Getting treatment for gaming addiction is an expensive, arduous task in the US.
Even with the World Health Organization classifying video game addiction as a mental disorder, there is still much debate as to whether an addiction to video games should still be a considered a serious concern or not.
Gaming Disorder Cannot Be Diagnosed In The US
A report on NPR explains that therapists are very concerned about technology addiction among adolescents, and that it’s hard to find the right treatment for it in the United States.
NPRfocused on a treatment facility in Minnesota, where Dr. Shalene Kennedy claims that 75% of the adolescents they work with are using too much technology. Even with the World Health Organization declaring video game addiction a mental disorder earlier this year, an individual can’t be officially diagnosed with having a gaming or technology addiction in the U.S.
Finding gaming addiction treatment for adolescents can be particularly difficult in the U.S. Trish Vanni, a pastor from Minnesota, tried to get her son into treatment for gaming addiction, and she said it was “a wasteland of help, an absolute wasteland. It was so frustrating. He couldn’t even leave the house, couldn’t hold a job, couldn’t be responsible for his rent and to his roommates.”
Some Experts Believe Gaming Addiction To Be An Underlying Symptom Of A Mental Health Issue
Some experts believe that video game addiction can be an underlying symptom of depression or anxiety or even another addiction. Vanni says her friends would assuage her concerns by noting that her son “could be addicted to drugs.” Vanni soldiered on looking for treatment as his addiction became more “acute.”
Trying to find treatment across the country, there were only a few retreats that met her son’s needs but they came at a high cost, with treatment plans costing tens of thousands of dollars.
Finally, she was able to connect her son with Julian Sheats, a man from St. Paul who overcame a gaming habit. Sheats and Vanni’s son work the 12-step program, and Sheats feels if gaming addiction could be properly diagnosed in the U.S., it would make it a lot easier for people to get help for it.
“It’s not something you have to be confused about or feel like an outsider about,” Sheats explains. “Rather, you just have a medical condition just as much as if you had rheumatoid arthritis, I think would relieve a lot of the stress of these young individuals.”
The 2019 World Drug Report highlighted the devastating global reach of the addiction epidemic.
Drug use continues to rise—not only in the United States, where fentanyl and painkillers have devastated many lives, but in the Middle East, Africa and India.
The numbers are provided in the 2019 World Drug Report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The report detailed the extent of the drug problem in the United States and Canada. Opioid drugs such as fentanyl, heroin and prescription painkillers contributed the most to widespread substance use disorder (addiction) and death. In 2017, more than 47,000 people in the U.S. and 4,000 Canadians died from opioid overdose, the report showed.
Globally, drugs are a problem as well. An estimated 271 million people used drugs in 2017—30% more people than in 2009. The same year, 585,000 people died from drug use—with opioid drugs accounting for two-thirds of global drug deaths.
And while around 35 million people live with drug use disorder, not enough people receive help for it. “Prevention and treatment continue to fall short in many parts of the world, with only one in seven people with drug use disorders receiving treatment each year,” according to the UN.
The report found a lack of treatment options across the world, and urged world leaders to do better. “Effective treatment interventions based on scientific evidence and in line with international human rights obligations are not as accessible as they need to be, and national governments and the international community need to step up interventions in order to address this gap,” according to a statement by the UN.
It was noted that the overall increase in drug use and people with substance use disorder was partly due to improved reporting in India and Nigeria, two of the most populous nations.
Cannabis Is The Most Widely Used Drug In The World
Other findings of the World Drug Report included the fact that cannabis is still the most widely used drug in the world with an estimated 188 million people having used it in 2017. And global cocaine manufacturing hit a record high in 2017 with 1,976 tons counted—a 25% increase over the previous year.
“The findings of this year’s World Drug Report fill in and further complicate the global picture of drug challenges, underscoring the need for broader international cooperation to advance balanced and integrated health and criminal justice responses to supply and demand,” said Yury Fedotov, UNODC Executive Director.
Secrets of the Dead’s “World War Speed” explores how stimulants made their way into the hands of American and British soldiers in WWII.
The role of drugs and alcohol in modern warfare is no secret. The Germans’ use of methamphetamine during World War II is an oft-cited example of this practice.
