Interview: The Movie Queens...

The Reeling Film Festival is in its last days, but there's still time to catch what's sure to be one of the most fascinating movies in the program. Quearborn & Perversion, a new documentary by Columbia College alum Ron Pajak, tells stories of lesbian/gay Chicago life spanning the years 1924-1974. It's surely a beautiful irony of history: what is today the epicenter of the Viagra Triangle was, in the 50's, the epicenter of gay life;......

The Rev. Jeffrey Lee, a moderate in the eyes of religious leaders, was elected as the 12th Bishop of Chicago at the diocese convention in Wheeling on Saturday. Lee was selected over seven other candidates, one of whom is an openly lesbian priest, the Very Rev. Tracey Lind. Theological conservatives are condemning the vote and Lee, saying it doesn’t demonstrate enough restraint in maintaining the traditional view that the scripture condemns homosexuality. And some are......

Skidoo sounds like something we made up at 3 AM while at some party: Groucho Marx (in his last movie) plays a gangster named God, Jackie Gleason trips on acid while in jail, Carol Channing plays the most sane character in the whole thing, there's a musical number known as the Garbage Can Ballet, and every credit to the movie is sung. It's an actual movie from 1968 and it was directed by Otto......

Let's face it: we're spoiled when it comes to movies. Not only do the best (and worst) theatrical releases play here, but we also have scads of film festivals to choose from year-round. No sooner are CIFF and the Korean Film Festival over than Reeling is upon us. Since 1981, Reeling, Chicago's gay and lesbian film festival, has been unspooling a vitally diverse cross-section of queer filmmaking. This year's schedule includes nearly 70 programs,......

Aside from small-scale studies linking sexual-minority youth with high suicide attempt rates, there isn't a ton of concrete information about the higher risk of suicide among GLBT youth — U.S. data does not track sexual orientation as a factor in suicides. Still, there was a study in New Zealand that showed that they were six times more likely to commit suicide than their heterosexual peers, and it seems generally agreed upon that the risk is......

This is your first movie. One of your co-stars was supposed to have the lead, but you got it instead. The resentment is as thick as pea soup (which, incidentally, is the color of your wardrobe). The director refuses to let you leave the set, insisting you inhabit the role 24 hours a day, and his production supervisor lords over everything with an iron fist. On top of all that, you have to spend a......

Dale Levitski, "Top Chef" Finalist ...

If you were at last night's Estrojam (warning: makes noise) opening-night Panty Party at Funky Buddha, it's likely you're familiar with the festival. You're also probably a) hungover from all the $1 beers and mango vodka shots, and b) searching for your face on Last Night's Party, hoping for a new MySpace photo. The five-year-old, woman-centric music and culture festival continues all over the city this week with a bevy of concerts, films, workshops and......

With summer easing onto its laurels and panting in the heat, it's easy to get into a mindset that all the fun the season brings to Chicago is over. Not so! While the rest of the city is waiting for the humidity to give way to fall, you could squeeze in some more entertainment, in the form of Queerfest Midwest. The event, from noon to 10pm on Saturday at the Pulaski Fieldhouse in Wicker Park,......

1. Porn stars playing Twister. And for a charitable donation, you can join in as well. 2. Gay cheerleaders of the Chicago Spirit Brigade soaring through the air. When you have a significant male presence on the squad, things people really get flying. 3. Shirtless muscle men. And an occasional shirtless woman. 4. Models wearing cutting-edge fashions, strutting their stuff. In an over-exagerated dance move, the rear seam in one model’s pants bursts open. 5.......

The Pentagon confirmed last week that in the mid-90s, they had considered developing a “gay bomb.” The Air Force’s Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio (of course, Ohio), had proposed developing an aphrodisiac so strong, it would incapacitate the enemy troops by making them more interested in making love with each other, not war. The implication that an army of men could turn gay under the power of a pheromone or some other chemical alteration was......

Yes, that’s Mayor Daley in this blurry photo. Some microphone guy from WGN bumped into us as we were trying to snap a photograph. The Mayor was speaking in circles before the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community at the annual reception he hosts for said community at the Chicago Cultural Center. It’s official now, through a proclamation signed by the Mayor himself, June is now Pride Month. Proclamations are sort of trendy nowadays, with......

Oh, we enterprising gays. First we gentrify the gayborhood. The next thing you know we’re creating gay sports leagues and gay churches. And Tuesday Mayor Daley will join us hand-in-hand as we cut the ribbon to our brand new Center on Halsted, a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community center that blows the door off the closet for GLBT centers across the country. There are about 160 GLBT centers in the U.S., but none are......

Let's face it: there are few very documentaries about porn out there that aren't, well, actually porn. And porn documentaries from a woman's point of view? To be honest, we can't even think of one. That's why Becky Goldberg's new documentary Hot and Bothered: Feminist Pornography is so unique. It will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, at The Leather Archives and Museum. It's a rare glimpse into a traditionally male-dominated world......

We love our hometown film organizations. Places like the Siskel, Facets and Chicago Filmmakers help insure that the local film scene stays vibrant and relevant. We have always been very proud of Reeling, the Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival, which just wrapped its 25th incarnation on Sunday. That’s why the news that the offices of Reeling were burglarized Sunday evening particularly pisses us off. According to Brenda Webb at Reeling, “the thief also......

