PAGE 2
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Page 3
PAGE 4
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
APRIL 2015
Liberty Press
Volume 21, No. 8 • Editor: Kristi Parker • Contributors: Greg Boaldin, Nolin Christensen, Greg Fox, Charlene Lichtenstein, Mama, Dr. Robert N. Minor, Stephanie Mott • Staff Reporters: Grayson Barnes, Elle Boatman, Blake Hampton, Ciara Reid • Cover Design: Troy Dilport • Graphic Designer: Troy Dilport • Webmaster: Ren Autrey • Publisher: Liberty Press, LLC • Printer: Valley Offset Printing National Advertising: Rivendell Media, (212) 242-96863
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Page 5
On the Cover: Kansas conversion therapy survivor, Sam Brinton, to speak at KU Gaypril event Page 23
Subscriptions are $18/year
The “Liberty Press” and its contents may not be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher. All rights reserved. Unsolicited material may not necessarily be acknowledged or returned, is assumed intended for publication unless otherwise stated, and becomes the sole property of the Liberty Press. Letters to the editor and bylined columns reflect the views and opinions of the authors only and are not necessarily those of the Liberty Press, LLC or its staff. The Liberty Press reserves the right to refuse or restrict advertisements at the editor’s discretion. Advertisers and agencies assume liability for claims arising from the content of their ads. Publication of the name, photograph or likeness of any persons, organization or business in articles or advertisements in the Liberty Press in no way indicates or reflects their sexual orientation. First copy free, additional copies may be obtained for a nominal fee from the publisher.
PO Box 16315, Wichita, KS 67216 phone: (316) 652-PRESS [7737] e-mail: editor@libertypress.net www.libertypress.net www.facebook.com/LibertyPressKS twitter.com/LibertyPressKS © 2015 The Liberty Press
CONTENTS
IN EVERY ISSUE
TOPEKA YOUTH GROUP aims to be a place kids can be themselves....... 8 MUSIC HEADLINERS ANNOUNCED for Riverfest 2015............................10 GAYPRIL COMES to WSU.......................................................................17 AIDS WALK MOVES to a Sunday evening event.....................................20 NEW GROUP OF CLERGY UNITES to offer a positive faith voice..............24 INTRUST ARENA'S DISNEY ON ICE Princesses and Heroes heartthrob played by gay performer Jean-Simon Legare.................................25 REVIEW WSU's The Dead Guy.............................................................28 GAYPRIL HITS KANSAS! Events planned at Pitt State, K-State, KU........29
POINTS OF INTEREST............. 6,27 MAMA KNOWS BEST.................. 14 DISTRIBUTION SITES................. 14 KYLE'S BED & BREAKFAST........ 15 AROUND KANSAS...................... 22 OUT IN THE STARS.................... 27
MINOR DETAILS Stop Asking Those Questions.....................................13 LEATHER LIFE Where Have All the Gay Bars Gone?.............................15 WILL YOU? Perspective.........................................................................16 TRANS-FORMATIVE Cisplaining, Mind-Reading and Other Mystic Powers of Anti-Trans Experts..........................................................21
Around Kansas listings are free to non-profit/volunteer-based groups. Send your additions or corrections to editor@libertypress.net.
Now, Don�t Miss The Deadline!
Regulars
We Accept
Liberty Press
MAY 2015 AD DEADLINE April 22 ON-STANDS May 1
The Liberty Press distributes 4,000 copies a month in cities throughout Kansas, including Derby, Lawrence, Topeka, Wichita, Manhattan, Junction City, El Dorado, Hays, Kansas City, Pittsburg, Newton, Hutchinson and Salina.
Don’t Get Out Much? Get a Subscription.
Name:_____________________________________ MAILED Address:___________________________________ FIRST CLASS! City _______________________________________ State______ Zip_____________________________
___ Check Enclosed ____ Please bill my (circle one) Visa Mastercard AMEX Discover
Card # __________________________________________________________________________ Exp. Date:
3-digit security code:
Just send this completed form with $18 to: LP, PO Box 16315, Wichita, KS 672160315. We’ll send you a full year (12 issues) of Liberty Press, mailed every month in a plain brown envelope.
PAGE 6
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Big changes coming to the Annual Art and Book Fair WICHITA - Every Mother’s Day weekend for the last 55 years the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum have held the Art and Book Fair as a fundraiser for the Wichita Art Museum. A bold new take on the event brings the fair home to the Wichita Art Museum. In future years the fair will be able to take advantage of the Museum’s newly renovated grounds, but until that transformation takes place, the event will be held inside the Museum itself. The 2015 theme, “Art of the Book,” will focus on authors, illustrators, and book sales. Hundreds of books in every
conceivable genre will be available in the S. Jim and Darla Farha Great Hall. And in the Living Room section of the museum some of the region’s best artists will offer their creations for sale in the “Small Works Market.” In keeping with tradition, “Art of the Book” will remain on Mother’s Day weekend, Saturday, May 9 from 10am5pm and Sunday, May 10 from 11am-5pm. Admission is free both days. Some of the new events at this year’s fair include: Art and Photography Booth — Linnebur and Miller will create a one-of-a-kind image of you as a work of art. $20
Free Public Talk
The Art of Meditation Saturday, May 2, 11am-12:30pm
with US Western National Spiritual Director American Buddhist Monk Gen Kelsang Rigpa
APRIL 2015
Tallgrass Film Festival showing of Big Fish — For the first time, the fair is partnering with the Tallgrass Film Festival. The classic film Big Fish will be shown on Saturday at 2pm and on Sunday at 11am in the museum’s Howard E. Wooden Lecture Hall. Admission is free. Storytelling — On Saturday morning from 10am-noon in the museum’s Howard E. Wooden Lecture Hall, RuPaul stars in Jamie Babbit's But I'm a Cheerfeaturing Arts Partners leader . . . out of drag. performers from “The Griots: Keepers of Stories” punk-rock girl from East Berlin troupe; Amy Woolf, storyteller tours the U.S. with her band and puppeteer; and Chris Gulick, as she tells her life story and follows the former lover/bandartist and performer. mate who stole her songs. Authors and Illustrators — Jon Pirtle, illustrator, will give WSU’s Equality a presentation. Scholarship deadline Creative Rush Panel Discussion — Sunday from 1:30-3pm in the Howard E. Wooden Lecture Hall.
Tallgrass and Roxy’s Downtown present Queer Cinema WICHITA - Tallgrass has p a r t n e r e d w i t h R o x y ’s Downtown for a retrospective Queer Cinema series. Films will screen on the last Sunday of March, April and May at 6pm. Tickets are $8 and reservations can be made by calling (316) 265-4400. After the film, stay for the show as The Roxettes: Queens of Drag take the stage. Full bar and appetizers available for purchase. Film selections include: Mar. 29: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994, Australia/UK) Two drag queens and a transsexual travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
at the Wichita Art Museum, 1400 West Museum Boulevard
April 26: But I’m a Cheerleader (1999, USA) A naive teenager is sent to rehab camp when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being a lesbian.
www.meditateinkansas.org
May 31: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001, USA) A transsexual
April 15
WICHITA - The Equality Scholarship was originally established in 2011 by Richard D. Muma and Rick A. Case because they felt that LGBT and queer/questioning students are often overlooked and they wanted to show that group of students that someone notices and cares about them. They also want to encourage those students not to hide. The criteria includes: 1. Must be enrolled full or parttime at Wichita State University. 2. Preference will be given to a member of Spectrum: LGBTQ & Allies. 3. Recipient(s) must have and maintain a minimum 2.0 gpa. 4. Award(s) will be made with regard to financial need. Recipients will submit a written statement describing need for scholarship. To a p p l y : R e t u r n t h e application and supporting materials on or before April 15 to: The Scholarship Office, Jardine Hall, Room 203, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS 672600043 The application can be downloaded from the Spectrum website at webs.wichita. edu/?u=spectrum. continued on page 27
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Page 7
PAGE 8
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
Topeka youth group aims to be a place kids can be themselves
By Ciara Reid, staff reporter and Rin Nesmith, Beacon Youth Group Acting President TOPEKA - The Beacon Youth Group, which operates out of Topeka, has re-launched after several previous formations. The youth group has existed for several years; the re-launch includes a new target age range (12-18), new meeting locations, and a new group facilitator. The goal of the Beacon Youth Group, says Nicole Nesmith, social worker and facilitator of the group, is to offer a welcoming environment for queer youth to engage in socialization, education, exploration, and activism. “Our goal is to reach as many LGBTQ youth in the Topeka area as possible,” Nesmith says. “We want to give kids a place to go where they can be themselves.” Part of the group’s mission, Nesmith continues, is to provide a safe space for youth to socialize. “We want youth to be able to feel free from society’s standards of what is acceptable.” Nesmith says that any sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pronoun usage, romantic orientation, or any other part of identity is
Some Beacon kids were at the Stand Up for Love Protest on February 14. A few were even at the top of the steps holding the large rainbow banner.
