Adam Bouska

Celebrity photographer, NOH8 Campaign Co-Founder, Activist

www.noh8campaign.com

Adam Bouska's NOH8 Campaign is a charitable organization whose mission is to promote marriage, gender and human equality through education, advocacy, social media, and visual protest.

NOH8 is a photographic silent protest launched on February 1, 2009, by celebrity photographer Adam Bouska (at right) and partner Jeff Parshley in direct response to the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Photos feature subjects against a white background with duct tape over their mouths, symbolizing their voices being silenced by Prop 8 and similar legislation around the world, with NOH8 painted on one cheek in protest.

On November 4, 2008 Proposition 8 passed in California, amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Same sex Californians had been able to marry since mid-June, 2008, and the passage of Prop 8 reversed that decision. The legislation provoked a groundswell of initiative within the GLBT community at a grassroots level, with many new political and protest organizations being formed in response.

Three years since its inception, the NOH8 Campaign (pronounced No Hate) has grown to over 20,000 faces and continues to grow at an exponential rate. The campaign began with portraits of everyday Californians from all walks of life and soon rose to include politicians, military personnel, newlyweds, law enforcement, artists, celebrities, and many more. Perhaps two of the most famous NOH8 models have been Cindy McCain, wife of U.S. Senator John McCain (Arizona), and daughter Meghan McCain.

The NOH8 Campaign has received overwhelming support from around the world, and has appeared in various local and national news programs and publications. The images are widely used on various social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to spread the message of equality. Eventually the images will be compiled for a large-scale media campaign.

www.noh8campaign.com



Mr. Bouska's high profile photographic portraits of models and celebrities are recognized the world over. Can there be a gay man alive who has not seen Adam's photo of actor/model Marco Dapper? Worth another look:

Michael Stipe (R.E.M.)

As lead singer for R.E.M., Michael Stipe (b. 1960) headed one of the most influential alternative rock bands of the 1980s and ‘90s. R.E.M. was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, in recognition of having produced a string of classic hits such as Losing My Religion, It’s The End of the World As We Know It, The One I Love, Man on the Moon and Everybody Hurts – a testament to Stipe’s unique style of singing and songwriting ability. R.E.M.’s debut album, Murmur (1983) received critical acclaim, beating out Michael Jackson’s Thriller for Album of the Year in the Rolling Stone Critic’s Poll. In 1996, R.E.M. signed the largest contract of its kind with Warner Brothers Records, valued at $80 million.

After Stipe wore a hat in 1992 that proclaimed, “White House Stop AIDS,” rumors began circulating about his sexual orientation. At the time Stipe responded that he was an “equal opportunity lech,” and did not call himself gay, straight or bisexual. In 1994 he stated publicly that he was attracted to, and had relationships with, both men and women. Finally Stipe ended years of speculation by coming out in Time magazine in 2001. He revealed that he had been in a three-year relationship with an amazing man and referred to himself as a queer artist. He divulged that he felt that public figures and celebrities should be open about their sexuality in order to “help kids somewhere out there.” Subsequently Stipes became known for his social and political activism – all the while turning out hit after hit, featuring his surreal lyrics.

On September 21, 2011, the members of R.E.M. announced their retirement in a news release on the band’s website. The band had been performing for thirty-one years, and Stipe was 51 years old.






“To our Fans and Friends: 
As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening – R.E.M.”

Bad Day (2006)

Columnist Joe Alsop

Syndicated political columnist Joe Alsop (1919-1989), a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander (captured by the Japanese and exchanged), was caught by the KGB during a 1957 visit to Moscow in a "compromising situation" with a male Soviet agent, during which photos were taken and intended for blackmail. When an attempt was made to coerce him into becoming an agent of influence, bisexual Alsop not only refused but requested copies of the blackmail photos for his personal collection. He quickly notified his friend, American Ambassador Chip Bolan, and the two of them were able to get the Soviet agent to end the blackmail attempts. So that he could not be blackmailed again, Alsop undertook an unusual strategy – he delivered to the CIA a detailed account of his sex life on several continents, including the revelation that one of his lovers had been Arthur H.  Vandenberg, Jr., who had to resign in 1953 from Eisenhower’s White House staff, because his homosexuality prevented his being able to pass a security clearance.

Born into a socially prominent Connecticut Republican family, Alsop was a relative of two U.S. Presidents, James Monroe and Theodore Roosevelt (his mother was Roosevelt’s niece). After graduating from Harvard, Alsop became a reporter, then an unusual career for someone with an Ivy League diploma. His prominent journalistic career included stints with the New York Herald Tribune, the Saturday Evening Post and the New York Times, but his position as political columnist for The Washington Post (1958-1974) brought him to the peak of his power and influence.

He married (1961) and divorced (1978) Susan Mary Jay Patten, the widow of William Patten, an American diplomat who was one of Alsop's friends. In 1967, Gore Vidal published “Washington, D.C.,” a novel in which the character of a gay journalist was loosely based on Joe Alsop.

A noted art connoisseur and collector, Alsop delivered six lectures at the National Gallery of Art in Washington on The History of Art Collecting in the summer of 1978. He was at work on a memoir when he died in 1989 at his home in the exclusive Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The memoir was published posthumously as “I've Seen the Best of It”.

Next month a play about Joe Alsop opens on Broadway, penned by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Auburn, author of “Proof”. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, “The Columnist” will star John Lithgow (photo below) as Joe Alsop. The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th St., NYC,  April 25-June 17 (previews begin April 4).
   
“The Columnist” Synopsis: Columnists are royalty in mid-century America, and brothers Stewart and Joseph Alsop (John Lithgow) each wear a crown as co-authors of the syndicated “Matter of Fact” newspaper column. Joe, considered king of his profession, is beloved, feared and courted in equal measure by the Washington political world at whose center he sits as columnist for The Washington Post. But as the ’60s dawn and America undergoes dizzying change under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the intense political drama Joe is embroiled in becomes deeply personal as well.