Aug2014issue by Jax Gay Magazine

cityXtraMagazine.COM

CONTENTS VOL. 3, ISSUE 10

PROFILE 08

I Love Jax

cityXtra Magazine Staff Publisher: David Vandygriff publisher@cityxtramagazine.com Executive Editor: Louis Suffredini editor@cityxtramagazine.com

INSIDE 3

Content

Gay Marriage Battle

Crist to Bondi

What Gays Do Not Want You To Know

Director of Sales: Carlos Martinez sales@cityxtramagazine.com cityXtra News Magazine 2941 Plum Street Jacksonville, FL 32205 (904) 388-1494 Jacksonville Office www.cityxtramagazine.com

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Dr. Harvey Carr, Joey Amato, OUT Reach Public Relations Dr. Doug Massengill, University of Lola Chicago Sebastion Fortino, Project Manager

Contributing Writers

Creative Designer: Debi Johnson info@cityxtramagazine.com

David Vandygriff, Joey Amato, Sebastion Fortino, Dr. Harvey Carr, Atty. Gordon Nicol, Greg Henchar, Michael Smith

COVER 12

Top 20 Most Influential

IN OUR NEXT ISSUE

cityXtra Magazine is published 12 times per year. Reprints are available. Contact of contributing advertisers does not reflect the opinions of the publisher. Advertisers have proofed respective articles, and content is assumed true and correct. cityXtra is not responsible for the business dealings of its advertisers. cityXtra is for information purposes only. cityXtra Magazine (TM). All rights reserved. The contents of this publication, including articles, may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Address changes should be submitted via e-mail to subscriptions@cityxtramagazine.com. Send story ideas and requests for article reprints to pubisher@cityxtramagazine.com or call 904.388.1494 Jacksonville Office or 321.426.0296 Orlando Office.

GAY TIMES LEGAL MATTERS Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait for the next issue? Get a sneak preview. Subscribe to feeds on our website, cityXtraMagazine.com, and visit us on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google+ cityXtraMagazine.COM

JACKSONVILLE Boot Rack: 4751 Lenox Blvd. (904) 384-7090 bootrack.com

Club Jax: 1939 Hendricks Ave. (904) 398-7451 clubjax.com Hamburger Mary’s: 3333-1 Beach Blvd. (904) 551-2048 hamburgermarys.com/jax Incahoots: 711 Edison Ave. (904) 353-6316 Park Place: 931 King St. (904) 389-6616 Metro: 859 Willow Branch Ave. (904) 388-7192 metrojax.com The Norm: 2952 Roosevelt (904) 3840029

cityXtraMagazine.COM

nightlife

Bo’s Club: 201 5th Ave. N. (Jax Beach) (904) 246-9874 bosclub.com

cityXtraMagazine.COM

SAVE THE DATE: 2014 Equality Florida Jacksonville Gala at The Florida Yacht Club!

cityXtraMagazine.COM

I love JAX PROFILE

By Jacob Massengill

For me, the River City has a gravitational pull that’s more than just a sentimental connection — it has a charm all its own. Here are seven reasons why: Water / nature/ outdoor activities — If you like water, you’ll like Jacksonville. The heart of the city is located on the St. Johns River, where you’ll find all sorts of recreational waterway traffic and activity. One of my favorite pastimes is cruising on the river near downtown Jacksonville at night and taking in the views of the illuminated cityscape. As you can imagine, the abundance of surrounding waters makes Jacksonville a fantastic fishing destination. The beaches are ranked some the best vacation spots in the USA.

Association’s Jacksonville Giants. Jacksonville also hosts two notable collegiate football events every year. The annual Florida -Georgia game is played at EverBank Field in October; the game-day revelry is known as “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.” EverBank Field also is the site of the Gator Bowl, which is played on or around New Year’s Day. Music — While it’s certainly no New York or Nashville, Jacksonville sports a vibrant music scene. A few legends spent time or got their start here: Ray Charlestickled the ivories in the LaVilla neighborhood early in his career, Southern rock groups The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet all originated here and guitarist Derek Truckshails from Jax.