accepted and welcomed. The group does not exclude anyone from participating, including cisgender and heterosexual people, as long as they are willing to be accepting of anyone who may attend the meetings. Confidentiality is vital to the Beacon Youth group. The group takes careful measure to keep the identities of its members secure and makes sure that everyone attending each meeting understands that, and does not share information about their fellow members. B e a c o n Yo u t h G r o u p i s incorporated as a non-profit in Kansas. The group is currently working on filing for a tax identification Healthy Pets for Happy Lives number so they can Daniel Thompson, D.V.M. Mon. - Fri. begin accepting Cindy Payne-Robertson, D.V.M. 7:30 AM - 6 PM donations. Nesmith Saturday Lori Mitchell, D.V.M., C.C.R.P. says the group is 8 AM - 12 PM Kelly Martin, D.V.M. aiming to become a 1726 E 61st St N • Park City, KS , 67219 • (316) 744-0501 501(c)3, which will www.ctahvets.com • facebook.com/ctahvets allow them to accept
tax-deductible donations and apply for grants. “Eventually, we would like to start providing services for youth, such as a need-based free clothing closet for transgender youth and an LGBTQ library,” Nesmith says. “We want to help the community as much as possible, and we hope that becoming a 501(c)3 will assist us in doing that.” The group is working on forming an official board and creating bylaws, two things that are required to become a 501(c)3. The group will have an adult advisory council which will assist the youth-led council. The president, vice president, and secretary positions will all be a part of the youth-led council; the facilitator position will be part of the adult advisory council. A youth treasurer will be assisted by an adult treasurer; these personnel will manage budgets. “We have some wonderful people who have signed on to be members of the advisory council and we are very excited for elections for the board, which we plan to hold at the end of March,” Nesmith says. The youth group will use
two locations for meetings. The first is Central Congregational Church, located at 1248 SW Buchanan Street. The second is Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Topeka, located at 4775 SW 21st Street. Both churches are very accepting. A standard Beacon Youth Group meeting begins with introductions. Each person shares their name, age, school, and pronouns. Then the members share how their weeks have progressed, and discuss any particular issues they want to share. If any member needs to discuss an issue, this takes precedence over the plan for that particular meeting. After the issues are discussed, the group moves on to the meeting agenda. Meeting topics range from sexual education, healthy relationships, queer history, and LGBTQ identities. The group also discusses recent political news and events. To become involved in the group and/or offer support, visit www.facebook.com/beaconks; beaconyouthgroup.tumblr.com; and beacontopeka@gmail.com. l
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Page 9
PAGE 10
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
Music headliners announced for Riverfest 2015 The diverse line-up of concerts are all free with a Riverfest button
Disco legends the Village People will headline the Wet & Wild Disco Party on Wednesday, June 3.
WICHITA - Riverfest 2015 will kick off on Friday, May 29 with a longtime tradition—Koch Twilight Pops Concert featuring the Wichita Symphony Orchestra on Kennedy Plaza—directly following the Sundown Parade. Locally grown, nationally known alt-country rockers Split Lip Rayfield will perform on the RedGuard Stage adjacent to the
Wichita Boathouse that night. On Saturday, May 30, Holy Ghost Tent Revival and The 44’s will open for acclaimed steel guitarist Robert Randolph & the Family Band who will bring their fusion of blues, rock and soul to the Kennedy Plaza Stage. Red Dirt Country artist Kyle Park will perform on the RedGuard Stage.
The Coleman Country Concert is scheduled for Sunday, May 31, and stars Easton Corbin whose latest album, It’s About to Get Real was released in late March. Vocalist Erica Campbell of gospel duo Mary Mary and 2015 Grammy Gospel Artist of the Year, will headline Gospelfest on Monday, June 1 following performances by community choirs and other regional artists on the Kennedy Plaza Stage. Tuesday, June 2 will see the return of “Festival of Broadway” to Kennedy Plaza, featuring performances by Music Theatre Wichita, Roxy’s Downtown and Mosley Street Melodrama. Disco legends the Village People will headline the Wet & Wild Disco Party on Wednesday, June 3. This multi-generational dance party will feature a variety of water elements to beat the heat, and stars the six-man vocal group who topped the charts with YMCA in 1979. At the RedGuard Stage, Riders in the Sky will delight fans of all ages with their special brand of cowboy music and comedy. Th e M o n o p h o n i cs w i l l open for Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires at the Big Easy Concert on Thursday, June 4, which takes place during and after the Goodwill Industries Cajun Food Fest on Kennedy Plaza. Funk/soul/R&B artist Bradley is frequently compared to Otis Redding and James Brown in popular music publications. On June 5, high-energy Celtic rockers Flogging Molly will headline the Indie Showcase on Kennedy Plaza with opening act The Devil Makes Three. On the RedGuard Stage, The Neon Dance Party will feature Los Angeles-based Four Color Zack, winner of the 2012 Red Bull Thre3style World DJ
Championships. Spirit AeroSystems Rockin’ on the River concert kicks off the finale of Riverfest 2015 at Kennedy Plaza on Saturday, June 6 with performances by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Mayer Hawthorne, a Grammynominated pop singer, multiinstrumentalist and producer whose latest release, Tuxedo, debuted on Mar. 3. Fiesta del Rio, featuring Grupo Mojado, will take place on the RedGuard Stage, also on closing night. The Capitol Federal Fireworks will close the festival with a bang following the concerts. A number of local and regional acts also will perform at Riverfest 2015, including Cherokee Maidens, O’Phil, KOPECKY, Carrie Nation & the Speakeasy, DJ Carbon, Big Red Horse, Brandon Lane Band, Tony Ngo, Corriander, Mountain Deer Revival, Adam Capps & The Dirt Road Drifters, DJ Tight Pants, Nouveau Quintette and many others. In addition to the Kennedy Plaza and RedGuard stages, the Sparkling Ice Food Court Stage and Star Lumber Floating Stage at A. Price Woodard Park will be activated throughout the festival. Admission to all Riverfest concerts is free with a Riverfest button. Adult buttons are $10, and children’s buttons (available while supplies last for kids ages 6-12) are $3. Adult buttons are available at an early bird discount price of $5 via preorder at SelectASeat.com, and in person April 17-May 7 at Intrust Bank Arena Box Office, 500 E. Waterman, and Wichita Festivals, 444 E. Willam. Fullprice buttons will be available at the same locations as well as at major button retailors (Dillons and QuikTrip) beginning May 8. l
tinyurl.com/herscopes Charlene Lichtenstein’s ground-breaking astrology book HerScopes: A Guide To Astrology For Lesbians is celebrating its 10th anniversary! The secrets that are revealed about each sign continue to amaze. Makes a great gift.
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Holy Week 2015
Page 11
Palm Sunday:
March 29, 10:15AM Worship Service
Good Friday
April 3, 7:00PM Worship Service and Choir Concert
Easter Sunday 7:00AM Sunrise Service at Linwood Park 8:30AM Fellowship Breakfast at FMCC 10:15AM Worship Service at FMCC
We are an inclusive and diverse church for all people. We affirm the dignity and worth of every person created in the image of God. We welcome into full participation persons of every race, language, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental ability, economic or marital status, and faith background.
Sunday Mornings at 10:15AM In Person: 156 S. Kansas in Wichita Watch LIVE Online: www.MCCWichita.com GOD LOVES YOU.
PERIOD Experience the R evolution ™
FIRST MCC
OF KANSAS
. Rev. Jackie Carter, M.Div METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH
www.GodLovesYouPeriod.com • (316) 267-1852 Office Hours: M-TH 9 -12 And by Appointment
PAGE 12
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
20th FACULTY B I E N N I A L On View April 25 – August 23
Spring Opening Party April 25, 6 - 8pm
Join us for a celebration of faculty talents, and see how the WSU School of Art, Design and Creative Industries is Kansas’ epicenter for creativity, innovation and play! Levente Sulyok, Bleed 2014, Acrylic on canvas, 64x52 in.
TODAY’S ART MATTERS 1845 Fairmount Street | Wichita, KS 67260 ulrich.wichita.edu | Free Admission
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Minor
Details By Bob Minor
Stop Asking Those Questions
H
ow does someone credibly answer the question: “Have you quit beating your spouse?” It’s the classic example of a question being the problem. It’s a setup. The issue is in the question itself, before there’s an answer. Such questions are part of the milieu of all cultures. They’re just there. They’ve been so often and continuously repeated that people waste energy answering them, without thinking about questioning the question. In a political climate such as ours, using the high level of expertise in public relations and propaganda that we’ve perfected has been crucial to the political/ economic/military/religious right-wing for the last 40-some years in order to frame issues so that we’re comfortable with questions that in themselves promote a right-wing agenda. It’s been a successful and selfconscious long-term movement. It has included the vast investment by conservatives in think tanks within and outside universities, the creation of conservative scholars, and the implementation of a right-wing media machine infrastructure. The most well-known call for this was the famous 1971 Powell memo that Lewis Powell wrote to the head of the Chamber of Commerce just before becoming a Nixon-appointed supreme court justice. Notice how successful the “corrections” to rising liberalism, Powell called for have been: • “establishing a staff of highly qualified scholars in the social sciences who do believe in the system. It should include several of national reputation whose
•
•
•
•
authorship would be widely respected — even when disagreed with.” securing for the Chamber "a particular rapport with the increasingly influential graduate schools of business.” “an overall program” to urge “the need for faculty balance upon university administrators and boards of trustees.” “a fairly steady flow of scholarly articles presented to a broad spectrum of magazines and periodicals — ranging from the popular magazines (Life, Look, Reader’s Digest, etc.) to the more intellectual ones (Atlantic, Harper’s, Saturday Review, New York, etc.) and to the various professional journals.” “more direct political action, while awaiting the gradual change in public opinion to be effected through education and information. Business must learn the lesson...that political power is necessary; that such power must be assidously [sic] cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination — without embarrassment and without the reluctance which has been so characteristic of American business.”
