Agenda 010716 issue 320 by Multi-Media Platforms

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JUST ADAM

The week reflected back through fabulously funny eyes SELLING OUT. So I just read that the Rentboy escort website, which was raided by the feds and is facing money laundering charges, is hawking lmemorabilia to payfor their legal defense. With all due respect, what are they selling? Used condoms? Lube packets? FRY DAY. Some queen on the third floor of my building burned chicken wings setting off the fire alarms in every apartment at an eardrum shattering volume that could revive Bea Arthur from the dead. I pulled myself together quickly and did my best dramatic Faye Dunaway escape from “The Towering Inferno.” FIX IT JESUS. I formally call upon Jesus to fix Ted Cruz’s unfortunate face THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREE LUNCH. My new rule to better myself this year is to stop being so generous with people. I am so tired of people reaching out to me only when they need something or want something or want professional advice completely free (this does not apply to my true friends.)You want something from me? Earn it! NO ‘RE, NO SHADE. Aretha Franklin: Not.only is she the Queen of soul as well as the queen of haute couture mink coats and clutches, but ole girl can THROW SHADE. In fact she probably invented it! DOPPELGÄNGERS? I’m just putting this out there… Has anyone ever seen Caitlyn Jenner and Wendy Williams in the same room at the same time? Mmm hmmm.. (WO)MAN CRUSH. Candice Bergen. Now that’s one handsome woman. SPAM-PAIGN. Seriously, whoever is running Hillary Clinton’s email campaign list should be fired. If I I get one more email from Chelsea Clinton or Bill Clinton or the dead cat Socks or Monica Lewinsky or that unfortunate looking Paula Jones woman about deadlines and donations and giving money, I’m moving to Canada.

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TREASURE HUNTING. Something is deﬁnitely in a state of decomposition in my car somewhere… So, it’s time to play a little guessing game. What could it be? A lone French fry, hidden deep under a seat? Or perhaps a trick that never called me back in 2013? The mystery continues.

Adam Cohen is South Florida’s favorite and most fabulous social commentator. He’s also single. Find him on Facbook to keep up with his hilarious take on the week’s headlines.

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING... “ITʼS TIME FOR REPUBLICANS TO STAND BY OUR PRINCIPLES -- ITʼS HOW WE WIN. AND ITʼS HOW IʼLL LEAD.” TED CRUZ via Twitter

JACKIE BISKUPSKI discussing the road ahead of her after being sworn in as Salt Lake City’s ﬁrst openly gay mayor.

“I GET A LITTLE TIRED OF EVERYTHING. IF I WAS STRAIGHT, YOU WOULDNʼT THINK THAT I SHOULD MAKE REFERENCES TO THE FACT THAT I WAS STRAIGHT, SO IT JUST FEELS A LITTLE BIT DOUBLE STANDARD-Y. ” ALAN CUMMING discussing how weary he has become of defending his bisexuality in an interview with The Independent in promotion of his memor Not My Father’s Son.

CHEERS

“Was it a secret? Let’s all just enjoy life & have no regrets.“ -Colton Haynes via his

personal Tumblr responding to a follower alluding to the actor’s “secret gay past.”

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA discussing what he believes to be the ﬁrst steps to creating comprehensive gun control reform in the United States.

JEERS

“Did you choose to be gay.” -Ben Carson

to a lesbian attendee of his town hall meeting in Staten Island. The woman asked if Carson believed she chose to be gay.

“I HAVE TO SAY, KATHY … NICE RACK. I DIDNʼT KNOW YOU HAD ALL OF THAT GOING ON UP THERE, I APPLAUD YOU FOR THAT.”

DON LEMON to Kathy Grifﬁn while hosting CNN New Year’s Eve coverage from New Orleans

January 07, 2016

“I KNOW THAT WE HAVE WORK TO DO STILL. AND IT IS WORK THAT I TAKE SERIOUSLY. BUT I AM A FIRM BELIEVER THAT IN ORDER FOR TRUE EQUALITY TO EXIST FOR ANYONE, WE MUST PURSUE IT FOR EVERYONE, AND THAT IS A GOAL OF MINE.”

KYLIE MINOGUE singing in the season 2 opener of ABC fairy tale musical comedy Galavant,, which is being referred to as one of the gayest episodes in TV history.

“THESE ARE NOT ONLY RECOMMENDATIONS THAT ARE WELL WITHIN MY LEGAL AUTHORITY AND THE EXECTIVE BRANCH. BUT THEY ARE ALSO ONES THAT THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE AMERICAN PEOPLE,, INCLUDING GUN OWNERS SUPPORT OWNERS,, IN. AND BELIEVE IN.”

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“Oﬀ Oﬀ with his shirt, strip him down. Don’t be shy, boys. Go to town.””

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Random thoughts from social media and beyond this week

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COVER STORY

WHAT’S FLORIDA REALLY LIKE:

GAY AND LESBIANS HAVE DIFFERENT VIEWS By Richard Hack

January 07, 2016

o the LGBT world at large, Florida is known as paradise. Pictures of swaying palm trees compete with warm ocean breezes and white sand beaches as enticements for tourist travel that brings millions of gay and lesbians travelers to our shores each year. Chambers of commerce across the state target the LGBT community for its disposable income and its lust for travel, and have successfully made our state the ultimate LGBT destination in the world, routinely making top-10 lists. But what do those who visit our sand and surf really think about the Sunshine State? Is it all hype or does the reality actually match its advance publicity? San Francisco-based CMI Community Marketing surveyed inbound tourism and found some rather amazing results. When visitors were asked to rate a hypothetical Florida vacation, 65% gave a positive rating, with only 26% neutral, and nearly no one rating Florida negatively. That’s the good news. The bad news is that lesbian and bisexual women are far less likely to rate Florida positively—particularly when they come here from Western states.

When analyzed by identity and age, CMI was able to further identify a distinct difference between gays and lesbians’ perceptions of Florida. Fort Lauderdale rates best with older gay and bisexual men, but not as well with women. In South Florida, Miami attracts the most Millennial LGBTs, Orlando has a more even demographic distribution, Key West does well with older LGBT men and women in equal proportions, while Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater and West Palm Beach/Boca Raton rate better with those 55+. While no Florida location is actually viewed as unfriendly, the northern part of the state does have many areas that are in the bible belt region. Fortunately, those are not areas that encourage LGBT travel. Overall, those that do reach out to gays and lesbians advertise their message of a warm welcome mat quite effectively. Visit Florida, the state’s ofﬁcial tourism marketing corporation, serves as Florida’s ofﬁcial source for travel planning to visitors across the globe. It is a primary source of many of the ads targeting the LGBT market. In Central Florida, Orlando and especially Tampa/St. Petersburg have a more neutral rating.

When compared with California three warm weather destinations (San Diego, Palm Springs and Los Angeles), Florida ended up a poor second with a 51% positive rating compared to California’s 68%. While many coming to Florida were actually here to visit family and friends, it was the sizzling hot beaches that appealed to those from Canada, younger LGBTs and those living in Texas. Not surprisingly, for gay parents bringing children, it was the lure of Theme Parks that scored on their radar. Travel with companions was heavily inﬂuenced by age and gender. Since lesbians and older gays are likelier to be in relationships, they were more likely to travel partners. Young gay men may travel in packs, but with friends who were not romantically linked. And a new but growing category, those LGBTs who travel to Florida with parents as elder caretakers— a group that is now larger than those traveling with children. Charts from Visit Florida tell the story graphically. It not only paints a picture of where we stand as a destination, but also the areas we need to improve upon to become the paradise we all know that Florida is.

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THE AGENDA INTERVIEW

A MUSICAL NOTE WITH MICHAEL MENDILLO

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BY ALEXANDER KACALA

In five years, the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida has grown to over one-hundred-and-fifty men and has put into practice their commitment to inspiring through song. Beginning in September 2010 as the dream of a few men who wanted to sing in a chorus, GMCSF continues to be realize that dream and fulfill it in ways that can only be considered extraordinary. Director of Development Michael Mendillo is new to the GMCSF team and new to South Florida. We had the opportunity to chat with him about what he did before moving, the exciting things happening in 2016 for GMCSF, and his goals as Director of Development for the New Year. KACALA: Where are you from? MENDILLO: I am originally from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. KACALA: What did you do before relocating to South Florida? MENDILLO: I received an undergraduate and a graduate degree in voice from the Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester Virginia. For the past two years, I was Box Office Manager as well as working in donor relations and marketing for the conservatory. I also interned in Synchronization and Licensing for film and television at BMG Chrysalis in New York City.

photo: facebook

January 07, 2016

KACALA: What are some exciting things happening with the Gay Men’s Chorus in 2016? MENDILLO: The GMCSF has concerts in March, June, and December in addition to a few other cabarets and performances by our smaller ensemble Tropical Wave. We are thrilled to have received a grant from the Knight Foundation, in partnership with Island City Stage and Stonewall Museum. The chorus will also be traveling to Denver to participate in the GALA festival. The chorus also has a Magic of Music

Fundraising Brunch on Sunday, January 17 at Pier 66, including performances by Tropical Wave and fantastic live and silent auction items. KACALA: What are some of your goals as Director of Development? MENDILLO: As Director of Development, I am hoping to raise more funds so the chorus can continue to do their work in the community, give high quality concerts, as well as increase their impact in South Florida. It is my hope that I am able to help bring the audience and donors closer to the work in a meaningful way. The chorus has done an exceptional job and I am thrilled to be working with these incredibly talented men. KACALA: What do you love so far about South Florida? MENDILLO: I love the people. Everyone here has been so incredibly kind and welcoming. As someone who moved here not knowing anyone, I already feel I have an incredible support system and I am happy to be a part of the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida’s family.

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Publisher Maura “Mumball” Lane

2000 Oakland Park Blvd. Suite 106 | Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306 Phone: 954-380-8563 | www.ﬂoridaagenda.com

AS I SEE IT

“I KNOW EVERYTHING”....DONALD TRUMP

t’s the first week of a new year, and after all the fireworks have died down, and the party hats and horns and noisemakers are shelved for another season, it’s time to take stock of where we’ve landed now that we’ve got both feet firmly back on the ground. Before we’ve even taken a deep inhale, one thing is clear. The Presidential Election 2016 has officially begun.

