Main Gallery: Photos by BIRON multicultural male images: 1993-2014+ ENTER
2014 Censorship at San Francisco's LGBTQ Community Center 2008
1. In December 2014, Biron's Sailor Boy (2006) photograph, previously exhibited at the Au Bonheur du Jour Gallery in Paris and in two juried shows, was rejected by the gay jury for the OPENHOUSE Vantage Points: Senior Art Exhibition held at San Francisco's LGBTQ Center. BIRON was advised in an email by Fairley Parson, Manager of Community Engagement at OPENHOUSE, that there was "some dissension amongst my curatorial team due to the graphic nature of the content of your piece — Or, alternately — due to team members’ political or aesthetic sensibilities. One person believes it is too graphic and would be offensive to the community." In a December 9th email, she added: "You are clearly quite skilled and talented" underscoring the fact that the photograph had been judged on criteria other than artistic merit.
2. In March 2008, the above $300 full-page ad, solicited and created by Robert Sokel of VIA MEDIA, and prepaid by BIRON for inclusion in San Francisco's LGBTQ Center's Annual Report, was rejected and refunded by Jeff SCHINDLER, Development Director of the LGBTQ Center, for his stated reason that the ad, if published, might offend the LGBTQ Center's [corporate] donors. Have six-digit salaried non-profiteers sold us out to Corporate America? The Charles M. Holmes Campus of the Center is the Center's official name because the founder of Falcon Studios – a gay porn company – donated $1,000,000 for its construction. Why is he not even mentioned on the LGBTQ Center's stationary and website www.sfcenter.org/? Ask yourself: Why do gay porn companies no longer participate in the Pride Parade? We now have a censored, made for TV, corporate sponsored Parade. Draw your own conclusions, but Gay Liberation initially was not about getting corporate money at any price. Isn't that too high a cost to pay to gain social acceptance? -biron A Photos by BIRON Production © 1997-2019 All Rights Reserved. All model 18+ with proof of age on file. Golden Brothhood of Harry Hay must be kept alive in these days of mindless gay assimilation. We are different from hetero sexuals in more ways than sex. We are the imaginative creative artistic core of society and proudly stand apart. -Biron, 2011 |
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