Bash Compactor: Those People (On Stage)

As my age inexorably (yet gracefully) marches into
that
phase when my general good mood and productivity demands a full eight
hours of
sleep, I’ve come to rely more and more on a New York staple of the
social scene:
the after-work, politically-themed, cocktails-included happy-hour. 
So it was to my great benefit when my editor
approached me to cover the Big
Gay Variety Show,
an April 13 fundraiser with proceeds are all
earmarked to support
the New
York Civil Liberties
Union (a state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union) and
its fight
for marriage fairness and LGBT rights. 

As I rarely turn
down anything with the words ‘big’ and
‘gay’ in its description, I ventured on down to the West Village
for the event, held at (Le) Poisson Rouge.  Correct
to its billing, the show was full of
variety—comedians, Broadway and television stars, an Astoria-inspired
Vaudeville act, a new-age gospel singer
and even a magician.  If
you follow what I’ve written in the past (and for your
general amusement and edification, I hope you do) then you know I’m not
one to
comment on artistic performance, per se.  I’m just
as likely to think a “sharp F”
refers to a painful sexual encounter rather than anything having to do
with
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata. But politics, that I do know and this event
was
unfortunately the political equivalent of that aforementioned bad
hook-up. 

Upon entering
the venue an energetic NYCLU staffer
attached a band to my wrist and directed me to the VIP lounge.  Hmmmmm…an
exclusive and exclusionary cordoned
off space at an event for an organization that states it is an inalienable
right to be
“treated equally regardless of nationality, race, gender, sexual
orientation,
religion, ethnicity, disability or socio-economic
status.” But as we can all tell from my tone, I’m totally an elitist, so I accepted my
exceptionalism and watched with sci-fi nerd boy delight as hipster scruffy Zachary
Quinto
took his nearby seat with Jesse Tyler Ferguson of Modern Family fame (and who was a featured performer as well).

While the
crowd was diverse across ethnicity
(class-wise, who knows) the on-stage
talent
was decidedly not. By my count, only one
performer was of color and, yes, pushing an agenda of black and brown
people’s representation in the arts may seem a bit pasé in an age when
Michelle
Obama headlines
events at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the lack of
African-Americans,
Latinos and Asians amongst the roster was underscored by the subject
matter
that those people on stage used as their punch-line: race.

One comedian, Paul Case,
spoke of his longing for a light-skinned boyfriend. Another,
the previously referenced sister
girl Gloria Bigelow,
talked about giving a
ghetto child the name Crudité.  Jesse
Tyler Ferguson gave an oh-so-average vocal performance of an oh-so-tired
song about
his pubescent love for a boy named “Eduardo.” (Latinos are, of course,
the safe
race for white Americans to exoticize and fetishize.) The
event emcee, the dynamic cabaret
performer Lady
Rizzo had perhaps the most abrasive moment of the night when she
hollered:
“Where is that handsome black boy?” She was referring to the staffer who was
selling
tickets for the raffle. Gee, way to
create a racially charged environment for an employee who was merely
trying to
do his damn job!  Of course, the irony
here being that I’m sure an ACLU lawyer (or 2,000) has successfully
sued a
company for much less. 

Maybe I’m too
cynical (or maybe I shouldn’t watch every
episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race 32 times a week) but there is something staid and played about
the
intersexed state of identity politics and identity-based humor.  With
its roots stretching back to 1917 you
would hope the ACLU and its affiliates would have learned to integrate
their
principles around equality into the content of their events.  And
this is not just some knee-jerk
politically correct reaction to something I personally found offensive. 
If the purpose of the event was to support
the NYCLU and its efforts to fight for gay marriage then this event did
that
effort a disservice. One of the biggest
developments on the legislative front of the battle for marriage
equality was
the ardent support for same-sex marriage by the black political elite of
New
York, most notably Rev. Al Sharpton, Governor David Paterson and State
Senate
President Malcolm Smith.  Even though last
year the marriage equality bill was defeated in the state Senate it
would not
have even been taken up for a vote without those leaders. If
gay-oriented events continue to
unapologetically showcase racism and then hide that bigotry behind a
veneer of comedic/artistic
expression, on what grounds do we go back to those leaders and ask them
to
exercise their political capital on issues of importance to the LGBT
community?

Jamaal Young is a
former political operative with the
Democratic National Committee and has served as a policy consultant to a
number
of organizations on civil rights, education, and community service.