January 07, 2016

Art Director Kevin Broady

Editor-In-Chief Richard Hack richardhack@wirld.com

On Tuesday, Donald Trump began running his ﬁrst television advertisements in Iowa and New Hampshire—early voting states that always get more than their share of publicity. The primary in New Hampshire dates back to 1952 while the caucus in Iowa started By in 1972, and Richard both have been Hack major testing grounds for candidates for the Republican and Democratic nominations. As for Trump, he announced several days ago that he’ll be spending $2 million per week of his own money to market his candidacy, and, from the looks of his ﬁrst ad, the months ahead are going to be a messy time.

The ad opens with head shots of Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama which fade into pics of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino assassins. “The politicians can pretend it’s something else. But Donald Trump calls it radical Islamic terrorism,” a narrator says. “That’s why he’s calling for a temporary shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until we can ﬁgure out what’s going on.” Hmm…what’s going on? What’s going on Donald is that you are alienating an entire nation of American Muslims, most of whom are caught between a rock and a hard place as they try to endure the pathetic antics of the radical few. TEMPORARY BAN ON MUSLIMS ENTERING THE U.S. – TRUMP- reads a banner over images of men in ski masks. He promises to “quickly cut the head off ISIS and take their oil”—as if ISIS owned any oil. As footage shows graining black-and-white footage of dark

clothed men running down a hill and presumable across a boarder, the narrator says, “And he’ll stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for.” Never mind that the footage was later exposed to be Moroccans running across the border into the enclave at Melilla, Spain. The point here is that Donald Trump, who is currently leading the crop of Republican candidates, is openly deceiving potential voters through hyperbole and unrelated video. Thankfully, he did not bring the LGBT community into the ad, for Trump is quite outspoken on his opposition to gay marriage. At one point, he compared his opposition to the legalization of same-sex marriage to his reluctance to use a new kind of putter. ‘It’s like in golf,’ he said. ‘A lot of people — I don’t want this to sound trivial — but a lot of people are switching to these really long putters, very unattractive,’ said Trump. ‘It’s weird. You see these great players with these really long putters, because they can’t sink three-footers anymore. And, I hate it. I am a traditionalist. I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist.’” [New York Times, 5/2/2011 ] With the Iowa caucus less than a month away, and the New Hamp-

shire primary a few days later, last Monday night over 8,000 people waited in line in Lowell, Massachusetts, in freezing, windy conditions to get into the Paul E. Tsongas Center, an arena ﬁlled to capacity. There can be little doubt that these people and thousands more like them would eagerly do the same to vote for this man who was delivering “comments” rather than a speech in an arena named for a brilliant late Senator who must have been turning in his grave at lines like “I know exactly how to build a wall. I know the footings. I know exactly how deep they have to go. I know everything.” It was the genius Albert Einstein who ironically said, “I don’t know everything.” Einstein gave us the Theory of Relativity on which much in physics is based, yet few can understand. Trump has given us nothing, yet everyone who drools at his feet seems to understand him completely. Yes, it’s the ﬁrst week of the new year; and already I’m confused. There’s 306 days until the Election. We’ll keep you posted. Richard Hack is the award-winning author of 26 books, and the Vice President of Content for Multimedia Platforms’ publications.

“

I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist.” ...Trump explained

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OPINION DR. DURRELL’S SPIRITUAL PRESCRIPTIONS

it had ever been. Living in the power of truth has that effect, doesn’t it? During one of those heart-toheart and soul-to-soul conversations that young adults like to have late at night in dark bars, I said to one of my friends, “I’m so scared of this AIDS stuff that’s out there. I don’t know what I would do if I got it.” Without missing a beat, my friend responded, “I have it.” I was devastated. It was more than concern for my friend, however. There was a level of terror that swept through my body as if I had been given the diagnosis. You see, it was the first time someone I knew had been diagnosed with the HIV virus. His self-disclosure made it all very real to me. If he could get it, anyone could. I could. It was no longer just a news story; it was, as of that very moment, part of my life.

My friend was luckier than many in those early days. He went from nutritional therapies to monotherapies to combination therapies. He survived as treatments advanced. And when the day came for me to tell him that I had sero-converted, he was supportive, loving, and encouraging. He showed me that a diagnosis need not deﬁne us or steal our joy. One day many years later, my healthy, athletic old friend, who had proven that the human spirit is potentially indomitable, drowned while on vacation. After going toe to toe with HIV with remarkable success, an undercurrent at a Delaware beach is what ended his life. It seemed surreal. My grief was powerful and longlasting. It’s a new year, and somehow this new beginning brought to mind these ancient memories, but the memories are accompanied

by a sense of gratitude for the strides we’ve made in HIV care since those uncertain days. The memories also stir within me a hope that people will no longer contract HIV (it is preventable). I hope those who are HIV positive will become aware of their status and get life-saving treatment. I hope people will lovingly remember those we lost too soon. And I hope that HIV awareness and activism continue until all who are positive are liberated from shame and stigma, all who are HIV negative remain so, and at long last, a cure is found. AIDS isn’t over yet, but I still believe that it can be defeated if we will remain vigilant. May this new year be a happy and healthy one for all of us.

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t was the 1980s. I was in college. I was home for the holidays and met some of my old high school friends in a local bar. We hadn’t been “out” in high school (some of us were still sorting out our feelings and attractions) but By Rev. we had each discovered Durrell and happily Watkins accepted our sexual orientation since graduation. It was great to be back home and together, living out loud as the people we were meant to be. Our level of connecting and sharing was richer, deeper, and more profound than

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HIV: Memories & Hope

Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins is the senior minister of the Sunshine Cathedral in Ft. Lauderdale

PAUL BERGE

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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Welcome to 2016

January 07, 2016

Maura “Mumball” Lane

“

2016 feels like I am on the start of an amazing journey.”

hen does it feel like 2016? At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve? When we sign a check with the wrong date? When we book an Outlook appointment? When we gather our files for taxes? 2016 feels like I am on the start of an amazing journey. I was never one to overthink packing. I have been surprised by weather and had to buy sweatshirts in St. Augustine, I have left my wife Ilene’s bags in front of the house on a trip to the Keys, and many times had to visit the hotel front desk for a toothbrush. I do however painstakingly spend hours mapping out my destination with the goal of experiencing all it has to offer. I am curious about witnessing the daily habits of other cultures. I skip the gym and pound the pavement. I devour local attraction maps and will search hill and dale for a unique sweet. My travel behavior is a good glimpse into how I will serve as your Agenda Publisher. The Agenda is the LGBTQ newspaper of record. We must be the leader in election coverage. Our mandate is to dive deeper into your stories. We have to showcase the talent in our communities. We have to provide an outlet to multiple voices. We must be here for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While you know us as your weekly publication, by the end of the year my belief is that you will come to rely on us daily for information, business networking, lifestyle, politics, entertainment, events and community connections. I want you to become raving fans of FloridaAgenda.com and frequent attendees

to our events. We see LGBTQ not as alphabet soup. It is our check list. Is everyone covered? Do we have enough different views on this news topic? Whom do we know who can shed light on this subject? “Did you see the article on FloridaAgenda.com?” That is music to our ears. Sharing, commenting, debating, I am from a big family. Bring it on! Our smart strong, dedicated and restless content team raises the bar every day. You should hear the passion and focus in the strategy meetings. Our team will grow in 2016 and I am in relentless pursuit of thought leaders, commentators and unique talent. Our sales department is clear on their job description. It is to help businesses do more business with LGBTQ consumers. For the advertisers who have remained dedicated to our brand, we honor you and are excited to bring you a new and premium product. For small businesses looking to maximize their advertising dollars, we will find creative solutions to keep you in front of your consumers. For regional advertisers, we promise to develop result-focused custom campaigns that invite LGBTQ customers to your business. Off we go on the journey for 2016. I hope you’ll connect with me, share insights, point me in fun directions, keep me from falling in pits, and high fiving great results. Connections: Mauralane@wirld.com Twitter: @MumballLane LinkedIn: Mumball

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CAPITOL BEAT

After The Agony And The Ecstasy: The New Legal Battlegrounds

January 07, 2016

(Photo: raymondpronk.wordpress.com)

“Not just gay...ecstatic.” The young woman holding her witty sign was just one person among many outside the Supreme Court on June 26, 2015, celebrating the Court’s historic decision to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. But her joy was soon to be tempered by a dose of reality. As almost everyone knew, after the agony and the ecstasy, there would still be miles to go before we sleep..

nd the agony returned quickly. The continued — and record numbers of — murders among the transgender community, mainly women of color; the adoption denials faced by same-sex couples; discrimination in the workplace, housing and elsewhere; the absurd Kim Davis theatrics. The list could — and does — go on. There are more legal battles to fight. The lawyers who fight BY them, however, LINDA are optimistic. PENTZ After all, what began as a seemingly quite inane and clerical request — to have one’s name on a partner’s death certificate — culminated in that momentous day when Obergefell vs. Hodges prevailed. Two lawyers who certainly know the territory well, explored the upcoming legal landscape recently at a presentation by Lambda Legal and hosted by PNC bank, ranked as “one of the best places to work” by the Human Rights Campaign. The Supreme Court decision may have seemed inevitable to many, but Hayley Gorenberg, Deputy Legal Director for Lambda Legal, reminded us that the many lesserknown victories that paved the way were no cake walk. “We had an avalanche of wins leading to Obergefell, so you could think it was easy,” she said. “But we had to fight tooth and nail.” That willingness to fight continues to yield rewards. Gorenberg described a recent successful effort to recognize same sex parents in

