what I've been up to...

I'm in a film called Into The Woods, and i did a day on it a couple of years ago when I went into the woods with director Jenifer Elster. She has written a piece about it all here for the Huffington Post and I have to say I am more confused than I was when I did it. The website is equally oblique and opaque.  But it is very intriguing. I can't wait to see the film if only to see if she really did include a story I told about teenage masturbation.

I went to the opening of David Mamet's  A Life In The Theater and saw my old pal Patrick Stewart who was amazing, starring alongside T R Knight.  I had never seen this play and found it really funny and touching and unexpected. I thought the NY Times review was mean and, not to labour a point on this post but here goes, masturbatory.

I also caught up with my dear friend and former roomate Matthew Bourne when his utterly stunning production of Swan Lake returned to NYC at City Center.  Run, kill, do whatever you can to see this amazing evening in the theater. I will give you your money back if you don't get swept up in it.  And also there are multitudes of utterly ravishing young men playing swans, sweating and hissing, so it's a win win situation in my book.

I totally forgot that I had actually gone on one night in this production, playing an autograph hunter in the Act 2 opening scene , when it was first mounted in London in 1997. So I can say I have appeared in Matthew Bourne's West End production of Swan Lake!  Life is complete!

In The Good Wife this week Eli nearly choked when he saw Alicia's brother saying that her husband was homophobic. he was especially bummed as he was about to get a big contribution for the campaign from the Chicago gay community. This storyline kind of tramsmogrified into a Jewish/Palestine debate after that.  So the gays and the jews covered in one fell swoop! And yes, I too appreciate the irony of me saying 'I'm not gay' on national television. But it's called acting, people!!

Finally here's a PSA I took part in recently for Hollywood Arts...

Hello!

So the Obama administration is going to appeal the Federal Court's decision last week that DADT is unconstitutional.  Even though The Pentagon, yes, that's right, the fucking Pentagon was going to adhere to the decision and stop firing military personnel who were found or confessed to being gay. WTF?!  We keep hearing that Obama is an ally, that DADT will end under his watch, but what do we actually get? Diddly squat thus far on a federal level and in addition to that some very offensive statements that would have made the Republicans look bad.  I am patient. Being a homo in America you have to be. But they do not have to do this.  And in a time when America is full of hatred of all kinds, but especially hatred towards young gay people, what message is the President sending when he repeatedly goes out of his way to spread the message that the gay population is not worthy of the respect that everyone else is?!

How can we counsel our children not to bully their gay classmates, or pry and mock their gay friends, when they see their President, their beloved President Obama, refusing to do the equivalent in regards to troops and other adults.

Words and images matter, people.

I am going to be performing in a benefit for the Ali Forney Center on November 8th, and a video of a song I have recorded with David Raleigh, Ari Gold and Billy Porter. It's a cover of That's What Friends Are For.

Give a damn

Last night I was was in LA for the reading of Terrence McNally's play Some Men, a benefit for theCourage Campaign. It was such a great night, and I loved hearing the play again. I had seen it in NYC when it premiered a few years back and it was great to perform it. It is a sort of collage of experiences of gay mens' lives over the course of a century.  I think Terrence is such a great writer and a lovely man, and indeed the whole team last night - which included actors Jason Ritter, Justin Kirk, Michael McKean, John Glover, Luke Macfarlane, Josh Stamberg, David Alan Grier, Lily Tomlin, director Micheal Morris - made it such a great experience, andthe schlep from Miami and now back to NYc was so worth it for such a great cause.

Cyndi Lauper shot this PSA about the horrible recent spate of gay student suicides.  It's really powerful.  Pass it along.

gay gay and more gay. Deal with it

I had a lovely weekend in Miami, where I was honoured with the Leadership award by the Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The Task Force is a great group and I really feel organisatons like it and Fight Back NY are the way ahead: direct action, no more conciliation and politciking from huge costing corporate giants like the HRC. We need to have action, people. People are dying in this country because we don't have equality. Kids are killing themselves because our government is not sending out the message strongly enough that we must be respected and treated equally.

I also discovered this weekend that my friend Tony is the Meryl Streep of cheerleading. Really. He actually said that. I am speecheless with awe.

The brilliant Cynthia Nixon was giving it what for yesterday at the New Yorker festival.  Watch this clip and show it to anyone you know who doesn't get why we want marriage equality.