Conservatives who couldn’t work together, took this on 40 years ago. And now here we are with the Koch brothers often in the news continuing this cultural takeover. We n o w h a v e p u b l i c defunding of universities and the correlated rise of conservative granters taking up the slack – four times as much is spent on research by the right as by they
Page 13
left. And while granters on the left are giving money to precise, closely-defined activities - often charitable to pick up the slack left by conservative success in decreasing government funding - the right-wing pushes ahead with broad grants to continue to grow its dominance over the political and cultural conversation. The conservatives learned how to use the religious rightwing to their advantage by commandeering public debate and ramping up what to the political conservatives were peripheral social issues. As one politician told me: “many people only want to know whether someone is against gun-control and anti-abortion; they don’t pay attention to anything else.” Questions that we’re supposed to ask which embed the right-wing agenda and reinforce it every time we honor the question include:
made the term “entitlement” sound as if these aren’t insurance payouts to which contributors are “entitled.” Social security insurance, Medicare insurance, unemployment insurance, and others are programs to which we and businesses have contributed as a part of compensation packages promised workers.
How can we get tax relief? This effectively affirms the idea that taxes are a burden that should be lifted. In actuality taxes are the dues paid to live in a civilized society that provides defense, safety, and common welfare, and American tax burdens are quite low. As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said: “I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.”
Is homosexuality a choice? Answering this question actually legitimizes the discussion involved. But the answer to the question doesn’t matter. There are more important questions, such as why this question matters and why it matters to anyone else when two consenting adults love someone.
How can we fix social security? This affirms the myth that social security is broken and needs a “fix” beyond raising the cap on taxed wages to the equivalent level they were when the program began. How can we stop recipients from defrauding Medicaid/ Medicare? This question promotes the belief that those who defraud these programs are the poor receiving their benefits and therefore we need drugtesting or some other controls on applicants. The reality is that the relatively small amount of cheating that happens is actually by the businesses that provide the services to recipients. How can we curb out-ofcontrol entitlements? This effectively affirms the right-wing excuse to cut these programs by refusing to call them the insurance programs that they are. And conservatives have
What are we going to do about all these underfunded pension plans? Pension plans are also not handouts but postponed compensation coupled with promises that employers have made to workers who’ve agreed to these compensation practices and who’ve therefore created profits for their employers. When a public or private employer says they can’t afford to pay pensions, the employer has either misappropriated or mishandled the money involved, has engaged in theft, and should be prosecuted.
Some have responded with another question: Is your heterosexuality a choice? If we choose to so respond, we should be ready to demand that their answer be personal. The person might respond “yes,” so are we ready to push the discussion into the uncomfortable personal area where the actual issues are: When did you make the choice? So you could be sexually and romantically attracted to your own gender? Are you sure about your own sexuality? Questions that affirm false premises like these shouldn’t be answered. Instead our response should be to replace them with new questions directed right at the questioners. l
Robert N. Minor, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas, is author of When Religion Is an Addiction; Scared Straight; and Gay & Healthy in a Sick Society. Contact him at www. FairnessProject.org.
PAGE 14
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
looking good. Do not go south to the OK state! They are just as crazy down there with their politicians.
Dearest Mama, Where is your Easter bonnet? A Rabbit It is in a hat box in my closet, as if it is really any of your darn business. I will put it on for church on Easter Sunday. You may now go lay an egg! Mama, Every time we turn around that Governor is doing something stupid. This time taking away the law that protected gay state workers. Do you have any thoughts? Frustrated Oh Lord, where do I begin? He is so full of buffalo crap! His problem is, he does not think at all. I believe someone else is doing his thinking. Probably those two brothers that run the Republicans! Their name sounds like a soda pop brand. I just pray to god something happens to save the state of Kansas from all of them. If not, Nebraska is
Distribution Sites Derby
Derby High GSA
El Dorado
Pathways Psychological Services
Hays
Mokas
Hutchinson
Hutchinson Community College GSA, Hutchinson High School GSA, PFLAG Hutchinson, Prairie Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Junction City
Devil's Tail
Newton
Bethel College Student Life Center
Pittsburg
Kansas City
Hamburger Mary’s, LIKEME Lighthouse
Lawrence
Manhattan
The Bluestem Bistro, The Chef Café, First Congregational Church, K-State LGBT Resource Center, K-State Student Union, K-State Women's Clinic, Karnivore Bar and BBQ, On the Wild Side, People’s Grocery, Queer-Straight Alliance meetings, Radina’s Bakery & Café (two locations), Riley County Health Dept., Rockstar Home Fusion, Sisters of Sound Music, Strecker-Nelson Gallery, Varsity Donuts
Community Mercantile, KU’s Dean of Students office, KU’s Multicultural Resource Center, Lawrence Public Library, Wheatfield’s Bakery, Wilde’s Chateau 24
Pitt State GSA
Salina
Ad Astra Books and Coffeehouse, Chamucos Nightclub, Mokas, Mokas South, Peaceful Body Wellness Retreat, Salina Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Saline County Health Dept.
Topeka
The Break Room, Bunker Coffee Company, Classic Bean (two locations), Field of Greens, Flowers by Bill, Juli's Coffee & Bistro, Lazio’s Coffee Bar, Metropolitan Community Church of Topeka, Positive Connections, PT’s Coffee Roasting Co., The Razor’s Edge, Reece Nichols Real Estate, Serendipity, Skivvies, Three Flowers Metaphysical, Topeka/ Shawnee County Public Library, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Topeka, The Upstage Gallery, Washburn Mabee Library, Washburn Union, YWCA
Wichita
Adult Superstore, After Dark South, The Anchor, Artichoke Sandwich Bar, Book-A-Holic (all 3 locations), Bungalow 26, Camelot Cinema, The Center, Circle Cinema, College Hill United Methodist Church, The Cotillion, Cow & Sow Deli, Crazy J’s Furniture & Sleep Shop,
Mama, Did you hear that a church changed their definition of marriage in their constitution? Not signed I did hear this! I say good for them. Finally someone moving with the times and not waiting for the Supreme Court to rule. (We could be waiting a long time!) The Presbyterian Church changed their constitution to: “marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives.” AMEN! This Mama thinks if you love someone marry them! It does not affect me or anyone else but the two people! This is just a reminder for the politicians and religious groups in this country. There is separation between state and church!! They seem to forget that! Happy Easter everyone! Thanks for the questions! l Have a question for Mama? E-mail MamaTHarper@aol.com or friend Thelma Harper on Facebook. The Donut Whole, Doo-Dah Diner, Earthwise Pet Supply, Fisch Haus, First Metropolitan Community Church, First Unitarian Universalist Church, Fit For A Queen, Harris & Co. Frame Shop, Hue Gallery, Hunter Health Clinic, J’s Lounge, A Journey in the Light, Kirby’s, KU Internal Medicine - Midtown, Lotus Leaf Cafe, Mead’s Corner, Moe’s Sub Shop, The Monarch, The Orpheum, Patricia’s (all 3 locations), Picasso's Pizza, Pine Valley Christian Church, Planet Hair, Planned Parenthood, Positive Directions, Rain Café & Lounge, Reverie Coffee Roasters, Spektrum Muzik, Spice Merchant, The Store, T - A Tea Bar,Tanya's Soup Kitchen, Vagabond Coffeeshop, Vegas Video, Watermark Books, Wichita Community Theatre, Wichita Public Library - downtown branch, WSU Spectrum meetings, WSU - Women's Studies office, Ziggy's Pizza
Would you like to see your business or organization on this list? It’s free! Contact Kristi at editor@libertypress.net to arrange for delivery of complimentary copies.
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Leather Life By Nolin Christensen aka
Where Have All the Gay Bars Gone?
W
ith the demise of several gay clubs here in town, I thought I’d talk about the overall demise of bars in general and in particular the leather bars. At one time, gay bars were the place to be. It was about the only place to meet others and to pick up tricks (for you younger people, tricks were onenight stands). So just about any town or city that had any type of gay scene, there was a bar
place (some are but most are not). Most bars are now a place to socialize with your friends. Bars and clubs are a drinking establishment, not a cruise joint. Now most of the pickups occur online. The internet is the dating place, the bars are the social place. My how times have changed. And more and more people have started having LTR’s; once they have hooked up with someone, they no longer go to the bars.
Page 15
friends and they can be open and out. And the straight folks think it’s cool to go to a gay bar. And this was true of those gay Master C specialty bars. Now they are just to hang out at. Bars had their bars in general. specialty and that was where The Leather bars were one you went for that type of “need.” of the first to experience this This was especially true for the transformation. The AIDS crisis leather bars. Leather bars was the first to make an impact. were where the masculine men, With less Leathermen going to biker men and leather men went. the bars, the bars had to become Bars back then were a place to be more open and inclusive of other with and to meet your own kind; gay patrons. The old Leather gay, leather, drag, lesbian, etc. bars had a standard they adhered Yeah, there were to, it was an unwritten other ways to meet dress code of sorts, you people; parks, roadside “At one time in the late 70's and had to wear leather or restrooms, but these Levi’s and no cologne. were for sex only early 80's there was a Leather bar This changed as they and not for any type in just about every mid-sized city started allowing nonof friendship. There in America. Now the only Leather leather folks into the were also personal bars. ads you could place bars are in the big cities and they They had to do this in the national gay are not only leather ...” because it was the only magazines, but these way to keep the bar took time as your letter open. This was a doublewent to a central mailbox at the So the bars had to change edged sword. The non-leather magazine’s office and then they and morph. They became more folks came in and helped to keep forward the letter to the person welcoming of anyone. No longer the bar open and the Leathermen who had placed the ad. It took were the specialty bars. And left because it was no longer a weeks to hear anything. It was as society in general changed Leather bar. So over time the bar long and cumbersome. And back about gay culture, so did the became less and less a Leather 30 years ago, most of us were straight bars. They too changed bar. Many Leather bars across not looking for a LTR (long- and morphed. Now it’s okay for the country just closed. term relationship), we were just anyone to go to any bar and they At one time in the late 70’s looking for a sexual outlet. can be themselves. Well times have changed. So now the 20-30 crowd continued on page 16 Bars are no longer a pick-up can go out to any bar with their
PAGE 16
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Will You?
