GLR November-December 2023

An Eye for an Anus Some citizens of Palm Springs, CA, are fighting a proposed sculpture that’s part of an AIDS memorial and that may or may not look like a human anus. The claim that it does has a group of residents up-in-arms and demanding a re design, and the artist, Phillip K. Smith III, has agreed to take an other swipe at it. The artist explained that it’s supposed to look more like an eye “that allows ... a view beyond what is directly in front of you.” What’s important, of course, is not the artist’s

intent but the fact that people saw an asshole (was it the ridges around the rim?), which could just be a function of the demographics of Palm Springs (would straight peo ple have seen a sphincter?). But whether real or imagined, it’s the kind of thing that, once the anal association is out there, the concept is pretty well doomed. It is an AIDS memorial, after all.

You Want Birth Cer ti ficates? A bit of agitprop in Italy bears mentioning for its sheer aptness and elegance. It seems the Miss Italy Pageant has enacted a rule that all contestants must be able to prove that they are “women from birth.” So, to protest the ban on trans women, Italy’s trans men are entering local pageants around the country, and, because they can prove they were recorded as female at birth, there’s nothing to stop them from signing up. So far over 100 trans men have entered, and an Instagram influencer has been documenting their sto ries. It’s a somewhat bitter pill to swallow, because it means they’re forced to resurrect their deadnames and former identi ties, but they say that it’s worth it to defend other trans people facing discrimination. Needless to say, the pageant authorities’ skirts are in a knot, not so much over the unwanted contestants as the unwanted publicity: the stunt has succeeded in making the pageant a bit of a laughingstock. Karma Chameleon An ”ex-gay” activist in Uganda named El isha Mukisa was jailed for homosexuality under a law that he had fervently lobbied for. Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill— which was heavily underwritten by American evangelical groups—was signed into law last May. A leading advocate for the Anti-Homosexuality Act, Mukisa spoke before Parliament, calling himself a “victim of homosexuality.” Activist Frank Mugisha called the situation “laden with irony” but denied that he felt schadenfreude; the arrest simply underscored the crisis for gay Ugandans. As for Mukisa, we’ve seen such men so many times before: the anti-LGBT fanatic whose zealotry is a charade to hide his secret self. We’ve also seen our share of “ex-gay” claimants getting caught in flagrante , and each inci dent is another nail in the coffin of the claim that being gay is a “choice,” which is the axiom on which the whole “ex-gay” movement rests. It’s what makes it possible to un-choose your sexual orientation—with a little help from your local “conver sion therapist.” What a case like Mr. Mukisa’s shows is that it’s possible to choose your political positions and your public image, but that is not the same as choosing who you are. November–December 2023

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