The Official Web Site of Tony Castro

'A Child Shall Lead the Way...'

In Barack Obama's presidential campaign, the mantra of the faithful has been that a child shall lead them - but few were taking that literally.

Now, though, they have 14-year-old Joshua Steele of Studio City, who is too young to vote but not too young to show them the way...

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Obama to Hillary: Read My Lips

When Hillary Clinton fired campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle some months back, the ouster effectively branded the top Latina in her presidential bid the scapegoat for her failure. The move also quietly angered Latino political insiders who knew the campaigns flaws ran much deeper.

On Tuesday, Solis Doyle got some revenge -- and a lot of respect -- back when Barack Obama named her the chief of staff to whoever winds up becoming his vice-presidential running mate.

Obama is either trying to heal wounds between the two women or sending a message to the Clintons that he has kissed off Hillary as his VP, and only a fool would believe the former.

Meanwhile, the appointment hasn't gone unnoticed in Latino political circles which have warmed up significantly to Obama since he clinched the nomination.

Couple Marks California's First Same-Sex Marriage

BEVERLY HILLS -- A wrongful arrest years ago in New York for impersonating a woman led Robin Tyler to becoming the best female impersonator of her time – yes, she really was a woman, a leading gay rights activist and a career in show business.

“I did Judy Garland, and I could really sing like her,” says Tyler. “But the guys in the show had to show me how to walk in (high) heels.”

On the other side of the country, the granddaughter of a former governor of California, Diane Olson was born into a life of privilege in Beverly Hills that could have led to debutante ball and society circles.

“My grandfather was the first Democratic governor of California,” says Olson. “He was progressive and ran on the platform of separation of church and state.”

On Monday, their two unlikely paths led to history when they became the first same-sex couple to legally marry in California – the result of their lawsuit that knocked down the state’s laws against gay marriage.

Tyler, 66, and Olson, 54, who share a home in North Hills in the San Fernando Valley were married shortly after 5 p.m. by Rabbi Denise Eger in a Jewish ceremony on the front steps of the Beverly Hills courthouse where they were denied a marriage license each Valentine’s Day each of the last eight years.

Technically, they shared the moment of being the first same-sex couple to marry in California with Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon who were married also shortly after 5 p.m. in San Francisco by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

The two couples were allowed to marry on the eve of when the state begins to issue marriage licenses to same-sex partners because of their unique roles in lawsuits from Los Angeles and San Francisco that led to last month’s Supreme Court decision declaring the ban on gay marriage unconstitutional.

Their landmark marriages took place even as opponents of same-sex marriage, including Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese and other religious leaders, objected with their belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

On Tuesday, hundreds of same-sex couples are expected to jam courthouses in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other counties applying for marriage licenses, with many of them also marrying that day.

Among those will be actor George Takei, who best known for his role as helmsman Hikaru Sulu on “Star Trek,” and his partner Brad Altman. They will help open the wedding license facility in West Hollywood, where hundreds of couples are expected to get their licenses and marry Tuesday.
But on Monday it wa the two early marriages that stole the thunder.

Wearing identical three-piece, cream-colored suits, Tyler and Olson exchanged vows before a throng of relatives, friends, supporters, on-lookers and a national news media spotlight.

As the days counted down to when they could marry, the two San Fernando Valley women captured most of the focus in large part because of their backgrounds.

Tyler, a former comedienne and national gay rights activist who organized three national gay rights movement marches on Washington, D.C. Olson, the granddaughter of Culbert Levy Olson, governor of California from 1938 to 1942.

Understandably, in the days just before the long-awaited ceremony, they became slightly irritated at some of spotlight they found bothersome.

“Is there this much attention paid to what heterosexual couples (who are marrying) are wearing? The cake they’re ordering? The flowers?” Tyler asked about all the questions on their wedding arrangements.
Assured that there is similar curiosity about all weddings, Tyler softened.

“Well, okay,” she said. “I guess it is kinda big.”

But there were also some funny moments.

When a reporter for a Jewish publication seemed curious that she was marrying a non-Jew, asking questions such as whether they had a mezuzah on their front door and whether she believed in intermarriage, Tyler shot back:

"If women want to marry men, it's perfectly okay with me!"

“Stupid, I'm not,” says Tyler. “I knew this was about Diane not being Jewish. But I quickly told him, ‘We both believe in a higher power.”

Tyler’s name at birth was Chernick, which she says she changed when “I was in teens so my mother wouldn't know I was performing on high holidays.”

Both women also were supported by their families in their wedding day.

Tyler’s brother Robert Chernick and his wife Maureen came into town days earlier and rode on a float with the bridal couple in the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade.

“They dressed as California Supreme Court justices and held up our hands in victory,” says Tyler. “Yes, we wore tuxedos, and they had signs saying "Supreme Court" hanging around their necks. Believe it or not, several gay people asked them for autographs.”

Also attending the wedding were Diane's sister, Debra Olson, and Debra's grown daughters, Chrysta and Kaitlyn.
It was Debra Olson who introduced Tyler to her sister almost four decades ago, and the two later become close friends and developed a relationship 15 years ago.

“She was sober, and in the program for many years,” says Tyler. “I began going to 12 steps meetings with her, and gave up drinking. We fell in love. But we had known each other well and been friends for years.”

For Tyler, her wedding day was a long way from the trauma in 1962 of getting arrested in a New York gay club and, she says, arrested by police who mistake her for a woman dressed as a man and charge her with violating the cross-dressing laws on the books at the time.

From jail, Tyler says, she called the New York tabloids with her story, ultimately becoming a cause celeb and attracting the attention of a local drag club owner who hired her to impersonate Judy Garland, who was a heartthrob of the gay nightclub crowd.