CISmagnet.eps 1 10/18/2011
By Greg Boaldin
Perspective
A
s I continue to work on tightening and improving the script for my film Will You Take This Man?, I am fortunate to be involved in a screenwriting group here in Wichita where we do miniature table reads of sections of the script. Every week the writers have the opportunity to bring in 7-10 pages of their script and we read them aloud, each of us playing different roles, and then critiquing each other’s work. The experience has been very helpful, but maybe not always in the way that the collaborators intend. It is a diverse group of people. We are of different ages, 2:23:51 PM experience levels, and interests. What I take from thes e readings often is an interesting perspective on how the characters resonate differently with each member based on their unique perspective and experiences. This isn’t the first time I have recognized this phenomenon. I have certainly been able to gauge a difference in how gay men experience the script in contrast to straight men, or women. It has shown me what I was already pretty sure of, that as gay men, our experiences uniquely influence the way we see the world. Gay men tend to respond to the script in a much more visceral way. They tend to get more wrapped into the story, and many tell me their emotional reactions to specific parts of the script.
strikes a chord with the gay audience. The other perspective helps keep me grounded into the realities of all the characters’ lives, both gay and straight, male and female. While I may not take all the suggestions, it is gratifying to see that the group is becoming more and more invested in the characters and have picked some of their favorites. That attachment to the characters is equally valuable as I want the straight audience to gravitate to the central theme, which is the importance of honesty to yourself and to others. To learn more about Will You Take This Man? and get involved in the production of the film, check out the film’s website at willyoutakethisman.com, like our Facebook page, and follow us on twitter @takethisman. l
Leather continued from page 15
support your gay social clubs (become a member!), support your gay pride (attend a meeting, come to an event!) and support your gay center (get involved, be willing to give!). If you want a gay bar, support a gay bar, if you want a gay bookstore, support a gay bookstore. Whatever you want in your community, help to make it happen and then help keep it happening by helping to support it! So for those of you who are on the kinky side of life, come and support the kinky side. Come get involved. If you are interested in learning more about the kinky and leather lifestyle, come visit WOOLF. We meet every third Saturday at the Center starting at 6:30pm. l
and early 80’s there was a Leather bar in just about every mid-sized city in America. Now the only Leather bars are in the big cities and they are not only leather, they are an all-inclusive bar. The old dress code is gone. So if you want to have a strong gay community, you have to support your gay community. Non-support is the basic cause of the demise of many of the gay clubs, bars and social spaces. If you want to keep the gayness in your community and actually HAVE a gay community, you need to support IT. You need to support gay businesses (buy from gay folks first), support your gay magazines (buy an ad, write an article), support your gay bars (by GOING to the bar!),
DUSTY RHODES I am excited to have the great services of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate to offer to you.
Call/Text 316.519.2112 Email: Dusty@DustysHomes.com
Web: www.DustysHomes.com
APRIL 2015
Whether they respond to the posthumous letter from one of the main character’s father, or the wedding vows, or some of the funnier and lighter moments in the script, the comments are more about how they relate to characters in a much more personal way. Straight people tend to be more curious about what happens in the script in an almost scientific way. They want to know how much of the story is based on real events. They want to understand motivations and are more curious about the back stories of the various characters. It’s an almost sociological perspective. Both perspectives are valuable. The one helps me focus on the emotional truths of the characters. I feel a strong responsibility to show the lives of gay men in an authentic and human way, and in a way that
DUSTY RHODES I am excited to have the great services of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate to offer to you.
Call/Text 316.519.2112 Email: Dusty@DustysHomes.com
Web: www.DustysHomes.com
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Gaypril comes to WSU
By Elle Boatman WICHITA - As Kansas begins to shake off the vestiges of winter and spring is within sight, Wichita State University (WSU) is preparing to celebrate its first Gaypril. Eleven events, presented by WSU’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), are scheduled to celebrate the amazing diversity o f t h e W S U c o m m u n i t y. Diversity doesn’t only refer to skin color and ethnicity. Other minority groups sometimes suffer from the lack of awareness and support pertinent to that group’s needs. ODI Director Alicia Sanchez raises those concerns and explains how Gaypril helps to meet the needs of the LGBT community on campus and in the Wichita community. “We pride ourselves on being the most diverse institution and I think everyone sometimes thinks that’s only race and ethnicity when it’s really so much more ... by gender, by sexuality, by religion ... There are so many
facets of diversity,” she said. “When we say we’re the most diverse institution ... this is just another way to make sure that we are showcasing other pieces of diversity, and not just race and ethnicity. [Gaypril] provides us an opportunity to showcase LGBT programs across the board. It really is about enhancing and expanding the existing programming.” ODI also celebrated LGBT History Month in October and Transgender Awareness Week in November. Other campus departments and organizations partnered with ODI for those events as well as Gaypril. Sanchez and Program Coordinator Danielle Johnson both enthusiastically agree that support for the LGBT community on campus is alive and well, including within Student Health Services and the Counseling and Testing Center, among others. “It wasn’t like pulling teeth,” Johnson said. These organizations were saying, ‘We want to be a part of this.’ And
we are seeing that in a lot of our different heritage months. “We really want to push the importance of diversity and inclusion and make every student feel welcome, not just to our office, but to Wichita State,” she continued. “Our demographic and our climate is changing and we need to be able to serve the different populations that are represented and we want to make sure we are staying current and relevant to what the students want on our campus.” Students also play a role by providing feedback and ideas to programming staff. ODI personnel continued on page 18
Page 17
Shangela from RuPaul's Drag Race Seasons 2 and 3 will co-host this year's drag show.
PAGE 18
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL. WSU's Gaypril continued from page 17
APRIL 2015
renovated Rhatigan Student met with Spectrum: LGBT & Center. Additionally, National Allies, the LGBT student group Day of Silence is April 17. on campus, when developing The Day of Silence is a programming for Gaypril. GLSEN-sponsored, student “ W e w a n t t o m a k e led national event that brings s u r e w e a r e p r o v i d i n g attention to anti-LGBT nameprogramming opportunities calling, bullying and harassment for students and their input in schools; many observe the is important,” Sanchez said. day by taking a day-long vow The Second Annual Gender of silence, often placing tape a n d S e x u a l i t y i n K a n s a s over their mouths. Students Conference will kick off the month of events on April 3 with presentations, workshops, and discussions on the intersectionality of sexuality and gender from around the Midwest. The conference is free to attend, as are most Gaypril events, although a d v a n c e r e g i s t r a t i o n WSU is hosting its first Pride Prom on April 10. i s h i g h l y e n c o u r a g e d . will also have the opportunity L a s t y e a r ’s i n a u g u r a l to receive free STI/HIV testing. conference drew over 80 T h e r e a r e e d u c a t i o n a l registered attendees. This year’s and training opportunities keynote speaker is bisexual throughout the month as well. activist, Robyn Ochs. Safe Zone and Transgender Wichita State is also proud to Training are already offered bring Laverne Cox of Orange regularly on campus and both is the New Black fame to the will be available in April. Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan Safe Zone is a national Complex on April 29. Through program that provides visible her story, Ain’t I a Woman: My spaces for LGBT students Journey to Womanhood, Cox seeking nearby affirmative will explore life as a transgender support. woman of color. Transgender Training was ODI gave away 150 free developed by WSU personnel tickets to students and they in response to an immediate were all spoken for almost need on campus and continues to immediately. Other students, grow and develop as a valuable staff, faculty and community resource for professionals and members can purchase tickets students alike. There will also be a for $10 each via Select-a-Seat. Brown Bag Diversity Discussion A Pride Prom and Lavender on “pink and blue syndrome.” LGBTQ Graduation are new T h e f a n f a v o r i t e W S U to WSU this year and both Drag Show will be back for its will take place in the newly fifth year in the CAC Theater with extra flair this year. Drag queen Shangela from RuPaul’s Drag Race Seasons 2 and 3 will share hostess duties with WSU alum, Divinity Masters. The show features students, alumni, and community members. It promises to be an evening of laughs and fabulous numbers so bring your ones, ladies and gentlemen and everyone outside and in between! From start to finish, this is a Gaypril you won’t want to miss. For dates, times, tickets, and registration, visit the Office of Diversity From the Netflix hit series Orange is the New and Inclusion at wichita. Black, Laverne Cox will speak at WSU as part of edu/odi. l its Gaypril events.
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Page 19
PAGE 20
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
AIDS Walk moves to a Sunday evening event
By Blake Hampton WICHITA - The 21st Annual AIDS Walk hosted by Positive Directions will take place on a different day and time this year. Organizers have felt for several years that the competition for Saturday morning walks has gotten too great. In an effort to diffuse that they are trying something new.
This year’s walk will be held on a Sunday evening; Sunday, April 19 at 5pm (registration begins at 4pm) along the Commerce Street Art District in front of Positive Directions’ office, 414 S. Commerce. The walk is about a mile long through downtown, towards the Arkansas River, and back again to Positive Directions. People who wish to participate
ROLLER
DERBY DOUBLE HEADER SATURDAY,
APRIL 25
DOORS AT 6 P.M. | FIRST WHISTLE AT 6:30 P.M.