The Point

Last night I received the Point Foundation's Courage award in Los Angeles.  The Point Foundation gives scholarships to LGBT graduates who have been marginalised in some way due to their sexuality or gender identification.  It is a really inspiring outfit and I was indeed so inspired by the last event of theirs I attended in NYC that I have become a mentor and had my first session with my lovely mentee this past week.

The also lovely Rebecca Romijn, my fellow blue person in X Men 2, presented me with the award and I said in my speech how I had discussed the notion of courage with my mentee. Here's what I think: we need to stop putting the message out into the world that just living our lives as queer people is an act of courage. I think that plays into the hands of people who would like to make our lives so difficult that we would indeed need to be courageous just to be.  I personally don't feel courageous. If I were living in, say, Malawi or Iran or Wyoming and saying what I say and being who I am then yes, perhaps I would be courageous.

 But all I do is live my life the way I want to, say what I think, do what I think is right.  Now what I do have is some power. I have a voice.  I can provoke and enlighten and challenege prejudice. I can be heard.  So I accepetd the award, at my mentee's suggestion, in the spirit of using my power responsibly.  I pledged to continue to live my life, tell my story and responsibly use my power for ever.

In other news, I have become obsessed with the pianist Glenn Gould. I saw a really fascinating documentary about him last week and now am about to watch 32 Short films abut Glenn Gould, which stard Colm Fiore whom I worked with in the movie Titus (or as I called it Tight Ass)

Talking of Shakespeare, I saw The Tempest last week.  The movie version that I am in, that is.  I really liked it. It is being screened at the NY film festival next weekend but I will be in Miami to receive another lovely gong from the Lesbian and Gay Task force (see the box on the right).  It is in cinemas in early December.

Whilst in LA I did a photo shoot with my firend Traver Rains which I cannot wait to see as it involves some nudity (not mine) and beer. haha. There's a teasing end to this entry. As it were, missus. Arf arf.

Uggh! DO ask, DO tell!

Did you hear about how Senate Republicans blocked the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' even though nearly 80% of Americans support repealing this discriminatory military policy?

Well, the fight isn't over. A federal district court recently ruled that 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is unconstitutional and if Attorney General Eric Holder agrees not to fight the federal court's decision, DADT could soon become a relic of the past.

Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department may be our best hope to repeal DADT. But we need your help to make sure the Administration gets the message now. 

Please add your name to the letter to Attorney General Holder today and ask him NOT to appeal the federal district court's decision? It takes just a minute of your time:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/DontDefendDADT

Thank you so much!  On a lighter note, last night I went to the premiere of Howl, the film about Allen Ginsberg. It was really amazing. I had no idea about the obscenity court case that happened after his epic poem was published, and the film managed to cover it all whilst also letting the entire poem be heard (and seen thanks to some great animation sequences).  The lovely James Franco is Ginsberg and I exhort you all to go and see it when it is released, as it's really inspiring to see films that are not the usual formulaic, cookie-cutter types being done so well, and so please support it!

Gosh it's all about supporting things today. While we're on the subject, the T shirt I wore last night to the premeire was designed by my friend Traver Rains for his T-Rains line. Support him too!!

No more ask alan

Hello peeps

I have decided to stop the ask alan part of my site. It has been great for me to have contact with you, and I have enjoyed being able to answer your questions, but recently I have felt it has become a little too much to deal with. There have been a few incidents that have led me to making this decision, interestingly enough one of them being the broadcast of my Who Do You Think You Areshow on the BBC last week.

That show was probably the biggest merging of my public and private lives, and I felt very exposed by it.  I am so glad I did it, but the access that so many people had to me in such a vulnerable place made me realise that I perhaps feel too duty-bound to be open and maybe too available to you.  I guess it just made me realise that it's ok for me to take a step back if I want to.

 I got loads of response for the show via ask alan, and even though they were all very positive, I still felt that I was allowing so much more of the outside world into my life at such a vulnerable time than I needed to, or more importantly, wanted to.

So I hope you understand. It has been good, but all good things must come to an end as the Bard said.

I have also had a bit of an epiphany about doing this blog at all. My reason for starting to do it every day was to get myself to the computer, to get back into writing again and to find my voice through words once more.  I feel I have done that, but lately I have felt more that it has become a duty, a bit of a chore and I have started to get anxious about something that should be joyous and an outpouring of what I am feeling.

So...I am going to blog less. Not every day.  Maybe somtimes I will, but mostly just when I fancy it.

There, I've said it.

Now I am off to do a photo shoot with Honey and Leon for Cesar Milan's magazine!!  And here's a clip from last night's party for The Good Wife season 2 and the first season DVD release.