Now, in a new episode of Secrets of the Dead titled “World War Speed” on PBS details how British and American soldiers, too, employed this tactic to try and level the playing field against the Nazis on speed.
Soldiers on “both sides” were ultimately drugging to boost energy and aggression. But it was Germany that influenced the Allies to follow suit, according to the episode.
“In 1940, the British army discovered Pervitin in a downed German plane in the south of England, unlocking the secret to the German troops’ boundless energy, and leading the Allies to consider the same tactic for their troops,” according to PBS.
Pervitin (methamphetamine) was instrumental in the Germans’ success. It allowed them to fight and march for days straight, conquer Poland and force more than 300,000 Allied soldiers to evacuate off the shores of Dunkirk.
Eisenhower and Churchill Supplied British And American Soldiers With Stimulants
Soon the American and British were being supplied with Benzedrine, an amphetamine, hoping to gain the same edge as the German soldiers.
“Allied commanders believed Benzedrine, an amphetamine similar to Pervitin, was the answer, hoping the amphetamine would defeat not just the need for sleep, but anxiety and fear among troops. How this drug affected the course of World War II is an ongoing controversy,” according to PBS.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower supplied British and American soldiers with the stimulants, following the Germans’ example.
“Both drugs (Pervitin and Benzedrine) make users intensely alert by flooding them with a sense of euphoria,” read the PBS news release. “With its added methyl-group molecule, Pervitin races across the blood-brain barrier a bit faster than Benzedrine. Otherwise, the two drugs have virtually the same impact.”
According to historian Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, burnouts and other symptoms of excessive methamphetamine use were inevitable in the German army. “The army tried to get a rehab program in place, but it never really took,” Ohler said in a past interview with The Fix. “Like any drug, it eventually stopped working as the soldiers built up a tolerance,” but he noted that this was not a “decisive factor” in the Germans’ losses.
How Drugs Impacted WWII’s Outcome
However, drugs did impact the outcome of the war—not in the German soldiers’ use of Pervitin—but Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s own drug use.
“There are so many other reasons that played a much bigger role,” said Ohler. “One of those reasons was Hitler’s burnout, and that can be connected to drugs as well. Hitler’s poor decisions towards the end of the war can be directly linked to his drug abuse, but with opioids and not with Pervitin.”
This is not the first time the FDA has had to issue warnings to companies about their sale and marketing of kratom.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on companies that sell the herbal supplement, kratom, with claims that it treats conditions it has not been proven to treat, including opioid addiction and withdrawal.
In an official news release, the FDA named Cali Botanicals of Folsom, California, and Kratom NC of Wilmington, North Carolina, as the companies it warned “for illegally selling unapproved, misbranded kratom-containing drug products with unproven claims about their ability to treat or cure opioid addiction and withdrawal symptoms.”
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), kratom is the name of a tropical tree found in Southeast Asia. The leaves of the kratom tree contain a substance that has “psychotropic (mind-altering) effects” and is not currently illegal in the U.S.
However, the FDA notes that kratom “is not legally marketed in the United States as a drug or dietary supplement” and claims that the substance may have “opioid properties” that could be addictive.
The FDA Doubles Down On Its Warnings
This is not the first time the FDA has had to issue warnings to companies about their sale and marketing of kratom, and it sounds like they’re fed up with being ignored.
“We have issued numerous warnings about the serious risks associated with the use of kratom, including warnings about the contamination of kratom products with high rates of salmonella that put people using kratom products at risk, and resulted in numerous illnesses and recalls,” says Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless, MD. “Despite our warnings, companies continue to sell this dangerous product and make deceptive medical claims that are not backed by science or any reliable scientific evidence.”
It’s not uncommon for herbal supplements and other products to be sold with false claims of treating addiction and withdrawal to opioids as the epidemic rages on in the U.S. The FDA is concerned that companies like Cali Botanicals and Kratom NC are taking advantage of desperate people, especially as there continues to be a lack of addiction treatment resources in many parts of the U.S.
A study published in early 2019 found that only 6% of treatment centers carried all of the three approved medications for treating opioid addiction.