Texas. Around 22,000 birth certificates in that state are currently being revised to legally name and recognize both parents on that important document. On the flip side, Texas was also the state where one of the more deflating defeats occurred — when the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance was annihilated in what Gorenberg described as “a terrible blow that echoes around the country.” Adding to the many theories surrounding HERO’s loss, Gorenberg observed that “short timeframe initiatives are harder to fight.” In effect, the toilet terror brigade got out of the gate fast and there was insufficient time to turn the campaign around. Currently on the docket for Lambda Legal is the case of Dana Zzyym, an intersex client who sued the State Department after being asked to choose either a male or female category on a passport application, a decision Zzyym said would be dishonest as someone who is neither. Intersex rights, said Gorenberg, is a new campaign area that many are unfamiliar with, even though it’s a condition she says occurs in one in every 2,000 births, a surprisingly high number. Despite efforts like these, “the storm clouds are clearly gathering,” Gorenberg said. And where they are gathering is undeniably, and defiantly, in the firmament of the religious right. This was a view shared by Gorenberg’s co-presenter, Paul Smith, one of the most respected LGBT rights lawyers in the country. He is most noted for successfully arguing Lawrence vs. Texas, in which the Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws in Texas and 13 other states. Even before the Supreme Court decision on marriage equality, Smith accurately predicted that

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PAUL SMITH

HAYLEY GORENBERG

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U.S. Department of Education make public the names of colleges and universities asking for Title IX waivers that allow them to discriminate against LGBT students. The eight include independent, Bernie Sanders, who is running for president as a Democrat. The remaining seven are also Democrats. “We are concerned these waivers allow for discrimination under the guise of religious beliefs,” the Senators wrote. Discrimination continues. It must now be fought, Smith and Gorenberg said, on a number of key frontiers: Trans rights; HIV decriminalization; immigration; equality in schools; ending conversion therapy; and many other issues. And despite the Supreme Court win, there can be no resting on legal laurels. “What happened at SCOTUS this summer did not happen out of nowhere,” Gorenberg said. “And

it was not a foregone conclusion.” As new cases move into the front lines, they will not be won in courtrooms alone. Anti-LGBT discrimination “will be solved,” Smith said, “when our culture is transformed and families don’t reject their own members.” Shining the legal spotlight on these cases helps to educate and enlighten. But in the end, both agreed, the legal victories also need to lead to a fundamental societal shift. Elevating acceptance and eradicating pseudoreligious bigotry: now those are New Year’s resolutions that could give us all another reason to be ecstatic.

Linda Pentz is the Washington correspondent of the Florida Agenda. She can be contacted at lindapentz@mmplgbt.com. Follow her on Twitter @CapitolAgenda

discrimination.” Esseks said most people support this view, pointing to a September 2015 Washington Post poll that saw 74 percent of Americans agreeing that when conﬂict arises, the need to treat everyone equally is more important than religious exemption. But at the state level the war is on and building. Newly-elected Kentucky governor, Matt Bevin, issued an executive order two weeks after taking ofﬁce that removes the names of all county clerks from marriage licenses issued in his state. In New Mexico, Republican lawmakers David Gallegos and Nora Espinoza have pre-filed a bill that would give state business owners the right to refuse business to gay, lesbian and transgender people and their families on the basis of religious freedom. Meanwhile, eight U.S. senators have requested in writing that the

The next big fight is against the aggressive use of religion as an excuse to avoid anti-discrimination laws”

January 07, 2016

religion would be used to justify continued discrimination against the LGBT community, a concern he reiterated at the Lambda Legal presentation. “The next big fight is against the aggressive use of religion as an excuse to avoid anti-discrimination laws,” Smith said. State religious exemption laws permit people, churches, non-profit organizations, and sometimes corporations to seek exemptions from state laws that they allege burden their religious beliefs. The ACLU agrees and predicts there will be on-going attacks aimed at undermining or circumventing marriage equality laws using religious exemptions. In a press briefing several weeks ago, the ACLU’s LGBT Project Director, James Esseks, said that while “religious freedom is central to American identity and the Constitution, that doesn’t give anyone the right to harm other people. That’s

“

(Photo: oyez.com)

(Photo: youtube.com)

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“

The storm clouds are clearly gathering, and where they are gathering is undeniably, and defiantly, in the firmament of the religious right.”

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18 January 07, 2016

CREEP OF THE WEEK

OPINION

By D’Anne Witowski

Matt Bevin

entucky sure knows how the pick ‘em, don’t they? Governor Matt Bevin, Tea Partier and Kim Davis’s BFF, was sworn in on Dec. 9, but he has wasted no time when it comes to dismantling anything that’s good about the state. Granted he’s the second Republican to hold that office in forty years, but when it rains it pours, I guess. Some say the fact that Bevin’s strong support of Davis and his stance against marriage equality helped him win the office and that may be true. Kentucky is one of the least supportive states when it comes to marriage equality with only about 33% in support. This is not surprising considering that 75% of Kentuckians bothering to vote in 2004 voted in favor of amending the state’s constitution to read, “Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Kentucky. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized.” But, of course, the Supreme Court told the state where to shove that amendment and voters were so freaked out that they ended up electing Bevin over his Democratic challenger Jack Conway, Kentucky’s former Attorney General who refused to support the state’s marriage ban in court. Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear did it instead even though he knew they would lose. And now the state is faced with a pretty staggering legal bill to pay. According to the The CourierJournal, the lawyers who won the case for marriage equality are seeking $2,091,297. That’s a big chunk of change. Gov. Beshear offered to settle for about a quarter of that before he left office, but that offer was declined.

And so now it’s up to Gov. Bevin to make things right. Which he is surely eager to do. I mean, this is a guy who visited Kim Davis in jail and who once said that marriage equality might lead to parents marrying their children for tax and inheritance purposes. He’s also got fringe right-wing groups calling on him to “nullify” the Supreme Court ruling on marriage, which basically means he’s being called upon to thumb his nose at the Court and say, “I’m rubber and you’re glue, what you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.” It should be noted that “nullification” isn’t really a thing. While Bevin was braiding Davis’s hair in the visiting room at jail, he called for Gov. Beshear to issue an executive order getting rid of County Clerk names from marriage licenses, essentially giving Davis an easy out to exercise her “religious freedom.” Bevin himself issued this executive order soon after taking office. He’s also hell bent on making life worse for the majority of Kentuckians. He plans on slashing the voter rolls, taking money away from public schools to give to private schools, lowering the minimum wage for government workers, weakening unions by making it harder to collect dues, and ditching kynect, the successful state run health insurance exchange that has been hailed as a model for the rest of the country. So congratulations, Kentucky. While you were mad about gays marrying, you voted against your own interests. Life is about to get worse for people who are poor, yet marriage for same-sex couples isn’t going anywhere. It’s a lose-win, really. Let’s hope the Democratically controlled House of Representatives can try to keep the wheels on this train, because Bevin doesn’t appear to believe in rails.

Matt Bevin

Photo:youtube.com

What’s your opinion? The Agenda wants to know...

The Florida Agenda welcomes signed Letters to the Editor, up to 400 words in length, on topics of general interest to our readers. You may e-mail submissions to Editor@mmplgbt. com. We welcome comments on our Facebook page also.

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January 07, 2016

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ELECTION SPECIAL FEATURE

NRC.Org Photo: southernstudies.com

STATES PLAN RENEWED DEBATE ON LGBT RIGHTS, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BY DAVID A. LIEB

January 07, 2016

ASSOCIATED PRESS

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (AP) - With samesex marriage now legal nationwide, lawmakers in numerous states are preparing for a new round of battles in 2016 over whether to grant discrimination protections to LGBT people or religious exemptions to nonproﬁts and businesses that object to gay marriage. The tussle over civil rights and religious freedoms is one of several hot-button issues that could drive states in opposite policy directions, as lawmakers seek to appeal to voters during a year in which more than 5,800 state legislative seats will be up for election. Republicans hold majorities in two-thirds of the states’ legislative chambers, meaning they get to set the agenda. Those priorities could include attempts to exempt businesses from providing wedding-related services to gay couples, expand gun rights and further restrictions on abortions.

Democrats, meanwhile, will likely be pushing in the opposite direction. “What we’ve got is division,” said William Pound, executive director of the National Conference of State Legislatures. He predicts there will be a “significant number of bills” seeking to advance either religious rights or the civil rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. “You’ve got the Democratic states reacting very differently, a lot of the time, than the Republican states to these issues,” Pound said. Those potentially divisive debates will be playing out as legislators also struggle with some traditionally difficult financial issues, such as budget shortfalls and calls to boost funding for public schools and infrastructure. Education issues are expected to be at the forefront in more than a third of the states, according to an analysis by Associated Press

statehouse reporters around the country. At least 10 states might consider new revenue for transportation in 2016, building on a trend in which at least half the states already have acted in the past several years. States that rely heavily on the energy industry for tax income, such as Alaska, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming, are taking big budget hits due to falling oil, natural gas and coal revenue. But tax cuts could be on the agenda in more than a half-dozen other states, including Arizona, Florida and Maine. States’ general revenues are expected to grow by about 2.5 percent in 2016, according to the National Association of State Budget Ofﬁcers. As they prepare their next budgets, “states are still going to be very pinched” to meet rising costs for K-12 schools, Medicaid and core services, said David Adkins, executive director and chief executive of The Council of State

u A battle over funding for Planned Parenthood - and a renewed push for additional abortion restrictions - is expected in response to undercover videos released last summer showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing aborted fetal body parts. Ohio Right to Life has an aggressive agenda, including a 20week abortion ban, a prohibition on ending pregnancies involving a Down Syndrome diagnosis and the defunding of Planned Parenthood. Republican-led legislatures in Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, South Dakota and Utah also are among the places pushing greater restrictions on abortion and Planned Parenthood. u In Colorado, where a gunman killed three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in November, the Democratic-led House could consider increasing the state’s protest buffer around abortion clinics. But Republican senators may try to defund Planned Parenthood, citing the fetal body part videos. u Some states, responding to police shootings of citizens that prompted widespread protests, plan to try again in 2016 to set policies for the use of police body cameras and new procedures for investigating police shootings. u Several states are considering comprehensive sentencing changes, such as prison alternatives for non-violent offenders. More states also are expected to debate bills relaxing laws against marijuana, either by revoking criminal penalties or allowing for its medicinal use.

Support this ruling Do you think businesses should or should not be allowed to refuse service to gays and lesbians?

Should not be allowed to refuse What if the business says homosexuality violates its owners’ religious beliefs? In that case, do you think the business should or should not be allowed to refuse service to gays and lesbians?