“I looked like her,” says Tyler, showing a visitor to her office photographs from that period showing a remarkable resemblance to the entertainment icon. “This wasn’t lip-syncing. The club had a 15-piece orchestra, and I could sing like her.”

She breaks into what is still a respectable Judy Garland vocal riff and for further proof shows off a video of her impersonation.

For her part, Olson just smiles and enjoys the moment. She is friendly but reserved.

“Because Diane is soft spoken she has never been on the front lines of the gay movement but always on the sidelines, totally supportive,” says Tyler.

“She never used her political pedigree about being Culbert Levy Olson's granddaughter, but when we sued to get married, she decided to make it public, because he ran on the platform of 'separation of church and state.' She turned to me and said, ‘Go for it.’”

The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage

A story lost in the buzz and uproar of the onlaught of same-sex marriages that begins Monday night is the political backbiting that has gone on behind the scenes.

The quietly feuding sides are the gay and lesbian community of San Francisco and the two pairs of Los Angeles-based original co-plaintiffs of the landmark lawsuit that last month resulted in the California Supreme Court knocking down the ban on same-sex marriages.

One of those Los Angeles couples, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, will wed Monday evening when they become one of the first two same-sex couples to marry legally in California.

A special arrangement with officials will allow Tyler and Olson to marry early to recognize heir role in the case, and similar arrangements in San Francisco will allow Mayor Gavin Newsom to officiate at the marriage of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon Monday evening. Martin and Lyon were the first same-sex couple to marry during the 2004 Winter of Love in that city, but this time their wedding will be legal.

But it is the Tyler-Olson wedding that has stolen the thunder, much to the chagrin of activists in San Francisco, who even employed a public relations firm to help establish it as the heart of the same-sex marriage movement.

Only in the past month, though, has it become clear that Ground Zero of same-sex marriage has been in L.A., specifically the Beverly Hills courthouse where Tyler and Olson had tried unsuccessfully every Valentines Day since 2001 to get a marriage license.

Tyler and Olson, along with two other co-defendants, actually filed the first lawsuit challenging the state’s marital law through high-powered attorney Gloria Allred.

Last week, as they were making arrangements for their historic wedding, Tyler and Olson recalled that their original lawsuit had made negative waves even within the gay and lesbian communities.

"The truth is we started this lawsuit against everybody telling us we would lose,” says Tyler. “But a lot of the people who shunned us for filing this lawsuit are the same ones who are now getting a lot of credit.”

We stepped out of the loop,” says Olson. “(Some gay activists) were mad at us that we didn’t go through a gay law firm to do this. (But) Gloria (Allred) has been a friend of ours for a long time. They kept telling Robin, ‘Wait. Wait. It’ll be political suicide. Don’t rock any boats. It’s too soon. It’s a Republican-appointed Supreme Court.

"I said I’m not afraid of conservatives if they’ll interpret the constitution.”

Clinton Lessons for Antonio's Trip to Israel

As a national co-chair of the just-completed campaign debacle of the Clintons, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa should have learned a few lessons for his own future campaigns.

1. Do not refer to yourself as the honorary "Jewish mayor of Los Angeles."

Resist the temptation, especially as you try to corner the important Jewish vote which will be critical to your ambitions of becoming governor in 2010. Even if this is your third trip to Israel during your political career. Remember what price Bill Clinton had to pay as "America's first black president" when that mantel backfired. Or the price Hillary had to pay.

2. Do not "recall" that you "landed under sniper fire" of your visit to Sderot.

In a future campaign it will be tempting to impress with being in danger in the Middle East, especially since Sderot is a town on the Gaza border that has faced repeated rocket attacks by Palestinians. Just recall how well such recollections about Yugoslavia paid off for Hillary.

3.Watch what you say to Israelis on those village streets.

Remember Bill's lesson on the rope line talking to a crowd at Millbank, S.D. You never know when someone's a citizen journalist and when your words will wind up on YouTube.

McCain's Latino Strategy: The Cubans

Leave it to John McCain to kick off his wooing of the Latino voter with a Spanish radio commercial appealing to the Cubans in Florida who are possibly the closest thing to a lock-cinch for the Republicans next to the party's loyal right-wingers.

In an attempt to knock Barack Obama's willingness to meet with some enemies of the U.S., McCain's ad tells Cuban Americans he would effectively continue the four-decades-old embargo of Cuba and not meet with new Cuban president Raul Castro until the release of all political prisoners in that country.

"While some support a dialogue with Raul Castro, John McCain believes we should support the courageous men and women who continue to stand up for freedom in Cuba. Rather than resume relations with Raul Castro, John McCain wants first and foremost for all political prisoners to be released."

A more important Latino voting bloc that poses a potential threat to the GOP's hold on states such as Texas are the Mexican Americans in the Southwest, and McCain hasn't yet begun addressing that constituency in the months since clinching the Republican nomination.

Smart, John.

Antonio in an Obama Administration?

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's name has already popped up in the Barack Obama camp's discussions transforming his primary organization into a political machine for the general election.

Villaraigosa has been mentioned in talks about sending organizers and surrogates into important possible swing states like Texas, Colorado and Michigan -- states with large blocs of Latino voters, which were one of Obama's noticeable weaknesses in the primaries.

Antonio was one of Hillary Clinton's national co-chairs and campaigned for her extensively among Latino voters. He endeared himself to the Obama campaign last week when on the day after the final June 3 primaries, he endorsed his Illinois senator and acknowledged he was the presumptive Democratic nominee while Clinton held out for three more days.

Villaraigosa figures to be potentially be one of Obama's important campaign surrogates among Latinos along with former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.