2019 Pride Guide

AUGUST 8-11

WELCOME!

On behalf of the FM Pride Planning Committee—thank you for joining us on this, the 50th Anniversary year of the Stonewall uprising in celebration of Pride! This is our nineteenth year locally, and we are grateful for the legacy passed to us by previous coordinators, advocates, and allies throughout the Fargo-Moorhead community, and throughout our state.

Together, quiet and secluded gatherings have grown into dances, youth events, and joyful parades across our state, with participation growing annually. We continue the journey locally that started that night in Greenwich Village, New York with a riot, and that is now recognized by Pride celebrations across our state and the country. Together, our local history—so long unknown—is now part of the historical archive at NDSU, thanks to the work of Red River Rainbow Seniors. Transgender youth are fighting for visibility and establishment of Gay/Straight Alliances in cities like Minot. Youth resource groups similar to Kaleidoscope here in Fargo are forming in Bismarck and Williston. We cannot take this legacy of celebration and work for equality for granted.

Now more than ever we can be stronger together, and we must. We must show up for our Transgender brothers and sisters, for Indigenous Missing and Murdered Women, for marginalized People of Color, for Muslims persecuted by stereotypes, for the migrant families torn apart, and for the children in concentration camps. We must show up for all members of our family. Dehumanizing any one of them dehumanizes us all. United, we must be strong and stand up for what is right.

As you celebrate, we encourage you to thank the volunteers, the venues, their staff, and the growing list of sponsors who continue to ensure that each year is successful, memorable and meaningful. Let us reflect on the strength and wisdom of this growing and beautifully diverse family as we celebrate Pride.

We are stronger together!

Christina Lindseth FM

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

2019 PROUD SUPPORTERS

ALL AGES BOWLING

LGBTQ+ TRIVIA & KARAOKE

2019 GRAND MARSHAL

YOUTH PRIDE

PRIDE DANCE PARTY

HARBOR HEALTH CLINIC

PRIDE 5K

PRIDE INTERFAITH SERVICE

PRAIRIE PUBLIC: SHARING OUR STORIES

RED RIVER RAINBOW SENIORS

PRIDE IN THE PARK

FM RAINBOW FAMILIES KIDWAY

PET PRIDE CONTEST

PRIDE BLOCK PARTY

TOBACCO CESSATION FOR LGBTQ+ INDIVIDUALS

PRIDE PARADE & COMMUNITY RALLY

MY WOMEN OF THE YEAR NOMINATION

2019 PRIDE PLANNING COMMITTEE

STONEWALL’S IMPACT

QUEER FILM: A REFLECTION

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

ALL AGES BOWLING | 6PM

All Star Bowl • 309 17th St. N, Moorhead

LGBTQ+ TRIVIA & KARAOKE | 8PM

Rhombus Guys Pizza • 606 Main Ave, Fargo

YOUTH PRIDE DRAG SHOW | 8PM

The Stage at Island Park • 333 4th St. S., Fargo

PRIDE DANCE PARTY | 9PM

Millennium Ballroom • Avalon Events Center • 2525 9th Ave S, Fargo

PRIDE 5K | 9AM

Woodlawn Park • 400 Woodlawn Dr., Moorhead

PRIDE IN THE PARK | 11AM

Island Park • 616 1st Ave S., Fargo

PRIDE BLOCK PARTY | 8:30PM

Fargo Brewing Company • 610 University Dr N, Fargo

PRIDE INTERFAITH SERVICE | 12PM

Fargo Theatre • 314 Broadway N, Fargo

PRIDE PARADE | 2PM

Moorhead Center Mall to Fargo Civic Center

COMMUNITY RALLY | FOLLOWING PARADE

Fargo Civic Center Lawn | 207 4th St N, Fargo

PRIDE OPEN HOUSE | 4PM

Pride Collective & Community Center • 1105 1st Ave S., Fargo

21+ Event Cover Charge

Olson Meet Johnny

GRAND MARSHAL 2019 PRIDE PARADE

How did you react when you were told you were selected as Grand Marshal? Were you surprised?

I was very surprised. It is a great honor to be nominated and recognized by the community.

What are you most excited for at this year’s FM Pride celebration?

I’m excited to see the performers at the block party and the Parade/Rally. It’s always amazing to see the crowds grow every year.