Downtown — Downtown Jacksonville you’ll f i n d unique cultural f a r e , such as the First Wednesday Art Walk, a celebr aSports — tion of local artists, musicians, museums, Golf and bars and restaurants that takes place on the fishing first Wednesday of every month. You’ll also aren’t the more find more traditional fine art staples, only sports such as the Jacksonville Symphony JacksonOrchestra and the Museum of Contemporary villians are Art. Along the riverfront, the Jacksonville into. The Landing is a hub of shops, eateries and live city currently has professional and semi-professional entertainment, as well as a spot where you can board a water taxi for a relaxing jaunt on teams, including the NFL’s Jacksonville the St. Johns. At night, you can get your Jaguars, the Arena Football League’s hipster bar fix at Club TSI or Dos Gatos, rub Jacksonville Sharks and the American elbows with young professionals at the Basketball 8

cityXtraMagazine.COM

at the upscale Mark’s club/lounge, or get your Kickbacks Gastropub and line dance on at Maverick’s Rock N’ Honky The Loft, has Tonk. transformed the area into a hip, happening scene that has someRiverside thing to offer just about everyone. — Just San Marco Square — Opposite side of St. south of Downtown Johns from Riverside is the San Marco on the west Square, a pleasant district comprising side of the eateries, shops, bookstores, lounges and St. Johns is theaters. Be sure to see a movie at the Art Riverside, Deco San Marco Theatre, an old-fashioned which is film house. After the movie, you can head perhaps down to Square One, a two-story bar and Jacksonville’s edgiest locale. In 2010 the lounge that American Planning Association designated often feathe larger Riverside-Avondale area one of the tures live year’s Top 10 neighborhoods, an honor that entertainalso has been bestowed on Park Slope in ment, inBrooklyn, N.Y. and Pike Place Market in cluding the Seattle.In Riverside, you’ll find elegant occasional residential architecture, numerous parks and burlesque a distinct eclectic feel. A mix of bars, boutique performshops and cafes makes up the streets of ance. Riverside’s historic Five Points district. Visit the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens. On St. Johns Saturdays, stop by the Riverside Arts Market, Town Center — The St. Johns Town Center a weekly cultural festival featuring arts, crafts, is Jacksonville’s massive outdoor retail music and food.The King Street District has mecca. This large open-air mall features such become one of the city’s premier nighttime alt big-name anchor stores as Barnes & Noble -destinations. A cluster of trendy, welland Best Buy, as well as Apple. managed establishments, including

cityXtraMagazine.COM

INSIDE

Gay Marriage Battle

By Jonathon Frank

"The constitutionality of Florida's laws barring same-sex couples from marriage is an issue of great public importance that has a great effect on the proper administration of justice throughout the state," lawyers Bernadette Restivo and Elena Vigil-FariĂąas, who represent Key West bartenders Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones, wrote to the Miami-based Third District Court of Appeal. "There is a need to bring finality to this issue on a statewide basis so that clerks of court throughout the state have uniform guidance as to whether they must issue marriage licenses on an equal basis to otherwise qualified same-sex couples." According to the attorneys, "a decision from the Supreme

cityXtraMagazine.COM

Court would also provide uniform direction and guidance to government, public and private entities throughout the state, including the judiciary, which make decisions on a daily basis with regard to the provision of benefits or rights to persons based in whole or in part on their marital status." The lawyers describe the case as "an issue of great public importance that directly and profoundly affects same-sex couples throughout the state, as well as their children and other family members, by excluding them from a right the Supreme Court has declared to be 'of fundamental importance for all individuals.'" The appeals court gave Florida Attorney General Pam Bondiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office has appealed the men's legal victory, 10 days to respond.On July 17, Monroe Chief Circuit Judge Luis Garcia declared Florida's 2008 gay-marriage ban unconstitutional, ruling against Bondi, whose office

defended the ban. Huntsman and Jones have not been allowed to marry: Florida law mandates that an automatic stay pending appeal is triggered when a public official loses a court case. The Monroe County case mirrors one in Miami-Dade, in which Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel on Friday ordered that six same-sex couples also be allowed to marry, but stayed her ruling pending appeal. Preventing same-sex couples from marrying, Zabel said, "serves only to hurt, to discriminate, to deprive same-sex couples and their families of equal dignity, to label and treat them as second-class citizens, and to deem them unworthy of participation in one of the fundamental institutions of our society."

cityXtraMagazine.COM

been recognized by the White House and Human Rights Campaign as an emerging leader, advocate and ally for the LGBT community. She also has By David Vandygriff become an outspoken advocate for raising Cindy Wat- awareness of, and helping to son, eradicate sexual violence Executive against women and girls. Director of JASMYN, has Dan been a Merkan community has held organizer many titles and with non-profit JASMYN

COVER STORY

Top 20 Most Influential

Democrats. Richard is w ell known for one of the most avid art lover and collector in Jacksonville. Richard is very known as PFLAG Jacksonville’s largest annual donor with the White Party raising $20,000 annual for the PFLAG Scholarship Program.

