To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > News April 19, 1999 URL: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/04/19/drag Shadow dancing in Buffalo A drag show kicks off a week of abortion protests, as gays and pro-life Christians square off in a culture-war showdown. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Jeff Stein The woman in a man's suit sauntered down the runway smoking a cigar, music pounding, a cowboy hat held over her crotch, and the crowd packed into the hall clapped and hooted with joy. Suddenly the "drag king" stopped and swept the hat aside, revealing an enormous flesh-colored dildo protruding from her fly. The crowd roared, even louder when one woman lept from her seat and began performing mock fellatio on the sex toy. The crowd of 250 people, mostly gays and lesbians, went wild. Welcome to hell, Rev. Benham. The drag show Saturday night in a rented American Legion hall in this wary, rain-swept city certainly would have appalled Rev. Flip Benham and his Operation Rescue, which kicks off its campaign here Monday against abortion clincs, book stores, high schools and other outposts of what it calls "Godless America." Buffalo, still reeling from the unsolved slaying of abortion doctor Barnett Slepian here last Oct. 23, and protests which culminated with nearly 700 arrests in 1992, gave a cool official welcome to the anti-abortion protesters, unlike the previous pro-life mayor's enthusiastic invitation in 1992. Flanked by police and fire officials Friday, Mayor Anthony Masiello scorned the protesters as outside agitators who were attempting to divide the city and "could care less what they leave behind." "Let's all hope and pray that it's peaceful and that we can move on with tranquility," he added. Organizers of the drag show, a benefit for Buffalo United for Choice, were not optimistic however, expecting the protesters to challenge new restrictions on how close they can get to abortion clinics, issued by a federal judge last week. Asked about that at a news conference outside the courthouse downtown Sunday, Benham said "no comment." A colleague of Benham's confided afterward, however, that "it hasn't been decided yet, to tell the truth." Operation Rescue was also reported by sources to be planning to "wake up America" by disrupting morning rush-hour traffic at a major Buffalo intersection Monday. Saturday night's long sold-out drag show, the weekend's major event for pro-choice forces, symbolized the widening differences in the struggle over abortion rights. For both sides, the rights of homosexuals are inextricably wound up in the struggle. Gays, who are clearly in the forefront of countering Operation Rescue here, said that the same forces organizing to shut the clinics were targeting other groups who didn't agree with the Christian conservative agenda. Abortion seems to be emerging as a wedge issue for both sides. "From the racial murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, to the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., to the assassination of Dr. Slepian," said Leslie Feinberg, a female transgender activist in a military-style haircut speaking at a pro-choice rally that drew over 200 people to a downtown park Saturday. "When it comes to who's going to stop this violence, I quote from the African-American poet June Jordan, 'We are the ones who we've been waiting for.’" Robert Behn, 61, a local organizer for Operation Save America, agreed that homosexuality was as much an issue as abortion to his followers. "It's all on the agenda," he said softly, as pro- and anti-choice partisans shouted at each other outside the federal courthouse. "It's a symptom of the same problem." Protesters seem highly upset about books with pictures of nude children, particularly three books by San Francisco-based artist Jock Sturges, and plan to picket local Barnes and Noble stores. Hospitals that perform abortions will also be targeted. Both sides agree that the anti-abortion movement has been successful in influencing the reduction of procedures performed in hospitals. More than 50 percent of the medical schools that used to teach abortion no longer offer instruction in it, according to one estimate. In Birmingham, Ala., where an off-duty policeman was killed and a nurse gravely wounded in an abortion clinic bombing last year, only one clinic remains open, according David Lackey, the director of Operation Rescue there. Likewise, the murder of Slepian continues to plague his former clinic, which has suffered from high staff turnover. Participation in this week's protest will likely be a shadow of the turnout in 1992, when thousands showed up in a deliberately militant attempt to close the clinics. More reporters and television news crews than protesters showed up at Operation Rescue's news conference Sunday, suggesting that less than a couple hundred demonstrators will be taking to the streets in the cold rain forecast. More people showed up for Saturday night’s drag show than are expected to demonstrate this week. But a strong cadre of abortion opponents will show up nonetheless. Tom and Linda McGlade, both 47, drove 24 hours straight from Bradenton, Fla., with their seven children to join the protest. “America has rejected God. Our leaders are stupid. We’re losing wisdom and we’ve thrown Jesus out of the schools,” Tom said as he unpacked in his hotel room. He said abortion should be “recriminalized.” “Children are the gifts of God,” his wife interrupted softly. “People’s hearts need to be changed.” Her husband added, “Abortion isn’t a women’s issue, it’s a man’s issue.” Asked for a vision of what they’d like America to be, Linda said: “Husbands loving wives, wives loving husbands, husbands loving children. We’re not anti-abortion people, we’re just Christians.” Harsh new federal penalities on violations of clinic access laws may not only be dampening the spirits of potential protesters, but influencing the more militant wings of the anti-abortion movement to change tactics. Operation Rescue's Benham repeatedly declined to denounce the growing phenomenon of murder, arson and bombing against doctors and clinics. As long as abortions are performed, he said, there would be violent efforts to stop it. "The conditions of peace," he said, " are to stop shedding the blood of innocents. When you reap blood in the womb, you reap blood in the streets." salon.com | April 19, 1999   - - - - - - - - - - - -