 30
This beloved tale of love, marriage, reconciliation, and cross-dressing in the forest of
Arden reminds us that “all the world’s a stage." Cast includes Suzanne Bouchard
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream/ Kate Heasley (Sylvia/ and Mark Chambers (A Tuna
Christmas and Sylvia,) in another gender-bending role.
March 20 April 24
-
★ Save 20% off the reoular ticket price by purchasing tickets
to a ll six productions, and enloy a ll the additional benefits of
becoming a PCS subscriber! Call the box office and ask for
the GAIA series ★
*503-274-6500*
Experience the Drama in Someone Else s Life.
Portland Center Stage
: e have been given a gift: we have
been bom different. We have been
made to live at cross purposes to a
basic biological imperative. We have
been made to be sexually attracted to our own
gender.
No matter how frequently or how well I
make love to my boyfriend, we will never, ever
create a child via that lovemaking. I could
change the law of the land tomorrow and
sweep the HIV pandemic off the
face of the globe. Still, 1 could not
create a child with my soul mate,
my husband.
This does not mean I am
j
immune to the nesting instinct.
Nor does it mean I have never
entertained adoption, co-parenting,
or the many other options for pro
creation and parenting available to
us queers.
Not that parenting is necessari
ly a top priority for a lot of gay
men. 1 might just as well ask,
“Have you found Jesus?” I’d likely
get a more favorable response from
BY
most gay men. 1 have a few theories
about this.
JULIAN
The most obvious reason many
SOUTH
gay men want nothing to do with
children is that they are men. I have met few
straight men who are, until the little bundle is
in their arms, all that fired up about being a
father. Men are not nurturers in our culture and
so the whole idea of actually making babies that
require nearly constant attention for two-plus
decades is anathema.
The next factor, I believe, is homophobia.
No matter how out and comfortable you are,
the old “queers are all pedophiles” way of think
ing keeps most gay men away from children.
We may do no wrong, but simply the appear
ance of wrongdoing based on others’ percep
tions frightens us half to death when a child
comes too near.
I also believe gay men are, despite the old
axiom of being sensitive, self-interested to the
point of omphalocentrism. (They contemplate
their navels.) Anyone with children will tell
you that kids require a large degree of selfless
ness.
Probably our greatest problem with children
is that we have had really shitty childhoods.
Beaten, terrorized and ridiculed, we are shut off
from our own childhoods and don’t want any
thing that reminds us of being at the mercy of
others. (I also believe this has something to do
with why some of us choose to become body
builders.)
While some of us didn’t fit the shitty-
childhood mold, most of us had the smell of
queemess about us. We got picked on and
abused. Being around children can’t help but
remind us of that abuse. 1 was punched, called
“faggot.” I endured nearly unending ridicule.
Even without these attacks from the outside,
most of us have had to deal with a lot of inter
nal conflict. We don’t seem to be noticing how
those conflicts’ resolution often has left us with
gaping wounds.
I belong to Parents, Families and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays, a wonderful organization
that provides support to parents dealing with
their kids’ homosexuality. I listen to them and
grieve the loss of the child they thought they’d
raised—a child they imagined would bring
them grandchildren. I try to remind them those
dreams don’t have to be dashed. I counsel them
and tell them to support to their kids, and I
remind them grandchildren aren’t an impossi
bility. (The lesbian baby boom is heartening.)
Most of us do a great job of cutting our
selves off from children. We don’t even sup
port children’s issues as well as we should
because we are so damned afraid of kids. We
have been so homswoggled by our self-
interest and internalized homophobia that we
abandon every whispered yen to become par
ents or even mentors.
I sat one night watching a man and his
sons going home on the train. The man
looked like any number of my friends. He
turned to me as I sat smiling at the spectacle
of his two sons sleeping only moments after
the train got underway.
“Do you have some of your own?” he
asked. I remembered finding out my last girl
friend had gotten an abortion before inform
ing me she was pregnant.
“No,” was the best I could get out.
“Well, don’t let it pass you by.” He turned
his attention back to his sons’ faces, saying,
"You’ll regret it forever if you do.” I was glad
he’d stopped staring at me, because the tears
in my eyes were obvious.
1 know that being someone’s father isn’t
something I am going to do today, or proba
bly tomorrow. 1 also know that if I don’t
become a father—if I let homophobia or
other fears stop me— 1 will indeed regret it
forever. 1 will have let what I am get in the
way of who I want to be.