We understand you were on the Board of Directors for the Pride Collective and Community Center, can you tell us about that experience and what sort of responsibilities you had?

It’s always great to be a part of the community and help create events for that community. I was on the Board of Directors for about 2 years, I believe, and was a part of the PCCC for quite a few years prior as a volunteer. The experience is hard to put into words because there was a lot of stuff we did. I helped organize gatherings both at the Pride Center and around the community, as well as, helped with different groups and organizations that would meet. Being there, even if it was to listen to one person who would walk in off the street looking for information, was invigorating and I was always willing to help wherever I could.

Do you have a favorite aspect of Pride, or something that you look forward to most?

The parade is always one of my favorite things of Pride. It shows how we all come together, even if it’s just for a short period of time. So many people and their families come to enjoy and support each other.

We understand that you are also a local drag performer. Can you tell us about Miss Kitty?

Miss Kitty is a persona I created almost 20 years ago as a form to entertain others on stage. I’ve always enjoyed entertaining others whether through theatrical productions in high school or karaoke. Drag was just another art form for me to use to help others and make them happy. When I started performing, it was purely entertainment but as the years progressed it became so much more. I found that I could spread a message of hope and love to my work and help empower others and show them they can be whoever they wanted to be if they take courage and strength for those that have come before.

How often do you perform drag? Do you have a favorite outfit or song that you like to perform?

I usually perform at least once a month. I perform with many different groups such as the HMH Productions and BJ Armani’s Cabaret, but have performed mostly with the Mr. KingsMen shows. As for favorite outfit it’s pretty much anything with zebra print. That’s kind of become my signature look over the last few years. My favorite song is a little harder to narrow down. I usually perform songs by amazing people like RuPaul and other drag performers as well as Lady Gaga, Cher and Reba

McEntire. My current favorite song though is I Am What I Am by Gloria Gaynor. It’s an oldie but a great one.

What does drag mean to you?

Drag is an art form that allows me to step past my inner anxieties and let me be a stronger, more open version of myself. It strengthens me and gives me the courage to be out there as a symbol of hope for others.

What advice do you have for those who are struggling with their sexuality or coming out?

One thing I always tell people is to have the strength to be yourself. Don’t let others tell you how you are supposed to act, what you’re supposed to look like, who you’re supposed to love, etc. You are who you are and not what others wish you to be. You are not alone. There is someone out there struggling with the same issues as you are. It’s ok to be different. You are loved no matter what.

A PROUD supporter of F.M. Pride since the beginning!

Drag Show

With Performances By:

Autumn Summers

Oliver Longtime

Luna Muse

Spensor Ship

Asher Alexander Mia Starr

FRIDAY AUGUST 9 | 8 PM The Stage at Island Park | 334 4th St S. | Fargo

$ 10 COVER | 21+

FRIDAY AUGUST 9 | 9 PM

OUR ROAD TOWARDS BECOMING NORTH DAKOTA’S FIRST AND ONLY LGBTQ+ HEALTH CENTER

BY: FAYE SEIDLER

I was born and raised in North Dakota, where my childhood seemed to be an endless stretch of cows, wheat, and corn. I grew up with our brutally cold winters and scorchingly humid summers. As the years went on I saw most of my friends leave for better and brighter in other states through college, relationships, or jobs. When I became a young adult I finally had a word to describe a feeling that was with me for most of my life but I could never adequately express. It wasn’t until my early twenties I realized I was transgender and started taking the first steps to bring my life into balance.

What I discovered as a trans person growing up in this state and seeking medical care is that there is very little space for myself and my community. Medically transitioning for me was a complicated and exhausting process as I had to navigate a healthcare system that wasn’t designed for me. When I transitioned there was only one endocrinologist serving the entire general trans population in a state of 700,000 people. I had to wait nearly a year between picking up the phone and getting treatment.

As I spoke to others in the LGBTQ+ community, I discovered this wasn’t isolated to just the trans community. It seemed like the first question most people had coming to our state was who was a good doctor and nobody had a great answer. It wasn’t that our experiences were awful, but simply that our doctors were rarely equipped with the tools to handle the full scope of our specific care nor had the cultural competency to really make us feel understood and welcome. And

while there were some great healthcare providers across our state, getting one was the exception, not the expectation.