The FDA has given the named companies 15 working days to respond, and further warned that “failure to correct violations may result in law enforcement action such as seizure or injunction.”
“Selling these unapproved products with claims that they can treat opioid addiction and withdrawal and other serious medical conditions is a violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act,” the agency stated.
The Grammy award-winning singer’s niece passed away in late April.
Lauren Braxton, niece of renowned singer Toni Braxton, died of “heroin and fentanyl intoxication” at the age of 24 years old, according to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore, Maryland.
The specific manner in which Lauren died remains “undetermined.”
Law enforcement, responding to a 911 call placed at roughly noon on Monday, April 29th, found Lauren unresponsive. Paramedics at the scene declared her dead.
She was the daughter of Toni’s brother, Michael Conrad Braxton Junior. Toni herself was out of country at the time of Lauren’s death, attending the Tobago Jazz Festival in Trinidad and Tobago.
“R.I.P. to my amazing niece Lauren “Lo Lo” Braxton…I’m still in disbelief and so very heartbroken Love you…always auntie “Te Te,” wrote Toni in an Instagram post mourning her niece’s death.
The Braxton Family Posted Tributes Online
Other members of the Braxton clan mourned Lauren’s death.
“God sent me another angel! Rest in Heaven Lauren ‘LoLo’ Braxton,” wrote Trina Braxton in her own tribute post.
The Braxton family shares the spotlight on their television show, Braxton Family Values. Toni, Michael, and Trina appear on the show alongside sisters Traci, Towanda, and Tamar.
Tamar also took to Instagram to express sadness at the loss, sharing that this was the first time she has experienced the death of a family member in an Instagram live broadcast. The hit came at an especially bad time for Tamar, who is touring while still making appearances on Braxton Family Values.
“I’ve been M.I.A. because I just cannot bring myself to post about my niece. Like, I just can’t do it,” she said in her four-minute Instagram live video. “But what I did want to say is I want to thank everyone for sending their condolences.”
Tamar Braxton Announces She Won’t Attend Lauren’s Funeral
“I don’t want my sisters or my family to get upset with me, but the things that’s been going on — this is the first time that anybody in my family has passed. Nobody tell you about going to the damn funeral. I don’t have time going to the funeral,” she continued in the video. “I’m still drained from that… It’s a lot. Everything happens in God’s divine order and you’ve got to respect it and praise him anyway.”
Instagram users did not like Tamar’s reasoning.
“Get..your a— up and go to the funeral for 2 hours then get back in your bed. I’m not hearing this excuse,” wrote one user.
On Lauren’s Instagram account, users and fans have left messages of condolence by the thousands.
His film career has seen the extremes of the creative spectrum, from mainstream blockbusters like Transformers to arthouse flicks like American Honey. His personal life has been a roller coaster as well, garnering national attention for his racist tirade during a public drunkenness arrest.
LaBeouf Says Theater Company Has Given Him A New Lease On Life
But now that LaBeouf has the support of his theater community, he says he’s happier than he’s ever been in his entire life. LaBeouf’s Slauson Rec. initiative is open to anyone with “a story that they’re willing to share” whether or not they are trained or experienced actors. While the pursuit seems wholesome, LeBeouf admits in an interview that his passion for it comes from a place of selfishness.
“I mean look, this isn’t straight altruism and charity work at all. It started in selfishness, it remains in selfishness. This shit is super selfish, it’s not like I’m fucking out here helping the kids, that’s not what’s going on,” he told Dazed Digital. “I’m trying to allow myself some kind of happily-ever-after scenario.”
He also freely admits that the theater company is just another way to chase the high he experienced while drinking.
“A big reason I was such a fucking alcoholic is that when I’m fully absorbed, or lost in something, or immersed in something bigger than myself, it’s a high,” he revealed. “So I drank because it allowed me this freedom for a time from this constant chatter, this self-monitoring of my daily life, right? This fucking anxious self-scrutiny, this non-stop chatter, and I lose that in these workshops when I’m caught up in the work that we’re making as a group. It is a high. I’m chasing a high.”
Things weren’t always rosy for LaBeouf, who garnered negative scrutiny in 2017 after telling a black officer that another black officer was “a black man who arrested me for being white in a city that don’t have nothing to do with none of it.”