Should not be allowed to refuse SURVEY BY QUINNIPIAC

u States such as Florida, South Dakota and West Virginia are among those considering bills allowing concealed guns on college campuses or dropping require-

u Stricter gun controls are being discussed in California, Illinois and New York, including measures that would prohibit ﬁrearm sales to people on government no-ﬂy lists or terrorist watch lists.

The Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriages should be legal in all fifty states

January 07, 2016

u Lawmakers in several states are seeking to expand gun rights, citing a need for self-defense following a spate of mass shootings in San Bernardino, California, a community college in Oregon, a historically black church in South Carolina and a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado.

ments for a government permit to carry concealed weapons.

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measures that would grant broad protections “from government discrimination” against people “who have a sincere belief - religious or not - in natural marriage,” said Quena Gonzalez, the group’s director of state and local affairs. Missouri House Majority Leader Mike Cierpiot said many of his Republican colleagues were alarmed by the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. “I think there’s a lot of states that are looking at this and seeing what can be done to make sure that religious freedoms are respected,” said Cierpiot, a Republican from suburban Kansas City. An intense debate over gay rights already is shaping up in Indiana, where a religious-rights law passed last spring thrust the state into the national spotlight over concerns it could sanction discrimination against gays and lesbians. A coalition of 150 businesses is backing legislation to ban discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. An LGBT rights proposal outlined by Indiana Senate Republicans would grant broad exceptions intended to protect small business owners and religious schools, nonproﬁts and adoption agencies. For example, a wedding-related business with fewer than four employees could refuse to do work for a same-sex marriage. Other issues that made headlines in 2015 also are expected to lead legislative agendas in the new year:

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Governments. Added to the mix will be several emerging issues, such as how to quell a rise in opiate addictions and overdoses, and whether to extend regulations to online fantasy sports and to individuals renting rides or lodging through the “sharing economy.” Some states also will be wrestling with unique local issues, including flood recovery in South Carolina, whether to keep the Confederate emblem on the Mississippi flag, as well as ethics overhauls following political scandals in New York, Missouri and New Mexico. Influential national groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Family Research Council are preparing for a new round of legislative debates after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that states must allow samesex marriage. Their focus now is on the effect of that ruling. There are 22 states with laws barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and 21 with laws limiting the government’s ability to burden the free exercise of religion. But just four states Connecticut, Rhode Island, Illinois and New Mexico - have both. The ACLU will be seeking to expand the list of places barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It’s targeting at least a half dozen states - Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania - that have Republicanled legislatures and also may be pivotal in presidential elections. The Supreme Court’s decision “certainly provides momentum on the issue,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel, a Democrat from the Pittsburgh area who has been unsuccessfully sponsoring gay rights bills for more than a decade. He said challenges remain and pointed to a November referendum in which Houston voters rejected a city ordinance extending nondiscrimination protections to gay and transgender people. The Family Research Council, which opposed the Houston ordinance, is supporting state

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ELECTION SPECIAL FEATURE

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Letter to the Editor

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OPINION

OBAMA GOES MAD ON GUNS

January 07, 2016

n January 5th, President Obama announced that he was taking executive action to increase the safety of Americans by regulating guns. His actions don’t reflect reality nor will they keep us any safer. All Americans should be very afraid of the implications of where the president and the Democrats will go to shred the 2nd Amendment and our right to medical privacy. Americans are rightly grieved by the actions of madmen and terrorists who caused the slaughter of innocent children at the Sandy Hook School and the shootings at San Bernardino, California. If you watch 24-hour news channels all day, you might think the dead were piling up in our streets. I would suggest that the president’s actions are designed to tap in to the emotional fear created by this environment and encroach on the rights of law abiding Americans to own and carry firearms and shred our medical privacy rights. Statistics constantly suggest that violent crime is at a 36-year low (Time, 2014). Gun deaths have declined by 31% since 1993 (Pew Research, 2015). You are more likely to die from cancer, lung problems, heart attack, or car crash than a gun assault (National Safety Council, 2011).

While crime and violence are at historic lows (with the exception of some metropolitan areas), the 24 hour media circus would have you believe that people are being shot, hanged, knifed, assaulted, murdered, and raped on every street corner all the time. Statistics reveal that is a misperception, not a reality. It is this media led misperception that President Obama and those opposed gun ownership are seeking to capitalize on. The 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is clear that law abiding Americans by right are allowed to keep and bear arms: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 in District of Columbia et. al. v. Heller and later in McDonald v. Chicago (2010) that gun ownership is an individual right unconnected with a militia and that this individual right is applicable in all states and cities. Despite violent crime at historic lows and the individual right to own guns well established, President Obama has announced dangerous executive actions which fly in the face of liberty, practicality, and reality. His proposals include background checks on private sales of guns between individuals,

expanding the list of persons prohibited from purchasing guns to include those on the Terrorist No Fly List, and hiring new government agents to investigate gun transactions. The most dangerous proposal would include putting your medical and mental health records in a database from which information could be used to end your right to own a gun. According to the New York Daily News (January 5, 2016), “Attorney General Loretta Lynch has also sent a letter to states highlighting the importance of receiving complete criminal history records and criminal dispositions of persons disqualified from buying firearms because of a mental illness.” It would seem rational that we would want to prevent lunatics from owning guns. But how do we define mental illness? Anyone who takes Xanex? Anyone who has sought therapy in the last five years? Think of this: your therapist, doctor, or lawyer may one day be forced to “mandatory report” you to the government if you actually seek help for a mental health challenge. According to Reason Magazine (January 5, 2016), the president’s plan would: “Among other things, the gun-related “executive actions” that President Obama is announcing today aim to ‘increase mental health treatment and reporting to the background check

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(CNN, December 7, 2015). No one system.’ To put it another way, the really knows (except the CIA, maybe president wants to encourage more people with mental problems to seek the FBI) who is on the Terrorist No Fly List or how you get off. It’s all professional help while increasing part of our national security apparathe likelihood that doing so will tus and you have little recourse as a result in the permanent loss of their citizen if you are on it. Second Amendment rights. Those President Obama wants to broaden two goals may prove hard to reconbackground check requirements to cile.” include more private transactions. We all should be frightened of It’s impractical – some estimates the ramifications of this quotation. hold that there are over 300 million Americans have long enjoyed the guns in America. If I give a gun to privacy of our medical records enmy father for his birthday, do I have shrined in the Health Insurance Prito do a background check on him? vacy and Portability Act (HIPAA). Broward County (Fort Lauderdale, Passed in 1996, HIPAA it is this Florida) passed a universal backfederal law that sets a national stanground check requirement in 1998 dard to protect medical records and and as of this date, there have been other personal health information. zero – that’s right - zero prosecuThe rule defines what is “protected tions. health information” and how this The president is dead wrong on information is shared with others this issue. His executive action may such as doctors, insurers, caregivers be unconstitutional and none of the and when and how your permisactions can prevent bad people from sion is required for such sharing of doing bad things. Nothing in the information. The possible implications of Presi- president’s plan will stop another Sandy Hook or dent Obama’s terrorist attack on executive gun our shores. play could lead In each and to our protected every case where health inforthose who commation being mitted heinous breached, in acts of violence violation of Americans with guns did not HIPAA, to decide who should deserve the same commit suicide, it was good have guns, drive protection as our guys with guns a car, be teacher, who came to the or an airline officials who rescue. Good pilot. Imagine guys with guns that your visit enjoy armed are protecting to a drug rehab President Obama or trip to your security at our and Mrs. Clinton counselor now expense.” (who don’t seem being the basis ready to give upon which up their protecyour rights, tion). Americans privileges, and deserve the same future employprotection as our officials who enjoy ment are denied. armed security at our expense. That The president wants those on protection is embodied in our right the Terrorist No Fly List to also be to keep and bear arms for protection. barred from purchasing firearms. Remember those who would take The problem is that this is the same your rights away from you when Terrorist No Fly List that stopped you vote in the upcoming November then Senator Kennedy from flying elections. (August 2004). According to CNN other dangerous terrorists flagged on the Terrorist No Fly List include The Rev. Gus Kein is a retired singer Cat Stevens, U.S. Representapastor and civil rights activist livtive John Lewis, and an 18-monthing in Fort Lauderdale. old toddler trying to fly on Jet Blue

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Richard McClellan. “Making sure that everyone is treated fairly and we can prevent discrimination is a great thing,” said Fair Michigan spokeswoman Sara Wurfel, who declined to say how much money the group has but said it intends to begin collecting signatures in January. “We think this has, actually, a path to win, and we’re going to be doing everything we can to work with everyone to get there and make sure that can be the outcome. ... We are prepared to move forward.” The state constitution bars discrimination because of religion, race, color or national origin. The amendment would add gender, gender identity, sex and sexual orientation protections. The GOP-controlled Legislature has blocked legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to a civil rights law, prohibiting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents in employment, housing and

places open to the public. Equality Michigan supports continuing to lobby legislators for the next three or four years instead of pursuing the 2016 ballot measure, executive director Steph White said. “The whole LGBT movement is pretty united on that path,” she said. “None of the (poll) numbers I’ve seen indicated any hope for this to win.” The landslide defeat in November of a nondiscrimination ordinance in Houston has left LGBT-rights activists bracing for their opponents to seize on the successful tactic of stoking fears over transgender people’s access to public restrooms. White said the LGBT community should not have to endure “hate speech” that would inevitably come during the failed ballot campaign, and advocates ﬁrst need to better educate the public in order to push back against opponents’ arguments.

BISMARCK, ND (AP) - A North Dakota Legislative committee is mulling whether to change the state constitution and update state law to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that declared same-sex couples have the right to marry. The Legislature’s interim Judiciary Committee debated Tuesday whether changes should be adopted or the law left alone as a statement. The Supreme Court in June declared same-sex couples have the right to marry nationwide. A federal judge shortly after ruled North Dakota’s decade-old ban on gay marriage unconstitutional and invalid. Gail Wischmann of Fargo told the committee that she wed her partner last month. She said that if the state does not change its constitution and statutes “it’s almost like we’re thumbing our nose at the Supreme Court decision.”