$11.50 ADVANCE $13.50 AT DOOR
KIDS 11 & UNDER FREE ICTROLLERGIRLS.COM
A PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS GOES TO
in the walk can register online through the link provided at the organization’s website, pdiks. com. Money is raised through pledges from friends and family collected by the walkers who register online. Walkers can also form teams for more pledge opportunities. “We usually see 15 to 20 different teams register. So hopefully we’ll be able to have that many again this year,” Renee Duxler, Executive Director of Positive Directions, said. “The teams always have a great time doing fundraising and walking together.” Registration is $25 per person and is open now through the day of the event. Those who register on the 19th can bring a sponsorship sheet (fee waived with a $25 or more in sponsorship). Donations from non-walkers are always
appreciated. Donations in clothing and non-perishable foods are welcomed. The money raised at this event will go into funding Positive Directions’ services. Services include providing transportation, a food pantry, medical case management, and many other services to those affected by HIV and AIDS. The money also goes into the protection program that provides free HIV testing and condom distribution. This year’s goal is $25,000. Vendors and other small events will again be part of the walk. There will be a Starbucks vendor as well as various food trucks. “We have a raffle and other activities planned,” Duxler said. After the walk there will be live entertainment. “We’re having a big party.” l
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Page 21
nightmare. being faithful to my authentic As I have shared many self. times, when I tried living as a So, you might imagine that man, my life was filled with I get concerned when I become horrible turmoil. I wasn’t able to aware of cisplaining people. function. I couldn’t participate in Cisplainers like trying to tell you society. I wasn’t able to pursue who you have to be. I like trying higher education. I couldn’t to keep transgender teenagers make it work no matter how hard from committing suicide. I tried. And I did try. For almost There are a couple things half a century, I tried. I would like to say to the In the last several years as cisplainers. If you would like to I have stopped pretending to know more about what it’s like Cisplaining, Mindbe male, and I have embraced to be transgender, I will be glad my authentic female self. Not to sit down with you and share. Reading, and Other sex. They sometimes say that surprisingly, my life has been I am not that hard to find. Mystic Powers of Anti- transgender identities are not filled with amazing joy. I am If you think you know more natural. They sometimes select able to function. I can participate about who I am than I do and Trans Experts certain verses from the bible in society. I have achieved you want to try to do some ome people who are not in an attempt to support their two college degrees and I am cisplaining, there isn’t much transgender seem to have ideology. Regardless of their working on my third. It works. I can do to help you. But I do a lot of ideas about what sources, cisplainers must still I don’t even have to try. It just know some really good doctors it means to be transgender. rely on the idea that they are able works. who might be able help you with Some of these people are to determine another person’s There is more. I have been that. cisplainers. These are told not only that Finally, I think it would be the people who claim to I am not truly a cool if we had some mystic have more knowledge “Of course, when a person has woman, but that ability to tell whether or not about someone’s gender determined that they are able to as a transgender people were kind. I guess we identity than the actual assign a gender identity to everyone person I cannot will just have to settle for being person who has a gender be faithful to my able to listen to them. l identity outside of the in the world, it is necessary to push authentic self and Stephanie Mott is a transgender woman cisplainer ’s personal reality to the side.” also be faithful from Topeka. She is the executive experience. to God. Nothing director of the Kansas Statewide Education Project, and “Cisplaining” is taken could be further Transgender a commissioner on the City of Topeka from the term, “mansplaining,” gender identity. from the truth. Now, I know that Human Relations Commission. Reach which has been interpreted to These people have been part of being faithful to God is her at stephanieequality@yahoo.com. mean many things. My chosen known to do some research on the utilization of mansplaining is topic. They search the internet when a male person assumes until they find something that to have more knowledge about supports their espoused ability Visit us during what it’s like to be female than to read other people’s minds Little Apple Pride! a female person does. and ignore the bothersome In the same way, cisplaining opinions of organizations like We have fun stuff to is when a cisgender person the American Psychological help you celebrate who ( s o m e o n e w h o i s n o t Association, the American you are! transgender) assumes to have Psychiatric Association, and the more knowledge about what American Medical Association. it’s like to be transgender than a Of course, when a person 1128 Moro transgender person does. Thus, has determined that they are the connection to mind-reading able to assign a gender identity Manhattan, KS 66502 and other mystic powers. It to everyone in the world, it is 11am-6:30pm M-F • 11am-6pm Sat. stands to reason that a cisplainer necessary to push reality to the must have the ability to read side. You can’t let little things minds. Otherwise, how in the like science get in the way when world would they know another you are telling other people who person’s gender identity? they are and who they have to be. Not all cisgender people are Also of course, the real cisplainers. Most of the cisgender problem with cisplainers is not people I know have taken the so much that they think they time to learn about transgender know who you are, but that they identities and the obstacles that often try to tell you who you are are faced by people who are and who you have to be. transgender. In fact, most of the It is perfectly okay with me people I know understand that if someone wants to believe people experience their various that they know more about my identities in different ways (i.e. gender than I do. However, everyone is not the same). I kind of have trouble when The ones who cisplain often they try to tell me that I have to say that a person’s gender is take their delusional daydream defined by their biological birth and create my own personal
S
(785) 776-2252
PAGE 22
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL. celebration held in September.
Social Freethinking Parents Group, Are you raising kids without religion? You're not alone. Freethinking Parents meet 2-4pm, third Sundays at Botanica, Wichita. Info: www.facebook.com/ groups/586131888148529/ Heart of America Men’s Chorus, Wichita, (316) 708-4837, www.hoamc. org
Community Centers The Center, 800 N. Market, Wichita, (316) 285-0007 www.thecenterofwichita. org
Junction City Teddy Bears, c/o Kevin Stilley, 2 Oak Valley Dr., Manhattan, (785) 556-8188, trlrhouseman@webtv. net NetworQ, Lawrence, KansasNetworQ@ yahoo.com, www.KansasNetworQ.org, meets at Maceli’s, 1031 New Hampshire
537-2349, www.uufm.net, services Sundays at 10:45am. Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Topeka, 4775 SW 21st St., (785) 2729233, www.uuft.org, services Sundays at 10:30am.
Student groups Derby High School GSA, kljacobs@ usd260.com, tkellenbarger@usd260. com F re e S t a t e H i g h S c h o o l G S A , Lawrence, sponsors: Hilary Morton hmorton@usd497.org, and Kim Grinnell kgrinnell@usd497.org Highland Park High School's Parity, Topeka, LGBTatHP@outlook.com, facebook.com/LGBTatHP.
Wichita Bears, presidentwichitabears@ yahoo.com, www.wichitabears.org
Hutchinson High School GSA, faculty advisor: Mr. Westmoreland, chairperson: Kara Vaughn.
Wichita Organization of Leather Fetishes, (316) 201-6242, www. woolfks.com
The Independent School GSA, Wichita, sponsor: Matt Hanne matt. hanne@theindependentschool.com
HIV/AIDS Client Emergency Fund administrered by the Junction City Teddy Bears, c/o Kevin Stilley, 2 Oak Valley Dr., Manhattan, (785) 556-8188, trlrhouseman@webtv.net, for people in the Manhattan/Junction City area
Wichita Prime Timers, ICTPrimeTimers@aol.com, www. primetimersww.com/Wichita, social group for mature gay men.
K-State LGBT & Allies, meets every Thursday at 5:30 in Leadership Studies room 123
Spiritual
KU Queers & Allies, University of Kansas, Lawrence, (785) 864-3091, qanda@ku.edu, www.ku.edu/~qanda
Hunter Health Clinic, 2318 E. Central, Wichita, (316) 262-3611, FREE HIV confidential or anonymous testing with Spanish and Vietnamese interpreters.
A Journey In The Light Ministries, 2231 S. Bluff (St. Christopher ’s Episcopal Chapel), Wichita, Sunday Praise and Worship services at 11am.
Lawrence High School GSA, sponsors: Shannon Draper SDraper@usd497.org, and Lindsay Buck LBuck@usd497.org
KU Internal Medicine-Midtown, KU School of Medicine, 1001 N. Minneapolis, Wichita, (316) 293-1840, (877) 472-8227 toll-free, (316) 293-2652 HIV Program
College Hill United Methodist Church, 2930 E. 1st, Wichita, (316) 683-4643, www.collegehillumc.org, Sunday Celebrations at 8:30, 9:40 and 11:00am.
Kansas State University LGBT Resource Center, 207 A/B Holton Hall, Manhattan, (785) 532-5352, lgbt@kstate.edu, www.k-state-edu/lgbt
Health
LGBT Health Coalition of Sedgwick County, Wichita, (316) 285-0007, www. wichitalgbthealth.org Positive Connections, 1001 SW Garfield Ave, third floor, Topeka, (785) 232-3100, www.pcneks.org Positive Directions, 414 S. Commerce, Wichita, (316) 263-2214, (316) 2635214, www.pdiks.com Sedgwick County Health Dept., 2716 W. Central, Wichita, (316) 660-7300, www.sedgwickcounty.org South Wind Women's Center, 5107 E. Kellogg, Wichita, (316) 260-6934, www.southwindwomenscenter.org, LGBTQIA-friendly health services. The Sweet Emergency Fund, KUSM-W MPA, 1010 N. Kansas, Wichita, (316) 293-3405
First Congregational United Church of Christ, 700 Poyntz Ave., Manhattan, (785) 537-7006, www.uccmanhattan. org, Sunday services at 10:45am; Taize services Thursday at 7pm, An Open and Affirming Congregation. First Metropolitan Community Church of Kansas, 156 S. Kansas, Wichita, (316) 267-1852, www.mccwichita.com, www.godlovesyouperiod.com, Sunday services at 10:15am. First Unitarian Universalist Church of Wichita, 7202 E. 21st St., (316) 6843481, officemanager@firstuu.net, www. firstuu.net. Kalpa Bhadra Kadampa Meditation Center, 721 W. 13th St., Wichita. (316) 263-1533, weekly meditation classes, prayers and workshops. See calendar of events at www.MeditateInKansas.org, everyone is welcome.