I knew it could be better and that it had to be better to help serve such an at-risk and disenfranchised community. As an activist I made sure to focus on educating healthcare practitioners on cultural competency training and asking for more and better from healthcare in general. After marriage equality was upheld by the supreme court, I spoke loudly about the need for better healthcare.

Then in 2017, Doctor Richard Lensmeier sent me an email asking me what the state of healthcare was for trans individuals. After a lengthy conversation about the need for better services and care, he asked me what we could do. Between myself, Dr. Lenzmeier, and the folks at the Community Uplift Program, we started Harbor Health Clinic in the administrative office of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. It was a clinic designed to help transgender individuals access healthcare without the economic and social barriers that were hindering them before.

While we expected 20 patients for our first year, we got nearly 100. When we started taking insurance, we started gaining capital to expand our services. We were able to rent out an actual clinic space for one day a week and with our Nurse Practitioner Heidi Selzler-Echola we have started providing things like PrEP, HIV/STI testing, annual physicals, lab draw services, and hormone therapy, all of which designed bottom up

with inclusivity in mind and based on a sliding scale.

By next year we hope to be open for more hours. In the next few years we hope to rent our own clinic space and have the staff to operate five days a week. In the next five years we want people to walk into our building and leave with everything they need. We want people helping with case management, therapy, physicals, hormones, and whatever else we can do to make sure our community is healthy and can thrive.

If you want to donate to our clinic, ask about our services, or make an appointment please visit our website at harborhealthclinic.org.

If you’d be interested in volunteering your time and talent to this clinic, please email us at general@harborhealthclinic.org.

Otherwise follow Community Uplift Program at https://www.facebook.com/ communityupliftprogram/.

TRANSGENDER CULTURAL COMPETENCY TRAINING

COMMUNITY UPLIFT PROGRAM

Federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit ffering Transgender Cultural Competency Training/Inclusivity Training

ovide resource coordination on a variety of levels to the public

HARBOR HEALTH CLINIC

xists within the Community Uplift Program ffering Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy using an Informed Consent Model

arbor Health specializes in LBGTQ+ healthcare. Our services also include

HIV/STI testing and

Minnesota State University Moorhead welcomes members of the LGBTQ+ community and provides a campus environment where all people can be their authentic selves Our LGBTQ+ Center is a suppor tive space for members of

PRAIRIE PUBLIC: SHARING OUR STORIES

BY: MARIE OFFUTT, PRAIRIE PUBLIC BROADCASTING

Prairie Public is proud to broadcast radio narratives from StoryCorps, an organization that preserves and shares humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world. Following is just one of the stories produced by StoryCorps. Find more stories, or share your own, at storycorps.org, learn about their project to preserve stories like this one at storycorps. org/outloud, and learn more about your public radio station at prairiepublic. org.

Dee Westenhauser grew up in El Paso Texas in the 1950s, and came to StoryCorps to remember the one place where she could truly be herself.

comfortable for you?” And what was there were a blouse and a wig. I knew I was a girl. And so that weekend, I got to be me. We went shopping in my outfits. Everyone in the neighborhood knew Yaya. And she would introduce me as her niece.

Martha Gonzalez: Would you go home and mention anything like that?

Dee Westenhauser: If you were to see Aunt Yaya back in the day the way I saw her, she was tall. She had a beautiful angular face with high cheekbones and she had brown eyes. They almost looked like owl eyes, scanning everything. And the way she walked around a room would tell you she held herself in high regard.

One weekend, my mom and my dad, they decided that I was going to go to Aunt Yaya’s house. I was nine years old. And once the door closed, she says, “How would you like to change into something that’s really

Dee: No. She said, “When you go home, you have to be what they want. Because if you don’t and they find you out, you will be hurt.” She was the one who taught me early on that I have to play the game.

Yaya...she had a lifelong friend. And it wasn’t until years later that I finally figured out that her friend was her lover and her partner. And you never spoke of that back in the day.

Yaya never got the love she was supposed to from the rest of the family. And Yaya wanted me to be everything that she wanted to be if she could live her life over again.

She gave me pearls of wisdom. You could string a necklace to the moon and back with everything that she would share. I loved her, she loved me back, and behind that white door became my place to be the little girl that I needed to be.

