Happy 92nd Birthday, Judy Garland!
The late great gay activist and film historian Vito Russo, a huge fan of Judy Garland's, always maintained that gay people were very religious and ardent practitioners of Judyism. Our world is a better place thanks to the likes of Judy and Vito.
Today is Judy's birthday and to celebrate this very important date on the gay calendar, I've been watching some clips of our Goddess on YouTube. Frances Ethel Gumm was born 92-years ago on June 10 and her influence continues to amaze me.
How could we gay people be over the rainbow without our Judy? C'mon, get happy, it's her birthday!
Reports, proud muckraking, photos, videos and musings from the veteran LGBT and AIDS human rights advocate Michael Petrelis. Based in San Francisco since 1995. Contact: MPetrelis_at_AOL_dot_com. Vote Petrelis for BART Board District 9 in November!
The Judy Gay Connection takes many forms beyond her "little bluebird" fans as Time or Newsweek once described us. Her father was at least Bi, and at least two of her husbands were quelle gai, including Vincente Minnelli no matter the children he sired and the three other wives he had including Oh So Grand San Francisco Dame Denise Hale. And, of course, Judy and Minnelli's daughter with a Z had at least two gay husbands. I interviewed one of them for a gay rag in DC: the original Boy from Oz, Peter Allen, lost to AIDS in 1992. They were actually brought together by Judy after Allen began performing with Judy who was introduced to her by Judy's gay husband, Mark Herron. [Hard to keep up, isn't it?] Contrary to popular myth, his song "Quiet, Please, There's a Lady on Stage" was not about Judy, but it's still one of my favorites along with the wrist-slasher written with Michael Callan and Marsha Melamet, "Love Don't Need a Reason," which ABC would not let him identify as a song about AIDS when he performed it on a 1987 July 4th special. In the interview, Allen told me about once watching vintage footage of Judy on TV with Bette Midler during which the Divine Miss M said: "We'll never have chops like that, Pete. We'll never have chops like that."
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