‘THAT MOMENT CHANGED MY LIFE’
MUSIC VETERAN/ACTIVIST JIM FOURATT
REFLECTS ON STONEWALL’S LEGACY
O
f the hundreds of people
at the Stonewall Inn in
New York’s Greenwich
Village the night of June 27,
1969 — a historic turning point in the
gay rights movement — Jim Fouratt,
78, may be the only one who went
on to have a long career in the music
business. A lifelong activist who
co-founded the Yippies and the Gay
Liberation Front and was heavily
involved with ACT UP and the fight for
AIDS research, Fouratt also helped run
clubs including Hurrah, Danceteria, the Peppermint Lounge
and Studio 54; co-managed artists as diverse as Richard Lloyd
and Ornette Coleman; and worked at Columbia Records,
Mercury Records and Rhino Records.
You have said what happened at Stonewall that night was not a riot,
because it wasn’t that violent, nor an uprising, because it wasn’t
preplanned, but a rebellion.
It was a rebellion [against] internalized homophobia. You grow up in a
homophobic world [with a] hatred of homosexuals. No matter how out you
are, there’s still all that contradiction inside. That night, for me and for many
other people who were there, it was a flashpoint moment. We looked at each
other in a very different way. We saw full human beings, not potential sex
relationships. And that moment changed my life.
What was it like then working as a gay man in the music business?
The music business was incredibly closeted. Nobody was gay or lesbian to
the world. I’m not going to name names, but there were powerful people both
in management and at record labels [who were queer]. But nobody was out.
From a music business perspective, what is the Stonewall legacy?
My goal always was an integration of personhood and sexuality. The closet
separated those, so you could never be the same person all the time —
certainly [not] in the music business. It’s a world that doesn’t exist in the
same way today because of Stonewall.
In June, you and visual artist Joel Handorff, 74, were married — at the
Stonewall National Monument.
I had a political reason for getting married. It was really important right
now because [of the battle over] women’s right to choose and control
their bodies, which is under severe attack. The right to marry for same-
sex people is also going to be under attack because of the same political
force that has gone after women. [But also] I started to listen to my heart.
I had fallen in love with this man, a smart and wonderful painter with an
incredible spirit. And I said, “Why not?” —THOM DUFFY
A CAUSE HE SUPPORTS “The City of
Hope. I’m on its entertainment board.
The organization is a reminder that
there are thousands of passionate
people who are trying to put an end to
cancer. They have helped my mother
who has suffered from cancer.”
David Krinsky
HEAD OF U.S. INDEPENDENT
LABEL RELATIONS
YouTube
Krinsky, 41, leads YouTube’s Artist on
the Rise and Foundry programs, helping
new acts like Omar Apollo, Arlo Parks
and iyla create their best content on the
platform. But he has had success with
established artists as well. “Our deep
partnership with Daddy Yankee helped
his hit ‘Con Calma’ become the first
music video released in 2019 to break
1 billion views,” he says.
A CAUSE HE SUPPORTS “The San
Francisco AIDS Foundation. They’re on
a mission to make it a zero-transmission
city and improve the lives of those
living with HIV/AIDS through testing,
medicine and other strategies.”
Steven Lankenau
VP
Boosey & Hawkes
Lankenau, 43, coordinated 2,000 North
American events during the past year
to celebrate the centennial birth of the
late Leonard Bernstein, whose works
are represented by Concord-owned
Boosey & Hawkes. “The Bernstein
children were incredibly pleased,”
says Lankenau of the tributes to the
famed composer, which included
a gala concert that was hosted by
Audra McDonald and featured Andris
Nelsons, John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma
at Tanglewood, the summer home of
the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
PRIDE TODAY IS “A commercialization
of a minority. I approach it with a certain
amount of skepticism. [Pride flags] in
storefronts seem [like an attempt] to
cash in on the disposable income that
gay men and women supposedly have.”
Wade Leak
SENIOR VP/DEPUTY GENERAL
COUNSEL/CHIEF COMPLIANCE,
ETHICS AND PRIVACY OFFICER
Sony Music Entertainment
On Sony Music’s legal team, Leak,
56, has worked to prevent the piracy
of streams and helped “the industry
make sure all of the streams that
are being recognized are actual
consumers choosing to listen to
our music.”
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE “One of
the important missions I have is to
promote the core values of Sony Corp.
[defined by the parent company as
fairness, honesty, integrity, respect
and responsibility] and show how
those core values can lead to business
success. That’s something that
matters to me.”
Ellen Lu
TALENT BUYER
Goldenvoice
Tyler, The Creator’s 2018 Camp Flog
Gnaw Carnival sold out in under
two hours thanks in part to Lu,
29, who booked Kids See Ghosts,
Brockhampton and Post Malone for
the event, which moved last November
to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. For
Lu, who was selling merchandise as an
AEG intern seven years ago at the first
Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, “[to be]
booking this festival now [and] to see it
grow into what it is today is still a bit of
a pinch-myself [moment].”
PRIDE TODAY IS “Loving yourself
enough to know that you don’t have
to compromise who you are for
acceptance, equality or even visibility.”
Rick Marcello
MANAGER OF CREATIVE SYNC
Kobalt Music
Marcello, 30, seeks synch
opportunities across Kobalt’s catalog
to ensure LGBTQ songwriters are in
the mainstream. “Pride needs to be
about affecting the bottom line for the
most oppressed people in the room,”
says Marcello. A placement for Big
Freedia’s “Rent” in the promotional
campaign for HBO’s Insecure helped
make it the artist’s most streamed
single and contributed to an overall
30% rise in synch revenue for Kobalt
and AWAL artists.
A CAUSE HE SUPPORTS “The Trans
Women of Color Collective, because
they do real, effective work for a
community that suffers greatly. Trans
women of color, their lives are at risk.
They need our support.”
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.CONTRIBUTORS
Rich Appel, Megan
Armstrong, Dave
Brooks, Harley Brown,
Stephen Daw, Thom
Duffy, Nolan Feeney,
Alexis Fish, Jenn
Haltman, Cherie
Hu, Steve Knopper,
Joe Lynch, Taylor
Mims, Gail Mitchell,
Melinda Newman,
Paula Parisi, Alex
Pham, Annie Reuter,
Eric Spitznagel, Nick
Williams
Participants marched in New York in 1970 to commemorate the
first anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion. The event, then known
as Gay Liberation Day, was later renamed Gay Pride Day.
Fouratt
1979
San Francisco Mayor
Dianne Feinstein proclaims
“Sylvester Day.”
The now-senator dedicated March 11 to disco
star Sylvester, whose powerful countertenor
voice — heard on dancefloor hits like “You
Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” — and flamboyant,
gender-bending style paved the way for Boy
George, Pete Burns and RuPaul. —T.S.
QUEER MUSIC MILESTONES
Marcello
Lu
Leak
Lankenau
Krinsky