LaBeouf Will Portray His Father, Who Battles Alcoholism, In His New Film
In a video of the arrest, LaBeouf belligerently questions why the officers would enforce the law for a president and a police force that “doesn’t give a f— about you.”
“So you wanna arrest, what, white people who give a f— who ask for cigarettes? I came up trying to be nice, you stupid b—,” LaBeouf said on camera, among other things. “I got more millionaire lawyers than you know what to do with, you stupid b—.”
The officers report that the incident began when a stranger refused LaBeouf’s request for a cigarette.
Now, LaBeouf is taking the root of his trauma head-on in the upcoming film, Honey Boy, wherein he plays his own alcoholic father.
The third-generation Sackler defended his family, Purdue Pharma and OxyContin in an eye-opening interview with Vanity Fair.
David Sackler — a former board member at Purdue Pharma and son of Richard Sackler, whose infamous comments about opioids have been made public this year — says that his family’s role in the opioid epidemic is misunderstood.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Sackler called the focus on the family “vitriolic hyperbole” and “endless castigation.” However, he said that his entire family has the utmost sympathy for people whose lives have been upended up opioid abuse.
“We have so much empathy,” he said. “I’m sorry we didn’t start with that. We feel absolutely terrible. Facts will show we didn’t cause the crisis, but we want to help.”
Sackler decided to speak out because he felt that by staying silent the family has let other people take control of the story about Purdue Pharma, his family and opioid abuse. He wanted to begin “begin humanizing” the family.
“We have not done a good job of talking about this,” Sackler said. “That’s what I regret the most.”
Sackler said that it was true that Purdue was one of the first companies to emphasize the pain-relieving qualities of opioids.
“We were. But as the science changed, we put safeguards in place,” he said.
Although OxyContin is often pinpointed as the start of the epidemic, Sackler said that idea is inaccurate.
“To argue that OxyContin started this is not in keeping with history,” he said.
He added that people are judging the company’s actions through a modern lens, without taking into account the prevailing wisdom at the time.
“I really don’t think there’s much in the complaints, frankly, that’s at issue that’s not just, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have marketed these things at all,’” he said. “Right? And I guess that’s a hindsight debate one can have.”
Sackler argued that OxyContin is not as addictive as is often portrayed, but also said that regulatory bodies share the blame for allowing the drug to move forward. He said that ultimately the Food and Drug Administration decided that the pain relief benefits of OxyContin outweighed the addiction risk.
“The FDA approved this medication with that balance in mind,” Sackler said. “So like any medication that has unintended side effects, you knew that this was one. It was approved as one. Doctors understood it, right?”
When the risks became clear, Purdue put protective measures in place, including barring sales reps from contacting doctors who operated pill mills, Sackler said.
“None of the facts support the notion of these craven people just blithely ignoring the risks,” he said. “The company was trying to do the right thing under incredible stress.”
Sackler revealed that his father Richard, who once referred to people abusing OxyContin as “reckless criminals,” has poor communication skills.
“He just cannot understand how his words are going to land on somebody,” Sackler said. That is made even worse when Richard’s written remarks are released to the public, he noted. “For a person like that, email is about the worst medium possible to communicate in, because there is no other cue. And so he’s saying things that sound incredibly strident and sound incredibly unsympathetic, and that’s not the person that he is.”
He emphasized that while Purdue was not responsible for the opioid epidemic, the family certainly should not be held personally responsible.
“The suits are grasping at the notion that the Sacklers were in charge of the operation,” he said. “That’s just so not true. I was on the board from 2012 to 2018, and I was voting on information I was given.”
Sackler insisted that Purdue and his family have done good over the years.
“It’s overwhelming what the company over the years was trying to do to fix this problem, and the money they spent,” he said. “And it’s heartbreaking for all of us in the family, not only to be attacked personally for this, but just to know the truth, and to know what the rest of the industry did in comparison—nothing. Nothing at all. Not a thing at all.”
He continued, “We have gone past the point where no good deed goes unpunished into the theater of the absurd.”