Art by Ace & Son Moving Picture Co., LLC, funded by CPB, courtesy of StoryCorps

Happy Pride! The past year we have been continuing to work on visibility within the FM community and state of North Dakota. We have also worked at solidifying the structure of the group itself to insure its longevity. The group holds monthly meetings and happy hours as well as special events, quarterly educational sessions in coordination with AARP, and we continue to engage in community advocacy.

Equality with Wisdom.

music from the 50’s and the other where we danced in style to the music of the late 60’s to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. One highlight was being able to participate in and help fund the inaugural ND LBGTQ+ Summit in Mandan. LGBTQ+ folks from across the state gathered to talk about community, legislative, and personal issues that face us in North Dakota.

COME JOIN US!

This year we connected with the North Dakota Long Term Care Association and began conversations with a couple of eldercare/assisted living facilities in the FM area. We talked with local and national caregivers about “aging in place” and discussed friend-based community care networks. Seasoned professionals gave advice and answered questions about financial planning for single, partnered, and married LGBTQ folks. We also hosted two Dancin’ with the Oldies parties; one with live

Once again during 2019 FM Pride, we’ll have a booth on Saturday at Pride in the Park, will co-sponsor the 4th annual AARP social gathering (after festivities in the park are over) at the Boiler Room, participate in the Pride Parade, and host the Pride Family Picnic and Open House after the parade on Sunday at the Pride Collective & Community Center.

BREAKING BARRIERS: HARVESTING LGBTQ STORIES FROM THE NORTHERN PLAINS

In November 2017, the Red River Rainbow Seniors began an oral history project, “Breaking Barriers: Harvesting LGBTQ Stories from the Northern Plains,” focusing on older LGBTQ people and their allies. This is the longest running ongoing project for RRRS. Over 75 people have been interviewed. The original digital files and the transcriptions of the oral histories will be available in the North Dakota State University Archives. Prairie Public Radio has worked with project coordinators to broadcast excerpts from some of interviews with the permission

Red River Rainbow Seniors

in the Red River Valley.

of the interviewees. These are available at the podcast (https://news.prairiepublic.org/ programs/breaking-barriers).

You can contact us about Breaking Barriers by emailing RRRS or contacting the oral history project directly at: redriverrainboworalhistory@gmail.com or check out it out on Facebook: https://www. facebook.com/BreakingBarriersLGBTQ/

Red River Rainbow Seniors Oral History Project

SATURDAY, AUGUST

From one of the thousands of tiny islands in the Philippines comes a mighty, powerful force known as Ongina! Also known as Ryan Ong Palao, he currently resides in Los Angeles. Ongina is most recognized, recently, for bringing artistic appeal and a whole lot of face to a show-stealing appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Season 1. Ongina is one unique artist who will leave an imprint in your mind and hopefully your hearts! Her name originated from the fascination of a certain kind of “ina”, but she has more balls than a raging bull! Ongina maybe as sweet as apple pie, but she’s “blade ready” when she needs to be. Gender bending, head-piece wearing, recently tucking Ongina is one who surely delivers!

Nina DiAngelo

Nina is no stranger to FM Pride. She has hosted the block party for several years now and is extremely excited for this year’s line-up.

She now resides in St Louis, MO where she is Show Director and Entertainer with an All-Star cast at Hamburger Mary’s St. Louis. Follow her on Instagram: @ninadiangelo

“My Schedule Is Pretty Hectic , But I Always Look Forward To Working With The Amazing Folks At Fm Pride“

Tiffany T. Hunter Ongina

Tiffany T. Hunter lives in St. Louis, MO, where she is a cast member at Hamburger Mary’s St. Louis, but is originally from Illinois where she grew up on a large cattle farm. She is 35 years old. Some of her favorite pastimes are watching drag pageants, buying rhinestones, hoarding drag, catching up on her TV shows, watching Hallmark movies, traveling and spending quality time with her cat Tyrone. Her titles include Miss Heart of America Continental, Miss Minnesota Continental and Miss Illinois Continental; she captured the national title of Miss Continental 2015 on her 6th attempt. She’s excited for her first appearance at FM Pride.

Nikki Vixxen

Nikki Vixxen is originally from Grand Forks but has called Minneapolis home for the past 23 years. She instantly fell in love with drag when she attended her first show at the Gay 90’s in 2000, but didn’t start doing drag herself until 2008. Since then she has spent much of her time in drag competing in local and national pageants. In total she has won 7 local and bar titles, but her biggest accomplishment was winning the national title of All American Goddess in 2018. When in the Twin Cities, you can catch Nikki performing at the Saloon, Gay 90’s, LUSH, and Black Hart.

