Posted on 06/29/2003 9:24:12 AM PDT by I_Love_My_Husband
Watch out, "American Idol." San Francisco's first "Gay Pride Idol" makes her debut at today's big parade and rally -- only guess what? She's not gay.
Or lesbian, bisexual or transgender, for that matter.
She's straight. And boy, are some people ticked.
"It is a huge slap in the face," fumed one losing "Pride Idol" contestant.
"Completely outraged," another Pride-proud woman from Corte Madera wrote in an e-mail to parade organizers. "This should have been an opportunity for someone . . . who lives their life as a Queer and feels the joys and the pain of being Queer."
Those are just some of the comments that newly crowned Pride Idol Marianne Kooken has faced this past week as she readied herself for the stage at today's big post-parade rally in Civic Center, where she'll be belting out three tunes.
Kooken, 31, who will study performance in graduate school at San Francisco State this fall, had high hopes that winning the title would propel her career as a professional singer. But so far, she's been treated like anything but the American Idol that the gay San Francisco contest was modeled after.
Kooken says she won the competition fair and square and never made any secret of being straight. Her detractors, she said, are "shameful and hypocritical."
Her trip into the gay fantastic began a few years back when she worked as a faux drag queen at North Beach's famous Finocchio's.
More recently, after she sang at the party of a couple of gay friends, someone connected to the Pride Idol contest urged her to try out.
"I said, 'I'm not gay,' but he said it doesn't matter -- they don't discriminate," Kooken said.
She entered, and every step of the way disclosed that she was straight. She wrote on her contest application that she wanted the Pride Idol crown because many of her friends are gay, and as a large woman she understood what it felt like to be treated differently.
That got her an invite to the June 3 tryout at Harvey's in the Castro, where she joined about 70 other people hoping to walk away with the $1,000 prize and the chance to perform at today's rally.
She made the cut, and the judges invited her back two weeks later to compete against about a dozen other finalists at the Club Mezzanine.
She sang "Sister" from "The Color Purple" and told the crowd about the time a City College instructor scolded her after a performance during which she had sat straddling a chair. "Big people shouldn't sit with their legs open," the instructor had told her.
The emcee noted that Kooken was straight -- and while it landed her a few hisses and boos, it didn't stop the nine Pride celebration judges from crowning her as San Francisco's very first Pride Idol.
She said she was dedicating her title to "anyone who has been called fat or had their heart ripped open." Today, she'll be on the main stage in Civic Center, singing "Sister," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and the Etta James number "A Sunday Kind of Love."
Kooken confesses to being nervous. She's heard about threats to boo her off the stage.
"She's been victimized just as much as us, and I find it disgusting that people in the community react (negatively)," said Charles Davy, a contest judge and a representative of Pride weekend co-sponsor Budweiser.
"We don't need more segregation in the community, and we shouldn't segregate people on the outside," Davy said.
Teddy Witherington, who heads up the Pride parade and celebration, acknowledged that a number of people were upset about Kooken's selection at first, but he said it was mostly just "sour grapes" from losing contestants.
He said Kooken has already thrown herself into her new role, volunteering at the AIDS Memorial Grove and agreeing to take part in breast cancer charity events.
"I think most people get the message that Pride is about inclusion," Witherington said. "We are asking the rest of the world for respect, and if we can't do it on our doorstep, what chance to do we have of persuading the rest of the world?"
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
"…she worked as a faux drag queen…"
Playing a female acting like a male acting like a female.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
At least those running and judging this contest chose merit.
These intolerent hetrophobes are such hypocrits. The fat-bashing homosexuals would have cheered her wildly if she'd dedicated her song to anyone who has been called fag or had their backside ripped open.
She looks like an attractive Rosie O'Donnell!
Parade Treatment Irks Gay Groups (Gays whine about exclusion from Christian family parade)
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