Carrington ‘Rusty’ Mead is a community activist and attorney. Attorney over the Mead has administrator for over 25 years but also received years, and has w orked for 6 currently awards from years as a legal advocate for serves the LGBT community for her children, families, and JASMYN as work on Justice for Terri Ann people with HI V / AI DS. their Director of Evaluation Summers Coalition while a and Technology. As an Law student, Pride Award Chevara evaluator, Dan 1999 for her w ork in Orrin, tireensures the JASMYN team bringing a local less efforts, works to meet all of its mammography mobile unit Chevara contractual expectations, for two years in a row, and has been and that JASMYN is effective received a Fairy Godparent recognized in reaching its desired Award from the Jacksonville by the outcomes. Dan is President Area Sexual Minority Youth White of the Jacksonville Coalition Netw ork ( JASMYN) . House and for Equality. Human Rights Campaign as Meredith O'Malley an emerging leader, advoRichard Johnson is cate and ally for the LGBT Ceriello is One Spark community. She also has a local Community become an outspoken activist & Public advocate for raising introducing Relations awareness of, and helping to the Director. eradicate sexual violence community against women and girls. Meredith is to like advocate for more than 30 a veteran minded years. Because of her political candidates tireless efforts, Chevara has from Republicans to 12

cityXtraMagazine.COM

campaigner, working in various positions including communications, field and finance on eleven state and local campaigns. She has lived all over the country, but fell in love with Jacksonville while earning her BA in political science from the University of North Florida. Meredith also holds a master's degree from the University of Florida in political science with a specialty in campaigning Judy Sheklin in President of Jacksonville NOW ( National Organization for Women) . Judy has been instrumental in the recent HRO victories in Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach. A long time advocate for Women’s Rights and Equality. Bruce Ross President of Jacksonville Holiday Helpers. Holiday Helpers provided Christmas

presents to over 400 children in Duval County that have been infected or affected by HI V/ AI DS. Holiday Helpers has been operating for over 10 years. Frieda Saraga the founder of PFLAG Jacksonville and consider the Mother of

that God does love all and accepts them as they are. Val was a past Board Member of River City Pride and Jacksonville Black Pride.

Chris Day if the founder of Get I nspired 6k and receiptant of Jacksonville’s Jacksonville’s LGBT LGBT Community. Frieda and Judy Community founded Positive Attitudes Humanitarian Award. Chris is 20 years ago, an HI V/ AI DS an HI V/ AI DS advocate to support group. Frieda’s help increase awareness unwavering dedication to all within the Jacksonville the children are unparallel Community. by anyone. Frieda continues her w ork through the Duval Kemal County Health Department Gasper by conducting HI V testing in Chair Elect the Jacksonville Jailhouse President of and throughout Jacksonville. I MPACT JAX within the Pastor JAX Valarie Chamber of Williams Business. founder of Buzz Magazine’s Top 30 Living Under 30. Board Member of Witness the Cultural Council of Family Greater Jacksonville. Kemal Worship w as featured in “Welcome to Center in Actionville” first year Arlington. Val’s dedication to progress of JAX2025 action giving back to community plan. Board of Governors for continues from the church to the Regional Chamber of bars. No place is off limits Commerce. for her to show the LGBT cityXtraMagazine.COM

James Eddy is City Council District 7 Candidate. Co-founder of Rainbow House Jax. Past president of Holiday Helpers Jacksonville. James w orks on the JAX 2025 Task Force for Bicycle & Pedestrian Transportation, Diverse & I nclusive Community, & Government Openness & Responsiveness. James also serves as Chair of Education Committee & Steering Team Member for the Jacksonville Coalition for Equality. Past board member of River City Pride, active PFLAG & Equality Member.

opening of the Riverside Arts Market, a massive w eekend marketplace for artists and local farmers. The Union Terminal Train Station ( converted to the Jacksonville Convention Center) , the St. James Building ( converted to the Jacksonville City Hall) , and the Haydon Burns Library are j ust a few examples of the historically significant architecture he has been instrumental in helping to preserve. Wayneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newest proj ect is the famous Hemming Plaza located in Downtown.