DJ Joyride

DJ Joyride spent 13 years in Fargo-Moorhead spreading feel-good, electronicinfluenced dance sounds with his work through KNDS Radio and Icedbreaks Entertainment.

He returns again to drive the sound track to the PRIDE Block Party at Fargo Brewing Co. on Saturday. We will celebrate love in all its forms, sing along to great anthems and then get wild when the drag show begins.

Joyride will be joined by DJ Mental Floss to bring an underground warehouse vibe into the late hours inside the venue to close out the night.

NDQUITS PROVIDES TOBACCO CESSATION SUPPORT FOR LGBT INDIVIDUALS

BY: KARA HICKEL

The tobacco industry has targeted the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community for decades and has unfortunately been successful with their efforts. According to the Truth Initiative, LGBTQ+ adults smoke at rates up to 2.5 times higher than straight adults. With a goal of reducing this statistic, North Dakota’s tobacco cessation program, NDQuits, offers several options to help all tobacco users quit.

Tobacco companies recognized that LGBTQ+ individuals often have risk factors for smoking that include daily stress related to social stigma and discrimination. The tobacco industry began marketing to LGBTQ+ communities in the early 1990s by buying ads in gay publications with intentions of normalizing tobacco use in LGBTQ+ culture. In 1995, tobacco company R.J. Reynolds created a marketing strategy called “Project SCUM (Subculture Urban Marketing)” to boost sales among gay men. Tobacco companies have continued their efforts through advertising during Pride celebrations and by hosting and/or sponsoring LGBTQ+ events and organizations.

In data collected by the National Health Interview Survey in 2016, 20.5% of LGBTQ+ adults smoke cigarettes, compared to 15.3% of straight adults. The American Cancer Society estimates that over 30 thousand LGBTQ+ persons are dying each year of tobacco-related diseases. Tobacco use is also higher among LGBTQ+ youth, especially lesbian and bisexual girls. The Truth Initiative states that adolescent females with same-sex attraction are 9.7 times more likely to smoke regularly.

The LGBTQ+ community has made huge strides regarding discrimination and equal rights. However, tobacco companies continue to take advantage of these individuals. LGBTQ+ people fight many battles on a day-to-day basis, but nicotine addiction doesn’t have to be a battle forever.

NDQuits offers free, confidential cessation assistance and support to any North Dakota resident interested in quitting tobacco, including electronic cigarettes and vaping products. For more information on the resources available, visit ndhealth.gov/ndquits.

AffordablElegance

Be brave Be bold Be you

FMGMC is a group of Gay/Bi/Supportive Men/male identified people aged Youth to Adult, in the FargoMoorhead area who love to sing & want to share our talents with our community.

Our chorus provides a safe and inclusive space where singers can grow through performance & social interaction while campaigning unceasingly for equality & justice for the LGBTQ+ community and forging alliances to make our voices heard.

Our purpose is to use music to change the general publics image & attitudes toward the gay community, to provide high quality choral performances & to make the world a better place.

MY WOMEN OF THE YEAR NOMINATION

BY: REBEL MARIE

I was nominated to be a Woman of the Year 2019 through the YWCA organization. This was filled with opportunity and challenges that aren’t always apparent to our cisgender allies. Being a trans woman and getting nominated for this woman-only award meant the YWCA here in our community views trans women as women. This allows us to access spaces that are critical for our survival such as a women’s shelter which is needed because we often face domestic violence from partners, siblings, or even parents. This nomination also put me in the presence of folks who had probably never seen a trans person and elevated my work to be equal as theirs. Being with a bunch of women who have done amazing work and being seen as an equal from an organization that does not do traditional queer-centered work left me with a confidence and personal value that cannot be taken away.