Reeling, the Chicago International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, continues through November 12. Tomorrow at 9 p.m. the French film Looking for Cheyenne screens at Columbia College's Film Row Cinema. Cheyenne, an unemployed journalist, decides that she's fed up with capitalist society and decides to live off the grid by moving to the country. Her beautiful girlfriend Sophie, a high school chemistry teacher, must decide whether she loves her enough to join her. It's a......

We knocked ourself out at the Chicago International Film Festival and RESFEST|10, and we see no reason to end our film-addicted ways. So already we've been perusing the schedule for Reeling, the 25th Chicago Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. It's the second-oldest festival of its kind in North America, and when they say they're proud of the diversity of their offferings you know they aren't kidding -- we spied romantic comedies, avant-garde shorts, provactive dramas......

If you missed the global sports extravaganza that was the Gay Games this summer (see, we've already *had* an Olympics, people!), you can still get in on a part of the action. To wrap things up and to clean out the closet, the organizers are having a mega garage sale. What might you find at this garage sale, you ask? "Items available for sale will include country and state banners used in the Opening and......

Chicagoist loves Oprah news. So with the Internet goin’ nuts about Big O’s latest announcement, we couldn’t resist an opportunity to join in the fun. Oprah is not gay. What? You never doubted Ms. Winfrey’s sexual orientation? You are fully aware that she has been in a committed relationship with Stedman for eons? Well, the Harpo head honcho felt the need to set the record straight, just in case we weren’t all convinced. Oprah told......

City officials have been known to capture the excitement of a cultural festival by declaring “Today we are all Irish!” to a crowd in Beverly or “Today we are all Polish!” to Jefferson Parkers. It’s amusing to think we’ll hear a Commissioner proclaim “Today we are all gay!” when the Gay Games open Saturday night, but Mayor Daley expressed his more than symbolic support earlier this week, thanking the out and proud (and commerce seeking)......

It’s taken a lot (seriously, a lot) to get here, but the Gay Games have finally arrived. The week-long event kicks off Saturday with opening ceremonies at Soldier Field. Events will be held at 33 venues throughout the city and the suburbs. Tickets for the opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies at Wrigley Field are still available. Premium ticket packages can be purchased at a discounted rate on the Gay Games Web site until 10 a.m.......

It's the end of June and that can mean only one thing - Pride Weekend. A celebration of diversity at its finest, Pride festivities are varied and the list is long - everything from workshops to plays, cocktail parties to religious services, there is something for everyone. Be sure to check out the Howard Brown Youth Center for youth-oriented activities. The Dyke March kicks off tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. at the corner of Ashland and......

Cyndi Lauper has been slated to perform at the Gay Games VII Closing Ceremony at Wrigley Field. Tickets are now on sale for the July 22nd event. Cyndi has been active with PFLAG and the Matthew Shepard Foundation and previously performed at the Gay Games in 1994 when they were held in New York City. Lauper's latest CD, The Body Acoustic, celebrates diversity, friends, and acceptance which are consistent with the image that we feel......

We held off writing anything about gay marriage opponents trying to get a referendum to change the Illinois Constitution to define marriage as a relationship between a woman and a man on the November ballot because we didn’t want to give the haters at Protect Marriage Illinois any attention, and we hoped they would fail in their quest to collect the needed signatures. The good news is that organizers of the referendum fell short in......

Where's Bakken when we need him? This is tailor-made for his unique wisdom. This story is fresh in our minds mainly because we saw Wrestlemania last weekend. Jim Hellwig is best known by his wrestling moniker "The Ultimate Warrior". Hellwig takes that a bit too seriously, having legally changed his name to "Warrior" years ago and posting his life philosophy on his insane website. These days Hellwig and his angry inch travels the campus lecture......

As more than 8,000 athletes prepare to head to Chicago to participate in this summer’s Gay Games 2006, a new book touts Chicago as a “thriving gay capital.” "The Field Guide to Gay and Lesbian Chicago" (Lake Claremont Press) by Kathie Bergquist and Robert McDonald, says the city is often overlooked by gay-friendly travel guides, and those that mention it usually focus on the bar scene. McDonald argues that authors of other guides have only......

This summer’s Gay Games 2006 in Chicago got some good news this week in the form of an approved federal blanket waiver allowing non-U.S. citizens with HIV/AIDS to travel the United States and participate in or attend the event. Gay Games VII Sports & Cultural Festival will be held at various city venues from July 15 to 22. The waiver gives the games Designated Event Status and allows HIV-positive participants and attendees to apply for......

Chicagoist loves it when the Red Eye and Red Streak seem like the same paper, which is almost every day. On the left, yesterday's cover of the Red Eye. On the right, today's cover of the me-too Red Streak. Memo to John Cruickshank: Time to fold the Red Streak. This is getting embarrassing. Now to the topic at hand, Brokeback Mountain. What more can we say about this cowboy love story other than the twenty......

Michael Bailey1, oh how we love you and your crazy sex studies. Bailey of Northwestern and Meredith Chivers of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health recently released a study finding that women get aroused by all sorts of nastiness: lesbian-on-lesbian action, Heath Ledger-on-Jack Gyllenhaal cowboy rompin', and even, yes, monkey-on-sweet-monkey action. Repeat: some women get aroused watching monkeys having sex. Michael Bailey is famous (and quite controversal) for hooking up arousal meters to his......