MONTPELIER, VT (AP) - The Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force, which in 2009 pushed for and won passage of the country’s ﬁrst same-sex marriage law not forced by a court, said Thursday that its work is done and it’s disbanding. The task force was formed in 1996 by Beth Robinson, now a Vermont Supreme Court justice, and Susan Murray, with hopes of achieving civil marriage equality in Vermont. Gay marriage in Vermont came nine years after the state’s ﬁrst-in-the-nation civil unions law created after a samesex couple challenged the inequality of the state marriage statute. “Even after Vermont achieved in-state marriage equality in 2009, we felt it was important to keep standing for the principle that equality shouldn’t depend on where you live,” said Sheryl Rapee, chairwoman of the task force. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that same-sex couples can get married anywhere in the country, the group says its mission is complete. “Vermont’s leadership role in the marriage-equality movement provides a hopeful example of what can be accomplished when people join together with determination and perseverance to gain civil rights,” the organization said in a press release.

Last Laugh: Oregon bakery owners pay big PORTLAND, OR (AP) — Oregon bakery owners who denied service to a same-sex couple have paid $135,000 in state-ordered damages – after refusing to do so for nearly six months. The Bureau of Labor and Industries says Aaron Klein, co-owner of the Portland-area bakery, dropped off a check Monday for $136,927.07. That includes accrued interest. Klein also paid $7,000 earlier this month. Damages were awarded in July for emotional suffering caused by Sweet Cakes by Melissa, which two years ago refused to make a wedding cake for Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer. The bakers said their refusal was prompted by religious beliefs. A 2007 Oregon law protects the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people in employment, housing and public accommodations. The state ruled it also bars private businesses from discriminating against potential customers.

Vermont group that pushed for gay marriage law disbands

The whole LGBT movement is pretty united on that path

January 07, 2016

North Dakota mulls changes to reflect gay marriage ruling

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LANSING, MI (AP) - Supporters of amending Michigan’s constitution to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity cleared an initial procedural step Tuesday when the state elections board approved the format of their petition. The Fair Michigan ballot committee now must gather roughly 315,000 valid voter signatures by summer to put the initiative on the November statewide ballot. But it must do so without the backing of major gay rights advocacy groups such as Equality Michigan and the American Civil Liberties Union. Those organizations oppose the 2016 measure because they worry voters will defeat it, and they want to focus on other approaches, including lobbying lawmakers for new legislation. Chairing the committee are Dana Nessel, one of the lawyers who helped win a historic legal battle to strike down the state’s gay marriage ban, and Republican attorney

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Michigan Approves Formatting Of Gay Rights Petition

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NATIONAL NEWS

January 07, 2016

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NATIONAL NEWS Lake City-based Mormon church. Her ascension to the mayor’s office comes on the heels of new rules by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints targeting gay members and their children. The new policy, which prompted widespread backlash, bans baptisms for children of gay parents until the kids turn 18 and disavow same-sex relationships. Biskupski is not a member of the faith and said she hopes the church reconsiders the policy. After her election results were certified, she met with church officials in December and gave them a letter explaining her concerns about the policy. But Biskupski’s campaign said the meeting was largely a discussion about city issues such as air quality and economic development. LGBT issues also didn’t define the tight race between Biskupski and incumbent Ralph Becker. Salt Lake City is a liberal island in the state where no Republican has been elected mayor in four decades. Becker, a prominent Democrat, also was seen as an ally of the city’s strong LGBT community, and the gay rights group Equality Utah endorsed both candidates. While the mayor’s race centered more on issues such as bike lanes and billboards, LGBT activists celebrated Biskupski’s win as a milestone in the conservative state. During the campaign and after her victory, Biskupski reflected on how the LGBT-movement had progressed in Utah since she was first elected to the state House. She said that at the time, sev-

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SALT LAKE CITY, UT (AP) - Jackie Biskupski was sworn in Monday as Salt Lake City’s first openly gay mayor, a landmark the former state lawmaker acknowledged shortly after taking the oath of office. Biskupski, 49, said the historic moment should not be taken lightly, and noted great strides have been made for LGBT people in the state. “I know that we have work to do still. And it is work that I take seriously,” she told reporters. “But I am a firm believer that in order for true equality to exist for anyone, we must pursue it for everyone, and that is a goal of mine.” In a speech on the steps of the city-county building after being sworn in, Biskupski cited a gay rights battle in Utah’s capital city two decades ago that spurred her to enter politics. After the city’s East High School formed the state’s first gay-straight alliance club in 1995, the Salt Lake City School District banned all noncurricular clubs to try to block it. The district reversed its decision several years later after lawsuits and protests. “That sparked in me a responsibility to my own community,” Biskupski said Monday. Biskupski said that when she became Utah’s first openly gay lawmaker in 1998, she found common ground to work with people with different ideologies and cultures. She struck a similar note in her speech, pivoting to air quality and economic development. She has said she plans to work on both issues with the conservative, Salt

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Salt Lake City’s first openly gay mayor sworn into office

Photo: trib.com

eral of her colleagues in the Legislature wouldn’t look her in the eye or shake her hand. Biskupski served in the House until 2011. After that, she worked in the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Ofﬁce. Along with Biskupski, new Salt Lake City councilman Derek Kitchen was sworn in Monday, becoming the city’s second sitting gay councilman. New Salt Lake City councilman Andrew Johnston and incumbent councilman Charlie Luke also were sworn in Monday.

LGBT rights loom as lawmakers set other priorities

‘Vote your conscience.’” Lawmakers on Tuesday said the issue was unavoidable but not a priority. And they sought to steer the conversation back to issues such as addressing student ISTEP scores, which were dismal in 2015 after stringent new standards were put in place when GOP lawmakers scrapped the state’s participation in national Common Core standards. Already lawmakers have fast-tracked two bills that would spare schools and teachers from accountability measures tied to student 2015 test performance that could withhold merit pay or downgrade a school’s A-F letter grade. Bosma said he wants to get rid of the test altogether, calling it “broken.” Democratic House Minority Leader Scott Pelath suggested that underscored a lack of leadership from Republicans who have dominated the state in recent years. “Those situations require clear executive leadership,” Pelath said. “I’m not sure we enjoy executive enthusiasm.”

following an annual faith rally in the Statehouse where he publicly prayed for his administration. Pence taking a position could sway some rank-and-ﬁle lawmakers because it “sets the tone one direction or the other,” House Speaker Brian Bosma said. But he said Pence “is not the boss of them, and everyone has their own opinions.” The subject of LGBT civil rights has proven challenging for GOP lawmakers ever since controversy erupted last spring over Indiana’s religious objections law, which critics said sanctioned discrimination. The law was changed, but the activists and the state’s business establishment have since pushed for them to go further. Senate Republicans have proposed an LGBT civil rights bill with a long list of religious exemptions. But the future of the measure is far from certain and has not been scheduled for a committee hearing, though GOP Senate leader David Long said he expects to do so later this month. “Where it goes, as we said before, is anybody’s guess,” said Long. “We’re just simply saying,

January 07, 2016

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana lawmakers returned to the Statehouse on Tuesday, promising to better fund the state’s poorly rated roads, ease parent and educator anxieties over the state’s much-maligned ISTEP test and ﬁnd ways to curtail drug abuse. But while leaders for the GOP majorities in both chambers discussed an array of policy priorities, they had much less to say about one of their most vexing challenges: how to handle what could be a bitter debate over adding discrimination protections for lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people in public accommodation, housing and employment into state law. Gov. Mike Pence hinted he may ﬁnally reveal his thoughts on the matter during next week’s State of the State speech. That would come after months of him saying he was “studying” the issue. “I think it’s one of the best opportunities I have as governor to speak directly to the people of Indiana on a broad range of issues, and we’ll likely take advantage of that,” Pence told reporters

January 07, 2016

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BOB DEUTSCH

Photo: facebook

Affirming our identities, seeing ourselves is integral to our mission of preserving and sharing the culture of LGBT people. Our forthcoming exhibit, Star Struck: Vintage Portraits of Gay Favorites, explores gay male celebrity icons, entertainment, and diva culture through the eyes of photographer Bob Deutsch, a rising young gay shutterbug in NYC in the 1960s and 1970. Deutsch would enjoy a career as a celebrity photographer into the 1980s, selling photos and working assignments for Newsweek, Time, People, and the National Enquirer. Photos include stars Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Bette Midler, Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Carol Burnett, Joan Crawford and men including John Travolta, Eric Astrada, Elvis and Robert Redford.

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FORT LAUDERDALE --”Star Struck – Vintage Portraits of Gay Favorites, Photography by Bob Deutsch” debuts on Friday, January 8, from 6-10 pm at Stonewall National Museum, Wilton Manors Gallery, 2157 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL 33305. The showing is sponsored by the Ross3 Fund at Our Fund. At 7 pm, photographer Bob Deutsch will deliver a gallery talk with stories behind his celebrity photos and his experiences with the stars during what he describes as a simpler time. Star Struck will remain on exhibit until February 14, 2016. Stonewall National Museum – Wilton Manors Gallery is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 4 pm until 10 pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 1 pm until 10 pm, and is closed on Mondays.

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Star Struck Comes To Stonewall

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SUNSHINE STATE

CELEBRITY ICONS AND DIVA CULTURE

January 07, 2016 29

Photo: sun-sentinel.com

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SUNSHINE STATE

Happy ﬁrst anniversary to Catherina Pareto and Karla Arguello of Coconut Grove (left), and Todd and Jeff Delmay of Hollywood (right).

January 07, 2016

Same-sex marriage in Florida became legal a year ago this week MIAMI—Happy first anniversary to Catherina Pareto and Karla Arguello of Coconut Grove, and Todd and Jeff Delmay of Hollywood. Last year, on January 5, 2015, the two couples became the first same-sex spouses to be legally married in the state of Florida. They were wed by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel , who lifted the ban on same-sex marriage. Immediately after her decision, she presided over Pareto and Arguello’s wedding just after noon. Five months earlier on July 25, Zabel had ruled that Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. At the time, however, she placed a stay on her ruling allowing the state to ap-

peal. Months went by as Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi attempted to appeal the ruling— even attempting to have it heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. When Bondi’s request was denied, Zabel’s stay become a moot point, allowing marriages to officially happen on January 6 in the state. Zabel lifted her stay a day earlier than the remainder of the state, which had to wait an additional 13 hours. It was good news for Pareto and Arguello, two of the original eight plantiffs in the same-sex marriage case. Arguello was pregnant at the time of her marriage. Twins Matteo and Lucia were born Aug. 6, and were added into the family that already included a 3-year-old son, Enzo.

