May 3–10, 2001

naked city

Pride & Prejudice

PrideFest’s dollar dilemma — and a reason to continue.

Money men: Lazin hopes that a VIP reception with McKellen will bring in some needed funds.

Controversy over money has accompanied the opening days of this year’s PrideFest America, Philadelphia’s annual lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered symposium.

According to Executive Director Malcolm Lazin, a dip in city funding for the event from $110,000 to $50,000 has jeopardized the festival’s future. The drop results from a decision announced in December by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation not to renew its PrideFest support, which last year totaled $60,000. Lazin says he was assured by City Hall insiders that the city would make up for the loss of GPTMC support, but that those promises did not pan out.

"The difference significantly imperils the future of PrideFest America," which had asked for $150,000 from the city and had planned its budget accordingly, Lazin said. While this year’s events will proceed as planned and rental for all venues has "essentially" been paid, "we are making people aware that there may be a problem [in paying bills], and ask for their forbearance."

According to GPTMC President and CEO Meryl Levitz, last year’s grant to PrideFest included basic marketing support of $25,000 plus one-time-only funds to encourage additional PrideFest attendance by visitors to the Millennium March on Washington. This year the 20-member committee decided against renewing the $25,000, said Levitz, because "the feeling was there were many other grant proposals that were much better," with more concrete projections of hotel room nights and national publicity than PrideFest was able to provide. GPTMC receives funds from the city, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Pew Charitable Trusts to promote tourism in the Philadelphia region.

Meanwhile, Lazin has written a letter to supporters stating that "there are more than adequate uncommitted dollars" in GPTMC and the city’s Economic Stimulus Fund to grant PrideFest’s funding request. However, since the city money is not forthcoming, he is asking for individual donations in the $250-$1,000 range, offering such incentives as a VIP reception with Sir Ian McKellen and Randy Harrison, winsome young star of Showtime’s Queer As Folk.

Authors, authors! Kaufman and Gooch share a panel May 3.

Amidst the financial turmoil, the festival continues. Tonight (May 3, Prince Music Theater) is the annual authors’ panel, which I am again moderating: Gross Indecency/ Laramie Project playwright Moises Kaufman and novelist/literary historian/former model Brad Gooch (Scary Kisses, City Poet ) are the panelists. And in addition to big names like McKellen (receiving the International Arts Award at a public ceremony May 4 at WHYY) and Andrew Sullivan (part of a National Gay and Lesbian Leaders Symposium May 5 at the Prince), there are also quieter heroes — perhaps the best reason for PrideFest to continue.

In last week’s City Paper we introduced you to Riki Wilchins and Jascie Williams (whose youth panel is at noon Saturday at the Prince). This week we focus on courageous African gay activist Rodney Lutalo, who reminds us that there are places in the world where coming out is still a death-defying act.

—David Warner

Rodney Lutalo: "…should there be a need, I am prepared to die…"

In 1999, Rodney Lutalo went into hiding in his home country of Uganda. He was discovered by authorities and imprisoned in a military prison where he was tortured by the other prisoners. He was released but advised to leave the country or he would be incarcerated again, so he had to flee Uganda and Africa for his own safety.

His crime: being gay.

Lutalo, one of the first African gay rights activists on the continent, helped to found the first lesbian/gay/ bisexual/transgender group in Kenya in 1998. He was imprisoned then and deported to his home country of Uganda, where he recommenced his work, forming a group of people and starting a newsletter. Then the president of Uganda declared homosexuality illegal, and they came for him again.

Lutalo says that it’s difficult to organize around gay issues in sub-Saharan Africa because it’s not only illegal, but taboo as well. "It was word of mouth to mouth to mouth, and it was a bit difficult, because sometimes you talked to people who would look at you like you were abnormal. It was hard to make contact with the right people."

Part of the anti-gay mindset relates to the desire to have large families in Africa, Lutalo says. "The less members a family has, the less advantage it has, because parents believe with a workforce of several children, the financial power in the family is stable," he explains. Lutalo himself was pushed by his family into an arranged marriage when he was 20 years old.

But Lutalo says that the intense repression of homosexuality is mostly something that Europe exported to Africa alongside colonialism and Christianity, and that there have always been gay people in Africa. "Those who think that homosexuality is a Western idea are very wrong. It’s because of this that I formed with others and try to fight and bring out the truth to the people that we are not under Western influence."

Lutalo feels the access that Westerners have to technology and financial base makes information about homosexuality more accessible to them, so they are more tolerant of it. "The financial base in the Western world is very strong, the LGBT people find community of their own there. It’s difficult in Africa because the people are poor: we can’t run meetings, conferences, resource programs. People not knowing are unable to form organizations to bring information to others, so it becomes a sea of ignorance."

Regardless of that, the struggle for gay human rights is growing, Lutalo says, not only just in his country, but internationally.

"Last week a group was trying to form in Syria, a Muslim country. The people are fighting to form a gay parade in Honduras. In Zimbabwe the group there is growing. So slowly we are finding that the LGBT movement is growing every day and every night, under cover, out in the open. So there is a future."

And Lutalo sees that future and his as intertwined. He was forced to leave the continent of his birth, but he says this is not the end. He is simply getting resources to better fight for gay rights in Africa, a fight he knows is dangerous. His quiet voice hardens with determination as he says, "I cherish a society where we all live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an idea that I hope to live for and achieve. But should there be a need, I am prepared to die."

—Walidah Imarisha

Rodney Lutalo, PrideFest’s International GLBT Human Rights Panel, Sun. May 6, 2:30 p.m., Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St. 215-732-FEST.