The public information campaign will highlight the potential health risks of consuming illegal marijuana.
In an effort to stem California’s flourishing black market marijuana trade, the state’s cannabis regulatory bureau has launched a digital public information campaign called “Get #weedwise,” which will encourage consumers to buy marijuana products from licensed businesses.
The three-year, $1.7 million campaign, which kicked off June 21, is also intended as a warning to unlicensed businesses and growers, which will be targeted for shutdown as part of a larger campaign that is also focused on expediting business licenses.
The #weedwise campaign will be disseminated via ads on mobile phones and social media sites as well as billboards; Lori Ajax, chief of the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control, which is overseeing the ads, noted that its focus will “directly impact consumer safety by clarifying that only cannabis purchased from licensed retailers has met the safety’s standards.”
Digital ads will detail health risks that can be incurred by purchasing illegal cannabis, including exposure to chemicals, mold, metals and even fecal matter.
Consumers who wish to confirm that their retailers of choice are licensed are directed to the state’s online database, where they can enter information about businesses by address or license number.
A confluence of high taxes and buyer loyalty to black market sources has helped to undercut California’s attempt to earn a revenue windfall from cannabis since Proposition 64 legalized it for recreational use in 2016.
Legal business owners have also complained to state officials about these issues, as well as a perceived lack of action against illegal businesses, which are estimated to number more than 1,000 in Los Angeles alone. However, the ad campaign has been largely met with a positive response.
“It’s overdue, said Virgil Grant, a dispensary owner and co-founder of California Minority Alliance, a cannabis industry group. “If consumers turn against unlicensed shops, then they can’t exist.”
Bureau spokesperson Alex Traverso told KOVR, the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, that the Get #weedwise campaign is one part of a larger, three-pronged effort to curb illegal sales that will include the closure of illegal businesses and growers, and expediting licenses to business.
“When you have a government agency saying here’s how you know what’s legal and illegal, we feel like that’s a linchpin for success,” said Jerred Kiloh, president of the United Cannabis Business Alliance in Los Angeles.
“I didn’t want them anywhere near me. I shut myself off, I didn’t communicate with my family at all. But there’s only so long you can hold your breath,” he said.
James Middleton, the brother of Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, is speaking out about his struggles with depression, a condition that he says has been crippling at certain points in his life.
“It’s what keeps you in bed, while anxiety makes you feel guilty for being there. I thought ‘What do I have to be depressed about?’ I’ve been so lucky with my upbringing, I had all the things I wanted,” Middleton told Tatler magazine. “It’s not that I wanted more, but there was something that wasn’t always there… And the more I ignored it, the more it was taking over.”
Middleton said his mental health took a hit in 2011, when he was 23 and his sister married Prince William. That marriage put him in the spotlight.
Depressed and in the Public Eye
“Suddenly, and very publicly, I was being judged about whether I was a success of a failure. That does put pressure on you,” he said. “Because in my mind I’m doing this irrespective of my family and events that have happened.”
One day in 2017 Middleton was unable to get out of his car because his depression was so strong. Instead of walking into work he called his doctor.
“I remember not being able to explain. The doctor said ‘James, are you okay?’ And I said ‘No, I’m not.’”
Asking for help allowed Middleton to regain control of his mental health and begin to heal. Today he says he is doing much better.
“I am happy – I feel like James Middleton again. I feel like I was when I was 13, excited about life. I feel like myself again and I couldn’t ask for more,” he said.
During the time he was depressed, his family was trying to be supportive, but he pushed them away.
“I didn’t want them anywhere near me. I shut myself off, I didn’t communicate with my family at all. But there’s only so long you can hold your breath,” he said.
“I know I’m richly blessed and live a privileged life. But it did not make me immune to depression,” he said. “It is tricky to describe the condition. It is not merely sadness. It is an illness, a cancer of the mind.”
When he decided to speak publicly about his experience, his parents were apprehensive.
“They were very nervous. They worried I would be exposing myself over what was a very private thing,” he said.
But when Middleton received lots of public support, he and his parents realized that sharing his story was empowering.
At the end of Pride Month, Debbie Harry, Penny Arcade, Barb Morrison, and others weigh in on trauma, growth, activism, 9/11, and RuPaul’s Drag Race.