“I’m reminded how different the landscape was in 2013 when we launched the campaign to win marriage in Florida,” Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, and one of the plaintiffs in the Miami-Dade lawsuit told the Miami Herald. “I look at these couples and say they stepped up at a moment when not even our good friends at Freedom to Marry saw our state as winnable. Our friends at Freedom to Marry didn’t have Florida listed among the long-range targets. It’s a testament to them that they partnered with us. They were extraordinary collaborators.” “When you participate in something as historic as we did, you really get excited about the idea

that one or two voices can make a difference,” Todd Delmay told the Sun-Sentinel. He and his partner Jeff Delmay followed Pareto and Arguello in getting married the day the ban fell in MiamiDade County, becoming the first gay men married in the state. After the impulse wedding last year, the Delmays are having a long-anticipated reception with friends and family next Saturday, January 16, as a belated anniversary celebration. After midnight on January 6, hundreds of weddings were performed for same-sex couples throughout Key West, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Palm Beach, with Agenda photographer Michael Davis capturing the events.

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HappyAnniversary

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January 07, 2016 31

On February 4, the Agenda will be publishing its ďŹ rst Special LGBT Wedding Issue. Wedding and engagement announcements as well as anniversary declarations will be included and become a continuing feature of our weekly edition. Send your wedding news to richardhack@wirld.com.

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Was it right to jail Kim Davis for contempt of court?

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INTERNATIONAL Premier Zhou Enlai

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photo: livenewscentral.com

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The Book Cover

photo: internationalnewslens.com

First premier of China may have been gay

Gao Wenqian, a US-based biographer of Zhou, said he was aware of speculation about Zhou’s sexuality, but it was hard to say for certain if it was true. “There’s actually not that much information about it in the records,” Gao said. “There’s no way to be sure.” The State Council Information Office, or cabinet spokesman’s office, did not respond to requests for comment. The Communist Party History Research Office, reached by telephone, declined to comment. The book says Zhou was most fond of Li Fujing, a schoolmate two years his junior. Zhou wrote in his diary that he could not live one day without Li, the author says in the book, and being with Li can “turn sorrow into joy.” Zhou and Li shared a dormitory from 1917 and “even their shadows do not part”, she wrote. Li died in 1960. Zhou married Deng Yingchao in 1925. They had no children of their own. There were “no romantic feelings” and it was a “marriage in name only ... He was never in love with his wife,” Tsoi wrote. Deng, who was chairwoman of a high profile but largely ceremonial advisory body to parliament from 1983-88, died in 1992.

January 07, 2016

HONG KONG -- Chairman Mao’s right-hand man, the much-respected first premier Zhou Enlai, was probably gay despite his long marriage according to a new book which is set to be published in Hong Kong. A Hong Kong-based author named Tsoi Wing-mui, former editor at a liberal political magazine who has previously written about gaythemed topics, makes the assertions in her forthcoming book The Secret Emotional Life of Zhou Enlai. According to Reuters, who obtained excerpts of the Chineselanguage book, Tsoi draws her conclusion on the basis of letters and diaries written by Zhou and his wife which detail Zhou’s fondness for a schoolmate and detachment from his wife. The assertion is sure to be controversial in China, where homosexuality is not widely accepted and likely to be viewed as an attack on Zhou’s character. The book has already been banned from mainland China. “Before writing this book, I really didn’t have a good impression of Zhou Enlai,” said Tsoi in an interview. “But afterward, I have a lot of sympathy for him.” She writes in her book that “Zhou Enlai was a gay politician who had the misfortune of being born 100 years early.”

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DEEPBY ROMEO INSIDESANHOLLYWOOD VICENTE

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Romeo San Vicente will always keep your secrets. He can be reach via this publication.

Seeing Other People at Sundance

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Maybe you’ve been watching Fargo. You should have been, anyway. And maybe you caught Jesse Plemons as Kirsten Dunst’s husband. He’s one of our new favorite character actors and now you know his name. But there’s more. It turns out he’s an ambitious sort, and he has written and directed a queer-themed film in which he stars. It’s also the opening night film at Sundance. It’s called Other People and it costars Molly Shannon, Bradley Whitford, Maude Apatow and June Squibb in a story of a comedy writer (Plemons), recently broken up with his boyfriend, who moves home to Sacramento to help his sick mother. Once again living with his younger sisters and very conservative father, he has to sort out what it means to come home, navigate family expectations, and possibly witness the death of a parent. In other words, it’s a Sundance movie that sounds like a Sundance movie. But so what? We’re in for queer characters whose lives intersect with everyday drudgery. It’s sexy.

photo: sltrib.com

January 07, 2016

Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper leave Nothing Left Unsaid

photo: patriotnewstwo.com

The very, very, very rich Vanderbilts, one of those oldmoney families that are as close to American aristocracy as it gets, have always been among the noisier mega-wealthy clans (see also: The Kennedys). But their more well-known members – famous-from-childhood heiress and fashion designer Gloria, and her superstar journalist son Anderson Cooper – have done rich the right way, by being both entertaining, endearing and not plagued by bad behavior, scandal or awful political leanings. So expect a bit of a lovefest when Nothing Left Unsaid, the new doc from Liz Garbus, hits Sundance and, then, eventually, arthouses. It’s a film of personal and cultural history, all wrapped up in the kind of home movies only people who take ski vacations in Switzerland can make. And it will feature in-depth, candid conversations with the devoted mother and son (secret that’s not so secret: mom is a pistol, so that’s really the draw). Pro-tip: Before viewing, go find your old pair of vintage jeans with Gloria’s swan on the pocket and see if you can still fit into them. Then wear them while watching.

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There’s no slowing down Lee Daniels, now that Empire has established Taraji P. Henson as this generation’s Joan Collins. And with every black actor in Hollywood clamoring to be part of that show’s wildly expanding world, it’s no surprise that his next project attracted an A-lister like Queen Latifah. Fresh off The Wiz, she’s signed on for his next TV project, tentatively called Star. Like Empire it’s a musical, and like Dreamgirls and Sparkle, it’s the story of three young women who form a group and dream of being as big as Beyonce. Co-written and co-created by Daniels and Tom Donaghy, the pilot has cast up-and-comers Jude Demorest (Dallas), Ryan Destiny (Low Winter Sun) and Brittany O’Grady (The Messengers) as the young ladies with the voices and the moves. Latifah will star as a beauty salon owner who becomes a kind of surrogate mother to the girls. Disapproving at first, you know she’s going to come around. And sing. And sing some more. After that, she’ll probably sing.

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Queen Latifah jumps on The Lee Daniels Train

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DEEP INSIDE HOLLYWOOD

photo: squarespace.com

The little movies that could

January 07, 2016

photo: out.com

Sure, fine, Star Wars and all that. We know. We’re soaking in it. But for us, it’s the small films that keep the experience of moviegoing worth being excited about, especially when small, LGBT-themed films of quality find their way into theaters. Then it’s as exciting as when we encountered the New Queer Cinema of the early 1990s. So it’s nice to know that more are on the way, thanks to early 2016 premieres at the Sundance (yes, more Sundance news, it’s that time of year) Film Festival. Suited, the Lena Dunham-produced documentary about New York tailors Bindle & Keep, the business that custom-makes clothes for gender-nonconforming clients, will take its bow. So will Uncle Howard, a doc about Howard Brookner, a filmmaker whose Burroughs: The Movie captured a slice of downtown Manhattan in the early 1980s, and whose career was silenced by his death from AIDS. Directed by his nephew, Uncle Howard explores the unfinished, unseen work of a director whose talents were stolen from us. Finally, there’s Spa Night, from director Andrew Ahn, about a young Korean-American man whose duties to his immigrant family, as they struggle in Los Angeles, come into conflict with his secret sexual habits and the realization that he’s gay.

January 07, 2016

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NEW YEAR’S EVE HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND TOWN

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January 07, 2016 37

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38 January 07, 2016

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January 07, 2016

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FROM OUR ARCHIEVES

The Hookup

January 07, 2016

ants first. No. Shoes first. Then belt. Then pants. Clothes off. My heart is too loud. Too fast. Shirt next. Kissing. Lots of kissing. Passionate. Intense. Lip biting, face grabbing. Things move too fast around By us. Room spins. Justin The television is on. I don’t Jones care. I can’t hear it. I hear and feel only the heartbeats. It beats so hard it hurts. Fall on the bed. Toss and turn. Stomach in knots. The good kind. Sweat beads. Mixes. Stings our vision. Tastes salty. Wine spills from the nightstand. Red on carpet. So? Mouthwash is the taste. Cologne, the smell. Skin, all of the above. It isn’t passion. It’s ferocity. It’s going a million miles an hour in the same place. Standing still in the middle of a hurricane.

It’s the whole world crammed into a single moment. Passion climaxes. The story enters resolution. Nighttime and alcohol approve this message. Morning comes and the wine is dried. CNN drones on. The clothes are as disheveled as they were--a floor-fashion eruption. The heartbeat has softened. The smells are almost the same. Cologne, yes. Breath, eh. Question 1. Time? Find phone. Ignore those texts. Am I late for anything? Question 2. Regret? Absorb the room in the daytime. Absorb him. Evaluate my judgment. Is it what I remember it being? Do I remember anything at all? Question 3. Stay or go? Always go. If he is your knight, he will rescue you again. Leave politely. Graciously. He has a schedule, too. Question 4. The cliffhanger: But will I see him again? Factors to include: his enthusiasm, my enthusiasm. Consider cuddling, and Question 2. Question 5 (2 parts): What do I tell my friends? And how do I get home?