Politics/Activism
Lutheran Campus Ministry, 1421 W. 19th, Lawrence, lutheran@ku.edu
E q u a l i t y K a n s a s , w w w. kansasequalitycoalition.org, chapters across the state.
Metropolitan Community Church of Topeka, 4425 SW 19th, (785) 2721442, office@mcctopeka.org, www. MCCTopeka.org, services Sundays at 10am.
Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project, (785) 215-7436, stephanie.mott@k-step.org, www.kstep.org, provides transgender education and resources. Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas, 1407 N. Topeka, Wichita, (316) 263-5886, director@ wichitapeace.org, www.wichitapeace. org Wichita Pride, info@wichitapride. org, www.wichitapride.org, annual
Pine Valley Christian Church, 5620 E. 21st St., Wichita, (316) 685-2421, churchoffice@pvcconline.org, www. pvcconline.org Prairie Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1809 E. 30th, Hutchinson, (620) 663-8002, www. prairieuufellowship.org Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Manhattan, 481 Zeandale Road, (785)
Manhattan High School GSA, mhs_ gsa@hotmail.com Maize South High School GSA, sponsor: Shelly Walston swalston@ usd266.com, meets 2nd Fridays. Pitt State GSA, Pittsburg State University, pittstategaystraightalliance@ gmail.com Spectrum: LGBTQ & Allies, Wichita State University, Twitter.com/ Wsuspectrum, meets Thursdays at 7pm in the Lucas Room (RSC 265) when classes are in session. Wichita East High School GSA, Tdavis2@usd259.net Wichita Heights High School GSA, nmagoon@usd259.net Wichita North High School GSA, (316) 204-5621, kellykk00@yahoo.com, rhorning@usd259.net, cwidmer@ usd259.net, meets every Wednesday at lunch in room A213. Wichita Northeast High School GSA, Jbell2@usd259.net Wichita Northwest High School GSA, amcdonald@usd259.net, meets every Monday after school.
APRIL 2015 Wichita Southeast High School GSA, (316) 807-2271, psychsteve2@yahoo. com Wichita West High School GSA, astucky@usd259.net
Support Central Plains Area Agency on Aging, 2622 W. Central Suite 500, Wichita, (316) 660-5120, www.cpaaa.org, CPAAA is available to assist seniors, caregivers, and adults with disabilities through life’s transitions and with various levels of support. COMCARE Crisis Intervention Services, 934 N. Water, Wichita, (316) 660-7500 free 24/7, www. sedgwickcounty.org Flint Hills PFLAG, Manhattan, (785) 340-2815, meets on the 1st Saturday, 10am-noon, call for location. Get Connected, Wichita, (316) 2850007, LGBTQIA youth group for ages 12-21. Meets at The Center, 800 N. Market, every Friday from 7-9pm. GLSEN Greater Wichita, wichita@ chapters.glsen.org. Headquarters Counseling Center, Lawrence, (785) 841-2345 free 24/7, www.hqcc.lawrence.ks.us Healthy Transitions, for heterosexually married gay men in KC. A phone and face-to-face interview required, Mark McCarthy, LPC (816) 931-0011x4. HIV+ Men’s Support Group, Wichita, (316) 293-3405, mmadecky@kumc.edu O n e D a y A t A Ti m e , Wi c h it a , Alcoholics Anonymous meetings held Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8pm at First MCC, 156 S. Kansas. PFLAG Hutchinson, PO Box 2488, Hutchinson, (620) 899-2345, pflaghutch@gmail.com PFLAG Lawrence/Topeka, (785) 235-3831, sffeist@msn.com, www. pflagnekansas.org, meets 1st Sundays, 2-4pm at MCC of Topeka, 4425 SW 19th. PFLAG Wichita, info@ictpflag.org, www.facebook.com/WichitaPFLAG, meets 2nd Thursdays, 6:30-8pm at College Hill United Methodist, 2930 E. 1st. The Face of Trans*, www.thefaceof trans.com Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center, 355 N. Waco, Suite 100, (316) 2630185 office, (316) 263-3002 crisis line 24/7, advocate@wichitasac.com, www. wichitasac.com, free, confidential sexual assault services to all genders and sexual orientations. Medical & legal advocacy, support groups, adult & child crisis counseling, educational programs. l
Is an organization you're involved in listed in Around Kansas? Help us keep it current! E-mail editor@libertypress.net with corrections/current info.
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Page 23
Kansas conversion therapy survivor to speak at KU Gaypril event
By Ciara Reid, staff reporter IN NOVEMBER OF 2014, SAM BRINTON received kind words from Michael Brown’s mother, who told him she would hope her son would have grown up to be as revolutionary as Brinton. It was a compliment that really resonated with him. Earlier that day, he sat next to Brown’s parents, and a Guantanamo Bay survivor. They were all present at a United Nations Committee Against Torture hearing. Brinton was there as a campaign leader for the National Center for Lesbian Right’s #BornPerfect campaign. He spoke to the Committee for several minutes, detailing his very painful – both mental and physical – experience as the recipient of conversion therapy. When Brinton was just 12 years old, his parents took him to a conversion therapist, who promised he could make him straight. The therapist told him he was sick, that God hated him, and that the government had exterminated all gay people. When the therapist’s verbal methods failed, he moved to physical torture techniques. He tied Brinton’s hands behind his back, then placed ice in them while showing him erotic images of men. The therapist wrapped Brinton’s hands in hot
coils, stuck needles in his fingers, and shocked him with electricity. Brinton’s voice shakes as he recounts this nightmare to the Committee; yet his voice also conveys utter determination and strength. Brinton is a survivor. Throughout his entire experience with conversion therapy, his sexuality never changed, but he did become suicidal. He also learned to lie, and therefore survive. Brinton’s entire statement to the Committee is powerful. One of Brinton’s statements presents a clear picture of the futility of conversion therapy: the therapist tried and failed to change something he never chose. Conversion therapy, which aims to “cure” LGBT kids, sounds completely archaic, like it couldn’t possibly still be happening. Yet it still exists. It remains unregulated in the United States. Statistics are hard to come by, as few conversion therapy survivors have come forward. Brinton estimates that one in three LGBT individuals go through some type of conversion therapy. That might surprise many, but Brinton explains that this includes a pastor praying for you, your father telling you to be more of a man, and can extend to the conversion therapy Brinton experienced. Readers may recall the story of Leelah Alcorn, a teenager in Ohio who committed
The 411: What: You Can't Change What We Never Chose: Sam Brinton When: Tuesday, April 21 at 7pm Where: Spahr Classroom, KU suicide in December of 2014. She had always felt like she was a girl trapped in a boy’s body. Her suicide note included details of her parents sending her to conversion therapy to try to change her gender identity. Only three states have laws that ban the practice of conversion therapy on minors – and all of them recently passed: California in 2012, New Jersey in 2013, and Washington, DC in December of last year. Brinton says approximately 16 other states have introduced legislation. Neither Kansas nor Missouri are among those states that have introduced legislation. Brinton says he is more than happy to work with activists to make this happen. “I am trying to put the conversion therapy industry out of business,” he says. He wants to take away the ability for a licensed therapist to practice conversion therapy. The goal of the #BornPerfect campaign is a fivecontinued on page 30
PAGE 24
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
New group of clergy unites to offer a positive faith voice
By Blake Hampton WICHITA - Around the same time that same-sex marriage was legalized late last year, a new group of Wichita clergy formed. On Nov. 17, ten reverends took turns performing ceremonies for 15 couples on the steps of the Old Courthouse in Sedgwick County. Coming together the clergy realized, “There needs to be another faith voice besides the conservative faith voice,” Rev. Carolyn Schwarz of Pine Valley Christian Church said. Calling themselves Wichita Clergy for LGBTQ Equality, the group has come together in the hopes that their voice will be a step forward in equality. They are collaborating with Equality KS as well as GLSEN Greater Wichita to speak with legislators, among other things. Though the clergy is unable to be fully political they will
testify as a faith voice for future legislation. They are also providing biblical training to teach their interpretations of the Bible “for groups that need to hear an alternative scriptural interpretation that is healing and grace-filled,“ Rev. Schwarz said. For Rev. Schwarz, her son has had his own struggles with prejudice against his sexuality. He is now happily married to his husband, and recently became an ordained minister in the D.C. area. “I would want to serve a church where I know my son could walk in and be welcomed whole-heartedly, and I’m so happy that I do,” she said. The members of Wichita Clergy for LGBTQ Equality follow a similar motivation - clergy going throughout the Wichita area performing weddings, spreading their
Supportive clergy gathered at a mass wedding held on November 17, 2014.
teachings, and working with others in the hopes to create a better future. As of now the group has 17 clergy members with six denominations represented. As a
group they want to focus on and gain more members within the Wichita area. They welcome any other church that wishes to join. For questions, Rev. Schwarz can be reached at (316) 308-0791. l
Kathy Richstatter
KS Realtor ABR, e-PRO, GRI, SRES Kathy@KansasRainbow.com www.KS.PenFedRealty.com
316 316--641 641--3954 PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT SUNDAY, MARCH 29
BUT, I'M A CHEERLEADER SUNDAY, APRIL 26
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH SUNDAY, MAY 31
&
ROx Y’s DOWNTOWN
Doors Open at 5 PM / Films Begin at 6 PM Tickets $8 / Reservations 265.4400
After the film... Stay for the show! The Roxettes: Queens of Drag!