June 28 marks five decades since the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Years of rage erupted into a series of riots demanding equal rights, kicking off the global fight for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning) liberation. Pride is a movement based on self-affirmation for the LGBTQ community; it came about to commemorate the Stonewall Riots and overthrow years of guilt and shame caused by discrimination and prejudice, and to “build community, and celebrate sexual diversity and gender variance.”
The first pride parade was in 1970 in New York City. Now, celebrating LGBTQ pride is worldwide.
Wig, a movie about the annual drag festival Wigstock, premiered last month at the Tribeca Film Festival.
A Drunken Drag Show in the Park
Watching it brought up a mountain of memories for me. The much-loved extravaganza began late one night in 1984, when drunken drag queen Lady Bunny and her wasted entourage spilled out of a nightclub, then wobbled, lurched and landed in the local park. It was there they staged an impromptu drag show in the bandshell at 3 a.m. Their audience was a group of angry homeless peeps trying to sleep. That one unplanned performance launched a nearly 20-year drag (and drug) bacchanal.
My first Wigstock was in 1987. Had I known about it earlier, I would’ve gone. Since 1980 my modus operandi was to get stinkin’ drunk then hit the East or West Village afterhours clubs until the sun came up.
I have snippets of memories of meeting Hedda Lettuce (nee Steven Polito). I was a boundaryless touchy-feely drunk. He was wearing the cutest Minnie Mouse costume but with a bare chest. I remember coming eye-to-eye… er… eye-to-fringe-pasty. Without even introducing myself, I stuck out my pointer finger and gave that fringe a twirl.
The next day, I woke up at 5 p.m., still drunk, and called a friend.
“Can’t believe what I did this time,” I said, with each word triggering another hammer to my head. “I have to stop drinking. I’m so embarrassed. I twirled a stranger’s pasty.”
“Honey, isn’t that what fringe pasties are for?”
During my laugh she cut me off.
“You’re right about the drinking, though. You’re getting closer to wet brain. Not a pretty look.”
Man, her timing was right on. I’d just been side-swiped with a blow-up. My mild-mannered roommate and long-term bestie grabbed my upper arms with his long-fingered, graceful piano-player hands. He squeezed me so tightly it hurt. An enraged vein popped out near his temple as he shook me and yelled, “I’m not gonna watch you kill yourself anymore. Quit drinking or I’m leaving.”
That’s when I buckled.
He spotted my determination and supported my efforts but each failure led to another until it hit me hard: I could not stop. On a bug-eyed morning after a night of coke, I dialed my cousin and asked for help. I woke up in another state.
The 31 days turned me inside out and ripped off the protective skin but I managed to learn a few things. On the last day, the staff told me I needed a therapeutic community for a year.
“You won’t be able to stay sober because you started too young and New York City is full of temptations,” they said.
It pissed me off, so I went home treating it like a dare. Oh yeah? Watch me.
A Return to Wigstock, Sober
Staying sober out of spite drove me to keep schlepping to therapy and muddling through dark moods without offing myself. It took a year and a half before I would take a chance on being around the lucky bastards who can be high and happy. After dips into socializing I inched toward more outings. Shaky, but better, I ventured back to Wigstock in August of 1999. The riotous, flamboyant, fake hair and sequins up to there were exactly what I needed. That year was a blast and I wasn’t in a blackout so I remembered it.
Lady Bunny felt we needed a lift again so she brought Wigstock out of retirement last year and it was the inspiration for Wig. It reminded me of the impetus for Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro to co-found Tribeca Film Fest right after 9/11, when our grieving city needed a lift.
My favorite segment in Wig is Lady Bunny engaging Debbie Harry in titillating banter at 2018’s Wigstock revival. Then Harry launched into the Blondie hit “Atomic.” The punk powerhouse who blew the ceiling off of rock and roll’s patriarchy doesn’t need any backup, but taut and sexy artist-director Rob Roth dancing beside her dressed in a black bikini with sparkly top and smoky eye makeup added to the hot ambiance.