Our questions answer the overarching introspective: did I hookup last night? We write entire romances in one night. One night might encompass: Courtship, Honeymoon, Trial, and Heartbreak. It also often includes the optional foreword: alcohol. But that it lasted only one night doesn’t mean it’s a hookup; it also doesn’t necessitate the title “one-night stand” and the baggage (or lack of baggage) that comes with the label. To the status quo, the term “hookup” packs a wallop. It references a dalliance with suggestions of poor judgment, and reflects grander ambitions. A hookup is meaningless. It’s selfish and stereotypical. And it’s fun. Acceptable to some and practiced by many. Contrary to popular belief, though, duration has no relation to the label. A “hookup” may last one night, or it may last many nights (“Friends with Benefits” or “House Account,” anyone?). Likewise, romance--true and impassioned--may last one night only, when the situation is unre-

quited. When he decides not to call you; when, to him, the episode was one-night only, it becomes a hookup for him. Not for you. For you, a romance has taken place. Complete with your own tragic ending. To your friends, then, you answer honestly: “No, I didn’t hookup.” Smile. Perhaps there is a sixth question we romantics should add. One that we ask ourselves before we decide--in our drunken stupor-that he is the one: Can this wait for another time, maybe after we get to know one another? A million dollars says the answer is no, but it never hurts to ask. I hookup. Rarely. Very rarely. Okay, I hardly have a sex life. By choice, I hope. It’s not my style to have meaningless sex. You can do that with yourself. To me, it’s more about the story. To make love instead of f—. To cuddle rather than feel indifference. To wish for more instead of an end. To close your eyes, cross your fingers, and hope that he feels the same.

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January 07, 2016

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Market Place /floridaagenda

CONTACT NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR, MAURA “MUMBALL” LANE AT 954-543-5947 OR MAURALANE@WIRLD.COM TO GET ON THE LIST.

ACCOUNTING

CHURCH / SPIRITUAL

Sterling Tax & Accounting 2435 N Dixie Hwy Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-667-9829 / sterlingandhart.com

EVENTS

FURNITURE

I DO Custom Events PO Box 2357 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 954-626-0131 / idocustomevents.com Source Events 605 Lincoln Road, #410 Miami Beach, FL 33139 305-672-9779 / sourceevents.com

ATTORNEYS Dean Trantalis Attorney 2255 Wilton Drive Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-566-2226 / trantalislaw.com

FINANCIAL Las Olas Financial Group 3000 NE 30th Place, Suite 206 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306 844-779-7936 / lasolasﬁnancialgroup.com

Law Ofﬁces of George Castrataro 707 NE 3rd Avenue, Suite 300 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304 954-573-1444 / lawgc.com

AUTO Vista Motors BMW 744 N Federal Hwy Pompano Beach, FL 855-793-7093 / vistabmw.com

Center for Spiritual Living 1550 NE 26th Street Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-566-2868 / cslftl.com

HEALTH

BARBERSHOP Holy Angels Catholic Community 2917 NE 6th Avenue Wilton Manors, FL 33334 954-633-2987 / holyangelsﬂ.org

CHURCH / SPIRITUAL

Etz Chaim 1501 NE 26th Street Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-564-9232 / etzchaimﬂorida.org

The Parish of St Francis & Clare 101 NE 3rd Street Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 954-731-8173 / stsfrancisandclare.org

January 07, 2016

DENTAL Bove Dental 2500 E Oakland Park Blvd Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306 954-564-0181 / bovedentistry.com Magnolia Dental 12014 E. Colonial Drive, Ste 130 Orlando, FL 32826 407-205-9585/ MagnoliaDentalFL.com

FITNESS Pump’n Inc Tom Bonanti 1271 NE 9th Avenue Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304 954-557-1119 / pumpnincgym.com

FOOD / GROCERY Diana’s 12001 Avalon Lake Drive Orlando, FL 32828 407-207-0205 /dianasbakeryandcafe.com

FOR RENT For Rent 2 Bedrooms, 1 bath and kitchen, living room, frbicc@aol.com. 954-801-8283

Genesis Health Institute 1001 NE 26th Street Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-561-3175 / ghinstitute.com Better Hearing-World of Sounds 2450 E Commercial Blvd Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308 954-491-2560 betterhearingworldofsounds.com Ocean Therapy Center 2530 NE 15th Avenue Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-351-2299 oceantherapycenter.com

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Market Place /floridaagenda

Best Books and Taxes 2201 Wilton Drive Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-565-1041

PAWNBROKERS

REAL ESTATE

Sunrise Pawnbrokers 3043 N Federal Hwy Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306 954-563-3147 / SunrisePawn.com

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INCOME TAX

INSURANCE We Insure 1975 E Sunrise Blvd, Suite 602 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33304 954-903-7519 / weinsureﬂ.com

UPHOLSTERY

Marvel Quevedo Insurance Agency 5062 South Conway Road Orlando, FL 32812 407-737-7778

MUSIC

PHOTOGRAPHY Dennis Dean Images 3554 NE 12th Avenue Oakland Park, FL 33334 954-240-8307 / dennisdean.com

REAL ESTATE

OPTICAL Island City Eyecare 2301 Wilton Drive, Suite C1 Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-764-6906 / visionsource-ice.com

ORGANIZATIONS

Out of the Closet 2097 Wilton Drive Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-358-5580 / outofthecloset.org

Joe Grano Realtor 1881 NE 26th Street, Suite 212 Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-931-0031 / joegrano.com

January 07, 2016

The Pride Center 2040 N Dixie Hwy Wilton Manors, FL 33305 954-463-9005 / pridecenterﬂorida.com

Galleria International Realty 945 Las Olas Boulvard Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 954-234-8759 / galleriarealtors.com

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YOUR LIFE: AN OWNER’S MANUAL

Why New Year’s resolutions fail

January 07, 2016

t’s that time of year when most people make goals and decisions to be healthier, wiser, and more disciplined in their life. Have you ever wondered why we choose January 1st to start these resolutions? Humans like to think in logical, sequential order. The beginning of a new year logically makes sense to start a new cycle of change. The older a person becomes the By more it’s underJames stood that resoluMiller tions are usually a setup for failure or simply wishful thinking. One of the biggest setups for failure is not setting realistic goals with measurable objectives. People often create a goal in their head and are gungho about it for the ﬁrst few weeks, but then they crash and burn and revert to previous behaviors. When your goal is not realistic for the time frame you have set, you will fail. Additionally, people aren’t familiar with setting smaller goals (objectives) which prove you are on the right track and are successful with your longterm goal. An objective is a 3 month mini goal that is measurable in nature. In other words, what tangible proof do you have that you are meeting your objective? Next, comes the strategies one develops to make sure the 3 month objective is met. For example, a healthy resolution would be the following: Goal: Lose 50 lbs in twelve months (Consult your licensed medical professional.)

Objective would be broken up into 3 month intervals. They are measurable, because you either do them or you don’t. 1. Loose 12.5 lbs in 3 months. 2. Exercise 2/7 days for the next 3 months 3. Meet with nutritionist at least once every week. 4. Go for brisk walk 1/7 times per week 5. Meal Prep 2/7 days prior to following day Some strategies for each of these objectives: 1. Join a gym 2. Get a referral for a nutritionist 3. Call a friend to go walking with you 4. Buy gym clothes/shoes After the 3 months, you would have measurable proof that you completed your first main objectives. You would then increase the intensity of your objectives to accommodate a more rigorous routine. Remember, this plan is meant to have you succeed. If it’s too rigorous, you will set yourself up to fail and lose your momentum. Another set up for failure is planning. When are you going to build this into your schedule? We are excited to start something new, but forget that we’ve never built it into our schedule before so when are we going to find the time for it now? Most people will give up on their resolution after the first three weeks of starting it because they cannot sustain the abrupt change in their schedule. That’s why you create your first 3 month objectives t0 be doable; it allows you to tweak your schedule as needed and build up to something more sustainable.

STEPS FOR EFFECTIVE GOAL SETTING: u Describe your goal - End result you want u What is the time frame in which you will complete this goal? (Make sure its realistic.) u For every 3 months create measurable objectives which prove you are achieving your goal u Create strategies/activities for each objective u Review every 3 months and incrementally increase Don’t give up after a few weeks of starting your goal. Remember, in order for something to become a habit it actually takes 66 days, not the myth of 21. Without a developed plan broken up into measurable objectives, the likelihood for you to succeed is slim. Let this be the year that you successfully accomplish your goals. James Miller is a licensed psychotherapist who is known for his weekly iTunes podcasts, YouTube channel, and his Academy where he teaches virtual classes for successful people to simplify and transform their lives. For consultation or for more information visit: www.JamesMillerLifeology.com.

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The Brian Neal Fitness and Health Foundation

ERE

NCE ONE LIF E

provides complimentary Health and Wellness services to financially challenged people living with HIV/AIDS and offers a global LGBT athletic mentoring program for amateur and professional athletes ranging from grade school to the professional ranks.

2435 North Dixie Hwy, Wilton Manors, FL 33305

BRIANNEALFITNESS.ORG

January 07, 2016

A 501(c)3 organization providing services to financially challenged people living with HIV/AIDS in Fort Lauderdale

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PUZZLE Happy Anniversary

January 07, 2016

Across

1 Part of an actor’s pay between parts? 5 R.E.M. frontman Michael 10 Israeli statesman 14 Give a good beating to 15 Fable fellow 16 Building manager, briefly 17 How some chatter 18 Jeremy of M. Butterfly 19 You don’t want them in your pants 20 President from a southern state 23 Fam. docs 24 Foucault’s farewells 25 Peru’s ___ Picchu 27 Ivan of the court 28 Capone and Capp 31 Really feel for? 33 Peter Pan opponent 36 “Why would ___?” 37 Policy started by 20-Across and ended by 56-Across five years ago 42 Penetrating reed 43 Poet Edna St. Vincent ___ 44 “Over my dead body!” 46 Bridal bio word 47 Prop department jewelry 52 Leisure fabric 54 One who does it doggie style? 55 Have the blahs 56 President from a very southern state 60 Lorca’s half-dozen 62 Billy Elliot portrayer Bell 63 Omar of ER 64 Kinsey org. 65 Fragile layer 66 Fruit flavor for gin 67 Lambda Leg. Defense lawyer, e.g. 68 Bowling alley button 69 Gay wedding guide author Ayer

Down

1 Like Krippendorf’s group 2 Chemical salt 3 Earn, slangily 4 Emulated Vidal Sassoon, e.g. 5 Travels with one’s first mate 6 Polo of The Fosters 7 Has the stage 8 Bordeaux bridge 9 Race site in Auden’s land 10 Peruvian pronoun 11 Anal opening, in slang 12 1998 Ian McKellen film 13 Costner character 21 Part of an apology 22 Albert to Armand, in The Birdcage 26 Lit ___ (English major’s class) 28 Alan of Little Miss Sunshine 29 Utensil for giving “more” in Oliver 30 Went to second, to Billy Bean 32 Phallic fish 34 Belief system 35 Doe in Disney’s Bambi 37 Mafia figure 38 Like a slave to a master 39 Patricia Highsmith, as a writer 40 Student on Glee, e.g. 41 Universal donor 45 Part of Adam in a Cukor film? 48 If all goes right 49 Vibrator, to a sex toy shop 50 Beats, to Bernstein 51 Uses a rubber 53 Air Force rank of Adrianna Vorderbruggen, who advocated repeal of 37-Across 54 Shooting type 55 Tibet setting 57 Opposite of erect 58 Israeli author Oz 59 Movie theater 61 Oink pen For the solution to this puzzle, go to www.floridaagenda.com/puzzle

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January 07, 2016

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THE WEEK: FORT LAUDERDALE .

