One day down
Friday, March 31st, 2006Well, the first day is done. All the kids are tucked into bed (and judging by the lack of noise, miraculously asleep after a long day). Today we explored downtown Chicago along Michigan Avenue, which isn’t terribly exciting if you aren’t looking to spend lots of money – sort of like Market Street in San Francisco.
We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was like eating dinner at any Hard Rock Cafe, but the kids enjoyed it when the waiter made all of them get up and dance to “YMCA” by the Village People. It amazes me every time that people get so into a song which is (as I understand it) really about a popular place to cruise for gay sex in the early 80s. I mean, if you know the anything at all about the Village People, the subtext isn’t very “sub.”
But the highlight of today, of course, was Wicked. I can now authoritatively state that reading the book and listening to the soundtrack does not give you an adequate indication of what the show is really like. The show was excellent and if I get time, I’ll post an all-out review.
Apparently, the show is in the middle of one of its Broadway Cares fundraisers, so the cast was soliciting donations after the show. I dropped a few bucks in one of the cans on my way out. However, one young man on our bus was bothered by this and announced loudly that he was “sick and tired of all these actors raising money for AIDS” because “more people die of diabetes than AIDS.” Well, this is true. But I tried to rationally point out that the actors made a point of mentioning that Broadway Cares also supports cancer projects these days, and cancer deaths still outnumber diabetes. I also explained that Broadway Cares dates back to the days when the government didn’t support or even ackowledge AIDS while the disease quite literally decimated the ranks of professional actors, dancers and performance artists – especially those working in the musical theater/Broadway field. Of course, this was a sore subject with the kid, who takes regular insulin shots for his diabetes, and his Mormon bigotry refused to back down. After another nasty comment about AIDS being a less worthy charity because you catch it from “making stupid choices,” I got truly pissed off. First, I mentioned that diabetes was one of the primary causes of my father’s recent heart attacks, then I listed the names of all my friends who have died of AIDS. Then I listed the names of friends who have gone bankrupt trying to pay for medication that will prevent an HIV infection from developing into AIDS because their insurance companies don’t consider these “life saving” medications. By this point, the kid’s mother (another chaperone) started lecturing me about the same subject (now I know where the kid got his opinions) while the kid went to sulk in the back of the bus because I’d scored an emotional win. I may have gotten through (just a little bit) to the kid, but I’m pretty sure Mom is going to bitching about me to the other chaperones over breakfast. My last comment to the lady was, “well, I don’t see how any compassionate person would ever insult and demean a charity effort for any cause. I believe that we serve both causes when we support many charitable projects rather than playing a game of Whose Cause is More Important.” She said, “I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.” Bitch.
My rule as a chaperone this weekend, I refuse to hide what I believe behind the lame prejudices usually rampant in the Utah school system. I told a kid not to call his buddy a “fag” around me because it was insulting. When students ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I organize the annual Gay Pride festival (and I tell them when and where it is). The way I figure it, they can’t “fire” me for speaking out in this setting, and I’m not going to let an opportunity pass by to show these kids an intelligent, happy and well-adjusted gay role model.
Anyway, on to the picspam…