Justin Bell is the President for North Florida AI DS Memorial Quilt Chapter and HI V/ AI DS Community Activist. Justin also is President of the North Florida Wayne AI DS Week Community. He Wood works the Ryan White fondly Funding for Duval County as referred to well as a Peer Navigator at as the LSS. godfather of Tina JacksonVaughn is ville the Founder history. of Coming His vision OUT and his Monologues ability to in inspire led recently to the Jacksonville. The Award 14 cityXtraMagazine.COM

Winning Production benefits JASMYN & PFLAG annual. Tina was former Director of the Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Center of Jacksonville, where she worked with the Rape Recovery Team daily. Jimmy Midyette has been a staff attorney with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. He was also the program director for a non-profit organization, Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network ( JASMYN ) , that builds safe space for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. Midyette was past vice president of JASMYN, on the steering committee of the Northeast Florida Safe Schools Coalition and is a member of the National Lawyers Guild. Jimmy is a member of the Jacksonville Coalition for Equality. Angie Nixon a former District Aide for Florida State Rep. Mia Jones intern.

representative’s tenure in Jacksonville’s City Council, Angie is a graduate of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce’s inaugural Political Leadership I nstitute. She is also a graduate of the Congressional Black Caucus’ Political Bootcamp. Angie Nixon currently serves as the Lead Organizer for Florida New Maj ority. She also serves as a principal in The Paisley Partners, a company she helped co-found to empower and uplift underserved and underrepresented communities in Jacksonville, primarily on the Northside. She is co-founder of

Northside LOVE. Ernesto Selorio is the founder of JASMYN ( Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Netw ork) . Ernesto has been active member of PFALG Jacksonville and community activist since age 19. The number of LGBTQ youth that benefited from Ernesto’s efforts are endless. The lives saved are daily. Our LGBTQ owes our thriving youth population to Ernesto.

Keri Kidder honored for her advocacy efforts in the gay community, accepted her award at the Womens History Month celebration sponsored by the Mayors Commission on the Status of Women in 2011. Board member of JASMYN, community activist, and member of the Jacksonville Coalition for Equality.

cityXtraMagazine.COM 15

EQUALITY

Crist to Bondi

Florida's Republican attorney general, Pam Bondi, to stop fighting a lawsuit seeking to overturn the same-sex marriage ban voters approved in 2008 by 62 percent.

By Lori Joshlin Around the same time,

Florida Attorney General Pam The largest gay-rights groups Bondi filed paperwork in court Limiting access to the polls in Florida and the nation arguing that same-sex --Ignoring climate change endorsed Democrat Charlie marriage "imposes significant and its potential effects on Crist last month, a turnaround public harm." Florida for the former Republican Charlie Crist said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I'm going governor who once helped Allowing loving couples the to call shenanigans on that. enshrine a same-sex freedom to marry? Here's the truth about what marriage ban in the state's harms the public.â&#x20AC;? Nope. Definitely not on that constitution. list.Rick Scott and Pam Bondi --Rick Scott cutting In accepting the support of education spending by more are leading the charge Equality Florida Action PAC against marriage equality in than $1 billion and the Washington-based --Denying 1 million working Florida -- and we need to Human Rights Campaign, make sure every single Floridians affordable health Crist pledged to pressure Floridian knows it. care

cityXtraMagazine.COM

INSIDE

couples that are both bottoms time. They're great. Whatever,

they take turnsUnwrapping that'sthe the price RELIGIOUSandCORNER: Giftyou pay.

What Gays Do NOT Want You To Know By David Vadash

As gay men and lesbians get closer and closer to the mainstream they've often traded in their image as the queer radicals who started the Stonewall Riots for the milquetoast assimilationists who want to get married and have kids and put HRC bumper stickers on their cars. That doesn't mean we're still not queer radicals. It just means we're hiding it from you. That's right, there are all sorts of secrets that Ted and Ned, the nice gay couple next door to you with the matching BMWs and the prim sweater sets aren't telling you, probably starting with the reason they have those bolts in the ceiling of the "den" (It's for the sling and "den" is gay for "sex room"). Now, it's time to let the straights in on some of our dirty little secrets. Let's see if you still like us after this. Yes, I don't speak for all of the homosexuals, but, come on, queen, try to tell me this isn't true! Bottoming Is Fun There, I said it. Bottoming is fucking great. Yes, it hurts every time. But it is always fucking worth it. There are lots of guys who only like to bottom. There are lots of 20

cityXtraMagazine.COM

begrudingly topping. There are also lots of tops who only like to top. Topping is fun too. But if topping is like a merry-goround, then bottoming is like the best fucking roller coaster you've ever been on in your life. The weird thing is "power bottom" isn't just some stupid straight boy insult, the gays use it too. There's some sort of shame about being a bottom, like it makes us less manly and that straight people won't take us seriously. That is probably true, but those feelings are wrapped in all this heteronormative, patriarchal bullshit that straight society has thrust upon us, and we hate you for making us feel bad about something that is better than chasing a million dragons.