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01/08 Jay Pharoah

photo: musictimes.com

Today’s best route for becoming a worldrenowned comedian is through the television show “Saturday Night Live.” Jay Pharoah has been on the show for ﬁve years, having success with recurring characters MC George Castanza and Principal Daniel Frye. Tonight he returns back to a comedian’s roots, the stage to perform his celebrity impressions of Eddie Murphy, Kanye West, Denzel Washington, Jay-Z, and Will Smith. 8:00 p.m. Fort Lauderdale Improv. 5700 Seminole Way. Hollywood. 33314.

01/08 Silversun Pickups

Originally A Couple of Couples, Silversun Pickups scored a major indie hit in 2006 with their ubiquitous song “Lazy Eye,” featured in numerous artsy commercials for the better part of the following decade. The Los Angelesbased band has continued adding more fans with releases Swoon and Neck of the Woods. Their newest release Better Nature includes the hit “Cannibal.” 7:30 p.m. Culture Room. 3045 N. Federal Highway. Fort Lauderdale. 33306.

January 07, 2016

By Patrick Robert

photo: nbc.com

photo: theluxuryspot.com

01/09 Shen Yun Performing Arts Last year the Shen Yun Performing Arts was a huge success in Broward County. It returns celebrating classical Chinese dance and music, including grand processions, ethnic music, and folk dances. Most of the performances honor heroes of ancient and modern times. The NYC-based dance company expresses the essence of 500 years of Chinese culture, which it asserts has all but been demolished by the Chinese Communist government. 8:00 p.m. Broward Center for the Performing Arts. 201 SW Fifth Ave. Fort Lauderdale. 33312.

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photo: showbiznoﬂo.com

photo: wikipedia.com

The Amernet String Quartet are enjoying their Ensemble-in-Residence position at Florida International University while making the rounds at various performance engagements throughout the city. Tonight’s performance Journey Through Sound includes a collaboration with mezzo soprano singer Rachel Calloway and guitarist Adam Levin. 7:00 p.m. Jewish Museum of Florida. 301 Washington Ave. Miami Beach. 33139.

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01/12 Amernet String Quartet

01/10 Norm Lewis

Norm Lewis has broken boundaries throughout his Broadway career, most famously making history in 2014 when he became the ﬁrst African American Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. He earned nominations for a Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle Award for his well-received turn as Porgy in The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess. The Florida native returns to his home state to perform standards in Aventura. 7:00 p.m. Aventura Arts & Cultural Center. 3385 NE 188th St. Aventura. 33180.

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THE WEEK: MIAMI

01/11 Clima Renowned Miami-based artist Xavier Cortada has always been interested in climate change. His newest exhibition Clima focuses on these same themes, most speciﬁcally the impact of global climate change on the rising sea level. The pieces include videos, digital works, paintings, polar installations, and twelve panel discussions on the impact that global climate change will have on the world at large. 8:00 a.m. MIlander Center for Arts and Entertainment. 4800 Palm Ave. Hialeah. 33012.

photo: wlrn.com

January 07, 2016 49

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THE WEEK: JACKSONVILLE .

By Patrick Robert

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01/09 Honky Tonk Angels

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Young women across America dream of hitting it big in Nashville, leaving their normal lives for the world of country music. In this show, simulacrums of this archetype arrive in Music City USA and sing 31 classic songs, including “Stand by Your Man,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and “Harper Valley PTA.” 6:30 p.m. Alhambra Theatre and Dining. 12000 Beach Blvd. Jacksonville. 32246. photo: visitjacksonville.com photo: stageagent.com

01/12 42nd Street

01/08 Ragtime the Musical The Tony Award-winning musical presents a portrait of American life in the early 20th century through the eyes of a white, upper-middle class family, an African American couple, and an Eastern European immigrant escaping to America. Timeless themes of wealth and poverty, prejudice and hope, and despair and freedom combine in this soaring musical. 7:30 p.m. Thrasher-Horne Center. 283 College Dr. Orange Park. 32065.

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Based on Busby Berkeley’s classic 1933 movie, 42nd Street tells the story of Peggy, a hopeful young dancer who leaves Allentown for New York to audition for the musical Pretty Lady. The leading lady breaks her ankle allowing for Sawyer’s chance to become a star. The Tony Award-winning show includes such classic songs as “We’re in the Money” and “I Only Have Eyes for You.” 7:30 p.m. Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts. 300 Water St. Jacksonville. 32202.

The founding and host band of the annual Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, Donna the Buffalo is known for its folky original music and its covers. Their career has spanned over twenty-ﬁve years with ten albums released in that time. Their newest album is titled Tonight, Tomorrow and Yesterday. 8:00 p.m. The Plaza Live. 425 Bumby Ave. Orlando. 32803.

Black history and identity is explored through the symbolic representation of hats when a young black woman arrives down South in order to stay with her grandmother after her brother is killed in Brooklyn. The two see exquisitely designed hats everywhere and tell the stories of hat etiquette: from church going to funerals to baptisms. 7:00 p.m. Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. 445 S. Magnolia Ave. Orlando. 32801.

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01/10 Crowns – A Gospel Musical Play

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01/07 Donna the Buffalo

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THE WEEK: ORLANDO

photo: cliffross.com

01/09 Beatlemania Now No other band so deﬁned an entire generation than The Beatles. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr forever changed both Western culture and rock music. Their legacy is honored with tonight’s note for note renditions of classic songs like “Let It Be” and “A Day in the Life.” 8:00 p.m. Bob Carr Theater. 401 W. Livingston St. Orlando. 32801.

photo: americanmuicshow.com

photo: pridepublishinggroup.com

WTF!! NTA... SA

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Copyright © 2016 The Werks Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Werks, LeatherWerks, PaddleWerks, Lifestyle Club, BootWerks and “Where Leather is a Lifestyle” are Registered Trademarks of The Werks Company, LLC

January 07, 2016

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THE WEEK: PALM BEACH

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01/09 I’ve Got a Little Twist

photo: kfor.com

01/07 To Kill a Mockingbird

With Harper Lee’s new sequel/rough draft Go Set a Watchman (with a racist Atticus Finch) of To Kill a Mockingbird receiving widespread attention and critique throughout 2015, there has been renewed interest in the original, beloved book. Tonight’s program screens the 1962 Gregory Peck ﬁlm in which Atticus defends a black man against fabricated rape charges. 11:00 a.m. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. 701 Okeechobee Blvd. West Palm Beach. 33401.

January 07, 2016

By Patrick Robert

Along with Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan are one of the most respected musical duos of all time. Their musicals The Music Man, The Mikado, and On the Town are still frequently performed. Albert Bergere presents the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players’ rousing tribute to the pair—a stellar cabaret show which includes all of their best loved songs. 7:30 p.m. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. 701 Okeechobee Blvd. West Palm Beach. 33401.

photo: heraldtribute.com

photo: eightoclocktheatre.com

01/13 South Pacific One of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most performed works, South Pacific explores complicated themes of racism that were deemed controversial in its 1949 Broadway production. An American nurse falls in love with a middleaged expatriate on a South Pacific island in World War II but must accept his mixed-race children while a U.S. lieutenant fears the consequences of marrying his Asian sweetheart. 7:30 p.m. Wick Theatre. 7901 N. Federal Highway. Boca Raton. 33487.

THE WEEK: TAMPA / ST. PETE .

Michael Jackson left us not only a legacy of bizarre behavior and dangling babies but also a unique collection of beloved music. The Michael Jackson tribute band honors his music, from “Thriller” to “Black or White,” with this show full of dancing, singing, and multimedia. 8:00 p.m. Mahaffey Theater. 400 First St. St. Petersburg. 33701.

Steven Spielberg’s original summer blockbuster is just as terrifying today as it was forty years ago. A recent escalation in shark attacks both in Florida and in North Carolina add relevant dimensions to this tale of a police chief’s fight to save fictional summer resort town Amity Island from the jaws of a man-eating great white shark. The screening includes a talk back with film star Richard Dreyfuss. 7:00 p.m. Capitol Theatre. 405 Cleveland St. Clearwater. 33755.

photo: meetup.com

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01/09 Jaws and Richard Dreyfuss

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01/08 The Michael Jackson Tribute

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01/08 The Pure Zeppelin Experience

photo:whosbadmusic.com

The Pure Zeppelin Experience accurately and mesmerizingly portrays Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones, an imitation including spot-on vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards combined with the Led Zeppelin’s legendary stage persona. For those not alive in the 1970s or who unfortunately missed some of Zeppelin’s electric live shows, the Pure Zeppelin Experience reenacts the group’s electricity. 8:00 p.m. Capitol Theatre. 405 Cleveland St. Clearwater. 33755.

photo: heyuguys.com

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PHOTOS ADRIANNA CORTEZ

NEW YEAR’S EVE HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND TOWN

January 07, 2016

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yyy SPOTLIGHT yyy

THIRSTY FOR MORE? OF COURSE YOU ARE. CHECK OUT ALL OF THE PHOTOS YOU CAN HANDLE AT FLORIDAAGENDA.COM!

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yyy

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January 07, 2016