Gay, Proud & Compassionate

Enforced Arch founder and Co-founder of KaKo NYC, James Koroni, is proud to model John Bartlett's Gay, Proud & Compassionate tank. Details:

In honor of Gay Pride Month, we are proud to present this Limited Edition "John Bartlett Gay, Proud and Compassionate" Tank. This super soft cotton tank features our signature "Tiny Tim" Logo in rainbow foil (a throwback to the great graphic tees from the late 80's/Early 90's.) While these tanks are certainly fun and fabulous – they are more than a cool and colorful way to show your pride this year; with 10% of the proceeds donated directly to The Tiny Tim Rescue Fund, they also highlight another part of our strong and powerful community that is often overlooked - our compassion.

You might also notice this tank was not shot on a model, but an actual member of our community - who is not only proud to be gay, proud to express his love, and proud to be an individual - but also proud to be compassionate and make a difference in the lives of animals - a class of creatures that we so often forget about in today's political atmosphere.

HAVE A HAPPY PRIDE!

Click HERE to get yourself a Gay, Proud & Compassionate Tee or Tank by John Bartlett!

It Gets Better

I met talented 'Mover,' Tracey Katof shortly after she had the opportunity to dance and choreograph for comedian, Rebecca Drysdale, on a music video called "It Gets Better." In a short interview with her, this is what she had to say:

Q. Why do you dance? A. Language barriers exist between communities worldwide. I choose dance as my form of communication and self expression because I feel speaking through movement is the natural global language. Even the most simple movements, such as a smile or a frown, can be understood regardless of where someone comes from or what language they speak.   I dance to promote efforts of human welfare and social reform.  If I can spark an emotion or idea in an audience member that leads to a positive change, then I have accomplished my goal.

Q. How does this influence your dancing? A. My dancing is driven by my devotion to a cause and a desire to express truth.  In addition, I hope that my body and movement can serve as a vessel for social change and awareness.  In a sense, I dance to be larger than myself.

Q. Tell me about your experiences with "It Gets Better." A. Working with Comedian Rebecca Drysdale was a fulfilling experience. She put forth an immeasurable amount of time and effort into creating her vision. I thought it was an innovative idea to produce a music video and use humor to get the message across and to reach a large audience.  Through the Internet and social media, the video has already been viewed 100,000 times in just 2 weeks!

Q. How has dancing for this social issue enriched your life as an artist? A. From choreographing for humanitarian causes, I have learned that no matter how foreign the topic is to me, I can always relate.  That is what I want for the audience as well.  I am not a part of the LGBT community, yet I have related to the pain caused by feeling different and being teased. The "It Gets Better" campaign is about accepting each other for who we are.  I support this project because I want to spread the message that even in the most disheartening situations, there is always hope.

Tracey was the first to tell me about "It Gets Better." After I watched it for the first time I thought, I wish this was around when I was 14 so I didn't have to watch "Undressed" on MTV to feel normal! I recall being afraid to simply think thoughts of homosexuality, for fear that I would be, "condemned to hell." Add any level of physical, mental or emotional abuse to that kind of existence and it would be very difficult to know what I know now, which is, IT'S SOOO MUCH BETTER! This campaign has become a worldwide movement and is helping troubled teens look to a brighter side. For this I thank Tracey for lending her talents in Rebecca Drysdale's video.

Tracey is committed to many social issues. I'd love to share them all with you now but I look forward to seeing how she plans to illustrate them herself! Keep up with Tracey Katof's moves here:

http://TraceyKatof.com

http://www.doyoubuzz.com/Tracey-Katof

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Justin Leaf is shedding light on yet another form of discrimination, "Don't Ask Don't Tell," by transforming it into a riveting contemporary ballet performance. He takes a journey from his uniform of isolation to freedoms which life should certainly provide.

In her popular blog LEFTFACE, Brittney (The Army Wife) says of "Don't Ask Don't Tell," "But what about the con’s about repealing DADT? The biggest argument has been to not mess with the military — to do a “social experiment” — in the time of two wars. Isn’t that just an excuse, though? Aren’t we ALWAYS in some sort of conflict? The United States Army is essentially the police of the world, and we are always somewhere, doing something. So if not now, then when? Iraq is in the process of being phased out, and Afghanistan — well, we don’t really know when that is going to be over. There will never be a “good” time. So why not now?"  She is absolutely right. This kind of argument is simply trying to protect bigotry and keep homosexuality taboo, misunderstood and isolated.

While some of us may feel strongly opposed to war and military, if we want to have equality we need to address it across the board and not just in places where we feel comfortable. It may be hard to relate to people serving in the military but as a gay man I recall how frightened I was to simply come out in my High School environment for fear that I would be bullied, exiled from my friends and ridiculed by my religious upbringing. So I waited until I lived in San Francisco for over a year and built a community that embraced my personality. This only has made me a better member of society. I am less confused, more informed and confident in what choices are my own. What I have shared with my family is this statement, "Do you think I chose this? A life where my body chemistry is opposed to my family's beliefs, friends' beliefs, and half of the country's beliefs. Who wants to be discharged for being honest! NO, I didn't choose this and I certainly didn't want to live in fear that I would be." I am proud to be a gay man and have no interest in forcing my sexuality on anyone else but until you allow us the right to honesty I will continue to fight. That is the problem here. We don't want to be dishonest, we have tried to change our sexuality, we have had doctors tell you that it isn't a disease, we have proof that it doesn't affect our work ethic, so what do you want? They want me to be dishonest so they can live a lie.

The most heart wrenching issue here is that these government laws are only set to protect bigotry. Might I remind you of other statements that have come in the past:

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"I don’t want to serve with women. I don’t want to serve with Muslims. I don’t want to serve with blacks. I don’t want to serve with hispanics. I don’t want to serve with Asians. I don’t want to serve with Native Americans. I don’t want to serve with Jews. I don’t want to serve with gays." (source)

There is no difference here.

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Justin is being honest and vulnerable in this performance about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." In 2009 he was awarded a McKnight Fellowship for Dancers.  As part of the Fellowship program, the Southern Theater commissioned a choreographer of his choice to create a solo expressly for him as part of their SOLO Commissioning Program funded by the McKnight Foundation.  He chose to work with performance artist John Kelly.  The performance is entitled "Cohesion" and was premiered at the Southern Theater in July of 2010 as part of SOLO, which featured six McKnight fellows in new dances. Now catch his performance at FORM + CONTENT Gallery in February, curated by Camille J. Cage.

Justin says, "I prefer to tell a story with dance. It isn’t always a popular direction but by telling this story you offer someone an opportunity to feel something, digest it and develop an opinion."

Photos by Paul Virtucio