QUEER CINEMA
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Page 25
Intrust Arena’s Disney on Ice Princesses and Heroes heartthrob played by gay performer Jean-Simon Lègarè By Greg Boaldin WICHITA - When Disney on Ice Princesses and Heroes rolled into Wichita’s Intrust Bank Arena Mar. 12, Hans, the heartthrob turned bad guy from Frozen, was played by out gay performer Jean-Simon Lègarè. In his first interview with an LGBT publication, Lègarè shared with the Liberty Press that the stereotype of male figure skaters being gay just isn’t true. While he says there are a handful of gay male figure skaters, the majority are straight. For those that are gay, Lègarè says, “athletes are now starting to come out while they are competing and they now think that it won’t affect their placings.” He tells of a friend of his who is still competing and came out to the media. He thinks that greater visibility in the LGBT community is a good thing and makes it easier to “just be yourself.” Kids today are no
longer raised in a world where they don’t see gays. Lègarè says, “I think it is so normal for them.” While being gay gets no reaction, his performance as Hans certainly does. The show features stories from nine classic Disney stories, with Frozen being the big finish of the show. “Obviously, Frozen gets the biggest reaction … Hans is the villain, so I get a very mixed reaction. At the beginning, everyone wants to see me, wants to wave at me, but at the end of the story Hans reveals his true colors and I get kind of booed off,” he said. The jeers don’t bother Lègarè though: “They really get into the story and they want to get behind Anna and Elsa. It’s interesting that I get the reaction at the end of a performance. It means I’ve done well.” The duality of Hans’ character is the most challenging part of the performance for Lègarè, and the huge popularity of the film adds pressure to the
performance. “It makes me want to portray it so well and stay true to the story,” he said. “It makes me feel great because we get such a great reaction and the kids sing the songs - like every single word of every song - and it’s a massive reaction every time we go out there. It makes me a little nervous, but it’s really rewarding.” This is Lègarè’s fifth year performing on various tours. He’s been on tour with Disney on Ice with this production since August, going to a different city every week. Wichita was the second to the last city on the tour behind Calgary. And while Lègarè is excited for the time off he will dearly miss the friends he has made on the tour. “When a tour is finished it’s almost like your life is over,” he says. In reality he has big plans. Lègarè will be returning home to Quebec and marrying his partner this summer. Being away from
Lègarè
his partner has been tough, but his partner has been able to come see some of the shows and visit Lègarè while he has been gone. This fall Lègarè will join a new tour and continue performing for audiences around the world. “I live a very good life right now,” he said. “Being gay and being a performer might be a big stereotype, but there were moments when I was wondering if that was possible.” l
PAGE 26
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
APRIL 2015 Points of Interest continued from page 6
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
New Kegs ‘n’ Eggs offers craft beer and egg hunt BONNER SPRINGS – A new event is coming to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival grounds. On April 11, the inaugural Kegs ‘n’ Eggs will launch with craft beer tastings, a golden egg hunt, a live band, themed contests, and more. Kegs ‘n’ Eggs is Kansas City’s only adult egg hunt. Thousands of Easter eggs will be spread throughout the Renaissance Festival grounds. Each egg contains tickets to be redeemed for prizes or cash. During the hunt guests will have the opportunity to sample craft beers from local and
Page 27
General admission tickets start at $15 and include admission, a t-shirt, swag bag, and a draft beer or soda. VIP tickets start at $40 and include the general admission perks plus unlimited craft beer samples and a commemorative pint glass. Must be 21 or older. To purchase tickets, visit www.KegsNEggsKC.com.
regional breweries. Five samples can be purchased for $5 (10 samples for $10, etc.) or patrons can get unlimited samples with a VIP Pass. Afterwards, enjoy the sounds of a local Kansas City band or challenge your friends to some life-size beer pong, an egg toss, and other themed contests or shop at several vendors. Registration begins at 11am, and there will be a DJ and happy hour drink specials before the official start time of 1pm.
T
here is earthy energy as all personal planets Venus, Mars, Mercury and the Sun all traverse Taurus this April. There is no stopping you once you get going. But you have to get up and get going first . . .
Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, the furnishings lifestyle brand, announced that they are bringing their combination of comfort and style to the suburbs of Kansas City. The 10,000 square foot signature store at the Town Center Crossing in Leawood, will open this spring The store will showcase the company’s signature store design, including soft white walls and floors, bright modular Mitchell Gold + Bob lighting and personally created Williams to open furniture settings by Williams signature store in and Gold. Leawood The Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams design philosophy LEAWOOD - Mitchell Gold, is based on making comfort chairman and co-founder of the priority for look, feel and value, NEW SEASON, NEW STYLES and mixing unexpected pieces STARS IN SEASON SIX—SUNDAY NIGHTS ON CBS to give each setting a unique, modern twist. l
ARIES (MAR. 21 - APRIL 20) LEO (JULY 24 - AUG. 23) SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 23 - DEC. 22) Your world will revolve around money Your professional path suddenly opens Put your nose to the grindstone and your Our collection for CBS's award-winning legal drama, designed in collaboration with set decorator extraordinaire Beth Kushnick, issues this April so check your bank up. It is clear sailing for the month, shoulder to the wheel this April and see features 4 new pieces you'll see on set—and that will look equally chic at home. Note: All pieces are also available by special order. balance, do some fiscal research and ask proud Lion. ThisView means that you should how far and how fast you can advance. the entire collection at www.mgbwhome.com/thegoodwife. some sage advice. Everything depends harness your ambitions and ride them Even if you don’t move up the ladder in on your level of risk and your longone more rung up the corporate ladder. this position, you will find that you are term plans. Proud Rams are big spenders and want to You schmooze the powers-that-be and become a power- especially productive. The boring tasks you cross off your get their money’s worth. All is possible as long as you soon-to-be. The sky is the limit, but pack a golden list now will leave you with plenty of time for summer keep your focus on the bottom line and don’t rest on parachute for a soft descent, just in case. mischief, gay Archer. Heh heh. your (adorable) assets. VIRGO (AUG. 24 - SEPT. 23) CAPRICORN (DEC. 23 - JAN. 20) TAURUS (APRIL 21 - MAY 21) Plan an early escape to parts unknown this Pink Caps may feel the spark of You are pushed into the center of the April, queer Virgo. Your life has become inspiration zap them this April. What universe, becoming a major planet around too humdrum. You need to spice it up any will you do with all of these great and which all other lesser beings revolve. Bask way you can by expanding your horizons, creative ideas? Grab some bosom buddies in the limelight, queer Bull. There are ideally through travel. If time and money and throw yourself into fun projects and several opportunities to launch your new are tight, find excitements closer to home. It could make them extra memorable. This is the time to explore pet projects and impress important movers and shakers. be a foreign film, an exotic dinner or an enchanting and see the world through new eyes . . . especially if you So check yourself out in the mirror and get ready for your someone. Or a combination of all three? are wearing rose-colored glasses. big entrance. Head in the stars, don’t trip on the steps. LIBRA (SEPT. 24 - OCT. 23) AQUARIUS (JAN. 21 - FEB. 19) GEMINI (MAY 22 - JUNE 21) April will bring a myriad of intense and Spring cleaning beckons and Aqueerians You are almost a seer this April, pink Twin. potentially life-changing experiences should heed the cleaning call. And when And that is because your sixth sense makes for you, proud Libra. That means that I say clean I mean both physical and you especially intuitive and prescient. you need to keep your wits about you and be sure of spiritual. Move the dust bunnies around and take a break Mine what you have through meditation or what you want. Will you enter into a relationship based for meditation or yoga. This month offers a fresh start, the new age arts or take a charitable turn strictly on money or sex? As long as you know what full of possibilities. Sweep out the old and welcome in with doing good gay deeds for good gay causes. You is what and who is who, I guess there could be worse the new. Okay, you can keep a few old family, friends build up scads of good karma. So go with your gut and things to do with your time. and fans. see where it leads you. Get it all Out front! SCORPIO (OCT. 24 - NOV. 22) PISCES (FEB. 20 - MAR. 20) CANCER (JUNE 22 - JULY 23) A certain special someone will figure Guppies are usually very careful in their This is no time to try to sit back and blend prominently in your life this April. And communication, but this April brings you a into the background. Gay Crabs suddenly that means that you should be more spark of genius, a wealth of great ideas and have an electrifying social circuit this generous and outer directed to other the courage of your opinion. Spread your April. Plug in, turn it on and up and see people’s needs and wants. For those ideas around like so much fertilizer and see which moths are led to your flame. Make queer Scorps who are looking for a soulmate, this might if any of them take root somewhere and blossom. You good use of time to get involved in a range of groups and be the perfect time to look around. Expect to be swept are packed with charisma, genius and aplomb. Don’t be organizations to see which ones are most interesting and off your feet. So be sure to watch your every step! shy. This is your time to shine . . . but not like a strobe. valuable for you. You may be surprised. FLORRICK AGOS SOFA in textured linen/cottom-rich sweetgrass-ecru 72”w x 36”d x 34”h
CARY’S BED in soft tonal menswear-inspired wilton-sand 65”w x 89”d x 55”h
Press contact: Eloise Goldman, Vice President of Public Relations 914.767.0964 or eloise.goldman@mgbwhome.com
JUDGE’S CHAMBER CHAIR in caspian-anthracite, 26”w x 36”d x 34”h
FLORRICK AGOS CHAIR in pippin-stone, 28”w x 32”d x 32”h
(c) 2015 THE STARRY EYE, LLC., All Rights Reserved. For Entertainment Purposes Only. Lichtenstein’s blog www.thestarryeye.typepad.com covers everything new age. Her astrology book HerScopes is the best in sun sign astrology. Order now at tinyurl.com/herscopes.
