Second-Class Citizen

I’m one of those… oh, what do you call them? bleeding-heart liberals? You know, a "we're descended from monkies, women have a right to choose, pull out of Iraq, homosexuality is not a choice, the humanities can safeguard our culture" kind of person. And it’s my firm belief that theatre –like an internet blog- is a powerful medium of political awareness and discourse –just look to ancient Greece for evidence on how public performance can be used as a means of civic engagement. In the 2,500 years since Aeschylus first produced his Oresteia, however, theatre has shifted to –and is seen almost solely as- a form of entertainment rather than education. Now is the time to change that perception.

But doing so is difficult: in today’s world of Bonos and Brangelinas, many actors are politically vocal, but few are politically aware. I need your help to change this. In the coming weeks, I want to learn more about the positions of presidential candidates on a subject that many actors care deeply about and has only been talked about within the past two decades on stage: homosexuality. I want the candidates’ –and all of your- opinions on don’t-ask-don’t tell, marriage versus civil unions, federal anti-discrimination laws, allocations for AIDS research and the development of the queer image. It’s my hope that this blog might create more civic discourse so that this actor –as well as anyone else who will share- might be a bit more informed when standing in the voting booth a year from now.