Poppers Are Awesome For those who don't know, poppers are an inhalant that is rather easy to come by in most adult book stores or gay leather shops. It's amyl nitrite and it's sold as "room deodorizer" or "video head cleaner" or some other preposterous bullshit like that. Homosexuals love this stuff. Well, not all of them, but a lot of them. Especially bottoms! What it does is loosen up all the involuntary muscles (like in the throat and anus) so it's so much easier to get large objects pushed into them. They also make you kind of dizzy and crazy and make every cell in your body scream, "I want to fuck right now" at the same

Cocksucker Is Not an Insult See the discussion about "power bottom" above, except the difference is, 99.9% of gay men love to suck dick. Therefore, if you call us a cocksucker, it says something more about you than it does about us. We love our cocks, we love to have them sucked, and we love to be the one doing the sucking. If you say "cocksucker" like it's a bad thing, your punishment should be to never have your cock sucked again. But, yeah, go ahead and call us a cocksucker. That's sort of like calling Bill Gates "rich" and expecting him to get mad about it. We Have Our Own Celebrities Straight people think, "Oh, the gays love Madonna and Lady Gaga and Kathy Griffin." Yes, it's true, but there is a class of gay superstars you don't even know about. You think gay people love Gaga? You should hear when a Robyn song comes on at a gay bar. Then it is fucking over. Don't forget the Scissor Sisters, anyone who was ever on RuPaul's Drag Race, Ben Cohen, cabaret superstar Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, or all the women whose careers we are personally keeping alive like Cyndi Lauper, Margaret Cho, and Sandra Bernhard. You may think you know what we like, but you

don't even know the half of it. We Want to Fuck All the Hot Straight Boys When homophobes always have a gay panic and say gay men "all want to have sex with me," someone will always tell them, "That's stupid. We don't want to have sex with you." That's trueâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;because that guy is ugly. If he was hot, gay guys will want to have sex with him. I mean, that's just nature. Gay guys are attracted to hot guys, no matter of their orientation. And if they're in the locker room or at the beach or even walking down the street, we're totally going to be checking them out. Also, many gay guys think straight guys are even hotter because they're so naturally butch and hard to get. It's like straight guys' obsession with girl-on-girl action, but in reverse. Falling in love with a straight guy is a difficult and painful trap that many gay men fall into as well, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about just the lust. If they're hot, it's thereâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; even for your boyfriend. Not All Gay Couples Are Monogamous What HRC and other gay rights groups would like to sell the straight public is that gay couples are just like straight married couples. In many cases, they are. They are monogamous and have been together forever and raise their kids behind white picket fences. What they don't want

you to know is that many gay couples, though married, civilly unionized, or otherwise common law are inviting guys over for threeways, playing around with other guys on the side, or engaged in all other sorts of sexual hijinks. Yes, straight people have "swingers" but it seems like there is a stronger bent of "non-traditional arrangements" among the gays. It might be because gay men are horny bastards and because we didn't have your fiendish and chaste preset relationship constructs until recently when straight people decided it was time to stop treating us like second class citizens. Yeah, we may be married, but that doesn't mean we're dead or conforming to your rules. We Can Have Sex Anywhere at Anytime Straight guys always say, "It must be great to be gay because you can get laid any time." Yes, it's true. We can get it anywhere, anytime. Straights might know about Manhunt and Grindr, but they may not know about the underwear parties, undergroup orgies, bath houses, cruisey public rest rooms, steam rooms, cottages, tea rooms, video stores, parks, glory holes, and other assorted nooks and crannies where gay guys will go in their most desperate and horniest moments. Sure, a lot of this

activity has moved online and subsequently into our homes, but there are still plenty of public sex to be had. Aren't we lucky! We Don't Love Drag Queens As Much As You Do Drag queens are great! Some of my best friends are drag queens, and some of them put on great shows. But we see drag queens all the damn time. You can hardly go to a gay bar without running into one who is "hosting," doing a lip sync number, running a contest, or just generally harassing people. For straight people it's a treat. It's fun and exciting and awesome. We're glad that you can be in on the campy fun, but don't hate us if we don't match your enthusiasm. Imagine if you took us to a straight bar and we were like, "Oh my god! They have the football game on the television over the bar. Isn't that amazing! That's so awesome. Look at that screen! It's so big and clear. Let's give it a dollar! Do you have a dollar? I want to tip the screen," you would think we were some crazy asshole. That's how we feel when you wig out (pun intended) over drag queens. Just clarifying. cityXtraMagazine.COM

cityXtraMagazine.COM