However, this organization has a lot of followers, and I was very visible at this event. The trans community has a lot of people who harass us because they do not want us to have that confidence and acceptance within our community to survive. Accepting this nomination meant that I would be visible to folks outside of the queer community which exposes me to folks who are emboldened to hurt trans women, whether emotionally or physically. There were a couple of comments on how I didn’t look like a traditional woman on a few of the social media venues, but most people commented with love for all of us. I was also worried that I would receive death threats and threats of bodily harm because of the nomination. I’m happy to say that I only received one threat of “being thrown off a roof” from a person who lived outside of Fargo. The thing that worried me the most was that

I would get more booed and receive little to no applause. Most of my cisgender folks didn’t believe that would happen, but Faye Seidler agreed she was thinking about that possibility too. Before it was my time to get up onto the stage, I got up and walked around to prepare myself mentally and emotionally to walk up to the stage. I probably sat next to the stage 10 to 15 minutes longer than any other candidate trying to find a place where I could get up, receive the flower, get my picture taken, and get off even if folks booed. When my name was finally called, I was met with a long and boisterous applause. Jamie Serber told me she felt like the applause was held longer than for any other nominee. This was nice because I also believe that I was the only nominee that didn’t have their family there. My children are too young to attend an event like this, and seeing nominees with their parents made me feel like I was missing out by not having mine there. Hopefully in the future my parents and I will be at a level of

TRI-STATE TRANSGENDER

acceptance that they would be proud to see me at an event like this.

I also realize that most of the work that I had done to receive this nomination was volunteer work, and other folks had gotten the nomination through their careers. I’m hoping that this nomination will help me find a career where I can continue to do the work that I do, but also get paid to do it so I can keep on advocating and advancing rights for marginalized people while supporting my children. I want to give a special shout out to Rabbi Jamie Serber and trans advocate Faye Seidler for the nomination and allowing me to have this experience.

Rebel Marie is the past president of Tri-State Transgender and has been a big advocate for the transgender community.

coming soon to Grand Forks and Bismarck!

STONEWALL’S IMPACT

BY: ELLA HUWE

I was 9 years old and living in Bismarck ND when the Stonewall riots broke out. I didn’t hear about Stonewall until many years later. I didn’t know any LBGTQ+ people. I didn’t read about LGBTQ+ people. I didn’t see any LBGTQ+ characters on TV or in the movies. Everything changes in the late 70’s.

I was bullied in college for being perceived as a lesbian, although I should probably thank those people. It was that harassment that got me thinking that being a lesbian was an option.

I have seen friends harassed and spied on in military witch hunts. Our tax dollars at work. I have seen the military overturn the ban on LGBTQ+ service and allow people to serve openly.

I have seen the Bible used as a weapon to turn children against their mothers. Now parental alienation is viewed as child abuse.

I have been threatened with death, and had a friend’s car window shot out. Now law enforcement takes these things seriously.

I have been fired from a job because I was a lesbian. Unfortunately, that can still happen.

I have had many men tell me the only reason I was a lesbian was because I haven’t been with the right man. They, of course, were that man.

I was told I could not adopt children, because I was a lesbian. I was told I could not be a foster parent because I lived with someone I wasn’t related to. I have fostered around 25 children and adopted 2 of them. Now agencies actively recruit same-sex couples.

I saw my mother become a surrogate mother to many in Bismarck whose families had disowned them. She changed from being very quiet and intimidated by talking in public, to speaking in front of the North Dakota Legislature to advocate for rights for her all her children and grandchildren.

I never thought I would live to see the day that we could get married. I also never thought I’d live to see the day when the American government put children in cages. It feels like we have taken 2 steps forward, and 20 steps back. Our rights are being threatened on every front.

Is it paranoid to think that they won’t stop at putting children and immigrants in cages? Is it paranoid to think that because I’m a known lesbian I might be targeted? Maybe, but there was a poster in my high school library that read “just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.”

I do have hope though. I believe that we will stand up for ourselves. I believe there are many that will stand up with us. I believe that together we are stronger than the hate and fear that is being spewed daily. I believe what Martin Luther King Jr. said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” This is what we must keep striving for.

Ella Huwe has been a leader in the FargoMoorhead LGBTQ+ community and advocate for children for several decades.

mschleifphotography.com | @mschleifphotography

At Sanford Health, we embrace the different perspectives and individual strengths of each member of our family. We value diversity because it makes us stronger, allowing us to deliver exceptional health care to the communities we serve.

If you are passionate about patient care, enthusiastic about helping people improve their health and are a warm, compassionate professional, you’ll find a rewarding and fulfilling career at Sanford Health.