By happy coincidence, one month after the Wig premiere I found myself seated at a tiny table in a dark corner of Alan Cumming’s Club Cumming sandwiched between Roth on my right and Harry’s manager Manzi on my left. It struck me that here we were in the East Village only blocks from the park where Wigstock began.
We were there for the season finale of “Enclave Reading Series,” a monthly event featuring literati like Pulitzer-prize winner Michael Cunningham along with other established and emerging voices. That night, Debbie Harry was the surprise guest. She snuck in via the club’s dimly-lit entrance then slid into her waiting seat beside Roth. Enclave’s co-founder, co-curator, and emcee Jason Napoli Brooks built up the mystery guest before announcing, “The one and only, Debbie Harry!”
Debbie Harry Remembers 9/11
As the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer headed to the stage, the room burst into cheers. The club’s seductive red lighting and boudoir-ish velvet curtains served as the perfect backdrop. The disco ball always hanging over the piano seemed especially fitting that night. “Club Cumming” shone in red neon hanging above the singer’s head. Next to that was the sign that read, “I ❤️ New York Pride.”
Harry opened by saying she’d planned to read something “a bit more lighthearted” but instead took her manager Manzi’s advice.
“I just hope that all of you that take antidepressants have taken them,” she told the crowd. “And for those of you who don’t, I hope you’ve had a nice drink.”
Harry read about her night at a 2001 Marc Jacobs fashion show.
“There was a big party that he threw down on one of the piers in the West Village and it was wonderful.” She described it as a happening—an event. “And everybody was there.”
After going to bed happy, the next morning her friend called to say “Turn on the news.” Harry gave an eerie account of staring at the towers from her window. She saw smoke and recounted the “surreal feeling” of not knowing what she was seeing on the TV. After that, Harry read a poem about the days that followed.
I’m looking forward to reading Harry’s memoir Face It (HarperCollins), which comes out on October 1. It’s hard to believe she turns 74 in a few days.
During this month of Pride, I’ve been afraid we’re going backwards. Needing a reality check, I tracked down writer, cultural critic, comedian and theatre performer Penny Arcade. Her work exudes empathy and celebrates all of our differences.
We discussed activism in the LGBT community.
“Lady Bunny stands out because she has never relaxed her work standards over the past 30 years. She manages to have real politics in a world that is so much about fitting in,” she said.
She also credited RuPaul for making a strong contribution in the ’80s.
“The LBGT community was founded on having to band together against the illogical hatred of homosexuality,” said Arcade. “But 2019 is a long road from Stonewall to coming out to your mother as she is watching Will and Grace.”
Arcade said it’s just human nature to want to be accepted.
“But the LGBT community is no longer the issue it once was. RuPaul’s Drag Race has created drag contests for heterosexual boys all across America.”
Arcade also expressed what many people seem to be feeling these days.
“We are living in an era of emotional and social isolation that is greater than anything I have experienced in the past 50 years of my social consciousness.”
Inspiration and Responsibility for Pride
Next, I interviewed Harry’s music producer, Barb Morrison (pronoun they/them). They’re proud of 29 years clean.
“One of the things that was so cool about hearing Debbie [Harry] read at Club Cumming was that we got to witness her speaking from a vulnerable place. She took us on an emotional journey with her,” Morrison said.
We moved on to discussing today’s political climate with the emphasis on Pride Month.
“I feel a responsibility to push myself to be even more honest with my work,” said Morrison. “Being on the trans spectrum I also feel a responsibility to help other trans musicians tell their stories.”
They expressed that now it’s more important than ever to be visible and authentic.
“Not only for ourselves,” they said, “but to help others free themselves from stigma and shame. Watching Debbie read that night inspired me to be even more honest, to tell my truth, and to fully step into my own authenticity.”
Like Morrison, Steven Polito (aka Hedda Lettuce) finds deeper meaning in Pride.
“For those of us with traumatic experiences almost anything can be a trigger,” said Polito. “I have to be extra vigilant. Turning my tragedies into triumphs is my gay pride.”
Amen.
Wig is now showing on HBO.
(Images: the author at Wigstock; Debbie Harry at Club Cumming. Both provided by Dorri Olds, all rights reserved)
I have snippets of memories of meeting 