ON THIS DAY
On this day in 1989, Bill Bennett, in fund-raising letters for Jesse
Helms urges the politicians followers to "Please rush Jesse Helms a
special contribution of $29 today! ... He needs you to support his
legislation to stop the liberals from spending taxpayers' money on
perverted, deviant art! ... All Jesse's legislation would do is stop
radical, left-wing artists from getting government money to pay for
attacks on Christianity and so-called 'art' that promotes immorality and
homosexuality!"
BIRTHGAYS (and the occasional straights):
* 1908 - Gertrude Stein protege Sir Francis Rose
* 1907 - French writer and diplomat Pierre Roger Peyrefitte * 1922 - Shelley Winters, pictured, and still frightening viewers from beyond
the grave
* 1940 - "The Wizard of Oz's" first theatrical showing
* 1958 - "Those of You Who Are Dying Are Very Gifted" poet Mark Ameen
Q.UOTE
"I always come up with different titles of books that I could write,
and that was the title yesterday: I'm So Sorry I'm Not Really a
Lesbian." -- Gina Gershon
PRI-DVD Dear Jesse
A homophobic senator. A gay filmmaker. A different kind of love letter.
Can you go home again? What if you're a gay man and home is a state
where voters keep electing a homophobe to the US Senate? In 1996, at age
30, native son Tim Kirkman returns to North Carolina to explore the
parallels and differences between himself and Jesse Helms: they're from
the same town and college, with media interests, from families blessed by adoptions, Baptists by upbringing. Tim puts his camera in front of
his family, a boyhood pal, college friends, his pastor, Helms fans,
community activists, novelists Lee Smith and Allan Gurganus, a mayor who's gay, and people in the street, including a brief interview with
Matthew Shepard. What is it to judge, and what is it to love?
ON THIS DAY