The Cinemat

Another dispatch from Heather, The Cinemat's newest employee:

A few weeks ago, after an improv comedy show by The Trickle-Down Effect, I took part in a dance contest with my friend and fellow TDE enthusiast Dave outside The Cinemat on the corner of Walnut and Fourth Streets.

Tonight there was yet another show by The Trickle-Down Effect, and I had hoped to challenge Dave to another contest. But get this...he never showed up. For shame, Dave; this is an unspeakable act of rudeness to The TDE, and far, far, ever far more importantly, to me.

Well, you know what, Dave? I'm calling you out: Dave vs. Heather, Rumble on the Corner, Round II: Vogue-off! You've got the groove, but have you got the guts?

On a completely unrelated note, The Cinemat also screened a prison documentary earlier today as part of a day-long presentation exploring incarceration in Monroe County, in collaboration with Boxcar Books. The entire program sounded very interesting, but what most caught my attention was the speaker for the last quarter, the director of FIERCE, a LGBTSTQ youth of color organization in New York City.

What question is this: what do all the letters in LGBTSTQ stand for? I'm lost after that first "T." Now, I was content to remain mired in what Steve called "heterosexual naivete," for the high purpose of being a smartass, but no. I actually had to navigate away from thecinemat.com, and "research" wikipedia.com. The things I do for this job. I mean, come on, that's a lot of letters.

Adding insult to injury, wikipedia.com did not have a listing for LGBTSTQ. So once again I forced to type in all those letters on Google. It would appear that it stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-Spirit, Transgender, and Questioning.

I was all set to let this fly and grab some late night waffles, but then it occurred to me that I didn't know what the term "Two-Spirit" means. So it was back to work.

This time wikipedia.com came through with the goods: "Two-Spirit (also two spirit or twospirit) people are American Indians who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many American Indian and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups. Traditionally the roles included wearing the clothing and performing the work of both male and female genders. The term usually implies a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit living in the same body and was coined by contemporary gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Native Americans to describe themselves and the traditional roles they are reclaiming. There are many indigenous terms for these individuals in the various Native American languages as 'what scholars generically refer to as "Native American gender diversity" was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples'."

Thanks wikipedia, and score one for smartass, I learned something today.

#