PAGE 28
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
The Dead Guy at WSU doesn't get better . . . exactly the playwright's point
REVIEW By Grayson Barnes
WICHITA - What would you do for a million dollars? What if you had to spend it ALL before you died – in a week? Then, what if millions of viewers got to CHOOSE the way you would die? These are the themes for the play The Dead Guy by Eric Coble, presented by the Wichita State University School of Performing Arts from Feb. 19-22 at Wilner Auditorium. The Dead Guy is a fairly young play. It originally opened in Denver in 2005 and explores the American phenomenon of “reality TV” along with the desire for, what Andy Warhol referred to as, the ubiquitous “15 minutes of fame.” Enter Eldon Phelps, a loser living in the heavily-named town of Leadville (anywhere, USA). Phelps is approached by producer Gina Yaweth who offers him the chance to live like he has never lived before – as a millionaire. The catch is that TV
viewers will get to watch him spend the money in a week. At the end he must commit suicide. Better yet, the TV audience will vote on whether Phelps s h o u l d d i e b y c h a i n s a w, shooting, vehicle accident, or an unknown “other.” Once Phelps signs on the dotted line, Dougie the cameraman becomes his voyeuristic wingman. Dougie pops in and out of existence as he records Phelps’ antics live on-stage. One moment Dougie is a character and part of the action. Then, in the next, he becomes a moving piece of furniture as he symbiotically joins with his camera. We become more interested in what Dougie sees than in him. A monitor to one side shares camera footage with the audience. Live video is interspersed with pre-produced commercials that air during the reality show starring Phelps, The Dead Guy. At first, Phelps tries to be generous with his money. He
APRIL 2015
buys his friends and family vehicles. He proposes to his girlfriend. His largesse is frowned upon and his girlfriend doesn’t want to be a widow in a week. Phelps goes to Disneyland and hangs out with hookers instead. It is then that Phelps discovers that the audience’s preference (thus far) for his demise is chainsaw accident. In order to garner a death more to his liking, Phelps attempts to give the remainder of his million to charity. No one wants his “blood money.” Playwright Eric Coble makes the point that people's Sadly, the story never lives died with the invention of reality TV in his work, Dead Guy. It was performed by WSU's School of gets better. Even the The Performing Arts in February. ending doesn’t supply the catharsis we have been trained to expect from a good On the other, there was a need story. But that’s the playwright’s to be “over the top” for the sake point – it isn’t a good story. It of the camera (or the audience’s won’t get better: Phelps isn’t a “eye”). charmer or particularly likeable; There wasn’t a lot of room there is nothing endearing about for subtleties of characterization, the characters that surround but some decisive moments him; his family wants a piece of in the story were lost in favor his fame; his girlfriend is two- of the actors’ drive to be more dimensional. “on” than “committed.” A little Additionally, the producer, of this may have had to do with Yaweth (ironically similar to Wilner, which is great for music, “Yaweh”) simply wants a Dead but sometimes too live for the Guy SERIES. Dougie, out of spoken voice. all of them, has the best chance Rian Leigh, who played of being someone we could Yaweth yelled a lot. It was hard to identify with, except he’s a tell if this was her interpretation mercenary con camera. of the character, or from the Coble’s thesis is that our need to project clearly. Anthony interest in the story and people’s Gassbarre played Phelps in a lives died with the invention of loser-boy-meets-millions style, “reality TV.” It is the new deity but was a bit too boisterous and characters like Phelps are its to make me believe he really martyrs. The play’s similarity to considered his options. This horror novels like The Children wouldn’t have been a problem, of the Corn or Harvest Home except that the opening dialogue isn’t coincidental. In those two between Phelps and Yaweth set books people are fattened up to him up as supremely committed become sacrifices to evil cults. to his loser status and to the The play is a complex idea that his choices, although analysis of our society. Unlike unsuccessful, were his identity. the “peeling the onion” adage, When the play was over, though, where something is I found myself destitute. At alive at the center, the actors one point I had wanted all the had to claw through the layers unpleasantness over. Then I and leave us with its rotting wanted something different – and cloying core -- a difficult something more – anything. task for them. On one hand, the Perhaps that was the perfect characters required a certain testimonial to the addictive commitment to their own lives power of reality TV and Coble’s – even as affected as they were. treacherous truth. l
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Gaypril hits Kansas!
Events planned at Pitt State, K-State and KU By Kristi Parker LAWRENCE, MANHATTAN, PITTBURG - Gaypril has sprung! What is quickly becoming the second biggest month to celebrate Pride, April is chock full of LGBT events at some of the biggest colleges in Kansas. Because college campuses are on summer break during the traditional Pride month of June, April has become the month of choice for students to celebrate Pride. Most of the events are open to the community at-large and offer national speakers, panels, drag shows, movies and proms of interest to everyone. At Pittsburg State University the Gay Straight Alliance hosts Gorilla Pride this month. “We have a whole week planned!” Mary Owens said. “It’s April 13-18th!” The events include: Monday: Opening ceremonies Tuesday: Gay cakes Wednesday: Drag show Thursday: Sweet Knowledge
Friday: Pride Prom with a superhero/villain theme For time and place, check the groups Facebook page under Pitt State Gay Straight Alliance. In Manhattan, Little Apple Pride is hosting its sixth annual parade and festival Saturday, April 11. The parade begins at First Congregational Church on the corner of Poyntz and Juliette Ave. at 1:30pm. The festival starts when the parade ends at Triangle Park in Aggieville around 3pm. Speakers include local activists Sue Gerth, Tom Witt, and Stephanie Mott. DJ Jakobi Hernandez will be there spinning tunes for an entertainment lineup that includes: Lil Kim Chi, Brihanna Jayde, Brock Hard, Valerre Love, Ty Woo and TrixXxie Tops. In Lawrence, events last all month long hosted by Spectrum KU. The schedule wasn’t complete as of press time, but so far it includes: Gaypril Tea @ 3pm, Thursday,
April 2 at 3pm Queers on Film, April 2 at 8pm Out for Work: Career Strategies for LGBT Students, Tuesday, April 7 at 6:30pm Screening of the movie Rent, Wednesday, April 8 at 6:30pm Sexual Assault in Queer Relationships, Thursday, April 9 at 7pm Faith, Sexuality, and Gender Panel, Tuesday, April 14 at 5:30pm Be You at KU Pride Photo,
Page 29
Thursday, April 16 at 12:15pm You Can’t Change What We Never Chose: Sam Brinton, Tuesday, April 21 at 7pm Coming Out Gala: A Night to Remember, Wednesday, April 22 at 6:30pm HIV/STI Testing Day, April 22 Queering Disability, Tuesday, April 28 at 6:30pm Brown Bag Drag, Wednesday, April 29 at noon Julia Serano: Making Feminist & Queer Movements Inclusive, Wednesday, April 29 at 7pm For up-to-date information, locations and additions, check the Spectrum KU Facebook page. l
Celebrating our One Year Anniversary! Open House Saturday, April 25 12-4pm Massage Therapists
Gary Martens Larry Bunker
wellness retreat
120 N. Santa Fe in Downtown Salina, KS www.peacefulbodywellnessretreat.com
Join our Members Club and receive $20 off a month!
PAGE 30
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
When Sam Brinton was just 12 years old his parents took him to a conversion therapist where he suffered verbal as well as physical torture in an effort to make him straight. Brinton continued from page 23
year goal, legislatively. Brinton knows there is a need for public education as well. It was roughly five years ago that Brinton first shared his experience as a conversion therapy survivor. He was interviewed for a documentary s e r i e s c a l l e d I ’ m F ro m Driftwood, a compilation of true stories from LGBTQ people. Brinton completed his undergraduate studies at Kansas State University (KSU). He went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his graduate studies in nuclear engineering. He spoke very little of his experience while at KSU, but once he started attending MIT, he began to realize that the universities needed a reminder of the horrific chapter of the LGBT story. Gay marriage had been legal in the state of Massachusetts for almost a decade. Brinton says he experienced a lack of motivation in people because of this. “I had to remind them that Kansas is still fighting for everything and that there is still so much to be done,” he says. His activism in ending conversion therapy is simply about protecting LGBT youth. “I can hear wedding bells and walk down the aisle, but if I am electrocuted for being LGBT as a youth, there is no way I am
going to get to the aisle,” he says. He began traveling the country, speaking with groups and serving as a voice and activist for the issue. “I realized there was a need for survivors to come forward and talk about this issue,” Brinton says. As Brinton has been sharing his traumatic experiences to groups all over the country, it is still painful for him to describe the memories. It is easier for him now than it was. “I have more control over my emotions,” he says. Sharing his story is a form of therapy, but he has his limits. “If I do it too much or too often, it is painful,” he said. Though his relationship with his parents has deteriorated, Brinton wants to make it clear to readers that he forgives them. He understands that they did what they thought was the right thing to do – they were lied to and told that their son could change. “Hopefully at some point, they will be ready to welcome me back into their lives,” he says. Brinton knows complete change will not happen overnight, or even in the near future. But that is not his one and only goal. “I want there to be a record that these people did not want me to even exist,” he says. l
APRIL 2015
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
Page 31
PAGE 32
LIBERTY PRESS - WE WERE GAY BEFORE IT WAS COOL.
APRIL 2015
Coming Soon... club g n a r e m o Bo May 2015
www.ClubBoomerang.com Drinks
Dance
Drag