QUEER FILMS: A REFLECTION

BY RAY REA, FM LGBT FILM FESTIVAL FOUNDER AND CURATOR

When Josh Boschee asked me to write something for this year’s Pride Guide in my capacity as a promoter of, programmer of, and maker of Queer Film, I had to reflect back into the past a little.

This 2019 Pride (across the country), many of us are looking back into the past and reflecting on how a few patrons of the Stonewall Inn spontaneously resisted decades of police harassment and lit the fire of what we now call Gay Rights. (There’s so much more to say about that; we also need to reflect on exactly how we are not monolithic and honestly never have been, but I’m not going to get into that here.)

As a filmmaker I asked myself what I thought was a pretty basic question: What was the first Queer Film that I ever saw? That question, it turns out, is ridiculously hard for me to answer.

For years before I had any idea that samesex attraction or transgender identity was possible, I was in love with the movies and TV. During my childhood that meant broadcast TV and movies in the theater. In my teens I started finding the underground film venues in the nearest city and getting there however I could.

Movies always seemed to me to have their own almost perverse sensibility. The drama, the exaggerated color or low key black & white, the theatrically artificial or the intense realism; looking back at this point I can see how all of it influenced my own aesthetic in pretty much the same way that any queer camp would do later. It was all over-the-top and sincere and authentic and unreal and very real at the same time. I quickly became a night-

owl teenager who would stay up for midnight movies or the first season of Saturday Night Live. But this was, theoretically, all before I had seen any of what we’d now call Queer Film.

So, when did I see my first LGBT-themed film? Was it the side romance between Sal Mineo and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause? I think that went over my head at the time, strange though that may seem now. Was it the same sex-desire in Jean Cocteau’s films, which I was miraculously exposed to in High School? I think I may have missed that too.

By the early 1980s, I was making short 16mm films in the west coast punk community but was actively doing everything I could to suppress my own sexuality. As soon as I had had enough of that misery and came out, I became aware of how I had always interacted with film, having my first crush on Lauren Bacall instead of Humphrey Bogart (I’m a Transman and came out for the first time as being attracted to women). The movies had always been a means to find my own desire projected through whatever character I chose.

By the late 1980s I was living in Boston and my friends and I were making short films about our own queer lives and from our own aesthetic. That’s as I remember it. Before I even saw a lot of Queer Film, I was making my own and I was surrounded by a vibrant community of young LGBTQ+ filmmakers who were makers as much as watchers. We submitted our work to a (then) expanding LGBT Film Festival circuit, but in many ways we were showing our work to each other.

During the 1990s I moved back to the West Coast and joined an MFA program, where I became part of a class of thirteen that included five of us who fell somewhere under the LGBT umbrella. I transitioned in my second year of that program and talked about it on the same day that a classmate came out as Intersex. It

we know that we’ll be taken on a new ride. The fact is that for my entire life some of those rides have shown me characters than I can relate to as an LGBTQ+ viewer, whether they are overtly LGBTQ+ characters themselves, or other characters that I project myself onto/ into. While I can’t easily answer the question: “what is the first Queer Film (I) saw”, I can say September 18–20 • 7pm

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

fmgmc.org

Many LGBTQ+ organizations in the FM area fall under the Pride Collective “umbrella,” including FM Pride, the Fargo-Moorhead Gay Men’s Chorus, Tri-State Transgender, Kaleidoscope, Red River Rainbow Seniors, and PolyAware.

fmpride.com

We have made every effort to try and showcase our local community groups in these pages, but if there is an LGBTQ+ organization that should be added, please contact us!

The Pride Collective & Community Center is a non-profit serving the FargoMoorhead LGBTQ+ community by bringing together multiple organizations to provide programming, resources, education, advocacy, and networking.

TRI-STATE TRANSGENDER

There are also LGBTQ+ organizations in the region that operate independently from the Pride Collective, including My Transition Partner, Community Uplift Program, Harbor Health Clinic, and more!

fmlgbtff.com

We hope that through bringing attention to all the amazing organizations that are working for LGBTQ+ people in our area, our community can grow and continue to be a safe, welcoming place for all!

We urge you to support these organizations in a way that is meaningful for you; volunteerism, attending events, financial donations, or simply following and sharing their messages on social media!

WILD, WILD

Midwest

Smack dab on the eastern border of North Dakota, Fargo is a city that pushes the boundaries of state lines and cultural experiences. Forget the Old West, welcome to the Wild, Wild Midwest.